AI improves safety on-site
New Zealand company, Nexus Logistics, has won a top prize at a safety awards event held in the Netherlands.
The business, which provides container logistics solutions for companies across New Zealand, won the express handling services (EHS) compliance digitisation award category at the 2024 Verdantix EHS Innovation Excellence Awards EMEA.
It scooped the prize for the way it has embraced artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technology to improve safety on-site. The winners were announced at a gala awards dinner in Amsterdam.
Nexus was up against finalists Hitachi Rail and Engro Fertilizers in the award category.
Darcy Hart, Nexus chief executive officer, says the company was recognised for working with independent safety systems within the industry and leading these businesses to create a digital solution where the data populated from an AI safety system is easily integrated into EcoPortal, which is a safety portal for any safety risks.
“This project was borne out of a need to address the unseen dangers of interactions between mobile handling equipment and human workers in a warehouse environment and report into a central safety portal the correct information with ease, speed and accuracy,” he adds.
“While we understood that our traffic management, walkways and barrier controls provided some protection we were curious to see whether the controls were effective and whether they worked from a practical sense. Implementing an AI system to actively monitor rule compliance versus rule deviation helped us understand the risk was far higher than what we thought.”
Hart notes the impact of its work has been significant and interest from other companies has soared.
The awards are part of an annual series of international innovation excellence awards hosted by Verdantix that recognise outstanding technological achievements in the fields of EHS, environmental, social and governance, sustainability, operational excellence, and net zero and climate risk.
The global programme provides a platform for showcasing pioneering initiatives, inspiring others to embrace innovation and fostering a culture of innovation across industries.
