Sourcing Journal | How Blockchain Could Benefit Levi’s Worker Well-Being Initiative

Levi Strauss & Co. is building on its five-year-old worker well-being program, underpinning new efforts with blockchain in order to enhance trust and transparency and reduce the time from data collection to review and response.Last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, a trio of stakeholders announced the program development that’s funded by an $800,000 grant awarded to blockchain consultancy ConSensys, civic think tank New America and the Sustainability and Health…

New America, ConsenSys, and SHINE Awarded Federal Grant to Build Blockchain-Powered System to Track Health and Well-being of Factory Workers

Solution will be piloted with garment factory workers in Mexico in 2019 and 2020. Represents $800,000 collaboration supported by State Department, Levi Strauss Foundation, and ConsenSys. DAVOS, Switzerland – New America, ConsenSys, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health launched a two-year collaborative endeavor to develop a blockchain-based worker well-being system based on Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE) Health and…

SHINE Publishes Report On A New Approach to the Well-being of Factory Workers in Global Supply Chains

We wanted to highlight our recently published paper, A New Approach to the Well-being of Factory Workers in Global Supply Chains: Evidence from Apparel Factories in Mexico, Sri Lanka, China and Cambodia, which was one of only eight selected papers chosen for publication by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in their new report Measuring The Impacts of Business on Well-being and Sustainability.  Dr. Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, SHINE Research Associate,…

SHINE Publishes Paper on Open-Plan Office and the Impact on Work Behaviors

Following the rising cost of real estate and a desire to increase collaboration and communication among employees, the open-plan office has been trending over the past decades. However, research about the impact of the open-plan office on humans is equivocal. The results are mixed depending on the nature of one’s work and job requirements.  There is a need for privacy in jobs requiring a high level of concentration, whereas jobs…

Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska of SHINE Presents at OECD World Forum on Statistics in Korea

We are thrilled to share that Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska (Ph.D.), Research Associate at SHINE presented the paper entitled A New Approach to the Well-being of Factory Workers in Global Supply Chains: Evidence from Apparel Factories in Mexico, Sri Lanka, China and Cambodia at the OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy in Korea this past November. Since 2004, the OECD World Forums on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy have provided a vital space to exchange…

SHINE Awarded Grant to Tackle Worker Well-being Using Blockchain Technology

We are thrilled to announce that the Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has been awarded a grant from the U.S. State Department to develop a blockchain-based platform that will enable a holistic and secure approach to tracking workers’ health and well-being.  This is the first-ever opportunity via a State Department grant to leverage this state-of-the-art technology to address the…

Another Successful and Engaging SHINE Summit in the Books

SHINE recently hosted our 4th SHINE Summit, Why Well-being Matters: Meaning and Metrics for 21st Century Business Leaders, at Google Headquarters in Cambridge, MA. Sustainability and health leaders from over 60 organizations, from Amazon to Yamaha Motors, attended to learn about the latest in visionary thinking, innovative research, and practical solutions for fostering well-being throughout the business value chain. The SHINE Summit acts as a springboard for applied research that…

Frequent flier cancer?

Flight attendants have higher rates of several types of cancer, a risk that could apply to others who fly frequently. Research from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that flight attendants have more breast cancer, uterine cancer, gastrointestinal, thyroid and cervical cancer compared with the general public. Specifically, the team found that breast cancer prevalence is 51 percent higher among flight attendants, melanoma occurs twice as often and non-melanoma skin cancers are…

CNN | Flight attendants get more uterine, thyroid and other cancers, study finds

A flight attendant’s life may look glamorous, but the job comes with health hazards that go beyond managing surly passengers. As a group, they get certain cancers more than the general population, according to a new study. Scientists have long found that flight attendants get more breast cancer and melanoma. The new study, published Monday in the journal Environmental Health, saw the same trend and detected a higher prevalence of every other…

LA Times | Flight attendants call for action in response to study that finds the job comes with high cancer risk

A union representing the nation’s flight attendants has called for more health protections for its members, following a study that ties working as a flight attendant to an increased risk of developing breast and skin cancer. The study, produced by researchers from Harvard University’s School of Public Health, supported the findings of other studies dating back to 2007 and said the risk of cancer is tied to the length of time flight…