Tag Archives: Sustainability

Planet under Pressure 2012: here’s the wrap

The Planet Under Pressure 2012 Conference was held in London a fortnight back and released the first State of the Planet Declaration. The conference aim was to set out the science (in a broad sense) in the run-up to the UN Rio+20 conference. The recommendations in the statement have been passed onto the Secretary-General of […] … learn more→

How much will it cost to save our economy’s foundation?

During the past two summers, Pakistan was hit with catastrophic floods. The record flooding in the late summer of 2010 was the most devastating natural disaster in Pakistan’s history. The media coverage reported torrential rains as the cause, but there is much more to the story. When Pakistan was created in 1947, some 30 percent […] … learn more→

Sloan PhD student walks the walk in sustainability

Growing up in the late 1980s, doctoral candidate Kate Parrot SM ’07, favored the big-hair look that was popular at the time. “It was fashionable to have 4-inch bangs,” she says, laughing at the memory. But, probably unlike most of her peers, Parrot was worried about the growing hole in the Ozone layer — she […] … learn more→

Society: Step to to save the planet

Scientific knowledge alone isn’t enough to save the planet – we must also act on that knowledge and radically change our behaviour, according to the authors of an international study. The study, carried out by researchers from The Australian National University and colleagues in Germany, the UK and the USA, suggests that the greatest barrier […] … learn more→

UN sustainability panel says put a price on the environment

A recent cartoon (below) extrapolates the use of the word “sustainable”. It predicts that in 50 years each sentence will on average contain the word at least once. The cartoon is clever, and “sustainable” is indeed overused. But there is a good reason why we hear about sustainability so much these days. It is important. […] … learn more→

For businesses, going green brings in greenbacks

Nearly a third of companies now say that the adoption of sustainable practices has added to their profitability, according to a new MIT study — and manufacturing firms are in the vanguard. Two-thirds of more than 2,800 companies surveyed by MIT Sloan Management Review say they have made sustainability a permanent agenda topic within their […] … learn more→

Bumper 2011 grain harvest fails to rebuild global stocks

The world’s farmers produced more grain in 2011 than ever before. Estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the global grain harvest coming in at 2,295 million tons, up 53 million tons from the previous record in 2009. Consumption grew by 90 million tons over the same period to 2,280 million tons. Yet with […] … learn more→