Business
The future of sustainable air travel: How airlines (and you) can fly more efficiently
When Greta Thunberg expressed her refusal to fly, owing to the environmental impact it imposes, she sparked widespread “flight shaming,” making travelers think twice about their means of transportation and prompting them to take a more thoughtful approach to travel. “Something we are often asked about is how ‘flight shame’ has impacted SAS,” says Lars Andersen Resare, head of environment for Scandinavian Airlines. “We believe it’s important that people can continue to meet and that the world can continue to travel. But we can’t continue to just travel without adjusting to a more sustainable way.” Aviation is responsible for 2% of all global carbon emissions (CO2), and according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), approximately 4.5 billion passengers will board commercial...
Private equity firms are sitting on $1.5 trillion in unspent cash, and looking to raise more
It’s a new year and a new decade, and private equity finds itself in something of a paradox. PE firms have record amounts of unspent cash on hand, and they plan on heading back to the markets to raise still more. Private markets continue to attract investors looking for the historically higher returns that can be found outside the public markets. The upshot: PE fundraising this year will likely come in fairly steady, near 2019’s record haul. With all that cash on hand, it’s no surprise there were plenty of massive deals in 2019—including Swedish PE firm EQT Partners’ buyout of the skin-health unit from Nestlé for $10 billion (one of the largest such deals in 2019). And with Blackstone Group’s $3 billion deal (via their newly-minted Blackstone Growth Equity div...
Apple’s iCloud security comes under scrutiny, as data merchants lose their grip on iPhones’ location data
Apple faced intense scrutiny this week on topics as far-ranging as security to iPhones. This week started with talk of Apple’s security efforts on iCloud backups—digital repositories for text messages, app data, and other information that iPhone users store in the cloud—and whether the company can hand over unencrypted user data to the FBI. The quick answer: It can. And in interviews with Fortune, security experts said Apple should do better. Meanwhile, newly revealed data revealed Apple is ramping up its U.S. lobbying efforts, but the reasons why are still unknown. And the company’s efforts at stopping apps from tracking users seems to be working. According to a new report this week, an increasing number of iOS users are turning off location-tracking in apps, thanks to a new f...
Inside New York City’s Chinese restaurant crisis
From 2016 to 2019, the number of Chinese restaurants in New York City dropped by 16% (from 2,969 to 2,493), or one in six, according to an analysis of Yelp data by the Chinese Hospitality Alliance Tea Talk (CHATT) and corroborated by the Museum of Chinese in America. Those numbers are roughly reflected by a 7% drop nationally, as 2014’s 46,757 Chinese restaurants fell to 43,638 in 2018. The American Chinese Culinary Federation now puts the national count at as low as 37,000, according to a Foreign Policy report. In recent weeks, whenever he went on location-scouting trips in some of New York’s most popular neighborhoods for Chinese restaurants—including the East Village, Harlem, Midtown West, and Two Bridges, among others—Xuhui Zhang, Junzi Kitchen’s head of real estate development, routin...
What is tech doing to protect the whistleblower’s identity? Not much, experts say
If you type the words “who is” into a Google search box, as of this writing, the phrase “who is the whistleblower” appears as the first entry in a list of auto-completed, algorithmically-curated suggestions. Relating to an anonymous individual in the intelligence community who filed a complaint about the July 25 telephone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky, the search term is popular because Republicans contend that this mysterious person is a central figure in the impeachment trial. But “who is the whistleblower” is more than just a Google-generated search suggestion. Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, spits out the same top recommendation. Currently, a series of videos purporting to identify the whistleblower appears when...
Greece turns to China to connect its far-flung islands to the electric grid, leaving Brussels in the dark
Bambis Psychogios is a plumber who spends a lot of time traversing the windy roads of Mykonos installing pipes in flashy new hotels. Just about every day, he drives past the island’s defunct diesel-powered energy plant, located on the outskirts of the main town. These days, the sight of the plant evokes a sense of relief. “Just imagine the pollution caused by five ship engines operating at the same time. That’s what it was like. This has now stopped,” he says. Power on the island has also become more reliable; Psychogios rarely needs to crank up his back-up generators to finish a job anymore. Beloved by tourists and clubbers, Mykonos was one of Greece’s first outposts in the Cyclades island chain to be hooked up to the national power grid in 2018. This is...
An Imperfect expansion into ‘sustainable’ seafood
Beginning in 2015, Imperfect Foods blazed a trail to the forefront of the “ugly food” movement with striking graphics of misshapen vegetables that turned cosmetic defects into heart-tugging symbols of the fight against food waste. The company bought produce seconds in bulk and delivered the not-supermarket-pretty fruits and vegetables directly to consumers at discounted prices. View this post on Instagram Our secret to getting through Mondays? Reminding ourselves that there's no one perfect way to be. On a day that asks a lot of us, we like to remember that there are so many beautiful ways to be a co-worker, a friend, a mother, and even a sweet potato. Even if you didn't finish, or even start your to-do list, there are countless ways to have a successful Monday. What's motiv...
Dot-org sale sparks protests over fears the cost of registering websites will soar
The company that controls the dot-org universe is trying to sell the online registry to an investment firm for more than $1 billion, drawing opposition from activists who protested Friday and others who fear costs would soar if a for-profit company is in charge of registering the website suffix. About 20 people representing nonprofits rallied outside the Los Angeles building housing the organization that oversees domain names, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN is meeting this weekend and is expected to rule by mid-February on plans by private-equity firm Ethos Capital to buy the Public Interest Registry for $1.1 billion. Holding signs saying, “Save Dot Org,” and chanting, “ICANN, you can stop the sale,” opponents said they were concerned that the co...
The hunt for a coronavirus vaccine begins
This is the web version of Brainstorm Health Daily, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the top health care news. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here. Happy Friday, readers. The burgeoning Wuhan coronavirus outbreak has reached at least nine countries (including the U.S.), sickened hundreds of people, and killed at least 26 in Asia to date. Transportation systems in the region have been shut down amidst Chinese New Year festivities; airports are on high alert. Just today, the second reported travel-related U.S. case (in Chicago) was confirmed. And a new hospital dedicated entirely to treating patients of this coronavirus strain seems to have propped up overnight in China. Public health scares, understandably, have a way of inducing panic. (Sidenote: Panic is not a good way of ...
How to ease the return to work after maternity leave
This is the web version of The Broadside, a monthly newsletter on career advancement for women. To subscribe, click here. Welcome to The Broadside, a new careers newsletter for professional women. Every month, this newsletter will share advice as well as a bulletin of job postings, conferences, workshops, and other opportunities to boost your career. If you’re getting this email, you may already be part of the Broadsheet community. We hope this newsletter will support women in the Broadsheet community who are leveling up in the workplace. If you would like to opt out of future Broadside emails, just click “unsubscribe” at the bottom of this email. Here’s what to expect in this inaugural edition of the newsletter. Broadside writer Kristine Gill offers advice from wor...
Clayton Christensen: Debating the innovator’s dilemma
It’s been 25 years since Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen came up with a theory he dubbed “disruptive innovation” to explain how new companies used technology to bring down dominant players. Christensen passed away on Friday at 67, but his theory, introduced in a 1995 business journal article and later expanded into the best-selling book The Innovator’s Dilemma, remains one of the most influential and widely cited explanations for why technology companies rise and fall. Many of the most successful tech executives, from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs to former Intel CEO Andy Grove, credited Christensen’s insights with influencing their strategies. Though he worked hard in the decades since to enhance and defend the theory, Christensen has said...
Purdue Pharma bankruptcy is now open to OxyContin-related personal injury claims
State and local governments have been leading the legal fight against the opioid industry, seeking payouts to help them deal with the fallout from the nation’s addiction crisis. Average Americans are about to get their shot. On Friday, the federal judge overseeing the bankruptcy case of Purdue Pharma set a June 30 deadline to file a claim against the company. That includes governments, entities such as hospitals and, for the first time, individuals who have personal injury claims. It’s not clear how much money might be at stake. Purdue reached an agreement with some states and local governments that could be worth more than $10 billion over time as part of its bankruptcy filing. But Judge Robert Drain emphasized during the hearing in White Plains, N.Y., that no final settlement...
