At the end of 2019, the European Commission announced the European Green Deal, an action plan to make the EU’s economy sustainable. The European Green Deal recognizes the devastation being wrought by Climate Change and… More
Corporate Sustainability – UN Global Compact
At the turn of the millennium, the United Nations launched the Global Compact, an initiative aimed at encouraging corporate sustainability and social responsibility. While voluntary, it has grown to become the world’s largest such initiative, with thousands of businesses and various stakeholders from nearly every country participating.
The UN Global Compact has two primary objectives. First is to encourage businesses to adopt Ten Principles in the areas of Human Rights, Labour Rights, the Environment and Anti-Corruption. The second is to be a catalyst for the UN’s broader principles, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Continue reading “Corporate Sustainability – UN Global Compact”
21 Confronting Challenges Shaping Our Future
In ’21 Lessons for the 21st Century’, with its sweeping set of topics, Yuval Noah Harari attempts to describe the core developments that have brought humanity to where it is today, and begins to ponder where it might go. It’s essentially a list of the challenges and future choices we, on a global level, are being confronted with and should be paying attention to. Continue reading “21 Confronting Challenges Shaping Our Future”
FUTUREwork: Garry Kasparov and ‘Augmented’ Intelligence
In 1997, Garry Kasparov, the former world champion and one of the greatest minds in Chess, was defeated in a 6-game match by Deep Blue, IBM’s chess-playing computer. Kasparov had beaten a less-robust version of Deep Blue the year before, but lost the first game, which in itself was already a portent of things to come. Since then, Kasparov has spent a considerable amount of time reflecting upon the computer era, digitisation and the rise of Artificial Intelligence. He prefers to call it ‘Augmented’ Intelligence, however, as he has embraced the potential power of a proactive human-machine relationship as a path to a better future. Continue reading “FUTUREwork: Garry Kasparov and ‘Augmented’ Intelligence”
Deep Adaptation
Humanity is facing an “inevitable near-term social collapse due to climate change”, according to Professor Jem Bendell at the University of Cumbria in the UK. This is the theme of a paper released in July, 2018 and which has since gone viral. The paper, entitled “Deep Adaptation” argues that the future negative consequences of climate change have been underestimated both in terms of impact, as well as timing. And that a gradual adaptation to these changes will have limited benefits. A complete societal transformation is needed or the world will face “starvation, destruction, migration, disease and war”. Continue reading “Deep Adaptation”
Future of Human Well-Being
In the January issue of Nature Communications, two researchers working at McGill University in Canada and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in Spain have used a set of predictors for human well-being to project potential changes in global happiness well into the future. In the past, these predictors have often been tied to economic measurements, such as GDP, household income, unemployment and life expectancy. This new research suggests that several other, more non-material, variables have a greater correlation to human well-being than material values. These include “a relatively greater emphasis on freedom to make decisions, availability of social support, the prevalence of donating and perception of corruption”, according to the report. Continue reading “Future of Human Well-Being”
