The siren call of 2020 corporate environmental sustainability goals is quickly getting louder, as corporate leaders realize they must go further today to achieve their sustainability targets for tomorrow. Increased use of renewable energy is an ambitious goal for some of the world’s largest companies, as 59 percent of the Fortune 100 and nearly two-thirds of the Global 100 have set GHG emissions reduction commitments, renewable energy commitments or both, according to a recent Ceres’ report, Power Forward: Why the World’s Largest Companies Are Investing in Renewable Energy. One global consumer products company, for example, plans to derive 30 percent of its energy from clean sources by 2020.

The best way to avoid arguing about money is to start talking about it before you get married.

Click here if you want to find ways to make your wedding awesome, you'll love these.

Tim Moxam has partnered with Toronto's StopGap Foundation, which builds ramps for community spaces to increase accessibility, and launched StopGap on Tour. Moxam collaborated with some fellow songwriters and crafters to build a series of special-edition StopGap ramps, pre-ordered and spec'd to accommodate the needs of non-accessible venues, cafes, record stores, and other community hubs that Moxam would be visiting on his recent East Coast tour. Hear about this cool initiative, how you can get involved for the future, and some of the peripheral benefits that come with it.

We also chat with Michael "Wanz" Wansley, who spent his life as a working musician before a song he featured on from a local rapper blew up into a global phenomenon. The song was "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, with Wanz's distinctive voice featured prominently in the chorus. That led to a whirlwind couple years for Wanz, allowing him to fulfill a lot of his childhood dreams, before the song receded in the public consciousness and he had to figure out life after sudden and short-lived commercial success. In this inspiring conversation, Wanz discusses life before, during, and after "Thrift Shop" and how it changed his thinking about fame and success in music.

Jordan Elliott (sometimes spelled Jordyn - you’ll hear why) got into the business of artist management when she was just 21 years old, signing a band to a major label contract while still in school. Since then, she’s continued on that path, working with artists like Meghan Patrick and Eric Ethridge and blazing a trail as one of the top female managers in Canadian country music.

Jordan tells us the story of her fascinating career as she examines the unique relationship between artist and manager, discusses the obstacles she faced as a young woman in a male-dominated field, and a lot more.

http://canadianmusician.com

This episode is sponsored by Bandzoogle. Try it free for 30 days and use the promo code “CMPOD” to get 15% off your first year of any subscription. https://bandzoogle.com/?pc=cmpod

Saturday Night Live kicked off its season 45 finale this weekend with a tip of the hat to the Class of 2020. The cast members appeared on-screen remotely in the cold open as graduating seniors, with Alec Baldwin joining them as President Donald Trump. Wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap, Baldwin offered a […]

With picnics tolerated and even a pub doing takeaway drinks, it seems few in Hackney are obeying the stay-at-home rule

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As the mounted police approached, the group leapt up from their picnic, clearly fearing the worst. They were wrong. Grinning, the officer encouraged them to enjoy the sun and suggested that if the park became too crowded they should consider leaving.

For people sunning themselves in London Fields, Hackney, the incident signified another unheralded shift in the UK’s coronavirus lockdown strategy. “Two days ago, police were confiscating beer from drinkers’ hands,” said media consultant Gavin Jamieson, 34. “Weeks before that, they were turning up in vans and telling people to leave the park.”

Tune into our new show Fox League Live on Channel 502 Monday to Friday at 6.30pm and on Saturday at 3pm and Sunday at 5pm.

The former EastEnders actor talks about shooting a pilot on a deadly virus, telling British stories with a difference – and how playing a bit part as a pigeon changed his career

The so-called “curse of EastEnders” – the struggle for soap actors to transition into more prestigious dramatic roles after leaving the show – always weighed heavily on the mind of Himesh Patel.

So when he decided to leave the soap in 2016, after nine years playing Tamwar Masood, he knew whichever role he chose next would be critical in breaking typecast, perhaps even defining the rest of his career. He went to a friend whose theatre company, withWings, took inventive musical adaptations to the Edinburgh fringe. That year they were doing Le Bossu, a retelling of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Patel mentioned that he wanted to get out of his comfort zone and do some theatre. “He came back to me and said, ‘Cool, well, I can offer you the role of a pigeon.’”

Finding new sources of growth right now is tough. And in a time of rising inequality, to do so equitably and fairly is even tougher. Innovation can help, but with budgets stretched to the limit how can governments boost innovation in their economies?

Building on concrete examples, this book explores emerging topics in innovation policy for more inclusive and sustainable growth.

Statement from Risaburo Nezu, Chairman of the OECD Steel Committee, Paris, 6 June 2014

This publication reports on trends in the steelmaking capacity of economies that are not members of the OECD. It examines existing capacity and investments that will lead to changes by 2014, with detailed tables on equipment, starting dates of planned projects, and works ownership.

Steel is one of the most widely produced industrial products in the world, and the sector depends heavily on a range of raw materials for its production. The aim of this workshop was to better understand the impacts of trade-restrictive raw material policies on the global steel industry and to explore policy approaches that would improve the longer-term efficiency and functioning of these markets.

Shanghai, 9-10 July 2016: G20 Trade Ministers reinforced their "determination to promote inclusive, robust and sustainable trade and investment growth" with the adoption of the G20 Guiding Principles for Global Investment Policymaking.

Mayors and local leaders from around the world launched today a plan of action to help tackle inequality, boost job creation and harness economic development.

Globalisation has failed to create a level playing field in trade, investment and corporate behaviour, being one of the factors contributing to a backlash against openness in many countries and a decline in confidence in government institutions.

Governments participating in the OECD Steel Committee consider excess capacity as being one of the main challenges facing the global steel sector today. This data portal makes data on steel projects in OECD countries fully accessible for the first time.

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes published today 9 new peer review reports, including a Phase 1 Supplementary Report for Switzerland, demonstrating continuing progress toward implementation of the international standard for exchange of information on request.

At the OECD, ee have started an ambitious 2-year project to examine how the digital transformation affects policy making across the broadest possible range of fields and topics. The objective is to work with governments, business, labour and civil society to develop policies to harness the power of the digital revolution for OECD members and developing countries and unlock the benefits for everyone.

In 1964 the writer Isaac Asimov predicted life 50 years on: “Even so, mankind will suffer badly from the disease of boredom....and I dare say that psychiatry will be far and away the most important medical specialty in 2014. The lucky few who can be involved in creative work of any sort will be the true elite of mankind, for they alone will do more than serve a machine”.

Globalisation has failed to create a level playing field in trade, investment and corporate behaviour, being one of the factors contributing to a backlash against openness in many countries and a decline in confidence in government institutions.

Worldwide, 62 billion tons of natural resources – minerals, wood, metals, fossil and biomass fuels, and construction material – are extracted. On average, that’s almost 10 tons for every person on the earth. Of that, about one fifth ends up as waste and must be reused, recycled or disposed of in a way that is safe for people and the environment.

A new OECD report describes what Ethiopia and Columbia are doing to sustain development in a changing climate.

Given the years of preparation – and for some OECD colleagues, a life’s work – my hope was for an enduring, ambitious text, helping us to avoid climate catastrophe. My expectation was far less grand, more closely aligned to the reality of getting 195 countries to adopt an agreement with legal force.

This paper reviews the latest climate projections for West Africa and considers alternative ways in which the knowledge generated from climate science can be understood in the context of preparing for an uncertain future that provides practical help for decision makers.

This brief is a contribution to the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) and a submission of recommendations for the renewal of the Lima Work Programme on Gender. It provides an overview of how well members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) are integrating gender equality into their bilateral aid to climate change.

Tourism has boomed in Indonesia in recent years and is already one of the main sources of foreign-currency earnings.

Worldwide, 62 billion tons of natural resources – minerals, wood, metals, fossil and biomass fuels, and construction material – are extracted. On average, that’s almost 10 tons for every person on the earth. Of that, about one fifth ends up as waste and must be reused, recycled or disposed of in a way that is safe for people and the environment.

This working paper reflects on green growth policy in Ethiopia – it explores green growth already in action – a range of on-the-ground activities which point to scale-up options for the future.

Key questions for development planning today in countries include: Can developing countries strike a balance between economic growth, societal well-being and environmental protection? Can inclusive, green growth be a way forward? This report presents a case study on Cambodia designed to answer these questions.

Let’s be honest, waste reduction doesn’t have much of a ring to it. To many, it’s a complex policy issue without much hope if consumers keep throwing their cans away in the street.

In this time of chronic unemployment, it is all too easy to lose sight of the single greatest trend underlying the long-term labour market: the demographic time bomb in the developed world. Indeed, the defining employment challenge of the future will be not the surplus, but the shortage, of appropriate labour.

Three out of four OECD countries use minimum wages, and supporting low-wage earners is widely seen as important for promoting inclusive growth. This policy brief considers three aspects that are central for a balanced assessment of policy choices: The cost of employing minimum-wage workers, their take-home pay, and the number of workers affected.

Although Lithuania’s growth has been impressive, inequality is high, the risk of poverty is one of the highest of European countries, and life expectancy is comparatively low and strongly dependent on socio-economic background.

For everyone to benefit from the changes in technology, globalisation and population ageing, adult learning systems must be ready to support people in acquiring the skills needed for this changing world of work. The EC and the OECD have joined up to discuss how to make adult learning work for the future in your country, by organising three webinars in September and October, and a forum on the 8th of November in Vienna.

Korea has improved its information and intelligence gathering capacity in foreign bribery cases, but should be more proactive in investigating allegations, according to a new OECD report.

To mark the 15th anniversary of the signature of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, Mark Pieth and Huguette Labelle call on Parties to the OECD's Anti-Bribery Convention to step up enforcement of their anti-bribery laws.

This Forum took stock of the key challenges and trends in regulating money in politics; identify emerging risks and opportunities; shape a common understanding of the policy options ahead and trade-offs in enhancing fairness, integrity and transparency in decision making including in the realm of political finance; and mobilise partners to work together and promote synergies in the future agenda.

It’s becoming clear to me that the crisis in youth unemployment around the world is not just one of the aftershocks of the global economic downturn, but may also have roots in education systems that are not adequately preparing students for 21st-century economies.

The answer appears to be yes. Schooling plays a surprisingly large role in short-changing the most economically disadvantaged students of critical math skills, according to a study published today in Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association.

Ensuring that all people have solid foundation skills has become one of the central aims of the post-2015 development agenda.

Webinar: Andreas Schleicher, Director of the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, presents the findings of Equations and Inequalities - Making Mathematics Accessible to All

Many students who participated in PISA 2012 reported that they have hardly been exposed to fundamental concepts in mathematics, like arithmetic means or linear equations, which form the basis of the numeracy skills that they will need to thrive as adults.

Although Lithuania’s growth has been impressive, inequality is high, the risk of poverty is one of the highest of European countries, and life expectancy is comparatively low and strongly dependent on socio-economic background.

With Africa’s population set to double by 2050, modernising local economies will be vital to make the continent more competitive and to increase people’s living standards, according to the African Economic Outlook 2015, released at the African Development Bank Group’s 50th Annual Meetings.

Mayors and local leaders from around the world launched today a plan of action to help tackle inequality, boost job creation and harness economic development.