Styrofoam packing peanuts still exist in 2021. That’s not the news, it’s just disturbing. Covid-19 stay-at-home orders have made it clear that online shopping brings packaging waste into our lives. It causes despair on top of ennui. Plus, there is the environmental impact and the cognitive dissonance that comes from ignoring that damage.

And yet, there is some good news today.

Commercial transportation is getting its act together and creating more sustainable systems.

A new partnership between Hydra Energy and Chemtrade, both based in British Columbia, will speed up the adoption of hydrogen in long-haul transportation, the two companies claim. Fleet operators with Hydra-converted semi-trucks will be able to buy green hydrogen five percent below the price of diesel.

Multiple pilot projects have shown that trucks using hydrogen-injection technology and a hydrogen fuel source, can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 40% without impacting the truck’s performance or range of distance.

Press release: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/hydra-energy-partners-with-chemtrade-to-provide-commercial-truck-fleets-with-green-hydrogen-below-the-cost-of-diesel-877220173.html

Now, it’s a defense contract, so we have to hold our breath and wait to realize the peace dividend, but AI supported predictive maintenance is ultimately a good thing. Companies can set up devices and dashboards that inform users when industrial machines, modes of transportation and robotics are going to need a check-up and clean out. It prevents breakdowns, enables better employee scheduling and supports delivery systems. The more efficiently machines operate, the fewer the emissions.

Global Spatial Technology Solutions, a Halifax-based Artificial Intelligence and Maritime Analytics company, has been awarded a contract under the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program. They will demonstrate an AI-based predictive maintenance capability meant to optimize maintenance resources. The process will increase the availability of ships and submarines. The contract enables the expansion of an existing application offered by the company’s Maritime Management Platform OCIANA.

Press release: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/gsts-expands-maritime-ai-application-suite-to-support-vessel-performance-management-893684469.html

Since we’re talking AI, Databricks recently raised $1 billion to help the company scale as it builds an open, modern lakehouse cloud platform to support all data-driven use cases. B2B service development veteran Vinod Marur has joined the company as its Senior Vice President of Engineering. Marur’s appointment at Databricks comes after 15 years with Google where he led engineering teams that developed crucial business units like Search and Payments

Press release: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/databricks-appoints-vinod-marur-as-senior-vice-president-of-engineering-886190328.html

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Kate Baggott is a former Managing Editor of B2BNN. Her technology and business journalism has appeared in the Technology Review, the Globe and Mail, Canada Computes, the Vancouver Sun and the Bay Street Bull. She is the author of the short story collections Love from Planet Wine Cooler and Dry Stories. Find links to recent articles by following her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-baggott-9a0306/