May 4, 2023
The UK Green Building Council has launched new guidance which it claims will empower the built environment sector to deliver Biodiversity Net Gain as a key element in its developments. Biodiversity Net Gain policy requirements will come into effect in November and will mandate that all new developments must design and deliver solutions that support nature. (more…)
May 3, 2023
A new report from the CIPD suggests that there is a direct link between poor management and negative mental health, job satisfaction and performance amongst workers. In response, the CIPD is highlighting the need for better people manager selection and development to ensure managers have the skills needed to effectively lead and support their teams. Its report, The importance of people management, draws on data from the CIPD’s annual Good Work Index, which asked employees to rate their managers on a range of people management behaviours. (more…)
April 25, 2023
London’s most outstanding workplaces have been recognised with British Council for Offices Awards going to seven office buildings across the capital. Held at the London Hilton on Park Lane, the BCO’s annual London Awards Lunch recognised projects that demonstrate best practice in office design, fit-out, operation and sustainability, setting the standard for excellence across the sector. (more…)
April 25, 2023
Globally, workers are focused on developing their human skills, even as they see a future dominated by technology-driven work, artificial intelligence and automation, according to a new study from Pearson. For the latest edition of the Pearson Skills Outlook series [registration], Pearson partnered with Google to examine how and why people in the US, UK, India, and Brazil are looking to upskill as they face a rapidly changing economy. (more…)
April 19, 2023
We’re all familiar with the circular economy in some shape or form. We know the principles of recycling materials back into the original product to create a perfectly circular model of sustainability. But in practice, as architects and designers are finding, the development of the circular economy not quite so simple. Circular design is possible now, but we have to start with circles that are slightly wonkier than we might like. (more…)
April 7, 2023
Since we are now very much in the age of uncertainty being the new certainty, with all the old playbooks out the window and no cookie cutter approach in the ways we work, since one size doesn’t fit all – what the hell do we do? Curl up in a ball and die? Go into panic mode and go around shouting ‘We’re doomed! We’re doomed’ manically? Or just ostrich the problem and hope it all goes away or at least reverts back to how it was before? (more…)
April 5, 2023
Zürich has been named as the world’s leading smart city according to the latest annual Smart City Index published by IMD business school. Asian and European cities dominate this year’s top twenty. Among them, IMD names six “super champions” because they have been continuously improving their performance since 2019: Zürich, Oslo, Singapore, Beijing, Seoul and Hong Kong. (more…)
April 3, 2023
Czechia, Ireland and Spain will be the first countries to participate in a new initiative which aims to boost the availability of quality building climate data, a critical step towards full decarbonisation of the heavily emitting construction sector, responsible for almost 40 percent of global carbon emissions. The INDICATE initiative will bring together governments, industry and academia to tackle one of the most common barriers to enacting policies which will ensure climate neutral construction: a lack of reliable and comprehensive emissions data for buildings. (more…)
March 30, 2023
The announcement by Apple that it wanted its employees to work in an office for three days a week sparked the usual, tedious pile-on about how many days people should spend in a physical workplace each week. This included the columnist at Grazia who joins the tens of millions of people around the world who not only know where Apple is going wrong, but also how to run every other organisation in the world and what’s best for everybody who works for them. (more…)
March 29, 2023
The latest developments in generative artificial intelligence could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs, a report by investment bank Goldman Sachs claims. The authors suggest that the technology could replace around a quarter of the work tasks carried out in the US and Europe but may also mean new jobs and a productivity boom. The report claims that the tech could increase total annual value of goods and services produced globally by 7 percent. (more…)
March 29, 2023
While modern business leaders are still expected to provide strategic thinking, leadership and make business decisions, their effectiveness is no longer just about profits. These days leaders are also being held responsible for employees’ mental health and wellbeing, psychological safety, as well as diversity and inclusion. They are expected to be decisive yet flexible, empathetic yet analytical, and clear yet nuanced. It can be exhausting. (more…)
April 24, 2023
Reconnecting older workers with the office: have we retired what matters most?
by Julie Lecoq • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design