1. 20 MILLION COULD LOSE JOBS IN FINANCIAL CRISIS
2. TAX CREDITS OFFER CASH BOOST FOR U.K. SMEs IN HARD TIMES
3. INCOME INEQUALITY AND POVERTY RISING IN MOST OECD COUNTRIES
4. ASIA’S COASTAL CITIES MOST VULNERABLE TO CLIMATE CHANGE
5. CHINESE CITIES TOP 2008 U.N.-HABITAT AWARDS
6. SCIENTISTS CONFIRM OCEANS ACIDIFYING AT UNPRECEDENTED SPEED
7. SHIPYARDS, OWNERS AND OPERATORS AGAIN FACING TOUGH TIMES
8. DOWNTURN “WILL PUT PRESSURE ON U.K. PUBLIC SERVICES FOR YEARS”
9. REVENUE GROWTH SEEN AS GREATEST CHALLENGE BY ASIA PACIFIC AIRLINES

" If we are going to convince large numbers of people to embrace the kinds of creative, large-scale change sustainability demands, we need to offer them something more than scattered, loosely connected possibilities. We need to show them a new, brighter future, a plausible, inspiring, achievable -- and sustainable -- future towards which people can aim their aspirations. We need to invite people to abandon that sinking ship and swim for a future that works."

This aligns with what the Transition Towns community also promotes in attempting to encourage more positive pro-activism among its constituencies. In an attempt to continue to inspire but also mobilize people Worldchanging is publishing Bright Green. The book intends to show that 'transformation can be accomplished not in centuries or a number of decades, but in years, quickly enough that the model we create can spread around the world.'

Worldchanging also intends to put out a second edition of our first book, Worldchanging: A User's Guide to the 21st Century and they plan a conference in North America in 2009. It is great to see that despite the financial gloom some groups are still aspiring to make the world a better place.

- Reshaping the Environment to Promote Seniors' Independence: Themes and Observations from the case management literature. Beverley Kelley spoke about the ability to meet the needs of the person through their environment and the imporatnce of positively influencing the health career of adults. What if we were to treat our healths as inidivual health careers? Would we be more diligent? Beverley Kelley also pointed out that much of the case management literature neglects to mention family members and their role as care givers.

- Refuge Island? Is it safe to cross? Yue Li with the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute spoke about pedestrian crossings and how something as simple as the design of a refuge island could prevent premature death and promote wellbeing and independence for the ageing. In 2004 37% of all pedestrian fatalities were among elders compared with 13.4% of the population. In the EU tje incidence is higher at 46%. Yue Li expressed the importance for universal design for all seasons and winters in particular in countries like Canada, where winters are often the toughest test. It was also interesting to hear that people's compliance to traffic rules is related to temperature with extreme cold often resulting in violation of pedestrian traffic law. 80% of people will try to make the double crossing when it is very cold, 73% when it is hot, and only 56% when it is fair.

- A study on the Solution for the Hearing Disabled Person's Behavior Limitation at Sandy Beach: Shimpei Kato has observed the physical barriers to those who are hearing impaired. Most environments only address mobility impairment. Shimpei Kato took a look at the ways in which visual cues could be set up to better alert both the hearing impairment and others within the vicinity that could be of help to them.

- Designing a Supportive Living Environment for Older People with Dementia and Thermal Comfort and HVAC Design for People with Dementia: Joost Van Hoof talked about prolonging the stay at home. Those who suffer from dementia are particularly sensitive to their environments. Research on dementia indicates that a person's perception of capability is more important than cognitive functioning. And while Joost did not imply that the home is the entire cure, he did show how design could prove a useful ally in the attempt to care for those suffering from dementia; something as simple as creating very clear sightlines could allow the carer to always keep tabs on their partner. Joost also showed some 3D visualizations of an ideal dementia environment to allow the audience to see the difference that design can make.

He also talked about temperature and thermal comfort and how dementia sufferers are particularly sensitive to temperature variation. He pointed out the need for nurses and engineers to work with each other to create better thermal comfort for demented patients.

- Accommodating Sensory Aspects of Ageing in the Design of Dwellings: An architect by training Camilla Ryhl addressed the importance of not only giving those suffering from sensory impairment access to fantastic spaces and architecture, but also giving them access to the amazing sensory experience. Moving beyond the need to satisfy functional requirements for the sensory impaired, Ryhl inspired her audience with the importance of making the sensory experience euqally accessible to all.

- Age-Friendly New York City: Findings and Lessons: Ruth Finkelstein shared her research findings of what it is like to grow old in New York City. Many of the older generation decide to stay and grow old in New York because they love the city. NYC is in the process of trying to implement the WHO Age-Friendly cities initiative and spoke of the need to plan for multiple identities and particularities of population. She reminded the audience that just because people get older does not mean they lose their identity as the public often assumes with older individuals. New York City plans to release their Age-Friendly NYC report on September 15th.

All in all the most important take-aways from the conference was the ability of environments and design to influence the experience of ageing, the potential for the grey and green agenda to be equally integrated in all future design and planning, and the need to make ageing a mainstream issue and not a sideline conversation. It was encouraging to hear at the senior officials meeting that there are governments making progressive decisions to enable better ageing of their societies, but as in most cases, for their policies to take real effect, the ageing discourse needs to move beyond government circles to the private sector.

The three-day conference will also include an exposition on ageing featuring some of the latest products and services being developed in the area of enabling environments. Arup's Director for Global Foresight & Innovation, Chris Luebkeman, will be speaking at the pre-conference event with senior government officials as well as at the Conference's Opening Plenary session entitled "The New Paradigm: Ageing and Design" on the evening of September 4th.

- On average, the price of food has risen 40% since last summer
- Climate change has doubled the number of disasters from an average of 200 a year to 400 a year in the past two decades

And examples of the violence which has erupted as a result of food scarcity include:
- Riots in Haiti
- Violent protests in the Ivory Coast
- Price riots in Cameroon in February
- Heated demonstrations in Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal
- Protests in Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bolivia and Indonesia

In Jordan UN staff went on strike for a day this week to demand a pay raise in response to the 50% hike in prices, and rice producing countries such as Cambodia, China, Vietnam, India and Pakistan have curbed their rice exports to guarantee enough supplies for their residents.

The World Bank's president, Robert Zoellick, has announced that unless the US, Europe, Japan and other wealthy countries provide funds, "many more people will suffer and starve". Others, such as UK Professor and new chief scientific adviser to the government, John Beddington, warn that the damaging effects of the food crisis will make itself more quickly felt than climate change.

A recent study by McKinsey on consumer attitudes towards climate change reveals that consumers are making purchase decisions based on a company's performance in addressing environmental issues such as climate change. Consumers also expect and want companies to promote the public good by providing healthier and safer products, good pension schemes, and more. According to a survey McKinsey conducted, 90% of consumers and 85% of executives believe that large corporations should play a broader role in society. More revealing is the fact that majorities responded that companies and governments should actually play an equal role in handling sociopolitical issues. There is also a disparity between executives and consumers perceptions on how large of a contribution executives are making. While 7 out of 10 North American executives describe their contribution as mostly or somewhat positive, only 4 out of 10 consumers agree. And in Europe the gap is even wider.

It looks like major CSR departments have a lot more work to do, and fast, if companies want to retain the trust and share of their consumers wallets. Perhaps it's time for companies to start thinking about acquiring share of trust by being more pro-active in their environmental stewardship.

I came across this design book during a critique session with a few design students from Central St. Martin who are working with us to imagine the future of eco-resorts. From May to September 2007 the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design in New York held an exhibition called Design for the other 90%. Products were developed in particular for the 4 billion people on the planet who live on less than $1 a day. The designers came from leading universities, design consultancies and non-profit organisations in the developed world. Design for the other 90% explores several projects which reflect the growing movement and desire among designers, engineers, students and professors, architects, and social entrepreneurs to design low-cost solutions for the other 90% of our population.

Perhaps further proof that sometimes design can really matter.

The following statistics (still topical in 2008) were included:
70% of the 1.2 billion people living in poverty are women and children
67% of all illiterate adults are women
85, girls worldwide are unable to attend school compared with 45m boys
In the US 35% of layers are women but just 5% are partners
Women in full-time jobs earn an average 17% less than British men
62% of unpaid family workers are female

The Women and Work Commission released a report almost two years ago in February 2006 to explain why the pay gap is not only bad for women, but also bad for Britain. Some of the key reasons identified for the pay gap include human capital differences (differences in educational levels and work experience), part-time working (the pay gap between men and women's part time hourly earnings and men's full time hourly earnings is large), travel patterns (on average women spend less time commuting than men and this can impact on women's pay), occupational segregation (women's employment is highly concentrated in certain occupations and these occupations are often the lowest paid), workplace segregation (high concentrations of female employees are associated with relatively low pay at the level of individual workplaces). Other reasons included job grading practices, appraisal systems, reward systems and retention measures, wage-setting practices and discrimination. The UK government is currently trying to addres the Pay Gap by improving the skill levels of current workers and by helping companies to optimize their female workforce.

For more stats the original Independent article can be found here.