Category: Great Britain

  • MIL-OSI Security: Ansonia Man Arrested in Stamford Charged with Fentanyl Trafficking Offenses

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Marc H. Silverman, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Stephen P. Belleau, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England, today announced that DAQWON GRAHAM, also known as “Seagull” and “Energy,” 30, of Ansonia, was arrested yesterday on a federal criminal complaint charging him with fentanyl trafficking offenses.

    As alleged in court documents and statements made in court, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Bridgeport High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force and Stamford Police Department identified Graham as a large-scale fentanyl distributor in and around Fairfield County.  Investigators also connected Graham’s drug trafficking activities to an overdose death of a male victim in Branford in March 2023, and an overdose death of a female victim in Shelton in October 2024.  In January and February 2025, investigators made multiple controlled purchases of fentanyl from Graham.

    On February 26, 2025, Graham was arrested on High Ridge Road in Stamford.  It is alleged that Graham possessed approximately 400 grams of fentanyl at the time of his arrest.

    Following his arrest, Graham appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Dave Vatti in Bridgeport and was ordered detained.

    The complaint charges Graham with possession with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl, an offense that carries a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of five years and a maximum term of imprisonment of 40 years, and with use of a communications device to facilitate a drug trafficking felony, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of four years.

    Acting U.S. Attorney Silverman stressed that a complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  Charges are only allegations, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

    This matter is being investigated the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Bridgeport High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force.  The Task Force includes personnel from the DEA Bridgeport Resident Office, the Connecticut State Police, and the Bridgeport, Danbury, Norwalk, Stamford, and Stratford Police Departments.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren C. Clark.

    MIL Security OSI

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Prime Minister’s remarks at the White House Press Conference: Thursday 27 February

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Speech

    Prime Minister’s remarks at the White House Press Conference: Thursday 27 February

    Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s opening remarks at the White House press conference.

    Thank you very much, Mr President.

    Thank you for your hospitality, thank you for your leadership.

    This has been a very good and very productive visit.

    And with your family roots in Scotland…

    And your close bond with His Majesty the King…

    It’s good to know…

    That the United Kingdom has a true friend in the Oval Office.

    And it was so good to see the bust of Winston Churchill back in its rightful place just a moment ago.

    But look, in a moment of real danger around the world…

    This relationship matters more than ever.

    We remain each other’s first partner in defence…

    Ready to come to the other’s aid…

    To counter threats, wherever and whenever they may arise.

    No two militaries are more intertwined than ours.

    No two countries have done more together to keep people safe.

    And in a few weeks’ time we’ll mark VE Day…

    The 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe.

    Britain and America fought side-by-side to make that happen –

    One of the greatest moments in our history.

    We stand side-by-side still, today…

    And we’re focused now…

    On bringing an enduring end to the barbaric war in Ukraine.

    Mr President, I welcome your deep, personal commitment…

    To bring peace and stop the killing.

    You have created a moment of tremendous opportunity…

    To reach an historic peace deal –

    A deal that would be celebrated in Ukraine and around the world.

    That is the prize.

    But we have to get it right.

    There’s a famous slogan in the United Kingdom…

    From after the Second World War –

    That is that we have to “win the peace.”

    And that’s what we must do now.

    Because it can’t be a peace that rewards the aggressor…

    Or that gives succour to regimes like Iran.

    We agree – history must be on the side of the peacemaker…

    Not the invader.

    So the stakes, they could not be higher.

    And we’re determined to work together to deliver a good deal.

    We’ve discussed a plan today…

    To reach a peace that is tough and fair…

    That Ukraine will help to shape…

    That is backed by strength –

    To stop Putin coming back for more.

    And I am working closely with other European leaders on this.

    And I am clear –

    That the UK is ready…

    To put boots on the ground and planes in the air to support a deal.

    Working together with our allies,

    Because that is the only way that peace that will last.

    Mr President, in this new era…

    You’re also right that Europe must step up.

    And let me tell you now –

    I see the growing threats we face…

    And so the UK is all in.

    This year we will be giving more military aid to Ukraine than ever.

    And just this week…

    I have set out how we are shouldering more of the security burden.

    We’re already one of the biggest spenders in NATO…

    And now we are going much further…

    Delivering Britain’s biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War.

    This isn’t just talk – it’s action.

    Rebalancing the transatlantic alliance…

    Making us all stronger…

    And standing up for our shared values and shared security…

    As Britain always has.

    Now, Mr President…

    It’s no secret we’re from different political traditions…

    But there is a lot that we have in common.

    We believe it’s not taking part that counts…

    What counts is winning.

    If you don’t win – you don’t deliver.

    And we’re determined to deliver for the working people of Britain and America –

    Who want – and deserve – to see their lives improve.

    So we’re both in a hurry to get things done.

    And that’s what the UK and the US do when we work together:

    We win – and we get things done.

    So we’ll do what it takes to keep our people safe… 

    We will also work together…

    To deliver some big economic wins that can benefit us both.

    We have $1.5 trillion invested in each other’s economies…

    Creating over 2.5 million jobs across both economies.

    Our trading relationship is not just strong –

    It is fair, balanced and reciprocal.

    We’re leaders together in so many areas…

    Ranked one and two in the world as investment destinations…

    One and two for universities…

    One and two for Nobel prizes…

    One and two in golf, as well – by the way…

    And we’re the only two western countries with trillion dollar tech sectors –

    Leaders in AI…

    And look, we take a similar approach on this issue.

    Instead of over-regulating these new technologies…

    We’re seizing the opportunities they offer.

    So we have decided today to go further…

    To begin work on a new economic deal…

    With advanced technology at its core…

    Look – our two nations, together…

    Shaped the great technological innovations of the last century.

    We have a chance now…

    To do the same for the 21st century…

    I mean – artificial intelligence could cure cancer…

    That could be a moonshot for our age…

    And that’s how we will keep delivering for our people.

    There are so many opportunities.

    Keep our nations strong…

    And fulfil the promise of greatness…

    That has always defined this relationship.

    Finally, to underline the importance of this bond…

    It was my privilege and honour to bring a letter with me today –

    From His Majesty the King…

    Not only sending his best wishes…

    But also inviting the President and the First Lady to make a State Visit to the United Kingdom…

    An unprecedented second State Visit – this has never happened before.

    It’s so incredible it will be historic.

    And I’m delighted that I can go back to His Majesty The King and tell him that President Trump has accepted the invitation.

    So thank you.

    Our teams will now work together to set a date.

    Mr President, we look forward to welcoming you in the United Kingdom.

    Thank you once again.

    Updates to this page

    Published 27 February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Building Australia’s future on the Central Coast

    Source: Australian Ministers for Regional Development

    The Australian Government is building Australia’s future on the New South Wales Central Coast by delivering $15 million over two years to plan for better and safer road connections in Empire Bay.

    The Empire Bay Drive Intersection Strategy – Planning project will deliver a strategy to upgrade intersections servicing Empire Bay and surrounding communities.

    This will include consideration of the intersection of Empire Bay Drive and Wards Hill Road.

    The Empire Bay Drive and Wards Hill Road intersection is used by thousands of motorists each day and is an important transport connection to Empire Bay Public School, as well as access to the Bouddi National Park.

    These vital planning works will have a road safety focus and deliver a business case for future upgrades. 

    The Australian Government is investing $21 billion towards transport infrastructure projects in NSW.

    For more information on projects funded under the Australian Government’s Infrastructure Investment Program, visit https://investment.infrastructure.gov.au.

    Quotes attributable to Treasurer Jim Chalmers: 

    “This important investment in local roads will help people get home sooner and safer.

    “It’s all about making our roads safer and our communities more accessible.

    “The Central Coast makes a big contribution to our country and this project will boost both the local community and our national economy.”

    Quotes attributable to Federal Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister Catherine King:

    “We want to ensure that both locals and tourists on the Central Coast can get where they need go efficiently and safely.   

    “These planning works will be the first critical step in guiding our future investments in Empire Bay Drive and the surrounding intersections.”

    Quotes attributable to Federal Member for Robertson Gordon Reid:

    “These crucial planning works will support decision making on future priority upgrades to improve the safety and connectivity of key roads and intersections in Empire Bay and surrounding communities.

    This funding from the Australian Government would not have been possible without the support of almost a thousand local residents who signed our petition to get this intersection fixed.

    Thank you to the local community as well as local businesses who ensured this petition was a success.”

    MIL OSI News

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Australian Deputy PM: Building Australia’s future on the Central Coast

    Source: Minister of Infrastructure

    The Australian Government is building Australia’s future on the New South Wales Central Coast by delivering $15 million over two years to plan for better and safer road connections in Empire Bay.

    The Empire Bay Drive Intersection Strategy – Planning project will deliver a strategy to upgrade intersections servicing Empire Bay and surrounding communities.

    This will include consideration of the intersection of Empire Bay Drive and Wards Hill Road.

    The Empire Bay Drive and Wards Hill Road intersection is used by thousands of motorists each day and is an important transport connection to Empire Bay Public School, as well as access to the Bouddi National Park.

    These vital planning works will have a road safety focus and deliver a business case for future upgrades. 

    The Australian Government is investing $21 billion towards transport infrastructure projects in NSW.

    For more information on projects funded under the Australian Government’s Infrastructure Investment Program, visit https://investment.infrastructure.gov.au.

    Quotes attributable to Treasurer Jim Chalmers: 

    “This important investment in local roads will help people get home sooner and safer.

    “It’s all about making our roads safer and our communities more accessible.

    “The Central Coast makes a big contribution to our country and this project will boost both the local community and our national economy.”

    Quotes attributable to Federal Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister Catherine King:

    “We want to ensure that both locals and tourists on the Central Coast can get where they need go efficiently and safely.   

    “These planning works will be the first critical step in guiding our future investments in Empire Bay Drive and the surrounding intersections.”

    Quotes attributable to Federal Member for Robertson Gordon Reid:

    “These crucial planning works will support decision making on future priority upgrades to improve the safety and connectivity of key roads and intersections in Empire Bay and surrounding communities.

    This funding from the Australian Government would not have been possible without the support of almost a thousand local residents who signed our petition to get this intersection fixed.

    Thank you to the local community as well as local businesses who ensured this petition was a success.”

    MIL OSI News

  • MIL-OSI Security: Northwest Arkansas Man Sentenced to More Than Four Years in Prison for Operating an Illegal Money Transmitting Business Using Pandemic Funds

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

    FAYETTEVILLE – A Northwest Arkansas man was sentenced on February 20, to 51 months in Federal Prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Additionally, he was ordered to pay restitution of $725,558.00 on one count of operating an Illegal Money Transmitting Business. The Honorable Judge Timothy L. Brooks presided over the sentencing hearing, which took place in the United States District Court in Fayetteville.

    According to court documents, Richard Harold Stone, age 77, waived indictment by a grand jury and pleaded guilty to a criminal information charging him with conducting an unlicensed money transmitting business in the State of Arkansas. Stone was the President or Chief Officer of numerous businesses registered with the Arkansas Secretary of State, including: Partex Oman Corp., Renewable Energy Campus Arkansas, Inc., Stonetek Global Corp., and Tires 2 Energy, LLC. Stone also was associated with Environmental Energy & Finance Corp., a Delaware corporation. The advertised purpose of these businesses was developing technology and facilities to repurpose waste materials, such as tires, into useable fuel sources. None of these businesses were registered with the State of Arkansas as a money transmitting business, as required by Arkansas law (Arkansas Code, Section 23-55-806(b)&(c)).

    Between November 2020 and March 2021, Stone received through various bank accounts associated with the above entities and other accounts under his control, deposits of funds from applications made on behalf of unwitting victims for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, Economic Impact Disaster Loans (EIDL), and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), totaling more than $600,000. After receiving these funds, Stone immediately transferred most of the funds by wire transfer to parties in locations including Berne, Switzerland; London, England; New York, NY; Chennai, India; and Mumbai, India.

    At the conclusion of Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Stone was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

    U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes of the Western District of Arkansas made the announcement.

    The Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General investigated the case.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Bridges is prosecuting the case.

    Related court documents may be found on the Public Access to Electronic Records website at www.pacer.gov.

    MIL Security OSI

  • MIL-OSI: Sunrun Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Financial Results

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Cash Generation of $34 million in Q4 after safe harbor equipment purchases, third consecutive quarter of positive Cash Generation

    Paid down $132 million of recourse debt in Q4 with excess cash

    Cash Generation guidance of $200 million to $500 million in 2025

    Cash Generation guidance of $40 to $50 million in Q1

    Net Earning Assets increased to $6.8 billion, including $947 million of Total Cash

    Storage Capacity Installed of 392 Megawatt hours in Q4, exceeding high-end of guidance range and representing 78% year-over-year growth, as storage attachment rates reach 62%

    Solar Energy Capacity Installed of 242 Megawatts in Q4, within the guidance range, reaching 7.5 Gigawatts of Networked Solar Energy Capacity

    SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sunrun (Nasdaq: RUN), the nation’s leading provider of clean energy as a subscription service, today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2024.

    “We are growing, generating meaningful cash, increasing our book value of deployed systems, and paying down debt. We are poised to further improve our operating and financial results, and deliver a very strong 2025 with meaningful Cash Generation. Our actions to optimize our product mix, prioritize the highest value geographies and routes to market and an intense focus on cost as we grow have resulted in the highest Net Subscriber Values Sunrun has ever reported,” said Mary Powell, Sunrun’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are improving in every dimension we control – focusing on fast, effective execution, delivering strong financial and operating results, gaining share in a disciplined way, while building a long-term foundation of valuable grid resources.”

    “In the fourth quarter, we again set new margin records and delivered the third consecutive quarter of Cash Generation. We continue to execute well in the capital markets, raising more than $4 billion in asset-level debt and tax equity financing during 2024, and more than $800 million in non-recourse debt financing year-to-date. We have extended our runway of tax equity commitments and term sheets, including $1.3 billion added year-to-date,” said Danny Abajian, Sunrun’s Chief Financial Officer. “We have a strong balance sheet with no near-term corporate debt maturities and have paid down recourse parent debt by $186 million since March, including a $132 million paydown using excess cash in Q4. As we increase our Cash Generation, we will continue to further pay down parent recourse debt and are committed to a capital allocation strategy beyond this initial de-leveraging period that drives significant shareholder value.”

    Fourth Quarter Updates

    • Storage Attachment Rates Reach 62%: Customer Additions with storage grew more than 50% during the quarter compared to the prior-year period. Storage attachment rates on installations reached 62% in Q4, up from 45% in the prior-year period, with 392 Megawatt hours installed during the quarter. Sunrun has installed more than 156,000 solar and storage systems, representing over 2.5 Gigawatt hours of stored energy capacity.
    • Continued Strong Capital Markets Execution: In January 2025, Sunrun priced a $629 million securitization of residential solar and battery systems. The securitization is Sunrun’s thirteenth securitization since 2015 and first issuance in 2025. The oversubscribed transaction was structured with three separate classes of A rated notes, only two of which were publicly offered. The weighted average spread of the notes was 197 basis points, which was an improvement of approximately 38 basis points from our prior securitization in September. Similar to prior transactions, Sunrun raised additional capital in a subordinated non-recourse financing, which increased the cumulative advance rate to above 80% as measured against the initial Contracted Subscriber Value of the portfolio.
    • Paying Down Recourse Debt: We continue to pay down parent recourse debt. During the fourth quarter, we repurchased $125.5 million in principal of our 2026 Convertible Notes. As of December 31, 2024 we had only $7.7 million outstanding of these notes, which we may repurchase in 2025. Since March 31, 2024 we have paid down recourse debt by $186 million, by repurchasing our 2026 Convertible Notes and reducing borrowings under our recourse Working Capital Facility. We have also increased our Total Cash balance by $164 million and grown Net Earning Assets by $1.5 billion. We expect to further pay down our recourse debt in 2025 by $100 million or more. Aside from the $7.7 million outstanding of our 2026 Convertible Notes, we have no recourse debt maturities until March 2027. Over time we will explore further capital allocation options to maximize shareholder value, based on market conditions and our long-term outlook.
    • Improving Grid Stability with Virtual Power Plants: During 2024, Sunrun’s virtual power plants (VPPs) successfully supported power grids across the country with a combined instantaneous peak of nearly 80 megawatts—a capacity greater than many traditional fossil-fuel power plants. These innovative programs leveraged Sunrun’s fleet of residential solar and battery systems—the largest in America—empowering customers to generate, store, and share their own solar energy. In 2024, more than 20,000 Sunrun customers participated in 16 virtual power plant programs across nine states and territories. From California and Texas to Puerto Rico and New England, the customers’ batteries supplied on-demand, stored solar energy to augment power resources during hundreds of critical energy events.

    Key Operating Metrics

    In the fourth quarter of 2024, Customer Additions were 32,932 including 30,709 Subscriber Additions. As of December 31, 2024, Sunrun had 1,048,842 Customers, including 889,186 Subscribers. Customers grew 12% in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.

    Annual Recurring Revenue from Subscribers was approximately $1.6 billion as of December 31, 2024. The Average Contract Life Remaining of Subscribers was 17.6 years as of December 31, 2024.

    Subscriber Value was $55,811 in the fourth quarter of 2024, a 11% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. Creation Cost was $36,634 in the fourth quarter of 2024, a 1% decrease compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.

    Net Subscriber Value was $19,177 in the fourth quarter of 2024. Total Value Generated was $589 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. On a pro-forma basis assuming a 7.3% discount rate, consistent with capital costs observed in the quarter, Subscriber Value was $50,998 and Net Subscriber Value was $14,364 in the fourth quarter of 2024.

    Gross Earning Assets as of December 31, 2024, were $17.8 billion. Net Earning Assets were $6.8 billion, which included $947 million in Total Cash, as of December 31, 2024.

    Cash Generation was $34.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, the third consecutive quarter of positive Cash Generation.

    Storage Capacity Installed was 392.0 Megawatt hours in the fourth quarter of 2024, a 78% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.

    Solar Energy Capacity Installed was 242.4 Megawatts in the fourth quarter of 2024, a 7% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. Included in this figure is 232.0 Megawatts of Solar Energy Capacity Installed for Subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2024, an 11% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.

    Networked Solar Energy Capacity was 7,531 Megawatts as of December 31, 2024. Included in this figure is 6,436 Megawatts of Networked Solar Energy Capacity for Subscribers as of December 31, 2024.

    Networked Storage Capacity was 2.5 Gigawatt hours as of December 31, 2024.

    The solar energy systems we deployed in Q4 are expected to offset the emission of 4.8 million metric tons of CO2 over the next thirty years. Over the last twelve months ended December 31, 2024, Sunrun’s systems are estimated to have offset 4.0 million metric tons of CO2.

    Outlook

    Cash Generation is expected to be in a range of $40 million to $50 million in the first quarter of 2025.

    For the full-year 2025, Cash Generation is expected to be in a range of $200 million to $500 million.

    Storage Capacity Installed is expected to be in a range of 265 to 275 Megawatt hours in the first quarter of 2025, representing approximately 30% growth year over year at the midpoint.

    Solar Energy Capacity Installed is expected to be in a range of 170 to 180 Megawatts in the first quarter of 2025, representing approximately flat year over year growth at the midpoint.

    For the full-year 2025, the Company expects robust growth in Storage Capacity Installed year over year, and Solar Energy Capacity Installed is expected to be approximately flat year over year.

    Fourth Quarter 2024 GAAP Results

    Total revenue was $518.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, up $1.9 million, or 0%, from the fourth quarter of 2023. Customer agreements and incentives revenue was $388.6 million, an increase of $67.0 million, or 21%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. Solar energy systems and product sales revenue was $129.9 million, a decrease of $65.1 million, or 33%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. The increasing mix of Subscribers results in less upfront revenue recognition, as revenue is recognized over the life of the Customer Agreement, which is typically 20 or 25 years.

    Total cost of revenue was $421.0 million, a decrease of 13% year-over-year. Total operating expenses were $652.6 million, a decrease of 9% year-over-year, on a pro-forma basis to exclude a non-cash goodwill impairment, which was incurred in the fourth quarter of 2024.

    Net loss attributable to common stockholders was $2,813.7 million, or $12.51 per basic and diluted share for the fourth quarter of 2024. Pro forma to exclude non-cash impairment charges, results in non-GAAP net income of $360.9 million or $1.41 per diluted share for the fourth quarter of 2024.

    Full Year 2024 GAAP Results

    Total revenue was $2,037.7 million in the full year 2024, down $222.1 million, or 10%, from the full year 2023. Customer agreements and incentives revenue was $1,505.2 million, an increase of $318.5 million, or 27%, compared to the full year 2023. Solar energy systems and product sales revenue was $532.5 million, a decrease of $540.6 million, or 50%, compared to the full year 2023.

    Total cost of revenue was $1,709.2 million, a decrease of 18% year-over-year. Total operating expenses were $2,610.8 million, a decrease of 15% year-over year, on a pro-forma basis to exclude non-cash goodwill impairment, which was incurred in both the full year 2023 and full year 2024.

    During the year, Sunrun recorded a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of approximately $3.1 billion. Due to the decline in our stock price, we wrote down our goodwill balance of $3.1 billion in its entirety during the fourth quarter of 2024. The goodwill primarily arose following the stock-for-stock acquisition of Vivint Solar in October 2020, with the majority arising from and determined based on the market capitalizations at the time of the acquisition. The Company recorded a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $3.1 billion, or $14.05 per basic share, in our Consolidated Statement of Operations for the full year 2024, which was reflected in the Company’s fourth quarter results.

    Net loss attributable to common stockholders was $2,846.2 million, or $12.81 per basic and diluted share for the full year 2024. Pro-forma to exclude non-cash impairment charges, results in non-GAAP net income of $333.7 million or $1.33 per diluted share for the full-year 2024.

    Financing Activities

    As of February 27, 2025, closed transactions and executed term sheets provide us with expected tax equity to fund over 500 Megawatts of Solar Energy Capacity Installed for Subscribers beyond what was deployed through December 31, 2024. Sunrun also has $680 million in unused commitments available in its non-recourse senior revolving warehouse loan after the January securitization, to fund approximately 230 megawatts of projects for Subscribers.

    Conference Call Information

    Sunrun is hosting a conference call for analysts and investors to discuss its fourth quarter and full year 2024 results and business outlook at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time today, February 27, 2025. A live audio webcast of the conference call along with supplemental financial information will be accessible via the “Investor Relations” section of Sunrun’s website at https://investors.sunrun.com. The conference call can also be accessed live over the phone by dialing (877) 407-5989 (toll free) or (201) 689-8434 (toll). An audio replay will be available following the call on the Sunrun Investor Relations website for approximately one month.

    About Sunrun

    Sunrun Inc. (Nasdaq: RUN) revolutionized the solar industry in 2007 by removing financial barriers and democratizing access to locally-generated, renewable energy. Today, Sunrun is the nation’s leading provider of clean energy as a subscription service, offering residential solar and storage with no upfront costs. Sunrun’s innovative products and solutions can connect homes to the cleanest energy on earth, providing them with energy security, predictability, and peace of mind. Sunrun also manages energy services that benefit communities, utilities, and the electric grid while enhancing customer value. Discover more at www.sunrun.com

    Non-GAAP Information

    This press release includes references to certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as non-GAAP net (loss) income and non-GAAP net (loss) income per share. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures, when reviewed in conjunction with GAAP financial measures, can provide meaningful supplemental information for investors regarding the performance of our business and facilitate a meaningful evaluation of current period performance on a comparable basis with prior periods. Our management uses these non-GAAP financial measures in order to have comparable financial results to analyze changes in our underlying business from quarter to quarter. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered as a supplement to, and not as a substitute for or superior to the GAAP financial measures presented in this press release and our financial statements and other publicly filed reports. Non-GAAP measures as presented herein may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies.

    Non-GAAP net (loss) income is defined as GAAP net (loss) income adjusted by the non-cash goodwill impairment charge, non-cash adjustment to equity investments, and the debt discount amortization. Management believes the exclusion of this non-cash and non-recurring item provides useful supplemental information to investors and facilitates the analysis of its operating results and comparison of operating results across reporting periods.

    Forward Looking Statements

    This communication contains forward-looking statements related to Sunrun (the “Company”) within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements related to: the Company’s financial and operating guidance and expectations; the Company’s business plan, trajectory, expectations, market leadership, competitive advantages, operational and financial results and metrics (and the assumptions related to the calculation of such metrics); the Company’s momentum in its business strategies including expectations regarding market share, total addressable market, growth in certain geographies, customer value proposition, market penetration, growth of certain divisions, financing activities, financing capacity, product mix, and ability to manage cash flow and liquidity; the growth of the solar industry; the Company’s financing activities and expectations to refinance, amend, and/or extend any financing facilities; trends or potential trends within the solar industry, our business, customer base, and market; the Company’s ability to derive value from the anticipated benefits of partnerships, new technologies, and pilot programs, including contract renewal and repowering programs; anticipated demand, market acceptance, and market adoption of the Company’s offerings, including new products, services, and technologies; the Company’s strategy to be a margin-focused, multi-product, customer-oriented company; the ability to increase margins based on a shift in product focus; expectations regarding the growth of home electrification, electric vehicles, virtual power plants, and distributed energy resources; the Company’s ability to manage suppliers, inventory, and workforce; supply chains and regulatory impacts affecting supply chains; the Company’s leadership team and talent development; the legislative and regulatory environment of the solar industry and the potential impacts of proposed, amended, and newly adopted legislation and regulation on the solar industry and our business; the ongoing expectations regarding the Company’s storage and energy services businesses and anticipated emissions reductions due to utilization of the Company’s solar energy systems; and factors outside of the Company’s control such as macroeconomic trends, bank failures, public health emergencies, natural disasters, acts of war, terrorism, geopolitical conflict, or armed conflict / invasion, and the impacts of climate change. These statements are not guarantees of future performance; they reflect the Company’s current views with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and estimates and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from expectations or results projected or implied by forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties that could cause the Company’s results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include: the Company’s continued ability to manage costs and compete effectively; the availability of additional financing on acceptable terms; worldwide economic conditions, including slow or negative growth rates and inflation; volatile or rising interest rates; changes in policies and regulations, including net metering, interconnection limits, and fixed fees, or caps and licensing restrictions and the impact of these changes on the solar industry and our business; the Company’s ability to attract and retain the Company’s business partners; supply chain risks and associated costs; realizing the anticipated benefits of past or future investments, partnerships, strategic transactions, or acquisitions, and integrating those acquisitions; the Company’s leadership team and ability to attract and retain key employees; changes in the retail prices of traditional utility generated electricity; the availability of rebates, tax credits and other incentives; the availability of solar panels, batteries, and other components and raw materials; the Company’s business plan and the Company’s ability to effectively manage the Company’s growth and labor constraints; the Company’s ability to meet the covenants in the Company’s investment funds and debt facilities; factors impacting the home electrification and solar industry generally, and such other risks and uncertainties identified in the reports that we file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. All forward-looking statements used herein are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we assume no obligation to update publicly these forward-looking statements for any reason, except as required by law.

    Citations to industry and market statistics used herein may be found in our Investor Presentation, available via the “Investor Relations” section of Sunrun’s website at https://investors.sunrun.com.

    Consolidated Balance Sheets
    (In Thousands)
        As of December 31,
          2024     2023
    Assets        
    Current assets:        
    Cash   $ 574,956   $ 678,821
    Restricted cash     372,312     308,869
    Accounts receivable, net     170,706     172,001
    Inventories     402,083     459,746
    Prepaid expenses and other current assets     202,579     262,822
    Total current assets     1,722,636     1,882,259
    Restricted cash     148     148
    Solar energy systems, net     15,032,115     13,028,871
    Property and equipment, net     121,239     149,139
    Goodwill         3,122,168
    Other assets     3,021,746     2,267,652
    Total assets   $ 19,897,884   $ 20,450,237
    Liabilities and total equity        
    Current liabilities:        
    Accounts payable   $ 354,214   $ 230,723
    Distributions payable to noncontrolling interests and redeemable noncontrolling interests     41,464     35,180
    Accrued expenses and other liabilities     543,752     499,225
    Deferred revenue, current portion     129,442     128,600
    Deferred grants, current portion     7,900     8,199
    Finance lease obligations, current portion     26,045     22,053
    Non-recourse debt, current portion     231,665     547,870
    Pass-through financing obligation, current portion         16,309
    Total current liabilities     1,334,482     1,488,159
    Deferred revenue, net of current portion     1,208,905     1,067,461
    Deferred grants, net of current portion     196,535     195,724
    Finance lease obligations, net of current portion     66,139     68,753
    Line of credit     384,226     539,502
    Non-recourse debt, net of current portion     11,806,181     9,191,689
    Convertible senior notes     479,420     392,867
    Pass-through financing obligation, net of current portion         278,333
    Other liabilities     119,846     190,866
    Deferred tax liabilities     137,940     122,870
    Total liabilities     15,733,674     13,536,224
    Redeemable noncontrolling interests     624,159     676,177
    Total stockholders’ equity     2,554,207     5,230,228
    Noncontrolling interests     985,844     1,007,608
    Total equity     3,540,051     6,237,836
    Total liabilities, redeemable noncontrolling interests and total equity   $ 19,897,884   $ 20,450,237
    Consolidated Statements of Operations
    (In Thousands, Except Per Share Amounts)

        Three Months Ended
    December 31,
      Year Ended
    December 31,
          2024       2023       2024       2023  
    Revenue:                
    Customer agreements and incentives   $ 388,574     $ 321,555     $ 1,505,227     $ 1,186,706  
    Solar energy systems and product sales     129,918       195,035       532,492       1,073,107  
    Total revenue     518,492       516,590       2,037,719       2,259,813  
    Operating expenses:                
    Cost of customer agreements and incentives     292,632       287,780       1,169,213       1,077,114  
    Cost of solar energy systems and product sales     128,361       194,808       539,952       1,019,638  
    Sales and marketing     150,751       166,760       617,162       740,821  
    Research and development     8,794       7,663       39,304       21,816  
    General and administrative     72,045       57,110       245,127       221,067  
    Goodwill Impairment     3,122,168             3,122,168       1,158,000  
    Total operating expenses     3,774,751       714,121       5,732,926       4,238,456  
    Loss from operations     (3,256,259 )     (197,531 )     (3,695,207 )     (1,978,643 )
    Interest expense, net     (233,385 )     (181,826 )     (848,366 )     (652,989 )
    Other income (expense), net     89,829       (157,644 )     161,539       (63,900 )
    Loss before income taxes     (3,399,815 )     (537,001 )     (4,382,034 )     (2,695,532 )
    Income tax benefit     136       (1,595 )     (26,817 )     (12,691 )
    Net loss     (3,399,951 )     (535,406 )     (4,355,217 )     (2,682,841 )
    Net loss attributable to noncontrolling interests and redeemable noncontrolling interests     (586,294 )     (185,282 )     (1,509,050 )     (1,078,344 )
    Net loss attributable to common stockholders   $ (2,813,657 )   $ (350,124 )   $ (2,846,167 )   $ (1,604,497 )
    Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders                
    Basic   $ (12.51 )   $ (1.60 )   $ (12.81 )   $ (7.41 )
    Diluted   $ (12.51 )   $ (1.60 )   $ (12.81 )   $ (7.41 )
    Weighted average shares used to compute net loss per share attributable to common stockholders                
    Basic     224,896       218,461       222,215       216,642  
    Diluted     224,896       218,461       222,215       216,642  
    Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
    (In Thousands)

        Three Months Ended December 31,   Year Ended December 31,
          2024       2023       2024       2023  
    Operating activities:                
    Net loss   $ (3,399,951 )   $ (535,406 )   $ (4,355,217 )   $ (2,682,841 )
    Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities:                
    Depreciation and amortization, net of amortization of deferred grants     162,343       143,024       620,876       531,669  
    Goodwill impairment     3,122,168             3,122,168       1,158,000  
    Deferred income taxes     136       (1,623 )     (26,817 )     (12,716 )
    Stock-based compensation expense     28,869       27,555       112,825       111,781  
    Interest on pass-through financing obligations           4,862       8,837       19,504  
    Reduction in pass-through financing obligations           (9,820 )     (20,787 )     (40,352 )
    Unrealized (gain) loss on derivatives     (122,319 )     108,226       (120,008 )     28,105  
    Other noncash items     105,220       118,956       210,479       261,390  
    Changes in operating assets and liabilities:                
    Accounts receivable     5,741       5,762       (14,974 )     15,748  
    Inventories     (59,735 )     202,055       57,663       324,158  
    Prepaid expenses and other current assets     (301,380 )     (142,438 )     (771,997 )     (476,628 )
    Accounts payable     141,070       (52,514 )     177,449       (108,785 )
    Accrued expenses and other liabilities     4,182       (31,986 )     80,588       (56,473 )
    Deferred revenue     55,297       47,340       152,762       106,700  
    Net cash used in operating activities     (258,359 )     (116,007 )     (766,153 )     (820,740 )
    Investing activities:                
    Payments for the costs of solar energy systems     (791,785 )     (651,462 )     (2,699,452 )     (2,587,183 )
    Purchase of equity investment           (5,000 )           (5,000 )
    Purchases of property and equipment, net     (627 )     (4,662 )     (1,572 )     (20,960 )
    Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities     (792,412 )     (661,124 )     (2,701,024 )     (2,613,143 )
    Financing activities:                
    Proceeds from state tax credits, net of recapture                 5,203       4,033  
    Proceeds from trade receivable financing     124,261       41,225       124,261       41,225  
    Repayment of trade receivable financing           (41,225 )           (41,225 )
    Proceeds from line of credit     48,700       473,277       354,256       1,124,675  
    Repayment of line of credit     (56,998 )     (451,023 )     (509,532 )     (1,090,331 )
    Proceeds from issuance of convertible senior notes, net of capped call transaction                 444,822        
    Repurchase of convertible senior notes     (117,235 )     (1,545 )     (346,581 )     (1,545 )
    Proceeds from issuance of non-recourse debt     644,950       556,100       4,009,906       3,745,580  
    Repayment of non-recourse debt     (102,748 )     (175,728 )     (1,794,962 )     (1,575,527 )
    Payment of debt fees     (128 )     (412 )     (93,875 )     (47,342 )
    Proceeds from pass-through financing and other obligations, net           2,100       4,795       8,812  
    Repayment of pass-through financing obligation                 (240,288 )      
    Payment of finance lease obligations     (6,605 )     (6,484 )     (27,240 )     (23,279 )
    Contributions received from noncontrolling interests and redeemable noncontrolling interests     521,480       459,858       1,811,966       1,572,399  
    Distributions paid to noncontrolling interests and redeemable noncontrolling interests     (70,269 )     (51,578 )     (308,657 )     (225,114 )
    Acquisition of noncontrolling interest     (4,761 )           (26,195 )     (46,274 )
    Proceeds from transfer of investment tax credits     148,586       6,980       705,697       6,980  
    Payments to redeemable noncontrolling interests and noncontrolling interests of investment tax credits     (148,586 )     (6,980 )     (705,697 )     (6,980 )
    Net proceeds related to stock-based award activities     6,923       8,459       18,876       22,611  
    Net cash provided by financing activities     987,570       813,024       3,426,755       3,468,698  
    Net change in cash and restricted cash     (63,201 )     35,893       (40,422 )     34,815  
    Cash and restricted cash, beginning of period     1,010,617       951,945       987,838       953,023  
    Cash and restricted cash, end of period   $ 947,416     $ 987,838     $ 947,416     $ 987,838  
    Reconciliation between GAAP and Non-GAAP diluted (loss) income per share:

        Three Months Ended
    December 31, 2024
      Year Ended
    December 31, 2024
        Net (Loss)
    Income
      Diluted EPS   Net (Loss)
    Income
      Diluted EPS
    GAAP diluted loss per share   $ (2,813,657 )   $ (12.51 )   $ (2,846,167 )   $ (12.81 )
    Debt Discount Amortization     1,131       0.01       6,438       0.03  
    Non-cash impairment charges (2)     3,173,450       14.11       3,173,450       14.28  
    Non-GAAP diluted income per share (1)   $ 360,924     $ 1.41     $ 333,721     $ 1.33  
                     
    GAAP weighted average shares for diluted EPS     224,896           222,215      
    Non-GAAP weighted average shares for diluted EPS     256,614           250,622      


    (1)
       Non-GAAP diluted income per share excludes the effects of the pro forma adjustment detailed above. Non- GAAP diluted income per share is adjusted to exclude this item, as it is not used by management to evaluate the performance of the business.
    (2)   Excluding this item of non-recurring, infrequent or unusual nature and its impact on the comparability of our results for the period to prior periods and future expected trends.

    Key Operating and Financial Metrics

    The following operating metrics are used by management to evaluate the performance of the business. Management believes these metrics, when taken together with other information contained in our filings with the SEC and within this press release, provide investors with helpful information to determine the economic performance of the business activities in a period that would otherwise not be observable from historic GAAP measures. Management believes that it is helpful to investors to evaluate the present value of cash flows expected from subscribers over the full expected relationship with such subscribers (“Subscriber Value”, more fully defined in the definitions appendix below) in comparison to the costs associated with adding these customers, regardless of whether or not the costs are expensed or capitalized in the period (“Creation Cost”, more fully defined in the definitions appendix below). The Company also believes that Subscriber Value, Creation Costs, and Total Value Generated are useful metrics for investors because they present an unlevered view of all of the costs associated with new customers in a period compared to the expected future cash flows from these customers over a 30-year period, based on contracted pricing terms with its customers, which is not observable in any current or historic GAAP-derived metric. Management believes it is useful for investors to also evaluate the future expected cash flows from all customers that have been deployed through the respective measurement date, less estimated costs to maintain such systems and estimated distributions to tax equity partners in consolidated joint venture partnership flip structures, and distributions to project equity investors (“Gross Earning Assets”, more fully defined in the definitions appendix below). The Company also believes Gross Earning Assets is useful for management and investors because it represents the remaining future expected cash flows from existing customers, which is not a current or historic GAAP-derived measure.

    Various assumptions are made when calculating these metrics. Both Subscriber Value and Gross Earning Assets utilize a 6% rate to discount future cash flows to the present period. Furthermore, these metrics assume that customers renew after the initial contract period at a rate equal to 90% of the rate in effect at the end of the initial contract term. For Customer Agreements with 25-year initial contract terms, a 5-year renewal period is assumed. For a 20-year initial contract term, a 10-year renewal period is assumed. In all instances, we assume a 30-year customer relationship, although the customer may renew for additional years, or purchase the system. Estimated cost of servicing assets has been deducted and is estimated based on the service agreements underlying each fund.

    In-period volume metrics: Three Months Ended
    December 31, 2024
     
    Customer Additions   32,932  
    Subscriber Additions (included within Customer Additions)   30,709  
    Solar Energy Capacity Installed (in Megawatts)   242.4  
    Solar Energy Capacity Installed for Subscribers (in Megawatts)   232.0  
    Storage Capacity Installed (in Megawatt hours)   392.0  
         
    In-period value creation metrics: Three Months Ended
    December 31, 2024
     
    Subscriber Value Contracted Period $52,035  
    Subscriber Value Renewal Period $3,776  
    Subscriber Value $55,811  
    Creation Cost $36,634  
    Net Subscriber Value $19,177  
    Total Value Generated (in millions) $588.9  
         
    In-period environmental impact metrics: Three Months Ended
    December 31, 2024
     
    Positive Environmental Impact from Customers (over trailing twelve months, in millions of metric tons of CO2 avoidance)   4.0  
    Positive Expected Lifetime Environmental Impact from Customer Additions (in millions of metric tons of CO2 avoidance)   4.8  
         
    Period-end metrics: December 31, 2024  
    Customers   1,048,842  
    Subscribers (subset of Customers)   889,186  
    Households Served in Low-Income Multifamily Properties   21,129  
    Networked Solar Energy Capacity (in Megawatts)   7,531  
    Networked Solar Energy Capacity for Subscribers (in Megawatts)   6,436  
    Networked Storage Capacity (in Megawatt hours)   2,525  
    Annual Recurring Revenue (in millions) $1,644  
    Average Contract Life Remaining (in years)   17.6  
    Gross Earning Assets Contracted Period (in millions) $13,791  
    Gross Earning Assets Renewal Period (in millions) $4,043  
    Gross Earning Assets (in millions) $17,834  
    Net Earning Assets (in millions) $6,766  
           

    Figures presented above may not sum due to rounding. For adjustments related to Subscriber Value and Creation Cost, please see the supplemental Creation Cost and Net Subscriber Value calculation memo for each applicable period, which is available on investors.sunrun.com.

    Definitions

    Deployments represent solar or storage systems, whether sold directly to customers or subject to executed Customer Agreements (i) for which we have confirmation that the systems are installed, subject to final inspection, or (ii) in the case of certain system installations by our partners, for which we have accrued at least 80% of the expected project cost (inclusive of acquisitions of installed systems).

    Customer Agreements refer to, collectively, solar or storage power purchase agreements and leases.

    Subscriber Additions represent the number of Deployments in the period that are subject to executed Customer Agreements.

    Customer Additions represent the number of Deployments in the period.

    Solar Energy Capacity Installed represents the aggregate megawatt production capacity of our solar energy systems that were recognized as Deployments in the period.

    Solar Energy Capacity Installed for Subscribers represents the aggregate megawatt production capacity of our solar energy systems that were recognized as Deployments in the period that are subject to executed Customer Agreements.

    Storage Capacity Installed represents the aggregate megawatt hour capacity of storage systems that were recognized as Deployments in the period.

    Creation Cost represents the sum of certain operating expenses and capital expenditures incurred divided by applicable Customer Additions and Subscriber Additions in the period. Creation Cost is comprised of (i) installation costs, which includes the increase in gross solar energy system assets and the cost of customer agreement revenue, excluding depreciation expense of fixed solar assets, and operating and maintenance expenses associated with existing Subscribers, plus (ii) sales and marketing costs, including increases to the gross capitalized costs to obtain contracts, net of the amortization expense of the costs to obtain contracts, plus (iii) general and administrative costs, and less (iv) the gross profit derived from selling systems to customers under sale agreements and Sunrun’s product distribution and lead generation businesses. Creation Cost excludes stock based compensation, amortization of intangibles, and research and development expenses, along with other items the company deems to be non-recurring or extraordinary in nature. The gross margin derived from solar energy systems and product sales is included as an offset to Creation Cost since these sales are ancillary to the overall business model and lowers our overall cost of business. The sales, marketing, general and administrative costs in Creation Costs is inclusive of sales, marketing, general and administrative activities related to the entire business, including solar energy system and product sales. As such, by including the gross margin on solar energy system and product sales as a contra cost, the value of all activities of the Company’s segment are represented in the Net Subscriber Value.

    Subscriber Value represents the per subscriber value of upfront and future cash flows (discounted at 6%) from Subscriber Additions in the period, including expected payments from customers as set forth in Customer Agreements, net proceeds from tax equity finance partners, payments from utility incentive and state rebate programs, contracted net grid service program cash flows, projected future cash flows from solar energy renewable energy credit sales, less estimated operating and maintenance costs to service the systems and replace equipment, consistent with estimates by independent engineers, over the initial term of the Customer Agreements and estimated renewal period. For Customer Agreements with 25 year initial contract terms, a 5 year renewal period is assumed. For a 20 year initial contract term, a 10 year renewal period is assumed. In all instances, we assume a 30-year customer relationship, although the customer may renew for additional years, or purchase the system.

    Net Subscriber Value represents Subscriber Value less Creation Cost.

    Total Value Generated represents Net Subscriber Value multiplied by Subscriber Additions.

    Customers represent the cumulative number of Deployments, from the company’s inception through the measurement date.

    Subscribers represent the cumulative number of Customer Agreements for systems that have been recognized as Deployments through the measurement date.

    Networked Solar Energy Capacity represents the aggregate megawatt production capacity of our solar energy systems that have been recognized as Deployments, from the company’s inception through the measurement date.

    Networked Solar Energy Capacity for Subscribers represents the aggregate megawatt production capacity of our solar energy systems that have been recognized as Deployments, from the company’s inception through the measurement date, that have been subject to executed Customer Agreements.

    Networked Storage Capacity represents the aggregate megawatt hour capacity of our storage systems that have been recognized as Deployments, from the company’s inception through the measurement date.

    Gross Earning Assets is calculated as Gross Earning Assets Contracted Period plus Gross Earning Assets Renewal Period.

    Gross Earning Assets Contracted Period represents the present value of the remaining net cash flows (discounted at 6%) during the initial term of our Customer Agreements as of the measurement date. It is calculated as the present value of cash flows (discounted at 6%) that we would receive from Subscribers in future periods as set forth in Customer Agreements, after deducting expected operating and maintenance costs, equipment replacements costs, distributions to tax equity partners in consolidated joint venture partnership flip structures, and distributions to project equity investors. We include cash flows we expect to receive in future periods from tax equity partners, government incentive and rebate programs, contracted sales of solar renewable energy credits, and awarded net cash flows from grid service programs with utilities or grid operators.

    Gross Earning Assets Renewal Period is the forecasted net present value we would receive upon or following the expiration of the initial Customer Agreement term but before the 30th anniversary of the system’s activation (either in the form of cash payments during any applicable renewal period or a system purchase at the end of the initial term), for Subscribers as of the measurement date. We calculate the Gross Earning Assets Renewal Period amount at the expiration of the initial contract term assuming either a system purchase or a renewal, forecasting only a 30-year customer relationship (although the customer may renew for additional years, or purchase the system), at a contract rate equal to 90% of the customer’s contractual rate in effect at the end of the initial contract term. After the initial contract term, our Customer Agreements typically automatically renew on an annual basis and the rate is initially set at up to a 10% discount to then-prevailing utility power prices.

    Net Earning Assets represents Gross Earning Assets, plus total cash, less adjusted debt and less pass-through financing obligations, as of the same measurement date. Debt is adjusted to exclude a pro-rata share of non-recourse debt associated with funds with project equity structures along with debt associated with the company’s ITC safe harboring facility. Because estimated cash distributions to our project equity partners are deducted from Gross Earning Assets, a proportional share of the corresponding project level non-recourse debt is deducted from Net Earning Assets, as such debt would be serviced from cash flows already excluded from Gross Earning Assets.

    Cash Generation is calculated using the change in our unrestricted cash balance from our consolidated balance sheet, less net proceeds (or plus net repayments) from all recourse debt (inclusive of convertible debt), and less any primary equity issuances or net proceeds derived from employee stock award activity (or plus any stock buybacks or dividends paid to common stockholders) as presented on the Company’s consolidated statement of cash flows. The Company expects to continue to raise tax equity and asset-level non-recourse debt to fund growth, and as such, these sources of cash are included in the definition of Cash Generation. Cash Generation also excludes long-term asset or business divestitures and equity investments in external non-consolidated businesses (or less dividends or distributions received in connection with such equity investments). Restricted cash in a reserve account with a balance equal to the amount outstanding of 2026 convertible notes is considered unrestricted cash for the purposes of calculating Cash Generation.

    Annual Recurring Revenue represents revenue arising from Customer Agreements over the following twelve months for Subscribers that have met initial revenue recognition criteria as of the measurement date.

    Average Contract Life Remaining represents the average number of years remaining in the initial term of Customer Agreements for Subscribers that have met revenue recognition criteria as of the measurement date.

    Households Served in Low-Income Multifamily Properties represent the number of individual rental units served in low-income multi-family properties from shared solar energy systems deployed by Sunrun. Households are counted when the solar energy system has interconnected with the grid, which may differ from Deployment recognition criteria.

    Positive Environmental Impact from Customers represents the estimated reduction in carbon emissions as a result of energy produced from our Networked Solar Energy Capacity over the trailing twelve months. The figure is presented in millions of metric tons of avoided carbon emissions and is calculated using the Environmental Protection Agency’s AVERT tool. The figure is calculated using the most recent published tool from the EPA, using the current-year avoided emission factor for distributed resources on a state by state basis. The environmental impact is estimated based on the system, regardless of whether or not Sunrun continues to own the system or any associated renewable energy credits.

    Positive Expected Lifetime Environmental Impact from Customer Additions represents the estimated reduction in carbon emissions over thirty years as a result of energy produced from solar energy systems that were recognized as Deployments in the period. The figure is presented in millions of metric tons of avoided carbon emissions and is calculated using the Environmental Protection Agency’s AVERT tool. The figure is calculated using the most recent published tool from the EPA, using the current-year avoided emission factor for distributed resources on a state by state basis, leveraging our estimated production figures for such systems, which degrade over time, and is extrapolated for 30 years. The environmental impact is estimated based on the system, regardless of whether or not Sunrun continues to own the system or any associated renewable energy credits.

    Total Cash represents the total of the restricted cash balance and unrestricted cash balance from our consolidated balance sheet.

    Investor & Analyst Contact:

    Patrick Jobin
    SVP, Deputy CFO & Investor Relations Officer
    investors@sunrun.com

    Media Contact:

    Wyatt Semanek
    Director, Corporate Communications
    press@sunrun.com

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Education Committee approves New School for Tornagrain

    Source: Scotland – Highland Council

    The Highland Council’s Education Committee has approved a proposal to create a new primary school to serve the Tornagrain housing development, east of Inverness.

    The decision follows a statutory consultation exercise undertaken in the autumn of 2024.

    Education Committee Chair, Cllr John Finlayson said, “I’m delighted that the Committee has approved the recommendation to create a new primary school for Tornagrain. There is a clear need to address the steadily rising roll at Croy Primary, which will not have the capacity to accommodate the number of children from new housing developments in the area.

    “A great deal of work is required to progress the detailed design, planning process and construction of the new school and the conclusion of the Tornagrain consultation represents an important step forward in this process.”

    The Education Committee’s recommendation will be presented for formal Council approval when the Full Council meets on 27 March 2025.

    27 Feb 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Duror Primary School closure consultation update

    Source: Scotland – Highland Council

    The Highland Council’s Education Committee met yesterday (Wednesday 26 February 2025) to consider a report on the future of Duror Primary School.  The original recommendation had been to close due to the falling school roll, but this was changed on the day following a Motion from the Committee Chair seeking Members’ agreement to continue to keep the school open.

    The decision follows a statutory consultation undertaken during 2024.

    Education Committee Chair, Cllr John Finlayson said: “The Council’s proposal to close Duror Primary School was made on the basis that only two children currently attend the school.  However, new information has been presented since the report was published about a potential future increase in the school roll and this has made it possible to withdraw the original recommendation to close. Having engaged with the community in recent weeks and seen at first hand the good work that the school is doing in terms of additional activities involving the wider community I am really pleased we have been able to review the position and delighted that the Education Committee unanimously endorsed my motion.  I hope that children will continue to attend Duror Primary School for many years to come.”

    The Education Committee’s recommendation will be placed before the full Highland Council at its meeting on 27 March 2025.

    27 Feb 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels update

    Source: Scotland – Highland Council

    The Highland Council’s Education Committee met yesterday (Wednesday 26 February 2025) and noted the Council’s continuing commitment to improving attainment and achievement at all stages through a range of strategic initiatives.    

    Education Committee Chair, Cllr John Finlayson said: “2023/24 data shows that Highland is one of the most improved authorities in Scotland across all primary measures and the rate and trajectory of improvement is positive, identifying that the strategic approach being taken is having a sustained impact. The improvement over the last 2 years is particularly impressive and I would like to thank all staff and young people that have worked so hard to make this happen.

    “Whilst we recognise that attainment has improved, there is still work to be done.  We remain ambitious to continue and where possible, accelerate, this rate of improvement to ensure that all of our young people are supported to achieve their full potential.  To support this aim, we will be engaging with stakeholders in the development of our 5 year vision for education in Highland to underpin our raising attainment action plan.

    “Our schools continue to face challenges in relation to supporting the health & wellbeing of learners, including factors relating to the cost-of-living and post-pandemic issues impacting pupils’ school attendance.  The Local Authority is currently seeking views from secondary stage pupils and the parents/carers of children who struggle attending secondary school on a regular basis.  I encourage those impacted by low school attendance to fill out the short survey. The feedback collated will help us to better understand the challenges facing families and will inform the approaches taken to help our young learners to attend, achieve and succeed at school.”

    The survey is anonymous and will run from Monday 24 February until Friday 14 March 2025.

    The secondary surveys for both parents and pupils are available here:

    Parent survey on attendance: https://forms.office.com/e/vYZvATHXtC

    Pupil survey on attendance : https://forms.office.com/e/QgeMqY21UT

    27 Feb 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Highland Council celebrates record-breaking School Leaver Destinations for 2023/2024

    Source: Scotland – Highland Council

    The Highland Council is delighted to announce a significant increase in positive destinations for school leavers in the academic year 2023/2024. An impressive 96.5% of Highland leavers have secured a positive destination, up 1.2% from last year. Nationally, positive destinations have dropped by 0.2% to 95.7%.

    This year, Highland has seen an increase in the number of school leavers, with a total of 2,632 students. This rise aligns with the national trend of increasing school leaver numbers across Scotland. Of these, 40.3% have successfully transitioned into employment, including Modern and Graduate Apprenticeships, placing Highland second only to Orkney in employment as a positive destination.

    Key Highlights:

    • Record School Leaver Destinations: 96.5% of school leavers have achieved positive destinations, reflecting a significant increase from the previous year.
    • Employment Success: 40.3% of school leavers have entered employment, including Modern and Graduate Apprenticeships, ranking Highland second in Scotland.

    The Highland Council’s strategic focus on youth development and employment readiness has been instrumental in these achievements. The “Workforce of the Future” plan aims to equip young people with the skills and opportunities needed to thrive in a dynamic job market.

    Education Committee Chair, Cllr John Finlayson, said:  “We are thrilled with the outstanding results achieved by our school leavers this year. The increase in positive destinations is a testament to the hard work of our students, educators, and the supportive community. We remain committed to fostering an environment where every young person can succeed and contribute to the future workforce.

    “The Highland Council continues to prioritise initiatives that support young people’s transition from education.  We are committed to building effective partnerships with employers, trainers, colleges and universities and building cross sector career pathways and skills packages while also aligning the school curriculum towards the economic opportunities available, to ensure a bright and prosperous future for the region.”

    27 Feb 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Thousands of fish released to restock Cheshire river

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Thousands of fish released to restock Cheshire river

    A total of 4,000 fish, including chub dace and roach, have been released into the River Weaver at two key locations in Cheshire.

    The team preparing to stock the fish.

    The restocking aims to help replenish populations after two pollution incidents in October 2023, which sadly led to the loss of thousands of fish.

    The two key locations include Mill Island Weir and downstream in “The Willows” area.

    Restocking is done where natural population numbers have been depleted or to create new fisheries and opportunities for anglers. It occurs in winter because water temperatures are low and this minimises any stress on the fish, giving them the best possible survival rates.

    An image of the team restocking fish into the River Weaver

    February is a good time to introduce the fish into rivers, as it enables them to acclimatise to their new surroundings, ahead of their spawning season in the spring.

    Fish also play a critical role in sustaining a river’s finely-balanced eco-system, so the wider natural environment will also get a helping hand, as a result of the restocking.

    James Grosscurth, Fisheries Officer for the Environment Agency in Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, said:

    Sometimes our native fish populations need a helping hand, particularly following pollution incidents.

    After careful and consistent monitoring, increased agricultural site inspections and enforcement and an enhanced officer presence upstream of Nantwich Lake, we were pleased to confirm that the water quality in the River Weaver can provide a healthy habitat for thousands of new recruits.

    This first restocking will form part of a three-year program, funded by rod licence income, to encourage natural recovery. Our thanks go to Nantwich Angling Society who have been working tirelessly, alongside our officers, to help make this happen.

    All of the fish introduced to the Weaver have been reared at the Environment Agency’s National Coarse Fish Farm in Calverton, Nottinghamshire.

    Every year, the Environment Agency stocks almost half a million fish of nine different species into England’s rivers. Being the principal supply of coarse fish for 32 years, the fish farm plays a crucial role to help improve fisheries around the country.

    Close up of fish entering the river during restocking.

    Fisheries officers use data from national surveys to identify where there are problems with poor breeding, issues with survival rates, or where numbers have been impacted following a pollution incident.

    These surveys help the officers ensure that fish are released into the right locations and where the need is greatest as well as supporting angling clubs to boost local fishing spots.

    Fisheries Officers inspect rod licences 24/7 throughout the North West, and work continually on cases of illegal fishing and other associated fisheries crime. Fishing illegally can result in a fine of up to £2,500, and offenders can also have their fishing equipment seized.

    It’s easy to buy a rod fishing licence online. Get yours here: Buy a rod fishing licence: When you need a licence – GOV.UK

    illegal fishing and other offences can be reported to the Environment Agency’s Incident Hotline on 0800 807060.

    Updates to this page

    Published 27 February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Activities of Secretary-General in Barbados, 19-20 February

    Source: United Nations 4

    The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, arrived in Bridgetown, Barbados, from New York, on Wednesday, 19 February, to attend the forty-eighth Regular Meeting of the Conference of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, also known as CARICOM.

    In the afternoon, he held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the host of the meeting.  They exchanged views on regional and global issues, particularly the situation in Haiti and climate change.  He also commended Barbados for spearheading efforts to advance reforms to the international financial architecture through the Bridgetown Initiative 3.0.

    In the evening, the Secretary-General spoke at the opening ceremony of the Conference.  He said that the exquisite beauty of the Caribbean is famed the world over, but that there is trouble in paradise.

    The Secretary-General noted that wave after wave of crisis is pounding the people of the Caribbean and their islands — with no time to catch their breath before the next disaster strikes.  Stressing that international solutions are essential to create a better today and a brighter tomorrow for the wonderful region and for the world, he said that he sees three key areas where, together, we must drive progress.

    First, the Secretary-General said, unity for peace and security, particularly to address the appalling situation in Haiti — where gangs are inflicting intolerable suffering on the people of Haiti.  Mr. Guterres added that he would soon report to the Security Council on the situation in Haiti, including proposals on the role the UN can play to support stability and security and address the root causes of the crisis.  He further highlighted unity on the climate crisis and sustainable development as areas where progress is needed.  (See Press Release SG/SM/22559.)

    Following the opening ceremony, the Secretary-General attended a cocktail reception and then a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Mottley.

    On Thursday morning, the Secretary-General participated in a closed session with CARICOM Heads of Government, where he exchanged views on pressing issues in the region, such as finance, climate and security, with a focus on Haiti.

    Soon after, he had a bilateral meeting Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness.  The Secretary-General expressed his appreciation for Jamaica’s active role as Co-Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Stimulus Leaders Group.  They also exchanged views on international developments and discussed the need to scale up support for the Multinational Security Support mission in Haiti, as well as climate issues and financing for development.

    Before leaving Barbados, the Secretary-General also had meetings with the Presidential Adviser of the Transitional Presidential Council of Haiti, Laurent Saint-Cyr, and with the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Patricia Scotland.  He returned to New York on Thursday evening, 20 February.

    MIL OSI United Nations News

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Increases made to higher education grants27 February 2025 The Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning, Deputy Rob Ward, has signed a Ministerial order which increases the funding for a number of grants for higher education students from 1 September 2025.… Read more

    Source: Channel Islands – Jersey

    27 February 2025

    The Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning, Deputy Rob Ward, has signed a Ministerial order which increases the funding for a number of grants for higher education students from 1 September 2025. 

    These changes contribute towards one of this Government’s top strategic priorities, to ‘increase the provision of lifelong learning and skills development’, by implementing sustainable higher education student finance. 

    For most grants, the amount a student can receive depends on household income thresholds. These thresholds will increase by 5.2%. The increase has been based on the economic assumptions on average incomes in Jersey published by the Fiscal Policy Panel in 2024. 

    The income threshold to receive: 

    1. the maximum maintenance grant will increase from £50,000 to £52,600 
    2. the maximum tuition grant will increase from £110,000 to £115,720 
    3. the clinical component grant will increase from £100,000 to £105,200 
    4. a grant to attend an interview will increase from £50,000 to £52,600 
    5. a grant for specialist equipment for a student with a disability will increase from £90,000 to £94,680. 

    Maintenance grants will receive an uplift of 2.5%, based on the *Consumer Price Index for December 2024 published by the Office for National Statistics. The maximum maintenance grant will increase from £8,915 to £9,138. 

    Tuition fee grants will increase by 3.1% to align with the new higher cap in England and Wales. The new maximum tuition grant will increase from £9,250 to £9,535. 

    Deputy Ward said: ‘It is important we continue to review the support we have available for our students to continue their education post the age of 18. 

    ‘These changes ensure we are in line with increases to the cost of living and will help to reduce any cost-based barriers that may prevent our young people from continuing their studies, particularly when the majority of our young adults study in the UK and so living at home to reduce those costs isn’t an option.’

    ​*As most students study in the UK, that is where the majority of their maintenance money is spent.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI Global: How the UK’s rollback of banking regulations could risk another financial crisis

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Alper Kara, Head of Department of Economics and Finance, Brunel University of London

    1000 Words/Shutterstock

    After the global financial crisis of 2007-08, the UK’s banking sector was placed under a much stricter regime. Bonuses were limited, regulations were beefed up and the whole industry scrutinised like never before.

    The idea was to make banks safer places for everyone’s money. But regulators are now thinking about easing some of these financial safeguards in a bid to boost economic growth.

    One proposal is to change the rules on mortgage affordability. One industry regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, is considering relaxing the lending restrictions which were designed to prevent households from building up unsustainable debt.

    This includes reviewing affordability tests and allowing banks to lend more freely to borrowers with smaller deposits or lower incomes. Some commentators argue that these changes will help first-time buyers and increase overall mortgage availability.

    But the risks of easier mortgage lending cannot be ignored. Before the last crisis, lenders approved loans to borrowers without verifying income or creditworthiness, assuming that rising property values would provide a safety net.

    And when interest rates increased and property values collapsed, many borrowers could not afford their repayments – and lost their homes.

    In fact, mortgage repayments are already becoming more difficult. The Bank of England has warned that over 1.5 million UK households will face significantly higher mortgage costs in 2025 after their current deals expire.

    And loosening lending rules could easily push house prices even higher. When more buyers qualify for mortgages, demand for housing increases and prices go up. This makes home ownership even less affordable, especially for those first-time buyers.

    Expanding access to debt without fixing underlying issues around housing supply only creates more financial risk. And it seems to be part of a broader trend towards deregulation.

    Internationally agreed banking rules, which require banks to hold more capital as protection against financial shocks, are being delayed in the UK until 2027. The Bank of England has justified the wait by
    saying that banks need more flexibility to increase lending and investment without the constraints those rules would bring.

    Banks are also challenging regulations that require them to hold on to a specific type of debt designed to ensure that failing banks can absorb financial losses without taxpayer bailouts. But if these rules are weakened, the banking system could become more fragile, forcing governments to intervene.

    The banking system is showing other signs of fragility too.

    Banking on regulations

    One worrying trend is the increasing use of something called “synthetic risk transfers”. This is a technique that banks use to reduce the amount of risk on their balance sheets, by transferring it to outside investors – such as hedge funds or insurers – through special financial contracts.

    These are sometimes compared to “collateralised debt obligations” (or CDOs), where a bank bundles multiple loans (such as mortgages, corporate debt or car loans) and sells portions of that bundle to investors. These complex transactions were a key factor in the global financial crisis because they concealed risky loans, spreading financial instability across global markets.

    Then there’s the UK’s motor finance sector, where lenders have been accused of charging excessive interest rates on car loans. This could lead to compensation claims of up to £44 billion, making it potentially one of the biggest consumer finance scandals since payment protection insurance (PPI).

    On that occasion, banks and lenders wrongly sold PPI to millions of customers, leading to a record £50 billion in compensation payouts.

    With the ongoing case of motor finance, the British government wanted regulators to limit compensation payouts to avoid disrupting financial markets, but this was rejected by the supreme court.

    Yet despite these problems, some still claim that deregulation will do wonders for the sector’s financial flexibility. The British chancellor Rachel Reeves has argued that relaxing some regulations and reducing red tape will encourage growth and increase the UK’s competitiveness in global financial markets.

    Sometimes there’s a reason for red tape.
    Oksana Valiukevic/Shutterstock

    Perhaps she agrees with Donald Trump, whose aggressive financial agenda includes relaxed capital requirements and weakened regulatory oversight.

    But past experience suggests that weakening financial safeguards and encouraging more debt in pursuit of short term growth can have severe long-term consequences.

    Research shows that financial deregulation often leads to financial instability and economic crises. It also suggests that expanding credit does not fix housing affordability, and that reducing capital requirements does not make banks safer.

    The global financial crisis was a direct result of excessive risk-taking in an underregulated system. Governments had to bail out banks with taxpayer money, leading to more than a decade of austerity.

    The same mistakes could happen again. For now though, it looks like some of those hard lessons have been forgotten.

    Alper Kara does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    ref. How the UK’s rollback of banking regulations could risk another financial crisis – https://theconversation.com/how-the-uks-rollback-of-banking-regulations-could-risk-another-financial-crisis-249386

    MIL OSI – Global Reports

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: weeHoloCam: DASA Funding Transforms Marine Biology with Revolutionary Underwater Imaging

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Case study

    weeHoloCam: DASA Funding Transforms Marine Biology with Revolutionary Underwater Imaging

    The University of Aberdeen has developed a state-of-the-art underwater holographic camera with DASA support, enabling rapid real-time analysis of marine life in impressive detail

    From Ship-Sized to Hand-Held

    • DASA funding and Dstl technical advice has helped the University of Aberdeen develop the world’s most compact and lightweight underwater holographic camera – the weeHoloCam
    • The holographic camera has vastly improved processing speed – what previously took months can now be done in hours
    • Added AI integration enables the automatic classification of millions of marine particles in real-time
    • The weeHoloCam’s evolution spans two DASA projects, the first focused on developing the camera and processor, the second project added AI classification capabilities

    Plankton might be microscopic, but their importance to the planet is huge. These marine organisms produce half the world’s oxygen, form the foundation of ocean food chains, and play a crucial role in carbon absorption from the atmosphere. Marine biologists study plankton to better understand how the ocean’s food web is changing, and how climate change affects marine life. However, this process has always been a challenge – as traditional sampling methods are time-consuming and logistically difficult.

    This was the reality for marine biologists until the University of Aberdeen, with DASA funding in 2019, revolutionised underwater imaging with their weeHoloCam.

    “The holographic camera we used in the past was big in size and weighed more than 100 kilograms, making it very difficult to transport and deploy,” explains Dr. Thangavel Thevar from the School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen. “Now, with DASA funding, we have developed a very small version of the same that is 60 cm long and weighs just 3.5 kilograms – the frame for the camera is actually heavier than the camera itself!”

    Technical Innovation

    The weeHoloCam’s innovative design features two cylinders – one housing a pulse laser and optics while the other containing a sensor, mini-PC and electronics. “The camera can detect particles that are present between its windows, covering approximately 12 cm cube of water,” explains Dr. Thevar. “Within this volume, we can capture incredibly detailed holograms of particles as small as 50 microns.”

    Breaking Speed Barriers

    Using this advanced system, the team unlocked new capabilities in underwater imaging. “For example, in a single 3-hour dive, you can capture up to 200,000 holograms,” says Dr. Thevar. “Previously, processing each hologram took about two minutes, which meant 200,000 holograms will take more than 9 months to process.”

    Using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology, the team dramatically reduced the processing time. “We’ve taken the processing time down from two minutes to just two seconds per hologram. What would have taken 100 days now takes just one day.”

    Adding AI Intelligence

    Building on this, the University of Aberdeen embarked on a second project with DASA in 2022 to make the process even quicker by integrating an AI classification system for the particles. “As engineers, we needed to make this useful for biologists,” explains Dr. Thevar. “When you’re dealing with millions of individual images from hundreds of thousands of holograms, manual classification becomes incredibly time consuming.”

    The new AI classifier automatically labels the images in real-time. As soon as a hologram is recorded through the camera, it’s processed and classified automatically.

    Real-World Applications and Impact

    The weeHoloCam has been deployed more than 20 times across various marine environments, including regular work with Marine Scotland. “We hope to support their weekly vessel deployments for plankton monitoring,” explains Dr. Thevar. “While traditional net sampling provides valuable data, our holographic camera adds crucial information about vertical depth distribution that nets can’t capture. This complementary approach gives us unprecedented insight into marine health.”

    The system has even attracted media attention, featuring on BBC’s One Show during a deployment in Loch Ness. “While we did not find Nessie we were afforded a rare opportunity to study plankton in a freshwater situation which was a first for us,” says Dr. Thevar.

    Loch Ness holographic camera hunt

    From a defence and security standpoint, the WeeHoloCam project addresses a critical challenge in marine operations: monitoring microscopic sea life in real-time. This capability is essential for predicting harmful algal blooms and tracking changes in marine biomass that can affect underwater optical systems.

    The innovation delivers two key advantages:

    • Its compact size enables deployment on the growing fleet of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles, dramatically increasing measurement coverage
    • Its advanced AI algorithms automatically classify micro-organisms, significantly reducing the manual analysis time needed to produce biological tactical assessments

    End of DASA project trial

    In October 2024, at the end of their DASA project, the University of Aberdeen demonstrated their subsea holographic camera to technical Dstl partners. The lab-based trials proved highly successful. The team showcased the system’s real-time classification capabilities, using both previously collected sea-trial data and live samples containing tiny jellyfish. The demonstration highlighted the intuitive user interface, which allows operators to easily select and group different marine organisms for analysis, from bubbles to dinoflagellates (a planktonic single-celled organism) and copepods (a group of very small crustaceans).

    Future Horizons

    The team is now running at full capacity with several exciting developments:

    • Tackling sea lice detection in salmon farms, despite the challenging nature of identifying these sparse, elusive parasites
    • A new funded project to permanently deploy a system for harmful micro-jellyfish detection
    • Exploring mounting the technology on autonomous underwater vehicles
    • Supporting carbon transport research by tracking organic matter movement in oceans

    The DASA Difference

    The University of Aberdeen credits DASA’s support for the project’s success. “Working with DASA has been a very positive experience,” notes Dr. Thevar. “It’s always a two-way conversation where we help each other. They’ve pushed us forward, whether through commercialisation ideas or project development, and have been instrumental in providing further leads to follow.”

    “From studying plankton populations to tracking carbon transport in our oceans, this technology is helping us understand our marine environments in ways we never could before,” concludes Dr. Thevar. “And with each new application we discover, the value of DASA’s early investment becomes even more apparent.”

    Updates to this page

    Published 27 February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Beach recycling underway to strengthen Norfolk flood protection

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Beach recycling underway to strengthen Norfolk flood protection

    An expected 14,000 tonnes of sand and shingle will be moved to protect 800 homes and 4,000 caravans.

    Work is underway to bolster natural flood defences along the west coast of Norfolk as part of their yearly renewal.  

    Beach recycling will see an expected 14,000 tonnes of sand and shingle will be moved around the beach from where it’s been deposited by the tidal movement of the sea. 

    The aggregate is taken north to Heacham and South Hunstanton to restore the shingle ridge along a 5km stretch of coastline.

    The shingle ridge is a natural flood defence protecting more than 800 properties and 4,000 caravans. The recycling will be completed in time for ground nesting birds and tourists to arrive. 

    To move thousands of tonnes of material, the Environment Agency uses three 30-tonne dumper trucks, two bulldozers and an excavator. 

    The recycling follows a report into the shingle ridge which was published in Summer 2024. The Environment Agency is set to begin updating the 2015 Wash East Coast Management Strategy (WECMS) for Hunstanton to Wolferton Creek later this year. The updated strategy will further assess the latest monitoring data and reflect the findings of the Initial Assessment report.

    Sadia Moeed, Area Director for the Environment Agency said:

    “Beach recycling is an incredibly important part of the work we do on the Norfolk coast. It’s vital the shingle ridge is kept in good condition to help reduce the risk of flooding to the communities behind it.

    “It’s also important that property owners continue to refrain from digging into the ridge and approach the us if they wish to carry out works within 16m of it. This will also help preserve the integrity of the ridge and its ability to perform as a natural flood defence.

    “People should know their flood risk and sign up for free flood warnings by going to https://www.gov.uk/check-flood-risk or calling Floodline on 0345 988 1188. You can also follow @EnvAgencyAnglia on Twitter for the latest flood updates.”‎

    Both Natural England and the RSPB are consulted on the beach recycling to preserve the coastline’s environmental importance. The work is funded by the East Wash Coastal Management Community Interest Company which raises funds from the local community, caravan park owners and landowners. Anglian Water and the Borough Council of Kings Lynn & West Norfolk also contribute to the project.

    Cllr Sandra Squire, Cabinet Member for Environment at the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk, said:

    “Restoring the shingle ridges between Hunstanton and Snettisham helps to protect people and wildlife living on the coast in west Norfolk.

    “This important annual beach recycling programme, which is an effective means of undertaking important flood defence work to maintain the defences along the Snettisham to Hunstanton coastline, makes a real difference to the communities in the area.”

    Notes to editors

    Updates to this page

    Published 27 February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: It’s travel challenge time!

    Source: City of Plymouth

    Are you joining the 2025 Big Plymouth Travel Challenge?

    We are teaming up with Sustrans for a third year to encourage people to leave their cars at home for some of their everyday journeys and try cleaner, greener, healthier ways of getting from A to B.

    The challenge starts on Saturday (1 March) and encourages people to choose active travel options like walking, cycling, scooting or skating for a month. It’s a great way of staying fit and healthy, saving money and helping to improve our air quality – so get those comfy shoes and bikes out!

    As an extra incentive, there are three special prizes – a Raleigh bike worth £475, an adult micro scooter worth £175 and a gold level bike service worth £140 from Bikespace in Devonport – as well as shopping vouchers up for grabs. See the Sustrans website for full prize details.

    Everyone who signs up will get online access to plenty of useful hints, tips and support and a personalised dashboard where they can log their progress. They can even set themselves targets, such as miles travelled, calories burned, or carbon emissions cut.

    It’s all part of our ‘active travel social prescribing’ programme, funded by Active Travel England, where our transport and public health teams work with partners including Sustrans, as well as health providers, link workers (within GP practices and health and wellbeing hubs) and community groups to get more people enjoying active travel as a form of exercise.

    Councillor John Stephens, our walking and cycling champion, said: “We know how important it is to keep active and this is such an easy way to do that. Making just a few of those regular trips – or even part of them – on foot or bike can make a really big difference to our health and wellbeing.

    “It also helps to reduce the amount of traffic on our roads, which is good for us all. More than 450 people took part in last year’s challenge, recording over 6,000 trips and avoiding 1,861kg of carbon emissions. This year we hope to do even better.”

    Everyone who lives or works in Plymouth is welcome to sign up to the challenge and you can go solo or team up with friends, family or colleagues.

    Register now and get ready to start logging your journeys!

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Queen Street Update

    Source: Scotland – City of Aberdeen

    Maintenance work is currently underway at the Mitchell Tower at Marischal College East which is owned by the University of Aberdeen. It is expected that the unforeseen repair and maintenance programme could take at least 12 months – although this has still to be confirmed pending detailed inspection.
    During this time there will be a requirement for construction access through Queen Street and the site of the proposed urban park to Marischal East and the Mitchell Tower. Aberdeen City Council is working closely with the University to ensure that respective programmes do not prejudice or prevent any emergency repair work to be undertaken.

    In order to deliver the most efficient construction programmes for both the repairs to the Tower and the delivery of the urban park, the Council has reprogrammed the construction of the urban park to commence on site once issues with the Mitchell Tower have been addressed.
    Maintaining a permanent access to Marischal East and the Mitchell Tower throughout the urban park construction programme would add significant time, cost and complexity to the project, together with risk to new fixtures fittings and new surfaces. The Council has therefore agreed to pause the construction programme for the urban park to enable full access to Marischal East to undertake necessary repair works.

    The University is liaising closely with Aberdeen City Council and updating them over progress and timeline of that work.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why incest porn is more common and harmful than you think

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Clare McGlynn, Professor of Law, Durham University

    Delbo Andrea/Shutterstock

    Incest porn is finally facing long overdue scrutiny. The government’s porn review recommends strengthening the extreme porn law to include incest porn and mandate its removal. The review also calls for much more proactive regulation of the porn industry, and bans on misogynistic, degrading and violent pornography, including sexual strangulation.

    These proposed changes address a glaring gap in regulation. While pornographic videos depicting incest porn are unlawful offline, there are no controls over its online distribution or possession. Strengthening extreme porn laws to include incest would signal a shift towards a society no longer willing to normalise and trivialise child sexual abuse and incest.

    Any cursory visit today to the most popular porn websites reveals a continuous stream of incest material.

    To be clear, I’m talking about porn depicting sexual activity between family members, particularly the vast swathes of material with (step)fathers and (step)brothers having sex with very young-looking girls. They may be actors over 18, but they are often in children’s clothes, surrounded by children’s toys, with pigtails, braces and other markers of childhood.

    The scenarios are often about creeping into young girls’ bedrooms, coercing or grooming them into sex. The graphic titles of videos describe sex between (step)fathers and daughters. Alarmingly, they often reproduce the justifications of real-life abusers, such as “little secret between daddy and his girl”. These videos are viewed and given the thumbs up online by millions.

    The new proposals target the depiction of unlawful sexual activity between family members. This includes any daddy-daughter or brother-sister scenarios as this is always a sexual offence. But it would not cover consensual sexual activity between step-parents and step-children over 18, as this is not currently unlawful. Nor would it cover instances where terms like daddy or stepmom are simply used as descriptors for older actors.

    Growing popularity

    Incest porn wasn’t always so common. In the 1980s, porn content studies found only 3% of material was incest-related. One of the first studies of internet porn, in 2006, found only 1% portrayed incest. But by 2014, incest porn was on Pornhub’s list of most popular searches.

    My own research with colleagues revealed that one in eight titles on the homepages of the most popular porn websites described sexual violence, with sexual activity between family members the largest category of abusive content. Professor Elaine Craig’s recent study also confirms the prevalence of incest-related themes on the most popular porn platforms.

    The changing business model of porn in the internet age means that the prevalence of incest porn is as much about platforms promoting it, as it is about users seeking it out. The largest porn websites use algorithmic models to maximise user engagement, keeping users hooked, collecting more data and selling more advertising. Just like social media, porn websites prioritise extreme, shocking, exploitative and divisive material, such as incest content.

    Pornography writes our sexual scripts

    Porn, therefore, shapes our sexual scripts, the norms we internalise about what is expected, normal and acceptable in sexual relationships. Research on sexual strangulation, for example, finds that more frequent consumption of porn leads to greater exposure to pornographic depictions of sexual strangulation which, in turn, predicted a higher likelihood of strangling sexual partners.

    The largest study to date of men who have sexually offended against children found that they were 11 times more likely to watch violent porn and 27 times more likely to view bestiality porn.

    Porn consumed by millions (there are 130 million visitors a day to Pornhub) necessarily shapes our social environment, and in turn our attitudes and sexual practices.

    Evidence suggests pornography shapes our sexual scripts.
    Torwai Studio/Shutterstock

    The prevalence of incest-themed content matters, as it normalises and legitimises ideas of sexual activity between family members – particularly involving young girls. When these messages are consumed by millions every day, the influence extends beyond individual users and filters into broader cultural attitudes.




    Read more:
    Sexual strangulation has become popular – but that doesn’t mean it’s wanted


    In time, we may become desensitised, less likely to understand the prevalence of child sexual abuse, or its seriousness. The claim that incest porn is fantasy without real-world effects assumes incest is rare, abhorrent. But it’s not.

    It’s commonplace, with 500,000 children in England and Wales sexually abused each year. These are predominantly girls, with (step)fathers accounting for up to half of the perpetrators.

    From my work in this field, it is clear to me that these sexual scripts influence society in various ways, including making us less likely to believe survivors. We may blame the victims, having internalised that girls entice family members into sex. And it seems we become less concerned about government inaction on child sexual abuse as it no longer seems serious.

    Time for change

    Critics demand evidence of direct causation, asking for proof that watching specific videos of incest porn leads to specific acts of incest. But this narrow framing (I argue, deliberately) misses the point. Sexual violence is complex and influenced by a range of factors. No study can isolate porn as the sole cause of any particular act, nor should we expect it to.

    Rejecting a direct causal relationship is not the same as rejecting any relationship. We need to ask, in a culture saturated with incest porn, are we more likely to tolerate, excuse or dismiss the realities of incest and sexual abuse? Probably – and I would argue that is enough.

    If we continue to allow incest porn to proliferate, we risk perpetuating a culture that trivialises abuse, undermines survivors and distorts our understanding of what is acceptable in sexual relationships. It is time to stop debating whether pornography causes direct harm in a narrow sense, but to confront the broader reality that it is shaping our attitudes and society in profoundly damaging ways.

    Clare McGlynn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    ref. Why incest porn is more common and harmful than you think – https://theconversation.com/why-incest-porn-is-more-common-and-harmful-than-you-think-247512

    MIL OSI – Global Reports

  • MIL-OSI Global: Can making the NHS cleaner slow the spread of disease?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jonathan R. Goodman, Research Associate, Public Health, University of Cambridge

    Several weeks ago, I visited a local NHS urgent care centre with my toddler on what might be called a semi-annual pilgrimage related to having a child in nursery. Owing to what is now a typical three- or four-hour wait, during which he made a recovery, I had the time to notice the hospital’s waiting room cleaning practices. They amounted to someone pushing a mop around the floor and in the process moving, rather than removing, various fluids and items that had probably amassed over the preceding several hours.

    About 36 hours later, our toddler woke up with a stomach bug. The cleaning practices I saw – coupled with my inability to keep him from touching a lot of surfaces in the hospital, including the floor – suggested to me that this was not a coincidence.

    Individual behaviour and practices play a role in the spread of disease. And many times it is our collective actions that lead to contagion, even if our goal is to prevent it.

    Given the NHS has recently recorded its highest ever rate of norovirus cases – with the bug making up more than one in 100 hospitalisations in the country – we are due for a rethink about how we understand the social elements of illness.

    As a social scientist working in public health, I’ve learned that diseases conform to our behaviour, which can keep us one step ahead – or leave us one behind.

    How we develop policy around contagion is one example. Recently, NHS England published new national standards of cleanliness for NHS Trusts – the most recent update since 2021. These standards define cleanliness, what materials should be used and the frequencies necessary for adequate cleaning.

    The guidelines are, unsurprisingly, very boring, but what stands out to me is the emphasis on which spaces and surfaces are the most likely to be contaminated, rather than taking a contextual approach to the relationship between people, germs and spaces.

    The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), by contrast, uses a more complex function. Risk is evaluated by combining the probability of contamination of an item or surface, the vulnerability of patients and the potential for exposure within the space.

    A waiting room where people have been vomiting, for example, would be taken more seriously as a risky area using these guidelines than the brute force approach taken by the NHS.

    Another important element of risk, though one not evaluated explicitly in any policy guideline, is how germs evolve in response to our efforts against them.

    Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, for example, are typically treated by antibiotics, though the rise of the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) subtype has complicated patient care around the world.

    More recently, bacteria called carbapenemase-producing enterobacterales (CPEs) have started spreading in hospitals, and are both highly contagious and difficult to treat.

    Both MRSA and CPEs are, however, direct results of our efforts to combat bacteria: our use of antibiotics selects, evolutionarily speaking, for resistance to our treatments.

    Imperial College London’s Fleming Initiative, named after the discoverer of the first antibiotic, penicillin, is an international effort that aims to stymie the spread of these germs, but they nonetheless present a real and serious risk to patients everywhere.

    Clostridioides difficile, a bacterium linked with painful stomach bugs, has also shown increasing resistance to antibiotics, particularly strains found in hospitals. What’s worse, evidence from 2023 suggests C difficile may even be resistant to bleach, which is typically successful at killing almost all germs and was found, in the past, to work against this bacterium, too.

    Everyone plays a role

    Blunt policies specifying cleaning schedules without reference to context are unlikely to be effective in a world of fast-evolving germs. What’s needed, instead, is a population-level understanding about how everyone plays a role in contagion and in its containment. We’re part of a broader ecosystem that bacteria and viruses live within, and which evolve to thrive when we become complacent in our behaviour.

    The CDC’s guidelines embrace context, but the work doesn’t stop with hospital cleaning staff – who in the UK, by the way, earn an average of £21,000 a year for the critical work they do. Anyone who works in or visits a healthcare space has a responsibility to those nearby, whether that involves maintaining distance between people or shielding others from their own illness.

    We can’t expect stretched systems and overworked employees to prevent the spread of germs. And the UK’s massive norovirus outbreak is a symptom itself of how bad we are at preventing viral contagion.

    Yet people – including patients and their carers like me – can do a lot more than just idly watch dirty mops float by in waiting areas. We can educate ourselves about current risks, avoid where possible spaces with a high risk of contamination, and stay home to prevent infecting others, for example in the workplace.

    Social approaches should be built into any framework that aims to combat disease. Knowledge, unlike antibiotics and bleach, is free – and the spread of information about how to help prevent contagion can only be good for healthcare systems and society more broadly.

    Jonathan R. Goodman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    ref. Can making the NHS cleaner slow the spread of disease? – https://theconversation.com/can-making-the-nhs-cleaner-slow-the-spread-of-disease-249647

    MIL OSI – Global Reports

  • MIL-OSI Global: Man wants to search dump for lost hard drive with bitcoin fortune – here are his odds of finding it

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Craig Anderson, Senior Lecturer in Statistics, University of Glasgow

    vchal/Shutterstock

    James Howells is considering buying a council dump in south Wales after his former partner accidentally threw away a hard drive containing his bitcoin wallet. Howells has already lost a high court case to allow him to search the tip for the hard drive, which he believes contains bitcoin worth £600 million.

    But would it even be possible to find it? Let’s do the maths.

    Howells, a Welsh IT engineer, was an early adopter of the cryptocurrency bitcoin in December 2008. By February 2009, he had started mining the coins on his laptop – a process which involves using your computer to carry out complex mathematical processes in exchange for the coins.

    At the time, he was one of just five people mining the currency, and he eventually accrued a fortune of around 8,000 bitcoin. Initially, these were basically worthless – the first real-world transaction involving the currency was in 2010, when a man in Florida bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins.

    However, in the 15 years since, the value of the currency has grown dramatically, with a single bitcoin passing the US$100,000 mark in December 2024 – a value which would mean those two pizzas are now worth US$1 billion (£790 million).

    Doing the calculations

    No wonder Howells wants to find his hard drive. But what are the chances of finding a tiny 10cm hard drive in a site containing 1.4 billion kg of waste? Is it literally like finding a needle in a haystack?

    At first, this seems like a simple calculation. If we randomly select a single location within the landfill, the probability that the hard drive will be there is simply the size of the object divided by the total size of the landfill.

    A Google maps estimate of the area of the Docksway landfill site suggests it is roughly 500,000 square metres (or 5 billion square centimetres), which is approximately the size of 70 football pitches.

    Docksway landfill in Newport, Wales, in 2007.
    wikipedia, CC BY-SA

    However, we also have to account for the depth of the landfill, with years of rubbish piled on top of each other. Even a conservative estimate of 20 metres would give a total volume of 10 million cubic metres (or 10 trillion cubic centimetres). This is roughly 3,600 times the volume of the swimming pool used at last summer’s Paris Olympic Games.

    Howells says the bitcoin are on a 2.5-inch hard drive, which has a volume of around 70 cubic centimetres (7cm x 10cm x 1cm). Therefore, the odds of finding the bitcoin at a single randomly selected location are 70/10,000,000,000,000 = 0.000000000007 – approximately a one in 143 billion chance.

    This is over 3,000 times less likely than winning the jackpot on the UK’s National Lottery. However, with £600 million on the line, it seems unlikely anyone would just turn up and search one single location.

    So, the real question here is about time and money. If we know that the hard drive is located somewhere within the landfill site, how long would it take to find it, and how much would it cost?

    If we focus on time to begin with, this is really just an extension of our first calculation. Suppose it takes 1 second to search each 1,000 cubic centimetre section of the landfill (an incomplete estimate since my experience of hunting landfill for hard drives is limited), then it would take us 10 billion seconds (or 316 years) of continuous searching to cover the entire site. But of course, this could be significantly reduced by having an entire team searching at the same time.

    Is it financially worth it?

    Clearly, Howells does not have 316 years available to complete his search, but what if he was given the resources for one full year of non-stop searching? The odds of finding the hard drive in this year would be 1 in 316, and while the chances remain slim, this might start to sound tempting given the potential reward.

    That is where the aspect of cost comes in. How much would you be willing to pay in order to have a 1 in 316 chance of winning £600m? The answer lies in the statistical concept of “expected value”“, which is the expected long-term outcome of a scenario if you were able to repeat it over and over again.

    For example, suppose you were rolling a die, and you were told that you would be given £2 if you rolled a six but would have to pay £1 if you rolled any other value. You can work out the expected value of this game to see if it is worth playing. The odds of rolling a 6 are 1/6, and the odds of rolling any other value are 5/6. We can therefore compute the expected value as:

    E [winnings] = 1/6 * £2 + 5/6 * (-£1) = 2/6 – 5/6 = -3/6 = -£1/2

    In other words, you would expect to lose half of £1 (or 50p), on average, every time you played this game.

    In the case of our bitcoins, we can think about the expected value as being the amount of money you would expect to make on average if you searched the landfill for a whole year. We would expect that, on average, we would find the hard drive (and the £600 million) 1 time out of 316, and would fail to find it 315 times out of 316 and get absolutely nothing. Therefore, we can compute the expected value as:

    E [£ found] = 1/316 * £600m + 315/316 * 0 = £1,898,734

    This means that on average, by searching the site for a year, you would expect to find £1.9 million. So, if the searching costs were less than this amount, you would expect to make a profit on average, and it may be considered a worthwhile investment. However, if the search cost more than £1.9 million, you would expect to lose money on average, and it would not be considered worthwhile.

    These calculations can be easily adjusted to account for different lengths of search time, number of people searching, or indeed different sizes of landfill site or search area.

    If Howell ever gets access to the dump, it might be worth having a statistician on hand to help guide the search (and of course, I would be happy to offer my services for a small fee…).

    Craig Anderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    ref. Man wants to search dump for lost hard drive with bitcoin fortune – here are his odds of finding it – https://theconversation.com/man-wants-to-search-dump-for-lost-hard-drive-with-bitcoin-fortune-here-are-his-odds-of-finding-it-249889

    MIL OSI – Global Reports

  • MIL-OSI: New Research by VelocityEHS Drives AI Innovation in EHS & ESG

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    CHICAGO, Feb. 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — VelocityEHS®, the global leader in enterprise EHS & ESG software solutions, has announced the publication of three groundbreaking scientific papers, further cementing its leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in workplace safety and sustainability. These papers, published in the esteemed journals Ergonomics; International Journal of Data Warehousing and Mining; and Elsevier, showcase VelocityEHS’ innovative in musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) risk assessment, ESG data management, and Chemical Safety.

    Advancements in Ergonomics Risk Assessment

    The first paper, NLP-based Ergonomics MSD Risk Root Cause Analysis and Risk Controls Recommendation, published in Ergonomics and authored by Pulkit Parikh, PhD., Julia Penfield, PhD., Richard Barker, CPE, CSP, Blake McGowan, CPE, and James Richard Mallon, CPE, presents an AI-powered framework that utilizes Natural Language Processing (NLP) to automate the identification of musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) risks and recommend targeted risk controls.

    By leveraging deep learning and expert-driven ML models, this system goes beyond traditional risk scoring to provide actionable insights that improve workplace ergonomics and reduce injuries.

    “Traditional ergonomics assessments often stop at producing risk scores, leaving companies without clear guidance on control actions,” said Rick Barker, CPE, Senior Director, Solution Strategy.

    Until now, most research using artificial intelligence to combat musculoskeletal disorders has been limited to risk assessment. One of the unanswered questions among researchers is how to enhance the model to offer sustainable improvement strategies.

    Julia Penfield, PhD., VP of Research & Machine Learning at VelocityEHS addressed this challenge: “We presented a framework that goes beyond MSD risk scoring. Along with machine learning, computer vision and natural language processing can propose risk control recommendations to help organizations achieve their goal to create safer workplaces. To the best of my knowledge, we are the first to take this holistic approach.”

    Revolutionizing ESG Data Management

    The second paper, Automatic Question Answering from Large ESG Reports, published in International Journal of Data Warehousing and Mining, and co-authored by Pulkit Parikh, PhD., and Julia Penfield, PhD., introduces the first AI-driven system designed to automatically extract and answer questions from extensive Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) reports.

    ESG reports often exceed 50 pages, making manual extraction for audits, benchmarking, or Scope 3 reporting time-consuming and labor-intensive. Compounding this challenge, audits require answering hundreds of questions, posing difficulties even for experts. Additionally, midsize companies managing Scope 3 reports must manage thousands of suppliers, making it difficult to process ESG data.

    “An AI-system could transform this process, enabling organizations to retrieve relevant information and drive informed decision-making effortlessly and efficiently,” said Dr. Julia Penfield.

    Transforming Chemical Safety with AI-driven SDS Indexing

    The third paper, A Machine Learning Driven Automated System to Extract Multiple Information Fields from Safety Data Sheet Documents, published in Elsevier, and authored by Misbah Khan, Julia Penfield, PhD., Aatish Suman, and Stephanie Crowell, presents an AI-powered system designed to automate the extraction of key chemical safety data from Safety Data Sheets (SDS).

    SDS indexing has evolved from storing physical copies to digitally extracting key fields for inventory and risk management. While essential for compliance, manual SDS indexing is labor-intensive, costly and time consuming. An AI-driven solution will automate this process, allowing organizations to access critical chemical information with speed and accuracy.

    “Effective chemical data management is essential for workplace safety and regulatory compliance. AI is no longer the future of chemical safety — it’s the present. With automated SDS indexing, we’re setting a new standard for speed, accuracy, and compliance,” says Misbah Khan, Staff Machine Learning Scientist, VelocityEHS. “An AI-driven solution will allow an organization’s team member to quickly retrieve SDS information in case of an accident, improving the response time and potentially saving a life. This blend of innovation and responsibility propels us toward an EHS future that’s both efficient and human centered.”

    The paper concluded that an automated system could improve efficiency and compliance by indexing fields, such as product name, manufacturer, supplier, and revision date, with a precision accuracy of 96 to 99%.

    Driving Innovation in Workplace Safety & Sustainability

    These research contributions reflect VelocityEHS’ commitment to pioneering AI to improve workplace safety and operational performance. The company continues to invest in innovation to provide advanced solutions so organizations can reach all their EHS goals.

    To learn how Velocity’s AI Machine Leaning scientists worked with certified ergonomists to deliver the most comprehensive ergonomics assessment tool, watch this video.

    For more about VelocityEHS, visit www.EHS.com.

    About VelocityEHS

    Relied on by more than 10 million users worldwide to drive operational excellence and achieve outstanding outcomes, VelocityEHS is the global leader in true SaaS enterprise EHS & ESG technology. The VelocityEHS Accelerate® Platform is the definitive gold standard, delivering best-in-class software solutions for managing Safety, Ergonomics, Chemical Management, and Operational Risk. In addition, Velocity offers world-class applications for Contractor Safety & Permit to Work, Environmental Compliance, and ESG.

    The VelocityEHS team includes unparalleled industry expertise, with more certified experts in health, safety, industrial hygiene, ergonomics, sustainability, the environment, AI, and machine learning than any other EHS software provider. Recognized by the EHS industry’s top independent analysts as a Leader in the Verdantix 2025 Green Quadrant Analysis, VelocityEHS is committed to industry thought leadership and to accelerating the pace of innovation through its software solutions and vision. Its privacy and security protocols, which include SOC2 Type II attestation, are among the most stringent in the industry.

    VelocityEHS is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with locations in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Tampa, Florida; Oakville, Ontario; London, England; Perth, Western Australia; and Cork, Ireland. For more information, visit www.EHS.com. 

    Media Contact:
    Jennifer Sinkwitts
    VelocityEHS
    jsinkwitts@ehs.com

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Sir Jon Cunliffe’s address on the Water Commission’s Future Plans

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Speech

    Sir Jon Cunliffe’s address on the Water Commission’s Future Plans

    A speech by Water Commission Chair Sir Jon Cunliffe as the public and stakeholders are invited to share their views on the future of the water sector.

    Good morning. Thank you very much for coming, and on a personal note thank you to the Greater Manchester Authority for hosting us.  It is very good to be back in Manchester.

    I spent four happy and formative years here as a student, half a century ago.  Manchester was a lively, energetic, and forward-looking place, and that has not changed. I have come back to visit in various roles and whenever I have, I am struck by how much the city has changed, how much it has regenerated itself and how much it has developed and grown in every sense of the word

    And, in the same way as I have come back to Manchester, I find myself returning, after 45 years, to issues of water and the environment. The Secretary of State for Defra and Welsh Ministers asked me to lead an Independent Commission to recommend changes to reset the water sector and its regulation.

    I should say at the outset, it’s a hugely important task and I am privileged to be asked to do it. The provision of water, and the quality of our natural water environment matters deeply to millions of people, many of whom marched in London for clean water last year and the organisers are here today. The organisers gave me this sample containing river waters collected from across all parts of Great Britain to remind me of the task and I have done that. I am very aware of the significance of this work.

    My first job in the civil service, 45 years ago at the old Department of the Environment, involved working on the initial EU legislation on bathing water and industrial pollution of water – a time when the UK was generally regarded as the ‘dirty man of Europe’.

    As with Manchester, much has changed since then. And we should start by recognising what has been achieved.

    The UK has world-leading drinking water.  We can drink from our taps without a second thought, 365 days of the year.  That is not the case in many other developed countries. The UK ranks among the best countries in the world for sanitation related health.

    In infrastructure terms, leakage is down by over a third since privatisation, 85% of bathing waters – the legislation that I worked on – in England are rated as good or excellent (compared to 28% in the 1990s), and there has been over £220 billion of capital investment in real terms in the system Environmental monitoring and transparency have also increased.

    And, viewed over the last 40 years, these changes have not come with huge increase in costs to the public. Since 2014, water bills have actually fallen in real terms most years. It is difficult to think of many other things that you can say that for. For 2024 – 25 the average bill is estimated to be around £1.20 a day for both water and sanitation services – although, as we know, bills are due to rise more sharply and I will come to that in a moment.

    But, those achievements notwithstanding, it would be very difficult to say now that we have a water sector, and regulation of water in general, in which the public have trust and with which the public is satisfied.

    Or that we have sector that has kept pace with the increasing need to invest or kept pace with the public’s increasing expectations around the protection of our natural environment.

    Or indeed, a sector in which investors, who need to finance the huge investment need, see as a stable and predictable long-term investment.

    And of course not all water companies are the same, but something has clearly gone wrong when the largest water company in England is struggling close to insolvency, when there are criminal enforcement cases in train against pretty much all water companies, when a number of companies’ debt is rated at below investment grade, and when over a third of water companies are formally challenging the economic regulator’s decisions.

    Over the last few months, since taking on the Independent Commission, I and the team here have engaged extensively with stakeholders on all sides of the debate about the water sector – with environmental NGOs, consumers, investors, water companies, regulators and Parliamentarians among others. There is, rightly, a great deal of anger with where the system is.

    I have met no-one who is happy with the current system.

    Of course, to paraphrase Leo Tolstoy, while all are unhappy, everyone is unhappy in their own way. But there is no lack of recognition that change is needed.

    And, although there are different views on why the current system is not working – and, look, while I recognise that not all I have spoken with would choose the current model of a regulated private industry – I do think there is strong and widespread support for the proposition that the current model can be made to work better than it is working today.  And there are no shortage of ideas as to how that might be done.

    The Call for Evidence that the Commission is launching today reflects what we have heard in this initial period of engagement.

    The Commission’s Terms of Reference are very broad and very detailed. Consequently, the Call for Evidence is both comprehensive and substantive (it runs to over 200 pages  –  although you will be relieved to hear that there is an Executive Summary).

    The call for evidence is intended to do three things.

    First, to set out the history and map the current arrangements.  Second, to set out, as comprehensively as we can, all the issues that have been raised regarding the water sector – on all sides of the debate.  And third, to set out the areas of possible change that we want to explore further and on which we would like to hear views and evidence.

    And, because the Call is intended to be the foundation for our further work, it is the opportunity for all concerned to tell us if we have misunderstood, or if we have omitted, issues or that we should be exploring areas and ideas that we have not identified.

    I should make one caveat very clear: the Call for Evidence is not a consultation on the Commission’s recommendations.  Nor should you infer – or try to infer – from the Call what the Commission’s recommendations will be.  We are, bluntly, not at the recommendations stage and we will not be there for some months.

    Rather, you should treat the Call for Evidence as the opportunity to input your views – on the issues, on the areas for change and, indeed, on anything else – to give us a broad and deep foundation for the next stage of our work.  And the Call will not be the end of our engagement.  We will continue to engage and to test ideas with a range of stakeholders, and test our thinking as it develops, with support from an expert Advisory Group which the Commission has appointed, some of whom are here today.

    I cannot, as I say, give you the Commission’s recommendations. What I can do today, however, is to set out the key areas we are exploring and where we think change is likely to be needed.

    First, I have talked primarily about the water sector and the water industry.  But the Commission’s terms of reference go wider than that.  One very important task we have been set is to look at the strategic management of water in England and in Wales.

    And we have one water system made up of river basins, aquifers, coasts.  And there are many demands upon it: demands by the water industry, by the industry generally, by agriculture and by development, to take water out of the system and to put wastewater back; demands from the public to use that same water system for recreational purposes and to enjoy the natural environment; and the demands of the plant and wildlife that depend upon it for their very existence.

    These demands often have to be balanced against each other and balanced against the costs they entail. Looking forward, climate change, population and economic growth and rising environmental standards will increase those pressures and make them more expensive to meet.

    A very strong and consistent message that the Commission has heard is that there needs to be a better strategic framework to provide guidance at the national level for balancing competing pressures. At the highest level, this is a task only Government can do. And to be clear, this is not just about the setting of objectives – indeed the setting of objectives is the easier task compared to the much thornier job of providing guidance on how objectives that may not align should be reconciled.

    Comparison has been made to us with energy, and the role that could be played by national ‘systems operator’ – an organisation responsible for managing and overseeing the entire system. However, I should say to a much greater extent than energy, our water system is made up of regional systems and local catchment areas. Water is just more local — and much more difficult to move around than electrons or gas molecules.

    So, while many have commented on the need for a better framework at the national level, many have also argued on the need for stronger regional and local management of the demands on water. Under the Mayor’s leadership, Greater Manchester, where we are today, has pioneered a more integrated, holistic approach to the management of water at the regional level, and I think has highlighted the potential for such approaches.

    The question of how these gaps in national and regional management of water should be addressed is not an easy one but is an important element in our thinking and one on which we very keen to hear views and ideas.

    The second area I would like to highlight is the regulatory system for the water industry. You will not be surprised that this has been an area that has attracted major comment in the Commission’s engagement with stakeholders again from all sides of the debate.

    Regulation of private firms exists in our economy and society to ensure that firms do not pursue their internal objectives at the cost of external, public policy objectives.

    In the case of the private water companies, which are effectively monopolies, regulation has to encompass not only environmental protection and public health objectives but must also include economic regulation to prevent abuse of monopoly power.

    As the private water system has developed since privatisation, and frankly as the expectations of the sector have increased, new regulatory and planning mechanisms have been added. These have aimed, rightly, to incentivise water companies to improve customer service and to improve environmental performance and to ensure that companies plan to invest – in the public interest – in necessary environmental improvements, future water resources, and better waste-water management and drainage.

    Many have commented to the Commission on the complexity of the system that has resulted in a duplication between regulators and on a lack of responsiveness to regional and local priorities (I note in passing that that there were 93 separate statutory and non-statutory requirements driving water company investment in the recent Price Review, amounting to 18,000 individual actions for water companies).

    In the absence of competition, economic regulation by Ofwat relies on ‘comparability’ to establish the industry wide benchmarks for efficiency and for performance that an efficient company should meet and uses that to set the amount customers should pay.

    It is crucial, when customers cannot switch to other providers, to have an objective framework for incentivising efficiency and good service.  But as the regulatory framework has grown, and as that has happened, increasing weight has been put on developing the comparability approach to set targets for an increasing range of outcomes. This, it has been argued, has not only increased complexity, but failed sufficiently to acknowledge the very real differences – differences of geography, demography, infrastructure – between water companies.

    And many have also commented to the Commission on the tensions that can result when one authority is responsible for setting requirements for water company expenditure in line with public health or environmental standards and another is charged with responsibility for determining cost-efficiency with a view to protecting customer bills.

    So, we’re very keen to hear further views and evidence on whether and how the system can be simplified, whether comparability mechanisms for setting benchmarks and targets could be supported by more company specific and regional approaches and how costs and benefits could be more closely integrated in the assessment of water company plans.

    And on the environmental side we are also keen to hear views on the environmental regulation of water and how it is implemented, how it is monitored, and how it is enforced.

    The Water Framework Directive, which is a successor of the legislation that I worked on all those years ago, inherited from the EU, sets a target to achieve good ecological status of water bodies by 2027. While this target looks likely to be missed by a large margin in England and Wales, it should not be forgotten how significant this legislation has been in driving improvements to our rivers, lakes and seas.

    As we approach its target date, Government will, at minimum, need to consider whether a new, post 2027, target should be set and what it should encompass. The Commission has heard a range of views on whether the approach to water body quality should be widened to include public policy objectives beyond ecological condition, such as public health.

    Stakeholders have also commented on the perceived lack of flexibility in the legislation which, it is argued, prevents nature-based solutions to improve water quality. There have also been extensive comments on the lack of mechanisms and resources to implement the Water Framework Directive, including how to ensure there is the necessary action from other sectors like agriculture and transport that have a major role to play in improving the condition of the water environment.

    We have seen evidence that is in the Call for Evidence that the fragmented, sectoral approach to impacts on water body quality and the siloing of funding streams often results in interventions that are sub-optimal in terms of value for money and sub-optimal cost effectiveness. We are interested in views on how this could be improved and, in particular, the role that might be played by that local regional level of water management that I referred to earlier.

    Finally, and really importantly, confidence that regulation – be it environmental, health or economic – will be enforced where necessary is a crucial key element to achieving and maintaining public trust in the system.

    There has been a lot of action in that area. Strong and robust enforcement is needed to deter and punish but we have also heard of the need to ensure that enforcement and sanctions are not self-defeating but rather provide, as well, a route to redemption. The Commission is very interested in how the necessary level of public confidence in enforcement can be achieved going forward.

    Turning to companies and investors, there has been significant change in the ownership of companies since privatisation, with a transition for many firms from publicly listed companies with ownership by retail and institutional investors to unlisted ‘private’ companies owned by private equity funds or international infrastructure companies. In Wales, reflecting a particular set of historical circumstances, a not-for-profit model was adopted in the 2000s.

    There has been extensive debate on the link between ownership models and company performance. I have to say, initial analysis by the Commission has not thrown up a very clear picture of any relationship between company ownership models, including Welsh Water’s not-for-profit model, and companies’ overall  performance on a range of metrics. But this is an area on which we are keen to hear more evidence and expert advice.

    The possible exception is the area of financial resilience – the Commission is aware that decisions by a number of companies about structure and debt historically have left them more exposed – as we have seen in the extreme example of Thames Water.

    Financial resilience in general is an area we want to explore further.

    Water companies enjoy a licence to provide essential monopoly public services.  They own and operate critical infrastructure. Given the importance of those services and that infrastructure, for which there are no effective substitutes, the licence comes with the obligation for companies to be resilient, financially as well as operationally.

    Financial resilience is not, in my view, a matter solely for water company boards – any more than financial resilience is. In my experience, it’s not solely a matter for the boards of banks. The public interest in water company resilience must also be protected. Where there is a public interest, one hopes and trusts that the long-term resilience of the company is of as much importance to the board and owners as it is to the public. History unfortunately – in both the water and, for example, again in the banking sector – suggests that this is not always the case.

    The capital structure of water companies, the amount of capital they hold that can absorb loss when risks crystallise, is therefore a matter in which there is both a private and public interest.  As is the degree of flexibility and transparency that operating companies have in their financial arrangements more generally, for example in the case of very complex business structures. The regulatory system has developed new mechanisms in this area, in the light of experience in recent years.

    The Commission is seeking views on whether those mechanisms provide adequate and, importantly, practical, workable means of providing assurance of financial resilience, and how account should be taken of the different risk profiles of different companies.  Given that the risk profiles of companies generally is going to change as the investment in new infrastructure increases and becomes an increasing proportion of their business, this is an important area on which we need to look forward as well as learn from past experience.

    There is, of course, another very important side to this coin.  Water company owners need to provide the resilience to bear the risks, through time, that they can reasonably be expected to bear.  But they also need to be rewarded, fairly, for bearing those risks.

    And while there can never be absolute certainty and standards and society’s expectations will change, investors, in water company equity and debt, need to be able to trust that the regulatory system through time will be generally stable and predictable.

    Those issues are particularly important given the very significant investment needs that have to be financed in the future.

    The Commission is seeking views on how investor return should be determined, how the system can be made more stable and predictable and evidence more generally on how investment in the water sector in England and Wales compares to investment with a similar risk profile in other sectors and countries.

    Finally operational resilience, which is as important as financial resilience.

    We have heard a range of views on whether we have the right systems in place at both the regulators and in companies to assess the resilience of companies’ infrastructure and to fund replacement at the necessary rate over the long-term.

    Questions have been raised over whether failure metrics give an accurate assessment of infrastructure resilience and more generally it is not always clear where regulatory responsibility lies. The long-term maintenance of infrastructure may not fit easily into the current planning regimes. I should note here that other countries appear to replace infrastructure at a faster rate.

    The Commission would like to hear further views in this area, including on the case for setting national standards for infrastructure resilience as has been recommended by the NIC.

    So, to conclude, I have been asked frequently over the last few months what outcome the Commission is seeking and whether we will be recommending evolutionary or revolutionary change.

    The answer to the first question is that the outcome we need is an industry and regulatory system that is trusted by the public, by customers, and by investors to deliver world class, efficient services and the necessary quality of the water environment and that is trusted to do that sustainably into the future. And that is not going to happen overnight, of course, but I hope the Commission can provide the platform for it to happen over time.

    The answer to the second question is that we will recommend whatever we think is necessary, in line with our terms of reference, to achieve that outcome.

    Thank you very much.

    Updates to this page

    Published 27 February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI USA: Unique Tree Enriches UConn’s Landscape

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    Down a slight hill towards the West entrance of the W.B. Young Building sits a unique tree. Recently planted and already blending into the landscape, many UConn students, faculty, and staff probably walk right by without registering the young tree.

    But rooted in this addition to UConn’s nationally accredited arboretum is a “forever friendship” between two emeriti faculty members, their families, and the University that served as the backdrop for much of their lives.

    Sidney and Florence, Rudy and Joy

    If you are at all familiar with the fields of horticulture or landscape architecture, the names Sidney Waxman and Rudy Favretti are well known to you. Both men are considered to be pioneers in their respective fields, and both called the University of Connecticut home for their professional pursuits.

    Sidney Waxman, standing among his unique dwarf conifer cultivars. (UConn Photo)

    They were also great friends since their graduate school days at Cornell University, where they graduated in the mid 1950s.

    Sidney Waxman, born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1923, is best known for creating nearly 40 new types of dwarf conifers and trees, including the one outside the Young Building.

    “This tree is a symbol of the strong friendship between Sidney, his wife Florence, Rudy, and myself,” says Joy P. Favretti, Rudy Favretti’s widow. “We had known each other at Cornell. Later when we had all gotten married and moved to Connecticut, we would watch each other’s children when they were small, and they played together here in Storrs. Rudy and Sidney appreciated each other’s work. It really was a forever friendship in so many ways.”

    Waxman founded UConn’s experimental plant nursery, where he focused much of his research on developing new and interesting plants from witches’ brooms. These are abnormalities in a tree or woody plant where a cluster of shoots develop at a single point. Sometimes caused by fungus or other pathogens, the resulting deformities can look like a witch’s broom or a bird’s nest.

    Waxman and his wife Florence often joined forces to collect samples as they traveled around Eastern Connecticut and the New England region.

    “Florence was great at spotting the witches’ brooms,” says Joy Favretti. “Sid would hike into the woods and shoot them down with his rifle. Eventually he had to use other methods and have a crew climb up and cut them down.”

    Many of Waxman’s specimens can be viewed as part of a special collection within UConn’s campus-wide arboretum.

    A New Branch in UConn’s Family Tree

    To say that the young tree developed by Waxman that sits outside the Young Building is special may be an understatement.

    “Sid’s plants are harder and harder to find commercially, so preserving this specimen where the public can enjoy it is really special,” says Sean Vasington, University landscape architect and director of site planning with University Planning, Design & Construction.

    In fact, this tree may be one of the last that Waxman ever created.

    “Rudy’s Joy” may be a one-of-a-kind specimen development by Waxman. (Jason Sheldon/UConn Photo)

    After Waxman’s death in 2005, his son Paul brought the one-of-a-kind specimen to the Favrettis, in accordance with his father’s wishes.

    “When Paul brought the tree, it was very meaningful,” says Joy Favretti. “He told us that it originated from a witches’ broom Rudy had identified.”

    With a nod to the Favrettis’ 60-plus-year romance and based on his admiration for Rudy’s immense contributions to landscape design, Waxman had named the cultivar “Rudy’s Joy.”

    Beyond its sentimental story, there’s a lot that makes the little tree special from a horticultural perspective too.

    The witches’ broom discovered on a Norway Maple was grafted onto a Sugar Maple, New England’s native maple. The tree is well known for its fall colors and sweet syrup. Mark Brand, the chair of UConn’s arboretum and professor of horticulture and plant breeding, is confident the tree won’t reproduce since it doesn’t seem to produce flowers or fruit.

    “Sydney was smart,” says Joy Favretti. “He recognized there was a need for lower growing foundation plants, as many of the new homes being built at the time were only one story or a story and a half. The Connecticut nursery industry and many others were pleased to make them available in their nurseries.”

    While there are still lots of questions surrounding what “Rudy’s Joy” will become, it is likely to be very tall, about 50 feet, and round.

    Part of this uncertainty was by design. Waxman often incorporated fungus strains into his new species, which can cause unique forms to develop. For instance, “Rudy’s Joy” has unique branching and is of an unusual shape.

    “Its globose form and single stem should be very distinctive as the tree matures, especially during the fall when its foliage will turn bright yellow,” says Vasington.

    “It’s going to be notable and highly unusual, that is one thing we know for sure,” says Greg Anderson, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology, member of the UConn Arboretum, and friend of the Favrettis.

    For the Love of the Landscape

    Along with reflecting the genius of Waxman’s experiments, as it grows, “Rudy’s Joy” will be a tangible monument to the contributions Rudy Favretti made to UConn, the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR), and the field of landscape architecture around the globe.

    Rudy Favretti ’54 (CAHNR) professor emeritus of landscape architecture speaks at an event to celebrate the Great Lawn, held at the Wilbur Cross North Reading Room on Sept. 26, 2012. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

    Born in 1932 in Mystic, Connecticut to Italian immigrant parents, Favretti’s UConn career began as an undergrad who, in 1955, was hired as an Extension garden specialist. He would later become a professor of landscape architecture and develop UConn’s program, which was nationally accredited with his participation, guidance, and support, nearly 10 years after his departure from UConn.

    “Rudy Favretti’s contributions within our field are renowned and immeasurable, but he is also a big part of UConn’s history and that of the College,” says Vasington.

    While he was a devoted resident of Mansfield, his legacy goes far beyond UConn’s main campus and the surrounding area.

    In 1989, Favretti retired from teaching to build a private design firm with a specialty in preservation.

    Favretti’s influence can also be seen at some of the most important historic gardens in American culture. Nicknamed the “Dean of historic restoration,” Favretti served as the consulting landscape architect for the Garden Club of Virginia for 20 years, from 1978 to 1998. In this role, he conceived of and oversaw the installation of preservation and restoration projects at Monticello, Mount Vernon, and Montpelier, some of Colonial America’s most important landmarks.

    His contribution has had such an impact on the field of landscape architecture that he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1992, and his collected works are stored in the Smithsonian Institute’s Archives of American Gardens Collections and in UConn’s Dodd Center for Special Collections and Archives.

    During his “retirement,” Favretti found time to serve as head of the Mansfield Planning & Zoning Committee and published books for the Mansfield Historical Society dealing with the history of each of the original town school districts.

    “Rudy’s love of learning and sharing that love with others never stopped,” says Anderson.

    UConn Homecoming             

    In the months leading up to Favretti’s passing, the arboretum committee and the University had hoped to record and honor his contribution to UConn. Unfortunately, a scheduled interview that would have allowed Favretti to speak personally about his beloved university and field of landscape architecture wouldn’t come to pass.

    But his friends, colleagues, and wife Joy kept thinking of a way to honor these “forever friends.”

    In the summer of 2023, Joy offered to donate “Rudy’s Joy” to UConn as a memorial and to have it moved to an appropriate spot on campus for planting. So, in November 2023 the special tree was moved by one of Rudy’s former students from its overcrowded place in the Favretti garden to a welcoming spot where it can grow and develop on UConn’s Storrs campus. Here, the tree looks across to the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, where both Waxman and Favretti devoted so much of their energy and intellect.

    “Here, in this spot, it is a fitting memorial to our forever friendship,” says Joy Favretti.

    MIL OSI USA News

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Gatwick expansion unwanted, say Greens

    Source: Green Party of England and Wales

    Responding to the Transport Secretary’s decision to pursue a positive decision for Gatwick Airport to bring its northern terminal into constant use, (1) Siân Berry Green MP for Brighton Pavilion said:

    “The Labour government is trashing its climate credentials one absurd decision at a time. Only one day after receiving critical advice from its own climate advisors on the need to lower flying demand, ministers continue to support yet more unnecessary expansion for the benefit of wealthy investors.

    “Pushing through these damaging plans shows such poor economic judgement. Over 100,000 extra flights a year won’t deliver for our communities. Labour should listen to the public who think airport expansion is the wrong priority. Most of us fly once a year if at all and would rather see cheaper train tickets and more bus routes instead to help with our daily journeys and create jobs where we live, in contrast with frequent flyers leaching money out of the economy.

    “The green economy grew by ten per cent last year, and this is where Labour should be investing to deliver high-wage, long-term jobs across the entire country.”

    (1) Transport planning: Gatwick Airport – GOV.UK

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Increase of domestic timber to boost UK economy and housebuilding

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Increase of domestic timber to boost UK economy and housebuilding

    New vision by government to deliver on its Plan for Change by increasing timber use in construction and boosting economic growth.

    Credit: BSW Timber

    A new roadmap to get Britain building with the use of sustainable and low carbon building materials, will help solve the housing crisis and achieve 2050 net zero targets.

    New, ambitious plans to increase the use of timber in construction to boost the domestic timber industry, economic growth, rural jobs and housebuilding targets, have been announced by Environment Minister Mary Creagh today (Thursday 27th February) at the Timber in Construction (TiC) Summit in London.

    The government has outlined new methods to deliver on its Plan for Change that will help to build 1.5million sustainable and affordable homes, create a low-waste circular construction sector and drive further investment into domestic timber and wood-processing supply chains.

    Speaking at the TiC Summit, Minister Creagh confirmed the government will recommit to the Timber in Construction Roadmap, which outlines measures to increase the use of timber in the construction sector. 

    David Hopkins (CEO of Timber Development UK), Defra Environment Minister Creagh, Andrew Carpenter (CEO of Structural Timber Association) , Andy Leitch (Deputy Chief Executive of Confor) at the Timber in Construction Summit, London, February 2025 Credit: Timber Development UK

    Using timber in construction is one of the best ways to reduce emissions from buildings. Around 25% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions are from the built environment, and larger buildings can store up to 400% more carbon when built out of engineered timber products compared to when built with concrete. Currently only 80% of the timber the UK uses is imported.

    The new Timber in Construction Roadmap outlines more ambitious Government priorities and key actions including:

    • Encouraging the use of sustainable, low carbon building materials, and ensuring carbon emissions are considering during the design, construction and use of buildings.
    • Fulfilling the Government’s commitment to delivering 1.5m homes this Parliament by using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) including the use of timber, to boost productivity in housebuilding and deliver high quality, energy efficient new homes.
    • Creating a circular economy by championing timber’s potential for a clean growth future – supporting the construction sector to use the most sustainable, low carbon materials and construction techniques.
    • Accelerating economic growth by creating new and diverse green jobs in the productive forestry and timber sectors, as well as stimulating further investment into domestic timber and wood processing supply chains.

    These actions will go alongside recommitting to existing plans such as promoting timber as a construction material, boosting skills and capacity across the supply chain and increasing the supply of sustainable timber products.

    Environment Minister Mary Creagh said:

    “This Government is getting Britain building.

     “Our Plan for Change will build 1.5 million homes this Parliament. Timber will play a vital role benefitting development and nature.”

    Forestry Commission Chief Executive, Richard Stanford said: 

     ”To reach net zero, we must increase timber production from homegrown trees and use that timber in our buildings to sequester carbon. The Timber in Construction Roadmap will propel forestry production in England to ensure timber security, reduce our dependence on imports, and address the nature crisis by boosting biodiversity, improving water quality, and providing more green spaces for people.

    “The Forestry Commission will continue to collaborate closely with partners from the timber, forestry, and construction sectors in this critical area of work for many years ahead”.

    Alex Goodfellow, Chair of the Confederation of Timber Industries, and CEO of Donaldson Offsite said:

    “The Minister’s support for the Timber in Construction Roadmap shows the Government’s firm commitment to a growth agenda: growth for forestry, for housing, for low-carbon skills and for the economy. The timber supply chain is a major economic player in the UK, connecting rural and urban environments. 

    “Timber frame construction is a well-proven technology and business model for delivering houses rapidly and sustainably while improving quality.  By accelerating this growth we can build more low-carbon housing today while providing a market pull for expanding forests. As a supply chain we will support the Government to deliver on all of the goals in the Roadmap and help build a more sustainable future.”

    The amended Roadmap goes further than previous Government commitments, setting out more ambitious targets and actions to increase the use of homegrown timber in construction in a move to reduce carbon emissions, provide green jobs of the future, create affordable and sustainable housing, and drive-up economic growth.

    Increasing the domestic production of timber will create new green jobs in the forestry and wood processing sectors, which contribute over £3bn to the UK economy.

    Updates to this page

    Published 27 February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Council led teamwork helps to keep rough sleeper levels down across city

    Source: City of Wolverhampton

    The data snapshot – taken once a year and based on one night – puts rough sleeper levels in Wolverhampton at 8.

    The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has published the latest figures following a count in October 2024. It shows Wolverhampton has fewer rough sleepers than most cities in the country and one of the lowest levels in the region.

    Across England the number of people estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2024 was 4,667. This has risen for the third year in a row, increasing 20% since 2023. The West Midlands region saw a 35% increase in rough sleepers in 2024 compared to 2023, according to the single night figures.

    City of Wolverhampton Council heads a multi agency approach with the P3 Charity, Good Shepherd Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton BID, Wolverhampton Homes, Recovery Near You, West Midlands Police and others.

    Support offered by partner agencies not only addresses housing issues but also helps with reducing debts, improving skills, controlling substance use and managing mental and physical health issues. All those identified as rough sleeping during the count were offered support, including accommodation.

    Councillor Steve Evans, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for City Housing at City of Wolverhampton Council, said: “The low figures are a testament to work that goes into supporting our most vulnerable people all year round.

    “Our revised 5 year Homelessness Prevention Strategy underpins our commitment, through a joined up approach, to ensuring no-one is left behind.

    “We will build on partnership work to tackle the root causes of homelessness while working to deliver good homes in well connected neighbourhoods that support strong families where children grow up well and achieve their full potential.”

    Councillor Jasbir Jaspal, City of Wolverhampton Council Cabinet Member for Adults and Wellbeing, said: “People who sleep rough also often have complex and multiple health and care needs. An important part of our work in this area is to help people improve their health and social wellbeing, supporting them to find long term solutions and break the cycle.”

    P3 Charity Head of Support & Community Services, Sam Bailey, said: “We’re proud of the collective difference we’ve made to rough sleeping in Wolverhampton, but we can’t rest on our laurels.

    “In collaboration with our partners, we’ll continue the exceptional, people centric approach that we’re known for, ensuring our interventions are effective and long lasting. Our commitment continues until we’re confident there is no longer anyone in Wolverhampton who needs to spend a night on the streets.”

    For details on how to contact support services to help those experiencing rough sleeping, visit Rough sleeping, P3 Charity or Street Support Network – Find Help.

    Donate online via JustGiving or by using the charity’s tap and go points in Railway Drive or Victoria Square.

    Concerned about someone sleeping rough? Visit StreetLink.

    For help with the cost of living visit Cost of Living Support.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Fianna Fail TD displays Putin like attitude on anniversary of the invasion of the Ukraine

    Source: Traditional Unionist Voice – Northern Ireland

    Statement by TUV vice chairman Councillor Allister Kyle:

    “The remarks by Fianna Fail TD Cathal Crowe in which he described the existence of Northern Ireland as “a source of hurt” were deeply ironic, particularly in the context of a debate on the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    “The mindset displayed by Mr Crowe is strikingly similar to that of President Putin who has attacked the right of Ukraine to exist.

    “To talk about respecting “territorial boundaries” in a speech in which he attacks the existence of the Irish Republic’s nearest neighbour shows an irony bypass which is hard to fathom.

    “His remarks should act as a wake up call to Unionists who have bought into the Protocol implementing process. Far from regarding the Belfast Agreement as a settlement, Mr Crowe described it as “only a stepping-stone” to an all-Ireland.

    “It is time that he, his party and indeed the EU showed a little bit of respect for “territorial boundaries”. Perhaps then they could be taken seriously when it comes to Ukraine. Unionism too would do well to reflect on the fact that that the constitutional ambitions of Dublin remain unchanged.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Minister for Gambling Baroness Twycross’s speech to the Betting and Gaming Council AGM 2025

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Speech

    Minister for Gambling Baroness Twycross’s speech to the Betting and Gaming Council AGM 2025

    Minister for Gambling Baroness Twycross’s speech to the Betting and Gaming Council Annual General Meeting 2025

    Good morning everyone. Thank you for the invitation to speak today. It is great to be here to speak to so many of you.

    It was a huge privilege to be appointed as the Government’s gambling minister last year. I would like to thank everyone I have met so far for sharing your knowledge and perspectives on your sector. I am particularly grateful to Michael and Grainne for their constructive engagement on key issues facing your industry. 

    I have also enjoyed meeting a range of people from the wider gambling sector, such as John from Bacta, and Miles from the Bingo Association. 

    Whilst you are all facing different issues, I recognise there are key similarities, one thing you also do have in common is the experience and passion there is in the industry.  

    In my short time in post, I have seen the value this sector brings. Not just in tax receipts and jobs created, but as a leisure activity, for example through a day at the races, enjoying a game of bingo, or time spent in a seaside arcade. 

    I have enjoyed being shown round the Grosvenor casino in Liverpool last year and the Hippodrome earlier this month, and look forward to visiting more venues as soon as possible. 

    You will know that the Government is focused on economic growth. I believe that a growing gambling sector is compatible with creating an even safer one. I want a gambling sector in this country that is one we can be proud of – one that offers good jobs, interesting careers, brings social value, and is one that people enjoy while having vital protections in place. 

    As set out in our manifesto, and as you will be aware, we are also committed to reducing harmful gambling. The licensed, regulated gambling industry is a crucial part of that. 

    I want to work with you to see a safer, more responsible gambling industry. 

    I know that the vast majority of people who gamble do so without experiencing harm, but it is in all our interests that we do better for those customers who could be vulnerable to gambling harm. I have found it helpful to hear from a number of you about measures you are already taking. 

    I am pleased to be able to update you on significant progress on key reforms that deliver on the Government’s agenda.  

    I am sure many of you will have followed the progress of the statutory gambling levy in Parliament over the last few weeks. The legislation has been affirmed by both Houses and became law on Tuesday this week. It will come into force on the 6th of April and operators will be required to make their first levy payments by the 1st of October.

    I know the BGC has been largely supportive of the introduction of a levy, and we recognise the work done by the sector through the voluntary levy previously. This is a huge step forward for the sector and will see increased investment to expand projects and services to reduce harmful gambling. I know that we have a shared aim in this area. 

    The financial support that BGC members have given to research, prevention and treatment services has enabled people in need access to crucial treatment services, and laid a foundation which the levy can build on. It is vital that funding for these services is maintained in the transition to the levy. I welcome the BGC’s commitment that this will be delivered.

    We have now appointed the commissioning bodies for research, prevention and treatment. 

    We are working at pace with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, NHS England, UK Research and Innovation, and with partners in Scotland and Wales, to build robust foundations for the future system. 

    It is crucial we put the right commissioning, accountability and governance arrangements in place. 

    We want to build on the successes of the current system. But the levy will mean funding certainty. This will allow the expert bodies we have appointed to boost efforts to further understand, tackle, and treat gambling harm. We and the commissioning bodies will be led by the best evidence to get funding where it is needed most. 

    The online slots stake limits statutory instrument was also made into law on Tuesday. I know you are all keen to understand exactly when these stake limits will come into force. 

    I can confirm the five pound limit will be in force on the 9th of April, while the two pound limit for younger adults will be in force on the 21st of May. I know that implementing these stake limits is a technical challenge and I am grateful for all the work you have done in preparation for this moment.

    I can confirm that we are moving forward with measures to modernise the regulations for land-based casinos. These changes will allow casinos to offer up to 80 gaming machines, mirroring the rules for small 2005 Act casinos. There will be a sliding scale of machine entitlements, meaning that smaller casinos can also benefit from more machines, commensurate with their size. 

    We will also allow sports betting in all casinos, giving operators the opportunity to expand their product offering. These changes will unlock investment in the casino sector and should provide an economic boost for both operators and machine manufacturers. We are working as quickly as we can to ensure that legislation is laid in Parliament as soon as possible. I know the significance of these measures to many of you here today.

    Turning now to advertising and sponsorship, which you will know has been of significant media and Parliamentary interest in recent months. 

    One of the biggest issues raised with me as Gambling Minister is advertising. 

    I have tasked the industry with doing more to work together to ensure that gambling advertising and sponsorship is appropriate, responsible, and does not exacerbate harm. 

    I am grateful to the BGC for coordinating this work across your membership, and I completely understand that the ability to advertise is an important activity generally, and key advantage that licensed operators have over the illegal market. 

    We know that some people can feel they are being inundated with gambling advertising – and this can be especially true whilst watching sport. Crucially, we know that advertising can have a disproportionate impact on those who are already suffering from gambling harm. We must also be vigilant to any adverse impacts on children and young people. 

    So I am keen for the industry to take the lead in making a robust assessment of the scale and impacts of advertising, so that we are working with the best available evidence.

    Lastly, I want to touch on the issue of the illegal market, which I know is of concern to many of you here today. 

    Illegal gambling is a concern for us all. And we are committed to working closely with the Gambling Commission, to ensure that illegal gambling, in all its forms, is addressed. I have heard your argument that overregulation leads to, or risks, displacement to the illegal market. This is something that was carefully considered in the development of the white paper and in the decisions that have been made since. 

    We believe the reforms we have introduced together with the Gambling Commission are proportionate and targeted interventions.    

    However, I agree that vigilance is vital when the illegal market threatens revenue for the licensed sector and player protections for vulnerable customers. That is why I have been pleased that the Gambling Commission has increased disruption activity and has a renewed focus on finding innovative ways to tackle the illegal market. 

    On Tuesday, the Crime and Policing Bill was introduced to Parliament. One of the provisions in this Bill will give the Commission greater powers to move quickly and effectively to take down IP addresses and domain names associated with illegal websites. This is an important step in equipping the Commission to tackle the illegal market and protect legitimate businesses. 

    Thank you again for the invitation today, and the time many of you have given me since I took up my role.

    I will keep listening and look forward to working with you all to realise our shared vision of a better, safer gambling industry. I hope you are all as keen as I am to take these challenges on.

    Updates to this page

    Published 27 February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Over 326,000 children currently supported by Scottish Child Payment

    Source: Scottish Government

    £1 billion paid to help tackle child poverty

    New figures, show that as of 31 December 2024, the families of 326,080 children under 16 years of age were receiving vital support from Scottish Child Payment.  

    Over £1 billion has now been paid to parents and carers since the payment was introduced in February 2021.  

    Scottish Child Payment is unique to Scotland and provides financial support for families, helping with the costs of caring for a child. It is a weekly payment, currently worth £26.70, for every eligible child that a parent or carer looks after who’s under 16 years of age.    

    While visiting Craigour Park Primary school in Edinburgh, to talk to parents who receive Scottish Child Payment, Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said:  

    “Eradicating child poverty is the Scottish Government’s top priority and a national mission.   

    “Our investment in Scottish Child Payment has seen over £1 billion worth of these payments issued by 31 December 2024; that is money directly in the pockets of those families who need it most. 

    “Modelling published in February 2024 also estimates that the Scottish Child Payment could keep 60,000 children out of relative poverty this year. 

    “Scottish Child Payment is actively improving the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in Scotland – helping their families to access essentials and experiences they might otherwise miss out on because they live on a low income. 

    “In the coming year it is forecast we’ll invest a further £471 million, ensuring that this support continues to reach even more families and children who need it.”

    Head Teacher of Craigour Park Primary, Sally Ketchin, said:  

    “We welcome payments like Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Grants. We can see the real difference this money makes to families in our community.” 

    Case study   

    Ashley Forbes lives in Glenrothes with her three children.  She said:      

    “The two-child cap came in for Tax Credits when I was pregnant with my third child. That meant I would be losing £60 a week when the baby was born so, obviously, that was quite a scary moment. It was huge.   

    “I wasn’t working and my partner at the time was only working part-time so money wasn’t great. It felt like £60 was so much to lose, you know, when you have a baby with milk and all that stuff to buy.      

    “And then when Scottish Child Payment came in, it was a huge relief. I have three kids and they grow so fast. It’s new shoes, new coats and new clothes all the time.   

    “My eldest two do swimming as well which is a really important skill that you need in life. We wouldn’t be able to do this stuff without Scottish Child Payment.     

    “I think Scottish Child Payment is great. We couldn’t do without it.”   

    MIL OSI United Kingdom