Global Slavery Index: 29 million people worldwide are in forced labour
According to the Global Slavery Index, 29 million children and adults worldwide are in forced labour. India leads with approximately 14 million, China has 2.9 million and Pakistan has just above two million. Compiled by the Australian NGO, the Walk Free Foundation, the Global Slavery Index is the first global survey to catalogue forced labour on a country-by-country basis. The release of the Index comes after companies including H&M and Michael Kors have announced that they will no longer use suppliers that buy cotton from Uzbekistan, after it was revealed that many of the cotton farms use forced labour. The Walk Free Foundation said that modern slavery will not be eradicated until business leaders ensure their supply chains are slave-free and that the organisation is committed to working with the world’s business leaders to help them understand how they can play a role in ending modern slavery. (The Guardian)
Environment
US supermarkets failing to reduce HFCs
According to a report by the Environment Investigation Agency (EIA), US supermarket chains are continuing to use hydroflourocarbons (HFCs), a source of greenhouse gas emissions which is more powerful than carbon dioxide. The report, The Dirty Dozen: How your local supermarket is killing the climate, states that 12 supermarket chains, including Costco, Kroger, Target, Walmart and Whole Foods, are not taking action to reduce the amount of HFC emissions leaking from refrigeration systems, which the EIA claims exceeds the emissions from the annual electricity use of nearly eight million households. The EIA is calling for US retailers to publicly commit to eliminate the use of HFCs in all new stores and to retrofit existing stores with HFC free technologies. This report follows the announcement in June 2013 that the US Government would phase out HFCs as part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan. (Environmental Leader)
Survey: Commercial building energy efficiency in Asia increases by 10%
According to a worldwide study by the US company Johnson Controls, energy efficiency in commercial buildings in Asia has increased by 10 percent since 2010. This has been attributed to a focus on operational cost savings and government policies and incentives, which encourage owners of commercial buildings in Asia to use their energy resources more efficiently and install renewable energy sources. The 2013 Energy Efficiency Indicator (EEI) study surveyed 3,025 business executives worldwide, and was the first time that China, India and Singapore participated since the survey began in 2006. The findings from the seventh EEI survey showed that obstacles to energy efficiency adoption are similar across the world and the most cited challenges were a lack of capital and insufficient returns. (Eco Business)
UK Government eyes “responsible” Arctic oil exploitation
The UK Government has announced plans to make the UK “a global centre of expertise” in opening up the Arctic to exploitation by oil and gas companies. The proposed Arctic Policy Framework which was published this week, argues that the UK must show leadership in safeguarding the Arctic environment, but will also support “responsible commercial activity” by UK companies in the region. Charlie Kronick, a senior climate advisor at Greenpeace, said that “in terms of the global impact on the climate, there is literally no way you can be on a trajectory that moves you away from carbon and drill for oil in the Arctic. They are incompatible. It’s bizarre, frankly, and cavalier if you consider how well-documented the risks of trying to exploit oil and gas in the Arctic are.” (Blue & Green Tomorrrow)
Employees
Goldman Sachs instructed to turn over gender bias complaints in US lawsuit
Goldman Sachs has been told that it must turn over all internal gender-bias complaints in a lawsuit from former female employees in the US who claim that the firm discriminated against them in pay and promotions. Goldman Sachs has argued against the requirement, stating that many of the internal complaints “have nothing to do with gender concerns.” Cristina Chen-Oster, a former vice president at Goldman Sachs and one of the women who launched the lawsuit, claimed that she told her supervisor that she was pinned against a wall by a male colleague after a firm-sponsored dinner. After reporting the incident, Ms Chen-Oster stated that she was subjected to increased hostility and that she was bypassed for promotions, whereas the male colleague involved was promoted to managing director and then partner. (Bloomberg)
UK Government: Employers should tackle stagnating wages
The UK Government appointed Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission has announced that employers should “step up to the plate” and offer “a fairer deal at work based on better earnings and opportunities to progress” to prevent social mobility “going into reverse.” The chairman of the Commission, Alan Milburn, said that flatlining wages for lower income workers predated the recession and that he would “take a lot of persuading” that the UK financial services industry was unable to offer higher wages and that the construction industry might also be capable of raising its wages for lower income workers. The UK independent employers’ organisation, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said that higher minimum wages by sector would be “unworkable because not all companies working in the same sector operate on the same margins. It would hit smallest companies the hardest.” (Financial Times*)
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