Sostenibilidad

A few days ago I saw a drawing made by the son of a friend who lives in Mexico City after the second earthquake to hit the city this year. I was impressed for two reasons–first, how the child conveyed the closeness to his mother at the time of the tremor and how they were leaving their house with his belongings (toys); and second, how he managed to depict the shaking of the structure. Luckily, he was safe. But the 7.1 magnitude quake that struck that Sept. 19 took the lives of 37 other children who perished when their schools collapsed.

Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City’s most emblematic avenue, has the worst soil when it comes to the foundation for buildings. Although an earthquake always has the potential to cause substantial human losses and severe infrastructure damage, this road sits on the ancient lake bed of the Valley of Mexico, and, as a result, its soil – notoriously soft and with a high-water content – favors the amplification of seismic waves. Mexico City’s geology is like a bowl of Jello. Try building something on it.

The Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming to well below 2°C. To achieve this, greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2020, and then drop to net zero in the second half of the century.

Heritage, tourism and safeguards for development in Argentina

El huracán Irma se convirtió oficialmente en el huracán más poderoso jamás registrado en el Atlántico, y le siguen José y Katia con pronósticos terribles. Para este huracán, se evacuaron más de 1 millón de personas. Para el siguiente, quizá debas reforzar tus techos y alcantarillas y asegurar que tienes ahorros o seguro para ayudarte a reconstruir.

A few days ago, Hurricane Harvey left catastrophic wreckage in its pass through the United States, particularly in Texas and Louisiana. The floods that came as a result of the tropical cyclone inundated homes, destroyed schools and displaced thousands of people. This week, Hurricane Irma, the most powerful Atlantic Ocean storm in recorded history with winds of 185mph, is striking the Caribbean, causing immeasurable destruction in islands such as St. Martin and Barbuda and threatening to cause devastation in Florida.

The Paris Agreement, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals marked a turning point towards sustainable development, and sustainable infrastructure emerges as a key tool to achieve these goals. In this interview, our specialists Amal-Lee Amin and Graham Watkins will tell us why investing in sustainable infrastructure is key.

My professional experience in Occupational Safety and Health has shown me that companies that implement and effectively maintain Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (OSHMS) get a number of benefits that make them more competitive. This is because OSHMS:

For the Dominican Republic, climate change is a phenomenon with important consequences. According to Germanwatch’s 2017 Global Climate Risk Index, the country ranks 11th among the most vulnerable nations to climate change. Increased intensity and frequency of hurricanes, periods of drought or extreme rain and rising sea levels are just a few of the threats for the Dominican Republic, whose economy is heavily dependent on tourism and agriculture.