Keeping Current - ESG Foundation

Pieter Cranenbroek Senior News Editor LinkedIn

The end of the job-centric life: how attitudes to work are changing

If our lives were a universe, work used to be at the centre. Jobs let people support themselves and their families. Personal affairs had to adapt to those careers. Leisure came only if there was still time, money and energy left after putting in the hours. It is why the retirement age was looked forward to with such anticipation: It was the magical threshold when work would finally stop and life may be enjoyed. As the concept of "work-life balance" became more common, so did the rise of technology and being reachable at all hours. Switching off became an active…

EditorJuly 15, 2026

By George Curtis Carbon Neutral Group CEO

The vampire in AI: Why AI’s energy sucking should have every sustainability leader worried at night

We all seem to talk about the carbon footprint of flying on a plane, food waste or fast fashion and some businesses across the globe have even built entire industries around measuring, reporting, and reducing their emissions. So why are we all a little naive on the sneaky new kid on the block, well not so new, but you know what I mean, which is quietly plugging into our grid, one that’s growing faster each day than almost anything we’ve seen before, that being Artificial Intelligence. We use our little friend everyday, whether that be asking a question, researching or…

EditorJuly 1, 2026

Jonathan Shepherd-Stubbs

Why Retiring Is the Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make

There’s a story that’s been doing the rounds in offices and pension seminars for decades: a study supposedly showed that workers who retired at 65 were dropping dead within 18 months, while those who kept working into their seventies lived on for decades. It’s a great headline. It’s also, as far as anyone has ever been able to verify, completely made up. The “study” has never been traced to a real author, a real dataset, or a real publication, and Boeing, the company whose pension data it claims to use, has publicly denied any such research ever existed. So let’s…

EditorJune 25, 2026

Roll on Friday

Clients downgrade importance of law firms’ DEI: ‘passé in 2026’

RollOnFriday's In-house Lawyer Survey is underway, and so far the majority of respondents have said a panel firm's approach to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is no longer an important factor when choosing who to instruct. "We don't look at this when choosing," says an in-house lawyer in TMT. "We assume firms are compliant with equality laws and have all the usual diversity policies etc. but I'm not sure who they really think gives a shit to be honest. It all feels a bit passé in 2026 and, having trained at a 'big law' firm myself, I'm well aware it is…

EditorMay 10, 2026

Environment and Health UN University Institute for Water

Rush for Critical Minerals Echoes Oil Extraction Injustice as Harms Fall on World’s Most Vulnerable, UN Scientists Warn

Race to build EVs, renewable energy systems and AI infrastructure, with benefits flowing mainly to wealthy nations, is driving severe, largely hidden costs borne disproportionately by the poor in Africa and South America, UN University investigation reveals. Mining critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt fuels the ‘green’ energy and digital transitions essential to meeting climate goals. But building the technologies that enable a sustainable future is generating severe, hidden environmental and health crises that the world is failing to track or address, warns a new report by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), known…

EditorMay 1, 2026

Jonathan H Ashton

When Greenwashing Meets the Gavel – Why ESG Needs Both Your Lawyer and Your Marketer in the Room

There is a conversation happening in boardrooms across the Gulf right now, and it is long overdue. On one side of the table sits the marketing team, eager to position the company as a sustainability leader. On the other, the legal team, quietly flagging the regulatory minefield that same positioning could create. For too long, these two functions have operated in parallel — one building the brand narrative, the other managing risk. ESG is the issue that finally forces them into the same room. The UAE has made that convergence non-optional. Federal Decree-Law No. 11 of 2024 on the Reduction…

EditorApril 10, 2026

Clive Booth Founder the ESG Foundation

40 Migratory Animal Species Receive New or Upgraded Protection at Close of UN Meeting

With populations of many migrant wildlife species in deepening decline, parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (132 nations and EU) agree on new or greater coordinated conservation efforts. Confronted with stark new evidence that many migratory species are moving closer to extinction, governments at a major UN wildlife conservation meeting today in Brazil agreed on expanded conservation efforts, including new or enhanced treaty protections for 40 species and populations of birds, aquatic wildlife, and terrestrial animals. Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) adopted several measures to strengthen global or regional conservation…

EditorMarch 29, 2026

Carbon Neutral Group

Survey reveals the top 5 industries which are on a good pathway to net zero

Carbon Neutral Group, who work with organisations to build actionable net zero roadmaps, grounded in robust carbon accounting and operational change, has reviewed industry sectors and their road in sustainability, specifically those who are leading the way to becoming net zero, by examining their decarbonisation progress across five major industries. When it comes down to industry sectors, retail and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are currently leading the way to net zero readiness, in comparison to logistics and hospitality industries, who for now remain behind. The research assessed the hospitality, FMCG, manufacturing, logistics and retail sectors, comparing each industry's knowledge…

EditorFebruary 9, 2026

United Nations

World Enters “Era of Global Water Bankruptcy”

A UN report report calls for fundamental reset of global water agenda as irreversible damage pushes many basins beyond recovery UN Headquarters, New York – Amid chronic groundwater depletion, water overallocation, land and soil degradation, deforestation, and pollution, all compounded by global heating, a UN report today declared the dawn of an era of global water bankruptcy, inviting world leaders to facilitate “honest, science-based adaptation to a new reality.” “Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond Our Hydrological Means in the Post-Crisis Era,” argues that the familiar terms “water stressed” and “water crisis” fail to reflect today’s reality in many places: a…

EditorJanuary 21, 2026