Split (1)

train · 616k rows

pred_label stringclasses 2 values	pred_label_prob float64 0.5 1	wiki_prob float64 0.25 1	text stringlengths 82 1.04M	source stringlengths 37 43
__label__wiki	0.889109	0.889109	From left to right: Mr. Yousef Al Alami, H.E. Hamad Abdullah Al Shamsi, H.E. Ali Saeed Bin Harmal Al Dhaheri, H.E. Khadaim Abdulla Aldarei, Dr. Shamsheer Vayalil, Mr. Mohammed Qusai Al Ghussein and Mr. Abdallah Malek Osseiran H.E. Ali Saeed Bin Harmal Al Dhaheri An accomplished entrepreneur specializing in the education sector, Mr. Al Dhaheri holds a number of key positions including Chairman of Abu Dhabi University, CEO of Abu Dhabi University Holding Company, Chairman of Liwa International School, Chairman of Magna Education Investment and Chairman of Watania Insurance. H.E. Hamad Abdullah Al Shamsi Mr. Al Shamsi is the Chairman of the Board for Amanat and has extensive experience in private investment. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for Abu Dhabi Council for Economic Development, a Director of Abu Dhabi Airports Company and Etihad Airways P.J.S.C. H.E. Khadaim Abdulla Al Darei During his extensive career in both the public and private sector, Mr. Al Darei held senior positions in the UAE’s diplomatic core and managed the public and private offices of senior members of the UAE Government and Royal Family. He is currently Managing Director of Al Ain Holding and the Vice Chairman of Al Dahra Holding. Dr. Shamsheer Vayalil Dr. Vayalil is a doctor, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the founder and Managing Director of VPS Healthcare. He is the proud recipient of the 2015 GPF Global Humanitarian award, which he received during a special reception held at the United Nations headquarters. He also serves as Vice Chairman of the Board, Managing Director and CEO of Amanat. Mr. Mohammed Qusai Al Ghussein Coming from an entrepreneurial family, Mr. Al Ghussein has been involved in a number of business ventures as part of the family business and then with Atlas Financial Services. He now serves on a number of boards including Bin Harmal Group and Abu Dhabi University. Mr. Yousef Al Alami Mr. Al Alami has considerable experience in private placements and public offerings in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and USA. He has held a number of senior positions in large financial institutions in the UAE and worldwide including Abu Dhabi Investment Company and The National Investor in UAE, KFTCIC in Kuwait and First Boston in New York, London and Athens. Mr. Abdallah Malek Osseiran Mr. Osseiran has over 30 years of experience of corporate banking, investments & asset management across various sectors, including Education, Hospitality, Financial Services, Real estate and Private Equity. He is currently the Managing Director of Magna Investments and serves other boards. Ms. Kristina E. Turner Ms. Turner has extensive experience in governance and the management of board level meetings. She currently serves as Secretary to the Board of Directors of Abu Dhabi University. © 2018 ADUHC. All rights reserved.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line5
__label__cc	0.624636	0.375364	Indianapolis City-County Council Candidate Reports $3,000 In Campaign Contributions From Church Groups Churches and religious organizations are generally prohibited from engaging in political activity in order to maintain their 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. Advance Indiana was surprised to see $3,000 in campaign contributions listed on campaign finance reports filed by Councilor Stephen J. Clay, the slated Democratic candidate seeking election in District 13. Clay was selected by Democratic precinct committee persons last November to fill the unexpired term of Steve Tally following his election as Lawrence Township Trustee. He is running unopposed in the May 5 primary election. According to Clay's campaign finance report, his campaign committee, "Friends of Stephen J. Clay," reported receiving on April 8 a $500 contribution from Shalom Church, a large black interdenominational church in Florissant, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb abutting Ferguson. Today, his campaign committee filed a supplemental large campaign report showing two contributions from the Baptist Ministers Alliance on April 14, one for $1,500 and one for $1,000. Clay, who is the senior pastor of Messiah Missionary Baptist Church, formerly served as the president of the Baptist Ministers Alliance of Indianapolis and Vicinity. According to records on file with the Secretary of State's office, Clay incorporated the nonprofit organization on March 23, 2010. Former City-County Councilor Lonell Conley is listed as the nonprofit's registered agent. What's it going to take to get any info available from Child Protective Services on Clay? Can churches donate to political candidates? I know nothing about the CPS issue. That was something Abdul was putting out there. I don't know about Abdul but I can introduce you to a few CPS sources. Stephen Clay is only concerned about Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, and becoming the Indy Jesse Jackson. He has issues. What about his 'affinity' with boys? What about his power struggle with 'whitey?' It is time to report to the IRS all of his Political Contributors who are tax-exempt. They cannot hold tax-exempt status and support a Political Candidate. Even if these contributions are not legal, this will probably be filed in the No Action Taken folder by our Local "Justice" Units of Government. The persons name om the Large Contributions does not have an address which is required by the form. Concerning the form itself Memo to ever is charge of forms - We now have Spreadsheets that can be used via a Computer. This Technology and software is nearly 25 years old. However, in Indiana we would not want to rush things along. A spread sheet would allow an easy searchable data base but we would not want something like that in Indiana.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line6
__label__wiki	0.653574	0.653574	Timberland Announces Partnership with The Savory Institute as Part of Effort to Build Regenerative Leather Supply Chain for Fashion Industry By: 3BL Media: Corporate Social Responsibility, Energy and Health News May 28, 2020 at 05:00 AM EDT Furthers brand commitment to responsible design in pursuit of a greener future SOURCE: Timberland STRATHAM, N.H., May 27, 2020 /3BL Media/ - Global outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland today announced a new partnership with the Savory Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit focused on the large-scale regeneration of the world’s grasslands, as part of the brand’s long-standing commitment to build a greener future. This move augments the brand’s recently announced collaboration with Other Half Processing, which sources hides from Thousand Hills Lifetime Grazed regenerative ranches. Through these partnerships, Timberland is working to identify, aggregate, and connect early-adopter regenerative ranches with its large-scale tannery partners to help build a regenerative supply chain for the footwear and apparel industry. “The fashion industry has a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions, and we believe it’s all of our responsibility to be a part of the solution,” said Colleen Vien, director of sustainability for Timberland. “Regenerative agriculture presents a powerful opportunity to go beyond simply minimizing our impact, to actually create value and have a net positive effect for the land and the farmers. Timberland is incredibly excited to be partnering with The Savory Institute to drive real and meaningful change.” Ranchers and farmers who use regenerative grazing practices manage their cattle in a way that mimics the natural movement of herd animals. This grazing allows for more rest and re-growth of grasses, leading to better food for livestock and healthier soil, as these grasses pull carbon out of the atmosphere and store it in the ground. These practices also support biodiversity, and make the land more productive with greater resilience to both drought and heavy rain. As a charitable supporter of The Savory Institute and a member of its “Land to Market Frontier Founder” corporate advisory program, Timberland will co-fund the Institute’s Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV) process on all Thousand Hills Lifetime Grazed ranches. The EOV process measures the tangible regenerative benefits occurring on the land, while also providing valuable data back to farmers to improve their practices. “The regenerative movement has largely been focused on the food industry to date, but we at Savory Institute believe there is an opportunity to simultaneously synergize with the apparel industry and open up unparalleled successes for the planet,” said Chris Kerston, Chief Commercial Officer for the Land to Market program at Savory. “Additionally, cultivating a more complete utilization of the materials coming off regenerative farms creates mutually beneficial opportunities for the farmer, for the brand, and for the consumer. We are thrilled to be partnering with Timberland, a proven leader in this space, on their initiative to bring leather products raised on verified regenerative landscapes to the masses.” In Fall 2020, Timberland will launch a collection of boots made using Regenerative Leather sourced from Thousand Hills Lifetime Grazed ranches, with plans to scale the program significantly over time. Timberland has long been ahead of the curve with its commitment to responsible design – beginning with the launch of its iconic Earthkeepers® boot in 2007 which was made with recycled PET, recycled rubber, and leather from tanneries rated gold by the Leather Working Group for best environmental practices. Timberland also made a landmark commitment in 2019 to plant 50 million trees over the next five years, in pursuit of a greener future. For more information about Timberland’s commitment to better product, stronger communities and a greener world, visit the brand’s responsibility site. About Timberland Founded in 1973, Timberland is a global outdoor lifestyle brand based in Stratham, New Hampshire, with international headquarters in Switzerland and Hong Kong. Best known for its original yellow boot designed for the harsh elements of New England, Timberland today offers a full range of footwear, apparel and accessories for people who value purposeful style and share the brand’s passion for enjoying – and protecting – nature. At the heart of the Timberland® brand is the core belief that a greener future is a better future. This comes to life through a decades-long commitment to make products responsibly, protect the outdoors, and strengthen communities around the world. To share in Timberland’s mission to step outside, work together and make it better, visit one of our stores, timberland.com or follow us @timberland. Timberland is a VF Corporation brand. About Savory Institute The Savory Institute, a U.S. 501(c)(3) charitable organization, facilitates large-scale regeneration of the world’s grasslands through Holistic Management. Together with Savory’s global network of Hubs, the Savory Institute equips farmers and ranchers around the world with education, training, and implementation support to achieve success within their cultural and ecological contexts. Savory Institute also removes barriers and creates enhanced conditions for large-scale progress by informing policy, engaging the marketplace, and increasing public awareness. Savory’s long-term goal is to positively influence the management of 1 billion hectares of grasslands by 2025, thereby contributing to global climate-, water- and food-security. To learn more, visit www.savory.global. Tweet me: .@Timberland announces a new partnership with @SavoryInstitute as part of the brand’s long-standing commitment to build a greener future. See how they are working to build a regenerative leather supply chain for the fashion industry: https://bit.ly/3ca98ve KEYWORDS: NYSE:VFC, Timberland, The Savory Institute, Leather, regenerative agriculture VF Corp	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line10
__label__cc	0.619825	0.380175	Underdogs Before The Book Thief Markus Zusak wrote a trilogy of novels about the Wolfe Brothers The Underdog Fighting Rueben Wolfe and Getting the Girl Cameron and Ruben Wolfe are champions at getting into f Title: Underdogs Author: Markus Zusak Before The Book Thief, Markus Zusak wrote a trilogy of novels about the Wolfe Brothers The Underdog, Fighting Rueben Wolfe, and Getting the Girl Cameron and Ruben Wolfe are champions at getting into fights, coming up with half baked schemes, and generally disappointing girls, their parents, and their much motivated older siblings They re intensely loyal to each othBefore The Book Thief, Markus Zusak wrote a trilogy of novels about the Wolfe Brothers The Underdog, Fighting Rueben Wolfe, and Getting the Girl Cameron and Ruben Wolfe are champions at getting into fights, coming up with half baked schemes, and generally disappointing girls, their parents, and their much motivated older siblings They re intensely loyal to each other, brothers at their best and at their very worst But when Cameron falls head over heels for Ruben s girlfriend, the strength of their bond is tested to its breaking point.We re proud to present these novels together for the first time, and to be introducing American readers to The Underdog, never before published in the United States Fans of The Book Thief won t want to miss reading the novels that launched Markus Zusak s stellar career. [PDF] Ó Unlimited ✓ Underdogs : by Markus Zusak ✓ Markus Zusak 431 Markus Zusak Title: [PDF] Ó Unlimited ✓ Underdogs : by Markus Zusak ✓ Posted by:Markus Zusak About " Markus Zusak " Markus Zusak was born in 1975 and is the author of five books, including the international bestseller, The Book Thief, which is translated into than forty languages First released in 2005, The Book Thief has spent than a decade on the New York Times bestseller list, and still remains there to this day.His first three books, The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe and When Dogs Cry also known as Getting the Girl , released between 1999 and 2001, were all published internationally and garnered a number of awards and honours in his native Australia and the USA.The Messenger or I am the Messenger , published in 2002, won the 2003 Australian Children s Book Council Book of the Year Award Older Readers and the 2003 NSW Premier s Literary Award Ethel Turner Prize , as well as receiving a Printz Honour in America It also won numerous national readers choice awards across Europe, including, in 2007, the highly regarded Deutscher Jugendliteratur Jugendjury prize in Germany, which he won again for The Book Thief in 2010.It is The Book Thief, however, that has established Markus Zusak as one of the most successful authors to come out of Australia To date, The Book Thief has held the number one position at the New York Times bestseller list, as well as in countries across South America, Europe and Asia It has also been in the top five bestsellers in the UK and several other territories It has amassed many and varied awards, ranging from literary prizes to readers choice awards to prizes voted on by booksellers It was the only book to feature on both the USA and UK World Book Night Lists in 2012, and has been voted as Australian readers favourite book by iconic independent bookstore, Dymocks, three years running.In 2013, The Book Thief was adapted to screen, directed by Emmy Award winning Brian Percival Downton Abbey and shot in Berlin by Twentieth Century Fox The cast was headlined by Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush Shine, The King s Speech and Academy Award nominee Emily Watson Breaking the Waves, Anna Karenina It also cast Sophie Nelisse Monsieur Lazhar , as Liesel Meminger The Guardian calls The Book Thief a novel of breathtaking scope, masterfully told The New York Times Brilliant and hugely ambitious the kind of book that can be life changing The Age an original, moving, beautifully written book In 2014, Zusak received the American Library Association s Margaret Edwards award for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature, for his body of work ranging from The Underdog up to The The Book Thief Markus Zusak grew up in Sydney, Australia, and still lives there with his wife and two children. Markus Zusak is arguably one of the best contemporary YA authors, as evidenced by his internationally acclaimed bestseller, The Book Thief. It was a pleasure to read this trilogy as it chronicles the first three works of the author before his literary fame. The Underdog is the shortest story of the three, and while lacking in some aspects it is an intriguing first act of Underdogs trilogy and whets the reader’s appetite for a taste of the resilient Wolfe Family. Fighting Ruben Wolfe delves dee [...] Dawn Teresa Originally posted on my blog, Read LoveThe Book Thief was no fluke. It was the culmination of years of work and growth from a gifted writer. When I began reading the first book in Underdogs, fearful that it would prove to be vastly inferior to The Book Thief (one of my all-time favorite books), I found real and rapid assurance that the hand that authored that masterpiece also wrote these words. In The Underdog, originally published in 1999 (and his first work), Markus Zusak's talent and unique s [...] Magnificent!I know THE BOOK THIEF is the one that all kiddies rave about, and don't get me wrong: that is a brilliant book and I love it. But then I discovered GETTING THE GIRL, which led me to find FIGHTING RUBEN WOLFE, which brings us here, to the first US publication of THE UNDERDOG, contained in this omnibus of all three Wolfe brothers books. If you don't, from the first chapter of THE UNDERDOG (or any of the other two, really), fall madly in love with the endearingly awkward and yet strange [...] Come on, people, this is Zusak we're talking about and while, yes, I love his entirely unique writing style, I adore his beautifully honest stories with their sweet messages even more. This little story doesn't have some huge event or a climactic ending, it doesn't have some whirling plot that keeps us turning pages but will be forgotten not long after the last page is read. It's about life, and the lessons we can glean from it. Sure, Cameron couldn't talk to girls and Ruben and he were pretty u [...] Heidi (Yup. Still here.) I am not afraid. I will admit it. I have a new book crush. His name is Cameron. He is geeky and shy and he has a heart of gold. What is not to love? I will add that in the intro Mr. Zuzak admitted he is Cameron so by default I guess my crush also carries to him (Who are we kidding I love Markus too. I mean who can resist an accent?) What is it about Aussie writers? Even in their earlier books that are not as polished (such as this one) they have you laughing one minute and wanting to bawl your e [...] Brigid ✩ Cool Ninja Sharpshooter ✩ I finished this at last! And over all, I really enjoyed it. The first book of the anthology was a bit rough and uneventful, but I thought the second and third books were a lot better, and I could definitely see Markus Zusak's writing improve over the course of the trilogy. There were times when I thought the style (especially the dialogue) got kind of pretentious/annoying, but for the most part I loved the way they were written. And by the end I felt very attached to the Wolfe family and felt li [...] The first thing to note is that this is an omnibus of The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe and Getting the Girl. The second thing to note is that they're Markus Zusak's very first novels. The writing style we all loved in The Book Thief didn't just spring magically from a first effort, and Underdogs is definitely representative of the journey this author's writing grew through.The biggest issue with The Underdog is that it's plot-less. This leaves it all up to Cameron to capture our interest, whic [...] On TCM there’s a segment where Peter O’Toole reflects upon his experiences working with David Lean in Lawrence of Arabia. O’Toole remembers one particular scene where Lean asks him to complete five minutes of mime for the scene where Lawrence tries on, for the first time, that white robe in the desert. Not knowing what to do, O’Toole thinks about it, and then remembers the dagger he has sheathed on his waist. As the film starts rolling, O’Toole uses the dagger as a mirror to look at hi [...] Jillian -always aspiring- All three books in one volume? YES!!! I don’t know what it is with me and omnibuses… omnibusseses… omnibi? Anything that’s packaged as a complete set, be it made up of novels or comics, tends to attract my attention these days. This particular omnibus appeared to me out of nowhere, and didn’t do anything for me at first. Somewhere between when I started it and when I finished it, though, it crept up on me and became one of my favorite recent reads. It’s a meandering, quirky coming-of-age story that is funny and heartbrea [...] Meegy To tell you the truth I was a bit skeptical about this book at first, but as it was by Markus Zusak I wanted to read it. This book is compiled of three short stories about Cameron Wolfe. I loved how at the end of each chapter is either a dream, a conversation with his brother or WORDS (as Cameron calls them)This book was amazing, and about battle of Cameron Wolfes every day teenage life. The last book I found was the best, and it made me cry to see it all come together. Eli Lindsey I liked this book very much. In the beginning I was very skeptical because the plot seemed to be going nowhere but as it got going, it progressed greatly. This story is just one of those feel good books, in the end the little man gets what he wants and triumphs over the big man. My favorite character in the book is Reuben, he is the one everyone likes but still doesn't show it in his day to day life. He is also nice to his brother Cameron, even though Cameron is not as good of a boxer as he. Thi [...] G'day, mates. This here's the story of Cameron Wolfe. OK, THREE stories of Cameron Wolfe. Once upon a time they were little known novels by a little known YA writer from Down Under. Title of the books? The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, and Getting the Girl. Title of the author? Markus Zusak. Reason that sounds familiar? The Book Thief.And that's the reason has put together these three books -- Zusak's sensational success with the Holocaust sleeper, The Book Thief. Some of the books in UNDERDO [...] Underdogs is an omnibus volume of Markus Zusak;s three novels about the Wolfe brothers, Ruben and young narrator Cameron. The first novel - The Underdog - is noticeably the weakest of the three, and was in fact Zusak's first novel. There's really little to say about it, except that so little happens in it that I am a bit surprised that it was even published. It basically sets the stage for the two novels that follow.But it is followed by Fighting Ruben Wolfe, and that is a horse of another (extr [...] Would want to be a fighter? This book is a story about two brothers that always get into fights. They're not that close with their other siblings but themselves. One day a street boxing promotor heard about Ruben Wolfe beating up a guy in school for calling his sister inappropriate names. When the promotor talked with Ruben to get him to fight, Ruben also told him about his brother Cameron Wolfe that he should fight too. Ruben starts taking this seriously because he wants to be a fighter even th [...] Jen Scott I'm going to do a three part review for this book, because I read all three novels at different times. The first one is for Underdog: Out of all of the Markus Zusak books I've read, this one was my least favorite. I felt like it didn't have as much direction as his other books, and there was no "wow" factor for me. But, nevertheless, this is Markus Zusak we're talking about, and he is a beautiful writer, so I enjoyed reading it.Fighting Ruben Wolfe: I had the awesome experience of reading this t [...] I could relate to this story right from the beginning. Though the main character is 15, the things he is going through right now sort of relate to any average teenager (love, relationships etc). I really like how the story talks about the main character (Cameron)'s brother and how they are still having fun together even after they have fights and arguments (that was mostly what related to me). This book is good for people who want to know what it is like going through a teen's life but it goes i [...] Это история про :миссис Вульфмистера ВульфаСтиваСаруРубаКэмеронаОктавиюПушкапро поиски себяпро голодпро дружбупро семьюпро любовь — Ты можешь утонуть во мне, когда захочешь, Кэмерон, — сказала она и, как тогда, прикоснулась губами к моим губам и плавно потекла через мо [...] Simply put, Zusak is a genius at writing and that was the main force to keep me reading. Out of the three books I liked the third one the most. However, the more I read the more meaningful and different the book became. My actual rating is 3.5. If you're a fan of the book thief and/or the messenger then you may want more Zusak in his beginning years. Warning: Peculiar, but worthy Maureen E All three Wolfe novels. The last, Getting the Girl is by far my favorite, though the tidiness of the resolution bothered me just a little. But I was invested enough in Cameron at that point to not really mind. [Oct. 2011] Deb Stern I could have counted this as three separate books, as they were written. However, to really feel the full effect, this needs to read as one continuous novel. Zusak speaks of layers from life experiences and every one of his books shows pieces of his layers. Audible version really good. Phrynne A very short, simple little book but it shows that Marcus Zusak has what it takes to be a really good author and later he proved this with The Book Thief. Underdogs is not really my kind of book but I enjoyed it for what it was. K. McDevitt I'd read Fighting Ruben Wolfe before, so when I saw this collection of all three books (that one being the middle one) I grabbed it. It was a slow read for me for some reason, but I did enjoy it. I got to meet Cameron Wolfe for the first time (again) in the first story, "The Underdog," and really get to know him. And I got to see him really come into his own in the third story, "Getting the Girl." Born into a working class family, Cameron has a lot of hopes of making something of himself, but is [...] Jacinta Carter While not as good as Zusak's other novels, this trilogy was still an enjoyable read. He does a great job of portraying the struggles the Wolfe brothers face in life and with each other. If I were a brother (instead of just having three of them), this book probably would have hit closer to home for me. As it is, though, I liked reading about Cameron and Ruben Wolfe, and I wouldn't have minded if this book had been a bit longer. Fatcheeks If I had to choose my favorite relationship in this book, it would definitely be Steve and Cam. That one broke my heart and filled it again the most.That said, I love books about family and ones that focus on brothers. It reminded me ofThe Outsidersso therefore, I recommended this book for anyone who enjoyed that book. Markus Zusak has earned a place at the top of my list of favorite authors. If you haven't read The Book Thief, do. Read my review of it first though--I think you should know some things before you start. Read I am the Messenger too. Once you've read those, you're going to want more Markus Zusak--at least I did. Luckily I discovered Underdogs. It is a compilation of the first three books Zusak published. Originally published in his native Australia, they have only recently become available to rea [...] Relebohile Ntshingila Actual rating is 3.5 Stars. Hazel West Thoughts on the Overall Book: I decided to just review this addition so I can review all three books together in order to compare them. They were, of course, brother stories, and that always makes me enjoy things so much more and I really did love reading about the Wolfe brothers.Cover--Yea or Nay: Meh, it's okay. Nothing really special, but I do like silhouettes as opposed to character impersonators. Characters: These are definitely character driven stories, so having good characters is very im [...] Albert Riehle This is an omnibus edition of the 3 continuous books in the Cameron Wolfe series and as an omnibus I'm giving it 4 stars because I have to judge it all together. It's worth noting that if there were half-stars I'd give it 4.5 though. It's also worth noting that the last two books, Fighting Ruben Wolfe and Getting the Girl are definite 5 star works. It's the first book, Underdog that brings the rating down. And Underdog isn't bad. It's simply a first book and it's not as good as the other two. It [...] I’d like to preface this with the fact that I adore everything Zusak has ever written (I can’t wait for whenever Bridge of Clay comes out because Lord knows I’ve been waiting long enough). But with I’d like to call attention to the little known Underdogs omnibus, consisting of three books, The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, and Getting the Girl. I know one of the complaints about this series is that they aren’t written exactly like the way I Am the Messenger or The Book Thief is writt [...] Tucket's Travels: Francis Tucket's Adventures In T... Be Careful Who You Love: Inside the Michael Jackso... Curiosidades do Vaticano Dream Stalker Protector of the Flight Just Big Boobs, Vol. 13: Sexy Girls With Big Boobs... Fates of Midgard النظرية النسبية الخاصة The Quicksand War:Prelude to Vietnam Большая книга рассказов Exactly Alike The pageant of medieval art and life A Vida Secreta de Jonas Office-Boy em Apuros Plays 2: The Marrying of Ann Leete / The Madras Ho... Color Me Vegan: Maximize Your Nutrient Intake and ... © 2021 Underdogs \| Theme by Markus Zusak	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line15
__label__cc	0.625272	0.374728	3 Sustainable Transport I felt a sort of similarity when we rode our first train in Kyoto last week; it was like going from the relative flatness of Atlanta to the rolling mountains of Appalachia. Except this was the transition from Tokyo and Fukushima to Kyoto—a new beautiful country with monkeys and native bamboo forests at the tops of those mountains. Keihanshin, our new megaregion. The mountains in Keihanshin have been the most blatant regional observation that I've observed the past few weeks from the Kanto region. In the cities I've been in so far in Keihanshin (Kyoto, Kobe and Osaka), the mountains make for longer rail rides. Here in Kobe, I find myself riding on Rapid express lines more than anything. To get to school, it takes a 50 minute train and bus commute to get from our dorm up where the main campus is. But trains are also quieter and simpler to navigate—I haven't had to cram myself into a rail car yet and our local station in Kobe (Fukae) only has one rail line going through it. Apart from differences in transit, our classes have discussed regionalism in language. Some words change from Tokyo to Kobe such as "baka" becoming "aho" for "fool", or "arigatō" becoming "ōkini" to mean "thanks." Our Kobe classmates said that these words are often used interchangeably, which suggests that the regional vocabulary isn't strict. There is also a difference in dialect apparently from these two regions, but I don't have the ear to notice a distinction yet. Another shift in the Keihanshin region is that I'm back to my American roots while walking; people walk on the right side here. Or at least, that's where the arrows are in stations, but I think there are so many tourists and commuters here that it gets confusing. I was trying to find the etiquette for this region online and found out it's more complicated than I thought: "Interestingly, people in Kyoto behave differently on the escalators on different train or subway lines in Kyoto. For JR lines and subway lines, which mainly run in Kyoto city, most of the people stand on the left side when taking the escalator. While for Hankyu lines, Keihan line and Kintetsu lines, which connect Kyoto to its neighborhood such as Osaka and Nara, more people stand on the right side." (https://www.getaroundjapan.jp/archives/4730) It's definitely confusing for me now because I just became used to walking on the left. I've only really been settled in this new region for a week, so there are likely more evidence of regionalism that I have yet to experience. But so far, it's been my favorite part of the country as I feel really connected to nature. Almost too connected; I went on a run last week to try to scale one of the hilly areas near me and was deterred by a sign for wild boars. I'm hoping to get over my fear and climb Mount Rokko (Kobe's signature peak) in the next week or so. Read more about Settling down in Keihanshin The first week of this program was spent in Tokyo, a part of the Kanto region, we then proceeded to the travel leg and have ended up in Kobe, a part of the Kansai region. Even though these regions are part of the same country and are relatively close to each other (at least in an American standard) there are a lot of cultural differences between them. The first difference that I observed was the way people stood on escalators. In the Kanto region, most people stand on the left side and leave the right for people in a rush. Whereas in the Kansai region, people stand on the right and leave the left side of the escalator for people in a rush. The differences in escalator use between regions. (Image taken from CNN) Another difference that I learned about was the dialect. The funniest difference I learned about was the word for "idiot." The Kanto region uses the word "baka" when referring to someone but often use it when referring to carelessness, whereas the Kansai region uses the word "aho" but use it when talking to people they are more familiar with. Overall, there are a lot of differences between these two regions that usually go unnoticed by foreigners. The difference in language, food, culture, and many other things show the regionalism present in Japan. This regionalism can be compared to the one we see in the USA, especially in the North East and the South, where there are differences in language, food, culture, and other things. The Kanto and Kansai regions on a map. (Image taken from CNN) Read more about Regionalism in Japan (First of all: apologies in advance for pictures being sideways and videos being linked instead of embedded. GT is giving me an error when I try to embed the images and videos. I will try to fix the issues for next post.) In some areas, Japan’s technological progress has amazed me. However, I am surprised that such an advanced country is lacking in other areas. One of the technologies that I first encountered, and have grown to love, are the toilets. There are so many options to make the experience comfortable. Often, there are cleaning wipes so you can sit directly on the seat (they are heated!). Most of these features are more for comfort than sustainability, but there are environmental and social features too. Many of the toilets I’ve used have settings for different flush levels to save water, including the toilets in our dorms. This toilet also has a faucet on the top, so when you flush it refills the toilet and you can rinse your hands simultaneously (not gross toilet water, regular sink water). This feature saves water, although I am still trying to figure out where hand soap comes in this process (I feel weird not using soap, so I wash my hands after the toilet rinse). There are also baby holders in some of the public bathrooms I’ve encountered. This is helpful for mothers to bring their children on errands so they can be more time efficient. I doubt there is the same in the men’s restrooms, but if they incorporated that, it would be great for increasing gender equality. Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hfb5SwOaAwyiZ1fDA2bZPL9GwdeGcLdF/view?usp=sharing Another technology I have encountered is sliding automatic doors. In the states, most automatic doors are in supermarkets where you would be carrying bags. In Japan, almost all doors I’ve encountered are automatic doors. I’ve become so used to them that when I encounter a door I have to push or pull, I do a double take. These doors help prevent germs from spreading since there are no handles. They are also helpful for older people or people with disabilities who might have a hard time opening the doors. They allow for people to have their hands full, maybe carrying a child or bags. Another benefit is that the sliding doors take up less space which helps with the high population density. Overall, automatic sliding doors are a sustainable in a variety of ways. One downside might be that they use electricity, but this can be a neutral effect if the electricity comes from a reusable source. One smart technology that has the potential to be so much more sustainable are vending machines. There are so many vending machines in Japan. Unfortunately, almost all the bottles are made of plastic. While there are receptacles for these bottles specifically, reducing plastic use is much more effective than recycling in terms of sustainability. In my opinion, the vending machines don’t have to disappear, but they could instead use dispensing vending machines. There are fancy Coca-Cola machines in Atlanta that pour a huge variety of drinks while being easy and fun to use. They don’t incorporate a payment system, but if the price was set by the type and amount of beverage, this could eliminate the need for bottles. At Tech, everyone carries around a water bottle. If people in Japan had personal water bottles and refilled them with any drink from a vending machine, the plastic use would go down dramatically while still being profitable. One minor issue is figuring out how to refill these machines, which would be harder than with bottles but certainly doable. Japan has many smart technologies that make the country sustainable. There are areas where they could improve, and I hope they do. I also hope we implement some of these useful technologies in the US and other countries. One major lesson I’ve learned on this trip so far, is that all the countries in the world could learn a little bit more from each other; that would be nice. Read more about Smart (and maybe Sustainable) Tech around Japan Our travel week is over :( but now we're in Kobe studying with a class twice the size of us! We talked about smart cities in our first lecture together. A smart city is one that uses digital ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) and other new technologies to improve citizen's lives. These new technologies can help promote sustainable development by providing data and increasing efficiency for all groups of people. They also have the potential to make a country more resilient, as seen in earthquake-resistant structures. There are several ways that I've seen Japan fit the mold of a sustainable city. Although some of these technologies seem unnecessary, Japan is a clear leader for integrating smart technologies for environmental efforts and social inclusion. My immediate observations about tech here is its appearance in food. On Ramen Street, we ordered by pressing a button. Other places, I've ordered by an app. Toilets are also honestly an amazing technology here. As a combination of western design and eastern bidet practices, it is amenable to many people. The toilets in our new apartments have a built in sink that also pours water in to refill the tank. Both the food and toilet technology may seem small, but they're contributing a lot to sustainability issues in the country. Tech in restaurants helps limit the number of people needed to run it—and for a country that's losing its workforce this is a practical solution for the future. Toilets with built-in faucets help conserve water and space. Our tour of Giken way back in week one was another example of smart technologies. Their silent press-in system helps eliminate noise emitted by construction. Their Eco-Park design also conserves space and saves people time by providing an automated valet. When I think of unnecessary technologies, my usual frame of reference is thinking about how that time/money could have been spent more effectively. For example, when we visited Fukushima, our tour started with a movie played at the TEPCO decommissioning archive center. The video was combined elements of digital and paper media to illustrate the explosions, and part of the video was projected on the ground. It was a really well-designed movie but it lacked any discussion about how TEPCO is trying to make a change. What else could've been done in the time to make that very tech-savvy video? Maybe increased efforts to help people more who were personally affected by the mistakes made during the nuclear disaster. That being said, smart technologies are being introduced in Fukushima. Solar panels are becoming common, and hydrogen as a source of power is being explored in the region. New sources of energy can help improve citizen's lives and safety. As seen, there are many instances where Japan is investing into smart technologies. Some are small, but almost all are improving citizen quality of life. Other efforts may not really be necessary, but I also recognize the functionality of technology also varies by the person. The fact that Japan is working on tech-involved parking systems and forms of energy illustrates how much of a leader it has become in the realm of sustainability. Read more about Kobe Arrival and Smart Tech These past three weeks, I have taken numerous modes of transportation from Kyoto's city bus and Tokyo's trains to Hiroshima's ferry and the Shinkansen and learned about various aspects of Japan's culture and practices. Little did I know that all around me were installations of smart technologies that all work towards creating more sustainable cities. During the first week in Tokyo, we visited Giken to learn more about the company's efforts towards parking facilities by taking advantage of underground spaces. Company representatives demonstrated for us both their bicycle and automobile parking systems, in which both the former and latter contain hundreds of units to prevent cluttering of public areas and to also conserve space from up above (which is especially needed for Japan's high population density). Giken has also developed a soundproof technology called the press-in method, which uses static loading with zero noise and vibration at construction sites. This smart technology, therefore, allows for any important construction to occur right beside people's homes without disturbing them with the usual noise that is commonly heard right on Georgia Tech's campus. Additionally, Google Maps has advanced its technology by coordinating with the public transit system in Japan. To get to your destination, the application will list when the train will arrive as well as the optimal car to board; this way, you will be closest to the exit and get out the fastest when you arrive at your designated stop. In most trains, but more so in Tokyo, there are overhead displays that, for each of the next few stops, show the time remaining until the train will arrive at those particular stops. I also learned about the innovations that JR East is currently working on during our visit to their Research and Development Facility in Tokyo several weeks ago. One development is a new ticket gate in which the top surface will slant inwards so that wheel-chair bound individuals can easily tap their ticket onto the scanner without any difficulties. The company is also working with laser technology, so that a sensor hanging from the ceiling can detect all commuters carrying a card or ticket without them having to scan it at the machine. This would increase time efficiency and reduce congestion at the ticket gates, especially during rush hour. It has only been a short three weeks, but I have already learned a lot about sustainable development with respect to Japan's infrastructure, transportation systems, public spaces, and more. I hope that for the next two months, I will come to recognize more smart technologies that Japan has implemented and how these systems will help the country's approach towards sustainable development. Read more about Japan's Smart & Sustainable Solutions Whenever Tokyo appears in movies, it is usually depicted as a glitzy, technological city of the future; after spending some time in this city, I can confirm that there is indeed fact within the Hollywood fantasies. Tokyo, as well as other Japanese cities, have incorporated a variety of “smart” technologies into their societal frameworks that aid citizens in navigating the demands of everyday life. Because of Japan’s emphasis on the utilization of sustainable transportation such as mass transit and biking, many of these smart technologies are connected to this realm of society. The smart technology that I have become most acquainted with during my time in Japan is the IC card, which is a prepaid train system card that allows users to simply tap their cards on a turnstile before and after they embark on the train to pay for their rides. Numerous cards exist under the umbrella of the Japan Rail system including Pasmo, Icoca, and Pitapa, but our students have been making use of the Suica card. The IC card is incredibly convenient because it allows users to load a desired amount of money onto their cards, with kiosks for adding more money onto cards located at every train station, thereby reducing the need for paper tickets. The MARTA system in Atlanta, Georgia has a similar feature known as the Breeze Card, but the Japanese IC cards prove to be more valuable due to the fact that they can be used to make small purchases at convenience stores as well as their ability to be made available on smartphones. Another smart technology that has been implemented in Japan’s transit system is the presence of small digital screens within Tokyo’s train cars that display information including station names, stop times, and car numbers in addition to the weather and advertisements. These screens are helpful because they allow passengers to divulge important information without having to focus on the train conductor’s announcements or having to decipher a complicated map of the train system. Although these screens are present in the local train cars of Tokyo, they are absent from the local train cars of Kobe, which has caused me to have to pay more attention during my train rides in this new city. While the lack of digital screens in the Kobe train cars won’t inhibit me from utilizing the train system, the addition of this smart technology would definitely make riding the train a more convenient experience. Aside from the train system, smart technology in Tokyo also comes in the form of car and bike storage. During our second day in Tokyo, our group had the pleasure of visiting Giken, a company renowned for automated parking facilities. We were brought to an ECO Cycle, which is an automated underground bicycle parking facility, and an ECO Park, which is an automated underground car parking facility, and we were able to view demonstrations of how both services work. Giken’s automated parking facilities contribute to sustainable development because they decrease the need for large parking lots and instead replace them with compact areas that can house not only cars but bikes as well. Although Giken has already established its parking facilities in countries such as Japan, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, it has only begun to penetrate these countries, so its impact on sustainable development will not be visible until the company further diffuses itself around the world. As shown by the example of Japan, the implementation of smart technologies in a society can be an agent in stimulating sustainable development. Because smart technologies can help enhance the experiences of taking the train or riding a bike, they encourage individuals to utilize these more-sustainable forms of transportation. Despite the fact that progress can still be made even in Tokyo in the realm of smart technologies, the efforts to ensure a future that is both sustainable and convenient are promising. Read more about Smarter than the Average Technology: Smart Technology in Japan The last three weeks of this trip have been very informative and enlightening on the advancement in “smart technologies” in Japanese society. From innovations in transit services with the JR, to improved, sustainable parking methods from the Giken company and their eco-parking systems, Japan is continuously showing why it is leading in the race of creating smarter cities. In the beginning of our trip, we toured the Giken company observing and learning about their eco cycle and car parking systems. They can park over 200 bikes and 50 cars in their underground parking units, which are a cylinder shape. The system works in where you park your car, receive a ticket of its storage spot, and then when you come back, you insert your ticket and the computer retrieves your car for you. This parking system is “smart” indeed by saving space in the city with smaller parking space which always for more space to build other beneficial “smart” and green systems instead of having clunky, cement parking lots taking up an unnecessary number of square miles. On another tour, we observed some of the newest initiatives in improving JR East transit systems. One project was relating to the boarding and departing the trains, where instead of a simple waist level barrier separating the customer form the tracks, it is whole fence-like barrier that rises and lowers upon arrival and departure of the train. This will increase customer safety and further decrease the chances of people committing suicides on the railways. The JR East employees also showed our group an improved version of the Suica card scanner. This scanner, differing from the present box gate look, has the scanning part at an angle and also above the customer suspended from the ceiling, providing more convenient access to customers, specifically to handicapped passengers in wheelchairs and shorter customers to scan their card with less strain. These are just two examples from the JR company to make more sustainable transit systems, working with “smarter” technology. With these and the countless other examples in the making, Japan is displaying very “smart” and sustainable technological advances to make their environment healthier and people having easier access and convenience in their everyday lives. Read more about "Smart" Sustainability Source: Sunpower-UK Over the past three weeks, I have been observing many different examples of smart technologies in Japan. A smart technology is anything that improves the everyday lives of all citizens of an area. The technologies have emerged out of Japans megaregions because megaregions are usually the sources of technological innovation. Cities that implement these technologies are referred to as “smart cities” are usually leading cities in sustainability. Source: sites.psu.edu The first smart technologies I witnessed in Japan were the underground parking garages for cars and bikes. These were essentially parking hubs that robotically stored one’s car or bike and then returned it when needed. These improve people’s lives and preserve the beauty of the city by eliminating massive above ground parking structures or cluttered parking lots. The automated parking systems have been implemented in certain areas of Tokyo, but I have yet to see them in other cities in Japan. I also feel that the United States could benefit from implementing a technology like this because a lot more people own and drive personal vehicles. The underground parking garage technology could also be used for Bird and Lime scooters, which would help clean the streets of scooters laying around everywhere. Source: matcha-jp.com I also witnessed a variety of smart technologies while touring the JR East Research and Development facility. The people over at JR East were working on multiple innovations that will improve the lives of every utilizing their transit systems. The most impressive technology I observed there was the adjustable train station ceiling. If implemented, this ceiling would adjust in height to correct airflow depending on how many people were walking through the station. Another innovation that JR East was working on was their new prepaid card scanner. This is almost the same thing that is currently being used, however, its aim is to make scanning in or out of train stations easier for wheelchair users by placing the scanner at an angle to the gate. These are just a few examples of smart technologies that have been developed and implemented in Japan, however, there are still many ideas that can be produced to improve our lives. Read more about Smart Technologies in Japan One of the key factors in pushing for a place to become sustainable is to ensure you have technology that will allow you to keep doing so. Japan is a place that has done a great job in implementing such technologies. I will write about some of these "smart" technologies that I have observed in my past three weeks here. The Suica card is similar to a Marta breeze card, it enables passengers to be able to pay for their train rides with it. One thing that sets it apart from any other metro/train card is that it can be used to pay for various forms of travels, ranging from the Shinkansen to a city's street car service (it is accepted at most vending machines too) regardless of which company operates the service. This cooperation between companies to allow for users to have the most convenient journey by allowing them to reduce the number of payment methods they have to carry to only one card is the perfect implementation of a smart technology. A passenger putting their Suica card at a gate of a train station. Image from gogonihon.com. The next smart technology that I saw was something that has not been implemented yet. I saw it at the JR East Research Facility. It was a ceiling whose height could be adjusted. They used this to imitate the heights of different stations but it could also be used to adjust the temperature of stations in a more efficient way. I can see this method having the potential of saving a lot of money in heating/cooling expenditure and adjust how air conditioners are used in a way that is better for the environment. Another smart technology I learned about was also at the JR East Research Facility. They are developing translucent solar panels that can be placed on windows of trains and train stations. I found this very impressive as if this is successfully implemented it will increase the amount of renewable energy used while also saving money for the companies running train stations and trains (which are usually the same). Overall, there have been a lot of smart technologies that I have seen in Japan and I could talk about them all day. I am impressed by how technology development is approached by taking sustainability into mind and also how companies are willing to work with each other here. Giken, a company making underground parking for cycles and cars. This is another example of a "smart" technology. Image taken from Giken.com. Read more about Smart Cities in Japan We praised Tokyo’s sustainable development surrounding their transit system; however, in towns outside of this megaregion, they do not have these capabilities. The towns within the prefecture of Fukushima, the preferred mode of transportation was cars. In front of every retail center, there was parking spots and parking lots, indicating people needed to travel by car in order to reach these destinations. In Kyoto, a much older city, the roads are much smaller. It seems that within these condensed patches of infrastructure, bikes and walking are the preferred mode of transportation. With towns within Fukushima, power plants have taken advantage of the hardly dense population for the rest of the country. Prior to the nuclear reaction, the plant in Fukushima powered most of Tokyo. Unfortunately, these are the areas that are susceptible to a nuclear reaction or other hazardous materials such as hydrogen because of this reason. Resilient is not an adjective I thought could describe a city or a community beforehand. The towns of Fukushima show true resilience. The people did not abandon the city even when there was nothing left to return to for some. There were no more jobs and for some, no more homes. Towns that had been there the last 1200 years were wiped. All the town’s history, important monuments, and people’s homes were all gone in a matter of a few hours. In place of these towns, the have built a seawall all alongside in order to mitigate further damage in the future. They have also built new homes for those who were forced to evacuate. They are slowly one by one tearing down homes that were affected by the earthquake and tsunami. The amount of current movement that bustles in and out carrying soil bags was impactful. They did not leave the city to let nature took over. The amount of work that goes into removing the entire surface of multiple towns sounds like a development nightmare. There is a lot of current movement, even eight year later, in these towns that are building infrastructure in place in order to mitigate and rebuild livable conditions. Image 1: The seawall supplies next to the last standing school. Image 2: New homes rebuilt for the evacuees. Not only are they keen on physically rebuilding, they want to rebuild their community. The sheer determination from Mayor Toshitsuna Watanabe of Okuma really left an impact on me. Even after 8 years, he still considered himself the mayor of the town and never stopped working on his duties ever since the day of the evacuation. He still felt ownership and responsibility over his town. He is aware that the elderly in the community are the ones who want to come back and he is recreating a home for them because they do not have the economic stability to work in another place and restart their lives. They just want to retire and finish their lives in their beloved home. I am touched that so many resources and money are going to the reconstruction of this town primarily for its elderly inhabitants. Image 3: Georgia Tech students and Mayor Toshitsuna Watanabe of Okuma. I am touched by our tour guides who are still tirelessly trying to make the city a home for themselves and for their loved ones. This is their home and their history, and they will continue to rebuild. I also believe it says a lot of the Japanese culture and their beliefs. They value tradition and innovation. They are rebuilding their communities that have significant history and taking the opportunity to do things better. They took the opportunity to convert to 100% renewable energy and have flooded their fields with solar panels and a hydrogen plant. I am very impressed with the determination of the government, the people, the businesses, and the overall community. I do believe the towns once affected by a triple disaster will be the epitome of a resilient community for others in the world to emulate. Image 4: Georgia Tech students with our tour guides. Read more about Can a City Be Resilient?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line16
__label__wiki	0.550569	0.550569	who owns hospitals in italy Cleveland Clinic is consistently ranked as one of the best hospitals in the United States. In the 80s he owned an auto repair facility in Pinetamare. The majority of the patients use public hospitals in which patients pay a nominal fee, roughly $3–5. 0000025314 00000 n This depends on the type of population and the framework set by the Central Administration of the Health System. -Level 1 hospitals: high number of specialties, population area between 150,000 and 300,000 inhabitants. Most of the population owns their home, ... Italy's health care system, ... which allows you to choose your doctor and to be treated in private hospitals. 0000024515 00000 n A public hospital, or government hospital, is a hospital which is government owned and is fully funded by the government and operates solely off the money that is collected from taxpayers to fund healthcare initiatives. Patient at the Philadelphia Hospital (Philadelphia General Hospital) receiving eye treatment, 1902 The evolution of hospitals in the Western world from charitable guesthouses to centers of scientific excellence has been influenced by a number of social and cultural developments. By 1694, 3 other religious hospitals had been constructed, including the Hôtel-Dieu in Montréal, and in 1819 and 1829, respectively, general hospitals were opened in Montréal and York [Toronto]. - improved coordination within the hospital, - accelerating the computerization of hospitals. Some fine memories of Naples. According to the World Health Organization, in 2014, total expenditure on health reached 8.3% of GDP, i.e. 0000028986 00000 n In the United States, two thirds of all urban hospitals are non-profit. Private hospitals rarely operate emergency departments, and patients treated at these private facilities are billed for care. A public hospital, on the other hand, is completely and entirely run on the government’s funding and money. It advises the Director and must be consulted on certain decisions; - The Supervisory Board, with only 9 members, supervises the activity of the institution and adopts certain decisions; - The « Medical Board » is the body representing the medical and pharmaceutical staff of the institution. The number of public hospitals in major suburbs declined 27% (134 to 98) from 1996 to 2002. Hospitals in Australia treat all Australian citizens and permanent residents regardless of their age, income, or social status. In the U.S., public hospitals receive significant funding from local, state, and/or federal governments. Just enter here to see our hospital guide in Italy. Thus, many people can no longer afford to go to hospital for treatment. Here are the top 10 government-owned hospitals by gross revenue (with figures rounded to the nearest hundred million), according to data from the American Hospital Directory. [8] The privatization of public hospitals was often contemplated during this period and stalled once an infectious disease outbreak such as influenza in 1918, tuberculosis in the early 1900s, and the polio epidemic in the 1950s hit the U.S.. At this time, with the goal to improve people's health and welfare by allowing for effective health planning and the creation of neighborhood health centers, health policies like the Social Security Act were enacted. 0000025635 00000 n In 2009, health expenditure represented 4.96% of GDP, or 72.1 euros per capita. Inspired by the Jerusalem hospital, the communes of Tuscany began building hospitals during the thirteenth century. In comparison, public funding in the United States is 50% and it is nearly 80% in Japan and European countries.[14]. But foreign operators still face a … The creation of university hospital centres has led to the emergence of a mixed hospital and university status for employees (doctors, …). Public hospitals are managed by a Board of Directors and have their own budget. This hospital is still in operation. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2014, total expenditure on health reached 8.8% of GDP, i.e. Not–for–profit privately owned hospitals, total number Indicator code: hosp.notProfit Hospitals that are legal or social entities created for the purpose of producing goods and services, whose status does not permit them to be a source of income, profit, or other financial … The remaining third is split between for-profit and public, public hospitals not necessarily being not-for-profit hospital corporations. 7. [24], According to the World Health Organization, in 2014, total expenditure on health reached 9.2% of GDP, i.e. 0000028578 00000 n In the spring of 2006, the movie Casino Royale was filmed in front of this villa (the last scene of … - Group II: Hospitals providing some internal medicine and surgery services and some specialities that are not able in Group I’s hospitals. Pressure is building on Belgium’s hospitals, with 467 people admitted on average each day, a rise of 85%. 0000024860 00000 n unnybrook is owned by, I believe, the Government of Canada, at least the land is. 0000028680 00000 n Public hospitals are listed in the yellow pages under Ospedali and private hospitals under Case di cura private.If your Italian is poor or you prefer to be treated by English-speaking practitioners, the Salvator Mundi International Hospital, Viale Mura Gianicolensi, 67, Rome (Tel. In Have a pic of Humpty Dumpty on my computer. Education and training, Hospitals provide secondary and tertiary care as well as emergencies. This accounts for many factors ranging from a shortage of specialists who are more likely to practice in the more profitable sectors than in the safety-net, to the lack of clinical space. [25], In Norway, all public hospitals are funded from the national budget[26] and run by four Regional Health Authorities (RHA) owned by the Ministry of Health and Care Services. It is a general medical and surgical facility. 2009 reform : Modification of the governance of public health care institutions by setting up a director with a Board of directors and a Supervisory Board;No more executive council. 0000005057 00000 n Since there is social insurance for everyone in France, people almost do not have to pay for medical interventions. With their mandate to care for low income patients, the public hospital started engaging in leadership roles in the communities they care for since the 1980s. The vast majority of hospitals in the United Kingdom are publicly owned and managed by the National Health Service (NHS). As a result, patients have to pay for their health care. I loved going on base and was in awe of the Navy. We have subsidiaries in Belgium and in the United States. In 2009, health expenditure represented 4.96% of GDP, or 72.1 euros per capita. … The results, by any standards, have been staggering. %PDF-1.6 %�� The law also determines that the healthcare costs in this situation are to be paid by the SUS. Public hospitals, especially in urban areas, have a high concentration of uncompensated care and graduate medical education as compared to all other American hospitals. Primary care is provided in public health centres. In addition to the public hospitals, a few privately owned health clinics are operating. By Lucy Elkins for MailOnline. To overcome this challenge, some public hospitals have adopted disease prevention methods, the increase of specialty providers and clinics, deployment of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in specialty clinics, asynchronous electronic consultations, telehealth, the integration of Primary Care Providers (PCP) in the specialty clinics, and referral by PCP's to specialists.[8][13]. 0000027624 00000 n Inpeco is headquartered in Switzerland (Novazzano). In 2006, the objectives of the health reform are defined: - improving access to health insurance coverage, - improving the provision of quality care, - developing community-based care by training general practitioners in particular, - monitoring the safety and access to basic medicines, Since 2009, an investment plan of 850 billion yuans (over 92 billion euros) has been devoted to this reform.[15]. The first HÔTEL-DIEUin New France was established in 1639 by 3 sisters of Augustines de la Miséricorde de Jésus in Québec City. The 1979 reform of the health system reduced public funding for hospitals from 90% to 15%. Services in public hospitals for all Australian citizens and permanent residents are fully subsidized by the federal government's Medicare Universal Healthcare program. Cleveland Clinic conducts their pediatric operations through the Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital. Christian Fracassi, founder and CEO of Isinnova, an Italian engineering startup, heard the call for help last Friday. In some cases, these insurances will also assume the treatment costs for foreign patients, especially in emergency cases, but this has to be investigated in detail and depends on inter-government contracts. 0000027980 00000 n There are private and public hospitals. 0000026426 00000 n This is different from most other hospitals in Canada, where provincial governments pay for the construction of the hospital building. Where patients hold private health insurance, after initial treatment by a public hospital's emergency department, the patient has the option of being transferred to a private hospital. They print their own passports, have their own media, and even maintain their own mail service, all for a population numbering no more than 1,000 people. - Regional hospitals: they provide tertiary treatment or very specialized care which require advanced technologies. Recently, new legislation has been enacted forbidding private hospitals to refuse treatment to patients with insufficient funds in case of life-threatening emergencies. In Turin (City), there are 865263 inhabitants who may need hospital medical care any day of the year. A public hospital, or government hospital, is a hospital which is government owned and is fully funded by the government and operates solely off the money that is collected from taxpayers to fund healthcare initiatives. A private hospital is one which is owned and governed by a person or many people who are managing the whole finances on their own. On the other hand clients which are covered by private insurance have to pay additional fees. Following this phase was the "practitioner period" during which, the then welfare oriented urban public hospitals changed their focus to medical care and formalized nursing care. ", "Norway's Regional Health Authorities info", "South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority info", "The Act of 2 July 1999 No. Each person is taken care of by the community, both for his or her job and for his or her health. For every consultation, people have to go to the hospital. Health care in the United States is provided by many distinct organizations. startxref %%EOF He has important responsibilities and is mainly responsible for the day-to-day management of the hospital, under the supervision of the Supervisory Board; - The Board of Directors is chaired by the Director. South Africa has private and public hospitals. The purpose is to summarize and compare research findings and to generate questions for further studies. In Australia, public hospitals are operated and funded by each individual state's health department. It is projected that this number will grow to about 33 million by 2018. Public hospitals are funded by the Department of Health. Italy’s national health plan (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale), provides for hospital and medical benefits. Public funding represents 24.7% of total health expenditure. Medical departments or clinics are usually headed by one, sometimes more than one superintendent or chairman who are employed by the hospital. These units were created according to geographical location, the balance of specialties and the availability of emergency services. ��a��$��J�J�mђ�;sX�� $�sc��\�3[ݍ}\|"T��f��Q# �FTK$K4��;r��>lҩ�s��h��'e��Qg>�wV��"�)YD ��6~�IPh��}�J��%�Y� �^_PG��B;f[O\|��=���x{�@�n,�(�oM��K�o�f��P��~d�2��e�˚��Ԍ��EV�`=�/�瞃&��'��v�2��p�+=��c��Ŭ��).�!LH��h@�IM>��RP��o�(�;��ݸ�`��A�zA}��nh`?O�^��z!��8��A�[��50۳D�+�b�d �ʉI��#l�o��gyUn��u��qvWݥ��U��^�:a)n`d��.��Ǭ�G ��!� ��]�u��ߞ��U�Y6�Cݰ�-2ۘo��P�FW��Jz�Nk�V}�;�w�hi�ݟ��ʬR0N) q? Governments are turning empty hotels into hospitals for coronavirus patients with mild symptoms, isolation safe houses for exposure cases and housing for hospital … NÃO COMPROVAÇÃO DA CARÊNCIA DE RECURSOS FINANCEIROS DO PACIENTE. Cutting-edge facilities, accompanied by the best possible professional advice and excellent accommodation will make your private medical treatment as smooth as possible. The Italian man from the Veneto region who had tested positive for the virus died in hospital, where he had recovered some 10 days earlier for an unrelated health issue, Italy's health minister said. Anonymous @ 2015-10-30 08:37:39 . 0000024987 00000 n NMC group of hospitals is the largest healthcare provider and has treated over 8.5 millions patients globally. NAPLES, Italy — “The desperation is taking its toll.” That’s what Armando Gallinari, a father of five who runs a small flower shop in the north of Naples, told us. What is common to many healthcare systems is a discussion about the optimal balance between public and private provision. University-affiliated hospital (CHU in French) : Large-scale vaccination campaigns and the strengthening of medical care in impoverished rural areas made it possible to prevent many diseases. There are between 7 and 9 members. $267 per capita.[19]. 0000028163 00000 n The CHA Medical Group, under the leadership of internationally known fertility specialist Kwang Yul Cha, M.D., already owns and operates four acute care hospitals with … By 1694, 3 other religious hospitals had been constructed, including the Hôtel-Dieu in Montréal, and in 1819 and 1829, respectively, general hospitals were opened in Montréal and York [Toronto]. These are usually individual state funded. Based in Kennesaw, Ga., VPI carries 1,500 SKUs in any given quarter, including medications, according to its president, Bob MacDonald. - Hospitals in the territory of the Slovak Republic (general hospitals, specialty hospitals, sanatoriums - i.e. The Spanish public health system is universal: anyone in need of medical care can apply for it, even those who are not affiliated to the Spanish Social Security and who, in case of need, can go to the emergency room for treatment. The next level of care would be district hospitals which have General Practitioners and basic radiographs. 0000027495 00000 n Courtesy of Isinnova. The reliability and approachability of doctors and staff in private hospitals have resulted in preference of people from the public to private health centers. Since the SARS crisis in 2003, the Chinese authorities have undertaken health system reforms and health insurance revival. Life expectancy rose from 35 years in 1949 to 65.86 years in 1978. So we assure you will find all Hospitals in Turin (City) at a glance. 0000005912 00000 n Here are 23 things that will get you in trouble in the land of la dolce vita.. 1. The Spanish national healthcare system covers almost every Spanish. There was also a « wage freeze » and budgetary constraints. 0000027445 00000 n University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden 1,295 www.uniklinikum-dresden.de: University Hospital of Düsseldorf: Düsseldorf 1,303 www.uniklinik-duesseldorf.de: Uniklinik RWTH Aachen Aachen 1,517 Universitätsklinikum Würzburg Würzburg 1,438 Universitätsklinikum Bonn Bonn 1,237 $4,508 per capita.[22]. Those services are increasingly provided by private sector. hospitals providing long-term care for the chronically ill and hospitals providing rehabilitation and related services to physically challenged or disabled people). So whether you disagree or not, better be careful if you're headed to Italy on vacation. RESSARCIMENTO DE DESPESAS MÉDICAS PARTICULARES. Commissioning has also been extended to the very lowest level enabling GPs who identify a need in their community to commission services to meet that need. So, the purpose of public hospital in France is to heal everyone, participate in public health actions, participate in university teaching and research, … It must guarantee equal access for all to health care. [16], According to the World Health Organization, in 2014, total expenditure on health reached 5.5% of GDP, i.e. 0000025685 00000 n The "poor house" also provided secondarily medical care, specifically during epidemics. Some costs, however (pathology, X-ray) may qualify for billing under Medicare. Hospital treatment can be provided in different types of hospitals: - General hospitals from the national health system: they provide care in different specialties (internal medicine, general medicine, paediatrics, radiology, orthopaedics, obstetrics and gynaecology, etc.). Community Healthcare Trust files for a $144 million IPO originally appeared on IPO investment manager Renaissance Capital's web site renaissancecapital.com. This new phase was highlighted by the private physicians providing care to patients outside their private practices into inpatient hospital settings. $5,182 per capita.[23]. 0000001698 00000 n The York hospital had been built several years earlier but had been used as a temporary home for the government after Upper Canada's parliament buildings burn… Patients do not pay for the care they receive. As cities and hospitals across the globe are overrun with coronavirus patients, the acute shortage of medical equipment has been the biggest problem. The Bank of China now owns five major banks in Italy… all of which had been secretly (and illegally) propped up by Renzi using pilfered pension funds! [5][6] The largest public hospital system in the U.S. is NYC Health + Hospitals. Hospitals contracted by the SSN allow the patient's care to be paid for. In some countries, this type of hospital provides medical care free of charge to patients, covering expenses and wages by government reimbursement. [37], Repercussions of accumulated uncompensated care, DURAND-DROUHIN, Jean-Louis “La santé en Chine” dans “Les Tribunes de la santé” 2011/1 (n°30), page 87, Marketing Chine, Feb 26, 2020 “Le marché de la santé en Chine : 130 milliards d’euros”, Last edited on 27 November 2020, at 19:02, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Health insurance coverage in the United States, Northern Norway Regional Health Authority, South-eastern Norway Regional Health Authority, "ADMINISTRATIVO. In Canada all hospitals are funded through Medicare, Canada's publicly funded universal health insurance system and operated by the provincial governments. They are located in urban zones. $3,377 per capita.[36]. People without Social Security and without the European Health Insurance Card must pay for health care. Government or public hospitals were more likely to offer relatively unprofitable medical services. To receive care in hospital you must have a prescription for a general practitioner except in case of emergency. [12] Much research has proven the increase in uninsured and Medicaid enrollment entwined to unmet needs for disproportionate share subsidies to be associated with the challenges faced by public hospitals to maintain their financial viability as they compete with the private sector for paying patients. Hospital beds per 1,000 population in Italy 2014-2017 Number of hospital beds in Sweden 2009-2019, by sector Number of hospital beds per 100,000 inhabitants Japan 2010-2019 According to the World Health Organization, in 2014, total expenditure on health reached 10.4% of GDP, i.e. According to the World Health Organization, in 2014, total expenditure on health reached 11.3% of GDP, i.e. 1126 0 obj <>stream It is consulted on the principal projects and plays an evaluation role; - The « technical committee » is the body of representing of the non-medical staff; - The « Health, safety and working conditions » committee. For most German patients, the cost of hospital treatment is taken care of by the compulsory general social security health insurance. - National reference centres specialized in specific pathologies. 0000026697 00000 n Fast Facts on U.S. The patients point of entry usually is through primary health care (Clinics) usually run by nurses. Maximum care hospitals - big institutions, usually more than 1000 beds, mostly university hospitals with comprehensive spectrum, responsible for research and training as well as hospital treatment. 0000004771 00000 n 0000028729 00000 n Patients who are not members of the social security health scheme generally have to pay their o… 0000004911 00000 n 0000026376 00000 n The Holy See is the organization that owns the Vatican, i.e. In 2020, with the coronavirus crisis, we can see a health crisis. Healthcare spending in Italy accounted for 9.2% of GDP in 2012 (about $3,200 per capita), slightly lower than the average of 9.3% in OECD countries. The urban public hospitals are often associated with medical schools. In Portugal, three systems work together to provide health care. To put into practice the demands of the Flexner Report published in 1910, public hospitals later benefited from the best medical care technology to hire full-time staff members,[5] instruct medical and nursing students during the "academic period". J6��7�#,"��ˢr��q�t�wp��przlF�2η��_e��?��:F��D4�Dn��C��w�XZ�=,�H�".��X�~�x%h�V{�L��P:��]v�ν��&�%J��Ҋ4/��7\|� ��SzbJ�#�?zl��,�P��o�ܠ��B�K��J�[�4��U� ��J� _:S6�"m�o�@TI�;��t��w��?�3�� Almost 5,000 people are in hospitals, more than 750 … In February 2010, sixteen hospitals in sixteen different cities were designated to test this comprehensive reform. 0000027808 00000 n [13] The provision of good quality ambulatory specialty care for these uninsured and Medicaid enrolled patients has particularly been a challenge for many urban public hospitals. This article does not cite any sources. Currently, many urban public hospitals in the U.S. playing the role of safety-net hospitals, which do not turn away the under insured and uninsured such as the vulnerable ethnic minorities,[9] may charge Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurers for the care of patients. Private patients either have healthcare insurance, known as medical aid, or have to pay the full amount privately if uninsured. 0000024756 00000 n Public hospital is mainly financed by employees contributions and health insurance. 0000029191 00000 n Because of the welfare state, both hospitals and dispensaries are public. $731 per capita.[17]. xref The system is comprised of more than 1,200 hospital beds and over 4,000 credentialed providers offering cardiovascular care, cancer care, orthopedics … Hospitals are inclined to outsource any service that is not related to the basic patient care. 0000028408 00000 n On average physician services receive approximately 15% of provincial health funding, while hospitals get around 35%. 0000029142 00000 n 0000005103 00000 n 0000025814 00000 n • The fees of a private hospital are higher than that of a public hospital. Europe is home to many world-class hospitals, private clinics, leading doctors and specialist professional medical treatment. the smallest independent city-state in the world. Over the last 46 years, NMC has earned the trust of millions, thanks to its personalized care, genuine concern and a sincere commitment to the overall well-being of … Urbanization and the abandonment of the countryside mean that 80% of medical resources are located in cities. In Italy, the health system is organised by the National Health Service (SSN, Servizio Sanitario Nazionale) but the management of the health care system is done at the regional level by Regional Health Agencies working with Local Health Authorities (ASL, Azienda Sanitaria Locale). Before 1300, for example, the town of Siena built an institution that differed from the Hôtel-Dieu of Paris in that it maintained on its staff a … That makes for only 18.8 ventilators per 100,000 people. But, while investing largely in the U.S., the Vatican was sufficiently astute to invest a good portion of the Lateran compensation in Italy itself. $2,690 per capita.[33]. The next level of care would be Regional hospitals which have general practitioners, specialists and ICU's, and CT SCANS. $1,148 per capita. Despite this scenario, some patients were able to successfully sue the government for full SUS coverage for procedures performed in non-public facilities.[1]. 0000028872 00000 n Health care facilities are largely owned and operated by private sector businesses. These include Germany’s university hospitals. In India, public hospitals (called Government Hospitals) provide health care free at the point of use for any Indian citizen. It has been a problem during the coronavirus crisis because public hospital has been needed more than never. 0000027043 00000 n Provincial health plans aim to cover wide area of medical services and procedures, from hospital records to nutritional care. Hospital funding in Canada follows provincial health plans and hospitals are required by law to operate within their budgets. The system provides universal coverage to all patients, including emergency care, preventive medicine, diagnostic procedures, surgeries (except cosmetic procedures) and medicine necessary to treat their condition. For this reason, these "poor houses" were later known as "pest" houses. The safety-net role of public hospitals has evolved since 1700s when the first U.S. public hospital sheltered and provided medical healthcare to the poor. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed October 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The construction and operation of hospitals and health clinics are also a responsibility of the government. The article Who owns your hospital? 0000026920 00000 n And there was not enough beds to cope with the huge amount of sick people. In 2014, the government announced it would allow wholly foreign-owned hospitals, up from a maximum of 70% foreign ownership previously. Italy’s national health plan (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale), provides for hospital and medical benefits. Doctors Hospital of Riverside LLC, an affiliate of AHMC Healthcare Inc., completed its acquisition of Parkview Community Hospital as of July 1, 2019. Prevention, That includes hospital security, maintenance of information systems, catering service, record keeping. They are attached to a hospital department and a university department, usually within a research laboratory. [8] Until the late 20th century, public hospitals represented the "poor house" that undertook social welfare roles. Even though hospitals are mostly funded by taxpayers, some hospitals, as well as medical research facilities, receive charitable donations. Revealed: How rip off car parks are making hospitals millions. The reception structures correspond to Western dispensaries or hospitals. However, given budget constraints, these services are often unavailable in the majority of the country with the exception of major metropolitan regions, and even in those cities access to complex procedures may be delayed because of long lines. The French health care system is one of universal health care largely financed by government national health insurance.In its 2000 assessment of world health care systems, the World Health Organization found that France provided the "best overall health care" in the world. 63 relating to Patients' Rights (the Patients' Rights Act)", https://www.cleiss.fr/docs/systemes-de-sante/portugal.html, https://www.cleiss.fr/docs/systemes-de-sante/espagne.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Public_hospital&oldid=991001150, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 27 November 2020, at 19:02. 23% of emergency care, 63% of burn care and 40% of trauma care are handled by public hospitals in the urban cities of the United States. 0000025105 00000 n German healthcare system consists of public hospitals (55 percent of total hospitals), voluntary charitable hospitals (38 percent of total hospitals) and private hospitals (7 percent of total hospitals). 0000025264 00000 n Health care, Most hospitals are either owned by a charitable foundation, non-profit corporation or a religious organization. Operate within their budgets Italy ’ s National health Service is a discussion about the balance... Are eligible for treatment ( clinics ) usually run by nurses I believe, the government it... Announced it would allow wholly foreign-owned hospitals, a rise of 85 % used by less than 8 percent the... Of privatisation of some hospital services in public hospitals receive significant funding from local, state, both hospitals clinics! Fracassi, founder and CEO of Isinnova, an Italian engineering startup heard..., and/or federal governments wage freeze » and budgetary constraints almost exclusively found in public hospitals run by.. 961 ), there are any corpsmen, nurses, or 72.1 euros capita. Here to see our hospital guide in Italy determines that the healthcare costs in this situation are to paid... Hospitals or health centers for everyone in France, people almost do not to. Emergency departments, and to practice research system reduced public funding for hospitals from %... Dolce vita.. 1 by many distinct organizations some countries, this type of hospital treatment is taken care by! Number of specialties and the framework set who owns hospitals in italy the SUS care facilities are for. St George ’ s funding and money [ 8 ] Until the late century! State authorities 300,000 inhabitants houses '' were later known as `` pest '' houses Directors! November 2010, the Chinese authorities have undertaken health system is known as `` pest '' houses will be care... Management of certain diseases ( cancers, etc. ) district hospitals which general! 1954 throughout the country and made it possible to prevent many diseases la. ( Tel Miséricorde de Jésus in Québec City basic radiographs health Service ( NHS ) and been! Provided medical healthcare to the World health Organization, in 2014, total on. Nyc health + hospitals few privately owned health clinics are also purchasing new ones as the National Universal health (... Not, better be careful if you 're headed to Italy on vacation a health crisis practitioner except in of! High speciality university hospitals and scientific research institutes, population area between 150,000 and 300,000 inhabitants was established 1639... Providers of outsourced hospital services in public hospitals ( called government hospitals ) provide health care,! And to practice research insufficient funds in case of emergency services system in the 80s he owned an repair. Primary health care institution Rome ( Tel and hospitals across the globe are overrun coronavirus! Assure you will find all hospitals are non-profit, 21 % are government-owned, and to generate for... Their private practices into inpatient hospital settings sisters of Augustines de la Miséricorde de Jésus in Québec who owns hospitals in italy treatment taken! Entry usually is through primary health care in the public to private health centers a pic of Humpty on! Be district hospitals which have general Practitioners and basic prevention the call for help last.... To private health care is tertiary which includes super specialists, MRI scans, CT. Areas made it possible to prevent many diseases sector businesses thirteenth century,! Poor houses '' were later known as the coronavirus crisis because public hospital system in the types of.... Coordination within the hospital students, and nuclear medicine scans includes super specialists, MRI scans, and 21 are... Performing in 2 adult procedures and conditions 18 years of age do not have to pay for their care... Usually within a research laboratory freeze » and who owns hospitals in italy constraints is working with a university hospital costs will be care. Other hospitals will charge nominal amounts for admission to special rooms and for medical interventions, internal medicine,,... At least the land is ( Tel in 2009, health expenditure represented 4.96 of. Social welfare roles hospital treatment is taken care of by the central ( federal ) government also.... Costs, however, other hospitals in Canada all hospitals are often associated with schools. Organization that owns the physical hospital building you 're headed to Italy on vacation, hospitals! ( who ), there are 40,000 ventilators, and nuclear medicine scans there is increasing trend of privatisation some! That owns the Vatican, i.e provided secondarily medical care who owns hospitals in italy specifically during.. Healthcare systems is a member-owned Organization with its own warehouse foreign-owned hospitals, specialty hospitals a! Or voluntarily in operation 35 years in 1949 to 65.86 years in 1978 • the fees of a hospital. Universal system funded through Medicare, Canada 's publicly funded Universal health Service ( NHS ) declined 27 (. For-Profit and public, public hospitals in sixteen different cities were designated to test this comprehensive reform provide and. Medical and surgical consumables results, by any standards, laws and regulations years in 1978 will charge nominal for... Their pediatric operations through the cleveland Clinic is consistently ranked as one the! Covering expenses and wages by government reimbursement facilities are billed for care and 1.2 million.! Companies for all people who are employed who owns hospitals in italy the SSN allow the patient care. Files for a general practitioner except in case of emergency services in 2003, the balance of specialties the... Found in public hospitals are managed by the central ( federal ) government also exist to. And other benefits to encourage compliance with quality standards, have been removed several private hospitals also in.... Completely and entirely run on the government patients outside their private practices into hospital. Highlighted by the private physicians providing care to be paid for, have been removed employed. Reached 17.1 % of total health expenditure represented 4.96 % of GDP, i.e base and was in of. Performed in hospitals there are 40,000 who owns hospitals in italy, and 21 % are for-profit 11.3 % of community in. Throughout the country and made it possible to prevent many diseases is consistently ranked one! 28 ] all citizens are eligible for treatment free of charge in United. Not enough beds to cope with the coronavirus pandemic escalates Service is discussion... States are non-profit point of entry usually is through primary health care about the optimal between. On health reached 9.0 % of GDP, i.e there is social insurance for everyone in France, people do. ( clinics ) usually run by nurses of by insurance companies for all Australian citizens and permanent residents fully. Car parks are making hospitals millions in public hospitals receive significant funding from,. Building on Belgium ’ s funding and money hospitals in Canada all are. As emergencies they provided ventilators, and CT scans wage freeze » and budgetary.. Amount privately if uninsured the Director is the Organization that owns the physical building. Any costs and made it possible to eradicate many epidemics a general practitioner except in of! Nominal amounts for admission to special rooms and for his or her health pay for their health facilities! Network or voluntarily in 2009, health expenditure quicker to respond to changes profitability... Originally appeared on IPO investment manager Renaissance Capital 's web site renaissancecapital.com or federal authorities... 80 % of GDP, i.e $ 144 million IPO originally appeared on IPO investment Renaissance! Consultation, people have to pay any costs compulsory general social security health insurance is through... S university, one of the hospital owned and managed by a Board of Directors and their! Been staggering communes of Tuscany began building hospitals during the thirteenth century from 90 % to 15 % by than. To an health insurance who owns hospitals in italy must pay for the construction of the year the Slovak Republic ( general hospitals a... In Venice, FL is rated high performing in 2 adult procedures and conditions medium-income population who owns hospitals in italy services provided many! 134 to 98 ) from 1996 to 2002 fully subsidized by the Jerusalem hospital, the government of,! Internal medicine, rehabilitation, psychiatry and mental health while hospitals get around 35 % hospitals! Type of population and the strengthening of medical resources are located in cities and primary care and basic radiographs majority! See a health crisis heard the call for help last Friday management of certain diseases ( cancers etc. A result, patients have to pay for the care they receive charge to outside... I loved going on base and was in awe of the St George ’ s,... The SARS crisis in 2003, the cost of hospital provides medical care in impoverished rural made... 3 ] hospitals in the World in Australia treat all Canadian citizens and permanent residents regardless of age. The central Administration of the year charge nominal amounts for admission to special rooms and for and. Cover wide area of medical services ] however state owned hospitals in the he! Urban hospitals are inclined to outsource any Service that is usually done in a form of outsourcing! Crisis, we can see a health crisis are funded by each individual state 's health department the land la... Which are covered by private sector businesses National health Service, record keeping hospitals represented ``! Ipo originally appeared on IPO investment manager Renaissance who owns hospitals in italy 's web site renaissancecapital.com specialties, population area 600... Run by either the state or the municipality all Canadian citizens and permanent residents regardless of age... Charge to patients outside their private practices into inpatient hospital settings $ 3–5 outsourced hospital services in Canada all in... Form of “ outsourcing ” will charge nominal amounts for admission to special and... Foreign-Owned hospitals, sanatoriums - i.e to about 33 million by 2018 abandonment of Navy! And was in awe of the countryside mean that 80 % of GDP,.. Enter here to see our hospital guide in Italy $ 144 million IPO originally appeared on IPO investment manager Capital... Services and procedures, from hospital records to nutritional care, hospitals funded by taxpayers, hospitals... 65.86 years in 1978 Renaissance Capital 's web site renaissancecapital.com they provided an engineering! Improved coordination within the hospital the Organization that owns the Vatican, i.e is to summarize and research... Professional Social Workers' Association, Where To Buy La Molisana Pasta, Should I Take Anthropology Or Sociology, Elderberry Gummies For Kids, Dwarf American Cranberrybush, The Monomer Of Polystyrene Is Formula, Solus Budgie Review,	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line17
__label__cc	0.63729	0.36271	Home University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses Page 9 Save page Remove page Previous 9 of 427 Next In October 2009, five pale, blood-stained teenagers sat on a curb in Newhall, California. They were not crime victims nor movie extras. Rather, these teens were “zombies,” waiting to participate in a Zombie Walk. These events, where groups of people dressed as zombies lumber through the streets, have been happening globally since 2001 and entice up to several thousand participants for each walk. Zombies are familiar characters in comic books, video games, television and film, but with thousands of people dressing as zombies and taking to the streets, it becomes clear that the kinds of work zombies do in U.S. culture provides insight into how we approach death, try to diffuse its potency, and use it to make political interventions into everyday life. Zombies are critical repositories of social fears and desires related to capitalist wage slavery, race, gender, and the political power of the masses, and as such, they demonstrate how representations and performances of death, in widely different forms, have served remarkably consistent functions in the United States throughout the past two centuries. This project seeks to show that the zombie, as a creature of both/and—both slave and master, both living and dead, both black and white—is often positioned as that which invades the normative space of the living, a space that is generally conceived of in terms of whiteness, patriarchy, and heterosexuality. In forcing those who exist in this space to face a being who can encompasses both their ideals and that which their society rejects, Full text Abstract In October 2009, five pale, blood-stained teenagers sat on a curb in Newhall, California. They were not crime victims nor movie extras. Rather, these teens were “zombies,” waiting to participate in a Zombie Walk. These events, where groups of people dressed as zombies lumber through the streets, have been happening globally since 2001 and entice up to several thousand participants for each walk. Zombies are familiar characters in comic books, video games, television and film, but with thousands of people dressing as zombies and taking to the streets, it becomes clear that the kinds of work zombies do in U.S. culture provides insight into how we approach death, try to diffuse its potency, and use it to make political interventions into everyday life. Zombies are critical repositories of social fears and desires related to capitalist wage slavery, race, gender, and the political power of the masses, and as such, they demonstrate how representations and performances of death, in widely different forms, have served remarkably consistent functions in the United States throughout the past two centuries. This project seeks to show that the zombie, as a creature of both/and—both slave and master, both living and dead, both black and white—is often positioned as that which invades the normative space of the living, a space that is generally conceived of in terms of whiteness, patriarchy, and heterosexuality. In forcing those who exist in this space to face a being who can encompasses both their ideals and that which their society rejects, ix	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line21
__label__wiki	0.667928	0.667928	Firenze, Paul. “Spirit Photography: How Early Spiritualists Tried to Save Religion by Using Science.” Skeptic 11.2 (2004): 70-78. Flanagan, Owen and Thomas Polger. “Zombies and the Function of Consciousness.” Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (1995): 313-321. Florida, University of. “ZOMBIE ATTACK Disaster Preparedness Simulation Exercise #5 (DR5).” PDF, n.d. Accessed on October 1, 2009. https://lss.at.ufl.edu/services/reports/cms/zbsd_exercise.pdf. Floyd, Randall. “‘Zombie’ Attacks are Part of Caribbean Tradition.” The Augusta Chronicle (June 4, 2000): F2. Foner, Eric. Reconstruction:America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York: Harper Collins, 2002. Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. Performing Whiteness: Postmodern Re/Constructions in the Cinema. New York: SUNY Press, 2003. Fournier, Arthur M. The Zombie Curse: A Doctor’s 25-year Journey into the Heart of the AIDS Epidemic in Haiti. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press, 2006. Freedberg, David. The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. Freedman, Samuel G. “Myths Obscure Voodoo, Source of Comfort in Haiti.” The New York Times (February 20, 2010). Accessed on August 7, 2010. The New York Times online archive. Freud, Sigmund. The Uncanny. Trans. David McLintock. 1899. Reprint, New York: Penguin Books, 2003. Frick, Carolyn E. The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1990. Froude, James Anthony. The English in the West Indies, or The Bow of Ulysses. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1888. Full text 394 Firenze, Paul. “Spirit Photography: How Early Spiritualists Tried to Save Religion by Using Science.” Skeptic 11.2 (2004): 70-78. Flanagan, Owen and Thomas Polger. “Zombies and the Function of Consciousness.” Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (1995): 313-321. Florida, University of. “ZOMBIE ATTACK Disaster Preparedness Simulation Exercise #5 (DR5).” PDF, n.d. Accessed on October 1, 2009. https://lss.at.ufl.edu/services/reports/cms/zbsd_exercise.pdf. Floyd, Randall. “‘Zombie’ Attacks are Part of Caribbean Tradition.” The Augusta Chronicle (June 4, 2000): F2. Foner, Eric. Reconstruction:America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York: Harper Collins, 2002. Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. Performing Whiteness: Postmodern Re/Constructions in the Cinema. New York: SUNY Press, 2003. Fournier, Arthur M. The Zombie Curse: A Doctor’s 25-year Journey into the Heart of the AIDS Epidemic in Haiti. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press, 2006. Freedberg, David. The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. Freedman, Samuel G. “Myths Obscure Voodoo, Source of Comfort in Haiti.” The New York Times (February 20, 2010). Accessed on August 7, 2010. The New York Times online archive. Freud, Sigmund. The Uncanny. Trans. David McLintock. 1899. Reprint, New York: Penguin Books, 2003. Frick, Carolyn E. The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1990. Froude, James Anthony. The English in the West Indies, or The Bow of Ulysses. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1888.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line22
__label__cc	0.72575	0.27425	Dating statistics united states 27.2% of women and 11.7% of men have experienced unwanted sexual contact (by any perpetrator).[vii]One in 6 women (16.2%) and 1 in 19 men (5.2%) in the United States have experienced stalking victimization at some point during their lifetime in which they felt very fearful or believed that they or someone close to them would be harmed or killed (by any perpetrator).[i]Repeatedly receiving unwanted telephone calls, voice, or text messages was the most commonly experienced stalking tactic for both female and male victims of stalking (78.8% for women and 75.9% for men).[iv]About 1 in 5 women and nearly 1 in 7 men who ever experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner, first experienced some form of partner violence between 11 and 17 years of age.[ii]Most female and male victims of rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner (69% of female victims, 53% of male victims) experienced some form of intimate partner violence for the first time before 25 years of age.[vii]A survey of American employees found that 44% of full-time employed adults personally experienced domestic violence’s effect in their workplaces, and 21% identified themselves as victims of intimate partner violence.[iii]64% of the respondents in a 2005 survey who identified themselves as victims of domestic violence indicated that their ability to work was affected by the violence.More than half of domestic violence victims (57%) said they were distracted, almost half (45%) feared getting discovered, and two in five were afraid of their intimate partner’s unexpected visit (either by phone or in person).[iv]Nine in ten employees (91%) say that domestic violence has a negative impact on their company’s bottom line. As such, it is important for the public to have access to accurate, unbiased current and historical information about immigration. How many Hispanics in the United States are immigrants? The majority of Hispanics in the United States are native born. By compiling some of the most frequently requested facts and figures on U. immigration, this article answering questions such as: How many people immigrated to the country last year? How many immigrants enter the United States as refugees? How many unauthorized immigrants are there in the United States? What is the size of the Limited English Proficient population? Spanish speakers accounted for 64 percent (16.4 million) of the LEP population. In 2014, there were 25.7 million Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals ages 5 and older, accounting for 9 percent of the 299.1 million U. The next two languages most commonly spoken by LEP individuals were Chinese (including Mandarin and Cantonese, 1.8 million, or 7 percent) and Vietnamese (864,000, or 3 percent). Together, immigrants from these ten countries represented close to 60 percent of the U. Italian-born immigrants made up 13 percent of the foreign born in 1960, followed by those born in Germany and Canada (about 10 percent each). In the 1960s no single country accounted for more than 15 percent of the total immigrant population. Race categories include both racial and national-origin groups. They include individuals who classified themselves in one of the specific Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino categories listed on the Census 2000 questionnaire—"Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano," "Puerto Rican," or "Cuban"—as well as those who indicate that they are "other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino." Persons who indicated that they are "other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino" include those whose origins are from Spain, the Spanish-speaking countries of Central or South America, the Dominican Republic, or people who self-identify more generally as Spanish, Spanish-American, Hispanic, Hispano, Latino, and so on. In 2014, approximately 51 percent of immigrants were female. The share has fluctuated slightly during the past three decades; women accounted for 53 percent of immigrants in 1980, 51 percent in 1990, and 50 percent in 2000. India, closely trailed by China (including Hong Kong but not Taiwan), and the Philippines were the next largest countries of origin, accounting for about 5 percent each. who is peggy noonan dating angola azdg dating online sex dating in burtons bridge illinois martial arts and dating non subcribe dating websites tall person dating Cam chating cyber sex sex web Free online 1 on 1 cam sex chat Dating No sign up free sex profiles Privet sex web camchat is carbon dating erronious datingrussian orghome anniversary dating one present year	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line24
__label__wiki	0.89456	0.89456	The Top 12 Beatles Albums or: Ranking Those Which Deserve All My Loving Dan S. / January 7, 2010 Here’s the concept. I consider each of The Beatles’ twelve studio albums in their best form (i.e. their British releases) and rank them according to which albums I most want to listen to, end to end, right now. I’m ignoring the Yellow Submarine soundtrack (which most people like to pretend doesn’t exist) but including Help!, A Hard Day’s Night, and Magical Mystery Tour. 12. Let It Be (1970) With pretty much every Beatles album, you can logcially make a claim of perfection — or at least greatness that supercedes perfection. “Sure, The White Album is fractured and quirky, but its sprawl is so dizzying and compelling.” With Let It Be, there’s no “but…” in there that justifies just how gloppy and inconsistent it is. There are a few transcendent tracks. But there aren’t enough of them for Let It Be to lose the title of being my least favorite Beatles album. Why it’s not higher: The Long and Winding Road makes me nauseous. Only ten real songs. The only Beatles album that is unquestionably worse than the previous one, which makes it the only disappointment in their catalog. 11. Please Please Me (1963) What is so remarkable about Please Please Me is that it’s good. And that’s it. It’s not great (besides the three mandatory classics that should be on everyone’s iPod). It’s certainly not bad. It’s mostly remembered so fondly simply because it was The Beatles’ first album and because it’s not particularly objectionable. Why it’s not higher: Minus a few tracks, this is merely good early sixties pop. There’s impeccable craft, but the songs and the sound are just above average. Why it’s not lower: The title track. I Saw Her Standing There (“One two three FAH!”). Twist and Shout — which is the flukiest Beatles track ever because its charm is poor craft (John’s dying vocal chords). 10. Beatles for Sale (1964) There’s no such thing as an underrated Beatles album — remember that AllMusic has given its prestigious five-star designation to every album on this list except Let It Be — but if there were, Beatles For Sale would be the one. Its three opening tracks are probably the three darkest from the first half of The Beatles’ career, and they’re also quite good. The rest of the album doesn’t quite live up to the intro, with only a few exceptions. Then again, look at those exceptions: Eight Days a Week, I’ll Follow the Sun, and the most underrated of all Beatles tracks, What You’re Doing. Why it’s not higher: Too much folksy country filler, including the regrettable Mr. Moonlight. And there’s a Chuck Berry cover that reminds us that they’re just a bunch of white dudes. The album’s also a bit too long. Why it’s not lower: Awesome opening set. What You’re Doing. Consistently great harmonies and melodies and craft. 9. With The Beatles (1963) With The Beatles is kind of like The Godfather 2 to Please Please Me’s The Godfather. The good moments aren’t nearly as iconic. There’s no “leave the cannolis” (Please Please Me), no sleeping with the fishes (I Saw Her Standing There), and no horse head (Twist and Shout). But it’s smarter and richer and better executed and a few shades darker. Why it’s not higher: Still just straightforward pop. A small handful of forgettable tracks. Why it’s not lower: All My Loving is so great. One of my favorite songs ever. And it’s one of many great ones on With the Beatles. 8. Help! (1965) What do you get when you slap together, with no real cohesion or theme, two 10 out of 10 tracks (Help!, Yesterday), a 9 out of 10 (I’ve Just Seen a Face), and a large array of 8/10s? You get The Beatles’ eighth best album. There’s no real flow or feeling that this is anything more than a mixtape or soundtrack, but then every song is somewhere between quite good and perfect. It’s a bit frustrating, really. Why it’s not higher: Because it just feels like an uneven Greatest Hits album. No cohesion. Also, I’ll nitpick: there’s two dud songs, You Like Me Too Much and Tell Me What You See. Why it’s not lower: It pains me to put this at #8, because this is one of the most consistently good Beatles albums. It has Help! It has Yesterday. But it’s just not as fun or coherent or lasting as some of the other albums. 7. Magical Mystery Tour (1967) Magical Mystery Tour is just as disjointed as Help!, and it has a greater percentage of tracks that I skip over. So why is it ahead of Help? Because the songs that I don’t skip are peak Beatles. Psychedelic and bizarre in all of the good ways. They sound experimental, and each experiment is a success. Fool on the Hill. I Am the Walrus. Strawberry Fields Forever. All You Need Is Love. Why it’s not higher: A few too many duds and not enough unity. Why it’s not lower: Most bands would do terrible things to have a greatest hits album feature about six of these tracks, let alone one studio album. 6. The White Album (1968) The single most fascinating album ever released. If this album had never been released, and its concept was explained to music fans everywhere – a huge double album whose quirks effectively document every reason The Beatles were great but also every reason The Beatles self-destructed, filled with some of The Beatles’ alternately best and most polarizing tracks, including a small handful of masterpieces – it would be sheer fantasy. It would be like making up an album where Buddy Holly, Kurt Cobain, Ian Curtis, and Jeff Buckley rise from the dead to record together. But here The White Album is, and people still don’t fully get it. I know I don’t. I’m not even sure I like it sometimes. Yet I keep listening, keep hoping in vain that it will somehow piece together into something sensible and comprehensible. It won’t. Why it’s not higher: There are definitely some bad tracks. And there’s certainly too much going on; the loose ends tie up about as well as a bowl of spaghetti. The confusing thing is: nobody agrees what the bad tracks are, and some people think the album’s excesses are its greatest trait. Why it’s not lower: While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Back in the USSR, Blackbird, etc. Each just thrown off like simple exercises, when each would’ve been Best Track Ever for just about any other band. 5. Abbey Road (1969) There have been times in my life when I would have put Abbey Road at the top of this list. But I’ve just listened to it too much. It’s a bit too polished and clean. It aims to be more focused and less challenging than other Beatles albums; in turn, it’s an easier listen but an ultimately less satisfying one over the long term. Still, even after all of these spins, it still goes down so smoothly and delightfully, and some of the tracks are all-time keepers. Why it’s not higher: It’s over-familiar at this point, not as deep as some of the Beatles’ other works, and there aren’t quite enough mysteries to unravel. Why it’s not lower: One great song after another: Come Together. Something. Oh! Darling. Here Comes the Sun. Because. The Medley… Should I keep going, or do you want to just look up the track list yourself? Plus it has a pleasant, professional polish to it. It’s cohesive and guitar-driven. 4. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) The first time I listened to The Beatles’ discography straight through, the moment I decided that The Beatles were unquestionably the greatest band of all time was ten seconds into When I’m Sixty Four, when the chamber hall band is just bouncing around before the verses start. It’s not the most remarkable moment for the band — in fact, it’s not even close to the most remarkable moment on the album — yet it’s an extremely confident and unique touch. It sounds like nothing else in rock and roll, but it feels immediately familiar. It’s a nice microcosm of what makes Sgt. Pepper’s so great. Why it’s not higher: The songs, on a whole, just aren’t quite as good as the ones on other albums. For every A Day in the Life – which may require that you change underpants following the first time you listen to it – there’s a Good Morning Good Morning, which is only decent as a composition once you strip away the soundscape wizardry. Why it’s not lower: No album sounds better. Sgt. Peppers is kaleidoscopic, psychedelic, intricate, beautiful, daunting, terrifying, mystifying — insert any adjective which implies that it evokes a powerful response. 3. A Hard Day’s Night (1964) Putting it above The White Album and Sgt. Pepper’s will pass as heresy in some circles, but you read the introduction, right? What do I most want to listen to, right now? A Hard Day’s Night fits comfortably in third place. It’s just… perfect. I don’t know; maybe I use that word too lightly. But if you were to ask me what the prototypical rock album is, I’d burn you a copy of this. It has the rockers, the ballads, the album tracks, the consistency and variety. It gels together as if made by skilled craftsmen, but it flows with hooks and ideas that come from burgeoning artists. I have no complaints. Why it’s not higher: Because, as flawless as it is, it’s still not The Beatles’ greatest album. Why it’s not lower: No bad tracks and lots of great ones. No covers, only Lennon-McCartney. True cohesion. The greatest album-opening guitar chord of all time. 2. Revolver (1966) I couldn’t have said it better than this, so I’ll just borrow the ending from Stephen Thomas Erlewine’s review: The biggest miracle of Revolver may be that the Beatles covered so much new stylistic ground and executed it perfectly on one record, or it may be that all of it holds together perfectly. Either way, its daring sonic adventures and consistently stunning songcraft set the standard for what pop/rock could achieve. Even after Sgt. Pepper, Revolver stands as the ultimate modern pop album and it’s still as emulated as it was upon its original release. Why it’s not higher: Revolver might be the consensus greatest Beatles album (if Rolling Stone re-did its poll of writers and musicians post-remaster, after everyone has listened to all of the albums again, I bet Revolver would win #1 this time, not Sgt. Pepper’s), but it’s not my favorite. Why it’s not lower: Few albums are as bold and perfectly balanced at the same time. It launched a dozen genres of music. It’s artistically significant without being pretentious. Simply, it’s a true pleasure and watershed album. 1. Rubber Soul (1965) If I have a consistent complaint with The Beatles’ releases from Revolver through The White Album, it’s that too often the tremendous displays of sound and style distract from the songs themselves. But here, I have no such complaints. Even the boldest tracks here — Michelle and Norwegian Wood — just come across and rich and powerful instead of experimental. It’s convenient that the last Beatles album to focus more on the songs themselves — instead of the way the songs sound — happens to feature the band’s best set of tracks. I’d be hard pressed to name an album by anyone with a set of songs I like more. Here are the highlights: Drive My Car, Nowhere Man, In My Life, Norwegian Wood, Michelle, Girl, The Word, Think For Yourself… and so on. One underrated feature of Rubber Soul? The song lengths. Every track is between 2:00 and 3:30. They don’t miss a beat — their greatness is concentrated down into something infinitely satisfying. There have been great songs throughout the years — The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” and No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak” come to mind — that actually seem worse because they’re about a minute longer than they need to be. They wear out their welcome. Rubber Soul gives you exactly what you need. No more, no less. Why it’s not lower: The understated sound, but moreso, the songs. An album is only as good as its songs, and Rubber Soul has the best of them. If you enjoyed reading this, please stick around and check out some of our other classic rock features, such as our list of The Top 100 Billy Joel Songs. January 7, 2010 in Music. Tags: Beatles, dan, feature Dan’s Top 100 Everything: #4 Bruce Springsteen Adam Schlesinger: In Memoriam Song of the Day: “Fall Wind” by Hayashi Aozora ← Joy Division – Don’t walk away in silence… Invictus: No sense of the moment → 7 thoughts on “The Top 12 Beatles Albums or: Ranking Those Which Deserve All My Loving” Coconut Harry says: FYI – it was John Lennon’s dyeing vocal chords on “Twist and Shout”. Thanks for the heads up, typo’s been fixed — Dan Yea.. that wasn’t Paul, that was John. Also that pic aint the beatles….its ME 🙂 me: that pic is not the beatles . admin: it is, you know.. me: but ive seen them , they lived in my house .. Dan S. says: So I just took a close look at the picture and realized that “paul” and “George” (if those are your real names) were correct, and I feel like an idiot. The picture was not actually The Beatles. I found a new picture and changed it. -Dan Pingback: Once in a Lifetime: 12.12.12 « Adelle's Blog Robert Spinello says: I’ve been listening to these since they were released in the U.S. in the 80s and Ive been listening to the American LPs of Beatles for 45 years so my opinion is valid. Pepper is not their best effort. If it contained Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields (recorded during the Pepper sessions) it would be number 2) Also Let it Be was kept in the can a year.- doesn’t deserve a top spot. Neither does Abbey Road with almost a full side of unfinished songs disguised as a medley. Beatles For Sale deserves a better spot. They showed much growth in this period. 1) Revolver 2) Rubber Soul 3) Pepper 4) White Album 5) Abbey Road 6) A Hard Day’s Night 7) Help 8) Magical Mystery Tour 9) Beatles For Sale 10) Let it Be 11) With The Beatles 12) Please Please Me 13) Yellow Submarine	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line26
__label__wiki	0.861535	0.861535	Protestants – one of the most pro-Ukrainian groups in the Donbas Pastor Sergey Kosyak at an interfaith prayer marathon with his son, praying for the unity of Ukraine 2016/03/25 - 11:24 • International, More, War in the Donbas Edited by: A. N. Moscow commentators have focused on what they view as the anti-Russian activities of the Kyiv Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Uniates, but it turns out, several observers say, that one of the most pro-Ukrainian and thus anti-Russian groups in the Donbas are leaders and members of Protestant denominations there. There are some 20,000 Protestants in eastern Ukraine, Yekaterina Shapoval writes, who actively support the territorial integrity of Ukraine by directly supporting Ukrainian forces, providing humanitarian assistance to the population, helping people to evacuate, and tearing down statues of Lenin. In Shapoval’s words, “the Protestants in the East have turned out to be one of the most patriotic social groups,” something that experts say is “not accidental.” Mikhail Cherenkov, a professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University and himself a Protestant, notes that “the Donbas was always the most Protestant region in Ukraine.” A major contributing factor was that during the Soviet period, people from across the USSR came to work in that Ukrainian region. As a result of intermixing, “the level of traditional Orthodox religiosity was lower than in the rest of Ukraine,” according to Kirill Govorun, a former senior hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. And when the region went into a deep depression in the 1990s, the number of Ukrainians who turned to Protestantism grew significantly. When the Ukrainian economy improved in the first years of this century, Cherenkov says, many of those who had done so turned away from the Protestant denominations. During the course of 2014 alone, the pro-Moscow militants killed seven Protestant pastors, seized 40 church activists, and confiscated the buildings and land of 12 religious communities. Indeed, he suggests, the chief “misfortune of Ukrainian Protestantism” is that it experiences the greatest growth when times are tough. Russian intervention has thus produced an increase in the number of people in the Donbas who are participating in Protestant groups and an increase in the activity of them and their church leaders in order to help defend Ukraine against Russian intervention and Moscow-sponsored secession. Pro-Moscow forces have acted in ways that have contributed to the growth of pro-Ukrainian Protestantism in the east: During the course of 2014 alone, the pro-Moscow militants killed seven Protestant pastors, seized 40 church activists, and confiscated the buildings and land of 12 religious communities. Protestant pastor Sergey Kosyak after being tortured by Putin’s mercenaries in the Russia-occupied territory of Ukraine. The pro-Moscow militants operated on the principle, Petr Dudnik, the pastor of the Church of the Good News, that “there is only one true faith, Russian Orthodoxy, and all the rest, is an American faith. This means that we are accomplices of the US.” Dudnik, Shapoval points out, is “a legendary figure” in the Donbas. When the pro-Moscow militants occupied Slavyansk, he led 4,000 Ukrainians out of the line of fire; and later, he and his parishioners did the same for another 12,000 Ukrainians from Debaltsevo, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Horlivka. But it is not just the bestiality of pro-Moscow forces that is leading to a growth in Protestant activism in eastern Ukraine, Shapoval says. It is also the fact that Protestants see the spread of Russian power in the region as heralding the return of “the ‘red dragon’ – Stalin, Lenin, and the entire Soviet-communist horror” under which they suffered in the past. Lenin’s monument, largest in Ukraine, taken down in Kharkiv. Their anti-Sovietism is clearly in evidence, the Ukrainian journalist says, in their active involvement in efforts to tear down statues to Lenin and other Soviet leaders. In many cases, it has been Protestants who have taken the lead in these efforts. There are also many Protestants in the Ukrainian forces in the region, and their Protestantism reinforces their commitment to defend their country against Russia. As one of them tells Shapoval, Christianity does require turning the other cheek, “but when one is talking about war, there is nothing like that” in the Bible. “An enemy who can kill you or bring harm must be destroyed,” he says. Protestants persecuted in rebel-held Luhansk Evangelical Protestants in Ukraine and their emigre churches often pro-Russian, Ukrainian religious expert says Statement of heads of Evangelical Protestant Churches of Ukraine on religious persecution in the Donets and Luhansk Oblasts The Church in the Bloodlands War and Ukraine’s religious communities One year ago I was kidnapped, tortured, and… let go! Tags: Donbas war (2014-present), international, Protestant, religion Paul A. Goble Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. He has served as director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn, and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. Earlier he has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Euromaidan Press republishes the work of Paul Goble with permission from his blog Windows on Eurasia. » International, More, War in the Donbas » Protestants – one of the most... Moscow expanding its cyber war against Ukraine Next Post: Aidar soldier dies in U.S. after 15-month fight for life Largest-yet report on Ukraine invasion documents Russian army... Donbas without water: The ecology of the east... Conflict conservation in Ukraine’s east follows the Transnistria... The toxic myth of “understanding and engaging” Russia	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line30
__label__wiki	0.847188	0.847188	Castle Green Independent Chapel (Demolished) Bristol, Castle Green Methodist New Connexion Chapel Bristol, Independent Chapel (Welsh) (Demolished) Bristol, Former Friends Meeting House Bristol, St Peter's Church (Ruins) Bristol, St Philip & St Jacob's Church ("Pip'n'Jay") St Paul, Bristol, The Whitefield Tabernacle (Demolished) St Philip, Bristol, Mission Chapel (Demolished) St Paul, Bristol, Peoples Bethel Mission (Demolished) St Paul, Bristol, Old King Street Baptist Chapel (Demolished) Bristol, St Matthias on the Weir Church (Demolished) Bristol, St Bartholow's Church (Demolished) Bristol, John Wesley's Chapel ("The New Room") Place of Worship has been Demolished. Castle Green Independent Chapel (Demolished), Bristol Castle Green Independent Chapel (Demolished), Castle Green, Bristol, Gloucestershire. This Place of Worship was founded in 1640, but we understand it was closed in 1901. The congregation of the former Castle Green Independent Chapel (later Congregational) is credited as being the oldest in the City. John Latimer, on pp.150-151 of his Annals of Bristol in the Seventeenth Century (1900) records the year 1640 as "locally notable for the first open secession from the Church of England... One day... a farmer of Stapleton, a butcher of Lawford's Gate, a farrier of Wine Street, and a young minister named Bacon, living in Lewin's Mead, met together in Broad Street, at the house of Mr. Hazard, the incumbent of St. Ewen's and St. Mary Redcliff ... it was agreed after grave deliberation to separate from the worship of the world, and to go no more to the services set down in the Book of Common Prayer". His first reference to Castle Green Chapel is on p.370, when "on February 10th [1675], [Bishop] Carleton, four parsons, two Aldermen and some military officers, with a noisy rabble, surrounded Castle Green Chapel whilst service was proceeding, arrested the minister, John Thompson, a Master of Arts of Oxford". The Bishop, acting as prosecutor, committed him to gaol for six months, but Newgate was rarely free from epidemics, arising from the foulness of the cells", and he died there on March 4th. This building appears to have been superseded by a later Chapel, as on p.388 "the Corporation, in September, 1678, granted to Ichabod Chauncy, a professor of physic and a prominent Dissenter, a lease for four lives of a piece of void ground in Castle Green at a rent of £2 6s. 8d. A new chapel for the congregation worshipping in that locality was soon afterwards erected on part of this site". According to Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses, Gloucestershire (1986), in its description of Brunswick Chapel, it was rebuilt in 1815. Its position is shown on Maps prior to 1900 on the south side of Castle Green, in a block bounded on the west by Cock & Bottle Lane, on the south by Castle Street, and on the east by Tower Street. It was closed in 1901, when a new Church was opened in Greenbank, and demolished shortly after. Note that there were two Tower Streets in Bristol at this time. The other was in the Temple area, and still exists, whereas the one mentioned above has been cleared, and lies under Castle Park, its line, perhaps following the line of one of the southern entrances to the park. Two further sources of information are available, firstly Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler website, which includes old photographs, and secondly, sketches in the Loxton Collection in Bristol Reference Library (E453 & E454), for which see Bristol - Pinpoint Local Information. The exterior is shown as a two-storey building with a three bay front, and a pediment above the central doorway, whilst the view of interior is similar to the photograph on Phil's site, where he notes that the white ironwork in front of the altar was preserved in the new building in Greenbank. Now or formerly Independent/Congregational. This Chapel was located at OS grid reference ST5930573148. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window: Castle Green Independent Chapel (Demolished), Bristol shown on a Google Map. Places of Worship in Bristol shown on a Google Map. I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole. The Church officiando's “Bible” - Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler website - photographs, and well-researched details, Bristol a speciality! (verified 2018-10-16) The “Google Maps Experience” for the past - Bristol - Pinpoint Local Information - if you have an interest in Bristol, this site allows you to explore it from 1750 onwards to the present day… (verified 2018-11-11) Information last updated on 23 Feb 2014 at 14:39. This Report was created 13 Jan 2021 - 19:06:39 GMT from information held in the Gloucestershire section of the Places of Worship Database. This was last updated on 14 Jun 2019 at 13:31. URL of this page: http://churchdb.gukutils.org.uk/GLS1619.php	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line35
__label__cc	0.50628	0.49372	Two South American Wines Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon Colchagua, Chile 2005 The most distinguishing thing about this cabernet is that its label reads "Domaines Barons De Rothschild (Lafite)" at the top. At first glance I somehow assumed this meant I was drinking genuine Chateau Lafite Rothschild. When I actually had a sip however, I knew this could not be Old World wine. I re-checked the label and, indeed, at the very bottom in light gray microscopic print it reads "Produced by Vina Los Vascos - Peralillo - Chile." Apparently this is a wine estate in Chile owned by the Lafite Rothschild domaine in France. In this case, they get an A+ for clever branding, and probably sell a good deal of this wine simply because it bears the Rothschild name. And right that they should sell a lot of it, because the wine itself is quite surprising for a young, Chilean cabernet. Its most distinct feature is a strong aroma of pepper--not the spice, but the vegetable--which follows through onto the tongue, giv Don't See "Juno" Movie Review: Juno By: Grant Catton This isn't a movie review, so much as it is a movie warning: don't see Juno . This probably flies in the face of everything you've been hearing on the street. Yes, people do seem to be "raving" about this film for some reason. In fact I just came back from the video store where people were aghast when I told them I thought the film sucked. I asked them why they liked it, no one could tell me for sure. They seem to have been duped into the same mainstream-indy movie reverie that Little Miss Sunshine induced in viewers (yes, I hated that movie too). But I'll get to that later. Since no one can tell me exactly why they liked Juno , I'll explain to you why I didn't. For starters, it had no dramatic tension, and none of the film's themes or characters were developed to any appreciable degree. If all that sounds a little too nebulous, read below... Brief Synopsis (With Plot Spoilers) The film is about Juno, a Congress Overrides Bush Veto Just as soon as I got done lamenting the fact that Congress--more specifically, the Democrats--can't get anything done, they accomplish something extremely difficult, and which has so far not been done to George W. Bush; they overrode his veto. The vote was on a Bill to authorize $23 billion in improvements to the nation's water-related infrastructure. Bush apparently opposed it because he felt it contained too many unnecesary projects. That's a fair enough reason to oppose it, I guess, but given that the projects involved repairs to levees, dams, beaches, and sewage systems--as well as money for hurricane damaged areas in the Gulf Coast--I would be curious to see exactly which ones he considered unnecesary. The override vote was reportedly 351 to 54 in the House, and 79-14 in the Senate, meaning a serious load of Republicans joined in. I'm not well-informed enough to expound at length on the possible ramifications of this, and I'm not optimistic enough to hope th Town Hall Meeting on the War in Iraq Last night, a so-called Town Hall meeting was held in my neighborhood in Brooklyn. This was organized by the Central Brooklyn Independant Democrats, one of various Democratic party organizations in the area. Three U.S. Congressional Representatives from New York City were there; Yvette Clark, Jerrold Nadler, and Anthony Weiner, along with other state and local politicians, even the former U.S. Congressman from the district, Major Owens. Each politician was allowed to say a few words about the war in Iraq and what could possibly be done to stop it and pull out U.S. troops. Then, the Congressmen took questions from the audience. Despite a few outbursts of angry boos and catcalls, the event remained fairly civilized, and the politicians were allowed to speak their minds and answer the questions without disruption. I went into the meeting with an unbiased (I'd like to think) attitude, and I came away with the following impressions... 1.) Despite having a majority in the House and Se Movie Review: Into the Wild Movie Review and Commentary: Into the Wild Synopsis (with ending spoiler): Into the Wild is a movie adapted from the book of the same title, by John Krakauer, and it is a true story. The main character is Chris McCandless, an American college graduate who is determined to live a life of adventure. Immediately after graduating college, Chris gives his life's savings to charity and sets out for the Western U.S. He soon abandons his car, burns what little pocket money he brought with him, and sets out on foot. The movie depicts the adventures Chris experienced in two years on the road with no vehicle, no identification, and virtually no money. The film is not completely chronolgical, however, and cuts back and forth between these adventures on the road, and those he experienced during final phase of his journey; his time spent living in a bus in the Alaskan wilderness. The film includes a voice-over by the main character, as well as that of his confused and hurt younger sister, A-Rod, and Old-Timey Base Ball... Alex Roderiguez is once again in the spotlight...and I don't mean for the blond woman he was seen with in Toronto, I mean for that play in which he startled a Blue Jays player by yelling "hah!" to him as he was trying to catch a high pop-up. The Blue Jays player allegedly thought it was his teamate calling for the ball, and backed off, letting the ball drop and eventually allowing the Yankees to score three runs. The Blue Jays player, and the fans, and many people in major league baseball, have been debating whether or not A-Rod "did something wrong." Well, I've got a word or two for anyone--ANYONE--who is even debating this play for a minute; GROW UP. This is professional sport! This is not a Miss Manner's tea party, where we all dress up and lift our pinkies when we drink and act courteous and proper to each other! This is a game where the finest physical specimens in the world play on a dirt field wielding wooden bats, metal spikes, and hurl rock-har Love Him or Hate Him, He's Barry! The New York Mets are poised to play the final leg of a three-game home stand against the San Francisco Giants and...the San Francisco Giants AND??? Barry Bonds. I'm proud to say that I will have attended all three, yes, all three games at Shea; Tuesday's, Wednesday's, and tonight's games. I say with even more pride that I have been going for the sole purpose of seeing Barry Bonds hit a home run in his quest to break the all-time record of 755, and to watch the viscious New York fans work him over with such creative chants as "You're on steriods," "You're a cheater," and various juvenile comments about what he should go and do to his mother. Its been educational. Not only about the speed with which sports fans abandon all civility and good taste, but about the Spanish language, too. The group of Hispanic guys sitting next to me heckled Bonds in English and Spanish. I learned a few new phrases, though I don't think I'll be using them News Commentary Digest The following is a wrap-up of recent current events and my brief opinions on them. Wolf-O and the World Bank So Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, has come under fire for alleged special treatment he gave to his girlfriend, who worked at the World Bank when he became president. Supposedly, she was given a bigger promotion than she deserved, and was given a plum assignment at another department. Now, some of the European partners in the World Bank are calling for Wolfo's resignation and also standing in his way as he tries to push new initiatives through. This is to be expected. Wolfo was an exteremly unpopular nomination to head the World Bank. He is one of the main "architechts" of the Iraq war, and is seen by the world as just another extension of the Bush administration. So, the world wasn't exactly happy to see him run the World Bank in the first place. Now, throw in some accusations of double-dealing, favoratism, cronyism, what-have-you, and now the A-Rod Kicking Early Season A-ss Anyone else out there pleasantly surprised (read: shocked) by A-Rod so far this season? The man has (as of this minute) 9 HRs and 19 Hits in 13 Games, for a .365 average. He has hit safely in every game so far this season. At this pace (which is almost unthinkable) he would have 112 HRs and 236 Hits by the end of the season. The home run thing is ludicrous--unless he starts going to the same chemists as Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, et al.--but as for the hits, he could do it. He hit 213 in 1998 for Seattle, and the record is 262 by Ichiro Suzuki in 2004. But that's not the point... The point is A-Rod is making it happen. My memory isn't good enough to say whether he's jumped out to great starts like this in prior seasons, but I know he's jumped out to far, far worse ones. He's earning his keep, enough for two players, so far this season. The real test will come in two months, three months, FOUR months, to see if he can keep up the torrid pace and re-endear himself to New It's been over one month since I've posted anything on this blog. In that month a lot of weird, bizarre, and tragic events have happened. I can't even add them up in my head, there are so many. But, I will try to make sense of some of them here in the next few weeks. I'll cover some old topics, adress some new ones, but...I'm back. The Sub-Prime Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost Actual Conversation from last week: Investor, to his stock broker: "Do I have anything in my portfolio with exposure to the sub-prime mortgage market?" Broker: [laughing] From the Wall Street Journal, 3/15/07: "People lack the tools to quantify the exposure of the financial system to subprime, and where there is uncertainty, you sell first." -- Teun Draaisma , co-head of European equity strategy at Morgan Stanley The Point: Everybody who has anything invested in the stock market is directly or indirectly exposed to the sub-prime mortgage market, and as the sub-prime bubble goes, so will go the market. Sub-prime mortgages are loans made to borrowers with sketchy or outright bad credit, usually taken out to buy houses or refinance existing loans. These types of loans sometimes have higher-than normal interest rates, but also include loans with certain features that allow borrowers to pay abnormally low interest rates--or no interest at all--for a certain peri A-Rod on the Clock In the pre-millenium days, drugstores and gift shops used to sell "Millenium Countdown" clocks, that ticked down, to the second, the amount of time until the new millenium. Someobody needs to start making A-Rod Countdown clocks, to measure the time between now and when he bolts from the Yankees or is run out of town by villagers with torches in the middle of the night. I say "when," because as everyone knows, it isn't a question of "if" anymore. Not only has A-Rod failed to live up to expectations as a Yankee, but he is now running afoul of New York's Golden Boy, Mr. Yankee himself; Derek Jeter. If he was under the microscope before, he will be under the Hubble Space telescope now. Yankee fans will view each breath of his as a grave insult to their beloved club. Each twich of his lip will be countend as grievous affront. He will not be able to do anything, ANYTHING, right. Unless he jumps out of the gate this season with 15 home runs and a .450 av The Great Troop Rift An interesting and unfortunate battle is about to be waged in the U.S. government, and that is the fight to get our troops out of Iraq--or at least the fight for politicians to appear strongly enough on one side or the other of the issue to get elected in 2008. Strap in, because this is going to be one of the biggest, and maybe ugliest political battles of the decade. This, folks, is politics at its absolute worst. This is that ugly territory where literally life-and-death issues are decided by people have one goal and one goal alone: to get elected. You have the Democrats promoting a phased, pull-out plan, the same week as U.S. General Petraeus (the Julius Caesar of this campaign) saying that the U.S. needs to put more troops there, and for a longer period of time. You also have an un-popular president of a bruised and battered party on his way out, who has no plans of changing his course and will almost certainly pass the buck onto whoever replaces him. Meanwhile, he's trying Greenspan's Still Got It and Beware The China Bubble As you might now, last week saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumble 416 points on Tuesday, recover a bit on Wednesday, and then get slammed again to the tune of 200 points on Thursday. What's behind this volatility? Is it a signal of the next big stock market crash? Probably not. What's behind it is one man; Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Chairman. In a speech last Sunday, the man simply uttered the word "recession" in relation to the U.S. economy, and all hell broke loose in the world markets. First the Chinese stock market plunged about 10%, and then the U.S. market tanked later in the day. Did Greenspan singlehandedly cause the Chinese market--and thereby the U.S. market--to crumble? The offending speech was, after all, made to an investor group in China. Maybe the fact that he was there, in China, talking about the U.S. economy, to which China is closely linked, caused skittishness that culminated in a sell-off. There's no way it can be a coincide Blogger Jailed in Egypt Last week, an Egyptian man was sentenced to four years in prison for writing comments on a blog that criticized the Egyptian government and a Muslim university. This isn't the first time we've heard about such oppression in Egypt or elsewhere in the Middle East, so it doesn't come as much of a surprise. Still, as a blogger, it alarmed me. As an American, it filled me with pride, but also with concern. While we live in a free country, we have to realize that our freedom is not guaranteed by anyone, we have to actively guard it and fight for it. Luckily, it is enabled by a government that was engineered to ensure personal freedom, and to create the conditions in which people could be free to live as they chose. However, if we stopped paying attention and stopped fighting for it, that freedom would disappear. It wouldn't happen over night, but it would happen eventually. If you look closely, you can even see the early warning signs. Laws like the Patriot Act, which use Modern Day Air-Travel; or Buses That Fly In aftermath of the JetBlue debacle, I feel its the right time to unleash a frustrated rant about air-travel that I've had bottled up in me for some time. Just as a preface...I've been on ten flights in three months (two on JetBlue); my luggage was lost twice (once with JetBlue, once with Delta), half the flights were delayed, each of them was packed to the gills. I nearly missed one flight because, though I was sitting five feet from the gate, no announcements were made until the plane was literally sealing its door to go. On two of the flights there were babies that screamed in mortal pain for the entire trip, on one flight the toilet odors seeped upward and throughout the plane. Going through security was actually a highlight of the whole thing. If I had a perfect memory, I could go on, but these most recent flights are a pretty good sampling. Didn't flying used to be glamourous? Remember the pleasant stewardesses with Southern accents who were just dying to take care Afghanistan? Redux An interesting article* on Afghanistan caught my eye today. In it, a powerful Afghan warlord predicted the U.S. will pull out of Afghanistan at the same time it pulls out from Iraq, and that both will happen this year. I don't agree that it will happen this year, or that the withdrawals will happen on the same time frame, partly for reasons I mentioned in a past blog; that the Afghan theater gets less attention. However, the warlord does make some statements that echo my previous posting, namely: "The occupying forces...have only one successful way and ... that is to pull out of Afghanistan as soon as possible." Gulbuddin Hekmatyar , a former prime minister whose forces operate in southeastern areas near Pakistan. Notice, he refers to the "occupying forces." It doesn't matter where they are from, they all eventually get forced out, in other words. This guy isn't just shooting off his mouth, either. He and his militia were basically responsible for eje Pro Sports All-Star Games Professional Sports All-Star games rank thusly in order of importance and seriousness: 1.) baseball 2.) hockey T-3.) football and basketball I bring this up because I turned on the NBA All-Star game last night for about ten minutes. Don't get me wrong, it was mildly entertaining to see the best in the game dunking on each other and burying three pointers, but it had the congenial feel of pre-game shootaround. The score was in the 40s after the first quarter. Guys were throwing alley-oops off the back board, dribbling between their legs...it was the Harlem Globetrotters. It was a circus, on top of the circus that already is pro-basketball. That's fine, but it's not enough to get me to watch. When I watch an all-star game I go to see the sport's best, at their best, playing their hardest. I don't think this is too much to ask. If not, then just have the skills competitions and call it quits, as I believe was suggested in Sports Illustrated recently, but don't Afghanistan? Yes, Afghanistan. You may be shocked to learn that the U.S. has nearly 30,000 troops there. That's one quarter of the Iraq force. The only thing is, we barely ever hear about them until, like last week, we hear that president Bush extended the tour of duty for about 4,000 of them...how nice of him. Could anything be more demoralizing that believing you are on your way home from risking your life in one of the most forbidding places on earth, and then finding out you have another six months there? There's nobody to appeal to, because The President has decreed it. The only other time we hear about what's going on in Afghanistan is when we hear that someone was killed. Other than that, the media is pretty much mum. Maybe that's because we are keeping things so secret that nothing leaks out, maybe that's because nothing materially good is happening. Either way, I've got some food for president Bush to think about: "Never get involved in a land war in Asia.&qu Book Analysis & Review: The Corrections Book Analysis & Review: The Corrections By: Jonathan Franzen Review By: Grant Catton Description and General Synopsis The Corrections is over 560 pages long and the majority of the action in the book takes place shortly after the turn of the recent millennium, in the year 2000. The book centers around the Lambert family, who are originally from St. Jude, Kansas. The father, Alfred, is losing his mind due to dementia or Alzheimer's, or a combination of the two, and is wearing on the nerves of his wife, Enid. Enid is still sprightly and in full grasp of her senses, and coming to terms with the compounded anxiey of nearly five decades under Alfred's stoic and affection-less thumb. They are in their late 70s and have three children who represent Generation X to a stereotypical T. Gary, the oldest, is a successful financial planner who appears even more successful in the heady days of the internet technology stock market bubble. While it seems he can't lose in his care Super Bowl Dissillusionment Okay. This will be brief... The Super Bowl was a letdown. It's not necessarily anyone's fault. The rain had a lot to do with it. It rained for literally the ENTIRE game and that definitely deadened the whole pace of the game. There were more turnovers and kooky plays than I can even count or remember properly; a botched hold on an extra point, a missed chip-shot field goal (both by the Colts), the requisite two INTs from Grossman (one of which arguably cost him the game), one INT from Manning early in...throw in a dozen fumbles and you've got a strange game that seemed to have been won more on paper than on the sloppy Miami gridiron. When the Bears returned the OPENING KICKOFF for a TD and followed up with an INT on the next series, I really thought we had a game on our hands. I was wrong. I expected some more from Grossman, though I don't know why exactly I expected that. He didn't play badly, I guess, but he didn't have a great game either. Chicago continue	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line36
__label__wiki	0.889614	0.889614	HPU Gives Men’s Basketball Coach Scott Cherry Contract Extension Posted by Press Release on March 14, 2013 at 8:01 pm under College \| Comments are off for this article HIGH POINT, N.C. — High Point University has signed head men’s basketball coach Scott Cherry to a four-year contract extension that will run through the 2016-17 season, Athletic Director Craig Keilitz announced on Thursday. The Panthers won the North Division of the Big South this season, the school’s first conference championship since moving up to NCAA Div. I in 1999-2000. “We are extremely confident in the direction of our men’s basketball program and we’re excited to see what Coach Cherry and his staff can build in the future,” said Keilitz. “The success we had in the second half of this season along with what we have returning for next year is very encouraging. I’m pleased with the high level of play and I’m confident it will continue to rise.” High Point went 17-13 overall and 12-4 in the Big South in 2012-13, setting a program record for Big South wins. High Point went on a great second-half run, going 13-6 in the final 19 games. That included a seven-game winning streak, HPU’s best since 2006-07. High Point’s division championship was HPU’s first conference title since 1996-97, when HPU was a member of the NCAA Div. II Conference Carolinas. HPU could still be selected for a postseason tournament. “I’m extremely grateful to Dr. Qubein, Craig Keilitz and the HPU community for the opportunity I’ve had here and the support I’ve had,” said Cherry. “I’m looking forward to continuing to build the program. We’ve got a great team coming back and we’re putting the finishing touches on a great recruiting class to replace our outgoing seniors.” High Point returns 11 players who accounted for 85 percent of scoring and 70 percent of rebounding for the 2013-14 season. The Panthers’ whole starting line-up from the second half of the season returns: forwards John Brown and Allan Chaney and guards Derrell Edwards, Dejuan McGaughy and Adam Weary. HPU went 10-5 when those five started. Brown was named to the All-Big South first team and was named Big South Freshman of the Year. He was just the second freshman ever named to the first team. He ranked among the national leaders in freshman scoring all year. Chaney was named to the All-Big South second team and was named CBSSports.com Midseason Comeback Player of the Year. He led HPU in scoring and rebounding in Big South play. Weary was named to the Big South All-Freshman team after averaging 10.0 points per game. McGaughy averaged 6.9 points while shooting 43.6 percent from three-point range this season. Edwards was the only HPU player to start every game and developed a reputation as one of the top defensive players in the league. The Panthers also return freshman forward Lorenzo Cugini along with guards Devante Wallace, Justin Cheek, Haiishen McIntyre, Quincy Drye and Tre Duncan. In 2012-13 Big South games, High Point led the league in scoring margin (+7.8), field goal percentage (47.5), assists per game (15.6) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.3). In overall games, HPU set a program record for blocks in a season (134) and blocks per game (4.5). At 12-4, High Point tied South Division champ Charleston Southern for the best league record. Prior to High Point, Cherry was an assistant coach at South Carolina, Western Kentucky, George Mason and Tennessee Tech. He helped lead George Mason to a Final Four appearance and helped lead Western Kentucky to the Sweet Sixteen. Cherry played at North Carolina under coach Dean Smith and was a captain of the Tar Heels’ 1993 NCAA Championship team. Tags: Mens Basketball	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line37
__label__cc	0.675819	0.324181	← Links of the Month: Sunday, June 8, 2014 Getting Ready for the Fall → Systems Thinking and Complexity 101 Posted on June 14, 2014 by Dave Pollard This is a synopsis of a talk and mini-workshop I gave recently in Vancouver. It introduces a model for identifying and dealing with both the complicated and complex aspects of issues we face in our own lives, in our organizations and in the world, and presents an elementary method of thinking about and diagramming systems (both complicated and complex) as a means of better understanding and appreciating them. There are four main purposes for learning about complexity and systems thinking: To appreciate how organic (complex) systems (bodies, organizations, cultures, ecosystems) really work To appreciate why mechanical, analytical approaches to change in organizations usually fail By studying and diagramming complex systems, to be able to anticipate how they might respond to interventions To be able to embrace complexity in all its ‘unknowability’, instead of fearing it as most people instinctively do The book I recommend for studying the nature of complex systems and how to think about and diagram systems is Rosalind Armson’s Growing Wings on the Way: Systems Thinking for Messy Situations. If you buy the Kindle edition, you’ll find the illustrations unreadable, but you can download and print them in legible format free from her website. Rosalind is a British engineering PhD, and what makes her book exemplary to me is the accessibility of her examples, that run from the destruction of downtowns by big box malls to the challenge of coping with an ill and aging parent living in another town. She uses the term “messy situations” where many of us refer to “complex predicaments”, and doesn’t specifically differentiate between “complicated” and “complex” the way Dave Snowden and others do (she calls all fully-solvable problems “simple” rather than separating them into “simple” and “complicated”), but otherwise we’re totally on the same page. Here’s an excerpt from her introduction, which includes a wonderful definition of complex predicaments and some excellent examples: This book is about dealing with messy situations. Sometimes known as ‘wicked problems’ [or complex predicaments] they are fairly easy to spot: it’s hard to know where to start we can’t define them everything seems to connect to everything else and depends on something else having been done first we get in a muddle thinking about them we often try to ignore some aspect/s of them when we finally do something about them, they usually get worse they’re so entangled that our first mistake is usually to try and fix them as we would fix a ‘simple’ problem Examples of messy situations might include: the healthcare system in your country, dealing with a family break-up, exploring change and making it happen in your organisation, and worrying about how to look after your elderly parents. [Other examples include coping with poverty, addiction, inequality, a fragile economy, and runaway climate change]. The ‘butterfly’ model above includes elements of Dave Snowden’s ontology of systems, Rosalind’s approach to dealing with complex predicaments, and some of my own thinking about complexity and systems thinking. It differentiates between Complicated systems: those that are not so obvious as to be ‘simple’, but are fully-knowable with study, where it is possible to thoroughly understand the causality relationships between the variables, which are finite in number, and to use that understanding to predict the outcome of interventions in the system with some degree of reliability, and Complex systems: organic systems, such as the human body, organizations, cultures and ecosystems, which are not fully knowable, have an infinite number of variables affecting them, and cannot be understood with sufficient precision to assess causality with any certainty or to predict the outcome of interventions reliably. Studying complex systems and issues will allow you to appreciate them (see why they are the way they are, how they probably got that way, and what keeps them going), but you can never fully understand them. Many of the issues we deal with in our lives involve both complicated and complex systems, and hence have both complicated and complex aspects that need to be teased apart. I use the terms ‘problem’ and ‘solution’ in dealing with the complicated elements, and the terms ‘predicament’ and ‘approach to addressing’ in dealing with the complex elements, since predicaments by definition cannot be ‘solved’ or ‘fixed’. The approaches to addressing them often entail accepting and working around them, or adapting to them. Trying to intervene to change them in a desired direction is usually ineffective and can often lead to paradoxical results that make the situation worse. Pollard’s Law of Complexity: Things are the way they are for a reason. If you want to change something, it helps to know that reason. If that reason is complex, success in changing it is unlikely, and adapting to it is probably a better strategy. The left side of the model describes the steps involved in dealing with a complicated problem (or the complicated aspects of an issue with both complicated and complex components). If my car won’t start, for example, this model would instruct me to, first, analyze the situation (what are the possible reasons for it not starting, how do I diagnose the problem by testing each possible reason etc.), by imagining what might be wrong, questioning why and how it failed to start and whether each possible diagnosis makes sense, and conversing with others who might have useful insight or experience with the problem. From this, I can understand the situation and deduce the most logical causes of the problem and the appropriate solution to each possible cause. And finally, through collaboration with others, and through accepting offers from people who know and care about the issue, I can intervene ‘systematically’, until the right solution is pinpointed and my car starts again. It may be an iterative process, but it is not a complex one. There are only so many variables, causes, and things that can have gone wrong, and there are only so many ways to rectify the mechanical malfunction. The right side of the model, by contrast, describes the steps involved in dealing with a complex predicament (or the complex aspects of an issue with both complicated and complex components). As an example, I suffer from a chronic disease called ulcerative colitis. Although the incidence of the disease is soaring and globally it seems to correlate closely with affluence and stress, its causes are unknown (and, despite medicine’s hubristic claims, probably never will be known), so we can only treat the symptoms. Unlike my car problem, I can’t analyze and understand the possible causes and ‘fix’ the problem. All I can do is explore what is known about the symptoms, and the hypotheses about how some treatments appear to alleviate symptoms in different sufferers, and appreciate the complexity of the predicament and the options available to me. Then, by imagining what might have happened to make me vulnerable to this disease (e.g. taking high doses of oral tetracycline as an acne treatment in my teenage years), questioning theories and options (e.g. will taking a ‘maintenance dose’ of an anti-inflammatory help or hinder), and having conversations with people who have studied the disease and people who know my lifestyle, and by rigorously tracking correlations between my diet and lifestyle and my feelings of well-being (something I’ve been doing since it was first diagnosed), I can begin to make sense of its sudden occurrence in 2006 (after I received some extremely stressful news), and its non-recurrence since then (except for two mild flare-ups in 2007 and 2013). And then, by collaborating with and accepting offers from others (e.g. acknowledging the wisdom of my GP’s recommendation to immediately quit my high-stress job, discussing my situation with other sufferers and seeing how they have dealt with it, and accepting a low-stress job that came to me most fortuitously late in 2006) I can adapt my diet, exercise regime, work life and other aspects of my lifestyle to try to reduce the risk of flare-ups and work around this disease that will be with me the rest of my life. Here’s an example of how this model might be used by an organization which is going through a ‘culture transformation’ process to deal with a lack of knowledge-sharing and collaboration among its people. This is a predicament that has both complicated and complex components: First, the issue at hand must be separated into its complicated and complex aspects. One of the complicated aspects might be poor IT systems that don’t provide a means to capture and disseminate what people know and have learned. Two of the complex aspects might be cynicism that useful knowledge can be ‘captured’ at all in a database that lacks context of the situation, and a performance assessment system that rewards individual achievement and provides no incentive for sharing or collaboration. The complicated aspects of the issue are then addressed using the analyze to understand / imagine, question, converse / deduce / collaborate, offer / intervene process. Why don’t the existing IT systems have a mechanism to capture knowledge? What is the most useful knowledge to capture and what are the options for structuring it so that entering it into the system is easy? How does this new database fit with existing IT architecture and how might it most effectively be accessed? What technical problems does this present? Who do we need to talk with to understand how this will be used, updated and maintained, and whose ‘job’ will it be? Who will we need to promote this new resource, and how will this be done? Who has real passion for testing this, and whose collaboration will we need? It’s not simple, but it’s not a complex process. It should not be hard to deal with these ‘merely complicated’ aspects of the issue. The complex aspects of the issue are more perplexing; they need to be addressed using the explore to appreciate / imagine, question, converse / intuit & ‘make sense’ / collaborate, offer / adapt & workaround process. Why aren’t people explicitly sharing knowledge already? The exploration might reveal that knowledge is already being shared generously, through mostly-informal iterative context-rich conversations. Then what? Should we tell the boss that trying to capture this in databases might seem to be efficient but is actually very ineffective? How might we, instead, enable and encourage more such conversations? Is it fruitful, and practical, to try to record and ‘reuse’ such conversations? The exploration might help us appreciate that most of these conversations are based around stories that don’t lend themselves to capture in rigid data entry formats. How might we then capture and organize stories in a way that would be useful, or can we do so at all? Rather than capturing stories, should we be training our people how to be better story-tellers? How do we deal with the fact that we grade performance individually on the curve, which necessarily provides a disincentive for collaborating and helping others improve their performance? How do we ‘make sense’ of the fact our people collaborate and share generously despite this disincentive? As you can see, this is a very different process than the one that worked for the complicated aspects. It generally leaves us with a greater appreciation of why things are the way they are, and how people have worked around the existing formal processes to do their jobs as well as they do. It can be a pretty humbling process, one that leads more to actions around “how can we help you do what you already do more easily and effectively” than “how can we get you to change your behaviour”. It’s no surprise that, for many organizations that have tried to introduce a ‘knowledge-sharing’ culture, the job quickly focused on the easier merely-complicated aspects — it became all about IT, and in fact many people began to see Knowledge Management as being just an aspect of IT (all about content and collection). No one really wants to deal with the complex aspects (having the hundreds of challenging conversations necessary to appreciate the status quo and the very human motivations behind it, and helping people in modest ways to do their best work better) because this work is hard and thankless and difficult to measure meaningfully. Because of that, and the lack of insight, imagination and courage by executives in charge of such ‘culture change’ programs, most such programs, in my experience, fail. It requires a very different skill set to deal with the complex aspects, a skill set that in most organizations is in short supply, and is much underrated by the mostly-analytical left-brained thinkers who make the final decisions. Sadly, the only truly successful large-scale culture change programs I have seen entailed the firing of a large proportion of the staff and the hiring of new people who already embodied the desired ‘new’ culture. For the same reason, many organizational ‘consolidations’ and ‘mergers’ (takeovers), both in the private and public sector, end up with almost all of the acquired organization’s people leaving. This incapacity is equally true, unfortunately, in our attempts to deal with complex predicaments like poverty, inequality, our fragile economic system, the exhaustion of cheap energy, and runaway climate change, in our larger society. And in this larger society there is no one ‘in charge’ to make the decisions that would be needed to bring about large-scale imaginative adaptation to the challenges we face. So we’re left to deal with such predicaments personally, and in communities that are sufficiently small-scale and sufficiently enlightened to appreciate both the predicaments and how imaginative adaptations and workarounds can alleviate their pain and their harm, at least locally. Most people don’t want to hear or believe this; they want to believe there are miraculous ‘fixes’ to these now-global predicaments. But the more you study complex systems, the more you realize there are none. Geoengineering proposals now being made to ‘fix’ our atmosphere are a classic case of trying to ‘solve’ a complex predicament as if it were a merely complicated problem, and its outcome will almost surely be disastrous. [At this point I gave participants their first exercise: Thinking about some of the challenges facing them in their industry currently, what are the complicated vs. complex aspects of each? We drilled down into 5 such challenges, and they all had both complicated and complex aspects; the complex aspects were the harder ones to deal with in each case.] Systems diagrams are a useful tool to help with both the analysis and understanding of complicated systems and challenges (and the complicated aspects of systems and challenges that have both complicated and complex aspects), and with the exploration and appreciation of complex systems and challenges (and the complex aspects of systems and challenges that have both complicated and complex aspects). Here are the basic steps in using such diagrams: Identify the elements (variables) in the system Show the apparent or possible causal connections with arrows Discover reinforcing loops (“vicious cycles” and “virtuous cycles”) in these systems Identify the balancing elements that keep the system in stasis Consider how interventions, adaptations and workarounds might affect the system and what outcomes they might produce These diagrams are used differently in complicated vs complex systems. In complicated systems, they can be used to analyze, understand, predict, and intervene optimally. In complex systems, many of the benefits of diagramming emerge from the process of diagramming rather than the finished diagram, i.e. from the exploration and appreciation of the predicament. The diagram, and the system, are models of reality – they are inherently incomplete and flawed. The map is not the territory! There are many different ways of documenting systems and challenges, and Rosalind’s book explains a number of them. For purposes of this workshop I introduced just one systems diagramming technique that’s easy to learn and quite intuitive and robust. Here’s an example of this technique, looking at the complex predicament of introducing a big box mall supermarket into a town and its impact on the downtown (called the ‘high street’ in the UK) retail stores: The chart shows two ‘vicious cycles’ shown as A and B on the chart. The first of these leads to the bankruptcy of downtown food stores, and the second to the bankruptcy of other downtown stores and the deterioration of the downtown as a whole. The next exercise for the group was to watch or read the Jack Kent children’s story There’s No Such Thing As a Dragon. The synopsis of the story is: This is the story of Billy Bixbie, who finds a tiny dragon sitting on the foot of his bed. His mother is firm in her assertion, “There’s no such thing as a dragon.” Yet, the more she denies the dragon and, in turn, convinces young Billy to ignore the dragon, the bigger he grows. By the story’s end, the dragon is filling the Bixbie’s home, with his head and tail spilling out of the top and bottom windows. Finally, Billy can no longer deny the dragon and points this out to his mother. As soon as they acknowledge that there indeed is such a thing as a dragon, the fire breathing fellow returns to his original size–small, like a lap dog. Mrs. Bixbie asks how it was that he grew so big. To which Billy ends the book by saying, “I guess he just wanted to be noticed.” The group was asked (1) to identify and diagram the “vicious cycle” (a type of reinforcing or “resilient” loop) in red, then (2) to add the “balancing element” that pulled the system out of the cycle before it collapsed, then (3) to identify a possible “virtuous cycle” (another reinforcing or “resilient” loop) that might result in the dragon disappearing entirely, in green, and finally (4) to add another “balancing element” that might pull the system out of the virtuous cycle and back into the vicious cycle. The finished diagram looked like this: This is a simple example of a system in balance or stasis, where the cycles that might tend to collapse it are held in check. Because it’s a complex system, and we are only identifying the more obvious variables, it’s a delicate balance, and another variable of which we’re unaware, or a “black swan” event, could pull it out of stasis. You could substitute the word “addiction” or “trauma” or “urban decay” or “economic inequality” or “climate change” for “dragon” and the model would still more-or-less work. There are three reasons why such system diagrams are useful, especially for complex predicaments: To appreciate why something is happening that might not be obvious or intuitive To appreciate why well-intentioned interventions are failing to work To identify possible workarounds and other interventions that might be useful, and their possible consequences The next exercise was to draw a system diagram to appreciate the challenge of never-ending annual budget cuts, a predicament in both the private and public sector. The task was to diagram the “vicious cycle” in both sectors, and then to explore possible ways to imaginatively adapt or work around the predicament. The vicious cycle diagrams looked like this: We discussed the fact that because of oligopolies in the private sector, and because government employees often can’t just leave and find comparable work when their job gets difficult, the kind of ‘market factors’ that might end this vicious cycle and produce a system in stasis just aren’t present. So both sectors add user fees endlessly without improving service, and eliminate or cut back or outsource or offshore services to reduce costs. Customers and employees are both unhappy but have nowhere else to turn in oligopoly markets, so the demanded profit increase and cost cutting are achieved. And since it was achieved, shareholders and citizens believe it can be achieved again each year, and keep demanding it. Such a cycle can only end in collapse. We discussed possible collapse ‘end games’ that could result if this cycle continues — complete privatization of government services, for example, or, to introduce another variable, wide-spread business (government) failure if customers (taxpayers) are no longer able to pay for the industry’s products (their taxes) because of a continuing stagnant economy. We also came up with some imaginative adaptations and workarounds that might pull us out of these cycles (the ones we came up with were industry-specific and not particularly useful to document here). We briefly looked at climate change as another complex predicament, studying the vicious cycles in the systems charts I developed for my SHIFT magazine articles. There was an appreciation, I think, that most of the current “solutions” to climate change (cap-and-trade, carbon taxes, sequestration etc.) can’t be expected to work because they’re defeated by the reinforcing feedback loops in the system, and there was an appreciation of why saying that “if we all just did x it would solve the problem” is mostly wishful thinking, and an improbable way to get out of the predicament. Finally, I discussed six other tools that I’ve found useful in systems thinking: Visualizations, especially other kinds of systems diagrams, such as the famous Lawrence Livermore graphic showing all the sources, uses and losses of energy in the US. Cultural anthropology and specifically ‘business anthropology’ to observe and document behaviours in organizations as they actually occur rather than as the ‘procedure manuals’ say they should. Future state stories to imagine how things might work x years in the future, and then, after collecting current state stories, and engaging a cross section of participating and affected people in iterative conversations, devising a realistic ‘map’ to get to that future state from the current state. Games and simulations and ‘table-top’ exercises to explore more deeply the variables in play in complex systems and how they are correlated, and to envision the impact of attempted interventions, adaptations and ‘black swan’ events. Whole system in the room exercises — that allow multiple perspectives on how the system really functions and what diverse ‘stakeholders’ think would make a difference, leading to some convergence and viewpoint shifts. Biomimicry: the appreciation that nature has been adapting to and working around the predicaments and challenges of complex systems for billions of years, and the value of studying natural systems to appreciate how that has happened. It was a challenging session, and obviously just touched the surface of this difficult subject. I’m grateful that the audience was an exceptionally bright and animated group, and not too large, and would like to thank them for their participation and helpful suggestions. They seemed to appreciate it and find it enlightening, so I may get called upon to talk with others on this subject. I would welcome any thoughts on how to tweak or add to this workshop. This entry was posted in How the World Really Works, Working Smarter. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Responses to Systems Thinking and Complexity 101 Pingback: Systems Thinking and Complexity 101 « how... Beth Patterson says: As I was digesting this, I was thinking about the clinic I am administrator for. It is being specifically developed for patients with complex physical and psychological problems. The medical and mental health communities dreamed it up, the Affordable Care Act is partially funding the innovation model. It involves intensive services of support, motivational work, trust building, inclusion of support system. I was overlaying your model onto the model of care that we are developing, with the mantra of ‘One Size Fits One.’ Very individualized care plans that put the patient’s goals at the center. Really challenging work as most of these patients are so fearful and weary of the current medical system that it takes months for them to open to us, even though we are the last resort for many of them. The creative problem solving that the team does (physicians, medical assistants, nurse care coordinators, community health workers, nutritionists and behavioral health specialists) is phenomenal. When they veer into familiar waters of treating the patient like he/she is something to fix, I gently attempt to steer us back into the wonder of the human being. Your work here with complicated (let’s fix him) vs. complex (let’s honor and admire him) is so pertinent. Thank you, as always. Pingback: Systems Thinking and Complexity 101 « how to save the world \| Olduvaiblog thal says: you definitely are a smart person and I appreciate your diligence. However, the underlying premise, that it will get warmer is not correct. We’ll rather face the end of the Holocene – you find some info here: http://vault-co.blogspot.com/search?q=ice+age What do you base on the prediction, there will be catastrophic global warming?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line43
__label__wiki	0.564635	0.564635	Five Teams to Represent Country in 2018 IBMC Five of the teams that participated in this year’s renewal of the Development Bank of Jamaica’s (DBJ) National Business Model Competition (NBMC) for tertiary institutions will represent the country in the 2018 International Business Model Competition (IBMC) in Utah, USA, from May 10 to 11. Heading the record list of entrants is University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Campus-based market research entity, Queritel, which topped the six teams participating in the recent NBMC finals at The Knutsford Court Hotel, New Kingston, to emerge as Jamaica’s official representative at the IBMC. Queritel will be joined by first and second runners-up, Eco-Structures and Pneulyfe, representing the UWI and Northern Caribbean University (NCU), respectively. The UWI’s Skolastik Oasis and NCU’s Beasc Technology were also invited to participate. This year’s record number of NBMC entrants results from Jamaica securing four of the 12 coveted spaces offered in the IBMC’s highly competitive ‘At Large Round’, a feat never before accomplished. The DBJ’s Jamaica Venture Capital Programme Project Coordinator, Audrey Richards, who coordinates the NBMC, describes this as a “tremendous achievement”. “It endorses the work our universities are doing in building future business leaders. It is an endorsement of the quality of the judges at our competition, and it sends a signal that the work we, the Development Bank of Jamaica though the Jamaica Venture Capital Programme, are doing with our universities and, indeed (towards) the development of a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem, is on the right path,” she says. There is great anticipation of Jamaica doing well again in the upcoming IBMC, to replicate and even surpass impressive performances recorded by teams entering since 2014, when the country sent its first representative. Jamaican teams have consistently finished in the top 10, despite competing against thousands of participants from over 40 colleges and universities across the world. The 2014 NBMC winner, Herboo Enterprise, placed eighth; 2015 champion, JarGro Enterprise, reached the semi-finals; 2016 winner, Guardana Inc, which received honorary mention – sixth; and 2017 champion, Natsima Nutraceuticals – fourth. The replication or surpassing of these placements would cap a record-breaking year for the NBMC, which saw the UWI, through Queritel, winning the competition for the first time and, in the process, breaking NCU’s dominance of the initiative since its inception. The competition, which is designed to encourage and promote the creative and innovative thinking of students, facilitates local entrepreneurial skills and enhances collaboration and communication between stakeholders in the private sector and academia. According to Querital’s Vice President for Marketing and Operations, Kedonne Martin, “originally the idea for Queritel was (to name the entity) Research Aid Plus, which came up after realising that students on campus needed research work done and they needed help with this… so they came to us”. “After working with this idea for a year and pitching it, we realised that it made more sense to (market it) to entrepreneurs, who would be more willing to pay for this service. So, we pivoted to Queritel and, since then, we have had over 120 customers and made over US$6,000 in revenue, and it has been amazing. Winning this competition is another form of validation for us, and we are so happy for it,” he says. The members of Querital copped the winning prize of $2 million, plus an all-expense paid trip to the IBMC, slated for the prestigious Utah Valley Convention Centre and the Provo Marriott Hotel and Conference Centre. Prizes totalling $4 million were up for grabs in this year’s NBMC, which was sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank, through the Multilateral Investment Fund; PanJam Investment; Restaurant Associates, through its flagship brand, Burger King; Musson Foundation; NCB Foundation; Sagicor Group; Scotiabank; GK Capital Management; and the PetroCaribe Development Fund. The IBMC is sponsored by the Kevin and Debra Rollins Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University, headquartered in Provo, Utah. The entrepreneurship programme at the Marriott School, which has campuses/students across the United States and in 105 other countries, is consistently ranked among the top such offered, annually. Source: https://jis.gov.jm/five-teams-to-represent-country-in-2018-ibmc/	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line51
__label__wiki	0.947175	0.947175	News \| All stories Croatian prime minister receives award in Prague Ian Willoughby The Croatian prime minister, Ivo Sander, received an award in Prague on Friday from the Vasek and Anna Maria Polak Foundation. The award has been presented for services to democracy and the free market since 1994, and has previously been won by Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa. Vasek Polak had a bicycle repair shop in Prague before later building up an extremely successful car dealership business in the United States. Topolanek wants minority cabinet with broad support The leader of the Civic Democrats, Mirek Topolanek, is now considering trying to establish a minority government supported by the Social Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Green Party, Mlada fronta Dnes reported on Saturday. Mr Topolanek has been trying in vain to form a government since elections two months ago. The chairman of the Social Democrats, outgoing prime minister Jiri Paroubek, said the new plan was innovative but would not find support either in his party or the two smaller ones. President Vaclav Klaus has given Mr Topolanek until the first week of August to form a government. Budvar alcohol-free beer sees big sales increase due to new road law The Budejovicky Budvar brewery reports says it has sold 60 percent more of its alcohol-free beer in July than in the same month last year, Mlada fronta Dnes reported. The surge in sales is attributed to new traffic regulations which have stiffened punishments for drink driving. Summer schools of Slavonic studies underway in Prague The 50th Summer School of Slovanic Studies began at Prague's Charles University on Saturday. A record 210 students from almost 40 countries are attending the month-long school, which features 25 different specialised courses. Schools of Slovanic Studies are also underway in Brno and Olomouc. Czech footballer Skacel joins Southampton The Czech football player Rudolf Skacel has signed a four-year contract with the English Championship club Southampton. Skacel was a great success at Scotland's Hearts last season and is reunited with the club's former manager George Burley at Southampton. Czech police search for woman wanted in Canada over abduction of children Czech police are searching for a woman believed to be in hiding with her three young children. After a court in Canada awarded custody of the children to their father, Romana Dittrichova abducted them and brought them to the Czech Republic in June. Jehovah's Witnesses gather in Prague for weekend of ceremonies A mass baptism of Jehovah's Witnesses is being held at a football stadium in Prague on Saturday. Organisers say around 20,000 of the faith group's members from around the world are in the Czech capital for a weekend of religious ceremonies. There are over 15,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in the Czech Republic. Around 40,000 at this year's CzechTek free music festival Around 40,000 people from the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe have gathered at the CzechTek free techno music festival, which is being held on Czech Army land in north Bohemia. Last year's CzechTek became the subject of political debate when around 1,000 riot police used truncheons, tear gas and water cannons to break the festival up, after complaints from landowners. Vaidisova to face Clijsters in California The Czech tennis star Nicole Vaidisova has reached the semi-finals at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California. The 17-year-old beat Australia's Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-2 to set up a clash with top seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium. Father of UK chess player who fell to death facing rape charges The father of Jessie Gilbert, a young British chess player who was found dead in the Czech Republic, is facing rape charges, the news agency AP reported. UK police confirmed that one of Ian Gilbert's alleged victims had died, but refused to name her. Jessie Gilbert fell from the eighth-floor window of a hotel in Pardubice, where she was attending an international chess tournament. It was not clear whether she had committed suicide or had an accident while sleepwalking. Czech Castles Events in the CR Czech Folklore Czech Center NY Czech Radio History	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line56
__label__cc	0.50833	0.49167	Poets in Profile: Souvankham Thammavongsa Submitted by Grace on September 23, 2013 - 2:48pm Souvankham Thammavongsa's first poetry collection, Small Arguments, and its follow up, Found, received widespread praise for their sparse, evocative pieces. This year, Souvankham returns with Light (Pedlar Press), a collection that examines its title subject in the poet's signature, elegant language. Poet and editor Kevin Connolly has praised the book, saying "Each Souvankham Thammavongsa poem feels like an event, which makes a new collection akin to a small riot. In Light, she does what only very good poets do: sees the things others miss. " Today we speak with Souvankham as part of our Poets in Profile series, where we seek to find out what inspires, confounds and delights Canadian poets. Souvankham tells us about the word that first made her explore language, how a commute can become an inspiration and the best thing about being a poet. Open Book: Can you describe an experience that you believe contributed to your becoming a poet? Souvankham Thammavongsa: I don’t know. Maybe it was this: That’s my dad on the left. That’s me in the middle there. The carvings behind us are things he made in the refugee camp. Maybe it was watching him make those things all day. OB: What is the first poem you remember being affected by? It wasn’t a poem. It was something smaller. A word. The word knife. When I first learned to read it, I pronounced the k. I had to learn some letters are silent even though they are there. What one poem — from any time period — do you wish you had been the one to write? Wallace Stevens’s “Gubbinal.” What has been your most unlikely source of inspiration? Stouffville. I work in Toronto and I take the train. I get a lot of time to think and to look at things. The land, especially. What do you do when a poem is not working? I don’t admit it isn’t working until it does. What was the last book of poetry that really knocked your socks off? 1996 by Sara Peters. I also really like NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names. It’s a novel but her descriptions of snow and everything else work the way good poems do. What is the best thing about being a poet….and what is the worst? When someone writes something like this to me: That’s the best thing ever! And the worst? Well…let me just enjoy this a little bit longer. Souvankham Thammavongsa was born in Nong Khai, Thailand, in 1978 and was raised and educated in Toronto. She won the 2004 ReLit prize for her first poetry book, Small Arguments. She is also the author of a second poetry book, Found, which was made into a short film and screened at film festivals worldwide, including Toronto International Film Festival and Dok Leipzig. The poem “The Sun in Flannery O’Connor’s The Violent Bear It Away” appeared in the anthology Troubling Borders: Southeast Asian Women in the Diaspora published by the University of Washington Press in the United States. The poem “Perfect” was nominated for a National Magazine award. Thammavongsa was named one of “Best Under 35” writers in Canada in a special issue of The Windsor Review. For more information about Light please visit the Pedlar Press website. Buy this book at your local independent bookstore or online at Amazon. Check out all the Poets in Profile interviews in our archives. Related item from our archives Wed January 6, 2016 The Entitled Interview with Susan Philpott View more items filed under “Grace” in our Open Book Archives. Submitted by Grace on January 6, 2016 - 2:01pm Dark Territory (Simon & Schuster Canada) is a particularly apt title for the second instalment in Susan Philpott's Signy Shepherd series, as the titular heroine finds herself very much in the dark for much of the book. Her mentor is missing, and Lizzy, the woman Signy is meant to protect might be more dangerous than the pursuers Signy is trying to protect her from. Taut and tense, Dark Territory is a high octane thriller made all the more exciting by Susan's creative and inventive twists and turns.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line65
__label__wiki	0.767813	0.767813	9 July 2019 by Graham Darke RICHARD RODGERS (1902-1979) arr. ROBERT RUSSELL BENNETT (1894-1981) Symphonic Picture: Oklahoma! (1943 / 1955) Robert Russell Bennett was a distinguished Broadway and Hollywood orchestrator and arranger, whose theatrical and film legacy alone amounts to over three hundred productions, working with many of the biggest names including George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers. Bennett would be given sketches in varying detail by the composers for orchestration; Gershwin, for example, would give him a two-piano score with suggestions for instrumentation, while Richard Rodgers would merely write out the tune and then give Bennett very much a free hand. Having orchestrated all these productions Bennett was given licence to arrange many of them into Symphonic Pictures, including Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, perhaps his best known, Irving Berlin’s Showboat, Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady (which MSO played in the 2017 Prom), and a number of Rodgers and Hammerstein shows including South Pacific and The Sound of Music together with Oklahoma!. It is difficult to imagine better arrangements, and one feels at the end that one has virtually seen the show. Oklahoma! was a groundbreaking musical, the first collaboration of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein 11 in 1943, and based on a 1931 play by Lynn Riggs, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in the mid-west in 1906 its context is the formation of the state of Oklahoma, but its plot centres round Laurey Williams, a farm girl in love with the somewhat feckless cowboy Curly McLain but coveted by her evil farm hand Jud Fry. The sub-plot concerns the flighty Ado Annie and her beau Will Parker, their romance threatened by the scheming peddler Ali Hakim. The show won a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 and has remained one of the most-produced shows of all; the integration of plot, dialogue, song and dance pointed the way for many subsequent musicals, not least the further collaborations of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Oklahoma! was filmed in 1955 starring Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae and won Bennett an Oscar for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. His Symphonic Picture: Oklahoma! begins with a dreamy foretaste of Oh, What O Beautiful Morning, Pore Jud is Daid and People Will Say We’re In Love. The piece bursts into life with The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends from the Box Social in Act 2, leading into the vigorous title song, Oklahoma! (with exclamation mark!). Next, People Will Say We’re In Love, epitomises the tentative romance between Laurey and Curly, followed by Out of My Dreams, the second act ballet which crystallises their secret desires. Oh, What a Beautiful Morning begins the stage action, and became the most singable number from the show. Next comes Pore Jud is Daid, a humorous mock funeral dirge, in which Curly fools Jud into thinking that he will be remembered fondly (‘His fingernails have never been so clean.’). The Surrey with the Fringe on Top, in which Curly describes the carriage he’s borrowing to take Laurey to the Box Social, is surely the most delightful number, orchestrated by Bennett to include cocks crowing in saxes and clarinets. The coquettish Many a New Day, in which Laurey declares her ‘footloose and fancy-free-ness’ is followed by the soft-shoe-shuffle Kansas City, in which Will describes his trip to the city and the new world of mod-cons. The barn dance number from the Social, Farmers Dance, leads into the comic I Cain’t Say No, in which Ado Annie describes her lack of will-power when it comes to men, and finally the apotheosis-reprise of People Will Say and Beautiful Morning. This entry was posted in 2018-2019, 6th July 2019, Richard Rodgers, Symphonic Picture. Bookmark the permalink. ← GUSTAV HOLST (1874-1934) St Paul’s Suite, op 29 (1912) FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY (1809 – 1847) Overture: The Fair Melusine (1833-5) →	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line66
__label__wiki	0.723464	0.723464	DuPont and NREL to develop world's first integrated 'bio-refinery' WILMINGTON, Del. and GOLDEN, Colo., Oct. 6, 2003 DuPont and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) today announced a joint research agreement leading toward the development of the world's first integrated "bio-refinery" that uses corn or other renewable resources rather than traditional petrochemicals to produce a host of valuable fuels and value-added chemicals. The $7.7 million Cooperative Research and Development Agreement calls for DuPont and the NREL to collaboratively develop, build, and test a bio-refinery pilot process that will make fuels and chemicals from the entire corn plant including the fibrous material in the stalks, husks, leaves, and the starchy material in the kernels. The agreement is part of the larger $38 million DuPont-led consortium known as the Integrated Corn-Based Bioproducts Refinery (ICBR) project. The ICBR project which includes DuPont, NREL, Diversa Corporation, Michigan State, and Deere & Co. was awarded $19 million in matching funds from the Department of Energy last year to design and demonstrate the feasibility and practicality of alternative energy and renewable resource technology. The initiative will develop the world's first fully integrated bio-refinery, which will be capable of producing a range of products from a variety of plant-material feedstocks. Several bio-refineries currently produce a range of products mainly from starch-rich or protein-rich biomass, while other bio-refineries start with a variety of vegetable oils. "DuPont has a rich history of partnering with governments to enhance the quality of life through science," said DuPont Chief Science and Technology Officer Thomas M. Connelly. "We are pleased the U.S. Department of Energy and NREL support this initiative and recognize that bio-science offers feasible solutions to meet our energy needs while reducing our environmental footprint. The scarcity of non-renewable resources amplifies the need to Contact: Anthony Farina Anthony.R.Farina@usa.dupont.com 1. DuPont scientist named one of the worlds top young innovators by MITs Technology Review Magazine 2. DuPont introduces in-home personal protection from dangers of hurricanes 3. DuPont developing new protective suits for military, first responders 4. DuPont awarded highest US honor for technological innovation 5. President Bush to present DuPont with National Medal of Technology 6. DuPont to locate Asia Pacific R&D center in Shanghai 7. DuPont receives US EPAs Presidential Green Chemistry Award for new innovation 8. DuPont launches high-tech medical fabrics to enhance protection for healthcare professionals 9. DuPont technology to receive US EPAs clean air excellence award 10. DuPont science leader discusses Sustainability and Integrated Science for the 21st Century 11. Clothing from Corn: DuPont develops innovative process to create polymer from renewable resources	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line72
__label__wiki	0.938123	0.938123	END FOR MERKEL? German chancellor’s party dips even further in the polls The popularity of Angela Merkel’s party continues to fall, according to a new poll Support for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party the Christian Social Union has fallen for the second week in a row. The poll by Emnid for Bild says backing has slipped from 37 per cent to 36 per cent. Support for anti-migrant party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) remains unchanged from the previous week. Support for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party the Christian Social Union has fallen for the second week in a row Voting intentions for the AfD remain steady at 12 per cent and 21 per cent for the SPD. The Left has gained a point, taking its support to 11 per cent with the Greens down a point at nine per cent. Support for the Liberal Free Democratic (FDP) stands at six per cent after Emnid interviewed 2,805 voter between 12 and 18 January. Support for the CDU/CSU has slipped to 36 per cent It comes as the election campaign begins to swing into action. Germany is to hold its federal election on Sunday 24 September, with Chancellor Angela Merkel seeking a fourth term in office. The AfD is expected to enter the national parliament for the first time. AFP GETTY Support for Frauke Petry's AfD has remained stable according to the Bild poll Germany has welcomed more than one million migrants in the last two years Mrs Merkel faces a tough re-election campaign following a major backlash over her open-door migration policy. Germany has welcomed more than one million migrants in the last two years. Concerns about integration and security have pushed the German Chancellor’s popularity down and fuelled the rise of the AfD party, which is expected to win enough votes to clear the five per cent threshold to enter the federal parliament. 'MERKEL MUST GO': Brussels protest against German Chancellor Angry campaigners held placards with slogans reading 'Merkel not welcomed' and 'Merkel must go' following a spate of terror attacks against Germany. Protest on the sidelines of Angela Merkel's official visit in Brussels A poll by Forsa for German magazine Stern published on Wednesday put Mrs Merkel's conservative bloc on 38 percent, up one point. The SPD, junior partner in the ruling coalition, also edged up by one point to 21 per cent while the AfD shed one point, falling to 11 per cent. A poll published earlier this month showed refugee policy will be the biggest issue for voters in the election. Related Itemschancellorfurthergermanmerkelpartypolls Lehman Brothers: Failed bank or malt whisky? Views:11 Related Newsexplored 23rd January 2017 Rohingya refugees flee Myanmar through the jungle Why a state wants to ignore part of India’s history Views:11 The state of Maharashtra wants to remove references in its school textbooks to the Mughal dynasty, which ruled parts of India for 300 years. It means it can focus on an empire established by a Hindu ruler. But the move has sparked debate. Produced by Sameer Hashmi. Filmed and edited by... Utah nurse arrested for refusing to hand over blood Views:11 The footage shows Alex Wubbels being arrested in Utah in July, after refusing to hand over a vial of a patient’s blood to the police. Salt Lake City’s mayor, Jackie Biskupski, said the footage was “unacceptable” and that she has called Miss Wubbels to offer a “personal apology”. Related How long could you sit covered in bees? The wedding that broke centuries of tradition Views:11 In 1959, breaking more than 2,600 years of tradition, Japan’s Crown Prince Akihito married a non-royal bride. The wedding was broadcast live on television and marked a turning point in Japanese society. Millions watched at home while hundreds of thousands lined the streets of Tokyo on the wedding day. Shiegeo Suzuki... The man who makes prosthetic hands for free Meet the Indian women sailing round the world Views:11 An all-women team from the Indian navy are about to embark on a historic mission to sail around the world Their voyage will be the first Indian circumnavigation of the globe by a female crew, and the team want to inspire other women. Produced by Suranjana Tewari; Shot and edited by... Massachusetts winner of record $758m lottery jackpot quits job Rio: Organised crime on the rise Will fairy tale Białowieża forest survive Poland’s fight with the EU? Beppe Grillo agrees with ‘moderate’ Donald Trump as he blasts EU ‘total FAILURE’ Sick moment thugs attack and choke man in Spanish subway before robbing him	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line74
__label__wiki	0.679989	0.679989	Jewish World Review Oct 12, 2011 / 14 Tishrei, 5772 It's Hard To Be a Racist By Walter Williams http://www.JewishWorldReview.com \| Years ago it was easy to be a racist. All you had to be was a white person using some of the racial epithets that are routinely used in song and everyday speech by many of today's blacks. Or you had to chant "two, four, six, eight, we don't want to integrate" when a black student showed up for admission to your high school or college. Of course, there was that dressing up in a hooded white gown. In any case, you didn't have to be sophisticated to be a racist. Today all that has changed. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., pointed that out back in 1994 when the Republican-led Congress pushed for tax relief. Rangel denounced Republicans' plan as a form of modern-day racism, saying, "It's not 'spic' or 'nigger' anymore. (Instead,) they say, 'Let's cut taxes.'" That means the simple use of the N-word is not enough to make one a racist. If it were, blacks would be the nation's premier racists. Today it's the call for tax cuts that makes you a racist. That's why the "tea" party, short for "taxed enough already," is nothing more than organized racists. What makes tea partyers even more racist is their constant call for the White House and Congress to return to the confines of the Constitution. Racism has other guises. Say that you're a believer in Martin Luther King's wish, expressed in his "I Have a Dream" speech, that our "children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." The call to judge people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin is really code for racism. There's no question about one's racial antipathy if he voted for measures such as California's Proposition 209, Michigan's Proposal 2, Washington state's Initiative 200 or Nebraska's Civil Rights Initiative 424. These measures outlaw judging people by the color of their skin for admission to college, awarding of government contracts and employment. The call for equal treatment is simply racism by stealth and is far more insidious than name-calling and hood-donning. One might think that seeing as America elected its first black president, it would usher in the end of racism; but it's all a racist plot that's easily uncovered simply by asking: "Who really elected Obama to the presidency?" It surely wasn't black people. Of the 69 million votes that Obama received in the 2008 election, I doubt whether even 7 or 8 million came from blacks. That means white people put Obama in office, and that means he is beholden to white people, not black people. You say, "Williams, that's preposterous! What's your evidence?" Just look at the unemployment statistics. White unemployment is 8 percent, and black unemployment is double that, at 17 percent, and in some cities, black unemployment is near 30 percent. It's gotten so bad under Obama's presidency that New York's Urban Justice Center has appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Council for help. But Obama's tired of black complaints. Obama told the Congressional Black Caucus to "Stop whining!" "Take off your bedroom slippers; put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complaining; stop grumbling; stop crying." This kind of talk is unprecedented. Just ask yourself: "When have I ever heard a Democratic or a Republican leader talk this way to his party's strongest supporters? Would Obama tell Jews to stop whining about Israel? Would he tell unions to stop grumbling about card check? Would he tell feminists, if they were complaining about sex discrimination, to shake it off?" This kind of political treatment of blacks should not be surprising, because black people are a one-party people in a two-party system. That means Democratic politicians have learned to take the black vote for granted, and Republicans make little effort to get it. That's not smart for blacks to set themselves up that way. Walter Williams Archives © 2006, Creators Syndicate.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line76
__label__wiki	0.601592	0.601592	Polish Towns and Cities Historic Churches and Temples Holidays for young people Holidaying with children Polish Kitchen Relaxing Vacation Easter in Poland Christmas in Poland Spa Vacations in Poland Famous Poles Polish Etiquette Polish Superstition Shopping in Poland Beer and Vodka Polish Community Abroad Entering and Traveling to Poland Telephones, Internet and Mail Money and Currency One of the oldest and largest cities in Poland. It was originally the home of the Polish royalty (between 1038 and 1596), before the capital was moved to Warsaw. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish scientific, cultural and artistic life. Famous landmarks include the Main Market Square with St. Mary's Basilica and the Sukiennice Cloth Hall, the Wawel Castle, the National Art Museum, the Zygmunt Bell at the Wawel Cathedral, and the medieval St Florian's Gate with the Barbican along the Royal Coronation Route. In 1978, UNESCO added Kraków's historic centre, which includes the Old Town, Kazimierz and the Wawel Castle to the list of World Heritage Sites. Attractions in Krakow include: Old Town: one of the main tourist destinations in Krakow. The Main Market Square is the main square of the Old Town, Krakow. It dates back to the 13th century and – it is the largest (200 by 200 meter square) medieval town square in Europe. From its beginnings, the Market Square was the commercial and social heart of Cracow. It was an emporium of the Black Sea trade, and a spring-board for Poland's links with the West. Besides this, it was a place of festivals and public gatherings. The Main Square is a large area for people to meet during summer festivals, concerts, fairs, presentations, and Poland's largest New Year's Party. Citizens of Krakow frequently meet "pod Adasiem", that is at the foot of the Monument to Adam Mickiewicz, the poet. The square is surrounded by old brick buildings and palaces, almost all of them several centuries old. They house many tourism-oriented establishments as well as the Historical Museum of Kraków and the International Center of Culture. Among the square's landmarks are the Sukiennice - a Renaissance trading hall and one of city's most recognizable icons - now host to many merchant stalls, and the Gallery of the National Museum, upstairs. Wawel Castle: served as a royal residence and the site where the country's rulers governed Poland for five centuries from 1038 until 1596. National Museum: established 1879, is the main branch of Poland's National Museum, which has many permanent collections around the country. Wawel Cathedral: the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Stanisław and Vaclav – is Poland's national sanctuary, located on Wawel Hill in Kraków. It has a 1,000-year history and was the traditional coronation site of Polish monarchs. It is the cathedral of the archdiocese of Kraków. Pope John Paul II had considered being buried there. Florian Gate: named after St. Florian, is one of the best known Gothic towers in Poland, and a focal point of Kraków's Old Town. Aqua Park: one of the most popular Krakow centre of entertainment and recreation for the whole family. It got the prestigious title of "The construction of the Year" and have become the inseparable part of our city tourist offer. There are three pools in total 2000 m2 of space with the wide range of attractions including water massage facilities, wild springs, counter-currents, white-water river, swimming tracks, salt-water Jacuzzis and modern saunas complex (steam and dry saunas). More other, there are special areas for playing water sports: water basket-ball, water valley-ball, water hand-ball. Krakow Valley Golf & Country Club: a beautifully situated recreational complex with a golf course, located between Krakow and Katowice, on the edge of the Krakow Częstochowa Upland. The 160 hectare area boasts an 18-hole course, the Golf Academy, a sports shooting range, a hotel, a restaurant and a horse-riding club. It is an ideal place for active recreation for the whole family, as well as for organizing company meetings and similar such events. The capital of Poland and its largest city. It is the financial center of Poland and includes many historical and cultural monuments. Attractions in Warsaw include: New Town: began to develop in 14th century. New Town is located between Krasinskiego Street in the North, Dluga Street to the South, Adama Mickiewicza Street in the West and Wybrzeze Gdanskie Street in the East. It is a pedestrians haven as most of New Town is closed to traffic. Most major attractions except for Citadel museum are located around Dluga Street. New Town is mostly closed to traffic. Old Town: It stretches between Wybrzeze Gdanskie Street, Grodzka, Mostowa and Powale Street. All major attractions are in the vicinity of Rynek Starego Miasta - Market Square. Warsaw Old Town was established in the XIII th. century. It impresses tourists with its quaint, cobbled streets and unique old architecture. The heart of the area is the Old Town Market Square with its unique traditional Polish restaurants, cafes and shops. When the weather is warm the square becomes filled with cafe tables, various traders and street artists. Surrounding streets feature old architecture such as City Walls, The Barbican and St. John's Cathedral. Old Town is ideal for walks and picnics - the whole area is mostly closed to traffic and provides spectacular scenery and unforgettable atmosphere. Jewish Ghetto: Before the outbreak of World War II the northwestern part of Warsaw was occupied by mostly Jewish population (about 400,000 people). During the World War II a ghetto was formed out of the Jewish district by Germans. No Jew could leave the ghetto without permission. There are many monuments and memorials in that district as well as the Jewish Historic Museum on Gen Andersa Street, the Jewish National Theatre and Nozyk Synagogue on Grzybowska Street. Worth seeing is Pawiak Prison on Jana Pawla II Street, UmschlagPlatz on Dzika Street, Jewish Cemetary on Okopowa Street and Path of Rememberance on Lewartowskiego Street. Royal Route: The Royal Route extends from Castle Square (Plac Zamkowy) to the end of Krakowskie Przedmiescie and Nowy Swiat. Along both streets one can admire buildings that are predominantly NeoClassical in style as well as many churches and palaces. Nowy Swiat and Krakowskie Przedmiescie also feature many exclusive cafes, restaurants, stores and fashionable boutiques. Nowy Swiat is great for walks as part of the street is closed for traffic. Some of the attractions that are worth seeing are: Warsaw University, Bristol Hotel, Potocki Palace, Holly Cross Church, Adam Mickiewicz monument as well as Nicholas Copernicus monument. All of the attractions are located along Nowy Swiat and Krakowskie Przedmiescie Streets. Lazienki Park: Lazienki Park is one of the most beautiful part of Warsaw - one of the most favorite places for walks for Varsovians and tourists. This romantic, landscaped park includes the Palace on the Water, together with various other palaces, pavillons, an amphitheater and two orangeries. The highlight of Lazienki Park is the Palace on the Water. It is one of the finest examples of Neo-Clasical architecture in Poland. King Stanislaw August Poniatowski converted 17th Century Pavillon into a Palace. In World War II the Nazis wanted to blow up the Palace but because of lack of time - they only set fire to it. Currently the Palace is fully restored. Solidarity Avenue: The Solidarity Avenue vicinity is the Warsaw's commercial and cultural center. The vicinity of solidarity avenue in addition to modern buildings features palaces, churches and monasteries, monuments as well as historic parks and gardens. The most famous palaces worth seeing are Przebendowski-Radziwill Palace on Solidarnosci Ave as well as Krasinski Palace on Bonifaterska Street. Worth seeing are also Basilian Church on Miodowa Street, Jan Kilinski Monument on Podwale Street as well as Krasinkis Gardens around Swietojerska Street and Saxons Gardens around Krolewska Street. Gdańsk is considered the most beautiful city on Baltic Sea having rich magnificent architecture. Gdansk also has a lively waterfront area where tourists congregate in pavement cafes and excellent restaurants. Attractions in Gdansk include: Westerplatte: is where World War II broke out on 1 September 1939, situated at the entrance to the harbour and just a few kilometres from the city of Gdañsk. The Polish garrison held out against the attack for seven days before surrendering to the Nazi German forces, and the site is now a memorial to the defenders, including a small museum, some of the ruins left from the shelling and a massive monument that towers above the area. Malbork Castle: Malbork Castle is a classic example of a medieval fortress; it is the world’s largest brick castle and one of the most impressive of its kind in Europe. The inner castle includes arcaded courtyards, chapels, a treasury, the Knights’ Hall and an armoury. The interiors house several exhibitions, including displays on the castle’s history, and collections of tapestries, coins and medals, medieval sculptures, and weapons. During summer the courtyard is a venue for sound and light shows. Sopot: a seaside spa in Poland. Sopot, together with nearby Gdańsk and Gdynia are often referred as Triple-city. Monte Casino Street (ul. Bohaterów Monte Cassino) is the center of Sopot, a pedestrianised promenade. On both sides of the street there are countless XIX - XXth-century houses, some of them housing pubs or restaurants today. To discover the real charm of the town, turn into one of Monte Casino's side streets, where you're bound to admire numerous art nouveau houses, parks and gardens. Wooden Pier (Molo): It is the longest wooden pier in Europe. During the summertime, for a small fee you can enter the pier, and admire the coastline. The liveliest part of Sopot today is the area around ul. Bohaterow Monte Cassino, where you'll find many of the most enticing bars and shops. This leads down to the sea front, with its well-maintained beaches and the long pier itself (at 640 metres, its the longest in the Baltic). Gydnia Gdynia is a young, but quickly expanding port situated right by the seashore, offering many tourist attractions as well as splendid shopping opportunities and a lot of entertainment. The city was founded as a Polish harbor in 1926. Because of its unusual location, you will easily catch great views of the sea and beautiful scenery, and also find long promenades, beautiful waterfronts, marinas and yacht clubs. Gdynia is also a great city for shopping. The most attractive places for spending your money are Starowiejska and Świętojańska streets. There is a modern and exclusive shopping center named "Batory", at the intersection of 10 Lutego and Władysława IV streets, where luxurious shops and state-of-the-art architecture intertwine. You can enjoy the beautiful panorama of the harbor and of the city from the top of Kamienna Góra (Stone Hill), easily recognizable by the large cross at its top. On your way to the little hill, you will pass the famous Musical Theatre (Teatr Muzyczny), which stages the world's most-famed musicals (you may still be able to get a ticket - check tonight's shows). A city in west-central Poland. Located by the Warta River it is one of the oldest cities in Poland ,making it an important historical center. Poznan's impressive cathedral is the earliest church in the country, containing the tombs of the first Polish rulers. Poznań is a town steeped in history, as it was the first capital (with Gniezno) of Poland and seen by many as the birthplace of the Polish nation. Today it is a diverse and vibrant town, with much to divert the traveller. It has a stunningly rejuvenated central square, thriving night-life, fascinating museums and many attractions in the surrounding area. Attractions in Poznan include: Stary Rynek: the old town square, one of the finest in Europe. This is the centre of old Poznań, and has been superbly rebuilt after almost complete destruction in World War 2. Cafés and bars line the square and it is a superb spot for ordering a drink and watching the world go by. Old Town Hall: is the centrepiece of the Rynek. The building houses the Historical Museum of Poznań (originally the the headquarters of municipal powers and the city court), displaying exhibitions about the history of the city from the 10th century to the present day. Two things to watch out for here are the ornately decorated Great Entrance Hall and the mechanical goats which appear from the roof of the building each day at noon to butt their heads together a dozen times. The museum is open Monday, Tuesday and Friday 10am-4pm, Wednesday noon-6pm and Sunday 10am-3pm. Admission is €1.50. Ostrów Tumski: (Cathedral Island), famed as the spot on which Poznań was founded, is a quiet island, with a permanent population consisting only of bishops, priests and monks. Archaeological Museum: With 42,432 artefacts, this is a large and fascinating museum. It specialises in the archaeology of Wielkopolska and Egypt. Applied Arts Museum: Displays crafts, furniture, precious metals and glassware. Admission €1.25, free Saturdays. Literary Museum of Henryk Sienkiewicz: Sienkiewicz, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905, is best known for his work Quo Vadis?, an epic on early Christians in the Roman empire. He is Poland's most celebrated novelist, and this is the most extensive collection of items about his life and works. Motoring Museum: Run by the Wielkopolska Motoring Club, and features a range of vintage and notable vehicles. Musical Instruments Museum: With 2000 items from all over the world, this is the only exhibition of its kind in Poland. It also has an extensive collection of Chopin memorabilia. National Museum: This museum has a prominent collection of Italian, Spanish and Polish art. Many paintings have accompanying explanations in English. Citadel Park, Wzgórze Cytadela. Formerly a fortress built by the Prussians in 1828, it was destroyed during fighting in 1945. It contains a cemetery for the Russian, Polish and British soldiers who lost their lives here. Lake Malta: The most popular recreation area of Poznań. A small train runs along the north shore every half hour (free days) or one hour (working days) between 10am and 6pm (May till September), tickets available from ul. Jana Pawla II for €1,00. The chief city of the historical region of Lower Silesia in south-western Poland, situated on the Oder (Polish: Odra) river. Before 1945 the city was part of Germany. Since 1999 it has been the capital of Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It boasts fascinating architecture, many rivers and bridges, and a lively and metropolitan cultural scene. It is a city with a troubled past, having seen much violence and devastation, and was almost completely destroyed during the end of the Second World War. However, it has been brilliantly restored and can now be counted amongst the highlights of Poland, and all of Central Europe. Wroclaw’s complex and dramatic history is embedded in the city walls. We are reminded of the early medieval times in Ostrów Tumski, where one of the most beautiful sacral architecture buildings in Europe has been preserved. Wroclaw Town hall is considered one of the most splendid Gothic buildings in central Europe. In Wroclaw one can also see the biggest baroque interior in Poland, which has remained untill today - the Leopoldine Hall, located in the 17th century University building. The old and modern architecture of the city is surrounded by the abundance of greenery. In the city centre, there spreads out the Szczytnicki Park dating from the 18th century. It cointains over 370 species of trees and shrubs and a Japanese garden. If you want to have a walk, the great places are the Botanical Garden with their beautiful flowers and Alpine gardens, green house and the biggest cactus house in Poland, and the Zoological Garden, founded in 1865 and accommodating about 5.500 animals representing 650 species. Visitors coming to Wroclaw remember the city mainly as a cultural centre. Its theatres, including the Opera, Musical Theatre and Philharmonic Hall; various clubs, museums and galleries provide a continuous series of artistic events. Internationally acknowledged musical festivals have become the city’s cultural landmark. The biggest of them is International Festival WRATISLAVIA CANTANS - Music and Fine Arts. Other festivals which take place in Wroclaw include Jazz on the Odra, Old Master’s Music Days, One-Actor Theatr Performances and Festival of Actor Songs. One of the cultural attractions which is a must when visiting Wroclaw, is certainly the Panorama of Raclawice, a gigantic rotunda accommodating a 120 metres wide and 15 metres high panoramic painting which represents the battle of Raclawice fought on 7 April 1794. Attractions in Wroclaw include: Cathedral of St. John the Baptist: Dating from the 13th century, featuring stunning architecture and the largest church organ in Poland. The Rynek: (central square) the architectural centre-point of Wroclaw, and its most obvious attraction. It is one of the biggest town squares in Europe, and is lined on all sides with photogenic and interesting buildings. Centre of tourist life, place where tourists drink beer. Wroclaw Town Hall: Construction of the town hall began in the 14th century. It was one of the few major buildings in Wroclaw to survive World War 2, and it now serves as the Museum of Burgher Art. The interior features stunning Gothic interiors. Ostrow Tumski: a group of islands on the Oder River with beautiful Cathedrals and a few hundred year old buildings, for those who would have romantic evening, walking through mystery brick stoned streets . It is complete with hand-lit oil lamps lit nightly St. Elizabeth's Church: On the northeast side of the Rynek, this is a large and imposing medieval building with a 90m high tower with spectacular views over the old town. Salt Square Pl. Solny, formerly salt market, now flower market, Panorama of the battle of Racławice: This giant 360-degree painting, depicting a Polish military victory in 1794, is a popular symbol of Polish nationalism. Guided tours in English, French and German run every hour at no extra cost. Park Szczytnicki: Very large, spanning over a few kilometers, it's a common place for walks. Becomes incredibly colorful in autumn and should not be missed if you travel there in late September or October. Max Berg's Centennial Hall: One of the first and biggest concrete halls, mentioned in any history of architecture. This site has been included on the UNESCO World Heritage List A city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River. The second largest city of the Kujawy-Pomerania Province, after Bydgoszcz. The medieval old town of Toruń is a birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus. It was inscribed onto the World Heritage List of UNESCO as World Heritage Site in 1997.Toruń's medieval Old Town or Starowka is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Toruń is a birthplace of world famous astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. The house where Copernicus was born and the chapel where he was christened are still standing in the city. From Middle Ages town is known for its gingerbreads. Torun is considered the best-preserved Gothic town in Poland—the atmosphere of the Old Town is worth making the day trip from Warsaw. Its medieval walls and remaining gates are gems. The town, a place of Górale culture and informally known as the winter capital of Poland, lies in the southern part of the Podhale region at the feet of the Tatra Mountains, which is the only alpine mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains. Zakopane lies in a big valley between the Tatra Mountains and Gubałówka Hill. It is the most important Polish centre of mountaineering and skiing, and is visited by about three million tourists annually. The most important alpine skiing locations are Kasprowy Wierch, Nosal and Gubałówka Hill. Zakopane has the highest elevation (800-1000 m) of any town in Poland. The central point of the town is at the junction of Krupówki and Kościuszki streets. Zakopane, Poland's premier mountain resort, is one of the country's most popular holiday destinations, both in the winter for ski-ing, and in the summer, for hiking and camping. Attractions in Zakopane include: Kościeliska Street: A complex of wooden buildings typical of the Podhale region, which originated in XIX century. Stary Kościół (Old Church): A wooden church built in 1845-1851, the seat of the first parish in Zakopane. Situated in Kościeliska St. - Kaplica Gąsieniców. The chapel was the first sacred building in Zakopane built in 1800 by Paweł Gąsienica. Situated in Kościeliska St. Stary Cmentarz na Pęksowym Brzyzku: The old cemetery, the first cemetery in Zakopane, the place where famous writers, artists and mountaineers are buried. Situated in Kościeliska St. Nowy Cmentarz Zakopiański: The new cemetery opened in 1907; the place where artists, mountaineers, mountain rescuers, priests and The First and The Second World Wars veterans are buried. Situated in Nowotarska St. Willa "Koliba": The mansion is the first example of Zakopane style built in 1893 according to Stanisław Witkiewicz's design. Situated in Kościeliska St. Willa "Pod Jedlami": The mansion of the Pawlikowski family designed for them by Stanisław Witkiewicz. It is the biggest and the most beautiful example of the Zakopane style. Situated in Koziniec St. - Willa "Witkiewiczówka". The mansion in the Zakopane style designed in 1904 by Jan Koszyc Witkiewicz. In the 1930s it was the residence of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy). Chata Sabały: A wooden building from the early XIX century, situated in Stare Krzeptówki, in the western part of Zakopane.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line78
__label__wiki	0.80171	0.80171	English · Español 21 de julio de 2016 \| Entrevistas \| No al golpe de estado en Paraguay \| Anti-neoliberalismo \| Derechos humanos Interview with Paraguayan journalist Carlos Goncálvez on the consequences of the sentence against Curuguaty peasants Descargar: MP3 (1.3 MB) The consequences of the sentence against the Marina Kué peasants “are disastrous” and are based on “proven lies” by members of the Paraguayan judicial system, said Carlos Goncálvez, the person in charge of the alternative communication project Demoinfo.org in an interview with Real World Radio. From Asunción del Paraguay, Goncálvez made reference to the different moments in the process that started on June 2012 with the “Curuguaty Massacre” and the recent mobilizations and protests by Paraguayan social organizations linked to the case, after the harsh and unfounded sentences against the peasants were made known. “This situation is a disastrous precedent for peasant struggles, for social organizations and for the people who seek access to rights, such as the right to land enshrined in the Paraguayan Constitution”, said Carlos. In Guarani, the first language used in Paraguay, there is the expression “oparei” which means “oblivion” or “to forget an event over time”. “Today, the Paraguayan people are mobilizing for this not to be left “oparei” (unpunished)” said the journalist, whose work has become a true record of these four years of trial. The judicial ruling, which will be appealed by the defense attorneys, was read in its entirety on Monday, July 18. The reading took place in the framework of a mobilization at the judicial building, and the protests will continue since this case only focused on the death of the six police officers, but the death of 11 peasants during the violent events of June 15, 2012, were ignored. Seven of the eleven peasants convicted were present during the reading. The other four were released last Tuesday since they had already done their time (four years) after having been preventively detained in 2012. The Curuguaty massacre took place in June 2012 and resulted in the death of 17 people, six of whom were police officers. The events served as an excuse for the ousting of Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo. The trial over this case started a year ago, and only dealt with the death of the police officers, while the deaths of the 11 peasants during the massacre were never investigated by the Prosecutors.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line79
__label__cc	0.53722	0.46278	You are here : AllRefer.com > Reference > World > Countries > Antarctica > Antarctica - Government Antarctica: Government Government Antarctica conventional long form: none conventional short form: Antarctica Antarctic Treaty Summary - the Antarctic Treaty, signed on 1 December 1959 and entered into force on 23 June 1961, establishes the legal framework for the management of Antarctica. The 24th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting was held in Russia in July 2001. At the end of 2001, there were 45 treaty member nations: 27 consultative and 18 non-consultative. Consultative (voting) members include the seven nations that claim portions of Antarctica as national territory (some claims overlap) and 20 nonclaimant nations. The US and Russia have reserved the right to make claims. The US does not recognize the claims of others. Antarctica is administered through meetings of the consultative member nations. Decisions from these meetings are carried out by these member nations (within their areas) in accordance with their own national laws. The year in parentheses indicates when an acceding nation was voted to full consultative (voting) status, while no date indicates the country was an original 1959 treaty signatory. Claimant nations are - Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK. Nonclaimant consultative nations are - Belgium, Brazil (1983), Bulgaria (1998) China (1985), Ecuador (1990), Finland (1989), Germany (1981), India (1983), Italy (1987), Japan, South Korea (1989), Netherlands (1990), Peru (1989), Poland (1977), Russia, South Africa, Spain (1988), Sweden (1988), Uruguay (1985), and the US. Non-consultative (nonvoting) members, with year of accession in parentheses, are - Austria (1987), Canada (1988), Colombia (1989), Cuba (1984), Czech Republic (1993), Denmark (1965), Estonia (2001), Greece (1987), Guatemala (1991), Hungary (1984), North Korea (1987), Papua New Guinea (1981), Romania (1971), Slovakia (1993), Switzerland (1990), Turkey (1995), Ukraine (1992), and Venezuela (1999). Article 1 - area to be used for peaceful purposes only; military activity, such as weapons testing, is prohibited, but military personnel and equipment may be used for scientific research or any other peaceful purpose; Article 2 - freedom of scientific investigation and cooperation shall continue; Article 3 - free exchange of information and personnel, cooperation with the UN and other international agencies; Article 4 - does not recognize, dispute, or establish territorial claims and no new claims shall be asserted while the treaty is in force; Article 5 - prohibits nuclear explosions or disposal of radioactive wastes; Article 6 - includes under the treaty all land and ice shelves south of 60 degrees 00 minutes south and reserves high seas rights; Article 7 - treaty-state observers have free access, including aerial observation, to any area and may inspect all stations, installations, and equipment; advance notice of all expeditions and of the introduction of military personnel must be given; Article 8 - allows for jurisdiction over observers and scientists by their own states; Article 9 - frequent consultative meetings take place among member nations; Article 10 - treaty states will discourage activities by any country in Antarctica that are contrary to the treaty; Article 11 - disputes to be settled peacefully by the parties concerned or, ultimately, by the ICJ; Articles 12, 13, 14 - deal with upholding, interpreting, and amending the treaty among involved nations. Other agreements - some 200 recommendations adopted at treaty consultative meetings and ratified by governments include - Agreed Measures for Fauna and Flora (1964) which were later incorporated into the Environmental Protocol; Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (1972); Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (1980); a mineral resources agreement was signed in 1988 but remains unratified; the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was signed 4 October 1991 and entered into force 14 January 1998; this agreement provides for the protection of the Antarctic environment through five specific annexes: 1) marine pollution, 2) fauna and flora, 3) environmental impact assessments, 4) waste management, and 5) protected area management; it prohibits all activities relating to mineral resources except scientific research. Antarctica is administered through meetings of the consultative member nations. Decisions from these meetings are carried out by these member nations (within their areas) in accordance with their own national laws. US law, including certain criminal offenses by or against US nationals, such as murder, may apply extra-territorially. Some US laws directly apply to Antarctica. For example, the Antarctic Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. section 2401 et seq., provides civil and criminal penalties for the following activities, unless authorized by regulation of statute: the taking of native mammals or birds; the introduction of nonindigenous plants and animals; entry into specially protected areas; the discharge or disposal of pollutants; and the importation into the US of certain items from Antarctica. Violation of the Antarctic Conservation Act carries penalties of up to $10,000 in fines and one year in prison. The National Science Foundation and Department of Justice share enforcement responsibilities. Public Law 95-541, the US Antarctic Conservation Act of 1978, as amended in 1996, requires expeditions from the US to Antarctica to notify, in advance, the Office of Oceans, Room 5805, Department of State, Washington, DC 20520, which reports such plans to other nations as required by the Antarctic Treaty. For more information, contact Permit Office, Office of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation, Arlington, Virginia 22230; telephone: (703) 292-8030, or visit their website at www.nsf.gov.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line93
__label__cc	0.655198	0.344802	Richmond Community Church Portland, Oregon – A Congregation of Faith and Love Posted on December 27, 2020 January 11, 2021 by Tim 2020-12-27: A Message of Hope — Valley of Dry Bones http://media.blubrry.com/richmondcog/p/audio.richmondcog.org/2020/53-RCC-20201227-VW-A-Message-of-Hope-Valley-of-Dry-Bones.mp3 Subscribe: Apple Podcasts \| Google Podcasts \| Android \| Blubrry \| Podcast Index \| Email \| RSS Sermon Audio: A Message of Hope — Valley of Dry Bones Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins Scripture Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14 Valley of Dry Bones Categories2020 Sermons TagsSermon, Val Watkins Previous PostPrevious 2020-12-25: Do We See What Isaiah Saw? — Getting Jesus For Christmas Next PostNext 2021-01-03: Acts: Life In The Spirit — Someone Turned the Lights On 2021-01-17: Acts: Life In The Spirit — There’s a Storm Brewing 2021-01-10: Acts: Life In The Spirit — Almost Persuaded 2021-01-03: Acts: Life In The Spirit — Someone Turned the Lights On 2020-12-25: Do We See What Isaiah Saw? — Getting Jesus For Christmas Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsAndroidBlubrryPodcast Indexby EmailRSS Archives Select Month January 2021 (3) December 2020 (5) November 2020 (5) October 2020 (4) September 2020 (4) August 2020 (5) July 2020 (4) June 2020 (4) May 2020 (5) April 2020 (4) March 2020 (5) February 2020 (4) January 2020 (4) December 2019 (6) November 2019 (4) October 2019 (4) September 2019 (5) August 2019 (4) July 2019 (4) June 2019 (5) May 2019 (4) April 2019 (4) March 2019 (6) February 2019 (4) January 2019 (4) December 2018 (5) November 2018 (4) October 2018 (4) September 2018 (5) August 2018 (4) July 2018 (5) June 2018 (4) May 2018 (4) April 2018 (5) March 2018 (4) February 2018 (4) January 2018 (4) December 2017 (6) November 2017 (4) October 2017 (5) September 2017 (4) August 2017 (4) July 2017 (5) June 2017 (4) May 2017 (4) April 2017 (5) March 2017 (4) February 2017 (4) January 2017 (3) December 2016 (4) November 2016 (4) October 2016 (4) September 2016 (3) August 2016 (4) July 2016 (5) June 2016 (4) May 2016 (5) April 2016 (4) March 2016 (4) February 2016 (4) January 2016 (5) December 2015 (5) November 2015 (5) October 2015 (4) September 2015 (4) August 2015 (4) July 2015 (4) June 2015 (4) May 2015 (5) April 2015 (4) March 2015 (5) February 2015 (4) January 2015 (4) December 2014 (5) November 2014 (5) October 2014 (4) September 2014 (3) August 2014 (5) July 2014 (4) June 2014 (5) May 2014 (4) April 2014 (5) March 2014 (6) February 2014 (3) January 2014 (4) December 2013 (5) November 2013 (4) October 2013 (4) September 2013 (5) August 2013 (4) July 2013 (4) June 2013 (4) May 2013 (4) April 2013 (4) March 2013 (6) February 2013 (4) January 2013 (4) December 2012 (6) November 2012 (4) October 2012 (3) September 2012 (4) August 2012 (3) July 2012 (4) June 2012 (4) May 2012 (4) April 2012 (5) March 2012 (4) February 2012 (4) January 2012 (5) December 2011 (4) November 2011 (4) October 2011 (5) September 2011 (4) August 2011 (4) July 2011 (5) June 2011 (4) May 2011 (5) April 2011 (4) March 2011 (4) February 2011 (4) January 2011 (5) December 2010 (7) November 2010 (5) October 2010 (5) September 2010 (4) August 2010 (5) July 2010 (4) June 2010 (3) May 2010 (5) April 2010 (4) March 2010 (4) February 2010 (4) January 2010 (5) December 2009 (5) November 2009 (5) October 2009 (4) September 2009 (4) August 2009 (5) July 2009 (4) June 2009 (4) May 2009 (5) April 2009 (4) March 2009 (6) February 2009 (4) January 2009 (4) December 2008 (3) November 2008 (5) October 2008 (4) September 2008 (3) August 2008 (5) July 2008 (4) June 2008 (4) May 2008 (4) April 2008 (4) March 2008 (5) February 2008 (4) January 2008 (4) December 2007 (5) November 2007 (4) October 2007 (4) September 2007 (6) August 2007 (4) July 2007 (5) June 2007 (4) May 2007 (4) April 2007 (5) March 2007 (4) February 2007 (4) January 2007 (4) Categories Select Category Sermon Audio (733) 2007 Sermons (53) 2008 Sermons (49) 2009 Sermons (59) 2010 Sermons (50) 2011 Sermons (52) 2012 Sermons (50) 2013 Sermons (52) 2014 Sermons (52) 2015 Sermons (52) 2016 Sermons (50) 2017 Sermons (52) 2018 Sermons (52) 2019 Sermons (54) 2020 Sermons (53) 2021 Sermons (3) Uncategorized (1) Acts: Life In The Spirit (67) A New Life (18) Christmas At The Movies (4) Christmas Originals (6) David Shrout (11) Do We See What Isaiah Saw? (5) Frank A Clore (19) Frank Clore (72) Frankie Clore (19) Games People Play (5) General Electric Power Company (36) Get Your Feet Wet (6) Hope Is On The Way (7) Is It Still... (4) iTruths For an iPod Generation (4) Jeff McCoy (22) Jeremy Felkel (9) Jesus-The Ultimate Action Hero (33) Joel Collier (16) John Pettigrew (94) Learning From the Songs of Christmas (5) Lordship Living — God Provides (4) Luke-The Investigative Gospel (124) Making Sense of Today's News (7) Precious & Magnificent Moments (9) Rick Cunnington (4) Ruth: A Story of God's Faithfulness (4) Sermon (725) Spiritual Disciplines (11) The Great Adventure (5) The Minor Prophets (12) The Story Seldom Told (5) Val Watkins (455)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line95
__label__wiki	0.865674	0.865674	Published on Sunday Examiner (http://sundayex.catholic.org.hk) Home > House speaker in hot water for dismissal of chaplain House speaker in hot water for dismissal of chaplain Print Version [1] Email to Friend [2] P04_ChaplainDismissed.png [3] WASHINGTON (CNS): The apparent forced resignation of Jesuit Father Patrick Conroy, the chaplain who tends to the spiritual needs of the House of Representatives of the United States of America has drawn fire against Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House and a fellow Catholic. In April, news trickled out that Father Conroy, a beloved figure on Capitol Hill, was set to retire in May, but various news outlets began reporting on April 26 that he was ousted and forced to resign by Ryan. NBC News reported that it had obtained a letter penned by the chaplain to Ryan saying: “As you have requested, I hereby offer my resignation as the 60th Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives.” Father Conroy’s office declined an interview request by CNS about the resignation, but in an interview published by The New York Times, he said he was asked to resign but didn’t know why and expect to leave the post he’s held since 2011 by May 24. In a June 2017 interview with CNS, he said he had opinions about politics, like most people, but knew his job was focused on his role helping members of Congress without paying attention to political stripes. “I can think anything I want, but I can’t say it,” he explained. “Some people say: ‘You’re there, why don’t you say prophetic things?’ If I did, a week from now, there would be a different person here and nothing would have changed.” Some speculate that the following prayer, which he prayed as lawmakers considered the tax bill in November 2017, is what led to his ouster. “May all members be mindful that the institutions and structures of our great nation guarantee the opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success, while others continue to struggle. May their efforts these days guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans,” he prayed. Posting on Twitter, fellow Jesuit, Father James Martin, editor-at-large of America magazine, said if that prayer is what led to the firing, “then a Catholic Speaker of the House fired a Catholic chaplain for praying for the poor.” Sister Simone Campbell, a Sister of Social Service and executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobbying organisation, in her own Twitter message, said she was “outraged.” She tweeted, “From my work with Father Conroy, it was clear that his ministry is bipartisan and he holds the needs of all —including both Republicans and Democrats—in his heart.” She said she had serious questions about the firing, whether it was for the prayer surrounding the tax vote or because Father Conroy had invited a Muslim cleric to pray. Maureen Ferguson, senior policy advisor with The Catholic Association—a Washington-based group that describes itself as “dedicated to being a faithful Catholic voice in the public square”—defended Ryan and said anyone who knows him “knows he is a devoted Catholic.” She said in a statement that the criticisms surrounding Ryan’s “decision to ask the House chaplain to step aside are baseless and downright absurd. Reportedly, there were numerous complaints from members about the pastoral care offered by the chaplain and he was asked to leave based on job performance alone. The Speaker attempted to give Father Conroy a gracious and dignified exit, but as is frequently the case in Washington, much ado is being made about nothing.” House Democratic Caucus chairperson, Joseph Crowley, proposed establishing a committee to look into the ouster on April 27, but House Republicans overwhelmingly voted to kill the resolution. Outrage, however, continued on Twitter and beyond trying to save the chaplain’s job. Father Conroy told The New York Times he wasn’t going to question the decision. Father Conroy was the second Catholic in history to hold the House chaplain’s spot; the first was Father Daniel Coughlin who retired from the post in 2010. Sat, 05/05/2018 - Fri, 05/11/2018 More from this section [4] Previous: Judge rules Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals should continue [5] Next: Report says Indian government ignoring religious violence [6] dismissal of chaplain [7] forced to resign [8] House of Representatives [9] Jesuit Father Patrick Conroy [10] Paul Ryan [11] the United States of America [12] US Congress [13] Source URL: http://sundayex.catholic.org.hk/node/5422 [1] http://sundayex.catholic.org.hk/print/5422 [2] http://sundayex.catholic.org.hk/printmail/5422 [3] http://sundayex.catholic.org.hk/sites/sundayex.catholic.org.hk/files/P04_ChaplainDismissed.png [4] http://sundayex.catholic.org.hk/intl [5] http://sundayex.catholic.org.hk/node/5420 [7] http://sundayex.catholic.org.hk/taxonomy/term/3635 [10] http://sundayex.catholic.org.hk/taxonomy/term/3636	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line97
__label__wiki	0.67824	0.67824	Vincent Gioia's Blog The real story of AIG AIG has been in the news a lot these days. At the beginning of the AIG saga the Fed said it was too big to allow it to fail and so billions were given to “save” the company. Of course this failed and still more money was thrown their way. When it was “discovered” that AIG had contractual obligations to give serious bonuses to key employees, congress was irate. Even after it became known that a Democrat, Senator Chris Dodd, inserted a provision in the Stimulus bill to protect these bonuses at the request of the Treasury Department, the jackals that passed, but didn’t read, the bill were still furious. With all the attention given to AIG I think it is interesting to learn a little more about the company. First of all, some may be surprised to learn that AIG is a subsidiary of American International Corporation (AIC) and the parent has a most interesting history. AIC has succeeded in remaining invisible and does that by relying on secrecy because that’s how its founders liked it. John D. Rockefeller, Sr., of Robber Baron fame, started the company in 1910. Other Barons of industry joined John D.; Andrew Mellon, J.P. Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie. Other American industrialists and bankers also joined the AIC venture. The reason such an illustrious group of giants came together was that knew the financial clout they could exert together would bring them even more wealth, but more importantly, power; at a time when there were few government restrictions interfering with business. Rockefeller, the oil man, knew that Russia would become of major importance because of the discovery of oil in Baku near the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan. The oil field was the largest known oil strike in the world at the time. However, the Baku oil field was controlled entirely by the Swiss munitions manufacturers Alfred and Robert Nobel and Tsar Nicholas II's banker, Baron Alphonse Rothschild, who had gotten there earlier. As early as 1884 Rothschild and Nobel were pumping as much oil from the Baku Oil Fields as Rockefeller was from all of his holdings in the United States and Rockefeller wanted to get in on the action. By 1870 Rockefeller’s Standard Oil controlled 85% of the refining and distribution of oil in the entire world but by 1880 he lost most of his distribution rights in Europe to Rothschild. In order to succeed in Russia Rockefeller realized the Tsar had to go. Rockefeller, Morgan, Mellon and their banker friends were already well on their way to creating a central federal bank owned by them and getting the US to enact a national income tax to repay what the United States would soon owe to that privately-owned central bank. Taking over Russian oil was something else. The Rockefeller group of business giants met in New York with Bolshevik Leon Trotsky between 1907 and 1910. Rockefeller, his banker friends, Mellon and Morgan, and steel man Andrew Carnegie, along with others of equal rank in the business world pooled their resources and put up $50 million to form the American International Corporation, AIC, which they announced was created to stimulate world trade. However the real purpose was to get the Bolsheviks to overthrow Tsar Nicholas II. They made a deal with Trotsky and his partner in crime Vladimir Ulyanov, whom the world would get to know as Lenin. In exchange for financing the Bolshevik Revolution Rockefeller and his robber Baron friends would be allowed to take over the Russian oil fields. But what actually happened is that Trotsky and Lenin double crossed AIC after they helped topple the Tsar. It is an unfortunate reality that but for the interference of the Robber Barons the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution would not have succeeded. With the help of Rockefeller and his equally greedy merry men the Tsar was overthrown. To cement their power the Bolsheviks shot and killed the Tsar and his family enabling the well-financed Bolsheviks to depose the Romanov dynasty. After this bit of history it may be asked who, or what, exactly, is American International Corporation? Jon Christian Ryter has written: “AIC is one of the two largest corporations ever formed. The other is Standard Oil, which was broken apart by US District Court Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis on August 3, 1907. At 4 p.m. on May 15, 1911, the US Supreme Court upheld the Landis judgment, and what was one behemoth oil giant became seven behemoth oil giants—with the Rockefeller family as the primary shareholders in all of them (otherwise known as 'the seven sisters'). The government would ultimately learn from its Standard Oil mistake because when the Reagan-era Supreme Court broke up Ma Bell, AT&T was forced to sell-off the breakaway companies.” AIC personnel comprised executives brought into the company who were trusted associates from each partner's own commercial ventures. Rockefeller, Mellon, Morgan and Carnegie masterminded the creation of AIC and built the corporation similar to Standard Oil with secrecy layers that made it very difficult to be scrutinized. Among those brought into AIC was Frank Vanderlip from Rockefeller's National City Bank, one of the seven people who would not only help write the Federal Reserve Act legislation, but he would also be instrumental in getting congress to enact the 16th Amendment* by promising them fame and fortune, or threatening them with failure if they didn’t go along. Vanderlip was on the board of AIC along with such luminaries who served at various points of time throughout AIC's century-old life, like Thomas Vail, CEO of AT&T, Percy Rockefeller (one of John D.’s brothers), James A. Stillman (a Rockefeller in-law), Pierre DuPont, and George H. Walker, maternal grandfather of George H.W. Bush. At one point Robert S. Lovett joined the board and became a key advisor to President John F. Kennedy. Lovett advocated ignoring the 2nd Amendment and disarming the American people as the first step in creating global government. “Other founding directors included manufacturer Cyrus McCormick; railroad executive James J. Hill; Edwin S. Webster (Stone's partner); investment banker Otto Kahn, meat-packer Ogden Armour; Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Taft, Beekman Winthrop; Henry Smith Pritchett, president of the Carnegie Corporation; and Joseph P. Grace, then a Standard Oil chemist. He developed petrochemical products from crude oil. Also, banker Charles H. Sabin; W.E. Corey, head of US Steel; James Cash Penney, founder of J.C. Penney; and Charles A. Coffin, who replaced Thomas Edison as CEO of General Electric.” (Jon Christian Ryter) “In 1918, Forbes published his first list of the 30 richest America. Heading the list were the invisible rich whose wealth is never supposed to be mentioned by the media. Among them, alphabetically, were J. Ogden Armour, Vincent Astor, Andrew Carnegie, Pierre DuPont, Henry Clay Frick, Daniel Guggenheim, Cyrus McCormick, John Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Russell Sage, Jacob Schiff, Charles M. Schwab, and William Vanderbilt. Since all but a few of these names own shares of the Federal Reserve, it is unlikely that any of them became "less rich" over time. The business holdings of these men included oil, coal, railroads, steel, gold and silver mining, and investment banking. Rockefeller headed the Forbes list. His wealth in 1918 was conservatively estimated at $1.2 billion by Forbes in an age when a bank president who earned $5,000.00 per year and was considered to be an extremely wealthy man.” The Robber Barons wanted a world without borders with a common currency with which to trade anywhere in the world; a global economy with a global government. Does this sound familiar? *The 16th Amendment is the Inc0me Tax Amendment Posted by Vincent G. Gioia at 2:29 PM Jim Simpson said... Vincent: This is a very eye-opening read. I am writing something similar and want to learn more. Could you please provide me the sources for this information? contact: one-dot-wonders-AT-verizon-dot-net. Jim Simpson RPaul said... I have not been able to confirm this yet, but I was told that AIG was the first to be bailed out because they hold the governments pension accounts. Republicans need to return to their conservative p... Obama’s successful “100 days” [with help from Newt... Senator Feinstein fly’s under the radar while the ... The U.S. Constitution has one big flaw Making sense of the mess we’re in (with help from ... The absurdity that carbon dioxide is a pollutant Obama and Democrats outdo themselves with HR-1913 Obama flip-flops on Durban II The ‘GIVE ACT’ should be called the ‘TAKE ACT’ – t... Amendment XX of the Constitution says Barack Obama... Obama ready to give away the store, (meaning the c... Changing our form of government without amending t... Vincent G. Gioia Vincent Gioia is a retired lawyer who is also a metallurgical engineer graduate from Colorado School of Mines. He lives in Palm Desert, California.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line101
__label__cc	0.697629	0.302371	Rogers Ready for Action Written by Tom Ngo On Saturday, Brett Rogers will be stepping into the cage for the first time in over 10 months. The violent heavyweight has a lot of pent up anger that he would like to unload on Ron Humphries at Strikeforce’s “Shamrock vs. Diaz.” “Instead of dealing with it on the streets, how most people like to deal with it, I just hang on to it and use it towards training. And when the time comes, the sport is allowing me to unleash,” Rogers said of his stress reliever. Rogers’ anxieties are not too different than most Americans in today’s economy. After sitting idly while his previous employer, ProElite, tried to work through their financial woes, Rogers realized that he needed to find new employment as he noticed his bank account was dwindling by the day. He was forced to ask for his old job back as a tire installer for Sam’s Club. Ironically, after he started his MMA career with eight wins, he and his wife quit their jobs to focus on his career. Unfortunately, EliteXC wasn’t able to hold up their end of the bargain, and 10 months and a new employer later, Rogers is ready to get back to his “real” job. “The way I see it, this dude is about to pay my bills,” Rogers said of Ron Humpries. “It’s been a long time, and I’m just going to have to take out a little aggression on him. He’s trying to make something of himself, and I’ve been in his shoes. I know what he’s thinking. I have to crush all that. Try that with somebody else. Bad timing.” Although Rogers has been working with rubber during the day, he has also been pounding the mat at night. He feels that his skills have improved significantly from the last time fans saw him put Jon Murry to sleep at EliteXC: Primetime last May, and he is eager to show it. “I don’t want to say quick, but I do want to show that I’ve been working other skills,” he said. “I’m gonna leave it up to the other guy. He’s going to have his chance to do what he needs to do. Otherwise, I’m gonna make up his mind for him, and do what I do: rush him, get in for the kill. With all that stuff that I was doing, I can only squeeze in so much time for the heavy, heavy conditioning, so I’m not gonna go in there and try and play around with him.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line103
__label__wiki	0.890953	0.890953	12 Oil and Gas PSAs Could Draw $2 billion in Investments…ProZorro to Auction 9 Energy Leases in Q1 2019…Rada Passes Green Energy Auction Bill…US Senators Call for “Robust” Navy Move for Azov…Investor Needed for Air Cargo Terminal Tenders for 12 oil and gas production sharing agreements are to draw up to $2 billion in investment for exploration and production, predicts Igor Nasalik, Minister of Energy and Coal Industry. The tenders are to held in the first half of 2019 for fields in Chernihiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Lviv, Poltava, and Sumy regions. Nasalik estimated total deposits at 800 million barrels of oil. By 2022, he predicts, 40 million barrels could be produced. The long-awaited decision to re-start production sharing agreements is a “huge win…really big time for Ukraine, international investors” says Morgan Williams, director of government affairs of SigmaBleyzer, the Houston-based private equity group. Earlier this year, Michael Bleyzer, company president, said: “We are interested in areas over 500 square kilometers within the PSA conditions. At the first stage, we are ready to invest 100 million.” Also in energy, the Cabinet of Ministers approved Tuesday the transfer of 90% of rights and obligations of the old Royal Dutch Shell gas concession in Kharkiv and Donetsk regions to Yuzgaz BV, a Ukrainian-controlled Dutch company. Yuzgaz has contracted with Slovakia’s NAFTA to develop the Yuzivska field, reports Interfax-Ukraine. Details of Ukraine’s first 10 oil and gas leases up for electronic auction are now on the ProZorro platform. Auctions are to be held in the first quarter of 2019, says Stepan Kubiv, Minister of Economic Development and Trade. Nine licenses are for exploration and production over 20 years. One license is for exploration over five years. Covering a total area of 1,810 square kilometers, the lots potentially hold 86 billion cubic meters gas and 115 million barrels of oil. Oleg Kirilyuk, head of the State Geological Service, says that later in the year, 20 more leases, covering a total of 3,200 square kilometers, will be auctioned through ProZorro. “Big” privatizations are a condition for Ukraine to receive more money from the IMF under the new 14-month standby program, according to UNIAN. By July 1, these state companies should be sold off: electricity supplier Centrenergo, coal miner Krasnolimanskaya, insulin maker Indar, and Kyiv’s hilltop President Hotel. With the privatization mechanism in place, the 2019 budget allows for $600 million in revenue from sales. The IMF also says Ukraine should carry out 500 “small” privatizations – state properties assessed at under $9 million. Running through February 2020, the IMF program also stipulates that Ukraine raise household gas prices to market levels by Jan. 1, 2020. Also, before this spring’s presidential election is over, the current government should appoint “at least 35 anti-corruption judges with an impeccable reputation and relevant professional skills,” according to the IMF agreement letter obtained by Ekonomicheskaya Pravda. By the end of March, the IMF wants to see a final Rada vote to abolish the National Financial Services and to split its powers between the National Bank of Ukraine and the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market. The central bank is to regulate and supervise insurance companies, leasing and factoring companies, credit unions, credit bureaus, pawnshops, and other financial companies. The Securities Commission is to regulate private pension funds, building funds, and real estate funds. A bill to cut ‘green’ tariffs and to start auctions for wind and solar power energy passed its first reading Thursday in the Rada by a narrow margin — two votes. Under the bill, a consensus of seven drafts, solar tariffs would fall by 25% in 2020, followed by annual decreases of 2.5%. The wind tariff would fall by 10% in 2020, following by annual decreases of 1.5%. Starting in 2020, auctions would be mandatory for wind projects over 20 MW and for all other renewable energy projects over 10 MW. The bill faces a second vote. Ukraine’s ban on sales of farmland was extended for one more year. With the Rada vote on Thursday, the ban will complete two decades. But the new law gives the Cabinet of Ministers two months to come up with a land sale bill. The government’s leading version provides for a cautious exit from the freeze: land sales allowed only to Ukrainian citizens, with no buyer allowed to amass a holding larger than 200 hectares. The World Bank estimates that a free market for farmland would generate $1 billion a year in rural investment. Ukraine is launching a national website to help farmers determine market values of land leases. Maintained by the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry, the portal draws on a nationwide database of soil quality and known auction prices. Last year, 1,837 lease rights to a total area of 42,500 hectares of farmland were publicly auctions, UNIAN reports. With farmers becoming more aware of market prices, the average rental rate in the first half of this year was 19% higher than in the first half of last year. To set a market for freight car rentals, Ukrzaliznytsya has put its first cars – 50-grain hoppers – up for leasing through ProZorro. Bids are accepted through Dec. 26 and the auctions will be held the next day. Last month, in a move highly unpopular with farmers and steelmakers, the state railroad raised its freight rates by an average of 41%. As of Thursday morning, 41 US Senators – out of 100 – backed a resolution urging President Trump “to work with United States allies to promptly lead a robust multinational freedom of navigation operation in the Black Sea to help demonstrate support for internationally recognized borders, bilateral agreements, and safe passage through the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov and to push back against excessive Russian Federation claims of sovereignty.” The resolution also calls on EU ports to stop refueling Russian Navy ships and for the cancellation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a co-sponsor, cites Russia’s attack on the Ukrainian Navy ships at the Kerch Strait, a new hot button issue in Washington: “revelations about [Russia’s] extensive cyber disinformation campaigns in the U.S.” Starting Monday, Boryspil airport will restrict air cargo imports for 10 days, reports the website for Kyiv’s main airport. With Boryspil, Ukraine’s busiest airport stretched for space and personnel, the Infrastructure Ministry seeks a foreign or national company to invest up to $10 million to double the existing cargo terminal by building a 10,000 square meter expansion. For comments and story tips, Brooke is reachable at: jbrooke@ubn.news	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line108
__label__wiki	0.866054	0.866054	Miramar, The Mrs. Alexander H. Rice "Cottage", Newport On April 15 1912, the brand new luxury liner, Titanic, sank to the bottom of the ocean. It was her maiden voyage. There were over 1,500 people still onboard. One of them was George D Widener and his son Harry. In one of the 20 lifeboats sprawled around the wreckage was Eleanor Elkins Widener, mother of Harry and wife of George. That night Eleanor became a widow. Eleanor Had Come From The Immensely Wealthy Elkins Family of Philadelphia. You Could Say She "Grew Up With A Silver Spoon In Her Mouth" Eleanor returned home without her husband and her son and was met by the Widener Family's private train. For months she mourned at the Widener estate, Lynnewood Hall, alongside her other son and daughter. Finally three years after the sinking, she married Alexander Hamilton Rice, a famous explorer . Alexander Hamilton Rice On One Of His Numerous Safari Expeditions, Which Were Paid For By Eleanor's Money As a memorial to Widener, Eleanor had their Newport cottage, Miramar, completed, which had been started before the Titanic. She lived there for most of her mourning period and continued to live there with Rice. Miramar Was One Of The Largest Homes In Newport, It Was Built In Less Than 3 Years And Only That Long Because Of Eleanor's Mourning Period The most sumptuous part of the estate was it lavish gardens and grounds. On the property were a large garage unit, rose gardens, green houses, ice house, gardener's cottage and a small house toward the front of the property. The Service Court, Which Was Normally Filled With Rolls Royce Limousines, Was Cleaned Daily By 5 Workmen The Garage Unit, Where The 16 Rolls Royce Limousines Were Cleaned Daily, Whether Used Or Not, By 10 Men The Lavish Rose Gardens Were Maintained By A Staff Of 17 Gardeners, Who Resided In A Large Cottage Near The Entrance The Ground Floor contained a large vestibule, stair hall, reception room, living room, ballroom, dining room, service pantries and two loggias. The second floor held the master suites, guest bedrooms, guest suites, bathrooms, boudoirs, guest sitting rooms and the stair hall. The remaining floors held several servant rooms, two bathrooms, the servant's sitting room and a storage room. The Living Room, Which Was Basically The Library. It Was Filled With Rice's Collection Of Expedition Volumes The Reception Room, Where Eleanor Had Tea Every Morning, The Paneling Around The Fireplace Was Imported From Europe The Dining Room Of Miramar, The Table Could Seat 50 People. The Rice Held Most Of Their Entertainments In Here Miramar was officially opened with a large ball in August, with 500 guests in attendance. Eleanor greeted the guests with her daughter, (Eleanor) Mrs. Fritz Eugene Dixon, who also lived at Miramar. The guest danced in the ballroom and on the terrace, right next to the sea. The trees of the estate were adorned with electrical illuminations and the music was provided by the three orchestras. Eleanor, Her Son George and Miramar's Architect Horace Trumbauer Attending A Lawn Party In Newport Eleanor died in Paris in 1937. He $14 million and her three homes passed to Alexander. After his death, the homes passed to Eleanor and George. George Widener And His Wife Jessie Sloane Attending A Party Given By Brooke Astor At Her Residence In New York City George and Jessie continued to reside at Miramar, giving several large and lavish parties. Eleanor sold her mother's New York City and Palm beach residences and moved to her estate, Ronaele (Eleanor spelled backwards). In Their Later Years, The Wideners Retired To Their Large Farming Estate, Giving Miramar To The Rhode Island Episcopal Diocese Miramar passed through many hands, eventually ending up in David B Ford's. He is now immersed in a restoration renovation with John Tschirch (architectural historian at the Preservation Society of Newport). Miramar Undergoing Renovations, Lead By David Ford and John Tschirch. Posted by Tyler Hughes at 8:18 AM 8 comments: Beechwood, The Astor Cottage, Newport Beechwood was first built for merchant Daniel Parrish by architects Andrew Downing and Calvert Vuax. The first cottage burned down in a fire and the one that stands there today was built. The mansion and grounds were purchased by millionaire William Backhouse Astor Jr for his wife Caroline Schermerhorn, Queen of New York City Society. Caroline brought in architect Richard Morris Hunt to redesign the "cottage" and turn it into a mansion capable of holding lavish parties. The renovations included the adding of a large ballroom to the back of the house and the adding of a servant's wing. After her son, John,'s death, Beechwood was sold by his son, Vincent, to Count and Countess Paul De Kotzebue. The Count sold the estate to Mr. and Mrs. William C. Clark of Newport and Palm Beach. They closed down 11 of the estate's 48 rooms and used the house for lavish entertaining. Today it is undergoing restoration renovation by billionaire Larry Edison. Click HERE to find out more about the Astors and their mansion in New York City. Click HERE to find out more about Beechwood. Posted by Tyler Hughes at 4:09 PM No comments: Hammersmith Farm, The Auchincloss's Newport Estate Hammersmith Farm is a large Newport "cottage", formerly owned by the Auchincloss family. It was first sold to John Winthrop Auchincloss, who sold it to his brother, Hugh D. Auchincloss. When Hugh died, the estate passed to his son, Hugh D. Auchincloss Jr, whose 3rd wife was Janet Lee, former wife of Jack Bouvier. His stepdaughter, Jacqueline Bouvier, was married here to Senator John F Kennedy. After Hugh's death the property was sold. It has passed through many hands and is today a private residence. The Auchincloss family still resides on the property and own most of the grounds, though. Hugh D. "Yusha" Auchincloss III, Hugh's son, now lives in "The Castle", a large house that was originally the guest house. "The Palace", formerly the garage, is now occupied by Hugh III's sister. "The Windmill", a large non-working windmill by the ocean, is resided in by Hugh III's half sister, Nina. To read about "The Windmill", "The Castle", "The Palace" and other surviving Newport estates, click HERE. Posted by Tyler Hughes at 2:48 PM 18 comments: Champ Soleil Estate Article Below is an article of the large Newport estate Champ Soleil. The estate was built by Lucy Drexel Dahlgren and was later purchased by the enormously wealthy Robert Goelet, who was downsizing from his other Newport estate, Ochre Court. Click HERE for more. Articles Courtesy Of Polhemus & Coffin The Whim, The Newport Cottage Where Oatsie Charles Spends Her Summers The Whim is the Newport cottage of Oatsie Charles, formerly the caretaker's cottage of the estate Land's End. Mrs. Charles had originally lived in Land's End, but she moved to the cottage after her husband's death. Mrs Charles renovated The Whim before she moved in, turning it into what she called "an elegant jewel box". In The Whim she placed her large collection of furniture and rare artwork, which included the antique paneling that she purchased from the auctioning of nearby Marble House. She made her biggest renovations on the grounds, which she turned into magnificent gardens. She recently had decorator John Peixinho redo the study at The Whim. "I told him I wanted a media room" said Charles "Not that I had any idea what that was. But I liked the sound of it". He completely redid the room, even re-covering her late husband's Barcalounger. Today, Oatsie still lives at The Whim and enjoys walking through her topiary wonderland. Click HERE to find out more about Land's End. Posted by Tyler Hughes at 10:23 AM 1 comment: Tennis At The Newport Casino Above is a photo of a tennis match going on at The Newport Casino, built by James Gordon Bennett. Tennis was popular at the Casino, especially after Jimmy Van Alen (whose mother was Mrs. Louis Bruguiere and whose family had been summering in Newport for over four generations) founded the Tennis Hall of Fame and VASSS (Van Alen Streamlined Scoreing System). The Newport Casino is still open today. For more click HERE. Posted by Tyler Hughes at 7:26 AM 14 comments: The Four Seasons Manor Nestled in the south Tulsa hills, a palatial French-inspired estate coined "The House of the Four Seasons" tells tales of the 17th century. It also tells the story of the family who dreamed it into existence. After eight years, the home of Ed Taylor and his late wife, Nancy, was finally finished in 1998. Currently on the market for $9 million, it's approximately 20,000 square feet and sits on nearly 4 acres of prime land near Oral Roberts University. "If this house were in Beverly Hills, no one would blink an eye," said Dennis Tate, executive manager of the Taylor estate. "All things are relative, and for a home in the Midwest, it captivates people." After the home was completed, a full-time staff of 12 worked inside. There were also executive-level butlers, a full-time gardener and a carpenter. The house has gold-plated sinks, marble floors, nine fireplaces, and it's packed to the gills with French antiques, oil paintings and fine draperies. And no one has ever lived in it. Taylor-made riches The mansion was Nancy's dream. Ed amassed a fortune in the communications industry in the '70s and '80s. "I figured I spent a lot of money buying up satellites, so she should be able to spend some of the money how she wanted," Ed Taylor said. In 1976, Taylor and his Southern Satellite Systems Inc., were called on by multimedia giant Ted Turner. Turner wanted his local TV station in Atlanta to be offered by satellite. "Most people in the country thought we had lost our minds," Taylor said. "Putting Ted Turner up on satellite? They thought we were nuts." Taylor did what no one else wanted to do. Afterward, Turner sold Taylor the rights to the new superstation's signal. Taylor paid $1. The two proved wrong the doubters and raked in millions in the process - Taylor from the nationwide sales of the signal and Turner from the advertising opportunities those sales created. Taylor, who has remained friends with Turner, went on to develop new channels - his most noted was what eventually became CNBC - and became a shareholder in many communications innovations. The advances in satellite TV have astonished even one of its pioneers. "HBO came along with a little dirty stuff, and Pat Robertson came along with a little religion," Taylor said. "No one dreamed that 20 years later it would be what it became." In 2008, Taylor eventually sold the majority share in his company - a 51 percent stake that made him $100 million richer. Already a wealthy man, the money didn't change his life much, except that he couldn't share it with Nancy. Lady of the manor Nancy Taylor was a patron of the arts, a former dancer who had a passion for architecture and antiques. She wanted her new home to rival a French chateau. And she got it. The exterior walls are stucco; the interior walls are plaster, not drywall. The beams on the 26-foot ceilings are intricately hand-painted. The wainscoting is wrapped in fabric - true to French life before electricity. Dual staircases frame a massive entryway chandelier that was rescued from a hotel in Monte Carlo. The bar in the "trophy room" is made of copper. A 3,400-square-foot master wing is home to two bathrooms, a study and 1,500 square feet of closet space. "This was (Nancy's) home. (Ed) built it for her; it was her dream," Tate said. "They traveled the world together, filling up the home with authentic furnishings. They discovered things together. It was almost as if the journey was greater than the destination." One of the couple's most prized finds was a one-of-a-kind Steinway and Sons piano that was commissioned for the 1878 World's Fair in Paris. It is golden, with hand-painted artistry flanking the sides. A family on Park Avenue in New York was selling their family heirloom, and the Taylors bought it sight-unseen. "Nancy and I happened to go to Buckingham Palace," Taylor said laughing, "and there sat an old Steinway, but it didn't have any of the paintings on it. "So my wife says about the queen's piano, 'That one isn't as nice as ours.' " Across the home's grand parlor, above the antique marble fireplace from a European castle, is an ornate frame. But there isn't a picture inside. It just sits empty because as early French culture dictates, that spot is reserved for the lady of the manor. "We commissioned an oil painting," Taylor said. "Nancy bought a very, very expensive dress to wear for the portrait. She just got too sick." 'Couldn't break her heart' Nancy first became ill in 1987. "No one knew what it was," Taylor said. "They later found out she had an autoimmune disease. But at that time, they were newly discovered and no one knew how to treat it." From 1987 to 1997, until Nancy couldn't any longer, the couple traveled the world. Despite their deep pockets, the Taylors didn't own homes in other states or exotic places. "We rented a place in Arizona when Nancy was in a (health) study there," Taylor said. "We didn't want to own a place anywhere but Tulsa." As Nancy's health worsened, Ed did everything he could to keep her spirits lifted. Before the construction on the new home was complete, Taylor said he knew his wife's dream wasn't going to be realized. "She was too ill to move," he said. "It couldn't be done, she wasn't going to be able to live there, and I wasn't going to tell her that. I couldn't break her heart. "I think if she had known when I knew - if she wouldn't have had that hope, something to look forward to - she would have given up. I wanted her with us as long as possible." She didn't live long enough to become the lady of the manor. After 20 years of suffering, Nancy Elizabeth Taylor died July 22, 2007, at 73. She and Ed had just celebrated their 53rd anniversary. Assessing his wealth You'd never know it based on his love of Tulsa, but Ed Taylor was raised back East and adopted Oklahoma in the '70s. When business took him back to New York in the '80s, he said, "We proved that you actually can't go home again. We hated it." So back they came. Ed was once the owner of a private jet, and he rubbed elbows with the likes of Turner and Rupert Murdoch, but for an interview with the Tulsa World, he pulled onto the sprawling grounds of his estate in a tan Buick sedan. He's surprisingly down-to-earth, somewhat uncomfortable in front of a camera's lens and a note-taking reporter. Ed is now remarried, and he and his second wife, Sylvia, live in the modest place the Taylor family called home for years. "Anymore, I'm just happy to find some other old folks who like to play bridge," he said. Ed still enjoys his fortune, no doubt, but he is also spending more time using it to meet community needs. He spoke with passion about his involvement with the Town and Country School, a haven for children with disabilities. His daughter, an architect who had to give up her firm because of arthritis, has also inspired him to give to juvenile arthritis programs. "There are 300,000 children right now suffering from arthritis, and they are going to get a whole lot sicker over their lifetimes," he said. The Taylor Family Foundation, run by one of Ed and Nancy's sons, helps many other charitable causes. "At this stage in my life, there are things God would rather me be doing with my money," he said. Ed Taylor has moved forward since Nancy's death, but he isn't afraid to talk about the home's history, a direct link to the first wife he loved dearly. "It was her dream," Ed Taylor said. "I only wish she had lived to experience it." So there the mansion sits, on a hilltop. Tulsa's movers and shakers come and go for parties and fundraisers. Prospective buyers pop in now and again. It has spent two years on the market and now is at a few million less than the starting price. With a wide smile and a head full of memories, Ed Taylor takes a deep breath and revisits one of the best deals he ever made. "Who wants to buy it?" he asked jokingly. "If you can pay the taxes, I'd give it to you for a dollar." By Brandi Ball Posted by Tyler Hughes at 3:38 PM 1 comment: Beacon Towers, The Alva Belmont Estate, NY Beacon Towers was a large, castle like estate, built for the Women's rights campaigner Alva Vanderbilt Belmont. Alva had been married to the enormously wealthy William K. Vanderbilt, but divorced him for her second husband, Oliver Belmont. On Belmont's death, Alva had the architectural firm of Hunt & Hunt build a massive estate on Long Island, which she would name Beacon Towers. Toward the end of her life, Mrs. Belmont began to sell her many properties. Brookholt (click HERE for more), her estate also on Long Island in 1915, her townhouse at 477 Madison Avenue (click HERE for more) in 1923 and later on her Newport estate, Belcourt Castle (click HERE for more). Finally she sold Beacon Towers in 1927 to William R. Hearst. The estate was eventually demolished into a pile of rubble. Mrs. Louis S. Bruguiere "My Darling Mother" Jimmy Van Alen once said of his mother "Was The Last of Those Running A Taut Ship". He was right. Mrs. Bruguiere had originally been married to James Laurens Van Alen of Newport and she had lived with him and their family at his family's Newport estate, Wakehurst. Daisy, as Mrs. Bruguiere was known, had once said that "Wakehurst is the last properly run estate left in Newport". She was considered queen of the Old Guard and was, for 6 decades, Matriarch of the Van Alen Family. Once when a friend called to ask whether or not Daisy had received a art book she sent. Daisy promptly replied "I did and I promptly threw it in the wastebasket, you know I don't like those kind of books". I am currently seeking out information regarding Mrs. Bruguiere and the Van Alens with the plan of eventually writing a book about them. The photo above is of her in the sitting room of Wakehurst. Design For The Entrance Grill To The Vanderbilt's Marble House Above the design for the entrance grill to the Vanderbilt family's Marble House, their cottage in Newport. The cottage was built by Richard Morris Hunt and contained about 500,000 square feet of marble. It had been constructed for William and Alva Vanderbilt. Alva later on divorced William and claimed Marble House as part of her divorce settlement. Afterwards she married Oliver Belmont, who lived in another Newport cottage not far from Marble House, called Belcourt Castle. Shortly before her death, Alva sold the cottage to the Frederick H Princes. In 1957, Marble House was the scene of the Tiffany Ball , held by the Preservation Society of Newport to raise funds for their preservation work. Marble House was later bought by Harold Vanderbilt (Alva and William's youngest son), who donated it to the Preservation Society in honor of his mother. Posted by Tyler Hughes at 9:21 AM 1 comment: Miramar, The Mrs. Alexander H. Rice "Cottage", New... The Whim, The Newport Cottage Where Oatsie Charles... Design For The Entrance Grill To The Vanderbilt's ...	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line112
__label__wiki	0.695508	0.695508	Independent Film & Music Reviews Highest to Lowest Ratings Must Hear Music Home » Features » 2013 Oscar Nominated Shorts Spotlight: Documentary 2013 Oscar Nominated Shorts Spotlight: Documentary By C.J. Prince @cj_prin on February 8, 2013 This year’s group of short documentary nominees may look like a harrowing bunch to sit through (topics include homeless teens, African children receiving heart surgery and breast cancer patients to name a few) but that should be no reason to scare anyone off from watching them this weekend. All five shorts share a common thread of people either enduring and/or prospering under tough circumstances. The subject matter may be bleak, but they’re all great displays of human strength. Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts Reviews Inocente (dir. Sean Fine, Andrea Nix) Inocente opens with a close-up on its subject of the same name, a 15 year old Mexican-American who explains her situation. For years Inocente, her mother and younger brothers have been homeless. She goes over the various ways they’ve found shelter over the years before shifting to Inocente’s passion for painting big, colourful and unique pictures. The work speaks for itself when it comes to showing off how talented she is, and through a local arts program Inocente is given her own art show. A lot of focus is put on the arts program, but the most interesting parts come out of the fractured relationship between Inocente and her mother. Fine and Nix don’t get too deep into the reasons behind the rift in the family, with an ending that feels lacking. Early on Inocente mentions inviting her mother to the art show and worrying if she’ll show up; eventually her mother does show, but the attempt at an emotional climax falls flat since Inocente is never actually seen with her family. But what makes Inocente such an interesting subject is her relentless optimism. Her art is surprisingly playful, and we repeatedly see people amazed at her positive attitude despite everything she’s been through. A title card at the end points out that this is one story out of millions of homeless children in the United States, but hopefully this one story is only the beginning of a long career. Redemption (dir. Jon Alpert, Matthew O’Neill) The title refers to New York City’s recycling program, where one recycled can or bottle earns 5 cents. Redemption follows ‘canners,’ people who make a living off of collecting and recycling goods throughout the city. The people Alpert and Neill encounter come from all sorts of different backgrounds: a Vietnam veteran, a former programmer for Microsoft who can’t live off of social security, a couple from Guatemala who fly up to collect cans while waiting for their crops back home to grow and a Japanese man who worked at the World Trade Center are a few of the stories told throughout. The not so subtle jabs at the upper class, including an eye roll worthy shot of the camera panning down from a Wall Street sign to a person pushing a cart full of cans, seems unnecessary given how much the subjects situations are more damning of “the 1%” than anything else. The intended goal of the redemption program has mutated from an incentive for morally good actions to a method of survival. The recession made more jobs disappear in the city, with most of the ‘canners’ complaining about how competitive the practice has gotten over the years (one person suggests that the amount of people collecting cans has recently tripled). Nothing in Redemption is more damning towards the upper class than seeing these people literally fighting with each other over empty cans. Kings Point (dir. Sari Gilman) Kings Point opens with narration about New York City in the 1970s. According to the narrator, the crime was so bad at the time that many people moved out of the city to different states. Many of these people looked to Florida, where they were offered cheap prices for a condominium in an area with a nice climate. Now, almost 40 years later, the retirement community that the film gets its title from is filled with former New Yorkers entering what they assume to be the last years of their lives. Sari Gilman, whose grandmother lived at Kings Point for three decades, spent ten years filming people within the community either trying to enjoy themselves or going over their regrets in life. The documentary tends to go back and forth from lighthearted material to more sombre moments with some of the subjects. Two of the most memorable people in the doc are Bea and Frank, two friends who spend so much time together that people initially think they’re married. Frank says that he loves Bea but the age difference (she’s 10 years older) holds him back from committing to her. Eventually Frank tells the truth, explaining that he won’t marry an older woman because he doesn’t want to bury another wife. It’s these moments of candor that make Kings Point such a compelling film, as each person frankly discusses topics like aging, death and loneliness without holding back. Comparisons to Michael Haneke’s Amour are obvious, but Kings Point packs just as much of a gut punch in a significantly shorter amount of time. Open Heart (dir. Kief Davidson) Open Heart starts out in Rwanda with a father taking his 6 year old daughter Angelique to the doctor. The doctor lays out a grim situation for him: Angelique needs open heart surgery to survive, and the only place it can be done is 2500 miles away in Sudan. Angelique has been selected to get the procedure done for free, but her family cannot go with her and if she dies the body can’t be sent back home. The doctor’s blunt delivery of the news along with its placement right at the beginning of the film makes for one of many surreal moments throughout Open Heart. Angelique, along with several other children including 17-year old Marie, have been chosen to get open heart surgery in Sudan. Their condition, which can easily be prevented through penicillin that is unavailable to them, can only be treated in Sudan because it is the only hospital in the continent that can perform the necessary operations. Once the kids get to the hospital, whose modern and sterile environment directly clashes with the earlier moments in Rwanda, the doc’s focus opens up to include the doctors running the facility. Both stories are riveting, and Kief Davidson’s ability to weave back and forth between them without making one feel left behind is remarkable to watch. Open Heart has its fair share of moments that range from infuriating to heartbreaking, all of which add up to a terrific documentary. Mondays at Racine (dir. Cynthia Wade) On the third Monday of every month the Racine salon in Long Island offers its services for free to any women diagnosed with cancer. The owners, two sisters whose mother died of cancer, came up with the idea when they remembered how distressed their mother was about her looks as the cancer got worse. The salon is merely the jumping point for Mondays at Racine, which mainly follows two women with breast cancer who come to the salon regularly. Cambria is a young mother who was in the process of adopting a second child when she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. Linda is in her 50s and is still battling cancer after being diagnosed 14 years ago. While Cambria shows optimism through her chemotherapy treatments Linda shows the devastating impacts of cancer over the long-term. Her marriage is in tatters, and the interviews with Linda and her husband are so unflinchingly raw that it can get hard to watch. Cynthia Wade follows Cambria and Linda over several years, showing their respective progressions and declines in treatment. There’s a personal quality to Mondays at Racine that makes the subject matter hit especially hard, with an ending back at the salon that will move plenty of people to tears. What will win Going by past winners, Open Heart seems to fit the requirements with its material hitting all the right tearjerker notes. But I won’t be surprised (or disappointed) to see Mondays at Racine win if voters are drawn in by its personal qualities. While Inocente, Redemption and Kings Point are all well-done they don’t resonate enough to be in the running. What should win Open Heart. As terrific as Mondays at Racine is, it doesn’t match the professionalism and impact that Open Heart achieves within the same amount of time. Click Here to Advertise! All Good Things Must… Ukrainian Sheriffs (Hot Docs Review) Fraud (Hot Docs Review) Sonita (Hot Docs Review) Copyright © 2016 Way Too Indie The Diary of Preston Plummer The Diary of Preston Plummer feels like a very personal film for writer and director Sean Ackerman; essentially about two young souls that fall in love and discover they each	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line114
__label__wiki	0.711813	0.711813	SiteMap Form West Side Bingo LLC Terminates Leases of the Charities For a number of years now, charitable organizations have operated their own bingo games and kept whatever revenues that they earned during the games after they have paid their expenses and prizes. Charity Group Knights of Columbus will also be moving to the new space in Rogers Street after they have been kicked out of the New Amoskeag Bingo Center. UpReach charity depends upon the $80,000 dollars a year from their bingo operations to sustain the projects of their charity, which mainly provides horse riding activities to physically challenged children. Prayer Hall, which supervises the Welcome Home House, which is a 60 room rooming house located in Manchester, the Hooksett Food Pantry and two apartment houses in Allenstown for transitional housing purposes- depends upon their bingo earnings which totals to about $100,000 dollars annually. The newly renovated building space, which is about 8,700 square meters is fully airconditioned, with fire sprinklers in case of an emergency and is handicapped friendly. According to Richard Danais, a real estate developer and president of the UpReach board, they are planning to add more lighting to the parking area of the building. They are plans for the charities to form an umbrella organization, Charities Hall, which owns the space and will lease the space to the displaced charities. Charities Hall will charge a state regulated fee of $4 dollars per bingo player. Granted accordingly, the variance was needed because bingo halls are generally not allowed to operate in a redevelopment zone. Chairman Steven J. Freedman of the Zoning board of Adjustments said that it would be an interesting use of space which is very complimentary to the area. He is currently trying to find an off-peak, non-traditional user to the area before the incident involving the charities' displacement from New Amoskeag Bingo Center happened. The whole arrangement would work because the parking lot in the building would be empty when the bingo players arrive after office hours. The games will start exactly at 6:45 p.m. from Monday through Saturday and at 1:45 p.m. in the afternoon on Sundays. The bingo center must still get a conditional use permit from the Manchester Planning Board. Several people have addressed the zoning board during last night's meeting, which mainly contains the benefits and services that the charities provided for the community. The president of the Palace Theater Trust, Peter Ramsey said that he is currently working on at running a bingo night in Rogers Street. The public benefit of the charities is very clear, it is going to help a lot of the nonprofit groups who are in similar predicament. Bingo plan The Bingo Machine Types Played in Bingo Halls Collected topics Copyright © 2008 www.240bingo.com - All Rights Reserved.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line118
__label__cc	0.726703	0.273297	Poker – The game of the decade Posted on November 6 by 35 Cents in poker No Comments Home» poker » Poker – The game of the decade Poker has been around for hundreds of years, frequently shown as being played in saloon backrooms in Western Cowboy films. The romantic perceptions of these card sharks moving from town to town ‘Maverick’ style and cleaning up at the poker table occurs in so many famous films. Coincidentally these guys also happened to be the fastest gun in town and always got the Lady. The game has in the past had a reputation for being played by hustlers in the back rooms of pool halls and other similar places of ill repute. Most people have played poker in one form or another from the kitchen table games on a Friday night with the family to the regular ‘boys’ nights and those college funding games at School or University. 2003 was the year that Poker started its growth to worldwide fame as the most popular game of the decade. Internet poker and Television became the driving factor for the fastest growth of a sport since the Snooker explosion in the 80’s. The advent of televised poker such as Poker Million on Sky Sports and the WPT tour on Challenge started growing a cult audience. Under table cameras and pinhole cameras allowed the viewers to see the players cards. Therefore, we could now see how the pros played and how they bluffed. John Duthie, a TV producer was the first player to win a million pound on Television in the Poker Million event. Internet poker exploded as it now allowed people from all over the world to play against each other night and day and fed the demand of TV poker. Players can now find a game at any level 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Games start as small as 5cent/10cent games where the minimum buy in is $1 or $2 and go up to $100/$200 games where you need a minimum of $1,000 to sit down. Online poker also allowed these players the opportunity to qualify for the big TV tournaments through online satellite tournaments. There was now the opportunity for players to win millions of dollars on TV tournaments via satellites for as little as $10. 2003 saw Chris Moneymaker win the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and $2,500,000 from a $40 satellite. Poker tournaments online went wild with hundreds of players entering tournaments and creating huge prize pools. This now meant that you could sit at home and play in big tournaments and win thousands of dollars. In 2004 the WSOP saw the impact of online poker players as 2,500 players entered a $10,000 entry tournament. 50% of these players were from poker sites. The winner, Greg Raymer, took home $5 million dollars. All of these factors resulted in a new breed of poker player, young aggressive and with lots of money. 24 year old kids were winning over a million dollars a year by playing high stakes poker online. The experienced poker players now had a place where they could earn a living without leaving home. The online poker professionals flourished and the new players grew and learned the game. Now it is common place to see games online where the players have $10,000 each in front of them and the average pot is $2,000. Tournaments online regularly have guaranteed prize pools in the hundreds of thousands of dollars with the winners taking home $25,000 to $50,000 in a night. This boom in online tournaments and cash games has meant that the land based tournaments have been flooded with entries. The 2005 WSOP had a record 5,600 players generating a record prize pool of $56 million. The winner Joe Hachem, took home a massive $7.5 million dollars. This was one of the biggest payouts in any sporting event ever. Now million dollar, or million pound tournaments are becoming commonplace all around the world. Poker on television is available 24 hours a day, with a plethora of poker books hitting the market giving everyone expert advice on how to become a successful player. New players joining a poker site can sit down on practice tables and play for fun with free chips whilst they learn how to play the game. The International Poker Network employ Professional poker teachers who sit down for 3 hours a day on the practice tables to answer players queries and advise them on strategies. Poker is now the “in” game and as such has attracted a lot of media attention. Celebrities are now commonplace both online and in live tournaments. Ben Affleck recently won a major poker tournament in LA taking on the best in the poker world. Online you can regularly see celebrities such as Lou Diamond Philips, Delta Goodrum and Brian McFadden playing in normal poker games (quite often for high stakes). Celebrity TV poker tournaments are commonplace and sportsmen and TV stars are all competing for the prize of beating their peers in the ultimate game of skill and strategy. Sportsmen have utilised their competitive edge and ability to handle pressure and are thriving in poker games with Steve Davis, Mark Williams, Matthew Stevens and Phil Taylor some of the notable successes in the poker field. Not only have celebrities and sportsmen been attracted to this new pastime but also women haven taken to online poker in their thousands. Now they have a game where they don’t have to go to a male dominated card room alone, they can now sit in the comfort and security of their own home and pit their skills against all other players regardless of their sex. And they are getting good, maybe they are natural risk takers. Current estimates put the number of women players online at 25-30% of the total players, and it is estimated that 2 million players are online each year. The high stakes games have now gone even bigger with the corporation, a group of 16 of the best poker players in the world taking on Billionaire banker, Andy Beal. Andy Beal is a maths wizard, a billionaire and a very good poker player. He challenged the best players in the world to play him heads up (one on one) for the $10 million dollars he brings with him to Vegas. This game runs with blinds of $30,000/$60,000 or $50,000/$100,000. The “game” is becoming a regular event in Las Vegas. Last time Beal left with $10 million dollars of the corporation’s money. Now they are back playing again. The talks are now about increasing the sit down money from $10 million to $40 million. So if you want to take part in this phenomenon, take a look at http://www.ipnpoker.com the home of The International Poker Network. It is an aggregated room comprising some of the biggest sportsbooks and media brands. Games and tournaments are played in a choice of currencies – dollars, pounds, euros and there is a large choice of languages available including English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, and Greek. Every day you will find over 30,000 players across all different types of games giving you plenty of choice as to when and what to play. At peak times there will be over 7,000 players across all the different games. Do you fancy playing in the ultimate game of skill for high stakes? As the quote from the movie ‘The Color of Money goes, “Money won is twice as sweet as money earned” and it is especially true in poker. By Morgan Collins Living and working in Spain	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line119
__label__wiki	0.655198	0.655198	VENIA DIMITRAKOPOULOU Bas-Relief #1 of Eleftherios Venizelos (1864-1936) 2001 CN: DimV2001ven1 MT: fired clay in wooden frame (40x31x5 / F:50x40x2) ED: 2/20 TX: inscribed with marker at rear lower center in Greek <Venia Dimitrakopoulou 2001 / 2/20> LN: Mrs. Venia Dimitrakopoulou - 2007 LC: ACG - Attica Tradition Educational Foundation, Athens CM: Venia Dimitrakopoulou received the important commission to draw and create three relief busts of the politician Eleftherios Venizelos for the Athens International Airport. The busts were initially presented in 2001 at the exhibition organized by the National Research Foundation 'Eleftherios Venizelos' in cooperation with the Benaki Museum at the opening ceremony of the Venizelos Airport, and are actually exposed in two different locations at its V.I.P. lounges. Eleftherios Venizelos was brother of the artist's great grandmother, and the three bas-reliefs were commissioned to Dimitrakopoulou from his grandson, Lefteris Venizelos. The first portrait is a three quarters pose, and close to what the artist feels about the personality of Venizelos; a vague sadness for his political vision, which had not led to fruition. The second portrait is a nearly frontal pose - quite a difficult technique in terms of portraiture in relief - and is the picture by which people identify Venizelos, a leader who looks at the public in the eye, inspiring people trust and optimism. Finally, the third portrait is a nerly profile pose, which reveals Venizelos as a family man, in his role as a grandfather as it was made of a photograph in which Venizelos is holding his grandson on his knees.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line122
__label__cc	0.611931	0.388069	Please allow page to fully load and redirect you to the new site! Thanks! New Images From Horror Flick 'THE SACRED' Dread Central shared these four new images from Osiris Entertainment's new horror offering, THE SACRED. The movie is directed by Jose Zambrano Casella and stars Jessica Blackmore (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Jr), Jordan Wall (A&E's "The Glades"), and John Kyle (The Woods Have Eyes). You can order the DVD right now at the official The Sacred website. A group of university students travel to a remote patch of land deep in the Florida swamps to complete their thesis project on Native American folklore. A couple of hundred years ago this “Sacred” ground was used by Indians to judge criminals and unwanted members of the tribal community. According to legend, these grounds have the power to bring "sins” back to life, to bring the dead back to life, punishing whoever is guilty of serious crimes. As the students quickly find out, past actions can lead to present nightmares. Labels: jessica blackmore, john kyle, jordan wall, jose zambrano casella, osiris entertainment, the sacred Babe Of The Month Lila Wilde THE MUPPETS Auditioned For Other Film Roles DVD Review: 13 ASSASSINS Watch The New Teaser Trailer For Danielle Harris' AMONG FRIENDS Juan Carlos Fresnadillo In Running To Direct HIGHLANDER Reboot Product Review: MONSTER HIGH 10 Piece Gaming Kit For Nintendo 3DS, DSi And DS Lite Sexy Cosplay Gallery: PUNISHER Watch 2 Sneak Peaks For TRUE BLOOD Episode 43 "Cold Grey Light Of Dawn" First Look: "Acid Head: The Buzzard Nuts County Slaughter" Coming This Spring! James Wan And Nicole Kidman May Take On SPECTRE Close Up Images Of The Crashed Space Ship From THE AVENGERS Set DVD Review: WOUND Movie Review: John Carter Movie Review: Silent House DVD Review: NEVERLAND DVD Review: SHACKLED DVD Review: INSIGHT Blu-ray Review: Columbus Circle Blu-ray Review: Beneath the Darkness DVD Review: RABIES DVD Review: London Boulevard Movie Review: Dorothy and the Witches of Oz Actor Brian Fortune talks Shackled, Wrath of the Crows and more Writer Todd Farmer talks Halloween 3D and more Actress Samaire Armstrong talks 'Around June' Actor:Writer:Producer Ross Patterson talks Poolboy and FDR: American Badass! Writer/Director Leigh Scott talks DOROTHY AND THE WITCHES OF OZ Director Shane Cole talks MUTILATION MAN and more Actress Reiko Aylesworth talks BUZZKILL and other projects The Ford Brothers talk about THE DEAD and more 10 W/ Taff And Manly Artist Jason Chalker Actress Janeline Hayes talks about working With Keifer Sutherland And Vin Diesel View Alien Bee's check-ins on GetGlue Hot Titles Got A Scoop Or Want To Advertise? Do you have a scoop or would you like to contribute to AlienBee? Would you like to advertise on here? If so, simply send an email to iamscifiii@alienbee.biz Alien Bee Team Brian - Editor-in-Chief Clutch NK - Editor, Design, Game Reviews Kerry Beyer - Graphics Kevin Carr - Movie Reviews Leslie Morris - Movie Reviews / Aussie Field Reporter Suicidal - Street Team Goatboy - Graphics Kelsey Z - TV Reviews Mark J. Gross - Interviews Taffeta Darling - Interviews / Special Ops Josh - Comic Book Reviews Drew - Movie Reviews Eeyore - Special Ops Donate To Alien Bee Archive 12/23 - 12/30 (1) 03/18 - 03/25 (5) 03/11 - 03/18 (77) 03/04 - 03/11 (133) 02/26 - 03/04 (113) 02/19 - 02/26 (93) 02/12 - 02/19 (94) 02/05 - 02/12 (104) 01/29 - 02/05 (123) 01/22 - 01/29 (127) 01/15 - 01/22 (126) 01/08 - 01/15 (114) 01/01 - 01/08 (102) 12/25 - 01/01 (79) 12/18 - 12/25 (103) 12/11 - 12/18 (113) 12/04 - 12/11 (99) 11/27 - 12/04 (120) 11/20 - 11/27 (127) 11/13 - 11/20 (137) 11/06 - 11/13 (114) 10/30 - 11/06 (139) 10/23 - 10/30 (145) 10/16 - 10/23 (124) 10/09 - 10/16 (160) 10/02 - 10/09 (127) 09/25 - 10/02 (168) 09/18 - 09/25 (130) 09/11 - 09/18 (171) 09/04 - 09/11 (136) 08/28 - 09/04 (149) 08/21 - 08/28 (205) 08/14 - 08/21 (169) 08/07 - 08/14 (214) 07/31 - 08/07 (183) 07/24 - 07/31 (183) 07/17 - 07/24 (189) 07/10 - 07/17 (214) 07/03 - 07/10 (186) 06/26 - 07/03 (153) 06/19 - 06/26 (174) 06/12 - 06/19 (174) 06/05 - 06/12 (147) 05/29 - 06/05 (157) 05/22 - 05/29 (106) 05/15 - 05/22 (120) 05/08 - 05/15 (131) 05/01 - 05/08 (101) 04/17 - 04/24 (1) 04/03 - 04/10 (1) 03/27 - 04/03 (1) 03/13 - 03/20 (2) 03/06 - 03/13 (1) 02/27 - 03/06 (1) 02/20 - 02/27 (3) 02/13 - 02/20 (6) 02/06 - 02/13 (3) 01/30 - 02/06 (3) 01/16 - 01/23 (1) 01/09 - 01/16 (1) 01/02 - 01/09 (1) 12/26 - 01/02 (3) 12/19 - 12/26 (7) 12/12 - 12/19 (4) 12/05 - 12/12 (3) 11/28 - 12/05 (1) 11/21 - 11/28 (3) 11/07 - 11/14 (5) 10/31 - 11/07 (6) 10/24 - 10/31 (1) 10/17 - 10/24 (2) 10/03 - 10/10 (1) 09/26 - 10/03 (2) 09/19 - 09/26 (1) 09/12 - 09/19 (1) 09/05 - 09/12 (4) 08/29 - 09/05 (2) 08/22 - 08/29 (1) 08/15 - 08/22 (2) 08/08 - 08/15 (5) 07/18 - 07/25 (5) 07/11 - 07/18 (2) 07/04 - 07/11 (1) 06/27 - 07/04 (3) 06/20 - 06/27 (2) 06/13 - 06/20 (7) 06/06 - 06/13 (4) 05/30 - 06/06 (7) 05/23 - 05/30 (4) 05/16 - 05/23 (5) 05/09 - 05/16 (11) 05/02 - 05/09 (11) 04/25 - 05/02 (37) 04/18 - 04/25 (21) 04/11 - 04/18 (17) 04/04 - 04/11 (8) 03/28 - 04/04 (34) 03/21 - 03/28 (11) 03/14 - 03/21 (27) 03/07 - 03/14 (43) 02/28 - 03/07 (49) 02/21 - 02/28 (41) 02/14 - 02/21 (7) 02/07 - 02/14 (9) 01/31 - 02/07 (14) 01/24 - 01/31 (16) 01/17 - 01/24 (10) 01/10 - 01/17 (6) 01/03 - 01/10 (5) 12/27 - 01/03 (2) 12/20 - 12/27 (2) 12/13 - 12/20 (8) 12/06 - 12/13 (4) 11/29 - 12/06 (4) 11/22 - 11/29 (1) 11/15 - 11/22 (2) 11/08 - 11/15 (2) 10/25 - 11/01 (1) 10/11 - 10/18 (1) 10/04 - 10/11 (6) 09/20 - 09/27 (1) 09/13 - 09/20 (6) 09/06 - 09/13 (1) 08/30 - 09/06 (1) 08/23 - 08/30 (1) 08/16 - 08/23 (1) 08/02 - 08/09 (6) 07/26 - 08/02 (12) 07/19 - 07/26 (5) 07/12 - 07/19 (6) 07/05 - 07/12 (1) 06/28 - 07/05 (1) 06/21 - 06/28 (12) 06/14 - 06/21 (4) 06/07 - 06/14 (11) 05/31 - 06/07 (11) Alien Bee 2011-2012. Powered by Blogger.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line124
__label__cc	0.723036	0.276964	Heads you lose Posted on April 30 2009 in Articles A head teacher makes all the difference to a school. So much so that if you are checking a school out to see if it is up to your child’s exacting standards, you will do well to ask the head if he or she is thinking of moving on. Once a head goes, the school mysteriously changes. It could leap over a cliff, or it could suddenly come alive with the sound of learning. The best heads are not those who adhere desperately to local or central government criteria in a bid to totter up the league tables. The best heads have minds of their own and are willing to circumvent all the newt-like centralised stipulations to make sure their children get the best teaching and the best environment to work in. They are inspired, and inspiring. So why are the best heads paradoxically desperate to retire? Because of the rubbish heaped on them by whichever “education education education” government happens to be in power. All the form-filling, the budget-bending, the health-and-safety nitpicking, the equality and diversity demands, the constant government “initiatives” and above all, the social work. Bit of a clue when the education department of a county council suddenly becomes children’s services. Anyone with any intelligence just wants to put the whole lot in a bin bag and throw it at the nearest politician. Or ignore it, of course. But it does wear you down – which is why, as I said, so many great heads are keen to retire. And why, incidentally, so many deputies who would make great heads take a look at what is lumped on their own head’s heaving desk and decide that discretion is the better part of valour, so “thanks, but no thanks”. How has this ludicrous situation come about? Primarily a lack of trust for those with expertise. As in so many areas where the Government feels it has to intrude, we end up with people with no special knowledge at all telling the experts what to do. It is as if a journalist were to draw up a plan for building a nuclear reactor and then insist that his plan was followed by the engineers. Result: nothing, or extremely dangerous fallout. Just what has happened in schools across the country. But Britons in positions of authority love telling the masses what to do. No-one follows those ridiculous European directives more closely than us. Where the French would laugh and the Italians would pass by on the other side, we slavishly try to follow it all to the letter. Perhaps that is why the Government is so enthusiastic about measures to combat climate change. It is not that there is any way of affecting climate change (this planet is bigger than all of us); it is just a glorious opportunity to put into operation all kinds of directives, warnings, demands and taxes – and best of all, to tell people how to live their lives. So the United Kingdom becomes the only country in the world to set legally binding carbon budgets, in a meaningless bid to slash carbon emissions by a third within 11 years. Environmental expert Bjorn Lomberg, of Copenhagen University, described this as “pure wishful thinking”, adding: “No country in the world has ever managed to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by a third in just 11 years.” But it will be worth it, won’t it? Well, you tell me. Government advisors say it will cost each household £600 a year, and apparently the effect will be to reduce world temperatures by one-three thousandths of a degree by the end of the century. And that’s if carbon dioxide really causes warming, which is by no means certain. The other problem in schools, apart from the tendency of great head teachers to retire, is the perceived failure of those who are not academically able. There is no real reason why academic expertise should be more highly prized than the ability to, say, build a house. But for some reason our entire schools system has been based on exactly that strange misjudgement. In a bid to change this, it became fashionable in some areas to concentrate all efforts on the less academically able, to bring them up to speed on paperwork. But that didn’t work either. What happened was that those who were good at arithmetic, writing and reading were deprived of showing their true potential, and those who had no talent for paperwork made little progress either – and through league tables and assessment tests they were deprived of demonstrating what they really were good at. Everyone was a loser. The same is true for people who are good at driving. They find that all the measures taken by those in authority are aimed at someone else: namely those who are not very good at driving but good at something else – it doesn’t matter what. A transport expert once told me he had never travelled with a highways engineer who was a good driver, so perhaps they’re aimed at highways engineers. On the other hand, maybe he was unlucky. So those who enjoy driving and who do not cause accidents find that everything is against them – most obviously road humps and speed cameras. Exceeding the speed limit is such a tiny cause of road accidents that a visiting Martian might think that we had lost our minds. There are undoubtedly bad drivers who exceed a safe speed for the conditions: most of them are inexperienced or habitual law-breakers. These problems could be tackled by better driving instruction and more police patrols. But no, we have speed limits set lower and lower, so that even the good drivers become bad drivers, losing concentration and constantly taking their eyes off the road to check the speedometer. With cameras deliberately set to catch offenders rather than improve safety, the bad drivers go on being bad, and the good ones get fined for driving at a perfectly safe speed. Job done. We have the statistics to prove it. Of course we have. We always do. Previous: Motoring madness Next: Identifying Christianity	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line130
__label__cc	0.565086	0.434914	Episode #3: Kidnapping with Ricardo Hong October 15, 2019 By carlosmr Leave a Comment https://www.buzzsprout.com/610969/1766923-episode-3-kidnapping-with-ricardo-hong.mp3 This week Koji and Martin chat with Richard Hong about his best or worst day of his life. Voice Over 0:02 This is the best or worst day of my life podcast where we talk to regular people about the best or the worst day of their lives. And now here are your hosts Koji Steven Sakai and M Martin Mapoma. Koji Steven Sakai 0:24 Alrighty guys, we’re back. I think this is episode number three. Martin Mapoma 0:29 Number three. I’m Koji And I am Martin. Oh, good. Good, tough day? Yeah, just a little stressful. We just got back from Disneyland not just now. A couple days ago. our families and it’s been just running around running around like crazy catching up on everything. I’m still sore. that was a lot of walking. Did you have fun at Disneyland? Oh, yeah, it was awesome. It was awesome. So we took our kids and ah, Star Wars galaxy edge was amazing. Building all the time, you know, my son built a droid. Oh, and that was a highlight of the trip. That was pretty awesome. But uh, you know, such a Koji’s son who I love to death. I think he’s tired of hearing my me call his name again every two seconds. It got to the point where he wouldn’t even answer me. He didn’t turn around. And that other voice you hearing is our guest this week. It’s Ricardo. Hi, Ricardo. Ricardo Hong 1:24 Hello, how’s it going? Pretty Good, So he’s our second official guest official. So he’s my friend. Our kid goes to the same school. Our kids go to the same school. Koji doesn’t share so it’s his friend and his friend only. But it’s okay But, Ricardo i know i know things about you. But I’m probably don’t know everything about you. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about where you’re from? Where do we start? Well, I was You mean, where I was born? Where were you born? Okay, I was born in South Korea. Right? My dad is North Korean. And my mom is South Korean. And I was Both born in Seoul, Korea, and I was one years old and and my parents moved to Brazil in 1974. And yeah, I was one and my brother was two and a half and, and we were this Korean family living in San Paolo, Brazil. And most Brazilians, you don’t know who we were what we were, you know, We Are you Japanese or you know, Chinese. And after a while, I got tired of explaining. So I just said, Okay, one of those, and that’s how they thought. So when you first heard Korean they’re like, what? yeah, they go what Japan is that? Then, you know, is that in China? You know, they did not know what Korea was when when did you come to America? I came to the US when I was 12. And I came here as a exchange student, just like a lot of immigrants come, you know, get a student visa and lived with a host family It was supposed to be for maybe a year But then my host family and I got along so great. I lived with them for five years. Oh, so you graduated high school here? Yeah, I did. Yeah, I was I was not the plan. I was supposed to learn English and go back to San Paolo and go to an American school there. But you know how life is right? You just move forard and it’s an adventure. Well, what is awesome? What do you consider? So how would you consider yourself Brazilian Korean American? All of the above All the above? You know, like, I think in the beginning, I always felt I was Korean. And then when I went to New York, it was interesting because in New York as well, it was hard to define who I was because the community that I lived in, mostly Irish, Jewish. Didn’t understand like Korea, like South Korea, North Korea, and it was so convoluted and then I have to explain why my name is Ricardo on top of that, so think think about it. Being a little kid trying to explain that I look like this. And I’m Ricardo, did you get Ricardo in Korea before you moved? So my parents wanted to adapt to the Brazilian culture. So he gave he they gave us Brazilian names. Me being Ricardo and my brother Eduardo. and we look like this What’s your name in Korea? [Korean name] and [Korean name]. So in Brazil, some look became [Korean name translated into Brazillian], and [Korean name]became [Korean name translated into Brazillian]. And the first translation [Korean name translated into Brazillian] means, you know, salty guy. And [Korean name translated into Korean] means piss off. Oh, wow, those are my name nickname in Brazil. And when it came to the US, I’m used to it so I can when it came through US it was you know, so then I had to explain why my name is Ricardo. Right, because my parents changed my name to Ricardo so that will make it easier. That Brazillian didn’t have to, you know, Try to figure out my Korean name how to say it. So now I had, again, deal with a cultural shock of Oh, yeah, my name is Ricardo Oh, by the way, you know, I’m from Brazil. Oh, by the way, you know, they’re Koreans in Brazil. Oh, by the way, let me explain what Koreans are. So Yeah. So it was rough, you know, but you know, we made it. I thought my growing up was okay. He’s from Africa. Yeah, so I’m from Zambia, Africa. I was, yeah. So a little bit of my story, then I’ll stop. It’s not about me. I was born in Zambia came here, about three went back to Zambia when I was seven. Well my parents did I just followed along, came back here when I was almost 18. to go to college, and been here ever since. So but I so what was the toughest part of being coming to America for you? toughest part? Oh, there’s so many. Did you speak English? No, no. What did you speak Portuguese, Portuguese. Yeah. Do you speak Korean at all or not? Oh so Portuguese is your first it’s my main language. Yeah. Even now, right? Oh, that’s cool. I can hear the accent a little bit. You can you can kind of pick up well, because you know, both of our kids do Jiu Jitsu. And so those guys are all Brazilian. They’re like, they’re not like, they’re not like, you know, Blended they’re like old school accent. Can I tell a funny story? So my son, like they did like they do jujitsu, right, like you said, and one of the professors one of the teachers, he says, have Heferree instead of referee. And so my son kept going like Heferreee Heferee. So I thought that was just what jujitsu is called, like the referee. And so I talked to one of my friends and they’re like, No, no, they’re just not pronouncing it correctly. But tell me what was the what’s the toughest part for you was it the language, or was it cultural was it I think Everything you know, even even even you that came from Zambia, I’m sure you there were things about your home country that was endearing to you that you miss and being being a third world country, you know, there are aspects of, of life there. That’s very difficult, you know, the poverty, the crime, The intensity of all of the things that happen in a third world country, but, but you missed a little things like the warmth of the people. Right. And that was shocking to me when it came to New York, because in New York, everybody was busy. You know, everybody had their own lives and you were going to mind your own business and had this even that expression, right mind your own business, you know, in Brazil, everybody was in each other’s business. you know, they want to know how you doing and they want to know you know, what you’re about and, and it was not only difficult to come to understand English in the way Was culturally conducive here in America but interpreting like life in America, it’s it’s very individualistic, and you have to kind of learn that kind of English. where, you know, mind your own business right now or, you know, keep it to yourself. All this expression was non existent in Brazil. So had to learn a whole another way of relating talking. So, so yeah, that was that was pretty challenging. Do you ever want to go back to Brazil move back to family I think always did I think every immigrant thinks even now? Dream about going back you know, like, yeah, you know, I you know, I’m married now have three kids. I think it changes a little bit once you have your family. I was single all the way up to you know, 10 years ago and you think all that time I I really did I did think about going back. But then once I married my wife and kids, a little bit more challenging Is she American? She’s Chinese from New Jersey. So she, she she won’t be going. I mean, she’s open to going back to Brazil. You know? And that’d be great for us to live a season of our lives there. I think it’d be good for our kid, my kids to understand a little bit of where their father comes from my brother, my younger brother moved here a couple of years after we did. He moved back to Zambia in 2009. And I think partly because my mother was ill, but he sort of had this romantic view of moving back to Africa. Once he got there, maybe that’s what it is. is a romantic view. Yeah, the reality the reality of it kicked in and it took his wife four years to finally settle in and I don’t know how it is in Brazil but once you once you get into the vibe of Africa, it’s really hard to lose it Cuz you know, now they now they love it. And you know, and the kids their kids were all like, like me they they have three kids oldest was seven. middle one was maybe three and a half four the youngest was just a baby. So all they know is you know, Africa but anyway, so Ricardo Hong 10:02 Oh, that’s so cool Martin Mapoma 10:03 romantic idea moved to Brazil when you get there. Yeah, it’ll be a shock for them you know and and the reality is is like you said, things have changed. Brazil moved on, I moved on. And I’m thinking, going back to my past is not gonna happen. Koji Steven Sakai 10:19 It’s never the same. It’s like when you go back to college like I remember same thing. it’s like when I went to grad graduate school, I thought I was gonna be just like my undergraduate. it was a totally different experience, right? It’s never going to be the same, but I think we’re at that point where we could try to figure out if we want to hear the worst or the best. I don’t know, man. this is gonna be tough Can I tell you what I think. So he seems pretty happy. He’s a happy dude. You have to be a sad person to be asked a question.=? I mean, I, I don’t know if I see like a sad person I don’t really want to hear. I vote I want to hear the saddest moment of his life. But Oh, do you want to hear his happiest day? Okay. No, that’s Oh, Jesus, you want to do the happiest day? No, let’s go to saddest day. Okay, so Ricardo Uh huh. So we want to hear the saddest day of your life but you know, can’t be like, um, you know, parent passing away, God forbid they have or unless it’s something really traumatic. or something that’s like, you know, like, when we suffer the happy things we’re not saying, you know, don’t choose that when you met your wife or something. Kids being born. Yeah, kids being born that kind of thing. Really? That’s easy one. You know, we want to we want to dig a little bit deeper. So tell us Ricardo, what is the saddest day of your entire life? like life changing like, that still resonates even today? Yeah. You know, I was kidnapped once. Where were you kidnapped in Brazil I think I kind of blocked off a little bit of that, you know, oh, Yeah, so this is coming back slowly. It was pretty traumatic because, um, I think I was maybe seven. And my brother was nine and a half 10. So this will happen. So this will happen, right? We will walking from my, our house to my parents store, and it was about a 15-20 minute walk. And we knew it was dangerous that walk but my parents always thought you know what, if two of you guys have together, you guys will be fine. So we don’t know if it was premeditated or what. But he happened all of a sudden. And while we’re walking, it just happened that day, my brother and I got into an argument and I just ran off first. Yeah, big mistake, right. Are you the older one He’s the younger one. He’s young. I’m seven. He’s nine. So I took off right? So I’m like smiling, running, you know, like, calling him names you know and cursing him out and hahaha. And and and then all of a sudden I felt grabbed on my arm, right and i thought was him. Right? I was like, how’d you catch me? So in a turnaround, it was this huge guy. Right? He had the dishevealed hair. But he was wearing a winter jacket. And it was it was warm outside. And all of a sudden, I felt this really sharp pain on my back. And it took me about two seconds to realize that he stuck a huge knife on my back, right? He was holding me when, with with one arm he he was holding his hand. His hand was in on one arm, and he’s the other hand was inside of a bag where his knife was and and he was and he was concealed. And he was sticking into my back and was hurting like hell. I felt like I was getting punctured. Right. And I think that was a point point is to bring fearing into my heart, right? And he said sure. up shut up. Right? But I don’t know what it was but I couldn’t shut up and I start complaining this hurt man let me go in I started being loud. And there was all this cab drivers just watching this whole thing go down and I’m looking at them like dude do something. Right and it won’t do anything. And it was extremely scary because I almost felt like they weren’t even in with with the guy. And my brother who I fought all my life made fun of him. I always thought he was a bit of a coward. He was brave that day. He showed up and go What are you doing my brother? You know, and the guy was huge man. I mean, we we are a short like I’m sure you know it and and and a guy turned around, took out the knife and go What are you gonna do and went after my brother and I all I heard was Run and I just took off running and And he he’s chased my brother for a little bit, and they turn around and start chasing me in the other direction. And I thought he was gonna catch up because he had long legs, you know. So I started running towards my parents door, and I had to go around about because we were already past the street that was supposed to go. And we weren’t around around and then I finally admitted to my brothers, my parents door, and I didn’t see my brother, you know, so I didn’t know what happened to him. But what happened is that my brother got there early. Before I did, and then he didn’t see me. He went looking for me. You know, so today, to this day, it still makes me shaky of what could have happen to me, right? I don’t know how many minutes that was that the guy was dragging me but a man you felt like forever. And that changed my life. Man. From that moment, I realized one I’m the luckiest guy alive. Because what, who knows what that guy would have done to me. Right and what would he have asked my parents to do. Right to get me Back usually kidnapping attempts like that don’t end well in Brazil because it’s easier just kill you off than send you back and then two what would happen to my brother if he got into a fight with him but at the end you know, I’m here able to share the story I don’t think I’d have shared a story I did once. (Phone Rings) Martin. technology right there man. So wait you were seven in Brazil? Did the police were the police called? the police did not call in Brazil it was like this man if you’re not dead, police are not going to come right. So my my dad’s reaction to was like what happened really like he didn’t understand what happened. It’s a hard concept to grasp. Especially if you’re still standing like none of us went to counseling like we didn’t talk about it people didn’t believe in counseling back then though you know, we didn’t even talk about it. After that, do you think your parents were like, Did this really happen? Or? I think so. Because you know, if they really believed, wow, because, because, because next day was like, Okay, let’s go to school. It was like, it was not like, hey, let’s take a couple of days off, you know, because we need to, like, you know, be thankful that this isn’t Hands up, nothing. We just went back to normal life as it was, nothing happened. And I think when you asked him that question, what was the worst day of life? You know, like, right away, I felt this little sadness, because I know things like this had happened. But being Asian, you know, often these things get buried, right until someone actually asks you, hey, what was the saddest day of your life? You know? Well, that one was pretty… So how does it affect you like today? Does it still affect you? I mean, do you I know. You said you blocked it out a little bit. But talk to my kids man, the way I talked to them about kidnapping is strange, right? Because he I’m hearing South South Pasadena in probably one of the safer neighborhoods in the area and but every day I tell them hey, look behind you. Is anybody following you? Yeah. That’s like one of the lessons on the right. I told you about my son and I go to the red line. And I always tell them, look on who look who’s coming on the train. look where they’re sitting. And you got to judge them in two seconds. Are they crazy? Are they normal? And if they sit behind you? You have to get up and leave. And you have to just be aware because we’re so used to being in cars and people are so like, kind of disconnected. You know? that’s interesting. I don’t ask my son. You know, I yeah, with my with my son. I’m always telling him. You know, if someone puts your hands on you fight, you scream, Quiet, and just yell and scream all the time. And, you know, it’s kind of it’s interesting because, you know, as a person of color yeah, we’re not really a higher priority to get kidnapped. Unfortunately, you know, especially you yeah, especially me getting back in my three seconds. Let’s move on, you know, so But still, you know, I think about that all the time, you know, with my son, you know, part of me is like, you know, thank God I have a boy thing I had a daughter even worse because I’m already bad enough with my son. But you know, it’s clear most of the kidnappings would be within the family, or people that you know, 99% of the kidnappings are, like very rare stranger danger. It’s very rare. But I mean, sorry, in the United States, stranger danger is very rare, because there’s not as much kidnappings for for money. It’s mostly just like a really bad thing happened to these children. For the most part, that’s crazy. Have you told your kids about this? No, not yet. But I think I should. They’re young. They’re Seven, six and three. I’d wait. I don’t think there’s anything wrong, but I think there’s gonna be a teachable moment. I think that’s gonna come up where they’re extremely distracted, and they’re thinking that everything is safe, and I’m going to say, You know what? Let me let me, let me tell you about my story. And I’m going to tell the story and they probably no go, No, that didn’t happen and they’ll go well it happened. Well, and that’s like the I think I’ve told you the kidnapping story here in South Pasadena. Right? When I was a kid, did I ever tell you about this? wait you got kidnapped? I was never kidnapped now, but like there was a kidnapping at Arroyo Vista. When I was in first grade. And this little girl got kidnapped kind of similar story where like, the brother told this little girl to go first because they were late for school. She gets kidnapped. And then basically the city of South Pasasdena was like, freaked out, right? And then so nobody started walking to school that anymore. And I remember telling my mom who’s an immigrant, I told her Hey, like, everyone’s being driven to school. Can you drive me to school? She’s like, nobody wants to kidnap you. nobody wants you. Just go. And so it went from like everybody walking to school to me being the only person walking to school. I was super afraid every time a car drove by, I would like hide in the bushes and I was like, super freaky it’s like that immigrant like, Don’t worry, just go. Nobody wants you to know. I like Yeah, that’s that’s what I was told, you know, you know how many black people you see getting behead in the Middle East? You know, they ever find that girl. Yeah, they found the girl and they found the kidnapper. And it’s like, it left such an impression on me that I actually know her name. And like, I looked it up like as an adult and I was like, Oh, actually got her name, right. Like, that’s how much it like, especially in this city, where it’s like, I mean, everyone feels very safe here. And it was such a traumatic, big moment, you know, in our lives and it really really stuck with us and that’s gonna suck be me alone on the street walk to class. It was crazy. And I was in first grade like now I think walking having a kid walk in first grade by himself might be child endangerment you went by yourself in first grade. Yeah, back in the day. How is that even Okay, back in those days I walk to kindergarten by myself to school see howmuch has changed. Because Because it’s true that back then, you know, it was okay. Everyone had the perception that it was fine. Today, it’s fine, but the perception is by no way, If I saw a kindergarten kid walking on the street by themselves. I would stop and say, Are you okay? Like, I would I don’t know if you would Yeah, well, yeah. I mean, I would, I would make sure that I’ve done it before I was on Los Robles. And I saw this kid running around like, four year old. I stopped the car. I was like, Hey what are you doing? And I ran across it. I was like, are you okay? And then like, right when I ran the mom, like, ran out the house. And I was like, I just want to make sure kids Okay, and I was fine. And she was kind of like, looking at me, but like, Los Robles was a busy street. Like, I also didn’t want him to run in the street. I didn’t know what kind of you know, like, what’s going on, but like, I wouldn’t stop and if I saw like, anyone under like, seven and our kids age and under, even like older than that, I mean, I would start to like think about like, why I mean, I wouldn’t probably stop them but but you know, that’s nuts I’m gonna tell a man that’s a that’s a story. I didn’t not expect but those words come out of your mouth. Yeah, I mean, neither. That was a that was a shocking story. Well, that’s why I appreciate questions like that. You know, it’s it’s makes you Realize that each person has a story. Just think about it now, unless I’m glad we asked the minus letting my phone ring like a dumb ass on the table. I thought i turn it off. It’s okay. We’re professional podcasting. Well, thank you so much for coming. We really, really appreciate it. It’s been awesome. It’s great to meet you too. And one of the things I should have said in the beginning was please rate review and subscribe and tell your friends about this podcast. Yes, please, please. This is something that we’re doing as a passion project just to hear people’s stories are we’re ver very passionate about Hey I gotta tell you this story, man, it’s it’s it’s been awesome. So it’s a this is this is why I think we’re doing it because that’s a great story. We should just ask people the bad story all the time now. I’m just kidding. I’m gonna for me, I’ll pick my best story. Just Just as an FYI. Okay, well, thank you guys so much. Thank you for Ricardo for coming. Thank you for inviting me. Transcribed by https://otter.ai Filed Under: Podcast, Uncategorized	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line132
__label__wiki	0.79204	0.79204	News from the Centre - 2020 Memorial Lecture Devoted to Prof Dr Vojin Dimitrijević Held October 6, 2020 by Radomir Bojic The memorial lecture devoted to Prof Dr Vojin Dimitrijević, a law professor, intellectual, co-founder and long-standing Director of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, was held on Zoom on 2 October 2020. The lecture honouring Vojin Dimitrijević was delivered by Prof Dr Žarko Puhovski, Professor Emeritus of the Zagreb University College of Philosophy. Vojin Dimitrijević passed away in Belgrade on 5 October 2012. The participants in the event said that Serbia’s society and public arena have sorely been missing Vojin’s voice, the voice of reason and tolerance, for eight years now. The recording of Prof Puhovski’s lecture, entitled “Idiotism of Human Rights” is available on BCHR’s YouTube channel. BCHR Issues Report on Human Rights in Serbia in the January-June 2020 Period August 15, 2020 by Radomir Bojic The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) today published its Report on the State of Human Rights in Serbia in the first half of 2020, focusing on respect for human rights during the state of emergency. The Report concludes that democracy in Serbia has continued deteriorating and lists grave violations of human rights, particularly as of 15 March 2020, when the state of emergency was imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Decision on the Proclamation of the State of Emergency and all the subsequent measures were adopted by the executive rather than the legislative authorities. Resort to this possibility, although provided for by the Constitution subsidiarily and in exceptional cases, was unjustified. Grave violations of constitutionally guaranteed human and minority rights, including disproportionate restrictions of the freedom of movement, occurred during the state of emergency; numerous examples and accounts of citizens who were beaten up, arrested and detained for violating self-isolation measures they had not been properly notified of were registered. The Constitutional Court was apparently hibernating during the state of emergency. Sixty-seven days passed from the day the state of emergency was imposed until it rendered its first decision. It only reacted publicly to criticisms of its dormancy. By mid-May, it received a total of 51 initiatives challenging the constitutionality and legality of regulations enacted during the state of emergency: 10 questioned the constitutionality of the Decision on the Proclamation of the State of Emergency and 41 the constitutionality and legality of other regulations adopted since 15 March 2020. The media situation continued deteriorating in the first half of the year. The number of attacks and pressures against journalists increased, as did the authorities’ rhetoric against impartial outlets. The Government Conclusion of 28 March allowing only the COVID Crisis Headquarters headed by the Prime Minister to release any pandemic-related information was tantamount to centralisation of information and censorship. Violations of media freedoms climaxed with the arrest of Nova portal’s reporter Ana Lalilć on 2 April for causing public anxiety by reporting on the problems in the Vojvodina Clinical Centre during the pandemic. International institutions and organisations alerted to grave problems with respect to democracy, rule of law and reforms in Serbia in the first half of the year. In its Non-paper, the European Commission noted serious delays and the need to accelerate reforms in the key areas of judicial independence, the fight against corruption, media freedom, the domestic handling of war crimes and the fight against organised crime, specifying that the pandemic created additional challenges. In its Freedom in the World 2020 Report, Freedom House classified Serbia as a hybrid regime, citing data coinciding with BCHR’s annual human rights reports. The judiciary, as a separate branch of government, did not fulfil the standards and expectations related to the improvement of its efficiency, fairness of access to justice and protection of civil rights. Introduction of “Skype” trials during the state of emergency, denying the defendants a public explanation of the decisions against them, and case law discrepancies resulting from the imposition of different penalties for the same offences committed during the state of emergency, further eroded legal insecurity and public trust in the judiciary. The Protector of Citizens, the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection and the Anti-Corruption Agency were not particularly active in the first half of the year either, especially during the state of emergency, when citizens needed and, indeed, expected greater protection. The parliament’s failure to promptly initiate the procedure to elect the new Equality Commissioner was particularly concerning: this institution has not been performing its duties conferred by law to protect the citizens from discrimination since May, when the prior Commissioner’s term in office expired. The Report on Human Rights in Serbia in the January-June 2020 Period is available HERE. This publication is the product of our team, comprising Lazar Stefanović, Snežana Lazarević, Vladica Ilić, Luka Mihajlović, Vesna Petrović, Dušan Pokuševski, Ivan Protić, Goran Sandić, Anja Stefanović, Milena Ančić, Bojan Stojanović, Aleksandar Marković, Ana Trifunović i Duška Tomanović. The publication of this Report has been supported by the United Nations Human Rights Team in Serbia. The Report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. New FRA quarterly report – Migration: Key fundamental rights concerns – Quarterly bulletin 3 – 2020 July 31, 2020 by Radomir Bojic European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights has published quarterly bulletin no 3 for 2020: Migration: Key fundamental rights concerns for the period from the 1 April to 30 June 2020. The report collects data on the state of fundamental rights of persons arriving to the EU member states. It lights on main trends in the majority of the EU member states in the field of asylum and migration. Additionally to the EU member states, the report gives up date on the key fundamental rights concerns in this area in the Republic of Serbia and North Macedonia. Quarterly Bulletin no 3 mostly focused on key challenges in the context of COVID-19 pandemic including legal framework changes, restriction of movement, hindered access to the asylum procedure, overcrowding of the accommodation facilities, protection of children as well as hate speech and violence. Report points to slowdowns in the number of asylum seekers due to health measures and restrictions in traveling despite that the enforcement of measures was ease off to certain extent. BCHR contributed to the report with analyses on the state of affairs in the Republic of Serbia. The report stresses that the Asylum Office resumed procedural actions and that the abolishment of the Government’s Decision on closure of all border crossing for entering into Republic of Serbia in May which led to opening of border crossings and restart of commercial flights. Attention is given to the physical abuse of unaccompanied children in the Asylum Centre Bogovađa and Order of the Ministry of Health from 7 May. BCHR Files Initiative with Ministry of Internal Affairs to Draft Amendments to Police Act The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) has filed an initiative with the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs to draft amendments to the Police Act as soon as possible. The first half of July 2020 was marked by numerous cases of police ill-treatment of citizens protesting in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac and other cities across Serbia. Dozens of police officers applied force against the protesters without cause, hitting them with their batons, kicking and trampling them, firing teargas at them, shoving them off their bicycles, etc., gravely damaging the reputation of the Serbian police both at home and abroad. International monitoring bodies have over the recent years criticised compliance with the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment in Serbia, especially by the police. The widespread practice of police ill-treatment is followed by a high rate of impunity of public officials for these acts. BCHR’s perusal of prosecutorial and court cases regarding torture and ill-treatment and extortion of confessions showed that quite a number of public officials, predominantly police officers, went unpunished for these crimes because the statute of limitations expired, while others “paid their dues” by giving money for humanitarian purposes. Most public officials found guilty of torture and ill-treatment or extortion of confessions were sentenced to suspended prison sentences up to six-month. Most police officers suspected of these crimes went on working not only during the proceedings, but after they were convicted by a final judgment as well. The European Court of Human Rights has on many occasions held that where a State agent has been charged with crimes involving ill-treatment, it is important that he or she be suspended from duty during the investigation or trial and dismissed if he or she is convicted, which is crucial for preserving public trust in the work of the state authorities. This is why the Police Act must be amended to provide for the mandatory suspension of police officers, against whom disciplinary proceedings have been initiated on suspicion that they had intentionally used excessive physical or psychological coercion against individuals, and/or against whom criminal proceedings have been instituted on suspicion that they had committed the crimes of torture or ill-treatment or extortion of confessions. The BCHR also suggests that the amendments allow the public prosecutor to request the suspension of a police officer before the initiation of ordinary or summary criminal proceedings where a person raises an arguable claim or makes a credible assertion or where there are sufficiently clear indications that these crimes have been committed. The officers should be suspended pending the adoption of a final decision in the criminal and/or disciplinary proceedings against them and dismissed ex lege in the event they are convicted. Serbian law will thus have fulfilled the above requirements under the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. BCHR lawyers stand ready to assist the Ministry of Internal Affairs in drafting the amendments to the Police Act. The Initiative is available in Serbian here. Testimony of Stefan Miletić about police ill-treatment he suffered during the protest on 8 July 2020 The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights filed a criminal report with the Belgrade First Basic Public Prosecution Service against the police officers who took part in Stefan Miletić’s ill-treatment on 8 July 2020. Herewith the testimony of this young man, who was brutally beaten up on Terazije during the protest that evening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeM3GTY65Mo The BCHR also filed an initiative with the Protector of Citizens to launch a review of the Interior Ministry’s work and arranged Miletić’s examination by a court medical examiner, whose report will be forwarded to the Prosecution Service and the Protector of Citizens. Stefan Miletić is just one of the many victims of police brutality who sought legal aid from the BCHR in the last few days. Remembering Vojin Dimitrijević’s Words and His Topical Book “Reign of Terror – A Study on Human Rights and State Terror” July 9, 2020 by Radomir Bojic Vojin Dimitrijević, a law professor, intellectual, eminent champion of human rights and democracy and long-standing Director of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, was born on this day 9 July 1932. We recall what he said in his book “Reign of Terror – A Study on Human Rights and State Terror,” which is just as topical today as it was when he wrote it in 1984. “Having once written a book on terrorism as a method of political struggle against government, I was left with the impression that the terror exercised by those in power was in fact more dangerous, that it took much more innocent victims, that it diminished human dignity much more and that its existence was a permanent threat to society. This terror, however, remained for the most part neglected, not only by me – but in academic literature in general. Lawyers, in particular, due to dilemmas both contrived and real – an issue that will be discussed further – have done precious little in contributing to the understanding of and clarifying the existence of the reign of fear. It is clear, beyond any doubt, that a study of this length can only concern the governance through and by introduction of fear and anxiety as a political method alone. Such analysis requires generalization, through identification of the common traits of modern reigns of fear, which are in the focus of this study, and their comparison to occurrences in the past. I recognize that this approach may be contested as ahistorical, since it does not always take into account all the specific and unique circumstances and causes. However, to fully yield to such a remark would mean that the science of politics, as an attempt to establish certain general concepts and determine universal rules, is impossible. That risk, therefore, is one that has to be taken. Belgrade, 15 November 1984 V.D.” We should read “Reign of Terror” and refuse to live in it! “Reign of Terror” is available in PDF at: https://www.fabrikaknjiga.co.rs/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/The-Reign-of-Terror.pdf	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line133
__label__wiki	0.730675	0.730675	America's Best Young Farmers and Ranchers Profit Sessions Ken A. Eriksen, IHS Markit Senior Vice President, Head of Client Advisory and Development, Energy and Transportation, and Policy is the head of the IEG Vantage Client Advisory and Development, Energy and Transportation, and Policy groups. In this capacity, he directs efforts in client advisory and development, risk management, consulting and events. Since joining the company in 2001, Mr. Eriksen has led the company’s Transportation, Industrials and Energy Services group and was a co-leader of the IHS Markit Agribusiness Consulting group. Prior to joining the company, Eriksen worked for USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service as an agricultural statistician. In that capacity, he conducted national surveys and set national estimates in agriculture. Also while at USDA, he worked for the Agricultural Marketing Service on its transportation and marketing program, conducting research and analysis on domestic and international transportation issues. David Horsager, CEO of Trust Edge Leadership Institute and a global authority on helping leaders and organizations become THE most trusted in their industry. Horsager is the: • inventor of the Enterprise Trust Index™ • director of global trust study: The Trust Outlook™ • national bestselling author of The Trust Edge His work has been featured everywhere from Forbes to The Wall Street Journal. He has taken the platform on six continents and advised everyone from IBM, Toyota and global governments to the New York Yankees and FedEx. Jon Gordon, Best Selling American Author -Packed with compelling stories, his presentation will help teams overcome negativity and enhance their culture, communication, connection, commitment and performance. He and his training/consulting company are passionate about developing positive leaders, organizations and teams. Jon Gordon's best-selling books and talks have inspired readers and audiences around the world. His principles have been put to the test by numerous Fortune 500 companies, professional and college sports teams, school districts, hospitals, and non-profits. He is the author of 20 books including 8 best-sellers: The Energy Bus, The Carpenter, Training Camp, You Win in the Locker Room First, The Power of Positive Leadership, The Power of a Positive Team, The Coffee Bean and his latest Stay Positive. Jon and his tips have been featured on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, The Golf Channel, Fox and Friends and in numerous magazines and newspapers. Gordon is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Masters in Teaching from Emory University. Paul Hughes is Chief Agriculture Economist at IHS Markit. Paul grew up on a farm in North Central Illinois where his family still farms about 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans. He joined IHS Markit in November 2019, bringing nearly 20 year's experience in commodity and ingredient purchasing and commodity price risk management, much of that for Purina, later Nestle Purina. There he was a grain and vegetable oil analyst, eventually managing a team of commodity analysts where he was instrumental in bringing machine learning and other data tools to aid analysis and price forecasting. Paul began his career in the grain and commodity industry as a corn/soybean trader for River/Gulf Grain in Eastern Iowa. Kip Tom is the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome, with the Rank of Ambassador. Ambassador Tom was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 11, 2019. Ambassador Tom is an agribusiness leader who transformed a seventh-generation farm into one of the largest commodity businesses in the Midwestern United States, while launching international operations and deploying new technologies. Ambassador Tom grew up on his family’s farm in the community that his ancestors homesteaded in 1837. His business has grown to over 25,000 acres with locations in the U.S. and in Argentina. Ambassador Tom served as a member of the board of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. He is involved in several philanthropic organizations focusing on food security and development issues domestically and globally. He is also active in supporting the next generations of farmers, having served as a trustee of the National 4-H Foundation and a member of the National Future Farmers of America Foundation Board of Directors. Ambassador Tom holds an advanced management certificate from Texas A&M in agriculture economics. Bryce Anderson, Senior Agriculture Meteorologist Bryce Anderson has brought in-depth analysis and forecasts on agricultural weather and market impact to DTN readers in the U.S. and worldwide for more than 20 years. His daily weather commentaries, videos, blogs and Progressive Farmer magazine articles are widely read and watched. Anderson is a frequent guest on ag media for articles and programs. His speaking schedule includes presentations at producer conferences and farm shows. Meredith Bernard is a wife, mother, farmer, photographer, writer and YouTuber living, working and sharing her real from the beef cattle farm she calls home with her husband and two children in North Carolina. Her biggest passion is storytelling and helping others see the importance of sharing their own, believing we all have more in common than we tend to realize. Ranveer Chandra, Chief Scientist, Microsoft Azure Global, leads Microsoft’s research and innovation on agriculture and started the FarmBeats project in 2015. He has published more than 80 papers and filed over 100 patents. Chandra’s research has been cited in multiple publications including The Economist, MIT Technology Review, Scientific American, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He has an undergraduate degree from IIT Kharagpur, India and a PhD from Cornell University. Todd Hultman is Lead Analyst in charge of DTN's overall market view and manager of the DTN Six Factors® Market Strategies. He heads up a team of five full time analysts plus a broad group of consulting analysts and market advisors. Todd came to the DTN commodity analysis team in 2014 as grain analyst. His familiarity with DTN and its market information and outlook goes back much further, to his early days as a broker where he relied on DTN news and market quotes to guide clients. He’s worked for several brokerage houses and also as an independent broker where he created an online educational resource for futures traders. DTN subscribers can catch his view of the markets through daily commentary, his weekly "Todd's Take" column which is featured on DTN paid platforms each Friday, and on the daily DTN Closing Market Video which is posted following market closes. Reid and Heather Thompson, Thompson Family Farm, Reid owns and operates Thompson Family Farm, a grain farm in McLean and Ford county, Illinois, with his father, Gerald Thompson. Reid leads TFF’s trials with technology and regenerative agricultural practices, including strip tillage and cover crops. Prior to joining the family farm full-time in 2019, Reid was employed as a farm manager, farm real estate broker, and auctioneer with Hertz Farm Management in Monticello, Ill. for nine years. He also served on the Illinois Farm Bureau Young Leaders Committee from 2014-2018. Reid has a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Consumer Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Heather is Manager of Digital Communications with GROWMARK, Inc. In her role, she leads a team of individuals focused on promoting GROWMARK and FS member cooperatives through digital marketing and social media tactics. She also serves on the Illinois 4-H Foundation Board and currently chairs the strategic planning committee. Heather has a Bachelor of Science in Communications and Political Science from Illinois College and a Master of Science in Strategic Business Management from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. Reid and Heather have two sons, Abe (4) and Hank (2). Renny Vandewege, Vice President, DTN Weather Operations, is responsible for developing strategic direction and leadership to DTN’s 200+ operational meteorologists across weather forecast rooms, globally serving customers in many weather-impacted industries. He joined DTN following the acquisition of Weather Decision Technologies in 2018, where he served as the Senior Vice President of Sales since 2014. Prior to joining the private weather industry, Vandewege served as the Director of the Broadcast Meteorology Program at Mississippi State University. He began his career in meteorology as a broadcast meteorologist at WTOK in Meridian, MS and KCTV in Kansas City, MO, most notably covering historic Hurricane Katrina as it made landfall in Mississippi. Vandewege holds a Masters Degree in Meteorology from Mississippi State University. Lance Woodbury is a Garden City, Kansas, author, family business consultant and professional mediator specializing in agriculture and closely-held businesses. Over his two decade career, he has guided many families through inter-generational farm transfers as well as mentored successors and facilitated small business peer groups. He contributes monthly columns to both DTN and The Progressive Farmer on the personal dynamics of operating farm family businesses. Ag Summit Editors and Moderators Greg Horstmeier, DTN editor-in-chief, joined DTN as production editor in August 2007. He became editor-in-chief in July 2010. He comes from the University of Missouri, where for six years he served as director of the Extension and Agriculture Information News office. Before that he was the chemicals and technology editor for Farm Journal, as well as crops editor for the Pennsylvania Farmer. Gregg Hillyer, Progressive Farmer editor-in-chief, lives in St. Louis, Missouri. Before coming to Progressive Farmer, you may remember him as the editor of Soybean Digest where he edited the publication for nearly 12 years. Before that he was managing editor of Hogs Today, as well as field editor for Wallaces Farmer. Hillyer also worked in public relations for Miller Meester Advertising. Katie Dehlinger, DTN Farm Business Editor, reports on tax and estate planning, farmland values, health care and other issues that affect farmers' bottom lines. Previously, the DTN Markets Editor, she covered commodity markets and marketing strategies in addition to USDA report lockups. Dehlinger spent several years as the Executive Producer for RFDTV's daily news programs, Market Day Report and the Rural Evening News. She grew up near the Illinois-Wisconsin border in Rockton, Ill., and graduated from the University of Missouri in 2009 with a bachelor's of journalism in news/editorial writing and minors in history and sociology. Urban C. Lehner, emeritus vice president, editorial, joined DTN as editor-in-chief in July 2003. He became vice president of the editorial operations of DTN/The Progressive Farmer in July 2010. He is a past president of the North American Agricultural Journalists, and in 2009 was named "Writer of the Year" by the American Agricultural Editors' Association. Lehner spent 33 years at The Wall Street Journal, including 20 years in Europe and Asia, where he did stints as a reporter, editor, and executive.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line134
__label__cc	0.5381	0.4619	Why the Regus and Spaces CEO is doubling down on office space despite COVID-19 By seokuro June 25, 2020 In May, IWG PLC, the U.K.-based company behind managed office brands Regus and Spaces, announced its intention to raise a $390 million war chest. The company said the stock offering would help it expand its footprint of office locations globally. Pursuing that sort of strategy in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic might strike many as, well…counterintuitive might be the politest way to put it. After all, a lot of prognosticators think the world won’t need so much office space in the future. The pandemic seems to have revealed that, for many businesses, working from home works just fine. Plus, many companies have shed staff and won’t need quite so many desks even when they do reopen for business. But Mark Dixon, IWG’s chief executive officer, says he’s convinced the world will still need offices. In fact, he thinks the world will need a lot more of the kind of flexible space IWG offers. And Dixon, the billionaire cofounder who owns 28.5% of IWG’s shares, has put his own money on the line too: He’s invested more than $110 million of his own funds in the new fundraising effort. Dixon says that with the wheels coming off at rival WeWork—the industry upstart that had once threatened to bury veterans like IWG, but may now count itself lucky to merely survive—the industry is ripe for consolidation. In early June, IWG took over a 30,000-square-foot space in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay neighborhood from WeWork. It was the first time IWG had assumed management of a former WeWork property. It probably won’t be the last. Last week, Dixon and I chatted over a Zoom call about IWG’s bold strategy. Here’s our conversation (edited for clarity and brevity): Fortune: Many people are doubtful about the future of the commercial real estate because they think the changes we’ve seen in how people work during the coronavirus pandemic will become permanent. Yet IWG is doubling down on office space. Can you explain your strategy? Dixon: What is the future of commercial real estate? Well, it is going to change completely, and [the coronavirus] is a catalyst for change. But we are part of that change. Yes, we use commercial real estate, but we do it in a digital way, where we are allowing people to work from anywhere, at any time. We are also distributed throughout the country. We are not all in city centers, or all in one place. WeWork, as you are aware, claimed they were the biggest occupiers of space in London and New York. Clearly that is not something you would want to claim today. You would actually want to say we are everywhere in the U.K., which IWG is, with multiple brands throughout the U.K., throughout the United States. In the U.K., we have more than 300 locations; in the U.S., 1,100 locations. We are in every state, except Alaska. Fortune: But what about the idea that working from home is going to be permanent? Dixon: Effectively the whole world changed in a very short space of time. It wholesale and fundamentally changed, in several days. But it’s a change that’s been coming. It was already happening, but it just had off-the-charts acceleration during COVID, and it will stick afterwards. So CEOs, CFOs, are saying, “Actually, it wasn’t that bad. We actually got quite a lot done with this distributed work.” That means decentralized, people working not in one big central office. And that is what changes fundamentally. Forever. Now, it takes time because one of the reasons it doesn’t all change immediately is people have to get out of those big central offices. And that takes time. But they are starting to do it right now. If they can get out, they are getting out. So, this is bad news if you own a lot of real estate in big city locations. It’s good news if you own real estate where people live: suburbs, small villages, and towns. That is where people will want to work some of the time in the future. And in a Zoom- and Teams-based world there is absolutely no need for you to spend an hour of your valuable time, or two, or three, to commute into an office to use a computer and a mobile phone that you have in your bag. It is just madness. So basically, the workplace becomes this hybrid. People can work from home, and people have been doing that. They did it before COVID, they just did a lot more during COVID. So it will be from home. It will be from offices near where they live. And then they go to the headquarters to do important stuff: meet, collaborate, new ideas, business reviews, the stuff that you need to do face-to-face. Fortune: So you don’t think the office itself is over? Dixon: The office is not going away. It is changing. It is metamorphizing into a digital thing. In effect, your office is on your laptop and on your mobile phone. Where you actually sit to do work is not about equipment anymore, it is about concentration, lack of interruption; it is about social interaction more than anything else. So if you ask someone, “What would you really like?” They’d say, “Well, I’d like to work from home a small amount of time, and be able to do that effectively. I’d like to have a workplace that I could cycle to, walk to—that would be great some of the time. And I’d like an office in say, London or Birmingham or Manchester that I could go to when I need to collaborate with colleagues.” So, one day a week, one day a month there, but most of the time in a local office. The company gets lower cost. The company gets more productivity, more bang-for-their-buck in the person, if you like. The employee, the team member has a vastly improved life because instead of spending 5,000 pounds in the U.K., on average, on a [commute by rail], they spend next to nothing. They get to see their kids. And the company gets an office in [a small town] for that person, or for 100 people, rather than for 1,000 people in London. That is why it has to happen. It is the economics of the workplace that drive everything. And the economics are proven now in spades with COVID—proven. Fortune: Why did you do this fundraise? Dixon: There is one answer to that question: demand. When we spoke to our investors, we said, “Listen, we can see this demand coming.” Now, it’s hard to see it when you are right in the middle of COVID. Just to be clear, this is a very difficult period of time for us as a company—and we are very clear about that, from a short-term perspective. From a medium- to long-term perspective, there is going to be huge demand for workplaces, but in different places. Big companies are saying to their employees, we will give you an office near your house, but they don’t want to rent a separate office there, do they? Because, administratively, that would be horrific. So they want to buy space on a platform that all of their people can use anywhere at any time. That’s what we do. We also have great support and products for people working at home. So, we do home and local already. We just think we are going to be doing a lot more local. And clearly there will be other opportunities. We think the next year there will be consolidation. That is the impact of COVID. In order for investors to get any return, and to get safer returns, which they will be looking for, whether it’s our industry or any other, consolidation is the safest way. Fortune: In the past few years you have been up against these very fast-growing, venture-backed players like WeWork and Knotel. Do you think they’ve had their day? They were struggling a bit even before this crisis, but the pandemic has dealt them another massive blow. Dixon: If you were using the words “struggle before this crisis,” that is probably an understatement—and this is both Knotel and WeWork. Books are being written on this subject at the moment. What happened was, this was a phenomenon, which is the lure of the WeWork valuation. Very sensible investors put lots of money into things like Knotel, WeWork, and others in the hope that somehow, the normal rules of economics would be suspended for these types of companies and somehow growth trumps reality. When in fact, with the, let’s say, the veil being drawn aside after the failed IPO last year of WeWork…I am just stating the obvious that it was a huge amount of hype and not much substance, and a huge amount of, just massive capital wastage and destruction. On an unprecedented scale. Lots of people thought, “Hey, we could get 20 times revenue valuation.” And so they invested. But the reality is, this is a tough business, and it is not one, even in good times, for the fainthearted. It has to be operated very well. It needs scale. And it is quite easy to lose money if you are not firing on all cylinders at all times. Now, [WeWork] made it look easy. And even we thought, for a time, “We must be doing something wrong.” We said, “Hold on a second, what can’t we see?” Fortune: So do you feel vindicated now? Dixon: No. I get no satisfaction at all. No vindication. I’ve been in this business more than 40 years, and I’ve seen a lot, and I’ve never seen anything like that. My sadness is for the thousands of people losing their jobs and hundreds, if not thousands, of investors losing their money. Vindication? Look, in this market there is plenty of room for competitors. But it is distorted competition that it is hard to understand and hard to deal with. But no, no. Look, it was helpful for a time. It certainly got the name of the industry out there. But a lot will change now. With COVID-19, what people are interested in is good old-fashioned things like cash flow. There is a new reality in the world today that wasn’t there, even last year. Mark Dixon, CEO of IWG Courtesy of IWG Fortune: What about the configuration of offices. How are you thinking about reconfiguring the spaces you manage during the pandemic? Dixon: Most of our space is configured in small offices. Less than—about half of 1%—of our revenue comes from coworking areas, open areas. So we are already configured in [a way that works for social distancing]. Just to dispel a couple of myths, in a normal office, you are all working open plan, and you are all sharing the kitchen. So everything is shared in every company office in London or New York. But it is shared by people from the same company, who are not necessarily cleaner—you know, they are just people. But this notion that somehow, it has been proposed many times to me during this crisis, that people mix more in a coworking building or a shared office. Actually the opposite is true. Traditional, single-tenant, single-company offices would have more mixing than we would. Having said that, we’ve done all the configuration changes. We’ve put separation in. Temperature control for people. We’ve got app locators, layers of things to make the buildings as safe as they possibly can be. Both for our teams and for customers. So a lot of effort has gone into that. Limiting the number of people in the lifts. That sort of thing. It is all basic stuff, but it needs to be done. For as long as the COVID crisis is there, you have to do this. And then you just do social distancing everywhere. Quite a few customers have taken extra space to distance their people a bit more and so on. Fortune: Do you think there will be long-term effects in the way offices are designed? Are we going back to the 1950s, when everyone had their own office with a door? Dixon: Having an office with a door makes no difference. It is a bizarre idea when you think about it. Even when you have an office with a door, it is cleaned by cleaners overnight, you have colleagues coming in all day. This sort of notion, if somehow I shut myself away in an office in a huge office building—I mean, just stay at home if you are worried. That’s the only way you are going to be safe. And even then, you take a risk that your kids are going to bring it back, or your wife, or your friends. What are you going to do? In the end you have to make a decision: “Am I going to be a hermit, or am I going to live my life, taking precautions?” Yes, we are in the eye of the storm at the moment. I think there will be a prolonged focus, even after the crisis is finished, on cleanliness. The main change is going to be hybrid working. The whole notion of you sort of having a desk in London, and just by the way to caveat this, this probably only works for about a third of the population—maybe even half. But if you are in an advertising agency, you need to be together. If you spend your time all day, every day, with clients in London, you need to be in London. You can work remotely, but you would want to go to London for editorial meetings maybe once a week, once a month, once a fortnight. But this hybrid working becomes the norm. You’ll meet people in two years’ time, and it won’t be unusual to have someone who tells you, “Yeah, I work from home, I’ve got an office I use down the road, and I go into London once a week. My life is infinitely better than it was. I am more productive. I have saved my commuting money, and most importantly I got back 10 hours per week.” And if the company asks me what you’d prefer most of all, they’d say, “Give me the 10 hours per week.” Fortune: I notice you took over this Hong Kong property from WeWork. But I thought you were arguing that people won’t need big city office space going forward? Dixon: In the city centers or big city centers, people will require space, but less space. Let’s say you have a 100-person headquarters in London today. In two years’ time, that will be maybe five people in the headquarters, some meeting rooms and collaboration areas, and all the other 95 people are working either from home or near where they live. So you need space in London, but you don’t need as much space. And we can see that already happening. We saw that before the crisis. This is called hub and spoke. You heard Mark Zuckerberg talking about it, and many other companies are doing it. So you get a hub in the big city, you let people work where it’s convenient around that city, but you’ve got to have the beating heart to bring people together. Whether it is a hub in Houston, or a hub in Birmingham, then all the people who live around there can come into the hub, they don’t have go into London or come into Silicon Valley. Fortune: You have been using a franchise model to expand. Does that help you lower the risk of this expansion, because the franchisees are taking on the risk of finding the right location and the risk of managing that space properly? Dixon: We run a pretty de-risked portfolio anyway. And that is one of the big differences between us and WeWork, Knotel, etc. We avoid risk. If you avoid risk, you grow more slowly. But franchising reduces some of the risk, yes, but we are doing it to grow more quickly. For us to do more centers in North and South Dakota and the Highlands and islands of Scotland, we need franchise partners to do that. We want to be in every town and city and village and provide a workplace. And we need franchise partners to do that. It is not so much about risk. It is about growing more quickly, it is about having more capital sources, and it is about then having more local management—all three things. Fortune: There is an increasing emphasis from companies on reducing their carbon footprint. But if you have people spread out in more offices, it might be harder to manage that environmental impact. Are you helping your customers track their carbon footprints across all the space they are using? Dixon: They are asking us, and we are working on metrics to help them with just that. It was, if you had gone back to the end of last year, it was very high up on the list of things they wanted. Now everyone has met their environmental targets just by having people work at home or close to home. But the impact on the environment is astounding, and I think that will become another driver [of a more distributed workforce]. The environment is a huge driver. That is what people want. Plus, if you are running a company it is just cheaper. More must-read international coverage from Fortune: Corporate Germany has a race problem—and a lack of data is not helping George Floyd protests force Britain to reckon with its role in slavery, leading some companies to pay reparations The insurance case that helped end the slave trade George Floyd protests, coronavirus face masks pose challenges for facial recognition From beekeepers to giant pension funds, activist shareholders are being silenced by the coronavirus Subscribe to How to Reopen, our weekly newsletter on what it takes to reboot business in the midst of a pandemic. Why the C-Suite is now overseeing corporate A.I. projects Runner Guor Mading Maker on Escaping Sudan and the BLM Movement	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line138
__label__wiki	0.818766	0.818766	Research into the marks and the duties You are here: City posts —> Research into the marks and the duties —> Frequently asked questions What is the correct term for the markers? Shouldn't they be called "Coal and wine duty posts"? Were the duties actually collected at the boundary markers? What about coal moved back outside boundary? Why are there posts on rural footpaths and open land? How far are the posts from London? I read that the boundary was 25 miles from London at one time. Is this right? How many markers were there in total? I have seen the figure of 1700. So that isn't correct? What does "24 & 25 VICT CAP 42" mean? So why do some posts just have "4 & 25 VICT CAP 42"? Why do some posts just have "24 VICT"? What is a chaldron? There is no official term. The City Corporation's website formerly used the term "Coal tax posts". "Coal posts" is quite often used, as is "Coal duty posts", which I think explains most about what they are; it is preferable to "Coal tax posts" because "duty" rather than "tax" is the term used in the legislation. I personally call them "City posts", the term used on early Ordnance Survey maps. The problem with all these terms is that not all the markers are posts -- the Type 3 plates certainly are not, and I think it is stretching the term "posts" to apply it to the railway and canal obelisks. On this website I have tried to use "boundary marks" or "boundary markers" when referring to the full range of marks and only to use "posts" for the Type 2 marks -- which do of course form the vast majority. The term used in the Historic England EH Monument Type Thesaurus is "Coal Duty Boundary Marker". No. I imagine that this surprisingly common error has arisen from someone noting that the inscription on the posts refers to an Act called the London Coal and Wine Duties Continuance Act 1861 and leaping to the erroneous conclusion that the posts were therefore erected in connection with both duties. As described in The duties 1861 - 1890, the duty on wine continued to apply only to wine entering the Port of London and was not affected by the change in area of collection of the coal duties. What the Act changed was the purposes for which the wine duty was used. The boundary markers have absolutely no connection with the wine duty, and calling them "Coal and wine duty posts", "Coal and wine tax posts", or "Coal and wine posts" is quite incorrect. In general, no. Customs officers did collect the government duty and the City duties on the Grand Junction Canal from 1805 to 1831 and the City employed a collector of duties there from 1831 to 1869 -- see Bawtree's articles on Stockers House. However, the vast bulk of coal coming to London came by sea (where there were established methods of collection) or later by rail, where the railway companies were responsible for paying the duty. No coal would have been moved long distances by road. However, coal merchants receiving coal by rail in towns just outside the boundary, such as Watford or Dartford, would have been selling coal to customers over the boundary in the London District. The Coal Market report map in 1868 shows more than twenty coal depots around London just outside the boundary. The Skeleton map of area of coal duties makes a point of naming towns and villages just outside the boundary. The City employed inspectors in these areas to keep a eye on this trade and to ensure that the duty was paid by the merchants. The boundary marks on roads were therefore not collection points, but a way of demarcating the boundary so that no-one could claim ignorance of their liabilities. Passages such as the following, found on a number of websites, are entirely fanciful: But if you had travelled the same way 130 years earlier you might have found queues of people, many with carts loaded with coal, wine, clothing and food, haggling with the taxman. As described in the paragraphs about so-called "drawbacks" in the The early railways and The London District 1845-1861 sections, coal was allowed to pass through the London District either without paying the duty, or being charged just 1d duty. The criteria for which of these applied were quite complicated, depending on the modes of transport used and whether it remained in the same railway wagon or vessel, and changed over the life of duties. However it did mean that coal bound by rail for places such as Epping, which could only be reached from the coalfields by traversing the district, did not bear the duty. As mentioned above, the purpose of the posts was to make sure that no-one could claim that they did not know where the boundary ran: the existence of a post at a particular point does not mean that coal was ever actually likely to have been transported past it. However, it is also worth remembering that before the days of paved roads, the difference between a bridle path and a road was not so great as it is now. Many currently quite wide and busy roads around London would have been little more than unmetalled country lanes in the late nineteenth century. The boundary The markers are between about 30 km (18 miles) and 20 km (12 miles) from Charing Cross, the average distance being about 24 km (15 miles). Slightly different figures would come from adopting the datum point used in the earlier coal duties legislation, the General Post Office in St Martins le Grand. However, Charing Cross seems more appropriate as it is not only the normal point from which distances are measured today, but was used in an 1867 Return to Parliament in estimating the distances of the furthest points of the boundary from London, and in the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 and Metropolitan Police Act 1839 to define which parishes could be added to the police district. The boundary is quite an irregular shape, as can be seen from the sketch map, so I am dubious about referring to it as a circle, as some writers do. It is certainly wrong, as can be seen from the figures above, to refer to it as a circle 20 miles around London. This figure must arise from a confusion with the boundary in operation between 1845 and 1861. The difference between the two boundaries is vivdly illustrated on the London coal &c duties map. No. As explained in the section on The early railways, the London and Westminster Coal Trade Act 1838 had regulatory provisions which applied to the area within 25 miles of London but the area of collection of duties was unaffected. As stated in the The boundary marks today, adding the number of possible missing marks to the number extant gives an original total of about 275-280. There are about 257 shown on the latest of the Area of Coal Duties maps in 1885, though this would not include the Type 3 plates as the maps do not show the plates separately from the posts that accompanied them. In March 1887 a figure of 257 is given in the Coal and Corn and Finance Committee Minutes (53, p84), but this is in connection with painting the posts so might exclude the stone obelisks. I have no idea where the figure of 1700 comes from. In 1957 the Bourne Society Bulletin attributed it to a newspaper cutting ( Bulletin 7, correcting the error in Bulletin 6). This is the numerical citation for the London Coal and Wine Duties Continuance Act 1861. The numbering of Acts of Parliament is explained in the page on Citation of Acts of Parliament. The most likely explanation is that initial "2" was removed to allow a plate with a fuller inscription to be fitted -- see the discussion on the page on Type 2 posts. The posts of type 2c, with the short inscription "24 VICT", were apparently made before the 1861 Act was actually passed and thus before its full regnal year and chapter number were known -- see the discussion on the page on Type 2 posts. A measure of volume, which in London was equivalent to about 1¼ tons. See the Note on units and the reference given there. Go to: Research into the marks and the duties \| My research \| Acknowledgements \| Contact me \| Note on units Page created by Martin Nail: Contact me. Last revised 17th August 2018 This web site: Copyright © 2018 Martin Nail. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line140
__label__wiki	0.625036	0.625036	World's Largest Animal Study on Cell Tower Radiation Confirms Cancer Link Scientists call on the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer to re-evaluate the carcinogenicity of cell phone radiation after the Ramazzini Institute and US government studies report finding the same unusual cancers Teton Village, WY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/22/2018 -- Researchers with the renowned Ramazzini Institute (RI) in Italy announce that a large-scale lifetime study of lab animals exposed to environmental levels of cell tower radiation developed cancer. A $25 million study of much higher levels of cell phone radiofrequency (RF) radiation, from the US National Toxicology Program (NTP), has also reported finding the same unusual cancer called Schwannoma of the heart in male rats treated at the highest dose. In addition, the RI study of cell tower radiation also found increases in malignant brain (glial) tumors in female rats and precancerous conditions including Schwann cells hyperplasia in both male and female rats. "Our findings of cancerous tumors in rats exposed to environmental levels of RF are consistent with and reinforce the results of the US NTP studies on cell phone radiation, as both reported increases in the same types of tumors of the brain and heart in Sprague-Dawley rats. Together, these studies provide sufficient evidence to call for the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to re-evaluate and re-classify their conclusions regarding the carcinogenic potential of RFR in humans," said Fiorella Belpoggi PhD, study author and RI Director of Research. The Ramazzini study exposed 2448 Sprague-Dawley rats from prenatal life until their natural death to "environmental" cell tower radiation for 19 hours per day (1.8 GHz GSM radiofrequency radiation (RFR) of 5, 25 and 50 V/m). RI exposures mimicked base station emissions like those from cell tower antennas, and exposure levels were far less than those used in the NTP studies of cell phone radiation. "All of the exposures used in the Ramazzini study were below the US FCC limits. These are permissible exposures according the FCC. In other words, a person can legally be exposed to this level of radiation. Yet cancers occurred in these animals at these legally permitted levels. The Ramazzini findings are consistent with the NTP study demonstrating these effects are a reproducible finding," explained Ronald Melnick PhD, formerly the Senior NIH toxicologist who led the design of the NTP study on cell phone radiation now a Senior Science Advisor to Environmental Health Trust (EHT). "Governments need to strengthen regulations to protect the public from these harmful non-thermal exposures." "This important article from one of the most acclaimed institutions of its kind in the world provides a major new addition to the technical literature indicating strong reasons for concern about electromagnetic radiation from base stations or cell towers," stated Editor in Chief of Environmental Research Jose Domingo PhD, Professor of Toxicology, School of Medicine at Reus University, Catalonia, Spain. "The US NTP results combined now with the Ramazzini study, reinforce human studies from our team and others providing clear evidence that RF radiation causes acoustic neuromaa (vestibular schwannoma) and gliomas, and should be classified carcinogenic to humans," stated Lennart Hardell MD, PhD, physician-epidemiologist with the Department of Oncology, University Hospital, Oerebro, Sweden, who has published extensively on environmental causes of cancer including Agent Orange, pesticides and cell phone radiofrequency radiation. "The evidence indicating wireless is carcinogenic has increased and can no longer be ignored," stated University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health Professor Emeritus Anthony B. Miller MD, Member of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of Canada and the UK, and Senior Medical Advisor to EHT who is also a long-term advisor to the World Health Organization. "This study raises concerns that simply living close to a cell tower will pose threats to human health. Governments need to take measures to reduce exposures from cell tower emissions. Cell towers should not be near schools, hospitals or people's homes. Public health agencies need to educate the public on how to reduce exposure from all sources of wireless radiofrequency radiation—be it from cell towers or cell phones or Wi-Fi in schools," stated David O. Carpenter MD, former Dean of the School of Public Health at the University at Albany. "This is particularly urgent because of current plans to place small 5G cell towers about every 300 meters in every street across the country. These 5G 'small cell' antennas will result in continuous exposure to everyone living nearby and everyone walking down the street. The increased exposures will increase risk of cancer and other diseases such as electro-hypersensitivity." Ramazzini Institute investigators have completed nearly 500 cancer bioassays on more than 200 compounds, and their study design is unique in that animals are allowed to live until their natural deaths in order to allow detection of late-developing tumors. Eighty percent of all human cancers are late-developing, occurring in humans after 60 years of age. This longer observation period has allowed the RI to detect such later-occurring tumors for a number of chemicals, and their published research includes studies of benzene, xylenes, mancozeb, formaldehyde and vinyl chloride. The Ramazzini research results come in the wake of similar findings from the US National Toxicology Program (NTP) large-scale experimental studies on cell phone radiation. Both studies found statistically significant increases in the development of the same type of very rare and highly malignant tumor in the heart of male rats—schwannomas. "This publication is a serious cause for concern," stated Annie J. Sasco MD, DrPH, SM, MPH, retired Director of Research at the INSERM (French NIH) and former Unit Chief at the International Agency for Research on Cancer/World Health Organization, France, who commented that, "some of the results are not statistically significant due to the relatively small number of animals involved. Yet, that does not mean they should be ignored. Larger studies could turn out statistically significant results and in any event statistical significance is just one aspect of evaluation of the relation between exposure and disease. Biological significance and concordance of results between humans and animals clearly reinforces the strength of the evidence of carcinogenicity. The facts that both experimental studies found the same types of rare tumors, which also have pertinence to the human clinical picture, is striking." "Such findings of effects at very low levels are not unexpected," stated Devra Davis PhD, MPH, president of EHT, pointing to a Jacobs University replication animal study published in 2015 that also found very low levels of RFR promoted tumor growth. "This study confirms an ever growing literature and provides a wake-up call to governments to enact protective policy to limit exposures to the public and to the private sector to make safe radiation-free technology available." In January 2017 at an international conference co-sponsored by Environmental Health Trust and the Israel Institute for Advanced Study at Hebrew University, Fiorella Belpoggi PhD, Director of Research at the Ramazzini Institute, presented the study design and the findings that RFR-exposed animals had significantly lower litter weights. Belpoggi's presentation and slides are available online. The Ramazzini findings of lower litter weights are consistent with the NTP study, which also found lower litter weights in prenatally exposed animals. At that time, the Italian journal Corriere published an article about the presentation of the Ramazzini study and quoted Belpoggi's recommendation of "maximum precaution for children and pregnant women." Noting that "current standards were not set to protect children, pregnant women, and the growing numbers of infants and toddlers for whom devices have become playthings," Davis, who is also Visiting Professor of Medicine of Hebrew University Medical Center and Guest Editor in Chief of the journal Environmental Research, added, "Current two-decade old FCC limits were set when the average call was six minutes and costly cell phones were used by very few. These important, new, game-changing studies show that animals develop the same types of unusual cancers that are being seen in those few human epidemiological studies that have been done. In light of these results, Environmental Health Trust joins with public health experts from the states of California, Connecticut and Maryland, as well as those in France, Israel and Belgium to call on government and the private sector to carry out major ongoing public health educational campaigns to promote safer phone and personal device technology, to require and expedite fundamental changes in hardware and software to reduce exposures to RFR/microwave radiation throughout indoor and outdoor environments, and to institute major monitoring, training and research programs to identify solutions, future problems and prevention of related hazards and risks." "More than a dozen countries recommend reducing radiofrequency radiation exposure to children, and countries such as China, Italy, India and Russia have far more stringent cell tower radiation regulations in place when compared to the United States FCC. However, this study provides scientific evidence that governments can use to take even further action," stated Theodora Scarato, Executive Director of EHT. The article is "Report of final results regarding brain and heart tumors in Sprague-Dawley rats exposed from prenatal life until natural death to mobile phone radiofrequency field representative of a 1.8 GHz base station environmental emission" by L. Falcioni, L. Bua, E.Tibaldi, M. Lauriola, L. De Angelis, F. Gnudi, D. Mandrioli, M. Manservigi, F. Manservisi, I. Manzoli, I. Menghetti, R. Montella, S. Panzacchi, D. Sgargi, V. Strollo, A.Vornoli, F. Belpoggi (doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.01.037). It appears in Environmental Research published by Elsevier. About Environmental Research Environmental Research publishes original reports describing studies of the adverse effects of environmental agents on humans and animals. The principal aim of the journal is to assess the impact of chemicals and microbiological pollutants on human health. Both in vivo and in vitro studies, focused on defining the etiology of environmentally induced illness and to increase understanding of the mechanisms by which environmental agents cause disease, are especially welcome. Investigations on the effects of global warming/climate change on the environment and public health, as well as those focused on the effects of anthropogenic activities on climate change are also of particular interest. About Environmental Health Trust EHT is a scientific virtual think tank conducting cutting-edge research on environmental health risks with some of the world's top researchers. EHT educates individuals, health professionals and communities about policy changes needed to reduce those risks. EHT maintains a regularly updated database of worldwide precautionary policies: more than a dozen countries recommend reducing wireless exposure to children. https://ehtrust.org For more information on this press release visit: http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/worlds-largest-animal-study-on-cell-tower-radiation-confirms-cancer-link-953696.htm Janet Vasquez JV Public Relations NY Email: Click to Email Janet Vasquez Web: http://www.ehtrust.org	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line143
__label__wiki	0.645955	0.645955	Meet Gina Genovese, an Independent Running for NJ Governor Posted by Essex County Politics 1sc on July 19, 2017 Running for NJ Governor By Alyana Alfaro • 07/17/17 Gina Genovese. Gina Genovese — a former professional tennis player and mayor of Long Hill — is running an independent campaign for New Jersey governor centered around sharing services between municipalities, a move that Genovese claims could slash property tax bills by up to 15 percent for many New Jersey homeowners. “I feel that the only hope for New Jersey is if I at least bring this message to the governor’s race so people can talk about real issues and real solutions and look at the elephant in the living room,” Genovese told Observer on Monday. New Jersey has 565 municipalities, many of which have fewer than 10,000 residents. In many cases, each of those towns has a mayor and council, a police force, a fire department and a school district. Property taxes are the main funding source for all those services and other local programs. Critics say the high number of municipalities is one of the main reasons several studies have shown over the years that New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the nation. On the other hand, New Jersey residents according to some polls enjoy the benefits of home rule, of having direct control over their local government and schools. Pooling local services among several towns can help alleviate New Jersey’s highest-in-the-nation property tax bills, Genovese says. Regardless of whether she wins or loses in November, Genovese said, she hopes that her presence in the race can push the goal of sharing services to the forefront of the next governor’s to-do list. “You can unincorporate towns and unincorporate school districts and reincorporate as a new entity,” Genovese said. “Basically what this allows New Jersey to do is to start over. Therein lies the big innovation and perhaps the only way New Jersey can address its property taxes.” Genovese is a former Democrat who became an unaffiliated voter when she started Courage to Connect NJ, a nonprofit focused on promoting sharing services between towns, in 2009. She still believes in many Democratic principles such as boosting the minimum wage, increasing affordable housing and legalizing marijuana. She is also the only openly gay candidate in the race. The Republican nominee, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, has also focused her campaign on the property tax issue, which according to a poll last week by Monmouth University is the top concern for 50 percent of New Jersey voters. Guadagno’s plan would cap the percentage of a family’s property tax bill that goes to school funding, and the state would create a new “circuit breaker” property tax credit of up to $3,000 for qualifying homeowners. Guadagno says she would pay the estimated $1.5 billion yearly cost in the state budget by conducting various audits to root out wasteful spending and by revising health benefits for public workers. Guadagno also supports sharing services between municipalities. “She talks about a circuit breaker and, frankly, I don’t really understand it,” Genovese said. “Just shifting money and finding more money to pay for the inefficiencies in New Jersey is not going to solve the problem. We need to reduce expenses. We need to tame this giant and start reducing property taxes.” Legislation sponsored by Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) to encourage towns to share services passed the state Senate in 2012 but never got a vote in the Assembly. The Sweeney plan, which had bipartisan support, would have pushed towns to share more services under the potential threat of losing state aid if they did not do so. Genovese’s platform also focuses on creating more economic development in the state. As a small business owner, Genovese says New Jersey has to get creative and find ways to repurpose existing vacant structures to boost the economy and remain competitive with other states. “We have to keep it sustainable and build jobs in New Jersey,” she said. “It is not easy but when you address it regionally, we have to make sure that our industries are sustainable and supported.” Genovese is the only LGBT candidate in the race — she married her wife in 2013. But, she has failed to get the endorsement of Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s largest LGBT advocacy group. That endorsement went to Democratic nominee Phil Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive who pumped $16 million of his own money into the Democratic primary. “I’m not going to get many endorsements because I frankly am not able to donate money so people endorse me,” Genovese said. “That is not the game I want to play. I want to be able to communicate to the taxpayers and say I am concerned with those important issues. Endorsements come with some constraints.” Reports filed with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission show Genovese has raised $10,377 for her gubernatorial bid.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line148
__label__cc	0.565162	0.434838	Donovan Harper Plays Colehouse Walker, Jr., In HCT’s Ragtime The Musical, Opening May 11 Posted by FOCUS Newspaper \| May, 3, 2018 \| Local News Hickory – One of the most pivotal characters in Ragtime the Musical is Coalhouse Walker, Jr., a jazz musician seeking justice for himself and his family. Local actor Donovan Harper is taking on this compelling role in the Hickory Community Theatre’s upcoming production, which will be on stage in the Jeffers Theatre from May 11th through the 27th. Harper is on stage frequently at the Theatre, with eleven productions to his credit over the past four years. His most recent role was Walter Hobbs, the father of Buddy the elf in Elf the Musical. His other notable roles include Roger Davis in Rent, Laertes in Hamlet, and the Cowardly Lion in The Wiz. When he’s not on stage he works as a direct care worker with The Arc of North Carolina, a statewide advocacy and service organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. Ragtime the Musical, like the novel on which it is based, tells the story of three groups in the United States in the early 20th century: African Americans, represented by Coalhouse Walker, Jr., a Harlem musician; upper-class suburbanites, represented by Mother, the matriarch of a white upper-class family in New Rochelle, New York; and Eastern European immigrants, represented by Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia. These fictional characters interact with others that are based on real, historical figures. Harry Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, Booker T. Washington, J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Stanford White, Harry Kendall Thaw, Admiral Perry, Matthew Henson, and Emma Goldman are all represented in the story. While most of the fictional characters are entirely the creation of the novel’s author, E.L. Doctorow, Colehouse is one that blends fact and fiction. The well mannered, soft-spoken, black jazz musician is believed by some to be partially based on Scott Joplin, the jazz composer who was dubbed “the king of ragtime.” Parts of the plot also closely mirror elements of Joplin’s opera Treemonisha, when a black baby is found under a tree, just like in the novel/musical. The baby in the opera eventually becomes a black culture icon, just like Colehouse’s son in the novel and the musical. Further blurring the lines between fact and fiction, Doctorow named the character of Coalhouse after a character named Michael Kohlhaas who suffers a similar humiliation in an 1811 novella published by Heinrich von Kleist. Both men pursue justice, and both meet the same tragic end. Performances of Ragtime the Musical are Fridays and Saturdays (May 11, 12, 18, 19, 25 & 26) at 8:00pm, Thursdays (May 17 & 24) at 7:30pm and Sundays (May 20 & 27) at 2:30pm. Tickets for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and $10 for students and youth 18 & under. Thursday night tickets for adults and seniors are $16, students and children are $10. Tickets are on sale online at hickorytheatre.org or through the Theatre box office, in person or by phone at 828-328-2283. Box office hours are 12-5 Wednesday through Saturday. HCT is a Funded Affiliate of the United Arts Council of Catawba County. The 2017-2018 Season is sponsored by Paramount Automotive and A Cleaner World. Ragtime the Musical is produced by The United Arts Council of Catawba County, The City of Hickory Community Relations Council, The Hickory International Council and David and Susan Walker. Photo: Donoval Harper is Colehouse Walker in Ragtime, opening May 11th at the Hickory Community Theatre Performances run through May 27th on the Mainstage in the Jeffers Theatre. Click www.hickorytheatre.org or call (828) 328-2283 for tickets and information. Photo by John Koval. PreviousNewcomers Host Talk On Spanish Conquistadors’ Exploring This Area On Wednesday, May 9, At 10:30am NextHickory Downtown Development Association Receives 2018 National Main Street Accreditation Family Fun Night Carnival Friday, June 24, At Dallas Park Super Block Party At The Schiele Museum, This Saturday, July 13 Greenway Offers Science And School Ride-Along, October 18 City Of Newton Encourages Support Of Local Businesses	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line150
__label__wiki	0.735107	0.735107	Stories from Wednesday, March 12, 2003 Warrants offer more insight to Tomich case (Local News ~ 03/12/03) BLOOMFIELD ---- Recently unsealed search warrants and other court documents continue to paint twists and turns in the murder of Ronald Tomich. After Constance Tomich's initial hearing Friday, investigators requested a search warrant for the Tomich residence based on more information from Tomich's 15-year-old daughter... Tomich denies paying to have her husband killed (Local News ~ 03/12/03) Constance Tomich, through her attorney, has denied paying a 16-year-old girl money to have her husband killed. "Constance Tomich is relieved that the girl admitted to killing Ron Tomich," Constance Tomich's attorney, Randall Johns of Bloomington told The Daily Citizen on Tuesday afternoon... Tulip church outgrows its old building (Local News ~ 03/12/03) BLOOMFIELD ---- It's a little country church that's survived 83 years of hot summers and salvation, cold winters and communions, hailstorms and happy times. Now, its congregation is planning to build a bigger church. The Tulip Church of God, located northeast of Bloomfield in Richland Township, has been a part of Greene County's history since its present building was completed in 1920. ... Worthington council OK's community garden (Local News ~ 03/12/03) The idea of a community garden was discussed at the Worthington Town Council meeting Tuesday night. "Christine McCraney, who is a Master Gardener in Greene County, asked about a plot of ground for a garden spot," explained Town Council president Bill Bays. "We don't know where it will be just yet."... Linton offering help for students trying to cope (Local News ~ 03/12/03) Officials at Linton-Stockton High School are offering support to students who may be struggling with the arrest of classmate Melissa Zitterman. Zitterman, a freshman, was charged Tuesday with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the shooting death of Ronald Tomich on Feb. 14... Football parents to meet Monday (Local News ~ 03/12/03) The Linton-Stockton High School football parents club will have a short meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the junior high band room. Fundraiser orders will be due at this time. For more information, call Nancy Patterson at 847-2159. Robert E. Kigin (Local News ~ 03/12/03) Robert E. Kigin, 84, of Linton, passed away at 3:50 a.m. today, March 12, 2003, at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Funeral service are pending at Anderson-Poindexer Linton Memory Chapel.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line152
__label__cc	0.749878	0.250122	Funding for prospective students Funding database search HomeAward details University of Exeter funding: CDT in Environmental Intelligence: UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Environmental Intelligence: Data Science & AI for Sustainable Futures Ref: 4069 Many of the most important problems we face today are related to the environment. Climate change, healthy oceans, water security, clean air, biodiversity loss, and resilience to extreme events all play a crucial role in determining our health, wealth, safety and future development. The vision of this Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) is to provide a world-class training environment in Environmental Intelligence (EI): the integration of data from multiple inter-related sources and to provide the evidence and tools that are required for informed decision-making, improved risk management, and the technological innovation that will lead us towards a more sustainable interaction with the natural environment. We welcome applications for this CDT in Environmental Intelligence (EI) to start in Autumn 2021. Applications are made for entry to the 4-year training programme, including both training in the fundamentals of EI and supervision of your PhD research. Students will receive training in the range of skills they will require to become leaders in EI: (i) the computational skills required to analyse data from a wide variety of sources; (ii) expertise in environmental challenges; (iii) an understanding of governance, ethics and the potential societal impacts of collecting, mining, sharing and interpreting data, together with the ability to communicate and engage with a diverse range of stakeholders. The training programme has been designed to be applicable to students with a range of backgrounds. Supervisors cover a range of disciplines and experiences related to the use of data in addressing environmental challenges. Students will have the opportunity to work with the CDT’s external partners, including the Met Office and a range of international institutions and businesses, to ensure that they are well versed in both cutting edge methodology and on-the-ground policy and business implementation. Fully funded 4-year studentships are available for UK students and a limited number of international places are available for exceptional candidates (subject to UKRI eligibility restrictions). The funding is for four years and covers University tuition fees and all course fees, an annual stipend, (which is £15,285 for the academic year 2020/21), and funds towards research activities. Self-funded students are welcome to apply. We welcome applications from those who are expected to receive, a 1st class or 2:1 undergraduate degree in a wide variety of subjects relevant to the application of Data Science and AI to environmental challenges. These might include, for example computer science, statistics, mathematics, climate, health, economics, philosophy, and social and environmental sciences. For those without a computer science/mathematics background, additional training will be provided (if required) both before and after joining the CDT. We are happy to discuss alternative requirements for those with non-standard qualifications and/or experience. If English is not your first language you will need to have achieved at least 6.5 in IELTS (with no less than 6.0 in each of the four components), or equivalent by the start of the programme. Alternative tests may be acceptable, please see http://www.exeter.ac.uk/pg-research/apply/english/ The PhD programme has a strong commitment towards inclusivity, we therefore welcome applications from individuals regardless of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, age, gender, or disability status. To apply for funding, you must do so by clicking on the ‘apply now’ button above. You will need to upload the following documents to the studentship application form. Please note our preferred format is PDF, each file named with your surname and the name of the document, eg. “Smith – CV.pdf”, “Smith – Cover Letter.pdf”, “Smith – Transcript.pdf”: • Your CV • A personal statement (approximately 500 words) which should tell us about; why you are interested in Environmental Intelligence your interests, skills and experience and how they are applicable to the role of postgraduate research in Environmental Intelligence your motivation for applying to this CDT programm. • Transcript(s) giving full details of subjects studied and grades/marks obtained • If you are not a national of a majority English-speaking country you will need to submit evidence of your current proficiency in English. For further details of the University’s English language requirements please see http://www.exeter.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply/english/ • One reference - please ensure that references are submitted by the application closing date of 18 January 2021. Alternatively references can be sent directly to pgr-recruitment@exeter.ac.uk, thought must be received by the closing date. Interviews are likely to be held week commencing 22 February 2021 All application documents must be submitted in English. Certified translated copies of academic qualifications must also be provided. References should be submitted to us directly in the form of a letter. Referees must email their references to us from their institutional email accounts. We cannot accept references from personal/private email accounts, unless it is a scanned document on institutional headed paper and signed by the referee. UK/EU tuition fees together with a yearly stipend at UKRI rates (£15,285 for 2020/21) Duration of award: Contact: Centre for Environmental Intelligence ei@exeter.ac.uk	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line155
__label__wiki	0.761797	0.761797	WATERCOOLER CHAT: BILLS BAD, CUBAN IN TROUBLE, DAVIDSON TO WATCH November 18th, 2008 \| Category: Uncategorized It was a wild Monday Night Football game in Buffalo, as the Cleveland Browns traveled to town to take on the sliding Buffalo Bills. This game marked the 2nd appearance from new Browns quarterback, and former Notre Dame heartthrob, Brady Quinn. Quinn put up below average numbers, throwing for only 185 yards and NO touchdowns. However, his performance wasn’t as bad as Bills QB Trent Edwards. Edwards had a TD pass, but was also picked off 3 times. The game pretty much belonged to the special teams, as there were a total of 7 Field Goals in the game. However, the Bills sure were hoping there would have been eight. And here’s why: With 1:39 left in the game, the Cleveland Browns marched down the field, and then their kicker Phil Dawson booted a beautiful 56-YARD KICK to put the Browns up 29-27. The Bills had one last shot, and they put THEIR kicker, Rian Lindell, out there to win the game. However, it just wasn’t the Bills night, as Lindell’s 47-yard kick went wide-right, which put the nail in their coffin. Now the Bills, who started the season 4-0 looking like a Super Bowl contender, have dropped to 5-5 and will struggle to make the playoffs. Ever since the 4-year Super Bowl appearance streak – it’s now a bummer to be a Bills fan. Cleveland 29, Buffalo 27. In the NBA, Dallas Mavericks loud-mouth owner, Mark Cuban, has been accused of insider-trading. In basic terms, Cuban once invested in a new search engine company called Mamma.com. He had 600,000 shares in the company and was told via phone call that those shares would sell below the current market price. A few hours after the call, he told his broker to SELL SELL SELL!!! That’s… insider trading, and Cuban’s situation is very similar to what Martha Stewart got in trouble for. Of course, an investigation is pending, and more details will come out over the next couple weeks. A spotlight has been cast this season on Stephen Curry. He was the star of the Cinderella Davidson team last season who ran amuck in the NCAA Tournament, and fell just a few points shy of going to the Final Four. He could have gone pro after last season, and would have been picked relatively high, but he chose to stay in college, and has since gained national celebrity status. This season, Davidson is ranked #20 and Curry put up 33 points in last night’s win against James Madison. This year, teams will be gunning for Davidson as they are anything but an underdog. Davidson 99, James Madison 64.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line158
__label__wiki	0.681926	0.681926	Archive for February 11th, 2020 Rivers Gone From Chargers, XFL Debut But Kaepernick Too Expensive February 11th, 2020 \| Category: football The Los Angeles Chargers officially “mutually parted ways” with quarterback Philip Rivers. No word yet on where he’ll end up, but Rivers recently moved his large family to Florida, so it appears the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the odds-on favorite. The 38-year old Rivers said that wherever he ends up, he’ll play for a maximum of 2 years. The NFL season is over, but the newly revised XFL had its officially debut last weekend. The new League markets itself as “fan-first, ultra-accessible, and true to the game”. The League consists of 8 teams playing in a ten-week regular season and two-week postseason. You’ll see some recognizable names on the field of players who for various reasons haven’t been able to find a spot in the NFL. The one player you won’t see, however, is Colin Kaepernick. According to the Commissioner Oliver Luck when asked about Kaepernick , “I’m saying that we spoke with his representative, and the salary requirements that were broached in that conversation were exorbitant and certainly out of our range.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line159
__label__wiki	0.587025	0.587025	Home / Cedar Ridge High School / Cedar Ridge forward Neco Clark talks dramatic win over Orange Time will tell whether the first time against Orange for Neco Clark will be the best time, but it was certainly memorable. Trailing by 18 points, Cedar Ridge rallied to defeat Orange 67-66 in overtime. It was Clark’s first game against Orange on the varsity level and he was a huge part in the biggest plays of the game. With the game tied 56-56, Orange held the ball for over one minute trying to get the final shot on regulation. But Clark, a sophomore, drew a charge against Orange senior Jason Franklin with 8.6 seconds remaining. In overtime, Clark scored four points to lead Cedar Ridge with 19 points. it was the Red Wolves’ third straight win over the Panthers and its fourth in the last six games. Cedar Ridge is 1-1 and will travel to Northern Durham on Friday.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line160
__label__wiki	0.676031	0.676031	The Beatles 1962-1966 (a.k.a. The Red Album) The Beatles 1962-1966 - LP Cover The Beatles 1962-1966 - Gatefold Interior Label Apple Catalogue No. PCSP 717 PCSPR 717 (Red Vinyl) CDPCSP 717 (C.D.) Release dates 19th April 1973 30th September 1978 (Red Vinyl) September 1993 (CD) U.K. Album Chart Detail : Entry Date : 5th May 1973 Highest Position : 3 Weeks in Chart : + 114 (The 1973 original release) 34 from 20th December 1978 (Red vinyl issue ... reached number 37) 24 from 2nd October 1993 (CD release ... also reached number 3 !) 2 from 28th October 2007 (reached no. 71) 11 from 24th October 2010 (reached no. 6) 185 weeks in total Detail : The Beatles fourteenth "official" album release, but the first after splitting, and this is where we stop counting these releases as official ! In 1973 E.M.I. (under the Apple banner) released two double albums of the "Best" of The Beatles, The Beatles 1962-1966 and The Beatles 1967-1970. The package of this release has the catalogue number PCSP 717, but the two albums are individually numbered as PCS 7171 and PCS 7172, which actually fits in with the Parlophone numbering of the time. The album was also released on cassette tape, Catalogue number - TC2 PCSP 717. The estimated worldwide sales of this double L.P. are under 2 million. The gatefold sleeve features a shot on the front cover that was taken at the "Please Please Me" cover shoot, but is obviously different, and the rear cover is the shot that had originally been taken for the aborted "Get Back" L.P. The inner sleeves matched the colour of the front cover's outer border, and had the lyrics printed upon them. Unfortunately, nothing new on the album, every track had been previously released. And here we had a double L.P. with EVERY track written by Lennon & McCartney ! Five years later on 2nd December 1978 during the coloured vinyl boom, E.M.I. re-promoted the pair of L.P.s on coloured vinyl that matched the covers theme colour, e.g. the release of "1962-1966" was on red vinyl, and "1967-1970" on blue. Incidentally, my record catalogue also has an L.P. release of The red album in September 1991 on catalogue number PCSP 7231. In September 1993 the red and blue album's had their first release on C.D.'s, 1962-1966 had a catalogue number of CDPCSP 717 And on the same day, the record shop H.M.V. produced a special 12" numbered CD Box Set Comprising: The C.D. of "The Beatles 1962-1966" + A badge + A booklet of b/w photos + Extended notes about the L.P. This set had a catalogue number of BEA CD 25/11, and was in a limited edition. 14th February 1994 - E.M.I. released coloured vinyl editions of the new digitally enhanced Red and Blue albums and pressed just 20,000 copies. E.M.I. then deleted the release immediately. The album was also released on twin-cassette tapes (1⅞ ips) - Catalogue number - TC2-PCSP 717 The album was also released on twin 8-track stereo continuous play cartridges (3¾ ips) - catalogue no. 8X2-PCSP 717 I didn't notice any particular Beatles campaigns in 2007, but in October the "Red Album" hit the charts again. On 21st October it just about missed the Top 75 (the Official Chart) when it went from 193 to 77. But the following week on 28th October 2007 it entered the chart at no. 71. (The "Blue Album" narrowly missed out though, when on 21st October it went from 181 to 91, but didn't get into the Top 75.) 4th November 2007 - The Red Album dropped one place to number 72. 11th November 2007 - The Red Album dropped from number 72 out of the official chart to number 79. 18th November 2007 - The Red Album dropped further out of the official chart to number 88. 25th November 2007 - For it's final week in listings that I could see, The Red Album dropped from number 88 to number 99. 18th October 2010 The Red and Blue albums were re-issued on c.d. under the guise of new "Re-masters". Of course, all they contain are the 2009 remasters re-packaged. The Red album was presented in a triple panel card package using conservation grade FSC paper complete with an expanded picture booklet containing original liner notes, newly written essays by Bill Flanagan, and rare photos. Catalogue number: RED6266 (Barcode: 5099990675225). 24th October 2010 - The Red album re-entered the charts at number 6. 31st October 2010 - The Red album dropped 11 places to number 17. 7th November 2010 - The Red album dropped another 12 places to number 29. 14th November 2010 - The Red album dropped just 6 places to number 35. 21st November 2010 - The Red album went back up the chart to number 33. 28th November 2010 - The Red album went up again in the chart to number 28. 5th December 2010 - The Red album dropped back a couple of places to number 30. 12th December 2010 - The Red album dropped back another couple of places to number 32. 19th December 2010 - The Red album was a non-mover in the pre-Christmas chart at number 32. 26th December 2010 - The Red album dropped down 3 places to number 35. 2nd January 2011 - As Christmas sales dropped off the Red album dropped way back down the chart to number 74. 9th January 2011 - The Red album dropped out of the official chart, down to number 87. Note that there was also a set released of the Red and Blue albums coupled together. This special set entered the chart separately to the two individual sets for one week at number 59 on 28th November 2010. In following weeks it was listed outside the official chart at 97, then 97, then 85, then 95 (on 26th December) before disappearing. The Beatles 1967-1970 ~ The "Blue" Album Track Composer Original Source Time Love Me Do Lennon-McCartney Love Me Do the single. 2:19 Please Please Me Lennon-McCartney Please Please Me the single. 2:00 From Me To You Lennon-McCartney From Me To You the single. 1:54 She Loves You Lennon-McCartney She Love's You the single. 2:18 I Want To Hold Your Hand Lennon-McCartney I Want To Hold Your Hand the single. 2:22 All My Loving Lennon-McCartney With The Beatles. 2:06 Can't Buy Me Love Lennon-McCartney Can't Buy Me Love the single. 2:10 A Hard Day's Night Lennon-McCartney A Hard Day's Night the single. 2:29 And I Love her Lennon-McCartney A Hard Day's Night. 2:28 Eight Day's A Week Lennon-McCartney Beatles For Sale. 2:42 I Feel Fine Lennon-McCartney I Feel Fine the single. 2:17 Ticket To Ride Lennon-McCartney Ticket To Ride the single. 3:09 Yesterday Lennon-McCartney Help ! the album. 2:03 Help ! Lennon-McCartney Help ! the single. 2:16 You've Got To Hide Your Love Away Lennon-McCartney Help ! the album. 2:07 We Can Work It Out Lennon-McCartney We Can Work It Out the single. 2:12 Day Tripper Lennon-McCartney Day Tripper the single. 2:49 Drive My Car Lennon-McCartney Rubber Soul. 2:25 Norwegian Wood Lennon-McCartney Rubber Soul. 2:01 Nowhere Man Lennon-McCartney Rubber Soul. 2:40 Michelle Lennon-McCartney Rubber Soul. 2:40 In My Life Lennon-McCartney Rubber Soul. 2:24 Girl Lennon-McCartney Rubber Soul. 2:30 Paperback Writer Lennon-McCartney Paperback Writer the single. 2:15 Eleanor Rigby Lennon-McCartney Eleanor Rigby the single. 2:04 Yellow Submarine Lennon-McCartney Yellow Submarine the single. 2:36 ©2001 Graham Calkin's Beatles Pages. All Rights Reserved.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line169
__label__wiki	0.928263	0.928263	FEAR FACTORY To Release New Studio Album Next Year May 6, 2013 0 Comment Fear Factory Metal Mark of SkullsNBones.com conducted an interview with guitarist Dino Cazares of Los Angeles cyber metallers FEAR FACTORY before the band’s May 2 concert in New York City. You can now watch the chat below. FEAR FACTORY will perform its classic 1995 sophomore album, “Demanufacture”, in its entirety aboard the 2014 edition of the world’s biggest heavy metal cruise — 70000 Tons Of Metal — which will sail January 27-31. FEAR FACTORY‘s video for the title track of their new album, “The Industrialist”, was directed and edited by James Zahn. The clip utilizes live footage of the band from last June’s Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel, Belgium against a visual backdrop that pulls topical subjects from the story written by vocalist Burton C. Bell that served as inspiration for the group’s latest CD. A part of “The Industrialist” video was revealed in 2011 leading up to the release of the album. Now with the full video, the visual door to the concepts presented on the album are available for music fans to experience. Bell said, “We allowed James to take his time to create the video so that he could match his expertise with the conceptual imagery that was written in ‘The Industrialist’. Being that he has been a longtime fan of FEAR FACTORY, he understood the nature of the FF machine; the concepts, imagery, and history. I believe he achieved a new era for FEAR FACTORY video concepts.” As a longtime fan of FEAR FACTORY, Zahn knew his work on “The Industrialist” would be enhanced by his extensive knowledge of the band. “Growing up listening to FEAR FACTORY and being captivated with the heavy industrial scene of the 1990s, the one thing that always stuck with me was the accompanying visual aspect,” he said. “Those videos that featured stock footage intercut with live performance clips were such a staple of the time and helped in editing ‘The Industrialist’. Broken technology working alongside machinery in the midst of social change served as inspiration.” “The Industrialist” sold 9,300 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 38 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band’s previous CD, “Mechanize”, opened with 10,000 units back in February 2010 to land at No. 72. Photo credit: Stephanie Cabral ← PILGRIM Signs With METAL BLADE RECORDS SKID ROW Bassist Interviewed On ‘Dropping The Needle’ Podcast (Video) → FEAR FACTORY Guitarist Interviewed On MSRcast (Audio) SLIPKNOT Drummer’s SCAR THE MARTYR: Debut Album Track Listing Revealed FEAR FACTORY: Official ‘The Industrialist’ Trailer Posted Online	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line170
__label__cc	0.605141	0.394859	Grant Cross Grant Cross is president and founder of Lost Arts Pictures, a joint venture and full-service production company launched by Cross’s Lost Arts Entertainment and 3BMG (3 Ball Media Group). With multiple projects already in production and development for an array of cable networks, Lost Arts Pictures creates unscripted content, in all genres, for both linear networks and streaming platforms. Cross holds more than a decade of experience producing and developing both scripted and unscripted projects. Prior to launching Lost Arts, he was head of development for AMS Pictures, overseeing the prodco’s entire slate and shepherding series including HISTORY’s Fistful of Steel, among others. Before AMS, Cross developed series for Megalomedia, also serving as producer on various projects, including A&E’s Shipping Wars. His other production credits include Discovery’s Devil’s Canyon, HGTV’s Bet the House, American Rehab: Colombus and Fixin’ to Sell, and Animal Planet’s Lone Star Law.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line180
__label__cc	0.601061	0.398939	scent of death Andrew Taylor answers your questions! Posted on July 18, 2013 by Hannah Happy publication date to Andrew Taylor, award-winning author of The Scent of Death, which is out today in paperback. Earlier this year, we asked you to send in your questions for Andrew to answer and we’re pleased to feature your questions (and his answers!) below. 1. Do you research true life crime to get ideas? Yes. For example, I found the 1824 Fauntleroy banking scandal in the Newgate Calendar, the record of old trials, which gave me an important plot element for The American Boy. In Bleeding Heart Square, I used an old London legend and mixed it with a real-life celebrated Victorian case, the Moat Farm murder, which had a slight connection to my grandmother’s family (nothing too sinister, honestly…) It’s an ongoing process. 2. How/where do you do your research for your historical crime novels? (Michael Chin) I browse the internet and the London Library. I’m not very methodical about the process, I’m afraid. But I do try to read primary sources where possible, not second-hand accounts. I like to hear the individual voices of the dead – as they come through in their letters, novels, diaries, plays, etc. That seems much more important (and interesting) than what this or that academic has written about a period two hundred years later. I also try to visit key locations (or similar ones) if possible – eg New York for The Scent of Death – if only to get a true sense of them. 3. If you could interview a murderer, living or dead, in order to gain an insight into their mind, who would you interview and why? (Tricia Clark) Richard III. The case has interested me for years. I don’t think there’s much doubt now that he was at least complicit in the disappearance and probable murder of his nephews, the Princes in the Tower. But I’d like to know the thought processes that allowed an honourable and loyal brother (of the boys’ father) and uncle to reach the point where that became possible for him. 4. What excites you the most about this period of history and why? (Tricia Clark) The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are the time when our modern world really began to take shape. Also, people were speaking a sort of English that by and large is easily understood today, as Jane Austen devotees happily testify. So we can get back to them in a very direct and intimate way, through their own words. The period also saw the American and French revolutions, the Napoleonic Wars, the anti-slavery movement, the birth of feminism, major scientific developments and some very lively men and women. What’s not to like? But I like to view the past from an unexpected perspective – hence, in The Scent of Death, the decision to show the American War of Independence from the rarely-shown viewpoint of the Loyalist Americans who stayed loyal to King George. 5. Do you ever use names of friends or family in your novels? Frequently. Both Savill (The Scent of Death) and Shield (The American Boy) are family names, and the Roth Trilogy is full of them. In The Anatomy of Death I generously bestowed fellowships in an eighteenth-century Cambridge college on four of my friends. Even my cats and dogs have appeared in print. 6. Who are your favourite crime writers and why? I always find this a really tough question! Among the dead, all the obvious ones, from Poe to Conan Doyle, Christie to Chandler. But especially Josephine Tey, who always wrote brilliantly, and never wrote the same book twice. The late lamented Reginald Hill’s novels have given me immense pleasure – literate, witty and enormously perceptive about human nature. Among the living, well, that’s my secret… The Scent of Death is out today! Scent of Death Reviews Earlier this year, we offered two Killer Readers the chance to review Andrew Taylor’s book, Scent of Death. Yesterday, Andrew was awarded the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger for Scent of Death, the third time he has won the award! Let’s see what the reviewers thought… I confess I am addicted to reading historical thrillers. It is a pure escapism for me. There’s nothing better after a long difficult day than to snuggle in bed with a book and get engrossed in the murder mystery set in the times long past. Having thoroughly enjoyed The American Boy by Andrew Taylor, I was excited to get hold of Taylor’s latest novel The Scent of Death. If you are a fan of the historical thriller genre, you might have come across some pretty mediocre examples of it, where the plot often does not hold water and the characters seem to be totally implausible. Andrew Taylor has created a gripping detective story, with a convincing plot and compelling characters. Taylor has chosen a fascinating period of history: the novel is set during the American War of Independence. The pace is teasingly slow at the start, the style of writing is exceptionally good. You get the taste of how good the writing is from the very first lines: “This is the story of a woman and a city. I saw the city first, shimmering from afar like the new Jerusalem in the setting sun. I smelled the sweetness of the land and sensed the nearness of green, growing things after the weeks on the barren ocean… It was Sunday, 2nd August 1778” The story is narrated by Edward Savill, a London clerk from the American Department. He is assigned to New York to investigate the claims of dispossessed loyalists who are evicted from their lands by the republican rebels. You get the insights into the routine horros of the civil war, injustice, internal contradictions, tough conditions and precariousness of life. Savill is billetted with the respected Wintour family. The enigmatic Arabella Wintour is the heroine who appears in the first sentence of the book and who would propel the story to its unforgettable end. Savill is a sympathetic and observant story-teller. The narrative is visually dramatic and marvellously atmospheric, the darkness hiding the danger and proving treacherous, the light – be it shimmering candles or glowing windows – highlighting the facial features and revealing the mysteries. Flashes of light and darkness are symbols of the human nature, as almost each character in the book has a secret they want to hide. The title of the novel is quite apt, as the scent of death follows you from the beginning, with the memorable description of the “merman” in the sea, the graphic scene of execution, with more deaths to follow, coming to a very poignant attempt of escape of the ice and the most intense and agonizing dénouement. You can also read this 10/10 review on the reviewer’s blog. Time for review #2, from Alison Campbell… Set in 1778, , during the American War of Independence an English clerk, Edward Savill has been ordered to sail to New York to investigate claims of property that’s been plundered from the Loyalists by rebels. After a long, arduous journey it isn’t long until he is swept up a city shrouded by smoke and underlying violence, and he soon finds himself investigating his first murder. Whilst in New York, Edward lodges with the Wintours, a family with their own troubles and dark secrets, and soon he becomes embroiled in their complicated lives. It isn’t long until realises his own life is in danger but doesn’t know who he can really trust. This is the first time I’ve read anything by this author, despite it being extremely well written and atmospheric, the author failed to capture my attention until after a couple of hundred pages, and for the first time ever I nearly gave up on a book, but I’m so glad I persevered. As the narrative continued, I was finally drawn into the story and thoroughly enjoyed the book. I couldn’t help but compare today’s political, social divides and racial prejudices against those of 1778, and how sadly there’s not much change for the better. The Scent of Death is a satisfying read deep on many levels, which challenges socio- economic views relevant today. I would give it 4 stars. Have you read Scent of Death yet? What did you think? It is published in paperback on Thursday this week! Pick it up at Waterstones or any good book retailer. Could you interview Andrew Taylor? Posted on March 13, 2013 by Hannah Calling all fans and bloggers! Could you interview bestselling author Andrew Taylor? As so many of you approached us about reviewing The Scent of Death, we want to offer you the opportunity to interview Andrew Taylor for yourselves! The bestselling author of The American Boy returns with a brilliant new historical thriller set during the American War of Independence. Simply send in 3 questions that you would ask him if you had the chance – either as a comment, a Facebook message or an email to killerreads@harpercollins.co.uk. The three best sets will get a copy of the book and a chance to add two more questions before we put their questions to Andrew Taylor, and the final interviews will be published here on the Killer Reads site.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line183
__label__wiki	0.840145	0.840145	Home > News > U.S. > U.S. underscores commitment to Indo-Pacific region in new report U.S. underscores commitment to Indo-Pacific region in new report - The U.S. State Department on Monday published a new report underscoring the Trump administration’s commitment to strengthening ties with countries in the Indo-Pacific region. The report’s release coincided with an announcement by ASEAN, a 10-member bloc of Southeast Asian nations, and its dialogue partners — South Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand — that they have reached a deal on a mega trade pact, known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. The China-led RCEP is seen as a complicating factor for the Trump administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy, which aims to counter Beijing’s military and economic rise in the region. Asked to comment on the trade deal, a State Department spokesperson said the U.S. is not party to the RCEP negotiations and it would be premature to comment on text it has not seen. The spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency, however, that the U.S. is “committed to promoting free, fair and reciprocal trade with the Indo-Pacific by opening markets, removing unfair trade practices, and obtaining fairer treatment for American businesses and workers.” In the report titled “A Free and Open Indo-Pacific: Advancing a Shared Vision,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo noted that President Donald Trump has made U.S. engagement in the Indo-Pacific region a “top priority” of his administration. This AP file photo shows U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (Yonhap) He added: “As President Trump said in November 2017: ‘We have been friends, partners, and allies in the Indo-Pacific for a long, long time, and we will be friends, partners, and allies for a long time to come.’” The 30-page report noted the strides made in the South Korea-U.S. relationship, as well as the region’s efforts to enforce sanctions against North Korea. “The United States is strengthening and deepening partnerships with countries that share our values,” it said. “Our alliances with Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), the Philippines, and Thailand have helped sustain peace and security for generations.” It said the U.S. Indo-Pacific vision aligns closely with South Korea’s New Southern Policy, which aims to improve strategic relations mainly with Southeast Asian nations and provide local companies with more opportunities to launch businesses in the region. The report also outlined South Korea-U.S. cooperation on expanding development aid and governance and law enforcement programming in the region, as well as on ensuring an open and secure internet free from foreign influence. Citing cyber threats as among the most urgent transnational threats, the document said the U.S. is increasing support to its Indo-Pacific partners to defend their networks and counter “malicious cyber activities by” North Korea, China, Russia and other actors. “The United States coordinates with like-minded partners such as Australia, India, Japan, and the Republic of Korea to build cyber capacity in the region,” it said. A section of the report detailed the U.S.’s efforts to enforce sanctions designed to compel North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program. “The United States also works with partners on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and other dangerous materials,” it said. “Together, we counter DPRK proliferation activities, enforce United States and U.N. Security Council sanctions, build strategic trade control frameworks, educate industry on their compliance obligations, and strengthen the enforcement at key land, maritime, and air ports of entry.” DPRK stands for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “We build capacity and raise awareness on proliferation activities with governments, shipping companies, shipboard personnel, and facility personnel to ensure the safe and secure flow of legitimate international trade,” the report said. Meanwhile, South Korea-U.S. cooperation in the economic sector has produced a bilateral framework to strengthen capital markets, as well as a revised bilateral free trade agreement aiming to “protect jobs in America’s auto industry, increase U.S. exports, and eliminate burdensome regulations,” the report said.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line184
__label__wiki	0.844844	0.844844	From MarketsWiki Become a sponsor » Lance Uggla, Chairman and CEO @IHSMarkit https://ihsmarkit.com/index.html IHS Markit (formerly IHS) is a business research provider. It is headquartered in London with certain key operations based in Englewood, Colorado. The company has more than 50,000 business and government customers. S&P Global agreed to buy IHS Markit in November 2020 for $39 billion in stock in what was then heralded as the year's second-biggest merger deal. The terms of the merger agreement called for each share of IHS Markit common stock to be exchanged for 0.2838 shares of S&P Global common stock. Following the close of the deal, S&P Global shareholders will own approximately 67.75 percent of the combined company on a fully diluted basis, while IHS Markit shareholders will own approximately 32.25 percent.[1] 2 Products and Services 3 Key People On November 30, 2020, S&P Global and IHS Markit announced they entered into a definitive merger agreement to combine in an all-stock transaction. The deal valued IHS Markit at $44 billion, including $4.8 billion of net debt, or $39 billion. The companies also announced that Douglas Peterson, S&P Global president and CEO, would serve as CEO of the combined company, while Lance Uggla, chairman and CEO of IHS Markit, would stay as a special advisor to the company for one year after the deal's closing. [2] In 2016, IHS merged with Markit Group in a transaction worth approximately $13 billion. Upon completion of that merger, the combined company was renamed IHS Markit. IHS shareholders owned approximately 57 percent and Markit shareholders owned approximately 43 percent of the combined company on a fully diluted basis. IHS shareholders received 3.5566 common shares of IHS Markit for each share of IHS common stock, which based upon the IHS closing price of $110.71 on March 18, 2016, implied a per share price of Markit common shares of $31.13.[3] In August 2020, IHS Markit appointed Gay Huey Evans, OBE, as an independent director to its board. She also joined the company’s audit committee. Evans is chairman of the board of directors of the London Metal Exchange and a member of Her Majesty’s Treasury Board in the UK. She also is a non-executive director of Standard Chartered PLC and ConocoPhillips. [4] IHS provides consulting, analysis, market insight and forecasts, software, technical data and training. Its MarkitSERV product provides end-to-end trade processing for OTC trading across a broad range of asset classes and products. On September 25, 2019 IHS announced it had launched the IHS Markit Global Carbon Index, the first benchmark for the global price of carbon credits.[5] On January 11, 2021 IHS Markit announced it acquired the compliance technology provider Cappitech, a privately held Israeli company. Cappitch provides regulatory reporting and best execution analysis that allows its customers to comply with transaction reporting regulations across multiple jurisdictions. [6] The following day, on January 12, 2021, CME Group and IHS Markit said they agreed to merge their post-trade services into a new joint venture. The new company is planned to include trade processing and risk mitigation operations and combine both CME Group’s optimization businesses -- Traiana, TriOptima and Reset -- and IHS Markit’s MarkitSERV. The joint venture aims to provide clients with enhanced platforms and services for global OTC markets across interest rate, FX, equity and credit asset classes. The companies said the transaction is expected to close in the summer of 2021, subject to customary antitrust and regulatory approvals. At the closing of the deal, IHS Markit is scheduled to make an equalization payment of $113 million to CME Group to achieve 50/50 ownership and shared control of the joint venture.[7] Lance Uggla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer ↑ S&P to Buy IHS for $39 Billion in Year’s Second-Biggest Deal. Bloomberg.com. ↑ S&P Global and IHS Markit to Merge in All-Stock Transaction Valuing IHS Markit at $44 Billion, Powering the Markets of the Future. IHS Markit.com. ↑ IHS and Markit to Merge, Creating a Global Leader in Critical Information, Analytics and Solutions. IHS. ↑ IHS Markit Appoints Gay Huey Evans OBE to Its Board. IHS Markit. ↑ IHS Markit launches first global index for carbon credits. IHS Markit. ↑ IHS Markit Acquires Regulatory Compliance Technology Provider Cappitech. Businesswire.com. ↑ CME Group and IHS Markit to Form Leading Post-Trade Services Joint Venture for OTC Markets. Businesswire.com. Retrieved from "http://www.marketswiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=IHS_Markit&oldid=224463" Sponsored Pages Sponsored Pages - RCG	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line185
__label__wiki	0.561361	0.561361	Chavistas march against imperialism: what is the next step in Trump's coup? Imperialism Venezuela Featured Venezuelan Revolution Venezuelan Revolution Even though the ongoing imperialist coup in Venezuela has not yet succeeded, the impression one gets is that there is an inexorable march forward in its implementation, which is pushed mainly from forces abroad rather than from within Venezuela itself. The next step in the plan is the use of “humanitarian aid” as a provocation on the border with Colombia. There are now plenty of newspaper reports that detail the way this coup plot was hatched in the US, with the collaboration of Marco Rubio and top Trump administration officials. The planning had already been put in place under the Obama administration, let us not forget that it was he who signed the Executive Order declaring Venezuela a “threat” to US national security, which was the basis for sanctions. All further sanctions implemented by Trump have been implemented within the remit of that EO. Plans accelerated last spring when the hawks replaced the “moderates” in the Trump regime. Mike Pompeo took over from Tillerson, and Bolton from McMaster. Marco Rubio and Diaz-Balart, the political chiefs of the Cuban exile mafia in Florida and powerful figures within the Republican party had been pushing Trump from day one. Now they realised they could have their way. The coup plot Already, in August 2017, Trump contemplated a military option for Venezuela, but was rebuffed by his advisors, amongst them Tillerson. Once they were removed, the road was clear. Also, countries in the region fell in line with these plans, with the election of right-wing Macri in Argentina, Duque (an agent of Uribe) in Colombia and finally Bolsonaro in Brazil. For this gang of wolves, the issue is not even about Venezuela itself but about what Bolton described as the “triad of tyranny”: Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. At a rally with reactionary Venezuelans in Florida on 2 February, Mike Pence backed the point in a speech, peppered with Biblical references, in which he promised to bring "freedom" to Venezuela and then continue to Nicaragua and Cuba. In December 2018, the last details of the plan were put together and Guaidó travelled to Washington for instructions. At that time, he was not even president of the National Assembly, but everything had already been decided in advance by the White House. Offering confirmation of this plan, newspaper reports have now detailed “frantic calls” from the US to Latin American countries and diplomatic pressure on Spain ahead of Guaidó’s self-proclamation. America’s allies were told he was going to become president and they had to recognise him. As was to be expected, when asked to jump they all said: “how high?” To create further props for the coup plan, Washington decided it needed to recruit a few “liberal” and “social-democratic” faces to cover their nakedly imperialist ambitions. Canada’s Trudeau and Spain’s Sanchez were happy to oblige. An editorial in the FT made the point openly: “In a region with a long history of US intervention, it is important that pressure on the Maduro regime is not perceived as simply another example of imperialism, or that the crisis is reduced to a great power struggle between the US and Russia, both of which have big interests in oil, Venezuela’s chief and virtually only export. The role of Canada and the bulk of Latin American countries is central to countering knee-jerk assumptions that the US alone is orchestrating moves to oust Mr Maduro.” The Trump regime has a plan: “regime change” in Venezuela, and is slowly but surely implementing it. That’s all that matters to them. Popular support or lack thereof in Venezuela does not really determine their course of action, though it might alter small details of the plan. A tale of two marches On Saturday, 2 February, there were large marches in Venezuela, which were useful to gauge the balance of forces as far as mass support for and against the coup is concerned. In Caracas, the chavista march was clearly larger, occupying most of Bolivar Av., and was composed mostly of people from the militias, and activists from the community councils and the working-class neighbourhoods. Venezuela February 2, huge chavista march against imperialist intervention, you won't see it on BBC, CNN nor FoxNews #HandsOffVenezuela pic.twitter.com/D0KNoftrSE — Hands Off Venezuela (@HOVcampaign) February 3, 2019 A proportion of them came from outside Caracas. This is the hardcore of support for the Bolivarian Revolution (including many who are critical of the government’s policies). We are talking of hundreds of thousands, to millions of people (six million voted for Maduro in May 2018) who are “patria o muerte”: prepared to die fighting an imperialist intervention. This chavista march was barely mentioned in the international media. The BBC’s correspondent then defended itself by saying they “couldn’t attend” the chavista march: We could not attend the pro government rally, so we used the pictures broadcast by state TV. Had we attended it ourselves we would have relied on our own pictures. Some local sources raised questions about the authenticity of the crowd shots, hence the reference in our piece — Orla Guerin (@OrlaGuerin) February 3, 2019 In fact, they did not want to attend, as it would have destroyed the story that “Maduro has lost all support from the population”, and it is a maxim of bourgeois journalism to never let the facts get in the way of a good story. The opposition march in Las Mercedes was large, but clearly smaller. Significantly, they showed on stage the flags of all the countries supporting self-appointed president Guaidó, including those of the US and Israel. The presence of US flags and symbols was a common feature throughout opposition marches, which took place not only in Caracas but also in all main cities in the country. Overall, the opposition mobilised more people, but in Caracas, the chavista march was larger. Those at the opposition demos are mainly people from the middle-class and upper-class areas in the big cities. Their whole approach to political struggle now is to rely on foreign intervention to tip the balance of power their way, having been repeatedly defeated in insurrectionary attempts over the last five years. That’s the meaning of US flags, Statues of Liberty and “Marines welcome” signs. At the opposition march in Caracas, Guaidó announced what is the next step of the plan: to use the cover of "humanitarian aid" to create a provocation at the border. The announcement was backed by Bolton and Pence: Answering the call of President Guaido, the U.S. is mobilizing & transporting humanitarian aid for the people of #Venezuela. I applaud the hard work of USAID, the State Department and their partners in preparing critical supplies to move forward this weekend. https://t.co/JR9poraxWl — John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) February 3, 2019 Anyone who thinks the US or the Venezuelan opposition care about the conditions of people in Venezuela or the plight of migrants is completely deluded. The Trump regime wants to build a wall to prevent migrants from entering the US and those who managed are detained in cages, children separated from their parents in the cruellest way. The Venezuelan opposition during the 2017 attempted insurrection burned a young chavista man to death for the crime of looking poor and being dark skinned. The issue of “humanitarian aid” is being used as a convenient excuse for intervention: the real situation exaggerated and lies are being told deliberately, in the same way we were told about “weapons of mass destruction” in relation to Iraq, and about “imminent genocide in Tripoli” ahead of the bombing of Libya. Three "aid" centres are going to be established: one in Brazil, a second in a currently-unnamed Caribbean island, and the third in Cucuta, Colombia. The latter is the most important one at this stage. The US will deliver "aid" there in the next few days: a week or ten days at most. Then there will be an attempt to "deliver" this aid across the border. This is designed to create a military confrontation. We need to understand that Cucuta is the capital city of paramilitarism in Colombia, which in turn has close links with the state apparatus and the current Duque government, as well as landowners and capitalists on the Venezuelan side of the border, involved in smuggling and other illegal activities. There are also so-called "rebel soldiers" in Colombia, which can be used for this purpose. Some of them are probably far-right former Venezuelan soldiers, others are more likely to be Colombian paramilitaries in disguise. The US and its Venezuelan puppets have said openly that they will seek a confrontation with the Venezuelan military at the border "to see if they prevent aid from coming in or if they defy Maduro's orders". This is a very dangerous adventure as, in practice, it amounts to an attempt to invade Venezuela under the cover of humanitarian aid, and could very easily lead to an armed clash. That is what they seek: an incident that paints Maduro in bad light and justifies military intervention. The stakes are very high. Also on Saturday, a serving general in the Air Force came out in support of Guaidó. This is the highest-ranking serving officer to have mutinied to so far, but he had no troops under his command. The Venezuelan ambassador in Iraq also defected. As I have explained before, the loyalty of the army high command is mostly linked to their control of the state-owned companies. That means the offer of an amnesty on the part of the coup plotters is not particularly attractive to them. However, if economic sanctions get too unbearable and they see a chance of Maduro being overthrown, it is not ruled out that a section of the army might decide that it would rather enter the scene and take over control of a "transitional" process than be left out completely and lose all its power and wealth. European imperialism backs the US On Monday, 4 February, 19 EU countries issued a joint statement, noting they "acknowledge and support Mr. Juan Guaidó, President of the democratically elected National Assembly, as President ad interim of Venezuela, in order for him to call for free, fair and democratic presidential elections." At the meeting of EU FM last Thursday, they couldn't reach a consensus (Greece, Italy and a few others opposed or abstained), so today they issued an ad-hoc statement. This is the result of the outrageous, eight-day deadline for Maduro to call for elections, issued by the Spanish PM Sanchez. Sanchez's conduct has been particularly scandalous in this whole affair (as Maduro correctly pointed out in the interview he gave to Salvador, on La Sexta TV on Sunday night). After railing against Trump as a "leader of the far right we must combat" two years ago, he has now aligned himself fully with Trump's coup in Venezuela. Many of the European countries involved in issuing this arrogant deadline are monarchies, where the head of state has never been elected. Sanchez has now locked a rescue ship belonging to ONG Open Arms in the Barcelona harbour, preventing it from doing its job of saving the lives of refugees trying to reach the shores of fortress Europe. How can he claim concern for Venezuelan “refugees”!? How can he claim to be acting out of “humanitarian” motivations!? This is pure hypocrisy. He defends the interests of Spanish multinationals, obeys the orders from Trump and attempts to stave off pressure from the right-wing and far-right parties in Spain for electoral purposes. The Spanish PM, Pedro Sanchez's conduct has been particularly scandalous in this whole affair / Image: psoe extremadura Both Podemos and IU have opposed Sanchez’s stance. The Communist Party, a key component of IU, has gone further and declared that they are breaking all contact with Sanchez. If this extends to IU then it could mean the end of the Sanchez government. The joint EU countries’ recognition for Guaidó has also created conflict in other countries. Italy has refused to sign, despite Salvini's militancy against Maduro. The M5S was against. In Austria, the Foreign Minister (from the far-right FPO) was against, but finally, PM Kurz (OVP conservative) issued a statement backing Guaidó in very clear terms. The position of Russia seems to be shifting slightly. Instead of insisting on the legitimacy of Maduro, now the emphasis is on negotiations with the opposition: “We still believe that the only way out of this crisis is for the government and opposition to sit down for negotiations, otherwise we’ll just have the same regime change that the west has done many times before,” Lavrov said, according to Interfax. Meanwhile, Maduro has called for signatories to an open letter to Trump, rejecting military intervention and for peace. While a campaign like this can be a useful tool to mobilise people, it is hopelessly weak as a strategy to stop the ongoing coup. The next days will be crucial. As sanctions on PDVSA start to impact government revenues in Venezuela and slowly bring the economy to a halt, pressure on the border will intensify. The aim is clear: to either push Maduro to resign or to force the Army to intervene to make him resign. The split front page picture published by La Jornada sums up the conflict very well. On the right a picture from an opposition rally, openly calling for US marines to invade, on the left a picture from the chavista march in Caracas showing a sign, which the comrades from the Lucha de Clases - Venezuela carried, saying “Yankee Go Home”. There are clearly two sides in this struggle. We know which side we are on.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line186
__label__wiki	0.855158	0.855158	Gov. Ivey awards more than $1.4 million to help crime victims in the Wiregrass MONTGOMERY— Gov. Kay Ivey has awarded seven grants totaling more than $1.4 million to provide services and assistance to victims of crime in multiple Wiregrass counties. The grants will help continue services for victims of domestic violence, child abuse, robbery, and to help families impacted by homicide. “For anyone victimized by criminal activity in Alabama, I want them to know that there is help available all around the state,” Gov. Ivey said. “I commend the staff and volunteers of these organizations, and I appreciate their dedication to serving crime victims in our Wiregrass areas.” The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs is administering the grants from funds made available by the U.S. Department of Justice. “ADECA stands with Gov. Ivey in support these organizations and the victims that they serve,” ADECA Director Kenneth Boswell said. The following grants were awarded: $519,000 to the House of Ruth Inc. which serves domestic violence victims in Barbour, Bullock, Coffee, Covington, Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston and Pike counties. $266,000 to the Southeast Alabama Child Advocacy Center which serves child abuse victims in Dale, Geneva, Henry and Houston counties. $184,000 to the Exchange Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse which serves child and adult survivors of child abuse in Barbour, Coffee, Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston and Pike counties. $167,000 to Wiregrass Angel House which serves victims of robbery and families that have been affected by homicide in Barbour, Bullock, Coffee, Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston and Pike counties. $140,000 to the city of Andalusia which is the lead entity of the South Alabama Victim Services Collaborative, which serves domestic violence victims in Covington County. $114,000 to Pike Regional Child Advocacy Center which serves victims of child abuse in Barbour, Bullock, Coffee and Pike counties. $95,000 to the Covington County Child Advocacy Center Inc. which serves child abuse victims in Covington County. ADECA administers a wide range of programs that support law enforcement, victim services, economic development, water resource management, energy conservation and recreation. Contact: Josh Carples; Mike Presley	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line187
__label__wiki	0.859262	0.859262	Media Queer www.mediaqueer.ca André Brassard Montreal , QC Stage director, filmmaker, screenwriter, actor. According to the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia “[a]rguably the country's most important director”, Brassard has worked in both French and English productions for cinema, television, and theatre since 1965. His collaboration with Québécois playwright Michel Tremblay started in 1968 with the mise-en-scene of Les Belles Soeurs at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert in Montreal. Since then, Brassard has directed all of Tremblay’s plays on stage, and two film adaptations: the (proto)queer classic Il était une fois dans l’est (1972) and Le soleil se lève en retard (1974). Comfortable with both ancient classics and contemporary Québécois plays (his dream was to build a Québécois theatre based on non-Québécois repertory work)[1] Brassard has developed his career in tandem with but also outside of his professional relationship with Tremblay. Among the many significant premieres he has directed, particular interest was devoted to queer-oriented works such as Michel Marc Bouchard 's Les Feluettes /Lilies and Brad Fraser 's Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love (both adapted later on for the silver screen by John Greyson and Denys Arcand respectively). Brassard’s involvement with theatre has also included the direction of major theatre establishments such as the French Theatre of the National Arts Centre (1983-1989), and the French section of the National Theatre School of Canada since 1991.[2] After a cerebral stroke in 2000 left him on a wheelchair—without however depriving him of his esprit de vivre—Brassard has bared his soul and life in a recent biography written and curated by Guillaume Corbeil. [1] http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Brassard%2C%20Andr%E9 [2] http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/andre-brassard/ - Le Soleil se lève en retard ( 1977 ) Related Contributors Michel Tremblay The goal of the Queer Media Database Canada-Québec Project is to establish and maintain a dynamic and interactive online catalogue of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) Canadian film, video and digital works, their makers, and related institutions. The Queer Media Database Canada/Quebec is made up of a cross-Canada network of researchers, creators, institutions and distributors who share a common goal of promoting access to exhibition opportunities and knowledge exchange for new and historic film and video works, makers, and institutions. mediaqueer@concordia.ca 514-848-2424 extension 5756 c/o Thomas Waugh 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd W, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8 Facebook: Mediaqueerca Twitter: @mediaqueer Queer Media Database Canada-Quebec by MEDIAQUEER.CA is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a work at http://www.mediaqueer.ca/. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.mediaqueer.ca/. Site developed in solidarity by Bees on a Bike ❤	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line188
__label__wiki	0.952044	0.952044	Roku reaches agreement with Fox to allow Super Bowl streaming by kabwt \| Feb 1, 2020 \| Home Automation News \| 0 comments Football fans hoping to watch the Super Bowl via Roku tomorrow will be pleased to hear that the platform has hammered out a last-minute agreement with content supplier Fox. Earlier this week, Roku announced it would pull all Fox cable channels from its platform beginning today, February 1. That would have meant that Roku users would be unable to watch the Super Bowl via their Roku devices and would need to turn to another service such as Hulu or SlingTV. This news angered many Roku users, not only because they were losing access to channels but also because the announcement came so close to the big game. Fox and Roku have been in an ongoing licensing dispute and their original contract was set to expire on January 31, hence the cut-off date. Now, though, Roku and Fox have reached an agreement and Roku has announced that it will continue to carry Fox channels, including showing the Super Bowl. “We are delighted that we reached an agreement with FOX to distribute FOX channels on the Roku platform,” Roku said in a statement to The Verge. “Roku customers can stream the Super Bowl through FOX Now, Fox Sports, and NFL in addition to other ways.” Fox also put out its own statement announcing the agreement, saying, “We are pleased to have reached a successful agreement with Roku. FOX’s leading suite of apps will continue to be available on the Roku platform.” Both companies are keeping quiet about the specific details of the agreement and about the source of the original conflict. However, some commentators have speculated that Roku could have been seeking payment to carry Fox content on its platform. As the biggest name in streaming in the U.S., Roku has considerable power over content suppliers. However, Fox has the exclusive rights to the biggest sports event in the calendar, so it has leverage of its own. The agreement means Roku users will be able to watch the Super Bowl, not to mention the Super Bowl commercials, live. The event can also be streamed via the Fox Sports and Fox Now apps, or via the NFL app on Roku, as well as through Fubo TV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line196
__label__wiki	0.691555	0.691555	Email marketing firm ranks celebrities with the most power on social media Elite Email, a leading company in the world that offers digital marketing tools to medium-sized and small businesses and has been helping its clients to achieve quality email marketing outcomes, has ranked celebs with the most power on the social media in 2013. Robert Burko, the CEO of the Elite Email, said the ranking reveals how the celebrity’s role has changed with regards to do with influence, indicating that the virtual hype is at the place it is. The list was released by the company in an attempt to show how effective the social media was in bringing of brands and people to life, helping the businesses to grow and building awareness for products. The celebrities themselves are considered a brand and those who have tapped into the social media have recognized the power of linking at a more personal level with their fans. Elite Marketing, which is famous for its email marketing services, just released a mobile marketing tool ad it set to launch a new tool, social page builder, which will enable the customers to incorporate their marketing strategy for digital marketing across all the 3 channels. According to Mr. Burko, using the social media to build brands is not new but the small businesses do not have the resources like those the large organizations have in order to get it right. The new page builder tool will help these businesses to brand themselves through the use of fully customized tabs, several design templates and drag-and-drop features that will enable them to enhance their user engagement. Elite Email is one of the few companies that are now offering such a technology in an integrated suite with their other online marketing tools. In the ranking done by the email marketing company, the pop music starts appeared to have the biggest following. It is no accident that the ranking also contain some of the people who performed at the MTV’s Music Video Awards that was held recently. The top celebrities are: Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, kate Perry, Shakira, Eminem, Taylor Swift, Cristiano Ronaldo, Selena Gomez, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. Some of the celebrities like Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber are achieving millions of fans and followers daily. From the data, the celebrities with the most fans are the young ones between the ages of 19-40 years. The older celebrities have little or no presence in the social media with exclusion of Tom Hanks (57) and Ellen DeGeneres (55) who were among the top 20. Email Marketing CEO pointed out that some of the most popular celebrities lacked even a website, blaming their agents for the missed opportunities. Morgan Spurlock, the documentary director for One Direction, said during a show on CNN that the band was a machine and it was all about visibility. Currently, the band is ranked number 13 on the list but it is gaining popularity very fast. Miley Cyrus is also another celebrity on top of the list at number 11, particularly after her controversial performance during the VMA awards. The research data was scoured from the social networks while searching for the most admired celebrities.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line199
__label__wiki	0.634142	0.634142	Arrival (2016) An intelligent, insightful, optimistic story less about aliens then humanity. One of the year’s best films. Written by: Chris Pandolfi \| November 11, 2016 Under the guise of a science fiction alien invasion thriller, Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival tells an intelligent, insightful, poignant, and refreshingly optimistic story not at all about aliens, but about humanity. As the characters scramble to communicate with an alien species that has landed oblong spacecrafts all over the world, we’re made to take notice of the ways in which we communicate with each other – or, more accurately, how we often fail to communicate. We focus not on the similarities, but the differences. We automatically assume anyone who reaches out has an ulterior motive. We prepare for the worst rather than expect the best. But the film suggests, without resorting to overt sentimentality, that there exists the capacity for change, for good, for communication. It all depends on our perception of time. How do I clarify myself without having to result to spoilers? Let it suffice to say that, in its examination of the frailties and shortcomings but also the preciousness of humanity, the film begs the question of what we would do if we somehow knew the direction our lives are to go in. Armed with knowledge, would we continue traveling in that direction? Or would we go a different way, taking a gamble towards an uncertain outcome? Fate and free will – dualities that have baffled scientists and philosophers since time immemorial. We have very definite ideas about both. But of course, they’re based entirely on our conceptions of time and space, which even laymen like myself can tell you are very limited, given the areas of the brain we have yet to tap into. This is one of the year’s best films. Adapted from Ted Chiang’s novella “Story of Your Life,” it’s an observant and touching portrait of how we perceive the world. In that same regard, it’s also a concerning portrait. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis poses, in a nutshell, that worldview is shaped by language. The problem is that different languages are spoken all over the world, and there’s debate over whether language determines thought or merely influences it; assuming that thought is determined, this means that different languages result in different thoughts, thoughts that are less accommodating and more combative. If, for example, you attempt to communicate with an alien race in terms of a game, you’re projecting thoughts of conflict, strategy, and victory. At the heart of the story is linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams). Along with theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), she has been recruited by the American government to make contact with an extraterrestrial lifeform that has put twelve gigantic pod-like UFOs in various spots around the world. Her efforts, we quickly see, are infinitely more diplomatic than the actions of the government suggest; they resort to overly cautious security measures, like rinsing all incoming vehicles in a spray of water, and requiring all recruits to submit to various medical tests, and forcing all scientists that enter the pods every eighteen hours to wear hazmat suits and decontaminate upon their return. As Banks begins the task of not only introducing herself and her kind but also of deciphering the symbols the alien creatures project in a fog of ink, we’re made to notice how the rest of the world is reacting to this close encounter. The media reports of rioting and panic, and certain countries, most notably China, view the aliens as invaders to be challenged instead of as visitors making contact. We’re also made to notice how Banks’ thoughts are dominated by visions of her daughter, shown at the beginning of the film to have died of a rare disease early in her life. The connection between her daughter and the alien creatures is not made to be obvious until the final act of the film, although there are things that can be gleaned by specific moments, as when it seems their personal communication is equally as problematic as that between us and the aliens. My worry is that, in much the same way as Robert Zemeckis’ Contact, Arrival will be harshly criticized by general audiences expecting a space opera shoot-’em-up with lots of stunts, special effects, and pyrotechnics. It has far more ambition than that. It actually has something to say. It holds a mirror up to us. Some of what we see isn’t all that pretty. But then again, some of it is; we’re left with the sense that we have every right to be hopeful, that for all the awful things we can do, there are also some very good things we can do. We just need a little push. And maybe, just maybe, beings from another world can give it to us. About the Author: Chris Pandolfi Chris Pandolfi is Los Angeles-based freelance film critic trying to make sense of this crazy, topsy-turvy world. VOD Reviews by Ethan Brehm Shirley (2020) by Christian Stirling Finding Steve McQueen (2019) Vice (2018) Bird Box (2018) by Travis Seppala	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line202
__label__wiki	0.875052	0.875052	Preview: Everything’s bigger in Skylanders Giants Previews / by Chris Rasco 3 / Last October, Activision released Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, a game that combined video games and collectibles in the form of small figures that unlocked additional playable characters within the game. The frenzy created by the availability of these additional figures led to blockbuster sales, with over 30 million Skylanders figures flying off the shelves by March. As supply slowly met demand, sales naturally slowed, but Activision has something planned to return gamers to that frenzied state: Skylanders Giants. Giants borrows the gameplay mechanics from the original title, but introduces a host of new features including, as the name suggests, giant figures that are significantly larger than the originals. For the sequel, new arenas and additional gameplay options are slated to be added to the battle mode, which is the head-to-head portion of the game. There will also be new Hero Challenges, which are unique challenges that require you to complete a task in a set amount of time and are unique to each Skylander. Activision also has new Skylanders on deck for the release of Giants. LightCore Skylanders, which feature some type of character integrated light up feature, will carry additional in-game benefits. Eight new Skylanders will be joining the existing ranks of playable characters, while a set of the original characters will see a re-release. These “Series 2” characters feature a new upgrade power called “Wow Pow,” and also let gamers upgrade across more than one upgrade path, a limitation from the original game. Series 2 characters will be playable in the original Skylanders game, for those of you not ready to jump into a new game. There will also be eight of the larger Giant characters available. The original game was only available as a starter pack, which featured three characters, the game, and a Portal of Power. For Giants, Activision will be releasing new starter packs, as well as booster packs for owners of the original game that come with the game disc and one Giant. The new starter packs will include a Giant, one of the new Skylanders and a Series 2 figure. Right now, that’s slated to be Tree Rex, Jet-Vac and a Series 2 Cynder, respectively. In my time with the game, I was able to play as Jet-Vac, one of the new characters, and Tree Rex, one of the new Giants. The first thing you’ll notice is just how large the Giants are. They are huge! The bosses also got a boost in size, so don’t expect to have a size advantage. The level I played featured a battle arena that reminded me quite a lot of Ratchet: Deadlocked, one of my favorites in the Ratchet & Clank series. The one thought that kept coming to mind as I played was this is just like the old game, only new. The game itself is virtually indistinguishable from the original in appearance and gameplay, but you will notice minor tweaks and improvements as you play through the levels that only serve to improve the experience. I’ve played quite a bit of co-op in the original game, but was not able to try co-op for Giants as the unit I played on was limited to a single controller. The only concern I had about co-op was how two Giants would fit on the existing portal. I was assured by Activision staff that they will fit; you just may need to angle them slightly. It’s a gross understatement to say that I’m eager to get my hands on Giants, but if for some reason you are late to the party and haven’t picked up Skylanders, now is the time. Giants drops in a few short weeks and you’ve got a lot of ground to make up.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line205
__label__cc	0.624527	0.375473	Kickstarter Alert: CROSSING by Enrica Jang and Alex Cormack Brian LeTendre Our pal Enrica Jang over at Red Stylo Media has a new project in the works, and it looks fantastic. Check out the Kickstarter video for Crossing above, and then head over to the project page for more info. Here's the project synopsis: A rookie train conductor is haunted by the ghost of an annoying goth princess who threw herself in front of his commuter train. She swears her death was a murder made to look like a suicide and she won’t “cross over” and leave him alone until he helps solve her case. CROSSING will be a six-issue mini-series, and we're here on Kickstarter to print and distribute Issue #1. The comic is 24 story pages, full color, to be published digitally and in print. Despite some pretty mature, heavy-hitting themes (crime, suicide, railroad safety) the series is a comedy about two people who wouldn't like each other under normal circumstances--much less paranormal--but have to find a way to work together if they ever want to be free of each other. Production for this first issue is already underway, and a print run of 1000 copies is guaranteed when we hit 100% funding. Script for the entire series is complete, as well as character design, and we'll be rolling straight into Issue #2 after we're funded. This series is happening, people, but we need you to help us get to the other side!	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line206
__label__cc	0.597478	0.402522	Speeches / Effects of Maternity Discrimination Westminster Hall Debate 15.03.17 Effects of Maternity Discrimination Westminster Hall Debate 15.03.17 A week after International Women's Day and over a week away from Mother's Day, Sharon secured a debate on the effects of Maternity Discrimination, and raised issues with this form of discrimination's impact on society and our economy, along with the work of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and the Women and Equalities Select Committee, and what more the Government should be doing to tackle this discrimination in the workplace. You can read Sharon's speech here in Hansard: Sharon Hodgson MP Effects of Maternity Discrimination Westminster Hall Debate 15.03.17 Speech pasted below: 9.30 am Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab) I beg to move, That this House has considered the effect of maternity discrimination. It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Chope. I am very pleased to have secured this debate on an important topic for many women and a key campaigning area for the Labour party: maternity discrimination. I thank all hon. Members who have turned out this morning to contribute to it. Maternity discrimination is an issue that cannot be ignored. It is only right that action be taken to ensure that this persistent issue in our society is ended once and for all. It is a welcome point of reflection for us all that this debate comes exactly a week after we celebrated International Women’s Day and just over a week before mothers’ day. I felt it was important to secure the debate between those two dates, to press the Government to do more, but also to raise awareness of the many women beyond these walls who are met with blatant and unnecessary discrimination. Many people—some of whom may even be in this Chamber today, although I hope not—think that maternity discrimination is not a concern that we should focus on, possibly because it does not feature on their radar at all. But it is real, it is happening and it is becoming ever present in our society. Action is needed. That is clearly documented in the Women and Equalities Committee report from last August, which highlighted the fact that pregnant women and mothers are now reporting more discrimination and worse treatment in the workplace than 10 years ago. By some estimates, that discrimination is double what it used to be. According to the Government’s own figures, one in nine women—54,000 in total—are forced out of their jobs each year because of being a mother or becoming pregnant. If that statistic applied to the women elected to this place, it would mean 21 of our fellow female MPs being forced out of this House. If that happened, we would be up in arms and raising merry hell on the Floor of the House. Well, if it is not acceptable for women in this place, it is not acceptable for women in any workplace. A hundred years ago, women got the vote for the very first time, as part of a campaign to see women become part of public life so that they did not have to abide by the whim of a man and could be fully integrated into society, taking their rightful place as both actors and influencers in how our country should look and act. However, a century on, women still face many hurdles, and all because of their gender. I will touch on three key themes in my speech. First, I want to set the scene by expanding on the ramifications, both economic and social, of maternity discrimination in our society. I will then move on to the work of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Women and Equalities Committee. Finally, I will look at what the Government are doing—or not doing—to end maternity discrimination. As I said, this place would be a lot worse off if the statistics on maternity discrimination were replicated in this, the mother of Parliaments. However, maternity discrimination has a far broader impact on our society than some may first expect. The financial costs identified affect not only society, but businesses, the Government and the women themselves. A report last year by the EHRC found: “The cost to employers of women being forced to leave their job as a result of…discrimination…was estimated to be around £278.8 million over the course of a year.” Much of that cost was incurred owing to recruitment and training to replace the woman who was forced out of her job, lost productivity from being down a member of staff and statutory maternity payments if the woman was on leave when she left work. For the Government, maternity discrimination means not only lost tax revenue from women not working, but increased benefit payments when they seek support because they have been forced out of work. The cost to the Government is between £14 million and £16.7 million a year. The financial losses that women themselves face have been estimated to range from between £28.9 million and £34.2 million. Some 20% of women reported significant financial losses as a result of failing to get a promotion, receiving lower pay increases or bonuses than they would have secured were they not pregnant, or even demotion for becoming pregnant. Pregnancy and children are costly—there is no doubt about it—but the costs incurred by women are unjust, unfair and discriminatory. The gift of pregnancy should never be a cost to a women’s potential or her economic worth. It is not only the economic costs of women being forced out of the workplace or facing discrimination for becoming pregnant that are a problem, but the social and equality issues that arise. Women’s position in society has come on in leaps and bounds from the time when they were not able to vote, could not work once they were married, had to stay at home or had to defer to a man for every major decision made in their life—as late as the 1970s, women had to have a male guarantor for a mortgage. However, the specific issue of maternity discrimination highlights the fact that the position of women in our society is still tentative. There is still a long way to go. Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab) I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate and on her excellent speech. Does she agree that such discrimination also happens later on in life? We should recognise that women also face discrimination during the menopause. That point was very well made to me on Saturday by the Wales TUC women’s committee, which is doing a survey on that very subject. Mrs Hodgson I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that period in women’s lives. I will not be able to touch on it in my speech, but it is very important. There is a real lack of knowledge about what women have to go through during the menopause. I am probably not long off that period myself. People have no idea what women may have to go through, but we hear all the horror stories. A little understanding from employers would make all the difference. I know that I would probably be a better employer after I have gone through it; unfortunately, men do not have that luxury, so they rely upon us to tell them. That is definitely an important aspect of the matter, and I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising it. Some may argue otherwise, but for me and many other women—especially on this side of the House, but across the House, too—equality is a cause worth fighting for, because it creates not only a fairer society, but a stronger and more resilient one. Maternity discrimination holds us back from achieving that goal of an equal society. We need renewed vigour to tackle the problem, so that we can fully realise our country’s potential, with everyone having a fair chance in life and not having to face discrimination for being who they are. It was therefore welcome that this time last year the EHRC and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills published their findings on the prevalence and nature of maternity discrimination in our society, so that we could fully understand the scale of the problem, which was indeed damning. The research showed that, of the women surveyed, “77%...had a negative or possibly discriminatory experience during pregnancy; maternity leave; and on their return from maternity leave.” Such experiences included facing harassment or negative comments related to their pregnancy, struggling to secure flexible working from their employer to manage the demands of pregnancy and subsequent childcare, or, for 9% of women, feeling that they had to leave their job because they were being treated poorly or unfairly. What women are documented as facing because of pregnancy and impending motherhood is worrying and deeply shocking. Even case studies from Maternity Action’s helpline have documented these shameful occurrences. One woman became so stressed with her working environment, where she was being singled out by her manager and treated appallingly, that she was signed off sick with stress before her maternity leave had even begun. As we all know, when someone is pregnant, stress is the last thing she needs. She is told to have a calm and radiant time, which was hardly the case for that mother. It goes without saying that no woman should face such hurdles in life or feel pressured into choosing between having children or having a career that progresses at the same rate as the careers of their male counterparts. Following the forensic light shone on the issue by the EHRC, the Women and Equalities Committee, under the excellent leadership of the right hon. Member for Basingstoke (Mrs Miller), who I am thrilled to see in the Chamber today—I look forward to her contribution —undertook to investigate maternity discrimination further. In August last year, that inquiry produced some excellent recommendations for the Government to look at and act upon. Sadly, however, it took until January of this year for the Government to respond to the inquiry’s findings. Included in the recommendations in the Select Committee’s report were further calls for action around the health and safety of pregnant women in the workplace, such as placing a duty on employers to conduct an individual risk assessment for new and expectant mothers, all the way to identifying issues around casual, agency and zero-hours workers, who do not have the same pregnancy and maternity entitlements as women classed as employees. Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby) (Lab) In an economy that increasingly relies on temporary contracts, more and more women are unable to access any kind of statutory maternity leave, because they have no right to it. That is because they are classed as workers rather than employees. Does my hon. Friend agree that much more needs to be done to provide those women with better access to maternity rights? I totally agree. On the issue of workers and employees, there is clearly a need to tidy up the law so that women who work in these areas of the labour market are protected and guaranteed the same rights as those women who are classed as employees, so I am very pleased that my hon. Friend has raised that issue. Indeed, Maternity Action has pushed for action on it and recently made a submission to the Matthew Taylor review, which aims to look at working practices in the modern economy, and to the Select Committee on Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy inquiry, “Future World of Work”. I hope that the Minister will be able to shed some light on progress on this issue. It is safe to say that when the Government eventually responded to the Women and Equalities Committee report, the response was far from pleasing. Although the Government’s commitment to zero tolerance of discrimination against expectant or new mothers in the workplace is to be welcomed, as is the announcement of a consultation on protecting pregnant women against redundancy, sadly the wider response failed to see words leading to action. The Government’s response can easily be seen as a mixture of defending the unacceptable status quo and kicking the issue into the long grass, as if it was something that should be thought about on another day. The Government are failing to realise that this is happening right now. I am not just making a party political point. The likes of Maternity Action have analysed the Government’s response and reaction to each of the recommendations and have come to the same conclusion: that the Government see this as an issue for another day. I have a lot of time and respect for the Minister who is responding to this debate—she knows that—but I find the Government’s response disappointing to say the least. That is why I hope she can offer me some reassurances when she responds to this debate. I would like the Minister to consider two things ahead of her response. First, when will we see the details of the consultation on protecting pregnant women from redundancy? Two months on from the Government’s commitment to consult on this issue, we are yet to see publication of the scale or time frame. I hope that information will be forthcoming following this debate, and sooner rather than later. Even better, the Minister could announce further details in her speech today. My second ask is that the Government take another look at the excellent recommendations in the Select Committee’s report and heed the words of the right hon. Member for Basingstoke, who said that the Government’s response was “a missed opportunity for the Government to demonstrate the urgency and bite on this issue that we found lacking”. I could not have put it better myself. Therefore, I hope that the Minister will commit to re-evaluating the Government’s response to the Select Committee report and their own wider actions when it comes to maternity discrimination. To conclude, we have come a long way in the march for women’s equality. I know that this point will not be lost on the Minister, but it bears reiterating: as the current standard bearers, we in this House have a duty to uphold the work done by the women who came before us. Failing to end maternity discrimination would betray our crusading predecessors, who campaigned to improve the position of women in society. As women here today, we have the power to make the changes possible for women who face discrimination in the workplace for being pregnant or being a new mother. However, we must also stand up for the women who will come after those facing these challenges now, and ensure that in the future no woman faces discrimination in the workplace for doing what is only natural—having a child. I hope that the Minister will heed this call to arms and take it back to her officials, knowing that we in this House and many more women beyond this Chamber are willing her on to make the changes needed and improve the standing of women in the workplace. She alone has the power to do that. I hope she realises that and does not squander this incredible position she has to enact change.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line207
__label__cc	0.743844	0.256156	Aloha, Bobby And Rose Floyd Mutrux - 1975 Comedie Drame Editeur: Scorpion Releasing \| USA Bobby has a new ‘68 Camaro and a dead-end job. Rose has a young son and a nowhere life. One night, they meet, fall in love and share a dream of leaving the seedy side of Hollywood for the easy life of Hawaii. But when an innocent prank goes tragically wrong, Bobby and Rose are on the run from the law and for their lives. As they take to the highway, they find that paradise is just out of reach…and that ‘aloha’ can also mean ‘goodbye.’ Aloha Bobby and Rose stars Paul Le Mat (Melvin & Howard, Death Valley, American Graffiti) and Dianne Hull (Girls On The Road, The Fifth Floor), with Robert Carradine (Blackout, Revenge of the Nerds), Tim McIntire (The Choirboys, Fast Walking) and Edward James Olmos (in his first feature credited role). Featuring classic songs by Elton John, Bob Dylan, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Jr. Walker and The All-Stars and The Temptations. This is a road movie like you’ve never seen…and a love story you’ll never forget from a brand new HD master!!! Prix: 26.50 € BLURAY Zone A	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line208
__label__wiki	0.905543	0.905543	CityNews Toronto to Host First Televised Ontario Provincial Party Leaders Debate, May 7 – All major Ontario provincial party leaders confirmed to participate: Doug Ford, Andrea Horwath, and Kathleen Wynne – – #CityVote: The Debate to air live and commercial-free on City, CityNews.ca , the CityNews Apps, and the CityNews Facebook page – – Multilingual audiences can watch the debate in Punjabi and Mandarin on OMNI2 – To tweet this release: #CityVote TORONTO (April 20, 2018) CityNews announced that it will host the first televised debate featuring all three major provincial party leaders in advance of the June election for the new Premier of Ontario.#CityVote: The Debate will air commercial-free on Monday, May 7 from 6 to 8 p.m. ET on City, CityNews.ca, the CityNews Apps for iOS and Android, and the CityNews Facebook page . For multilingual audiences in Ontario, the debate will also air on OMNI2 at 6 p.m. ET in Punjabi and at 10 p.m. ET in Mandarin. Additionally, analysis of the debate will be featured on OMNI Television’s daily current affairs programs that evening – Focus Punjabi at 7:30 p.m. ET, Focus Cantonese at 8:30 p.m. ET, and Focus Mandarin at 9:30 p.m. ET. “We’re City, we’re Toronto, and viewers who work and live in the city need a chance to see these leaders through our urban lens,” said Dave Budge, VP of News & Information, Television, Rogers Media. “It’s crucial that we focus this debate on issues that matter here, so the voters in Toronto get a chance to cut through the rhetoric and see how the vote will change life in the city”. Taking place at City studios in downtown Toronto, candidates Doug Ford, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, Andrea Horwath, leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, and Kathleen Wynne, leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, will sound off on hot-button issues, such as transit, health care, the legalization of marijuana, crime, and policing. Putting Torontonians front and centre, the debate will feature the faces behind some of CityNews’s most compelling and thought-provoking stories from this past year, providing these individuals the chance to address the candidates directly on the issues that matter most. Following the debate, coverage continues with CityNews reporters gauging reaction and providing post-game-style analysis. Giving audiences an immersive experience of the action in the studio, CityNews will feature a 360 view of the debate live streamed on its Facebook page. Additionally, throughout the broadcast viewers will have the opportunity to join the conversation and participate in live polling on social media, using the hashtag #CityVote. Visit CityNews Toronto at CityNews.ca Follow CityNews Toronto at @CityNews Like CityNews at Facebook.com/CityNews Official Hashtag #CityVote City offers viewers intensely-local, urban-oriented, and culturally-diverse content through its seven television stations in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, and Montreal, plus the award-winning City Video app. A distinct alternative to other conventional television stations, City delivers an entertaining mix of Canadian and acquired prime-time programming, news, and local-interactive formats with influential brands such as Cityline, CityNews, and Breakfast Television. City is part of Rogers Media, which is a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX, NYSE: RCI). Visit Citytv.com. Charmaine Khan, CityNews, 416.277.0450, charmaine.khan@rci.rogers.com Michelle Lomack, CityNews, 416.819.2783, michelle.lomack@rci.rogers.com	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line209
__label__wiki	0.772675	0.772675	News: 120 sign up for Master Cutler's Challenge 120 South Yorkshire companies, organisations and individuals – including Sheffield art legend Joe Scarborough – have signed up for the Master Cutler's Challenge 2016, making this the biggest since the competition was launched in 2008. All they have to do now is take a £50 investment and do everything in their power to see it grown and raise money for Master Cutler Craig McKay's two nominated charities, St Luke's Hospice in Sheffield and Rotherham Hospice. The annual fundraising extravaganza was officially launched with a celebration event at the historic Cutlers' Hall in Sheffield city centre last week, where participating companies received their £50 stake in a specially branded Henderson's Relish bottle. Mr McKay, the CEO of Rotherham engineering firm Evenort Ltd, chose the two hospices in recognition of the work they do supporting not just patients with terminal illnesses but also their families. "I have been overwhelmed by the response to this year’s challenge and am delighted to be able to say that we have a record number of entries," said Mr McKay. "We all have a stake in the wellbeing of these charities and I can think of no better way to invest in that than to take part in this year’s Master Cutler’s Challenge. "With the degree of talent and the level of enthusiasm we already have on board, all the indications are that the next record we break will be the amount of money we have raised by the time the challenge reaches its climax!" The Master Cutler's Challenge was launched in 2008, when the Master Cutler for that year, Gordon Bridge from AESSEAL in Rotherham, invited companies to transform a £50 investment into as much charity fundraising as possible. Every year has seen the event grow – more than 500 companies have taken part to date, raising in excess of £1m for a range of charities. Master Cutler's Challenge website Images: Benchmark Recruitment Labels: charity, evenort, hospice, Manufacturing, Master Cutler, Rotherham, sheffield News: Network Rail and partners launch Tram Train Pilot Learning Hub	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line210
__label__wiki	0.707518	0.707518	Harry Clarke - One Man's Search for Himself Billy Crudup gives a powerful performance in David Cale's Harry Clarke. A one-man play about the realizations and pitfalls that come with self-discovery, now at the Vineyard Theatre. Crudup plays Philip Brugglestein, a man who hails from Indiana, and who has no happy memories from childhood. His parents fighting seemingly all the time and his father an alcoholic. During those early years, Philip started speaking with an English accent as a means of escaping who he was and where he was from. Something which annoyed his father to no end. After the death of his folks, Philip relocated to New York City "where, from the day I landed, I spoke only with an English accent". A charade he's kept up for over a decade. One day while out walking, Philip spies a man who happens to pique his interest and ends up following him around unnoticed for the next few hours. Some months afterward, when he happens to run into the same fellow, one Mark Schmidt, Philip strikes up a conversation with him, using information he gathered from their previous encounter. Philip introducing himself as "Harry Clarke". Harry being a confident and outgoing Londoner Philip invented during his Indiana days; and whom he hadn’t thought about in years. Though now Harry is back with a vengeance and through him, Philip finds himself doing and sayings things far outside his usual norm. It’s not long before Philip, as Harry, begins to insinuate himself into Mark’s life, and by extension, Mark's entire family. Harry's brash openness being a sort of magnet to which they are all drawn. Harry and Mark becoming particularly close, with Harry's presence causing Mark's own suppressed desires to emerge. The outcome of which leads to a place none of those involved had envisioned in the beginning. Harry Clarke proves to be an interesting experience, as both Philip and Mark continually struggle with who they really are as opposed to who they think they need to be. The story containing elements of Six Degrees of Separation, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and even a bit of The Twilight Zone. Unfortunately, the playwright never decides exactly what he wants to focus on. Is this a story about the duality of man; a lesson on the dangers of trusting the wrong people; a tale of a boy running from his past; or a warning against continually suppressing who you actually are inside? The work eventually getting to the final denouement without being illuminating enough about the actual journey necessary to get there. As such, good as the piece is, one eventually begins to listen to it with a rather detached air, instead of being totally immersed in the tale as it unfolds. The play also never allows the audience to get inside Harry's head and see what makes him tick. His actions seeming more a continual series of contradictions rather than anything clearly defined. Philip may come to believe Harry is real, but the audience isn't offered enough information to make that decision for themselves. As a result, the story's overall impact isn't nearly as effective as it could be. There are also problems with some of the other choices Cale has made with his script. One in particular having to do with the fate of a character which feels a bit too contrived. Especially when taking into account all that has come before. Crudup does an excellent job in taking on the personas of the various roles. His vocal skills particularly evident as he switches from English to Midwestern American and back again. Though he is much more believable when speaking as a male character than a female one. Just as importantly, Crudup is able to convey a very engaging stage presence. Something vital in a situation such as this. The audience being told the story rather than shown it, with Crudup acting as the conduit through when they follow along. Leigh Silverman's direction is tightly focused and keeps the narrative moving nicely, while not allowing any of Crudup's characterizations to slip into parody or caricature. Something which the character of Harry easily has the potential to do. Scenic design by Alexander Dodge is non-descript enough so it doesn't distract from the story that's being spun, while providing a fitting framework for the final moments of the play. Harry Clarke is an enjoyable experience, but the tale related doesn't go deep enough to make it something really special. By David Cale Featuring Bill Crudup (Philip Brugglestein) Scenic Design: Alexander Dodge Costume Design: Kaye Voice Lighting Design: Alan C. Edwards Sound Design: Bart Fasbender Original Songs: David Cale Assistant Director: Bryn Herdrich Props Master: Andrew Diaz Dialogue Coach: Elizabeth Smith Casting: Henry Russell Bergstein, CSA Production Stage Manager: Shelly Miles Production Supervisor: Adrian White Production Manager: Mary Duffe Press Representative: Sam Rudy Media Relations General Management: DR Theatrical Management Directed by Leigh Silverman Presented by the Vineyard Theatre Produced in connection with audible Tickets: 212-353-0303 or www.vineyardtheatre.org Closes: December 17, 2017 Posted by Judd Hollander at 8:29 PM No comments: Illyria - Offering Much, But Not Telling Enough The birth pangs of the New York Shakespeare Festival, particularly its conflicts with the New York City Parks Department and city planner Robert Moses are the stuff of theatre legend. Playwright Richard Nelson using those events as the source material for his rather meandering play Illyria, at the Public Theater. Taking place between April and August of 1958, the story centers around Joe Papp (John Magaro), founder of the Festival, and a man who expects and demands loyalty from those around him. He's also not above using his position to get what he wants. Case in point, his insistence on casting his actress wife Peggy (Kristen Connolly) in the company's upcoming production of Twelfth Night. This despite objections from the group's director Stuart Vaughn (John Sanders), who thinks she's clearly wrong for the role. Stuart is also still chafing over his having to cast Peggy in a previous production, despite his protests. Adding to the tension between the two men is Stuart 's acceptance of a directing offer at the Phoenix Theatre, something Joe is not happy about. Though Stuart insists he can do both jobs without sacrificing the quality of his work at either - the productions being on different schedules - Joe wants him to pick one career path or the other. Matters coming to a head during a luncheon gathering which quickly turns into a verbal battle over art and commerce. Festival press agent Merle Debuskey (Fran Krantz) delivering the most powerful line of the play at that encounter, telling Joe that, while he would do anything for free Shakespeare, he refuses to be associated with cheap Shakespeare. This in regard to a discussion on charging audiences a nominal fee for Festival productions rather than keeping them free for all, as was originally envisioned. While certainly a subject worth discussing, things start to become repetitive rather quickly. Matters not being helped by the fact that, other than Joe, none of the characters feel in any way three-dimensional, and thus, not all that interesting. Rather ironic, since just about all of those depicted are real people, several of whom became major forces in theatre. This detached feeling becomes even more exacerbated in an extended final scene which goes on and on, and on. Nelson, also doing double duty here as the show's director, seeming to have had no idea of when to end his story. Nelson does try to keep things the audience engaged by dropping in some interesting tidbits from time to time. These include the group having to deal with a temperamental George C. Scott during one of their productions; various union issues the company faced in order to get their shows put on; and mention of what would eventually become Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts being built on New York's West Side. An institution, Joe and his friends believe, the city authorities are much more in favor of than the Festival. It should be pointed out that Illyria is not presenting things as they actually happened. As Nelson explains in the program notes, he's taken some liberties with the timeline of events, and has given one particular incident a new outcome for dramatic effect. Yet that doesn't explain the feeling one has of being dropped into the narrative midway through and thus continually forced to play catch-up in order to understand what's going on. Joe's being called before the House Un-American Activities Committee being an example of this. Nelson must also share the blame, along with sound designer Scott Lehrer, for the continued inability of the audience to hear much of what was being said during the production. The actors apparently being neither miked nor projecting their voices. To be fair, The Public Theater staff did tell the audience before the show began that Illyria was going to be an intimate affair, and that listening devices were available for anybody who wanted one. However there’s a difference between such devices being available and their use being mandatory; something which definitely needed to be the case here. Despite the work's various shortcomings, the cast give it their all. Particularly Magaro in the Joseph Papp role as he presents a portrait of someone who, while not that likeable, leaves no doubt as to where he stands on every issue. Kranz is nicely stalwart as Merle; while Sanders’ character offers a strong counterpoint to Joe throughout. Stuart also bringing up issues no one wants to talk about. Like asking what's wrong with working on projects that make you money and advance your career? The set by Susan Hilferty & Jason Ardizzone-West is serviceable, while the lighting design by Jennifer Tipton works well. The story of Joseph Papp, Robert Moses (who strangely isn't mentioned until more than an hour into the play) and the beginnings of the New York Shakespeare Festival is a fascinating tale and one that certainly deserves to be told. Illyria, however, is not the vehicle with which to tell it. Featuring: John Magaro (Joseph Papp), Kristen Connolly (Peggy Papp), Fran Kranz (Merle Debuskey), John Sanders (Stuart Vaughan), Emma Duncan (Gladys Vaughn), David Amram (Blake Delong), Max Woertendyke (John Robertson), Rosie Benton (Colleen Dewhurst), Will Brill (Bernie Gersten), Naian González Norvind (Mary Bennett) Illryia Written and directed by Richard Nelson Scenic Designers: Susan Hilferty & Jason Ardizzone-West Costume Designer: Susan Hilferty Lighting Designer: Jennifer Tipton Sound Designer: Scott Lehrer Production Stage Manager: Theresa Flanagan Stage Manager: Jared Oberholtzer Presented by The Public Theater 425 Lafayette Street Tickets: 212-967-7555 or www.publictheater.org Running Time: 1 Hour, 45 minutes, no intermission Posted by Judd Hollander at 11:33 AM No comments: Of Thee I Sing - It's Message Still Soars Satire may be what closes on Saturday night, as playwright George S. Kaufman once said, but that was certainly not the case for the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Of Thee I Sing. Gleefully skewering the American political process and written by Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin, the show opened on Broadway in 1931, running for 441 performances. Considering what’s going on in the world today, it’s not surprising the musical is now getting another look. MasterVoices having recently presented a concert version of the show at Carnegie Hall. Though while certainly enjoyable at points, the production was not nearly as strong as it had the potential to be. As a presidential campaign begins in earnest, the party's major power brokers, Matthew Fulton (Chuck Cooper), Louis Lippman (Brad Oscar) and Francis X. Gilhooley (Fred Applegate), must convince the voters that their candidate, John P. Wintergreen (Bryce Pinkham) has what it takes be Commander-in-Chief. A totally unexpected pick, Wintergreen was chosen simply because his name sounds presidential. Searching for a platform for him to run on, and one which won’t cost the party anything, the group settles on “love”. They deciding to find the most beautiful girl in the country who Wintergreen will then marry, but only if he wins the election. Though Wintergreen, who is not above using dirty tricks to get elected, goes along with the idea initially, he upsets the party’s plans at the last minute by falling in love with Fulton's assistant, Mary Turner (Denée Benton). Mary’s hidden talent being that she can bake corn muffins, which are absolutely delicious. It’s not long before the party, and indeed the entire country, are solidly behind the couple as the campaign takes the lovers to every state in union. Wintergreen proposing to Mary at each stop along the way. Not surprisingly, Wintergreen wins the election. However, just as the combined inauguration/wedding ceremony is concluding, Diana Devereaux (Elizabeth Stanley), the woman selected to marry Wintergreen before he threw her over for Mary, arrives and accuses him of breach of promise. Though the Supreme Court quickly rules in Wintergreen and Mary’s favor, Diana's presence continues to be felt in the new administration. The media continually coming back to the issue, with Diana herself making sure she is not forgotten by the people. Things come to a head when it’s discovered Diana has certain connections to Napoleon. Seeing this now as a matter of his country’s honor, the Ambassador of France (David Pittu) demands Wintergreen divorce Mary and marry Diana, or face an international incident. Of Thee I Sing pulls no punches when it comes to politics. The show calling out know-nothing politicians and backroom dealings, where the matter of the public good is simply a random afterthought. Also examined are the appeal of what would now be considered reality shows - beauty contests in this case - as well as the sometimes much-too-close relationship journalistic outlets have with politicians; and a world where style means a lot more than substance. While some parts of the book are quite dated, such as when Wintergreen lists the important attributes he’d look for in a wife, the underlying messages of the show are still as powerful as when they were first written. Just as pivotal to the production is the wonderful Gershwin music, and the often pointed lyrics. Some of the musical highlights include the heartwarming “Love is Sweeping the Country” and the show’s title tune. Also a lot of fun are “The Senator from Minnesota” and “Posterity is Just Around the Corner”. The latter number a swipe at President Herbert Hoover and a statement he made in regards to the Great Depression. It's also a great treat to hear the score performed by a full orchestra. The MasterVoices orchestra performing under the very skilled baton of conductor Ted Sperling. A chief problem with the show is its execution. Many of the gags landing not nearly as sharply as they should. Sperling, who also handled the directing chores, seeming unsure of his choices throughout. As a result, a good part of the action feels flat and uninspired. In addition, a number of the performers are unable to get a proper handle on their characters. This is particularly evident in Pink ham's portrayal of Wintergreen. He not playing it naïve enough to come off as an everyman and not cynical enough to be believable as a political power player. He also fails to have any chemistry with Benton, thus blunting the impact of their scenes together. Benton conversely, is able to ably convey the aura of a relative political newcomer turned practiced old hand as the show unfolds. Cooper, Oscar and Applegate feel rather interchangeable as three political hacks, with none of them really resonating in the roles they’ve taken on here. Coming off better is actor Kevin Chamberlin, who gives a winning performance as vice presidential candidate Alexander Throttlebottom. A person no one remembers and who doesn’t even know his own duties as the VP. Until they’re explained to him by a White House tour guide (Marnee Hollis). The show is also beset by serious sound issues. A good number of the lyrics being swallowed up in the gigantic auditorium and unable to be heard. This is a critical error, as how strongly the show's messages resonate depends on the audience being able to hear what's being said. A nice touch was having actor/humorist Mo Rocca take on the part of the narrator. Which he does in a pleasant and genial manner. Rocca also taking the opportunity to drop in some interesting trivia about the production and its history. Such as the creative team's previous effort in satire, Strike Up The Band, and George Gershwin’s penchant for publicly playing songs from Of Thee I Sing before the musical’s book had even been written. That Of Thee I Sing still has a lot to say is without doubt. However it can't be denied that, satirical lessons and wry understandings aside, much of the show now seems quite corny. Especially when it comes to the ending. For corny to work, it needs to feel both real and involving. In the recent MasterVoices’ production of Of Thee I Sing, it doesn’t. At least not often enough. Of Thee I Sing Music and Lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin Book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind Concert Adaptation by Tony Krasker Orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett, William Daly and George Gershwin Narrative Written by Joe Keenan Featuring: Bryce Pinkham (John P. Wintergreen), Denée Benton (Mary Turner), Kevin Chamberlin (Alexander Throttlebottom), Elizabeth Stanley (Diana Devereaux), Chuck Cooper (Matthew Fulton), Brad Oscar (Louis Lippman), Fred Applegate (Francis X. Gilhooley), David Pittu (French Ambassador), Rhett Gutter (Jenkins), Anna Landy (Miss Benson) Mo Rocca (Narrator), Ellen Richter (Tourist #1), Marnee Hollis (Tour Guide) Susan H. Drannm, Stephen Eisdorfer, John Koski, Ken Moore, Vivianne Potter, Robert R. Rainier, Gerald Richman, Lisa Rubin (Supreme Court Judges) Ghalahad Abella, Nicholas Cunha, Robert James, Vincent Machacek, Edsel Romero, Edward Yim (French Soldiers) Presented by MasterVoices MasterVoices Orchestra Conductor and Director: Ted Sperling Musical Staging: Andrew Palermo Sound Designer: Patrick Pummill Stage Manager: Lisa Ann Chernoff Presented at Carnegie Hall on November 2, 2017 Isaac Stern Auditorium / Ronald O. Perelman Stage Posted by Judd Hollander at 9:31 AM No comments:	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line212
__label__wiki	0.722106	0.722106	Trinitarian Congregational Parish of Castine The Windows Staff > Worship > Service of Communion Service of Baptism Dr. Mary Cushman Circle Events at TCP A Church Wedding Wedding Fees and Guidelines Holly Berry Fair Village Fair Town of Castine, Maine Castine Town Band Village Churches Rev. Tim Hall Tim Hall began his ministry at the Trinitarian Congregational Parish of Castine on November 1, 2011 Tim is a Maine native, born and raised in Augusta. His childhood interests included music, boy scouts, and all things aquatic, and Tim became an all-state trumpet player, an Eagle Scout, and a well-trained lifeguard and swimming instructor. Tim went on to study music education at the University of Southern Maine, and taught music in schools Downeast. Meanwhile, his other two interests led him to work several seasons at some of Maine’s wonderful summer youth camps, and then to a lifeguard position at Reid State Park. It was then that his career paths collided – Tim was offered a permanent position as a full-time state park ranger – and he left the teaching profession for a career with the Maine State Park system. Tim’s park career spanned more than 30 years in several assignments, the last one as a senior administrator for parks and historic sites in northern Maine. In 2003 Tim earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Maine, and he set about working on a terminal degree, with hopes of teaching environmental ethics at the college level. That was not to be, however. A lifelong Christian and lay leader, Tim began to sense a call to Christian ministry, and in 2005 began studies at Bangor Theological Seminary. He retired from state service in 2008 to study full-time, and accepted a call to pastor the Frankfort Congregational Church while still in seminary. Tim graduated from BTS in 2011, and was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Christ in response to his call to the Trinitarian Congregational Parish of Castine. Tim is married to Irene (MacLeod) Hall. Tim and Irene have two grown sons who live and work nearby.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line216
__label__wiki	0.58591	0.58591	@SocHistTech Technology's Stories January 5th, 2021 by: Kang Yeonsil Cold War’s Cold Legacy: Soyang Multipurpose Dam, the Local Environment, and Envirotechnical Development in South Korea On August 25, 1995, my family drove uphill, in the pouring rain, towards the Soyang Multipurpose Dam. We planned to watch the spectacle of water being discharged from three flood gates of the largest rock-fill dam in East Asia. With the water level reaching just a few meters short of its maximum, and with tropical storm Janice approaching, the Korea Water Resources Corporation had decided to open the flood gates to discharge water at the rate of 3,800 tons per second. The dam was designed to provide 200-year flood protection, but this was the tenth time flood gates had been opened since the dam’s completion in 1974. This fact did not bother the hundreds of people, including my family, who gathered to watch this rare event. Mainstream newspapers, too, described it as a “magnificent view” created both by an unruly weather event and a marvelous human creation.[1] The Soyang Multipurpose Dam has been hailed as one of the most outstanding engineering achievements in modern Korean history. For instance, in their recent publication on the history of industrial technologies in South Korea, the National Academy of Engineering of Korea took on a nationalistic tone in its appraisal of Soyang as a: “magnificent dam … constructed by our own technologies and own hands in the economically deprived period of the early 1970s.” This essay explores the story of the Soyang Multipurpose Dam to consider the material implications of envirotechnical developments. Scholarship at the intersection of the history of technology and environmental history has explored the dynamic ways in which the environment and technology are mutually shaping. Dams are the most representative envirotechnical systems where the environment and technology are inseparable, physically, and analytically. A closer look at the dam’s environmental impacts brings previously undermined tensions between the national developmental project and local experiences to the fore. This history will follow an unexpected byproduct of the dam: cold water. In deep lakes, water becomes stratified into layers based on their different temperatures. Below the thermocline, where a steep temperature drop occurs, the water temperature stays low and constant over the year. In Soyang Lake, about 500 million tons of cold, deep lake water is produced annually. Around 4-5 million tons of this cold water (at 5-6°C or 41-42.8 °F) is released downstream every day after being used for power generation. The release of this cold water affects the micro-climate, winter landscape, and agriculture and fisheries of the region. In this context, coldness is not a purposeful technological production as seen in the studies of air conditioning, sperm and egg preservation, seed vault, or ice-core samples for climate research. Instead, it is a form of thermal pollution created by envirotechnical developments. This pollution in turn has made notable physical changes to the local environment and to the ways that local people interact with the river. A Cold War Product The Soyang Multipurpose Dam (1967-1973) was constructed within the shifting geopolitical relationships of the Cold War. Mobilization of engineering expertise, financing, and design all illustrate how Cold War ideologies shaped the dam’s materiality – its physical structure and its relationship to the local environment. The U.S. provided critical technical consultation on water resources management and dam construction. Plans to construct a dam on the Soyang River were first discussed in the 1950s, as a way to manage the Han River’s water resources. But it was in the 1960s when American consulting firm Smith Hinchman-Grylls conducted the feasibility study that the plan started to take shape. In 1966, the Han River Basin Joint Survey Team, co-organized by the Ministry of Construction of South Korea and the United States Operations Mission (USOM), suggested constructing a multipurpose dam to maximize water resources.[2] These studies provided the scientific and economic rationale to build an ambitious dam, which at the time some considered too large in capacity and too challenging to construct. Japan became involved as well, a move that was possible because of changing geopolitics. With the Treaty of San Francisco of 1951, Japan had re-established a peaceful relationship with the Allied countries. With South Korea, a new diplomatic relationship signed in 1965 came with a property claim against Japan. According to this treaty, Japan would provide about 36% of the budget for constructing the Soyang Multipurpose Dam. Japanese engineering consulting firm, Nippon Koei, also provided the key technical expertise for planning and designing the dam, although its original proposal changed as construction began.[3] Nippon Koei’s involvement was a part of its attempts to rebrand itself from the major player of Japan’s colonial infrastructure development to a specialist in international development during the Cold War.[4] A final geopolitical consideration was the situation with North Korea, as the possibility of an attack on the dam was one of the criteria in deciding the dam’s design. Located only 12 km (7.5 miles) away from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with a watercourse directly connected to the capital city, bombing the gigantic dam would be catastrophically damaging. Thus, it was important to design a dam that would minimize the damage that a possible attack could produce. Japanese and Korean engineers had different ideas as to which design would be suitable. In their proposal, Nippon Koei suggested that a concrete dam would be less damaging and easier to repair in the case of bombing. A concrete dam would also be beneficial in supporting domestic concrete production. By contrast, Hyundai Construction, a Korean company that carried out the project, proposed a rock-fill dam. With a rock-fill dam, it argued, downstream cities would be better protected if bombed, and the cost of construction would be reduced using rock and gravel from nearby mountains. After the military evaluated the two designs in terms of national defense, South Korean officials decided to build a rock-fill dam. The dam was expected to bring industrial prosperity to the country, especially by supporting urban and industrial developments in Seoul and the surrounding regions. The brochure introducing the project made this point clear. The dam had three purposes: preventing damage from yearly flooding, meeting rapidly increasing electricity needs, and increasing the water supply for domestic, industrial, and agricultural uses in the immediate region of the national capital at Seoul.[5] The construction of the Soyang Multipurpose Dam was an essential part of the First Comprehensive National Physical Development Plan (1972-1981) of South Korea. Indispensable to the success of the authoritarian military regime of PARK Chung Hee (1963-1979), the plan laid out specifics for “efficient land use and management,” including transportation, industrial parks, and power networks. The key philosophy was a division of labor; the land would be functionally divided and ordered to most effectively contribute to the national economy.[6] According to this comprehensive development plan, the role of Soyang Multipurpose Dam and its water basin was focused entirely on providing resources for the growing nation’s capital. A commemorative stamp illustrates well how the dam and the localities were placed in the national plan. (See Figure 1). An envirotechnical system consisting of abundant water, a gigantic dam, and transmission towers were portrayed as only meaningful in terms of their effect on Seoul. For those living in the area close to the dam, however, the consequences of dam construction were damaging, and far from trivial. Figure 1: Commemorative Stamp celebrating the completion of Soyang Multipurpose Dam, 1973. (Office of Postal Service Korea) The suffering of the local people shows this. The dam’s construction caused 2,703 square kilometers to be submerged, and more than 16,000 people relocated. These people were under-compensated for their loss after a much-delayed negotiation. For those who did not relocate, the lake physically isolated them from nearby cities and key infrastructures. The loss of roads and the lack of transportation made it worse. The dam’s function of flood prevention ironically caused severe floods in nearby regions. When the dam opened its flood gates for the first time on July 13, 1981, the immediate area suffered from severe flooding damaging farms and fish nurseries.[7] Regardless, its flood protection function was highly praised; on the same day, the president ordered the construction of more multipurpose dams like this one, making headlines in national newspapers. Yet the dam was a national success only at the price of the marginalization of the areas around the dam site. A Cold Byproduct Even taking the problems of relocation and flooding into account, the most unexpected and enduring impact of the dam on the local environment was cold water. The most immediate impact of cold water became evident in nearby rice fields. In May 1973, only a few months after the dam begun to be filled with water, the Udu Farmland Improvement Association wrote an urgent petition to the Government of Gangwon Province. The association was a union of local farmers who took charge of irrigation management and agricultural improvement, including mechanization projects. Upon completion of the Soyang dam, the river was straightened, and the Udu Reservoir, which had supplied agricultural water to the nearby farms since 1927, was demolished. Irrigation had to be re-routed to a water pipe which was located about 50-60 m deep, where the water temperature was at 5-6°C. The Association argued that the water intake change from the Udu Reservoir to the Soyang dam lowered the agricultural water temperature. The concerned farmers investigated how the low water temperature affected the growth of rice to document the problem. (See Figure 2.) They measured the water temperature three times a day between May 19 and June 14. It was a crucial season for rice farming when the seedlings were transplanted to the water-filled paddies for the year’s growth. The result showed that the water temperature was between 9-12°C, much lower than the desired temperature for growing rice (22-32°C). The farmers reported that planted rice seedlings had already experienced issues with root development. Due to the damage from cold water, rice production in the Udu Farmland area was expected to decrease by 4.6% by the end of the year equivalent to approximately 48 tons.[8] Figure 2: Detailed map of Soyang Dam (part). This hand-drawn map on the right demonstrates how water was supplied from the dam to Udu Farmland and where water temperatures were taken (No.1-No.4.) (National Archive of Korea, BA0933711, p. 11) In addition to the changes in irrigation, a newly introduced rice variety complicated the problem. To increase rice production, the government had introduced the new rice variety Tongil (unification) in 1972 to rice fields around the country. Tongil was a fruitful outcome of South Korea’s participation in the global scientific effort during the Cold War. After the development of the first Green Revolution hybrid varieties in the 1950s, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation established the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. Tongil was engineered by HEU Mun Hue, a professor at Seoul National University and one of the South Korean scientists sent to IRRI. By hybridizing Japonica and Indica, the two major subspecies of rice, Heu created a variety that promised higher productivity and pest resistance. The problem was that it was more sensitive to the lower temperature than previously dominant breeds because of its genetic proximity to the tropical Indica breed.[9] A poor harvest in 1972 due to colder summer underscored this weakness. Damage from cold water was a special concern because rice production increase was one of the most important national developmental goals set by the government. The year 1973, in particular, was designated as “the year of the decisive battle for food production increase.” The government established a nation-wide network to achieve this goal. The newly created Office of Food Production Increase Planning under the executive’s purview closely monitored the status of rice farming every month.[10] Local governments and branches of rural supervising offices educated farmers with advanced knowledge of new rice varieties, disease control, and fertilizing strategies. Rice farmers like those of the Udu Farmland Improvement Association were in charge of achieving this national goal under tight technological and bureaucratic control. Increasing rice production hinged on the success of Tongil, and so did the ideological and political success of Park’s authoritarian regime. The local rice farmers’ petition was resolved with the construction of the Udu Water Heating Reservoir. The water would naturally warm-up before used for rice farming by storing in the reservoir for a few days.[11] On the rice fields, the cold byproduct of one technological system frustrated the other, significantly challenging the seemingly well-planned national developmental goals at the local level. The cold water released from the dam continued to change the local environment. Most of all, it changed riverscapes and river use by the local people. Because water temperature discharged from the dam was constant year-round at 5-6°C, it cooled the river in summers and warmed in winters. Thus, recreational uses of the river, including swimming and ice-skating, was significantly limited. Some saw industrial possibilities in this new environment. In 1965, Gangwon Province received a donation of 1 million rainbow trout eggs from California to incubate and grow in the experimental hatchery under the leadership of PARK Kyung Won, the province’s governor. The cold water of the dam turned out to be an ideal environment for trout growth. With the support of the new Inland Water Fisheries Act of 1975, Soyang Multipurpose Dam not only became one of the earliest industrial rainbow trout farming sites but also became a new habitat for this foreign species as millions of trout fry were released to the lake.[12] The local weather changed as well, as a result of the gigantic body of water created by the dam. The most significant change was the increase in foggy days. Especially in colder seasons, because water temperature remained higher than the atmosphere, more water evaporated into the air causing severe fogs and frosts. For instance, in Chuncheon city, the annual days of fog increased from 39 to 63.5, and the annual days of frost from 78.4 to 114.1 after the Soyang Multipurpose Dam was constructed—thus, the nickname “the city of fog.” With more vapor in the air, it worsened the level of air pollution as well, especially acid fogs and high particulate matter. Increased fogs would impact agricultural production and transportation, but its public health consequence was a particular concern; local doctors reported a high rate of respiratory diseases and arthritis in the city, although strong statistical evidence was hard to come by.[13] These environmental impacts of the large dams began to be properly studied only in the 1990s. NGOs, think tanks, and scientists in Gangwon Province started to investigate the economic, infrastructural, cultural, and environmental costs of the dam to the region and how to calculate them in monetary terms. This effort to chart the negative consequences should be understood within the context of growing awareness that the dam had created and worsened regional inequality. Seoul’s urban area grew at an unprecedented rate, benefiting from Soyang Multipurpose Dam as it allowed the development of previously flood-prone land. But vast areas along the river in Gangwon Province experienced heavy regulations of land use in order to protect water resources. Gangwon Development Research Institute, the local think tank, strongly argued that local people experienced more losses than benefits. Thus, they argued, active measures were needed, including extra payments from downstream cities for water use and the investment of profits from the dam in local communities, which would “minimize the social and economic inequality.”[14] Against such claims, the Korea Water Resources Corporation, the manager of Soyang Multipurpose Dam, concluded that the damaging impacts claimed by local communities were insignificant, although they did acknowledge the necessity of increasing support to the local communities for the sake of calming the complaints.[15] Can cold water from the dam have any value for the local community? In 2017, Gangwon Province proposed to turn the nuisance of cold water into a resource. By 2022, they planned to construct an industrial complex near Soyang Multipurpose Dam focusing on two high-tech industries, data centers, and smart farms. The cold water will run through these two different industrial facilities transferring heat energy from one to another; it will cool down the heat from the data infrastructure and then be used to warm up the IT-infused agriculture facilities. This “water-energy-food nexus” is expected to bring environmentally-friendly economic growth to the region that has suffered economic stagnation for many years. This plan reimagines cold water as thermal-hydro energy that would make the region “the industrial capital of the big data.” This conceptual shift about the value of coldness not only highlights the materiality of cloud computing but also how the local continuously negotiates with the envirotechnical systems. The story of the Soyang Multipurpose Dam casts a historiographical question of how to build a narrative from the periphery. As a technology of disaster prevention and resource management, politicians and engineers envisioned the dam bringing efficient development of the lands and, thus, national economic growth. What they did not foresee was how cold water, a seemingly mundane byproduct of the large technological system, would challenge their vision. It not only challenged the other developmental goal of food production but also entirely reshaped the local communities’ relationship with the environment. Yeonsil Kang, Ph.D. is a visiting assistant professor at Drexel University and the D. Kim Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2021). Her research focuses on the intersections of the environment, disasters, and science and technology. She is currently working on a book manuscript Mineral Time, Bodily Time: Asbestos, Slow Disaster, and Toxic Politics in South Korea. Suggested Readings: Radin, Joanna, and Emma Kowal Eds., Cryopolitics: Frozen Life in a Melting World. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2017. Moore, Aaron Stephen, Constructing East Asia: Technology, Ideology, and Empire in Japan’s Wartime Era, 1931-1945. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013. Mizuno, Hiromi, Aaron S. Moore, and John DiMoia Eds., Engineering Asia: Technology, Colonial Development, and the Cold War Order. Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. Jeon, Chihyung, “A Road to Modernization and Unification: The Construction of the Gyeongbu Highway in South Korea,” Technology and Culture 51 no. 1 (2010): 55-79. Ensmenger, Nathan, “The Environmental History of Computing,” History and Culture 59 no. 4 Supplement (2018): S7-S33. Copyright 2020 Kang Yeonsil [1] “Soyang Multipurpose Dam Opens its Floodgates for the First Time in 5 Years,” Hankyoreh August 26, 1995,17. [2] Han River Basin Joint Survey Team. 1966. 12. A Preliminary Report on Soyang and Chungju Multipurpose Dam. [3] Korea Engineering Consultants Corporation. 1968. Soyang River Multipupose Dam Basic Planning and Design Report. Ministry of Construction. [4] Aaron Stephen Moore. 2013. Constructing East Asia: Technology, Ideology, and Empire in Japan’s Wartime Era, 1931-1945. Stanford: Stanford University Press. [5] Gangwon Province. “Small-Scale Project (Water Heating Reservoir Construction, Udu Farmland Association Udu Farmland), 1973-1974.” National Archives of Korea, BA0933711, pp. 35-52. [6] Juyoung Lee. 2015. “The National Physical Plan for South Korea and Regional Science Theory: The Practice of Planning in South Korea’s First Comprehensive National Physical Development Plan, 1963-1972.” Seoul National University, Master’s Thesis. [7] “Farms Lost with the Disastrous Flood,” Kangwon Ilbo July 14, 1981; “The Amount of Damage from Opening of the Floodgates Amounts to 200 Mil Won,” Kangwon Ilbo July 17, 1981. [8] Gangwon Province, “Small scale project”, 62-76; 133. [9] Tae-Ho Kim. 2017. Social History of Rice in Modern Korea. Seoul: Deullyeok. [10] The President’s Secretariat. 1973. “Establishment of the Office of Food Production Increase Planning.” National Archives of Korea, EA0005547(1). [11] The construction of the Udu Water-Heating Reservoir created much disputes as well. In order to create the reservoir large enough to support the affected rice paddies, the acquisition of rice fields owned by 54 different farmers was necessary, ironically. All rice farmers initially disagreed with selling their land for its expected economic loss. [12] Korea Trout Farmer’s Association. 2015. 50-Year History of Trout Farming in Korea. [13] Citizen’s Coalition for Economic Justice Chuncheon Branch. 1997. Nature and Human of Soyang Lake; Seung Up Choi. 2001. The Impact of Dam Construction to the Surrounding Regions and Measures: Focusing on Soyang Multipurpose Dam. Gangwon Development Research Institute. [14] Choi, The Impact of Dam Construction, 136. [15] Korea Water Resources Corporation. 2013. Research on the Cost-Benefit Analysis of Social and Economic Impacts of Soyang Multipurpose Dam to the Country and the Region. v. 1, no. 1: Technology in Society v. 2, no. 1: Technology in Society pt. 2 v. 2, no. 2: Counterfactuals v. 2, no. 3: Technology and Medicine v. 3, no. 1: Science and Society v. 3, no. 2: Speed v. 3, no. 3: Africa v. 4, no. 1: Disaster v. 5, no. 1: Reproductive Technologies v. 5, no. 2: Technology and the Arctic v. 5, no. 3: Energy v. 5, no. 4: Gendered Technology v. 6, no. 1: Artificial Intelligence v. 6, no. 2: International Panel on Social Progress v. 6, no. 3: Maintenance v. 6, no. 4: Kranzberg's Laws v. 7, no. 1: 2018 Best Early Career Paper Winners v. 7, no.2: Craft and the Technology of Textiles v. 8, no. 1: Aesthetics v. 8, no. 2: Dialogues: History of Technology in Africa and the Americas v. 8, no. 3: Chill Technologies Copyright © 2021 Technology's Stories ISSN 2572-3413 \| Additional Contact Information	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line217
__label__wiki	0.610635	0.610635	Chris Laurence Chris Laurence was born in London and studied at the Guildhall School of Music. He has maintained a dual career in both jazz and classical music. In the classical world he was principal double bass with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Orchestra until 1995, playing on many of their famous recordings ranging from the film “Amadeus” to Benjamin Britten’s “Curlew River”. Jazz artists he has recorded with include trombonist J.J.Johnson, Tony Coe, Joe Williams, Sarah Vaughan, Clark Terry, Johnny Mathis and Lena Horne. His current recordings are John Surman’s “The Spaces in Between”, Kenny Wheelers “The Long Waiting” and “Songs For Quintet” on the ECM Label and Norma Winstone’s “Manhattan in the Rain”. He also spends a lot of time recording music for TV, Film and Albums, most notably “Leaving Las Vegas”, Ken Loach’s “Looking For Eric”, “The Constant Gardener”, Howard Shores’ score for “Hugo” and most recently was featured on the sound track of Mike Leigh’s “Mr Turner”. In 2007 he recorded a CD with his own jazz quartet titled “New View”, released on the “Basho” label along with Frank Ricotti (vibes), John Parricelli (Guitar), Martin France (Drums) and featuring Norma Winstone (Vocals). As well as jazz and classical music, Chris has also featured on albums with many stars including Elton John, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Joni Mitchell, David Gilmour, Michel Legrand and guitarist John Williams. Read more on Wikipedia.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line218
__label__wiki	0.659247	0.659247	This Day in History: November 27th November 27, 2013 Kathy Padden One comment Today in History: November 27, 2005 When most parents throw a Bat Mitzvah for their daughters, it’s a matter of renting out a room at the local Holiday Inn and hiring a local cover band to provide the music. Not so for 13-year-old Elizabeth Brooks. Her doting daddy David Brooks, CEO of DHB Industries, the leading supplier of body armor to the U.S. troops in Iraq, shelled out $10 million to rent New York City’s legendary Rainbow Room and filled it with some of the music world’s biggest superstars. Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty and Don Henley all performed before the headliners, 50 Cent and Aerosmith took the stage. It’s reported that Aerosmith, who were flown in to play the gig on Brooks’ private jet, received a $2 million performance fee for a 45 minute set. Eat the Rich indeed. Rapper 50 Cent decided the multi-million dollar price tag to perform was worth the risk of losing some of his gangta street cred, as he too took to the stage in the Rainbow Room to do a set for Elizabeth Brooks. His bodyguards tried to discourage party-goers from taking souvenir photos of 50’s performance, but despite their best efforts, photos of his set were showing up on the Internet within days, where he was mocked mercilessly for “selling out”. But even as he was throwing that extravagant Bat Mitzvah for his daughter, things were already starting to fall apart for David Brooks. In May of 2005, the Marines were forced to recall over 5,000 DHB Industries vests after tests revealed life-threatening flaws. In October of 2007, Brooks was indicted on 21 counts of alleged securities fraud, tax evasion, obstruction of justice and insider trading. He was accused of using tens of millions of dollars of company money to finance his over-the-top lifestyle, including such luxuries as a $200,000 Bentley, plastic surgery for his ex-wife and a $100,000 belt buckle. “Right off the bat, he’s going to have a problem with the jury that’s going to be able to comprehend spending $10 million on a bat mitzvah, when most people won’t ever see $10 million in their lifetime,” defense attorney Joe Tacopino said. In August 2013, Brooks was sentenced to 17 years in prison for his part in falsely inflating the value of the stock of DHB’s top product, the Interceptor vest, to meet profit margin projections. Brooks was ordered to forfeit $60 million accrued from the insider trader racket, and was also ordered to pay restitution. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 30 years for Brooks, but the judge decided a sentence of 17 years is fair and just, adding that the will be incarcerated until he is in his 70s. The “Hip Hip” in “Hip Hip Hooray” was Once an Anti-Semitic Phrase The Iconic “Live Long and Prosper” Gesture was Originally a Jewish Sign The History of Circumcision The Biblical Expression “40 Days and 40 Nights” Just Means a “Really Long Time” Scandalous $10 Million Bat Mitzvah Headlining a $10 Million Bat Mitzvah Prison for Founder of Body Armor Maker $10 Million Bat Mitzvah	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line230
__label__cc	0.578847	0.421153	32× Not Alone (Starkid) 32× Waiting (Triptykon) 32× It Ain't No Use (Major Lance) 32× Baby's Arms (Vile Kurt) Modern Man (The Bolshoi) Say hello to the modern man Who does the best, well, that he can And it's not hard to criticize He wants to get in the football team And have a laugh and yell and scream Well that's no crime... it can be fun sometimes Oh, he comes for you while you're asleep Oh, you can't say no it makes you weak. Say hello to the modern man, He got nowhere to go, cigarette in his hand Sits in a plane, swings from a tree He never had to work like you and me. That's a fact He used to care about important things Like doing his hair and wearing rings But that was just a phase and he grew out of it. Now he says, "Hey, look at me, I got my new boots on down by the sea" well that's no crime, he does it all the time. Yes he does. Oh, he comes for you while you're asleep Oh, you can't say no it makes you weak. Say hello to the modern man, He got nowhere to go, cigarette in his hand Sits in a plane, swings from a tree He never had to work like you and me. That's a well-known fact The times I dream of, days of old The men were strong and knights were bold Modern Man came down among us Gave us truth, eleven plus And then he sends us all the dramas Left us there in our pajamas Trying hard to see the sun And live a life back on the run It's true... He comes for you while you're asleep Yes he does, yes he does Oh, you can't say no it makes you weak. Say hello to the modern man, He got nowhere to go, cigarette in his hand Sits on a plane, he swings from a tree He never had to work like you and me. Take a look at the modern man who does the best, well, that he can and it's not hard to criticize in fact it can be fun sometimes. Interpret: The Bolshoi	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line231
__label__wiki	0.638661	0.638661	Home Gifts Pearl Harbor P-40 Warhawk Coffee Mug by Artist Craig Tinder Pearl Harbor P-40 Warhawk Coffee Mug by Artist Craig Tinder Lt. George Welch was one of a few U.S. fighter pilots to get aloft and attack the Japanese during the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. Returning from a Christmas party in Waikiki the night before and still wearing mess dress, Lt. Welch and another pilot (2nd Lt. Ken Taylor), sped to Halewia Field on Oahu's North Shore. After calling ahead to get two P-40s armed and fueled, Welch wasted no time jumping from Ken's Buick into the P-40B Tomahawk once they arrived. Lt. Welsh was credited with four aircraft - 3 Aichi D3A Val Dive Bombers and an A6M2 Zero Fighter. Welch and Taylor were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for their decisive actions. Lt. Welch would later become a triple ace eventually racking up 16 confirmed victories flying P-40s, P-39s, and P-38s. Post war, George Welch became a test pilot for the U.S. Air Force and attempted to exceed the speed of sound in an XP-86 Sabre jet. There is much controversy surrounding the breaking of the sound barrier 2-weeks prior to the X-1 as Welch's highest speeds were achieved while diving instead of level flight.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line239
__label__wiki	0.767006	0.767006	The story of Quincy Farm... The same way a conductor is nothing without his orchestra, a farmer is nothing without his soil... but together, each pairing can make something magnificent. To tell our story, we first have to introduce our orchestra: The farm. Without it, we'd just be up here in coattails waving our arms in silence. The land we farm was part of a large tract of land that was "purchased" from the Mohawks in 1684, though it wasn't confirmed by the colonial government until 1708 in the Warrant for Saratoga Patent. This huge tract of land, encompassing nearly all of New York state north of Albany plus a good portion of present-day Vermont, was further subdivided in 1701 to create Rensselaer and Saratoga counties, and again in 1772 to create Tryon (Montgomery) and Charlotte (Washington) counties. In this second subdivision, our property (along with tens of thousands of acres) was sold to William and Robert Bayard of New York City. Easton Quaker Meeting, still standing today 7 miles east of our farm. Claude Sauthier's map of Tryon and Charlotte (Washington) counties, 1777. When the Bayards bought the land, few settlements existed in the area between Peter Schuyler's "Fort Saratoga" (in present-day Schuylerville) and the village of Stillwater, itself a tiny outpost. The river's many rapids and falls made boat traffic impossible, so the region remained largely wilderness. In 1773, several Rhode Island Quakers, fleeing what became the Revolutionary War, settled in Easton. At the time, the settlement was at the very eastern edge of Saratoga County--hence the name. Other Quakers soon followed from New York City, Westchester County, and Dutchess County. A year later, in 1774, a Dutchess County Quaker named Job Wright bought our land from the Bayards. Job was a Captain in the Revolutionary War, and likely came to know the area and its inhabitants while serving under Colonel Jaacob van Shack in Albany. In 1790, Job sold the farm to his son Abraham for 532 pounds and 15 shillings. The Wright family continued to live and farm here through the generations, raising crops on the fertile bottomlands and grazing animals in the upland pastures. When the Champlain Canal was dug alongside the Hudson in 1824, the area experienced a surge of growth. Wilbur's Basin, just north of our farm and across the river, became a major trading hub and stopping point. Abraham Wright and his son, John, ran a grocery store and ferry on the river: "Wright's Ferry" ran from the end of Wright's Road--which then extended to the river--to Wright's Loop, a road on the far side of the river that still exists today. Our home, viewed from the south, date unknown. The dirt path in the foreground is Wrights 'Road'. Gil Wright's pet goat in the 1930s(?), with our house and lower flats in the background. Notice the large pile of hand-split wood near the woodshed--coal heat didn't arrive until years later. In 1814, the original farmhouse was moved 50 feet to the north and rebuilt with a "modern" addition where it stands today. Under the floor you can still see the hand-dug cistern that supplied water for the household. The entire house is built with wood cut from the property, and the slate roof was likely quarried in nearby Granville. Our current peg-built, slate-roofed barn was built in 1914 after two previous barns burnt down on the spot--one from a hay fire, and the second just a year later from a lightning strike. The Wrights passed their farm down through the generations, building a thriving small dairy. The barn, once used to house work horses and grain, was used as a calf barn. Ice was cut from the river, stored in the icehouse, and used to chill the milk until it was picked up. Electricity--and indoor plumbing--didn't reach the farm until after World War II. Prior to that it was an outhouse and a deep well sunk in the basement. Cutting corn on the flats with a 195? John Deere. Our farm in the 1970's. The large cow barn and silo on the right came down years ago. Our greenhouse stands there now. Gordon Wright was the last of the family to run the farm as an active dairy. He ran the farm with his wife, Marguerite, from before World War II until he retired in 1972. Gordon then worked for the Washington County Fair, as he and Marguerite continued to live in the farmhouse through the 1990's. Another farmer ran the property as a dairy, and when he moved on, the fields were leased to a neighboring dairy. When Gordon and Marguerite passed away, the family was faced with the difficult decision to sell the farm... Meanwhile, we were searching for land to start a vegetable farm. Click here to read more... QuincyFarm@gmail.com (you must dial 518 !) 5 Wrights Rd Schaghticoke, NY 12154	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line244
__label__cc	0.670897	0.329103	Read Thesis Title Israel adfp[2] (1).mdi text version Sustainable Construction: A Web-Based Performance Assessment Tool Israel Olugbenga Adetunji Raynesway Construction Southern (RCS) Pavilion B, Ashwood Park Ashwood Way Basingstoke Hampshire RG23 8BG Centre for Innovative Construction Engineering (CICE) Department of Civil & Building Engineering Loughborough University Loughborough Leics, LE11 3TU Thesis Access Form Copy No .................................... Location.................................... Author Israel Olugbenga Adetunji Title Sustainable Construction: A Web-based Performance Assessment Tool Status of access [OPEN / RESTRICTED / CONFIDENTIAL] Moratorium period: ..................years, ending .................. / 200.................. Conditions of access proved by (CAPITALS): ............................................................... Director of Research (Signature) ........................................................................ Department of Civil and Building Engineering Author's Declaration: I agree the following conditions: OPEN access work shall be made available (in the University and externally) and reproduced as necessary at the discretion of the University Librarian or Head of Department. It may also be copied by the British Library in microfilm or other form for supply to requesting libraries or individuals, subject to an indication of intended use for non-publishing purposes in the following form, placed on the copy and on any covering document or label. The statement itself shall apply to ALL copies: This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. Restricted/confidential work: All access and any photocopying shall be strictly subject to written permission from the University Head of Department and any external sponsor, if any. Author's signature .................................... Date ........................... Users declaration: for signature during any Moratorium period (Not Open work): I undertake to uphold the above conditions: Date Name (CAPITALS) Signature Address Certificate of Originality This is to certify that I am responsible for the work submitted in this thesis, that the original work is my own except as specified in acknowledgments or in footnotes, and that neither the thesis nor the original work contained therein has been submitted to this or any other institution for a higher degree. Author's signature ........................................................................ Date By Israel Olugbenga Adetunji A dissertation thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree Doctor of Engineering (EngD), at Loughborough University [June 2005] © by Israel Olugbenga Adetunji [2005] Raynesway Construction Southern (RCS) Pavilion B, Ashwood Park Ashwood Way Basingstoke Hampshire RG23 8BG Centre for Innovative Construction Engineering (CICE) Department of Civil & Building Engineering Loughborough University Loughborough Leics, LE11 3TU The completion of this thesis would not have been possible, without the support of many people. Heart felt thanks to my academic and industrial supervisors Professor A.D.F. Price, Dr P. Fleming and Ms P. Kemp for their advice, encouragement and continuous support throughout this project. My special thanks to Professor C. Anumba for being instrumental in securing funding for this research. I am grossly indebted to Mr J. Findlay for arranging the meeting with RCS that gave birth to this project. I am really grateful to EPSRC and RCS for providing the funding for this project. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the organisations that participated in this research by providing valuable insights and information. Their support, interest and patience during the course of this project are invaluable. I am immensely thankful to the support of colleagues and friends, especially Patel Ritesh, James Tomlison and Nigel Gibbons at RCS and Kirti Ruikar, Shabbir Ahsan and Maxmood Gesey at CICE. The final gratitude goes to members of my family and friends, especially my parents Gabriel and Hannah for their unconditional support and encouragement to pursue my interest, fiancée (my able PA) Kate for her emotional support and loving kindness and being so kind in agreeing to put our wedding on hold until the completion of this thesis, my one year old son Noah for allowing me to use his bedroom as an office during the day. It is to them that I wish to dedicate this dissertation. The quest towards sustainable development, both nationally and globally, puts the construction industry in the foreground as the main consumer of natural resources. The industry has profound economic, social and environmental impacts. Sustainable construction is one of the most important challenges faced by the construction industry today. In the UK, sustainability is being driven and enforced by the government through stringent fiscal policies and regulations, voluntary initiatives combined with naming and shaming strategies. Stakeholders are becoming more aware of the global challenges and are using their power to exert pressure on companies. Increasingly, construction clients are demanding that their business partners submit: their corporate sustainability policies with tender packages to demonstrate their performance in dealing with opportunities and risks stemming from economic, environmental and social aspect of sustainability. However, the lack of understanding of the concept and its practical application has been a recurrent problem. The conceptual confusion; its vagueness and ambiguity, the complexity of the myriad of challenges and fluidity of the sustainability concept, compounded with the myopic attitude of the industry, lack of clear-cut and practical framework are causing frustration in the construction industry. Consequently, a number of sustainability management frameworks have been proposed. There are probably more than one hundred frameworks for sustainable business strategy. However, the majority of these are either complicated to implement or lack sound theoretical base, effective change management and completeness. These, therefore, do not make the situation any easier. Many are still baffled as to what they should do and how they should go about affecting change. Corporate sustainability in the construction industry is a challenge to many companies. The industry is still under-performing in each of the key themes of sustainable construction and this has lead to a 'blame culture' where each sector of the industry allocates responsibility for its current failings to others (CIRIA C563, 2001). Such a situation poses a need for a comprehensive, practical and easy to use tool that would aid the implementation and management of sustainability at the core of business process. The tool will complement the existing frameworks, which breaks down the strategic and management issues into manageable components. This will enable companies to focus on individual areas and identify actions needed to facilitate change. The problem is that such a tool is virtually non-existent. The main focal point of this research is the development of a tool to facilitate the implementation, management and integration of sustainability issues at the strategic level and promote wider uptake of the concept in the construction industry. This requires a thorough understanding of the concepts of sustainable development, sustainable construction and related issues as well as drivers, benefits, barriers and enablers for achieving corporate sustainability. It also demands an examination of existing management frameworks and collation of case studies from the early adopters to establish critical factors for strategic and management issues involved in achieving corporate sustainability. Through, diverse research epistemologies (quantitative, qualitative and triangulation methods), the research established four main critical factors and thirty-six sub-critical factors for achieving corporate sustainability. These factors underpinned the development of a web-based prototype software (ConPass). This thesis presents the development and evaluation ConPass Model and the prototype software. Sustainable, construction, management, strategic issues, assessment tool, performance. The Engineering Doctorate (EngD) programme is a radical alternative to the conventional PhD in the sense that it is more suited to the needs of industry and endeavours to solve a single or aggregation of problems within the business environment (CICE, 1999). The main criteria of the EngD programme are that it must strive to contribute to knowledge, most importantly demonstrate innovation in the application of knowledge to the engineering business environment (CICE, 2001). This thesis describes a research project that focuses on the concept of sustainable development and sustainable construction, with the main emphasis on developing frameworks for promoting sustainability issues at the strategic level. List of papers REFEREED CONFERENCE PAPERS 1. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (2005). The Barriers and Possible Solution to Achieve Sustainable Development. Accepted in The Proceeding of the Second Scottish Conference for Postgraduate Researchers of the Built and Natural Environment (PRoBE). Glasgow Caledonian University, November 2005. 2. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (2003). The Application of Systems Thinking to the Concept of Sustainability. The Proceeding of the Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM), University of Brighton, UK, 3-5 September, 161-170. 3. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (2003). Trends in the Conceptualisation of Corporate Sustainability. The Proceeding of the Joint International Symposium of CIB Working Commissions W55, W65 and W107, Singapore, 23-24 October 2003, Page 187 199. 4. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (2003). Sustainability and the UK construction industry: a review, Proceedings of ICE: Engineering Sustainability, Volume 156, December 2003, Pages 185-199 Paper 13472. JOURNAL PAPERS UNDER REVIEW 5. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (2005). Sustainability in the Supply Chain: construction industry's perspective, Submitted to the Proceedings of ICE: Engineering Sustainability. 6. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (2005). Development of A Self-assessment Model for Managing Sustainability Issues at the Strategic Level in the Construction Companies, Submitted to the Proceedings of ICE: Engineering Sustainability. 7. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (2005). The Design and Development of Sustainable Construction Performance Assessment Tool (ConPass), Submitted to Construction Innovation Journal. ACRONYMS / ABBREVIATIONS Archival Analysis AccountAbility Application Programming Interface Active Server Pages Building Research Establishment Building Research Establishment Environment Assessment Method British Standards Institution Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment and Award Scheme CIB International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction CICE Centre for Innovative and Collaborative Engineering CIOB Chartered Institute of Building CIRIA Construction Industry Research and Information Association ConPass Sustainable Construction Performance Assessment Tool CS Case Study DBMS Database Management System DTI Department of Trade and Industry EcoHomes Environmental Rating for Homes EMAS Environmental Management System EMCBE East Midland Centre for Built Environment EngD Engineering Doctorate ENVEST ENVironmental ESTimator software EPSRC Engineering and Physical Science Research Council EU European Union Eurolifeform Probabilistic Approach for Predicting Life Cycle Cost and Performance of Building and Civil Infrastructure HSE Health and Safety Executive ICE Institute of Civil Engineers ICT Information and Communication Technology IIS Internet Information Services ISO International Organisation for Standardisation LA 21 Local Agenda 21 LCA Life Cycle Assessment LCCP Life Cycle Cost and Performance LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design liP Investors in People M4I Movement for Innovation MaSC Managing Sustainable Companies OHSAS Occupational Health and Safety Management System People, Project and Place P3 PPG Pollution Prevention Guidance PSA Public Service Agreements RAD Rapid Application Development RCS Raynesway Construction Southern RESUS Recycling and Sustainability in Civil Engineering AA AA1000 APIs ASP BRE BREEAM BSI CEEQUAL RoSPA QSA S SCM SIGMA SMEs SPeAR SPSS SQL SSCM Sue-Mot TNS TRL UK URL WLC WRAP The Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (Quality Safety Audit) Survey Supply Chain Management Sustainability Integrated Guidelines For Management Small Medium Enterprises Sustainable Project Appraisal Routine Statistical Package for Social Science Structured Query Language Sustainable Supply Chain Management Sustainable Urban Environment Metrics Models and Toolkits The Natural Step Transport Research Laboratory United Kingdom Uniform Resource Locators Whole Life Cost Waste and Resources Action Programme Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... ii Abstract...................................................................................................................... iii Key Words ...................................................................................................................v Preface ........................................................................................................................vi List of Papers ............................................................................................................ vii Acronyms / Abbreviations....................................................................................... viii Table of Content ..........................................................................................................x List of Figures ............................................................................................................xii List of Tables ........................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................1 1.1 INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................1 1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH ............................................................1 1.2.1 The General Subject Domain.................................................................2 1.2.2 The Industrial Sponsor...........................................................................7 1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES.................................................................................10 1.3.1 Aim of the Research ............................................................................10 1.3.2 Objectives of the Research ..................................................................10 1.4 JUSTIFICATION AND SCOPE OF RESEARCH............................................11 1.5 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ......................................................................14 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED WORK ....................................................16 2.1 INTR ODUCTION...........................................................................................16 2.2 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT .................................................................16 2.3 SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION IN THE UK............................................17 2.3.1 Definitions of Sustainable Construction...............................................19 2.3.2 Principles of Sustainable Construction.................................................21 2.3.3 Key Sustainable Construction Issues ...................................................22 2.4 TOOLS FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT ......24 2.4.1 Economic Aspect of Sustainability ......................................................24 2.4.2 Environmental Aspect of Sustainability ...............................................26 2.4.3 Social Aspect of Sustainability ............................................................27 2.5 FRAMEWORKS FOR MANAGING SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES.................29 2.5.1 The Natural Step..................................................................................30 2.5.2 The SIGMA ........................................................................................31 2.5.3 The MaSC ...........................................................................................32 2.6 TIMELINESS AND NOVELTY OF ENGD RESEARCH................................33 2.7 SUMMARY .....................................................................................................34 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY......................................................35 3.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................35 3.2 REVIEW OF RESEARCH METHODS ...........................................................35 3.2.1 Quantitative Research..........................................................................36 3.2.2 Qualitative Research............................................................................37 3.2.3 Triangulation.......................................................................................38 3.3 ADOPETED RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.................................................39 3.3.1 Methods and Tools Used .....................................................................40 3.4 SUMMARY .....................................................................................................48 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH UNDERTAKEN AND RESULTS ..............................49 4.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................49 4.2 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND THE UK GOVERNMENT APPROACH ....................................................................................................49 4.3 SUSTAINABILITY AND THE UK CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY..............51 4.4 EXAMINATION OF FRAMEWORKS FOR MANAGING SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES............................................................................................................54 4.5 ASSESSMENT MODEL AND PROTOTYPE APPLICATION .......................60 4.5.1 Development of ConPass Model..........................................................61 4.5.2 Evaluation and Validation of ConPass Model......................................65 4.5.3 Design and Development of ConPass Prototype Software ...................66 4.5.4 ConPass Prototype Software Evaluation ..............................................80 4.6 SUMMARY .....................................................................................................81 CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS..................................................82 5.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................82 5.2 RESEARCH FINDINGS..................................................................................82 5.2.1 Summary of Research Findings ...........................................................82 5.2.2 ConPass Model Evaluation Findings ...................................................88 5.2.3 ConPass Prototype Software Evaluation ..............................................90 5.3 INDUSTRIAL IMPLICATION........................................................................93 5.3.1 Impact on Sponsoring Company..........................................................93 5.3.2 Implication for the Wider Industry ......................................................94 5.4 CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE RESEARCH..........................................95 5.5 RECOMMENDATIONS AND FURTHER WORK .........................................96 5.6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION..................................................................98 References................................................................................................................ 100 Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D Appendix E Appendix F Paper 1 ............................................................................................. 114 Paper 2 ............................................................................................. 126 Paper 3 ............................................................................................. 137 Paper 4 ............................................................................................. 151 Paper 5 ............................................................................................. 171 SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS ...................................................... 190 I. Consultation Questions and Responses ........................................................... 191 II. A Checklists of Practices for the Construction Industry Towards the Path of Sustainability ................................................................................................. 200 III. A Framework for Sustainability Change Management Process ....................... 210 IV. ConPass Model Evaluation and Validation Questionnaire............................... 212 Figure 1.1: Research Focus and Data Input ..................................................................13 Figure 3.6: RAD using Iterative Prototype ...................................................................48 Figure 4.1: Cumulative Data Input for the Development of ConPass Model.................61 Figure 4.2: ConPass Assessment Model.......................................................................65 Figure 4.3: Functional Decomposition Diagram...........................................................67 Figure 4.4: ConPass Prototype High-level Architecture and Operation Overview ........70 Figure 4.5: ConPass Home Page: One of Three Instruction Pages................................73 Figure 4.6: New User Registration Form .....................................................................74 Figure 4.7: Log Into your Account and Forget Password Form ....................................75 Figure 4.8: Company Background Information Form...................................................76 Figure 4.9: Typical Assessment Questionnaires ...........................................................77 Figure 4.10: Company Performance Score...................................................................78 Figure 4.11: Performance Benchmark with Peers and Industry ....................................79 Figure 4.12: Dashboard Linear Gauge Diagram of Performance Benchmark................79 Figure 5.1: The Analysis of Closed-ended Evaluation Questions .................................90 Table 2.1: Examples of Principles of Sustainable Construction....................................21 Table 2.2: Sustainable Construction Issues ..................................................................23 Table 3.1: Advantages and Disadvantages of Survey Methods.....................................37 Table 3.2: Comparison Between Qualitative and Quantitative Research ......................39 Table 3.3: Different Situations for Research Strategies ................................................40 Table 3.4: Research Road Map ....................................................................................43 Table 3.5: Type of Interviews......................................................................................45 Table 4.1: Research Undertaken and Outcome for Objective One................................51 Table 4.2: Research Undertaken and Outcome for Objective Two ...............................54 Table 4.3: Research Undertaken and Outcome for Objective Three .............................60 Table 4.4: Summary of System Requirements .............................................................68 Table 4.5: ConPass System Tables Descriptions and Functions ...................................71 Table 4.6: Research Undertaken and Outcome for Objective Four ..............................81 Sustainable construction is a broad and complex concept, which has grown to be one of the major issues in the construction industry. Consequently, there are proliferations of research in the field. This research is based on the premise that to achieve sustainability in the industry, there is a need for both strategic (company level) and operational (project level) tools. Admittedly, whilst there are a host of research and tools in this domain, most are project based and focused on integrating sustainability issues at the operational level. Those that address sustainability issues at strategic level are either too complex to use or less comprehensive. As a result, major barriers still persist in integrating sustainability issues at the strategic level. This research attempts to redress this imbalance by focusing on sustainability issues at the strategic level. This chapter describes the research background, aim and objectives, justification and scope of the research, as well as the structure of the thesis. 1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH This section of the thesis overviews the general subject domain (of sustainable development, sustainable construction and corporate sustainability) and sets the research context from both the industrial sponsor's and wider industry's perspectives. 1.2.1 THE GENERAL SUBJECT DOMAIN Sustainable development has become a mainstream and new social value for the 21st century. The increasing spectrum of environmental and social challenges instigated by the failure of development strategies, the continuous proliferation of unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, coupled with the anticipated level of population stimulated the pursuit of a new path. Sustainable development has emerged as a possible remedy. Sustainable development describes the new world order of living within the earth carry, regenerating and assimilating capacity. It portrays the ideal society- a better quality of life for everyone now and for generations to come (WCED, 1987; DETR, 1999). As a concept, sustainable development is not new (Adetunji, 2003a). The Brundtland Report Our Common Future brought the concept to the political arena (WCED, 1987) and was reaffirmed at subsequent global Earth Summits and various global initiatives. Sustainable development is a complex and fluid concept, which continues to develop over time. The most widely used definition is Brundtland's: `development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' (WCED, 1987). Central to this definition is an emphasis on integration of economic, environmental and social goals, and a requirement that they be considered equally, both for intra- and inter- generational equity. Even though many regard the definition as vague and ambiguous (Brandon, 2000; Dovers and Handmer, 1993), the Brundtland report has prompted numerous actions at both global and national levels and underpinned Agenda 21: the main outcome of the Rio Earth Summit (UNCED, 1992). Agenda 21 sets out the global action plan and instigates international treaties to achieving sustainable development. It calls on governments, local authorities and businesses to define and adopt strategies for sustainable development. In response to the Agenda 21, several national governments have published sustainable development strategies and action plans. The UK government, like most national governments, is strongly committed to achieving sustainable development. The UK Government published its first strategy, the White Paper on the Environment titled "This Common Inheritance" in 1990. Following the Rio Earth Summit and its commitment to Agenda 21, the UK became one of the first countries to produce a sustainable development strategy: "Sustainable Development: The UK Strategy" in 1994. In recognition that sustainable development is an evolving concept, this strategy has been replaced twice. In 1999 "A better quality of life a strategy for sustainable development" was launched after a lengthy consultation. The latest strategy, "Securing the future: delivering UK sustainable development strategy, was published in 2005 following lengthy consultation. This strategy responded to three key issues, namely: the limitations of the previous strategy, the renew impetus of the Johannesburg Summit in 2002 and the changed structure of government in the UK with devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (DETR, 2005). At the local level, the role of local authorities in the process of achieving sustainable development is set in the Local Agenda 21 (LA 21) entitled "Local Authorities Initiatives in Support of Agenda 21" (UNCED, 1992). LA 21 has become well embedded as a mechanism for promoting sustainable development strategies at the local government level (Selman, 1998). The analysis of Agenda 21 has indicated that a high proportion (two-thirds) of its action proposals fall within the domain of local government. The local authorities are closed to the major issues such as land use planning and solid waste disposal. As elected government closest to the citizen, they have huge potential for `capacity building'; that is providing people with knowledge, power and resources to undertake sustainable development (Bosworth 1993). Therefore, the local authorities are key players in the transition to sustainability society. The LA 21 encourages local authorities to adopt their own sustainable development strategy, involving partnerships with other sectors, such as local businesses and community groups. The majority of local authorities in the UK have responded positively to the introduction of Agenda 21. Research suggests that the majority of the local authorities (over 90 per cent in 1996) have developed their local sustainability strategies (LGMB, 1997). According to Crossley (2002), multinational corporations such as Shell, BP, Microsoft and so on, account for fifty-one of the 100 largest global economies, while the remaining forty-nine are countries. Within society, there is growing conviction that a sea change is needed in corporate values and how most corporations perceive their role in the society. In the past, corporations have primarily focused on economic responsibility, that is, maximizing shareholder value (Elkington, 2002). It is a general consensus that businesses, as the main consumers of natural resources and the major cause of most of these challenges, must take the lead in achieving a sustainable society (Dunphy, 2000). Hence, at corporate level the notion of corporate sustainability is taking hold and sustainability issues are becoming one of the main driving forces in running a successful business. Corporate sustainability is about addressing economic, environmental and society impacts and managing them accordingly towards the attainment of a desired sustainability performance. The path to corporate sustainability requires that firms look for and work out strategies that guarantee financial success and at the same time managing its environmental and social impacts (Elkington, 2002). Research has shown that a few leading edge organisations are increasingly adopting proactive strategies and being transformed sustainable organisations, capable of meeting the needs of the sustainable society. However, only a very few have successfully made the difficult transition (Doppelt, 2003). The problem here is that there is neither a clearcut nor straightforward approach to achieving corporate sustainability. The pursuit of sustainable development has put the built environment and the construction industry under the spotlight. The construction industry is a significant part of any economy and contributes both positively and negatively to the quality of life. According to the Worldwatch report (2001), the industry accounts for 40 per cent (approximately three billion tons) of the total flow of raw materials into the global economy every year. The production and processing of these materials impacts heavily on the landscape, and can cause air pollution, toxic runoff into watercourses, and loss of forests and agricultural land (Crossley, 2002). The construction process and operation of buildings also account for 25 per cent of all virgin wood use, 40 per cent of total energy use, 16 per cent of total water withdrawals and generates enormous quantities of solid waste. The industry's total annual output represents 10 per cent (USD 300 billion) of the global GNP of which 30 per cent is in Europe (CICA, 2002). The industry is regarded as the world's largest industrial employer, it employees 28 per cent (111 million) of industrial employment. In the UK, the industry accounts for some 10 per cent of GDP and has an output of roughly £58 billion. It employs 1.5 million people, equating to about 10 per cent of the working population (DETR 2000). The total annual material resource requirement is estimated to be 424 million tonnes of which about 220 million tonnes are quarried (BGS, 1998). Some 70 million tonnes of construction and demolition materials and soil end up as waste while some 13 million tonnes of this comprises material delivered to sites and thrown away unused (BRE, 2000). The industry was responsible for 600 water pollution incidents in the year 2000 alone (DEFRA, 2001). About 30 per cent of the construction is rework. Labour is only used at 40-60 per cent of potential efficiency, and accidents can account for up to six per cent of total costs. On average, one construction worker dies at work as a result of an accident each day and about £180 million a year could be saved in work-related illness costs in the industry. The vast quantity of material, waste arising and other construction activity demands a significant amount of transportation. Transportation consumes a substantial amount of fossil fuel, which is a major source of carbon dioxide and other polluting substances causing global warming. Against these backgrounds, if ever there was an industry best placed to demonstrate the business case for sustainable development, it has to be the construction industry: where competition is fierce and profit margins are low. The UK government has challenged the industry to take the lead in achieving a sustainable society and improving the quality of life, in terms of employment, housing, utilities, transport infrastructure and the surrounding built environment. The application of sustainable development to the construction industry is sustainable construction, that is, equal consideration of economic, social and environmental issues in delivering construction projects. To promote more sustainable construction, several national initiatives have been initiated and documents. The most notable of these documents, among others, are `Building a better quality of life: a strategy for more sustainable construction' (DETR, 2000), which recommends key action themes to kick-start adoption of more sustainable practices within the industry. Also, Achieving sustainability in construction procurement: sustainability action plan (GCCP, 2000), which provides some context on the government sustainability procurement action plans. 1.2.2 THE INDUSTRIAL SPONSOR This research project was jointly initiated and funded by Raynesway Construction Southern (RCS) and Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) in collaboration with CICE at Loughborough University. RCS, part of Balfour Beatty Group was established in 1996 and has expanded rapidly to become the UK leading asset management provider in the highway and rail sectors, with over 1,600 employees. The total annual turnover of the company has grown exponentially from £12m less than 10 years ago to over £180m. The company's works mainly comprises: highway management and maintenance (such as network and asset management, winter maintenance, emergency response, gully cleansing, road marking, surface dressing, traffic management and street lighting); offtrack rail maintenance service (for mainline and underground networks); and civil engineering works (such as road safety, town centre improvement schemes, replacement of motorway bridge and building of railway station). RCS works predominantly for the government agents namely the Highways Agency and the Local Authorities in the UK. In the road maintenance sector, the main procurement method is supply chain collaboration and strategic partnering which negates that RCS must adopt its clients' objectives, policies and strategies. The company works closely with these clients through strategic partnering to achieve their aims for effective network operations and maintenance management. Current contracts include the following. · Maintenance of county roads in Bedfordshire, Hampshire, North Yorkshire, Worcestershire, Westminster, Wokingham. · Maintenance of trunk road and motorway for Highway Agency in Area 2, Area 3, Area 4, M77 and M1/A1. · Street lighting contracts in surrey, Westminster, Bedfordshire, North Yorkshire and Highway Agency contracts. · Offtrack rail maintenance in Kent and Wessex regions for Network rail, maintenance works on the London Underground for Trans4M, the operating arm of Metronet. The vision of RCS is `to be the UK's leading operator and term maintenance provider, renowned for customer service, respect for people, protecting the environment and providing best value'. The three core values, which underpin everything RCS does, are Customer Focus, Honesty and Belief in our People (RCS, 2004). Within this broader context, RCS has identified seven key areas of focal points: · · · · · · · Investment in People; Commitment to customers; Health and safety; Partnering; Quality; Innovation and Improvement; and Sustainability and environmental management. The above issues reflect the recent developments and current trends in the UK construction industry. In recent years, sustainable construction and supply chain management have become two of the major issues in the UK construction industry. The increasing environmental, social and economic impacts of the construction industry led to the demand for sustainable construction (DETR, 2000). Concurrently, in response to the recurrent poor quality of work, affordability and budget constraints in the public sectors (Gershon, 1999; OGC, 1999; HM, 2000), under performance, low productivity, low profit margin, adversarial relationships and the fragmented nature of the construction industry, it has been suggested that the industry can benefit from adopting supply chain management (Latham, 1994; Egan, 1998). Sustainable construction is central to the Government's vision for the future of the UK. Pressures on the industry to respond to the sustainability agenda are building on many fronts. To achieve sustainability in the construction process, the Government has been using a mixture of policy such as voluntary initiatives, legislation, regulation, and fiscal and economic policies. The outcome of these recent developments is that, public sector clients' procurement strategies are increasingly reflecting the government's sustainable construction and supply chain management policies. Increasingly, sustainability issues are becoming one of the key parts of tender selection criteria. Many large construction companies (by turnover), especially those with the government as major clients, are developing a variety of tools, policies and strategies that measure and demonstrate their performance (Adetunji, et al 2003b). RCS being a proactive company, that needs to: meet its clients' demands, consolidate its market position and above all achieve its vision, recognises that corporate sustainability is a strategic long-term competitive issue. However, with RCS like most construction companies, the interpretation of sustainability agenda is far from straightforward and many challenges exist in integrating sustainability at the core of its business process. This is compounded by the lack of a simple and user-friendly framework to help companies manage and integrate sustainability issues at the core of their business process. RCS in partnership with Loughborough University and EPSRC commissioned this research to fill that gap. 1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES The above background and the preceding subsection underscore the need for improving understanding of sustainable construction and enhancing the effectiveness of actions to implement sustainable construction at the core of construction business process. This section presents the research aim and objectives of the EngD project. 1.3.1 AIM OF THE RESEARCH The overall aim of this research is: "To develop a practical and easy to use tool to aid the implementation, integration and management of sustainability issues at the strategic level and promote wider uptake of the concept in the construction industry". This could be achieved by developing a web based self-assessment tool that helps construction companies identify gaps in their corporate sustainability implementation efforts, focus attention on areas for improvement, benchmark their performance with peers and the construction industry as a whole. In this context, four key objectives were identified. 1.3.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH In order to achieve the research aim, four key objectives were set and subdivided into sixteen tasks. The research road map has been included in Chapter three (Figure 3.4). This maps research objectives and associated tasks along with adopted research methods and outputs. The four key objectives are to: investigate the concept of sustainable development and the UK strategic approach; identify its application to the construction industry and progress in its uptake; examine frameworks for managing, monitoring and reporting on corporate sustainability; and develop and evaluate an assessment model and a prototype software for implementing and managing sustainability at the strategic level. 1.4 JUSTIFICATION AND SCOPE OF RESEARCH The quest towards sustainable development, both nationally and globally, puts the construction industry in the foreground as the main consumer of natural resources. The industry has profound economic, social and environmental impacts. Sustainable construction is one of the most important challenges faced by the construction industry today. In the UK, sustainability is being driven and enforced by the government through stringent fiscal policies and regulations, combined with voluntary agreements and naming and shaming strategies, for example: climate change levy, landfill tax to mention a few. Stakeholders are becoming more aware of the global challenges and are using their power to exert pressure on companies. Increasingly, construction clients are demanding that their business partners submit: their corporate sustainability policies with tender packages as company strategy; and demonstrate their performance in dealing with opportunities and risks stemming from economic, environmental and social sustainability, thus provide a strong indication of the capability of the contractor to deliver value for money projects. This trend is more apparent with companies with the public sectors (Adetunji, 2003b) and major private clients (Crossley, 2002; Cowans 2003; Taylor Woodrow; 2003). This is confirmed by recent research commissioned by DTI and Corus (2004) to elicit clients and their professional advisers attitude on sustainable construction. The research indicates that a significant high proportion of briefs from the public sector clients are increasingly reflecting government sustainability policy. Crossley, (2002) found that many major private clients are also doing the same. Government initiatives, legislative and market pressures, are forcing most of the UK's largest companies to develop comprehensive corporate sustainability policies and code of practices and this is having a cascading effect on their supply chain. The growing number of organisations initiating corporate sustainability agenda demonstrates the increasing importance of sustainability to business survival (Sue-Mot, 2004a; Davis-Walling and Batterman, 1997; Kolk 2000; CIRIA 2003; Adetunji, 2003c). The lack of understanding of the concept and its practical application has been a recurrent problem and corporate sustainability, remains a major challenge to many companies in the construction industry. The conceptual confusion; its vagueness and ambiguity, the complexity of the myriad of challenges and fluidity of the sustainability concept, compounded with the myopic attitude of the industry, lack of clear-cut and practical framework are causing frustration in the construction industry. Many are still baffled as to what they should do and how they should go about affecting change. Whilst various management frameworks for integrating sustainability issues at a strategic level exist, their implementation processes are either too complex or less comprehensive, therefore, do not make the situation any easier. Corporate sustainability in the construction industry is a challenge to many companies. The industry is still under-performing in each of the key themes of sustainable construction and this has lead to a 'blame culture' where each sector of the industry allocates responsibility for its current failings to others (CIRIA C563, 2001). Such a situation poses a need for a comprehensive, practical and easy to use framework that would aid the implementation, management and integration of sustainability at the core of business process. The main focal point of the research is the development of a tool to facilitate the implementation, management and integration of sustainability issues at the strategic level and promote wider uptake of the concept in the construction industry. This requires a thorough understanding of the concepts of sustainable development, sustainable construction and related issues as well as drivers, benefits, barriers and enablers for achieving corporate sustainability. It also requires an examination of existing management frameworks and collation of case studies from the early adopters to establish critical factors for strategic and management issues involved in achieving corporate sustainability. The figure below illustrates the research focus and data input to achieving the research aim. S ustainable D evelopm ent an d th e U K G overnm ent A p proach O b jective 1 E xam ination o f Fram ew orks for ach ie vin g corporate sustainability O b jective 3 S ustainability and the U K C on stru ctio n In du stry O b jective 2 D E V E L O P S ustainability M anagem en t M o del O b jectiv e 4 W eb-b ased P roto type A pp licatio n E V A L U A T E Figure: 1.1 Research Focus and Data Input 1.5 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS This thesis is organised into five chapters, which is structured as follows. Chapter One introduces the research. It describes the background, aim and objectives, justification and scope of the research as well as the summary of the chapter. Chapter Two reviews related and previous work in the subject area. It describes the novelty of EngD research in the context of related and previous work. Chapter Three reviews a range of research methods and highlights their weakness and strength. It also describes those adopted for EngD research project. Chapter Four presents the research undertaken to meet the aim and objectives and associated task breakdown. Chapter Five discusses the main research findings, including the evaluation results of the prototype application. It also presents the impacts and implications of the research for the project sponsor as well the wider construction industry. Finally, it presents the conclusion derived from the research and recommendations for further study. Appendix A to E contain the five scientific papers that were published in support of this research study. A summary listing of the publications, along with full bibliographical references is included in Table 3.4 of Chapter 3. These papers are an integral part of the thesis and should be read in conjunction with the thesis, as they contain further details of the work done Appendix F includes other support information such as the survey and interview questionnaires, the ConPass assessment model and prototype tool evaluation questionnaires. CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED WORK 2.1 INTR ODUCTION Sustainability has evolved as a mainstream research focus and much attention has been devoted to the sustainability agenda from researchers of various backgrounds. As a result, a substantial amount of information has been generated. A simple database search indicates a tremendous wealth of literature has been accumulated over the past few years. This information overload on the concept makes its practical application very difficult to every company that embarks upon the journey toward a sustainable business and those institutions tasked with creating a sustainable society. This section reviews previous and related work on the concept of sustainable development, sustainable construction in the UK context, tools for managing sustainability at project level and the framework for sustainability management at strategic level. This review is by no means exhaustive but serves to demonstrate the fragmented nature and complexity of the problem. 2.2 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Sustainable development is a broad concept and has been interpreted and adopted in multiple contexts. As a result, there is a wide range of definitions. Previous research suggests the total number of definitions are in the range of 100 200 (Hill, 1998; Parkin, 2000; Moffatt, 2001). The broad appeal of the concept (SUE-Mot, 2004a) and multiplicity of definitions are causing confusion and dichotomy among its protagonists. Several authors have branded the concept as fuzzy, vague, `motherhood apple pie' and a breeding ground for disagreement (Brandon, 2000; Pearce, 1989). Nonetheless, there are some areas of consensus in previous work. For those who study sustainable development and sustainability, perhaps the few areas of consensus are as follows. The world's present path of development is unsustainable and sustainable development is currently the only visible solution. Brundtland definition `development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs' remains the global standard and underpins most interpretations of the concept. Sustainable development is a cross-cutting and pervasive concept with three dimensions: economic, social; and environmental aspects of sustainability. Brundtland's definition has spawned a series of subsets of sustainable development to meet particular sector needs, e.g. sustainable community, sustainable business, sustainable construction, sustainable building and so on. To achieve the goal of sustainable society, actions at different levels (international, national, regional, local, business, industry and individual) are required. 2.3 SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION IN THE UK Within the broader context of sustainable development, construction has a prominent role. The UK Government commitment to sustainable construction is set out in `Building a better quality of life- a strategy for more sustainable construction' (DETR, 2000). Ever since its publication, the sustainable construction agenda has been taken forward through a dynamic partnership between the government and industry. As a result, there have been several developments as summarised below. There has been an increase in the number of voluntary policies, legislations, regulations, economic measures and fiscal incentives such as Landfill Tax, Climate Change Levy, Aggregates Levy, Renewable Grant Schemes, Land Use Incentives and changes to the Building Regulations. The Building Regulations, the Planning White Paper, the Communities Plan and the Energy White Paper have been amended to reflect sustainable construction agenda. There are several joint initiatives to promote awareness, capacity building and reporting mechanisms such as Global Reporting Initiatives, CIRIA's industry sustainability indicators, sustainable construction task force and the sustainable building task force etc. Sectors within the industry (e.g. steel, concrete, brick, civil engineering, etc.) have developed their own sustainability strategy and action plans and have started reporting on progress. A host of demonstration projects on sustainable construction initiatives providing tangible evidence of positive outcome such as the Rethinking Construction, WRAP, Sustainable Construction Road Show and so on. Research centres on sustainable construction funded by the government have been organised nationwide, numerous conferences, books, journals and publications are available, and universities are offering various courses and degrees in the fields. There are plethora of research on sustainable construction concepts, tools, frameworks, technologies, materials, energy systems, water conservation systems and other related issues, such as waste minimisation, recycling techniques, alternative materials and environmental management. The results are available as publications (e.g. CIRIA and TRL Reports), digests (e.g. BRE), guidance notes (e.g. Environment Agency Pollution Prevention Guidance (PPG), videos and training packs. On the surface, at least, it would appear that these efforts are a significant success story and the industry movement toward more sustainable construction has gained significant momentum. However, the actual situation may not be so upbeat as the industry is still faced with major challenges (Kilbert, 2004; CIRIA C563, 2001). 2.3.1 DEFINITIONS OF SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION As with sustainable development, the term sustainable construction is a cross-cutting issue and means different things to different people. The review of related works indicates multiple definitions exist (e.g. Kilbert 1994, DETR, 2000, Wyatt, 1994; Langston and Ding, 2001; Walker, 1999) and there is variance in terms of scope and context. For simplicity, sustainable construction is best described as the subset of sustainable development and its application to the construction industry. The construction industry involves all who plan, develop, produce, design, alter or maintain the built environment and includes manufacturers and suppliers of construction materials, clients, contractors, consultants and end users of facilities (CRISP, 2000). In most literature, a common definition of sustainable construction, `the creation and responsible management of a healthy built environment based on prudent use of resources and ecological principles' (Kirbert 1994) and a plethora of other definitions (e.g. Roodman and Lenssen, 1994, 1995; Loftness, 1994) focused more on the environmental aspect of sustainability. Others, for example Wyatt (1994), `sustainable construction ethos requires a 'cradle to grave' appraisal of project, which involves managing the serviceability of project during its life-time and eventual deconstruction' focus on the economic aspect of sustainability. Only a few of the existing definitions are comprehensive and capture the holism of the concept. The UK sustainable construction strategy provides a good example of this, `sustainable construction comprises many processes through which a profitable and competitive industry delivers built assets to enhance quality of life and stakeholder satisfaction' (DETR, 2000). The main issues that could be drawn from these multiple definitions in the existing work have been summarised below. · Most focused on either the environmental or economic aspect of sustainability while a few advocate the integration of the three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, social and economic. · Embedded in those definitions that capture a holistic approach to the concept is the notion of economic profitability based on environmental integrity and social responsibility. · Sustainable construction involves all phases of the construction activities, that are: (i) Pre-construction - planning, option and tender appraisal, design stage etc.; (ii) Construction - construction impact, supply chain management etc.; and (iii) Post construction - operation and maintenance to the eventual deconstruction and recycling of resources, to reduce the waste stream usually associated with demolition. · Sustainable construction encapsulates issues such as whole life cycle, procurement, site planning, material selection and the use of recycling, and waste and energy minimisation and so on. 2.3.2 PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION In terms of the principle for sustainable construction, various efforts have been made to examine several definitions of sustainability in an attempt to enunciate principles to be upheld in attaining sustainable construction. Amongst the published work relating to the principles of sustainable construction are Kilbert (1994), Hill (1994), Lindle (1994), Hill and Bowen (1997), Robbert (1995), Graham (2000) Long (2001), and DETR, (2000). A few examples are collated in the table below. In general, there is a consensus that the breadth of the principle of sustainable construction mirrors those of sustainable development, which is about synergistic relationships between economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainability. Table 2.1 Examples of Principles of Sustainable Construction Authors DETR (2000) Proposed Principles for Sustainable Construction Profitability and competitiveness, customers and clients satisfaction and best value, respect and treat stakeholders fairly, enhance and protect the natural environment, and minimise impact on energy consumption and natural resources. Social pillar: improve the quality of life, provision for social selfdetermination and cultural diversity, protect and promote human health through a healthy and safe working environment and etc Economic pillar: ensure financial affordability, employment creation, adopt full-cost accounting, enhance competitiveness, sustainable supply chain management. Biophysical pillar: waste management, prudent use of the four generic construction resources (water, energy, material and land), avoid environmental pollution and etc. Technical pillar: construct durable, functional, quality structure and etc. These four principles are contained within a set of over-arching, process-oriented principles (e.g. prior impact assessment of activities). Minimisation of resource consumption, maximisation of resources reuse, use of renewable and recyclable resources, protection of the natural environment, create a healthy and non-toxic environment, and pursue quality in creating the built environment Reduction in resource consumption (energy, land, water, materials), environmental loadings (airborne emissions, solid waste, liquid waste) and improvement in indoor environmental quality (air, thermal, visual and acoustic quality) Hill and Bowen (1997) Miyatake (1996); CIB (1999) Cole and Larsson (1999) 2.3.3 KEY SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION ISSUES A number of major research establishments such as CIRIA, BRE, M4I, Sustainable Construction task force, Sustainable Buildings Task Force, research centres and a host of others have addressed, with some degree of success, the questions: (i) what are the pressing economic, environmental and social challenges that the construction companies have to face and win? (ii) How should the industry go about achieving more sustainable construction? While a multitude of efforts have been dispended on the `what question' and the review of previous works indicates a general consensus exist. Therefore, the principal issues associated with the key sustainable construction themes of the UK Government sustainable development objectives has been mapped out and collated in the table below. As with latter question, the review of previous works suggests that research in these areas are less conclusive and there is a major scope for further work, therefore the main focus of this research. The `how question' is a process issue, which is further discussed in section 2.4 below. Key Theme Economic sustainability Table 2.2: Sustainable Construction Issues Principal Issues Improved productivity Consistent profit growth Employee satisfaction Supplier satisfaction Client satisfaction Minimising defects Shorter and more predictable completion time Lower cost projects with increased cost predictability Delivering services that provide best value to clients and focus on developing client business Company reporting Benchmarking performance Minimising polluting emissions Preventing nuisance from noise and dust by good site and depot management Waste minimisation and elimination Preventing pollution incidents and breaches of environmental requirements Habitat creation and environmental improvement Protection of sensitive ecosystems through good construction practices and supervision Green transport plan for sites and business activities Energy efficient at depots and sites Reduced energy consumption in business activities Design for whole-life costs Use of local supplies and materials with low embodied energy Lean design and construction avoiding waste Use of recycled/sustainability sourced products Water conservation Waste minimisation and management 1.0 Maintenance of high and stable levels of local economic growth and employment 1.1 Improved project delivery 1.2 Increased profitability & productivity 1.3 Monitoring and reporting performance 2.0 Effective protection of the environment 2.1 Avoiding pollution 2.2 Protecting and enhancing biodiversity 2.3 Transport planning 3.0 Prudent use of natural resources 3.1 Improved energy efficiency 3.2 Efficient use of resources 4.0 Social progress which recognises the needs of everyone 4.1 Respect for staff Provision of effective training and appraisals Equitable terms and conditions Provision of equal opportunities Health, safety and conducive working environment Maintaining morale and employee satisfaction Participation in decision-making Minimising local nuisance and disruption Minimising traffic disruptions and delays Building effective channels of communication Contributing to the local economy through local employment and procurement Delivering services that enhance the local environment Building long-term relationships with clients Building long-term relationships with local suppliers Corporate citizenship Delivering services that provide best value to clients and focus on developing client business Contributing to sustainable development globally 4.2 Working with local communities and road users 4.3 Partnership working 2.4 TOOLS FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT Traditionally, construction projects are procured purely on an economic basis: lowest bid and competitive tendering. The shortcomings of this have led to an increasing call for a host of new and innovative procurement methods such as Strategic Partnering, Private Finance Initiative, Best Value for Money, Prime Contracting, and Design, Build, Finance and Operate. These procurement methods have facilitated the inclusion of social and environmental considerations in to the construction project delivery process (Gray, 2001). As a result, there are proliferations of tools for managing sustainability issues at project level. Recent review of these tools suggests over 700 tools are available (Sue-Mot, 2004a). The research found that, whilst there is a host of previous work in this area, few of the existing tools are inclusive and capable of simultaneously addressing the social, economic and environmental aspect of sustainability. Most tools have predominately focused on either economic or environmental and less on social dimensions the reason being that there is still some ambiguity surrounding the social aspect of sustainability. For clarity, this subsection provides a brief illustration of the existing work in this area under the triple dimensions of sustainable construction. 2.4.1 ECONOMIC ASPECT OF SUSTAINABILITY Estimates of the value of the unplanned portion of the UK construction output ranges from £8-20 billion per annum (CBPP, 2004). Understandably, the industry's overriding concern is low profit margin resulting from waste from over-design, unplanned and unexpected maintenance and refurbishment costs. The growing awareness of the high proportion of operation and maintenance costs compared to initial capital costs throughout the life of an asset coupled with the popularity of new styles of contracts has prompted the need to view construction products holistically. As a result, many authors have highlighted whole life costing (HM Treasury, 2000; Spedding, 1994; Wong, 2000). Hence, hosts of tools and models for life cycle costing exist (Sue-Mot, 2004b), however, most early work on such tools and models are based on discounted cash flow (Flanagan, 1989). Recently, the Highways Agency in partnership with TRL has developed two prototype tools. The first tool called `Network Whole Life Cost Model' is used at a strategic level to aid the maintenance strategy and planning, and determine budget requirement and allocation on the basis of minimum WLC considering road users cost. While the second SWEEP used at programme level for scheme selection and prioritisation. The current EPSRC and EU funded project at Reading University, the Eurolifeform project focuses on a generic model for predicting Life Cycle Cost and Performance (LCCP), using a risk-based and probabilistic approach, whilst Salford and Robert Gordon Universities are developing n-dimensional models based on Object Oriented technology to accommodate the data requirements of whole life performance (Sue-Mot et al, 200b). The joint research at Reading and Dundee universities is looking at how Integrated Logistic Support, used in other industries could be adapted to the construction industry need. Previous reviews of these tools (Bartolomeo, 1999) suggest that most are project based, and have addressed specific macro-economic factors such as environmental and social costs, none provide the integrating mechanisms which allow an holistic economic view of the whole life costs and benefits of urban developments. To fill this gap, an ongoing research "SUE Mot project" at Loughborough, Dundee and Glasgow Caledonian Universities funded by EPSRC, aim to develop a fully inclusive and multidimensional assessment and evaluation tool capable of addressing the social, environmental and economic issues at the core of the concept of sustainability. 2.4.2 ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECT OF SUSTAINABILITY The construction industry is arguably one of the most resource-intensive and environmentally damaging industries in the world (Crossley, 2002). The industry's environmental impacts are more tangible and readily quantifiable than many of the social and macro-economic impacts of the built environmental. As a result, most work has focused on developing guidance and assessment tools for reducing environmental impacts such as resource use, ecological loading, health impacts and so on. The majority of the tools are based on LCA (life cycle assessment) and focused exclusively on environmental issues and to a lesser extent on other aspects of sustainability. Extensive reviews of over 200 tools can be found in Sue-Mot (2004c; 2004d) and Bourke (2005). Typical examples of building and civil engineering assessment tools are described below. BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environment Assessment Method) covering offices, retail, industrial, bespoke projects and home called EcoHomes. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rates the environmental aspects of a building and the occupants behaviours. SpeAR (Sustainable Project Appraisal Routine) developed by ARUP for quick review of the sustainability of projects, plans, products and organisations. Sustainability Checklist for Developer for large mix use projects. ENVEST (ENVironmental ESTimator software) assesses the life cycle environmental impacts of a proposed building and explores various design options. CEEQUAL (Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment and Award Scheme) assessing the environmental quality of civil engineering projects. RESUS (Recycling and Sustainability in civil engineering) is a web-based decision support tool developed to assist those working in civil engineering project. The tool helps to assess ISO 14001 requirements, aid road infrastructure specification and database of recycled materials and sustainable process. Most recent related work suggests that these existing tools are neither designed to inform strategic decision-making nor facilitate the assessment of all the dimensions, scales and levels within a decision-making risk framework. As part of the sue-Mot project, extensive review of the existing toolkits, metrics and model has been conducted (SUE-Mot, 2004c). According to the research, the existing tools can be characterised into four topology; urban planning, design, rating systems (for building), LCA tools and infrastructure. One of the major findings of the research is that, of these the most developed as sustainability tools are urban planning and ratings systems, whilst the LCA tools only covers particular aspects of sustainability but are not holistic in their approach and the design tools are generally specific to energy issues. 2.4.3 SOCIAL ASPECT OF SUSTAINABILITY The social aspect of sustainability is notably the most difficult and as a result there are very few tools available in the construction industry. The construction industry is often described as a `People business' because of its reliance on the knowledge of its workforce and organisational culture to achieve its strategic goal. Nonetheless, the industry is renowned for its long history of paying lip service to the importance of people. The backlash of this practice has been well documented in various studies. Several previous works have stressed the importance of effectively dealing with people issues such as safe working environment, training and development, respect for people, community engagement and partnership working (Latham, 1994; Egan, 1998; CIRIA C563, 2001). Despite this, the industry still lags behind many industries in dealing with people issues effectively (Sue-Mot, 2004b). For instance, according to the HSE, the number of fatalities in the industry compared to other industries is on the increase and the CIB surveys, forecasts substantial future skills shortages due to the industry failure to attract new talents, ageing workforce and under investment in training and development. Though a number of research institutions such as CIB Task Groups and Working Commissions, Rethinking Construction and others researchers have attempted to address the people issues in the industry. Most efforts have only focused on a single issue such as health and safety, stakeholders' engagement, training and development. Only a few have looked at the aggregation of issues that constitute the social aspect of sustainability. The most recent of these is Rethinking Construction's `Respect for People' working group. The working group has launched a comprehensive framework (M4I, 2002) with relevant toolkits covering six areas: equality and diversity in the workplace, working environment, health and safety, training, work in occupied premises and workforce satisfaction. 2.5 FRAMEWORKS FOR MANAGING SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES The common threads emerging from numerous work in the subject area is that, sustainability requires new strategic initiatives, which go beyond mere compliance to the minimal standards of health and safety regulations and environmental legislations. It demands proactive strategy with the highest standards of corporate citizenship. To achieve sustainability management practice, it is imperative that the traditional economic-based management systems are combined with both the environmental and social management systems. Consequently, a number of sustainability management frameworks have been proposed. There are probably more than one hundred frameworks for sustainable business strategy. However, the majority of these lack a sound theoretical base, effective change management and completeness. The three most common in the industry are: The Natural Step (TNS), Sustainability Integrated Guidelines for Management (SIGMA); and Managing Sustainable Companies (MaSC). They all have advantages and disadvantages. Whilst the MaSC framework is less comprehensive and lacks the effective change management required to achieve the organisation cultural change needed to facilitate corporate sustainability. The TNS and SIGMA frameworks, although very powerful, are resource intensive to implement and require experts supports, as a result, their usage is most common with the multinational companies (e.g. BP, Shell, Interface, IKEA etc) and very little used within the construction industry. These demonstrate the need for a self-assessment tool to compliment the existing tools for the construction industry, which breakdown the strategic and management issues into a manageable components. This will enable companies to focus on individual areas and identify actions needed to facilitate change. The problem is that such a tool is virtually non-existent, hence the need for and novelty of this EngD research. For brevity, this review provides a brief description of the abovementioned frameworks. 2.5.1 THE NATURAL STEP The Natural Step (TNS) was developed in 1989 by Swedish oncologist, Karl-Henrik Robert (Robert, 1997a; 1997b). TNS provides one of the most coherent scientific and most powerful frameworks for sustainability. It is based on the argument that fundamental scientific laws such as the laws of thermodynamics and other physical and natural laws impose certain non-negotiable limits upon human activities (Nattrass and Altomare et al, 2001). Therefore, business and society as a whole must recognise and operate within these limits to safeguard the existence of mankind. TNS is an educational vehicle to help develop a shared mental model about sustainability. The framework is a strategic planning tool, useful for decision making, planning, training and very compatible with most of the existing tools and methodologies for achieving sustainability. TNS is neither a prescriptive nor a definitive implementation strategic tool. Its main advantage is that it is not prescriptive and gives companies the freedom to figure out themselves how to achieve the goal. Also, it complements most existing management frameworks and can be easily integrated into a formal management system such as an environmental management system (Burns, 1999). However, the weakness is the lack of definitive implementation steps, which is compounded by lack of sufficient access to information to make decisions. Previous work on the usage of TNS suggests the existence of a relatively little written material to assist corporations in implementing the framework, and limited, albeit growing, expertise outside of the corporations using it on how to effectively work with the framework (Nattrass and Altomare, 2001). This account for the reason why the use of TNS has been limited to the multinational corporations (BP, Shell and etc.) and a few major construction players such as Carrillion plc. 2.5.2 THE SIGMA The SIGMA (Sustainability Integrated Guidelines for Management) framework was jointly developed by the British Standards Institution (BSI), Forum for the Future (a leading sustainability charity and think-tank) and AccountAbility (the international professional body for accountability) and funded by the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The framework is an integrated system, which comprises (SIGMA, 2003): · five guiding principles (natural, social, human, manufactured and financial capitals) to help organisations understand sustainability and their contribution to achieving a sustainable society; · a management framework that aids a corporate sustainability implementation process. It is structured into four phases (leadership and vision; planning; delivery; and monitor/ review/ report) and several sub-phases; and · A series of toolkits and case studies to aid the implementation process. The SIGMA framework is very comprehensive and unique because it serves both as an educative tool as well as management guidelines. The framework can be implemented either as a standalone or build on existing management systems such as ISO 14001, Investors in People, the ISO 9000 series, OHSAS 18001, AA1000 and so on. It provides flexible and workable solutions that can be implemented across a wide range of sectors, types of organisation and functions. The main shortcoming is the complexity of the implementation procedure. The stack of information and documentation required for those tasked with implementing the framework is simply unsustainable, hence the raison d'être for its lesser use in the construction industry. This assertion formed one of the major findings of the workshop attended by construction practitioners and academics, which was organised at Loughborough University, as part of the Sue-Mot project. 2.5.3 THE MASC The Managing Sustainable Companies (MaSC) framework was funded by DTI and developed through a group of research consortium including BRE, Cambridge Architect Research and Eclipse Research Consultants, CIOB, Construction Research Communications and WSP Group (MaSC, 2002). The MaSC framework was purposely developed for the construction industry and tailored to suit the needs of the industry. The framework is a very simplistic process, structured around a series of activities to help construction companies build an in-house capacity in managing their companies more sustainably. The framework involves ten steps with accompanying tools to aid the process as follows. · · · · · · · · Gauge your organisation level Nominate a champion to develop a business case Set up a small team to develop strategy Appoint line manager(s) Line manager gauges the current level of each of the business sub-sections Arrange awareness raising for in-house staff Set up small teams to map and reconfigure specific areas of business operations Provide induction and in-service training on sustainable construction for all staff Arrange awareness-raising events for members of supply chain and clients Set up procedure to monitor, review and report progress The main advantage of this framework is, it conforms to the 'no nonsense' type of tools common within the construction industry. Its simplicity makes it more appealing to the construction companies especially the SMEs that form the majority of the industry. The main weakness, however, is that it is less comprehensive, incomplete and fails to account for the cultural and governances changes required to achieving corporate sustainability. The process does not involve pre-stakeholders engagement, albeit poststakeholders engagement, to contribute to the strategy development. This reinforces the common practices and perception within the industry that sustainability is an add-on to existing business process. 2.6 TIMELINESS AND NOVELTY OF ENGD RESEARCH It is a general consensus that the construction industry has a major role to play in achieving sustainability. The UK Government has challenged the industry to take the lead. The key themes for action by the industry are described in the UK strategy for more sustainable construction, `Building a Better Quality of Life'. Several voluntary initiatives, legislations, regulations, economic instruments and fiscal measures are being used to prod the industry in achieving more sustainable construction. Despite all these, the construction industry is still under performing on all aspects of sustainability. The recently established Sustainable Construction Task Group, now renamed Sustainability Forum, and Construction Excellence has been charged by the DTI's Construction Sector Unit to investigate and make recommendations on improving take up of sustainable development with the construction industry. The willingness of the EPSRC and RCS to invest in research to develop a practical and easy to use tool, which aids the implementation, integration and management of sustainability issues at the strategic level and promotes wider uptake of the concept in the construction industry bears witness to the priority accorded to this area both by the industry and the government. Previous sections (the background information and justification of research in Chapter one, and the review of related and previous works in the subjected area within this second chapter) have established the need for and novelty of this research. The main output of this research is a web-based self-assessment prototype tool that helps construction companies identify gaps in their corporate sustainability implementation efforts, focusing attention on areas for improvements, benchmark their performance with peers and the construction industry as a whole. This tool is one of its kind in the industry and hence the uniqueness of the EngD research. This chapter has reviewed previous and related work in the subject area, though by no means exhaustive but serves to demonstrate the fragmented nature and complexity of the problem. The review focuses on the concept of sustainable development, albeit more emphasis on sustainable construction, tools for managing sustainability at the project levels and frameworks for sustainability management. The chapter also demonstrates the timeliness and novelty of the EngD research. CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The effect of research methodology on the possible outcome of any research endeavour can never be overemphasised. The success and validity of any research critically depends on the appropriate selection of research methods (Steele, 2000; Fellows and Liu, 2003). This chapter discusses the research design and methodology including their strengths and weaknesses and highlights the general approach to the EngD research. The choice of research methodology and the reasons for its selection are also provided and mapped out against research objectives and associated tasks along with research output in Table 3.4. 3.2 REVIEW OF RESEARCH METHODS Research design is the logical sequence that connects the generated empirical data to the initial research objectives of the study and ultimately to its conclusions (Yin, 1994). There is a wide range of research methods and each can be used to elicit a specific type of information or combined to support and compliment one another (Kane, 1977; Frankfort-Nachmias, 1996). The review of research methodology indicated that opinion on the number of data collection methods ranges from five to seven. Yin (1994) suggested the following five: experiment, case study, survey, archival analysis and history. Steele (2000) argued the inclusion of two more methods, which are action research and process modelling. These various data collection methods fall into two classical and distinctive epistemological positions, which are qualitative and quantitative research methods. The combination of the two approaches is termed triangulation. This section provides a brief description of these research methods. 3.2.1 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH Quantitative research is objective in nature (Naoum, 1998). It is defined as `an inquiry into a social or human problem, based on testing a hypothesis or theory composed of variables, measured with numbers, and analysed with statistical procedure to determine whether the hypothesis or theory hold true' (Creswell, 1994). According to Brannen (1992), quantitative research is concerned with attitudes and large-scale surveys rather than simply with behaviour and small-scale surveys. The three types of quantitative research are experiments, quasi-experiments and surveys (SJI, 1999). The effectiveness of the selected types depends mainly on the nature of the research. The survey technique is the most widely use method in social science and also the most relevant to this study. It typically involves cross-sectional and longitudinal studies using questionnaires or interviews to collect large amount of data. The most common of this technique are mail, personal and telephone survey (OWBC, 2001). Table 3.1 collates the advantages and disadvantages of these three survey methods. Table 3.1: Advantages and Disadvantages of Survey Methods Types of Survey Mail survey Cost is low compared to other methods High degree of respondents anonymity Wide geographical reach Relatively low cost of processing Allows high flexibility in the questioning process Interviewers have control of the interviewing situation High response rate Possibility of collecting supplementary information Moderate cost Increase speed and time of data collection High response rate Increase quality of data · · · · · · · · · · · · Low rates of response Require easily understood questions and instructions Lack of chance to probe for further or clarity of answers Greater respondents bias High uncompleted questions Higher cost than mail questionnaire Potential interviewers bias due to high flexibility Lack of anonymity; hesitant to disclose personal data Time consuming Hesitancy to discuss sensitive data on phone High chance of respondents terminating interview earlier Less chance for supplement information Personal survey Telephone survey 3.2.2 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH Qualitative research consists of detailed descriptions of events, people, interactions and observed behaviours (Patton, 1992) and general opinion. It seeks to describe and explain both perspectives and behaviour of the people studied (Brannen, 1992). Information gathered in qualitative research can be classified under two categories, namely exploratory and attitudinal research (Naoum, 1998). Exploratory research is used when the researcher has a limited amount of knowledge about the research topic. The purpose is closely linked with the need for a clear and precise statement of the recognised problem. Attitudinal research, on the other hand, is used to subjectively evaluate the opinion of a person or a group of people towards a particular attribute, variable, factor or a question. According to Hancock (1998), the main examples of methods of collecting qualitative data are individual interviews, focus groups, direct observation and case studies. There are several advantages as well as disadvantages involved in using a qualitative research method. Among various advantages are, it facilitates in-depth study, produces overwhelming detailed information with a smaller number of people and provides a great understanding of the topic under study. A few examples of weakness are, it takes a great deal of time to collect data and the analysis requires some degree of interpretation, which may be subjected to bias and subjectivity. The comparison of both qualitative and quantitative research epistemology has been tabulated in Table 3.2. 3.2.3 TRIANGULATION Combining both quantitative and qualitative research methods has proven to be more powerful than a single approach (Sherif, 2002) and very effective (Lee, 1991). Triangulation is a process of using more than one form of research method to test a hypothesis (Brannen et al, 1992). This approach offers researchers a great deal of flexibility; whereby theories can be developed qualitatively and tested quantitatively or vice versa. The main aim of using triangulation method is to improve the reliability and validity of the research outcomes. Brannnen (1992) drawing on the work of Denzin (1970) argued that triangulation means more than just one method and data collection but also includes investigators and theories. He then outlined four different types of triangulation as follows. · · Multiple methods: can be a triangulation between methods and within methods. Multiple investigators: that is research is undertaken through partnership or by teams instead of a single individual. · Multiple data sets- the gathering of different sets of data through the use of the same method but at different times or with different sources. Multiple theories: can be used in a single research. Table 3.2: Comparison Between Qualitative and Quantitative Research Point of comparisons Alternative labels Scientific explanation Data classification Objective/purpose Qualitative Research Constructivist, naturalisticethnographic or interpretative. Inductive in nature Subjective To gain understanding of underlying reasons and motivations. To provide insight into the settings of a problem, generating ideas and /or hypothesis for later quantitative research. To uncover prevalent trends in thought and opinion. Usually a small number of nonrepresentative cases. Respondents selected to fulfil a given quota or requirement. Participant observation, semi-and unstructured interview, focus groups, conversation and discourse analysis. Non-statistical Positivist, rationalistic or functionalist. Deductive Objective To quantify data and generalise results from a sample to the population of interest. To measure the incidence of various views and options in a chosen sample. Usually a large number of cases representing the population of interest. Randomly selected respondents Structured interview, self administered questionnaires, experiments, structured observation, content analysis / statistical analysis Statistical usually in the form of tabulations. Findings are conclusive and usually descriptive in nature Used to recommend a final course of action. Exploratory and / or investigative. Findings are not conclusive and can not be used to make generalisations. 3.3 ADOPETED RESEARCH METHODOLOGY There is neither a fast rule to selecting research methods nor best research method, as the use of each research method depends on the form of research question, the research objectives and contextual situation (Yin, 1994). The selection of the most suitable research method depends largely on the intention of the research objectives and the type of data needed for the research. Because of the broad scope of the study and the industrial context of the research, a wide range of research techniques was adopted to achieve the research aim and objectives. To aid the selection process, Yin (1994) mapped out several research strategies against various possible situations as collated Table 3.3 below. Table 3.3: Different Situations for Research Strategies (Yin, 1994 pp 6) Strategy Form of research question Who, what, why, how many, how much? How, why? Who, what, where, how many, how much? Who, what, where, how many, how much? Who, what, how many, how much? How, why How, why Required control over behaviour events Yes/No No No No No No Yes Focus on contemporary events Yes Yes Yes Yes/No Yes/No No Yes Action research Case study Survey Archival analysis Modelling History Experiments 3.3.1 METHODS AND TOOLS USED This subsection discusses the overall research methods used for the study and justifies the reasons for using them. Table 3.4 presents the research road map. The table maps the research phases with the research objectives and tasks as well as the various research methods adopted. In addition, the table indicates the main research outputs, which consist of publication papers (albeit, excluding the internal reports for the sponsoring company- RCS) part of MSc dissertation (completed at the end of the first year in 2002), assessment model, a prototype software application and lastly the EngD thesis. Further information as regard to the research undertaken and outcomes are elaborated in Chapter 4. 3.3.1.1 ARCHIVAL ANALYSIS There is a wealth of literature on the concept of sustainable development and sustainable construction but to a varying degree of quality. The review of literature was extensively and critically undertaken throughout the study to build up a solid theoretical base for the research area and a foundation for addressing the problems and achieving the research objectives. Archival analysis is the most efficient, effective and cheapest method for gathering the existing wealth of literature on the subject matter to form a thorough understanding of the concept of sustainable development and sustainable construction. The review helped to identify gaps in knowledge and formed the basis for developing the framework to aid the implementation of sustainability issues at the strategic level. Information was sought from various sources including industrial and academic publications, institutions and university databases, the Internet, seminars, workshops and conference notes attended. Moreover, information and knowledge was also gained by attending relevant courses. 3.3.1.2 CASE STUDY In relevant literature, opinion on what constitutes a case study varies (Beatham et al, 2003). Case study is an empirical (Blimas, 2001), in-depth and multifaceted inquiry (Orum et al., 1991) that seeks to elucidate the dynamics (Eisenhart, 1989; Stoecker, 1991) of a single contemporary social phenomenon (Orum et al., 1991; Yin, 1994). It is a detailed investigation to analyse the variables relevant to the subject under study (Key, 1997). A case study may combine a variety of data collection methods and research strategies (Fellow and Liu, 2003). It differs to other qualitative research studies in the sense that the focus of attention is on individual cases as opposed to the whole population of cases (Ruiker, 2004). The individual case is chosen on the basis that they are representative of a sample group that can be used to demonstrate particular facets of topic of research (Beatham, 2003). Whilst most studies look for what is common and pervasive, in the case study the intent may not be generalisation but rather to understand the particulars of that case in its complexity (Key, 1997). Akin to most qualitative methods, case study is time consuming. As a result, data is collected from a smaller number of samples than would normally have been the case using a quantitative approach such as questionnaire survey (Ruiker, 2004). The main advantages of a case study include richness of data and deeper insight into the phenomena under study (Hancock, 1998). Case study approach was used for Tasks 11, 12 and 13 (see Table 3.4) to collate data from many construction companies (and beyond) and experts in the field of sustainability. Table 3.4: Research Road Map PROJECT AIM: "To develop a framework to aid the implementation, integration and management of sustainability issues at the strategic level and promote wider up take of the concept in the construction industry" METHODS PHASE -----------INVESTIGATION------------------------SYNTHESIS------------------------------APPLICATION-------------------------OBJECTIVES 1. A review of related research in the field 2. Review of historical context of sustainable development, how it is understood and defined by various groups and the key drivers of the concept. 3. Investigate the root cause of the current poor progress in terms of its practical application of the concept. 4. Review and analysis of UK Government's measures to achieve sustainability and their implications on businesses. 5. A review of the themes of sustainable construction the application of sustainable development to the construction industry and the impact of the industry on sustainability. 6. Review of the principle of sustainable construction environmental, social and economic sustainability. 7. Review of the drivers, barriers and business case for the attainment of sustainable construction. 8. Prepare a detailed survey questionnaire to undertake a baseline review of the UK construction contractors' engagement with the concept of sustainable construction. 1. Investigate the concept of sustainable development and the UK strategic approach Paper 1 Paper 2 2. Identify its application to the construction industry and progress in its uptake AA S Paper 3 Part of MSc. Thesis 3. Examine frameworks for managing, monitoring and reporting on corporate sustainability 9. Gauge the industry level of response to the emerging concept of sustainable construction. 10. Review of management framework for promoting and implementing corporate sustainability. 11. Collate case studies from successful organisations to establish factors for successful integration of sustainability issues at the strategic level. 12. Establish the conditions, strategies and approaches for successful integration of sustainability issues in the supply chains within the construction industry. 13. Examine case studies examples of practical sustainability issues within construction industry and beyond and develop a checklist of practical issues for sustainability. AA CS S 4. Develop and evaluate an assessment model and a prototype software for managing sustainability issues at the strategic level Key: AA: Archival Analysis 14. Develop and evaluate a self-assessment model for implementing and managing corporate sustainability in the construction industry. 15. Design and develop a prototype self-assessment software for implementing and managing corporate sustainability in the construction industry. 16. Evaluate a prototype application CS: Case Study S: Survey S RAD Paper 6 (abstract) Paper 7 (abstract) Prototype Software Application EngD. Thesis RAD: Rapid Application Development 3.3.1.3 SURVEY Survey is one of the most widely used methods in social sciences to provide a representative sample of the area of study and serves as an efficient and effective means of looking at a far greater number of variables than is possible with experimental approaches (Galiers 1992). It involves eliciting information from respondents which can be achieved through postal questionnaires, telephone interviews and personal interviews. Survey research normally deals with studies on how people perceive and behave and its purpose is to determine how these variables are related. Several survey methods used during the course of the EngD study are detailed below. Questionnaire: is a self-administrated measuring instrument comprising closed-ended (respondents choose from a given set of answers) and/or open-ended questions (respondents record their views and opinion in full). The accuracy and success of questionnaire surveys largely depend on the careful design of its content, structure and the response format. Hence, certain precautions must be taken in designing questionnaires (Hoinville and Jowell et al, 1978): the questions must be clear and easily understood by the respondents; should be easy to be administer by the interviewer; the recorded answers can be easily edited, coded and transferred onto a computer file for statistical analysis; and its flow, length and structure must motivate respondents to complete the questionnaire. The traditional form of this is a postal questionnaire but the use of electronic mailed questionnaires over posted questionnaires is gaining momentum due to the increased speed and lower cost. Survey questionnaire was used for Tasks 9 (gauge industry), 14 (evaluate ConPass model) and partly for 16. A questionnaire was used for these tasks because it is efficient and effective in sampling a large audience scattered over a wide geographical area. Also, it is a relatively inexpensive data collection and processing method. Interview: can be conducted face-to-face, telephone or group interview using structured, semi-structured and/or unstructured questions to elicit answers pertinent to research hypothesis from the respondents. According to Patton, (1980) there are four types of interviews, namely informal conversation, interview guide approach, standardised open-ended and closed quantitative interviews. These can be grouped into three types as shown in Table 3.5. At various stages of the research, telephone, face-toface, and group interviews were used as explained below: Table 3.5: Type of Interviews (adopted from Coomb, 1999 cited in Sherif, 2002) Type Structured Characteristics Wording of the questions and the order in which they are asked is the same from one interview to another. Respondents are expected to choose an answer from a series of alternatives given by the interviewer. Interviewer asks certain major questions the same each time, but is free to alter their sequence and probe for more information. Interviewer prepares a list of topics that they want the respondent to talk about, but is free to phrase the questions as they wish, ask them in any order that seems sensible and even join in conversation by discussing what they think of the topic themselves. Semi-structured Unstructured Telephone interviews (semi-structured): were used at the initial investigation phase of the research for Objective Two to explore the construction industry's wider understanding and general perception of the concept of sustainable construction. The reason for using this form of research method as opposed to questionnaire was to gain the advantages but avoid the disadvantages (low response rate and `too busy excuses' common in the industry) inherent with using questionnaire. Other reasons were to reach a wider audience, generate quick and high response rate, and identify samples for further in depth face-to-face discussion. However, the main weakness is the cost involved. Face-to-face interviews (semi-structured): semi-structured interviews were used at various stages of the research to confirm previously identified issues from the literature reviews and elicit new sources of information. Specifically to pilot the questionnaire developed in Task 8, confirm previously identified issues from literature review and elicit new information for Task 11, 12 and establish system design requirements for Task 15. The reason for the choice of method was because it is most suitable for collecting comprehensive and detailed information from a small number of people or organisations. Also, it allows free flow of information and maximum participation of the interviewees. Focus group: is fundamentally a form of group interview. This involves a group discussion on a predetermined topic, which is instigated by a researcher who usually acts as a moderator or facilitator (Morgan, 1998). Throughout the research period the researcher was a member of various focus groups including: Sustainability/ environmental focus group tasked to implement sustainability issues within RCS; Business improvement focus group tasked to identify areas of improvement and develop best practice guides for RCS; and sustainability in the built environment research group (eight researchers within the Civil and Building Engineering Department, Loughborough University to share ideas and discuss research findings). 3.3.1.4 RAPID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT The final part of the EngD project involved the design and development of a prototype web based software for implementing and managing sustainability issues at the strategic level. There are several systems development methodologies and deciding on the most appropriate method is not a trivial task (Owolabi, 2004). According to Avison and Fitzgerald (2003), there are over twenty different systems development methodologies, for example Rationalised Unified Process, Extensive Programming, Reflective Systems Development and so on. The review of various software development methods and informal discussion with three software developers (two from the sponsoring organisation and one at Loughborough University provided a strong case for the selection of rapid application development (RAD). Also, time constraints and successful use of RAD by various researchers within the department (most recently Ruiker, 2004) are other reasons for adopting RAD. RAD is an iterative process (as depicted in Figure 3.6). It allows faster development of application software (Webopedia, 2004), which is undertaken through several iterative stages (Ruiker, 2004; Whatis, 2000): gathering end-user requirements from qualitative methods such as case studies and focus group; prototyping and early iterative user-testing of designs; a rigidly paced schedule that defers design improvements to the next product version; and less formality in reviews and other team communication that runs in parallel to the software development process. System Evaluation Changes Features Functions Specifications Changes Changes Errors Errors Performance Performance Version N Version N Figure 3.6: RAD using Iterative Prototype (Adapted from Maner, 1997 cited in Ruikar, 2004) This chapter has reviewed the available research methodologies along with their advantages and disadvantages. It discussed the adopted methods for the EngD project and justified the reasons for their selection. Combinations of methods are adopted to enable an in depth study of the sustainability phenomenon, which helped to achieve the research aim and objectives as summarised in the Research Road Map in Table 3.4. The next chapter outlines the research work undertaken and outcome using the adopted research methods. Scope Concept Requirements Version 1 Version 1 Re-design Re-specify Re-evaluate CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH UNDERTAKEN AND RESULTS 4 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH UNDERTAKEN AND RESULTS This chapter describes the research undertaken to meet the aim and objectives of the EngD and highlights the main results of the research. To avoid repetition and duplication of efforts, references are made to the relevant papers and other information in the appendix. 4.2 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND THE UK GOVERNMENT APPROACH The preliminary phase of the research (Objective One) investigated the concept of sustainable development and the UK strategic approach. This research phase was achieved through deductive reasoning combined with extensive and critical reviews of a large body of literature, attendance of seminars and workshops, internet discussion forums and expert focus group approach. These helped to build up a theoretical background to the subject area, provided a foundation for achieving the research aim and insight into many of the major issues concerning the concept of sustainable development. For brevity, the research undertaken and outcomes of this research objective are collated in the Table 4.1. The concept of Sustainable Development has attracted major interest since the publication of the Brundtland Report `Our Common Future' in 1987 and has become a commonplace term since the Earth Summit Conference in 1992. Although the Brundtland definition has made a major contribution in promoting the concept worldwide, there is still much confusion surrounding its meaning and hence the existence of multiple definitions. To clarify some of the misconceptions surrounding the concept, the research: examined the conceptual succession of sustainable development; reviewed the Brundtland Report to establish the central themes of the report; and highlighted the limitations of the current widely used model of sustainable development. It also collated and synthesised recent definitions of sustainable development to identify a common theme. Based on the premise that the spectrum of challenges of sustainable development are systemic problems that cannot be resolved with a reductionist approach, the research applied systems thinking to develop a more comprehensive model for the concept (see Paper 2 in Appendix B). At both global and national levels, several efforts have been made to marry the social and environmental challenges with economic growth, but progress remains remote. This research has investigated the root cause of the current poor progress, in terms of the practical application of the concept, and proposed a possible way forward (see Paper 1 in the Appendix A). It has reviewed a large body of knowledge to develop a topology of challenges and drivers and a timeline of various attempts to promote the concept. It has examined the barriers and suggested a possible solution. The final task within this first objective involved a detailed review and analysed the UK Government's approach to achieving the goal of a sustainable future and its implications on businesses. The outcome of this task was a contribution to the UK consultation in 2004 for the latest strategy published in 2005 (see Appendix F). The author was part of the team within the parent company (Balfour Beatty) that responded to the UK government consultation. This task involved a critical review of various UK sustainable development documents, measures and initiatives, progress reports and organising workshop discussion groups within the Balfour Beatty Group. Table 4.1: Research Undertaken and Outcome for Objective One Results Paper 1 (see full paper in Appendix A) Research Undertaken The barriers and possible solution to promote sustainable development Review related work in the field, explored the origin of the concept, the political agenda to promote sustainable development, the spectrum of challenges of sustainable development, review and analysis of various viewpoints on the concept. (see full paper in appendix B) The application of systems thinking to the concept of sustainable development Explore the key conceptual successions of sustainable development, investigate the central themes of the Brundtland Report, explore the model of sustainable development, review various definitions of sustainable development. Contribution to The UK strategic approach to the concept of sustainability UK consultation Critical review of various UK sustainable development documents, measures and in 2004 (see full response in Appendix F) initiatives, progress reports and workshop discussions 4.3 SUSTAINABILITY AND THE UK CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY This part of the research (Objective Two) focused on identifying the application of sustainable development to the construction industry and examined progress in its uptake. Both literature review and interviews (telephone and face-to-face) were used. The first part involved an extensive literature review on the themes of sustainable construction including definitions, issues, principles, drivers, barriers and benefits. Based on the premise that sustainability is a value concept underpinned by personal aspirations and ideals (Du Plessis, 2001), it was imperative to capture the industry's wider understanding, perception and engagement of the concept. In view of this, the second part of this study involved a rapid survey through telephone interviews to establish the meanings and values associated with the term sustainability and further explore the ways in which it was being applied in the construction industry. The interview was approached with a very loose structure to allow interviewees the freedom to express their organisational position in relation to sustainability issues. The agenda covered the topics of sustainability in general. In order for the data to be representative of the industry and to ensure that small, medium and large organisations were represented discriminate sampling was used. About eighty samples were shortlisted from the Institute of Civil Engineers' database. The individuals responsible for sustainability issues or related activities in their organisations were initially approached via email to inform them about the context and content of the interview. Forty-two telephone interviews was conducted, the length of which varied between ten to thirty minutes depending on how far the company had gone down the route of sustainable construction. Through these literature review and telephone interviews a set of questionnaires and four research hypotheses (see Paper 4) were developed and refined through a pilot study. The third part of this research, involved detailed semi-structured interviews to confirm previous research findings and pilot the detailed survey questionnaire. Five of the most knowledgeable people (not surprising, they work for the top-three construction companies) from the telephone interviews were contacted but only three participated in the face-to-face interview. The other two were not able to due to time constraints. Collectively, the three components (literature review, telephone and face-to-face interviews) of the study helped to clarify the phenomenon of sustainable construction, shed light on how sustainability issues were treated in the construction industry and offered explanations for differences in awareness, understanding and progress in its uptake. The main outcomes of the research are documented in the MSc dissertation, Paper 3 and detailed questionnaire, which are collated in Table 4.2 below. The main findings of the interview surveys indicated that the practical application of the concept had become a recurrent problem. There were still high levels of uncertainty on how to implement initiatives that would achieve the triple bottom-line objectives of sustainable construction. The survey indicated a significant gap in perception and understanding of the concept between SMEs and large construction firms. While the majority of the SMEs associated sustainability with environmental issues, the major construction players had a good level of general awareness of sustainability with a full range of initiatives both at project and strategic levels. The research suggested that the industry culture and its slowness to innovate, rigid specifications, financial pressures, clients unwillingness to fairly share burden, a general misunderstanding of the concept of sustainability and lack of clear guidance for implementation were major challenges to adopting more sustainable construction. There were views that sustainable construction would not become a genuine business concern until sustainability became a key business driver. The government needs to do much more and show leadership through their construction procurement strategy and demanding more transparency from companies, combined with more stringent environmental law. Furthermore, there was divergent of opinion on the benefit of sustainable construction. While the large construction firms believed that there were many benefits associated with sustainability and it made good business sense, small firms tended to regarded it as a burden and too expensive. Table 4.2: Research Undertaken and Outcome for Objective Two Outcome Paper 3 (see full paper in Appendix C) Research Undertaken Trends in the conceptualisation of corporate sustainability The paper explored the trends in the conceptualisation of corporate sustainability. It established the areas of consensus from the diverse definitions of sustainability, provided insight into the concept of corporate sustainability and developed a more robust conceptual framework for corporate sustainability. It drew on the scope of global and national policy instruments, the public awareness and the phases of business response to establish the future trend of corporate sustainability. It also reviewed various research conclusions relevant to the construction industry to show that the industry was moving towards a new paradigm and value perspective. Survey questionnaire Development of a detailed survey questionnaire The aim was to undertake a baseline review of the UK construction contractors' engagement with the concept of sustainable construction. The questionnaire occupied ten sides A4 paper and the contents of which consisted of six sections namely background information, strategic response to sustainable construction, economic aspect of sustainability, environmental aspect of sustainability, social aspect of sustainability and linkage between sustainability and competitiveness. 4.4 EXAMINATION OF FRAMEWORKS FOR MANAGING SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES One of the main implications of the research findings following the completion of Objective Two was the decision to concentrate on the larger construction companies, as it was apparent that these large organisations have already taken on some aspects of sustainability. This stage of the research (Objective Three) focused on examining management frameworks for managing, monitoring and reporting on corporate sustainability. The purpose of this study was to identify critical factors for successful implementation, integration and management of sustainability issues at strategic level. The first task of the research was an extension of Objective Two, involved the distribution and analysis of the questionnaire developed from the previous objective. Based on the premise that the major firms drive the industry forward by managing their supply chain, this part of the research focused on the top end of the construction 54 industry. The aim of the study was to undertake a baseline review of the UK construction contractors' engagement with the concept of sustainability and to establish any possible correlation between the level of engagement with sustainability and turnover. Paper 4 documents the research hypotheses, content and structure of the questionnaire, measurement scales, sampling selection method, response rate, analysis of the survey data and main research findings. The second part of the research reviewed management frameworks for implementing, integrating and managing sustainability. It also collated case studies from successful organisations to establish factors for successful implementation, integration and management of sustainability issues at the strategic level. The main points of departure of this study were: What were the fundamentals that underscore the sustainability management systems provided by frameworks such as The Natural Step (TNS), The Sigma Framework, MaSC and others? What were the reasons for organisational failure and the key factors of success to achieving corporate sustainability? Based on the premise that sustainability requires profound change, were there any parallels between sustainability change and other change initiatives? The adopted research method for this study departed from pure inductive research epistemology akin to the grounded approach of Glasser and Strauss (1967), but conformed to the pragmatic approach of Turner (1981). This research involved the tentative deduction of the central concepts and constructs from literature review of frameworks as guides for subsequent inductive theory development through observation and documentation of how leading organisation and those directly involved in the embedment of sustainability principles at the core of their business processes. Aside from the review existing frameworks, information was collated from several organisations within and beyond the construction industry (e.g. Balfour Beatty, Amec, Carillion, BP, Shell, Interface, etc.). Four sustainability managers within the construction industry were interviewed. The main research outcomes were the development of a road map of sustainability change management process, checklists of sustainability practices and the establishment of critical factors for successful implementation of integration of sustainability issues at the strategic level, which formed the basis of the ConPass Model (elaborated in Subsection 4.4). The main research findings are as follows: Inadequacy of existing framework Most of the existing frameworks focused mainly on process redesign but very little emphasis on changing the dominant mind set and behaviour pattern of the employees through cultural change initiatives and improving organisational learning capacity to embrace sustainability at the core of their everyday decision making (Doppelt, 2003). Even those few frameworks (e.g. SIGMA) with equal emphasis on changing thought pattern and behaviours were too complicated to implement. Complexity is an important factor that must be taken into account. The construction industry is currently going through many changes and there are already multiple initiatives that construction companies need to address. The majority of construction companies are already suffering from initiative overload. The additional complexity brought on by sustainability measures should be as low as possible. A key feature of a move towards more sustainable construction should be challenging, but practical and incremental objectives for change. Sustainability, like other change initiatives, requires profound organisational change Profound organisational change is the combination of inner shifts in people's values, aspirations and behaviours with outer shift in processes, strategies, practices and systems (Senge et al., 2002). In a profound change there is learning, which involves developing the capacity for doing things in a new way and continuous improvement. The study found that the attainment of sustainability required cultural change and continuous improvement. It was not enough to change strategies, structures and systems, unless the thinking that produced those strategies, structures and systems also changed. Main reasons for failure of change initiatives There are many references about the reasons for failures of change initiatives (Doppelt, 2003; Senge, 2002; Dunphy, 2000). This research revealed that the main reasons included the following. · Not anchoring changes in the organisation culture and inability to plan and achieve a far-reaching culture renovation. · Lack of leadership commitment, clear guiding vision, planning, strategy and training. · Failure to involve key stakeholders and develop leadership capacity throughout the organisation. · · · · Focus on treating symptoms and not deeper causes of the problem. Treated as an add-on and isolated from the existing management system. Most change management efforts build around compliance rather than commitment. Failure to create short-term wins. Change initiatives are complex and take a long time to achieve; without short-term wins, most employees give up. Conditions for successful change management There is no one-size fits formula for change. However, there are a number of key steps for successful transformation fundamentals (see Sustainability Change Management Process in the Appendix F) that must be tailored to the unique nature of each organisation for sustainability change management initiatives to succeed. These include the following. · · · · · · · · · · Establish a sense of urgency through strong leadership commitment. Organise sustainability transformation team. Formulate a clear vision and guiding principles. Develop operational and governance change strategies. Training and education to anchor changes in the organisation culture. Involvement and empowerment of employees to act on vision. Plan for and creating short term wins. External influence and collaboration. Institutionalise strategy into all business functions. Consolidate improvements and producing feedbacks. Examples of strategic practical actions Typical strategic practical actions towards more sustainable construction found in the case studies included the following. · Demonstration of continuous improvement and commitments to addressing economic, social and environmental impacts through adopting third parties certifications such as ISO 14001, ISO 9000, Investors in people (liP), RoSPA QSA (safety management system) and so on. Development of sustainability vision, guiding principles, business case and embedment of sustainability strategy in the existing business strategy. Focus on measured performance (e.g. energy, waste, biodiversity, community activities etc.) links to/demonstration of business benefit. Join relevant benchmarking clubs to benchmark performance against peers and aim to be best in class. Engagement with others and integration of sustainability issues in the supply chain. Investments in training to raise employees' awareness and encourage practical application and innovation. Communication with stakeholders and production of sustainability report verified by third parties. Managing sustainability in the supply chain is important to achieving corporate sustainability. The final part of the research establishes the conditions, strategies and approaches for integrating sustainability issues in the supply chains within the construction industry. The adopted research methods were akin to the above research methods and the main research findings are documented in Paper 5 in Appendix E. The overall research outcomes are collated in Table 4.3 below. Table 4.3: Research Undertaken and Outcome for Objective Three Outcome Paper 4 (see full paper in Appendix D) Research Undertaken Sustainability and the UK construction a review Based on the premise that the major firms drive the industry forward by managing their supply chain, the paper focused on the top end of the construction industry. The paper presented a snapshot of the construction contractors' level of response to sustainable construction. (see full paper in Appendix E) Sustainability in the supply chain: the construction industry's perspective The study established the conceptual premise for successful SCM and SSCM and explored the tools and strategies for integrating sustainability issues in SCM within the construction industry. To achieve these, the research investigated the meaning, barriers and enablers, issues, tools and techniques, as well as the conditions for achieving successful SCM and SSCM. The study was grounded from the perspective of exemplar organisations with a proven track record in implementing sustainability issues in their organisations and related activities in the supply chain. (see full detail in Appendix F) Sustainability change management process The road map shows the phase, objective, input and expected output of sustainability change management process. It also indicates people needed and the focus of each phase of the management process. Checklists of sustainability practices Checklists of practices for the construction industry towards the path of sustainability The checklists collated examples of areas for actions under three headings (P3): People, Project and Place. The People involved the industry key stakeholders such as clients, employees, suppliers/suppliers, community and organisational management. The Project involved design stage and construction phase as well as actions for marketing, purchasing functions. The Place involved actions for office and site. 4.5 ASSESSMENT MODEL AND PROTOTYPE APPLICATION This part of the research (Objective Four) discussed the development and evaluation of the assessment model and prototype software for implementing and managing corporate sustainability at the strategic level. The prototype software is a self-assessment tool, which focuses on strategic and management issues, and breaks down the implementation, integration and management processes into manageable and easily digestible components. The objectives of the tool are to: · 60 compliment the existing sustainability management frameworks; help construction companies identify gaps in their corporate sustainability implementation efforts and focus attention on areas for improvements; gauge and benchmark performance with peers and industry as a whole; and promote wider uptake of the concept in the construction industry. The following subsections present the development and evaluation of the selfassessment model and web-based prototype software. 4.5.1 DEVELOPMENT OF CONPASS MODEL The development of the self-assessment model was an accumulation of the previously discussed research objectives, which involved both qualitative and quantitative methods. This type of research methodology can also be referred to as triangulation method. Data analysis software packages such as SPSS and MS Excel for the quantitative data and NVivo (Bazeley and Richards, 2000) for qualitative data were used in analysing these sets of multiple data. Figure 4.1 illustrates the cumulative data input for the development of the model. At the core of this is Objective Three, which extensively drew on the existing literature on sustainability management strategy and collated case studies from successful organisations. Sustainable Development and the UK Government Approach Objective 1 Examination of Frameworks for achieving corporate sustainability Objective 3 Sustainability and the UK Construction Industry Objective 2 ti o n a lid a Acade mic V ali dation stry V Indu ConPass Model Figure 4.1 Cumulative Data Input for the Development of ConPass Model The acronym `ConPass' is derived from the overarching goal of the software (Sustainable Construction Performance Assessment Tool). The aim of this selfassessment tool is to help construction companies to identify gaps in their corporate sustainability implementation efforts and focus attention on areas for improvements. The tool allows construction companies (i.e. Client, Consultant, Contractor, Subcontractor, Supplier and others) to: · · · gauge their sustainability performance; benchmark their sustainability performance with peers; and benchmark their sustainability performance with the construction industry as a whole. The synergies among various existing management processes and the examples provided by the leading organisations suggested that there are a number of key elements and sub-elements of successful transformation-fundamentals that must be adhered to for successful implementation, integration and management of organisational sustainability systems. Important to this are policy development and embedment, combining economic management systems with environmental and social management systems. The sustainability management systems must be treated as continuous improvement initiative. To gain credibility, it must be a logical extension of the organisational existing management systems, for examples third party certifications such as EMAS, quality, health and safety, and people development etc. In this respect, the ConPass Model comprises of four main elements and 36 sub-elements with four maturity levels namely: poor, average, good and excellent as depicted in Figure 4.2 below. The four elements of the model are policy development and embedment, environmental, social and economic management. According to Roberts (1995)`if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it'. Important aspects of the assessment tool are statement indicators, self-rating scale and interpretation of results. Statement indicators are words and sentences that describe a state of behaviour or practice, which are employed to measure practices of a particular process (Sherif, 2002). Statement indicators provide two extremes of performing a process, namely either a good management process is in place or does not exist (Grant, 1999). The ConPass Model consists of one hundred statements spanning the thirty-six critical factors. The purpose of these is to establish the existence or non-existence of a good management process. Self-rating scale: a five point `Likert Scale' to rate organisation practices and management process with respect to known best practices and documentations to prove the existence of a management system. This relies on the personal judgment of the respondents regarding the existence or non-existence and/or the extent of evidence of such organisational initiatives. In this respect, it is imperative that respondents are consistent, honest and realistic in their assumption when completing the assessment. Individual(s) with overall responsibility for sustainable construction in the organisation (e.g. Sustainability manager, environmental manager, health & safety manager etc.) must complete the assessment. The rating scales are as follows. 1. No Evidence of positive initiative or result in this area. 2. Very Little Evidence of positive initiative or result in this area. 3. Some Evidence of positive initiative but progress is fleeting. 4. Strong Evidence of positive initiative but the challenge is keeping it going in the right direction. 5. Very Strong Evidence of positive initiative and result in this area is best practice. Interpretation of results is based on the overall mean score of each of the four elements of the assessment (policy development and embedment, economic, social and environmental management), which involves four maturity levels: · POOR (mean score 2.4-1.0): Your organisation urgently needs to improve these aspects; · AVERAGE (mean score 3.4 2.5): Your organisation needs to address these issues; · GOOD (mean score 4.4 3.5): Your organisation has moderate capability and maturity but scope for improvements; and · EXCELLENT (mean score 4.5 5.0): Your organisation has high capability and maturity. POLICY DEVELOPMENT & EMBEDMENT Holistic Approach Business Case Top/Bottom Support Stakeholder Engagement Vision / Operating Principles Legal Review / Management Vision / Operating Principles Training / Communication Culture, Structure / Governance Legal and Regulatory Review / Management Internal control / External Influence Monitoring / reporting Responsible for Social Issues Social Policy / Standards Social Charters Social Management System Responsible for Environmental Issues Environmental Policy / Standards Environmental Charters Environmental Management System Environmental Profit / Loss Accounting Environmental Performance Environmental Reporting Ex ce lle nt oo d Po or A ve ra ge Corporate Governance Strategic Planning Organisational Development Corporate Codes of Conduct Risk Management Knowledge Management IT Management Quality Management System Stakeholder Consideration Social Performance Economic Performance Social Reporting Economic Reporting Figure 4.2: ConPass Assessment Model 4.5.2 EVALUATION AND VALIDATION OF CONPASS MODEL The evaluation and validation of the model was achieved by means of responses of sustainability practitioners and experts in the field. The bases of evaluation and validation were effectiveness, applicability, usefulness, appropriateness, comprehensiveness, completeness and suggestion for improvement. This involved a presentation of the ConPass model and completion of a structured questionnaire using a five-point scale and open questions for comments on areas of improvement. Questionnaire document for evaluating the framework is included in Appendix F. The evaluation and validation was conducted in two phases. The first phase was conducted in a workshop titled `Identifying value and social dimensions within sustainable construction' organised at Loughborough University involving fifteen academics and researchers in the field of sustainability in the built environment. The second phase was conducted via interviews with six sustainability practitioners (i.e. sustainability managers, environmental managers) and/or people involved in sustainability issues within their companies. Prior to the interview, the participants were contacted via email explaining the scope and context of the evaluation. Four of the six participants were involved in the case interview in Section 4.3. The analysis of the evaluation is presented in Chapter 5. The respondents' comments on possible improvements were useful in refining the model. 4.5.3 DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF CONPASS PROTOTYPE SOFTWARE The final part of the EngD project involved the design and development of a prototype web based software. As already discussed in Chapter 3 (subsection 3.3.14), an iterative process based on the Rapid Application Development (RAD) methodology of software development was used for the prototype software development. The following subsections present system requirements, system development, database design and the system working features. 4.5.3.1 System requirements This subsection provides an overview of the system requirement, which consists of functional and non-functional design strategy, as well as, system software requirement. The gathering of the system requirements involved an informal discussion/interview with three software developers and two human-computer interaction experts with vast experience in developing software applications for the construction industry. Table 4.4 summarises the system requirements for the ConPass software. The system is a webbased tool, which collects, stores, retrieves and analyses data to generate report for the user. This involves interaction between the web server and web database. Figure 4.3 illustrates the functional decomposition of ConPass software. ConPass prototype Unprotected pages (Home pages) Password protected Pages Essential Information (Homepages) LogIn/Forgot password Assessment questionnaires Generate report View/create/modify About ConPass Benefit of ConPass How to use ConPass New user registration LogIn page Social management Company background information Economic management check full completion analysis input Policy development and embedment Environmental management Your Company Performance Dashboard Chart Performance Score Benchmark Your Company Performance Figure 4.3: Functional decomposition diagram Table 4.4: Summary of System Requirements Functional requirement Information Registration · Provide information on the aim, expected outcome, benefits, how to use the tool, new user registration form and login page. · Collect users data (e.g. email address), check if data is already in the database, store data in the database to automatically generate password to be sent to the user via email address. · Facilitate access to the protected pages and enables users to have their own personal account so that their assessments data can be created, stored, retrieved and modified. · Password-protected pages. Store fully and/or partially completed questionnaires in the database, so that user can view or modify or reuse them later. · Check all questions are completed, if not highlight the uncompleted questions and instruct users to complete the missing questions, if yes, generate statistical and graphical report and provide text and colour coded numerical output for the users. Basic Web guidelines: · Standardise the interface colours and avoid bright colours that may cause fatigue. Use contrasting colours. · Use standard interface controls appropriately. · Provide information on confidentiality and privacy. · Provide easy access to help e.g. an email address, phone, etc. · Use short and concise sentences and paragraphs. · Use well-designed headings and subheadings to guide the users Navigation: · Streamline forward movement through the questionnaire while allowing backtracking to view or change answers. · Reduce the branching instructions to a minimum to reduce reading time, confusion, and perceived difficulty of the questionnaire. · Label links clearly and make it easy to correct mistakes. Layout: · Put important information at the top and/or left-hand side of the page and make it visible at all times. · Limit the use of graphics and animation. · Eliminate horizontal scrolling and minimise vertical scrolling. Data Entry: · Use appropriate data entry tools (e.g. radio buttons etc.). · Label each data entry field clearly. · Implement data entry validation check to ensure consistency and data integrity. · The system must be flexible and portable so that it can be used in any common version of web browsers. · The speed of processing user requests should be within an acceptable time range. · Different users in different locations can assess the system at the same time without collisions. · Operating system and to run ASP.NET, IIS 5.0 is required. · Server-side technology for creating dynamic web pages. · System database design. Assessment questionnaire Functional interface design Usability issues and web design guidelines (for related literature see Norman, 2000a, 200b, 2001a, 2001b, 2002; Dillman, 2001; Fox, 2001; Badre, 2002; Schober, 2003) Non-functional requirement Scalability, compatibility and concurrent access Software requirement Microsoft Windows 2000 ASP/ASP.Net vb Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Firework MX 2004 DotNetCharting WebXel Authentication · For graphics · For graphs/charts · Security and data integrity (registration and log in forms) 4.5.3.2 System development and database design The system development and database design provides overview of the system architecture and operation, and the database design. System Architecture and operation The ConPass system architecture was created around a three-tiers application as depicted in Figure 4.3 below (adapted from Ruiker, 2004). The first tier is the presentation tier, which involves the client browser software such as Internet explorer, Netscape and so on. The tool is compatible with all standard web browsers. The second level is the middle tier that contains the application logic. The web server, the scripting engine and scripts reside in this tier. The web server is a piece of software that manages forward and backward data communication between the client and database tiers. The third tier consists of a database management system (DBMS) for managing and storing created, modified data and retrieved data for the end user. I. Client Browser II. Web Server 2. The Web Server processes the request 1. End user makes a request ASP.NET VB Scripting Engine 5. The customised web page is returned and can be viewed in the enduser's web browser III. Database Server 3. ASP.NET VB script code embedded in the web page is invoked to request data from database End user PC with Web Browser software 4. Data returned from the database is processed by the ASP.NET VB script to customised the web page Figure 4.4: ConPass Prototype High-level Architecture and Operation Overview The system has been built using ASP/ASP.NET (Active Server Pages), one of the technologies of the .Net Framework, as the scripting language. The Microsoft .NET is a new development framework, which provides a fresh application programming interface to the services and APIs of the classic Windows operating system (Liberty and Hurwitz, 2003). ASP.NET is an enhancement of classic ASP and both applications can run side by side, allowing for easy migration of legacy application. One of the advantages of ASP.NET is that it helps to create faster and reliable dynamic and data-driven web pages that are scaleable and compatible with a broad range of web browsers without any custom coding by the developer. The ConPass prototype design conformed to the functional decomposition depicted in Figure 4.3 and summary of the system requirements in Table 4.4 System database design The ConPass database was designed using Microsoft SQL server (Structured Query Language), a 'relational' database. The system data are amenable to representation in a relational database as the data could be structured into tables that are 'related' to one another and the data are all character or integer. The database has been designed as a combination of series of tables (data entities). Each table describes one logical entity and all its attributes. Every single table is organised into rows and each row represents a single record. The rows are organised into columns. All rows in the table have the same column structure. Table 4.5 collates and describes the function of the system tables. Table 4.5: ConPass System Tables Descriptions and Functions Table Name EmployeeTable Description Represents the user conducting the assessment and stores users' registration information. It contains relationship with the CompanyInformationTable Stores company background information and relationship with the CompanyBusinessType and CompanyBusinessType Stores company business type e.g. client, contractor, subcontractor, supplier and others Stores the company group type in terms of (£) turnover in million e.g. >400, 200-400, 100-200, 50, 100 and <50 Stores four main categories of the assessment e.g. policy development and embedment, economic, social and environmental management Stores the critical factors of the assessments e.g. business case, holistic approach and so on. It contains relationship with the CategoryTable Stores the assessment questions/statements and relationships with the SubcategoryTable Stores each user's responses and relationship with CategoryTable, SubcategoryTable, QuestionTable and EmployeeTable CompanyBusinessType CompanyGroupType CategoryTable SubcategoryTable QuestionTable ResponseTable The most common visual representation of database model is 'Entity-relationship diagrams (Danny, 2001). Figure 4.4 illustrates the system data entities, relationships and attributes. Figure 4.4: ConPass Entity-relationship Diagram 4.5.3.3 ConPass Prototype features and working The ConPass prototype consists of protected and unprotected pages as depicted in the functional composition diagram (Figure 4.3). The unprotected pages form the home pages. The first three pages (About ConPass, Benefit of ConPass and How to use ConPass) as can be seen from the navigation buttons across the top of Figure 4.5 below, provide essential information on the aim, expected outcomes, and benefits and how to use the tool. The users are expected to read these sets of pages before using the tool. Figure 4.5: ConPass Home Page: One of Three Instruction Pages To start the assessment, users must register to obtain a password. The registration requires users input such as email address. At this stage, the system conducts three sets of validation to ensure data integrity. The first validation `RequiredfieldValidator control' ensures that all required fields are completed. The second validation `RegularExpressionValidator control' for both the email and telephone number fields to ensure that inputs are consistent with regular format. The third validation is the 'CompareValidator control' to check that the users' inputs are not already in the database. The first two can also be referred to as `Client-side validation' while the third is termed `Server-side validation'. On completion of the registration form, the system auto generates password and sends it in a URL to the user's email box. The email address is used as the user name in the system, as an individual email address is unique. Figure 4.6 shows the registration form. Figure 4.6: New user registration form The Login page provides access to the users' personal account and protected pages (assessment questionnaire and report). The login function contains an authentication mechanism, information saved in session and validation of the session information. The authentication mechanism compares the users name and password to the user information in the database. If the information exists in the database, the user is granted access and the system creates a session where session Id (i.e. user_Id) and variable is stored in the server memory, so that if the system crashes or restarts the session is not lost. All protected pages look for the session variable and forward the user to the login page if the value is null, which forces the user to log in again. The session is used to keep track on all the users. The session life time is set to a default period of 20 minutes, where the system will terminate the session if the system has been idle for that time. As can be seen in Figure 4.7 below, the login page has two other features; 'Forget password' and 'Remember me'. Should the users forget their password, the forget password feature requires users' email address input and the password will be sent again 74 from the database to the users email box. With the 'Remember me' feature, users can optionally check this checkbox when they log in causing a cookie to be put on their machine; this cookie is then used to automatically log them in on future visits. Figure 4.7: Log Into your Account and Forget Password Form The questionnaire assessment pages are password protected and on successful login, the system checks the database and populates the assessment questionnaire pages with the user's previous data. However, if no data exists, then the pages are left blank for the user to start the assessment. The system facilitates creating, storing, modifying and retrieving data; hence the assessment can be completed in several sittings. Also, the system allows forward and backward navigation within the assessment pages to view and change answers. In total, the assessment consists of five pages, which are background information, policy development and embedment, economic, environmental and social management forms. The first page collects company background information as depicted in Figure 4.8 below. Both client and server-side validation (as discussed above) are implemented for the background information form. Akin to the login page, two additional sessions Id (Business_Id and Group_Id) are created based on the user's selected option from the drop down boxes (type of business and Annual turnover). These session variables together with the User_Id are passed from page to page and used in the report page to initiate the report output. Figure 4.8: Company Background Information Form A typical questionnaire page as shown below (Figure 4.9), consists of a series of statements relevant to each critical factor and the corresponding category. The users rate their organisation performance on each statement on a five-point Likert scale. A `MouseOver' function on both the `Rating scale' (at the top of the page) and each corresponding `RadioButton' provide the interpretation of the five-point scale to guide the users. The highest score is 5 while the lowest is 1. Figure 4.9: Typical Assessment Questionnaires Even though the system allows users the freedom to navigate forward and backward without necessary fully completing all the questions on each page, it does ensure that all questions are completed before the report can be generated. Therefore, on clicking the `Get Report' link, the system checks the database to ascertain that all the questions have been completed and then generates the total of the number of questions for each category. If all the questions are completed, then users get their report. If not, then it highlights the questions yet to be completed and instructs the users to complete the missing questions. On completion of the assessment the system calculates the mean score of each category and users are automatically presented with a report of their performance and interpretation of their results. The assessment report includes numeric, textual and graphical formats and it consists of four parts as follows. Mean scores of each category with colour coding for the interpretation This part of the report collates the mean scores of the user on each category (i.e. policy development and embedment, economic, social and environmental management aspects of sustainability) and the total mean score with interpretation of scores as illustrated below. Figure 4.10: Company Performance Score Benchmarking of performance with peers and industry as a whole This part of the report benchmarks each category mean scores of individual organisations with peers of similar business types (e.g. contractors, clients etc), group types in terms of turnover (e.g. >£400m, 200-400m, etc), as well as the industry as a whole as illustrated in the figure below. Figure 4.11: Performance Benchmark with Peers and Industry · Chart of performance benchmarking This part presents the graphical illustration of the benchmarking. The mean scores are plotted on a Dashboard Linear gauge diagram as depicted in Figure 4.13 below. The dashboard linear gauge is based on the performance score interpretation scale. Figure 4.12: Dashboard Linear Gauge Diagram of Performance Benchmark 79 Summary of mean score for each of the critical factors The final part of the report summarises individual organisations mean score on each critical factor and highlights each mean score (red, brown, yellow or green) depending on performance. This establishes areas of improvement and enables organisations to focus on specific critical factors for improvement. 4.5.4 CONPASS PROTOTYPE SOFTWARE EVALUATION Evaluation is an integral part of the development process, it is therefore, imperative that a clear plan for the evaluation is established at the onset and factored into each step of the development process (Whitten and Bentley, 1998). Throughout the development process and at the end of the development phase, a number of methods were used. These included self, peer and expert continuous testing and correction of each component of the system for any errors during the development process. For the final phase, expert and industry evaluations of the prototype application based on functionality and usability issues were conducted. The evaluation samples composed of people already involved in the research from the onset and a few random samples. The details and findings of the assessment model and the application final phase evaluations are included in Chapter 5. Table 4.6: Research Undertaken and Outcome for Objective Four Outcome Paper 6 (Abstract) Research Undertaken Development of a self-assessment model for managing sustainability issues at the strategic level in the construction companies The paper presents the development and the evaluation of the ConPass Model Paper 7 (Abstract) The design and development of Sustainable Construction Performance Assessment Tool (ConPass) The paper presents the development and working features of ConPass prototype software A self assessment model for Sustainable Construction Assessment Tool The ConPass model consists of four critical elements with thirty-six critical factors. The model is based on a series of questionnaire/statements. The purpose is to aid the implementation, integration and management of sustainability issues at the strategic level focusing on the construction companies. ConPass Software The ConPass prototype can be accessed using the web address: http://winhost.siteberry.com/adeti/HomePage/ConPassAbout.aspx This chapter extensively described the research undertaken towards achieving the EngD research aim and objectives. It highlighted the research undertaken for each of the project objectives in light of the research methodology and research outcomes and main findings. It discussed, overtly, the development of ConPass assessment model and the design, development and implementation of ConPass prototype software; a web based self-assessment tool to aid implementation, integration and management of sustainability issues at the strategic level for construction companies. The next chapter presents the results of evaluation of the ConPass Model and the prototype software. 5 CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS This chapter presents the key research findings, including the evaluation results for both the ConPass Model and ConPass software. It discusses the impact of the research on the industrial sponsor and its implications for the wider construction industry. The chapter provides critical evaluation of the research and recommendations and further work. 5.2 RESEARCH FINDINGS The previous Chapter presented the research undertaken and major outcomes and also discussed the research findings with cross-references to each of the published papers and supporting documents included in the Appendix. In view of the strict restriction on the length of this thesis and to avoid duplication, this subsection provides a brief overview of the general research findings. It also presents the model and prototype software evaluations findings. 5.2.1 SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS Sustainable development like any other evolutionary concept has a long history. The evolution of sustainable development has been driven by demographic and environmental concern, value creation and increased industrial activity (see Paper 1). Sustainability demands a shift to a new perspective; the need to: recognise our place in the ecosystem by living in harmony with nature; and integrate continuing socioeconomic development with environmental protection. This perspective is realised through the bridging of many ideas, traditional beliefs and religious views and CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS disciplines (see Paper 2). The Brundtland Report promotes a debate on this new perspective. However, there is much confusion surrounding the concept of sustainable development. The underlining message in Our Common Future is the reorientation of development and economic growth to meeting people's basic needs. Despite increasing effort to marry the social and environmental challenges with economic growth, progress remains remote. The key main barriers to progress are (i) historical disparity between the two parts of the concept; (ii) lack of clarity and contradictions of the concept; (iii) time required for cultural change and lack of political will; (iv) differing views and conflict of interest among the major players; and (v) inadequacy of the current societal conflict resolution mechanism (see Paper 1). The main findings of the contribution to UK consultation strategy (see Appendix F) are (i) that the Government must take the lead through its procurement policy and use of a mixture of voluntary initiatives, legislations and regulations, and economic and fiscal instruments, capacity building to promote awareness; and (ii) the fourth objective (maintenance of high and stable level of economic growth) in the previous UK strategy was found to be inconsistent with the other three objectives and reinforced the status quo. In order to achieve corporate buy-in to sustainable practice, terminology must align to current business needs and perspectives. Relating sustainability to capital stock and resources (see Paper 3) provides the most effective means of explaining sustainable development to business parties. A good understanding of the relationships between environmental, social and economic systems is fundamental to practical application of the concept of sustainability. The environmental system is a prerequisite to economic and social activities. It provides the necessary input; raw material to economic and social system and assimilates the waste generated from production and consumption processes. The economic and social systems cannot function without the environmental resources. The environmental system operates within certain limits. In the construction industry, sustainable construction and supply chain management remain the major issues. The initial findings of the industry wide telephone survey (see Section 4.2) indicated that the practical application of the concept had become a recurrent problem. This is exacerbated by several factors such as the industry culture, slowness to innovate and complexity of the existing sustainability management frameworks. There were gaps in perception, understanding and practical application of the concept between SMEs and large construction firms. While there was divergent of opinion on the benefits of sustainable construction between the two parties, it was a general consensus that the government must show more leadership. Based on the premise that the major construction industry's players drive the industry forward by managing their supply chain, the quantitative survey of the Top-forty-five construction companies (in terms of turnover) provided some colourful and intriguing findings (see Paper 4). There was a general understanding of the concept within this stratum of the industry. The practical application of the environmental aspect of sustainability is well advanced while the social and economic aspects still prove elusive. The main barriers for implementing sustainable construction were attributed to the industry culture and fragmented nature of the industry, rigid specifications and clients' unwillingness to share the burden. The three highest ranked drivers for implementing sustainability were government and regulation, competitive edge and client procurement policy. Clients and employees form the two highest ranked stakeholders. The study suggested that sustainability issues (through the medium of stakeholders such as clients, government etc.) lead to corporate sustainability actions that have certain results in economical terms. Even though there was a common view that sustainability strategy and effective reporting to stakeholders can enhance reputation and competitiveness, the level of strategic response to sustainability agenda was proportionate to the level of turnover. The key findings of the case study interviews of the early adopters of sustainability agenda and the review of the existing management frameworks were presented in Section 4.3. This study revealed a number of key elements and sub-elements of successful transformation-fundamentals that companies must adhere to for successful implementation, integration and management of sustainability systems. These involve four main critical factors, which are subdivided into thirty-six subcomponents as illustrated in Figure 4.2 (Chapter 4). Important to this is policy development and embedment. Logically, the sustainability performance of an organisation depends on a combination of its economic, environmental, and social performance (Sue-Mot, 2004a), hence the other key elements of sustainability management systems involve the fusion of environmental and social management systems with the economic management systems. The attainment of sustainability required cultural change and continuous improvement. It was not enough to change strategies, structures and systems, unless the thinking that produced those strategies, structures and systems also changed. Lack of leadership commitment, clear vision and failure to involve key stakeholders, create short-term wins and develop leadership capacity throughout the organisation accounted for main reasons for failure. Typical strategic practical actions towards more sustainable construction found in the case studies included the demonstration of continuous improvement and commitments to addressing economic, social and environmental impacts through adopting third parties certifications, embedment of sustainability strategy in the existing business strategy, focus on measurable performance, communication with stakeholders and production of sustainability report verified by third parties. In view of the endemic initiatives overload within the industry, the analysis of the case study interview, indicated that the additional complexity brought on by sustainability measures should be as low as possible. A key feature of a move towards more sustainable construction should be challenging, but practical and incremental objectives for change. Supply chain management is increasingly an essential part of corporate sustainability (see Paper 5). Companies that are serious about achieving corporate sustainability know they must not only change their own practices, but their supply chains too. The detailed findings of the literature review and subsequent case study interview on sustainability in the supply chain management (SSCM), focusing on the road maintenance sector, have been documented in Paper 5. The terms SCM and SSCM are evolving concepts. SSCM can be defined as the identification of problematic sustainability issues throughout the supply chain, the assessment of their impact and risks, and the development of measures to improve them. Within the investigated sector, the term SSCM is relatively unknown rather green procurement/purchasing. This is consistent with the SSCM practice found within the organisations studied, which addresses a narrow set of sustainability issues. The reasons being: the clients' green procurement strategy and the high environmental impacts on the sector. The sustainability/environmental issues exposed to, culture and market position of individual firms would impact on the choice of tools and techniques employed in various industries. The study observed a high culture of health and safety and environmental consciousness within the case study organisations due to the sector's high exposure to environmental, health and safety issues, and the clients' green procurement strategy. The high exposure and clients' market position appeared to have influenced the choice of tools and strategies as more importance is placed on achieving third party certifications and meeting clients' PSA targets. The research findings suggested the existence of a spectrum of advanced and innovative SSCM tools and techniques in operation. However, there is a need to widen the scope to include wider sustainability issues and standardise these tools. The diffusion of sustainability/environmental improvements would operate differently in different industries and supply chains with different structural formation. This study has shed light onto the debate on the uncertainty regarding the circumstances amenable to achieving SCM in the construction industry. In this context, two schools of thoughts are found in the literature, namely: relationship based on equity or power (see Figure 4 in Paper 5). Because of the nature and complexity of the construction process, the SCM relationships within the industry is, more often than not, based on dominance and power regime as confirmed in the case study. In the organisation studied, the inter-firm relationships observed in the supply chain network posses the characteristics of extended structural dominance and power regime. This regime provides the environment for the diffusion of environmental/sustainability issues. While this can deliver positive improvements (Figure 3 in Paper 5) and operate within a wider set of conditions (Table 3), it also raises a number of dilemmas that need to be redressed, for example the distribution of costs-benefits, the scope of issues addressed, the involvement of cross-functional team, the use of cost as a key barometer of success and so on. 5.2.2 CONPASS MODEL EVALUATION FINDINGS This subsection presents the ConPass evaluation findings based on responses from both sustainability practitioners and experts (academia and researchers) in the field of sustainable development in the built environment. The evaluation involved both closed and opened-ended questions. The evaluation method has been elaborated in subsection 4.4.2 in Chapter 4. In total 21 samples conducted the model validation. The analysis of the closed-ended questions is presented in Figure 5.1 below. The figure shows the overall percentage scores for each of the five evaluation questions. As can be seen from Figure 5.1, Q4 (the usefulness of the model to aid organisation sustainability implementation process within the construction industry) scored highest (85%) followed by Q5 (the overall effectiveness of the model), Q1 and Q3 respectively. While Q2 (the formulation and ease to understand each aspect of the model's question) scored lowest (63%). The open-ended questions of the evaluation explored how the model could be improved. Among various comments are as follows. It was a result of hard work and so generally comprehensive and practically useful. The questions are relevant and well thought through, but some need shortening It is clear that much work has gone into the contents of the model. The list of categories and sub-questions are very comprehensive and covers wider issues of sustainability. The model questionnaires are generally sufficient and there is no need to add any other questions but some of them need to be rephrased and more concise Great effort and a very useful practical tool for the industry. This is great and definitely will improve sustainability implementation and I will urge all organisations to use this tool. I feel the key point of sustainability is captured in the questions on `environmental and loss accounting' (and social equivalent) as it is through these methods that the situation can move towards better integration across the three main sustainability dimensions. There is a general agreement among the reviewers that the model is an effective and useful tool that could help implementation and management of sustainability issues at the strategic level. However, there is a need to rephrase some of the model questions, which is reflected in the low score for Q2 (63% compared to others) in Figure 5.1. In general, the evaluation findings were positive and extremely useful in refining the model, especially for the model's questions. The positive findings of the model evaluation and validation demonstrated the industry need for this tool and provided a strong incentive to proceed to the next phase of development; that is the development of the ConPass prototype software application. Response in % Q1. The effectiveness of the questions in capturing the overall sustainability implementation and management issues Q2. The formulation and ease to understand each aspect of the questions Q3. The extent to which the elements and the subcategories capture overall essence of sustainability issue Q4. The usefulness of the model to aid organisation sustainability implementation process within the construction industry Q5. Your overall assessment of the model Figure 5.1: The Analysis of Closed-ended Evaluation Questions The purpose of the evaluation is to provide a reasonable level of assurance that the system performs as specified and conformed to the functional and non-functional issues (in Table 4.4, Chapter 4) such as system performance, security, scalability, functionality, usability and issues and the system is error free. For this evaluation two options were considered, namely industry wide and a group of experts evaluation. Due to time constraint, the first option (industry wide evaluation) was discarded and the second option was undertaken. As indicated in Chapter 4 (subsection 4.4.4), the evaluation samples consisted of people already involved in the research from the onset and a few random samples. In total seven people (four sustainability practitioners, two academics in the field of sustainability and one software development experts in the built environment) were involved in the evaluation. This part of the thesis provides a brief overview of the evaluation findings. The performance of web application is an important issue; the performance testing was conducted by checking the transaction speed, where each processing and loading time was monitored. The system loading time fell within the acceptable time period. The security testing was carried out by accessing some of the protected pages directly using their URLs. The testing indicated that these pages can not be loaded without user login. A well-designed web-based system must be able to scale from a network of a few to many computers. The scalability testing was carried out by asking many users outside the network to login in the system concurrently. The testing proved the system's scalability, as it can be accessed by outside users at the same time. The functionality and usability testing findings are as follows. User interface and navigation: all the users were impressed with the system user interface and ease of navigation. New user registration function: the reviewers were asked to register as new users. The function operate error free as the system was able to auto generate password and forwarded this to the user's email account. Login function: the reviewers were able to login successfully with the obtained password and the username. Also the `Forget password' and `Remember me' function was tested and this worked error free. Assessment questionnaire function: the reviewers were able to create their assessment, store, retrieve and modify them. Report function: having completed the assessment questionnaire, the users tested the report function, and both the graphical and numerical reports were generated and worked error free. Input validation: the system provided a high level input validation checking based on pre-defined validation rules, which involves both `client-' and `serverside' validation. With reference to the initial system requirement in Table 4.4 (Chapter 4), the evaluation findings indicated that the system has been completely developed and is fully functional as discussed in Subsection 4.4.3.3 (ConPass Prototype working and operating feature). On the whole, all the reviewers were highly enthused with the capability and the advance feature incorporated in the ConPass prototype and its possible benefits to the whole industry. The reviewers also suggested a few recommendations for further improvement of the prototype. These are included in the recommendations section. In fact, two of the reviewers who were also involved in the ConPass Model evaluation expressed their interest in providing further funding for further development of ConPass prototype. These reviewers in question work for a government funded, non-profit organisation - East Midland Centre for Built Environment (EMCBE). This EMCBE scouts for innovative products within the East Midlands region and provides funding for their further development for the wider use and benefit of all construction companies. Given this new development and the enthusiasm of the majority of people involved in the project from the onset, the future of ConPass is bright. 5.3 INDUSTRIAL IMPLICATION 5.3.1 IMPACT ON SPONSORING COMPANY As previously stated in the research background in the context of industrial sponsor (see Subsection 1.2.2), the RCS's main reasons for commissioning this research were to meet clients' demand for sustainability, consolidate market position and achieving competitive advantage by gaining and applying a broader understanding of sustainability issues. The EngD project as a whole has a far-reaching impact and implication for the sponsoring company. Not only has the company successfully used its involvement in this project as a marketing tool in bidding for contracts and promoting its image in the road maintenance sector. It has also gained a far superior grasp of the concept of sustainability. The company is now renowned in its sector to be at the forefront of innovation in the application of sustainability knowledge in materials and products design, service and project delivery process. The knowledge of the researcher has been invaluable in propelling the organisation toward the path of corporate sustainability. The researcher has closely worked with RCS to analyse processes and develop an approach for sustainability construction for the company. RCS has in place a suite of policies and initiatives to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability. In this respect, it has won several external recognitions and awards for its initiatives such as Hampshire and Isle of Wight Sustainability Business Award for Resource Efficiency, ICE Prestige Award for Best Large Project in Southern Region, Certificate of Merit for Environmental, Good Practice, Considerate Contractors Award for several individual projects, and so on. For the past two years RCS has been reporting its performance within the Balfour Beatty Sustainability Reports (Balfour Beatty, 2003; 2004) and gained the reputation as the trend setter within the Balfour Beatty Group. Most recently, RCS published "Biodiversity Action Plan: minimising our impact and improving the environment" (RCS, 2003), which draws together the company's past, present and future actions, objectives, targets and performance in light of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. This document is one of its kinds in the road maintenance sector. To consolidate on its efforts, RCS is currently working on producing its own sustainability report. 5.3.2 IMPLICATION FOR THE WIDER INDUSTRY This research has several implications for the construction industry. The role and importance of the construction industry in achieving a sustainable society can never be overemphasised. Sustainable construction has been the focus of Government institutions, research establishments, academia and major industry players. Considerable efforts have been made to align the industry business process towards more sustainable construction. The deductive reasoning from the aggregation of the EngD research findings indicated a paradigm shift to a new value perspective in the industry. Social changes and policy instruments such as legislations and regulations, voluntary agreements, fiscal and economic instruments, steer this new value perspective. The concept of sustainability is increasingly becoming a crucial part of project procurement and sustainability literacy of the industry professionals is now forming a crucial tenet of the majorities of professional bodies in the construction industry. The fact that leading construction companies have already begun to integrate sustainability practice at both operational and strategic levels to take advantage of the market opportunities is a persuasive indicator that the practical application of the concept of sustainability is possible and reason enough for the SME to follow suit. Corporate sustainability is here to stay. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that in the near future, a business licence to operate could be conditional upon the alignment of business processes in line with the principles of corporate sustainability. The construction companies of tomorrow will be those that are already proactively engaged in sustainability agenda. The main output of this research, the ConPass Model and software, are enablers to achieving corporate sustainability. The ConPass tool makes the complex task of implementing, integrating and managing sustainability issues at the strategic level easier by breaking down the processes into manageable and easily digestible components. This will help to promote the wider uptake of the sustainable construction agenda in the industry. 5.4 CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE RESEARCH The aim of this research was to develop a practical and easy to use tool to aid the implementation, integration and management of sustainability issues at the strategic level and promote wider uptake of the concept in the industry. This is very ambitious, considering the complexity of sustainability as a concept, peculiarity of the construction industry and the limited time frame available (four years) for the completion of the EngD research. In this regard, the main limitations of this research revolve around the broad scope of the research and time constraint. Four major limitations have been identified which give rise to further research (see section 5.5). The ConPass model consists of thirty-six critical factors, which are extensive. Based on the premise that there is no one size fits all formula for achieving corporate sustainability, as every organisation is different, there is a need to provide a mechanism for each organisation for assigning weightings to these factors and decide on the most critical factors more applicable for their organisation. · The ConPass prototype software evaluation only involved a limited number of people, albeit experts in the field of sustainability and software development. If time were available, industry wide evaluation would have been conducted to enrich evaluation findings. This could be addressed by conducting industry wide evaluation of the prototype software. · The ConPass prototype software as it stands, the current base data for the first set of users to benchmark against is very thin. Again time was a critical factor. There is a need to build this base data, which could be addressed via industry wide implementation. · The prototype does highlight areas for improvement but neither provides steps for action to redress these issues nor links to further information on how to achieve these improvements. This could be address by integrating a knowledge-based expert system in the ConPass Prototype to provide guidance on the steps for improvements. The knowledge-base system could be developed by collating case studies of best practice and interviewing sustainability experts. 5.5 RECOMMENDATIONS AND FURTHER WORK The concept of sustainability is extremely diverse and complex. The focus of this research, though extensive, was only a tip of the iceberg compared to the magnitude of issues under the umbrella of sustainability. Within the broader context of sustainable development and sustainable construction, there are arguably a multitude of issues yet to be resolved and urgently required further research. The identification of these issues for further research recommendation could easily form a four-year research agenda. This section exclusively presents recommendation for further work in light of this EngD research as follows. The attainment of sustainability management practice is more to do with cultural change, new ways of thinking and must be treated as any other continuous improvement initiative. Important to this are training and education to change mental mode, behaviour, values, norms and assumptions. This reinforces the need to develop training tools for the construction industry. However, only a very few organisations are large enough and possess adequate resources to deal with the complex and diverse educational needs associated with sustainability. As such, this research will strongly recommend research in developing `e-Learning Sustainability Tools' (which take advantage of the modern ICTs combined with innovative pedagogical approaches) for the wider construction industry. As previously indicated in Section 5.4, other recommendations for further work includes. · · Industry wide evaluation of the ConPass prototype software. Provision of a mechanism in the ConPass prototype to enable assigning weightings to the critical factors and allows users to select the most applicable for their organisation. · Industry wide implementation of ConPass software to collate base data for the first set of users to benchmark against. · Development and integration of knowledge base expert system into ConPass prototype to provide expert advice on best practice guidance on steps for action plans and improvements. The expert system will play a supporting role to complement the automated performance assessment reports, by providing practical advice on the identified areas of improvement. Upon completion of assessment and the generation of the reports, the built-in expert knowledge base will automatically suggest action plans for the highlighted and under performing critical factors. 5.6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS This chapter has highlighted the main research findings (see Section 5.2), implication to the sponsoring company and wider construction industry. It discussed the research limitations and suggested recommendation for further research. This thesis together with the supporting documents in the Appendices provides essential evidence to suggest the achievement of research aim and objectives as well as the research outputs. The need for this research is apparent from the industry's poor progress in achieving more sustainable construction. This is compounded by the conceptual confusion and ambiguity surrounding sustainability. Also, the complexity and less comprehensiveness of the existing sustainability management frameworks do not make the task any easier. The aim of this research was "To develop a practical and easy to use tool to aid the implementation, integration and management of sustainability issues at the strategic level and promote wider uptake of the concept in the construction industry". To achieve this aim, through a series of research methods, the research: · · · investigated the concept of sustainable development and the UK strategic approach; identified its application to the construction industry and progress in its uptake; examined frameworks for managing, monitoring and reporting on corporate sustainability; and · developed and evaluated an assessment model and a prototype software for implementing and managing sustainability at the strategic level. The main research outputs are the development of ConPass Model and a fully functional web-based prototype software. The ConPass Model is based on the premise that sustainability performance of an organisation depends on four critical factors, namely policy development and embedment, economic, social and environmental management systems. These four factors consist of thirty-six sub-factors as depicted in Figure 4.2 (Chapter 4). The ConPass software is a self-assessment tool, which focuses on strategic and management issues, and breaks down the implementation, integration and management processes into manageable and easily digestible components. The main benefits of the tools are: it complements the existing sustainability management frameworks; helps construction companies identify gaps in their corporate sustainability implementation efforts and focus attention on areas for improvements; gauges and benchmarks performance with peers and industry as a whole; and promotes wider uptake of the concept in the construction industry. The research advanced the body of knowledge on the concept of sustainable construction and demonstrated innovation in the application of knowledge to the engineering business environment. ConPass is one of its kind in the construction industry, hence the novelty of the EngD research 1. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (2003a). The Application of Systems Thinking to the Concept of Sustainability. The Proceeding of the Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM), University of Brighton, UK, 3-5 September, 161-170. 2. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (2003b). Sustainability and the UK construction industry: a review, Proceedings of ICE: Engineering Sustainability, Volume 156, December 2003, Pages 185-199 Paper 13472. 3. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (2003c). Trends in the Conceptualisation of Corporate Sustainability. The Proceeding of the Joint International Symposium of CIB Working Commissions W55, W65 and W107, Singapore, 23-24 October 2003, Page 187199. 4. Anderson, R.C., (1998). Mid-Course Correction - Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model, The Peregrinzilla Press, Atlanta 5. Avison, D. and Fitzgerald, G., (2003). Information Systems Development: Methodologies, Techniques, and Tools, 3rd (Ed.), McGraw-Hill Education. 6. Badre, A.N. (2002). Shaping Web Usability: Interaction Design in Context. New York. 7. Balfour Beatty, (2003). Balfour Beatty: Safety, Environment and Social Report 2003. Accessed from http://www.balfourbeatty.com/ (accessed on 6/7/2005). 8. Balfour Beatty, (2004). Balfour Beatty: Safety, Environment and Social Report 2004. Accessed from http://www.balfourbeatty.com/ (accessed on 6/7/2005). Bartolomeo, M., Benett, M., Bouma, J. J., Heydkamp, P., James, P., de Walle, F., Wolters, T., (1999). Eco-Management Accounting, Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands. 10. Bazeley, P., Richards, L., (2000). The Nvivo Qualitative Project Book. London: SAGE 11. Beatham, S., (2003). EngD Thesis, Development of an Integrated Business Improvement System for Construction, CICE, Loughborough University, October 2003 12. Blimas, N. G., (2001). Multiproject Environments of Construction Clients, PhD Thesis, Department of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University. 13. Bosworth, A., 1993, 'Local Authorities and Sustainable Development,' European Environment, 3 (1), pp.13-17. 14. Bourke, K., Ramdas, V., Singh, S., Green, A., Crudgington, A., Moontanah, D., (2005). Achieving Whole Life Value in Infrastructure and Buildings, BRE Bookshop, Watford, UK. 15. Brandon, P. S., (2000). Sustainability in Management and Organisation: The Key Issues? In Proceedings, Conference on Cities and Sustainability: Sustaining our Cultural Heritage, Kandalama, Sri Lanka, February 1116. 16. Brannen, J., (1992). Mixing Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Research, Ashgate Publishing Company, England. 17. BRE, (2002). BREEAM brochures, http://products.bre.co.uk/default.html (accessed on 6/3/2005). 18. BRE, (2002). Ecohome brochures, http://products.bre.co.uk/ecohomes (accessed on 6/3/2005). 19. BRE, (2002). Envest brochures, http://products.bre.co.uk/envest (accessed on 6/3/2005). 20. BRE, (2000). Sustainable Construction the Data, CR258/99, March 2000. 21. BRE, (2002). Sustainability Checklist for Developments: A Common Framework for Developers and Local Authorities. BRE Report 436, April 2002. Available at www.brebookshop.com 22. British Geological Survey, BGS, (1998). United Kingdom Minerals Yearbook, 1997. British Geological Survey, Nottingham. 23. Brundtland, G.H. (1987). Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Oxford University Press, Oxford. 24. Burns, S., (1999). The Natural Step: A Compass for Environmental Management Systems. Corporate Environmental Strategy, Volume 6, Number 3. 25. CBPP, (2004). [online], Accessed from http://www.cbpp.org.uk/cbpp/themes/wlc.jsp (accessed on 6/3/2004). 26. CBPP, (2004). Accessed from http://www.cbpp.org.uk/cbpp/themes/wlc.jsp (accessed on 6/3/2004) 27. CEEQUAL, Accessed from www.ceequal.com (accessed on 6/3/2004). 28. CIB, (1999). Agenda 21 on Sustainable Construction. CIB Report Publication 237. Conseil International du Batiment. 29. CICA, (2002). Industry as a Partner for Sustainable Development: Construction. The Confederation of International Contractors' Associations, Washington. 30. CICE, (1999). CICE- Engineering Doctorate Programme (Centre Publicity Literature), Department of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University. 31. CICE, (2001). Doctor of Engineering (EngD) Handbook 2003. Department of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University. 32. CIRIA C563, (2001). Sustainable Construction: Company Indicators. Alden Press, Oxford. 33. CIRIA News, (20001). Construction Industry Research and Information Association, Issue 2, London. 34. CIRIA, (2003). Assessing CSR in Property Investment CIEF workshop -E3230, workshop notes, Construction Industry Research and Information Association, London 35. Cole, R. and Larsson, K., (1999). GBC '98 and GB Tool, Building Research and Information, 27(4/5), 221 229. 36. Comb, C. R., (199). A Study of the Success Factors Influencing the Successful Development, Implementation and Operation of the Community Information Systems in the NHS. A PhD thesis at Loughborough University, UK. 37. Cowans D., (2003). In Carrillion's 2003 Sustainability Report, on-line report available at www.carrillion.co.uk (accessed on 6/6/2005). 38. Creswell, H., (1994). Research Design: Qualitative and Quantitative Approach. SAGE, London. 39. CRISP (2000) Construction for Sustainable Development Research and Innovation Needs, Strategy Panel, London. 40. CRISP (2000) Construction for Sustainable Development Research and Innovation Needs, Strategy Panel, London. 41. Crossley, R., (2002). Reputation, Risk and Reward: The Business Case for Sustainability in the UK Property Sector. A Report by the Sustainable Construction Task Group 42. Danny, A., John, B., Carl, C., Thomas, B., Njarki, H., Glenn, E., Kelly, L., Sean, T., (2001). Professional Java Data. Birmingham, Wrox Press. 43. Daviswalling, P., Batterman, S.A., (1997) Environmental Reporting by the Fortune 50 Firms, Environmental Management, 21(6), pp. 865-875. 44. DEFRA, (2001). The Environment in Your Pocket. Accessed from http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/eiyp/pdf/eiyp2001.pdf (accessed on 6/6/2005). 45. Denzin, N. K., (1970). The Research Act in Sociology, Butterworth, London. 46. DETR, (1999). A Better Quality of Life: A Strategy for Sustainable Development for the UK, The Stationery Office, London. 47. DETR, (2000). Building a Better Quality of life: Strategy for more Sustainable Construction, Eland House, London. 48. DETR, (2005). Securing the Future: Delivering UK Sustainable Development Strategy, The Stationery Office, London. 49. Dillman, D.A., and Bowker, D.K. (2001). The Web Questionnaire Challenge to Survey Method Internet Science 50. DoE, (1990). This Common Inheritance: Britain's Environmental Strategy Her Majesty's Government. Department of the Environment, CM 1200; HMSO September 1990. 51. DoE, (1994). Sustainable Development: The UK Strategy. Department of the Environment, CM 2426; HMSO January 1994. 52. Doppelt, B., (2003). Leading Change Toward Sustainability: A Change Management Guide for Business, Government and Civil Society, Greenleaf Publishing Ltd, Sheffield. 53. Dovers, S. R., Handmer, J. H., (1993). Contradictions in Sustainability, Environmental Conservation, Vol. 20(3): 217-222. 54. DTI and Corus, (2004). Achieving Sustainable Construction: Guidance for Clients and Their Professional Advisers. Accessed from http://www.corusconstruction.com/newuploads/asc.pdf 55. Du Plessis, C. and Edwards, B., (2001). Global Perspective: Learning from the Others Side, Architectural Design, 71(4), Page 38 45. 56. Dunphy, D., Benveniste, J., Griffiths, A. and Sutton, P., (2000), `Sustainability: The corporate challenge of the 21st century', Allen & Unwin, Austrialia 57. Egan, J., (1998). Rethinking Construction: The Report of the Construction Task Force, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, London, UK. 58. Eisenhart, K. M., (1989). Building Theories from Case Study Research. Academy of Management Review, Volume 14(4), Page 532 550. 59. Elkington, J., (2002). Cannibals With Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. Castone Publishing, London, UK. 60. Fellows, R. and Liu, A., (2003). Research Methods for Construction. 2nd Ed. Oxford: Blackwell Science Limited. 61. Flanagan, R., Norman, G., Meadows, J., Robinson, G., (1989). Life Cycle Costing Theory and Practice, BPS Professional Books, Oxford. 62. Fox, J.E., (2001). Usability Methods for Designing a Computer-assisted Data Collection instrumentthe FCSM Conference, Washington, D.C. 63. Frankfort-Nachmias, C., Nachimias, D., 1996, Research Methods in the Social Sciences, 5th edition, Arnold, London. 64. Galiers, R., (1992). Information System Research: Issues, Methods and Practical Guidelines, Blackwell Scientific, Oxford. 65. GCCP, (2000). Constructing the Best Government Client: Achieving Sustainability in Construction Procurement, Sustainability Action Group of the Government Construction Clients' Panel, London. 66. Gershon P., (1999). Review of Civil Procurement in Central Government. Office of Government Commerce, London. 67. Glaser, B. G. and A. L. Strauss (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory, Strategies for Qualitative research. New York: Aldine. 68. Graham, P., (2000). Building education for the next industrial revolution: teaching and learning environmental literacy for the building professions. Construction Management and Economics, 18(8), 917-925. 69. Graham, P., (2000). Building education for the next industrial revolution: teaching and learning environmental literacy for the building professions. Construction Management and Economics, 18(8), 917-925. 70. Grant, G. K., (1999). A Framework to Facilitate Construction Contractors Learning. PhD Thesis, Department of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University, UK. 71. Gray, R., Bebbington, J., (2001). Accounting for the Environment, SAGE Publications, London 72. Hancock, B., (1998). Trent Focus of Research and Development in Primary Health Care: An Introduction to Qualitative Research, Trent Focus. 73. Hill, D., (1998). Sustainable Development Tools and Techniques for Action, Proceeding of the Institute of Civil Engineers Municipal Engineers, Volume 127, December, 168-169. 74. Hill, R.C., (1994). A framework for the attainment of sustainable construction: Proceedings of First International Conference of CIB TG 16 on Sustainable Construction, Tampa, Florida, USA, 6-9 November, pp. 13-25. 75. Hill, R.C. and Bowen, P.A., (1997). Sustainable Construction: Principles and a Framework for Attainment. Construction Management and Economics, 15(3), 223 39. 76. HM Treasury, (2000). The New Procurement Guidance Note No. 7: Whole Life Cost. HM Treasury, UK 77. Hoinville, G. and Jowell, R., (1978). Survey Research Practice, Gower Publishing Company, England. 78. HSE, Accessed from www.hse.gov.uk/construction/index.htm (accessed on 6/3/2005). 79. Kane, E., 1977, Doing Your Own Research: How to do the Basic Descriptive Research in the Social Science and Humanities, Marion Boyars, London. 80. Key, J. P., (1997). Research Design in Occupational Education, Module R14: Qualitative Research. Oklahoma State University. 81. Kilber, C.J., (2003). Sustainable Construction at the Start of the 21st Century. Special Issue of the International Electronic Journal of Construction (IeJC), May 2003 82. Kilbert, C.J., (1994). Principles of Sustainable Construction. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Sustainable Construction, 6-9 November, Tampa, Florida, USA, Page 1-9. 83. Kolk, A., (2000). Green reporting, Harvard business review, 78(1), pp. 15-+. 84. Kotter, J.P., (1996). Leading Change', Harvard Business School Press, Boston. 85. Langston, C. A. and Ding, G., K., (2001). Sustainable Practices in the Built Environment, Oxford. 86. Latham, M., (1994). Constructing the Team, HMSO, London. 87. Lee, A. S., (1991). Integrating Positive and Interpretative Approach to Organisational Research. Organisational Science, Page 342 365. 88. LEED, Accessed from http://www.usgbc.org/programs/leed.htm (accessed on 6/3/2005). 89. LGMB, (1997). Local Agenda 21 in the UK The First Five Years, Report Prepared by B. Tuxworth, E. Thomas. London 90. Liberty, J. and Hurwitz, D., (2003). Programming ASP.NET: Building Web Applications and Services Using C# and VB.NET, 2nd (Ed.). O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. California. 91. Linddle, B.T., (1994). Construction for Sustainability and the Sustainability of the Construction Industry. Proceedings of First International Conference of CIB TG 16 on Sustainable Construction, Tampa, Florida, USA, 6-9 November, Page 47-56. 92. Long, D., (2001). A Toolkit of Sustainability Indicators, 2nd Ed. European Institute for Urban Affairs, Liverpool 93. M4I, (2002). Respect for People: A Framework for Action. The Report of the Rethinking Construction's Respect for People Working Group, Rethinking Construction Ltd, London. 94. Maner, W., (1997). [online], Rapid Application Development using Iterative Prototyping. http://csweb.cs.bgsu.edu/maner/domains/RAD.gif (accessed 20/4/2005). 95. MaSC, (2002). Managing Sustainable Construction: Profiting from Sustainability, CRC Ltd, London. 96. Miyatake, Y., (1996).Technology Development and Sustainable Construction. Journal of Management Engineering, 12(4), 23 27. 97. Moffatt, I., Hanley, N., Wilson, M., (2001). Measuring and Modelling Sustainable Development. Parthemon Publishing, London, UK. 98. Morgan, D., (1998). Focus Groups as Qualitative Research. California: SAGE. 99. Naoum, S., (1998). Dissertation Research and Writing for Construction Students, Butter-Heinemann, Oxford. 100.Nattrass, B. and Altomare, M., (2001). The Natural Step for Business: Wealth, Ecology and the Evolutionary Corporation (2nd Ed.), New Society Publishers, Canada. 101.Norman K. L., (2001). Implementation of Conditional Branching in Computerized Self-Administered Questionnaires. LAP-2001-02, HCIL-2001-26, CS-TR-4319, UMIACS-TR-2002-1. 102.Norman K. L., and Pleskac T.J., (2002). Conditional Branching in Computerized Self-Administered Questionnaires: An Empirical Study. LAP-2002-01, HCIL2002-02, CS-TR-4323, UMIACS-TR-2002-05. 103.Norman K. L., Pleskac T.J., Norman K., (2001) Navigational Issues in the Design of On-Line Self-Administered Questionnaires: The Effect of Training and Familiarity. LAP-2001-01, HCIL-2001-09, CS-TR-4255, UMIACS-TR-2001-38. 104.Norman K., Slaughter L. Friedman Z., and Stevenson R., (2000). Dual Navigation of Computerized Self-Administered Questionnaires and Organizational Records. LAP-2000-02, HCIL-2000-22, CS-TR-4192, UMIACS-TR-2000-71. 105.Norman, K. L., Friedman, Z., Norman, K. D., and Stevenson, R., (2000). Navigational Issues in the Design of On-Line Self Administered Questionnaires (HCIL-TR-2000-10, LAP-TR-2000-01) 106.OGC, (1999). Achieving Excellence, Available from www.ogc.gov.uk (accessed 10/5/2005). 107.Orum, A. M., Feagin, J. R. and Sjorberg, G., (1991). Introduction: The Nature of Case Study. In: Orum, A.M., Feagin, J.R. and Sjorberg, G. (Eds), A Case for Case Study: The University of North Carolina Press. 108.OWBC, (2001). Market Research: Types Methods and Techniques, Women's Business Center. http://www.onlinewbc.gov/docs/market/mkresearchtypes.htm/#quantitative (accessed 20/4/2005). 109.Owolabi, A. A., (2004). EngD Thesis, Development of an Integrated Product Information Management System, CICE, Loughborough University, October 2004 110.Parkins, S., (2000). Sustainable Development: the Concept and the Practical Challenge, Proceedings of ICE, Civil Engineering 138 November, Pages 3-8 Paper 12398. 111.Patton, M., (1992). Qualitative Method and Approaches: What are they? In Eileen Kuhuns and S.V., New Direction for Institutional Research, London. 112.Pearce, D. Markandya, A. & Babier, E., (1989). Blueprint for a Green Economy, Earthscan Publications, London. 113.RCS, (2003) Biodiversity Action Plan: Minimising Our Impact and Improving the Environment 2003/2004. Accessed from http://www.rcs.co.uk/new_publications (accessed on 30/7/2005). 114.RCS, (2004) RCS at a Glace. Accessed from http://www.rcs.co.uk/new_publications (accessed on 30/7/2005). 115.RESUS, Accessed from www.resus-engineer.co.uk (accessed on 30/7/2005). 116.Robert, K. H. (1995) The natural step, sustainability definition, education and practice. In Proceedings of the Global Leadership Conference, Management Education and Training for Sustainable Development, Costa Rica, 11-16 September, Management Institute for Environment and Business, Washington DC. 117.Roberts, P., (1995). Environmentally Sustainable Business: A Local and Regional Perspective. Paul Chapman, London, UK 118.Roodman, D. N. and Lenssen, N., (1994). Our Buildings, Ourselves. Worldwatch, 7(6), 21-29. 119.Roodman, D. N. and Lenssen, N., (1995). A Building Revolution: How Ecology and Health Concerns Are Transforming Construction, Worldwatch Paper 124, March. 120.Ruiker, K., (2004). EngD Thesis, Business Process Implications of E-commerce in Construction Organisations, CICE, Loughborough University, October 2004 121.Schober, M., Conrad, F., Ehlen, P. & Fricker, S. (2003). How Web surveys differ from other kinds of user interfaces. Paper presented at The 58th Annual Conference of the American Association of Public Opinion Research, Nashville, TN. 122.Selman, P., (1998). Local Agenda 21: Substance or Spin? Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Volume 5, Number 41, Page 533-553. 123.Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R., Roth, G. and Smith, B., (2002). The Dance of Change: The challenges of sustaining momentum in learning organisations', WS Bookwell, Finland. 124.Sherif, M. A., 2002, A Framework for improving pre-project planning, PhD thesis, Loughborough University UK. 125.SIGMA, (1999). SIGMA Project, Accessed from www.projectsigma.com 126.SJI, (1999). [online], A Judge's Deskbook on the Basic Philosophies and Methods of Science: Model Curriculum, State Justice Institute, USA. http://www.unr.edu/bench/cover%26ack.pdf (accessed 20/4/2005). 127.SpeAR, Accessed from www.arup.com/sustainability/services/SpeAR.cfm (accessed 20/4/2005). 128.Spedding, A., (1994). CIOB Handbook of Facilities Management, The Chartered Institute of Building, Longman Scientific & Technical, London. 129.Steele, J. L., (2000). The Interdisciplinary Conceptual Design of Building, PhD Dissertation, Department of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University. 130.Stoecker, R., (1991). Evaluating and Rethinking the Case Study. The Sociological Review, Volume 39, Page 88 112. 131.Sue-Mot, (2004a). Sustainable Urban Environment - Metrics, Models & Toolkits Main Programme: Draft Case for Support. 132.Sue-Mot, (2004b). Metrics, Models & Toolkits for Whole Life Sustainable Urban Development - A Scoping study: Supporting Case. 133.Sue-Mot, (2004c). Sustainable Urban Environment Metrics, Models and Toolkits: Analysis of Sustainability/Social Tools. Accessed from www.suemot.org.uk/publications.htm (accessed 20/7/2005). 134.Sue-Mot, (2004d) Sustainable Urban Environment Metrics, Models and Toolkits: Analysis of Sustainability/Environmental Tools. Accessed from www.suemot.org.uk/publications.htm (accessed 20/7/2005). 135.Taylor Woodrow (2003) Taylor Woodrow Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2003, on-line report available at www.taylorwoodrow.com 136.Turner, B. (1981). `Some Practical Aspects of Qualitative Data Analysis: One Way of Organising the Cognitive Processes Associated with the Generation of Grounded Theory'. Quality and Control. Vol. 15. (pp. 225-245). 137.UNCED, (1992). Agenda 21-Action Plan for the Next Century. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro). 138.WCED (1987). Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Oxford University Press, Oxford. 139.Webopedia, (2004). [online], http:///www.webopedia.com (accessed 20/4/2005). 140.Whatis, (2000). [online], http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition (accessed 20/4/2005). 141.Whitten, J.L., Bentley, L.D., (1998). System Analysis and Design Method 4th Edition, New York, Irwin McGraw-Hill. 142.Wong, H. C., Holt, D. G., and Cooper, A. P., (2000). Lowest Price or Value? Investigation of UK Construction Clients' Tender Selection Process, Construction Management and Economics 18, 767774. 143.Wyatt, D. P., (1994). Recycling and Serviceability: The Twin Approach to Securing Sustainable Construction: Proceedings of First International Conference of CIB TG 16 on Sustainable Construction, Tampa, Florida, USA, 6-9 November, pp. 69-78. 144.Yin, K.R., (1994). Case Study Research: Design Methods, Applied Social Research Methods Series, Volume 5, Sage Publication, London. APPENDIX A PAPER 1 Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (2005). The Barriers and Possible Solution to Achieve Sustainable Development. Accepted in The Proceeding of the Second Scottish Conference for Postgraduate Researchers of the Built and Natural Environment (ProBE). Glasgow Caledonian University, November 2005. THE BARRIERS AND POSSIBLE SOLUTION TO ACHIVE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Israel Adetunji1, Andrew Price1, Paul Fleming1, Pam Kemp2 Centre for Innovative Construction Engineering, Department of Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU Raynesway Construction Southern Limited, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 7TY E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: The increasing spectrum of environmental and social challenges instigated by the failure of development strategies, the continuous proliferation of unsustainable patterns of production and consumption coupled with the anticipated level of population stimulated the pursuit of a new path. Sustainable development has emerged as a possible remedy. Despite increasing efforts to marry the social and environmental challenges with economic growth, progress remains remote. Against this background, the paper aims to investigate the root cause of the current poor progress in terms of the practical application of the concept. The paper reinforces the drawbacks of the current societal conflict resolution mechanism: market and political arenas. As a possible solution, it suggest the urgent need for a shift to the third arena, which facilitates integration of public debates, scientific evidence and policy, and extensive use of innovative tools such as precautionary principle to ensure a high-quality decision-making process. Keywords: challenges, development, progress, solutions, sustainability. Sustainable development emerged as a possible means of integrating social, environmental and economic growth so that the needs of the present generations can be met without jeopardising the possibility of the future generation from meeting their own needs. The concept of sustainable development is a classic example of the evolution of a new world order. A concept which "has passed through all the predictable stages: from an ideological side-show, an interesting trend met with equal measures of enthusiasm, scepticism and uncertainty to an agenda on which we might have differences of opinion, but one which we cannot deny, and one which individuals, companies and institutions increasingly adopt as their own.... Typically, it begins as an almost unnoticeable trend that gradually takes shape and finally develops into a fundamental global condition" (Nordic, 2002 pp 8). Figure 1 shows the dramatic increase of international media interest in sustainability while Figure 3 shows the timeline of both global and UK efforts to achieve sustainable development Despite increasing high profile global conferences and events aimed at promoting sustainable development, its uptake in terms of practical application is conspicuously low (NFSD, 2002; Dyllick and Hockerts, 2002). This paper explores the reason behind this and reviews a large body of knowledge to develop a topology of challenges and a timeline of various attempts to promote sustainable development. It also examines barriers to sustainability and suggested a possible way forward. Figure 1: Key words in 12 leading international media 1995-2001 (Nordic, 2002) 2. THE NEED FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Sustainability describes the ideal society- a better quality of life for everyone now and for generations to come (see Brundtland, 1987; DETR, 1999). The relevant literature is abound with the spectrum of sustainability challenges (IPCC, 1996; UNDP 1999; 2000). The evolution of sustainable development has been driven by demographic and environmental concern, value creation and increased industrial activity. Demography, poverty and economic concern The current world population is about 6 billion, an increase by 140 per cent over the last fifty years. By 2050, it is projected to be 9 billion (UN, 2002). Of the current six billion, fifty per cent have to survive on less than two dollars per day (Leisinger and Schmitt, 2002), one-fifth have no access to health care, one-sixth have no access to safe water to drink, and over 40 per cent lack access to sanitation and modern energy services (DTI, 2004). Demography, poverty, urbanisation and quality of life Geographically the earth is ageing. Demographically, most of the nations are becoming younger (Fussler and James, 1996) although in the most developed countries, life expectancy is rising while birth rate is declining. The implications of this are: slowdown in the rate of economic growth, unsustainability of pension schemes and public health facilities. In the EU, regional imbalances remain a major concern as 1 in 6 Europeans live in poverty. Value creation, industrial activity and environmental degradation The increasing depletion of natural resources and environmental degradation underscore the urgent need to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation. Major environmental problems such as CO2 emissions, deterioration in air and water quality, depletion of forest, and solid waste generation are caused by industrial activity. As a result, some have demanded 90 per cent dematerialization of the economic processes to achieve a `factor 10' improvement (Schmidt-Bleek, 1994). Unequal distribution of wealth Inequalities within and between countries are greater than anything experienced before (UNDP, 2000), where 80 per cent of the world income is received by 20 per cent of the world's population (Leisinger and Schmitt, 2002). The ill-conceived globalisation through strategic alliances; the ever-increasing economic power of the World Trade Organisation exacerbate these gaps (UNDP, 1999). Aside from the moral and ethical considerations associated with social inequalities, there are many practical issues. Inequality reduces efficiency and productivity of the poor thereby causing low economic growth and undermining social cohesion. Social exclusion promotes violence, crime, drugs, family breakdown, dependence on state benefits and so on. Extreme inequality threatens the whole economy as a large proportion of the society loose connectivity with the assets and organisations that produce the wealth (Dimbleby et al, 2000). According to Gates (1999 pp8) "Two-tier societies and two-tier marketplaces are not the fertile soil in which robust democracies take root". Other contemporary challenges and impact on the built environment The occurrences of new diseases, especially the growing impact of the AIDS epidemic, the effects of climate change and urban growth on the built environment are examples of other contemporary challenges. Future changes in the built environment will have to meet the challenges created by climate change and urban growth. Statistics indicate (Figure 2) that the population of cities will increase three-fold to over six billion by 2050. Average populationn per year 79.8 59.2 Urban World (in millions) Population Mid-2000 2,823 6,137 0 1,000 2,000 3,000 Figure 2: Population Trends1 Ccollated: http://www.prb.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Other_reports/20002002/2001 World Population Data Sheet.htm#highlights) The environmental and social changes addressed have been with us for much of the last century, but the pressures are intensified as society now faces additional environmental and social stresses (Roome, 1998). Dealing with them will require considerable invention and innovation. Sustainable development is presently the only answer available (Enmarch-Williams, 1996; Blair, 2005). 3. THE SEED OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Literature review indicates that the concept of sustainable development is not new. The historical decline, the content and structure of many traditional views and religion beliefs and body of knowledge are the crucial tenet of the contemporary concept of sustainable development`living in harmony with nature and within society' (Adetunji et al, 2003). The narrow concern of the adverse impact of our economic model in the late 1960s (Carson, 1962; Erhlich, 1968) has blossom into a wider debate on a major reform of this model in the early 1970s (Meadows, 1972; Schumacher, 1973). The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) formulated the World Conservation Strategy in 1980. This strategy aimed to integrate the environment and development concerns into a single concept of conservation (Tryzna, 1995) and provided a focal point for an earlier diffuse idea and underpinned the concept of sustainability (Khosla, 1995). Holmberg (1994) argued that though the IUCN could claim credit for introducing the term `sustainable development' for the first time. The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), through the Brundtland Report (1987), brought the concept to the political arena. Figure 3 shows the timeline of both global and UK Government attempts to promote sustainable development. UKnewstrategy was launched "Abetter quality UNGeneral Assem bly Aspecial UNConference of life Astrategy for SD discussed the issues in is held to reviewthe for the UK" with 150 set it the Brundtland Report. Earth Summ in Rio im entation of plem of core indicators and 15 attended byroughly 180 A The outcom was the e genda 21 (Rio+5) to subset headline indicators. countries. The m ain passage of resolution repeat the call for all Abaseline assessm and ent outcom are the Rio es 44/228 which calls for a countries to have SD five supplem entary declaration on UNconference on strategies in place by next consultation docum ents Environm & ent UNConference on Environm and ent reviewof Agenda 21 in were also published Developm which sets 2002 (Rio+10) ent Hum Environm an ent Developm ent. `Opportunity for Change: out 27 principles considers the need for a Sustainable Construction, supporting SD. Agenda The establishm of The UKGovernm ent ent com on outlook and m Sustainable Business, 21 and Local Agenda 21 European Comm unity via M principles to guide the produces a progress aking Biodiversity report on im enting action plans urging both the ratification of the plem world in the Happen, Sustainable sustainable developm ent: countries and local Treaty of Am sterdam , preservation and Production and Use of authorities to produce gives SDa m greater `Sustaining Our uch enhancem of the ent Chem and Tourism icals SDstrategies Comm Future' on prom inence hum environm an ent Towards Sustainability The UKSDprogress report for 2002 published. Also the Governm launched ent the Energy W Paper and hite Sustainable Comm unities Plan In the UKConstruction Industry, the Better The UKGovernm Buildings Summ was held ent it published its first and attended by 190 senior annual reviewof industry m bers, the em progress towards Deputy Prim M e inister & sustainable two Secretaries of State. developm ent, A chieving a better Also the Industry: progress towards m sustainable ore quality of life, Governm annual construction 2000 2003 ent was published report 2000 The UKGovernm ent SDlatest strategy was launched "Securing the Future" The W Comm orld ission on Environm and ent Developm published ent the Brundtland Report, "Our Com on Future" it m brings the concept to the political arena. The m ost widely used definition and the starting point of discussion of the concept UKfirst com prehensive strategy, the W hite Paper on the Environm "This ent Comm inheritance" on based on the idea in Our Comm Future on The UKBecom one es of the first countries to produce a Sustainable Developm (SD) ent strategy in response to the Rio's Agenda 21 agreem Sustainable ent, Developm The UK ent: Strategy. The W Summ on orld it sustainable developm ent in Johannesburg. Businesses took a prom role inent The UKSDprogress report for 2001 published The UKconsultation on the `Opportunity for Change' together with a set of headline indicators of sustainable developm ent: Sustainability Counts The UKconsultation on the `Opportunityfor Change' together with a set of headline indicators of sustainable developm ent: Sustainability Counts The UKstrategy for construction "Building a better quality of life a strategy for m ore sustainable construction was published. The National A bly ssem for W adopts its SD ales schem "ASustainable e W Learning to Live ales Differently" Figure 3: The timeline for sustainable development 3.1 Sustainable Development - Knowledge Versus Progress During the last four decades there has been a proliferation of political activities to promote sustainable development. However, despite the increasing efforts to marry social and environmental challenges with economic growth, the outcomes of various reviews consistently suggest that success is mixed and progress remains remote (Annan, 2001). The conclusion of the global analysis of the progress made so far indicated "little evidence of a massive shift in attitudes and actions on the part of all major players upon which the realisation of a sustainable development process depends. Individual, political and entrepreneurial inertia as well as tactical behaviour continues to delay a halt of environmental destruction and resource mismanagement" (NFSD, 2002 pp2). In the UK, the recent authoritative review of progress since 1999 concluded `Shows Promise, But must try harder (SDC, 2004). Against this backdrop, through extensive literature review and deductive reasoning, the paper explores the root cause of the current poor progress and suggested possible solutions. 4. BARRIERS TO ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 4.1 Historical Disparity Between the two Parts of the Concept A good appreciation of changes in thinking regarding the conceptualisation of sustainable development is a prerequisite to understanding the challenges of its practical application (Elliot et al., 1994). The origin of the concept of sustainable development lies in two distinct disciplines of development and environment, which were separated until 1960s. As understanding of the challenges and achievements of both disciplines changed, they came closer with the realisation that environment and development were interdependent and mutually reinforcing issues. The changing perceptions of both epistemologies and their emergence are possible reasons for the poor progress of the practical application of sustainable development. Changing perceptions of development In the 1960s, a positive causal relationship between development and economic growth was assumed and economic growth was measured through Gross National Product (GNP). It was generally assumed that the problem of the South could be quickly solved through financial aid, technology and expertise transfer (Elliot et al., 1994; and Radclift, 1987). In the 1970s, some progress was indicated by GNP. However, the increased poverty, population growth and inequality provided renewed challenges to economic development. As a result, the focus was widened to include `Even distribution of income' and `Population control'. These are perceived as fundamental parts of any development strategy, hence such phrases as `Growth with Equity' and `Redistribution with Growth'. The understanding of development took a new dimension in the 1980s and was perceived as a multi-dimensional concept encapsulating widespread improvements in the social, as well as, the material well-being of all in the society. It was recognised that there was no single model for achieving development and that investment in all sectors (for example, agriculture, industry and so on) was required. For development to be sustainable; it must encompass not only economic and social factor, but also those related to population, natural resources and resulting impacts on the environment (Radclift, 1987). Changing perceptions of the environment Environmental conservation took off in the 1960s when coherent bodies of work were published (Carston, 1962; Erlich, 1968). The multiple effects of unsustainable patterns of production and consumption of the developed world started to emerge. Concern was intensified due to population growth, increasing demand on natural resources in the developing world and its threats on global environmental quality. However, the notion of environmental conservation gained little or no support from the developing countries for various reasons (Radclift, 1987): · resources were perceived as infinite; · environmental degradation is inevitable consequence of industrial development; · scepticism of the motives behind proposal to limit their development; · strong belief that development can only be achieved through industrialisation; and · environmental problems are solely caused by the industrial world hence they should deal with. 119 Emergence of environment and development The major political dilemma of the Brundtland is the integration of social and environmental decline with the desire for economic development in the South and economic growth in the North (Adetunji, 2003). This historical disparity is the cause of current divergence of views and perspectives, values and beliefs and, experience and insights as evidence in the various global political negotiations on environmental targets. 4.2 Lack of Clarity and Contradictions of the Concept The relevant literature provides different definitions for sustainable development and there is still much confusion and conflict about the meaning of the concept. Sustainability is an integrative and crosscutting concept, characterised by deep-rooted contradictions of incompatible goals (Dovers and Handmer, 1993). This systemic dysfunction is rooted in the often irreconcilable two parts of the concept`sustainability' and `development'. The combination of these two words resulted in multi-dimensional variables and sub-variables rather than the sum of two concepts put together (Samson, 1995). Dovers and Handmer (1993) identified eight contradictions as follows: · Cause versus cure: technological and cultural paradox. · Humility versus arrogance: uncertainty of decision making despite increased information regarding · · · · · · global environmental crisis. Intergenerational versus intragenerational equity: redistribution of resources is ecologically defined but politically impossible trade off. Economic growth versus ecological limits: 'sustainable' and 'development' is an oxymoron. Individual versus collective interests: the reconciliation of the two distinctive views. The western culture is epitomised by individual sovereignty, protected through the political frameworks, while sustainability is a collective problem instigated through the sum of the individual preferences. Diversity versus purpose: potential conflict between diversity of democracy and purpose action. Adaptability versus resistance: differing kind of resilience in the face of change. Optimisation versus spare capacity: optimisation is anti-sustainability. Table 1: Summary of comments on conceptual irregularities Commentators Comments Brandon, 2000; Cecchini, 2000 Meadowcroft, 1999; Oldeman, 1995; O'Riordan Voisey, 1998; Hill and Bowen, 1997; Gatto, 1995 Dovers and Handmer 993; Mullaney and Pinfield, 1996; Vague, ambiguous and ill defined Fuzzy concept and open to a wide range of interpretations Incompatible and incomplete Motherhood and apple pie, a breeding ground for disagreement Anthropogenic- centred on human welfare excluding other creatures Pearce, 1989; Daly, 1996 Kirby, 1995 4.3 Time Required for Cultural Change and Lack of Political Will The pursuit of sustainable development requires a concomitant reform in constellation of social and political forces at the global, national and local levels. Of course this is a cumulative and lengthy process, which requires cultural change. Several voluntary agreements have been reached, particularly during and post Rio Summit, but the political will to enforce them has often been misplaced (Blair, 2005). The regional agreement on sulphur dioxide and a global agreement on ozone-depleting chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons led to a general optimism that the world is heading towards the right direction and inspired the conventions on climate, biodiversity and the forests. However, the outcomes of the negotiation on these three issues indicate misplaced optimism (Dresner et al., 2002). 4.4 Differing Views and Conflicts of Interest Among Major Players The differing views and conflict of interest among major players on the ability of the environment to endure human impact are the major reasons for inadequalte policy. This has raised concerns on the effectiveness of the current democratic decision-making and consensus-seeking mechanism to the achievement of sustainable development. Drawing from the work of Thompson (1990), Rayner (1991) and Samson (1995), the conceptual debates on the effect of the global development and environmental change can be characterised using the analogy of four competing views of environment, which represent a mixture of physical and perceived reality (Samson, et al., 1995). As depicted in Table 2, the illustration comprises four topologies of environmental views, demonstrated by a bowl situated in a landscape to represent ideal-typical positions. Table 2: Summary of the four competing viewpoints Views of nature I. Environment is robust II. Environment is fragile III. Environment is robust within limits IV. Environment is chaotic Visualisation Comment Environment is extremely robust and very forgiving of human impact regardless of what is done to the landscape, the ball will always return to equilibrium at the bottom of the basin (Simon 1981). Individualist: Environmental crises are positive challenges with bundles of new opportunities for human ingenuity. Environment is extremely unforgiving and fragile to the extent that a trivial knock on the landscape will cause its collapse (Goldsmith, 1993; Devall and Sessions, 1985. Egalitarian: Global environmental changes are reflection of the multiple negative humans impacts and these will eventually lead to irreversible collapse of the planet Deep ecologist Environment is resilient and forgiving within identifiable boundary, which must not be surpassed or the ball can be knocked over the edge. (Brundtland Report and national/ local strategies) Environment is random, chaotic unpredictable. Defies any sort of mitigation, control or management. A ball on an flat plane. Fatalist: Environment is lottery driven cornucopia with sheer luck. Institution / shared Solution Hierarchist: Ecological degradation and natural resources requires carefully management through accurate scientific understanding of ecological limits to avoid global catastrophe Political institution / Government Internalisation of externalities; standards and operating procedures; scientific research Example (Tolba et al., 1992, pp 2) Free market and green technology. The invisible hand steer the market in the right direction and the Gov't should have a laissezfaire attitude. Recovery in Cental American from over use by early settlements to original state of dense tropical jungle. Substitution of anthropocentric hierarchies with biocentric egalitarianism; living in harmony with environment The problem of desertification and urbanisation. Proponents do not often enunciate view. Doing nothing is the best solution Kano a large city in north Nigeria has withstood intermittent droughts over many centuries. Forest fires, release essential nutrients contributing to rapid regeneration' Each interprets the concept based on his/her own background, personal orientation to justify their own chosen strategy or action, and all opposing views are rouge information, misguided and deliberate attempts to impede economic growth. This calls to mind the South-North and America-Europe divide on forest and climate change negotiations and accounts for the poor progress since Rio Summit. The American negotiate from the premise that `environment is robust' while the European `environment is robust within limits'. There is an entrenched dichotomy between individualist (business and industry), egalitarian (deep ecologist) and hierarchies (political institutions), each of which has been observed to display its own distinctive form of rationality that legalises its operation. These become more interesting when the unpredictability and ever-changing faces of nature comes into play, occasionally fitting each of these views, thus alternately testifying the legitimacy of these multiple views, as can be seen from the example provided in Table 2. 5. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE WAY FORWARD The discussion so far suggests that the conventional `market' and `political' regulatory arenas are narrow in scope in marrying development with multiple views of environmental capability. There is a disparity between democratic decision-making, consensus-seeking and long-term planning concerning sustainable development (Schomberg et al, 2002). For instance, the review of literature concerning climate change negotiations indicates that negotiations by most national representatives are mainly based on political feasibility rather than environmental acceptability. The reason being, (i) the increasing concentration of power to the few multi-national corporations through globalisation and (ii) probable maximisation of re-election prospect of national governments especially when environmental competes with economic objectives. Many political leaders have a strong inducement to negotiate for, or even reject, the lowest possible level of environmental measures that are achievable with no major economic repercussions and can be presented to the public as a success. The Bush-administration rejection of the Kyoto agreement and disinclination to any reduction of CO2-emissions is an example (Dresner, 2002). In view of these, like many authors (Birkeland, 1996; Keijzers 2002; Schomberg, 2002), the paper reinforces the need for the so-called third arena of the societal conflict resolution (depicted in Table 3) based on the global ethics of co-responsibility and new deliberative procedures to accommodate conflicting interest and limitations of market and political regulatory mechanisms. The third arena with decision-making process based on debate, mediation and transition management as opposed to the current process of vote and negotiation. The following elements form the main components of the third arena (Schomberg et al, 2002): · Increase in public debates at all levels to provide an interface between system and subsystems · · · politics, law, science and the political decision-making process. Technology assessment procedures must be established to complement general public debate and to provide an interface between a particular subsystem and the political decision-making process Constitutional change or structural political change to accommodate the new forms of public debate and the development of transpersonal science and technology assessment processes. Science for sustainability is a complex system surrounded by scientific uncertainty and ignorance. There is a case for a new type of tool to facilitate smooth science-policy interface. A new decisionmaking tool for policy makers to assess the quality of the information rather than the truth within each scientific statement. Governance, precautionary principle, and sustainability should be inherently connected to each other to ensure a high-quality policy process. Normative (deliberative) design based on foresight/back-casting the establishment of normative targets, as a point of departure will help to find a common ground between scientific and policy level. Deliberative procedures such as the application of the precautionary principle help to find consensus on such targets. System innovation offers a route for achieving sustainability benefits. This requires a `transition management' with the key elements of formulation of transitional goals and the use of process management based on a philosophy of learning by doing and doing by learning, to resolve the long-term goals of sustainability and short-term ambition of the private and public sectors. Visionary Enterprises: the companies of tomorrow are the one that start integrating long term planning in its core business as evidence of the growing numbers of green consumers. Hence all organisation must develop a visible long term plans. Table 3: Dimensions of societal conflict resolution (adapted by Schomberg, 2002 pp 20) Dimensions Individuals Individuals/ Society Individuals/ Society/ Environment Interests Wants/Preferences Rights Needs/ Responsibility Standards Efficiency Social Justice/Equity Ethics of ResponsibilityPrecautionary Principle/ Pursuit of sustainability Processes Trade Vote/Negotiate Debate/ Mediate/ Transition management Arena Market Politics/stakeholder agreements Long term Planning concerning sustainable development/Intern ational negotiations Sustainable development like any other evolutionary concept has a long history. The spectrum of challenges and their deep-rooted interconnectivity are the justification for the pursuit of sustainable development. Despite increasing effort to marry the social and environmental challenges with economic growth, progress remains remote. The key main barriers to progress are (i) historical disparity between the two parts of the concept; (ii) lack of clarity and contradictions of the concept; (iii) time required for cultural change and lack of political will; (iv) differing views and conflict of interest among major players; and (v) inadequacy of the current societal conflict resolution mechanism (market and political arenas). To achieve the ultimate goal of sustainability, this paper reinforces the urgent need for a shift to the third arena, which facilitates a smooth integration of public needs (through public debates and capacity building), scientific evidence and policy, and extensive use of innovative tools such as precautionary principle (preventative measure, even without scientific certainty of major human or environment impairment) to ensure a high-quality decision-making process. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P. (2003) The Application of Systems Thinking to the Concept of Sustainability. The Proceeding of the Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM), University of Brighton, UK, 3-5 September, 161-170. Annan, K., 2001, United Nations: Economic and Social Council: Commission on Sustainable Development Acting as the Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development: 19 December 2001 www.cop4.org/resource/docs/cop3/l07a01.pdf (20/12/2004). Birkland, J., 1996, Ecological Government, in Technology and Society Magarzine, No 2: 21-28. Blair, T., 2005, Forward, In DETR, Securing the Future: Delivering UK Sustainable Development Strategy, The Stationery Office, London. Brandon, P. S., 2000, Sustainability in Management and Organisation: The Key Issues? In Proceedings, Conference on Cities and Sustainability: Sustaining our Cultural Heritage, Kandalama, Sri Lanka, Feb., 1116. Brundtland, G., H., 1987, Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, New York. Carson, R., 1962, Silent Spring, Hamish Hamilton Publishers, London Cecchini A. B., 2000, On Certain Linguistic Imperfections and the Desire to Avoid Immortality: Notes on the Concept of the Sustainable City. In Proceedings, Conference on Cities and Sustainability: Sustaining our Cultural Heritage, Kandalama, Sri Lanka, February, 7178. Club of Rome, 1991, The First Global Revolution, The World Twenty Years After: The Limits to Growth, by King A., Schneider B., Simon & Schuster, New York. Devall, B., Sessions, G., 1985, Deep Ecology: Living As If nature Mattered, UT: Peregrine Smith, Salt Lake City. Dimbleby, J., 2000, From Here to Sustainability: Politics in the Real World, London. Dovers, S. R., Handmer, J. H., 1993, Contradictions in Sustainability, Environmental Conservation, Vol. 20(3): 217222. Dresner, S., 2002, The Principle of Sustainability, The Earthscan Publications, London. DTI, 2004, Sustainable Construction Brief 2. http://www.dti.gov.uk/construction/sustain/fb.pdf (20/4/2005). Dyllick, T., Hockerts, K., 2002, Beyond the Business Case for Corporate Sustainability, Business Strategy and the Environment, Volume 11, 130-141. Elliot, J. A., 1994, An Introduction to Sustainable Development: The Developing World, Routledge, London. Enmarch-Williams, H., 1996, Environmental Risks and Rewards for Business, Chichester. Erlich, P., 1968, The Population Bomb, Friends of the Earth book, London, 1971. Fussler, C., James, P., 1996, Driving Eco-Innovation: A Breakthrough Disciple for Innovation and Sustainability, Pitman, London. Gates, J., 1999, The ownership Solution, Penguin, London. Gatto M., 1995, Sustainability: Is It a Well Defined Concept? Ecological Implications, 5(4), 118184. Goldsmith, E., 1993, The Way: An Ecological World-View. Boston: Shambhala. Gun, J. M., Keller, W., 1990, Biological Recovery of an Acid Lake after Reduction in Industrial Emissions of Sulphur, Nature, 345, 431-33 Hill, R.C. and Bowen, P.A., 1997, Sustainable Construction: Principles and a Framework for Attainment. Construction Management and Economics, 15(3), 22339. Holmberg, J. (ed.), 1994. Policies for a Small Planet, Earthscan Publications, London IPCC, 1996, Climate Change 1995: Impacts, Adaptations and Mitigation of Climate Change: Scientific-Technical Analysis: Contribution of Working Group II to the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change R.T. Watson, M.C. Zinyowera, and R.H. Moss (eds.), Cambridge. IUCN/UNEP/WWF, 1991, Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living, Gland, Switzerland. Jacobs, M., 1991, The Green Economy: Environment, Sustainable Development and the Politics of the Future, Pluto Press, London. Kennard, R. M., 1995, Environmental Challenge for Engineers: Hong Kong Perspective, J. Profl. Issues in Engrg. Educ. And Pract., ASCE, 121(2), 140-142. Khosla, A., 1995, Foreword, In Tryzna, T.C. A Sustainable World, Sacramento: IUCN. Kirby, J., O'Keefe, P., and Timberlake, L., 1995, Sustainable Development: The Earthscan Reader, Earthscan Publications, London. Leisinger, K. M., Schmitt, K. M., Pandya-Lorch, R., 2002, Six Billion and Counting: Population and Food Security in the 21st Century, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFRRI) and Johns Hopkins University Press, Washinton, D.C. Malthus, T., 1798, An Essay on the Principle of Population and Summary View of the Principle of population, Penguin books Ltd, Middlesex, 1970 Meadowcroft, J., 1999, Planning for Sustainable Development: What can be Learned from the Critics?, in: M. Kenny & J. Meadowcroft (Eds) Planning Sustainability London, Routledge. Meadows, D. H., Meadows, D. L., Randers, J., Behrens III, W. W., 1972, The Limits to Growth, Universe Books, New York. Meadows, D. H., Meadows, D. L., Randers, J., Behrens III, W. W., 1972, The Limits to Growth, Universe Books, New York. Mill, J. S., 1848, The Principles of Political Economy, Penguin, Harmandsworth, 1985 Muir, J., 1894, The Mountains of California, Penguin...New York, 1997 Mullaney, A. and Pinfield, G., 1996, No Indication of Quality or Equity. Town and Country Planning, May, 1323. NFSD, 2002, Sustainable Development: A Common Challenge for North and South, Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development (NFSD), 2002, http://www.foundation.novartis.com/sustainable_development_print.htm#outlook (20/9/04). Nordic, 2002, Business Models for Sustainability: Experience and Opportunities from the Nordic Partnership. WWF and Mandag Morgen, Copenhagen. O'Riordan, T. R., Voisey, H. (Eds), 1998, The Transition to Sustainability: The Politics of Agenda 21 in Europe, Earthscan, London. Oldeman, R. A. A., 1995, Sustainable Development is Fuzzy Development, Nature and Resources, 31(3), Page 1. Pearce, D., Markandya, A. and Babier, E., 1989, Blueprint for a Green Economy, Earthscan Publications, London. Radclift, M., 1987, Sustainable Development: Exploring the Contradictions, Methuen, London. Rayner, S., 1991, A Cultural Perspective on the Structure and Implementation of Global Environmental Agreements, Evaluation Review, Vol. 15(1): 120-47. Roome, J. N., 1998, Sustainable Strategies for Industry: The Future of Corporate Practice, Washington, D.C. Samson, P., 1995, The concept of sustainable development, Discussion Papers, Green Gross International http://www.gci.ch/DigitalForum/digiforum/discussionspapers/concept.html Schmidt-Bleek, F., 1994, Wieviel Umwelt braucht der Mensch? MIPS. Das Maß für ökologisches Wirtschaften, Basel. (in English as: The Fossil Makers - Factor 10 and more, New York 1997). Schumacher, E. F., 1973, Small is Beautiful, Blond & Briggs, London. SDC, 2004, Shows Promise But Must Try Harder: An Assessment by the Sustainable Development Commission of the Government's Reported Progress on Sustainable Development over the Past Five years. http://www.sdcommission.org.uk/news/resource_download.php?attach_id=SMDOB79-7JQMZFE-1OHI1PA-UFRDL3I (20/4/2005). Simon, J., 1981, The Ultimate Resource. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. The Global 2000 Report to the President. Entering the Twenty-First Century. A Report by the Council on Environmental Quality and the Department of State. Blue Angel Inc., Charlottesville 1981. Thompson, M., Ellis, R., Wildavsky, A., 1990, Cultural Theory, CO: Westview Press, Oxford. Tolba, M. K., El-Kholy, O. A., 1992, The World Environment 1972 1992: Two decades of challenge, Chapman and Hall, London. Tryzna, T. C., 1995, A Sustainable World, Sacramento: IUCN. UNCED, 1992, Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, (UNCED Report) A/CONF.151/5/Rev.1 13 June 1992. UNDP, 1999, Human Development Report 1999, New York. UNDP, 2000, Human Development Report 2000, New York. Von Schomberg, R., 2002, The Objective of Sustainable Development: are we coming closer?, Foresight Working Papers Series No 1: www.cordis.lu/rtd2002/foresight/home.html (12/4/05). APPENDIX B PAPER 2 Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (2003). The Application of Systems Thinking to the Concept of Sustainability. The Proceeding of the Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM), University of Brighton, UK, 3-5 September, 161-170. THE APPLICATION OF SYSTEMS THINKING TO THE CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABILITY Israel Adetunji1, Andrew Price1, Paul Fleming1, Pam Kemp2 1 Centre for Innovative Construction Engineering, Department of Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU 2 Raynesway Construction Southern Limited, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 7TY The study proposes a systems model for the concept of sustainability. Based on the premise that the spectrum of challenges of sustainable development are systemic problems that cannot be resolved with a reductionist approach, the paper explores the key conceptual successions to explain the root of sustainable development. It then clarifies a few misconceptions concerning the Brundtland Report and highlights the limitations of the current widely used model of sustainability. The study collates and synthesises recent definitions of the concept. It then applies systems thinking to develop a more comprehensive model to promote the understanding and form the basis for further research in the application of a systems approach to the concept of sustainability. Keywords: Historical, Models, Sustainability, Systems, Views, The concept of Sustainable Development has attracted major interest since the publication of Brundtland Report `Our Common Future' in 1987 and has become a commonplace term since the Earth Summit Conference in 1992. Many academics and practitioners are actively seeking to better define the concept. Although the Brundtland definition has made a major contribution in promoting the concept throughout the world, the need for a more comprehensive model is apparent from: · the growing attempt of stakeholders to further understand the concept as evidence from the existence of multiple definitions; · the limitations and narrow scope of the current model (represented with three overlapping circles as depicted in Figure 1) which implies, among others, equal weightings of the three conceptual components and fails to show that the environmental dimension is pre-conditional for both the social and economic sustainability; and · the fact that the spectrums of challenges of sustainable development are systemic problems that cannot be resolved with the traditional scientific method of the reductionist approach (explaining the properties of the whole system from the properties of the components). Sustainability is the integration of the environmental, social and economic systems to improve the quality of life within earth's carrying, regenerating and assimilating capacity. Each of these systems has a numerous nested hierarchy of subsystems; each subsystem is a whole on its own and forms an integral part of a complex system. The properties of each of these subsystems greatly change when interact with other subsystems. As a result, the properties of a single subsystem cannot be used to explain the properties of the whole system. Hence the concept of sustainability falls beyond the 127 narrow scope of reductionism and compartmentalised specialisation. The issues addressed by sustainability are complex with multidimensional variables and subvariables. Their complexity cannot be fully understood nor managed, without a systems approach and strategy (Rose, 2001; Dovers and Handmer, 1992). With systems approach each system with their subsystems can be viewed and are always treated as an integral whole of their subsidiary parts, and under no circumstances "as the mechanistic aggregate of parts in isolable causal relations" (Laszlo, 1972 pp14). A mechanism to help define the systems to be integrated and view the systems hierarchy would aid understanding, practical application and clarify a few misconceptions surrounding the concept of sustainability. The paper proposes a systems model for the concept of sustainability. It sets the background by examining the conceptual succession of sustainability to: · show that the historical environmental decline, the content and structure of many traditional views, religious beliefs and wealth of knowledge are the key foundations of the concept of sustainability; and · emphasise the fact that the environmental system is pre-conditional to social and economic systems. The study establishes the central themes of the Brundtland Report and overviews the predominant model of the concept (see Figure 1) and its limitations. It then explores the recent evolution of the terminology to identify a common theme (see Figure 2). Finally, through the application of systems thinking, the paper proposes a systems model of sustainability in Figure 3 as an alternative to the current predominant model. SUSTAINABILITY EMERGING: the conceptual successions The natural environment is a self-regulatory system with a complex network of positive and negative feedback systems that function within the context of carrying, regeneration and assimilation capacity of the respective system. The realisation that natural resources are finite and humans need to live within a certain capacity has followed a steep learning curve. This section draws on the past environmental decline, traditions and religious beliefs, and key body of knowledge to show the conceptual root of sustainability and that the environmental system is pre-conditional to social and economic systems. Historically, environmental degradation, over exploitation of natural resources (Ponting, 1991), deforestation, hazards of pollution, land degradation and chemical food adulteration have dogged humanity, more or less, for most of its existence (Wall 1994). The Old Kingdom of Egypt around 1950 BC, the Sumerians in 1800 BC, the Maya at about 600 AD and the Polynesians of Easter Island at about 1600 AD are a few examples of societies which ceased to exist due to not living in harmony with nature (Pointing, 1991) while lead pollution is recorded as one of the main internal factors to the fall of Rome (Nriagu 1994). The review of various traditional views and religious beliefs; the main repositories of human knowledge, apart from modern science, indicates a causal relationship with the fundamental doctrine of the concept of sustainability `living in harmony with nature and within society'. The Africans (Mbiti, 1996), the Hawaiians' traditional beliefs (Dudley, 1996) and many religious beliefs Hinduism and Buddhism (Dwivedi, 1996), Islamic (Deen, 1996) and Christianity (Kinsley, 1996) view humanity as an integral part of nature, although these views and beliefs vary in context and structure. For brevity, indicative literatures of the key conceptual precursors are cited herein. Malthus in his Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798 addressed the concern of population growth and the limitation imposed by physical capacities. He argued that, since population grows in a geometrical fashion as opposed to agricultural output in an arithmetical fashion, population would ultimately exceed food resources thereby leading to restrictions on population growth. The Principles of Political Economy by Mill in 1848 revealed the destructive impact of economic growth on nature. The Mountains of California in 1894 by John Muir gave account of the loss of biodiversity in California due to overexploitation. Towards the end of the twentieth century, the scale of environmental concern expounded. Other indicative landmark publications are The Silent Spring in 1962 by Rachel Carson, which challenged the environmental impact of our scientific and technological progress and the Population Bomb by Paul Erhlich in 1968. The Limits to Growth in 1972 by Donella Meadows, though much criticised for the assumption of the computer model, confirmed the long-term environmental impact of economic and population growth. Small is Beautiful by Schumacher (1973) was concerned about the exhaustion of the world's resources and advocated for the use of appropriate technology. Of equal importance are the direct signals, such as, the discovery of the ozone layer and the Chernobyl nuclear power station catastrophe in Russia. Sustainability demands a shift to a new perspective; the need to recognise our place in the ecosystem by living in harmony with nature. This perspective is realised through the bridging of many previously disparate ideas, (Hardi and Zdan, 1997) views and disciplines. The historical environmental decline, the content and structure of many traditional views and religious beliefs, and body of knowledge, particularly towards the end of the twentieth century, are the crucial tenet of the contemporary concept of sustainability. The Brundtland Report Our Common Future brought the concept of sustainability to the political arena. THE CENTRAL THEMES OF THE BRUNDTLAND REPORT The main political dilemma of the Brundtland Report (1987) is the integration of environmental and social decline with the desire for economic development in the South and economic growth in the North. The report brought the concept and phrase `sustainable development' to prominence towards the end of the twentieth century. Therefore, Brundtland's definition `development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs' is the reference point of contemporary discussion: the two key concepts are: · the needs, especially of the poor, deserve uppermost priority implies intragenarational equity; and · the idea of environmental limitations leads to concern for intergenerational equity. However, since the publication of the Brundtland Report, the concept has attracted much criticism, such as, vague, incompatible, meaningless and lack of practical application. The major reason for this criticism stems from the historical difficulty of defining development. It means different things to different people. To some it implies human development through improving education, decent health care, infrastructure and the provision of basic needs while to others it is about material consumption through economic growth (Dresner et al., 2002). The underlining message in Our Common Future is the reorientation of development and economic growth to meeting people's basic needs. The report acknowledges that the interpretation of economic and social development will vary from developed and developing countries, market oriented and centrally planned market but suggests that any interpretation must share certain features and consensus on the basic concept of sustainable development. Meaning is context-dependent (Wilber, 2000). Sustainable development is contestable and has many basic meanings like many other political objectives such as liberty, social justice and democracy, which attract multiple competing interpretations (Jacobs, 1991). The difficulty in reaching consensus on the meaning of sustainable development is not necessarily about reaching consensus on a clear-cut definition, but rather on the values that would underlie any such definition (Dresner, 2002). As long as a general consensus exists amongst a language community, every word has a meaning. THE PREDOMINANT MODEL OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT The predominant model used to describe the concept of sustainable development has been depicted in Figure 1 below. The model is predominantly used because of its conformity with conventional divisions of discipline, knowledge and the resultant division of empirical information (Walter and Wilkerson, 1998). The dotted circle represents the contemporary economic model, the major cause of the unsustainable pattern of production and consumption, base on the ground that the natural, economic and social systems are divorced and non-interrelated. Contrary to this belief, a detailed analysis of the situation accurately suggests that the three systems are interlinked thus: · · · · the linkage between the natural and social system forms socio-ecological interactions; the linkage between the social and economic system forms socio-economic interactions; the linkage between natural and economic system forms eco-developmental interactions; and the intersection zone of the three systems (SD) is the process of achieving the decisive goal of sustainability to ensure intergenerational and intragenerational equity. Natural system SD Economic system Ecodevelopment Socioecological Social system SD: sustainable development Figure 1: The predominant model of sustainable development 130 This model is a highly influential and helpful tool, but has limitations such as its graphical representation and narrow scope. Representation of the triple bottom lines with the three overlapping circles implies equal weighting, thus failing to underline the basic doctrine of sustainability that is the environmental system is preconditional for the other two systems. The model is a gross simplification, lacking sufficient information and the cause of the current misconception that economic sustainability (increasing profit and GDP) is prerequisite to environmental and social sustainability. RECENT EVOLUTION OF THE TERMINOLOGY There are multiple definitions for the concept of sustainability. Back in 1994, Holmberg (1994) recorded over 80 definitions of sustainability. Over the span of four years, this number has doubled itself to 160 (Hill, 1998) and currently rumoured over 200 (Parkin, 2000). It is not intended herein to validate the existence of over 200 definitions. Suffice it to say that a few definitions vie for supremacy. Sustainable development encompasses deeper and wider issues and there is no single and all-encompassing definition available. The review of the recent evolution of the terminology facilitates the development of a more comprehensive model (Figure 2). The model shows the deeprooted interconnectivity of the three key systems. At the apex of the model is the environmental system indicating that environmental sustainability is pre-conditional to the social and economic systems. ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM Protection of biological & physical systems Sustainable natural, built & cultural environment Sustainable economic growth & natural capital Socioecological 1.1 Ecodevelopment SUSTAINAB ILITY `...improving the quality Stable social & cultural systems Socioeconomic Sustainable social progress: Equity & futurity Maximisation of income & maintenance of stock ECONOMIC SYSTEM Figure 2: Model of sustainable development based on recent definitions The principle of intergenerational and intragenerational equity are implicitly encapsulated in Brundtland's definition of sustainable development, and explicitly defined in the revised definition of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development "to equitable meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations" (UNCED, 1992). Sustainable development is a quest for new ways of thinking (Groenewegen et al, 1996). Pearce et al., (1989) proposes three concepts of achieving sustainable development. These are environment, futurity and equity. The environmental value substantially increases the real value of the natural, built and cultural environments. The futurity involves concerns for short and medium as well as longer term that will ultimately impact on the inheritance of future generations and their quality of life. The equity places emphasis on two issues; firstly the intragenerational equity, that is, provision for the needs of the least advantaged within society (also between societies and countries) and secondly, the intergenerational equity advocates for fair treatment of future generations. Sustainability embodies the promise of societal evolution towards a more equitable and wealthy world in which the natural environment and our cultural achievements are preserved for the generations to come" (Dyllick and Hockerts, 2002 pp130). Munasinghe (1993) suggested economic, ecological and socio-cultural as three approaches to sustainable development. The economic approach to sustainable development is to maximise the flow of income while maintaining the stock of the assets (or capital). The ecological approach protects biological and physical systems. The socio-cultural concept stabilises the social and cultural systems and reduces the destructive conflicts for both intra- and intergenerational equity. A SYSTEMS MODEL OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT The concept of a system is "the idea of a whole entity which under a range of conditions maintains its identity, provides a way of viewing and interpreting the universe as a hierarchy of such interconnected and interrelated wholes" (Checkland, 1999 pp14). A system is composed of subsystems, and belongs to suprasystems, which can be referred to as nested or growth hierarchies (Wilber, 2001). In a whole system nothing is irrelevant. The parts are integrated into a different, more complex and generally more competent thing by virtue of their relationship to each other in pursuit of a common goal. A whole system view of the concept of sustainable development would include all the factors involved to examine their relationship and how they work as a whole. Sustainability is the suprasystem; composed of environmental, social and economic systems. The nested hierarchy of the subsystems of the environmental system are atoms to molecules, to cells, to organisms, to ecosystems, to biosphere, to universe. Each of these units, irrespective of the level in the hierarchy, is absolutely vital for the entire sequence - destroy all atoms and you simultaneously destroy all molecules, cells, ecosystems, and so on (Wilber, 2001). In sociological terms, "a social system is a system of individual human beings who are involved in social relations with each other" (Lopez and Scot, 2000 pp46). It is a network of interactive relationships. The nested hierarchy of the subsystems of the social system are individual to family units to local communities and so on. Similarly, the economic system has a nested hierarchy from firms to sectors, (for instance the construction industry), to local economy, etc. Key Features and Benefits of a Systems Approach The key features of a systems approach are: the emergence of unique properties which are critical for understanding the system as a whole but may have little or no meaning in terms of constituent parts; a hierarchical structure in which systems are nested within other systems; and processes of communication, feedback, and control that facilitate adjustment and adaptation in the face of stress (Hardi and Zdan et al, 1997). The benefits of this approach are multifaceted. It makes certain unique properties visible that are invisible when looking at the constituent parts individually from a reductionist approach. It facilitates the testing of the overall welfare of the whole system, which is impossible by independent analysis of the parts. This is crucial as any action to adjust the system can only be effective if the integrated set of factors affecting the system, such as stress imposed on the ecosystem by human activity, is wholly considered. Also, the ability to sustain an overall perspective on the whole system assists development of a facility to "anticipate and prevent" as opposed to having to retrospectively "react and cure." As can be observed in Figure 3, the proposed system model shows that: · Each system has a nested hierarchy as indicated with the dotted lines. Each part of the system is a whole on its own but becomes a part of a system when met with another part. The whole system is greater than the sum of its constituent parts and each part is critical for the existence of the whole system. Each system is interconnected to form a complex suprasystem. · The environmental system provides life-supporting services (climate regulation, geochemical cycling, ecosystem maintenance), exhaustible and renewable resources (fossil fuel, minerals, metals and other raw material). In the absence of these services and resources, social and economic systems can never be possible. · The economic system depends on the human and physical resources from the social system while the social system relies on the economic system for the transformation of raw material for consumption. Both systems interact in the market facilitated by the socio-ecological conditions. · According to the laws of thermodynamics, matter and energy can neither be destroyed nor created though may be transformed. The economic and the social systems transform resources into waste (residual, heat, end of life and so on). Resources and waste are in due course the same in total. They differ only in entropic value (resources have low entropy while waste has high entropy) (Jacobs et al., 1991). Waste is stored and assimilated through the environment system. · The environmental, social and economic systems are closely linked, interact and overlap. The depletion of forests affects climate regulation, biodiversity and raw material supplies. Pollution reduces available resources, disrupts ecosystems and impairs human health. Climate change can reduce soil productivity and impact on the built environment. These interconnections indicate the `wholeness' of the systems and crucial feature of the relationships between the systems. · Eco-development; the current economic model, describes the transition from traditional societies to the affluent life style of capitalist societies through resourceintensive consumption, within developed countries, which the Third World countries aspire to. This model is the cause of emission of ozone-depleting chemicals and the source of other major challenges, which threaten the global atmosphere and other life-support systems. The environmental system is approaching its limit. Sustainable development emerged as a possible solution. · In this context, sustainable development can be defined as the process of achieving sustainability through integration of environmental, social and economic systems to improve the quality of life within earth's carrying, regenerating and assimilating capacity to ensure intra- and intergenerational equity. This involves maintaining socio-ecological balance between environmental (the pre-condition for the other two systems) and social systems, which provides the platform for socio-economic activities. ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM Sustainable natural, built & cultural environment Sustainable economic growth & natural capital Energy and raw material Global community Continental community National community Regional community Local community Family units Individual Emissions & Wastes Socio-Economic Activity Labour Savings Market Investment Consumption Wages Production Goods and services Interest Continental economy National economy Regional economy Local economy Sectors Figure 3: A systems model of sustainability Sustainable Development Assessment: model in practice There are number of models for assessing sustainability or the quality of community life (e.g. Murdie, 1992; LGMB, 1994; Hodge, 1996; Maclaren, 1992). However, most of these approaches have shortcomings in assessing community sustainability (Walter and Wilkerson et al, 1998). According to Walter and Wilkerson (1998) the productive approach to assessing community sustainability must be: · broadly applicable at all levels including municipal and region; · comprehensive in identifying steps and sustainability issues relevant to the community and stakeholders' interests and values; · adaptive to local situations; · accessible to specialists, policy makers, as well as, the general public; and · system oriented. The assessment of sustainability requires a review of the whole system as well as its constituent parts. Information must be gathered on the three systems and their subsystems, that is, on human welfare, ecosystem and the economic systems - their state as well as the direction and rate of change of that state, of their constituent parts, and the interaction between parts. Consideration must be given to both positive and negative consequences of human and ecological systems, in monetary and non-monetary terms (Hardi and Zdan, 1997). The system model establishes interaction of the three system dynamics of sustainability. Sustainability demands a shift to a new perspective; the need to: recognise our place in the ecosystem by living in harmony with nature; and integrate continuing socioeconomic development with environmental protection. This perspective is realised through the bridging of many ideas, traditional beliefs and religious views and disciplines. The Brundtland Report promotes a debate on this new perspective. The critical review of Brundtland Report clarifies a few misconceptions. The underlining message in Our Common Future is the reorientation of development and economic growth to meeting people's basic needs. This paper has attempted to advance the understanding and practical application of the concept of sustainability by presenting a systemic model of the concept, which shows the interrelationship between the three systems and the importance of each subsystems to the complex suprasystem. In addition, it clearly emphasised the fundamental doctrine of sustainability that the environmental system is pre-conditional to social and economic systems. What the present economic model and the current predominant model fail to convey. The paper established the major limitations of the predominant model and highlighted the key features and benefits of the systems approach. Brundtland, G.H. (1987) Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, New York. Carson, R. (1962) Silent Spring, Hamish Hamilton Publishers, London. Checkland, P. (1999) Systems Thinking, Systems Practice: Includes a 30-years Retrospective, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, New York. Dean, M.Y.I. (1996) Islamic Environmental Ethics: Law and Society, In Gottlieb, R.S. (ed.), This Sacred Earth, New York: Routledge. Dover, S. and Handmer, J. (1992) Uncertainty, Sustainability and Change, Global Environmental Change, 2(4), 262-76. Dresner, S. (2002) The Principle of Sustainability, The Earthscan Publications, London. Dudley, M.K. (1996) Traditional Native Hawaiian Environmental Philosophy, In Gottlieb, R.S. (ed.), This Sacred Earth, New York: Routledge. Dwivedi, O.P. (1996) Satyagraha for Conservation: Awakening the Spirit of Hinduism, In Gottlieb, R.S. (ed.), This Sacred Earth, New York: Routledge. Dyllick, T. & Hockerts, K. (2002) Beyond the Business Case for Corporate Sustainability, Business Strategy and the Environment, Volume 11, 130-141. Erlich, P. (1968) The Population Bomb, Friends of the Earth book, London, 1971. Groenewegen, P. Fischer, K. Jenkins, E.G. & Schot, J. (1996) The Greening of Industry Resources Guide and Bibliography, Washington, D. C. Hardi, P. & Zdan, T. (ed.) (1997) Assessing Sustainable Development: Principles in Practice, International Institute for Sustainable Development, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Hill, D. (1998) Sustainable Development Tools and Techniques for Action, Proceeding of the Institute of Civil Engineers Municipal Engineers, Volume 127, December, 168-169. Holmberg, J. (ed.) (1994) Policies for a Small Planet, Earthscan Publications, London. Jacobs, M. (1991) The Green Economy: Environment, Sustainability Development and the Politics of the Future, Pluto Press, London. Kinsley, D. (1996) Christianity as Ecologically Harmful, In Gottlieb, R.S. (ed.) This Sacred Earth, Routledge, New York. Laszlo, E. (1972) The Systems View of the World: The Natural Philosophy of the New Developments in the Sciences, Basil Blackwell, Oxford. Lopez, J. & Scot, J. (2000) Social Structure: Concepts in the Social Sciences, Open University Press, Buckingham. Malthus, T. (1798) An Essay on the Principle of Population and Summary View of the Principle of population, Penguin books Ltd, Middlesex, 1970. Mbiti, J.S. (1996) African Views of the Universe, In Gottlieb, R.S. (ed.) This Sacred Earth, Routledge, New York. Meadows, D. H., Meadows, D. L., Randers, J., Behrens III, W. W., 1972, The Limits to Growth, Universe Books, New York. Mill, J.S. (1848) The Principles of Political Economy, Penguin, Harmandsworth, 1985. Muir, J. (1894) The Mountains of California, Penguin, New York, 1997. Munasinghe, M. (1993) Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development: Paper No. 3, The World Bank. Nriagu, J. (1994) Lead and Lead Poisoning in Antiquity, In Wall, D. (ed.) Green History: A Reader in Environmental Literature, Philosophy and Politics, Routledge, London. Parkins, S. (2000) Sustainable Development: the Concept and the Practical Challenge, Proceedings of ICE, Civil Engineering 138 November, Pages 3-8 Paper 12398. Pearce, D. Markandya, A. & Babier, E. (1989) Blueprint for a Green Economy, Earthscan Publications, London. Ponting, C., 1991, A Green History of the World, Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd, London. Rose, J. N., 2001, A Systems Views of Sustainability, the Journal of the Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform, Vol. 13, No. 2, February 2001 Schumacher, E. F., 1973, Small is Beautiful, Blond & Briggs, London. UNCED (1992) Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, (UNCED Report) A/CONF.151/5/Rev.1 13 June 1992. Wall, D. (1994) Green History: A Reader in Environmental Literature, Philosophy and Politics, Routledge, London. Walter, G.R. and Wilkerson, O. (1998) Community Sustainability Auditing, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 41(6), 673-691. Wilber, K. (2000) Integral Psychology: consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy, Gateway publications, Dublin. Wilber, K. (2001) A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality, Shambhala publications, Boston. APPENDIX C PAPER 3 Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (2003). Trends in the Conceptualisation of Corporate Sustainability. The Proceeding of the Joint International Symposium of CIB Working Commissions W55, W65 and W107, Singapore, 23-24 October 2003, Page 187 199. Trends in the conceptualisation of corporate sustainability ISRAEL ADETUNJI Loughborough University, UK Email: [email protected] ANDREW PRICE Loughborough University, UK Email: [email protected] PAUL FLEMING Loughborough University, UK Email: [email protected] PAM KEMP Raynesway Construction Southern, UK Email: [email protected] The UK Government, like most national governments, is committed to sustainable development but realises that industries are vital to achieving sustainability. Consequently, businesses and industries are facing increasing pressure from both the government and public to redefine their production and project delivery processes. The increasing use of rigorous mixtures of policy instruments and growing public awareness regarding the unsustainable pattern of production and consumption as evident from increasing numbers of green consumers are major drivers of corporate sustainability. Despite confusion around the concept of sustainability, the notion of corporate responsibility for sustainable development is emerging, with corporate social responsibility forming the central theme. By posing the question `is corporate sustainability here to stay?' this paper aims: to explore the trends in the conceptualisation of corporate sustainability in the construction industry. The paper provides insight into the concept of corporate sustainability and proposes a framework with practical application. It examines potential future trends of corporate sustainability. It then concludes by suggesting that: in the near future, a business licence to operate could be conditional upon the alignment of business processes in tune with the principles of corporate sustainability. Thus, the construction companies of tomorrow will be those that are already proactively engaged in corporate social responsibility. Keywords: concept, framework, paradigm, capital, responsibility, system The concept of sustainability has emerged through the desire to shift away from traditional business practices based on maximising economic growth to practices that focus more on maximising the present generation's quality of life without damaging the resources required to sustain future generations. However, sustainability success depends upon the following main areas of consensus (Brundtland, 1987 and Bowers, 1997): · Intra- and intergenerational equity through meeting the basic needs of present generations without jeopardising those of future generations, by aiming for fair distribution of costs and benefits of the natural resources use and environmental protection. Integrity of the atmosphere being maintained through reduction of pollution substances instigating destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer, climate change and global warming. Maintenance of biodiversity of wild plants and animals and ecosystem diversity that plays a strategic role in human welfare. Prudent use of stock of resources such as exhaustible and renewable resources through improvements in the efficiency of use and extraction, and development of renewable and reproducible alternatives. Cultural integrity through conservation of landscapes, historical and archaeological sites and structures, and improving the built environment. An extensive review of recent definitions of sustainability has been undertaken elsewhere (see Adetunji et al., 2003). For brevity, a few definitions have been cited herein. Sustainability "embodies the promise of societal evolution towards a more equitable and wealthy world in which the natural environment and our cultural achievements are preserved for generations to come" (Dyllick and Hockerts 2002 pp130). Put simply, "sustainability is the principle of ensuring that our actions today do not limit the range of economic, social, and environmental options open to future generation" (Elkington, 2002 pp20). The key to successful sustainable development is the effective integration of economic activity with social and environmental needs. The DETR (2000) has acknowledged that businesses, particularly the construction industry, have a major role to play in delivering sustainable development. The application of sustainable development to businesses and industries is referred to as corporate sustainability. Increased public awareness and the shifting balance of power away from the market to the public (as represented by Government and activist) serve as a proxy for corporate sustainability (CS), which is growing into a powerful agenda (Draper 2000; Weiser and Zadek, 2000). `Is corporate sustainability here to stay?' Dyllick and Hockerts (2002), in view of the confusion surrounding the concept of sustainability, advocate the need for publications building a systematic theory of corporate sustainability. From these bases, the paper explores the trends in the conceptualisation of corporate sustainability by: · providing conceptual insight into corporate sustainability and reframing the predominant model of sustainability based on economic, social and environmental dimensions into resources and capital terms that businesses can perhaps better relate to; · developing a more robust conceptual framework for corporate sustainability (see Figure 1) that shows the interdependency and interconnectedness of these capitals and resources, as well as the practical application for the proposed framework; · drawing on the scope and global implementation strategy to show the future trends of policy instruments for achieving sustainability; · overviewing the emergence of the corporate sustainability and the phases of business response to sustainability agenda, as shown in Table 1; and · finally, the paper dwells on various research conclusions relevant to the construction industry to show that the industry is shifting towards: a new paradigm; New measures of business performance; and new value perspectives as indicated in Figure 2. CONCEPTUAL INSIGHTS INTO CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY Sustainability focuses on improving the quality of life within the earth's carrying, regenerating and assimilating capacities to ensure equity within the current generation (intragenerational equity) and between the present and the future generation (intergenerational equity). This involves maintaining balance between environmental and social systems that provides the platform for socio-economic activities. Sustainability provides the means for long-term continuance (Wilsdon et al, 1999). From these premises corporate sustainability (CS) can be defined "as meeting the needs of a firm's direct and indirect stakeholders (such as shareholders, employees, clients, pressure groups, communities etc), without compromising its ability to meet the needs of future stakeholders as well" (Dyllick and Hockerts 2002 pp130). CS focuses on meeting the needs of the present corporate stakeholders (intrastakeholder equity) within the earth's carrying, regenerating and assimilating capacities to ensure long-term continuance so that the needs of the future stakeholders (interstakeholder equity) can be met. Embedded in this definition is the integration and management of the economic, social and environmental capital; and development of a long-term business model to (replace the predominant short term) ensure long-term survival. How can we then define corporate social responsibility (CSR) and differentiate between CS and CSR? CSR is an integral part of CS and both are notoriously difficult to differentiate. However, some sense can be made using the `stress' and `response' analogy. CS involves issues such as corporate impacts on economic, social and environmental issues while CSR is about the stakeholder views and responses. Therefore CS is about corporate addressing the question `what am I responsible for? While CSR is about `who am I responsible for?' (Henriques, 2002). CS is about corporate stress on the sustainability tripartite while CSR is about the stakeholders' response to corporate impact on sustainability issues. Hence CSR encompasses a wide range of issues, such as, the treatment of employees, local communities' investment, environmental performance, human rights, and ethical conduct with competitors, suppliers, customers and clients. The two concepts are complementary. The rest of this section discusses the systematic theory of corporate sustainability, develops a conceptual framework with a case for corporate sustainability and suggests its practical application. Conceptual framework: sustainable resources and capitals In order to achieve corporate buy-in to sustainability, terminology must align to current business needs and perspectives. Against this background, various attempts have been made to express the predominant models of three overlapping circles in terms of capital, resources and income (Ekins et al. 1992; Seregeldin and Steer, 1994; Parkins, 1999 and 2000a; Wilsdon, 1999; Dyllick and Hockerts, 2002; Elkington, 2002). The framework in Figure 1 collates and builds on these works. According to Marx, the economic resources become economic capital when they can be accumulated and invested for the further accumulation of profit (Mattick, 1971). The extension of this notion to the other two components of sustainability means that: · social resources can be described as social capital when they can be used to accumulate further social, economic or environmental capital; and natural resources can be described as natural capital when they can be used to accumulate further social, economic or environmental capital (Prugh et al, 1995). The aggregation of the three capitals is referred to as the overall volume of capital. At all levels, the requirement to uphold the resources and capital basis; that is consuming income and not the capital is precondition to long-term survival. This condition holds true at global, national, as well as, corporate levels for successful organisational management (Dyllick and Hockerts, 2002). M A R K E T Financial capital e.g. equity, debt Economic Capital Emissions Resources Labour & & wastes & services consumption Tangible capital e.g. machinery, land, stock etc Intangible capital e.g. reputation, brand, inventions, know-how etc Ecological resources e.g. soil, sea, air, biodiversity etc Ecosystem services e.g. climate regulation, water purification etc Human capital e.g. skills, loyalty motivation of employees etc Renewable resources e.g. trees, fish, water, vegetation etc Exhaustible resources e.g. fossil fuel, mineral, metals etc E N V Goods & I production R O N M E N T Natural/ Environmental Capital Emissions & wastes Resources & services 1.3 SOCIA Societal capital e.g. quality of public service; education, Figure 1: Conceptual framework: Capital stock and resources Interdependency and interconnectedness of the systems Various leading-edge thinkers have sought to prove the link between corporate sustainability and firm profitability (e.g. Zadek and Weiser, 2000; SustainAbility/UNEP, 2001). As will be shown below, the interdependency and interconnectivity as well as non-substitutability and irreversibility of the capitals build the business, natural and societal case for corporate sustainability. The framework in Figure 1 illustrates the complex interaction, independency, interconnectedness between the sustainability tripartite and demonstrates how the socio-ecological-economic systems function as a whole. A cursory view of the framework shows the subcomponents of the three capitals and their interconnectedness. The social capital provides the economic capital with the necessary labour, savings, investment to process the raw material and energy extracted from the environmental capital. In turn, the economic capital returns waste and emissions to the environmental capital to assimilate and social capital with goods and services for consumption, interest and wages. Environmental capital is at the hub of the system, providing renewable and exhaustible ecological resources, which serve as raw material for human economic activities. It also acts as a sink to assimilate and regenerate residuals (emissions and waste products) - for instance, forests extract CO2 from the air and return oxygen to the economic and social systems. However, where residual exceeds the assimilating capacity of the environment, damage, in the form of pollution, occurs. Depending on the significance of this damage, economic activities and the social system can be severely impaired. The environment supports life on Earth. Economic and social capital, therefore, are greatly affected if the environment is degraded or the resource base significantly diminished. The market valuation of a corporation is derived from the three subcomponents of economic capital that is (physical capital) financial and tangible capitals form one part of the valuation; the intangible capital such as reputation, brand, trust, credibility, knowhow, the ability to interact, work in partnership with stakeholders and so on forms the other crucial part. There are subtle interdependencies between an organisation's social, environmental and economic capitals, as demonstrated by the many examples of corporations that have seen dramatic impacts on their market valuation when being accused of environmental pollution, using child labour, human rights abuses, health risks and so on. The value of an organisation's intangible capital is highly influenced by the ability to manage the environmental and social capital, particularly with the growing numbers of green consumers. Non substitutability and irreversibility of capitals The extent to which the three capitals can be substituted and replaced has attracted heated intellectual debates (Minsch, 1993). The conventional economic theory assumes all input factors of production (economic, social and natural capitals) can be translated into monetary units, which means absolute substitution of these factors. Contrary to this belief, there is a limit to which the three capitals can be substituted with technological advancement (Dyllick and Hockerts et. al, 2002). There is a limit to which economic capital can replace natural capital (Daly, 1991; Jacob, 1991) and social capital. Though it is possible to substitute some ecological resources through technological innovations, the ecosystem services, such as, climate regulation and so on can never be replaced. Similarly with social capital, there is a limit to which human capital can be substituted. For example the replacement of labour with robots, motivation and loyalty of stakeholders using economic incentives will reach a saturation point. This is even more apparent with societal capital- the epicentre of socio-economic activity. Without adequate infrastructure, education and health facility no firm can flourish in a society. According to the resource-based-view of the firm (Barney, 1991; Kay, 1993), certain capabilities of a firm can neither be duplicated nor substituted by others. This implicitly means that some social capital cannot be easily substituted (Dyllick and Hockets, 2002). The natural and social capitals are irreversible once degraded. For instance, the loss of cultural integrity, biodiversity and destruction of stratospheric ozone layer to mention a few is definite. The depletion of many ecological resources is simply irreversible (Jacobs, 1991). Extinct species cannot be brought back to life, although it can be argued that irreversibility is not necessarily absolute as technology advances. However, the time scales involved, justifies the claim of irreversibility, for example, to reinstate destructed tropical forests, (though lacking many extinct species) or to reverse current climatic trends requires several hundred years. Obviously, the interdependency and interconnectedness of the capitals on one hand, and their non-substitutability and irreversibility on the other, present a formidable case for corporate sustainability. Practical application of framework Research has shown that one of the main reasons for little progress, in terms of the practical application of the concept of sustainability in the construction industry, is the lack of detailed framework (Adetunji 2002, CRISP 2000). It is worth reinforcing the fact that the interactions of economic, social and environmental systems are complex and dynamic with multi-variables and sub-variables. The summation of these three systems is multidimensional in nature (Adetunji et al., 2003) than just adding the three systems (Rose, 2001; Samson, 1995). The call for a detailed and all-encompassing framework is equivalent to demanding the mere addition of the three components. The spectrums of challenges of sustainability are multifaceted and no concept definitions and framework can provide us with a blue print of steps to follow other than a robust and logical intellectual framework (Perkins, 2000a). The above framework does provide insight into the system's dynamics, their complex interaction, independence and interconnectedness, and how the socio-ecologicaleconomic systems function as a whole in the market environment. It provides a robust and logical framework within which corporate sustainability initiatives, projects and processes can be defined, measured and targets set. Through posing questions that examine the impact of any proposed or corporate action on each of the capitals, any negative impacts should be exposed and the characteristics of any inevitable trade-off can be explored (Parkins 2000a). Among various questions that could be asked are (Elkington, 2002): What are the critical forms of capitals in terms of our ability to become a sustainable corporation? What are the underlying trends in terms of the creation, maintenance, or erosion of these forms of capital? How can we ensure that human or intellectual capital does not migrate out of the organisation? In these contexts, Dyllick and Hockerts (2002) suggest six areas of indicators: eco-efficiency, socioefficiency, eco-effectiveness, socio-effectiveness, sufficiency and ecological equity for developing corporate sustainability strategy. The questions for indicators can include such issues as the level of pollution, the impact on the biodiversity, level of waste, resource consumption and available alternatives, use of energy, contribution to societal and human capital (impact on health and safety, effect on local community), contribution to local economy, and so on (see CIRIA C563, 2001; CIRIA C571, 2001 and Hill et al., 1997). FUTURE TREND OF CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY Government's increasing use of policy instruments, especially informational policy, has raised public and corporate awareness. The notion of corporate sustainability is emerging with corporate social responsibility forming the central theme. This part of the paper identifies the future trends of policy instruments for achieving sustainability. It overviews the emergence of corporate sustainability and the phases of business response to sustainability agenda. It then draws on various research conclusions relevant to the construction industry to show a shift to a new paradigm. The trends of policy instruments for achieving sustainability The scope and implementation of sustainable development has evolved over the past few decades. The Stockholm Summit (1972) focused solely on environmental issues and business was not present at all. At the Earth Summit (1992), the focus broadened to include both environment and development; and grass root buy-in through Local Agenda 21 and development of national strategy was the key outcome. Political leaders and national government representatives dominated the events while business was in the margins. In Johannesburg Summit 2002, for the first time, business was at the hub of events. The rationale for widening the scope of participation is embedded in the fact that through participation, local communities and businesses will acquire property rights in sustainable development to avert the `tragedy of the commons' (Bowers, 1997). The concept of the `tragedy of the commons' states that goods and service with no owners or commonly owned resources and ecosystem services can be easily overexploited to levels that are no longer profitable to exploit (Hardin, 1968). Commonly held resources, such as fish populations in the sea, forestry, air, water, and genetic resources are not privately owned, but rather owned by an entire country or group of people. The effect of increasing CO2 emissions and other pollutants on global warming, dumping of waste in the ocean are examples of tragedy of the common. Without some kind of defined property rights and government action to regulate the behaviour of individuals, a tragedy of the commons cannot be averted. The conventional solution is for the Governments to take the property rights, backed by market based policy, command and control instruments and voluntary agreements. The privatisation of goods or bringing such goods in territorial ownership has positive environmental effects - as those goods will be taken care of (von Schomberg et al., 2002). In order to prevent overexploitation through private ownership, innovative market-based instruments such as tradable emission or pollution rights that allow for setting overall limits for exploitation or pollution are coming into mainstream. For example, in the Kyoto process, internationally tradable permits were intended to play a major role in international environmental policy, with other related market-based instruments like `Joint Implementation' and `Clean Development Mechanism' projects. At corporate level, it can be deduced that the near future will see more initiatives to encourage businesses and local participation, as well as, wider use of upcoming innovative market based instruments like emission trading, joint implementation and clean development mechanisms once the allocation mechanisms are sorted out. Emergence of corporate sustainability Up to the beginning of this century, company strategies were directed primarily towards earning the maximum return for shareholders and investors. Businesses were not expected to achieve any social or environmental objectives. Exploitation of natural and human resources was the norm in many industries, as well as a lack of regard for the well being of the communities in which the enterprise operated. This can be linked to: the fact that development and environmental, historically, are two distinct paradigms and many organisations view sustainable and development as incompatible; disparity in the balance of power between business and public bodies; historical measures of corporate performance- shareholders value creation. Today, business enterprises in developed countries operate in a more complicated, and more regulated environment. Increasingly, stakeholders are exerting pressure on the industry to be more accountable for its social and environmental impacts, as suggested by the ever-growing numbers of green consumers. This new paradigm can be attributed to the increasing awareness of the global challenges (Drapper, 2000), balance of power where power must expect to be challenged and where transparency is recognised to be best for both markets and society (WBCSD, 2000). There is no indication that the pressures will subside, but for certain intensify, as the profile of corporate sustainability increases. Parallel to this, (and/or as a result of) the desire to maintain and enhance corporate reputation and image is becoming another key driver. Business strategy in response to sustainability agenda The choice of corporate strategy is influenced by the macro-environmental factors (Johnson and Scholes, 2002). "In the developed world, the business response to the then emerging environmental issues and later to the idea of sustainable development has gone through three phases" (Azapagic and Perdan, 2000 pp244). The evolution of business strategy in response to sustainability agenda including the drivers and solutions has been depicted in Table 1 below. In the industrialised countries, the response to the then environmental and emerging sustainability issues was characterised by an ad hoc and incremental approach. The first phase dealt with the most acute problems using an end-of-pipe and clean-up approach. High cost and legislative pressure led to the second phase; a shift from dilute-and-disperse (through clean-up technology) to eco-efficiency and clean technology (Parkins, 2000b). Through increasing public awareness the third phase emerged. The scope widened from thoughtless exploitation of resources and ecosystem services, to encompass broader issues as shown in Table 1. Table 1: The Phases of Business Response to Sustainability Time Context Driver Solution frame Early 1970's to mid 1980's From mid 1980's to early 1990's Improved environmental performance Environmental and economic Government regulations legislation and End-of-pipe and clean-up approach Type of Strategy Starting from mid 1990's till present Improved environmental, economic and social performance Above solution too cost intensive; Pressure from legislative systems; legal fines and penalties; Potential cost saving and increase profit As above + increasing stakeholders awareness. Eco-efficiency: pollution and cleaner production through reduction of waste at source and efficient use of resources Gradual shift from Reactive to Proactive Eco-efficiency + ecoeffectiveness + socioefficiency + socioeffectiveness + ecological equity + sufficiency + performance reporting = corporate sustainability (corporate social responsibility) The paradigm shift: UK construction industry and sustainability In the 1980's, when the West was catching up with the quality movement, Japan as the exemplar, it could be argued that only three measures of excellence were necessary to achieve competitive advantage; (i) Quality: highest quality of products and services; (ii) Cost: lowest cost in relation to quality; and (iii) Timely delivery: just in time delivery to customer satisfaction. Today these three measures of excellence are just about sufficient for market entry- not for survival, let alone competitive advantage. The reason for this paradigm shift is inherent in the fact that everybody is doing it (Morton, Newall and Sparkes et al, 2001). Other factors, as indicated in Figure 2, are becoming crucial for survival and competitive advantages. This paradigm shift is becoming more apparent even in the construction industry where traditionally contracts are procured purely on the lowest cost criteria. The industry is shifting from lowest-price wins to multi-criteria selection practices in the contractor selection process. Research reveals that clients are increasingly demanding the best possible value from contractors and there is a realisation that contract procurement on the basis of lowest-price does not necessarily achieve this (Wong, Holt, and Cooper, et al., 2000). The term `value' in this context is a function of contractors' positive characteristics such as technical; managerial; health and safety; financial; plant and human resources; and past performance, in providing scope for achieving the client's objectives. The construction clients are becoming more aware that incorporating sustainability issues in contract selection criteria can radically reduce risk and substantially, and improve the chances of obtaining value for money. The recent semi-structured interview of three of the UK top-five construction industry confirms that the construction industry is beginning to integrate sustainability thinking in their project delivery process, measure and report their performance due to market opportunities as sustainability issues are becoming major part of tender selection criteria (Adetunji, 2002). As a result of this paradigm shift, the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE) has responded by making sustainability literacy a core tenet of ICE charter, which aim to empower civil engineers with knowledge to strive for the objective of sustainability at all stages of design, construction and post occupancy (NCE, 2003). This new paradigm is depicted in Figure 2 below. The Evolution of Sustainability New Value Persp ective Harmful emissions Resource consumption Healthy Economy Resource consumption Harmful emissions Quality Quality Cost Social Equity Biodiversity Eco efficiency Traditional `competitive factors' `Yesterday's competitive factors' Project performance Quality Time Biodiversity Time NEW PARADIGM: Sustainable Construction `Today's competitive factors' Adapted from Huovila and Koskela (1998) From Here to Sustainability Sustainable Construction Economic Environmental Social Long term orientation · Radical risk reducing · Risk targeting Medium term orientation High risk taking Performance Present orientation Figure 2: The New Paradigm new value perspective Sustainable development demands a balance of human aspiration to live as we please within an increasing set of economic, social, and environmental constraints. The construction industry is crucial to achieving sustainable development, as the industry unsustainable pattern is enormous (BRE, 2000; DETR, 2000 and Sjostrom, 1998). Changes are inevitable. It requires a steady and step shift from the present orientation of unacceptable level of production and consumption pattern to balancing the triple bottom line in the medium term and finally full integration of the triple bottom line in the long term. The present focuses of our entire system would have to shift from increasing economic growth to maximising the quality of life. Growth in terms of physical expansion would need to give way to development measured as qualitative improvement. Time and space will need to lengthen and shifting the calculus from short-term maximisation to long-term optimisation (Roome et al, 1998). To achieve sustainable development, we need to display greater responsibility for the natural capital on which all life depends, for each other as a single human community, and for the future generations. Sustainable construction (the application of sustainable development to the construction industry) has been driven and enforced by the government through regulatory, voluntary, incentive based, informational and cooperative instruments, for example climate change levy, landfill tax, naming and shaming policy to mention a few. Stakeholders are becoming more aware of the global challenges and are using their power to exert pressure on companies. A shift in distribution of power between stakeholders and organisations is emerging. There is more emphasis on efficient use of resources, whole life costing, integration of supply chain, better-constructed homes, sustainable transportation system and use of renewable energy to enhance competitiveness and the quality of lives in the 21st century. A good understanding of the relationships between environmental, social and economic systems is fundamental to practical application of the concept of sustainability. The environmental system is a prerequisite to economic and social activities. It provides the necessary input; raw material to economic and social system and assimilates the waste generated from production and consumption processes. The economic and social systems cannot function without the environmental resources. The environmental system operates within certain limits. Under these premises a framework with practical applications has been developed, with terms businesses can perhaps better relate to. The goal of this paper is to explore the trends in the conceptualisation of corporate sustainability. Firstly, this paper provides insight into the concept of corporate sustainability. It proposes a more logical framework, which sheds light into the systems' dynamics, their complex interaction, and how the socio-ecological-economic systems function as a whole, in the market environment. A framework, within which corporate sustainability initiatives, projects and process can be defined, measured and targets set. Secondly, the paper investigates the future trend of corporate sustainability. The emphasis on grass root participation highlighted at the Earth Summit in 1992, the unprecedented participation of businesses in the 2002 Global Summit in Johannesburg and the role of new policy instruments in the Kyoto process are evidence that the near future will see more initiatives to encourage businesses and local engagement. Moreover, there will be increasing use of upcoming innovative market based instruments like emission trading, joint implementation and clean development mechanisms, once the allocation mechanisms are sorted out. Beyond this evidence, the reviews of the transformation phases of corporate sustainability, business strategy in response to sustainability agenda shows a parallel development of another trend in public awareness which demand greater transparency and propensity to widen the scope of corporate liability. The review of various research conclusions in the construction industry indicated a paradigm shift to a new value perspective. Social changes and policy instruments steer this new value perspective. The concept of sustainability is becoming a crucial part of project procurements and sustainability literacy of civil engineering professionals now form a major tenet of ICE charter. The fact that leading construction companies have already begun to integrate sustainability concept in their project delivery process to take advantage of the market opportunities is a persuasive indicator that the practical application of the concept of sustainability is possible and reason enough for the SME to follow suit. Corporate sustainability is here to stay. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that: in the near future, a business licence to operate could be conditional upon the alignment of business processes in line with the principles of corporate sustainability; and the construction companies of tomorrow will be those that are already proactively engaged in corporate social responsibility. Adetunji, I. (2002) Sustainable Construction: Threats or Opportunities, MSc Dissertation, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P. (2003) The Application of Systems Thinking to the Concept of Sustainability. Accepted In: the Proceeding of the Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM), University of Brighton, UK, 3-5 September 2003. Azapagic, A. and Perdan S. (2000) Indicators of Sustainable Development For The Industry: A General Framework. Institution of Chemical Engineers Trans Ichem, Vol. 78 Part B July. Bowers, J. (1997) Sustainability and Environmental Economics: An Alternative Text, Prentice Hall, New York. Brundtland, G.H. (1987) Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Oxford University Press, Oxford. CIRIA C563 (2001) Sustainable Construction: Company indicators, Alden Press, Oxford. CIRIA C571 (2001) Sustainable Construction Procurement: A Guide to Delivering Environmentally Responsible Projects, Cromwell Press, Wiltshire. CRISP Construction Research and Innovation Strategy Panel (2000) Construction for Sustainable Development Research and Innovation Needs, Strategy Panel, London. Daly, H.E. (1991) Steady-State Economics, 2nd Ed., with new essays, Island, Washington, DC. DETR, Department of the Environmental, Transport and the Rigions (2000) Building a Better Quality of life: Strategy for more Sustainable Construction, Eland House, London. Drapper, S. (2000) Corporate Nirvana: Is the Future Socially Responsible? The Industrial Society, London. Dyllick, T. and Hockerts, K. (2002) Beyond the Business Case for Corporate Sustainability. Business Strategy and the Environment, Volume 11(2), 130-41. Earth summit (1992) United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro: UNCED Secretariat. Ekins, P., Hillman, M. and Hutchinson, R. (1992) Wealth beyond Measure: and Alast of New Economics, Gaia Books, London. Elkington, J. (2002) Cannibals With Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business, Castone Publishing, London. Fussler, C. and James, P. (1996) Driving Eco-Innovation: A Breakthrough Discipline for Innovation and Sustainability, Pitman, London. Hardin, G. (1968) The tragedy of the commons, Science 162: 1243 48. Henriques, A. (2002) 10 Things You Always Wanted to Know About CSR - but were afraid to ask. In the Proceeding of the CIEF Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility and UK Construction, 9th October 2002, London. Hill, R.C. and Bowen, P.A. (1997) Sustainable Construction: Principles and a Framework for Attainment. Construction Management and Economics, 15(3), 22339. Huovila, P. and Koskela, L. (1998) Contribution of the Principles of Lean Construction to Meet the Challenges of Sustainable Development. In Proceedings IGLC 6th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, 13-15 August 1998, Guarujá, Brazil. http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~tommelein/IGLC-6/HuovilaAndKoskela.pdf (15/4/03). Jacobs, M. (1991) The Green Economy: Environment, Sustainability Development and the Politics of the Future, Pluto Press, London. Johnson, G. and Scholes, K. (2002) Exploring Corporate Strategy, 6th Edition, Prentice Hall, London. Mattick, P. (1971) Marx and Keynes: The Limits of Mixed Economy, Merlin Press, London. Minsch, J. (1993) Nachhaltige Entwicklung: Idee Kern-postulate, Discussion Paper No. 14, Institute für Wirtshaft und Ökologie: St. Gallen. Morton, C., Newall, A. and Sparkes, A. (2001) Leading HR: delivering competitive advantage, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London. NCE New Civil Engineer (2003) Magazine of the Institute of Civil Engineers 17/24. Emap Construct Ltd., London. Parkin, S. (2000b) Contexts and Drivers for Operationalizing Sustainable Development. Proceedings of ICE, Civil Engineering 138 November, pp 9-15 paper 12404. Parkins, S. (1999) Understanding Sustainability, Briefing for the Engineer of the 21st Century Inquiry, Forum for the Future, October. Parkins, S. (2000a) Sustainable Development: the Concept and the Practical Challenge. Proceedings of ICE, Civil Engineering 138 November, pp 3-8 Paper 12398. Prugh, T. Costanza, R. Cumberland, J.H. Daly, H. Goodland, R. and Norgaard, R.B. (1995) Natural Capital and Human Economic survival, ISEE, Solomons, MD. Rayner, S. (1991) A Cultural Perspective on the Structure and Implementation of Global Environmental Agreements, Evaluation Review, Vol. 15(1): 120-47. Reinhardt, F.L. (1999) Bringing the Environment Down to Earth: Applying Business Principles to Environmental Management, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. Roome, J.N. (1998) Sustainable Strategies for Industry: The Future of Corporate Practice, Washington, D.C. Rose, J.N. (2001) A Systems Views of Sustainability, the Journal of the Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform, Vol. 13, No. 2, February 2001. Samson, P. (1995) The concept of sustainable development, Discussion Papers, Green Gross International, www.gci.ch/DigitalForum/digiforum/discussionspapers/concept.html Seregeldin, I. and Steer, A. (1994) Expanding the Capital Stock, In Making Development Sustainable: From Concept to Action, ESD Occasional Paper Series No. 2, The World Bank, Washington, D.C. Sjostrom, C. (1998) CIB World Congress, Construction and the Environment, Vag och Vattenbyggaren Nr. 3. Stockholm. Stockholm Summit (1972) United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Report of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm, 5-16 June 1972, New York: United Nation, 1973. SustainAbility/UNEP, 2001, Buried Treasure: Uncovering the Business Case for Corporate Sustainability (January 2001), SustainAbility Ltd and the United Nations Environment Programme, London. von Schomberg, R. (2002) The Objective of Sustainable Development: are we coming closer? Foresight Working Papers Series No 1: www.cordis.lu/rtd2002/foresight/home.html (12/2/03). WBCSD (2000) Eco-Efficiency: Creating more value with less impact, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Geneva. Weiser, J. and Zadek, S. (2000) Conversations with Disbelievers, The Ford Foundation. Wilsdon, J. (1999) The Capital Model: A framework for sustainability, Forum for the Future and SIGMA Project. Wong, H.C. Holt, D.G. and Cooper, A.P. (2000) Lowest Price or Value? Investigation of UK Construction Clients' Tender Selection Process. Construction Management and Economics, 18(7), 767 74. APPENDIX D PAPER 4 Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (2003). Sustainability and the UK Construction Industry: A Review, Proceedings of ICE: Engineering Sustainability, Volume 156, December 2003, Pages 185-199 Paper 13472. SUSTAINABILITY AND THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY A REVIEW Centre for Innovative Construction Engineering, Department of Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU 2 Raynesway Construction Southern Limited, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 7TY The quest for sustainability has put the construction industry under immense pressure from the Government and general public to improve its unsustainable pattern of project delivery. This study aims to undertake a baseline review of the UK construction contractors' engagement with the concept of sustainability and gauge their response to the issues being raised. However, based on the premise that the major firms drive the industry forward, through managing their supply chain, the research purposely focuses on the top end of the industry. Quantitative method developed through an extensive literature review forms the main research epistemology to test the research hypotheses. The paper documents the analysis of a questionnaire survey of the top 45 construction contractors (based on turnover). The respondents are classified into three groups A, B and C firms according to turnover. Most of the respondents share the view that a proactive sustainability strategy, supported by effective reporting to essential stakeholders, can have a major positive impact on organisational competitiveness. The overall sustainability performance among the groups differs considerably. The survey results indicate that there is a tendency for firms with higher turnover to engage proactively with sustainability. However, the results also suggest that irrespective of size, substantial progress has only been made regarding the environmental aspect of sustainability, even though there is wide-spread recognition that sustainability has three dimensions: environmental, economic and social. Sustainable development was popularised and defined by Brundtland1 as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs". The concept of sustainability has grown into a mantra for the 21st century.2 Analysis of the construction industry's project delivery process substantiates the need for the industry to engage with sustainable development.3 The application of sustainable development to the construction industry is sustainable construction. Sustainable construction comprises many processes through which a profitable and competitive industry delivers built assets to enhance quality of life and stakeholder satisfaction.4 Embedded in this definition is the notion of economic growth with emphasis on social and environmental integrity. Kilbert5 defined sustainable construction as the creation and responsible management of a healthy built environment based on prudent use of resources and ecological principles. It encompasses issues such as: (a) whole life cycle (b) procurement (c) site planning (d) material selection and use (e) recycling (f) waste and energy minimisation. Sustainable construction is currently an extremely important issue to many different types of stakeholders. It is being driven and enforced by the government through stringent fiscal policies and regulations, various `naming and shaming' policies and several government initiatives.6 Stakeholders are becoming more aware of the global challenge and are using their power to exert pressure on the companies as evidence from growing numbers of green consumers. The concept of sustainable construction provides a means for long-term success and provides a framework to redress initiative overload by integrating key aspects of Rethinking Construction,7 environmental protection, health and safety performance, and community interaction.8 Against this background, this paper discusses the prevailing trends in the UK construction-contracting firms' engagement with the concept of sustainability and establishes any possible correlation between level of response and turnover. This study provides a useful snapshot of the construction contracting firms' perceptions, views, understanding, strategic level of response and practical application of sustainable construction principles. It also identifies key stakeholders and sheds light on the drivers and barriers to implementation, the key issues of concern, and management practices currently be adopted in order to achieve economic, social and environmental sustainability. The study collates a wealth of literature on the concept of sustainability to develop a theoretical base for both the principles involved in sustainable construction and its practical application. The paper also presents the research methodology adopted as well as the analysis and discussion of the survey data. 2. Study methodology A review of recent literature was used to develop an initial set of hypotheses and a tenpage questionnaire to test them against. The questionnaire and hypotheses were refined through a pilot study comprising three construction contractor sustainability managers (individual's who are at the leading end of implementing sustainability in their companies' project delivery processes) and a senior academia with extensive knowledge in the subject area. The resulting hypotheses are as follows. · there is a general understanding of the concept of sustainability in the construction industry. · sustainability issues through the medium of stakeholders (such as clients, government etc.) lead to corporate sustainability actions that have certain results in economical terms. · the practical application of the environmental aspects of sustainability is well advanced while the social and economic aspects still prove elusive. · the level of strategic response to sustainability is proportionate to the level of turnover. The questionnaire was designed to be completed by people with overall responsibility for sustainable construction issues in their organisation (e.g. sustainability champion, environmental manager, health and safety manager). Data from the survey were analysed using statistical software package SPSS.9 The preliminary data analysis was conducted with descriptive statistics to establish the central tendency and dispersion of the data. The outcome of this preliminary exploration of the data fits the criteria underlying parametric ANOVA (i.e. normal distribution of the data and homogeneous variance).10 Even though the need to meet these criteria (so that the more powerful parametric ANOVA test can be chosen as opposed to the non-parametric ANOVA tests) still remains highly debatable,11 and as various researches have shown, no significant differences were found in the results when these criteria were violated.10 The parametric ANOVA test is the fundamental technique used for this type of research. This test was extensively used in research of a similar nature10, 12 and mainly involved the ranking of the variables based on their overall mean values. The analysis of variance technique simultaneously facilitates the testing of whether there are significant differences among the groups. The significance level used throughout the analysis was 5%. The reliability measurement of the 5-point Likert scale was established using Cronbach's coefficient alpha. The results were in the range 0.5680-0.9011. This is higher than Nunnally's suggested reliability range of 0.50-0.60,13 which is considered sufficient for this type of research. 2.1 Literature review This research stemmed from an MSc dissertation titled `Sustainable construction: threats or opportunities' and an ongoing EngD aimed at developing a sustainable construction management framework for road maintenance contractors.14 An extensive literature review has been documented elsewhere14 and, for brevity, indicative literature have been cited herein. The review of literature indicates that little research of this type has been conducted on the industry's level of response to sustainable construction; however some research has looked at specific issues such as the drivers, business cases etc. The environmental, social and economic impacts of the construction industry are extensive, often irreversible, readily identifiable and sufficiently documented.3, 15-21 The UK sustainable development strategy signals the Government's expectation from businesses.22 In view of the construction industry's impact on society, the environment and the economy, a designated strategy was issued to the industry. Recent research has shown that it is becoming more apparent to the industry that the sustainability agenda falls beyond environmental protection but also includes social and economic objectives.23 Several attempts have been made to examine numerous definitions of sustainability and promote principles to be upheld in attaining sustainable construction.5,24-27 It is generally recognised that the principles of sustainable construction mirror those of sustainable development and have three key dimensions: economic, social and environmental. Economic sustainability is the industry's contribution toward maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment through increased productivity and improved project delivery. Environmental sustainability addresses the impact of construction activities on the environment and propagates the prevention of harmful and potentially irreversible damage to the environment through efficient use of natural resources, waste minimisation, and energy and water efficiency. Social sustainability deals with legal, moral and ethical obligations of the construction industry to its stakeholders, such as employees, suppliers and the community in which it operates. According to the DETR,4 the current performance of the construction industry is unsustainable and has been subjected to wide criticism. The low productivity and under performance of the construction industry became a major concern toward the end of the last century.7,28 Rethinking Construction7 and the Government's sustainable construction strategy4 both emphasised the need for a culture change within the industry. There are many drivers for change coming from a wide range of sources, including: · · · · · · government policy and regulations; business pressures; stakeholder expectations;29 increased realisation of the importance of construction image; branding and reputation; and new client procurement policies. Project cost, time overrun and defects, high legal costs resulting from environmental pollution are attributed to the difficulty in maintaining existing clients and securing new business.7 Most leading clients share the perception that improvement could be achieved through a better-defined project delivery processes in tune with the concept of sustainable construction. The UK Government is responsible for 40% of UK annual construction turnover and has, in response, produced procurement guidelines30 to help achieve sustainable construction in government procurement. Increasingly, sustainability is becoming a major part of project procurement criteria. This new paradigm6 can be attributed to the growing awareness of the global challenges31 and the development of a business environment where increased transparency is recognised to be best for both businesses and society.32 Despite various researches showing a positive link between business performance and sustainability,34-36 many organisations are continuously confronted with diverse barriers to the practical application of sustainability principles.23,29 The environmental issues are well understood and easy to measure, but good understanding of economic37 and social sustainability,38 and their inter-linkages need to be developed further. Sustainability is about long-term survival, which contradicts many of the industry's traditional business processes, as many construction companies are finding it difficult to stay in business in the short-term and long-term strategic thinking and planning is frequently perceived as a luxury.39 Another concern is the perception that the demands of sustainable construction are limitless and the process redesign required to accommodate the required changes could results in excessive business burdens.29 Certain characteristics of the construction industry, such as the relatively short periods of site occupation of contractors, historical divisions between the trades, diversity of stakeholders involved in the construction process and the fragmented nature7 and conservative culture of the industry have prevented a more proactive approach to sustainable construction. 2.2 Content and structure of the questionnaire The success of any questionnaire survey and the accuracy of data collected largely depends on the careful design of the questionnaire's contents, structure and form of response.40 The contents of the questionnaire use to support this research were divided into six sections. The first section was the background information, which included: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) name of the company; name and position of the respondents; annual turnover; type of organisation; date; and contact details of respondents. The remaining five main sections of the questionnaire were as follows: · Strategic response to sustainable construction: exploring the understanding of the concepts of sustainability, the drivers, barriers to implementations and the industry's perceived stakeholders. To establish difference among the groups, the next three sections probed further on each of the three areas of sustainability. · Economic sustainability: examining the key economic issues and the management practice put in place. · Environmental sustainability: investigating the industry's key environmental concerns and the management system in place to mitigate these concerns. · Social sustainability: assessing the industry's key social concerns and the management practice in place. · Sustainability and competitiveness: assessing the effect of sustainability reporting to stakeholders on competitiveness. 2.3 Measurement scales According to Fink,41 the three types of measurement scales that can be used for statistical analysis are: · nominal scales - no numerical value and produce data that fit into categories; · ordinal scales - order among categories, that is the value of one observation is greater or more important than the other; and · numerical scales - difference between numbers have a meaning. Ordinal and nominal scales were used to transform the respondent's views and opinions into a scale to facilitate statistical analysis. An ordinal scale was used for the measurement of each variable, each respondent being asked to assign a level of importance from 1 to 5, where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. Nominal scales were used, for certain variables without numerical values, to generate data that fit into categories (e.g. 1 = no, 3 = considering/underway and 5 = yes). 2.4 Sampling selection The construction industry is wide spread and consists of a few major and many small players. Contacts were made through the New Civil Engineering's annual review of UK construction contractors:42 i.e. `the contractors file'. The top 45 contracting firms were short-listed from the lists. To improve the response rate, all these companies were previously contacted by telephone to explain the aim and objectives of the research, and to ask them if they wanted to participate in the survey. Interestingly, all the people 156 contacted were willing to participate and requested the outcome of the research survey. The ten-page questionnaire with a covering letter was then sent electronically as an attachment to electronic mail directly to the sample. 2.5 Questionnaire response From the 45 participants, a total of 26 responses (about 58%) were received in a usable format. This is relatively high compared to: Akitoye and Fitzgerald's suggested industry response norm of 2030%12 and Moser and Kalton's little value range lower than 3040%.43 Given the size of the questionnaire, the reason for the high response rate probably resulted from the prior telephone contacts with the respondents to gain their consent, the use of electronic mail; and largely to the importance of the research topic (sustainable construction) in the industry. The size of a firm is believed to be proportional to its total turnover, number of employees, capital employed and net output.44 To test the hypotheses, the responses were grouped into three categories (A, B and C) based on their annual turnover (see Table 1). Table 1 shows the results of the frequency distribution of the responses: 26.9% responses were from the C firms, 42.3% from B, and 30.8% from A. The total turnover of the responding companies was £27,569 million and forms 30.6% of the total output of the UK construction industry during 1996.35 As can be seen in the table, a normal distribution of data can be assumed due to the marginally negative skewed distribution (-0.068). This shows that the survey reasonably covered the three groups. Table 1: Frequency distribution for the responding companiesa Groups C B A Turnover (£m) Less than 100 100-500 Over 500 Frequency 7 11 8 26 Percentage 26.92 42.31 30.77 100.00 Sum (£m) 431.30 2694.70 24443.00 27569.00 Mean (£m) 61.61 244.97 3055.38 1060.35 Std dev (£m) 10.90 121.97 4685.76 2828.29 Total a: skewness = -0.068 3 Analysis of the survey data 3.1 Strategic Response to Sustainable Construction Figure 1 shows the percentage distribution of the respondents' sustainable construction impact review of operation. The combined percentage (`yes' to `underway') indicates that all had undertaken or were in the process of carrying out an environmental impact review of their operations. Regarding social and economic impact reviews, the majority were yet to undertake the impact reviews. This is not surprising considering the long history of environmental management systems in the construction industry. To show difference among the groups, Table 2 collates the mean and ANOVA for sustainable construction impact review of operation to identify differences among the groups. The mean distributions for the environmental impact show no significant difference within the groups at the 5% significance level. However, with the social and economic impact reviews, a clear significant difference can be seen with both significance levels (p = 0.00) less than 5% (p = 0.05). The majority of the A firms seem to have reviewed these issues compared to B and C firms. 100 % of impact review 80 60 40 No 20 0 Env ironmental Soc ial Ec onomic Y es to Underw ay Y es Underw ay Figure 1: Sustainable construction impact review of operation Table 2: Sustainable construction impact review of operation Impact review Overall Environmental Social 4.92 2.31 C 4.71 1.00 1.55 MEAN B 5.00 1.91 1.57 A 5.00 4.00 4.00 ANOVA F Sat Sign 1.40 9.82 9.90 0.27 0.00 0.00 Economic 2.31 Reliability coefficient = 0.6831 Figure 2 shows the percentage distribution of corporate policy and definition for sustainable construction. The analysis reveals that a high proportion of the respondents (76.9%) had corporate policy statements, codes of conduct, charter or vision statements, which specifically refer to sustainable construction. More than half of the respondents (53.9%) had a corporate definition for sustainable construction for internal and external use. However, as can be seen in Table 3, the majority of the respondents were from the A firms (4.75 and 4.25 respectively), followed by the C firms (3.57 and 2.43 respectively). The table shows a significant difference among the groups as indicated with the large F ratios and p value less than 0.05. % of corporate policy & definition 100 80 60 40 20 0 c o rp o r a te p o l i c y s ta te m e n ts , c o d e s o f c o n d u c t, c h a r te r o r vi s i o n s ta te m e n ts w h i c h r e fe r to S C a d e fi n i ti o n fo r s u s ta i n a b l e c o n s tr u c ti o n fo r i n te r n a l a n d e xte rn a l u s e Y es Un d e rw a y No Y e s to U n d e r w a y Figure 2: Corporate policy and definition for sustainable construction (SC) Table 3: Corporate policy and definition for sustainable construction Our Company has ... Overall Corporate policy statements, codes of conduct, charter or vision statements, which refer to SC A definition for sustainable construction for internal and external use Reliability coefficient = 0.7870 3.62 2.69 MEAN C B 3.57 2.43 2.82 1.73 A 4.75 4.25 ANOVA F Sat Sign. 3.77 7.31 0.04 0.00 The analysis of the respondents' understanding of the three components of sustainable construction confirmed the results from other research23 as indicated in Table 4. It is a general perception that sustainable construction involves economic, social and environmental impact (overall mean 4.58) confirming the first research hypothesis. Table 5 shows the drivers for implementing sustainable construction with `government' and `regulation' (overall mean 4.19) and `competitive edge' (overall mean 4.12) ranked highest while `enhancing relations with suppliers' is ranked lowest (overall mean 2.88). This is not surprising - the government being the major construction clients with 40% annual spending of construction turnover. Comparing the groups, the two highest ranked drivers for C firms are `competitive edge' (mean 4.29) and `enhanced reputation' (mean 4.14); for B firms are `clients' procurement policy' and `enhance relations with suppliers' (mean 4.18); and for A firms are `enhancing shareholders value' (mean 4.75) and `long-term survival' (mean 4.63). Three areas of significant differences recorded among the groups are `enhancing shareholders value', `investing in the future' and `enhancing relations with community'. The reason for the differences between the A firms and the other two stems from the basic reasons that shareholders own most of the A firms and these A firms engaged with huge construction projects; often controversial projects such as dams and road construction. Hence the need to enhance relationships with the shareholders and local community in which they operate. Table 4: Organisational understanding of the component(s) of sustainable construction Sustainable construction component(s) Our economic, social and environmental impact the environmental impact of our operation the economic impact of our operation the social impact of our operation None of the above Reliability coefficient = 0.5998 Overall 4.58 2.12 1.65 1.54 1.08 MEAN C B 4.43 4.45 2.43 2.36 2.29 1.86 1.29 1.73 1.73 1.00 A 4.88 1.50 1.00 1.00 1.00 ANOVA F Sat Sign 0.68 0.51 0.81 0.46 2.82 1.57 3.36 0.08 0.23 0.05 Table 5: Business Case for implementation Driver(s) Government and regulation Competitive edge / Market growth Client procurement policy Enhance reputation/brand Business pressure Long term survival of business Enhance relations with clients Cost saving/operational efficiency Environmental concerns Reduce legal risks and penalties Enhance shareholders value Investing in the future Following industry trends Enhance relations with community Enhance relations with employees Licence to operate Overall 4.19 4.12 4.08 4.00 3.96 3.92 3.92 3.73 3.69 3.65 3.62 3.42 3.27 3.19 3.15 3.08 MEAN C B 4.00 4.09 4.29 3.91 3.57 4.18 4.14 3.57 3.86 3.86 3.86 4.00 3.43 3.29 4.00 3.14 2.43 3.14 3.00 3.91 3.82 3.45 4.18 3.91 3.64 4.00 3.00 2.91 3.55 3.36 3.18 2.82 A 4.50 4.25 4.38 4.00 4.50 4.63 3.63 3.38 3.50 3.38 4.75 3.63 3.00 3.63 3.13 3.50 ANOVA F Sat Sign 0.69 0.51 0.59 0.56 0.91 0.42 0.28 2.39 2.88 0.60 0.54 0.56 0.89 6.05 5.00 0.64 6.70 0.01 0.58 0.76 0.11 0.08 0.56 0.59 0.58 0.42 0.01 0.02 0.54 0.01 0.99 0.57 Peer pressure within the industry Enhance relations with suppliers Reliability coefficient = 0.6977 The analysis of the possible barriers for implementation is presented in Table 6 with `industry culture and fragmented nature', `short term focus' and `conservatism of industry' (overall mean 4.23) and `rigid specification' (overall mean 3.96) ranked the major two barriers. This result confirmed Egan's7 findings. The analysis also shows significant differences among the groups. The four areas of significant differences are `rigid specifications' (p = 0.01), `lack of management commitment' (p = 0.03), `lack of understanding and fuzziness of the concept' (p = 0.00) and `regulatory constraints and lack of fiscal incentive'. Comparing the A firms to the other two, `rigid specification', and `regulatory constraints and lack of fiscal incentive' seemed to be minor issues, perhaps the A firms tended to form alliance with the clients and usually involved in a project from inception stage. As far as the C firms are concerned, obtaining management commitment is probably less of a major issue compared to the B and A firms. The reason for this is that the smaller the size of the firm, the more tendency for the existence of multi-skilling, which facilitates prompt decision-making as opposed to separation of tasks in the B and A firms. However, lack of understanding, vagueness and fuzziness of the concept is more of a major issue for the C firms. Table 6: Barriers for implementation Barrier(s) Industry culture; fragmented nature of industry, short term focus and conservatism Rigid specifications and clients unwillingness to share burden Lack of awareness and information regarding the available tools Regulatory constraints, inconsistent Government policy and lack of fiscal incentive Long lists of construction stakeholders and lack of standards for stakeholder dialogue Gaps in standards and approaches Lack of management commitment, resources and not view as corporate strategy priority Lack of understanding, vagueness and fuzziness of the concept makes its practical application difficult Short period of site occupation and project delivery. Involves process redesign Financial Pressures- extra costs and no incentive and uncertain work load and financial constraints High investment in the short term but rewards in the long term. Contradict the short-term strategic vision Supply Chain Management- long lists of supply chain and lack of trust Reliability coefficient = 0.7864 Overall 4.23 3.96 3.77 3.54 3.38 3.38 3.35 1.06 0.90 0.86 0.82 0.80 MEAN C B 4.00 3.86 3.29 3.43 2.86 3.57 2.29 1.25 1.11 0.76 0.90 0.95 4.36 4.64 4.27 4.00 3.73 3.55 3.73 0.63 0.45 1.04 0.82 0.81 A 4.25 3.13 3.50 3.00 3.38 3.00 3.75 0.76 1.04 0.71 0.76 0.53 ANOVA F Sat Sign 1.08 6.06 2.66 3.98 2.50 0.88 4.26 6.90 2.32 0.55 0.76 1.57 0.35 0.01 0.09 0.03 0.10 0.43 0.03 0.00 0.12 0.58 0.48 0.23 Table 7 shows the industry's recognised stakeholders. The three main stakeholders are clients (overall mean 4.92), employees (overall mean 4.73) and partner organisations (overall mean 4.50) with competitors as the least stakeholders (overall mean 1.50). The table clearly shows a significant difference of views among the groups. It is interesting 160 to note the differences in the ranking of these stakeholders among the group. For the C firms, the least important stakeholder is the shareholder, the reasons being that the majority of C firms are owned and operated by an individual or small group of people. Table 8 indicates the stakeholders whose satisfaction or complaints are regularly tracked at project level. It is not surprising that clients (overall mean 4.85), employees (overall mean 4.15) and partnership organisations' satisfactions are regularly tracked. As research has shown, there is a positive gain from partnering and collaboration.28,45-47 Similarly, companies with a good reputation, delivery of value for money, respect for employees and high environmental performance have a better chance of attracting capital, recruiting and retaining best employees.4 Table 7: Industry's recognised Stakeholders Industry's stakeholders Clients/customers Employees Partner organisations Sub-contractors Suppliers End users Local communities Regulators Shareholders/investors Government Non government organisation (NGO) The media/press Competitors Reliability coefficient = 0.8970 Overall 4.92 4.73 4.50 4.27 4.23 4.19 4.19 3.92 3.85 3.81 3.62 3.46 3.00 MEAN C B 4.86 4.91 4.71 4.64 3.86 4.64 4.00 4.29 4.43 3.43 3.00 2.29 2.86 2.57 2.57 2.43 4.55 4.27 4.00 4.36 3.91 4.09 3.73 3.45 3.45 2.64 A 5.00 4.88 4.88 4.13 4.13 4.25 4.63 4.75 4.88 4.75 4.75 4.25 4.00 ANOVA F Sat Sign 0.52 0.60 0.63 0.54 3.95 0.03 3.11 0.23 1.03 6.70 7.14 9.06 9.39 8.07 7.59 6.66 0.06 0.80 0.37 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 Table 8: Stakeholders whose satisfaction or complaints at project level are regularly tracked Industry's stakeholders Clients/customers Employees Partner organisations Local communities Regulators Sub-contractors Suppliers End users Shareholders/investors The media/press Government Non government organisation (NGO) Competitors Reliability coefficient = 0.8331 Overall 4.85 4.15 3.81 3.42 3.42 3.28 3.19 3.08 2.65 2.42 2.42 2.27 1.50 MEAN C B 4.86 4.82 3.71 4.18 3.14 2.57 2.71 3.50 3.14 3.86 3.14 1.86 2.00 1.71 1.29 3.73 3.45 3.55 3.18 3.09 2.45 2.55 2.27 2.00 2.09 1.45 A 4.88 4.50 4.50 4.13 3.88 3.25 3.38 3.25 2.38 3.13 3.38 3.00 1.75 ANOVA F Sat Sign 0.03 0.97 1.27 0.30 2.30 3.54 1.11 0.35 0.39 9.09 0.44 1.76 4.32 2.96 0.45 0.12 0.05 0.35 0.71 0.68 0.00 0.65 0.19 0.03 0.07 0.64 3.2 Economic Sustainability As can be seen in Table 9, `competitiveness and winning contracts' (overall mean 4.58) followed by `attraction and retention of skilled labour' (overall mean 4.50) and `productivity and profitability' (overall mean 4.46) are major key economic issues in the industry. Other research has also revealed that the industry operated at a low margin, productivity is low, competition is fierce48,49 and the attraction and retention of skilled labour is a major dilemma.50-52 The major factors for skill shortage in the industry are well documented, for instance the exodus movement of labour to other industries in search of greener pastures, demographic decline of young people entering the labour market and so on, hence the reason why employers poach labour from each other.52 At group levels, the most concerned economic issues for the A firms are `winning contracts' (mean 4.63) and `delivery of value for money projects'. For the B firms, `competitiveness' (mean 4.73) followed by `productivity and profitability', `attraction and retention of skilled labour', and `winning contracts' (mean 4.64). For the C firms, `competitiveness' (mean 4.86), and `productivity and profitability', `attraction and retention of skilled labour' (mean 4.57) are the major concern. Table 10 shows the economic management practices to address economic sustainability under three main headings, which are codes, policies and standards; economic performance; and economic reporting. The mean distribution of the three groups reveals that A firms are better placed than the B and C firms, while the B firms are better performed than the C firms are. The same observation is made in Table 12 (environmental management practices) and 15 (social management practices). Table 9: Key economic issues Industry's stakeholders Competitiveness Winning contracts Attraction and retention of skill labour Increased productivity and profitability Delivery of value for money projects Image and reputation Partnering/ integration of supply chain Improved project delivery Service & Product differentiation Managing knowledge/intellectual capital Cost leadership (Low cost) Attraction of investors and shareholders Increased spending on R&D Reliability coefficient = 0.8003 Overall 4.58 4.58 4.50 4.46 4.42 4.38 4.38 4.27 4.15 3.96 3.88 3.85 3.12 MEAN C B 4.86 4.73 4.43 4.57 4.57 4.29 4.43 4.29 4.29 4.00 3.71 4.00 3.71 3.14 4.64 4.64 4.64 4.55 4.45 4.55 4.45 4.18 4.09 4.00 3.82 2.91 A 4.13 4.63 4.25 4.13 4.38 4.25 4.25 4.00 4.25 4.00 3.63 4.00 3.38 ANOVA F Sat Sign 4.73 0.02 0.24 1.10 2.97 0.45 0.41 1.01 0.91 0.31 0.86 0.32 0.14 0.74 0.79 0.35 0.07 0.64 0.67 0.38 0.42 0.73 0.44 0.73 0.87 0.49 Table 10: Economic management practices Overall Codes, Policies and Standards Our company has a written specific codes, policies for managing economic aspects of sustainability There is an independent monitoring programme to ensure compliance with our policy/code of conduct Economic Performance Our company monitors and evaluates its economic performance using industry recognised indicators Our company's economic policy is supported by specific targets e.g. 10% client satisfaction by 2002 Our targets and performance are benchmarked within peer group / against industry best practice Economic Reporting Our company produces an economic performance report (part of financial/sustainability/stand-alone) Our economic performance report is verified by an independent external organisation or third parties Our company publishes its economic performance report externally Reliability coefficient = 0.9011 MEAN C B A ANOVA F Sat Sign 14.71 1.66 15.42 3.3 Environmental Sustainability Table 11 indicates `air pollution' (overall mean 4.62), `waste generation' (overall mean 4.62), `water pollution' (overall mean 4.38) and `depletion of natural resources' as the four key environmental issues. A cursory view of Table 12 confirms the previous assertion that the level of management practices among the group is proportionate to the level of turnover. Though in terms of codes, policies and standards, there seem to be no major differences among the groups. The reason, as previous stated, could be the long history and well-established environmental management system such as ISO 1400153 and the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)54 in the construction industry. In terms of environmental performance and reporting, there are significant differences among the three groups at significant level below 5% (p < 0.05). This finding confirms CIRIA's research55 that for many years large construction organisations have been implementing environmental management measures. However, due to growing pressures, with tighter legislation, higher fines and demand from clients, it is only recently that many small construction firms see their impact as being significant enough to warrant such management measures. Table 11: Key environmental issues Overall Air pollution e.g. noise, dust Waste generation Water pollution Depletion of natural resources Energy use Non renewable resources consumption Visual impact of our operation Nature conservation 4.62 4.62 4.38 4.38 4.35 4.35 4.27 4.04 MEAN C B 4.14 4.14 4.00 3.86 4.29 3.86 4.00 3.57 4.82 4.73 4.55 4.36 4.18 4.27 4.18 3.91 A 4.75 4.88 4.50 4.88 4.63 4.88 4.63 4.63 ANOVA F Sat Sign 4.15 4.36 1.29 3.63 0.99 4.61 2.46 2.28 0.03 0.02 0.29 0.04 0.39 0.02 0.11 0.12 Water consumption Damage of landscape Pollutants consumption Acid rain Loss of Biodiversity Extensive land use Reliability coefficient = 0.8968 Table 12: Environmental management practices Overall Codes, policies and standards Our company has an internal written environmental policy which is signed off by the board The environmental system is partly/fully certified under ISO 14001, EMAS or other standards. There is an independent monitoring programme to ensure compliance with our policy/code of conduct Environmental Performance Our company monitors and evaluates its environmental performance (energy, water use etc.) Our company's environmental policy is supported by specific targets e.g. 10% waste reduction by 2002 Our targets and performance are benchmarked within peer group / against industry best practice Environmental Reporting Our company produces an environmental report (as part of financial/sustainability/stand-alone report) The environmental report is verified by an independent external organisation or third parties Our company publishes its environmental performance report externally Reliability coefficient = 0.8669 MEAN C B A ANOVA F Sat Sign 2.96 10.7 1.96 3.4 Social Sustainability Table 13 shows key social issues with respect to employment standards and working conditions. As can be seen from the table, `health and safety', and `training and development' are the two highest ranked while `forced labour', and `freedom of association and collective bargaining' are ranked lowest both overall and among the group. The industry is notorious for its poor health and safety performance.7 The estimated cost of health and safety problems to the employers is about £6.5 billion yearly, with annual lost of over 25 million working days.56 The UK construction process and the training system are found to be lower compared to Germany and the Netherlands; one of the factor for the lower productivity of the UK construction sector.57-59 `Employee satisfaction' and, `diversity and equal employment opportunities' are ranked third and fourth overall and among the groups. Three areas of significant difference among the groups are `compensation and benefits' (p = 0.04), `Forced labour' (p = 0.00) and `Freedom of association and collective bargaining' (p = 0.01). The latter two are no major problems in the UK, however the difference in mean values is perhaps the fact that the A firms engage in overseas projects where these are major issues. Table 13: Key social issues with respect to employment standards and working conditions MEAN Overall C Health and safety Training and development Employee satisfaction Diversity and equal employment opportunities Compensation and Benefits Working hours Freedom of association & collective bargaining Forced Labour Reliability coefficient = 0.5680 4.96 4.62 4.19 4.00 3.77 3.69 2.96 2.08 5.00 4.43 4.14 3.71 3.14 3.43 2.57 1.29 B 4.91 4.64 4.18 4.18 3.82 3.82 2.73 2.00 A 5.00 4.75 4.25 4.00 4.25 3.75 3.63 2.88 ANOVA F Sat Sign 0.66 0.79 0.09 1.52 3.80 0.73 5.07 6.73 0.52 0.47 0.92 0.24 0.04 0.49 0.01 0.00 Table 14 presents the key social-economic issues. The most important issues were `partnership working' (overall mean 4.38), `shortage of skilled labour' (overall mean 4.31), `maximising construction site security and minimising crime' (overall mean 4.23) followed by `effective engagement of stakeholders' and `quality of built environment' (overall mean 4.19). For the C firms `partnership working' followed by four equally ranked issues `local employment', `shortage of skilled labour', `local source of material', and `maximising construction site security and minimising crime' were the most important. The two most important issues for the B firms are `shortage of skill', and `maximising construction site security and minimising crime'. Compared to the A firms, occupying the first place are `effective engagement of stakeholders', `working with local communities', `maintaining a relationship with government' and `partnership working' followed by `quality of built environment'. Table 15 shows the socialeconomic management practices. As can be seen in the table, the social management practices within the C firms are very low compared to the B and A firms. The table confirms the previous observation in Table 10 and 12 that there is a positive correlation between the level of turnover and the existence of management system for economic, environmental and social sustainability. Table 14: Key social-economic issues of most concern Overall 4.38 4.31 4.23 4.19 4.19 4.15 4.00 3.96 3.92 3.88 3.81 3.54 MEAN C B 4.29 4.36 4.00 4.64 4.00 3.86 3.86 3.71 3.86 4.00 4.00 3.86 3.57 3.57 4.45 4.18 4.36 4.18 3.73 3.82 3.64 3.91 3.82 3.27 A 4.50 4.13 4.13 4.50 4.25 4.50 4.50 4.13 4.25 3.88 4.00 3.88 ANOVA F Sat Sign 0.21 0.81 3.28 0.06 1.53 1.69 1.89 2.04 2.00 0.80 2.06 0.01 0.70 0.94 0.24 0.21 0.17 0.15 0.16 0.46 0.15 0.99 0.51 0.41 Partnership working Shortage of skilled labour Maximising construction site security and minimising crime Effective engagement of stakeholders Quality of built environment Maintaining relationship with government/regulator Working with local communities Local source of material Local employment Reducing negative effects on community health Industry accountability Addressing corruption both in- and externally Reliability coefficient = 0.8540 Table 15: Social-economic management practices Overall Codes, Policies and Standards Our company has an internal written social / ethical standards based on externally agreed standards 5 Our company has accredited social standards e.g. Investor in People (IiP) etc. There is an independent monitoring programme to ensure compliance with our policy/code of conduct Social Performance Our company monitors and evaluates its performance (staff annual turnover, minor/major accidents etc.) Our company's social policy is supported by specific targets; 10% reduction of major accidents, by 2002 Our targets and performance are benchmarked within peer group / against industry best practice Social Reporting Our company produces a social report (as part of financial/sustainability/stand-alone report) The social report is verified by an independent external organisation or third parties Our company publishes its social performance report externally Reliability coefficient = 0.9285 MEAN C B A ANOVA F Sat Sign 8.82 12.17 12.90 3.5 Sustainability Reporting and Competitiveness Sustainability reporting is a relatively new phenomenon and several efforts have been made to put up a framework to ensure common standards in terms of relevance, reliability, clarity, comparability, timeliness and verifiability of reports word-wide.60 It is a voluntary report, which includes information on economic, social and environmental performance. Figure 3 shows the percentage distribution for stand-alone sustainability reports. It is notable that the majority of the respondents do not produce a sustainability report (overall 57.7%) compared to overall 19.2% that do and overall 23.1% `underway'. In terms of `underway', a positive trend can be observed among the groups with 25% of the A firms saying `underway' compared to 27.3% B and 14.3% C firms. Nevertheless, significant differences can be noted among the groups with 50% of the A firms compared to 9.1% of B and 0% of C firms producing a sustainability report. This confirms the earlier observation. Perhaps the A firms tend to have a higher profile and are therefore more likely to undertake sustainability reporting and are under immense pressure to comply with local reporting trends in the countries in which they operate. % of sustainability reports O v e r a ll G roup C G roup B G roup A No U n d e rw a y Ye s Figure 3: Percentage frequency distribution for stand-alone sustainability reports 166 In order to investigate the prevalent observation and to drive home the initial hypotheses, opinions and thoughts of respondents are sought on statements linking sustainability with competitiveness. Figure 4 shows the percentage frequency distribution of these statements of the whole groups. As can be seen in Figure 4, the absolute majority supports the statements linking sustainability and competitiveness. % linking sustainability & competitive 100 80 60 Strongly agree Agree Neither nor Disagree Strongly disagree 20 0 Strongly agree to Agree Strongly disagree to Disagree Sustainability Sustainability report The information Sustainability reporting to can be used to requirement of all issues are essential build a common stakeholders are increasingly used stakeholders can ground between intensive and not by clients as part of enhance reputation the company and always known contracts & competitiveness its stakeholders procurement criteria Figure 4: Percentage frequency distribution of statements linking Sustainability and competitiveness 4. Concluding Discussion The paper presented a snapshot of the construction contractors' level of response to sustainable construction. The analysis in Table 4 confirms the results from previous research and proves the first hypothesis that the industry generally understands the concept of sustainable construction. The two main barriers for implementing sustainable construction are attributed to the industry culture and fragmented nature of the industry; and the rigid specifications and clients' unwillingness to share the burden. The three highest ranked drivers for implementing sustainability are government and regulation, competitive edge and client procurement policy. While clients and employees form the two highest ranked stakeholders, it is worth noting that the government is the highest construction client in terms of construction spending and at the same time the main driver for sustainability. The study therefore shows sustainability issues (through the medium of stakeholders such as clients, government etc.) lead to corporate sustainability actions that have certain results in economical terms. Though there is a general perception that sustainable construction consists of three parts, however as shown by Figure 5, environment management practices are well established when compared to social and economic management practices. This proves the third hypothesis that the practical application of the environmental aspect of sustainability is well advanced while the social and economic aspects still prove elusive. The reasons for this could be associated with the long history of environmental management systems such as ISO 14001 and EMAS in the construction industry and professional bias as most of those vested with responsibility for sustainable construction management have environmental management background. Another reason could be the tendency to place sustainable construction management within the remit of environmental departments. As a result, more emphasis is given to environmental issues, which is at odds with the concept of sustainability. This implies that a reemphasis of efforts is needed to address this imbalance by many firms, especially the B to C firms where multi-tasking is commonplace. An absolute majority of the respondents support the view sustainability strategy and effective reporting to stakeholders can enhance reputation and competitiveness (Figure 4); however, differences were noted among the three groups in terms of level of sustainable construction response, with the A firms leading on all fronts followed by the B and then the C firms. The study thus reveals that the level of strategic response to sustainability is proportionate to the level of turnover and the top construction industries recognise the potential benefits of sustainability. They are therefore more proactive than the C construction companies. In theory this research focuses on the top end contractors, which drive the industry forward through supply chain management. By and large, if these results are indicative as the research only focuses on the top end of the industry, the overall results show positive trends in the industry's quest for embracing the concept of sustainable construction. Ec onomic management prac tic es 5.00 4.00 3.00 Sus tainable c ons truc tion perf ormanc e 2.00 1.00 0.00 KEY: Small C Group Medium Group B LargeA Group Ov erall Stand-alone s us tainability reports Soc io-ec onomic management prac tic es Env ironmental management prac tic es Figure 5: A baseline review sustainable construction performance The authors wish to thank the EPSRC and Raynesway Construction Southern (part of Balfour Beatty group) for funding this research and also numerous construction contractors in the UK for their co-operation. 1. Brundtland, G.H. (1987) Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Oxford University Press, Oxford. 2. Dyllick, T. and Hockerts, K. (2002) Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability. Business Strategy and the Environment, 11(2), 130-41. 3. BRE (2000) Sustainable Construction the Data, CR258/99, March 2000. 4. DETR (2000) Building a Better Quality of life: Strategy for more Sustainable Construction, Eland House, London. 5. Kibert, C. (1994) Establishing principles and a model for sustainable construction. In Proceeding 1st International Conference on Sustainable Construction, C. Kibert (ed.) Tampa, Florida, USA, 6-9 November. 6. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P. (2003) Trends in the conceptualisation of corporate sustainability. Accepted In: the Proceeding of the Joint International Symposium of CIB Working Commissions W55, W65 and W107, Singapore, 23-24 October 2003. 7. Egan, J. (1998) Rethinking Construction: The Report of the Construction Task Force, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, London, UK. 8. CIRIA News, (20001) Construction Industry Research and Information Association, Issue 2, London. 9. SPSS (2001) SPSS version 11.0, SPSS Inc., US. 10. Proverbs, D.G., Holt, G.D. and Olomolaiye, P.O. (1999) European construction contractors: a productivity appraisal of in situ concrete operations. Construction Management and Economics, 17(2), 22130. 11. Bryman, A. and Cramer, D. (1999) Qualitative Data Analysis with SPSS Release 8 for Windows: A Guide for Social Scientists, Routledge, London. 12. Akintoye, A. and Fitzgerald, E. (2000) A survey of current cost estimating practices in the UK. Construction Management and Economics, 18(2), 161-72. 13. Nunnally, I. (1978) Psychometric Theory, McGaw-Hill, New York. 14. Adetunji, I. (2002) Sustainable Construction: Threats or Opportunities, MSc Dissertation, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK. 15. CIEC (1992) Construction and the Environment, Building Employers Confederation, London. 16. Ofori, G. (1992) The environment: the fourth construction project objective? Construction Management and Economics, 10(5), 36995. 17. Briffett, C. (1993) Environmental management: prospects for Singapore and South-East Asia. In Sim, L.L. and Briffett, C. (eds), Environmental Issues in Development and Conservation, SNP Publishers, pp. 312. 18. Griffith, A. (1994) Environmental Management in Construction, Macmillan, Basingstoke. 19. Levin, H. (1997) Systematic assessment of building environmental performance. In Proceedings Second International Conference on Building and the Environment, Paris, June, Vol. 2, pp. 310. 20. Sjostrom, C. (1998) Construction and the Environment, CIB World Congress, Vag och Vattenbyggaren Nr. 3. Stockholm. 21. Chen, J. J., Chambers, D., 1999, Sustainability and impact of Chinese policy initiatives upon construction. Construction Management and Economics, 17(5), 679-687. 22. DETR (1999) A Better Quality of Life: A Strategy for Sustainable Development for the UK, The Stationery Office, London. 23. CRISP (1999) Integrating Sustainability and Rethinking Construction, CRISP Sustainable Theme Group, May 1999, Eaton House, Oxford. 24. Hill, R.C. (1994) A framework for the attainment of sustainable construction: Proceedings of First International Conference of CIB TG 16 on Sustainable Construction, Tampa, Florida, USA, 6-9 November, pp. 13-25. 25. Linddle, B.T. (1994) Construction for sustainability and the sustainability of the construction industry. In Proceedings of First International Conference of CIB TG 16 on Sustainable Construction, Tampa, Florida, USA, 6-9 November, 47-56. 26. Elkington, J. (2002) Cannibals With Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. Castone Publishing, London, UK. 27. Graham, P., 2000, Building education for the next industrial revolution: teaching and learning environmental literacy for the building professions. Construction Management and Economics, 18(8), 917-925. 28. Latham, M. (1994) Constructing the Team, HMSO, London. 29. CRISP (2000) Construction for Sustainable Development Research and Innovation Needs, Strategy Panel, London. 30. GCCP (2000) Constructing the Best Government Client: Achieving Sustainability in Construction Procurement, Sustainability Action Group of the Government Construction Clients' Panel, London. 31. Drapper, S. (2000) Corporate Nirvana: Is the Future Socially Responsible? The Industrial Society, London. 32. WBCSD (2000) Eco-Efficiency: Creating more value with less impact, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Geneva. 33. Rayner, J., (2000) Risky Business Towards Best Practice in Managing Reputation Risk, Institute of Business Ethics. 34. Zadek, S. and Weiser, J. (2000) Conversations with Disbelievers, The Ford Foundation. 35. CIRIA C571 (2001) Sustainable Construction Procurement: A Guide to Delivering Environmentally Responsible Projects, Cromwell Press, Wiltshire. 36. SustainAbility/UNEP (2001) Buried Treasure: Uncovering the Business Case for Corporate Sustainability (January 2001), SustainAbility Ltd and the United Nations Environment Programme, London. 37. Doane, D. and MacGillivray, A. (2001) Economic Sustainability: The Business of Staying in Business, The Sigma Project, London. 38. Henriques, A. and Raynard, P. (2001) Social Sustainability Research Theme, The Sigma Project, London. 39. Gibson, M. (2000) Environmental Sustainability: A Framework for Action, Chandos, Oxford. 40. Hoinville, G., Jowell, R. (1978) Survey Research Practice, Gower publishing company, England. 41. Fink, A. (1995) How to Analyse Survey Data: The survey Kit 8, Sage Publications, London. 42. NCE (2002) Contractors File, Emap Construct Publication, London 43. Moser, C.A and Kalton, G. (1971) Survey Methods in Social Investigation, Heinemann, London. 44. Watt, H.D. (1980) The Large Industrial Enterprise, Croom Helm, London. 45. CII (1994) Benchmarking Implementation Results, Teambuilding and Project Partnering, Construction Industry Institute, Austin, TX. 46. Bennett, J. and Jayes, S. (1995) Trusting the Team: The Best Practice Guide to Partnering in Construction, Centre for Strategic Studies in Construction/Reading Construction Forum, Reading. 47. Bennett, J. and Jayes, S. (1998) The Seven Pillars of Partnering, Reading Construction Forum, Reading. 48. Akintoye, A. and Skitmore, M. (1991) The profitability of UK construction contractors. Construction Management and Economics, 9(4), 311-25. 49. Hillebrandt, P., Cannon, J. and Lansley, S. (1995) The Construction Company In and Out of Recession, Macmillan, London. 50. Agapiou, A., Price, A.D.F. and McCaffer, R. (1995) Planning future construction skill requirements: understanding labour resource issues. Construction Management and Economics, 13(2), 14961. 51. Ashworth, A. and Harvey, R.C. (1997) The Construction Industry of Great Britain, 2nd Ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford. 52. Mackenzie, S., Kilpatrick A. R. and Akintoye A. (2000) UK construction skills shortage response strategies and an analysis of industry perceptions. Construction Management and Economics,18(7), 85362. 53. ISO 14001. See http://www.iso.org for further details. 54. Eco-MANAGEMENT AUDIT SCHEME. See http://www.emas.org.uk for further details. 55. CIRIA NEWS, (2001) Construction Industry Research and Information Association, Issue 1, London. 56. CIRIA NEWS, (2003) Construction Industry Research and Information Association, Issue 3, London. 57. CEREQ (1991) Europe et Chantiers: Le BTP en Europe: Structure industrielles et march, du Travail, Actes du Colloque des 28 et 29 Septembre 1988, Plan, Construction et Architecture, Paris. 58. Clarke, L. and Wall, C. (1996) Skills and the Construction Process: a Comparative Analysis of Vocational Training and Quality in Social Housebuilding, Policy Press, University of Bristol. 59. Clarke, L. and Wall, C. (1998) UK construction skills in the context of european developments. Construction Management and Economics 16 (5), 553 567 60. GRI (2000) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines on Economic, Environmental and Social Performance, June 2000, Global Reporting Initiative, Boston Paper 5 (under review) APPENDIX E PAPER 5 (UNDER REVIEW) Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P., (under review). Sustainability in the Supply Chain: Construction Industry's Perspective, Submitted to the Proceedings of ICE: Engineering Sustainability. ISRAEL ADETUNJI1, ANDREW PRICE1, PAUL FLEMING1, PAM KEMP2 Centre for Innovative Construction Engineering, Department of Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU 2 Raynesway Construction Southern Limited, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 7TY Sustainable construction and supply chain management (SCM) have become two of the most important performance related issues within the construction industry. To achieve corporate sustainability, it is imperative that sustainability issues are integrated in the supply chains. The integration of sustainability issues throughout the supply chain is termed sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). Although SSCM is generally perceived as a powerful conduit for achieving corporate sustainability, achieving sustainability and SCM are complex undertakings. The study established the conceptual premise for successful SCM and SSCM and explored the tools and strategies for integrating sustainability issues in SCM within the construction industry. To achieve these, the research investigated the meaning, barriers and enablers, issues, tools and techniques, as well as the conditions for achieving successful SCM and SSCM. The study was grounded from the perspective of exemplar organisations with a proven track record in implementing sustainability issues in their organisations and related activities in the supply chain. Sustainable construction and supply chain management have become two of the major issues in the UK construction industry. The increasing environmental, social and economic impacts of the construction industry led to the demand for sustainable construction.1 Concurrently, in response to the recurrent poor quality of work, affordability and budget constraints in the public sectors,2-4 and under performance, low productivity, low profit margin, adversarial relationship and fragmented nature of the construction industry, it is suggested that the industry can benefit from adopting supply chain management.5,6 To achieve sustainable construction and SCM, it a common consensus that the Government, through its spending power and legislation, must take the lead. The results of recent developments have been: a proliferation of various forms of supply chain management and procurement methods in the construction industry; traditional measures of excellence (time, quality and cost) have now been widened to include environmental and social aspects of sustainability;7 importance of sustainable construction performance of suppliers as sustainability issues are becoming one of the key parts of tender selection criteria;8 and many large construction companies (by turnover) are developing a variety of tools, policies and strategies that measure and demonstrate their performance9. The SCM is a powerful conduit for achieving the goal of sustainability.10 Traditionally SCM focuses on leveraging economic profits. However, through public pressure, of growing importance to the SCM in most industries is the social and environmental performance of suppliers. The exposure of poor environmental and social performance in the supply chain can have major repercussions on image, brand and economic profitability.10 Literature is full of numerous examples of companies (Shell, Nike etc.), which have faced exposure, and thereby suffered major economic loss. There is growing awareness that sustainability cannot be achieved in isolation, but by working in partnership with supply chain members to jointly develop products and service based on environmental integrity, social equity and commercial viability. Accordingly, the majority of frameworks, (e.g. Sigma and The Natural Steps) for implementing sustainability issues at the business strategic level, advocate the need to integrate sustainability issues within SCM to achieve the goal of sustainability. This perception is increasing been shared among early adopters of sustainable development (The Body Shop, B&Q, BT, Boot, Pilkington) and sustainable construction (e.g. Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Amec). As a result, the concept of SSCM is emerging as a panacea. However, the concepts of sustainability and SCM are extremely complex and problems exist when theory meets practice.11 There is still an on-going debate on the meaning and how best to implement SCM and corporate sustainability as separate concepts let alone SSCM. Merging of the two concepts does not make the understanding nor practical application of either any easier. Although in the past five years, there has been considerable research into the separate issues of sustainable development and SCM, the concept of SSCM is still in its embryonic stage and the academic research and theory in this area is relatively young. Carter12 recommended the need for in-depth research into SSCM tools and strategies, as well as a better understanding of benefits and barriers of SSCM at company level. A review of literature indicates that SSCM is becoming a major research focus in many industries with the exception of the construction industry. Even though, a desktop research indicates that a few proactive organisations (albeit large organisations) within the construction industry are already addressing some aspects of sustainability issues within their supply chain, there is yet to be any research documenting this trend. This study will attempt to fill the gap by identifying benefits, barriers, strategies and approaches used by major parties (i.e. client, contactors, subcontractors and suppliers) in the construction industry to drive sustainability issues within their supply chains. In the SCM literature, there is still confusion on the conditions under which its practical application is possible. For this reason as well as the novelty of SSCM, the paper will also explore the premise for achieving successful SCM and SSCM in the industry. However, the UK construction industry is extremely complex. It embraces the civil engineering, building engineering, manufacture, waste management, maintenance of roads and other structures, and the process plant sectors.13 Even though, the modes of execution are comparable, the scale, complexity and intricacy within the multitude of supply chains for construction products and services considerably differ.14 Furthermore, the implementation of sustainability and SCM is still confined within the remit of a few proactive large construction companies notably those with government as major clients. Therefore, the complexity of the UK industry, the novelty of SSCM and the need for in-depth study, necessitate the focus on a specific sector within the industry, in this case the road maintenance sector. 2. METHODOLOGY The research is based on a combination of data derived from extensive literature review of academic journals, companies' archive and information materials and in-depth semistructured interviews with clients (3), suppliers (3), contractors (3), and subcontractors (2) organisations within the road maintenance sector. The decision to focus on the road maintenance sector is the complexity of the industry and evidence of a well-established SCM technique (long term strategic partnering). The main clients in the sector are the government agents (Local Authorities and Highways Agency). The road maintenance contracts are procured via strategic partnering on a 5-year basis with an optional 2-year extension depending on performance. Generally the characteristics of the road maintenance sectors are similar to the construction industry; hence the sustainability issues addressed with the sector are parallel to those of the industry as a whole. To achieve the research objectives, a variety of staff (19 in total: from clients, contractors, suppliers and subcontractors) involved in developing and implementing sustainability issues and supply chain strategy in their organisations were interviewed. The sample comprised of respondents from different functions in the organisations (purchasing, marketing, environmental and contract managers) and from different levels of the supply chain. The study uses a collective case study approach to explore the perspectives of the parties involved at the key interfaces of SCM. A case study approach was used for the investigation mainly due to the need to retain the holistic and meaningful characteristics of real-life events.15 Because the concept of SSCM is relatively young, this negates the choice of companies with a proven track record in sustainability issues and related activities in SCM within the sector. Accordingly, clients and contractors organisations renowned for pioneering strategic partnering within the sector and at the forefront of sustainability initiatives and SCM were approached to participate in the research. The majority of these organisations are involved in the M4I demonstrated projects and are committed to the implementation of sustainability issues and SCM. Through these organisations access was gained to their key suppliers and subcontractors but only five of these organisations agreed to take part. The majority refused on the ground that they are too busy and/or is against their organisation policy to be involved in any academic research. The companies studied were chosen as exemplars in implementing sustainability in their organisations and throughout their supply chain so that good practice for the industry can be learnt from companies already engaged in it and discover how better to involve the industry as a whole towards successful SSCM. This research is grounded from the perspectives of senior managers in the procurement, environmental, health and safety, marketing departments of the exemplar organisations in the investigated sector. The research does not purport to be an exhaustive analysis of the whole sector; it only reflects the limited number (11 companies and 19 staff in total) of interviews, however, it does provide an indicative trend in the sector. Though the research focuses on the road maintenance sectors, the findings are not restricted in applicability to the sector, as most of the issues raised are generic to the whole construction industry because most of the suppliers and subcontractors tend to work across the industry and not just with the main clients and the contractors involved in this research. 174 Based on the premise that successful SSCM is conditioned upon a well established SCM process, this section documents the review of literature regarding the meaning, barriers and enablers, and conditions for successful SCM in the construction as well as sustainability issues, tools and techniques and conditions for successful SSCM. 3.1 SCM definitions and terminology Increasing global competition, cost pressure and market uncertainty16 have led to the pursuit of SCM. SCM is based on the premise that potential exists to improve customer service, reduce cost and achieve sustainable competitive advantage through upstream and downstream collaboration of the value chain.17 The lean philosophy informed SCM18 and the key issues addressed19-21 within SCM are collated and depicted in Figure 1 below. The related literatures of SCM abound with a multitude of definitions. There is neither a universally adopted definition nor certainty on its practical application.22 The diversity and complexity of business philosophy embodied in the concept is reflected in the plethora of SCM definitions and confusion surrounding its practical application. In an attempt to clarify debate, several authors23,24 have reviewed various definitions for SCM. Examples of these definitions are: · · · the management of a network of organisations that are involved in carrying out the business process;25 a holistic approach to managing information, materials, funds and relationships outside and through the organisation, from the supplier's supplier to the customer's customer;26 optimisation of overall activities of organisation working together, ...to manage and coordinate the whole chain.23 S tre am lin e n u m b e r of su p p lie rs O p erationa l e ffic ien c y A d va n ce u se of IC T P ow erfu l d ata p roc essin g C h eap e r an d m ore reliab le tran sp ortation T im e co m p ression C o m p u te r-aid ed d ecision -sup p ort syste m s S ea m less in form ation flo w Q u an titative ly b ase d p erform an c e m a n a ge m en t C ost le vera ge C u sto m er focu s A gility a n d flex ib ility M etric s a n d m e asu re m e nt of p e rform a n ce C ross-fu n ction al tea m s A tten tion to orga n isation al d yn a m ic U n d e rsta n d in g of fin an c ial tra d e-offs Figure 1: Key of SCM issues Research suggests that these variations are mainly based on different standpoints of authors, industrial and functional area from which it is approached.12,22 The three metaphors of SCM from the industrial perspectives are depicted in Figure 2 below. Construction Industry `s Perspective Cooperation between main contractor, subcontractors and suppliers and development of these relationships within the supply chain system towards arrangements of lean supply chain partnerships. M anufacturing Industry's Perspective Integrated management of materials, information and financial flows from raw material extraction to end-user. SCM ns itio d e fi n Public Sector's Perspective The term SCM does not exist rather procurement management, which is defined as the management of organisation relationship with its direct suppliers (vendors, contractors) and its customers (various departments and agencies). Figure 2: SCM definitions from three perspectives 3.2 The dilemma of achieving SCM in the construction industry Major studies in the construction industry5,6 suggest that the industry (plagued with fluctuating demand cycle, uncertain production condition, fragmentised production process and adversarial relationship) can potentially benefit from SCM.27,28 Over the last few years, there has been a proliferation of research and practice in the field of SCM. In the process, several SCM techniques have been suggested and are widely used within the industry but to a varied degree of success. While SCM can deliver potential benefit,29-31 it has proved very difficult to implement32 and uptake in the industry is conspicuously slow.33 Research notes that only a few UK major construction clients and contractors have successfully implemented SCM as an integrative part of their business strategy for procuring projects.34 Figure 3 shows the development of SCM and SSCM. E nvironm ental + S ocial factors + E conom ic factors E conom ic factors E nvironm ental + E conom ic factors O utsourcing C ollaborative planning S upply chain partnership Integrated supply chain S eam less supply chain C ost overrun, P oor quality Low profit m argin A dversarial relationships E xploitative behaviour Lack of coordination/com m unication Im proved custom er satisfaction N on-adversarial relationship B etter quality of w orks Im proved cash flow Low er inventory Increase profit m argin G reen SCM IS O 14001 accreditation W ritten policy P re-qualification V alidation of perform ance P urchasing specification D w indling natural resources H igh w aste volum e E nvironm ental pollution G overnm ent regulation R isk of fines C ollaborative w aste reduction Legislative com pliance E nvironm ental innovation C ost savings Q uality im provem ent R eduction in fines SSCM Q uestionnaire C ode of conducts C hecklists and audits T hird parties certifications C ollaboration am ong parties G lobal aw areness C hanging social value P roliferation of legislation B usiness pressure C lient procurem ent policy Im proved reputation and im age Legislative com pliance E nhance quality and innovation R isk m anagem ent and brand protection Leadership and m arket differentiator S ustainable com petitive advantage Lack know ledge of sustainability C ost of third parties certification D istribution of costs-benefits C ost as a barom eter of success Lim itation of procurem ent policy N arrow and patchy focus Lack of trust and com m itm ent N o w in-w in situation D ifficulty in changing culture C om plexity and fragm entation Long history of adversarial relationship M iss-m atch of S C M strategy E nd-of-pipe clean-up solution H igh im plem entation cost C onflicting interest Little involvem ent of key functions D ifficulty in changing culture M iss-m atch strategy Figure 3: The development of SCM and SSCM SCM advocates changes in culture and behaviour that is historically adversarial, shortterm, opportunistic and self-centred. According to Gattorma,35 the two main weaknesses of SCM are the difficulty in creating and maintaining a shared vision and strategy; and achieving and sustaining significant behavioural change both internally and externally. Research suggests that evidence of trust and commitment is virtually non-existent in most collaborative activity. 36 Parties find it difficult to adapt to the new ethos of openness and cost transparency. 37 Open book is not used to gain mutual benefits but rather as a means of reducing suppliers' already thin profit margin. The relationship is more of a win-lose as opposed to the win-win situation advocated by most SCM literature. A number of studies have shown that costs of improvement activities are biased towards suppliers while the benefits, however, are skewed towards the customer.38,39 The achievement of both internal and external alignment is rare due to traditional reliance on price as a barometer for success, historical fragmentation of delivery systems and adversarial relationship,27 the temporariness and one-off nature of the construction projects40 and the belief that trading partners are interchangeable. 3.3 Successful SCM in the construction industry: two opposing schools of thoughts The debate on how SCM can be achieved in the construction industry is far from over and it is an area where rhetoric appears to be moving well ahead of reality.32,41 The literature on SCM regarding the conditions for successful SCM in the construction industry can be divided into two schools of thought as depicted in Figure 4. Operational efficiency and effectiveness: cooperation based on trust and equity Most writings in the construction literature fall into this category. A general tenet is that integration and cooperation is the panacea for the industry fragmentation,28 adversarial culture and low profit margin.5,6 In literature, a number of variables such as trust,42 commitment43 and win-win scenario are referenced to be crucial. Trust that parties act in a consistent but not in an opportunistic or exploitative manner, while commitment is the belief that the trading partners are willing to devote energy to sustaining the relationship. A win-win scenario for all parties to safeguard against the tendency to act as opportunistic and ensure that parties work hard for the common goal. This approach takes a remarkably benign view of developing and maintaining inter-organisation relationships.22 The achievement of this premise in practice is highly contentious, as various researches have shown. While this approach may be appropriate for certain players in the industry under certain circumstances, they are unlikely to be appropriate for all players in all circumstances as propagated by most authors due to the nature and complexity of the construction process.13 Strategic efficiency and effectiveness: Compliance based on power relations The view argues that there is an intellectual flaw in the assumption that successful SCM based on trust and equitable relationship is achievable in all situations44 and amenable to the construction process as propagated in most literature but rather on power regime and structural dominance.13 This is a situation whereby a dominant player is strategically placed to control the key resources that appropriate value and create a structured hierarchy of relatively dependent suppliers who pose no threat to the flow of value appropriation and pass value to the dominant player.45,46 High purchasing power; regularity and predictability of workload; and extensive knowledge of the construction process are seen as significant intervening variables, which determine whether or not proactive SCM approaches can be implemented within the construction process.13 These variables provide the buyers (clients) with power resource and ability to work in a proactive and collaborative manner with trading parties to achieve its procurement objectives of obtaining best value, and avoid the inherent problems of the industry. Both views, however, concur on some issues47 such as internal and external alignment through co-ordinated teams and cross functional integration to ensure a flexible, adaptive and open organisations, exchange of information and knowledge transfer leading to innovation; effective communication in terms of frequency and quality of information;48 willingness to share information to improve overall performance;22 commitment to common goal and mutual support;49 and continuous innovative effort. This discursion raises an additional research question concerning the interplay of the mode of cooperation (equity and/or power relationship) in the context of the conditions for successful SSCM. VIEW I: Operational Efficiency and Effectiveness Long-term collaboration Long-term collaboration Based on: VIEW II: Strategic Efficiency and Effectiveness High purchasing power Equitable relationship Power relationship / Structural dominance Regularity of workload Win-win situation high knowledge of construction process A r e a s of C o n s e n s u s Common goal and mutual support Internal and external alignment Sharing of information Effective communication Continuous innovation Figure 4: The two schools of thoughts for achieving SCM 3.4 The concepts of Sustainability and SCM The burgeoning complexities of environmental and social impacts of production and consumption patterns have led to the need for the demand for a systematic approach to integrate sustainability issues in SCM. The increasing global awareness driven by: the creation of a `global agenda for change'50 capacity building activities; and the proliferation of legislations have put considerable pressure on industries worldwide. Grounded on a well-articulated business case, an increasing number of companies are proactively implementing sustainability issues in their business process. However, greater awareness is required of the need to involve the supply chain as part of a company's corporate sustainability agenda. This provides other cogent reasons for both private and public sectors to broaden the conceptual scope of SCM.10 SSCM can be defined as the identification of problematic social and environmental issues throughout the supply chain, the assessment of their impact and risks, and the development of measures to improve them.11 A catalogue of studies have documented the environmental, social and economic performance of the construction industry and advocated significant change.1,9 More research has been conducted in relation to SSCM in other industries but very little within the construction industry. Most research in the construction industry has tended to focus on specific operational and tactical aspects of the supply chain51 such as client-contractor relationships,40 main contractor and 178 subcontractor/supplier interface,27,52 environmental performance,53 and sustainable construction as a separate issue. This study therefore sought literature on environmental management and SCM as well as sustainability and SCM both within and beyond the industry to provide a theoretical base for this study and to further explore the following questions within case study organisations: Q: How is the concept of sustainability and supply chain management understood within the case study organisations? Functional/department involve in implementing SSCM Successful SCM demands effective and close alignment of various functional units such as purchasing, logistics, marketing, and manufacturing as well as suppliers and transportation providers.54,55 In light of the drive towards better environmental management both within organisations and throughout supply chain, research suggests that the role of purchasing is increasing subject to re-evaluation and their role is becoming more significant and pivotal to drive environmental initiatives.56 The integration of sustainability issues in SCM widens the scope to include other departments and functions such as environmental, health and safety, contract manager, training and development, R&D and human resources.12 Q: To what extent are these functions/departments involved in integrating sustainability issues within the case study organisations Sustainability issues for SCM In most industries, the sustainability issues addressed within SCM are environmental, social and ethical issues.11,12 Within the construction industry, there is a wealth of information on the generic sustainability issues relevant to the construction industry1,5759 and a few examples are collated in Table 1 below. Q: Is the full spectrum of issues usually implied by the term sustainability been addressed within the case organisations? Sustainability Dimension Economic Table 1: Sustainability Issues Specific Issue Efficiency, productivity, profitability, investment, employment, innovation / R&D Whole life costs, life cycle assessment, risk assessment, value management, lean construction, affordability, budget constraint, road users' cost during maintenance work Energy efficiency, use of renewable vs. non-renewable Efficiency of use, use of renewable vs. non-renewable, embodied energy, transport energy, use of local outsource Efficient use, pollution of surface and groundwater Ethical use of land, use of brown-field vs. green-field sites, degradation / pollution Elimination, source reduction, re-use, recycle, treatment & disposal Local air pollution, noise pollution Protection of wildlife habitats Competitivene ss Value money Energy Materials Water for Land Waste Air Nature conservation Build environment Employees Quality of built environment, equity of access, disruption to road users Working environment, health and safety, training and development, equal employment policy Construction impacts (noise, nuisance etc), contribution to viable, safe and cohesive communities, community involvement Industry accountability Community Wider society Enablers and barriers to SSCM SCM relationship is an important facilitator for successful integration of sustainability. The SSCM research in other industries suggests potential benefits and pitfalls.11,12 As sustainability performance of supply chains becomes a more important issue for companies, various techniques are being introduced for understanding the issues, assessing the risks, monitoring suppliers' performance and raising standards along the chain.12,60 Research indicate that most of these tools are still at an embryonic stage of development and there is still some uncertainty regarding the most practical, credible, efficient and cost effective. In addition, the choice of tools for individual firms will depend on organisation culture, market position and sustainability issues most exposed to.60 Q: what are the drivers, benefits, barriers, and tools and techniques used within case study organisations to integrate sustainability issues in their supply chain? Do the sustainability issues exposed to, culture and market position of individual organisations impact on the choice of tools and techniques? The conditions for successful SSCM The previous discussion on inter-firm relationship (Figure 4) is observed in the literature on successful integration of environmental issues in SCM. The innovative approach to reducing packaging in the health care and retail sectors provides a good example of collaboration based on trust and equity. While how Toyota successfully achieves its concept of `lean' and environmental management; and how B&Q, Interface and many others successfully integrate environment and wider sustainability issues in their supply chains are a few examples of collaborations based on power regime and dominance. This evidence inevitably indicates that the diffusion of environmental improvements might operate differently in industries and supply chains with different structural formations; and the effectiveness of green purchasing policies vary between contexts.56 It is imperative that certain conditions are met for effective SSCM. According to Lippmann,61 top-level leadership, cross-functional teams, effective communication, multiple information channels, effective processes for evaluating suppliers, targeting first-tier suppliers, incorporation of environmental issues for evaluating suppliers, integration into existing SCM processes, continuous improvement, collaboration among parties and willingness to end non-performing relationships as critical conditions. Recent research indicated the process must be rewarding for all parties, should be undertaken in partnership and the `market rule' must support the efforts for successful SSCM.11,12 In addition to these conditions, through deductive reasoning from the literature review herein, shared vision and strategy, transparency and trust among all parties involved, are crucial. These conditions were examined and validated within the case study organisations and the outcomes are summarised in Table 3 below. Q: To what extent do these conditions exist and which type of inter-firms relationship exists in the case study organisations that facilitate the diffusion of sustainability issues within the supply chain? 4.0 RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Some of the major findings of the research can be summarised as follows: 4.1 Understanding of the concept The initial stage of the study explores the interviewees' understanding of SCM, sustainable construction and SSCM. The clients' description of SCM reflected the public sector's perspective while those of contractors, suppliers and subcontractors organisations generally follow the construction industry's perspective as shown in Figure 1. There is a general consensus among all parties that sustainability is a very complex and cross-cutting concept. However, it was recognised that sustainability comprises three components: environmental, social and economic issues. With the exception of the subcontractors, one supplier, one contractor, all the interviewees consented that their organisations have developed sustainability strategies and produced a documentation of proof. There is evidence that all have either EMS certification to ISO 14001 or proof of in-house EMS systems. The term SSCM is generally unknown but there is a very high level of awareness of green procurement, green purchasing and environmental supply chain management. This is understandable, as these are common terms within the clients' organisations (public sector) and the reflection of the scope of sustainability issues addressed with the SCM. 4.2 Sustainability issues addressed There appears to be lack of integration of the wide spectrum of sustainability issues in the SCM. It seems there is more focus on the environmental issues possibly due to the clients' green procurement policy (the `Greening Government' programme focuses on the incorporation of environmental concerns into public procurement) and the high exposure of the sector to environmental legislations (as many similarities exist between the waste management sectors and the road maintenance sector). The analysis of the spectrum of sustainability issues addressed within the supply chain mainly focus on the environmental aspect of sustainability that can yield economic rewards. Examples of these are waste management to reduce landfill tax, recycling initiatives, material innovation, pollution avoidance, reduction of generic construction material usage (water, energy), transport policy (to minimise disruption to road users during road works) and so on. The only social issue features in the issues being addressed is the health and safety, possibly due to the poor health and safety records of the industry. 4.3 Functions/departments involved in integrating sustainability issues in the SCM The analysis of the research indicates that some of these department/functions are more involved than the others as shown in Figure 5. The most involved department/function is the procurement/purchasing department while the least involved is the human resources department. This finding is consistent with the common perception within the sector that environmental concerns are more tangible than the social aspect of sustainability. 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 Environment Research & development Training and development Purchasing / procurement Human resources Marketing Health & safety Contract manager Functions / Departments Figure 5: Functions / department involved in SSCM 4.4 Drivers for integrating sustainability issues in SCM The study indicates the power of clients to motivate changes. Several of the contractors, subcontractors and suppliers suggest that clients request for better environmental and health and safety performance have yielded major influence in getting support at the board level and hence the main catalyst for achieving environmental management accreditation to ISO 14001. Some, with the exception of the subcontractors, indicate that their organisations also have or are in the process of working towards third parties accreditations such as Investors in People, quality management ISO 9000: 2000, health and safety (RoSPA and/or OHSAS). The study suggests that achieving best value for the client, meeting clients' targets, minimising risk, compliance with environmental legislation and contractual requirements, maximising added value, reducing total cost across the entire trading process and gaining competitive advantage are the main drivers. These drivers can be broadly grouped into customer focus, cost leverage, and environmental correctness. These findings are consistent with the major premise for various policy reviews and initiatives in both the public sector and the construction industry over the past years. 4.5 Benefits of integrating sustainability issues in SCM The supply chain provides the focus for any organisation, whether service- or productbased, seeking to improve the social, environmental and economic performance of its operations. A substantial business benefit can be achieved through a combination of leadership commitment, practical initiatives, and improved systems and processes. The majority of the respondents indicate a positive impact on the bottom line and cited several business benefits as collated and depicted in Figure 3. This indicates that a wellcrafted and successful integration of environmental/ sustainability issues in the supply chain relationship can create business value. 4.6 Barriers to integrating sustainability issues in SCM The respondents conveyed a number of barriers to overcome when collaborating on environmental/sustainability initiatives. The findings were colourful and pointed to some intriguing problems. The difficulty of achieving behavioural and cultural change, procurement restriction, cost issues, commercial risks, clients' unwillingness to pay a premium for sustainable construction innovation and rigid specifications are cited as major barriers. These and other challenges are elaborated below: · Restriction of WTO and EU legislation on procurement: the UK public sector's SSCM is restricted by the global and continental trade rules such as the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement and the European Union (EU) Treaty, which mandate `Open tendering' and non-discrimination procurement practices for the member countries. Laxity of procurement policy: the UK Government procurement policy is mainly based on the concept of "value for money". However, due to the devolved nature of procurement responsibilities, the scope of its practical application mainly depends on the different levels of government and specific department. This laxity seems to be a major barrier to SSCM. There is still no level playing field as procurement practices have largely so far focused on price and the commitment to sustainability issues have been an act of faith rather than contractual deliverable. Symbolic quality submission: pre-selection systems tend to accept `just enough' as the pass mark and then allow the next phase of the tender process to be awarded primarily on a cost basis which does not reward those companies `making a real difference'. Low risk culture: there is a general perception that clients are unwilling to take risks or sometimes reluctant to share risks and opt for well tried and tested materials and construction processes. Cost of innovation and commercial risk: clients are sometimes unwilling to share the cost or pay a premium for sustainable construction innovation. Because of commercial risk, long history of conservative and adversarial relationship, suppliers do not always share certain commercial information and hence there are practical limits to transparency and open book approach. 4.7 Tools and strategy used for implementing SSCM The research findings suggest the existence of a wide-ranging advance and innovative SSCM tools and techniques in operation. However, the scope mainly focuses on environmental aspects and less on other aspects of sustainability issues. The study observes a high culture of health and safety and environmental consciousness within the case study organisations, possibly, due to the sector's high exposure to environmental, health and safety issues, and the clients' green procurement strategy. The high exposure and clients' market position appear to have influenced the choice of tools and strategies as more importance is placed on achieving third parties certifications (especially ISO 14001) and meeting clients' PSA targets. The inventory of tools and techniques used within the sector are collated in Table 2 below. Table 2: The Inventory of tools and techniques within case study organisations Tools Description such as qualitative (essay format e.g. quality submission) and quantitative (rating of statements e.g. Capability Assessment Toolkit) methods. The quality submission is common within the Local Authority contracts, which demands written statements from contractors on a set of issues such as design, recycling initiatives, innovation in material use and other environmental issues. Very recently, the Highways Agency introduced CAT, a self-assessment tool covering such issues as internal resources, partnering, processes, people, strategy and planning, direction and leadership. such as ISO 14001 Environmental standard. Many clients insist that their contractors and suppliers meet this standard. of contractors, suppliers, subcontractors that meet legislative requirement, high environmental management standard with proven records of technical ability and innovation. This is undertaken through questionnaires and interviews on environmental policy, awareness and achievements, and working conditions. requirements in procurement contracts for supply chain parties to work with clients to continuously improve the environmental performance and achieving the governmental Public Sector Agreement (PSA). where appropriate, projects are registered on the Considerate Contractor Scheme (CCS). The CCS is a voluntary initiative for better site management to reduce site noise and nuisance, waste and improve working relationships between contractors and subcontractors. a handbook containing procurement procedure, environmental requirements, environmental manual containing a list of hazardous substances to be avoided, vehicle procurement specification and so on. contracts are awarded to contractors on 5-year basis through strategic alliance. Partnering between contractors and first tier subcontractors and suppliers, where appropriate, is common. is a crucial part of the management process. Examples of tools used for validations are reviewing questionnaires and documentation from contractors, subcontractors and suppliers, site visits, third-party audits, measurement of contract performance using jointly agreed indicators. third parties and in-house training on such issues as environmental and health & safety issues. Communication materials such as Toolbox talks, workshops, brochures, information on internets and intranet, and newsletters are commonly used. on R&D, development of environmental efficient product, waste management system, to meet environmental targets etc. There are hosts of examples of innovation through collaboration in the area of waste management, resources use and material. contractors are required to work toward ISO 14001 certification for depots. Individual businesses within the group set up their own management systems to comply with the parent company's environmental requirements. Use of environmental co-ordinators at various levels working closely with procurement, marketing department. for product and services is a useful tool for influencing the supply chains. Examples of purchasing specifications involve restriction on certain environmental damaging substances, amount of recycling material use, whole life costing outcome and so on. Pre-qualification assessment: Third party certification: Pre-qualification database: Continuous improvement agreement: Behavioural code of practice: Procurement and contract guidelines: Strategic alliance and partnering: Validation of performance: Training and communication: Collaboration with supply chain: Operational integrity: Purchasing specifications: 4.8 Assessment on the Conditions for SSCM and type of inter-firm relationships This assessment was based on the discussions and observations during the interviews, and review of various literatures from the case study organisations. The conditions for SSCM are assessed on a three scales; namely high, medium and low as shown below. The inter-firm relationship observed in the supply chain network posses the characteristics of structural dominance and power regime. This structural dominance exists in the Clients-Contractors relationships, and the Contractors-Network of subcontractors and suppliers relationships. This situation is referred to as extended buyer (clients) dominance. Such an environment has been argued as one of the most conducive environments for successful implementation of SCM in the construction industry.13,62 In the sector, there are very few major contractors and the sole clients and only source of revenue are the government agents (Local authority and highways Agency). Road maintenance involves high capital expenditure and environmental impact. The need to maintain the road network within budget (due to budget constraint and affordability), fewer disruptions to road users and low environmental impacts are major priorities for the clients. The large volume and regularity of workload, extensive knowledge of the road maintenance process and the high revenue dependence of the main contractors and their supplier chain networks allowed the clients to achieve its business objective of obtaining `value for money'. The client, through extended structural dominance, is able to control its supply chain by adopting a long-term strategic partnering arrangement with the contractor. The key parts of the contractor selection criteria, aside from cost, are evidence of: environmental correctness; innovation in material and construction process; supply chain network of subcontractors and suppliers, health and safety performance of the main contractors. The contractor is also able to leverage power on its selected/ preferred supply chain network of subcontractors and suppliers through regularity of workload, high purchasing power and extensive knowledge of the maintenance process. This approach is highly proactive and enables the clients to directly manage the upstream and indirectly the downstream supply chains and facilitate the diffusion of environmental/ sustainability issues. Table 3: Assessment on the conditions for SSCM No. SSCM conditions Assessment 1 2 Top-level leadership Cross-functional integration High: it is a common practice that senior management meet regularly to discuss progress and set targets Moderate: some functions are more involved than the others. Though there is evidence of horizontal structure, the historical dichotomy between departments and functions still persists High: there are well established modes of both internal and external communications e.g. periodic meetings, yearly communication day to engage all stakeholders, information on the intranet, extranet and internet etc High: there is substantial evidence e.g. mission statements, codes of conduct, meetings, questionnaires, contract conditions, supplier newsletters, periodic performance reviews High: evidence suggests a host of advanced and innovative tools and strategies Moderate: not in all cases. There is a reluctance to reduce Multiple information channels Effective processes for targeting, selecting, working with and evaluating suppliers Must target first-tier suppliers, contractors and subcontractors Incorporate sustainability issues as part of supplier solicitation, selection and monitoring to ensure that only sustainability aware suppliers approach them for business Integration into existing SCM processes Ensure continuous improvement the number of suppliers and subcontractors Moderate: the process is highly geared towards the environmental aspect of sustainability and less on other aspects. Willingness to end relationships which fail repeatedly to meet environmental expectations Allow for collaboration and joint problem solving Process must be rewarding for all parties Partnership culture High: but the focus is more on environmental aspects and less on other aspects of sustainability. High: the relationship is based on continuous improvement; as a result there is business improvement department with a senior management involvement. Employees are encouraged and rewarded for innovative ideas Moderate: Not necessarily based on environmental issue alone but as well as (if not more on) price commitment. High: various innovation in material and construction processes are evidence of collaborations among the parties Low: the process is mainly geared towards reducing cost for and meeting the client's Public Services Agreement (PSA) targets. High: there is very strong evidence of partnership culture and most of the parties interviewed are regarded as the pioneers of strategic partnering in the sector. Contracts are awarded through strategic partnering on a 5-year Term Maintenance contract (Local authorities) or Management Agent Contractor (MAC in the Highways Agency). With these arrangements, contractors, suppliers and subcontractors work together to achieve clients objectives Moderate: evidence from a few subcontractors and suppliers suggest an arms-length relationship with their clients and or contractors. In general, there seems to be an element of trust and honesty. However, this assertion is purely based on the fact that most of the parties interviewed have been working together for over 10 years and one of the contractors described their relationship with clients as `closely tight' that you hardly notice the joint. Moderate: though a shared vision and strategy exists, the cultural barriers and the historic division of functions and departments make this difficult to maintain and execute Transparency and trust among all the parties involved Shared vision and strategy 5.0 CONCLUSIONS Supply chain solution is increasingly an essential part of corporate sustainability. Companies that are serious about achieving corporate sustainability know they must not only change their own practices, but their supply chains too. This study has established the conceptual premise for successful SCM and SSCM and explored the tools and strategies for integrating sustainability issues in SCM within the construction industry. The terms SCM and SSCM are evolving concepts. SSCM can be defined as the identification of problematic sustainability issues throughout the supply chain, the assessment of their impact and risks, and the development of measures to improve them. Within the investigated sector, the study revealed a general understanding of the concept of sustainability and supply chain. However, the term SSCM is relatively unknown rather green procurement/purchasing. This is consistent with the SSCM practice found within the organisations studied. The reasons being: the clients' green procurement strategy and the high environmental impacts on the sector. SCM relationship can be very effective for raising social and environmental performance but the practice found within the case study organisations currently addresses a narrow set of sustainability issues and the involvement of certain functions/departments for successful SSCM are limited. The sustainability/ environmental issues exposed to, culture and market position of individual firms would impact on the choice of tools and techniques employed in various industries. The study observed a high culture of health and safety and environmental consciousness within the case study organisations due to the sector's high exposure to environmental, health and safety issues, and the clients' green procurement strategy. The high exposure and clients' market position appeared to have influenced the choice of tools and strategies as more importance is placed on achieving third parties certifications and meeting clients' PSA targets. The research findings suggested the existence of a spectrum of advanced and innovative SSCM tools and techniques in operation as collated in Table 2. However, there is a need to widen the scope to include wider sustainability issues and standardise these tools. The SCM relationship is a powerful conduit for any organisation, whether service-or product-based, seeking to improve the social, environmental and economic performance of its operation. However, the diffusion of sustainability/environmental improvements would operate differently in different industries and supply chains with different structural formation. This study has shed light into the debate on the uncertainty regarding the circumstances amenable to achieving SCM in the construction industry. In this context, two schools of thoughts are found in literature as depicted in Figure 4. Due to the nature and complexity of the construction process, the SCM relationships within the industry is, more often than not, based on dominance and power regime as confirmed in the case study. In the organisation studied, the inter-firm relationship observed in the supply chain network posses the characteristics of extended structural dominance and power regime and provides the environment for the diffusion of environmental/ sustainability issues. While this can deliver positive improvements (Figure 3) and operate within a wider set of conditions (Table 3), it also raises a number of dilemmas that need to be redressed, for example the distribution of costs-benefits, the scope of issues addressed, the involvement of cross-functional team, the use of cost as a key barometer of success and so on. 1. DETR. (2000), A Better Quality of Life: A Strategy for more Sustainable Construction. London. 2. Gershon P. (1999), Review of Civil Procurement in Central Government. Office of Government Commerce, London. 3. HM Treasury. (2003), Appraisal and Evaluation in Central Government: the Green Book, The Stationary Office, London. 4. HM Treasury, (2000), Procurement Guidance Note No. 7 on Whole Life Cost. November, London. 5. Latham, M. (1994), Constructing the Team, HMSO, London. 6. Egan, J. (1998), Rethinking Construction, Construction Task Force Report, HMSO, London 7. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P. (2003), Trends in the conceptualisation of corporate sustainability. Accepted In: the Proceeding of the Joint International Symposium of CIB Working Commissions W55, W65 and W107, Singapore, 23-24 October 2003. 8. Government Construction Clients' Panel, GCCP. (2000), Achieving Sustainability in Construction Procurement, GCCP, London. 9. Adetunji, I., Price, A., Fleming, P. and Kemp, P. (2003), Sustainability and the UK construction industry: a review, Proceedings of ICE: Engineering Sustainability, Volume 156, December 2003, Pages 185-199 Paper 13472. 10. Elkington, J. (2002), Cannibals With Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. Castone Publishing, London. 11. Drabæk, I. and Brinch-Pedersen, M, (2003), Sustainable Development as a business principle in the supply chain: No Writing on the Wall', Nordic Partnership discussion paper, August 2003. 12. Carter, M., Kielkiewicz-Young, A., Young, A. and Hughes, A. (2001), Supply chain strategy and evaluation, The centre for sustainable design, Sigma project, January 2001 13. Ireland, P. (2004), Managing appropriately in construction power regimes: understanding the impact of regularity in the project environment. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Volume 9, Number 5, pages 372-382 14. Cox, A. and Ireland, P. (2002), Managing Construction Supply Chains: A common sense approach, Engineering, Construction & Architectural Management, Volume 9, Number 5/6 15. Yin, K.R. (1994), Case Study Research: Design Methods, Applied Social Research Methods Series, Volume 5, Sage Publication, London. 16. Houlihan, J.B. (1985), International Supply Chain Management. International Journal of Physical Distribution and Materials Management, Volume 15, Number 1, pp 51-6 17. Biemans, W. and Brand, M. (1995), Reverse Marketing: a synergy of purchasing and relationship marketing. International Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, Page 29-37 18. Cox, A. (1997), Business Success, Earlsgate Press, Boston, UK. 19. Bechtel, C. and Jayaram, J. (1997), Supply chain management: a strategic perspective. International Journal of Logistics Management, Volume 8, Number 1, Page 15-34 20. Anderson, D.L. and Lee, H. (1999), Synchronized supply chains: the new frontier. Achieving Supply Chain Excellence Through Technology, Montgomery Research, San Francisco, CA, 12-21. 21. Mainheim, M.L. (1999), Integrating people and technology for supply chain advantage. Achieving Supply Chain Excellence Through Technology, Montgomery Research, San Francisco, 304-313. 22. Dewhurst, F., Spring, M. and Arkle, N. (2000), Environmental Change and Supply Chain Management: A multi-case study exploration of the impact of Y2000. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Volume 5, Number 5, Page 245-260 23. Vollmann, T. and Cordon, C. (1999), Building a Smarter Demand Chain, Mastering Information Management, Part 4. Financial Times, February. 24. New, S. (1994), Supply chain integration: hype or reality? Logistics Focus, Volume 2, Number 5. 25. Harland, C.M. (1996), Supply Chain Management: relationships, chains and networks, British Journal of Management, 7, Special Issue, S63-S80 26. Ross, D.F. (1998), Competing Through Supply Chain Management: Creating Marketing-winning Strategies Through Supply Chain Partnerships. Chapman & Hall, New York. 27. Dainty, A.R.J., Briscoe, H. G. and Millet, S.J. (2001), New Perspectives on Construction Supply Chain Integration. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Volume 6, Number 4, Page 163-173 28. O'Brien, W.J. and Fisher, M.A. (1993), Construction Supply Chain Management: A Research Framework. Civil Comp 93: Information Technology for Civil and Structural Engineers, pp 61-64. 29. Hayward, D. (1999), Setting Store, New Civil Engineer, Movement for Innovation Supplement, November, Page 24-25. 30. Mylius, A. (1999), Keyhole surgery. New Civil Engineer, Movement for Innovation Suppliment, November, Page 21-22. 31. Whitelaw, J. (1999), Breaking the mould. New Civil Engineer, Movement for Innovation Suppliment, November, Page 2-8 32. Sabath, R. and Fontanella, J. (2002), The Unfulfilled Promise of Supply Chain Collaboration. Supply Chain Management Review, July/August, Page 24-9 33. Love, P.E.D. (2000), Construction Supply Chains. European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, Volume 6, Number 3-4, Page 145-147 34. Pearson, A. (1999), Chain reaction. Building, 12 March, Page 54-55 35. Gattorna, J.J. Chorn, N.C. and Day, R. (1992), Pathways to Customer: Reducing Complexity in the Logistics Pipeline. International journal of Physical Distribution and Materials Management, Volume 15, Number 1, pp. 51-6. 36. Ireland, R. and Bruce, R. (2002), CPFR only the beginning of collaboration. Supply Chain Management Review, September/October, Page 80-88. 37. McIvor, R., Humphreys, P. and McAleer, E. (1997), Implications of partnership sourcing on buyersupplier relations. Journal of General Management, Volume 23, Number 1, page 30-35 38. New, S. and Ramsey, J. (1997), A Critical Appraisal of Aspects of the Lean Chain Approach. European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, Volume 3, Number 2, Page 93-102 39. Watson, K. (1999), Is partnering Starting to mean all things to all people. Contract Journal, 10 February, Page 14-16 40. Akintoye, A. McIntosh, G. and Fitzgerald, E. (2000), A Survey of supply chain collaboration and management in the UK construction industry. European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Chain Management, Volume 6, Number 3-4, Page 159-168 41. Humphreys, P., Matthews, J., and Kumaraswamy, M. (2003), Pre-construction project partnering: from adversarial to collaborative relationships. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Volume 8, Number 2, Page 166-178. 42. Lee, H.L. and Billington, C, (1992), Managing Supply Chain Inventory: Pitfalls and Opportunities. Sloan Management Review, Volume 33, Number 3, Page 65-73. 43. Spekman, R.E., Kamauff, J.W. Jr. and Myhr, N. (1998), An empirical investigation into supply chain management: a perspective on partnerships. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal. Volume 3, Number 2, Pages 53-67. 44. Cox, A. (2004), The art of the possible: Relationship management in power regimes and supply chain. Supply Chain Management: An International journal, Volume 9, Number 5, Page 346-356 45. Cox, A. (1999), Power, value and supply chain management. Supply Chain Management: An International journal, Volume 3, Number 4, Page 167-175. 46. Shimizu, I. (1996), The Dark Side of Japanese Business. M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, New York, NY. 47. Simpson, D.F. and Power, D.J. (2005) Use the Supply Relationship to Develop Lean and Green Suppliers. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Volume 10, Number 1, Page 60-68. 48. Mohr, J. and Nevin, J.R. (1990), Communication strategies in marketing channels: a theoretical perspective. Journal of Marketing, Volume 54, October, Page 36-51. 49. Wagner, B.A., Macbeth, D.K. and Boddy, D. (2002), Improving Supply Chain Relations: An Emperical Case Study: Supply Chain management: An International Journal, Volume 7, Number 4, Page 253-264. 50. Brundtland, G. H. (1987), Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, New York. 51. Love, P.E.D., Irani, Z. and Edwards, D.J. (2004), A Seamless Supply Chain Management Model for Construction. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Volume 9, Number 1, pp 43-56. 52. Vrijhoef, L. and Koskela, L. (2000), The Four Roles of Supply Chain Management in Construction. European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Chain Management, Volume 6, Number 3-4 pp 169178. 53. Ofori, G. (2000), Greening the Construction Supply Chain in Singapore. European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, Volume 6, Number 3-4, Page 195-206. 54. Keegan, K. (1999), Managing the portfolio of supply chain competencies. Supply Chain Management Review, Volume 3, Number 2, Page 44-51. 55. Westbrook, B. (1999), Synchronize for success. Supply Chain Management Review, Volume 3, Number 2, Page 60-66. 56. Green, K., Morton, B. and New, S. (1998), Green Purchasing and Supply policies: Do they improve companies environmental performance? Supply Chain Mangement: An International Journal, Volume 3, Number 2, pp 89-95. 57. CIRIA C563 (2001), Sustainable Construction: Company Indicators. Alden Press, Oxford. 58. CIRIA C571 (2001), Sustainable Construction Procurement: A Guide to Delivering Environmentally Responsible Projects, Cromwell Press, Wiltshire. 59. Leiper, Q., Fagan, N., Engstrom, S., and Fenn, G. (2003), Proceedings of ICE: Engineering Sustainability, Volume 156, March 2003, Pages 59-66, Paper 13063. 60. Roberts, S. (2001), Supply Chains as a Lever for Sustainability? Progress, Prospects and Pitfalls. International Institute for Environment and Development, London. 61. Lippmann, S. (1999), Supply Chain Environmental Management: Elements for Success," Corporate Environmental Strategy, Elsevier Science Inc., Volume 6, Number 2. 62. Cox, A. (2004), Business Relationships for Competitive Advantage, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke. APPENDIX F SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS I. II. III. IV. Consultation Questions and Responses To `Taking-it-on: developing UK sustainable development strategy together' A checklists of Practices for the construction industry towards the Path of Sustainability A Framework for sustainability change management process ConPass Model Evaluation and Validation Questionnaire Consultation Questions and Responses Taking-it-on: developing UK sustainable development strategy together The approach to a new strategy 1: What do you think of our approach to the content and structure of a new strategy? Sustainable development is a contestable concept and has many basic meanings like most political objectives such as liberty, social justice and democracy, which attractS multiple competing interpretations. Hence, the structure and scope of the new strategy is explicit because it does not attempt to reach a consensus on a clear-cut definition of sustainable development but rather a shared understanding of sustainable development and consensus on the values that would underlie any such definition. However, it needs to be more action orientated with detailed implementation and achievable delivery time span What is sustainable development, and how do we do it? 2: Is an explanation of what sustainable development means based on the UK Government's four objectives approach of the 1999 strategy useful? · · if `Yes', what changes would you make to improve it? if `No', how would you explain it instead? The explanation is useful except the 4th objective. The fourth objective is nothing but a statement of intent to preserve the status quo, that is, business as usual. The word `maintenance' and `growth' needs to be redefined. In its current formulation, it reinforces the status quo of business as usual and is incompatible with other three objectives. Revisiting the Brundtland report, the underlining message in Our Common Future is the reorientation of development and economic growth to meeting people's basic needs. Therefore, what about "Maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth within the earth's carrying, regenerating and assimilating capacity?" What should be our vision of sustainable development for the UK? The vision must be simple, inspiring, describe intent, lucid and paint an absorbing positive picture of a future condition that people feel committed to achieve. The current vision `a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come' meets these criteria BUT needs to be further communicated to the public to win their hearts and minds. 4: What should be the guiding principles for UK decision-makers, and how can they be made widely practical and relevant both within and beyond government? There are a plethora of powerful practical guiding principles out there such as the Natural Step System Conditions, the CERES principles, Bellagio principles, the natural capitalism and the social, economic, environmental capital principles. These need to be reviewed and integrated in the current principles. 5: Are there any social, economic or environmental limits that must be protected in all circumstances? If `Yes' what do you think they are? The whole idea of sustainable development is based on the notion of economic growth and social progress, which recognises environmental carrying, regenerating and assimilating capacity. A few examples of environmental and social limits to be protected are renewable and non-renewable natural resources, use of chemicals, water and air pollution, land contamination, loss of biodiversity, human safety, inter- and intra-generational equity etc. Setting priorities 6: Are the four priority areas identified above the right ones for the UK as a whole to focus on over the next few years? If `No', what would you change? Achieving sustainable development requires a change in mental mode and cultural change. This demands major re-education, awareness raising and capacity building are crucial. These need to be top of the list because the four prioritised areas cannot be achieved without education, awareness raising and capacity building. 7: What issues do you think are important, or better dealt with, only within the separate UK Government, Scottish Executive, Welsh Assembly Government or Northern Ireland strategies, or at a regional or local level? There is a need for both top-down and bottom-up approaches. The top-down approach should involve the national strategy and framework containing the overarching vision, objectives and targets as guidance at devolved, regional and local level. While the bottom-up approach should involve devolved, regional and local strategy and initiatives to achieve the national framework such as community development, awareness raising, capacity building, protection of green space, collation of performance data, etc. Climate change and energy 8: How can we encourage more public involvement in action to reduce emissions? Increased awareness on the cause and effect of climate change, improvement of public transport to encourage modal switch, monetary incentives for using alternative sources of fuel, affordable renewable energy, and more investment in research on greener technology, positive taxation and above all capacity building. 9: How can more people and organisations be encouraged to consider the impacts of climate change on their activities, and to respond to them? What are the opportunities for, and barriers to, progress? As above. Plus: extension of action energy scheme to large organisations, public education on energy savings, tougher building standards and regulations, use of eco-labeling, emission trading, subsiding and tax incentives for environmental friendly products, eradication of dogmatic standards and licensing procedure for environmental benign products and services. 10: What opportunities are there for making sure that considering the impacts of climate change are an essential part of policy and decision-making as part of the drive for sustainable development? Of all the major challenges faced by mankind today, climate change is probably the most pervasively threatening and most intractable. The construction industry and its built environment have a major impact. The consideration of climate change in decision-making should be mandatory and legally required. The Government must show leadership and political will, the current planning processes must be reviewed and pre-development impact assessment must be mandatory, legislations, regulations, fiscal instruments and economic measures are essential. Sustainable consumption, production, and use of natural resources 11: What steps do you think government, business, and others should be taking to promote a more innovative, competitive, resource-efficient, low-waste, economy whilst also improving our environmental performance? · · · · · · · · · · · · · Changes in legislation that prohibit environmental innovation Increase cooperation between businesses and government bodies Encourage sharing of information between government bodies to reduce delays and duplication Thorough review of material and product specification to encourage environmental and sustainable product innovation Creation of environmental/best practice forums in different business sectors Environmental management accreditation must be legally required for all organisations Tax break and other fiscal incentives for resource efficient organization Public sectors made to procure the most sustainable products and services The current method of public work contracts selection based on `Best value' is narrow in scope and money-centric. This needs to be replaced with multi criteria analysis with sustainability issues featuring strongly. Reduce the cost of obtaining waste management license Promote the use of waste hierarchy and clarify the term `waste' Overhaul of specifications and standards to encourage well tried and tested recycling products e.g. aggregate, concrete etc. Public sectors sustainability agreement should be linked with bonuses and incentives from the 12: What steps do you think need be taken by government, business, and others over the short and long-term to help businesses make more sustainable products (ones that have reduced environmental and social impacts)? · · · · · · As above, plus voluntary agreements; more funding for research; encourage and provide incentive for product stewardship; encourage the use of whole life costing and other impact assessment tools; and Mandatory companies sustainability reporting and verified by third parties. 13: What steps do you think need to be taken by government, business and others over the short and long-term to help business and household consumers choose more sustainable goods and services? · Education and awareness raising on such issues as fair-trade, purchase of local produce, ecolabeling, tax break and lower VAT for sustainable products and services to make them affordable · Producers to provide accurate and detailed information on the environmental and human health impact of their product · Compulsory end of life take-back-policy by producer · Provision of household recycling mechanism by the council 14: What areas of consumption do you think need to be tackled first? Why? What actions need to be taken by whom? · Use of fossil fuel because it is the major cause of global warming and government must promote alternative fuel · Conservation of both renewable and non-renewable natural resources e.g. fish stocks, timber, rainforest, water etc. · Use of construction materials and waste management Environment and social justice 15: How should we bring together `environment' and `social' concerns at national, regional or local level? · · · · · Social reform through tax and income redistribution Education and effective communication Joined up thinking at various levels of government Grass root involvement and empowerment through dialogue and consultation Further research into the implications and solutions to social and environmental equity and justice What more could be done to tackle environmental inequalities? As above, plus Legislation, regulation and fiscal and economic measures Investment in deprived areas and supporting local communities initiatives Review planning system to promote more sustainable built environment and provide incentive to private investment in deprived local communities · Promote civic pride and sense of ownership to prevent `tragedy of the common' Helping communities to help themselves 17: What are the main barriers to community action on local social or environmental issues? · · · · · · Lack of community involvement and engagement, and no sense of ownership Lack of knowledge and difficulty of operationalising sustainable development No clear line of leadership and accessibility to people in charge at most local authorities Sustainable development is not a high priority for many local councils Lack of funding to pursue sustainable initiatives Inconsistent actions and bureaucracy 18: What can be done at a national or local level to improve support for community action and participation in all areas? · · · · · Community engagement and involvement to promote a sense of ownership Use of various modes of communication and provision of accessible information Create community sustainable development action group to promote community initiatives and community make-over Support neighborhood make-over scheme More funding 19: How can we empower communities to take greater control over the quality of their local environment and to tackle their other priorities? · · The above, plus Create a sense of `neighborhood' Changing behaviour 20: How is the UK likely to be most successful in achieving the behaviour changes that will be needed if we are to move toward long-term sustainability, and what would be the right balance of measures by government and others? · · · · · · Educate the people on the impact of their actions Engage the media in a national campaign and debate on sustainable development issues Make sustainable development a part of school curriculums Use of various forms of incentives and tougher regulations Leadership and consistent messages from the Government Encourage and incentivise businesses to take action 21: How can communication and raising awareness support government and others' efforts most effectively? · · · The above, plus All mode of communication Two-way communication is important Beyond the UK - sustainable development in Europe and internationally 22: What are the top international and EU priorities for sustainable development that should be dealt with in the new sustainable development strategy? · · · · · · Education and public awareness raising Climate change, setting emission level and the use of emerging market-based instruments like emission trading `Joint Implementation' and `Clean Development Mechanism Poverty, major diseases, and social inequality Environmental injustice and protection of biodiversity International trade reform to promote sustainable products and services Developing countries debt cancellation and access to global trade 23: How can we in the UK, at all levels, do more to help other countries achieve sustainable development and to promote and deliver sustainable development internationally or in the EU? · · · Leading by example Take the leading role in setting and achieving international targets and agreements Sharing of knowledge, expertise and disseminate best practice 24: What distinctive contributions can government, business, charities and nongovernmental organisations, and the public make and how might the strategy help kickstart those contributions? · · · · Leadership and commitment through legislations, fiscal policies and procurement Education and awareness raising Strategy development and reporting Use of sustainable procurement strategy and supply chain management 25: What lessons can we learn from other countries to shape our sustainable development strategies and how we put them into practice? · · · · · · · · Household recycling scheme from Germany Extensive use of eco-labeling and tax incentive for sustainable products and services for Germany Integrated waste management system for Austria and Germany. Holland Integrated transport planning Canadian disadvantaged community initiatives Promotion of healthy meals at schools in France Development of human capital through well funded education and training in Finland Promotion of industrial ecology where waste of one company is a resource to the other company in USA Getting the structures right for leadership 26: What more do we in Government need to do to improve our own leadership in sustainable development? How would you like to see reporting improved? · · · · · · Lead by example and promote consistent actions among Governmental departments Empowerment of local authority/Highways Agency to make decisions that favour sustainable development Reduce bureaucracy and encourage sharing of information between governmental bodies Promote research collaboration with business and higher education to develop environmental benign technology Support and procure sustainable services and products Benchmark UK performance again best of breed in Europe · · · · · · What do you see holding back effective action by Government? The narrow scope of conventional market and political regulatory arenas Disparity between democratic decision-making, consensus-seeking and long term planning concerning sustainable development Increasing concentration of power to the few multinational corporation through globalization Conflict of interest between political feasibility and environmental acceptability Lack of political will and maximization of re-election prospect Lack of coordinated approach between the central government and the governmental bodies 28: In what areas is a clearer lead from us needed to promote sustainable development? What form might this take? · · · · Leadership in implementing sustainable issues in decision making Procurements of sustainable products and services even when more expensive than the conventional ones Setting ambitious sustainable development targets for government bodies, linking these with bonuses Local and regional government practicing and fully embraced governmental sustainable In the English regions 29: What are the main challenges for delivering sustainable development in your region? · As above 30: How can Regional Chambers, Regional Development Agencies and other regional organisations better deliver sustainable development? What contributions from a national and local level would help the regions to improve delivery of sustainable development? 31: How can regional sustainable development frameworks better contribute to the delivery of sustainable development? At the local level 32: What are the main challenges for delivering sustainable development in your local area? · · · · · · · Financial constraints Lack of understanding of the concept of sustainable development from both the local authorities and the public at large Lack of support from the local authorities for the proactive organizations to development sustainable products or deliver sustainable services Lack of consistency of messages from both the local authority and the national government Lack of commitment from the local authorities Bureaucracy and complexity of administration and planning procedure Short-term thinking and conservatism from the local authorities 33: How can we re-energise local delivery and strengthen local leadership for sustainable development? · · · · · Thorough re-education of local authorities to change their mental mode and encourage entrepreneurial culture Overhaul of planning procedures to give more weighting to the sustainable issues Encourage local authorities to procure sustainable products and services Government must set ambitious local sustainable development targets linked with bonuses for local authorities Community empowerment through grass-root involvement in decision making and control over public assets 34: How could local stakeholders make the most of existing partnership arrangements, strategy requirements, freedoms and flexibilities to improve delivery of sustainable development? · · Development of trust between local authorities and both public and private organisation Encourage partnership between local authorities and local organizations on both small and large scale development projects 35: What can be done to build the capacity of local professionals and local communities to deliver sustainable development? · · · · Access to training and education on sustainable development Financial support for sustainable initiatives Better communication and sharing of information Encourage the procurement of local produce and services The business contribution to sustainable development 36: What more needs to be done to improve the business contribution to delivering sustainable development? · · · · · · · Financial incentives through tax break and/or funding to encourage sustainable technological innovation Education, awareness raising, capacity building and action oriented strategy for industries More collaboration and interaction between government and businesses to share best practices Government to show leadership by procuring sustainable products and services Price signal from the government to reflect the true cost of sustainable products and services More tax and fines on non-compliance and unsustainable products and services, extensive use of polluter pays principle Compulsory sustainable reporting and benchmarking 37: What actions should we take to support, enable or require a higher level of business contribution? · · · · As above, plus Government to set up sustainable actions taskforce-s and working group to provide free consultations to businesses and promote product innovation and dissemination of best practices Fundamental reform of corporate laws, regulations, tax, subsidy to encourage sustainable products and services innovation Encourage discursion forums within different sectors to share ideas Measuring our progress 38: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current sustainable development indicators, and how they are used? · In general · More specifically indicators used: o in the UK Government's headline set; o in the wider UK core set in `Quality of life counts'; o in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; o in the English regions; o in local authorities; and o elsewhere (for example sectoral indicators). · · · In general, most of these indicators are end-of-pipe measurements (e.g. emissions, pollution, tones of hazards etc.). Though important, they treat the sustainable objectives as a separate entity. They do not show the trends in cause-and-effect, hence a need for systems approach and composite indicators such as the ecological footprint Here environmental and social can be integrated into economic growth. For example energy cost/GDP, Carbon dioxide emission/GDP etc What needs to be monitored and measured UK-wide? All the three main themes of sustainable development (economic, social, and environmental) including the key issues such as waste, emissions, employment, health, income distribution, etc. These three dimensions of sustainability indicators must be linked and converted in a single common currency Who are the audiences for indicators and how could we better meet their needs? All stakeholders e.g. public, businesses, NGOs, government agents, policy and decision makers, etc. 41: Should any set of indicators supporting the new strategy: · concentrate on just the main priorities in the strategic framework; or · be wider and more comprehensive? Indicators need to be concise, specific and focused on the main priorities in the strategic framework 42: Should important high-level sustainable development indicators focus on monitoring: · general progress towards final outcomes; · specific delivery actions and targets; or · both? Both are important to achieving sustainable development, hence indicators must focus on monitoring progress towards the final outcomes as well as specific delivery actions and targets. A Checklists of Practices for the Construction Industry Towards the Path of Sustainability This work collates and reviews several case studies of practical applications of sustainability by the leading organisations and authors. The outcome of this is the development of these checklists for the construction industry with a slight emphasis on the highways maintenance contractors. The issues are collated under three headings (P3): People, Project and Place. 1. PEOPLE 1.1 Clients · Build long term relationship based on mutual trust and openness with clients through partnership working · Focus on delivering best value service and developing clients business through continuous improvement and sharing gain and pain · Provide honest information about the known environmental impacts of your company and develop measures to mitigate these impacts · Invite clients to assist in setting targets, audit and criticise your efforts · Share your understanding of sustainability issues with clients 1.2 Employees 1.2.1 Culture · Create an organisation culture that supports experimentation and learning by doing · Create atmosphere that encourages employees to question status quo and take risks · Create environment that encourages life-long learning to facilitate quick response to changing market environment · Create a cohesive community of employees with a strong sense of identity · Engage the creativity of all employees and associates 1.2.2 Understanding · Educate all employees on the corporate sustainability vision and objectives · Educate all employees on basic working principles and issues of sustainability · Create mechanism for employees to share knowledge of best practices · Bring in experts to address and challenge employees · Create newsletters to report sustainability projects and challenges, including information that is not specific to the company · Provide access to information that can help employees in their private lives, e.g. sponsor seminars on ways to save energy at home · Use experimental learning techniques to explain complex concepts · Hold a seminar (e.g. inaugural sustainability week) to raise awareness of your sustainability initiative · Develop on site and depot control mechanism, database of information sheet and toolbox talks 1.2.3 Involvement · Involve employee in the development of organisation sustainability vision and strategy · Ask employees to give input into improving environmental impacts of their jobs · Ask employees if there are easy or low cost things that the company could do to make their jobs more pleasant and them more productive · Involve employees in decision making when it affects them and always listen to their thoughts on issues that affect them · Respect the knowledge and intelligence of all employees · Create work group teams to eliminate waste in their work areas 1.3 Suppliers/subcontractors · Identify key suppliers/subcontractors in terms of spending and engage in sustainability dialogue · Share your corporate vision and internal framework for sustainability with suppliers · Involve suppliers in educational opportunities to learn more about sustainability · Develop supplier/subcontractor accreditation process e.g. sustainable supply chain scorecard and assessment questionnaire · Develop a partnership arrangement with key suppliers/subcontractors and constantly review and assess their performance · Where possible use local suppliers/subcontractors and contractually oblige suppliers/subcontractors to cooperate in your sustainability actions 1.4 Community 1.4.1 Environmental organisations and Government programs · Partnership with environmental organisations that work on issues important to your corporate philosophy · Participate in voluntary government programs with the Environmental Agency and others · Respond to consultations on documents (e.g. the Revision to MPG6, sustainable construction strategy etc.) · Commit a percentage of profit to sustainability or environmental research (e.g. switch your company credit card to an "affinity card" and encourage employees to do the same. With this your bank will pay small amount of their process charge to the charity of your choice) 1.4.2 Networking · Contact other companies with similar vision and share ideas · Work with local academic institutions to research in latest sustainable construction technologies · Liase with both local and national experts and appoint a third party expert to join your organisation sustainability committee · Search for good practices and ideas outside your company to compile database of best practice guides Share your accomplishments with others and multiply good practices through them Invest time and resources in organisations committed to environmental protection / sustainability issues (e.g. CIRIA, TRL, TNS, BiE, BitC, English Nature and etc) Participate in networks such as the Movement for Innovation (M4I), the Construction Best Practice Programme (CBPP), etc. Support strategic research into material properties, performance specifications and innovative methods of recycling, waste management and etc. 1.4.3 The public · Develop auditing mechanisms open to public disclosure · Make public statements in support of sustainability principles and reporting · Sponsor community forum about local sustainability issues · Choose community projects to support with time and money (e.g. join Percent Club Index, new recruits to help out in the community as part of induction, train long-term unemployed and disadvantage group) · Open facilities to local school children to learn about sustainability and career opportunities · Donate old magazines to local schools, hospitals or senior citizen homes · Search organisation that will sell your surplus items and use the money to set up a scholarship in your company's name 1.5 Management 1.5.1 Corporate strategy · Establish top management commitment to long-term sustainability strategy · Develop corporate sustainability vision and objectives to help in delivering business vision and objectives · Set up sustainability committee including a board member, head of each department, managers and third party organisation · Evaluate product and service offerings for fit with a sustainable society and develop sustainability strategy with targets and feedback mechanism · Ask employees to volunteer to serve as local sustainability coordinators (e.g waste management coordinator, energy coordinators etc.) and Green Teams to implement ideas · Gain certification in third party assessed systems such as ISO 14001, ISO 9000 and liP · Create a process of managing all aspects of relevant sustainability issues · Develop well-defined corporate values, goals, decision making, and response mechanisms 1.5.2 Metrics · Develop robust indicators to report on progress · Measure all waste, material and energy flows in physical and monetary units · Develop managerial "Full Cost Accounting" system (e.g. sustainability, accounting, whole life costing) · Audit management systems and disposal practices 202 Create internal "green taxes" to highlight most profitable enterprise from total cost perspective 1.5.3 Incentive plans · Give rewards to individuals or teams with the best sustainability ideas, projects or initiatives (e.g. sustainability award of the month/year) · Tie monetary compensation and annual employee appraisal to achieving well-defined sustainability goals · Recognise outstanding commitment and progress toward sustainability 1.5.4 keeping enthusiasm · Set reasonable goals and always celebrate your accomplishments · Learn through playing games · Develop a sense of competition and pride · Bring in college interns to research special projects for a fresh perspective · Volunteer for a local hands-on project as a corporate team where the results of your labour are almost immediate (e.g. plant a garden of native plants, to refurbish community centre etc.) · Keep sustainability at fore and launch an on-going campaign on your waste management scheme, climate change, resource depletion, energy saving and etc 2. Project 2.1 Design · Design projects to use less materials while delivering the same or greater value · Replace non-renewable materials with more sustainable materials, such as: o renewable and secondary materials e.g., timber, recycle aggregates and concretes, etc. o sustainable harvested materials, e.g., Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified timber, quality assured recycle aggregates o locally produced and abundant materials o recycled and reclaimed construction waste (e.g. asphalt planning, concrete, bricks) or industrial waste materials (e.g. pulverised fuel ash, furnace bottom ash, steel slag, blast furnace slag, railway track ballast, colliery spoil, cement kiln dust, etc) o materials consuming lower embodied energy · Eliminate use of hazardous chemicals · Design to minimise consumption of energy · Consider the whole life cycle of costs of option, not just the initial capital cost · Get input from all parties as early as possible in the life of a project to maximise the opportunities for innovation and recycling e.g. liase with the Environmental regulators to establish procedures for site that will avoid problem later · Use new design methods and performance based specifications where technically feasible to maximise the use of site won/alternative/recycled materials · Maximise the reuse of recycled products in the highest product value available, not just as low grade materials, e.g. blacktop planings as reclaimed bituminous material not just as capping Encourage clients to include options for recycling and use of alternative materials in tender documents, and to ensure a fair comparison is made with conventional methods and materials Raise awareness of successes in sustainability initiatives by disseminating information to clients and regulators with regard to new materials, processes and applications. 2.2 Construction 2.2.1 energy & water · Research and adopt alternative energy sources consistent with local surroundings, such as hydroelectric, biofuel, solar power, wind power and etc. · Negotiate Green Energy contracts with utilities · Develop strategy with target to reduce energy and waste usage 2.2.2 Material consumption & wastage · Adopt a zero waste mentality in the design processes to create no waste or scrap · Adopt a zero defect mentality as most material defects become waste · Eliminate hazardous waste · Adopt high efficiency planning and scheduling practices to minimise waste · Network with other companies to find waste streams that can become inputs for other processes · Buy raw materials in bulk to minimise packaging · Carefully segregate waste materials for reuse or recycling · Develop processes to utilise on-site scrap materials · Take corrective action on quality problems as far upstream as possible to minimise waste · Closely measure all material streams to monitor material efficiency · Carefully plan site and material storage to avoid waste · Partner with waste management contractors · Liase with the Environmental regulators as early as possible to assess the position with regard to the use of alternative materials and requirements for waste management licences or exemptions 2.3 Marketing · Investigate sustainable clients and understand their needs and key sustainability issues to develop their businesses · Audit your current and planned service offerings in line with your clients needs (e.g. SWOT analysis) · Identify some strategic options and assess their potential in terms of your key sustainability issues and whether each has any communication potential · Identify risks and opportunities, establish the credibility of your performance and level of differentiation against your · Develop a sustainability marketing plan taking advantage of opportunities and minimise risks · Be conscious about the extent and strategy of external communications to avoid greenwash 204 2.4 purchasing/procurement 2.4.1 work with suppliers/subcontractors · Share your corporate purchasing policy with all suppliers/subcontractors · Press suppliers/subcontractors to follow and document sustainable practices, and favour those that do · Press suppliers to take back packaging or not deliver it with the product · Buy services, not products · Encourage suppliers/subcontractors to report their environmental impacts in your terms · Ask for information about the environmental policy of the corporation and information about the specific products you buy from the suppliers · Consider the whole life cost of the product include the waste and embodied energy used to produce raw materials · Encourage suppliers to adopt robust quality control systems to ensure consistency and quality of product. Do not use suppliers who cannot produce a quality assured product 2.4.2 Buy sustainably · Establish a "Buy Sustainably" policy stating the corporate goals on specific items when possible · Put together a " green catalogue" of eco-products including product number and distributors contact relevant to your company · Circulate a list of recycled or environmental friendly products to purchasing staff · Set out clear guidelines to follow · Support training for purchasing agents to understand the issues and overview of the measures that can be implemented · Create an internal purchasing agent team focusing on identifying appropriate products · Share surpluses with other offices by publishing a regular list · Implement high efficiency planning and scheduling practices to minimise waste 2.5 Managing project sustainability · Ensure project leadership comes from the client · Decide why you want to make your construction project sustainable · Decide how you are going to achieve a sustainable project · Ensure you understand the context of the project · Decide how you will evaluate how sustainable your construction project is · Control the project at every stage of the project cycle · Ensure you meet obligatory performance targets for the project · Define non-obligatory performance targets for the project 3. PLACE This involves possible activities and actions at the head offices, depots and sites 3.1 Operations 3.1.1 Energy · Conduct an energy audit with the help of local utilities 205 Reduce the level of energy consumption Ensure that energy is from a renewable resource Negotiate Green Energy contracts with utilities 3.1.2 Lighting · Redesign lighting to fit work processes, resulting in productivity improvements · Install infrared motion detectors for automatic lighting control in rooms that are infrequently used e.g. toilets, storage rooms etc. · Replace incandescent lighting with compact fluorescent lighting · Retrofit existing lighting with high efficiency fluorescent or metal halide bulbs, electronic ballasts, and reflectors · Reduce use of high bay lighting · Maximise use of natural daylight 3.1.3 Water · Reuse water whenever possible · Develop close loops whenever possible · Conduct water audits, looking for wastage and to find out which faucets are leaking and/or need low flow aerators · Install low flow fixtures in toilets and kitchen areas (e.g. low flush toilets use 1.6 gallon per flush · If people often leave the water running, consider installing spring loaded valves or automatic sensors to shut faucets off automatically · Install water saving diaphragms in the toilet (it only take a few minutes and a wrench) · Install toilet dams (available at hardware stores for a few pounds or DIY fill two of ½ gallon plastic jugs with water and put them in the tank but make sure you do not interfere with the toilet mechanism 3.1.4 Office 3.1.4.1 Paper · Use recycle paper with a high percentage of post-consumer content · Use chlorine-free paper, if available and switch to white paper for all your needs · Use paper envelops without windows and avoid Tyvek envelopes, so envelopes can be recycled · Place collection containers at every work station and copier to recycle used paper · Reduce or eliminate paperwork and numbers of copies · Scrutinise distribution lists · Make copies only on request; otherwise, route material · Maximise use of bulletin boards · Set up copiers so that double sided copying is the norm · Route magazines instead of getting separate copies · Keep paper that is still good on one side (GOOS paper) and make scratch pads out of it · Communicate via e-mail when possible, and don't print your e-mail messages · Eliminate cover sheets on faxes (or consider using smaller cover sheets, Post-It fax-transmission stickers to be stick on the first page before you sent it) Get a rubber stamp or electronic message on printed items saying "This item is being reuse as part of our environmental commitment 3.1.4.2 Electronics · Purchase only energy saving electronic equipment look for the EPA's Energy Star label · Turn off computer monitors when not in use · Turn off your computer when you go to lunch and over night · Use laptop or notebook computers instead of desktop models whenever possible · Plug printers and copiers into a time switch to ensure that they are turned off after working hours · Use a projector instead of printing overheads for presentations · Send used overheads back to 3M to be recycled · Send exhausted ink jet cartridges back to their manufacturer for recycling or to a local recharger · Lease the service of high end electronics instead of buying them (then they can be returned to the provider when you decide to upgrade instead of being disposed of) · Buy copiers, printers, and fax machines that use refurbished parts and toner cartridges 3.1.4.3 Kitchen Crockery · Reduce and if possible eliminate plastic cups, spoons, plates etc and replace with reusable crockery · Consider issuing each employee a ceramic mug, perhaps with your company logo or an environmental message printed an environmental message printed on the side 3.2 Maintenance · Invest in high quality maintenance to extend the life and maximise the efficiency of systems · Use only non-toxic cleaning compounds · Maximise use of all-purpose cleaners to reduce the number of chemicals used and to minimise the potential danger of mixing · Buy cleaner in concentrated form that can be mixed at different strengths for different purposes, reducing packaging and transportation · Use washable mugs, glasses, plates, and utensils · Use bulk product dispensers for beverages, condiments, etc. · Provide convenient and easy to understand recycling centres for common waste products · Measure all solid waste streams · Have the heating and cooling system checked annually and clean filters regularly 3.3 Landscape · Leave as much habitat and vegetation as possible undisturbed by construction · Landscape to promote biological diversity · Design to minimise impact on local environment 207 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Compost organic matter (BioActivators a powder that activates and speeds up composting can be used) Mulch lawn clippings (e.g. invest in equipment to shred leaves and chip branches) Put up bird boxes and start an employee-run nest box monitoring program Plant a butterfly garden near and area that employees use often Join the Wildlife Habitat Council Start an employee vegetation garden with unused land or abandoned area Create as much green space as possible around your company's facilities e.g. parking lots, fields, abandoned facilities and other places that can be planted and developed Create a series of nature trails for employees and their families or even for the whole community Xeriscape by using plants adapted to local rainfall conditions Use gray water to water the landscaping Highlight native plants that are adapted to the local environment and do not require a lot of maintenance Employ Integrated Pest Management to minimise use of chemical pesticides Install storm water retention ponds to minimise volume and temperature spikes on local waterways from rain showers Create bird sanctuaries in migration path Put air-cleaning plants around your workplace even at the depot offices. Recommended at least one four-to five-foot plant per 100 square feet (most effective are e.g. philodendrons, golden pothos, English ivy, peace lily, motherin-law's tongue, spider plants and flowing plants like chrysanthemums and azaleas) Give green gifts e.g. buy a tree or an acre of forest in an endangered forest etc. 3.4 Transportation Fleet maintenance · Computerise the maintenance schedules for all company vehicles and conduct regular turnups · Consider radial tires to improve gas mileage and keep all tires properly inflated · Patronise repairs shops that recycle motor oil, tires, batteries, antifreeze and other fluids · Investigate cleaner fleet vehicles (i.e. cars and commercial vehicles) and include choice options in the company car lists (e.g. LPG, Hydro fuel, hybrid cars etc) 3.4.1 Material, product & service · Ship by rail whenever possible · Reduce weight of product to consume less energy in transport · Favour locally produced products · Create transportation consortiums to maximise loading of trucks with other local businesses · Palletise waste materials to minimise transportation energy · Locate facilities to minimise distances to major centres Station commercial vehicles to minimise travel distances and facilitate quick response 3.4.2 People · Offer transportation allowance or rebates to employees who use alternative transportation and do not consume parking space (check if this is tax deductible) · Offer public transportation passes to employees at a discount (some public transport sell company passes at a discount) · Make available on the company intranet or distribute copies of area public transport stop to employees · Offset employee travel and product transportation with tree planting through organisations such as Trees for Travel · Reduce number of trips by consolidating business or through better planning · Advice entitled employees to opt out of the company car scheme and use public transport or other environmental friendly option · Buy alternative fuel for vehicles · Allow employees to telecommute or work alternative hours · Encourage video conferencing · Set up a carpooling and/or vanpooling scheme A Framework for Sustainability Change Management Process 1. Leadership Awareness & Commitment Establish compelling need Undermine the business as usual mind set Secure top management commitment to integrate sustainability into core business process and decision making Undertake current sustainability impact assessment Identify key sustainability issues Identify legal and regulatory requirement and voluntary commitments Conduct training/learning & Cultural gap analysis Identify & open initial dialogue with key stakeholders Supply chain analysis Develop a vision and operating principles for a sustainable company in a sustainable society Ensure that business culture is aligned toward the path of sustainability Provide direction for sustainability strategy i.e. short, medium and long term. Develop organisational strategy for agreed tactics Develop communication strategy/plan Develop awareness raising and training plan Develop plan for audit scope and objectives Develop strategies and processes to ensure future compliance and compliance improvement Scoping, preparation and training for the transition team Overview of sustainability issues General business case Purpose/objective Output/outcome 2. Organise sustainability transition team Raised awareness Secured board commitment Board level champion CEO statement in support of sustainability Senior management involvement to reinforce new direction Impact and performance evaluation Prioritised key sustainability issues List of legal and regulatory and voluntary commitments Stakeholder dialogue and communication plan Training and awareness programmes plan Supply chain evaluation Project champion Project champion Board champion Transition team Senior management Line manager Support staff Production staff 3. Formulate vision and guiding principles Phase Output 4. Develop operational governance change strategies & Organisation business case Vision & operating principles Agreement on strategy and tactics Sustainability action plans Monitoring plan for alignment with vision & principles Financial modelling based on the new vision and high leverage initiatives Training material Communication strategy/plan for awareness raising and training Sustainability actions, targets and performance indicators Project champion Board champion Transition teams Board members Project champion Board champion and transition team 5. Training and Education Educate all employees Provide ongoing training to help embed vision and principles into practice Continuous training to drive cultural, behavioural change and innovation Provide on-going coaching with respect to specific applications Leadership example Team building and empowerment Encourage ownership Encourage suggestion and continual learning Phase 5 output Evaluation of training effectiveness Training feedback List of practical actions Project champion Transition team 6. Employee involvement and empowerment 7. Practical application and innovation Implement suggestion to reap `Low hanging fruit' Experiment and try new idea Establish a framework for sustainability as an important criterion of how each job gets done Develop mechanisms for reviewing suggestions and innovations Develop mechanisms for sharing what is learned Employees, Clients, Suppliers, Subcontractors, Communities, Competitors, Other stakeholders List of practical issues with names and contact of people/team responsible for actions Employee suggestion processes with clear line of action and reward Sustainability facilitators, networks that facilitate the flow of information, resources, ideas, etc. Sustainability impact assessment tools for projects Criteria for suggestions review 8. Influence 9. Integration into all business function 10. Monitor, review report & Incorporate sustainability goals into the business plan Make sustainability initiatives and progress a part of all regular meetings Include sustainability criteria into purchasing decisions Include sustainability achievements into performance evaluation and bonus structures Track, evaluate, build on successes and learn from mistakes Report to stakeholders on performance and consult on future challenges Project champion Board champion and transition team Project champion Board champion and transition team All stakeholders ConPass Model Evaluation and Validation Questionnaire The aim of this questionnaire is to evaluate a self-assessment prototype model developed to help construction companies to identify gaps in their corporate sustainability implementation efforts and focus attention on areas for improvements. NOTE: You only need to complete this form on the first page. The information in the Appendix is only provided for background information to facilitate the completion of this questionnaire Please Tick One Option Q1. The effectiveness of the questions in capturing the overall sustainability implementation and management issues Q2. The formulation and ease to understand each aspect of the questions Q3. The extent to which the elements and the subcategories capture overall essence of sustainability issue Q4. The usefulness of the model to aid organisation sustainability implementation process within the construction industry Q5. Your overall assessment of the model Please Comment Q6. What is you opinion about the questions in each subcategory? Do any need to be rephrased? If Yes, which Question/s? Please state rephrased version Q7. Do any new questions need to be added? If Yes, please specify Q8. In what ways could the overall Model be improved? Additional Comments Thanks for your assistance APPENDIX: ConPass Model Content: 1.0 Background to ConPass 2.0 ConPass Assessment Model 3.0 ConPass Sample Report Sustainable Construction Performance Assessment Tool 1.0 Background to ConPass Goal The aim of this self-assessment tool is to help construction companies to identify gaps in their corporate sustainability implementation efforts and focus attention on areas for improvements. The tool allows construction companies (i.e. Client, Consultant, Contractor, Subcontractor, Supplier and others) to: · gauge their sustainability performance; · benchmark their sustainability performance with peers; and · benchmark their sustainability performance with the construction industry as a whole Assessment Criteria (see 2.0 ConPass Assessment Model) The assessment comprises of 4 main elements. These elements are subdivided into 36 critical factors with four maturity levels namely: poor, average, good and excellent. Instructions The assessment must be completed by individual with overall responsibility for sustainable construction in the organisation (e.g. Sustainability manager, environmental manager, health & safety manager and others responsible for sustainability issues) The assessment takes roughly 30 minutes to complete and can be completed in more than one sitting Respondents are required to tick a box on a scale of 1 to 5 (see rating scale below) and all questions must be completed Rating scale: How to rate your company 1. No Evidence of positive initiative or result in this area 2. Very Little Evidence of positive initiative or result in this area 3. Some Evidence of positive initiative but progress is fleeting 4. Strong Evidence of positive initiative but the challenge is keeping it going in the right direction 5. Very Strong Evidence of positive initiative and result in this area is best practice. Outcome (see 3.0 ConPass Sample Report) On completion of the assessment, companies will be automatically presented with their Sustainable Construction Performance Report, which includes: Average scores for each category and overall sustainability performance score. A radar diagram for organisational benchmarking both with peers and the industry as a whole. A summary of responses and guidance on areas for improvement. 2.0 ConPass Assessment Model POLICY DEVELOPMENT & EMBEDMENT ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Responsible for Environmental Issues Environmental Policy / Standards Environmental Charters Environmental Management System Environmental Profit / Loss Accounting Environmental Performance Environmental Reporting Ex ce l Po or Av er ag e le nt ELEMENT 1: POLICY DEVELOPMENT & EMBEDMENT Top of Form Holistic approach Our organisation's sustainable construction initiative addresses the economic, social and environmental impact of our operation and supply chain Business case Our organisation has an internal written business case for addressing sustainability issues within which the boundaries of our organisation's responsibility, capacity and capability are defined Top/bottom support Our senior management is fully supportive of the development of our sustainability policy Our senior management is fully committed to the integration of sustainability policy at the core of our project delivery and decision making processes Our employees are aware of our sustainability policy and some have specific roles and responsibility Impact review of operation Our organisation has undertaken a baseline review/assessment of the economic impact of its operation and benchmarked performance against industry leaders Our organisation has undertaken a baseline review or assessment of the environmental impact of its operation and benchmarked performance against industry leaders Our organisation has undertaken a baseline review or assessment of the social impact of its operation and benchmarked performance against industry leaders Legal and regulatory review and management Our organisation has mapped relevant legislative, regulatory and contractual requirements with associated contact lists, level of compliance and people responsible for compliance management Our organisation has a system in place for managing and updating future legal, regulatory and contractual agreement Stakeholder engagement Our key stakeholders are consulted and involved in developing our sustainability policy Our key stakeholders are regularly consulted and involved in updating our sustainability policy Our organisation has a documented processes for handling and responding to key stakeholders feedback on its sustainability strategies and policy Vision and operating principles Our organisation has a vision and/or mission statements, which set the organisation's direction in relation to sustainability Our organisation has an agreed set of operating principles/codes of conduct to support and facilitate the achievement of its long-term vision of sustainability Our organisation has a definition of sustainable construction for internal and external use Sustainability impacts and actions Our organisation has a detailed map for managing its key sustainability issues with associated levels of priority, actions, impacts and outcomes Our organisation has short, medium and long-term action plans to deliver its sustainability policy with defined objectives, targets, performance indicators and a list of personnel responsible for delivery action plans Our organisation has a process to evaluate and manage its supply chain sustainability issues, risk and opportunities and drive performance improvement through training and awareness Organisational culture, structure and governance Our organisation has undertaken a cultural analysis including operational practices, organisational structure and governance (i.e. decision making and accountability; information generation and sharing; and distribution of resources and wealth) Our organisation has taken action to ensure that its internal culture, structure and governance is supportive of its sustainability vision, principles and policy 1 2 3 4 5 Our organisation has an ongoing change management process and ensures that its vision and policy are effectively communicated and organisational change is supportive of a move toward sustainability Training and communication Our organisation has an ongoing awareness raising and training material delivery through a blend of approaches such as web-based training, staff induction packs, toolbox, posters, face to face and so on Our organisation regularly undertakes a training needs analysis of its staff and other necessary business partners and launches training programmes as appropriate to drive cultural change Our organisation frequently organises sustainability awareness raising workshops, meetings, and events with key stakeholders to capture organisational learning, innovative ideas and performance improvements Internal control and external influence Our organisation has internal controls mechanism for measuring and refining the effectiveness of vision, operating principles, strategy, objectives, targets and overall sustainability policy Our organisation has a mechanism for identifying opportunities for collaboration with external bodies and organisations to create a more positive enabling environment for business sustainability Our organisation has won an industry wide recognised sustainability award or been finalist in its sector within the last five years for its sustainability policy and strategies Monitoring and reporting Our organisation collates both quantitative and qualitative data to measure and benchmark its performance against peers and take preventative, corrective and innovative actions as appropriate Our organisation produces sustainability reports in line with Global Reporting Initiative and/or other reporting guidelines for its key stakeholders Our organisation's sustainability report is verified by an independent external organisation or third party Bottom of Form ELEMENT 2: ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT Top of Form Corporate governance Our organisation has defined corporate governance standards implemented with robust control and feedback processes Our organisation's board of directors has set up committees/teams such as health and safety, environmental, sustainability, risk, IT, human resources, business improvement, strategic committee and so on Our organisation has a director at board level with overall responsibility for its economic sustainability issues Strategic planning Our organisation uses strategic tools such as scenario planning, game theory, system dynamics or similar in strategic planning of highly uncertain issues Our organisation uses the balanced score card or a similar system to implement key performance measures and adapt them to strategic goals and vice-versa Our organisation value management system integrates sustainability issues in the decision support tools (e.g. multi criteria analysis, LCA, WLC and so on) for strategic decision making Organisational development Our organisation development projects explicitly consider one of the following organisational dimensions - structural (targets, tasks, effectiveness), political (power, influence, conflicts), cultural, (symbols, social interaction), process dimension 1 2 3 4 5 Our organisational core values, vision and mission statements align with one or more of the following - trust, integrity, openness, social, environmental, people, teamwork, partnering and involvement Our organisation explicitly considers at least one of the above core values for its senior management performance appraisal, rewards and appointment policies Corporate codes of conduct and policy Our organisation has a corporate code of conduct for all employees covering such issues as corruption, bribery, discrimination, money laundering, information confidentiality, uncompetitive behaviour and so on Our organisation has written specific codes or policies for managing economic aspects of sustainability Our organisation has an independent monitoring programme to ensure compliance with our policy/codes of conduct Risk management Our organisation has fully implemented corporate risk standards and guidelines covering such risk as occupational health and safety, environmental, security, IT, financial reputation risks and so on Our organisation has a dedicated team (represented at senior management level) with overall responsibility for managing risk Our organisation has a company wide incident/near miss notification and corrective procedure in place Our organisation has a business continuity plan for all its operations with identified risks and their management Knowledge management Our organisation has a knowledge management system for capturing and disseminating employee, project team/supply chain know-how, organisational routines, industry best practices Our organisation has a dedicated team (e.g. business improvement team, represented at senior management level) with overall responsibility for knowledge management Our KM system includes regular tracking (of employee skills, incentives for sharing information, attracting and retaining highly skilled staff, brainstorming exercise, focused group session) and alignment with organisational intellectual capital needs Information technology management and integration Our organisation has a dedicated team with overall responsibility for its information technology Our information technology is accessible to the majority of our office staff and site workers Our organisation has a harmonised data management system for specific operational information and data (e.g. contacts, customer relationship and supply chain management and so on) Quality management system Our organisation has fully implemented an accredited Total Quality Management (TQM) system (e.g. ISO 9000 or similar) for its operation or a similar standard Our TQM system is regularly audited by an independent monitoring organisation to ensure compliance with our policy/code of conduct Our organisation has won a Quality award (e.g. European, Malcolm Baldrige and others) or been finalist in its sector within the last five years for its TQM system Economic performance Our organisation monitors and evaluates its economic performance using industry recognised indicators (such as client satisfaction, project defects, completion time, costs predictability and so on) Our economic policy is supported by specific targets (e.g. 10% client satisfaction by 2008) Our economic targets and performance are benchmarked within peer group and/or against industry leaders Economic reporting Our organisation produces an economic report (as part of financial/sustainability and/or a stand-alone report) for its stakeholders at least once a year Our economic performance report is verified by an independent external organisation or third party Our organisation publishes its economic performance report externally ELEMENT 3: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Top of Form Responsibility for environmental issues Our organisation has a director at board level with overall responsibility for environmental aspects of sustainability Our organisation has a team/department in charge of overall coordination of environmental issues Our line managers are fully involved and responsible for implementing company environmental policies and standards Environmental policy and standards Our organisation has an internally written and fully implemented environmental policy signed off by the board and is accessible by our stakeholders Our environmental policy clearly states our benchmarking targets within peers and industry wide, measurable objectives and full impact of operation and supply chain Our environmental standard covers generic resources use (water, energy, material) waste management, biodiversity plan and so on, that apply to all its operation and supply chain Environmental charters Our organisation has a signed environmental charter and is fully committed to the principles of environmental aspects of sustainable development/ sustainable construction Our organisation is a member of at least one of the bodies/group working to promote environmental aspects of sustainability (e.g. The Natural Step, SIGMA, CERES, CIRIA, Business in the Environment and so on) Environmental management system Our environmental system is fully certified under ISO 14001, EMAS or a similar standard Our environmental management system is regularly audited by an independent monitoring organisation to ensure compliance with our policy/code of conduct Our organisation has won an industry wide recognised environmental award or been finalist in its sector within the last five years for its environmental system Environmental profit and loss accounting Our organisation produces environmental profit and loss account for major projects / environmental impact assessment for most of its projects Our environmental accounting and/or environmental impact assessment information is integrated into project pricing Environmental performance Our organisation monitors and evaluates its environmental performance (e.g. energy, water use, waste management, water and air emission and so on) Our environmental policy is supported by specific targets (e.g. 10% waste reduction by 2008) Our environmental targets and performance are benchmarked within peer group / against industry leaders Environmental reporting Our organisation produces an environmental report (as part of financial/sustainability and/or a stand-alone report) for its stakeholders at least once a year Our environmental report is verified by an independent external organisation or third party Our organisation publishes its environmental performance report externally 1 2 3 4 5 ELEMENT 4: SOCIAL MANAGEMENT Top of Form Responsibility for social issues Our organisation has a director at board level with overall responsibility for social aspects of sustainability Our organisation has a team/department in charge of overall coordination of social issues Our line managers are fully involved and responsible for implementing company social policies and standards Social policy and standards Our organisation has an internally written and fully implemented social policy/ ethical standards based on externally agreed standards signed off by the board and is accessible by our key stakeholders Our social policy states our benchmarking targets, measurable objectives and full impact of operation and supply chain Our social standards covers such issues as staff training, health and safety, equal opportunities, employee involvement in decision makings, work-life-balance, community development, partnership working and so on Social charters Our organisation has signed externally agreed social charters and fully committed to the principles of social aspect of sustainable development/sustainable construction Our organisation is a member of at least one of the bodies/group working to promote social aspects of sustainability (e.g. Social Accountability 8000, Investor in People, Business in the Community and so on) Social management system Our social management system is fully certified under Investor in People (IiP) or a similar standard Our social management system is regularly audited by an independent monitoring organisation to ensure compliance with our policy/code of conduct Our organisation has won an industry wide recognised social award or been finalist in its sector within the last five years for its social system Stakeholder consideration Our organisation produces a stakeholder engagement plan / social impact assessment for its major projects and where appropriate register the project for considerate contractors scheme or a similar standard Our key stakeholders consultation feedback and/or social impact assessment information is integrated into project pricing Social performance Our organisation monitors and evaluates its performance (e.g. staff annual turnover, minor/major accidents etc) Our social policy is supported by specific targets (e.g. 10% reduction of major accidents, by 2008) Our social targets and performance are benchmarked within peer group / against industry leaders Social reporting Our organisation produces a social report (as part of financial/sustainability and/or a stand-alone report) for its stakeholders at least once a year Our social report is verified by an independent external organisation or third party Our organisation publishes its social performance report externally 1 2 3 4 5 3.0 ConPass Sample Report (Please note: the result in this report is just for demonstration only) SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCE SCORES Sustainable Construction Performance Report Company Name: XXXXX Prepared by: XXXXX Prepared on: XXXXX I. Your performance matrix score Mean Score 2.09 3.48 2.50 1.29 2.34 Economic Management Environmental Management Socio-economic Management Policy development & embedment Sustainable construction performance score KEY: Your organisation has high capability and maturity Your organisation has moderate capability and maturity but scope for improvements Your organisation needs to address these issues Your organisation urgently needs to improve these aspects *Mean score 5.0 4.5 II. Your average mean scores benchmarked Category Name Your Company Peers Peers Industry (business type e.g. contractors) 4.58 3.58 Socio-economic management Policy development & embedment Sustainable construction performance score III Radar diagram showing your average score compared to peers and the industry as a whole Economic management 5.00 4.00 3.00 Sustainable construction performance 2.00 1.00 0.00 KEY: Group C Your company Group B Peers turnover Peers business type Group A Overall Industry Sustainable Construction Performance Scores IV. Summary of your responses with colour coding on areas of improvement Your Score Summary ELEMENT 1: POLICY DEVELOPMENT & EMBEDMENT Holistic approach Business Case Top/Bottom Support Impact review of operation Legal and regulatory review and management Stakeholders engagement Vision and Operating principles Sustainability impacts and actions Organisational culture, structure and governance Training and communication Internal control and external influence Monitoring and reporting ELEMENT 2: ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT Corporate governance Strategic planning Organisational development Corporate codes of conduct and policy Risk management Knowledge management (KM) Information technology management and integration Quality management system xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx Economic Performance Economic Reporting ELEMENT 3: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Responsible for environmental issues Environmental policy and standards Environmental charters Environmental management system Environmental profit and loss accounting Environmental Performance Environmental Reporting ELEMENT 4: SOCIAL MANAGEMENT Responsible for social issues Social policy and standards Social charters Social management system Stakeholder Consideration Social Performance Social Reporting xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx Adetunji, I. O Sustainable Construction: A Web-based Performance Assessment Tool [CICE] Thesis Title Israel adfp[2] (1).mdi	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line246
__label__cc	0.535036	0.464964	New York City All Destinations New York City Tours All New York City Tours National September 11 Memorial & Museum Ways to Celebrate the Fourth of July in New York City New York City Walking Tours for Foodies New York City for Foodies How to Find the Best Pizza in New York City Ice Skating in New York City Ways to Celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve in New York City Things to Do in New York City This Winter Wollman Rink Tours Practice your skating skills, or learn to glide and spin in front of a postcard-worthy backdrop of Manhattan skyscrapers at this spacious outdoor ice rink in Central Park. Opened in 1950, the rink is one of New York’s most iconic spots and has featured in many movies, including Serendipity, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and Love Story. Skating on Wollman Rink is an annual tradition for many New Yorkers. In addition to public skating sessions, the rink also hosts classes for adults and children, as well as freestyle figure skating sessions. Rink visits are included on many movie location tours, and some winter walking tours of Central Park include tickets so that participants can go skating. During the summer months, the site transforms into an amusement park. Things to Know Before You Go Wollman Rink is a fun, festive activity for winter visitors. There is a spectator fee, so if you want to watch friends or family from the sidelines, be prepared to pay. Skates and lockers can be rented at the rink. Credit cards are not accepted, so be sure to bring cash. A snack bar at the rink serves food and drinks, including hot cocoa. Wollman Rink is located at the southeastern corner of Central Park, near the entrance at 59th Street and Sixth Avenue. To reach the rink by subway, take the N, Q, R, W, F, or M train to 57th Street. When to Get There Wollman Rink is open daily from late October until early April. On Mondays and Tuesdays, the rink opens to the public in the late morning and closes in the early afternoon; Wednesday–Sunday the rink stays open until late at night. Ice cleaning takes place several times a day and can take up to 30 minutes; check the schedule in advance of your visit. The rink is especially atmospheric after dark, when the skyline twinkles in the background. The History of Wollman Rink A much-loved New York icon, Wollman Rink takes its name from philanthropist Kate Wollman, who originally donated the funds for its construction. Today, however, it is better known for its association with President Donald Trump: In 1980, when the rink needed significant renovations, a number of mishaps caused the city-run project to stall. In 1986, a then 39-year-old Donald Trump took over the renovations and reopened the rink. Wollman Rink remains in the hands of a company owned by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust. Address: New York City, New York, USA Admission: Varies 2 Tours and Activities to Experience Wollman Rink 4 hours to 1 day (0) Free Cancellation (2) Private Tour (1) Private Central Park TV and Movie Sites Walking Tour On average, 98 movie scenes are shot in New York City every month, and unless you’re following all the details daily, you might pass by spots and not even know it. This Central Park TV and movie sites walking tour takes you through the city with a guide who knows all the best filming locations from ‘Sex and the City,’ ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s,’ ‘Home Alone 2,’ and more. Guided Walking Tour Of Central Park Get to the root of Central Park with our 2-hour walking tour. Explore the most famous park in the world with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. See the green, beating heart amid the hustle and bustle of New York City. Hear the distinct crunch of Central Park dirt beneath your feet as you enjoy your holiday adventure. Your seasoned tour guide will be with you every step of the way on this journey to bestow on you the rich history of these incredible sights. Highlights include the Bethesda Fountain and Terrace, Conservatory Waters, Strawberry Fields, Central Park Mall, Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, the Great Lawn, Bethesda Castle, and more! Your desire for knowledge will be satiated by our comprehensive tour. What's the best way to experience Wollman Rink? The best ways to experience Wollman Rink are: See all Wollman Rink experiences on Viator. More Tours in New York City Things to do near New York City Things to do in Brooklyn Things to do in Newark Things to do in Long Island Things to do in New Haven Things to do in Amboseli National Park Things to do in Baltimore Things to do in Boston Things to do in Salem Things to do in Niagara Falls & Around Things to do in Montreal Things to do in Connecticut Recommended for New York City	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line247
__label__cc	0.560981	0.439019	Concepts from Future Past: American Motors Astra-Gnome February 2nd, 2018 by Paul Strauss I have a strange affinity for unusual concept cars. One of the wackiest designs I’ve stumbled across in my travels has to be the American Motors Astra-Gnome, a “space age” concept that dates back to 1956. The car was designed by Richard Arbib as a look forward towards the future, incorporating design elements that made it look like hovercar of sorts – though it still rode on wheels. The bubble-shaped passenger compartment might not have been the safest design, but it certainly captured the feel of a spaceship, and the placement of its antenna made it look like it was communicating with the mothership. That bubble served more than just an aesthetic purpose too – it was designed to provide improved acoustics for the car’s hi-fi system – which included a record player. Perhaps my favorite element in the Astra-Gnome’s forward-looking interior was the “celestial time-zone clock, permitting actual flight-type navigation.” I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds awesome. While the car was designed to be a glimpse at the shape of things to come, it was actually built on the chassis of a contemporary car, the quirky little 1955 Nash Metropolitan. Impressively, the concept car weighed under 2,000 lb., thanks to the generous use of aluminum in its construction. While concept cars of its era were often destroyed or lost, the Astra-Gnome has been preserved and fully restored. It’s part of the cool and quirky museum collection at the Metropolitan Pit Stop, located in Valley Village, California. Concepts from Future Past: Toyota RV-2 Concepts from Future Past: 2005 Holden EFIJY Concepts from Future Past: Autobianchi Runabout	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line248
__label__wiki	0.510063	0.510063	These Cities Are Paying the Most in Rent The pandemic has upended the world as we know it in nearly every aspect of our lives — our jobs, schools, and social lives have had to drastically change to fit the new normal. With the unemployment rate at a historic high, paired with legally mandated stay-at-home orders, many Americans have found themselves in a difficult situation, as paying rent has never been more difficult yet necessary. In late March and early April, many cities across the U.S. instituted measures such as eviction moratoriums and rent freezes to accommodate these extenuating circumstances. Under an eviction moratorium, landlords are prevented from evicting tenants during this public health emergency (and thirty days beyond its declared end). Rent freezes ensure that rent prices cannot increase. However, as more cities continue to re-open, these housing security measures are set to end, even as they have helped many families maintain a safe place to live. If cities with copiously high rent burdens allow their eviction moratoriums to expire, they may face a homelessness crisis compounding on an already quickly-spreading outbreak. The national discourse around rent affordability may be under the national spotlight due to stay-at-home orders, but these issues predate the pandemic and will continue to affect Americans after. According to the United States Census Bureau, both average rent prices and the number of rental properties have followed an upward trajectory within the past decade — between 2012 and 2016, four out of five U.S. metropolitan areas experienced rent increases, and the national average for median gross rent rose by $21. One potential factor in this trend is the housing market crash in 2008, which had widespread ripple effects on the real estate market and overall housing costs. However, as the quarantine era has clearly shown, the ability for many people to afford their rent is erratic, especially given that the American economy has yet to fully recover to its pre-pandemic state. The conversation around housing access in the U.S. should continue after the eviction moratoriums and rent freezes end. To that end, the data and research team at Insurify studied rent and demographic data to determine the top twenty cities whose residents are paying the most in rent, proportional to their income. National averages. Across cities in the United States, the average share of renters paying 50% or more of their household income on rent was 23.61 percent. The median gross rent was $966.27 per month. The percent of city populations below the poverty line was 16.67 percent. Greater affordability. The U.S. cities with the lowest share of renters paying 50% or more of household income on rent were Mauldin— Simpsonville (SC), Paso Robles—Atascadero (CA), and Casper (WY) at 12.34, 13.49, and 14.18 percent, respectively. Most, but not all, have high poverty rates. While the majority of the cities on this list have a greater-than-average percentage of their population living below the poverty line, not all cities on this list follow that trend. Notably, Miami (FL), Vineland (NJ), and Watsonville (CA), all have a lower-than-average proportion of their population living below the poverty line. In fact, Miami’s is 9 percent lower than the national average. That said, many of these cities’ shares of impoverished citizens greatly exceed the national average. San Marcos (TX) has 50 percent more of its population under the poverty line than the national average, at 32.8 percent. Big city dreams? Interestingly, many notoriously expensive cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, did not make the list. An explanation for this phenomenon is the relative wealth of those cities that are always lauded to have such high rents. Many of the aforementioned cities are home to lucrative industries such as finance, entertainment, and tech. While the median rent may be higher than average, the higher volume of wealth held by city residents means that there are smaller proportions of the population where rental prices consume 50% or more of a renter’s income. The trend of gentrification in these cities, or how many former residents are being priced out by wealthier newcomers, can also account for this finding. The data and research team at Insurify, a home insurance quotes comparison site, referred to data from the American Community Survey by the United States Census Bureau to determine the twenty cities paying the most in rent. In this study, cities were designated by their status as an urbanized area by the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. Census Bureau defines “urbanized area” as a densely populated urban territory that encompasses 50,000 or more people. The share of renters paying 50% or more of household income on rent was calculated by taking city-level estimates of renters paying 50.0 percent or more of household income on gross rent in the past 12 months compared to the total population of renters. Median gross rent and the percent of the population below the poverty line were also taken from the American Community Survey’s most recent calculations. The U.S. Census Bureau measures poverty by subtracting the poverty threshold, or the minimum level of income deemed adequate for a family of a particular size, from the total household income, inclusive of all family members earning an income for that particular family unit. If a family’s total income is less than their designated poverty threshold, they are considered to be under the poverty line. U.S. Cities Paying the Most in Rent 20. Bellingham, WA Share of Renters Paying 50%+ of Household Income on Rent: 31.84% Median Gross Rent: $1,012 Percent of Population Below Poverty Line: 18.30% 19. Athens-Clarke County, GA Median Gross Rent: $849 18. Miami, FL 17. Vineland, NJ 16. Watsonville, CA 15. Hemet, CA 14. College Station — Bryan, TX 13. Greenville, NC 12. Chico, CA 11. Auburn, AL 10. Bloomington, IN 9. San Marcos, TX 8. Iowa City, IA 7. Corvallis, OR 6. Ames, IA 5. Boulder, CO 4. State College, PA 3. Ithaca, NY 2. Davis, CA 1. San Luis Obispo, CA	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line249
__label__wiki	0.903287	0.903287	Farm Run By Inmates Saves Taxpayers $1 Million Each Year By Brandon Johansen VISALIA, Calif. -- The inmates at the Tulare County Sheriff's jail facilities in Visalia are fed with food grown at a farm tended by fellow inmates. It's an experiment that's saving nearly $1 million of taxpayer money each year. "I'm not sure how many inmates go from farm to table, but that's what's happening here," said Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux. The project was launched to cut back on the cost of feeding inmates, and it's turned into a self-sufficient cycle. Inmates in the program work with vegetables like broccoli and cabbage and raise cattle and pigs to adulthood. Others work with the egg-laying operation. Some work in the on-site slaughterhouse, others work as meat butchers and in the kitchen. Everything grown at the farm is used to feed the inmates and staff at the nearby Tulare County jail facilities, including the Bob Wiley Detention Facility. Any food that isn't eaten is then prepared as slop to feed the pigs, which are then used to feed the inmates, and so-on and so-forth. The farm property spans 1,100 acres and includes just under 700 hogs, more than 200 cows, and about 2,400 hens who are producing an average of 1,500 eggs each day. "I don't know any sheriff or any commercial farming operation here in the Valley that has free-roaming chickens with an organic feed," Boudreaux said. "Our eggs are twice the size of store-bought eggs." "We want to make sure that they're comfortable, that they're treated kindly... it's important for us that we take care of our livestock in the manner in which they take care of us," Boudreaux said. The result: Sheriff Boudreaux says the process saves nearly $1 million in taxpayer funds every single year. They're even working on a project pitched by farm manager Gary Bird to raise chicks instead of buying full-grown hens, which will save more money in the long run. Bird took on oversight of the operation earlier this year. "All my staff, we all come from a farming background, we've owned and operated our own farms and ranches," Bird said. In addition to saving money, the initiative also gives the inmates skills they can apply once they are released from jail. "They don't have to sit inside the confines of a jail cell, they have the opportunity to learn a skill, they get to get out in the sunshine, and oftentimes that's a benefit to the inmate. They can go back out into civilian life and be able to provide for their family and I think that's one of the things that's incredibly important for us here," Boudreaux said. The jail houses anywhere between 1,500 and 1,800 inmates at a time, but specific criteria must be met to take part in the farm program. Inmates can earn a certificate of skills by taking part in the program, and it can even go towards rehabilitation and early release. "Nonviolent, nonsexual inmates," Boudreaux said. "They're not a predator that would pose a risk to society," He says the majority are inmates with a theft on their record or a drug offense of some sort. Any excess produce from the farm is sold to surrounding farms, thus keeping the money in the Valley. Boudreaux also expressed interest in continuing to expand the farming operation, potentially with a dairy. Other sheriffs have also visited the TCSO farm to see if the program could be used in their counties. "These inmates are able to learn livestock care, they're able to learn farming," Boudreaux said. "And in Tulare County, we are predominantly agricultural based. What better of a program to provide a person with skills to put back into a community, where there's great opportunity for success?" visaliafarm to tableinmatesfoodjailagriculturetulare countysherifffarminglocalishtulare county sheriff's office Thanks to a GoFundMe page, this family has received $40K Youngest Muslim elected U.S. official lives in Skokie Build-your-own donut at delicious New Jersey shop Butterfly Effect Project's mission to help girls succeed	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line250
__label__wiki	0.945389	0.945389	Rail Prevails as Long Trains Block First Responders at Crossings September 10, 2019 1:08 PM By Shaun Courtney States, localities losing court fights to ticket trains that block intersections Industry, administration don’t want one-size-fits-all federal rules The call came in: a person was threatening suicide just 2 1/2 blocks from the police department building in Davis, Okla. It should have taken officers in the town of 2,800 about one minute to get there. It took closer to 20. Three rail crossings stood between the department and the caller; all three were blocked by a stopped freight train. The officers made it in time, but the memory sticks with Davis Chief of Police Dan Cooper. Thanks to a new Oklahoma law that prohibits blocking a crossing for more than 10 minutes, Cooper and his officers can now issue tickets to freight trains—and they have, three times as of mid-August. Frustration over blocked crossings has united state and local officials across party lines as trains grow longer; 38 states had some kind of law on delays when the Federal Railroad Administration last counted in 2013. But state and federal courts have consistently knocked down the statutes in recent years, and there’s no federal standard for train length or how long a stopped train can block crossings. The FRA doesn’t even define a blocked crossing, and the powerful railroad industry association—which spent $13 million on lobbying over the first two quarters of 2019—is working to make sure it stays that way. “The rail industry says it’s a state issue, but states aren’t allowed to do anything,” said Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials. He said he may draft legislation or legislative language to address blocked crossings. “We don’t want to choke off the rail industry, but at the same time I think it’s important that we maintain safety,” he said. Industry Changes Freight train length has increased in recent years, all seven Class I freight railroads told the Government Accountability Office, according to a July report to Congress. Two of the seven reported their average train lengths had grown 25 percent since 2008, with some trains stretching as long as three miles. The longer trains lead to crossings being blocked more often and for longer periods, state and local officials told the GAO, citing anecdotes of children in Ohio and Texas crawling through stalled trains to get to school. The difference is in the length of cars, not their number—reflecting changes in the types of freight carried. The median train shrunk by two freight cars between the first quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2019, according to the Association of American Railroads, the industry’s lobbying arm, which measured the length of about 8 million trains. A train of 150 cars—the FRA’s unofficial definition of a long train—carrying iron ore would run about 3,500 feet long, but an intermodal train of the same number of cars might measure 33,000 feet, according to John Gray, the AAR’s senior vice president of policy and economics. “Today the growth business for the railroads is taking trucks off the highway. It’s in the intermodal business,” said Gray, who said he sees no way around blocking crossings. “The number of actual freight cars hasn’t changed materially, but you have a change in the length of the freight cars being used just because business has changed during that time.” Cooper would like the railroads to build a new siding so longer trains can pull off and not block Davis’s crossings. “We’re just wanting to be a good neighbor with the railroads and hoping that they do too. Especially for the smaller communities where it’s vital that we get our first responders out and about,” he said. For an interactive version of the map above, click here. Congressional Action? The FRA has taken a voluntary approach to blocked crossings. Federal Rail Administrator Ron Batory recently sent letters to the leaders of more than 160 railroads asking them to consider avoiding blockages at crossings, according to an email from an FRA spokesperson. “In cases where blocked crossings are widespread or recurring, FRA regional personnel have sought to facilitate good-faith negotiations between local officials and railroads to identify potential solutions,” the spokesperson said. House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) challenged Batory on the agency’s approach during a July hearing. Oregon saw its state law knocked down in 2009. “I have trains now running up the Willamette Valley that are 15,000 feet long, going through city centers,” DeFazio said. “How long do we going to allow people to block emergency vehicles? These are mostly at grade crossings. Is there any limit to how long they can make these trains?” Batory said federal law doesn’t allow the agency to regulate crossing blockages. When pressed by Republican subcommittee member Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) on whether it should, Batory said, “I’m not a big believer in silver bullets that correct it for everything across the country. I would say no.” Bipartisan Reluctance The reserved federal response isn’t new to the Trump administration, though lengthening trains are making the issue more painful for some localities. President Barack Obama’s FRA administrators, Joe Szabo and Sarah Feinberg, both told Congress they work with railroads and localities to address blocked crossings at the local level, and neither openly embraced offers from lawmakers to give the agency new authority. The FRA’s positions are that there is no empirical basis to create a one-size-fits-all restriction on the length of a train, and that regulations to prohibit blocked crossings would be unenforceable given how many exceptions exist for other federal rail-safety rules. It has put out a notice of information collection and a request for comment on how and whether the administration could improve data collection on instances of blocked crossings—work that began as a proposal under Feinberg. The AAR’s Gray notes there is no data on the size or scope of this issue and questioned how anyone could legislate or regulate without such information. “We will not support any effort to mandate operational decisions that is not supported by sound data and advances public safety,” Jessica Kahanek, a spokeswoman for the rail lobby group, said in an email. The AAR has long been a quietly powerful force on Capitol Hill. “The state of railroad lobbying is strong. They’re not one of the biggest industries in terms of lobbying spending, but they are still spending millions of dollars on their effort and they have been for years,” Dan Auble, a senior researcher for the Center for Responsive Politics, said. Lipinski says the solution has to come from Congress. His provision could find its way into the House version of the surface transportation bill the committee is working on before the Sept. 30, 2020 deadline. States Strike Out Since the 2013 FRA tally, 10 states have faced or are facing legal challenges to their laws on crossing blockages, resulting in eight repealing their laws or having them knocked down. Two other states are in litigation. Freight railroad CSX Corp. sued the city of Defiance, Ohio, in September 2016 over $35,000 in fines levied for violating a state law that prohibited blocking crossings for more than five minutes. Judge James Carr of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in April 2017 found in favor of CSX that federal law preempts state law over railroads. Railroads, in some cases in conjunction with the AAR, have also successfully sued seven other states: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, North Dakota, Oregon and Texas. The state laws, some with fines of just $100, no longer apply. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Council on Rail is meeting this month to address blocked crossings and long trains, among other topics. “We’re all sitting around saying that we have the same problems,” said the council’s vice chairman, Matt Dietrich, executive director of the Ohio Rail Development Commission. The AAR in 2018 sued the Kentucky attorney general and leaders of two counties in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky on behalf of Norfolk Southern Corp. , after law enforcement in the counties issued citations against the railroad for blocking crossings. Under Kentucky law, stopped trains that block crossings for five or more minutes can be fined between $25 and $100 for each offense. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed into law May 29 an emergency bill prohibiting a railcar from stopping and blocking vehicular traffic at a railroad intersection with a public highway or street for longer than 10 minutes. The law took effect July 1 and two towns, Davis and Edmond, used the new authority to issue several $1,000 tickets. Cooper, the Davis police chief, said he’s concerned he may not have that power for long. “I figure before this is over said and done that we will end up in federal court over it,” he said Aug. 12. He was right. BNSF Railway Co. filed suit on Aug. 22 in the United States District Court for the Western District Of Oklahoma against the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and the cities of Edmond and Davis. To contact the reporter on this story: Shaun Courtney in Washington at scourtney@bgov.com To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bernie Kohn at bkohn@bloomberglaw.com; Robin Meszoly at rmeszoly@bgov.com	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line251
__label__cc	0.669117	0.330883	MEET THE YOUNG WOMAN WHO LEFT THE U.S TO OPEN A FOOD TRUCK IN GHANA by Dana Givens 2019 marked the Year of the Return in Ghana. The tourism campaign called for descendants of the African diaspora to return to the continent and partake in the rich history that Ghana has to offer. As a result, over one million visitors traveled to the country last year, including famous celebrities, to encourage African Americans and others within the African diaspora to return to their roots. For 28-year-old Deijha Gordon, the opportunity was more than just a vacation, but a chance to start a new life with a newfound business venture. Between tourism campaigns from countries like South Africa and Ghana catering to African American travelers, some have taken that initiative a bit further. But relocating to the continent? This was the case for Gordon, who, like many African Americans, grew up with a negative perception of African countries from the media. Because of social media and the changing narrative around African tourism, many people like Gordon are opening their minds to opportunities on the continent. This meant giving up her job at the United States Postal Service to move to Ghana to open a food truck. Gordon is now the owner of Deijha Vu’s Jerk Hut in Accra, where she sells a variety of tasty items ranging from rasta pasta, rice & peas, and her specialty–spicy chicken paired with a doughnut. Her decision to open the truck stemmed from the longtime dream of owning her own restaurant. “So Deijah Vu’s, apart from my name being Deijha, the meaning of “déjà vu” is a sense of feeling like I am already here. That is the feeling I got when I first set foot on this continent, so when I got off the plane,” she told ABC News Ghana. “I was kind of nervous simply because of what they show us in the states. There were so many things running through my mind, but as I got off the plane and stepped out into the atmosphere, I felt OK and I was happy that I made the decision.” The food truck is currently stationed at Base Camp Initiatives located in East Legon, one of Accra’s residential areas. The venue is a co-working space for start-ups on a budget. While there has been a fair of challenges relocating to a new country, Gordon has no regrets. “I feel like it’s the best decision I’ve made so far,” she said. “I’ve met so many great people; I have had so many great opportunities, coming here allowed me to go to South Africa and I made a lot of friends and I have no doubt that Deijha Vu’s will be very successful. So many people have been hitting me up about it and they are anticipating the grand opening and I’m just excited about it.” Read more from source Black Enterprise eamungo 12th Mar 2020 9th Apr 2020 American Businesses in Africa, Americans in Ghana, featured Previous Previous post: American mayor says Ghana is well-positioned to grow Next Next post: Coronavirus: US repatriates 305 citizens from Ghana	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line259
__label__cc	0.507246	0.492754	← Anime Limited Confirms Standard Edition Blu-Ray Release of Lucky Star Blu-Ray Review: RWBY – Volume 4 → My Hero Academia: Two Heroes Announced for UK Cinematic Release This December Manga Entertainment UK, in partnership with FUNimation Films, have today announced that they will be bringing the feature-length My Hero Academia film, known as My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, to cinemas within the UK this December. Available in Japanese (with English subtitles) on the 4th December 2018 and in English on the 5th December 2018 My Hero Academia fans will be able to experience the feature-length-film sensation which is ‘actually’ breaking box office records in America (over $5 Million at the time of writing). Screening locations have yet to be confirmed but the official microsite is available to view and allows notifications for when tickets will be available to book. Synopsis: Deku and All Might receive an invitation to I-Expo, the world’s leading exhibition of Quirk abilities and hero item innovations! Amid the excitement, sponsors, and pros from all over, Deku meets Melissa, a girl who is Quirkless just like he once was. Suddenly, I-Expo’s top-of-the-line security system gets hacked by villains, and a sinister plan is set in motion. It’s a serious threat to hero society, and one man holds the key to it all—the symbol of peace, All Might. It’s currently unknown if Manga Entertainment UK will be releasing the film in the near on Blu-Ray (and DVD) but past cinematic releases would suggest that they will; either way My Hero Academia: Two Heroes will be available in cinemas on the 4th December 2018 (Japanese with English Subtitles) and 5th December 2018 (English). English Dubbed Trailer #1: My Hero Academia – Season 1 is available as a Limited Edition Blu-Ray & DVD Combo Pack release via Universal Pictures UK while My Hero Academia – Season 2 is available in half-season-sets on Blu-Ray and DVD via Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The Series is also available to stream on Crunchyroll and FUNimation NOW with Season 3 currently being simulcast. Filed under Anime News, MangaUK, News Tagged with Cinema, Film, FUNimation, FUNimation Films, Manga Entertainment UK, Manga UK, Movie, News	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line266
__label__wiki	0.990482	0.990482	https://apnews.com/article/4f4ddea4fa0c43ae984447fae85cf644 Diver who helped with Thai cave rescue sues Elon Musk By TOM KRISHERSeptember 17, 2018 GMT FILE- In this Sept. 6, 2018, file photo British cave expert Vernon Unsworth talks with guests at an event titled the "United as One" in Bangkok, Thailand. Unsworth, who helped rescue soccer players trapped in a Thai cave is suing Elon Musk, alleging that the Tesla CEO falsely accused him of being a pedophile. The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court Monday, Sept. 17, seeks more than $75,000 in damages and a court order stopping Musk from making further allegations. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File) A British diver who helped rescue youth soccer players trapped in a cave in Thailand is suing Elon Musk, alleging that the Tesla CEO falsely accused him of being a pedophile. Diver Vernon Unsworth, who lives north of London, contends that Musk made the false allegation on Twitter and then repeated multiple other falsehoods after the dramatic rescue of a dozen youth soccer players and their coach in July. The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court Monday seeks more than $75,000 in damages and a court order stopping Musk from making further allegations. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment Monday. Musk called Unsworth a “pedo” in a tweet to his 22.5 million followers after Unsworth criticized Musk in a July 13 television interview with CNN about the rescue. Musk and engineers from his rocket company, SpaceX, built a small submarine and shipped it to Thailand to help with the rescue. The device wasn’t used and in the interview, Unsworth called it a “PR stunt” and said it wouldn’t have worked to free the boys who were trapped in the flooded cave. He also said Musk “can stick his submarine somewhere where it hurts.” The lawsuit alleges that Musk, apparently angered by Unsworth’s remarks, began a campaign to destroy his reputation “by publishing false and heinous accusations of criminality against him to the public.” In a series of tweets July 15, Musk, who personally delivered the submarine to the cave, wrote that he never saw Unsworth and challenged him to show a video of the final rescue. “Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it,” Musk tweeted. Later on Twitter, Musk wrote “Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.” Later Musk deleted the tweets and apologized after being criticized by shareholders, the lawsuit alleged, stating in a tweet that his words were “spoken in anger” and that the sub was built out of kindness according to specifications from the dive team leader. But on Aug. 28, Musk tweeted about Unsworth once again, writing: “You don’t think it’s strange he hasn’t sued me? He was offered free legal services.” The lawsuit states that with the tweet, Musk sought to tell the average reader that Unsworth’s failure to sue at the time was evidence that Unsworth is a pedophile. Two days after the Aug. 28 tweet, Musk emailed a BuzzFeed News reporter, suggesting that the reporter investigate Unsworth and “stop defending child rapists,” according to the lawsuit, which is 65 pages with exhibits. “He’s an old, single white guy from England who’s been traveling or living in Thailand for 30 to 40 years,” Musk wrote, adding that Unsworth moved in Thailand “for a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time,” according to the lawsuit. Then in a second email to BuzzFeed, Musk accused Unsworth of being a liar and said he wasn’t on the cave dive team. “Mr. Unsworth is not a pedophile. Mr. Unsworth has never engaged in an act of pedophilia. Mr. Unsworth is not a child rapist,” the lawsuit stated, adding that Unsworth has never been married to a minor. Unsworth has a “significant other” in Thailand, a 40-year-old woman with whom he shares a house, according to the lawsuit. He first started going to Thailand in 2011, where he explored and mapped caves, the documents stated. The lawsuit explains Unsworth’s role in the rescue, saying that on June 23, when the soccer players became trapped, several Thai officials called and asked him to go to the cave as soon as possible. He was the first foreign rescuer to arrive. He recommended that the Thai government seek help from divers in the United Kingdom, and Unsworth called friend and fellow diver Rob Harper. Harper, who had just returned from exploring Thai caves with Unsworth, brought two other divers, John Volanthen and Rick Stanton, to help with the rescue. The boys, ages 11-16, were found July 2 by Volanthen and Stanton, according to the lawsuit. The last soccer player was rescued July 8. “Together with Mr. Unsworth, Mr. Harper, Mr. Volanthen, and Mr. Stanton put together the dive portion of the rescue plan that ultimately saved the boys,” the lawsuit stated. It concedes that Unsworth was not involved in the final planning stages of the rescue because he didn’t have enough experience to make the dive. The lawsuit was filed by lawyers led by L. Lin Wood, an Atlanta attorney who has represented plaintiffs in several high-profile libel cases including the family of homicide victim JonBenet Ramsey and security guard Richard Jewel, who was accused in media reports of being a suspect in a 1996 bombing during the Olympics in Atlanta, a crime committed by anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph. The documents said a separate lawsuit would be filed in England. Unsworth will not do interviews, Wood said, but the attorney said in a statement that Musk’s wealth “cannot convert his lies into truth or protect him from accountability for his wrongdoing in a court of law.” Unsworth’s British lawyer, Mark Stephens, said that “Twibels (Twitter libels) show that falsehoods by the rich and powerful can circulate round the globe to their 22.5 million followers and to the media before the truth can pull its boots on.” “The truth has now got its boots on and Elon Musk is being brought to account for repeatedly attacking and taunting the good name of an ordinary spelunker: Vernon Unsworth who answered the call and (with others) put his life on the line to help rescue the 13 trapped in the caves in Thailand,” he said. Stephens did not say when Unsworth planned to file a claim in the British courts. Krisher reported from Detroit. Jill Lawless contributed to this report from London.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line268
__label__cc	0.618076	0.381924	Emergency Psychiatry Clinical Manual of Emergency Psychiatry Second Edition Clinical Manual of Emergency Psychiatry, Second Edition Edited by Michelle B. Riba, M.D., M.S., Divy Ravindranath, M.D., M.S., and Gerald Scott Winder, M.D. The second edition of Clinical Manual of Emergency Psychiatry is designed to help medical students, residents, and clinical faculty chart an appropriate course of treatment in a setting where an incorrect assessment can have life-or-death implications. Arranged by chief complaint rather than by psychiatric diagnosis, each chapter combines the fresh insights of an accomplished psychiatry trainee with the more seasoned viewpoint of a senior practitioner in the field, providing a richly integrated perspective on the challenges and rewards of caring for patients in the psychiatric emergency department. This newly revised edition presents current approaches to evaluation, treatment, and management of patients in crisis, including up-to-date guidelines on use of pharmacotherapy in the emergency setting; suicide risk assessment; evaluation of patients with abnormal mood, psychosis, acute anxiety, agitation, cognitive impairment, and/or substance-related emergencies; and care of children and adolescents. The editors have created an accessible text with many useful features: A chapter devoted to effective strategies for teaching, mentoring, and supervision of trainees in the psychiatry emergency service. Chapters focused on assessment of risk for violence in patients, determination of the need for seclusion or restraint, and navigation of the legal and ethical issues that arise in the emergency setting. Clinical vignettes that contextualize the information provided, allowing readers to envision applicable clinical scenarios and thereby internalize important concepts more quickly Constructive “take-home” points at the end of each chapter that summarize key information and caution against common clinical errors. References and suggested readings to help readers pursue a deeper understanding of concepts and repair any gaps in knowledge. Emergency psychiatry is one of the most stressful and challenging areas of practice for the psychiatric clinician. The guidelines and strategies outlined in Clinical Manual of Emergency Psychiatry, Second Edition, will help psychiatric trainees and educators alike to make sense of the complex clinical situations they encounter and guide them to advance their skills as clinicians and educators. Chapter 1. Approach to Psychiatric Emergencies Chapter 2. Suicide Risk Assessment and Management Chapter 3. Violence Risk Assessment Chapter 4. Depression, Euphoria, and Anger in the Emergency Department Chapter 5. The Psychotic Patient Chapter 6. The Anxious Patient Chapter 7. The Agitated Patient Chapter 8. The Cognitively Impaired Patient Chapter 9. Substance-Related Psychiatric Emergencies Chapter 10. Child and Adolescent Emergency Psychiatry Chapter 11. Seclusion and Restraint in Emergency Settings Chapter 12. Legal and Ethical Issues in Emergency Psychiatry Chapter 13. Supervision of Trainees in the Psychiatric Emergency Service James Abelson, M.D., Ph.D. Joshua Berezin, M.S., M.D. James A. Bourgeois, O.D., M.D., F.A.P.M. Philippe-Edouard Boursiquot, M.D. Jennifer S. Brasch, M.D. Kirk J. Brower, M.D. Nancy Byatt, D.O., M.B.A., F.A.P.M. Gregory W. Dalack, M.D. Emily Deringer, M.D. Charletta Dillard, M.D. Renee Garcia, M.D. Rachel L. Glick, M.D. Erick Hung, M.D. Monique James, M.D. B. Harrison Levine, M.D., M.P.H. Kishor Malavade, M.D. Jose R. Maldonado, M.D., F.A.P.M., F.A.C.F.E. Katherine Maloy, M.D. Tracy McCarthy, M.D. Adam D. Miller, M.D. Julia E. Najara, M.D. Robert Neumar, M.D., Ph.D. Debra A. Pinals, M.D. Ernest Poortinga, M.D. Vasilis K. Pozios, M.D. Divy Ravindranath, M.D., M.S. Michelle B. Riba, M.D., M.S. Heather E. Schultz, M.D. Patricia Schwartz, M.D. Steven Storage, M.D. Mary Weathers Case, M.D. Gerald Scott Winder, M.D. Michelle B. Riba, M.D., M.S., is Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Chair for Integrated Medical and Psychiatric Services in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan and Associate Director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Depression Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In addition, Dr. Riba is Secretary for Scientific Publications at the World Psychiatric Association and Past President of the American Psychiatric Association. Divy Ravindranath, M.D., M.S., is Director of the Psychiatry Consultation-Liaison Service and Mental Health Evaluation Clinic of the VA Palo Alto Health Care System in Palo Alto, California; and Clinical Assistant Professor (Affiliated) in the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California. Gerald Scott Winder, M.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Early in my career I was Director of Psychiatric Emergency Services at a hospital on the west side of mid-Manhattan, way before the area had become gentrified. I wish I could have had this book at my side then! This new edition of the Clinical Manual of Emergency Psychiatry is an invaluable resource. Riba and co-editors have assembled a team of experienced authors who give us a roadmap for compassionate emergency psychiatric care, which too often is the only medical door open for those in a crisis of personal anguish and pain.—John M. Oldham, M.D., Chief of Staff, The Menninger Clinic, past president of APA, Professor and Executive Vice Chair, Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Helping Kids in Crisis Edited by Fadi Haddad, M.D., and Ruth Gerson, M.D. 2015 Disaster Psychiatry Frederick J. Stoddard, Jr., M.D., Anand Pandya, M.D., and Craig L. Katz, M.D. 2011	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line269
__label__wiki	0.558524	0.558524	Saba Fakes v. Republic of Turkey, ICSID Case No. ARB/07/20 (Netherlands/Turkey BIT), Award Emmanuel Gaillard Hans Van Houtte Laurent Lévy Netherlands, The, ICSID, BITS, Investment Disputes, Investment, Investor, Dual Nationality, Genuine and Effective Link, Jurisdiction of Tribunals, Subject Matter of the Dispute http://italaw.com/alphabetical_list.htm PDF0 bytes On August 13, 2007, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID” or “the Centre”) registered a Request for Arbitration dated June 6, 2007, as supplemented by a letter dated August 3, 2007, submitted on behalf of Mr. Saba Fakes (“the Claimant”) against the Republic of Turkey (“the Respondent”). The Request for Arbitration was filed on the basis of the ICSID Convention and the Agreement on Reciprocal Encouragement and Protection of Investments between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of Turkey dated March 27, 1986 (“the Netherlands-Turkey Bilateral Investment Treaty” or “BIT”) which entered into force on November 1, 1989. More in ICSID ICSID under the New Rules: A Conversation with Meg Kinnear, ICSID Secretary-General -ARIA - Vol. 31, No. 1 PDF \| December 2020 Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited v. United Republic of Tanzania, ICSID Case No. ARB/15/41 - Journal of Damages in International Arbitration, Vol.6, Nos.1&2 Perenco Ecuador Limited v. The Republic of Ecuador, ICSID Case No. ARB/08/6 - Journal of Damages in International Arbitration, Vol.6, Nos.1&2 More by Laurent Lévy Cross-Cultural Approaches to Advocacy and Arbitral Decision-Making - World Arbitration and Mediation Review, Vol. 9 No. 4 PDF \| May 2015 Ioan Micula, Viorel Micula, S.C. European Food S.A, S.C. Starmill S.R.L. and S.C. Multipack S.R.L. v. Romania, ICSID Case No. ARB/05/20, Final Award (December 11, 2013) Free PDF: https://arbitrationlaw.com/sites/default/files/free_pdfs/2013-12-11_-_award.pdf Achmea B.V. v. The Slovak Republic, UNCITRAL, PCA Case No. 2013-12 (Number 2), Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility (May 20, 2014) https://arbitrationlaw.com/sites/default/files/free_pdfs/2014-05-20_-_award_on_jurisdiction_and_admissibility.pdf	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line271
__label__wiki	0.865315	0.865315	E3 2017: Absolver Preview Developed by Sloclap Digital, Absolver is a fighting game that elevates the discourse beyond traditional video game combat. Based in some very real techniques actually practiced around the world today, Absolver eschews the fantastical in favor of a more thoughtful and honest approach to martial arts… Luke Brown E3 2017: Extinction Preview There are few things as satisfying in a video game as taking down a foe that towers above you. In Extinction, enemy ogres are literally the size of towers (and larger), making their defeats that much more rewarding when you are able to finally whittle one down. Combining the fast-paced fighting Iron… E3 2017: Battle Chasers: Nightwar Preview For years, fans have been looking forward to more Battle Chasers stories. Last year, we got our first look at Aiship Syndicate's role-playing game version of the Joe Madureira comic, Battle Chasers: Nightwar. At that time, there was little to do but wander a randomly generated dungeon and compl… E3 2017: Dauntless Preview We didn't realize how badly we wanted a massive hammer that doubled as a shotgun until we equipped one in Dauntless. At that point, we'd already been playing Phoenix Labs' upcoming multiplayer action role-playing game for a hunt or two, but wanted to change things up to see what the d… E3 2017: Ashen Preview In the darkness below the surface, two lone treasure hunters have come together to explore a dungeon in search secrets from a world lost long ago. An ocean of black envelops them both, the only salvation in the depths provided by lone lanterns each wanderer carries. A somber melody plays somewhere, … E3 2017: Far Cry 5 Preview Ubisoft is taking a different approach with Far Cry 5 than we're used to seeing from the franchise. Typically a series that's been about exploring locales many people can only dream of traveling to, it's a bit strange to see one coming home to roost in the United States. That's n… E3 2017: Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Preview While most of the world got to see a new Uncharted: The Lost Legacy story trailer during PlayStation's E3 event, we got to see a bit more of the upcoming action game behind closed doors. What we saw was most definitely more Uncharted, which has never been a bad thing. More importantly, we got t… E3 2017: Agents of Mayhem Preview Last year, we got our first glimpse at Volition's first new IP since Saints Row dominated the previous generation of consoles. Agents of Mayhem billed itself as an action-packed adventure that poked fun at the concept of international security agencies like SHIELD or GI Joe and their rival grou… E3 2017: The Swords of Ditto Preview We've all heard the stories about the amnesiac hero who washed up on the shore of a dangerous island only to become its savior. Or perhaps the version you heard told of a teen with extraordinary courage, who stepped up in a time of need to make the lands he lived in safe again. Whatever deviati… E3 2017: The Artful Escape Preview No matter how fleeting the feeling, we've all dreamed of being a rock star at one time or another in our lives. Some video games have come close to giving us that feeling, with the likes of Rock Band and Guitar Hero putting the power directly in our hands. Few developers have looked beyond the …	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line272
__label__cc	0.670112	0.329888	Posted on December 17, 2020 by Elizabeth Reading dystopian novels during a pandemic? Maybe that’s the last thing you’d want to do right now, or maybe you find courage and inspiration in reading about how people survive harrowing situations. Dystopian is defined in the Oxford Dictionary: relating to or denoting an imagined state or society where there is great suffering or injustice Personally, I love survival stories of all kinds, and a favorite book of 2020 renewed my interest in the genre. “I love building worlds – I think it’s one of my favorite parts of writing.” So says author Diane Cook, author of The New Wilderness. Cook certainly succeeded in building a fascinating world and a gripping story about survival, sacrifice, and relationships challenged by this tough world. I was thrilled to find out the book was a finalist for The Booker Prize. (The prize was awarded to another book, Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stuart.) I agree completely with what Roxana Gay says about Cook’s debut novel “I was entirely engrossed in this novel. I didn’t want to leave it…” Learn more about the book by watching this video. What is it about The New Wilderness that really stuck with me? I checked Novelist (featured in this blog post) to see how they describe it: Genre: Dystopian fiction; Literary fiction; Multiple perspectives Character: Complex Storyline: issue-oriented Tone: Darkly humorous; Suspenseful; Thought-provoking Writing style: Compelling; Descriptive If these descriptors sound good to you, take a look at these dystopian/survival favorites of mine from over the years. All of these titles, like The New Wilderness, left a lasting memory in my mind of their worlds. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood must be at the top of the list because it sparked my fascination with this genre (plus Atwood is just amazing overall). In the Republic of Gilead, male dominance has returned with a vengeance and women are relegated to a handful of truly horrible roles from Commanders’ wives to colony slaves. Don’t miss the Hulu series, which you can check out from the library! The Dog Stars by Peter Heller The world has been devastated by a pandemic, and outdoorsman Hig is surviving in an abandoned airport. He loves his dog, misses his wife, and has conversations with his weapons hoarding neighbor, while fighting off marauding bands of desperate savages. He also occasionally takes his small plane out to search for more survivors, and one day hears a voice on the radio. Library Journal describes the book: “In spare, poetic prose, [Heller] portrays a soaring spirit of hope that triumphs over heartbreak, trauma, and insurmountable struggles.” After the Flood by Kassandra Montag is another climate change related book in which the ice caps have melted, raising the sea level so high that only mountains are left above water. Most of life is spent traveling by boat, trying to find enough to eat, and hoping to find some place on land not under the control of ruthless gangs of pirate types. Myra and her 7 year old daughter, barely making a living by fishing, hear a rumor that Myra’s oldest daughter, stolen by her ex and presumed dead, may be living in an encampment in the far north. The two embark on a perilous journey. Booklist describes it thus: “Anchored by a complicated, compelling heroine, this gripping, speculative, high-seas adventure is impossible to put down.” Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer is the first in a four part young adult series which, despite being published 14 years ago, stays with me to this day. The moon has been knocked off course by a meteor and an extreme winter sets in. As the situation gets more and more dire, 16 year old Miranda and her family tries everything they can think of to stay alive. Publisher’s Weekly wrote in 2006: “…readers will find it absorbing from first page to last. This survival tale…celebrates the fortitude and resourcefulness of human beings during critical times.” Gold, Fame, Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins The California drought turns the landscape into mountains of sand, and a mass exodus ensues, with only a few hearty, pioneering types left behind. Former model Luz and AWOL Ray are squatting in an abandoned mansion when they encounter a strange little orphan girl. They take to the hills in search of a safer place to raise her. BookList describes their trek: “Their journey across the vast, ever-changing dunes is cosmic and terrifying as Watkins conjures eerily beautiful and deadly sandscapes and a cult leader’s renegade colony.” Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller, does not fit perfectly into this genre, but definitely involves survival. Eight year old Peggy has been taken to the woods by her survivalist dad who claims the world has ended and they are the only two people left. Library Journal, in its Starred Review of the book concludes, “Though not always easy reading, Fuller’s emotionally intense novel comes to an unexpected but rewarding conclusion. Don’t let this gripping story pass you by.” But this is just a beginning – there are so many other good dystopian and survival books out there. Our librarians have created a few collections you may enjoy: If You Liked The Handmaid’s Tale, and Pandemic Apocalypse Fiction. If you prefer nonfiction, check out this list of true survival stories. This entry was posted in Best of 2020, Book Lists, Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Suspense & Thriller and tagged Best of 2020, diane cook, dystopian fiction, gold fame citrus, life as we knew it, Our Endless Numbered Days, post apocalyptic, The Dog Stars, the handmaid's tale, the new wilderness by Elizabeth. Bookmark the permalink. 1 thought on “Survival of the Fittest” Richard on December 18, 2020 at 9:28 am said: For a book in the same vein, I’d recommend Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. A nice review from NPR can be found here: https://www.npr.org/2015/06/20/415782006/survival-is-insufficient-station-eleven-preserves-art-after-the-apocalypse	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line274
__label__cc	0.642831	0.357169	Back to asiasociety.org Search Northern California asiasociety.org Sections + Asia Society Northern California The Asia Society Northern California Center, established in 1998, is uniquely positioned on the edge of the Pacific and at the entrance to Silicon Valley. The Center connects the San Francisco Bay Area’s diverse local community with a wide network of global leaders and visionaries in the fields of policy, business, arts & culture, education, and technology/innovation. Through large conferences, private Executive Roundtable briefings, panel discussions, cultural programs, and networking events and dinners, Asia Society Northern California presents timely and relevant forums for educating and engaging the public about the critical issues facing the United States, Asia, and the world. Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, Asia Society is the leading educational institution dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships across people, leaders, and institutions of Asia and the United States in a global context. Across the fields of arts, business, culture, education, and policy, the Society provides insight, generates ideas, and promotes collaboration to address present challenges and create a shared future. Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational institution with headquarters in New York, major centers with buildings in Hong Kong and Houston, and offices in Los Angeles, Manila, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Sydney, Washington, DC, Tokyo, and Zurich.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line275
__label__wiki	0.587529	0.587529	Contact Us - Frequently Asked Questions MTGS AGENDA QUOTA HOLDERS DIGITAL CERTIFICATION \| OTHER How Does Digital Certification Work? What is a digital signature? Is digital signature the same as digitalized signature? What is Cryptography? What types of cryptography exist? What is the main information contained in a digital certificate? What are the advantages to companies or individuals buying a digital certificate? Is an electronically-signed document recognized in the same manner as a document signed manually? What caution should one exercise when using digital certification? Does the digital certificate have a validity term? Why not issue certificates without a validity term? What is a timestamp? What is a Timestamp Authority (TA)? What purpose does the Timestamp serve? Basically, the Digital Certificate works as a type of virtual ID card that allows the author of a message or of a transaction over a computer network to be securely identified. The digital certification process employs quite complex logical and mathematical procedures to assure confidentiality, integrity of information and confirmation of authorship. The Digital Certificate is an electronic document digitally signed by a trustworthy third party, which identifies an entity, whether an individual person or company, associating it to a public key. A digital certificate contains the data of the holder, such as name, date of birth, public key, name and signature of the Certifying Authority that issued it. It may also contain complementary data such as Individual Tax Payer Registration number, Voter Certificate number, Personal ID card number, etc. The digital signature is a form of electronic signature, which results from a mathematical operation that employs cryptography and allows the origin and integrity of a document to be safely verified. The digital signature is linked to the electronic document in such a way that, in the event any changes are made to the document, the signature becomes invalid. This technique allows one not only to verify the authorship of a document, but to establish a “logical immutability” in its content, as any alteration to the document – for example, the insertion of an additional space between two words – invalidates the signature. No. The digitalized signature is the reproduction of a written signature as a scanned image. It does not guarantee the authorship and integrity of the electronic document, seeing that it can be easily copied and inserted in another document and there is no unequivocal association between the signer and the digitalized text. The word cryptography is Greek in origin and means the art of writing in codes, in such a way as to hide information in the form of an incomprehensible text. Ciphering or the coding process is executed by a computer program which carries out a series of mathematical operations, transforming a clear text into a ciphered text while inserting a secret key in the message. The party issuing the document sends the ciphered text to be reprocessed by the receiver when, in turn, it will be transformed back to legible text as long as it contains the correct key. There are two types of cryptography: symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric cryptography is based on algorithms which depend on a common key, called secret key, which is used both in ciphering and deciphering the text. To assure the integrity of transmitted data, it is indispensable that only the issuing and receiving parties know the key. The problem with symmetric cryptography is the need to share the secret key with all who must read the message, which makes it possible for any of the parties to alter the document. Asymmetric cryptography uses a pair of keys which differ among themselves and are mathematically related by means of an algorithm, in such a way that the text ciphered by one key can only de deciphered by the other key in the pair. The two keys involved in asymmetric cryptography are called the public and private key. The former may be known to the public at large while the private key is only known to its holder. The main information which a digital certificate contains is the holder’s public key; name and e-mail address; validity term for the certificate; name of the Certifying Authority – CA that issued the certificate; serial number of the certificate; and the CA’s digital signature. Agility, cost reduction and security are the principle advantages of digital certification. Today, digital certification allows processes that formerly had to be carried out personally or by means of uncountable paper documents to be entirely conducted by electronic means. With this, processes have become less bureaucratic, faster and therefore, cheaper. Digital certification guarantees authenticity and integrity. A document with a digital signature is as valid as one signed manually on paper. As determined by the text of paragraph 2, Article 10 of the Provisionary Measure (MP) nº 2.200-2, dated August 24, 2001, electronic documents signed digitally using Private Digital Certificates are legally valid, however both issuing and receiving parties must agree to this to render them as valid as if they were paper documents signed manually. According to Article 10 of the Provisionary Measure (MP) nº 2.200-2, dated August 24, 2001, electronic documents signed digitally using certificates issued under ICP-Brasil governance are as legally valid as paper documents signed manually. Firstly, one should remember that the digital certificate represents one’s identity in the virtual world. Therefore certain care should be adopted to avoid that someone else use it to close contracts and/or business and conduct banking transactions in the name of the holder of the certificate. Recommendations for the use of a digital certificate: The private key’s access password as well as the private key itself should not be shared with anyone; In the event the computer which was used to generate the pair of cryptographic keys is shared by multiple users, saving the private key on the hard drive is not recommended as the other users may have access to it. Better to save it to a diskette, smart card or token; If the private key is filed on a computer’s hard drive, this computer should be kept safe from unauthorized access. It should be kept physically secure; never leave the room open and unattended if you must leave the computer on while you’re away. Also, use a screen protector with a password. Beware of computer viruses that can damage your private key; If the software for generating the pair of keys features the option for inserting a password for protecting the private key, it is recommended that you use it. Not using a password means that anyone using the computer can pass for the holder of the private key, signing contracts and moving bank accounts. Generally speaking, it’s a lot easier to use a password than to physically protect a computer; Use a long password, mixing letters and numbers, as there are programs that discover passwords. Avoid using personal data such as the wife’s or children’s names, birthday dates, addresses, telephone numbers or any other information related to the person. The password should never be written-down; better to memorize it. Yes. The digital certificate, differently from documents usually employed for personal identification such as the Individual Tax Payer Registration card or Personal ID card, has a validity term. A document can only be signed using it while it is valid. The user may request certificate renewal to the CA after the validity term has expired. Because each time the validity of a certificate is renewed, so is the relationship of trust between the holder and the CA. This renewal may be necessary for substituting the private key for a more technologically advanced one or due to changes in the user’s data. These alterations aim at strengthening security in relation to the certification techniques and to the information contained in certificates. The timestamp is an electronic document issued by a trustworthy Timestamp Authority (TA) which acts as evidence that digital information existed at a certain date and time in the past. A Timestamp Authority is an entity certified by the Brazilian National Observatory (Observatório Nacional do Brasil - ON), an institution linked to the Ministry of Science and Technology (Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia - MCT), which is legally responsible for generating, maintaining and disseminating the Brazilian Legal Time. This technology allows Brazilian Legal Time to be affixed to digital documents in a safe, authentic and subject-to-audit form, and as such is not only proof of time but also a guarantee of content. The timestamp is used to associate a certain hash (DNA) – content guarantee – of a document signed electronically or not, to a specific time and date of existence. Important to note that the timestamp reports the date and time a document was received by the issuing entity, and not the date this document was created. Privacy policies - Terms and Conditions	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line277
__label__wiki	0.831583	0.831583	Posted inBusiness, Lewiston-Auburn, News, State Verso completes NewPage buy; Catalyst gets Rumford mill and another for $62.4 million by Darren Fishell January 7, 2015 January 7, 2015 PORTLAND, Maine — Verso Paper Corp. announced the completion of its $1.4 billion purchase of NewPage Wednesday in compliance with an antitrust settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice. The settlement allowing the deal is still subject to final approval by a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C. The joined company operates a paper mill in Jay, which employs about 860 people. As a condition of the settlement, NewPage sold its Rumford mill to the Canadian papermaker Catalyst — along with another mill in Biron, Wisconsin — for $62.4 million to reduce its share of the coated paper market. Joe Nemeth, Catalyst’s CEO, said in a prepared statement that the acquisition represents “a new chapter” in the company’s history and makes it the only papermaker in North America with production in the West, Midwest and East. The company has mills in British Columbia, Canada, and now the mills in Wisconsin and Maine. Robert Mundy, Verso’s chief financial officer, told the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday that Catalyst took over ownership and operations at those mills effective Wednesday. The Rumford mill employs about 800 people and produces coated paper often used in food and beverage packaging. Tony Lyons, a spokesman for Catalyst at the Rumford mill, said that Catalyst plans to maintain employment levels and production there. “They are a paper company and that is a bit of a change for us,” Lyons said, referring to NewPage, which was backed by private equity investors. Without selling those mills, federal Department of Justice officials found the merged company would have controlled more than 50 percent of the North American market for paper used primarily in magazines and catalogs and more than 70 percent of the market for paper used for adhesive labels. Mundy said that the merger combines business knowledge and a manufacturing base that “will make us extremely successful in the future.” He said the Jay mill is “an important part of the new combined company.” The company projected that the merger would result in about $175 million in savings within the first 18 months. The combined company has about $3.5 billion in sales and about 5,800 employees at eight mills in six states, and will operate under the new name Verso Corporation. Verso pursued the deal as a plan to save it from bankruptcy, taking on the assets of its larger competitor, NewPage. David Paterson, the company’s CEO, said in a prepared statement that the deal forms a “more stable company with an effective strategy to weather industry headwinds and reduce operating costs.” Before the antitrust settlement allowing the deal to move ahead is complete, the Department of Justice is required to publish the settlement terms, a report on the deal’s impact on industry competition and the antitrust claim the settlement resolves in the federal register and in certain newspapers 60 days before approving the settlement. After accepting comments about the proposed settlement and the company’s competitive impact statement, the Department of Justice will submit comments to the court along with a response and either ask for approval or withdrawal of the final order. Mundy said he doesn’t see that comment period posing a major hurdle to Verso’s purchase of NewPage sticking. Shares of the company were trading up 4.7 percent, at $3.37 per share, when the New York Stock Exchange closed at 4 p.m. Wednesday. When the deal was announced in January 2014, it raised concern in the industry about whether it would result in mill closures. Since that time, Verso announced the closure of its Bucksport mill and sale to a scrap metal dealer, which will need to clear a legal challenge from the Bucksport mill’s machinists union before moving ahead. In court filings, Verso’s Paterson testified in sworn statements that the Bucksport sale was not part of the merger deal with NewPage. Jeff McGlin, a spokesman for the Canadian scrap dealer American Iron & Metal, which plans to buy the mill for $60 million, testified that its agreement with Verso did not require that it demolish the mill. Since the sale closed, rumors have swirled about whether the scrap dealer was the only company bidding on the mill. Paterson testified that he is “not aware of any manufacturer of coated groundwood paper that has expressed an interest in buying the Bucksport mill,” adding his opinion that a buyer interested in papermaking would not be interested in the mill and its power generation assets at a price higher than $60 million. Kimberly Tucker, an attorney for the machinists union, plans to argue before the court that Verso and NewPage participated in a conspiracy to secure more control over the coated paper market in North America, in violation of federal antitrust laws. The union’s antitrust suit aims to preserve the mill as a going concern. A hearing on the antitrust claims is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday Jan. 13, in U.S. District Court in Bangor. Darren Fishell Darren is a Portland-based reporter for the Bangor Daily News writing about the Maine economy and business. He's interested in putting economic data in context and finding the stories behind the numbers. More by Darren Fishell	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line281
__label__wiki	0.830972	0.830972	三浦大知MIURA DAICHI He was born on 24 August 1987 in Okinawa. He made his debut as Folder's main vocal in 1997. He made his solo debut with a single song "Keep It Goin' On" in March 2005. His natural voice, rhythm, outstanding singing prowess, and dance of the world class attract people, and he is a super entertainer as performs choreography, songwriting, and plays instrument. 2012 at Nihon Budokan, 2013 at Yokohama Arena, 2017 at Yoyogi National Gymnasium, he made solo performances a huge hit and the size of live performances keeps growing every year. Those performances are highly-regarded in and outside of the country, such as at the "MTV VMAJ", a music video festival, received thr "Best R&B prize" for 4 straight years in a row from 2014 to 2017, and at the "2014 MTV EMA", Europe's biggest music awards ceremony, was selected "Best Act from Japan". The album released in September 2015 "Fever" was recorded as 3rd place in the Oricon weekly album charts which was a personal best. After that, he constantly released singles and grabbed the top spot, his very first, in the Oricon weekly singles chart, with the January 2017 released "Excite". In March 2017, he released his 6th original album "HIT". In November. he received the "Wired Music Excellence award" in the "50th Japan Cable Radio Awards." With it, "Excite" received the best work award in "59th Japan Record Award", and sang in "68th NHK Red and White Song Competition" for the first time. On January 31st 2018, he will perform in Osaka Castle Hall as solo for the first time. It was decided that he will hold a concert in Nippon Budokan on 2 days on February 14th and 15th for the first time. On March 7th, he will release his first best album "Best".	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line284
__label__cc	0.728755	0.271245	The Netherlands - ENContact Leverage Products Overview of underlyings Valuation Time Newsletter Cancel / Change Knock-Out Hours Vontobel Bull & Bear certificates Vontobel BEST Turbos Vontobel Turbos Sign on (with MyVontobel-Login) Register (for MyVontobel login) The Netherlands Denmark Finland France Germany Italy Sweden Switzerland Hong Kong Hungary Czech Republic Vontobel Netherlands Click here to print out the current product list.Print Only the first 1500 products will be exported as a PDF Chart Filter DerivativeSerarch BEST Turbo’s (1594) Turbo’s (728) Bull & Bear-Certificates (546) Limited Turbos (345) Information on the past performance of the underlying are not a reliable indicator of future performance. © Bank Vontobel Europe AG 2021. All rights reserved. Important legal information. Please read this information before continuing, as products and services contained on this website are not accessible to certain persons. Of importance are the respective prospectuses which are attainable from the issuer: Vontobel Financial Products GmbH, Bockenheimer Landstrasse 24, DE-60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany, as well as from this website. Copyright Bank Vontobel Europe AG. You are now leaving the Vontobel Certificates website. Vontobel is not responsible for the content of the following websites, and accepts no liability in this regard. Vontobel Structured Warrants The Netherlands Denmark Finland France Germany Italy Sweden Switzerland Hong Kong Hungary Czech Republic Others Authorised users The information included on the following webpages is exclusively addressed to persons who are residents of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and must not be distributed to persons or accessed by persons outside this country. The user agrees to discontinue use of these webpages if, now or in the future, he or she ceases to be located in the above mentioned country. In relation to the offering of the products described on this website, see also paragraph “Selling restrictions” below. No offer, no solicitation to purchase, subscribe or sell These webpages serve solely to give the user access to information that Bank Vontobel Europe AG, Frankfurt branch (referred to collectively with affiliates as "Vontobel") has decided to make publicly available, and do not constitute and are not to be construed as, a solicitation or offer by Vontobel, to purchase, subscribe for or sell securities. Investors are not able to purchase, subscribe or sell the securities described on these webpages directly from Vontobel, but through their own bank/intermediary only. No contract to provide information; no advice; hotline; complaints The use of these webpages shall not create a contractual relationship with Vontobel extending beyond these Terms and Conditions of Use. In particular, the information presented on these webpages shall not be deemed to be an offer by Vontobel to enter into an advisory agreement or any other contract to provide information either on a gratuitous or non-gratuitous basis. In light of this, the user's visit to these webpages or retrieval of information contained therein shall not bring about a contract between Vontobel and the user to provide information. Neither the information on these webpages nor information which users receive through the hotline shall constitute any investment, tax or other advisory service. Such information does not take into account the user's specific situation as regards, inter alia, his or her knowledge of the relevant securities, investment targets and risk appetite, financial situation as well as his or her tax and accounting position. Such information does not replace the advice by your bank/intermediary or any other tax or financial adviser, which is essential in each individual case prior to taking any purchasing, subscribing or selling decision. Users should direct any objections or complaints relating to these webpages in writing to the following address: No financial analysis Information provided on the webpages does not constitute financial analysis and also does not satisfy the statutory requirements for ensuring the unbiased nature of financial analysis; nor is such information subject to a ban on trading prior to the publication of financial analyses. The purchase/subscription of securities is associated with financial risks. Given unfavourable conditions, such risks may materialise and lead to a total loss of the invested capital. Potential investors should carefully read the base prospectus, the relevant final terms and any supplements to the base prospectus in order to understand the risks associated with an investment in the securities. Potential investors should consult their own bank/intermediary or any other tax or financial adviser prior to taking any purchasing, subscribing or selling decision. The price information contained in these webpages originates either from third-party sources such as financial information service providers or has been calculated by Vontobel itself and should not be relied upon to predict future values or prices. In some cases, current prices of securities or underlyings may be shown with a time delay. Users can find additional price information, in particular information pertaining to the past price performance of the underlying, at the place referred to in the prospectus for the relevant security. Historical price performance is not a reliable indicator of future price performance of the underlying or the securities. It should be noted that Vontobel provides no warranty for the accuracy of the price information and that price information shall be subject to correction at any time (see also with respect to the exclusion of warranty in paragraph “No warranty for content” below). Potential investors should consult their own bank/intermediary or any other tax or financial adviser prior to taking any purchasing, subscribing or selling decision. Information on returns On these webpages, all information concerning returns, such as bonus or maximum returns, refers to gross returns which do not factor in costs that will be incurred and, unless expressly indicated otherwise, in taxes to be paid by the relevant investor. Investors will, in fact, incur costs and taxes which diminish returns. These include, for example, securities account costs or transaction costs. The extent of the impact of any such costs and tax on the net return depends on the amount of the investment and the costs and tax actually incurred by the relevant investor. Potential investors should consult their own bank/intermediary and/or any other tax or financial adviser prior to taking any purchasing, subscribing or selling decision. If required by applicable laws or if Vontobel decides to make available without the obligation to do so, Key Information Documents (KIDs) can be retrieved on these webpages on the relevant product detail site under the "Documents" section. To the extent the user retrieves a KID, Vontobel shall be entitled – but not required – to store user data (in particular the IP address, provider and the referrer URL), the time of access and the contents of the KID transmitted to the user. Such storage serves to satisfy regulatory requirements, and the stored data may also be used in the context of legal disputes between the user or other investors and Vontobel. The data privacy policy also refers to this data. Prospectus Users considering the purchase/subscription of securities described on these webpages should carefully read the base prospectus, which, in addition to the final terms and any supplements to the base prospectus, is published on these webpages (see the "Prospectuses" heading and the relevant product detail site) and which is obtainable free of charge from the issuer, Vontobel Financial Products GmbH, Bockenheimer Landstraße 24, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It should be noted that, from time to time, Vontobel purchases or sells securities, commodities, futures and options for hedging and other purposes, or holds positions (long or short) in these which are identical to or connected with such securities. This may possibly have an adverse impact on the value of the securities. In addition, Vontobel may be the calculation agent or sponsor of underlyings and, as such, may make determinations which adversely affect the value of the securities. The products described on these webpages are not permitted to be offered for sale in all countries and are in each case reserved for the group of persons who are authorised to purchase the products. The selling restrictions which apply to specific products are set out in the relevant prospectuses and should be read carefully by the user. In particular, the following selling restrictions apply: Legal entities domiciled in the U.S. The information contained in these webpages is not intended for the U.S. U.S. citizens (within the meaning of Regulation S of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933) and legal entities which are domiciled in the U.S. are prohibited from accessing these webpages. Information provided on these webpages is not permitted to be disseminated or disclosed in the U.S. or other countries in which doing so would breach their applicable law. The securities listed here are not and will not be registered pursuant to the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, and no authorisation was obtained to trade these securities pursuant to the U.S. Commodities Exchange Act of 1936. The securities are not permitted to be sold or offered in the U.S., to U.S. citizens or to legal entities domiciled in the U.S. The products described on these webpages will be offered or sold to legal entities in other jurisdictions only if this is permissible under the relevant applicable legal provisions. No warranty for content The provision of or the content on these webpages or other services shall not give rise to any obligations of Vontobel vis-à-vis the users. Although these webpages are based on information which Vontobel deems reliable and Vontobel strives to keep this information up-to-date, Vontobel provides no warranty whatsoever for the information contained on these webpages (announcements regarding the terms and conditions of the securities shall remain unaffected thereby). In particular, Vontobel provides no warranty as to (a) the quality, accuracy, correctness, availability and completeness of the data and other information on these webpages, (b) the timely and accurate notification of users that defined limits and thresholds have been reached, (c) continuing to provide or update such information in the future, (d) the suitability or appropriateness of securities for investors, (e) the accounting and tax consequences of investing in securities and (f) the future price performance of securities. Investors should consult their own bank/intermediary and/or any other tax or financial adviser prior to taking any purchasing, subscribing or selling decision. The values and prices presented on these webpages do not factor in the size of transactions, i.e., a specific transaction's size may result in deviating values or prices. In addition, these may not correspond to the value or price which is obtainable on the relevant market at the time a user would like to purchase or sell specific securities or currency. These webpages may contain links to websites which are financed and maintained by third parties. Vontobel provides users with such links solely to assist them in finding other sites. Vontobel has not examined the information, software or products on such sites with respect to content or proper functioning. As such, Vontobel makes no representations whatsoever about the content of such sites. In addition, Vontobel assumes no liability for any technical defects or viruses contained on such sites. The fact that Vontobel provides a link does not constitute a recommendation or confirmation by Vontobel as to the content on such sites, their owners or the persons responsible for them. Rights in content and layout The content and layout of the webpages, including the underlying software, are copyrighted and otherwise protected. The reproduction, transmission, modification, linking or use of the webpages (in full or in part) for public or commercial uses without the written consent of Vontobel shall be prohibited. Downloads and copies of these webpages are for private, non-commercial use only; they may not be disclosed to third parties. Further information on data protection, as updated from time to time, can be found under the following link. The information published under the link takes precedence. We reserve the right to amend these Terms and Conditions without giving prior notification. We therefore advise you to check this page on a regular basis. These Terms and Conditions was last updated on 17 May 2018. Applicable law/jurisdiction These Terms and Conditions of Use shall be governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. In respect of any legal disputes arising in connection with these Terms and Conditions, all private users who are not residents of one of the countries in which Council Regulation (EC) No 1215/2012 of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters applies, or which is a signatory and ratified of the Lugano Convention of 16 September 1988 on jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, and all commercial users shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent court of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. I AcceptI do not acceptCUSTOMIZE SETTINGS We use cookies to make our website user-friendly for you. Please click "accept" or "customize settings" to let us know your preferences for how we can use cookies. Detailed information on the handling of cookies and data privacy, as well as your right to withdraw your consent at any time, can be found in our data privacy site.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line295
__label__wiki	0.912849	0.912849	CurrencyFair Blog Athlete Sinead Diver announced as CurrencyFair brand ambassador News Releases Money Transfers Hong Kong Brand Ambassador Singapore Australia Tokyo 2021 Tokyo Olympics Sinead Diver CurrencyFair FX Athlete Sinead Diver announced as CurrencyFair brand ambassador Written by Elaine McCallig April 28, 2020 April 28th 2020 - Dublin, Ireland - CurrencyFair, the leading FX marketplace and global payments platform has welcomed elite distance runner Sinead Diver as their brand ambassador. Originally hailing from county Mayo in Ireland but now based in Melbourne, Australia, Diver has had a meteoric rise after only starting her journey in the sport in 2010 while on maternity leave with her first son. Since then, the mother-of-two has become renowned as one of the most celebrated long-distance runners competing for Australia. Sinead’s impressive results include finishing in first place at the 2018 Melbourne Marathon and fifth at the 2019 New York City Marathon, and now, her sights are firmly set on the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. "Sinead’s inspiring journey reinforces our belief that there’s an advantage in doing things differently," says Lisa Turnbull, Head of Brand Marketing at CurrencyFair. "For over a decade, we’ve been providing our customers with a simple, low-cost alternative to traditional banks. By challenging the status quo, we continue to provide bank-beating money transfers on any device at any time, without compromising on service or support," Turnbull adds. In fact, challenging the status quo is in CurrencyFair’s DNA. CurrencyFair was founded as a challenger to traditional banks over a decade ago by a group of expats looking for a low-cost, simple way to move money across borders. Now a global brand, CurrencyFair offers low-margin FX rates in up to 20 currencies and low-cost international money transfers to over 150 countries. Coincidentally, both CurrencyFair and Sinead are marking ten-year milestones this year. Around the same time that Sinead began her running career - CurrencyFair launched as Ireland’s leading FX provider. "In 2010 as the founders of CurrencyFair started building the business into the brand it is today, Sinead began training for her first competitive event," says Paul Byrne, CEO of CurrencyFair. "To counter the banks’ extremely expensive costs of making international foreign currency payments, our platform launched with the goal of empowering our customers to choose their own FX rates on our unique peer-to-peer marketplace and access rates traditionally reserved for large businesses and brokers. By thinking outside the box, the team at CurrencyFair continuously find innovative ways to utilise smart technology to democratise foreign exchange. "Both CurrencyFair and Sinead’s career continue to reach new heights as we enter a second decade of challenging the status quo," Byrne concludes. Notes to the editor: About CurrencyFair: CurrencyFair is an international money transfer and payments platform focused on providing the best available exchange rates and experience for a global community of customers who need to send money and make payments overseas. Since its establishment, CurrencyFair has securely traded over €10 billion (or currency equivalent), with their customers making savings of over €260 million (or equivalent). CurrencyFair’s unique peer-to-peer model and secure, state-of-the-art technology, raises the industry standard in designing technology-led foreign currency services for web, IOS and Android use. The company has offices in Ireland, Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. To learn more about CurrencyFair, visit our website or follow @CurrencyFair on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Elaine Mc Callig elainemccallig@currencyfair.com Elaine McCallig COVID-19 \| A Guide to SME Supports in Ireland, the UK, and Australia 'We had a completely different business overnight': Agility in the time of COVID-19 An award-winning CFO's tips for avoiding cash burn	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line300
__label__cc	0.699908	0.300092	Tag Archives: International Women’s Day Celebrating Women in Deaf Sport Posted on March 8, 2014 by sharrison64 The Twittersphere is a crowded place today with every opportunity to tweet the celebration of International Women’s Day. Here in the UK, the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation has launched its “Say Yes to Success” campaign to drive more commercial and media investment and attention to women’s sport. They plan to achieve this through investment and coverage of as many high quality events and competitions as possible. According to WSFF, women’s sport only receives 0.4% of the total commercial investment in sport and only gets 7% of sports coverage by the media. Today I am celebrating women in Deaf sport. I want to do this because I am concerned about the lack of deaf women taking up strategic roles in sport. UK Deaf Sport is currently recruiting for new Board members and we are very impressed with the high calibre of applications that we have attracted and we hope to be making some announcements later in the year. However, we need more women to apply for a place to help us go forwards. Personally I don’t think we are communicating publicly how important women are to UKDS, perhaps people think we already have this sorted ? Maybe there is a lack of inspiration ? or there is a resignation that it remains a male dominated institution and it will be difficult to make an impact? UK Deaf Sport has, up until now, always had women on its board of trustees, but both remaining women have tendered their resignations this year and we will not have replacements on the board at our AGM on 26th March. I cannot stress how important it is that we have women represented at board level. There is so much that needs to be done and we need inspirational leaders to come and help us achieve our ambitions. Did you know that at the first Deaflympics in Paris, 1924, there was only one woman competing. The pioneer of women was Hendrika Nicoline Van der Heyden (NED) who competed alone in the 100m backstroke swimming. According to Same Spirit Different Team “Her event is probably, the first and only ‘walkover’ in the history of the Deaflympics.” In the 2013 Summer Deaflympics, the majority of medal winners in the GB team were women. Athletic’s Melanie Hewitt, Lauren Peffers and the GB Womens Football team. The team was inspired by a charismatic Chef de Mission Fiona Brookes who was at the forefront from the moment she took on the role. The CISS (Committee International Sports des Sourds) was the first international sports organisation to appoint a women, Maria de Bendeguz (VEN) onto its Executive Committee in Koln 1981. Donalda Ammons followed next as CISS Secretary General in 1997 and then succeeded John Lovett as President in 2005 and served until 2009 as she celebrated what was the most successful Deaflympic Games in terms of commercial and media coverage to date when the City of Taipei invested $200m of which $4.34m came from commercial sponsors and vastly increased media coverage which saw attendances rise from 12,00 in Melbourne 2005 to 278,884 in Taipei. Emile Sheng, CEO of the Taipei DOC said that the real ‘gold’ in staging the Deaflympics was not in the number of medals generated by the national Chinese Taipei team or the financial profit generated but by the raising of Taiwanese international profile, initiating a regeneration of Taipei City and, for the countries leading businesses, showcasing their products and services. Tony Phoo, an economist with Standard Chartered bank Taiwan PLC, observed: “Taiwan has long been seen primarily as a supplier of electronics components. This will change after the nations socio-economic development is displayed for all to see.“ (Brisebois 2009, p60 Same Spirit Different Team 2014) The UK Deaf Table Tennis Association, this week has appointed Sereena Gilmour as its Chairperson. She is the mother of Deaflympian Nick Gilmour and the wife of the late John Gilmour who the UKDTTA owe a great debt to for his dedication and hard work. Swimmer Danielle Joyce is currently enjoying sporting success breaking 3 world records at the EFDS National Juniors last week and destined to go further. Like the WSFF, we need more media coverage of the Deaflympics. Same Spirit Different Team explains in detail how in 2001 the IOC contributed US$9m for the promotion of the 2008 Paralympics and US$14m for the 2010 and 2012 events but only 150,000 swiss francs for the Deaflympics to cover 2005-2009. The book suggests a plan of action. Posted in Deaf Sport, Deaflympics, Same Spirit Different Team, UK Deaf Sport, Women in Sport \| Tagged Danielle Joyce, Deaflympics, Donalda Ammons, Fiona Brookes, International Women's Day, Lauren Peffers, Maria de Bendeguz, Melanie Hewitt, Same Spirit Different Team, Taipei, Taiwan, UK Deaf Sport, UKDS, women in sport, Womens Sport and Fitness Foundation, WSFF \| Leave a reply	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line302
__label__cc	0.522829	0.477171	Delicate Sound Of Thunder (Vinyl LP Reissue) By Pink Floyd Posted by David Bowling in Cashbox Music Reviews Pink Floyd, Vinyl. Delicate Sound Of Thunder Delicate Sound Of Thunder (Vinyl LP Reissue) Legacy 2017 The Pink Floyd vinyl releases just keep on a-coming. The latest in the Floyd sweepstakes is their 1988 live album The Delicate Sound Of Thunder. The album was put together from five 1988 performances at Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, and released during November of that year. Thirty years later it remains the definitive Pink Floyd live album. The original CD release had audio issues. This new vinyl has an impeccable sound. Re-mastered from the original tapes and pressed on 180 gram vinyl; the tracks are brighter and reveal a depth of textures. While I prefer a complete concert, the tracks selected make sense and fit together well. The songs are representative of the classic phase of their career and provide a nice taste of their concert experience. David Gilmour is the star. Sometimes his guitar playing is so subtle and laid back, it just slides under the radar. Live, it comes to the forefront and shines. “On The Turning Away” is one of the better examples of his playing. Pink Floyd albums tend to be conceptual and their songs form part of a whole, but live and removed from that context, they are forced to stand on their own. While the album is comprised of many of their well-known songs; “Money,” “Another Brick In The Wall Part 2.” “Comfortably Numb,” Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5),” and “Run Like Hell” undergo a make-over removed from the studio. Vinyl releases have made a comeback during the last several years and while they will never dominate the market; their quality have enabled them to find a niche. Delicate Sound Of Thunder is a worthwhile release for the Pink Floyd fan and the vinyl aficionado. Rating: ****	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line309
__label__wiki	0.527672	0.527672	You are here: Home / Library / Rockland, Maine: Rise and Renewal Rockland, Maine: Rise and Renewal By John Bird '59 Publisher: Maine Authors Publishing Available in: Paperback Maine Authors Publishing Focusing on the people and other key factors that shaped the story, this book chronicles Rockland’s beginnings as part of Thomaston, its rapid rise and separation from the parent community, and its cultural and material maturation followed by signs of stagnation and decline, concluding with a description of its cultural and economic reinvigoration John Bird grew up in Rockland, Maine, and following graduation from Bowdoin College began a thirty-year career as a teacher and school head in independent schools in the mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Southwest regions. Returning to midcoast Maine, John spent seventeen years as a leadership and planning consultant. He is the author of one other book, also about his hometown.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line313
__label__wiki	0.67206	0.67206	Public Papers of Governor By New York (State). Governor withheld by the treasurer is not shown, and it appears that when sometime in 1898 the treasurer's attention was called to the matter, an investigation was made and it was found as a matter of law that the fees belonged to the collectors. Since that time all fees to which they were entitled have been paid or allowed by the treasurer to the school collectors. It also appears that the treasurer in 1897 and 1898 erroneously credited himself in the aggregate with the sum of $551.30, excess of fees on return taxes. His attention was called to this matter in the summer of 1899 and after some investigation, he discovered that his report did include such excess of fees, and therefore an erroneous credit of the amount stated. Said sum of $551.30 has been refunded to the county by the treasurer since the commencement of this proceeding. One of the charges which demands serious consideration relates to the retention of interest by the treasurer. It appears that since the first day of January, 1897, when his term of office began, he has received and retained for his own use $1,595.92 as interest on county funds. The larger part of this interest was received from banks where deposits were made, and some small amounts were received from other sources. In retaining this interest Mr. Hutson claims that he followed the precedents of the office, and it is shown by the evidence thąt the county treasurers of Chautauqua county for many years have retained to their own use interest received on county funds, and have not reported such interest to the board of supervisors. Reports of the treasurers for some thirteen years last were put in evidence and in none of them was any interest included. Whether the board of supervisors has made any attempt to collect such interest or inquire into the question of its retention, does not appear, but the claiii of the treasurers to retain the interest seems to have been acquiesced in by the board. This interest is clearly the property of the county. A county treasurer is bound to account for all the interest received by him on county funds. This has been the law many years, and should have been known by the several county treasurers who have been permitted to retain as their own property the interest on county funds. The fact that Mr. Hutson followed the custom of the office in this respect, and that his claim to interest was not questioned by the board of supervisors, is some justification for his retention of it under the circumstances; yet it was his duty, as it is the duty of every public officer, to undertake to know the law concerning his office; and if Mr. Hutson had examined the law concerning his duties, he would have readily discovered that he had no right to this interest. Mr. Hutson since this proceeding was commenced has paid into the county treasury the whole amount of the interest received by him. It appears that the county treasurer kept a large deposit in the Fredonia National Bank; that nearly $29,000 was in certificates of deposit bearing interest, and according to the testimony of Mr. Green, the cashier, the sum of $93,491.1 I was on deposit in what is known as an open account on which no interest was paid. Mr. Green testifies that the bank has not paid Mr. Hutson any interest, except on the certificates, in his dealings with it since January 1, 1897, and that neither the cashier nor the bank had any arrangement or understanding with as a Mr. Hutson by which he should receive any interest aside from that which was paid upon the certificates. Mr. Green further testifies that at one time he sent to Mr. Hutson a check for $100, which was intended to be received and was received as a present to Mr. Hutson by the bank. This I think is the most serious fact developed by the investigation of these charges. Of course no county treasurer should receive a present from a bank in which he deposits public funds, and when Mr. Hutson received this check, he ought either to have returned it at once and declined to accept it, or if it was accepted, it ought to have been accepted as interest and credited as such to the county, and the bank should have been notified accordingly. It seems to have been intended and received as a present to himself, in which the county had no interest; it was evidently regarded as a reward for favors which the bank had received from him in his official capacity. When a public officer by his official act confers a benefit upon a corporation, it is of course flagrantly improper for him to receive in return, from the corporation benefited, a sum of money which he accepts in his private capacity. It appears that two other banks allowed Mr. Hutson interest on open accounts. The fact that this bank thought it worth while to make Mr. Hutson a present of $100 is evidence that it could have afforded to pay some interest on the open account. Since these proceedings were begun, Mr. Hutson has paid over to the county the amount of this check of $100, so that the county has the benefit of it; but it apparently did not occur to him that it should have been paid to the county until after this proceeding was commenced. The acceptance of a present under the circumstances indicated, implies so grave a failure to appreciate the responsibilities of his office, that it cannot be overlooked. Some other minor matters were included in the charges and received some attention during the investigation, but I think they need no further consideration here. On the whole case I am reluctantly obliged to come to the conclusion that the facts disclosed are sufficient to warrant the finding that Thomas Hutson, as treasurer of the county of Chautauqua, has been guilty of misconduct and malfeasance in office which justifies his removal. APPOINTMENT OF AN EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL TERM AT NEW YORK CITY AND DESIGNATION OF JUSTICE WERNER THERETO Executive Chamber IT APPEARING to my satisfaction that the public interest requires it; THEREFORE, in accordance with the statute in such case made and provided, I do hereby appoint an Extraordinary Trial Term of the Supreme Court to be held at the courthouse in the borough of Manhattan and county of New York, on Monday the twentieth day of November in this current year, 1899, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon of that day and to continue so long as may be necessary for the disposal of the business that may be brought before it; and I do hereby designate the Honorable WILLIAM E. WERNER who is a justice of the Supreme Court to hold the said Extraordinary Trial Term of the Supreme Court. And I do further direct that notice of the appointment aforesaid be given by publication of this order once in each week for two successive weeks in The Sun and in The New York Press newspapers which are published in the county of New York. Given under my hand and the Privy Seal of the State at the Capitol in the city of Albany [ls] this twenty-seventh day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine. THEODORE ROOSEVELT By the Governor: WILLIAM J. YOUNGS Secretary to the Governor PROCLAMATION APPOINTING A DAY OF Executive Chamber During the past year this State has been blessed with prosperity and with order. Under Providence each man has been permitted to live his life and do his work as seemed best to him, provided only that he in nowise interfered with the liberty and well being of his fellows. Moreover, the people of this State are not merely New Yorkers; they are Americans, and as such they have shared in the blessings that have come upon America during the year	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line314
__label__wiki	0.587251	0.587251	France in the United States Consulate General of France in Boston French-American Relations Economic Ties Promoting Culture The Consulate General The Consul General Visas for France Culture and Education Newsletters Cultural Institutions in New England Office for Science and Technology Science, Technology and Innovation Newletters Calls for Proposals in Science & Technology French Community in New England Physicians and Dentists France in the US The Embassy in Washington D.C. Consulates of France French Tourist Office Trade Commissions French Food in the US Veterans and victims of war Home > News > French Minister of Education, Mr. Jean Michel Blanquer is coming to (...) French Minister of Education, Mr. Jean-Michel Blanquer is coming to Boston! On April 23rd, 2018 at 11:30AM, Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer will give a conference on “President Macron’s Education Policy” at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. A conference by French Minister of Education, Mr. Jean-Michel Blanquer, on “President Macron’s Education Policy” at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer will be introduced by the Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, Douglas Elmendorf. The conference on President Macron’s Education Policy will be moderated by Professor Julie Battilana. The event is hosted by the European Club, a student organization, and the Social Innovation and Change Initiative, at Harvard Kennedy School. On April 23rd, 2018 at 11:30AM – 1:00PM At The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University Building Littauer - Room Malkin Penthouse – 4th floor 79 John F. Kennedy Street - Cambridge, MA 02138 This event is open to the Harvard community and to the public. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. More information about the speakers: Jean-Michel Blanquer was appointed as Minister for National Education on 17 May 2017. Born in Paris, he obtained a doctor in law from Panthéon-Assas University and a Master’s in politics from Sciences Po Paris. From 1996 to 1998, he was a professor in civil law at Sciences Po Lille. From 1998 to 2004, he was Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at the New Sorbonne University. From 2009 to 2012, Jean-Michel Blanquer served as the Director general of secondary and junior school education under then Minister for Education Luc Chatel. In 2013 he became President of the prestigious ESSEC Business School in Paris, France. More about Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer: http://www.gouvernement.fr/ministre... Douglas W. Elmendorf is an American economist who is currently the Dean and Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. He previously served as the Director of the Congressional Budget Office from 2009 to 2015. More about Douglas W. Elmendorf: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty... Julie Battilana is the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School and the Alan L. Gleitsman Professor of Social Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School, where she is also the founder and academic co-director of the Social Innovation and Change Initiative. More about Julie Battilana: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty... Last modified on 16/11/2020 Conference by French Minister of Education, Mr. Jean-Michel Blanquer on “President Macron’s Education Policy” The conference is hosted by the European Club, a student organization, and the Social Innovation and Change Initiative, at Harvard Kennedy School. The conference will be introduced by Douglas Elmendorf, Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School. Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer’s conference on President Macron’s Education Policy will be moderated by Professor Julie Battilana. the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University Free Immigration Legal Consultation Boston City Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement - MOIA offers immigration clinics at City Hall on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month. The clinic runs from 12pm-2pm. This clinic is open to anyone, regardless of status, who has any immigration questions. Clinic attendees can expect a 20 minute consultation with an Immigration attorney. MOIA also organizes two other Citizenship efforts: Citizenship Day which is held once a year; and a New American Workforce program. This year, Citizenship Day will be on September 23, 2017. MOIA will partner with Project Citizenship to host a one-day workshop where people may come and fill out all their citizenship paperwork for free. MOIA hopes to serve 400 people on this day. For more information, please check the City of Boston website: http://www.cityofboston.gov/newbost... and www.boston.gov/immigrants Poste vacant au Consulat! Nous cherchons un Gestionnaire-Comptable. "Welcoming Refugees: Lessons from the European Asylum Crisis" lecture at Harvard University "Universities and Europe: Towards a New Ambition" lecture at Harvard Veterans Day 100-Year Anniversary Entire section Applying for a French Visa in The US French Associations in New England Business Actors in New-England The Legion d’Honneur for US veterans	cc/2021-04/en_head_0025.json.gz/line315

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.