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Leaders at the Javits Center in New York City, one of the nation’s busiest convention centers, learned about the need for climate resiliency the hard way. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy deposited up to a foot of contaminated water from the Hudson River into the 800,000-square-foot venue. Over a decade later, climate-related disasters have become all too common. That makes the Javits Center’s transformation from a flood-damaged behemoth to a model of sustainability for the net-zero built environment a story worth paying attention to.

When leaders at the Javits Center surveyed the post-Sandy destruction, they could have chosen a standard building repair to get it running again as soon as possible. Instead, they saw it as an opportunity to not only secure the building against future climate-related disasters, but also demonstrate that even a large building could set a vision for net-zero. 

A green rooftop, farm, birds and buzzing bees 

The transformation was dramatic. Today, visitors can stroll around the Center's one-acre rooftop farm that produces up to 40,000 pounds of produce a year, which helps stock its kitchens for guest and employee meals. A green roof spans another 6.75 acres and includes 11 different species of succulent plants that help with storm water retention and reducing energy consumption. 

Abundant wildlife is another feature of the green roof. It provides habitat for 56 bird species and five bat species, thousands of insects and arthropods, and nine beehives used to make more than 100 pounds of honey per year for the Javits Center’s kitchens and as gifts for special guests. 

Some 3,000 solar panels installed on the roof will go online in the next few months, and there’s a newly installed wind turbine for running a pilot. 

With all of the changes, the 1.2 million square foot expansion for the part of the convention center impacted by Sandy has earned LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council; the main building has earned LEED Silver.

Securing the Javits Center for future generations

The results of the Javits Center’s sustainability efforts were on display during New York City Climate Week last month. Climate Week NYC partnered with Javits for the third time to create the Nest Climate Campus and put on the Nest Summit, a climate-action platform that hosted dozens of events for organizations and was free to the public. 

"After Hurricane Sandy, we wanted to secure ourselves from future threats,” Yashi Dadhich, director of energy and sustainability for the Javits Center, said during a panel discussion at the Nest Summit. “But we also wanted to make sure we are securing our future for our future generations and looking at every aspect of the building in how we can reduce our impact, from the space we occupy to the electronics we use, to how we reduce our waste and energy consumption.”

The Javits Center did not have a sustainability plan at the time of Hurricane Sandy, but sustainability is now the cornerstone of how managers operate the massive building, Dadhich said. "This also helps us to protect our clients and make sure they are provided with the most sustainable initiatives to support their events," he said. "We are not there yet. It’s a journey of continuous improvement, but we’ve made a lot of progress."

Setting a vision for net-zero

The Javits Center is a signatory to the Net-Zero Carbon Events Pledge, which rallies the events industry to halve carbon emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050. The pledge launched two years ago at the U.N. COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, and all signatories are expected to provide preliminary data on their progress by the end of this year.

For its report, the Javits Center is working with Drexel University in Philadelphia to create a climate action plan. That includes measuring and reducing the full scope of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the venue and the goods and services it uses.

Setting 2012 as the baseline, the Javits Center will use science-based targets to set its net-zero goals and ensure it's making progress, Dadhich said. The planned solar energy deployment will play a big role, delivering 1.6 megawatt-hours of power to the facility once it's switched on, making it the largest rooftop solar farm in Manhattan, according to the Javits Center. Along with a battery energy storage system also in the works, the Javits Center will be able to source 2 gigawatt-hours of onsite clean energy per year.

“We are trying many different approaches to being able to go off the grid,” Dadhich said. 

Even without the new solar farm, operators have reduced the Javits Center’s energy consumption by 26 percent since 2014 through the green roof and the installation of energy-efficient equipment. 

Part of those efficiency gains can be traced back to the Javits Center’s collaboration with Cisco, its information technology partner, which helped the convention center reduce from three data centers to one and millions of cables to a few hundreds of miles of cable. 

“Our goal is to help event hosts like Javits get to net-zero,” Denise Lee, vice president at Cisco's Engineering Sustainability Office, said at the Nest Summit. “All of these different use cases open up when IT and the built environment converge, using sensors, cameras, and open roaming and Wifi access.”

A power-sharing arrangement with Times Square  

While the planned solar and energy storage project will allow the Javits Center to source more renewable energy, the building can already go off the grid as needed in times of crisis or high demand. Thanks to a 13-megawatt microgrid that includes a smart energy management system and three diesel generators, the convention center can be off the grid for about six days at full capacity and up to a month at average capacity. In the event of a climate emergency, it could serve as an emergency response center for thousands of New Yorkers.

These measures also mean the Javits Center has demand-response capacity. Since the center shares the same power grid as Time Square at times of heavy load, the New York Power Authority may request operators take the building off the grid to reduce demand. Over the summer, the Javits Center met its commitment to provide approximately 7,000 kilowatt-hours of energy to the grid to help with peak load.

Another way the Javits Center benefits the local community is through its truck marshaling facility, where some 200 trucks that arrive to deliver material to set up events are housed, avoiding unnecessary congestion and traffic and the pollution of idling trucks on the city streets.

Capturing waste at the source

A mindset of avoiding waste is also part of the Javits Center’s transformation. For the building’s expansion, 75 percent of the construction and demolition that was razed was diverted from landfill by either reusing it or recycling it, and sustainably harvested wood was used for new construction, Dadhich said.

The center aims to divert 50 percent of the waste it creates from landfills by the end of this year. The Javits Cares program takes furniture and other materials that event customers don’t want and donates it to the local community, and it also donates unused food items from events. To date in 2023, it has made more than 20 tons of non-food donations and 60 tons of food donations.

Facing the challenges together

While the Javits Center has come a long way, Dadhich acknowledges that a number of challenges still stand in the way of net-zero. She is a firm believer that most can be solved by coming together with others. 

For example, as it pursues science-based targets, the center is challenged to measure and reduce Scope 3 emissions, those created from upstream and downstream activities outside its direct control. But it's far from alone. “All industries are currently challenged with Scope 3," Dadhich said. 

"It is going to back to NIMBY, not in my backyard,” she told us. “It gives me the same frustration. Everyone wants to stay away from it, saying: ‘These are not my direct emissions.’ But these are the biggest problem areas for us as a society, and if we all keep saying that ‘these are not my direct emissions, I don’t want to dive into it,’ we will never be able to reach that goal of net-zero as a society.” 

Dadhich and her team aim to engage with all of the center's supply chain partners and stakeholders, with an eye toward making it easier for them to reduce their emissions, which helps everyone. One of the ways they do this is by working with event customers to help them meet their own waste diversion goals, if they have them, with signage and waste bins designed to encourage proper disposal and recycling.

Building a new vision for a carbon-intensive sector

The buildings sector accounts for nearly 40 percent of energy and process-related carbon dioxide emissions. More buildings will have to take the Javits Center’s approach if the sector is going to meaningfully contribute to the fight against climate change.

“When you think about decarbonizing a very complex, challenging sector like the built environment, not to mention a facility of this size, it is no small thing to get to net-zero,” said William Sisson, executive director for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development North America, at the Climate Week event. “We have a hurricane to thank for the mindset shift to show what the Javits Center could be, but it shouldn’t take a climate disaster for building owners to do the right thing.” 

Some of the world’s most popular travel destinations hang in a delicate balance. People visit to soak in beautiful nature and rich cultures. The local economies evolve to meet that demand, eventually relying on it. The industry built around travel attracts more visitors, and the cycle continues. 

At the same time, travel threatens the destinations people flock to see. It can strain local environments and resources, cause biodiversity and culture loss, and create unfair income distribution that leaves locals unable to afford to live where they work. Many destination communities are also highly vulnerable to climate change impacts, yet the travel and tourism industry is estimated to produce 8 to 11 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to estimates from the World Travel and Tourism Council, an industry group representing travel businesses. 

This doesn’t mean everyone should stay home. With a little effort, our vacations can support healthy ecosystems and improve the lives of those in the communities we visit.

Creating a more responsible post-pandemic travel sector

The travel and tourism industry is still recovering from the pandemic. Nevertheless, it was responsible for 7.6 percent of global gross domestic product and 22 million new jobs last year, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. In 2019, the industry accounted for over 10 percent of global GDP and held over 10 percent of the world’s jobs. 

The sector is on track to return to 80 to 95 percent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year, according to estimates from the United Nations World Tourism Organization. To sustain the industry long-term, this recovery must be paired with increased inclusivity, sustainability and resiliency, Zurab Pololikashvili, the organization’s secretary-general, wrote in the analysis. 

He’s not the only one calling for change. A growing number of travelers are taking action. In a 2022 survey by the booking platform Kind Traveler, 98 percent of respondents said it’s important that their dollars have a positive impact on the places they visit. 

Enter responsible travel: trips that have a net-positive impact on the destination’s environment, economy, and the people who live there. Supporting communities is at the core of this idea, and it has the potential to improve quality of life over the long term. 

“You cannot have responsible travel unless you’re taking the needs, wants, desires, challenges, interests of a community — of a destination — into the equation,” said Wesley Espinosa,  executive director of the Center for Responsible Travel, a nonprofit that works to improve the positive impact of tourism. “I get the argument all the time, ‘Well, there's a lot of places that people visit that don't have communities.’ That's not true. Everywhere has a community behind it, whether it's 10 scientists at a random geolocation in Antarctica or a big city somewhere in the world.”

What does it mean to travel responsibly? 

Responsible travel starts with research, Espinosa said. Just as travelers scavenge blogs and booking platforms to find the best airfare rates, restaurants and Instagrammable locations, traveling responsibly should take into account the entire journey — from weighing flight options, to finding locally-owned lodging, to learning about the people who live there. Communicating with nonprofits is one way to learn how communities want and need support, he suggested. 

“When you do that research ahead of time, you understand what that nonprofit or local community development landscape is,” Espinosa said. “And you start to understand the issues. Not [the issues] that you see in major headlines, but you start to understand the issues that are important to local people. And when you understand the issues important to local people, you're more likely to engage in a better way, find local businesses, spread your dollar around, and travel in a way that's truly beneficial to the community.” 

However, all of the responsibility does not fall on the traveler. It’s up to the whole industry to make the change. 

How tour operators can be part of the change for responsible travel

One company leading the industry shift is Intrepid Travel. The certified B Corporation has led small group trips for 34 years and offers thousands of adventures that touch every continent. To ensure its trips have a positive impact, the company works with local people, organizations and businesses to help them solve their problems instead of forcing its own plans onto the community, Matt Berna, Intrepid’s president and managing director for the Americas, told TriplePundit.

For this business model to work, projects have to be community-driven from the start. “We're looking at the local community taking control. They're accountable, and they're engaged with this,” Berna said. “[Community-based tourism is] not meant to be something that's just going to be developed for a tour operator or some other travelers coming through. It has to be something lasting and comprehensive.” 

As a result, these community-led projects vary widely. One community could decide to host tourists for home-cooked meals and cooking classes, while another chooses to build overnight accommodations so visitors stay longer than a one-day trip. Intrepid might help write grants or sponsor architects to draw up plans for things like remodeling existing homes to include guest accommodations for travelers, but the programs are built and managed locally, Berna said. Community members decide everything from the budget to what’s built to how it will be staffed. Once the project is completed, the company includes it in its trips.

One of Intrepid’s trips, for example, includes a stop at a village near a wildlife park, where travelers join expert rangers on a trek through a Ugandan forest to see mountain gorillas. Before Intrepid got involved, the villagers weren’t aware of the importance of protecting the animals and the benefits tourism could bring to their community, Berna said. Now, they’ve built campsites, hiking and biking trails, and other accommodations for travelers. The new development brings economic benefits for the community, and attracts more travelers whose park entrance fees support the training park rangers receive to protect the gorillas from poachers.

Once a project is completed, the company includes it in its trips and checks in regularly to find out what’s working and what can be improved. In a 2021 survey of 17 business owners in Peru and Morocco who work with Intrepid, all respondents agreed that the company’s work contributes to their overall success and supports the preservation of their cultural heritage. 

Economic distribution — by way of traveling in small groups and supporting small businesses — is one of the greatest benefits the company can provide for communities, Berna said. 

“Sixty percent, on average, of the funds a customer pays for a trip goes directly to the place that they visit,” Berna said. “What that means is we are staying in family-owned hotels and visiting local restaurants, and the economic benefit of us visiting those places stays within that family, within that community.”  

Despite the economic and cultural gains, it can be difficult for communities to commit to long-term projects they may have to wait months to benefit from, Berna said. 

“It's hard sometimes for these communities to think about putting the money and time in now, the investment in now, to possibly see a traveler 12 months, 18 months into the future. That's really difficult,” he said. “It takes us time to build a trip, get it to market, promote it, and get the customers to travel six to eight months later. It's a long cycle.” 

Even when done responsibly, increased travel can still have negative effects. Most of the business owners who responded to Intrepid’s 2021 survey said their partnership with the company only had positive impacts, but several mentioned negative impacts like people taking their photos without asking for permission and local youth working in the tourism industry instead of continuing their education. 

Avoiding travel isn’t the answer

As more people explore responsible travel, it’s important not to shame each other for being imperfect travelers, Espinosa said. It can be a challenge to navigate the options and see through things like greenwashing. 

“It's impossible to make 100 percent of the right decisions 100 percent of the time,” he said. “[Tourism] is a massive, massive industry, so it's not ever going to be perfect. But we can take little actions along the way.”

Rethinking one of the world’s largest industries and moving toward more responsible travel may seem like a daunting task, but it comes with bountiful rewards. 

“I tell people all the time that we're the Center for Responsible Travel, we're not the Center for Responsible ‘Not Travel’,” Espinosa said. “I say that because travel inherently shapes us and provides positive experiences, educational opportunities, exchange of ideas, information, exposure to new cultures, new ways of life. And ultimately, we believe in that good part of it.” 

The search for sustainable fuels has entered new territory, as scientists finally crack the code for extracting hydrogen fuel from ordinary seawater. The discovery will help conserve freshwater resources and shift the global economy further away from natural gas as its main source of hydrogen. 

Releasing hydrogen from the grip of fossil energy  

The vast majority of the global hydrogen supply comes from natural gas, with coal also playing a role. In the U.S., for example, natural gas supplies 95 percent of domestic hydrogen production. 
 
A steep drop in the cost of wind and solar power has begun to change the picture. Renewable energy creates an economical pathway for electrolysis systems, which deploy electricity to jolt so-named “green” hydrogen gas from water. (That's the "H" part of H2O, if you'll recall from chemistry class.) 
 
Green hydrogen is still a new industry, accounting for a small fraction of the overall hydrogen supply — less than 1 percent as of 2022, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. As the supply of green hydrogen grows, the impact on decarbonization will be significant, because hydrogen is more than a fuel. It also percolates through many elements of a modern, industrialized economy.
  

To cite just one example, hydrogen is combined with nitrogen to produce ammonia, a key ingredient in the fertilizer widely used around the world. About 80 percent of the ammonia produced today is used for fertilizer. Plastics, dyes, and common household cleansers are among many other ammonia-based products in use today. 

Why green hydrogen from seawater? 

The rising activity in the green hydrogen field has also focused attention on the freshwater resources needed for electrolysis. Under the current state of electrolysis technology, water must undergo pre-treatment steps to avoid damaging the equipment.  

“Electrolyzers require pure (deionized) water for peak performance, long lifetimes, and low overall cost of hydrogen production,” a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Energy told TriplePundit. "Many of today’s electrolyzers, such as PEM [proton exchange membrane elecrolyzers], have components that are sensitive to contaminants, including minerals and salts in seawater."

Pre-treating freshwater is generally seen as a more economical choice compared to seawater. However, just as biofuel crops raise concerns about food systems, green hydrogen raises questions about freshwater resources. At least 9 kilograms of water (more than 300 ounces) are needed to produce 1 kilogram of green hydrogen, according to one commonly cited estimate. 
 
That concern may become moot as the energy transition progresses. A study published in 2021 describes how green hydrogen could help reduce the overall strain on freshwater resources by replacing fossil energy systems that consume far more water. 

Still, attention is beginning to focus on seawater as a practically infinite source that avoids freshwater issues altogether. Seawater could also support green hydrogen development in coastal communities that lack sufficient freshwater. 

The offshore wind connection 

Researchers are still working on new electrolyzer systems that can use seawater directly, with little or no pre-treatment needed. In the meantime, the U.S. Department of Energy is focusing on research that reduces the cost of pre-treating seawater. With pre-treatment costs under control, it would be more economical to use electrolyzers that are already on the market. 
 
The emergence of the offshore wind industry further bolsters the economic case for seawater purification. Industry stakeholders are already beginning to co-locate offshore electrolysis systems with offshore wind farms. The electrolysis systems can be constructed on platforms within the wind farm or attached to individual wind turbines. Either way, co-location takes advantage of the electricity generated by offshore wind turbines. Without the need for long transmission lines or undersea cables, the wind-generated electricity can be used to power electrolysis systems and seawater pre-treatment systems, too. 

Co-location also provides offshore wind farm developers with alternative options for transporting energy from the wind turbines to a point of use. With an electrolyzer on site, offshore wind farms can produce hydrogen gas at sea. The hydrogen can be compressed and loaded onto ships for transportation globally, or it can be sent to shore by undersea pipeline.

In contrast, wind farms without electrolyzers only produce electricity, which must be transmitted to shore by undersea cable. That has already raised transmission issues related to energy loss from cables as well as the risk of disruption or damage.

Co-location would be a particular benefit to coastal economies that lack appropriate sites for constructing electrolyzer facilities and seawater pre-treatment systems on shore. By locating those facilities offshore, green hydrogen stakeholders can avoid competition from other industries for sites on land and objections by local communities or environmental organizations.

Signs of growing activity in the co-location field

France and China have already launched offshore electrolyzer projects. Several more are planned for Japan, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. All of these projects are still in the demonstration phase, but the advantages of commercial-scale projects are already coming into view. 

Over the long run, one of those advantages is cost. In a report published in July 2023, Bloomberg NEF took note of several factors impeding the green hydrogen market, including inflation and competition from fossil resources. Still, Bloomberg analysts projected that those factors will be counterbalanced by the falling cost of renewable energy and electrolyzers.

By the 2030s, it will be cheaper to build new green hydrogen plants than to continue running systems that extract hydrogen from natural gas, the report concluded. Analysts projected that the lowest levelized cost of green hydrogen, meaning the cost compared to other sources, will drop to $1.47 per kilogram in 2030.

In a 2022 report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projected that costs could drop even further, to a range of $1.30 to $4.50 per kilogram. That is a significant falloff from 2021 when IEA estimated that the current cost of green hydrogen ranged from $3 to $8 per kilogram. 

That is also in line with the U.S. Department of Energy, which aims to bring the cost of green hydrogen down to $1 per kilogram in a decade. Currently, the agency estimates a cost of $5 per kilogram for green hydrogen and $1.50 per kilogram for hydrogen sourced from fossil fuels. 

Some countries, such as those in the North Sea, already have the advantage of existing offshore wind supply chains and energy infrastructure. Other countries may be attracted by the opportunity to leverage their coasts for renewable energy projects, rather than using scarce land resources. 

The energy-water nexus  

The U.S.-based electrolyzer firm Ohmium provides one example of the growing interest in offshore co-location. The company settled on a pre-treatment strategy to bring its seawater electrolysis equipment to the offshore wind sector under a partnership with the desalination firm Aquastill. 

Arne Ballantine, Ohmium CEO and co-founder, notes that seawater electrolysis is an efficient solution for coastal communities in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere that don’t have adequate freshwater resources but do have access to low-cost renewable energy. 

“In Mexico, for example, many industries are built close to ports for access to goods and materials, so that is a nice fit between industries and green hydrogen,” Ballantine told TriplePundit.  

Glassmaking is among the industries he mentioned. Glass manufacturers use hydrogen to avoid imperfections and improve the efficiency of cutting and polishing, among other operations. Hydrogen stakeholders in Mexico are advocating for a transition to green hydrogen for the nation’s glass industry and other industrial sectors. Advocates have also taken note of the opportunity to develop green hydrogen as a new export.
 
“The country has, among other advantages, a privileged geographical location, access to two oceans, a free trade agreement with the United States and Canada, and a large renewable potential,” notes the Mexican Hydrogen Association.  

Next steps for green hydrogen 

Regardless of the water source, green hydrogen is still fighting an uphill battle on cost. In the U.S. in particular, decarbonization policies can level the playing field. In March, the Energy Department pumped another $750 million into its ongoing clean hydrogen funding program, aimed at reducing the cost of hydrogen from renewable resources down to $1 per kilogram by 2031. The agency has also proposed a new $1 billion program aimed at stimulating demand for clean hydrogen.
 
U.S. green hydrogen producers also stand to benefit from the “stacking” of tax credits permitted under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. According to a Platts analysis cited by S&P Global last fall, green hydrogen producers could see their costs sink into negative territory, at least until the tax credits expire in 2033.  By then, tax subsidies would no longer be needed to reach price parity with conventional hydrogen, as projected by Bloomberg and the IEA. The expiration of the tax credits also tracks with the Energy Department’s goal of $1 per kilogram by 2031.
 
 
As the world grapples with the twin threats of climate change and water scarcity, co-locating electrolysis systems with offshore wind farms has emerged as a pathway for conserving freshwater resources while decarbonizing large swaths of the global economy, and investors in some countries are already exploring the technology.

That has yet to occur in the U.S., where the opponents of offshore wind development have succeeded in blocking all but a handful of offshore wind turbines so far. The prospects look brighter with renewed support from the Joe Biden administration, but it remains to be seen if public policy continues to support the renewable energy transition after the 2024 election cycle. Scientists, engineers and investors are doing their part. The rest is up to the voting public. 

Skyrocketing prices for housing and basic staples have led to an uptick in homelessness across the country. From the fully employed living in their cars to the less fortunate making do on city sidewalks, the U.S. unhoused population is rising even while 16 million homes remain empty. As more and more people lose hope, the grip of the fentanyl crisis grows stronger, now claiming more than 150 lives every day, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although crime rates haven’t statistically increased in most U.S. cities, a rising fear of crime and conflict has many people avoiding downtown areas and business districts — leaving local governments scrambling to bring these areas back to their former glory. Seattle’s Third Avenue is no different. Where the city stands out is in its choice of solution: building relationships with people on the street, showing them they have neighbors who care, and providing resources to improve their lives.

Co-founded by CEO Dominique Davis and COO Stephenie Wheeler-Smith, We Deliver Care is a public safety company born out of the period following the murder of George Floyd and ensuing calls to defund the police.

“In Black and Brown communities, people became concerned about a strategy of removing police and what they would be replaced with,” Tabatha Davis, the organization’s director of operations, told TriplePundit. With the potential for the pendulum to swing the other way and lead to over-militarization or over-policing, the company’s founders asked a bold question: “What does it look like for community to heal community?”

We Deliver Care is dedicated to increasing safety through community outreach. As one of many agencies involved in the city-affiliated Third Avenue Project, the program’s community safety ambassadors are forming relationships, connecting people with much-needed resources, de-escalating conflicts, and helping to restore the peace so that businesses, customers and residents — whether housed or unhoused — can feel more secure. Most importantly, they’re also saving lives.

“Connective tissue” for a multi-agency response

It all started with a three-year partnership with CoLEAD (Let Everyone Advance with Dignity), a Seattle organization tasked with providing temporary hotel stays for unsheltered people when many of the services they relied on were shuttered in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The hotels were full of people in crisis, and they didn’t want the only solution to be calling the police,” Davis said. We Deliver Care was contracted to support hotel and CoLEAD staff.

Those de-escalation and support services were so successful that others started to notice. “When the Third Avenue need arose, we reached out to them,” said Lisa Daugaard, executive director of the Third Avenue Project.

The project brings local organizations together to improve the area on Third Avenue from Stewart Street to University Street. This stretch goes through the heart of Seattle’s downtown business district, just blocks away from the Seattle Art Museum and the iconic Pike Place Market, where residents say high crime rates in the area have them concerned about safety.

Groups involved in the Third Avenue Project include LEAD and its CoLEAD offshoot, as well as the homelessness outreach initiative REACH, the Downtown Emergency Services Center and more. Among them, We Deliver Care “is like the connective tissue,” said Sean Blackwell, project manager for the Third Avenue initiative.

Building relationships to change lives — and save them

“The bulk of our staff have lived experience,” Davis said. “Everyone has a passion for their community and some sort of desire to heal their community,” she added. “As overcomers and survivors, they are problem solvers.” She credited We Deliver Care’s community safety ambassadors with an abundance of good ideas on how to help those who are struggling.

“I know of lots of outreach programs,” community safety ambassador supervisor Shakilah Brown said. But none of those programs offer what We Deliver Care does: “the love, compassion, empathy, [showing that] somebody cares day to day, with food and hydration, knowing we’re out there.”

While walking or biking the usual 12 to 15 miles per shift, the ambassadors focus on trust- and relationship-building with the people they encounter on the street. Relationships are the organization’s foundation — and how staff connect those in need with services like housing, case management, and legal help through the other organizations involved in the Third Avenue Project.

“Being able to get them housing through CoLEAD makes us feel so happy,” said Shawn Pimpleton, another community safety ambassador supervisor. “I call it God’s work. I love what I do.” 

Community safety ambassadors have connected with 700 individuals in the course of their outreach — providing everything from food, water and service referrals to a listening ear. They make sure to check in with everyone on their route and do what they can to meet the immediate needs of a community that is too rarely shown such compassion.

As a result of their wellness checks and consistent street presence, ambassadors trained to administer Narcan and CPR have saved approximately 60 lives by intervening when someone is experiencing a drug overdose, Davis explained. “We’ve only lost one life,” she said. “And that was back in December,” when the partnership with the Third Avenue Project was just starting out. 

Perhaps one of the best examples of We Deliver Care’s commitment to healing the community is in the staff’s dedication to helping families reunite with loved ones they believe to be living on the street. “We’re a huge proponent of if you can get people to reconnect with family,” Davis said. She described how family members bring photos of their loved ones and community safety ambassadors can often eventually find them or, in the meantime, provide some measure of hope if they’ve previously seen them in town.

“Businesses love our presence out here.”

“The Third Avenue Project originated with a request from public officials and local businesses for help re-establishing the viability of the zone,” Daugaard said of the Third Avenue corridor.

We Deliver Care’s community safety ambassadors maintain a visible presence on the approximately half-mile stretch from 6 o'clock in the morning until 9:30 at night, seven days a week, so the community knows it can turn to them when there is a problem. The team’s eyes on the street also keep vulnerable people safe from violence and reduce the likelihood of police intervention in situations that don't require it. 

If business owners wanted someone to move away from their storefront, for example, they often used to call the police. Now, We Deliver Care staff are able to step in, de-escalate, and provide assistance without criminalizing anyone. “We can get people to move no problem,” Pimpleton said. “Businesses love our presence out here.”

Getting people in the community back to work

We Deliver Care staff has also been able to form partnerships that can lead to jobs. “We’ve mapped out agencies that are a good fit,” Blackwell said, noting that it has taken considerable time to build up and develop these agreements.

He listed LAZ Parking among the employers that have hired through their connections. The national company with locations in Seattle gives special consideration to applicants who have been referred by Third Avenue Project partners such as We Deliver Care. The employment agency Uplift Northwest, a nonprofit temp service that specializes in assisting those experiencing homelessness and poverty, has also been tapped to help people in the area.

“Getting people help with jobs instead of relying on crime,” is a big win for Sadik Malin, another community safety ambassador supervisor, who often encounters people who have turned to selling substances because they are struggling to pay their rent and remain housed. 

For those who are unhoused, not having an address is a big barrier to employment, but some of the service providers We Deliver Care works with have volunteered to allow their addresses to be used, Davis said. Community safety ambassadors are also available for interview coaching and even offer to sit in on interviews to help the person feel more comfortable, or to provide context in the event the applicant has a criminal record.

More work to do 

It’s important to be realistic about what is possible considering the depth of the problems that so often come with poverty and homelessness. We Deliver Care's team recognizes that while there are a lot of resources out there, there’s also a lot of red tape that makes their job difficult. Staff may meet someone who wants to go into detox, for example, but by the time there is a bed available, that person can’t be found. Or someone may go to detox and get clean but then struggle to find shelter beds or other safe housing options when they get out.

Still, there is no question that We Deliver Care and the multi-agency Third Avenue Project are making a difference. Blackwell is hopeful the initiative will be able to expand into operating day centers that will give people a place to go. “Day centers could mitigate the prevalence of loitering and congregating,” he said. He envisions the centers being staffed by 10 to 15 agencies — kind of a one-stop-shop for services — which would prevent duplication and save money. 

“There needs to be somewhere for people to go during the day,” he said. “They just want to sit down and be around people that they know.” 

We Deliver Care and its partners are working hard to make the best of a complicated situation that’s playing out in cities across the country and around the world. By being out on the street and building relationships with people, community safety ambassadors provide a real alternative to calling the police on a neighbor who may be in crisis — making those streets feel safer for everyone involved. And their example could well chart the course for other cities dealing with the effects of rising poverty and strained relationships between neighbors and the police.  “There are the same issues in different places,” said Brown, a community safety ambassador supervisor. “People are battling with addiction and struggling with housing everywhere.” 

On Seattle’s Third Avenue, project leaders are encouraged by the early results. “We’re just looking for win-win, where we can assist the neighborhood, and give a heightened level of care,” Daugaard said. By showing they care and offering resources — be it a bottle of water or a bed — the program is improving people’s lives and serving the neighborhood along the way.

When you work in the news, you read the news. It's part of the job, but like an estimated 66 percent of the U.S. population, I found myself growing more worn down by news coverage at the start of the pandemic. Despite the pang of guilt that came with spending less time on news apps and social media, disconnecting ultimately made me feel better. By giving less mental space to all that’s wrong with the world, I was able to refocus on what I could do about it. 

Millions of news readers are doing the same thing. More than a third of people across 46 countries actively avoid the news at least sometimes, with many saying news coverage negatively impacts their mood, according to 2023 polling from Reuters Institute and the University of Oxford. 

As a journalist, findings like these are hard to swallow. My partial media detox may have helped me, but was I writing and producing stories that made people feel as burned out and anxious as I was? Journalists uncover the real story, speak truth to power and share information for the sake of public good. But if the way we do it leaves people hopeless and ready to put their heads in the sand, that’s something we as newswriters need to pay attention to. I couldn’t shake the notion that I, and the platform I loved and edited for most of my professional career, were part of the problem.  

In our search for answers, TriplePundit’s editorial team surveyed our community of readers at the start of this year to learn what they enjoy most about our coverage and what they’d like to see us do differently. Nearly half of you said you come to us for “inspiring stories about solutions to big challenges,” and more than 45 percent are looking for more stories about “technologies, systems, and ideas that tackle global challenges like climate change and poverty.” When we worked with the research technology firm Glow to survey the general U.S. population, nearly 40 percent were looking for the same. 

With this feedback in mind, TriplePundit relaunches today with a focus on solutions journalism. Grounded in evidence and journalistic rigor, this style of reporting focuses not only on the problem, but also on how people are working to solve it and what we can learn from them — whether they succeed or not. This shift builds on our nearly 20 years covering sustainability and social impact, and it brings a fresh perspective we feel our space needs right now. 

Why solutions journalism matters for sustainability and social impact

In the sustainability and social impact space in particular, coverage of widening equity gaps and the latest scientific predictions of impending doom may raise awareness and create a sense of urgency. But it doesn’t give readers anything to do with those emotions, or provide any insight into what can be done to address the monumental challenges we face.

The first large-scale study of climate anxiety among young people, published in 2021, gives us an idea of how widespread this really is. Of the 10,000 respondents across 10 countries, 75 percent agreed “the future is frightening.” More than half said the information they consumed about climate change left them feeling “sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless and guilty,” and around 40 percent said their fears about climate change would make them hesitant to have children. 

The majority of news readers, particularly people of color, also report being negatively affected by news coverage of social justice issues like police brutality, and most people globally say they’re pessimistic that the gap between rich and poor will be closed in their countries. 

As projections about the future grow more grim, and it becomes increasingly apparent that the status quo will not be sufficient to address the challenges ahead, people are thirsty for good news. And not good news that’s fluff — good news about leaders who think differently and develop bold, unique ideas with the potential to make a real impact on the challenges we face. 

The structure of solutions journalism is ideal to meet that need. It’s not about cherry-picking winners or focusing only on what works. It’s about bringing visibility to the innovative, evidence-based solutions we already have at hand and learning from the experiences of those who take action, even if they don’t succeed.    

Studies show people feel better about the world, and their communities, after viewing this type of coverage. In 2017, the Institute for Applied Positive Research partnered with the Detroit Free Press and the Solutions Journalism Network to find out how people reacted after reading problem- and solution-focused coverage of the issues facing Detroit. Compared to those who read the problem-focused stories, those who read coverage on solutions were more likely to say conditions in the city were improving and that they wanted to do their part. 

That’s exactly the spirit our space needs in the pivotal years ahead. By bringing visibility to the great work that’s already happening, we aim to inform, empower and reinvigorate our readers to take action, in whatever large or small ways they can. 

What the shift to solutions journalism means for our audience 

A shift toward solutions-oriented coverage builds on the evolving themes TriplePundit has covered in detail for nearly two decades. With this transition, we join more than 1,900 news organizations worldwide in providing our audiences with an alternative to the barrage of news coverage centered on problems with little guidance on what to do about them. We’ll be the first publication in the sustainability and social impact space to embed this style of coverage across all of our reporting. 

TriplePundit will continue to cover the topics central to our space — including those our readers told us are most important, such as climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. But each time we do, we’ll provide an example of a person or organization that is acting to address a challenge tied to these topics. We’ll take an in-depth look at what they’re doing — providing insight, evidence and limitations on the response they’ve put forward, with an eye toward learning more about what does and doesn’t work. 

As young people flock toward sustainability careers, saying there’s “no point” in doing anything else, the steady flow of ideas these entrepreneurs, scientists, academics, thinkers and tinkerers develop will provide a wealth of news to an audience that needs it now more than ever. 

We’d love for all of our readers to be a part of this next step with us. If you have feedback to share or an idea for a story you’d like to see us cover, please use this form to get in touch with us. If you’re interested in sharing more about solutions journalism in sustainability with your followers on social media, this toolkit can help you do that. And keep an eye on our newsfeed for solutions stories on the topics that matter to you. 

Image credit: Tierney/Adobe Stock

The good news is that many organizations are confronting the hidden costs of the low-carbon energy transition.

The bad news is that those hidden costs include severe human rights abuses and environmental destruction, all linked to the minerals that power our low-carbon energy systems.

Back to the good in a second, but let’s take a minute to understand the bad.

Renewable energy technologies require specific minerals like cobalt, copper and lithium, and mining companies around the world bring these minerals to market. While mining companies invest heavily in the countries where they operate, and they secure permits and contracts from national governments, that doesn’t mean that communities living on or near the land want to vacate and cede it to foreign interests.

In most cases, government forces and local security personnel, rather than direct company employees, are responsible for the abuses around mine sites. However, that does not absolve mining companies from the responsibility to ensure that human rights are upheld when they engage in mineral extraction projects. In fact, in some instances mining companies have coordinated with security forces and are complicit in human rights abuses.

It’s a messy and complicated topic with many conflicting interests, but if we want to reduce and eventually remove our reliance on fossil fuels, we need to find a solution to this problem.

Back to the good news. Many organizations are bringing innovative, practical and promising solutions to the table to address the legacy issues of the mining industry. 

These encouraging developments are the focus of an exciting new investigative series from TriplePundit. We will speak to the organizations spearheading these movements, highlight real-world examples of their implementation, and hear from local stakeholders and the mining sector as we dive into these complex development issues.

What social and environmental abuses are linked to mining?

The abuses associated with the mining sector are well documented, though under reported. The Business and Human Rights Resource Center has recorded abuses including “displacement of communities, impacts on land, water and housing, environmental pollution, denial of freedom of expression and association, child labor, and killings and other attacks on human rights defenders.”

Whether it is sexual abuse in Papua New Guinea and Guatemala, killings in Mexico and Cameroon, or a disaster from a burst dam in Brazil, massive work is needed to ensure the growing demand for minerals doesn’t exacerbate grave human and environmental rights consequences. 

Many organizations do critical work to expose and highlight the dark side of the mining industry, including Global Witness, the Business and Human Rights Resource Center, and Human Rights Watch.

Which minerals are critical to the low-carbon transition?

The 2023 Transition Minerals Tracker from the Business and Human Rights Resource Center recorded 65 allegations of abuse associated with mining transition minerals in 2022 and 510 allegations since 2010.

Caroline Avan, senior researcher for natural resources at the Business and Human Rights Resource Center, led and coordinated the research for the 2023 Transition Minerals Tracker. 

“This should be seen as just the tip of the iceberg,” Avan told TriplePundit. “What we record is only based on publicly available information, which is largely dependent on the freedom of press and freedom of civil society in any given context. We believe there are many issues that we are not able to capture.”

Of the 65 reported allegations in 2022, over half concerned Indigenous peoples and communities surrounding active or proposed mine sites. According to a study by the University of Queensland in Australia, about 54 percent of mining projects that extract transition minerals (the study focused on over 30 minerals) are located on or near Indigenous lands. Lithium (85 percent) and manganese (75 percent) have the highest proportion of their global reserves on or near Indigenous territory.

Why do abuses happen in the mining sector?

Mining companies often operate in poor, developing countries. The power afforded to local authorities can be very weak, and disagreements over the use of land between mining companies and local communities can create a lot of tension. A lack of local authority and loose international regulations can create a problematic environment.

“Although countries usually have laws that regulate how minerals can be extracted, and that should protect mining communities, very often they are not properly enforced,” said Alex Kopp, senior campaigner at Global Witness, an organization that investigates and exposes environmental and human rights abuses. “Corruption undermines existing rules and standards in countries with weak governance. Companies that don’t follow rules can often get away with it, sometimes by paying a bribe.”

The race to bring minerals to market, particularly in this age of transition away from fossil fuels, creates an environment where overzealous governments, investors, and companies may forgo regulatory steps in a rush to get people off the land and minerals out of the ground.

What does this all mean for businesses and consumers?

This isn’t an issue that only affects the mining sector. Minerals come to market to meet the growing demand from consumers and businesses — a demand that is increasing rapidly due to the world’s net-zero ambitions.

Because these minerals not only power renewable energy technologies, but are also in all of our electronic devices, all businesses and consumers who use modern technology are stakeholders in the human and environmental abuses linked to the mining sector. The importance we place on responsibly-sourced minerals will have a major impact on the direction the industry takes, and what values it holds.

Legislation is incoming and will force large companies to ensure their supply chains are examined for the prevalence of human rights abuses, all the way up to the point of mineral extraction. This is already a requirement in Germany, France and Norway. A similar law is coming to Europe as a whole with the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).

Aside from legal requirements like the CSDDD, as consumers become more aware of the impact that mining has on local communities and the environment, more demands will be made of businesses to ensure they are sourcing minerals responsibly. Businesses that are early runners in this movement will enjoy not just a competitive advantage in the market, but also the validation that they are building a just and equitable future.

Stay tuned. The next article in this series will explore the movement of human rights due diligence and what businesses can do to prepare for the incoming legal requirements, as well as how they can begin sourcing responsible minerals today.

Businesses face rapidly growing, and often contradictory, expectations regarding their role in society. Alongside calls to do more to address deeply rooted societal issues are opposing voices telling companies to “stay in their lane.” Without clear values as a guide, brands find themselves at an impasse, unsure if they should stay the course or take the next exit.

We can debate if these expectations are fair. In most cases, I’d argue they are. Business wields indisputable power to improve circumstances for people and our planet while making a fair profit. At Medtronic, we talk about these responsibilities openly, from our Mission written 60 years ago, to our sustainability report published today. (You can read highlights here.)

Expectations won’t diminish any time soon, and it’s not just external stakeholders applying pressure. A Glassdoor study of job-seekers found 86 percent “would not consider working for a company with bad social standing.” An Edelman survey of more than 200 chief communications officers across the Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 1,000 revealed employees are “putting the most pressure on companies to act on social issues” (61 percent), ahead of regulators, investors and NGOs.

Navigating these divergent expectations is no small challenge. Executives are faced with a tremendous obligation — to employees, communities and shareholders — and an unparalleled opportunity. How can leaders chart a path forward? Transparency, accountability and commitment — what I'd argue are the three non-negotiables of responsible business.

Transparency 

The era where any company can simply call itself responsible is behind us — today, business must prove it. Unfortunately, economic anxiety, disinformation, and increased polarization have eroded trust in institutions, and left people feeling vulnerable. As a result, brands are facing increased scrutiny, and the need to build trust is more urgent. Per a special report from Edelman, 71 percent of consumers say, “It is more important to trust the brands I buy or use today than in the past.”

At its core, transparency is about building trust. It’s being open and honest, telling people what they can expect, and how your business is upholding its promises. Transparency is easy when the news is good, but even more important when a business falls short. In those honest moments, businesses can build trust and even attract new partners and allies who understand that the goals most worthy of our time and effort are often the hardest to accomplish.

This is one reason Medtronic publishes an annual sustainability report and annual inclusion, diversity, and equity report. Through these reports and other channels, we and other companies can share stories, document our progress, and acknowledge where we need to do more.

Accountability 

Transparency means more when tied to clear goals. Perhaps you’ve heard “measure what matters” or read John Doerr’s book of the same title. Setting clear targets sends a signal about what matters to a company and provides a framework to publicly hold businesses accountable.

This is simply good business. Research shows consumers are more likely to buy from brands that commit to taking actions like improving access to healthcare (seven times more likely), addressing climate change (five times more likely) and ending racism (4.5 times more likely). But consumers also want action.

Aligning with leading reporting frameworks and standards, including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) helps companies demonstrate accountability for our impact and share it with our stakeholders. Medtronic also ties our business operations to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, recognizing the collective power of the private and public sectors to address the world’s greatest challenges.

Commitment 

In recent years, business has faced criticism for talking too much and not doing enough, on societal issues ranging from racial justice to climate change and income inequality. These are deeply rooted, systemic issues that have been compounding for centuries. Meaningful progress will take years and is possible only through collective action.

This doesn’t excuse business from inaction. I can’t think of a single brand that can’t have a positive impact by being conscious of how it conducts its day-to-day business. A responsible business recognizes its power and influence — and uses both accordingly. Medtronic has built our commitments into how we operate, including work in hiring and diverse suppliers. We also leverage our expertise in healthcare technology to improve healthcare access for underserved communities around the world, including significant investments in Medtronic LABS. 

Change is constant, and expectations of companies continue to evolve. That’s a good thing — for our brands and all our of stakeholders. There will likely be rough waters as business continues to navigate its role, but staying focused on transparency, accountability and commitment will help all of us chart a path forward. 

A version of this story was previously published by the 3BL newsroom.

Image credit: Henning Witzel/Unsplash

As seafood consumption outstrips what natural fisheries can sustainably produce, aquaculture has become an integral part of the food system. Roughly half of all seafood is now farmed — either in net pens in the ocean, called mariculture, or in controlled environments on land. And that percentage is projected to increase, with consumption of farmed fish outpacing wild-caught in the near future.

Unfortunately, ocean-based seafood farming comes with a number of environmental drawbacks. Diseases can spread from farmed fish to wild ones. As can sea lice, which breed much more rapidly in cramped pens than they do in the open ocean. Pollution is also an issue, with excrement and uneaten fish food flowing into the ocean. And there is the risk of escape and interbreeding. In salmon, for example, that includes genetically modified specimens breeding with wild fish or Atlantic salmon escaping in the Pacific and disrupting local ecosystems.

Moving fish farms on land can solve for this. Founded in the small town of Hvide Sande, Denmark, in 2010, Atlantic Sapphire is among the companies looking toward a more sustainable future for fish farming on land. “We saw the potential to reduce the environmental impact of traditional fish farming while ensuring a consistent supply of high-quality fish,” said Max Francia, director of marketing at Atlantic Sapphire. The controlled indoor environment of the company's farms, which it calls "Bluehouses," allows for year-round production of fresh salmon. 

“Our Bluehouse is an advanced recirculating aquaculture system facility. It works by continuously recycling and purifying water, creating an optimal environment for salmon growth,” Francia said. “The closed-loop system filters and treats water to maintain ideal conditions, while sensors monitor and control factors like temperature, oxygen levels, and water quality.”

That closed-loop system isn’t just good for the salmon housed in these Bluehouses. It also protects natural habitat by keeping fish waste out of waterways and preventing sea lice and disease from spreading between farmed and wild fish. There is a downside, however — the operation requires energy to run.

This is something the company says it's working on. Its Bluehouse in Denmark uses 50 percent renewable energy, and the company aims to replicate that progress at its newest location in Homestead, Florida. “Atlantic Sapphire is committed to continually increasing our use of renewable energy sources, exemplified by its agreement with [Florida utility NextEra Energy] to develop a plan, execute and transition to a 100 percent renewable source of electricity,” Francia said.

Though there is not a timeline for this yet, the company aims to generate 5 megawatts of solar power onsite by 2030, he added. “Furthermore, many of our processes are engineered to contribute to energy efficiency, increasing the possibility in the future of using biogas and solar panels, for instance.”

Though energy use may be higher for indoor aquaculture compared to net pens in the ocean, Atlantic Sapphire aims to reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions in another important way: by eliminating air transport.

The company strategically operates close to major salmon markets. It opened its first site in Denmark in 2011. Seven years later, the second was up and running in Florida. Fish don't need to fly in order to be shipped from these locations to retailers across Europe and North America, reducing their carbon footprint compared to fish flown in from net-pen operations in other parts of the world. The initial crop of salmon from Florida was given the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch’s top rating for sustainability.

“Salmon is raised from egg to harvest size, all in one facility under optimal conditions,” Francia explained. Not only does this eliminate unnecessary transport, but by raising them under such controlled conditions, the salmon are also protected from the diseases and parasites that have led to rising mortality rates among farmed fish.

“We are dedicated to providing consumers with delicious, responsibly-sourced salmon while minimizing our environmental footprint,” he said. “Our journey toward sustainability and innovation continues, and we are excited about the positive impact we can make in the aquaculture industry and beyond.”

Overall, Atlantic Sapphire’s method has the potential to inspire a huge shift in an industry overdue for change. Harnessing renewable energy for on-land fish farms will be integral, of course, and doing so will bring sustainability full circle.

Images courtesy of Atlantic Sapphire

Relief from the summer heat has been slow to reach Houston, as the city experienced temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit well into September. Local meteorologists say last month was Houston’s hottest September in recorded history. The city logged 45 triple-digit days this year, one day short of the all-time record in 2011. 

Promenade, among the latest projects from the New York-based design firm Modu, offers respite from the Houston heat through a collection of environmentally-adaptive design strategies.

Modu sees design as an ecological practice. Its projects span vastly different climates, from the Cloud Seeding pavilion near Tel Aviv, to Habits and Habitats, a nature observatory in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Led by founding directors Phu Hoang and Rachely Rotem, the firm takes a rigorous and intuitive approach to working with — instead of separating from — the ecology of each location. 

Promenade in Houston is a 15,000-square-foot, mixed-use retail and office center that adapts creatively to persistent heat. Modu designed the space with a two-pronged goal: to reduce the building’s energy needs and thereby its carbon footprint, and also to reimagine architecture in harmony with nature. 

In this case, Houston’s humid subtropical environment challenges architects to design with maximum cooling and dehumidification in mind. Inside, Promenade’s concrete “self-cooling walls” are both visually interesting and effective at keeping interiors cool. A corrugated, accordion-like pattern on the exterior increases the walls’ surface area, allowing them to shed more heat in interaction with even a slight breeze. The result reduces surface temperature by up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Modu. 

Canopies and pergolas arch over many of Promenade’s windows, providing shade and reducing heat gain from the sun. Tall vertical “fins” offer shade around entrances and rise from gardens of various flora — from bamboo to jasmine to tall grasses — whose transpiration further decreases air temperature and humidity.

This interplay of strategies is key to Modu’s “idea of architecture and design as a cultural practice: not to isolate any one element or design strategy, but to get them to all work together,” Hoang told TriplePundit. 

The built environment is responsible for about 40 percent of global carbon emissions, with building operations making up about 39 percent of total U.S. energy consumption. As climate change-induced weather patterns continue to evolve in places like Houston, environmentally-adaptive solutions provide alternatives to energy-intensive responses. 

“Our dependency on [air conditioning] makes how we build have extreme separation [between indoor and outdoor]," Rotem told us. "This is not how we used to build, as humanity. How do we get back to using that knowledge?” Treating Promenade’s thresholds as “micro-climates,” like the mini-gardens at each entrance, softens the boundary between indoor and outdoor to create a cooling gradient. 

In order to understand the land and air that it designs for, Modu conducts rigorous research and runs an experimental think tank. Promenade’s corrugated walls grew out of testing models and consulting with the climate engineering firm TransSolar. To consider Habits and Habitats’ effects on wildlife species in Wyoming's Greater Yellowstone area, Hoang and Rotem met with animal sociologist Lisa Jean Moore. 

Inviting more perspectives into the design process considers “the impact of what we do or how we want to design on all the stakeholders: who are humans, of course, but also can be animals and plants and seeds," Rotem said. "Every project has its own narrative based on the local conditions."

Modu designers say their projects do not seek to impose on the environments they exist among, but rather to join them and let themselves be shaped by environmental factors. The structures’ intuitive beauty and functionality, ultimately, feel like a collaboration with nature itself. 

When you think of competitive and ambitious brands, love, respect and “delivering happiness to all” are not the first words that come to mind. Yet the automaker Subaru of America demonstrates that having these words at the heart of the business can make a great impact on profit margins and company reputation, as well as people and communities.

Global sales of Subaru vehicles continued to rise this year, led by steady growth in the U.S. market. Subaru of America recently reported 14 consecutive months of increased sales. Encouraging retailers to embrace its philanthropic and social impact mission, the Love Promise, Subaru of America says it aims to be “more than a car company” for its customers.

“The Subaru Love Promise is a way to show love and respect to everybody that we interact with,” said Burton Hughes, general manager at Findlay Subaru of Las Vegas, a retailer that won the Subaru Love Promise Customer and Community Commitment Award for six years in a row. “As we focus on being more than a car dealer, I believe that we've been able to model the Love Promise in a way that our team embraces it.”

The Love Promise Customer and Community Commitment Award is a national recognition given to Subaru retailers who consistently deliver exceptional customer experience while supporting causes in their local communities. 

At Findlay Subaru of Las Vegas, retail managers say there’s no shortage of choices in their community. “There are so many great nonprofits out there, it's nearly an impossible decision,” said Jennifer Vitale, the retailer’s assistant general manager. “When we look at the opportunities to give back, we start evaluating them first with the five Love Promise pillars in mind, and we try to spread our support equally amongst them.” The five pillars of the Subaru Love Promise are environment, health, education, pets and community.

For larger organizations, thinking globally yet acting locally can help scale and balance nonprofit support, Hughes said. “An easy way to start giving back is to look at the local chapters of the national nonprofits your organization supports,” he suggested. "This often leads to multi-year partnerships.”

Retailers like Findlay Subaru of Las Vegas also look to support smaller, locally-led nonprofits alongside the local chapters of national groups like St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and AdoptAClassroom.org. “We also love the charities that are operating in the shadows that may not have national support,” Hughes said. "At the level that we can engage with them, it may make the difference of whether they still exist tomorrow.”


This year, Findlay Subaru of Las Vegas received the most prestigious award a retailer can receive from Subaru of America, the 2023 Subaru Love Promise Retailer of the Year Award.

The retailer has donated more than $1 million to local nonprofits since 2021, supporting over 50 organizations that include the mental health initiative Hope Means Nevada, the animal rescue organization Hearts Alive Village, the tree-planting program Go Green for Good Health, and the service and therapy dog provider Michael’s Angel Paws.

The automaker and its retailers also look to involve customers in giving back by facilitating donations via the sales process during the annual Subaru Share the Love Event. For example, with Hope Means Nevada, a nonprofit led by the Nevada Medical Center that is dedicated to improving mental health among Nevada teens, Findlay Subaru of Las Vegas allocated $50 for every vehicle purchased and $3 for every oil change during the campaign period. This resulted in a contribution of over $14,500 to Hope Means Nevada and also got customers involved in making a difference.

“Findlay Subaru of Las Vegas plays an essential role in our fight against the epidemic of youth suicide in Nevada,” said Julie Murray, co-chair of Hope Means Nevada. “With their ongoing support and donations, Hope Means Nevada is able to continue to raise awareness of Nevada’s high rates of mental health challenges and connect youth with desperately needed resources.”

The reputation of a company precedes its profitability, and establishing trust with people in the local community can lead to increased loyalty and sales. Managers at Findlay Subaru of Las Vegas have seen this firsthand. “I've seen many of our nonprofit partners, executive directors, and vice presidents come in who just want to buy a Subaru because of our support in the community,” Vitale said.

 "I've also seen people who have been directly impacted by the nonprofits we support come in and buy a Subaru only because of our support to that nonprofit,” she continued. “For example, once I saw a lady with a dog that had a Michael’s Angel Paws vest on, and I assumed she was a volunteer for them. When I asked her, she said she wasn’t a volunteer but was buying a Subaru because of the support she got from Michael’s Angel Paws, because she had received her service dog from them.”

Michael’s Angel Paws is a Nevada-based organization that trains service and therapy support dogs for community members facing physical or emotional challenges. Findlay Subaru of Las Vegas has raised over $64,000 for the nonprofit so far, and its showroom is dog friendly. In addition, after 25 weeks and a cumulative 500 hours of training, some employees from the retailer certified their own pets as therapy dogs in order to bring them to volunteer efforts in the community.

Like other participating retailers, Findlay Subaru of Las Vegas also partners with TerraCycle to collect hard-to-recycle waste. “We have our own recycling at the showroom with TerraCycle boxes. We recycle cabin air filters and plastic wrappers,” Vitale said. Retailers across the U.S. have collected more than 10 million pieces of hard-to-recycle waste as part of the Subaru Loves the Earth initiative since 2018.

Along with customer loyalty, research shows that being a responsible business has a positive impact on staff retention. Employees in an organization that is driven by corporate social responsibility are often aligned with a bigger mission that motivates them to stay longer, reducing the costs and disruption of recruitment and retraining.

“The cool thing is, as we've expanded and done more in the community, our employees are very much engaged and keen to volunteer their time,” Vitale said.

Partners like Christy Stevens, executive director of Hearts Alive Village Las Vegas, a shelter and veterinary center for dogs, cats and barnyard animals, are also reaping the benefits. “The Findlay Subaru of Las Vegas Team is a shining example of how to care about the community where you do business,” Stevens said.

This article series is sponsored by Subaru and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team. 

Images courtesy of Subaru