Draft ISO Standard on Corporate Social Responsibility Published
Monday, September 14th, 2009From the International Organization for Standardization (ISO): Future ISO 26000 standard on social responsibility published as Draft International Standard The future International Standard ISO 26000, Guidance on social responsibility, has reached an important phase in its development with its publication as a Draft International Standard (DIS). A five-month balloting period (from 14 September 2009 to […]
No More Imported Used Vehicles for Peru After 2010
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009Peru’s Environment Minister wants everyone to be clear: as of 2011, no more used vehicles will be imported through the Tacna Free Zone (ZofraTacna). Dr. Antonio Brack Egg says that starting in 2011 there will be no more importation of used vehicles in order to cut down on vehicle and air pollution, because Peru’s vehicle […]
Preparing for Accidents with Hazardous Substances
Monday, March 16th, 2009Recently I posted about about how Brazilian states are slowly taking up their responsibility under a 2004 federal decree to create state-level committees or commissions on the Prevention of, Preparation for and Response to Environmental Emergencies Involving Hazardous Chemicals Products (“P2R2”). I think perhaps I might have left the mistaken impressions that (1) Brazil had […]
Progress Towards the Health MDGs in LAC / Progreso hacia los ODM relacionado con la salud en ALC
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008Recently 14 United Nations (UN) agencies* released a report (English, Spanish) reviewing the status of efforts of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations toward meeting the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The report addresses the following health-specific MDGs: reducing the under-five mortality rate by 2/3 between 1990 and 2015; reducing the maternal mortality ratio by […]
Outlook for “Green Jobs” / Prognóstico para “empleos verdes”
Monday, December 15th, 2008While the idea of creating a “green economy” with “green jobs” has been around quite a while, it really started to gain serious consideration as the climate change debate heated up, and recently moved front-and-center during the US presidential elections and the debates about how best to respond to the global financial crisis (here, here, […]
Assessing Children’s Vulnerability to Chemical Exposures
Saturday, July 28th, 2007The report discussed in the press release below is actually from the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), for which the World Health Organization (WHO) serves as secretariat, but is also cosponsored by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and UN Environment Programme (UNEP). It represents an emerging international (not just North American or European) consensus […]
Cleaning Up Gold Mining in Guyana
Thursday, May 31st, 2007In March the International Human Rights Clinic of Harvard Law School‘s Human Rights Program (HRP) issued an indictment of the failings of Guyana’s gold mining regime and its adverse impacts on Amerindians in that country. With a catchy name like “All That Glitters,” the report’s PR caught the attention of several bloggers and regular media […]