Mark and Focus Intelligence
What is changing, brought into focus.
Evidence-bound analysis of the institutions, investments, technologies, policies, and systems shaping markets, societies, cities, infrastructure, and the future.
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Japan Is Testing Environmental Due Diligence Inside Two Real Value Chains
Japan’s environment ministry has selected Oji Holdings and Mitsubishi Estate Residence for supported environmental due-diligence pilots that move from risk identification toward internal decisions, remedies and disclosure across value chains.
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Ten connected fields of systems intelligence
Urban Systems
Cities, urban governance, planning, adaptation, public space, and systems transformation.
24 analyses
Latest analysisJapan Is Asking Which Infrastructure Still Needs to Exist
Explore desk Water Governance
Water security, utilities, integrated water management, reuse, digital water, and institutional reform.
46 analyses
Latest analysisPoland Is Opening Power-Station Cooling to Reclaimed Water
Explore desk Climate Resilience
Climate adaptation, disaster resilience, drought, flooding, extreme heat, coastal pressures, and the mechanisms used to strengthen resilience.
91 analyses
Latest analysisEngland’s Drought Response Is Now Managing Scarcity and Sudden Flooding at Once
Explore desk Infrastructure Systems
Water, transport, energy, digital, and municipal infrastructure, with a focus on governance, investment, implementation, and delivery.
38 analyses
Latest analysisBrazil Is Rewriting the Connection Rules for a Two-Way Grid
Explore desk Digital Systems & Intelligence
Digital infrastructure, data systems, AI, sensors, monitoring, digital twins, automation, and operational intelligence.
23 analyses
Latest analysisIndonesia Wants One Data Reference Without One Data Owner
Explore desk Circular Economy
Resource recovery, reuse, industrial symbiosis, circular procurement, waste systems, and material transitions.
64 analyses
Latest analysisJapan Is Building a Local Carbon Chain Around a Waste Plant
Explore desk Nature-Based Solutions
Green infrastructure, ecosystem restoration, urban nature, wetlands, and nature-based adaptation.
11 analyses
Latest analysisEngland’s Wildfires Show Why Peatland Resilience Is an Operating System
Explore desk Environmental Governance
Institutions, regulation, policy frameworks, public administration, cooperation, and implementation capacity.
19 analyses
Latest analysisJapan Is Testing Environmental Due Diligence Inside Two Real Value Chains
Explore desk Infrastructure Finance
Capital planning, public investment, tariffs, blended finance, climate finance, asset management, and delivery systems.
31 analyses
Latest analysisJapan Is Moving Nature Finance From Disclosure Toward Investment Decisions
Explore desk Sustainable Urban Development
Integrated urban sustainability, resource resilience, land use, housing and infrastructure relationships, and long-term urban transitions.
24 analyses
Latest analysisAPEC’s Zero-Carbon City Framework Starts With Comparable Urban Energy Work
Explore desk 
Mark and Focus Monthly · September 2026
The Rules of Delivery
Five apparently unrelated decisions reveal how governments and institutions are changing the way policy commitments become operating results.
Read the issue →Selected recent analysis
Across the editorial desks
APEC’s Zero-Carbon City Framework Starts With Comparable Urban Energy Work
APEC has released a cooperative framework for zero- and near-zero-carbon cities, linking clean urban energy, intelligent development, energy-carbon accounting and a network for practical exchange across member economies.
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Indonesia Wants One Data Reference Without One Data Owner
Indonesia’s ministers have signed the formal problem inventory for a One Data bill intended to strengthen a 2019 presidential regulation and connect standards, metadata and sharing across every level of government.
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France Is Turning Digital Sovereignty Into a Three-Year Buying Conversation
France’s new Digital and AI Pact brings government and domestic technology suppliers into a three-year program to define needs, set standards, test products and build sovereign capability without bypassing public procurement.
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Canada Is Moving Major-Project Review Into the Lifecycle Regulator
Canada has removed several energy and infrastructure project classes from its federal Project List, placing review with the Canada Energy Regulator and making institutional handoff—not simply faster timelines—the test of the reform.
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Japan Is Building a Local Carbon Chain Around a Waste Plant
Japan's Environment Ministry has selected a Koriyama demonstration that links carbon capture at a municipal waste facility with regional conversion and use, testing whether public infrastructure can anchor a local carbon-utilisation chain.
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Poland Is Opening Power-Station Cooling to Reclaimed Water
From January 2027, Polish power and heat plants may use reclaimed municipal wastewater for cooling under a water-permit regime, creating a new operational link between treatment plants, energy assets and drought resilience.
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