Daniel Ackerman

Latest Stories (21)

Employers can offer a new benefit: Matching student loan payments with 401(k) contributions

May 22, 2024
A study finds participants are likely to be better off than without the benefit.
Student debt prevents workers from paying into their 401(k) plans, which means giving up company matching contributions, said Abbott's Diego Martinez.
DNY59/Getty Images

As Red Lobster files for bankruptcy, changing tastes take a toll on its casual-dining competitors

May 20, 2024
The sector hasn't really recovered from the pandemic closures of their dining rooms, when "they lost their core business model."
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

February cyberattack causes chronic pain for health care industry

May 20, 2024
When malicious hackers stole data from Change Healthcare and demanded a ransom, providers lost an estimated $100 million per day early on.
Change Healthcare processes between a third and a half of all medical insurance claims in the U.S. and is still working to get its services running smoothly.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

New federal rule aims to create more long-distance power lines

May 14, 2024
We'll need the lines to connect solar and wind power to new data centers, electric cars, heat pumps and so on.
As energy demand surges, FERC's new rule will help update the nation’s aging power grid.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The number of publicly traded companies in the U.S. is in decline. Here's why that matters.

May 13, 2024
When fewer companies are public, it limits our understanding of what’s happening in the economy.
The number of publicly listed companies has been nearly halved since the '90s.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Clean energy industry faces economic headwinds

Aug 1, 2023
Inflation and rising interest rates are making it harder for some projects to get off the ground.
A ship carries wind turbine components to the Port of New Bedford.
Daniel Ackerman/Marketplace

Carbon accountants help firms keep their climate pledges

Jun 21, 2023
Before companies can cut emissions, they first have to measure their carbon footprint. The new service is in high demand.
“Electricity usage and refrigerant leakage ... are the two main sources of emissions,” says Cooper Elsworth of Watershed, Sweetgreen's carbon accountant. Sweetgreen plans to become carbon neutral this decade.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

The United Nations has a new fundraising strategy: you

May 10, 2023
The intergovernmental group’s crowdfunding campaign aims to avert a potential environmental disaster in the Red Sea.
The United Nations logo. The organization hopes the public will provide part of the $129 million it needs to avert a potential environmental disaster in the Red Sea.
Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

Tiremakers are test-driving new plant-based sources for rubber

May 6, 2021
The industry's push to diversify its supply of natural rubber is spurring research into desert shrubs and dandelions.
The new generation of plant-based tires could hit the road in about five years, one expert estimates.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Aging oil tanker in Yemen raises concern about catastrophe in the Red Sea

Jul 23, 2020
Observers worry that the ship — a "pawn" in Yemen’s civil war — could spill its oil and affect fisheries and drinking water.
A 2019 view of the Yemeni port of Hodeida, near where the FSO Safer is moored. Observers say the ship poses risk to the area.
AFP via Getty Images