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Study: Activity-based workplace design on the rise

Scott E. Rupp Facilities & Grounds

A recent survey of more 100 corporate real estate and facilities executives found that 70 percent of respondents said that they expect to incorporate "activity-based workplace design" into their businesses, and most of those interviewed also said they anticipate a reduction in square footage per employee. These are among some of the findings pointed out in a recent report by CBRE, "Managing Global Corporate Real Estate and Facilities."

As Amazon raises minimum wage, not everything is good news for its workers

Michelle R. Matisons Retail

As more pressure mounts to raise the federal minimum wage to a $15 living wage, Amazon announced on Oct. 2 that its lowest paid workers will make $15 per hour. However, Amazon’s much-scrutinized workplace practices leave people scratching their heads about its influence and long-term goals. On one hand, the embrace of the Fight for $15 goal is lauded. But the company remains embroiled in controversies like high-pressure work cultures for its white-collar employees and surveillance-style tracking of its warehouse workers.

We have good EU F-Gas regulations, now we need good regulating

Andrew Gaved Civil & Government

At RAC’s recent Cooling Industry Awards, I ended my speech on a bit of a call to arms. The gist of it is that we as an industry deserve the respect of having our F-Gas regulations properly enforced. I am sure you don’t need me to remind you, as I seem to have been writing about it for months, that the EU’s F-Gas regulatory regime has proved quite a tough prospect for the industry, with its combination of HFC phasedown and bans intended to drive the market towards lower-GWP options at quite a pace.

Building community, fostering creativity: A collaborative workspace for…

Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & Fixtures

Collaborative or co-working spaces provide a supportive environment where self-employed individuals can gather with other professionals and have access to the amenities of a commercial office setting. They have been a part of tech culture for some years now, but have not really caught on as yet with the A&D community. That may change with the launch of a new collaborative design studio for designers and architects, hosted by a Chicago design-build firm.

Are we in the middle of a street food renaissance?

Bambi Majumdar Food & Beverage

You can usually trust California to lead innovation and change. The Golden State legalized street food vending in September, a move that may soon be reflected elsewhere. Street food has been a fixture of the state’s landscape for decades. Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco are known for their food trucks and eclectic street foods, popular with both locals and tourists. But it was not an easy road to popularity for these businesses.

Travel2020: When tourism turns into the walking hordes

Lark Gould Travel, Hospitality & Event Management

Travel and tourism are things of inestimable value to most people. We dream of new places and save up diligently for these aspirational moments. But when does a walking tour turn into a nightmarish episode from "The Walking Dead"? As the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) met in Seoul recently for the 7th Global Summit on Urban Tourism, some 900 delegates from treasured cities around the world came together to hash out agreements on ways to manage what is now known as "overtourism" in the years to come.

Beyond prototyping: Scaling up to additive manufacturing for production

Charlie Wood Manufacturing

Most are well-acquainted with additive manufacturing (AM) — as a rapid prototyping tool, at least. And while many companies believe and perpetuate the myth that AM is only a prototyping tool, innovators in a range of markets (e.g., aerospace, healthcare, consumer goods and more) are already using AM for production-grade manufacturing when design, performance and cost factors align. This article will help organizations considering switching to additive manufacturing for a part or product.

The power of the pop-up: ‘Temporary use’ strategies in US cities

Lucy Wallwork Construction & Building Materials

The concept of "temporary" or "meanwhile use" goes back to long before the term slipped into the narrative of urban policy agendas. The first time an enterprising trader rolled a food truck into an empty square, they were practicing temporary urbanism. But today the "temporary use" movement is taking on a new light and even becoming a mainstream strategy. The approach fits with the new, more flexible approach to urban planning we are increasingly seeing currently. Approaches vary, but the philosophy is one that views empty lots not as an urban problem or eyesore, but instead as opportunities.

Carolinas’ historic flooding from Florence makes strong case for…

Michelle R. Matisons Waste Management & Environmental

Less than two weeks ago, Hurricane Florence came ashore, impacting the Carolinas and Virginia. Just when you thought the rain had ceased, the region is expecting more. This amount of rainfall is historic, coming in second among storms, with 17.5 inches of rainfall compared to Hurricane Harvey’s 25.6 inches in a 14,000-square-mile area. That’s 8 trillion gallons of rain for the Carolinas — with more on the way. Georgetown, South Carolina, for example, has been evacuated as the area is expected to flood due to multiple rivers converging.

Mosquitoes are eating people and plastic, bringing materials up the food…

Scott E. Rupp Waste Management & Environmental

As humans, we often think of mosquitos as blood-sucking parasites that do nothing but buffet lunch on us, cause us pain and irritant to our skins, and leave us itching and sometimes bloody when we squash them between our hands. But, the little flying blood buzzards are more than that, including plastic-ingesting insects that are polluting their own bodies while they gnaw on the man-made material and bring it up the food chain. Authors of a paper — published in The Royal Society journal Biology Letters — found that when a mosquito larva eats microplastic, that plastic can remain in the insect's body into adulthood. So, the microplastic can then be transferred to whatever might eat that mosquito, including birds.

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