Tag: ambitions

Scottish soldiers share top tips to stick to New Year resolutions

Soldiers from The Royal Regiment of Scotland have revealed their army hacks to help civilians stick to their 2024 goals

Nearly a third of the Brits will be setting New Year’s resolutions just now, with ambitions around health and wellbeing, from reducing stress to exercising more, being among the most popular.

But despite these good intentions, one in five resolution setters will call it quits by the end of January, with many citing feelings of pressure and lack of perseverance as their main setback.

With characteristics of resilience and dedication built into them from the start of their army careers, soldiers from The Royal Regiment of Scotland have shared their top tips help the British public stick to the commitments they’ve made to themselves this year.

  1. The key to success? Visualise it.

“Don’t let negative thoughts embed themselves. A positive and can-do mindset is the bedrock of success. Take the time to visualise your goals – it will make the path to success much clearer. Flexibility is key too. If one day doesn’t go as planned, get up and start over afresh the next.” –   Cpl Fraser Hall, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland

  1. 10 minutes is all you need to set yourself up for success tomorrow

“I always make sure to set aside 10 minutes after every working day to sit and digest my tasks and goals for the next day. That small space of time is crucial to help me mentally prepare for the next day.”  – WO2 Sean McKnight, Regimental Sergeant Major, 6th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland

  1. Keep cool and carry on

“An ice bath is a great way to de-stress and think clearly. Whilst taking the initial plunge may be a bit daunting, it forces you to focus on being present in the moment and concentrate solely on your breathing, helping you to feel calmer. But, if it’s really not for you things like the headspace app are great for mental health and wellbeing, and getting you into the right space of mind for the day ahead.” WO1 Ryan Robertson, Regimental Sergeant Major, 1st Battalion The Ranger Regiment.

  1. Embracing the outdoors? Be prepared

“To help you spend more time outside, rain or shine, it’s a good idea to ‘waterproof your waterproofs’. What this means is layering up and wearing the correct fabrics to make sure you don’t end up soaked through!

 Your mid layer fleece or jacket shouldn’t be cotton either, as this will retain moisture and not protect you from any wind or rain – a polyester-base is best as it will keep you protected against the elements. We always keep a dry kit in our bags, too. Using it is an absolute last resort, but can be a life saver when out in tough weather, so it’s definitely something to consider if you plan to be outdoors for longer periods of time, or on tough terrain.” Capt Scott McFadden, Regimental Adjutant, The Royal Regiment of Scotland

  1. Work movement into everyday

“Try to work movement into activities that would usually be stationary. Can your meeting be done while taking a walk round the block? Then what’s stopping you? Life at the regiment requires you to balance a lot of different training, activities and information, so one thing I always do is make any sit down meeting a moving meeting. When you get up and start moving, your ideas flow a lot more and a change of environment can help when needing a fresh perspective.” – WO1 Bradley Warwick, Regimental Sergeant Major, 7th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland

City council appoints North to deliver Smart Waste Solution for Edinburgh

The UK’s leading IoT service and solutions provider, North, has been appointed by IT and business consulting firm, CGI, to support the City of Edinburgh Council’s vision to become one of the world’s leading Smart Cities.  

A five-year contract has been agreed to support the Council’s plans to ‘transform the capital into one of the world’s leading Smart Cities’. 

The deal is supported by a European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) grant as part of the ‘Scotland’s 8th City – the Smart City’ programme. City of Edinburgh Council will deliver three projects budgeted at £6.4m, of which £2.5m is part of the ERDF grant. Funding secured by the Council from Zero Waste Scotland through its Recycling Improvement Fund will also be used towards the scheme.  

The development of a Smart City Operations Centre will transform and enhance city management and the citizen experience by utilising data captured through a range of emerging technologies to drive transformational change’. 

Driven by CGI’s industry-leading Smart City Platform, North was selected by CGI to provide the Smart Waste sensors and to provide connectivity for the solution through the IoT Scotland network, the most advanced Internet of Things (IoT) network in the UK. 

Intelligent sensor data will now be used to develop and drive improvements for better waste management, transmitted using North’s IoT Scotland network, allowing the City of Edinburgh Council to improve services across the city. 

The project will see North provision 11,000 smart waste sensors in waste containers throughout the city. The state-of-the-art technology will enable clever waste management by detecting waste levels and predicting usage trends, enabling the Council to optimise waste collection and manage routes more efficiently.

The smart technology will assist in creating a cleaner and greener city and will help reduce the Council’s environmental impact.  

The IoT Scotland network will also be used to transmit data for other critical services to enhance the council’s digital vision.  In parallel with the waste project the council will roll-out a digitally enabled proactive service for Social Housing across the city, using the IoT Scotland network.  

This solution will capture insightful data through real-time management and monitoring of the conditions in social housing properties.  The proactive approach for the maintenance of properties and asset management will deliver efficiencies for the council while enhancing the living conditions of their residents and improving wellbeing. 

Commenting on the partnership, City of Edinburgh Council Deputy Leader, Cammy Day, said: “Edinburgh has big ambitions for becoming a world-leading Smart City – a digitally inclusive, sustainable and connected Capital with services easily accessible by all of our residents no matter where they are.  

“The use of intelligent sensors will help us to deliver a more digitally-enabled proactive service and address many of the challenges a rapidly growing city like Edinburgh faces and will support our work towards providing clean and green communities, meeting our net zero targets and improving living conditions and wellbeing for all.” 

Scott McEwan, Chief Commercial Officer at North, said: “Edinburgh is one of seven Scottish cities working collaboratively on a Smart City programme. The introduction of the Smart City Platform will enable the Council to reach its ambitions efficiently and North is proud to accelerate this vision. 

“The use of technology to introduce intelligent waste management services will create a cost-efficient solution to everyday duties, whilst improving the streetscape and health of communities, and increasing sustainability.  Working with CGI, the roll-out of the smart waste scheme is an important step that will help Edinburgh reach its ambitions.” 

Tara McGeehan, UK & Australia President at CGI, said: “Edinburgh is a vibrant and diverse capital city that is home to more than 518,000 citizens and CGI has been the primary provider of transformational ICT services to the City of Edinburgh Council since 2015. 

“We very much look forward to taking Edinburgh’s vision of a Smart City and making it real through our innovative use of technology, analytics and data. Together, we will turn Edinburgh into one of the world’s leading Smart Cities.” 

Business leaders seek tax, trade and skills support to meet the challenge of the next twenty years

Almost half (47%) of UK businesses said taking on new staff is their key ambition in the medium-term, according to new research to mark the 20th anniversary of Bank of Scotland Business Barometer.

The survey asked 600 businesses about the major challenges and opportunities faced in the last two decades and anticipated challenges up to 2040 and beyond.

Companies also highlighted developing new products and services (36%) and increasing online sales (30%) as major ambitions and priorities.

The survey found that businesses expect online purchasing (20%) and demand for instant products and services (18%) to be the biggest changes in consumer behaviour in the next 20 years, forcing them to be more creative and innovative in order to adapt to deliver quickly.

These predictions mirror the factors which businesses cited as having had the biggest impact on their operations in the past 20 years – chiefly greater access to information (24%) and more online purchasing (22%) changing customer behaviour. 

However, firms are optimistic about further changes to consumer behaviour, with 38% reporting that advances in technology have had the biggest positive impact on their business in the past 20 years.

Challenges ahead

Despite a clear drive towards growth, a net balance of 83% of firms anticipate the next 20 years will be more challenging than the past two decades – which included the financial crisis and resulting credit crunch, recession, the Brexit referendum and the global pandemic.

Some of the challenges that businesses see themselves facing can be linked back to the pandemic, including rising costs (23%) and the ability to recruit staff (11%). In addition, one in ten (11%) businesses see the need to keep up with technological developments as their biggest challenge in the next two to three years.

Government provision of greater access to more vocational-based learning was seen by 44% of firms as being a way to help mitigate these challenges. However, companies believe that future growth opportunities will need to be supported by more favourable taxation to encourage sustainable business practices (52%) and new trade agreements with major trading partners (48%).

Paul Gordon, Managing Director for SME and Mid Corporates, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “The Business Barometer has provided unique insights into the views of British businesses for 20 years. 

“In that time, we have seen a seismic shift in the economic context in the UK, as well as the extraordinary ability of business leaders to adapt and evolve to meet changing market needs.

“Perhaps it is not unsurprising that, having faced a quite unprecedented period of late and enormous change over the last twenty years, the majority of business leaders feel the next twenty years will be more challenging. 

“To help them through this, businesses are looking for support on skills, finance, trade and taxation to navigate in this environment. One thing that is clear is that our businesses and business leaders are incredibly resourceful and resilient and are adept at facing into constant change.

“They tell us they are gearing up for growth and expect to increase headcount, enhancing their service offering or utilising new technologies. We’ll be by their side over the months and years ahead as they deliver on their ambitions.”

Prime Minister at COP26: “Still a huge amount to do”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a press conference at COP26 yesterday:

Before heading back to London last week, I warned of the need to guard against false optimism and to not allow ourselves to think that the progress we need would be easy.

And today, having spoken with the Secretary-General, and having met negotiating teams, heads of delegations and others here at COP, it’s clear that after the surge of really positive, game-changing announcements last week on methane, on finance, on forests in particular, we are now firmly in the hard yards, the nuts and bolts of international climate diplomacy.

And the negotiations are getting tough.

And with just a few days remaining, there is still a huge amount to do.

We’ve made a difference, we hope, for our planet and our people.

We’ve moved the ball a long way down the pitch.

But now we’re stuck in a bit of a rolling maul to mix my football and rugby metaphors.

The line is in sight, but if we’re going to get there, we need a determined push to get us there.

We need to be more ambitious with better, more credible plans for implementation.

We have to bridge the gap between where we are and where we need to be if we’re going to cut emissions in half by 2030.

And we need to pull out all the stops if we’re going to do what we came here to do and that’s keep 1.5 alive and make Paris the success the world needs it to be.

Because while that 2016 agreement was a significant moment in the fight against climate change, it was ultimately a pledge of action still to come.

And it is very frustrating to see countries that have spent six years conspicuously patting themselves on the back for signing that promissory note in Paris quietly edging towards default now that vulnerable nations and future generations are demanding payment here in Glasgow.

And there really is no excuse because we know what is at stake here. We’ve been hearing it all week.

We heard it from the President of Palau, Surangel Whipps Jr, who told me he spent five days travelling seven and a half thousand miles across nine time zones to make sure the voice of his people was heard.

The least we can do is pay attention when he says that if the big economies don’t do more we “might as well bomb” his islands.

We heard it from Simon Kofe, from the government of Tuvalu, who spoke to us not from a podium in a cosy conference room but knee-deep in a steadily rising Pacific Ocean.

And we heard it from Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados who so moved the opening ceremony when she warned that we are digging our own graves and asked when are the leaders finally going to lead.

And if you stood and applauded her, then you cannot now sit on your hands as the world asks you to act.

Because the world knows the mess our planet is in. The world has heard leaders from every country, every continent stand here and acknowledge the need for action. And the world will find it absolutely incomprehensible if we fail to deliver that.

The backlash from our people will be immense and it will be long-lasting. And frankly, we will deserve their criticism and opprobrium.

Because we know what needs to be done. We agree on what needs to be done. We just need the courage to get on and do it.

So this is the time for everyone to come together and show the determination needed to power on through the blockages.

To look at the science with dispassionate eyes and think about how we can compromise, how we can be flexible to meet the needs of the planet.

And for world leaders who are back in their capitals to pick up the phone to their teams here and give them the negotiating margin, give them the space they need in which to manoeuvre so we can get this done.

Here in Glasgow, the world is closer than it has ever been to signalling the beginning of the end of anthropogenic climate change.

It’s the greatest gift we can possibly bestow on our children and grandchildren and generations unborn.

It’s now within reach, at COP26 in these final days, we just need to reach out together and grasp it.

And so my question for my fellow world leaders this afternoon as we enter the last hours of COP is will you help us do that? Will you help us grasp that opportunity or will you stand in the way?

FIRST MINISTER Nicola Sturgeon has clearly enjoyed rubbing shoulders with world leaders on the international stage during COP26.

It’s quite possible there may be some new global ambasadorial role when she decides it’s time to move on, but in the meantime Ms Sturgeon is urging world leaders to go further.

Responding to the publication of the first draft agreement at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “The draft cover text is a start, but it must be the floor – not the ceiling. The imperative for leaders now – on climate finance and the pathway to 1.5 degrees – is to negotiate the ambition significantly upwards.

“It must not be watered down. It is vital that the world emerges from COP 26 with 1.5 degrees well and truly alive, and closing the finance gap is key to that. It is also a moral obligation developed countries owe to those less developed and most vulnerable to the impact of climate change.

“I welcome the Prime Minister’s return to Glasgow today, and urge him to stay for as long as necessary until a deal is done. As has been the case all along, I will do everything I can to assist and support these efforts.

“This is a moment that future generations will judge. Either we will be judged to have failed in the face of climate catastrophe or, alternatively, to have taken a decisive step towards sustainability for our planet.

“It must be the latter. In the words of a Marshall Islands minister I met yesterday – “for countries like mine, we don’t have many COPs left – the time to act is now.””