Apple said Tuesday its newest iPhones would be produced using recycled rare earth materials, as part of a stepped up environmental initiative which also has geopolitical implications.
Announced as part of a series of sustainability actions, Apple said the move builds on prior initiatives including its pledge to become “100 percent carbon neutral” in all aspects of its business.
Apple’s environment policy chief Lisa Jackson said during an online event announcing the new iPhone 12 handsets that “for the first time, we are using 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets including the camera, haptics and MagSafe (connectors).”
The announcement comes amid growing concerns about e-waste from billions of smartphones as consumers upgrade to new models, and with growing political tensions over rare earth materials needed for many electronics.
Activists have expressed concerns about the environmental impact of rare earth mining, and some of the materials come from
While the tech industry tends to be more resilient in the face of recession than others, no industry is wholly immune from economic downturns. Even with technology becoming an increasing necessity in the wake of Covid-19, tech companies have still experienced layoffs, adjustments and other shocks to the system.
That’s why it’s vital for tech professionals to “recession-proof” their skills and their careers as far as possible. Below, the members of Forbes Technology Council share 16 things those working in the tech industry can do to protect themselves from the impacts of an economic downturn.
Members of Forbes Technology Council share strategies that can help tech professionals “recession-proof” their careers.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Master cloud-based skills.
Companies are rapidly shifting to a “cloud-first” strategy, and they are looking for employees who have cloud expertise. Update your skills to ensure you have cloud certifications and experience with
Kate Middleton has some wildlife news of her own! Just days after Prince William launched his new environmental prize, Kate has announced that she will take part in a special awards show on Tuesday.
In a new video, Kate heralds the fact that London’s Natural History Museum — home to dinosaur skeletons and graphic presentations of the world’s creatures and geography — is open for business after it closed earlier this year amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Kate, who loves to take her children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis to the museum, which is a short distance from their Kensington Palace home, will take part in a virtual awards ceremony for the wildlife photographer of the year.
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As a long-time critic of the company, I’ll be the first to say that IBM (IBM) still faces its share of competitive and secular pressures. But the planned spinoff of Big Blue’s managed IT infrastructure services business is encouraging news.
First, the managed infrastructure business — though said by IBM to have a $60 billion-plus backlog and more than twice the scale of its nearest rival — is clearly struggling. IBM’s “infrastructure & cloud services” revenue, which is reported within its Global Technology Services (GTS) segment, was down 7% annually in Q2, 6% in Q1 and 5% in Q4. And this is in spite of the fact that this revenue also covers the IBM Cloud public cloud services unit, which appears to be growing.
Secular headwinds — specifically, the adoption of cloud infrastructure platforms much larger than IBM’s, such as AWS and Microsoft Azure — are clearly a factor here.
Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson has stepped down from Boeing’s 2021 crewed flight test
In a Twitter video, Ferguson stressed his dedication to the Starliner program and said it was a difficult decision
He will be replaced by a veteran NASA astronaut, giving the mission an all-NASA crew
The commander of the 2021 crewed Boeing flight test has stepped down from his position for “personal reasons.” He will be replaced by another veteran astronaut.
NASA and Boeing announced on Wednesday that astronaut Chris Ferguson will no longer be the commander of next year’s Boeing Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station (ISS). In their respective statements, both NASA and Boeing said Ferguson decided to step down from the mission for “personal reasons” but did not go into further details.
In a video Ferguson shared on Twitter, he stressed his dedication to the Starliner program, saying it was a
Paula Gold-Williams, president and chief executive officer of San Antonio-based CPS Energy, speaks … [+] during the 2017 CERAWeek by IHS Markit conference in Houston.
Students of energy policy have long been familiar with the cry from activists: Government shouldn’t pick the winners and losers.
But the environmental movement, albeit with good intentions, is quite often guilty of that. Collectively, the environmentalists have told the electric utility industry, with varying degrees of vehemence, “We want wind and solar.”
As an afterthought, some environmentalists have acknowledged that there are other options, most notably nuclear and improved storage, and there is the possibility of new technologies or huge improvements in the known ones.
These deserve a hearing in the great sea change now taking place in electricity production.
Overselling Alternatives
Electric utilities want to reduce and end carbon emissions. But right now, they’re struggling with the overselling
There is no shortage of quotes about success in business.
“A vision without a strategy remains an illusion.” … “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” … “Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.” …
The list goes on and each has merit. Yet none of them work without talented people. It is the people you hire who ultimately determine the success of your strategy, culture, marketing, innovation, and all else you do.
Surprisingly, our ability to identify talent continues to be less than sufficient. A 1998 study found that traditional interviews only have 50% accuracy. Things haven’t gotten better since then. In my book The Empowered Candidate, I share a recent study by Gallup that found when interviewing for management positions, we make the wrong hiring decision 82% of the time.
With the current shift toward remote work, and therefore more virtual interviews, accurately assessing
House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law Chair David Cicilline, D-RI, speaks during a hearing on “Online Platforms and Market Power” in the Rayburn House office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on July 29, 2020.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
Congress’ more than year-long investigation into four of the world’s most valuable tech companies is nearing its final stages, paving the way for new legal proposals that could drastically alter antitrust enforcement in the U.S. for the years to come.
On Thursday, the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust held its seventh and final hearing in a series examining the health of competition in digital markets and the business practices of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. The event was not as splashy as the subcommittee’s July hearing featuring the four tech CEOs and it also took about half the time.
Platform Calgary is pleased to announce the 20 companies participating in the Junction program. Junction is a nine-week full-time residency that helps entrepreneurs establish a strong foundation and clear path forward to grow their technology-driven businesses. Going on its fifth cohort, the program has helped grow 46 innovative companies either based in or working out of Calgary. As part of Platform Calgary’s mission, Junction builds Calgary’s entrepreneurial capacity, creating an engine for new economic growth, job creation and shared prosperity.
Junction provides workshops, one-on-one advisory sessions, special events and peer-learning to tech startup founders. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the program has shifted its focus to emphasize business adaptability.
“COVID-19 was a big eye opener for every business. The pandemic made us put greater emphasis on flexibility and resiliency as part of the Junction program and we were able to expand our Advisor network with successful startup founders and leaders from
Arian Nemati is Co-Founder and CEO at ADEx and Ecognitionlabs.com, an AI research and development company.
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Change can be hard, especially if you’re implementing a new strategy. It may also be risky to take processes and methodologies that seemed to have worked in the past and change them up without knowing the outcome. But it’s the only way for a business to grow.
Commercial real estate companies have been historically slow to innovate and adapt to new technologies. There are many reasons for this, but more and more CRE companies are learning how to add innovation and technology without disrupting their workflow. They’re learning how to spend the right amount of time in the research and development phase, prioritize training and leave room for a learning curve.
CRE companies that want to lead the industry must prioritize technology and innovation. This doesn’t mean everything has to change, but it
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