Author: Elizabeth

Clients and shareholders more and more anticipate producers to be proactive on sustainability and social accountability—and to be clear about these outcomes. PwC studies of their “ESG Reporting: Getting Began” report, printed in January 2022, that the Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) is trending towards growing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting.^[1] The truth is, in 2021, SEC Chair Gary Gensler acknowledged, “Relating to local weather threat disclosures, traders are elevating their fingers and asking regulators for extra…Firms and traders alike would profit from clear guidelines of the highway.”^[2] To that finish, the SEC is at the moment growing a local weather influence disclosure rule.

Even with out these exterior pressures, sustainability in manufacturing is a worthy purpose in itself, particularly contemplating that manufacturing accounts for 76.6 p.c of whole U.S. emissions.^[3] Nonetheless, solely 17 p.c of these emissions are immediately attributable to the manufacturing sector. The rest comes from supporting industries within the manufacturing provide chain.

Considering outdoors the manufacturing unit

Meaning producers in search of to scale back environmental influence should look past the boundaries of their very own companies

In line with United Nations projections, sixty-eight p.c of the world’s inhabitants will reside in cities by 2050. The migration to city facilities is accelerating the necessity for digital transformation as authorities and metropolis leaders face growing stress to make cities safer, accessible, sustainable, and affluent. Creating sensible cities isn’t just about expertise. It’s about how expertise improves residents’ lives, the way it helps companies thrive, and the way it allows governments to offer important providers to workers and residents.

What is a great metropolis?

Good cities are city areas that use a variety of expertise to enhance dwelling circumstances, modernize providers, improve accessibility, drive sustainability and improve financial improvement. Updating infrastructure, offering healthcare, and securing ample meals provides are a couple of areas that would profit from investing in sustainable practices. To ensure these investments drive precise progress, organizations and people should share their collective learnings. Let’s have a look at real-world examples of expertise enabling sustainability in sensible cities, with added views from business opinion leaders.

How IoT and AI revitalize infrastructure sustainably

Know-how helped Miami-Dade County revitalize a part of its important infrastructure. Persistently delivering water and managing wastewater for hundreds of thousands of individuals within the

Unlocking information is essential for organizations striving to realize sustainability objectives. Many companies see challenges in learn how to successfully file, report, and analyze the information they should cut back their environmental affect.

As leaders and corporations notice sustainability is wise enterprise and spend money on new options, sharing our collective learnings is vital for long-term success. Reflecting on examples of sustainable enterprise transformations, we requested key opinion leaders inside and out of doors of Microsoft to share their views.

Constructing sustainable provide chains

Returned gadgets current a waste downside for retailers, as 30 to 40 p.c of bought clothes leads to landfills. Retailers like H&M labored with Microsoft and associate Ombori to start out addressing this downside. Retail trade knowledgeable Cathy Hotka says analyzing the provision chain can assist. “AI and machine studying can assist decide which merchandise will promote properly, leading to increased effectivity and fewer waste.”

Retailers used to guess about common kinds and what number of gadgets to buy. These selections can now be quantified utilizing prescriptive analytics. As retailers work to create a extra sustainable future, each step of the provision chain journey is a chance to collect information, optimize environmental affect, and drive worth.

Marketing Podcast with Tom Peters

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Tom Peters. Tom is coauthor of In Search of Excellence—the book that changed the way the world does business and is often tagged as the best business book ever. Twenty books and forty years later, Tom is still at the forefront of the “management guru industry” he single-handedly invented. He’s out with yet another co-authored book with Nancye Green called — Tom Peters’ Compact Guide to Excellence.

Questions I ask Tom Peters:

• [2:53] Do you spot trends or destroy them?
• [5:51] This book that you’ve recently written is very compact — is that part of the message?
• [7:33] Why was design such a crucial element of this book?
• [10:16] Do you think great design helps you deliver a great message in a lot fewer words?
• [12:41] What was your process for creating this book?
• [15:04] Could you talk about your thoughts on the idea that amateurs talk about strategy?
• [18:02] Where are people getting culture wrong these days?
• [26:03] Do you have a favorite quote from the book?
• [27:53] Where can people connect with you and learn more about your work?

To assist reduce the unfold of COVID-19 whereas additionally supporting the speedy reopening of companies and faculties, Washington State Division of Well being (DOH) launched WA Confirm, a web-based portal that gives free digital copies of state vaccine information to people.

WA Confirm gives residents with a quick, handy, and reliable strategy to entry and share their vaccination information. It’s rapidly changing into a invaluable software as Washington companies and establishments started adopting new security protocols, together with asking people to confirm proof of their vaccination standing.

Constructed on Microsoft Azure, WA Confirm makes use of SMART Well being Playing cards to show vaccination information as a verifiable QR code that may be printed or saved on a cellular system. SMART Well being Playing cards are a safe various to inconvenient and simply manipulated paper well being information. They’re constructed on an open-code, interoperable framework developed by the Verifiable Scientific Info (VCI) coalition. Microsoft and MITRE are founding members of VCI and serve on its steering committee.

Washington State was not alone in its determination to digitize well being information. The adoption of SMART Well being Playing cards is rising each in the US and overseas. Within the first 12