Showing blog archive for the ‘infrastructure’ category
In November 2012, Ellis Jones’ Principal, Rhod, was invited to co-present at the WorldPR Forum alongside Paul Druckman of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and Dan Tisch of the Global Alliance.
The talk was entitled “Integrated reporting: The role of corporate communication and investor relations in demonstrating strategy, governance, and financial performance in social, environmental and economic contexts”.
Not exactly the catchiest of titles, but a very important topic.
How an employer approaches the engagement of older employees and plans for their transition from the business is highly revealing.
Done successfully, not only does it boost productivity, protect intellectual property and minimise workers compensation costs, it actually defines the employer in the eyes of the workforce, stakeholders and customers – building and strengthening the employer brand while fostering higher levels of employee engagement.
The ageing of Australia’s population has been particularly apparent since the 1960s and is attributed to falling mortality and fertility rates combined with the effect of a baby boom generation as it moves into the older age brackets. Over the past two decades the workforce (and especially the full-time workforce) has been ageing at a rate faster than the general population. Workers in education and health are amongst the oldest workers, with fewer younger people and more older women in the workforce.
Despite a resources boom, mining and resource companies are doing it tough in the current economic climate. Skilled worker shortages, taxation issues, increased scrutiny from the ASX, a market with no appetite for risk, limited off-market debt and political intervention are just some of the major challenges faced by the mining industry that threaten sustainable growth. To raise capital for growth, investors must trust the brand, strategy and leadership of the company and believe in its potential through the highs and lows of market volatility. Read all…
Labour markets are tight in Australia but none as tight as the market for arborists, those people who swing from trees, like monkeys; only they’re a lot smarter, well skilled and responsible for keeping trees alive and public parks safe (through drought, flood or raging storms).
The fact is, there are not enough arborists in Australia for the jobs going, which leaves two options: build awareness for the profession to get more people training or retraining in arboriculture or look beyond our southern shores. Citywide is doing both, and Ellis Jones is using the global web of social networks to help them.
Treescapers is an online blog about being an arborist in Australia. It’s all about the job, the people who make it happen and the cities in which they work.
Harmony is catching on and, if you’re lucky, it’ll be getting comfortable in a neighbourhood near you!
Harmony Village Dandenong is the second housing project delivered in partnership between Common Equity Housing Ltd. (CEHL) and Doutta Galla Aged Services. The two not-for-profit groups have joined forces, drawing on CEHL’s unique communal housing model and Doutta Galla’s experience in aged care. The result is high quality, acessible housing for older Victorians who might not otherwise experience it.
The $10 million state government program (VARRI) to site alternative waste treatment plants (AWTs) across Melbourne is well on track. New technologies process organic waste and recyclables. One Australian company is leading contenders.
Based in Perth, ASX listed AnaeCo is an Australian innovator. The kind of smart technology company we sincerely hope doesn’t get bought and hauled overseas to be sell services at inflated prices back to us in the not-too-distant future. Luckily, the commitment of the Victorian government to zero waste means an increasingly bright future for AnaeCo in Victoria.
Major Australian physical services company, Citywide, a significant waste manager through its Environmental division, saw the potential in AnaeCo’s technology after an exhaustive search here and overseas. The company has a major waste transfer operation in the city centre (where commercial and municipal waste is sorted and diverted to recyclers or landfill) and wants to respond to the state’s policy, reducing the environmental footprint of inner Melbourne communities in the process. Read all…
Human development really is just one great big rush to escape the wilderness. Let’s create as safe and as controlled an environment as (humanly) possible! It’s been us or them – the only good natural environment is a dead natural environment! (or one that’s been stripped of resources and turned into sanitised suburbs)
Don’t trust the wilderness Bobby. If we don’t remove nature, NATURE WILL REMOVE US. Maybe this is an overreaction to our chainsaw wielding predecessors. But cycling past inner-city schools with synthetic grass and constantly expecting potted flowers to be plastic, it’s high time a better balance was struck.
Interestingly, World Health Day 2010 isn’t looking at swine flu, or chicken pox. It has posed a question to the world that just maybe, humans need to get back to nature to avoid a societal health meltdown.
The line between the bleeding obvious and the scientifically proved has been a controversial one. In 2002, Deakin University’s School of Health and Social Development put together a research intensive literature review that listed a myriad of health benefits.
They include:
So it’s global knowledge: we need more parks, obviously! But what are our leaders doing in order to make this come about? How do we make more access to parklands and the natural environment a policy priority? More importantly, what can governing bodies accomplish in areas that have already bulldozed the natural world right out of sight?
Melbourne will host the Healthy Parks, Healthy People International Symposium in April when these issues will get tackled. Ellis Jones will be very interested to see what suggested policy changes come about. Watch this space! Or get reading here.
