INFRANGILIS

It was a pleasure for Infrangilis to speak at a roundtable on this topic organised by pressure group Compass earlier this month. It was great to share ideas on how to aid more responsible development through better regulation the national ratings industry, with particularly impressive inputs from Cambridge’s Ha-Joon Change and LSE’s John Ryan. Infrangilis will launch our contribution to the debate at the end of this month with the publication ’rating of sovereign credit rating agencies’ (The background to this new provocative research is set out in a recent article for the RSA Journal).

This is the argument set out by Paul O’Brien, CEO of the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) to coincide with the launch of the new report Transition to a Green Economy: The Vital Role of the Ensuring Council. This APSE study prepared by Infrangilis brings together the latest thinking and practice on how councils are working to establish prosperous de-carbonised local economies  that are able to compete in the $4 trillion cleantech market, become resource efficient and adapt to climate change.

Today marks the launch of a landmark publication by Infrangilis – Consumer Product Red List: Competitive Advantage by Decoupling Resource Misuse from Development. The discussion paper sets out the business case for a radical form of national supply side intervention to halt unsustainable consumption.

People can contribute to the debate and also help spread the word by tweeting @Infrangilis_ltd with the hash tag #ConsumerRedList.

In our new article for The Guardian we argue it is time to unleash public money to tackle rising youth unemployment – without costing taxpayers an extra penny.

What happens when you get 200 people in a room to exchange ideas on how different sectors can come together to create shared value and deliver a more sustainable future? Lots of words, but also lots of practical action if the 4th Sector International Seminar in Spain is anything to go by. At the invitation of Innobasque – the Basque Innovation Agency – Infrangilis was pleased to present insights from our new book How Local Resilience Creates Sustainable Societies. The speaking engagement coincided with our latest feature for CSRwire.

Our new book published by Routledge sets out why healthy societies go hand-in-hand with resilient local places. A key focus of the applied research is the interface between the green economy and sustainable urban development. It includes contributions by multilateral agencies like the OECD and UNEP, as well as local leaders ranging from Brighton to Quito. The launch of the book coincides with new features for New Start Magazine, the RSA Journal, and Public Service Europe.

In our latest article for SD Scene we debate whether the rise of  ‘low carbon enterprise zones’ across the world – from Canada and China through to Spain and the UK – can help deliver sustainable development. Infrangilis is calling for a careful approach to ensure real and lasting nights.

The UN’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability has launched its eagerly awaited and first major report Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing.  The big question is will it become essential reading in 2012 for our political leaders?

Urban CDMs (Clean Development Mechanisms) could be big news for sustainable urbanisation says Infrangilis in a article for Earthscan. (This is the first in a new series of features in advance of our new book ‘How Local Resilience Creates Sustainable Societies).

So 2011 was the highest on record for the cost of natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, storms etc). Insurances premiums will go up as result. Many are acts of God, but others are created by humans. For several reasons, not least to save money, it can be smarter to adapt to extreme weather (i.e. more sustainable construction, better use of green infrastructure, and improved spatial planning).