There’s another kerfuffle about getting rid of plastic bags, since one of the government’s waste advisers has suggested that government plans to ban plastic bags, or charge for them, are a diversion from more pressing environmental issues. While it is true that plastic bags represent only a small amount of waste, or of oil use, [...]
Trends and futures are related, of course, but they are used in different ways. Trends-watchers tend to be looking for short-run innovation opportunities in products and services. Futures is longer-term, or ought to be, and more about structural shifts, and should be more connected with strategy. The same underlying divers of change can lead to [...]
I blogged earlier this year on the toy industry and Chinese production, and on the idea of ‘toxic consumption‘ - that the things we buy are bad for our health. Christmas seems a good time to come back to it, and Core 77 (thanks) points me in the direction of a long article by Jonathan [...]
Obviously the winter outdoor ice skating rinks which increasingly crowd the UK’s public spaces are right on trend. Just tick them off: the shift from services to experiences, the rise of shared social meaning, and the commercialisation of parts of the public realm that would otherwise be commons. But - having just come back from [...]
A team of researchers at Oxford University has recalculated Britain’s carbon emissions since 1990 - and found that they have increased by 19%. (News report here.) The official figures - calculated according to the UN’s method - say that emissions have fallen by 15% over the period. However, the researchers, led by Dieter Helm, included [...]
The Earth Policy Institute has an item on a trend that could mark the start of a tipping point away from bottled water. What’s interesting is that two separate constituencies have aligned: citizens/consumers who are concerned about the environmental impact of the industry, and public authorities which are concerned both about the direct cost [...]
The average British child sees at least 10,000 commercials a year, many unsupervised - according to David Piachaud of the London School of Economics. The result is increased family conflict and greater pressure on poorer families. Piachaud says the case for greater regulation or legislation to protect children from exploitation is strong. The research is [...]
I pricked up my ears at news of the recent launch of the global ‘Dump Soda’ campaign - whose ambitions are pretty much as stated on the can, as it were. The reason: a few years ago my colleague Rachel Kelnar and I wrote some scenarios on the impact of obesity on the food and [...]
CNN’s ‘health’ blog has a take on five healthy food trends. They’re a bit impressionistic - although some data is attached - and maybe apart from the first one won’t come as much of a surprise to European readers. The way in which consumer wellbeing (and lifestyle) trends are aligning with both health trends [...]
What happens if the pervasive chemicals in the everyday products we buy and use are the reason that we generally feel below par so much of the time? It could cause a backlash by consumers who increasingly regard their well-being as important to them. The thought comes both because of the wave of stories about [...]
