Tag Archives: Global

Eliminating the ban on Mexican trucks crossing the US border

Posted on March 4, 2011 by aviyer2010

A Wall Street Journal article (March 4, 2011) describes the announcement of the end of the 20 year ban  on Mexican truckers driving across the US border (the ban was a violation of the Nafta agreement). That ban has resulted … Continue reading →

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Green Score for Jeans based on Supply Chain Evaluation

Posted on March 2, 2011 by aviyer2010

A New York Times article (March 2, 2011) describes an effort to catalog the environmental impact of every step in the global supply chain of apparel, from cotton growth, to fabric, to dyes, textile manufacturing, packaging, shipping, retail through to … Continue reading →

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Commodity Trader Glencore’s role in the global supply chain

Posted on February 27, 2011 by aviyer2010

An article in the International Herald Tribune (February 27, 2011) describes the role of Glencore, a commodity trading company. Glencore provides raw materials supply to OEMs (ArcelorMittal, Sony, Chevron etc) from raw materials suppliers, managing the risk of weather, price … Continue reading →

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Targeted Emissions cuts before general carbon focused cuts

Posted on February 24, 2011 by aviyer2010

The Economist (February 17,2011) suggests that piecemeal focused emissions reductions of specific gases may generate fast results while building a more general consensus. For example,the article cites HFC-134a as a gas 1,000 times more warming than carbon dioxide. Similarly, carbon … Continue reading →

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Emissions Rules Relaxation and Industry Impact

Posted on February 23, 2011 by aviyer2010

A New York Times article (February 23, 2011) describes the current EPA emissions rules – rolling back requirements for industrial boilers, incinerators etc.  The impact is to permit many plants, municipalities, universities etc to reduce their costs of compliance – … Continue reading →

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Sick workers at Apple’s supplier and OEM’s responsibility

Posted on February 23, 2011 by aviyer2010

A New York Times article (February 23, 2011) describes worker complaints at an Apple supplier, Wintek, and their plant in China that uses the n-hexane agent to cleaning glass panels for the Apple iPhone.  The cleaning agent was used for … Continue reading →

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Pepsico’s guaranteed price corn purchases from small farmers in Mexico

Posted on February 23, 2011 by aviyer2010

An article in the International Herald Tribune (February 22, 2011) describes Pepsico’s guaranteed price purchase (upfront) of corn from small farmers in Mexico. The farmers use the contract to buy seeds, fertilizer and equipment. Buying from these farms close to … Continue reading →

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Is Apple more like Zara ? How can the ipad be sold for $ 500 ?

Posted on February 21, 2011 by aviyer2010

A article in WIRED magazine (February 21, 2011, Brian X. Chen) asks the question – how can the ipad be sold for $ 500 when other manufacturers cannot attain that price ? The answer suggested is that Apple is, for … Continue reading →

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New Flu vaccine manufacturing process and impact

Posted on February 20, 2011 by aviyer2010

A New York Times article (February 20, 2011) reports on a faster manufacturing process for flu vaccines – using animal cells vs using chicken eggs. The new manufacturing process is reported to be faster by six weeks and with lower … Continue reading →

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Energy, Jobs, Salmon, the river and the Environment

Posted on February 20, 2011 by aviyer2010

An article in the New York Times (February 20, 2011) describes a tussle between energy and job creation and the river routes of the salmon along the Columbia river.  Companies in Montana want to bring coal by rail line to … Continue reading →

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