Last June, Kansas City struck up a nearly $16bn partnership with Cisco Systems and Sprint to help make that city a lot smarter. How so? By tapping into digital technologies to improve such vital city services as energy, water and transportation.

Maersk has announced an investment into biomass research in a bis to reduce its bunker fuel consumption. According to the company, which has an annual fuel bill of $7bn, there has been no prior research into the possibility of using biomass in the shipping industry.