REAL ESTATE
Boston to restrict parking at new developments
Boston will set a ceiling on how much parking it allows at new housing and commercial development, particularly near transit. The Janey administration on Tuesday announced a new system of “parking maximums” and other programs designed to reduce car usage at large projects reviewed by the Boston Planning & Development Agency. The requirements will vary widely, with every parcel in the city scored on measures of walkability, proximity to transit, and access to jobs, grocery stores, and other needs. But in general, developers will be required to include less parking than they are under current guidelines, with downtown office buildings reducing required parking by about one-fourth while residential buildings in MBTA-accessible parts of neighborhoods such as Allston and Dorchester might see parking reduced by a third. Parking spaces can add as much as $50,000 apiece to the cost of new construction, the city notes, and requiring fewer of them is a way to lower the cost of development and reduce traffic while also encouraging walking, transit, and other non-automotive means of transportation. — TIM LOGAN
TOYS
Lego promises to eliminate gender stereotypes
Lego, the world’s largest toymaker, has pledged to eliminate gender stereotypes from its products — including labeling that marks toys as “for girls“ or “for boys“ — as part of a bid to match the wishes of its young customers. “Despite the progress made in girls brushing off prejudice at an early age, general attitudes surrounding play and creative careers remain unequal and restrictive,“ the Danish company known for its colorful building blocks said in a statement on Monday, which was also the United Nations Day of the Girl. “Girls today feel increasingly confident to engage in all types of play and creative activities, but remain held back by society’s ingrained gender stereotypes as they grow older.“ Lego’s move comes amid heightened debate about the role that toys play in creating and perpetuating gender stereotypes. On Saturday, California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law requiring large retail stores in the nation’s most-populous state to provide gender-neutral shopping sections for child-care items and toys beginning in 2024. — WASHINGTON POST
AUTOMOTIVE
LG Electronics to pay GM $1.9b to cover cost of battery recalls
LG Electronics will pay General Motors $1.9 billion to cover almost the entire cost of a recall of fire-prone batteries in the Chevrolet Bolt electric car that has become a big problem for the automaker, the companies said Tuesday. GM has recalled all 141,000 Bolts it has made since the car was introduced several years ago to replace battery packs that can catch on fire because of manufacturing defects. The automaker, which aims to replace all of its gasoline cars and trucks with zero-emission vehicles by 2035, has said the recall would cost $2 billion. — NEW YORK TIMES
ENVIRONMENT
Google to help cloud customers monitor impact
Google’s cloud-computing division unveiled tools to help clients monitor and reduce their environmental impact, part of the company’s broader push to fight climate change. Customers can now use a carbon-footprint feature to see the gross emissions associated with their use of the Google Cloud platform, the company said Tuesday in a blog post. Google Cloud also is teaming up with Salesforce.com Inc. to let clients put their emissions data in the Salesforce Sustainability Cloud, a carbon accounting platform. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
JEWELRY
Owner of Kay and Zales buys Diamonds Direct
The owner of Kay Jewelers and Zales agreed to buy Diamonds Direct USA Inc. from Blackstone Inc. and other shareholders for $490 million, betting on a robust return of the US bridal business as pandemic restrictions subside. The cash deal will add 22 stores and 500 employees to Signet Jewelers Ltd.’s network. It will also bring higher-end bridal customers who typically spend more on engagement rings and other wedding accoutrements than shoppers at the company’s other brands, according to chief executive Gina Drosos. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
INVESTING
Harry and Meghan join NY investing fund as ‘impact partners’
Prince Harry, duke of Sussex, and his wife, Meghan Markle, duchess of Sussex, are the latest to join the boom in sustainable investing as they follow Wall Street in embracing a multitrillion-dollar industry. The couple is joining Ethic, a $1.3 billion investing fund in New York, as “impact partners” in the hope of raising awareness around issues such as racial injustice, climate change, and income equality, said co-founder Jay Lipman. Ethic was started in 2015 and says it creates custom investments for its customers based on the social and environmental issues they care about the most. Lipman said investors can address society’s biggest challenges through collectively divesting from polluters and companies that perpetuate racial discrimination such as the private prison system. Since stepping away from their UK royal duties, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have signed deals with companies including Netflix. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
WORKPLACE
Amazon loosens office policy even further
Amazon told employees Monday that it was loosening its plans to force workers to return to their offices, further retreating from a more rigid approach it had taken earlier this year. In March, Amazon told employees that it wanted to return to an “office centric” culture. It backtracked this summer, saying most corporate employees would need to be in an office at least three days a week. A plan to return to the office by September was pushed to January as the Delta variant of the coronavirus took hold. Now Amazon is adding more flexibility to its return-to-office plans. “Instead of specifying that people work a baseline of three days a week in the office, we’re going to leave this decision up to individual teams,” Andy Jassy, the company’s CEO, told employees in a message that the company also posted online. The director of each team will decide when and how frequently employees would need to be in the office, if at all. Employees who primarily work from home won’t be able to live just anywhere. “We want most of our people close enough to their core team that they can easily travel to the office for a meeting within a day’s notice,” Jassy said. — NEW YORK TIMES
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