Tag: climate change

In 2020, the world found itself in a state of flux. A global pandemic disrupted the world order while the digital transformation that is the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), with its challenges and huge potential benefits, presented a fundamental paradigm shift.

The ‘potential’ of recent gas finds has given rise to false claims that gas will generate economic prosperity for the country. The reality is that it will be at least a decade, possibly two, before we see any significant impact. In the meantime, the climate impacts will be huge, and we will lock ourselves in to a new fossil fuel system, which is expensive and unnecessary.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a highly volatile and uncertain environment for businesses resulting in a litany of new or heightened risks for directors and officers (D&O) as well as exacerbating the situation in an already strained D&O insurance market.

To prepare for uncertain times, we need to develop robust business models and structures that allow for experimentation and to see what grabs and what doesn’t grab. The engineering and construction sector has been operating in the same way for decades, is one of the least digitised industries in the world (21 out of 22 industries) and has not enjoyed significant productivity growth in recent years.

2020 challenged all of us. The most severe economic contraction in decades triggered vast monetary accommodation and fiscal support packages that altered the investment landscape. Now, as we approach 2021, the promise of COVID-19 vaccines is game changing. It encourages us to anticipate a return to pre-pandemic activities.

Being a good corporate citizen means that businesses place people first, respective of their employees and the communities they operate in. Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), routinely used in electrical switchgear poses a significant risk to both human health and the environment based on possible adverse operating conditions, possible leakage, and inappropriate disposal of the equipment at the end of its life cycle.

If you are reading this, you are well on your way towards surviving one of the most cataclysmic events of our lifetime; one that is forever going to reshape the way we view the world and drive home the importance of prioritising sustainability and all it entails during the years ahead.

Around 14 per cent of the food produced in the world is wasted before it even gets to market. That’s around USD400 billion lost each year - a vast amount.

The time of cruise control in the noncommittal middle lane of environmental choices for value chains is over as solutions that make sense for the planet and business prove their worth. One such case was unlocked when Wits and Cambridge University academics piloted a study that proved a reduction in fuel and CO2 emissions in switching to green tyres.

All over the world, interest in hydrogen as a vector for clean energy is growing, as industries and governments investigate and implement national decarbonisation strategies. With the rapid growth in renewable electricity and falling costs of wind and solar power, the opportunity to produce zero carbon hydrogen has caught the attention of global energy players.