Day: October 5, 2021

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INTERNATIONAL NON-PROFIT OCEANIC GLOBAL LAUNCHES THE BLUE STANDARD TO ESTABLISH UNIVERSAL ACCOUNTABILITY FOR SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS LEADERSHIP

FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND CROSS-INDUSTRY STANDARD EMPOWERS BUSINESSES TO ELIMINATE PLASTICS, ADOPT SUSTAINABLE OPERATING PRACTICES, AND PROTECT OUR BLUE PLANET

New York, NY, Oct. 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NEW YORK, NY – On Thursday, October 5th, the international non-profit Oceanic Global launched the Blue Standard (Blue) a first-of-its-kind cross-industry standard that empowers industries and businesses of all sizes to achieve measurable impact that protects our blue planet. Emissions, toxins, and plastics are all consequences of human-made industry that are devastating the Earth. And with 70% of the planet covered by the ocean (which regulates our climate, absorbs our carbon, and produces more than half of the oxygen we breathe) marine ecosystems are bearing the brunt of our actions. While there are several existing standards built on the notion of  “going green,” Oceanic Global’s is the first-of-its-kind that looks at the impacts of industry on the ocean and humanity’s interconnectivity to it, and empowers businesses of all sizes with actions that protect & restore the blue.

The Blue Standard was developed together with Oceanic Global’s Scientific Advisory Board and trained experts in both WELL and LEED building rating systems, as a timely response to the impending threat of Climate Change and the increasing demand for transparent industry action. According to a 2021 study by Deloitte surveying over 10,000 individuals in over 6 different countries, more than 58% of respondents wanted organizations to adopt more environmental practices, and 42% reported have changed consumption habits themselves because of their stance on the environment. In turn, Blue features two core offerings: a 3-star sustainability verification system for Business Operations and Product and Packing Seals that verify plastic-free consumer goods. An evolution of Oceanic Global’s long standing industry solutions program (formerly known as The Oceanic Standard), Blue has verified the sustainability achievements of 400+ across 26 counties to-date ranging from Bulleit distillery in Tennessee, House of Yes and Salesforce in New York, to the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok, Citi Tower in Hong Kong, Habitas in Tulum, Mexico and all 19 Sandals Resorts International properties in the Caribbean. Leading sustainable brands including: Plaine Products, Raw Elements, Ball Aluminum Cups, are also amongst the inaugural brands set to be awarded with Blue’s new Product and Packaging Seals.

Recognizing the opportunity and potential for businesses to meet both business demand and environmental need, the Blue Standard has also created custom programs for industries including: hospitality, music, events, office spaces, professional sports, consumer packaged goods, and more. These specified offerings work together to further the environmental efforts within their respective fields while also establishing universal accountability and cohesive benchmarks for sustainable business leadership across industry. Oceanic Global believes that impact should be accessible and open-source, and so the Blue Standard additionally offers a suite of services including: free educational guides, step-by-step auditing and consultation, and buying deals with a network of 300+ vetted vendors, that make it both easy and cost-effective for businesses to transition away from single-use plastics and otherwise environmentally detrimental products and processes. In turn, due it’s comprehensive & solution-driven structure, the framework of the Blue Standard has been leveraged by international governments including those of: New York City, New York State, the United States, Barbados, Spain, and more, to help shape over 7 policies to-date.

“With businesses of all sizes increasingly adopting sustainable practices, we recognized both the need and the potential to create universal accountability for these efforts and for how they’re communicated to consumers. Our hope is that through empowering comprehensive commitments to sustainability and lasting systems change, The Blue Standard will work to create a new balance between industries and the natural world that sustains them.”  – Lea d’Auriol, Founder of Oceanic Global

“The health of our ocean is at a tipping point as is that of our collective well-being. Blue works to empower tangible action at all levels. We developed Blue to inspire the people and communities that make up businesses and industries to take continued action for our blue planet, and to maximize the positive impact we can all create in our immediate spheres and beyond.” – Cassia Patel, Program Director, Oceanic Global

Oceanic Global will celebrate the official launch of the Blue Standard via a free & open-to-the-public virtual event taking place on Thursday, October 7th live-streamed at both Noon EDT and Midnight EDT to accommodate varying time zones. The event will delve deeper into Blue’s offering and feature environmental and industry thought leaders alike including: John Warner (Senior Vice President, Chemistry & Distinguished Research Fellow at Zymergen Corporation), Sandra Noonan (Chief Sustainability Officer, Just Salad), and Eduardo Castillo (Co-Founder & Creative Director, HABITAS; DJ) and more. To learn more and register to attend visit bluestandard.com.

 

ABOUT OCEANIC GLOBAL

Founded in 2017 by Lea d’Auriol, Oceanic Global (OG) inspires us to care deeply for the ocean and provides solutions to protect it. The international non-profit sheds light on humanity’s essential relationship to the ocean and empowers individuals, communities, and industries to create positive change. Oceanic Global creates educational experiences, consults on sustainable operations, and engages local communities to generate measurable impact for our collective wellbeing. Oceanic Global has international hubs & volunteer bases in New York, London, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Tulum, and Hong Kong, and has additionally been the official non-profit and production partner to United Nations World Oceans Day since 2019. #CareDeeply | www.oceanic.global

ABOUT THE BLUE STANDARD

Launched in 2021 as an evolution of Oceanic Global’s long standing industry solution program (formerly known as the Oceanic Standard) The Blue Standard (Blue) combats greenwashing, establishes universal accountability for sustainable business leadership, and empowers industries and businesses of all sizes to achieve measurable impact that protects our blue planet. Developed together with Oceanic Global’s Scientific Advisory Board and trained experts in both WELL and LEED building rating systems, Blue features two core offerings: a 3-star sustainability verification system for Business Operations and Product and Packing Seals that verify plastic-free consumer goods. The Blue Standard offers specialized programs and consultation for industries including: hospitality, music, events, office spaces, professional sports, consumer packaged goods, and more, as well as free educational resources, step-by-step auditing and consultation support, and buying deals with a network of over 300+ vetted vendors to help businesses eliminate single-use plastics and operate sustainably. Blue has verified the sustainability achievements of over 400+ businesses across 26 countries to date, as well as helped over 7 environmental policies worldwide. www.bluestandard.com

Attachments


Natasha Berg
Oceanic Global
631-241-0398
natasha@oceanic.global
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New book highlights approaches to improve teaching and learning

Karachi, October 05, 2021 (PPI-OT): A collection on teaching teachers, ‘Signature Pedagogies of Teacher Education in Pakistan’ has been launched on World Teachers’ Day by the Aga Khan University’s Institute for Educational Development (IED) in Pakistan. The teaching profession depends on research, on a foundation of evidence-based efforts to understand the effectiveness of student learning, teaching and academic practice.

 

This book provides insights into planning and applying new repertoires of teaching in classrooms with adult learners, while demonstrating how these pedagogies meet international standards of teaching within the local context. It aims to prepare teachers and teacher educators as future leaders of change in their respective schools and communities – change makers who empower their students through interactive and independent modes of teaching.

 

“Each chapter in the book addresses the significance and applicability of selected pedagogy, its impact on student learning as well as its influence on policy in the current scenario of education in Pakistan,” says Dr Ayesha Bashiruddin, co-editor and former AKU faculty. “Through this book, we hope to share the ‘localized’ models adopted and implemented by IED faculty over the past three decades, with the wider higher education community in Pakistan and the developing world.”

 

“Using the appropriate pedagogies ensures that teachers put into practice teaching techniques, instructional materials and learning strategies in a manner that contributes significantly to improved student learning outcomes. We hope this book will promote communal discourse in teacher education to foster better ways of learning and teaching,” says Dr Nusrat Rizvi, co-editor and assistant professor at AKU.

 

The new book includes chapters by faculty: Drs Nusrat Fatima Rizvi, Nelofer Halai, Sadia Muzaffar Bhutta and Sajid Ali; and former AKU faculty: Drs Ayesha Bashiruddin and Mir Afzal Tajik, and Nahid Parween Anwar, Cassandra Fernandes-Faria and (late) Zubeda Bana.

 

For more information, contact:

Media Executive

Department of Public Affairs

Aga Khan University (AKU)

Stadium Road, Karachi

Tel: +92-21-34930051

Fax: +92-21-34934294, +92-21-34932095

Cell: +92-301-8258028

Email: rasool.sarang@aku.edu, public.affairs@aku.edu​

Website: www.aku.edu

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President of Pakistan applauded the role of Virtual University in promoting distance education and e-learning in Pakistan

Lahore, October 05, 2021 (PPI-OT): President Dr. Arif Alvi has called the prestigious team of Virtual University for the promotion of distance education and e-learning, which is cheaper and affordable for people in Pakistan. He emphasized the need for expanding the outreach of the Virtual University of Pakistan so that students from remote areas of the country could benefit from online education. The President expressed his views during a briefing on the Virtual University of Pakistan (VU), at Aiwan-e-Sadr, on September 29th, 2021.

 

Rector VU, Professor Dr. Arshad Saleem Bhatti, briefed the meeting about the role of the university in the promotion of online education and distance learning. He highlighted that currently 100,000 students were enrolled in various disciplines and over 80,000 students had graduated from the university. It was also informed that VU trained over 2 million students through digital skills platform, besides broadcasting lectures and educational content over its own four satellite TV channels.

 

Addressing the meeting, the President asked the management to chalk out a new vision and future plans for the university as per the requirements of the digital age and set timelines to achieve its goals and objectives. He also asked the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to expedite the work and finalize its policy for virtual education, which would benefit students belonging to remote areas of the country.

 

For more information, contact:

Virtual University of Pakistan (VU)

M.A. Jinnah Campus, Defence Road, Off Raiwind Road,

Lahore, Pakistan

Tel: +92-42-111-880-880

Fax: +92-42-99200604, +92-42-99202174

Website: www.vu.edu.pk

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Experts call for investor education, removal of inter-corporate dividend tax and excessive regulations to develop capital markets in Pakistan

Islamabad, October 05, 2021 (PPI-OT): There is a dire need to simplify the regulatory framework, increase participation of retailer investors and encourage the formation of holding companies by removing inter-corporate dividend tax to boost the development of capital markets in Pakistan, according to experts in a panel discussion organized by ACCA Pakistan (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), CFO Club and Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

 

The webinar featured prominent industry leaders and financial experts, including Sajjeed Aslam (Head of ACCA Pakistan), Shabbar Zaidi (Ex-Chairman FBR), Raeda Latif (Head of Marketing and Business Development, PSX), Asif Soomro (Managing Director, KASB Securities), Shehzad Dhedhi (Founder, CFO Club) and Imran Ahmed (CFO, Engro Fertilizers).

 

Delivering the opening remarks, Sajjeed Aslam shared that, “Pakistan has immense potential for growth in developing capital markets. We need to create financial literacy around capital markets and teach individuals how to invest and generate capital from their investments. We also need to enable start-ups and businesses to utilize debt funding and equity funding to increase their growth capital.”

 

According to Shabbar Zaidi, high market volatility is one of the reasons for low individual investors’ participation, while large pension funds also avoid investment in the stock market. He recommended that long-term investment should be encouraged through tax credits and excessive compliance requirements of listed companies should be removed for the listing of more entities.

 

“In the last few years, we have seen positive changes in the regulatory framework and we are becoming more transparent. PSX is also prioritizing investor education to encourage more participation of retail investors”, added Raeda Latif.

 

Asif Soomro suggested that the government should seriously reconsider the proposal to withdraw inter-corporate dividend tax relief as this is an excessive requirement. The relief was introduced after an extensive collaborative process and global benchmarking in 2007/8 to promote the formation of Holding Companies structures and corporatization of family-owned enterprises. Further, he also stressed on investor education, so they could learn to take a long-term view of the capital markets.

 

The participants concluded that regulators should develop a deeper understanding of the market prior to introducing new governance policies and legal framework. Based on the overwhelming response, ACCA Pakistan and CFO Club will be organizing similar sessions in future as well to enable dialogue on important aspects of the economy.

 

The session can be viewed on www.facebook.com/ACCA.Pakistan or https://www.facebook.com/engro.corporation/. At the time of writing, the session had crossed 500,000 views on Facebook alone.

 

For more information, contact:

Association of Chartered Certified Accountants Pakistan (ACCA)

Office No. 5, 2nd Floor, SNC Centre,

Fazal-ul-Haq Road, Blue Area, Islamabad, Pakistan

Tel: +92-51-111-222275

Fax: +92-51-2876605

Email: info@pk.accaglobal.com

Website: www.pakistan.accaglobal.com

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Pakistan and SDGs Targets

Islamabad, October 05, 2021 (PPI-OT): The Centre for Strategic Perspectives (CSP) at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) held a web-based panel discussion on October 5th, 2021, titled “Pakistan and SDGs Targets.” The panellists included; Dr. Lubna Naz, Assistant Professor IBA Karachi; Nadeem Ahmed, Social Policy Advisor; Mr. Amir Hussain, and Ahmed Naeem Salik, Research Fellow, CSP, ISSI. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Neelum Nigar, Director CSP.

Opening the panel discussion Dr. Nigar stated that Pakistan has made considerable progress by making SDGs part of Pakistan’s national policy and strategy including the five year plan provincial growth strategies. The government of Pakistan has designed and approved a national SDG framework that envisages a national vision to priorities and localize the SDGs, approved by Pakistan’s National Economic Council through which the provinces as well as the Federally Administered areas are guided to determine their development priorities.

In his welcome remarks Ambassador Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Director General ISSI said that there is no dearth of political will and ownership in Pakistan regarding the implementation of the SDGs as it is part of Pakistan’s Vision 2025; however, more is needed to be done on the implementation part. He highlighted that as geo-economics is becoming a priority of the government of Pakistan, focusing on traditional as well as non-traditional security issues, this automatically makes SDGs as part of the overarching policy priority.

Mr. Nadeem was of the view that the current SDG framework has provided enormous opportunity for sectors to participate in the development of Pakistan and move forward. Under the current government the SDG task force and support units have been established at the federal as well as at the provincial level for effective implementation of the devised policies. This further reflects the collective political will and ownership of SDGs.

Contributing to the discussion Dr. Naz touched upon the gender related issues and rights of women. She was of the view that there is an increased need to engage men in the country in educating them to prevent violence against women as it one of the major components of the SDGs. Moreover, she said that gender equality should be of highest priority for Pakistan as it is the fifth goal and a global priority while Pakistan ranks at 151 out of 153 in gender inequality.

Mr. Hussain in his remarks touched upon various other aspects of SDGs. He highlighted Pakistan spends only 2.3 percent on education and 40 percent of children under the age of five are stunted which shows that more resources are required to achieve the set targets by 2030. Mir Hussain further said that there is need to localize the SDGs in the context of national wealth.

On the issue of climate change Mr. Salik shed light on the fact that Pakistan has made the most progress on climate action which is goal 13 of the SDG plan and has achieved the goal ten years prior to the actual date. Through a properly orchestrated and dedicated approach as well as a policy which is properly implemented, Pakistan has been able to achieve the goal on climate action and is ahead of many countries.

Concluding the panel discussion, Chairman Board of Governors, Ambassador Khalid Mahmood said that the international community regardless of their difference has been making great efforts in mobilizing their resources to shape public opinion to achieve socio-economic progress. He was of the view that while the government of Pakistan is giving more importance to the SDGs, it is lacking in its implementation due to limited resources and capacity at the local. The discussion ended on the agreement that Pakistan must keep pursuing the quest for achieving the SDGs.

 

For more information, contact:

Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI)

Sector F-5/2, Islamabad – 44000, Pakistan

Tel: +92-51-9202481

Fax: +92-51-9204658

E-mail: strategy@issi.org.pk

Website: http://issi.org.pk/

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Punjab University, Social Welfare and Bait ul Mal to work for social welfare

Lahore, October 05, 2021 (PPI-OT): Punjab University Department of Development Communication (DDC) and Department of Social Welfare and Bait ul Mal (SW and BM;) Punjab have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop effective communication strategies for the betterment of the common man and bring positive change in society. In this regard, an agreement was signed at Punjab University here on Tuesday.

 

Punjab Minister for Social Welfare Syed Yawar Abbas Bukhari, Vice Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmad, Pro Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Saleem Mazhar, Dean Faculty of Information and Media Studies Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood, Secretary SW and BM; Hassan Iqbal, DG Bait ul Mal Shahid Niaz, DDC Chairperson Dr Ayesha Ashfaq, Director External Linkages Dr Sobia Khuram, Department of Digital Media Chairperson Dr Savera Shami, SB and WM; Director Programs Mrs Zaib Waseem, Head of Public Affairs and Govt Relations FrieslandCampina Engro Pakistan Saira Iftikhar, Head of Regular Affairs Angro Pakistan Dr Muhammad Nasir, Assistant Professor Mr Fahad Mahmood, Dr Shazia Ismail Toor and others participated in the ceremony.

 

In his address, the minister said that the government will benefit from the expertise of PU faculty members for the welfare of society. He said that the government was making efforts for skill and educational development of transgender. He said that the ministry had received funds, a site had been allocated and development work would start soon for this purpose. He said that the government had ensured a transparent mechanism for usage of public funds for their welfare. The minister said that SW and BM; would provide merit and need based scholarships to the students of DCC.

 

Mr Abbas said that a gold medal would also be awarded to the topper student of DDC every year. He said that SW and BM; will sponsor workshops and training programs and will help provide job opportunities to the DDC students. PU VC Prof Niaz Ahmad said that the administration was funding and encouraging those research projects which aimed at resolving social issues being faced by the country. He appreciated the efforts of Dr Ayesha Ashfaq for playing her role in solving social issues. SW and BM; Secretary Hassan Iqbal said that the department would develop a system to get appropriate feedback after completion of joint projects to improve further.

 

Dr Ayesha Ashfaq said that the DDC would provide research support to SW and BM; and help design communication strategies. She said that DDC teachers would help the Social Welfare Training Institute for capacity building in terms of effective communication, language and literacy, usage of ICTs and developing effective media campaigns. She said that the DDC would provide at least 20 volunteers to actively participate in community activities. She thanked PU VC Prof Niaz Ahmad for his encouragement and support. Later, PU VC Prof Niaz Ahmad presented souvenirs to the distinguished guests.

 

For more information, contact:

Registrar,

University of the Punjab

Quaid-e-Azam Campus, Lahore, Pakistan

Tel: +92-42-99231102

Fax: +92-42-99231103

E-Mail: registrar@pu.edu.pk

Website: http://pu.edu.pk/