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Better Living Through Well Being

Solving the puzzle of climate change is complicated and requires deep transformation in our global human activities. Meeting the challenge of reducing carbon emissions that heat our planet takes precious time we do not have. In order to prevent extreme weather changes around the world, business and industry need incentives, both to make it profitable to reduce their own carbon emissions and also to contribute to measurable, verifiable emission reductions that reduce, remove, or avoid greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere.

This is where the system of carbon credits and carbon offsets comes in. Carbon credits are purchased from a government entity when needed to meet preset carbon emission restrictions or are sold on the carbon credit market to other companies who are in need of them. Similarly, carbon offsets are generated by companies when they remove carbon from the atmosphere as part of their normal business activity. These can also be sold on the carbon credit market. When an entity’s greenhouse gas emissions are entirely balanced by purchasing carbon credits or from their own offsetting projects they are described as being carbon-neutral, or as having reached Net Zero.

Through a data-first approach, technology company Trimble has created a carbon marketplace called Connected Climate Exchange that bridges the gap between farmers, agronomists and businesses to track and leverage sustainable farming practices. Using its data aggregation capabilities, the Connected Climate Exchange is able to deliver quantifiable and verifiable reports validated by independent third-party providers who track carbon emissions reductions and removals within the agriculture supply shed at scale. Over the past 17 years, Trimble has sold over 4.5 million tonnes of agricultural carbon offsets, generating over $50 million for farmers.

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A new report “Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles 2024-2044" provides technology and market insights into the adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles for the car, van, truck, and bus market with analysis of drivers, barriers, players, models, and market forecasts for 2024-2044.

Many countries have tightened emissions regulation to reduce the impact from on-road transportation. This has forced manufacturers away from traditional combustion engines and toward zero-emission types. The two technologies to have achieved zero emission are battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).

There are pros and cons to the successful adoption of both BEVs and FCEVs in coming years. Using a comparison of their use in heavy-duty trucking as an example, hydrogen FCEVs show advantages over batteries for the heaviest and longest of hauls while BEVs are often better suited for lighter loads and more frequent stops. This is because hydrogen weighs less per unit of energy than batteries, creating a curb-weight advantage and allowing for heavier payloads and longer driving ranges than that of its battery-electric counterpart.

For a full overview of what the future might be for BEVs and FCEVs, plan to attend the free webinar “What Opportunities are Left for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle?.

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After losing 6 percent of its workforce during the pandemic, the trucking industry still has trouble hiring and retaining drivers. Some carriers are now utilizing a third-party Health and Wellness Program. This has become an important link between not only retaining employees but also organizing the dimensions of wellness into a useable framework for the trucking industry. The focus of driver education programs for most carriers is rightfully on the safety of drivers, but without wellness there will not be drivers to put into the trucks or employees to support the drivers. The topic of wellness is often missing.

Research shows that Health and Wellness is crucial to the trucking industry. The life expectancy of a driver is 16 years less than the average population, seven out of ten drivers are obese, and the longer a driver stays in the trucking industry the risk of developing obesity, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, and potential early death become higher.

The free white paper “The Link Between Wellness and Retention: Luma’s Framework for Building an Employee Health and Wellness Program” is available for download.

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We’ve been living alongside and working with various types of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for a long time now. Most of us have benefitted in our daily lives from machines or software that mimic human intelligence and have the ability to learn, perceive, reason, comprehend language, and problem-solve. But over the years AI’s capabilities have expanded from simple algorithms to complex systems capable of autonomous decision-making and incredible display of knowledge.

Looking back through the history of technology, it is easy to see how every major advancement such as the printing press, electricity, automobiles, and the Internet have taken away jobs. In each case, however, ultimately many more jobs were made within the changed society as adjustments to the new technology were made. Now for the first time in history it is possible that we may see a future where human work has actual competition.

The advancement of AI has evolved from initial ways to mimic human intelligence to more sophisticated abilities to produce original and detailed outputs with a high degree of usefulness and accuracy that currently represents the epoch of our technological progress. Yet, with the latest arrival of Large Language Models such as OpenAI’s Chat GPT that can understand and generate human-like text, it’s clear that today’s AI systems are getting stronger every day.

According to one expert, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is seen as the holy grail of computer science. It will be able to do any task as well as or better than a human can do, not by being necessarily conscious, but very capable and without need for human intervention.

According to Bill Gates, an incredibly powerful AGI could be just decades away that “will be able to do everything that a human can, but without any practical limits on the size of its memory or the speed at which it operates.”

The comprehensive report “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work” offers extensive insights and case studies on AI’s evolving role and it urges us to ask ourselves what this means for all of us. “Will we fashion AI into the ultimate servant of our leisure and let it replace us entirely, or will we wield AI as a master tool to solve problems we never could before?”

It is important to realize that AI’s effectiveness and reliability is highly dependent on the data it consumes, and that it reproduces both our ingenuity and our flaws. This reality further underscores the need for responsible AI development, focusing on ethical training practices and accurate diverse data sets.

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Other articles of interest in this TMIS eNewsletter for Winter 2024:

*Nurse Practioners are in high demand as the NP profession grows to meet healthcare shortages for primary care through delivery of exceptional whole-patient care.

* Norfolk Southern releases its Climate Transition Plan aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions for a low-carbon future.

* Investment in workplace wellness initiatives yield important benefits as measured by employee satisfaction and mental health and emotional support in survey.

* Biologists uncover secrets of the process used by plants to control inheritance and pass down genetic memory.

* The Body Shop becomes the first global beauty brand to achieve 100 percent vegan product formulations as certified by The Vegan Society.

* Herbal supplement brand Gaia Herbs partners with a world-renowned model to inspire people to join them on their wellness journeys.

* Formulators of clinically tested supplement present masterclass on the science of senolytics to show practitioners how and why it can be used to mitigate many common age-related symptoms.

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I am grateful to be in a collaborative business with many talented and skilled professionals. Your feedback is always welcome.

- Mary Michele McLaughlin


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