Personal protective equipment (PPE) is generally designed to work when all other risk mitigation measures have failed. However, in the not-so-distant future PPE could be part of the frontline defence against physical hazards as digital technology kicks in, explains Jon Herbert. Imagine clothing that switches off dangerous rotating, cutting or pressing equipment before you get   Read More …

Be very worried! Every five years, the Government is obliged under the Climate Change Act 2008 to plan how the UK will adapt to current and future climate change risks. The next assessment, and what we must and can do about it, is due in January 2017. As Jon Herbert discovers, floods, wrecked transport, power,   Read More …

The benefits of 40 years of participation, plus the health and safety implications of if, when and how the UK eventually leaves the EU, is exercising the minds of many organisations. However, there is also a strong push to continue what has worked so well for so long. Jon Herbert reports on current thinking. If   Read More …

Within days of stressing its continuing global energy and environmental credentials, the Government has been warned that without a radical revamp it could miss its 2020 renewable energy targets by up to nine years. The introduction of hydrogen and electric cars needs to treble. And fracking has been given a cautious green light, reports Jon   Read More …

The new National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) could change everyone’s life. Set up at the end of 2015 to plan strategically for a surge in infrastructure investment, its first goal is to equip the UK with a modern energy network capable of saving taxpayers some £8 billion annually up to 2030. An effective London transport system   Read More …

Nanomaterials are incredibly small particles that offer extremely large benefits for many different consumers, products and industries. They also have negative characteristics that are yet not fully understood. Jon Herbert reports. Nanomaterials are by definition small. Often, they are no larger than a single atom or molecule. Even so, they perform astonishing tasks: nanomaterials are   Read More …

As the world becomes increasingly urban, data and technology may allow us to add “artificial” natural capital to the planet’s “natural” capital in self-sufficient cities that “farm” zero-transport-miles sustainable food taking the light and heat they need from renewables and emitting no toxic waste. Meanwhile, traditional farming threatens the UK’s carbon reduction targets. Jon Herbert   Read More …

Technology and the internet are making the workplace more complex but they are helping to create safer working environments, too. Jon Herbert looks at how the increasing availability of data is making its intelligent mark. Workplaces that until quite recently were essentially manual are now becoming data-rich environments. The pressures to put vast amounts of   Read More …

Energy costs concern everybody. Among current price swings and roundabouts, long-term trends seem to be unremittingly upwards. Predicting several decades ahead is often easier than making monthly or annual forecasts. However, newly released energy statistics offer an instructive snapshot of what is actually happening in UK energy. Jon Herbert examines the numbers. The fortunes of   Read More …

As health and safety threats, terror and online data attacks are often seen as distant risks confined to the news headlines. In practice, they are becoming daily realities that in large and small ways ordinary SMEs need not only to be aware of but also to plan against. Jon Herbert looks at the potential impacts.   Read More …