Connected China: Explaining the Players and Networks within China – post on the always-interesting blog information aesthetics about a “beautifully crafted” app developed collaboratively by Thomson Reuters and Fathom Information Design. Here’s a direct link to the Connected China app. [It] tracks and visualizes the people, institutions and relationships that form China’s elite power …
Gensler Releases 2013 U.S. Workplace Survey, Finds Only 1 in 4 U.S. Workers Currently Work in Optimal Workplace Environments – this newest study of workplace design and worker productivity by international architecture, design, and consulting firm Gensler points to a need for balance between spaces for collaborative and individual work. …
R&D Magazine 2013 R&D 100 Winners – list of the 100 “most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year.” (see the accompanying press release) Winners are in alphabetical order by primary developer company or research institution. The R&D 100 Awards recognize excellence across a …
A Building Not Just Green, but Practically Self-Sustaining – the about-to-open Bullitt Center in Seattle hopes to be “the world’s greenest” office building. It’s aiming for certification with the Living Building Challenge, “the built environment’s most rigorous performance standard” and which requires 12 months of continuous occupancy to qualify. The article …
Silicon Valley Tech Giants Plan Super-Green Campuses – a number of high tech companies (Apple, Google, Facebook, Samsung, Nvidia) are planning corporate campuses in California that, in addition to being designed by big name architects, go beyond the standard requirements for sustainability in new buildings. Apple’s campus, designed by …
Information technology in Africa: The next frontier (The Economist) – IBM, along with other tech firms, is setting up shop in Africa, last year opening one of its twelve global research labs in Nairobi. Africa’s chief attraction is that it has been growing while richer regions have stalled …. Its …
Technology Ranks World’s Most Trusted Industry in 2013 – according to the 2013 annual Edelman Trust Barometer. The 13th annual Edelman Trust Barometer is our largest exploration of trust, to date, and the largest survey of its kind. For 2013, we surveyed …
Selected quotes from The Economist’s latest survey of company executives (mostly from North America and Europe) about their outlook for doing business in Asia, Investing in an accelerating Asia? (37-p PDF). After a slowdown in 2012, executives expect better things in 2013 Companies are expecting their sales to grow twice …
Workplace Distractions: Here’s Why You Won’t Finish This Article – WSJ article on the “epidemic” of distraction at work, what it’s costing, and what can be done about it. Much of that distraction comes from digital devices. It’s prompted academics to study the problem and companies to experiment with …
Top 10 Sustainable Business Stories of 2012 – Harvard Business Review’s blog network has collected their top stories on green business into a summary post which includes macro trends and company stories. Here are the main points: Historic drought and Hurricane Sandy sweep away (some) climate denial The math and physics …
How Places Like Columbus, Indiana, Outrank Silicon Valley – everyone knows that Silicon Valley is a hotbed of start-up activity. But there are smaller American cities “where recessions have been remarkably absent, where manufacturing thrives, where populations continue to rise” and people are finding jobs. A recent survey, Leading Locations for …
The World’s Leading Cities for Start-Ups – top five are Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York. The post includes a list of runner up cities as well as the chart (shown here) of cities around the world that are best at nurturing high-tech start-ups. A new report from the Startup …
Climate Change Among Top Sustainability Priorities for Business, Poll Finds – overview of the BSR/GlobeScan State of Sustainable Business Poll 2012. 500 business leaders were asked to rank 14 sustainability challenges. The poll looks back 20 years, forward 20 years, “and identifies the top priorities for companies in the coming year.” …
Resizing the Global Contract R&D Services Market – good overview of a study of the market done by Tufts CSDD. A 2011 analysis by Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (Tufts CSDD) found a nearly four-fold increase in the number of contract research organizations (CROs) in the …
Newsweek’s 2012 Green Rankings: This time it’s serious – post on GreenBiz about annual ranking of 500 largest companies from around the world describes it this way: …this year’s rankings represent the first meaningful, apples-to-apples comparison of company performance in the rankings’ four-year history. Companies are ranked by three …