People around the world love Uber and it’s plain to see with the company working in 60 countries around the world. However, some countries don’t like Uber quite as much, as it is banned in several countries, including the Netherlands, Spain, Thailand and Taiwan, and the list is growing. A majority of the protest comes from taxi drivers, with London’s Black Cab drivers filing a lawsuit this week against Uber. Their main arguments are that Uber’s insurance is not up to scratch, the company doesn’t pay tax like it should, its practices are unsupervised and unsafe and that driver and passenger data isn’t safe.

Image One: Taxi drivers demonstrate against Transport for London (TFL) outside the organisation’s offices in London, Britain May 26, 2015

Safety is a common argument brought up in the fight against Uber around the globe but it is as valid as it seems? It’s very hard to tell as there are many statistics and the media has potentially skewed the view. As Uber uses its app and no cash is actually transferred, it is not possible to have illegal Uber cabs. Furthermore there is little to suggest that there are any more assaults from Uber drivers than there are from regular drivers.

As previously mentioned, a main problem for Uber is insurance as many of it’s driver’s are signing up believing that they have the right type of insurance when they don’t, resulting in multiple lawsuits, with more coming Uber’s way.

Canada’s stance is mixed, with cities like Toronto embracing Uber, who has 500,000 customers per month, whereas Vancouver is on its way to banning the company from operating there. The outcome of this battle is yet to be seen.

Sources

http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-everywhere-uber-is-banned-around-the-world-2015-4

http://uk.businessinsider.com/ubers-enemies-have-clifford-chance-fighting-to-ban-it-here-are-the-5-big-arguments-2015-10

http://uk.businessinsider.com/despite-its-problems-uber-is-still-the-safest-way-to-order-a-taxi-2014-12

Image One: http://uk.businessinsider.com/ubers-enemies-have-clifford-chance-fighting-to-ban-it-here-are-the-5-big-arguments-2015-10

Some people assume that a company’s main goal to just to achieve the highest profit, often regardless of cost to other areas. It’s hard for sustainable consumption to be a goal for a firm, as they would want to sell as much of their good as possible. But could this change?

My inspiration to write a blog on overconsumption was sparked when I was sitting on a bus and a group of girls came in with multiple large bags of shopping each. This group struggled to find space on the cramped bus, as there was already another group of people with all their shopping too. I couldn’t help but wonder whether they actually needed it or how often they would actually use any of it. A large part of the overconsumption is that consumers are simply buying far too much than they need which occurs in all aspects of consumption. According to a report by Consulting firm Value Chain Management International, food waste costs Canada approximately $31 billion every year, which is a 15% increase from the estimated $27 billion four years ago. If society changed its view on consumption and tried to reduce its waste, perhaps these statistics would be lower, or at least decreasing instead of increasing. What’s more concerning is that we are running out of these resources but consumption and waste continues to increase.

Image One

However, it appears that as consumers become more aware of how much they are wasting and make better choices about the products they buy; the producers react and adjust to the demand. Like the trend increased demand for Fairtrade products is growing as people are becoming more aware of the production of the goods they purchase, hopefully the idea of decreasing will become increasing popular too. The change needed seems to be in the control of the consumer and therefore the responsibility of consumers.

Sources:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/food-waste-costs-canada-31b-a-year-report-says-1.2869708

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-consumption-production-social-responsibility

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/14/us-global-food-water-idUSKBN0N522Y20150414 

Image One: http://www.mavericksynfuels.com/feedstock/solid-waste/

Jordan Gaudet, a fellow Commerce 101 student, recently published a blog article titled “Why Are Companies Not On Board With Women Being On Boards?” which stated that a majority of women were not being given the same opportunities or credit as most men. As a fellow female, I feel conflicted about this topic, as much has changed in the world of female employment over the past few decades but I do agree that the level of equality still has a long way to go.

Image One

Whilst Jordan’s point is completely valid, I believe that there are other factors that could cause these statistics. For example, some women choose to take time off to start a family, often taking more time away from employment than just maternity leave. Alex Johnston (Executive Director of Catalyst Canada) said, “For one thing, the myth that there are not enough qualified women – because CEO posts are still dominated by men – needs to be debunked.” Overall, the sheer lack of motivation to put women in executive positions is saddening and a lot more change needs to occur in the setting of goals within companies. Luckily, more companies appear to be making more of an effort to change these statistics as the percentage of women on boards have increased steadily over the last decade. CIBC’s President and CEO announced this week “Our goal is to continue to move that upwards because we think it’s good for the company, it’s good for our culture, it’s good for business.” Hopefully more companies will follow suit in the future.

Sources:

Jordan Gaudet’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/jordangaudet/2015/09/29/why-are-companies-not-on-board-with-women-being-on-boards/

Image One: http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/statistical-overview-women-workplace

Quotes: http://www.coastreporter.net/cibc-to-set-target-numbers-for-women-on-board-in-senior-executive-roles-ceo-1.2071712