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This paper aims to describe the four education projects that demonstrate how Irish education provision is adapting to meet social and economic changes: Ubuntu Network working to integrate education for sustainable development (ESD) into teacher education; Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI) facilitating service learning modules at higher education; Young Social Innovators (YSI), a social justice education programme for 15‐18 year olds; and a study of Irish students' levels of moral reasoning. Four commonalities are identified between the projects: critical thinking, active and participatory learning, knowledge skills and social justice. Discussion highlights features of the Irish education system that contrast with these commonalities and impact on their long‐term objectives, which may in fact hinder the development of engaged learners.

Four commonalities were identified at the roundtable discussions at the Irish Aid Sustainable Global Development Conference. Each commonality is discussed from the perspective of the projects described and contrasted against core features of Irish education.

All four education projects make positive contributions to civic engagement in Irish education, acknowledging education as central to active citizenship, social awareness, and empowerment of learners.

Discussion centres on how Irish education provision is adapting to meet social and economic changes. The paper argues that distinctive features of the Irish education system and the prevailing culture of Irish education do not lend themselves to social justice concerns such as education for sustainable development, moral reasoning or civic engagement.

Ten years after the Earth Summit, a frequently asked question is how much, if any, progress has actually been made toward sustainable development. This article provides insight into the progress made by business in addressing and measuring progress toward sustainable production. Using a five‐level indicator hierarchy developed at the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, the authors analyzed the environmental sustainability indicators voluntarily‐reported by six pharmaceutical companies, half of which are Global Reporting Initiative pilots. Results demonstrate that most indicators currently being publicly reported address performance or eco‐efficiency (Level 2), a few indicators look at environmental effects (Level 3), only the Global Reporting Initiative pilots are beginning to address and report on supply‐chain and product life‐cycle effects (Level 4), and no companies are addressing carrying capacity issues (Level 5). Based on their experience with other companies, the authors feel that the results of this small, single‐industry survey reflect the current state‐of‐the‐art in terms of developing more sustainable production systems.

On June 27, 2002, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Caiola v. Citibank, N.A. (Caiola II) that cash‐settled options are “securities” under Section 3(a)(10) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act). In doing so, the Second Circuit disagreed with the Southern District of Ohio and the lower Caiola court (Caiola I), both of which took the position that certain cash‐settled options based solely on the value of a security were not securities because they “did not give either counterparty the right to exercise an option or to take possession of any security”. The Court adopted the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) view, widely supported in the securities bar, that “neither the right to take possession of any security nor the right to choose whether to exercise a necessary feature of an option on a security”.

The small‐ to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) retailing sector in the UK is facing challenging times. In order to help the sector meet these challenges a number of initiatives have been set up primarily with the intention to train, develop and support SME retailers through these times of change. Nevertheless, although a number of schemes exist at the European, national, regional and local levels, their ability to engage with the sector and facilitate change is questionable. Many of the training schemes and advice services are just not perceived by SME retailers to be relevant to their needs. In this paper, we suggest that a practical alternative to many of the structured and formal approaches currently on offer is that of mentoring. By reviewing the literature pertaining to the method and by presenting SME applications of mentoring we develop a framework for mentoring in the SME retail sector.

Fashion retail has faced immense changes in the rapid development of e-commerce, creating significant uncertainty about physical stores’ future. To improve the consumer shopping experience and increase sales revenue for fashion retailers, this paper investigates how Augmented Reality (AR) can be implemented within high-street fashion retail by exploring leading UK retailers’ reactions to pragmatic future scenarios.

This study conducted qualitative research through 13 interviews – eight retail staff from high-street and high-end markets and five AR/UX designers regarding their insights into how AR can enhance consumer engagement at each market level.

The results showed that the fashion retail market is ill-prepared to use AR. AR could help high-street brands offer a seamless shopping experience for consumers by prioritising the functional purpose but exciting AR animation. This would offer consumers an efficient and enjoyable shopping experience. While implementing AR, high-end stores should tell stories through hedonic engagement, letting consumers efficiently engage with brand messages, since building an AR ecosystem is cheaper than creating the story flow physically.

The study devises 16 retailer-supported guidelines for designing AR for Fashion Retail levels to guide innovators and retailers.