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The world’s largest learning company is demonstrating its ongoing commitment to equal opportunities in education by joining an online resource for students who need help to read standard print.

Pearson is making thousands of its books available, across Early Years, all Key Stages, GCSE, A-level and BTEC through Load2Learn, a web-based service delivered by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and Dyslexia Action.

As well as PDFs, Load2Learn offers a means to access the most popular titles in Word, EPUB, audio and Braille. Around 10 per cent of school and college students in the UK require texts in an alternative accessible format due to a sight loss condition, dyslexia or another disability.

Maura Moran, Pearson’s head of content management for UK Schools, said: “Being part of Load2Learn allows us as a publisher to demonstrate our commitment to equality of opportunity for all with regards to education. We’re pleased to be able to add to this fantastic online resource which allows students to learn at their own pace and in their own way regardless of any disability.”

Picture credit:  © Andris Torms | Dreamstime.com
 

2014 was a year of “eye-catching steps forward for renewable energy,” the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) highlights in its Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2015 report. Renewable power generation capacity – excluding large-scale hydropower – reached the historic 100-gigawatts level as investment “rallied strongly after two years of decline.”

Renewable energy investment in developing countries – China in particular – were big drivers last year, UNEP points out. Elsewhere, solar financing reached a record high in Japan, while European offshore wind power investment surged higher and set a new annual record.

With costs continuing to decline and performance continuing to improve, renewable energy has thus far been able to meet the challenge posed by lower oil prices, and, more significantly, the downward pressure this exerts on natural gas prices, UNEP notes. UNEP sees further declines in the cost of renewable energy ahead even as a record-shattering low bid price of less than 6 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour was submitted for a utility-scale solar installation in Dubai.

A headline-grabbing rebound

Overall an estimated 103 gigawatts of new renewable power capacity, excluding large hydro, was built around the world in 2014. That compares 86 GW in 2013 and 80.5 GW in 2011.

Newly installed wind and photovoltaic power capacity dominated last year's additions. New record amounts of 49 GW and 46 GW worth of new wind and solar PV capacity, respectively, were installed worldwide last year, UNEP says.

Investors plowed some $270.2 billion of capital into renewable energy in 2014. Venture capital (VC) funds invested $1 billion in the clean energy sector – 39 percent more than in 2013. Nonetheless, the 2014 VC total was less than half that of 2008 and each year from 2010 to 2012.

Across-the-board gains

Private equity investments in renewable energy companies totaled $1.7 billion last year. That's up 20 percent from 2013, but still far less than the record $6.8 billion they pumped into renewable energy companies back in 2008, UNEP notes.

UNEP's report reveals growing confidence on the part of the broad investing public in making investments in renewable energy companies. Renewable energy companies listed on public stock exchanges rose sharply in 2014, increasing 43 percent to total $15.1 billion, UNEP reports.

The amount of equity capital renewable energy companies raised on public markets in 2014 was the second-highest annual total UNEP has recorded. A rally in renewable energy companies' shares of more than 100 percent from summer 2012 to March 2014 boosted investor confidence, UNEP says.

Asset-based financing for utility-scale renewable energy projects and in small, distributed capacity were the two leading categories of renewable energy investment worldwide last year. The former rose 10 percent year-over-year to reach $170.7 billion. Fueled primarily by newly-installed rooftop solar PV, the latter rose 34 percent to total $73.5 billion.

Solar and wind once again “were runaway leaders in terms of renewable energy investment” in 2014, according to UNEP. Investments in solar energy totaled $149.6 billion – 25 percent higher than the 2013 total and the second-highest figure ever recorded. Wind power investment was up 11 percent year-over-year, reaching $99.5 billion.

*Image credits: 1) DEWA; 2) "Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2015," UNEP 

Almond orchard in Madera County, California

Browsing fashion magazines exposes girls and young women to ads and layouts featuring models who are extremely thin. Some even look emaciated. One country wants to do something about it.

That country is France, and it is considering a law banning extremely skinny fashion models. It may also fine the modeling agency or fashion house that hires the models, the Guardian reported. Italy, Spain and Israel have passed similar laws.

What specifically would the law do? According to the Guardian, it would “enforce regular weight checks and fines of up to 75,000 euros ($79,000) for any breaches, with up to six months in jail for staff involved.” Models would be required to show a medical certificate indicating they have a body mass index (BMI) of at least 18 prior to being hired. In addition, amendments to the legislation “propose penalties for anything made public that could be seen as encouraging extreme thinness, notably pro-anorexia websites that glorify unhealthy lifestyles.”

Perhaps you are thinking that extremely thin fashion models are not a big deal. Consider the fact that former fashion model Isabelle Caro died in 2007. The French national was only 28 years old and anorexic. Eating disorders, namely anorexia nervosa, can kill. Consider also that Paris is a fashion capital, perhaps the fashion capital. In France, there are 30,000 to 40,000 people with anorexia. The average BMI for French women is 23.2, CNN reports, and that is the lowest among Western European countries.

The link between media images and body image

Does the media really play a role in the development of eating disorders? Almost half of girls in fifth to 12th grade reported wanting to lose weight after looking at magazine pictures, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. Almost 70 percent of girls in the same grades said that magazine pictures influence their idea of a perfect body shape. In other words: Girls are looking at fashion magazines, and the pictures of skinny models influence their body image.

A 2004 study on eating disorders and the role of media found that the media contributes to the development of eating disorders. Researchers concluded that there is a “need for media literacy and media activism to help change the current normative body discontent of women in the Western world.”

Studies have also found that models are more prone to developing eating disorders. A 2007 study of models found that up to 40 percent of them may be suffering from an eating disorder. A year later, a study of 55 fashion models from Sardinia, Italy, found that 54.4 percent (34 models) had BMIs below 18. Only 12.7  percent of the control group, who were not fashion models, had BMIs below 18.

Is government intervention really warranted to help prevent eating disorders? A 2011 study by the London School of Economics found that self image and peer effects influence certain health-related behaviors, including eating disorders. Researchers found that the larger the body mass of peers are, the lower the chance of developing anorexia. They recommended “government intervention to adjust individual biases in self-image.”

Put the studies aside for a moment and consider the testimony of one woman who grew up pouring over fashion magazines geared toward teenagers. Although she had a naturally thin build, she felt she was not skinny enough and became afraid of weighing too much. She developed bulimia as a teenager, and in her early 20s suffered from a bout of anorexia. Now in her early 40s, she is free from both diseases, but it took a lot of hard work to get there. That woman is me.

Image credit: fervent-adepte-de-la-mode

By Emma Bailey

While the Industrial Revolution did, in many ways, provide us with methods and materials to improve our lives, there are downsides. One of these less than positive effects is the application of industrial concepts to areas that cannot support the tenets that govern them. Not all areas of life are meant to be governed by the bottom line and constructed as assembly lines, especially when those areas deal with other living things. Big agriculture, while it has a limited capacity to provide surplus foodstuffs, cannot indefinitely operate under current conditions.

Over time, the mechanisms that drive this type of food culture degrade, become less cost effective and even begin to be detrimental to the surrounding environment. But with our ever-expanding population, there are concerns about veering away from this model. What are the alternatives, and can we sustainably, responsibly feed ourselves in other ways? Below, we’ll examine some of the proposed alternatives, as well as the issues they aim to resolve within the food industry currently in place.

Mono-cropping is dangerous

The only reason it was so devastating from an ecological standpoint is that all the potatoes in Ireland at the time, grown by the impoverished Irish as their primary — and often only — bulk food, were known as Lumpers: a single species, which proved especially fragile once the rotting scourge of the Late Blight began to destroy both leaves and roots across the country. Today, we are following a dangerously similar path with big agriculture. Consider potatoes — the Russet Burbank is largely cultivated for its perfect flesh, and chain restaurants like McDonald’s pay companies and large farmers handsomely to cultivate it exclusively.

Weakening the recursive natural cycles

Pointing out these flaws in the design is not intended to protest the use of genetic modification or for-profit agriculture. It is, however, meant to highlight the giant loopholes through which nature will eventually step if we do not learn to work with the natural balance a bit more and break it a little less.

Add to this issue the patent process attached to genetically modified food crops, and you have a pending ecological nightmare on your hands. Not only do modern big agriculture processes harm the land on which they are practiced, but also surrounding parcels of land. It drives the natural balance of predators and prey species in an unhealthy direction, simply because of the scope of many of these projects. Plus, patenting genetically modified foods leads to sticky legal matters if neighboring fields are fertilized with any patented species — such as the case with windblown GM corn pollen.

The legal issues don’t stop with GMOs either, as evidenced by the documentary "Cock Fight" from DirecTV’s Fusion network. The film follows the story of Craig Watts, a debt-strapped chicken farmer who blows the whistle on Perdue, the company that essentially owns all the chickens that he raises. In the film, Watts reveals that Perdue has continually harassed him since he spoke out, with a staggering 23 visits from company reps, two audits and visits from government officials -- all in the two months after he spoke with the production company. For independently-run farms, the fees involved with trying to fight a suit from a mega-corporation like Monsanto or Perdue can easily cripple the business.

What are possible solutions?

Small farms can often grow a limited variety of produce or raise a small number of livestock to satisfy local needs. They can often be more natural in their approaches, because biodiversity often solves many of the problems that arise in massive mono-crop farms. They also encourage a diversity of wildlife to build homes nearby — bird populations will often center on plots that produce plants which attract insects, thus providing a stable food source for local birds and keeping a farmer’s crop bug-free. Many small farms implement intercropping and bordering hedgerows for these beneficial purposes.

In cities, where acreage is a concern, waste plots may be purchased by communities and tended together, as community sources of green vegetables or fruits. This practice, called community gardening, is catching on particularly well in urban neighborhoods across the country. As well, vertical farming and greenhouse projects in urban environments can help address food deserts — areas too poor to be afforded access to those imported produce items, subsisting on packaged foods.

While there are, no doubt, issues to be resolved with small farms, local food plots and vertical gardens, they may hold the essence of a solution to the faltering large-scale cultivation scheme we’ve locked ourselves into as a society. International agribusiness benefits only a few individuals, and it's destroying the natural resources, immunity, and symbiotic communities of birds, beneficial insects and plants.

The current food model is also unjustly penalizing those who cannot afford to live in more affluent areas in cities, by restricting access to fresh fruits and vegetables as if they were luxuries. This, also, is an unsustainable practice in a society that purports to be founded on an equality of opportunity.

Big agriculture, while it seems attractive on the surface, is not a sustainable agricultural plan, and serious consideration should be given to alternatives discussed both here and elsewhere.

Image credits: 1) Berit Watkin 2) Charles Smith 3) Britta Gustafson

Emma Bailey is a freelance writer from Chicago who has written about everything from energy policy to literature to film and TV. You can follow her on Twitter at @emma_bailey90. 

Editor's Note: This post originally appeared on the World Bank blog. 

By Aleem Walji

When I joined the World Bank five years ago, I remember someone telling me that we love innovation as long as it’s been done before. Having been hired to manage an innovation practice, I was puzzled. Wasn’t innovation about risk and venturing into the unknown? But as counter-intuitive as it sounds, I’ve come to understand the spirit of the idea and recognize that any innovation ecosystem needs early adopters and scalers.

Large institutions like ours can’t compete with smaller, nimbler and more risk-tolerant firms and social enterprises when it comes to innovating at speed. But when it comes to recognizing models that work, what we can do is evaluate them rigorously, share widely what we learn and adapt them to a variety of contexts. That’s innovating at scale. It’s less about early adoption and more about global adaptation. It’s about anchoring and contextualizing policy and business model innovations within a variety of geographies with different political, social and economic realities. What would it take to surface such high potential innovations more often and reduce the cycle times for them to spread?

For example, we see a huge need for improved water and rural sanitation in South Asia. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put improved sanitation and ending open defecation at the top of his development agenda. If we scan the globe, we see examples of improved rural sanitation in places like Indonesia, which has in turn built on successes in Bangladesh and Vietnam. How can we take these learnings, distill them down to their key constituent pieces, connect practitioners to one another, and support local adaptation in other contexts?

Retrospectively, lessons are seldom earth shattering and usually intuitive. We hear things like design for growth and scale from the beginning, recruit leaders with strong social and political capital, learn and adapt as you implement, pay attention to process and product, work the system top-down and bottom-up simultaneously.

What we do know is that markets and governments are the two surest pathways to scale. What we need to do better is surface the most promising models to arrest poverty and enlist the private sector and the government to accelerate their spread. Where possible, we need to enable private and public actors to work together in ways that leverage the strengths of both. It sounds simple. But it requires discipline in identifying the most promising models no matter where they come from, a willingness to test them and evaluate them rigorously, a commitment to learning what works and doesn’t work, sharing this knowledge widely through communities of learning and practice and getting really good at adapting models to local contexts. None of that is easy but it’s essential.

Each of us needs to figure out what we do best. For large organizations like the World Bank Group, it’s mostly about recognizing what works, evaluating those models, generating and diffusing knowledge, and adapting approaches to local contexts. Innovation doesn’t have to be about creating new things all the time. It’s just as important and valuable to take something new in a particular context and make it work.

Image credit: Flickr/Mai

Aleem is Chief Innovation Advisor within the Leadership, Learning, and Innovation Vice Presidency at the World Bank Group. He was the first CEO of the Aga Khan Foundation in Syria, managing a portfolio of health, education, rural development, water management, and microfinance programs, and he was Head of Global Development Initiatives at Google.org.

You may not have heard of Novelis, but the chances are high you have touched its products, perhaps multiple times on a daily basis. With over US$11 billion in revenues, the company has made its mark everywhere from aluminum cans, foil and electronics to the automobile sector.

Last week, the company announced a new product line of high-recycled content for food containers.

The product, called evercycle, could be an important step in the overall sustainability of the aluminum industry. True, aluminum recycling is just about the lowest fruit you can pick on the sustainable behavior tree. The results are obvious: Recycled aluminum uses less than 5 percent of the energy used to make it out of virgin bauxite. Over 30 percent of all aluminum used in the United States comes from recycled scrap. But at a time when resources are becoming scarcer and more expensive, we can always do better.

According to Novelis, its recycled product fills that void. The product contains about 90 percent post-consumer content, with the rest coming from customer manufacturing scrap. For now the evercycle product is only available in North America, but the company expects it to become available globally as demand increases.

The development of this product is one part of Novelis’ overall sustainability agenda. So far the company has reached 46 percent recycled content as of the end of its last fiscal year. Meanwhile the company has worked on greening its operations, with 2014 showing a 5 percent reduction in energy intensity and a reduction in overall greenhouse gas emissions by 4 percent over the previous year. Novelis also says it has invested US$500 million in its global recycling operations since 2011, which has doubled its overall recycling capacity to 2.1 million metric tons (2.3 million short tons) annually.

“The launch of evercycle is an important step toward Novelis’ goal to increase the overall recycled content of our products to 80 percent by 2020 -- a direct result of our innovation in alloy development and recycling,” said Marco Palmieri, senior vice president and president of Novelis North America. “Novelis evercycle is designed for customers who want to demonstrate their dedication to sustainability through the use of higher recycled products.”

Novelis’ competitors are hardly slouching on the recycling front. Alcoa is the first aluminum company to earn the Cradle to Cradle certification for some of its products, and has largely been behind urging the industry to achieve a 75 percent recycling rate by the end of this year. Rio Tinto also touts its environmental chops, claiming its smelting technology has the lowest carbon footprint within the industry, in part because of the six hydropower stations the company owns and operates.

Image credit: Marcos André

A Washington-based non-profit organisation dedicated to driving awareness of human trafficking and slavery has devised 'The Freedom Seal', a new visual marker of “freedom” from human trafficking, which businesses can uses to show their commitment to supply chain diligence.

Developed by the Tronie Foundation in conjunction with world thought leaders, supply chain experts and through collaboration with approximately 30 major companies across Europe and North America, the Foundation believes the mark will work in three ways.

Firstly, its use will raise public awareness of the issue and also help consumers identify companies that actively support organisations that care for human trafficking survivors. Thirdly, the application process for the seal will help businesses implement specific policies and procedures aimed at preventing forced labour, the Foundation maintains.

The Foundation says that there are many business repercussions to using human slave labour. A global survey conducted by Walk Free Foundation found that 66% of consumers in both the UK and the US would stop buying a product if they learned that its production used modern slavery.

Access more details here. 

Procter & Gamble’s manufacturing site in Albany, Georgia, one of the biggest facilities in its system, will soon be fueled by wood scraps and peanut shells, thanks to a biomass renewable energy plant now under construction.

The $200m 50-megawatt steam producing plant is being built by energy firm Constellation and will be one of the largest such operations in the U.S. when completed in June 2017.

P&G already had a small onsite biomass boiler that provided about 30% of its energy needs. This new plant will supply 100% of its steam and 60% to 70% of the total energy needed to run the site which produces Bounty paper towels and Charmin toilet tissue for global consumption. The company still needs to use some natural gas to run high temperature heating functions which steam is unable to do.

P&G said this takes it a step closer to meeting its corporate goal of obtaining 30% of its total energy from renewable sources by 2020.

“At P&G, we are committed to improving the environmental sustainability of our products across all aspects of their life cycle – from manufacturing, packaging, delivery and consumer use,” said Martin Riant, P&G executive sponsor of sustainability and group president, global baby and feminine and family care. “As this project enables us to operate one of our largest global plants with a renewable energy source, it will reduce the environmental footprint of two leading brands. We see this as a win for our business, consumers, partners and the environment.”

Constellation will own and operate the plant and sell the steam to P&G. The plant is being built on P&G property and when completed the existing smaller biomass boiler will be decommissioned. Excess energy will be sold to local energy supplier Georgia Power.

&G and Constellation have established procurement standards for the fuel supply, which must be biomass material that would have otherwise been left to decay, burn or sent to landfills. Acceptable fuels include discarded tree tops, limbs and branches and scrap wood from forestry operations, as well as crop residuals such as pecan shells (a crop for which Georgia is known) and saw dust from mill waste.

The standards complement P&G’s fiber procurement policy for its tissue, towel and absorbent hygiene businesses. A third party environment firm determined there is sufficient local waste material available to fuel the plant.

Meanwhile, P&G is moving forward with its iMFLUX business, a wholly-owned subsidiary in West Chester Township, Ohio, that is researching and developing a new greener plastic package.

First revealed last fall, the process is said to reduce resin usage and energy consumption. A spokeswoman for P&G had no comment.
 

Chinese technology giant Lenovo has teamed up with non-profit United Way to support a variety of education projects in France, Israel, Romania and the UK.

Catherine Ladousse, director of communications and CSR, EMEA, at Lenovo, told Ethical Performance that the move was to increase its CSR focus beyond management and extend its reach to new communities. She emphasized that in China the company has always boasted a reputation for ethical behaviour.

In France and Israel the Lenovo programme will help parents and children acquire new computer skills and reduce the digital divide by providing access to new technology. In Romania, it will offer career support workshops to young people to help boost employment prospects and in the UK it will provide technology for workshops aimed at children, parents and people in need that will promote literacy and confidence.

The UK initiative is based in Liverpool where Lenovo is working with The Reader Organisation, an award-winning social enterprise.
The charity aims to bring books to life through shared reading experiences. Lenovo will help set up The Story Barn, a centre which will encourage young people to read, learn, play and make new friends, giving them the skills to make social connections. It is hoped the centre will be fully open to the public by September.