The 2016 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), a Yale-based initiative that evaluates how 180 countries protect ecosystems and human health, finds cause for both optimism and serious concern. The world’s nations have expanded access to water and sanitation while creating more protected areas than ever before, yet countries have failed to reverse degradation of air quality and decline in fisheries, the report finds. The EPI, which measures national and global protection of ecosystems and human health from environmental harm, draws out trends and highlights data gaps in priority areas including air quality, water management, and climate change.
Increased access to water and sanitation stands out as a major success story: concerted efforts to develop clean drinking water and sewage infrastructure have significantly reduced deaths from waterborne diseases. The number of people who lack access to clean water has been cut nearly in half since 2000, though at 550 million, or around 8 percent of the world’s population, there is still much room for improvement. The world’s nations also show strong commitments to habitat protection, and countries are now within striking distance of international targets for terrestrial and marine habitat protection.
Image: REUTERS/Robert Galbraith
If you could make one change in your organization today, what would it be? What if I told you there was a step you could take to increase profit margins, raise your team’s collective intelligence and create a more innovative, fair and equal workplace?
What’s the secret? Help more women get the experience and opportunities they need to reach leadership roles.
In partnership with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, EY recently undertook a comprehensive study of gender inequality in corporate leadership. The sample size was both massive and global, surveying nearly 22,000 organizations across a wide variety of industries in 91 countries.
Among all these different organizations, the results came through clearly and consistently: a firm with female leaders will outperform a firm with none. In fact, if 30% of a company’s leaders are women, its net margin will be six percentage points higher than a firm with no women in their executive ranks. The analysis finds a smaller effect when focusing on profitable firms, where the firm with greater gender balance has a profit margin that is one percentage point higher. But for most firms, even the smaller figure is substantial. To put that number in context, that kind of stark increase would increase profit by 15% for the typical profitable firm.
Direct Link to Full 7-Page 2016 Document: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/94/4/14-150912.pdf
World Press Freedom Day 2016 – 3 May
Access to Information and Fundamental Freedoms: This Is Your Right!
https://rsf.org/en/news/2016-world-press-freedom-index-leaders-paranoid-about-journalists
2016 World Press Freedom Index – Growing Paranoia about Journalists
One way to put a dent in the gender pay gap: Getting more women in high paying jobs that don’t require a degree.
By Jillian Berman – March 24, 2016
When Erin Cuellar first showed up at a factory to train in their apprenticeship program shortly after graduating high school, the men around her didn’t think she would last six weeks. She later became the first woman to graduate from the program.
Fast forward a few decades and Cuellar, now 36, is a manufacturing engineer and assembly supervisor for the assembly centers at her employer, which makes agricultural equipment. In that role, Cuellar manages the floor and writes standard work processes when her company launches new products. Cuellar is also the sole breadwinner for her family of four, a goal she achieved without a college degree (though she recently earned one with the financial help of her employer).
“I’m completely aware of the man’s world,” Cuellar said, noting that her male-dominated industry could use more women to point out when certain product features, such as the height of a tractor seat, need to be adjusted to better suit a wide swath of customers or when she and her colleagues should be working “smarter not harder.”
