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"Today, the parking industry is being transformed by new technologies that are enabling cities to reduce levels of congestion significantly. Sensor networks that detect vehicle occupancy are providing the basic intelligence behind smart parking systems, which provide real-time parking availability information to make it easier for drivers to find a parking space."

"At a time when Iran's economy is tied up with sanctions, limiting its international trade capacities, it managed to sell more than a million vehicles (885,000 passenger vehicles and 128,000 light commercial vehicles) in 2012, enforce Euro IV norms in 8 cities including Tehran, Karaj, Arak, and Tabriz, convert all public cars into Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) compliant vehicles, and successfully implement a vehicle scrappage program to get very old, highly polluting vehicles off the streets of Iran. The prospect of such a country opening up to trade, giving an opportunity for global automotive companies to be a part of its growth, certainly creates buzz in the industry. Iran sold close to 860,000 passenger vehicles in 2014, 88% of which were sold by Iran Khodro Industrial Group (IKCO) and SAIPA under different marquees. With around 11.7 million vehicles on the road, the aftermarket potential is massive and the average age of vehicles is steadily increasing."

"Four years ago, the German government pledged the idea of bringing one million electric vehicles (EV) to the German roads by the year 2020. Today, approx. just 24.000 electric cars cruise the streets of Germany - a far cry from the ambitious goal once set. The published progress report of the German National Platform for Electric Mobility (NPE) was supposed to be a milestone."

UK telecoms provider BT is to invest £1.5 billion ($3 billion) to roll out superfast broadband to up to 10 million UK homes by 2012. The system will enable services such as video conferencing, video on demand, and other high bandwidth activities. The programme is Britain's largest ever investment in superfast broadband, which will deliver speeds of up to 100 megabits per second. The fibre will be linked to a cabinet in the street and in some cases - such as the Olympic village for the 2012 Games - directly to the premises. Homes linked to a fibre-to-the-cabinet network will receive initial speeds of up to 40 Mbps, due to the copper cable that connects the house to the cabinet. However, BT expects this to increase to 60 Mbps with new technologies. Those on a fibre-to-the-premises network will see speeds of up to 100 Mbps.

Hydrogen fuel-cell cars have received a great deal of attention over the years as a clean alternative to petroleum-based transportation, producing only water for exhaust. Certainly the technology is known. Demonstration vehicles have been produced by several manufacturers and Honda is starting to roll out a fleet of 200 FCX Clarity fuel-cell cars, available for lease to select customers for US $600 per month. These autos are costing Honda hundreds of thousands of dollars each though, according to Honda's president Takeo Fukui (Wall Street Journal, June 16 2008), and it will take another decade before their cost falls below US $100,000. Although fuel-cell cars remain a long way from providing commercially viable transportation for the vast majority of people, cars are not the only application for fuel cells. Fuel cells are reaching commercial viability sooner in other applications such as portable electronics, including laptops, cell phones, MP3 players and games, aiming to supplement the ability of batteries to power these mobile devices for extended periods of time. There are a number of reasons why fuel cells may prove more competitive in portable electronics than in cars, including the favorable cost, lifetime requirement and easier distribution in this market. One of the companies developing fuel-cell technology for portable electronics is Polyfuel, using its proprietary hydrocarbon membrane technology for direct methanol fuel cells. The cost of power for portable electronics, according to Polyfuel president and CEO Jim Balcom, is up to US $10,000 per watt, compared with US $20-50 for autos, making portable electronics a much more attractive market than cars initially.

Metals are the new green on Wall Street, as mining has displaced financial services to become the biggest source of mergers and acquisitions.

While older municipalities across Canada are busy replacing lead distribution water supply pipes that have been in the ground since the last century, others are having to replace pipes made of polybutylene (PB) that were installed as recently as 25 years ago. The polybutylene plastic service pipes were installed in the 1970s and 1980s to connect street mains to the home as a cheaper alternative to copper piping. However, the polybutylene pipes were subject to collapse, and over time have become brittle, are cracking and leaking water.

The new Mulberry shop on London's New Bond Street features a concrete floor, display stands made of oak batons and an 8.7m-long polished brass cash desk. The 5,400 feet of retail space features an open and informal layout set on one level.