For decades, huge swaths of Brazils Cerrado ecosystem have been used to support the global demand for burgers. Forests and grasslands were replaced by pastures along with farms growing soy to feed cattle. But a major restoration project is now underway on an area nearly twice as large as Manhattan.
If you fly over one part of southwestern Brazil, youll see a patchwork of dozens of square plots where a local university is studying different methods of helping native plants regrow on former cattle pastures. On more than 25,000 acres, along rivers and the edge of remaining pieces of forest, new vegetation has been growing quickly over the past two years. Wildlife cameras track the native species that are returning, from puma to an endangered species of rabbit.
The environmental group Conservation International is working on the project with an unlikely set of partners: a forestry company and the tech giant Apple.
[Photo: TIG]
Why Apple is investing in forests
The project is one piece of Apples climate strategy. When we look at the global climate science, its clear that we have to cut emissions as quickly as possible, but we also have to end deforestation and rapidly scale up carbon removal in order to stay within 1.5 degrees [of global temperature rise], says Chris Busch, director of environmental initiatives at Apple.
The companys first priority is reducing its own emissions. Through tactics like using recycled rare earth elements in iPhones and helping suppliers shift to renewable energy at factories, it has already cut its emissions by 60% compared to 2015. By 2030, its aiming to hit 75%. But for the remaining 25%, Busch says, We just don’t have a clear line of sight to how to avoid those emissions at scale today within our value chain. So that is where nature comes in to play a role for us.
There are several ways to take CO2 out of the atmosphere, including nascent technology like direct air capture. But Apple knew that in order to reach its short-term goals for 2030, it would need to lean on natures ability to capture carbon because no other approach was ready to scale up quickly enough.
At the same time, the company recognized that there werent enough nature-based carbon credits available to buyand restoration and preservation projects often struggle to prove that they actually have as much benefit as they claim. In 2021, Apple committed $200 million to the Restore Fund, a new fund established with Conservational International and Goldman Sachs, to help carbon removal grow more quickly and to focus on creating quality projects. (In 2023, it pledged an additional $200 million for a second fund within the program.) One of the first investments, in 2022, was Project Alpha in Brazil. Restoration and planting started in 2023. It’s the first step in a larger effort that will eventually restore 741,000 acres of degraded land across Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile.
A biodiversity hot spot
The Cerrado ecosystem, which originally sprawled over more than a million square miles in Brazil with a mix of dense forests, grasslands, and wetlands, is a biodiversity hot spot. Many of its 1,600-plus species of animals, and 10,000 species of plants, can’t be found anywhere else. It’s also quickly disappearing.
“It’s faced a rate of loss that’s fairly extreme,” says Will Turner, senior vice president at Conservation International’s Center for Natural Climate Solutions. “Well over half of the native Cerrado vegetation has been destroyed, predominantly due to agriculture.”
The restoration project is focusing on an area that was converted for grazing in the 1990s, and bought the land from cattle farmers. As grasslands were replaced by pasture, they were planted with invasive grasses to feed cattle. The grass chokes off the growth of native plants. Because it’s spread so much, the non-native grass makes restoration expensive and challenging. That’s why the project took a new approach: Instead of focusing solely on restoration, it’s happening in combination with carefully managed forestry.
[Photo: TIG]
Why an environmental group wanted to partner with a forestry company
BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group (TIG), the forestry partner on the project, is planting tree farms on half of the former grazing land, and managing restoration on the other half.
In some ways, the solution seems counterintuitive: The tree farms will grow eucalyptus, a non-native species from Australia. In other parts of Brazil, environmental groups have derided eucalyptus plantations, arguing that they’re destructive. But the trees can thrive in degraded soil where other species struggle to grow. They also grow quickly, taking up large amounts of CO2. Since deforestation reduces rainfall, planting new trees can also help with the hydrological cycle. And as global demand for wood continues to grow, the new plantationswhich are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certifiedcan potentially help avoid deforestation of native trees in places like the Amazon rainforest.
Some critics argue that eucalyptus overuses groundwater, but Conservation International says that’s often caused by poor management. If a eucalyptus plantation is managed well, the nonprofit says, recent research suggests it will use the same amount of water as a native forest. (The forestry company is also screening out locations that have insufficient water availability and monitoring water security for others in the area.)
When TIG bought grazig land from farmers, it carefully tracked where the cattle were moved, making sure that the process didn’t lead to new land being cleared elsewhere. (The company agreed to this, along with other sustainability critera, as part of the project.) Then, with guidance from Conservation International, it began “assisted natural regeneration,” taking steps to help native vegetation regrow. In some areas, it’s also planting seeds or seedlings. Having the forestry company on the site also means that its crew can protect the restored areas from encroachment from other farmers or fight wildfires if needed.
The forestry company will earn carbon credits both as its trees capture CO2 and as native vegetation is being restored. Apple also has a stake in the project. “What we’re aiming to do is generate a financial return as an investor in those projects, but also a carbon return,” says Busch. “Part of the return that we get on that investment is carbon credits.”
Third-party auditors will monitor the project before the carbon credits are issued. Apple is also helping with some of the monitoring technology, including testing ways to use the iPhone’s lidar scanner to measure the diameter of trees.
Without the forestry part of the project in place, Conservation International says it’s unlikely that any restoration would have happened in the area at all. Including forestry makes the restoration financially viable. And it helped it happen at a large scale: The project will increase the restoration across the entire Cerrado region by 50%.
“At the end of the day, what we think is really important is figuring out how to get to scale in terms of restoration and carbon sequestration quickly,” says Apple’s Busch. “That needs to be funded somehow. The conservation side of the operation is truly [financially] sustainable because it can be funded by the business side.”
These days, when you head to a shop to buy clothes, most brands package your purchases in a recyclable paper bag, which looks more eco-friendly than plastic.
But behind the scenesin back rooms that most customers never seeevery single clothing retailer has enormous piles of flimsy plastic bags (sometimes called poly bags). These bags keep clothes clean as they travel across the complex global supply chain before arriving at the store. We need to keep clothes in good condition as they move from factories to shipping containers to trucks, says Candan Erenguc, chief operations officer at Anthropologie.
[Photo: WM/Anthropologie]
Most local recycling facilities don’t have the equipment to recycle poly bags, which are more complicated to break down than more solid plastics like water bottles. So most retailers simply send them in the regular waste stream where they will end up in a landfill. Since plastic does not biodegrade, these bags will break down into tiny fragments of microplastic that will end up in our waterways and food.
Anthropologie has been on a mission to find a way to recycle the poly bags it collects across its 215 retail stores. Over the past 18 months, it has partnered with Waste Management (WM), the largest recycling company in the United States, to develop a solution. Now, store associates collect these bags and send them to special facilities that are equipped to recycle them into other plastic products, extending their life.
Anthropologie has already recycled more than 60,000 tons of poly bags, which have been transformed into pellets that will be used to create other plastic items, including trash bags. It has been a very seamless process, and we want to make sure other retailers know they can do it as well, says Erenguc.
That said, things like trash bags cannot be further recycled, so they will eventually end up in a landfill. So it is still incumbent on brands to find ways to reduce the amount of plastic they consume and discard.
For decades, flimsy plastic bags have been a challenge for municipal recycling facilities that collect household waste. If you accidentally put them in your curbside recycling bin, they can clog up the recycling equipment, shutting the system down. As a result, people have been encouraged to simply dispose of these bags in the regular waste stream, where they will be landfilled or incinerated.
However, recycling technology is quickly improving, according to Tara Hemmer, chief sustainability officer at WM. For one thing, WM is now investing in robotics and computer vision technology that can better catch plastic bags that end up in the waste stream and separate them from the rest of the trash, so they don’t cause a major disturbance.
And perhaps more impressively, there are now several industrial recycling facilities across the U.S. that are specifically designed to recycle poly bags. Some of these plants are owned by WM. But there are also independent recyclers that partner with WM. We work with our customers to make sure they can direct their waste to the right facility in our third-party network, says Hemmer.
[Photo: WM]
Erenguc wanted to find a way to collect poly bags and ship them to these locations. However, as a major retailer, this presented a logistical challenge. It was also important for the process to be easy for employees to understand and follow. Each of Anthropologie’s 215 stores is staffed with dozens of employees who must be trained on best practices when it comes to waste disposal. Moreover, it was unclear where the nearest recycling facility would be for each store.
We didn’t want to be transporting poly bags back and forth across the country, because that isn’t good for the environment either, Erenguc says.
But this is where WM could help. Anthropologie brought in members of the WM team to study the situation and come up with a solution that would be easy for retail employees to adopt. WM identified the address of the closest recycling facility for each store. Retail associates now collect plastic bags and when they have achieved a certain volume, they ship them out to a designated facility. The recycling plants turn poly bags into pellets that can than be used to create other products.
It’s such a streamlined solution, Erenguc says. It was so easy to execute, but we’ve already managed to divert 60,000 pounds of plastic from landfills.
[Photo: WM]
Hemmer says that many retailers are eager to divert waste from landfill. While there’s been a narrative that companies have abandoned their sustainability goals, that hasn’t been her experience. We’ve found that companies still have goals and are marching towards them, she says. And consumerproduct companies are trying to increase the amount of recycled content that goes into their products.
Hemmer says that recycling technology is improving every year. WM is currently working to make it possible to recycle plastic bags in residential areas, beginning with a plant in Chicago that will reach about 3,500 households.
But often the obstacle to bringing about change at scale isn’t technologicalit’s logistical. People, as well as companies, are more likely to adopt new processes if they’re simple. Part of our job is to help troubleshoot, says Hemmer. But diverting waste from landfill is actually a lot easier than you’d imagine.
Elon Musk’s foray into government has proven disastrous for his business life.
Since taking up work for President Donald Trumps’ so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk’s electric car company Tesla has seen sales slide and has become a target for protests. Now some believe that damage could be terminal and that Musk poses a risk to companies outside of his own.
The Reputation Risk Index looks at reputational threats facing companies and organizations. It recently found that being associated with Musk posed the second biggest threat to companies, between the harmful or deceptive use of artificial intelligence and backtracking on DEI. The index, which is based on a survey with 117 public affairs leaders and former heads of state, found it’s not just being associated with Musk that’s risky, but being singled out and publicly criticized by him.
In an aerial view, brand-new Tesla cars and Cybertrucks sit parked in a lot at a Tesla dealership on April 02, 2025, in Corte Madera, California. [Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
With his controversial omnipresence in the media landscape, 28% of the council identified this association as a top reputational risk, highlighting Musks impact on businesses that extend well past his own, Global Risk Advisory Council chair Isabel Casillas Guzman said in the report.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives predicted in a note Sunday that even if Musk were to quit DOGE and get back to his car company there will be permanent brand damage.” And if Musk stays in government, brand damage could grow for Tesla, calling it a code red situation for the company.
Musk “needs to leave the government, take a major step back on DOGE, and get back to being CEO of Tesla full-time,” Ives wrote.
Musk’s hard turn to DOGE has shown that mixing business with politics can backfire, especially for a public CEO of a company that relies on customers who in large part don’t share his views. If Musk wasn’t planning on leaving his post as a special government employee after the 130-day limit comes up, he might find a more persuasive business reason that it’s time to get back to his day job.
As a particularly cold winter sputters to an end, Pennsylvanias Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps residents pay their heating bills, closed on Fridayseveral weeks earlier than expected.
Funding for LIHEAP has dried up because federal workers who administer the program were recently laid off by the Trump administration, said Elizabeth Marx, the executive director at the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project, a legal advocacy group that assists people struggling to pay their utility costs. About $19 million has yet to be sent to the state.
The state Public Utility Commission sent a letter to Congess this week about the shortfall and called the fund a lifeline for Pennsylvanias most vulnerable households.
Marx said the delay in federal funds couldnt happen at a worse time.
April is known as the start of termination season, she said, when her organization sees an uptick in the number of households whose electricity or gas is turned off. State regulations prohibit winter disconnections before April 1.
Every year we have a spike in calls to our emergency hotline because, all at the same time, people are receiving termination notices, Marx said. This is a time when the demand for LIHEAP increases dramatically.
LIHEAP is among dozens of aid programs caught short by mass firings in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Part of broad budget cuts by the Trump administration, the entire staff that allocates funds for LIHEAP was eliminated two weeks ago. HHS did not respond to a request for comment.
Administered largely by states, LIHEAP distributes more than $4 billion a year to 6.2 million low-income households nationwide to help with heating and cooling costs. Last year, LIHEAP provided assistance to 346,000 Pennsylvanians, including 55,000 people who were in danger of having their heating cut.
About $400 million in LIHEAP funding has yet to be sent to the states. In 2025, Pennsylvania had so far received $71 million by early April.
Marx said that no one has explained the delay. The funding hasnt yet been cut. We just havent gotten it, Marx said. We have no idea when the remaining amount of funds are going to come to Pennsylvania.
Sanya Carley, the faculty director at the University of Pennsylvanias Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, said the gutting of the staff is behind the funding interruption. With the layoffs at HHS, that means that nobody is there to allocate the remainder during the more extreme, excessive heat months, she said.
LIHEAP is one of our cornerstone social assistance programs, said Juanita Constible, a senior advocate for environmental health at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). It can mean the difference between a family being able to afford to stay in their home or not, or to feed themselves or not, she said.
Even if funds were sent this week, the program wouldn’t be able to reopen immediately. You cant just turn a program like that on a dime, Marx said. The delay could also mean bad news this summer and beyond.
Without help from LIHEAP to pay debts to utility companies that accumulated over the winter, thousands of households could lose power, leaving them with limited access to electricity this summer. The pause in payments will likely drive up demand for aid in the fall, advocates said. LIHEAP also covers maintenance and repair to home furnaces.
Utility disconnections can lead to other losses for families scrambling to make ends meet. (Think of a refrigerator full of spoiled groceries.) They can spur evictions and, in some cases, cause children to be removed from homes deemed unsafe. And as Pennsylvania and the rest of the country face increasingly hot summers because of climate change, air-conditioning is no longer a convenience but a life-saving necessity. Prolonged heat exposure exacerbates chronic conditions including asthma, diabetes, and hypertension and can endanger pregnant women, children, and the elderly.
LIHEAP was among the programs seen as most critical for helping families in Philadelphia at a climate justice event hosted by Drexel University last week.
The federal government is disinvesting in data to understand health disparities, data to understand climate risk, funding for energy solutions. The LIHEAP program is now at risk, said Mathy Stanislaus, the executive director of Drexels Environmental Collaboratory.
Now more than ever, we really need to figure out how we can link up community-based leadership and priorities for state and local solutions, Stanislaus said.
The event brought together four community groups, called the Philadelphia Climate Justice Collective, to present recommendations for a just climate transition plan for the city. Finding solutions for neighborhoods with an atypically high heat index were part of the collectives report.
The governments disinvestment and dismantling casts a long shadow, Stanislaus said in an interview, referring to the fallout from federal cuts led by DOGE, Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency.
For example, the North Philadelphia-based nonprofit Esperanza lost a $500,000 grant for Hunting Park that would have covered the cost of weatherizing homes and planting trees. Hunting Park is a neighborhood where summer temperatures routinely register 10 to 15 degrees higher than wealthier and greener areas of the city.
Despite the funding cuts, the collectives leadership said they will continue working to help Philadelphias most underserved residents.
The federal government is completely erasing the history of environmental justice. The EPA administrator issued a memo two weeks ago that says were not going to consider the burdens of communities of color and low-income neighborhoods, Stanislaus said. We need to push back.
One of the participating organizations, the Overbrook Environmental Education Center, lost a promised $700,000 federal grant. Were disappointed, but were not devastated, said Jerome Shabazz, its executive director.
Are we going to rely on these folks to define for us what our dignity should look like, who we should protect and who we should love and who we should give consideration to? How are we going to have an attitude where the most vulnerable amongst us are not the people we want to serve? he asked. Thats not acceptable. If were talking about climate and environmental justice, then we must be just.
More than 70% of LIHEAP recipients come from households with at least one senior citizen, person with disabilities, or child under the age of 6.
Constible, of the NRDC, said if LIHEAP disappeared there would be a lot more evictions.
Wed see a lot more potential deaths or serious physical harm. I think ed see a lot more families trying to make a decision between heating and eating, or stalling medical care that they need, she said.
Marx said the disruption to LIHEAP funding is occurring as more people are losing access to consistent electricity, water, and gas service. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, last year one in four Pennsylvania households said they had trouble paying their energy bills. Even before this winter, LIHEAP funding had fallen since the 2021-2022 fiscal year, when Pennsylvania received more than $480 million. This year, the state was allocated around $200 million.
Now, experts say the situation is dire. People will die, Carley said. People will die this summer if they cannot cool their homes and they cannot pay their bills.
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.
The steeple of Boston’s Old North Church has a historic claim to fame. In 1775, Paul Revere arranged for lanterns to be displayed as a signal to colonists that communicated British troop movements, and the route of an impending invasion: one lantern if by land, two if by sea. Now, 250 years later, the church is once again a messenger for a dire moment in American history.
April 18 marked 250 years since Revere’s ride the night before the Battles of Lexington and Concord outside Boston that set off the Revolutionary War. To mark the occasion, a Boston art collective called Silence Dogood (its name a tip of the hat to one of Benjamin Franklins pseudonyms) used the occasion to project far less veiled messages in vintage-style typefaces onto the Old North Churchs steeple.
[Photo: Aram Boghosian/courtesy Silence Dogood]
The Revolution Started Here and It Never Left, Let the Warning Ride Forth Once More: Tyranny Is at Our Door, and One if by Land, Two if by D.C. were digs at President Donald Trump and statements of identity about Boston as the birthplace of the American Revolution.
[Photo: Mike Ritter/courtesy Silence Dogood]
Two-hundred fifty years later, tyranny has returned, the group said in a statement. Let Boston once more be the beacon in the country’s hour of darkness and relight the rallying signal to protect our liberty.
Silence Dogood started last month with a projection at the Old State House responding to border czar Tom Homan’s comments about bringing hell to the city. The visual protests have grown in a very organic way since, an organizer tells Fast Company. The group is finding ways to both react to events as they unfold in real time and mark the anniversary of the Revolutionary War with messages about the Trump administration’s abuses of power.
Projections were a staple of protest against Trump in his first term; activists and artists projected critical messages onto Trump’s hotels in cities like Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Silence Dogood has taken that concept and adopted it for Boston, and for the nation’s semiquincentennial, with thoughtful font and location choices. That the White House touted Trump a king only bolsters the group’s message.
[Photo: Aram Boghosian/courtesy Silence Dogood]
The projections were written in a handful of fonts, including some the group has customized. One was chosen as an homage to colonial-era pamphlets like Thomas Paine’s 1776 Common Sense, which gives their projections a sense of historic context, paired with a more blocky font used in all-caps.
As a medium, projection allows the collective to make large statements directly on the places where history happened, and messages can be quickly designed and executed. Since launching, they’ve projected onto the facades of other historic buildings, including Faneuil Hall and Old South Meeting House. The group uses a Reon solar-powered mobile electric generator, 1,600-lumen Epson projectors, and a computer using the projection mapping software MadMapper.
By bringing their projections to historic sites and using fonts and anniversaries to tie history to the modern day, Silence Dogood has tapped into a potent medium that brings timely messages to timeless locations with only the power of type and light.
Popular language learning app Duolingo is giving its bite-size lesson treatment to one of the oldest games in the world: chess.Duolingos chess course will take users, who can range from complete novices to those with a solid understanding of how to play, through its gamified exercises to become better game players. The focus is mostly on attracting new players, including those who have felt chess is too difficult to learn or otherwise inaccessible.For the most part, a lot of chess products out there are usually built by an advanced user for more advanced-use casessomeone who already is familiar with chess and is kind of trying to elevate their abilities even further, Edwin Bodge, Duolingo senior product manager, tells Fast Company. So we are more targeting beginners and think that were addressing a part of the market that hasnt previously been addressed.[Animation: Duolingo]Users can learn how each piece moves, spot tactical patterns, and build a strategy. They can then apply those lessons in mini matches, which are just a few minutes long, to full games against its character Oscar. The bot will track how many matches the user has won and lost and can scale up or down the difficulty based on past performance.This is a game thats been played for so long, and essentially Duolingo is now carrying the torch of [getting] more people interested in this game that has been around for so long and put our unique spin on it, Bodge said.[Image: Duolingo]Chess is the companys first new subject since it branched beyond languages and introduced math and music classes in 2022 and 2023, respectively. The company launched in 2012 and has amassed more than 37 million daily active users as it brought language learning to the iPhone age and leaned heavily into attracting a young user base.The company said that chess is the fastest course its developed to date thanks to advancements in AI. The product team pitched CEO Luis von Ahn on the course in late August and its first engineer started on the job in November.Duolingo is testing chess with a limited number of learners starting Tuesday. Itll roll out to all learners on iOS in English in the coming weeks, it said, with plans to eventually extend to additional operating systems and other languages in the coming months.
While Zoom is unquestionably the biggest name in videoconferencing, its free tier has some limitationsparticularly the 40-minute time cap on group meetings. The good news is that several excellent platforms offer generous free plans capable of handling everything from brief check-ins to extended sessions.
Ready to explore other options? Check out these free Zoom alternatives.
Google Meet
If youre already embedded in the Google ecosystem, Google Meet is about as convenient as it gets.
Joining meetings is straightforward, accessible via a web browser without needing software downloads, or through dedicated mobile apps.
Its free tier supports up to 100 participants in a meeting and group sessions up to an hour in length.
For one-on-one meetings, the time limit is 24 hoursthough, if youre holding 24-hour meetings . . . seek help.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is more than just a meeting tool, and while its full suite of features might seem overwhelming if you only require video calls, the free tier offers a nice set of meeting capabilities.
Access is provided through web, desktop, and mobile applications, and you can host meetings with up to 100 participants for an hour.
Beyond meetings, the free plan includes unlimited chat and file sharing integrated within the Teams environment, making it a good option for groups looking for a legit collaborative platform. Features like screen sharing, customizable backgrounds, and the unique Together Mode, which places participants in a shared virtual setting, are available.
And for some reason, Teams lets you hold 30-hour one-on-one meetingsoutdoing Google by an extra six hours. Again: Dont be crazy.
Jitsi Meet
As a truly free option, Jitsi Meet is a compelling alternative to providers with both free and paid tiers.
This platform offers encrypted communication and notably does not require user accounts for hosting or joining meetings.
While theres no set user limit, Jitsi matches the 100 participants that the other freebies offer. There are no arbitrary time limits on meeting duration.
Standard features like screen sharing, chat, virtual backgrounds, and polling are included, while an option for end-to-end encryption adds another layer of security. And if youre looking for even more control, Jitsi Meet can also be self-hosted.
Zoho Meeting
Finally, consider Zoho Meeting, which allows meetings with up to 100 participants for up to an hour, putting it on par with Google Meet and Microsoft Teams in terms of basic capacity.
The service includes essential meeting features like screen sharing, chat functionalities, virtual backgrounds, and whiteboarding.
While Zoho Meeting is particularly attractive if youre already using other Zoho products, it also stands alone as a capable option for anyone seeking a reliable free meeting platform outside of the Google or Microsoft spheres.
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
How do big companies evolve? How do they learn to do something new? These are questions that have taken up untold pages of books, magazines, and journal articles. As a venture capitalist (VC) in water, Ive seen firsthand that most large companies in the sector struggle to effectively engage with external innovation, particularly with entrepreneurs developing technologies that could enhance their value propositions or product suites. Yet, both sides stand to gain: Large companies expand their product suites without having to build from scratch, and startups gain access to something invaluable: distribution at scale.
Thats what makes Xylems success with Xylem Innovation Labs such an impressive case study. Formed in 2021, the program was a deliberate effort to bridge this gap, engaging with the growing ecosystem of water entrepreneurs and investing in the best talent developing industry solutions. If you think entrepreneurship is hard, try corporate innovation.
A model that works
Building a new function within a company requires navigating the constraints of an existing organizational structure. Simply tacking on a skunkworks team with a Gone in 60 Seconds-type team of innovators often leads to fragmentation, internal resistance, and ultimately, failure. Xylem Innovation Labs avoided these pitfalls by structuring its program with precision and purpose, making it a model for systematic change.
At its core is the Partnerships Accelerator, designed to fast-track the introduction of breakthrough technologies that address critical challenges for water utilities, industrial water users, and communities worldwide. Each year, the team surveys the entire company to identify strategic gaps that technology could help fill in. They then scour the global startup landscapeworking with partners like us at Burnt Island Ventures (BIV) and Imagine H2Oto find companies with the right solutions. Applications are then reviewed across Xylems business units, and a committee that includes members of the companys C-suite (this is a $8.6 billion revenue company, after all) makes the final selections.
Once a startup is selected, it gains direct access to Xylems leadership and expertise, with a dedicated team member acting as a guide through the corporate landscape. They then embark on a year-long Partnership Accelerator program that not only develops their partnership with the company but a path to the broader market. The program is defined by its speed and transparencywe all know that startups dont have the luxury of waiting years for a decision. When a no comes fast, its never a “no forever”its about timing, potential, and mutual fit. This founder-friendly approach makes it one of the most effective corporate innovation models Ive seen.
Breakthrough partnerships and lessons learned
Since its 2022 launch, the Partnerships Accelerator has engaged over 45 companies from 14 countriescontributing to real progress across the water innovation ecosystem by accelerating solutions, relationships, and learning. Nearly a quarter of these startups have formalized partnership agreements with Xylem, while a new cohort are just beginning their journey. This isnt just about numbers; its about tangible progress in tackling some of the most pressing water and public health challenges of our time.
The potential for transformation is significant, and initiatives like this are setting a new standard for how large companies can engage with startups to deliver meaningful change. Take Aclarity, a BIV portfolio company that developed an electrochemical oxidation process to destroy forever chemicals (PFAS). After participating in the 2022 Xylem Partnerships Accelerator, Aclarity continues to collaborate with Xylem to bring its technology to market. Other partnerships have already led to new product launches, such as eoapp Aqua, a satellite-based water quality monitoring tool that debuted in the U.S. in 2024 as a collaboration between Xylem’s YSI brand and EOMAP, a German remote sensing company.
For BIV, partnering with Xylem isnt just strategicit has reshaped how we approach venture investing in water. Xylem collaborates with a global network of more than 40 open innovation partners, including universities, research institutes, accelerators, VCs, and end users. This extensive reach gives us an edge in sourcing high-potential startups, but this isnt a one-way street. We share promising startups with Xylem, and nearly half of our portfolio companies have engaged with Xylem in some capacity. The result? A stronger ecosystem where startups have a direct path to commercialization.
The buck doesnt stop here
Xylem Innovation Labs isnt just coasting on its early successes. In 2024, Xylem expanded its corporate venture investing plans to support emerging companies and water services providers, complementing its existing investments in BIV and Westly Group. More importantly, its now deploying capital into high-impact, frontier markets through its work with WaterEquity. This holistic approachcombining partnerships, investments, and strategic innovationis creating a powerful engine for scaling water technology solutions at an unprecedented pace.
And the impact is growing. A self-reinforcing funding and innovation flywheel is now in motion for early-stage water companies. Four companies from BIVs Fund I have already advanced to Series B funding, and weve since launched Fund II and Opportunity Fund I, both anchored by Xylem, to further support high-growth water startups. The timing couldnt be better. Both VC and entrepreneurial attention are shifting toward climate adaptation and resilience, and water is at the center of that transformation.
Institutional agility is possible
Ive seen too many large companies fail at innovation simply because they lack the structure and discipline to integrate external ideas. But Xylem Innovation Labs is proof that it doesnt have to be this way. I believe that when a corporation commits to engaging with startups strategicallyrather than treating innovation as a PR stuntit can create an engine for sustained competitive advantage. Xylem has done this by taking external innovation seriously, embedding it into its core strategy, and executing it with speed and transparency. In todays world, where water challenges are intensifying, integrating emerging technologies isnt optional, its a necessity for survival and long-term growth.
Tom Ferguson is founder and managing partner of Burnt Island Ventures.
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
In most companies, generative AI is full of contradictions.
On one hand, 67% of business leaders predict that GenAI will transform their organization in 2025, according to a KPMG survey. On the other, just 36% of executives say their company has a well-defined vision for AI.
The core issue: Nearly 2.5 years after ChatGPTs introduction, most companies are still stuck in what I call prototype purgatory. Theyve bought and attempted to adopt off-the-shelf GenAI tools and developed pet project prototypes. But despite big promises from vendors or demos, theyve generated little more than incremental valuefar from the AI revolution that was promised.
I see this constantly when talking to enterprise execs. Theyre frustrated. And the data bears this out, too. Recently at A.Team, we surveyed 250 senior tech leaders responsible for AI initiatives at their companies and found that only 36% of organizations have successfully deployed AI to production. (The majority of respondents came from enterprise companies.) The rest remain caught in an endless cycle of proof of concept projects and pilotsor havent gotten started at all.
Its not hard to see why this is happening. The space is moving at whiplash speed, disrupting itself weekly. Its impossible to upskill your full-time employees on all things AI, which makes it difficult to make crucial technical decisions. At this stage of the game, locking into one platform is highly premature.
But amidst these struggles, some companies are breaking through. The most fascinating part of our research was what AI leaders do differently than AI laggardsand it’s not what you might expect.
The talent equation: Blended teams win
The most striking finding from our research was that organizations that use blended teamsa model that integrates specialized freelance talent with full-time employeesare twice as likely to reach advanced stages of AI innovation.
These companies find that this model helps alleviate the AI talent crisis that most companies are experiencing. Ninety-four percent of the tech leaders we surveyed said talent constraints are their primary barrier to innovation, with 85% having delayed critical AI initiatives due to talent shortages.
[Graphic: A.Team 2025 State of AI Innovation Report]
Theyre finding that traditional hiring can’t solve this problem89% said the traditional recruitment model is broken. Two-thirds of respondents said it takes at least 4 months to hire top engineering talent. These protracted hiring cycles are particularly problematic in AI development, where technology evolves at a breakneck pacerendering traditional workforce planning obsolete as new possibilities emerge and roadmaps change. In 2025, its hard to know the exact skills you will need in six months.
Successful organizations that have escaped prototype purgatory have found a different approach with blended teams, and they report stunning improvements from incorporating freelance or fractional talent into their teams:
99% enhanced innovation capability
98% improved project success rates
96% accelerated speed of delivery
[Graphic: A.Team 2025 State of AI Innovation Report]
Build versus buy: A third way may be the answer
For the past 2.5 years, Ive watched build vs. buy become one of the dominant discussions in executive boardrooms. While off-the-shelf AI tools like ChatGPT Enterprise and GitHub Copilot deliver obvious value, it now looks like the build approach is winning. Among companies that have successfully deployed AI to production, 93% say building custom solutions delivers more value than off-the-shelf tools. But that might not be the whole story.
The most successful organizations aren’t building everything from scratch, however. They’re taking an “assemble” approachleveraging the explosion of open-source building blocks (we’ve seen a 60% boom in open-source GenAI contributions on GitHub in the past year alone) while customizing solutions for their specific needs.
The assemble model is built for speed; integrated components can be easily updated or swapped out, which is crucial when the shelf life for state of the art AI is shorter than a jar of organic marinara sauce. It allows you to keep the most crucial part in place: developing these GenAI components into existing workflows that empower your employees and customers, giving you a true data moat.
When you look at where the senior tech leaders in our study are making their investments, it reflects this kind of foundational approach:
50% are increasing spending on AI safety and monitoring tools
49% are prioritizing AI development platforms
41% are investing in data infrastructure
[Graphic: A.Team 2025 State of AI Innovation Report]
Theyre not investing in the models themselves but in everything needed to turn them into production-grade systems: data pipelines, testing frameworks, monitoring tools, and integration capabilities.
Want ROI? Start with AI-powered automation
One of the biggest questions about generative AI is: Are companies seeing ROI? And if so, where?
We got the answer by asking AI leaders their expected ROI timeline across four key areas of focus:
Custom AI product development
AI-powered automation
Customer-facing AI features
Internal AI tools
[Graphic: A.Team 2025 State of AI Innovation Report]
Not surprisingly, AI-powered automation had the highest ROI rate already achieved, at 14%. Surprisingly, customer AI product development came in second, at 12%. Perhaps most surprisingly, most leaders expect to see ROI across every use case this year.
[Graphic: A.Team 2025 State of AI Innovation Report]
Our research suggests that a significant portion of that investment will go into custom AI product development and customer-facing AI features. While the dominant AI discussion has focused on cost cutting, more respondents said they were focusing on generating ROI through revenue generation (46%) over cost cutting (30%).
[Graphic: A.Team 2025 State of AI Innovation Report]
Its been said a million times, but it bears repeating: This will be a critical year for AI development inside most companies, with many Fortune 500 players at risk of falling behind. And while there have been whispers of a trough of disillusionment, tech leaders remain bullish: 96% plan to increase AI investments in 2025, with over half planning increases of 51% or more.
The challenge isn’t a lack of ambitionit’s execution. Most AI initiatives fail at the last milenot because the technology isn’t viable but because organizations underestimate the complexity of productizing AI and dont have the right talent with the right mindset inside their organization.
Companies that embrace these challenges and think differently will escape prototype purgatory. The rest may find themselves in limbo for years to come.
Raphael Ouzan is cofounder and CEO of A.Team.
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AI is no longer a side project. It now sits at the heart of how companies grow, compete, and make decisions. Yet many leaders still struggle to separate hype from value and wonder how to invest wisely without wasting time or resources.
A key challenge lies at the top: a lack of AI literacy among executive teams. Research covering nearly 7,000 executives across 645 firms shows a clear pattern: Companies led by AI-literate teams are more likely to identify where AI can create value and act on it.
Rethink responsibility
Many executive teams still treat AI as a tech issuesomething for IT or data teams to figure out. But AI is a leadership issue. It belongs on the agenda of every CMO, CFO, CHRO, and CEO.
More importantly, its not about a single role. Its about the collective literacy of the top team. Research rooted in upper echelons theory confirms this: AI-literate leadership teams are more likely to build strategic visions that integrate AI and translate that vision into tangible action, from capability building to execution.
So appointing a chief AI officer (CAIO) without a broader shift in understanding wont be enough if the rest of the executive team cant grasp the art of the possible and actively shape the direction AI takes in the business. As one leader put it, Hiring a CAIO is like hiring a pilot for a crew that doesnt believe in flying.
The cost of poor AI literacy
As MIT Sloan Management Review points out, The overall low literacy rate is a problem for todays executives, who will face more and more processes or products that claim to be powered by AI. Making informed decisions about these AI tools requires leaders to understand how they align with strategy and operationsand to know which questions matter.
Without a clear understanding of what AI can door where it breaks downexecutive teams fall into familiar traps:
Buying into hype they cant evaluate
Investing in tools without understanding their fit
Setting expectations AI (or teams) cant meet
Focusing on flashy pilots instead of long-term capability building
The result is often pilot purgatory, or initiatives that stall. Missed opportunities. And in some cases, the slow decline of companies that once dismissed digital as a passing trend.
From confusion to competence: The AI literacy ladder
To help executive teams assess where they stand and what to do next, we use a five-step model: the AI literacy ladder. Think of it as a five-step staircase representing the typical journey executive teams take as they build fluency in AI, moving from scattered perspectives to a shared understanding and strategic alignment:
Confusion: AI feels like a buzzword. Theres no shared understanding or agreement on relevance.
Curiosity: Interest is rising, but views are fragmented. Theres little clarity on where to begin.
Comprehension: The team develops a common language around AIs potential and risks.
Confidence: Teams ask sharper questions and align on use cases that matter.
Competence: AI becomes part of strategic planning and decision making.
[Graphic: Philippe De Ridder, CEO at BOI]
Why AI-literate teams outperform
When executive teams build AI fluency together, they unlock a dynamic we call the AI fluency flywheel: Teams that move beyond confusion and start learning together gain momentum. They stop treating AI as an isolated initiative and start treating it as a core strategic capability. Over time, this fluency allows them not just to respond, but to lead.
[Graphic: Philippe De Ridder, CEO at BOI]
So where do executive teams learn AI?
Despite the flood of AI training programs, few are built for leadership teams. Most are either too technical, too long, or designed for individuals. Whats missing is a shared learning experience. One that helps leadership teams:
Understand whats possible and whats not
Cut through noise and inflated promises
Align on use cases worth pursuing
Build a common language across roles
Closing the gap starts at the top
As AI reshapes how organizations operate and compete, executive teams cant afford to stay on the sidelines. The journey toward AI maturity isnt about becoming technical experts. Its about building shared fluency across the leaership team. It starts with honest reflection: Where are we on the AI literacy ladder? What will it take to move forward, together?
The first step is simple but powerful: Make space for the conversation. Invite different perspectives. Commit to learning together. Teams that do this wont just keep up. Theyll help shape whats next.
Philippe De Ridder is founder and CEO of BOI (Board of Innovation) and AUTONOMOUS. Laura Stevens, PhD is managing director, Data & AI at BOI.
