The South African Government's new Preferential Procurement Regulations, 2022 (“2022 Regulations”) have created uncertainty about how organs of state will identify "specific goals" in their procurement processes. While the regulations do not specifically require the consideration of B-BBEE, organs of state can still use it as a factor in preference point scoring, along with or instead of other goals like employment equity, green procurement, and local content and production ...
The Regulation’s overall goal is to encourage Member States to carry out Strategic Mineral Projects involving minerals such as e.g. Copper, Titanium, Nickel – battery grade, Lithium – battery grade, and Rare Earth Elements for magnets. The aim for the EU’s extraction capacity is set to be at least 10 % of the Union’s consumption of strategic raw materials ...
The government has published its response to a further section of the building safety regime consultation, focusing on occupied higher-risk buildings (HRBs). The questions considered in this part of the consultation related to registration requirements for HRBs. More information about what the registration will actually entail is now available, as well as confirmation of the fee for registration, which will be £251 ...
Introduction Off-plan properties are those which are sold in advance of completion and can offer attractive payment plans and potentially high returns on investment. Therefore, the acquisition of off-plan property has always been a favored form of investment for those seeking to profit from the booming Dubai Real Estate market. However, it is vital for buyers to understand the risks involved ...
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) are increasing their scrutiny and enforcement of ‘green claims’ to protect consumers from 'greenwashing'. What are green claims? Green claims (also known as ‘environmental claims’ or ‘eco-friendly claims’) are claims that a product, service, or business provides a benefit or is less harmful to the environment ...
Reliance on performance guarantees in infrastructure projects has gained traction in Uganda in recent years. A performance guarantee is a legal promise made by one party to another, and typically backed by a third-party financial institution, to ensure fulfilment of contractual obligations ...
March 13, 2023 By: Manuel Fishman While unexpected, the closure by California regulators of, and the appointment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) as receiver for, Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) is an event that is contemplated by most leases. If you are holding a letter of credit issued by SVB, you are an unsecured creditor of the bank ...
Figures from Homes for Scotland indicate that there is currently a shortage of almost 100,000 homes in Scotland. According to their most recent figures, 25,000 new homes are needed each year to keep pace with need and demand – and that figure was last met in 2007. Let those figures sink in ...
Recent months have seen sustained industrial action in the rail sector. On 20 February 2023, the government launched a 12-week consultation on setting minimum service levels for passenger rail. Unlike in many European countries, there are currently no limits in the UK on the number of employees who are able to take part in strike action together ...
The Health and Safety Executive has confirmed that all higher-risk buildings will be required to be registered with the new Building Safety Regulator from April 2023. This follows the government’s latest response to its consultation on the management of higher-risk buildings and what information must be submitted following the registration of higher-risk buildings. The registration application will need to be accompanied by supporting information ...
The implementation of the Building Safety Act 2022 (‘the Act’), aimed to reform building safety legislation following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, is now well underway. The requirements set out in the Act will affect everyone in the built environment industry, and not just in respect of higher-risk buildings ...
In 2018, second-term Governor Roy Cooper issued climate-related Executive Orders, which was followed in 2019 by the state’s clean energy plan ...
Federal infrastructure funding is coming to North Carolina and Pennsylvania! Recently, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced an award of $1.2 billion in grants for nine projects around the country. This includes projects in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The funding for these projects is coming from the new National Infrastructure Project Assistance (Mega) discretionary grant program ...
Construction continues to be one of the deadliest industries in the United States, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) is heavily targeting construction workplaces. In 2022, OSHA inspected construction workplaces more than any other industry, and OSHA’s focus on construction employers is expected to continue this year ...
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) plans to prioritize its efforts to correct discrimination and harassment in the construction industry following a review of data that revealed the construction sector to be one of the most challenging areas in terms of discrimination and harassment cases ...
Hydrogen's potential to support the UK’s journey to net-zero depends in large part on how carbon-intensive the hydrogen we produce is. One of the challenges this presents is transparency. Much like electrons in a wire look the same (whether generated from coal or from wind), a hydrogen molecule looks the same whether produced by electrolysis powered by renewables or from carbon-intensive steam methane reforming ...
The window for low-income service providers to take advantage of funds available through the Oregon Solar+ Storage Rebate Program is closing. Each year, 25 percent of the program’s budget is allocated to low-income and moderate-income homeowners and service providers. This year, the non-income-restricted funds have already been disbursed, and only low-income and moderate-income restricted funds remain ...
February 17, 2023 By: Alexander Davis and Manuel Fishman Update This article is partly a republication of a Client Alert that was issued on December 6, 2022 titled “San Francisco’s Commercial Vacancy Tax.” Readers who have already read the original article can simply read ahead to the sections labeled “Update.” Commercial Vacancy Tax In March 2020, the voters of San Francisco approved Proposition D, also known as the Commercial Vacancy Tax ...
In some ways, the 2023 proxy season might be met with a sigh of relief as some extraneous factors impacting United States capital markets—such as the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict—have stabilized in terms of their increased effect. In that same vein, some changes that may have once been viewed as “trends” in disclosure are very much here to stay ...
Hydrogen is often touted as the future of green industry, heating and fuels. It certainly has the capability to be just that, but there are many hurdles along the way to be overcome. In truth, while there are many methods to produce hydrogen, only four could potentially reach carbon zero ...
Our support of the UK’s first official Hydrogen Week continues this week, bringing together stakeholders across the UK to celebrate and promote the role of hydrogen in reaching net zero (NZ). Michael Bennett, construction legal director at Shoosmiths, explores the topic of hydrogen and its current journey to achieving net zero. The number that has been front and centre of every environmental conference is 1.5C ...
The planning system has a key role to play in both facilitating and legislating for environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles. In the final instalment of Shoosmiths’ planning video series, legal director Sam Grange and associate Eram Watson examine how the real estate industry and planning system is incorporating ESG ...
The exponentially rising hydrogen trend attracted not only hydrogen veterans to the World Hydrogen Congress in Rotterdam, but also the fossil fuel industry. Big oil giants, such as Shell and Total Energies, were major sponsors of the event and eagerly presented their new green ambitions on the showroom and the stage ...
