Day: 14 November 2025

CIPR welcomes government ethics reforms but warns changes fall short on lobbying transparency

Stuart Mitchell

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) has welcomed the restructuring of the government’s ethics framework as it confirms the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) has been closed.  The move is part of a wider restructure to improve standards and ethical conduct in government and sees the introduction of the Ethics and Integrity Commission to oversee the work of a other regulatory bodies.  However, the CIPR warns that the proposed changes still do not go far enough to improve transparency and accountability when it comes to those lobbying the…

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Largest US corporations spent nearly $1.6 trillion on shareholder payouts in 2024, triple the income of the poorest fifth of US households

Stuart Mitchell

A new Oxfam analysis out recently shows U.S. corporations in the S&P 500 spent three times more on stock buybacks and dividends in 2024— $1.572 trillion—than the estimated total income of the poorest 27 million U.S. households combined ($498 billion). Such payouts disproportionately enrich the wealthiest 1%, who own half of all stocks and mutual fund shares while the bottom 50% own just 1%. The CEOs of the five largest companies made an average of $52 million annually over the past five years—over 1,000 times more than the typical worker…

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New King’s Trust Report Finds Ai Set To Transform Over Half Of Jobs Held By Young People In UK

Stuart Mitchell

The King’s Trust has launched the findings of new research commissioned with Public First on the impact of AI on young people’s employment. The new economic modelling and large-scale polling has produced a detailed analysis of how AI is likely to affect young people’s place in the labour market.    The report’s economic modelling finds the impact that AI could have in making the roles young people hold more productive would be worth up to £16 billion to the UK economy. However, the roles held by young people that are at…

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Can North American and EU clothing pass the durability test? WRAP expands global clothing investigation

Stuart Mitchell

With demand for water and land use from clothing production the third largest drain on the EU supplies in 2020 – and the fifth most significant influence on raw material use and greenhouse gas emissions – WRAP has thrown down the gauntlet to the biggest and best EU and US clothing brands to make the most of these resources by designing apparel that lasts longer, and lowers the fashion industry’s enormous environmental footprint.  WRAP is expanding its ground-breaking Durability Accelerator Initiative, focusing on the global catwalk, to test if North…

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BRE joins global partnership to align sustainable building materials

Stuart Mitchell

The Building Research Establishment (BRE), The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), mindful MATERIALS, the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) have today announced a new international partnership to create consistency across rating systems including BREEAM, Green Star, LEED, Living Building Challenge and WELL.  Construction is responsible for more than half of the world’s raw materials extraction. Yet the tools and frameworks used to measure the impacts of building products often differ, creating confusion and duplication for manufacturers,…

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