MultiBriefs - Your source for industry specific News Briefs

Urban challenge: Rethinking America’s love affair with suburbia

Lucy Wallwork Civil & Government

To kick off this series on U.S. cities, we looked at the rise of the metropolitan mayor. In the next few pieces, we will look at a few of the major challenges facing those mayors in shaping their cities for the demands and opportunities of the 21st century.

Sustainability still on the horizon for manufacturers

Michelle Hickman Manufacturing

You can't turn around without hearing someone talking about the manufacturing industry. The current political climate has shined the economic spotlight back on manufacturers and their processes. While manufacturing jobs may be the dominant talking point on the minds of the media, politicians and society, the topic of sustainability still dominates the talk in boardrooms and processing floors. Companies are looking for ways to make their operations more efficient while not hampering the quality of products. They also seek to lower their costs and risks without negatively impacting the environment.

US braces for climate backlash as 109 countries sign Paris Agreement

Andrew Gaved Waste Management & Environmental

The election of Donald Trump has provoked alarm among some policymakers and industry bodies who fear he will row back on the emissions reductions they have worked toward in recent months. As climate leaders met last month in Marrakech, Morocco, to officially sign the Paris Agreement on climate change, committing the 109 signatories to firm targets on carbon reduction, U.S. policymakers pointedly used the opportunity to make clear that the nation did not share the president-elect's views.

Surveying the Colorado River Aqueduct

Sherri Lee Barnes and Paul L. Tucker, PS Construction & Building Materials

During the 1920s, the city of Los Angeles was burgeoning. Demographics were changing, and geographic boundaries were being pushed out in all directions. Oil was booming, industrialization was in full swing, and water was in high demand.

‘Energy poverty’ in the Trump era

Lucy Wallwork Natural Resources

"Energy poverty" should be a crisis we are used to seeing on television screens, featuring images of the poor in developing countries studying by candlelight and cooking on dung fires. It shouldn't be found on U.S. soil. But as winter sets in, activists are raising concerns that low-income U.S. citizens are being forced to make "third-world choices" between paying for food or utility bills, despite declining energy prices.

Trump question looms as US signs climate pact in Morocco

Andrew Gaved Waste Management & Environmental

In fact, the events of the past couple of weeks have put the Brexit uncertainty in the U.K. into context. The multiple questions we might have over our future outside of the European community seem somehow less significant compared with the questions Americans must have over Donald J. Trump.

Trump’s chance to make his mark on the energy industry

Lucy Wallwork Natural Resources

What else to write about this week than President-elect Donald Trump? Just hours after one of the biggest electoral upsets in political history, analysts were scrambling to decipher what it might mean for the energy industry. Writing back in June, all I was able to conclude from the Republican candidate's ill-defined statements was that under a Trump presidency, "something is going to change ... we just don't know what." Now it is time, in this brave new world, to work out the "what."

America’s most endangered national parks

Dave G. Houser Recreation & Leisure

Celebrations marking the National Park Service's centennial year are winding down. If predictions hold true, the nation's 410 national parks, monuments and other sites will receive well more than the record 307 million visitors recorded in 2015.

Refrigeration industry glimpses its future

Andrew Gaved Manufacturing

I recently attended the Chillventa exhibition in Nuremburg, Germany, which provides a biannual opportunity to see many within the European cooling industry in one place. The fact that so many manufacturers converge on Chillventa provides a rare chance to take the pulse of the industry and allows us to get an idea of what is on the collective minds of the supply chain.

Fresh produce industry is on the way up

Bambi Majumdar Food & Beverage

Increasing health awareness has paved the way for increasing demand for fresh produce. Most of us believe what we buy from our local grocery store is "fresh produce," but there is a bit of difference — and we are slowly becoming aware of it.

Industries