Search Results for: Climate change

High inflation forces consumers and businesses to change their behaviours – and not always in positive ways: fillers for example, have sometimes been reducing the amount of food in cans, while maintaining the size of the packaging, and their prices. Unsurprisingly, this ‘shrinkflation’ has upset consumers and their representatives, highlighting a potential lack of transparency.…

Saudi Arabia’s universities are ramping up their efforts to boost their sustainability working within an unforgiving status quo of fossil fuel reliance, high energy and water consumption plus rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Public and private universities have in recent years started addressing these challenges by fostering sustainability practices on their campuses and influencing Saudi society to become environmentally conscious. …

Companies are increasingly buying gold amidst unpredictable global market conditions, to shield themselves from potential economic turmoil, spinning off global inflation, rising interest rates and war, according to Matthew Keen, managing director, Evidens Consulting – a UAE-based specialist precious metal consultancy working with banks, brokers, corporations and end consumers.…

The textile and clothing industries of the European Union (EU) and India are closely monitoring negotiations to forge a free trade agreement (FTA), making steady progress since being relaunched last year (2022). Detailed talks were staged in New Delhi between June 17 and 23 (2023), with the EU seeking to reduce tariff barriers for India’s often protected market of 1.4 billion people.…

Thailand has often been overshadowed as a clothing and textile outsourcing hub, given the high profile of the industries in neighbours Vietnam and Cambodia – but its output is significant and a free trade agreement (FTA) now under negotiation with the European Union (EU) could boost its exports.…

Chinese textile and clothing manufacturers are increasingly relying on Egyptian cotton, over the past two seasons becoming Egypt’s second largest buyer of cotton, driven by the US ban on Xinjiang cotton, competitive pricing, and strong demand for luxury fibres.

“China has always been a player in Egyptian cotton, but they were never on top of the list.…

Bangladesh has struggled to rebuild its reputation as an ethical sourcing location since the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster, so the murder of Bangladeshi union leader Shahidul Islam on June 25 has sparked concern within the country’s important clothing export sector.

Shahidul was Gazipur unit president of Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF), a prominent trade union, who lost another comrade named Aminul Islam to a violent and murderous attack in 2012.…

Ford of Canada workers within the Unifor union have voted narrowly to approve a three-year contract to September 2026, with a 15% pay rise over the term, and the first pension improvements since 2005. Following past negotiating rounds, this pattern setting agreement should be mirrored in Canadian labour deals now to be negotiated by Unifor with GM and Stellantis.…

A Peru university has been honoured by the UN for a groundbreaking sustainability programme, that imparts practical environmental skills to students, which they then practice in the community. Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola (USIL), Peru, based in the capital Lima, was a winner of the Next Generation Learning and Skills section of the International Green Gown Awards 2023, supported by the UN’s Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI).…

An increasing push for decarbonisation in North America is opening more opportunities for the production and sale of soybean oil, canola oil and other bio-based fats and oils.

Rising demand from the domestic energy sector is increasingly leading the US oilseeds, oils and fats industry to re-valuate the value of their products as feedstock for renewable fuels and biodiesel.…