It’s not random chance that puts mining at the head of the list of industries – and it’s a long list – that HAWK serves. HAWK is an Australian company, founded in 1988 with a focus on serving that country’s resources sector with locally designed and produced products. Over the years the company has expanded into different geographic areas, mainly into countries with a mining presence, working through a network of specialised distributors.

Canada’s enhanced Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Strategy, “Doing Business the Canadian Way: Advancing Corporate Social Responsibility in Canada’s Extractive Sector Abroad” was announced by the Canadian government on November 14. It builds on experience and best practices gained since the 2009 launch of Canada’s first CSR strategy, “Building the Canadian Advantage: A Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy for the Canadian Extractive Sector Abroad.” The idea is that Canadian companies operate abroad with the highest ethical standards.

Have you always liked aeroplanes?
Fraid so! I don’t know where it came from, but for as long as I remember flying has always been a passion of mine.

What’s so special about Aerosud?
I had the privilege of starting Aerosud as a one man company in 1990, albeit in the context of an agreement with my five other partners who would be following me later.

On March 7 this year King Mswati III of Swaziland officially opened the new international airport, also known as King Mswati III. A key component of the Millennium Development goals (MDG) programme, the $280 million project is not unattended by controversy, but is seen as essential if Swaziland is to make the most of its geographical advantages and become a mini hub within southern Africa, providing a complementary role to OR Tambo Airport only a couple of hundred miles to the west.

Tesco this year has seen its share price fall by 25% and eight directors have been suspended following the over reporting of profits by £250m. The Financial Conduct Authority is looking into the matter and now even the Serious Fraud office has expressed an interest in the situation. All this is on top of the premature exit of the previous CEO. How can a business the scale of Tesco and operating under close financial and investor scrutiny get itself into such a mess? How did PwC, its auditors not spot and act upon the risk of flaws in accounting?

As UK local authorities and community groups pack up from another successful bonfire night (November 5), pallet pool provider LPR is counting the cost to the environment of more than 140,000 serviceable wooden pallets going up in smoke.

Based on calculations by Europe’s second largest pallet pool operator, around £1.4 million could be wasted in the UK each year by bonfire organisers who use pallets to fuel the flames. Beyond the financial cost, LPR has also highlighted the environmental impact of burning the 28,000 trees required to make these pallets.

King Pie is a South African franchise and a member of The Franchise Association South Africa (FASA), just one of a number of fast food brands one might be tempted to think, but KP demands to be taken seriously. It claims to make the best pies in the world, assuring its customers that it really does take pies seriously: “It’s easy to get caught up with cooking trends and cost charts, but we know it’s the basic things that make a good pie – freshness, quality ingredients, and value for money.”

Africa is often referred to as the "dark continent," with internet and telephony penetration rates some of the lowest in the world. That, however, is changing rapidly, with projects like the West African Cable System (WACS) and the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) being planned and deployed to deliver much-needed connectivity to the continent. Infrastructure these days is not all about roads and bridges and railways.