From the globalEDGE Team

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Fact of the Month

Electric vehicles will make up nearly 20% of the global market for light vehicles by 2030.

Source: IHS

Feature of the Month: Renewable Transportation

For the majority of transportation's history, the movement of anything has been powered by fossil fuels. With the emergence of research finding that the byproducts of combustion can be very harmful to the environment, scientists and engineers have been on a quest to find an alternative. Pure electric transportation has always been inaccessible because of the lack of battery technology. However, these hurdles have begun to be overcome and electric transportation is now a reality.

Companies from around the world are partnering with governments in order to electrify their public transportation systems. The most recent example of this is Bombardier, a Canadian transport solutions provider, winning a $278 million contract from the Government of South Australia to produce electric trains. South Australia plans to spend $2.6 billion over the next ten years to transform their aging rail line into a state of the art, sustainable system. Along with decreasing the number of cars on the roads, electric rails have the benefit of being quieter, reducing air pollution and not depending on imported fuels.

Automotive companies from around the world are also becoming increasingly more involved in sustainable transportation with the release of their electric cars. Electric cars were previously uneconomical because of the weight and cost of large batteries. New technology and outsourcing has now made these batteries efficient and inexpensive enough to make affordable, desirable cars. Nissan, Ford and electric-only Tesla motors have all released electric cars in the United States. China-based BYD and German Daimler have created a joint venture to release a range of electric vehicles. Daimler has brought Mercedes’ design and engineering expertise whilst BYD has brought its electric technology.

These are the types of projects that develop international partnerships and move technology forward. Companies from around the world have developed their own expertise and combined them to create amazing results.

From the globalEDGE Blog

How popular would cars be without gas stations at nearly every exit and street corner? Electric cars are currently facing a lack of charging infrastructure that is making many consumers question the purchase of an electric car and ultimately holding back their adoption. Click on to the globalEDGE Blog to learn more about steps being taken around the world to help usher in the age of Renewable Transportation.

Featured Resources

Eldis Corporate Responsibility Resource Guide
Hosted by the Institute of Development Studies, a leading center for research and teaching on international development at the University of Sussex, this site provides online resources pertaining corporate social responsibility. The content includes summaries and links to online documents, key issues, a directory of websites and email discussion lists.
Category: Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire Service (CSR Wire)
CSR Wire is a newswire service which promotes the growth of corporate social responsibility and sustainability through solutions-based information and examples. The site's core content includes news, press releases, corporate reports and links, CSR events and CSR live, an interactive forum relating to corporate citizenship, sustainability and socially responsible initiatives.
Category: Social Responsibility

Featured Academy

"The A-CAPPP Product Counterfeiting Incident Database: A Resource for Advancing Research and Policy"
by Jeremy M. Wilson and Justin A. Heinonen (Volume 5, Number 2, pp. 1-2, 2011)

The creation of a national product counterfeiting incident database allows researchers a unique opportunity to generate evidence-based anti-counterfeiting strategy through the analysis of data and evidence. Integrating the tenets of crime prevention theory and problem analysis, it employs a systematic process to identify U.S.-related incidents of product counterfeiting across industry sectors and compile and code open-source information. The approach establishes the first-ever foundation for continued empirical investigation into the products, perpetrators, victims and criminal justice agencies involved in product counterfeiting.

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