Today is Earth Day—what are you doing to protect the planet? Many businesses and individuals are taking the necessary steps to reduce carbon emissions, ultimately improving the environment for generations to come. Consider the example of 27-year-old Dillon Baster, who has an objective to convert upcycled agricultural waste into a compostable plastic alternative. To do this, he launched his company PlantSwitch, which has raised $20 million and is currently manufacturing 50 million pounds of its plant-based bioplastics annually. Here is how this can help: Break down in backyard compost in less than 12 months, leaving no microplastics behind. Resins feel and function like plastic. Resins are “drop-in” replacements, meaning plastics manufacturers can use their existing machines and processes. Ultimately, food service, cosmetics, supermarket, retail chains, packaged goods companies, and others will use this product to become more sustainable. On Earth Day—and every day—it is important to keep a pulse on the alternatives on the market. This is simply one…

Step aside Uber. In many countries, we are now seeing the rise of electric flights that are offering taxi services between cities. For example, Japan now has an electric air taxi. AutoFlight delivered the five-seater Prosperity aircraft to the operator, which will be named in the future. This comes on the heels of AutoFlight’s February announcement where it demonstrated inter-city electric air taxi demonstration flight between the southern Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai. AutoFlight’s Prosperity aircraft completed the trip by autonomously flying the 50km (31 miles) route. The flight across the Pearl River Delta took just 20 minutes, a journey that would require three hours by car. Here is how this can help: Push the boundaries of urban air mobility in a safe and environmentally friendly way. Enable people to travel to their destination faster than before. Offer multiple options for travel in the years ahead. Looking to the future, the route between Shenzhen and Zhuhai is part of the future air traffic scenario planned by the regional government as it develops its ‘low-altitude economy’ strategy. The future of travel is changing—certainly we will need to keep an eye on electric and autonomous trends in the years…

The labor shortage is causing challenges across many industries including among engineers. Can AI (artificial intelligence) help recruit the right workers for the job, all while improving the effectiveness of recruiting? All signs point to yes. TalentRecipe uses psychological approaches and AI technology including GPT to address the global shortage of engineering and project managers. In Japan, the company demonstrated how generative AI can be used by a major tech firm that is piloting a project aimed at global engineering recruitment specifically. TalentRecipe says this experiment will verify the economics of using generative AI to improve the efficiency and quality of talent evaluations. Here is how this can help in recruiting: Enhance the quality of evaluations in different languages. Link recruitment to business strategy. Solve problems that may arise in the hiring and evaluation process. As we all know, recruiting is not just about hiring—but rather it is about finding the right person for the right job at the right time. It is about paving a career path that works for both the worker and the company. It is about ensuring there is not a large turnover in the company. It is about matching the right position to the right candidate. There is an opportunity for AI to help here—and it will certainly be a trend to keep an eye on for the…