Amid the ongoing evolution of digital privacy laws, one California proposal is drawing heightened attention from legal scholars, technologists, and privacy advocates. Assembly Bill 1355, while narrower in scope than landmark legislation like 2018s California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)which established sweeping rights for consumers to know, delete, and opt out of the sale of their personal informationcould become a pivotal effort to rein in the unchecked collection and use of personal geolocation data.
The premise of the bill (which is currently undergoing analysis within the appropriations committee) is straightforward yet bold in the American legal landscape: Companies must obtain clear, opt-in consent before collecting or sharing users precise location data. They must also disclose exactly what data they gather, why they gather it, and who receives it. At a glance, this seems like a logical privacy upgrade. But beneath the surface, it questions the very structure of an industry built on the quiet extraction and monetization of personal information.
Were really trying to help regulate the use of your geolocation data, says the bills author, Democratic Assemblymember Chris Ward, who represents Californias 78th district, which covers parts of San Diego and surrounding areas. You should not be able to sell, rent, trade, or lease anybodys location information to third parties, because nobody signed up for that.
Among types of personal information, location data is especially sensitive. It reveals where people live, work, worship, protest, and seek medical care. It can expose routines, relationships, and vulnerabilities. As stories continue to surface about apps selling location data to brokers, government workers, and even bounty hunters, the conversation has expanded. What was once a debate about privacy has increasingly become a concern over how the exposure of this data infringes upon fundamental civil liberties.
Geolocation is very revealing, says Justin Brookman, the director of technology policy at Consumer Reports, which supported the legislation. It tells a lot about you, and it also can be a public safety issue if it gets into the wrong persons hands.
For advocates of the new legislation, the concern goes beyond permission screens. Its about control. When location data is collected silently and traded without oversight, people lose agency over how they move through the worldand whos watching.
A power imbalance at the heart of location tracking
To understand the urgency behind proposals like AB 1355, look at how current data practices operate. The core issue isnt merely that companies collect informationits how relentlessly and opaquely they do so, often without real accountability. Consent, when obtained, is typically buried in lengthy and confusing policies. Meanwhile, data brokers operate with minimal regulation, assembling detailed behavioral profiles that may influence credit decisions, hiring, and insurance rates. Most people have little knowledge of who holds their data or how it’s used.
For example, a fitness app might collect location data to track your exercise routes, but then sell that information to a data broker who assembles a profile for targeted advertising. This same information, in the wrong hands, could also be used to stalk an individual, track their movements, or even determine their political affiliations.
A lot of people don’t have the luxury to know that they should opt out or that they need to know how to find out how to opt out, Ward says.
Equally troubling, Ward argues, is who benefits. The companies collecting and selling this data are driven by profit, not transparency. As scholar Shoshana Zuboff has argued, surveillance capitalism doesnt thrive because users want personalized ads. It thrives because opting out is hard, if people even realize theyve been opted in.
AB 1355 proposes a shift: Consent to collect and share data must be given proactively, not retracted reactively. Rather than requiring users to hunt through settings, the burden would fall on companies to ask first. That rebalances the relationship between individuals and data collectors in a way that could set new norms beyond California.
Its designed to take a lot of the burden off of consumers, so they dont have to worry about micromanaging their privacy, Brookman says. Instead, they can just trust that when geolocation is shared, its being used for the reason they gaveif they agreed to it in the first place.
Industry groups, unsurprisingly, have raised concerns about operational impacts and innovation costs. In particular, critics warn that the burden on businesses could stifle innovation, particularly in sectors reliant on data-driven services. The California Chamber of Commerce wrote in an opposition letter that was shared with Fast Company that AB 1355 would create “confusion in operability for businesses” and impose costly new compliance burdens. “Changing the rules has real economic cost to businesses and consumers,” the letter states. “Constantly doing so without adequate justification or need is irresponsible at best.”
A state bill with national stakes
The bill is part of a larger trend among states moving to fill the federal vacuum on privacy regulation. Since the CCPAs passage, several statesincluding Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Texashave enacted their own data privacy laws. These measures vary in scope and strength, forming a state-by-state patchwork that complicates compliance but signals widespread concern. While most of these laws are general-purpose, a handfulsuch as recent efforts in Maryland and Massachusettshave begun to zero in on specific risks like geolocation tracking, mirroring some of AB 1355s core protections.
Broadly speaking, Californias evolving legal framework, from the CCPA to its 2020 update via the California Privacy Rights Act (which expanded privacy protections in part by establishing the California Privacy Protection Agency) and now AB 1355, often sets informal national standards. Many companies adopt Californias rules across the board simply to streamline operations.
That precedent-setting role isnt lost on Ward. I would hope that this could be model language that others could be able to adopt as well, he says.
But location data adds urgency. In the wake of the Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization in 2022, digital trails have taen on new weight. GPS data near abortion clinics or health apps tracking reproductive health are no longer abstract riskstheyre flashpoints in the national conversation about privacy, autonomy, and the role of technology in our most personal decisions.
Only one in four U.S. employees strongly agree that their organization cares about their overall well-being, with stark implications. Gallup reports that high employee well-being leads to improved performance, fewer sick days, and lower rates of burnout and turnover. When your employees well-being suffers, so does your organizations bottom line, the group noted.
At one time we may have thought that workplace well-being was separate from personal well-being. But now with digital overload, remote work, and a blurring of lines between work and home, it is a critical area for addressing how we feel about life in general.
So how can organizations make mental health a real, lasting priority in the workplace? Here, experts offer eight strategies.
1. Speak up from the top and lead with experience
As leaders, the most important role you can play in creating a mentally healthy workforce is to tackle stigma by having conversations in the workplace around mental well-being, says Zoe Sinclair, founder of the workplace mental well-being consultancy This Can Happen.
Sinclair suggests leaders share their own lived experienceslike periods of stress or burnoutthrough internal company blogs, panels, or team meetings, to normalize mental health conversations.
Leaders have the power to create change directly from the top down. Ensure that youre consistent in your approach and that mental health is regularly a part of your conversations in the workplace, she adds. This will truly help to tackle the taboo.
2. Call out toxicity and dont let it fester
Reinvention coach and Uncaged author Katia Vlachos argues that one of the most overlooked contributors to mental distress at work is unchecked toxic behavior. One of the most powerful things a leader can do to support mental health at work is to name the dysfunction, and actively protect their people from it, she says.
Vlachos has seen firsthand how unspoken dysfunction, from subtle gaslighting to exclusion, can erode trust and well-being. To foster a mentally healthy workplace, she says, leaders must have the awareness and courage to say, This [toxic behavior] is not okay. And I wont allow it on my watch.
Protecting mental health means protecting peoples dignity, she adds. To do that, she says, its important to create clear, safe channels for employees to speak upwithout fear of facing retaliation or of being dismissed as difficult.
When people feel safe to be themselves at work, they dont just survive; they thrive. And so do their organizations.
3. Rewire workplace conversations
Most workplace conversations start with problems (for example: We’ve missed our targets for the second quarter), say David Pullan and Sarah Jane McKechnie, leadership experts and the authors of The DNA of Engagement: A Story-Based Approach to Building Trust and Influencing Change.
But this approach triggers our brains’ defense mechanism. A small shift in the structure of how we communicate can significantly improve psychological safety, and that can be done via Pullan and McKechnies DNA model: Dream-Nightmare-Action. This method starts with leaders acknowledging the Dream (a teams aspirations), then addressing the Nightmare (challenges), and finally moving to Action (the solution).
This sequence creates psychological safety because people feel understood before they feel challenged, the authors add. Collaborative conversations lead to engaged teams co-authoring innovative solutions. Its practical neuroscience: connection before correction.
4. Use Generative AI to remove the emotion from employee feedback
AI is more often associated with productivity gains than emotional well-being, but Michael Wade and Amit Joshi, professors at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) and authors of GAIN: Demystifying GenAI for office and home, argue otherwise.
We believe that organizations and leaders can also leverage this technology to strengthen psychological safety within organizationswhen implemented thoughtfully, they say.
They propose a GenAI-powered “anonymous feedback system,” a way of collecting, analyzing, and acting upon data or feedback from employees. Advanced AI systems can collect employee feedback while completely disconnecting it from identifying information, they explain. These tools can then analyze patterns to identify systemic workplace issues.
Rather than simply passing along potentially charged emotional language that might trigger defensive responses from leadership, AI can reframe feedback into actionable, solution-oriented recommendations while preserving the substance of concerns, Wade and Joshi say.
They add that for discussions involving sensitive workplace issues, AI-mediated communication channels can help establish psychological distance that enables more open and honest conversation.
5. Make accommodations, even if theyre small, for people who think differently
Alex Partridge, neurodiversity advocate, founder of LADBible, and author of Now It All Makes Sense, knows from experience how conventional workplaces often ignore neurodiverse employees needs: Being neurodiverse and trying to fit in isnt always easy. For some people, the office can be a difficult place to focus and a sensory nightmare, Partridge says.
Seemingly simple accommodationslike remote work where possible and setting meeting agendas ahead of timecan be transformative, he says.
There are many times I have sat in meetings and been unable to think clearly enough to contribute, he adds. Time and time again, the outcome of the meeting was decided by the loudest and most confident voices, but often the best ideas were trapped inside anxious minds.
Partridge recommends forward planning to help all employees get the best from meetings. All the information to be presented in the meeting should be sent to attendees via email, and then everyone has a deadline24 hours works wellto put forward their solutions and ideas.
Small accommodations in the workplace can make a huge difference, and theyre something that all neurodiverse employees are entitled to.”
6. Redefine productivity and model it from the top
Leaders need torethink busy-ness as a byword for productivity, which has a knock-on effect across teams, says Philip Atkinson, organizational coach and author of Bee Wise: 12 Leadership Lessons From a Busy Beehive.
Ask someone how they are, and the answer is often, Good, thanks. Busy. Weve bought into the idea that being constantly busy is success. He points out that speed often leads to poor decisions and chronic fatiguewe might be ticking things off for a dopamine hit, but may be acting before we think. Were always on, always available. Its become a badge of honor.
Instead, Atkinson suggests leaders prioritize what really matters. Our competitive advantage, in the age of AI, doesn’t come from doing more but thinking harder. Instead of a to-do list, lets try making a to-dont list.’
7. Respect your peoples work-life boundaries
Every time you email someone a quick question at 10 p.m., youre effectively saying that personal boundaries are optional, says Nik Kinley, leadership coach and author of The Power Trap: How Leadership Changes People, and What To Do About It. He warns leaders to think carefully about after-hours communication, because what starts as a convenience or habit becomes a silent expectation.
People need time away to recharge their batteries and be fully productive. So, lead by example and cut the off-hour emails,” he adds. “Schedule all but the most urgent to be sent early the next day. If you see others sending nonurgent emails out of hours, ask them to schedule them, too. Publicly lay down the ground rules.
This isnt just about mental health, Kinley says. Its about people sustaining high productivity and performance levels through extended periods of pressure.
8. Prioritize human connection
Leaders under commercial pressure often seek out quick solutions and focus relentlessly on results, says Josephine McGrail, wellness coach and author of The Morning Miracle, Messages of Love, and Fall in Love With You.
What people truly need is human connection: a place to speak and be heard, not judged, not fixed. We need to remember our human element in the workplace, she says.
According to McGrail, outdated management practices and paradigms such as Dont let down your guard are part of the problem, and are actually unsustainable in the long term. People thrive when they feel includedlike they matter and their input matters.
Fear and anxiety at work arise when we feel a deep sense of isolation and cant relate to each other. Therefore, your team needs to see you present authentically as a leader, she says.
McGrail suggests leaders not only visibly celebrate big wins but also speak honestly about how they deal with disappointment and stress. By prioritizing human connection, leaders can better motivate and inspire their teams, she says.
I was mid-text argument with my colleague John when I caught myself, again, hovering over the “send” button, rewriting the same defensive message for the third time. It was about politics. But frankly, the content didnt matter. What mattered was how my nervous system was lighting up like a pinball machine. I wasnt responding. I was reacting.
So I stopped.
I paused the conversation, switched from text to voice note, and eventually asked if we could meet in person so that I could show up in a way that honors him. That single decision, to press pause, completely changed the tone and outcome of the conversation. By meeting in person, John and I demonstrated that we both really cared about each other, and we ended up not only resolving the disagreement but also learning more about each others upbringings and communication styles.
Research done on international conflict suggests that taking repeated breaks from conflict can improve the odds of reaching an agreement. I call this the “strategic pause.”
A PAUSE IS NOT A SHUTDOWN
During my disagreement with John, I realized that I was operating from Superior Self Justin. In other words, I was approaching the conversation by thinking that I was better than him and, as a result, my words and tone were dehumanizing.
I teach leaders to recognize the three selves that show up during conflict:
Superior Self: Im right and youre wrong.
Inferior Self: Im wrong and I always mess this up.
Equal Self: Were both humans here. Lets work this out together.
Most shutdowns happen when were stuck in Superior or Inferior mode. We lash out or retreat. But a pause from Equal Self sounds like: “I noticed this conversation is starting to feel unproductive. Id like to take a break so I can come back with more clarity and respect.”
This is different from disappearing. Its about signaling your intent to return (not escape) and taking responsibility for how you want to show up, even when you cant control how the other person will respond.
THE 90-SECOND RULE
The brain isnt wired to have a rational conversation in a heightened emotional state. When the amygdala, the brains fear center, is triggered, it hijacks your ability to think clearly. Thats where the 90-second rule comes in. Neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor, PhD, found it takes just 90 seconds for the initial surge of stress hormones to clear from the body (if you dont re-trigger them by rehashing the moment).
But heres the caveat: 90 seconds might not be enough. Especially if the issue touches a core value or past trauma, or youre entering the conversation already emotionally depleted. Sometimes it can take 10 minutes. Sometimes its hours, days, or even weeks.
APPLY THE STRATEGIC PAUSE IN REAL TIME
I will be honest. When my amygdala hijacks my rational brain, I dont always catch myself in time to practice the strategic pause. The term “amygdala hijack,” introduced by psychologist Daniel Goleman, PhD, describes situations in which the amygdala overrides the rational prefrontal cortex, leading to impulsive reactions.
Luckily, our brain’s neuroplasticity allows it to adapt and change in response to experiences and practices. Engaging in regular emotional regulation strategies, such as mindfulness and illeism, can strengthen the neural pathways associated with the prefrontal cortex, enhancing our capacity for self-control and emotional awareness.
If you recognize that youre in a dysregulated state in time (its okay if you dont; were only human), the next step is asking for a break. To effectively communicate that you want a break, avoid accusatory statements such as: You are making me feel triggered and angry, so we need to take a break. Instead, use I statements. For example: Im feeling overwhelmed and want to pause so I can come back with more respect and intention.
WHAT YOU DO DURING THE BREAK MATTERS THE MOST
A strategic pause only works if you use it well. Ive seen people step away, then spend the entire time stewing in righteous anger, rehearsing comebacks, or screenshotting texts for third-party validation. Thats not a reset; its an escalation.During my disagreement with John, I asked myself: What would Equal Self Justin do? Equal Self Justin would want to know how the conversation could go better. He would listen more, and ask John about his story, upbringing, and value system.
A powerful tool for regulating and accessing our Equal Self is illeism. This is the practice of talking to yourself in the third person. For instance: Why is Justin so upset? instead of Why am I upset? This creates just enough cognitive distance to reengage the rational brain.
Strategic pauses arent a cure-all. You may still get stonewalled, the other person may escalate, or they might refuse to reengage. Unfortunately, you cannot control the outcome. But when you return as your Equal Selfwho is clear, respectful, and regulatedyou give the conversation its best chance to move forward constructively.
This past weekend, there were more disruptions at Newark Liberty International Airport due to Federal Aviation Administration equipment outages. It has added to the air travel chaos at Newark over the past month, which has included air traffic controllers losing communication with planes for up to 90 seconds, and led to the delay and cancellation of hundreds of flights.
On Monday morning, there were at least 59 flight delays and more than 80 cancellations at Newark, according to FlightAware data.
Air traffic controllers and the 79,000-member Air Line Pilots Association, are calling on the FAA to update its aging infrastructure to ensure the system is as safe and efficient as possible. At least five Newark air traffic controllers have taken 45 days of trauma leave after the radar and radio communication loss during the busy afternoon of April 28.
Caught in the middle of the issues at Newark is United Airlines, which is the most active airline at the New Jersey airport. While the problems lie with the FAA system, the airline is where people often aim their frustrations over cancellations and delays.
This presents United with a unique brand challenge. The brand must find solutions and communicate clearly with its customers about a problem that it’s ultimately not responsible for, or in control of.
United was forced to cancel at least 35 flights per day last week (as of Friday). Josh Earnest, United’s executive vice president of communications and advertising, says that while people understand that United Airlines is not responsible for running the air traffic control tower, the brand still has to act.
People know it’s not our equipment or employees managing the airspace, but our brand is so big, and our presence at Newark in particular is so large, that they expect us to do something about it, Earnest says.
[Photo: Bing Guan/Bloomberg/Getty Images]
Transparency is key
For Earnest, the key to navigating a situation like this is for the brand to be as transparent and clear as it possibly can. United has a responsibility to ensure and assure its customers that not only are its flights safe, but that the cancellations are directly related to that safety.
We don’t usually aggressively promote the fact that we had to cancel a bunch of fights, Earnest says. But in this case, we did because people expect us to do something about the problem. And by taking 35 fights out of the schedule [each day], that makes it much more likely that the other 293 fights, or whatever it is, will operate on time. The airports less crowded, there’s less congestion. That’s us taking proactive steps to try to solve that problem.
The next step is communicating this to customers. So far, United has been utilizing social media and earned media to do that. The Newark outage story has been getting such a bright media spotlight that the brand has used it to get its own message out. United CEO Scott Kirby appeared on CBSs Face The Nation this past weekend to talk about the issues. And Kirbys original May 2 memo about Newark flight cancellations appeared in The Wall Street Journal just an hour after it was sent.
Safety first
Canceling flights would initially qualify as kryptonite to any airline brand. But Earnest says that while it may cause some short-term pain, it’s an investment in the brand’s long-term health.
The most important issue that people should associate with our brand is safety. The operational environment is messy, but the reason that it’s messy is that we’re keeping it safe, he adds. So when there’s a lack of staffing in the control tower or some other issue, the right thing to do is to slow down the operation at the airport, with more separation between the planes. That’s something that we’re going to need to continue to reinforce, and we’re going to spend our credibility to do it. The good news is that’s not a tough decision to make because its actually our first and highest priority.
The situation in Newark hasnt slowed down Uniteds marketing operation. This week, the airline unveiled and prompted its first flights featuring Starlink Wi-Fi.
Earnest says that in times like this, the brand is provided an opportunity to really shine. If we handle it well, we will earn credibility with our customers in those moments, he says. As challenging as this is, it is an opportunity for us to actually earn even more of our customers confidence.
If you saw a group of millennials out on a Saturday in the mid-2010s, they were most likely wearing leggingsthe uniform of that era. And there’s a good chance they were Lululemon’s Align leggings.
Ten years ago today, Lululemon’s designers developed a new material called Nulu that was buttery soft, thin, and stretchy. It put them into a $98 pair of leggings called Align. The fabric proved so irresistible that women started wearing the pants right out of the yoga studio and into the rest of their lives. On the newly launched Instagram app, you would see twenty- and thirtysomethings wearing the pricey leggings out to brunch, or for school pickups, or on long flights. Some women even wore them to the office with a crisp button-down oxford shirt.
If the Align legging didn’t kick-start athleisureblending activewear with everyday outfitsthen it certainly accelerated the trend. And it helped propel Lululemon from a scrappy yoga startup into a global activewear giant. Over the past decade, Lululemon has generated more than $1 billion on its Align franchise. And it has spawned so many copycats from other brands that two years ago it launched an entire “dupe swap” marketing campaign, where it invited people to trade in their dupes to get the real thing.
[Photo: Lululemon]
Chip Wilson, a yoga obsessive, launched Lululemon in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1998. For its first decade in business, the company remained small and focused on designing high-quality clothing that was perfect for yoga, which was taking off throughout North America. But by 2010, the companys growth accelerated as it went public and began expanding its network of stores. In 2012, Lululemon hit $1 billion in annual revenue. After the Align leggings launched, the company scaled quickly, growing from $1.8 billion to $10.8 billion over the past decade.
Today, Lululemon is celebrating the anniversary of the Align pants by launching a range of new products, including a dress and a new version of the pants that offer a seamless construction in the front, developed with customer feedback. But the company is also thinking ahead about how it must evolve beyond this comfortable legging into entirely new categories of clothing.
I sat down with Antonia Iamartino, senior director of franchise innovations, research, and product innovation, to hear about how she created the Align pant and how she’s thinking ahead about how to spin out the next billion-dollar franchises for Lululemon.
Antonia Iamartino [Photo: Lululemon]
Designing a Billion-Dollar Pant
Back in 2015, most people went into the yoga studio wearing sweatpants or compression leggings designed for running. Iamartino joined Lululemon in 2005, shortly after she trained as a fashion designer in Vancouver. A decade ago, she was promoted to oversee the yoga category. In this new role, she wanted to design a pair of pants that were ideal for the practice, which involves a variety of physical postures and movements.
[Photo: Lululemon]
At the time, Lululemon had developed a very specific design philosophy called the “science of feel, which was about creating garments that responded to the way people wanted to feel in a particular moment, rather than the purely technical features of a garment. In focus groups, Iamartino began to get a sense of how yogis wanted to feel throughout their yoga practice. “They talked about wanting softness and warmth,” she recalls. “They wanted pieces that felt cozy and inviting.”
[Photo: Lululemon]
Iamartino set out to find a material that would meet these specifications. This was a challenge, because many of the fabric mills that Lululemon worked with were used to creating athletic apparel. “Our inspiration was the texture of a rose petal; something that felt soft and textured,” she says. “But it was hard to find this among the nylon fabrics on the market.”
[Photo: Lululemon]
Over the course of 18 months, she worked with various mills, providing details about what she was looking for. After co-creating 10 different iterations of the material with the mills, she landed on the fabric that would become Nulu. The material had a very soft texture thanks to a process called napping that creates a fuzzy, velvet-like feel on the surface. The matte texture of Lululemons leggings made them different from much of the slick, shiny sports apparel that was popular at the time. The material was also very lightweight and had just enough compression to make the wearer feel gently hugged but not tightly restricted.
“When we landed on this material, the feedback was unanimous and quick,” Iamartino remembers. “It was clear we had found something that was very appealing to yogis.”
[Photo: Lululemon]
Beyond the Yoga Studio
When the Align leggings launched, they were an immediate hit. On social media, women raved about how comfortable they were for yoga. But over time, as word about them spread, customers realized they wanted to wear the pants all the time.
Iamartino says that Lululemon happened to catch some important fashion trends along the way. For one thing, skinny jeans were in style back then. Black leggings were aesthetically similar, and could be paired with the same tops you might wear with denim. Fashion was also becoming more casual, so some people felt comfortable wearing leggings to college classes or even to some workplaces. Finally, fitness and wellness were taking off, as people invested in their health by working out and doing yoga, creating a $100 billion global industry.
But mostly, Iamartino believes Align was successful because of how it made the wearer feel. Store managers began to report about how customers would come out of the changing room and do a little dance in their Align pants, feeling the leggings with their hand and bouncing around.
Ultimately, Iamartino believes that staying laser-focused on the goal of creating comfort helped Lululemon achieve a pair of leggings that transcended the practice of yoga. “We likely wouldn’t have gotten the same result if we had set out to design the best casual pant,” she says. “It was really the purity of our intention that helped us achieve this fabric, which had this universal appeal. All the tenets that we designed againstthe quality, the stitching, the texturereally transcended the experience of yoga in the end.”
[Photo: Lululemon]
But What Comes Next?
Over the past 10 years, as the Align pant exploded in popularity, Iamartino helped transform the garment from a single product into a franchise. She worked with her team of designers to develop new products, like shorts and wide-leg pants. Now there’s even an Align dress.
The next step is helping Lululemon think about how it can create the next big franchises. In many ways, the COVID-19 lockdowns took clothing to its casual extreme, with people wearing sweatpants for months on end. But in the post-pandemic world, Iamartino believes people are moving in the other direction and opting for clothing that is dressier.
In conversations with customers, Lululemon staffers found that fewer people are wearing leggings and joggers to work; they’re looking for pieces that are drawn from a more formal wardrobe, like trousers and blazers. “But what’s different, this time around, is that they are unwilling to compromise on comfort,” Iamatino says. “So pieces need to look more formal on the exterior but feel much more comfortable.”
[Photo: Lululemon]
Lululemon’s designers are now focused on creating pieces that do just this. The company made its first foray into clothing that could be worn to the office in the mid-2010s, as it launched trousers for both men and women that looked a lot like khakis but were made from technical fabrics. Over the years, as customers began to see Lululemon as a brand that could outfit them for work, the brand has expanded its range of professional garments.
This year, one of its bestsellers is its women’s Daydrift trousers, which have the silhouette of old-school mens trousers, with pleats and a waistband. But they’re actually pull-up pants made from a stretchy fabric that’s infused with Lycra. They fel extremely soft to the touch. The trousers have been very popular among working professionals, and Lululemon has been struggling to keep them in stock. Iamartino is now thinking about how Daydrift could also become a franchise. The brand is launching Daydrift shorts for the summer, with more possible products in the pipeline.
Lululemon is launching other garments that are designed for the office, and much like with Align, the company spends a lot of time developing the right fabric for these pieces. For its blazer, for instance, Lululemon has created a till fabric with a textured feel akin to cotton or wool that is made from a wrinkle-free synthetic material.
Lululemon’s success over the course of its history has come down to innovation. It began as a yoga brand, but over the years it has created garments for a wide range of activities. Now it’s next evolution is to create clothes that allow you to move comfortably through the rest of your life. And the lesson that Iamartino takes from designing the Align pants is that the way to succeed is to thoughtfully design products that make people feel good no matter what they’re doing. “We know people today want to feel polished but also comfortable as they’re moving throughout their life,” she says. “We can design around that.”
The odds of winning the lottery are about one in 300 million. If you have a tattoo of an old Mountain Dew logo on your body, your odds of winning Mountain Dew’s new sweepstakes are much, much higher.
The soda’s owner, PepsiCo, is launching the contest to celebrate Mountain Dew’s new logo hitting store shelves. It’s asking people who have a tattoo of the old Mountain Dew logo to upload a photo to social media and tag Mountain Dew for a chance to win a trip for two to Las Vegas to get a tattoo of the new logo.
Last year, Mountain Dew retired its jagged, abbreviated “Mtn Dew” logo introduced in 2009 for a new logo that spells out the citrus soda brand’s entire name. If the old visual identity was styled in the fashion of Y2K-era extreme sports and gaming, the new one was designed to look modern, outdoorsy, and retro-inspired. The new brand mascot, “Mountain Dude,” wears long hair, aviators, and a green fur coat to convey its new brand persona.
The contest is a bid to promote the rebrand with the drink’s most devoted fans: people who love Mountain Dew so much they already made it permanent. Entrants just have to post a photo of their tattoo with the hashtag #DoTheDewTattooSweepstakes on Instagram or Xand no cheating, since tattoos have to be from before May 6, 2025, when the contest began.
PepsiCo estimates there are hundreds of people with the old logo, though a cursory search shows just five accounts have posted photos of old Mountain Dew logo tattoos. The contest will award five winners, so if you’re a legal U.S. resident of one of the 50 states or Washington, D.C., and at least 21 years old with an old Mountain Dew logo tattoo, you could likely win one of the sweepstakes prizes: round-trip flights for two to Las Vegas, a three-night’s stay at the Mandalay Bay luxury resort and casino, and some spending money ($500 for fun and $900 in credits for food and beverage).
Who is getting this tattoo?
Getting a logo tattoo is a high-commitment act of loyalty to a brand, but companies have found plenty of willing fans to trade their skin for prizes. There were 381 people who agreed to get Domino’s logo tattooed on their bodies to win a “100 pizzas a year for 100 years” promotion in Russia in 2019, and Subway awarded as many as nine winners to get tattoos to win free sub sandwiches in 2022.
For Mountain Dew, though, it’s latest promotion is all about fan service and the love of the game. It’s not handing out free cases of soda in return for getting a tattoo like brands have done before. Instead it’s rewarding people who already had tattoos of the logo. It’s a branding stunt, sure. But it’s also a brand heritage play, since it’s all about past iterations of the logo. Should winners feel attached to their current Dew tattoo, the sweepstakes fine print is on their side: Instead of getting inked with the new Mountain Dew logo, they can just pocket the $2,000.
BESSEMER, Ala.They all came here for peace, and so far, the land has given it to them.
For Marshall Killingsworth, the peace comes from the owls whose hoots echo across the valley as he sits in his favorite spot in his garden. For David Havron, its looking up at the stars at night as the moonlight glistens off the lake just outside his back door. For Mary Rosenboom, its the calls of the songbirds as the sun slowly sets over the hilly terrain. For Becky Morgan, its the view of the mountain from her reclinerthrough the long windows that line the sides of her home.
But all these residents in this area of rural Jefferson County are afraidfearful that their peace may soon be disturbed.
Town is moving closer to us, Jeff Lowe said last week. And were not happy about it.
Marshall Killingsworth retired after decades of IT work. Hes among those opposed to a data center in their community. [Photo: Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News]
Killingsworth, Havron, Rosenboom, Morgan, and Lowe are just a few of the residents whose homes are adjacent to a 700-acre, wooded plot of land that soon may be transformed, through years of construction, into a 4.5-million-square-foot data processing center located just within the city limits of Bessemer, Alabama, a city of about 25,000 southwest of Birmingham.
If built to planned capacity, the data center would be one of the largest in the United States and could become one of the largest single consumers of electricity in the state. Of nearly a dozen residents interviewed by Inside Climate News, none expressed support for the project as planned. Instead, all shared fear and frustration over their inability to obtain information about the $14.5 billion proposal from politicians charged with representing the public.
Efforts by Inside Climate News to speak with public officials in Bessemer about the proposal, called Project Marvel, were met with silence. The mayor, his chief of staff and the citys attorney all signed a nondisclosure agreement with the developer, staffers said, and would not be able to answer questions about the project.
Members of the Bessemer City Council, tasked with approving or rejecting the rezoning necessary for the proposed data center, have repeatedly refused to comment.
I thought I answered your question, said Carla Jackson, a council member who represents the area of Bessemer where the data center is planned. And I was so sweet about it. Right now, while its under litigation, Im not going to talk about it.
The Details on Data Centers
In the last decade, technological evolution has quickened pace, with massive data centers now in demand for more intensive computational tasks like cryptocurrency mining and processing artificial intelligence requests. That digital demand, in turn, has made its way into the physical world as tech companies search for cheap land, electricity, water, and resources necessary for the development of large data processing centers like the one being proposed in Bessemer.
A data center is like a city with computer servers as the buildings, requiring network cables, power sources, and cooling infrastructure, like roads, power lines, and sewer networks in a municipality. Data flows like traffic.
Similar to the police and surveillance in a city, a data center also has security infrastructureelectric fences, anti-ram barriers, infrared cameras, alarms, lights, and sometimes even guard stations and other surveillance systems to protect against attacks.
As of early 2025, the United States has more than 5,000 data centers, according to industry reports, compared to around 1,000 just five years earlier. And with that increased demand comes an inevitable, increased demand for resources.
Project Marvel
The proposed data center campus in Bessemer, if realized, would consist of 18 buildings, each larger than the average Walmart Supercenter, that would house massive server farms for data storage and processing. Located on about 700 acres of wooded land currently zoned for agricultural use, the proposed physical infrastructure would require the permanent clear-cutting of at least 100 acres of forest.
The company behind the project is a newly created limited liability company, Logistics Land Investments, first formed in May 2023, according to records from the Delaware secretary of state. The companys registered agent is not a person, according to business records, but the Corporation Trust Company, also based in Delawarean entity that has been used by large tech companies like Google and Apple for corporate dealings in the past.
[Image: Paul Horn/Inside Climate News]
Despite its brief history, Logistics Land Investments has already found itself in at least one legal battle. Court records show that company has been sued by the First Baptist Church of Red Oak, Texas, a place of worship that was located on land the development company was interested in buying for another project. After the sale fell through, the church sued, arguing that the company had breached their agreement.
The president of Bessemers City Council, Donna Thigpen, was the only public official interviewed who confirmed she had not yet signed an NDA. In fact, Thigpen said, shed been largely left in the dark on the proposed data center thus far.
We have not met with the builders yet, she said. We know nothing about it.
She referred further questions to the mayors office, though she noted hed signed an NDA.
The mayors office did not respond to several requests for comment.
The only information about the project made public so far has been in limited answers from the companys attorneys to residents concerns in planning and zoning meetings held earlier this year.
Bessemer is located just southwest of Birmingham, Alabama. [Photo: Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News]
Those few answers provide only small, fragmented insights into what could be one of the largest capital outlays in recent state history. But even that information is probably more than is legally required to be given to residents, according to arguments made by an attorney for Bessemer in a recent court hearing.
Theres no provision in the code of Alabama that authorizes the asking of questions, the furnishing of environmental reports or development plans, or anything of that nature, he told a Bessemer judge. You have a right to be heard as to whether you agree with that ordinance or not. Nothing more, nothing less.
The city had landed in court after a group of residents filed suit, claiming that property owners werent given proper public notice ahead of a recent public hearing on the proposal. Because residents packed the meeting room, the city argued in court, there was no deficiency in public notice.
Monica Agee, a Jefferson County Circuit Judge in the Birmingham division, issued a temporary restraining order on April 14 preventing the Bessemer City Council from voting on the proposed rezoning of the property from agricultural to industrial. After issuing the restraining order, Agee transferred the case to the countys Bessemer division, where the matter was scheduled for a hearing.
Residents have organized against the data center proposal, holding community meetings and encouraging participation in zoning hearings. [Photo: Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News]
Agees temporary restraining order was wrong and illegal, attorney Shan Paden, representing the city, told Bessemer judge David Hobdy at an April 23 hearing.
Hobdy scolded the lawyer for his comments about the judge.
I take issue with the fact that youre saying that judge knew what she was doing was wrong, Hobdy said. Thats a circuit judge of Jefferson County, too, so I think she had appropriate authority to act at her discretion.
Lawyers for both the residents and the city of Bessemer brought up the size of the project in making their respective arguments about how the judge should eventually rule.
This is a $14 billion project, Paden said. To give you the scope of that, the entire value of all the real estate in the city of Bessmer in 2018 was $345 million dollars, Paden said in part.
Public officials should be judging the merits of such a project, the lawyer argued, not a judge.
Lawyers for the residents living near the proposed data center site, on the other hand, argued that the size of the project demands robust public notice and close adherence to relevant law.
This is about protecting property owners rights to protect their land from money-grabbing AI developers who have devastated many, many communities across the country, the residents attorney, Reginald McDaniel, said.
John Parker Yates, another attorney for the residents, reminded the judge that the identity of the developer and its potential client is still not known.
This could be a Chinese data center, he said. And thats scarythat could be happening in our backyard and us not know.
In the end, Judge Hobdy chose not to dismiss the lawsuit outright as lawyers for the city of Bessemer had asked him to do. Instead, he told both parties that he planned to hold over the case long enough for city officials to begin the public notice process and rezoning process again, in accordance with Alabama law. If and when that process is complete, the judge said, hed consider ordering a dismissal in the case.
Hobdy set a status update hearing in the case for August 1.
Despite the delay in the necessary rezoning achieved through the residents lawsuit, community members opposed to the project now have another, likely more difficult task ahead: to convince public officials to vote against moving the proposal forward.
Marshalling the Troops
Marshall Killingsworth walked in his garden on a recent afternoon, his daylilies blooming in the warm Alabama sun. Killingsworth, 80, retired after working for decades in IT at major companies, including Blue Cross Blue Shield and Drummond Coal. Even in retirement, though, hes busier now than ever. He spends much of his time outside, tending to an elaborate, well-kept yard overlooking a wooded valley where the data center is now proposed to be built.
Soon, Ron and Becky Morgan, married nearly 28 years, came and sat with Killingsworth. Ron, an Army veteran, jumped into the conversation as soon as he arrived, talking intensely about potential noise, light pollution and the environmental impact of the necessary clear-cutting and construction. Becky placed her arm on Rons leg. We just got here, she said, laughing. Other people want to talk too.
A painted bald eagle stands guard over Marshall Killingsworths garden in rural Jefferson County. [Photo: Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News]
You Cant Turn It Off Like AC
In Alabama, almost all the new electric demand that the states largest energy company, Alabama Power, has projected is for data centers, said Daniel Tait, executive director of Energy Alabama, a nonprofit organization that advocates for clean energy in the state. Many data centers use alternative energy sources, including solar, wind, nuclear and hydrogen, to reduce carbon emissions and reduce their reliance on the electri grid, although investors in the Bessemer project have not outlined any such plans.
Lawyers representing Logistics Land Investments did not respond to requests for comment.
As demand for digital content grows, an arms race has escalated between tech giants to build digital warehouses and bring their services to market first. Data centers were initially smaller and demanded 50 to 200 megawatts of power to run. Driven by the development of AI, a new, second round of data centers uses five times more energy, averaging 2 to 3 gigawatts to sustain operations. They are considered high capacity because once the center is running, it doesnt stop.
You cant turn it off like the AC, Tait said.
If built to full capacity, the Bessemer data center campus is projected to consume around 1,200 megawatts of energy and could feasibly consume around 10.5 million megawatt hours per year. Thats more than 90 times the amount of energy used by all residences in Bessemer and more than 10 times the amount of energy used by all residences in Birmingham annually.
An aerial view of the proposed Bessemer data center site [Photo: Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News]
Increased demand for energy, or at least the potential for it, is already driving Alabama Powers desire to double down on fossil fuel investments. The company, an effective monopoly, has asked the states Public Service Commission to approve its purchase of a gas-powered power plant in recent days, potentially exacerbating the states reliance on dirty energy that contributes to climate change.
When a technology company proposes to a municipality to build a new digital storehouse, however, sometimes elevated demand load is overstated because every party is financially invested in overstating the need, Tait said.
Even as the city moves forward with its plans, for example, there is no guarantee the data center will have customers once built.
Jefferson Traywick serves as Jefferson Countys first ever economic development adviser. In an interview, he said that there are multiple potential customers engaging with investors about potential end use. Traywick said hed signed an NDA as well, so he couldnt say who those possible customers might be.
I really dont even know, he said.
Ideally, data center companies should pay for their own infrastructure, but in practice, this often doesnt happen, Tait said. The vast majority of these infrastructure projects benefit only the data center, not the broader customer base.
Tait believes building these operations should not be on the backs of regular people to benefit the wealthiest corporations in America. These corporations, he said, should pay their fair share. If anything, they should pay more than their fair share.
Brenda Small and her daughter, Brianna, live in a small trailer park just outside the boundaries of the proposed development. Last month, they were quick to express their opposition to the project. Small said her power bills are already approaching $500 some months.
Thats ridiculous for one month, she said. Small worries her bills will soar even higher because of increased energy demand from the data center.
Brianna, 11, pictured with her dog Grace, said shes opposed to the data center proposal because of its potential impact on the environment. [Photo: Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News]
In Georgia, tech companies and consumer advocates have negotiated and agreed that the data center operators cover their own infrastructure costs rather than passing those expenses entirely to consumers. Georgia has also been more forward-thinking about clean energy, Tait said. But Mississippis approach to cost allocation is a free-for-all. Last year, Mississippi passed a state law that declares anything Amazon needs to build is automatically in the public interest, with no Public Service Commission review. This approach is the most egregious example we see in terms of a cost allocation problem, Tait said.
Alabama law contains tax carve-outs for capital projects, including a specific, 30-year tax abatement meant to attract large data centers. If approved by Bessemer officials, a tax abatement under the economic development law could amount to a tax cut of more than $500 million.
Not a Drop to Drink?
So-called hyperscale data centers like those used by Google, Meta, and other large tech companies can consume hundreds of gallons of water daily and millions annually. Smaller centers often use less than 100,000 gallons daily but can still consume a significant amount of a towns water supply if not properly managed.
To cool heat generated by thousands of servers in one data center, a chilled water system is typical for a hyperscale data center. The central chiller cools the water, circulates it through heat-absorbing coils, and dissipates the heat into the air through a cooling tower. The water then recirculates. In smaller centers, water can be piped to nearby wastewater facilities.
Lawyers for Logistic Land Investments have said in documents that the proposed Bessemer facilitys end user may choose to rely on a so-called closed loop cooling system meant to reduce water usage and waste, but its unclear exactly how that system will workwhat the water demand will be and where wastewater would be discharged.
Despite the rapid construction of new data centers driven by the demand for AI, cryptocurrency mining, and cloud computing, Alabama lacks a comprehensive water plan. Under state law, if you own land next to a river or stream in Alabama, you can use the water without a permit. Businesses using more than 100,000 gallons of water daily are required to file a certificate and declare the water usage as beneficial, but the reporting is largely self-regulated without meaningful oversight, and penalties are nonexistent for noncompliance, according to CindyLowry, executive director of Alabama Rivers Alliance.
Most states in the east have a regulated water withdrawal system, she said. Alabama does not. We have virtually nothing, said Lowry.
If different sources pull from one river, like the Black Warrior River, and everyone is filling out a certificate, Theres nobody looking to say: How much can the system handle? How many straws are in the system? Lowry said.
By consuming large amounts of water, a data center, like the one proposed in western Jefferson County, has the potential to become the largest water consumer in the state. Already, 80% of water withdrawals in the state are for cooling coal, gas, and nuclear plants, Lowry added.
Often, utilities may not have initially planned for such massive water demands. With their high water consumption for cooling systems, data centers pose several significant water challenges for Alabama.
A data center can strain local water utilities capacity, increase water bills for existing customers, disrupt the natural flow of rivers, reduce the water available for downstream users, and potentially destroy local ecosystems.
Dynamics like these worry Ron and Becky Morgan. The couple is among the few residents in the area on well water, Becky explained, putting them at risk of becoming victims of groundwater contaminationwater used to cool data centers is mixed with chemical coolantsor more general water scarcity. Were on the front lines when it comes to water, she said.
Jeff Lowe, a retired firefighter, said he worries about the impact the facility will have on the ability of first responders to adequately address fires in the area.
They say Warrior River is going to supply it, Lowe said of the local water utility. But I dont know if they can. They cant even keep the fire hydrants around here going.
Lowe said he also wonders about the additional fire risk posed by the data center itself, potentially replete with electronic equipment and lithium batteries, in a community with limited resources to respond to large, industrial fires.
I just dont know if they have the resources to deal with something like that before it gets out of hand, he said.
The Loss of the Land
On the whole, residents fear perpetual daylight will replace starlight and the 24-hour mechanical whir of machinery will be their surround sound, drowning out the birdsong. They foresee the banks of Little Blue Creek and other wetlands being deforested, the lakes flooded with potentially toxic runoff laced with coolants, and wildlife driven from their habitat.
David Havron, president of the Rock Mountain Lakes Landowners Association, is one of the residents who filed suit against the city, resulting in the restraining order that delayed the city councils vote to move the project forward.
David Havron, a local CPA, heads the Rock Mountain Lake Landowners Association. [Photo: Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News]
He worries that the nighttime view from his dock, just a stones throw from his back door, will soon be ruined in favor of a project that he believes will provide little benefit to his neighborhood or those living in it.
Its going to look like a sunset, he said of the light pollution. A constant haze in the sky.
Residents have expressed concern about the impact of years of construction on nearby wildlife. [Photo: Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News]
With less vegetation to absorb rainwater because of the clear-cutting necessary to complete the project, Havron said residents are worried flooding could become worse in the area, with runoff potentially filling the lakes around which many of the residents have built their homes and lives.
Then, theres the risk to wildlife.
A view of one of the many lakes in the Rock Mountain Lakes neighborhood [Photo: Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News]
Itll all be gone, Havron said. Itll run off. Theres a set of bald eagles. Theres deer and coyotes, racoons and turkeys and everything else here. Itll all be gone. . . . Its going to have to be cut.
Were Going to Fight
Not long after Ron and Becky Morgan had arrived at Marshall Killingsworths garden gathering, Mary Rosenboom came and sat down among the daylilies, completing the circle of neighbors brought together by the fight to save their community from an unwanted development.
A sales professional, Rosenboom said shed never delved into political or environmental issues until the data center came knocking at the communitys door. Once she began to look into the potential impacts, she quickly realized this was a fight she was willing to join and, if necessary, help lead. Now, shes become an accidental activist.
It was absolutely an accident, but here I am, she said.
From left: Ron Morgan, Becky Morgan, and Mary Rosenboom gather to discuss Project Marvel. [Photo: Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News]
Sitting in front of her was a brightly colored binder, filled with research on data centers, city governance, and what the impact could be in her community.
Its a hard fight to win, Rosenboom said, when theres so little information being provided about the specifics of the project.
The non-disclosure agreements, the residents said, was one of their top concerns.
When youre dealing with public funds and public ordinances, there should be no NDA, Ron Morgan said.
Even if public officials are unwilling to talk about the possible impacts of the project, the residents around the site say theyre ready for a war. Securing the restraining order and delaying the process was a battle won, they said, but the fight is still well underway.
Becky Morgan, also a plaintiff in the suit against the city, said previous public hearings have been largely a formality, with officials doing little to meaningfully engage with citizens concerns.
Its just a farce, she said.
And when it came time for officials to ask questions of the developer, there was little desire on the part of public officials to push the data center representatives for more substantive information.
They already had their marching orders, her husband, Ron, said. And now we have ours.
The next stage of the fight is already underway.
Residents living near the site of a proposed data center in Alabama gather to hear updates from their lawyers. [Photo: Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News]
The last week of April, more than 100 residents gathered inside Rock Mountain Baptist Church to hear from lawyers McDaniel and Yates about what may come next.
The pair characterized securing a delay in the rezoning process as a win but warned residents that a protracted legal fight could drag on for years and cost the community upwards of six figures.
Attorneys John Parker Yates and Reginald McDaniel speak with residents about what comes next in their fight against a proposed data center. [Photos: Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News]
Outside the legal realm, the lawyers said, residents should do all they can to press local political leaders to oppose the project and provide as much information about the proposal as possible before and during newly scheduled planning and zoning commission and city council meetings in the coming weeks.
No matter what, the lawyers told the crowd, fighting a municipality with practically unlimited resources over a multibillion-dollar project will be an uphill battle.
It was a reality many of the residents were already coming to terms with. They were ready for the fight.
By Lee Hedgepeth and Lanier Isom, Inside Climate News
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News. It is republished with permission. Sign up for its newsletter here.
Nearly two years after catastrophic wildfires destroyed more than 2,000 houses and apartment buildings in Lahaina, Hawaii, only 10 homes have been rebuilt.
Hundreds of others are under construction, but the process of rebuilding is painfully slow. One temporary neighborhood is an exception: called Ka Lai Ola, its filled with modular, factory-built houses and is now home to more than 600 people. Hundreds of additional modular homes on the site will soon be ready for occupancy. And it might be a model for other communities that are trying to recover from disastersthough it also raises questions about the cost of building temporary housing.
The timeline was unlike anything that weve ever experienced, says Kimo Carvalho, executive director of HomeAid Hawaii, the nonprofit leading the development of the project in partnership with the state of Hawaii. The team secured land in February 2024 and broke ground at the beginning of May. One hundred days later, the first families started moving in.
Lahaina, August 10, 2023 [Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images]
Vetting 130 modular housing companies
Before the fires in Maui, the nonprofit was focused on building housing for the most vulnerable Hawaii residents. (HomeAid Hawaii is the local chapter of a national group created by the building industry to help tackle the affordable housing crisis.) In August 2023, after the wildfires, the nonprofit started working with the state on the disaster response.
Immediately after the fires, the state was inundated with calls from modular housing companies; it realized that factory-built modular housing would likely be an important tool in the recovery. So while the nonprofit scoured the area for a place to build temporary housing, the group simultaneously started vetting more than 130 companies that make modular homes.
Everyone said, I can absolutely get you 400 homes within three months, Carvalho says. And as a realist, I was able to break that down and ask about the specifics that got us to a true understanding of their timelines, production schedules, transportation, what the work would be looking like on site, and basically coming up with a real budget.
They realized that a single company wouldnt be able to supply the 450 homes that they wanted for the project. So the team made a short list of finalists, visiting their factories in person to do due diligence, and ultimately choosing five providers.
[Photo: HomeAid Hawaii]
Finding a site to build
At the same time, they were racing to find land. The 57-acre site they ultimately chose had challenges, including the fact that it was covered in volcanic rock. Preparing the land for construction meant an expensive process of using dynamite to blast through enough rock to install sewer, water, and electrical lines. The land sits on a slope, and engineering the right foundations for the locations was another challenge to solve.
The site also has a complex history. The land originally belonged to Hawaiian royalty; it was ceded to the U.S. government when the monarchy was overthrown in 1893. When Hawaii became a state in 1959, the parcel was part of a larger collection of land that went to the state government, with the intent that it would be used to help native Hawaiians. Now, the state plans to use the site for emergency housing only for five years, as it makes plans to build permanent housing there for Hawaii residents. Its not yet clear what will happen to the modular homes when the five years are up.
But the land was relatively close to some employment, a critical factor for fire survivors who were struggling with transportation. So the team moved forward. While the lease for the land was being finalized, the modular providers were getting ready to begin shipping units as soon as possible.
[Photo: HomeAid Hawaii]
An accelerated timeline
Permitting happened quickly, as the government used its emergency declaration to speed up the process. We brought the stakeholders together in one room, so it wasnt five different agencies looking at a permit set that would otherwise take eight months, says Carvalho. We got our grading permit in two weeks. I think the project has demonstrated not only what modular manufacturing can do, but also what government can do to truly just get housing built.
Construction also happened quickly. Most of the work on the modular homes happened in factories, with construction crews handling other steps like putting in foundations, steps, and decks. I dont think we would have been able to meet our timeline had modular not been an option, he says. The first families moved into the homes in August 2024, a year after the fire.
The homes, which range in size from studios to small three-bedroom houses, are limited to survivors who werent eligible for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which has also built some modular housing in Lahaina. The majority of residents are renters. Others are homeowners with specific challenges. For example, one couple didnt qualify for FEMA aid because they had insurance cverage, but their insurance settlement doesnt actually cover the cost of rebuilding their home. Rent at Ka Lai Ola is free until August, and then theyll pay below market rate, helping them save up to cover the cost of rebuilding.
[Photo: HomeAid Hawaii]
A lifelife for residents
For the residents whove been able to move in, the site has been a lifeline. You see a sigh of relief when they receive keys, and know that they dont have to jump around from hotel to hotel for the next four years, says Cesar Martinez, the director at Ka Lai Ola.
Martinez and his family also lost their own rental home in the fire. Like others, they didnt get any official warning the day of the catastrophe. Gale-force winds had taken out power and cell service. Martinez and his girlfriend and children fled when smoke filled the air and they started hearing explosions in the neighborhood.
Cesar Martinez and Patricia Nebrida [Photo: HomeAid Hawaii]
They were able to safely escape by driving up a dirt road into the hills and spending the night at a hotel where Martinez and his girlfriend had worked in the past. But when they returned a couple of days later, everything was gone. We drove to the property where we lived and confirmed with our own eyes that nothing was there, he says. The house theyd rented had burned down. The place where Martinez worked was gone. His childrens school, which had been scheduled to start a new school year the day after the fire happened, was also gone.
Like thousands of other Lahaina residents, they stayed temporarily in hotels. But the shortage of housing, and the extreme cost of the little housing that was left, meant that they considered leaving Hawaii. When they were able to move to Ka Lai Ola, they knew that they would have a place to live until 2029, and that was incredibly important for their mental health. Theres a lot of uncertainty, he says. A lot of people who didnt have much, now have even less.”
Meeting their new neighbors also helped. The modular homes are arranged in pods of 14 or 16 units. “We placed units strategically in ways where there would be intentional community connections,” says Carvalho. The community also has access to financial literacy classes, mental health counseling, a mobile food bank, and a mobile vet clinic that offers free care for pets. The site itself, with a view of the ocean, is peaceful. The name means “The Place of Peaceful Recovery” in Hawaiian.
A steep cost
It’s undeniable that the development happened quicklyand for that reason, aspects of the approach could be useful for other areas. Changing permitting rules was key, and so was the use of modular homes. Carvalho has been meeting with groups from California that are currently working on plans to rebuild areas that burned in January around Los Angeles. He has offered, he says, to share HomeAid’s analysis of all of the modular housing companies.
But the homes come at a steep cost: The project costs $185 million, or more than $400,000 per home. (The nonprofit says that’s still $52 million less than the state would have spent with typical construction; the project saved $14 million because of donated materials and labor. The Hawaii Community Foundation also contributed $40 million from funds collected from global donors.)
Most of the cost went to building underlying infrastructure, from sewer and water connections to grading the land, since it was an undeveloped area; the base cost of each home was only around $122,000. The same infrastructure can later be used to support permanent housing for Hawaii residents, and the modular housing itself can likely be used much longer than the current five-year plan.
Still, critics argue that costs were higher than necessary because the developer didn’t get bids from multiple contractors in order to speed up construction. Critics are also concerned that HomeAid hasn’t been transparent about specific costs; the nonprofit acknowledges that it’s behind in providing receipts. And while the project has undeniably helped its residents, 12,000 people were displaced by the fires; one development can’t help everyone.
The cost is also a reminder that as climate change makes disasters more common, communities also need to invest more in preventionrepeatedly rebuilding is financially unsustainable. In L.A., for example, the fires this year were 35% more likely because of climate change. The same extreme conditions will happen again, and neighborhoods need to be better designed with that in mind.
At a national level, the Trump administration recently shut down a program that helped communities become more resilient in order to limit damage in disasters. But some cities are still trying to do more. In Berkeley, California, for example, homeowners in neighborhoods that are at the highest risk from fire will now be required to clear “defensible space” around their homes so fires can’t spread as easily.
In this episode of FC Explains, hosted by Josh Christensen, we break down why the 2024 WNBA Draft is being hailed as the moment that changed everything for women’s sports. From record-breaking viewership and unprecedented media attention to historic endorsement deals and social media buzz, this draft marked a new era for female athletes and the business of sports.
Soccer, football, futebol, voetbal. Whichever moniker the worlds favorite games 3.5 billion fans use to describe this mega sport, this beautiful game is going through a cultural evolution creating more impact beyond the game than ever before.
When I joined Manchester City FC in 2009, soccer clubs and the broader sport were just starting to open their eyes beyond the traditional rules of category marketing for the game and its impact was felt in soccer only.
At Manchester City FC, we saw an opportunity to do something different. Very quickly we went on a journey from being a soccer club that sold entertainment to strategically pivoting to be an entertainment brand that sold soccer, winning the Premiership, becoming a global football brand, and kick-starting a journey for all clubs to evolve beyond the game.
Looking back now, this sounds like an obvious nuance. But the unlock reframed everything we did through this entertainment lens. From the match day experience to community involvement to purpose-led endeavors to new market expansionthinking of ourselves as an entertainment property with a soccer capability created a new way to connect to fans, creating meaningful impact on and beyond the field of play.
More than a game
Cut to today. This thinking is now deep within the game at every level, and with the record breaking three consecutive promotions by Ryan Reynolds, Wrexham FCthe Hollywood epitome of an entertainment story that sells soccerwe see a trend of clubs, players, and brands gaining as much money and influence from their off-field controllable entertainment revenue as from traditional on-field football activities.
As we near the one year mark until the World Cup lands in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico (June 2026), it feels like soccer is entering its next stage of evolution in how it resonates and creates impact globally.
We are seeing that soccer is much more than the game that it represents on the field. The game, its players, and its global influence are transcending into culture and creating a deeper societal impact than ever before.
From driving their local and global economies, to leading the fashion and music industry, to creating new rules for the celebrity economy, to partnering with brands to create real consumer connections, and even to shaping politics and broader society, we are on a journey to a World Cup where soccer will be more than just a game.
The best example of the games growing large-scale economic impact is with the Messi effect raising the value of Inter Miami to over $1.2 billion and helping the club become the most followed U.S. sports team, while bringing economic prosperity and sky-rocketing real estate to the area. We also see this economic impact spreading around the world with the rise of destination football. The purchase of and growing relevance of football clubs in tourism geographies impact and make revenue from their destinations like Como 1907 and Venezia FC.
Football and impact
Venezia FC is a helpful segway into understanding how football is leading fashion and music as it counts the musician Drake as an investor and it was recently crowned the coolest brand in football. We also see more players stepping off the field into the recording studio creating music, led by Alex Iwobi, or players stepping out of the changing room onto the catwalk, leading fashion with the deep cultural influence of the footballer fit. The front row of most fashion weeks looks like a players bench at a top tier game, culminating in brand Labrum London debuting its collecting at the Arsenal FC stadium. This fashion and music resonance is creating a new mindset for Gen Z fandom to express themselves in new ways, paving a way for a new generation shaping a fresh version of soccer as channeled by the likes of Adama and Awa in partnership with Nike and soccer culture platform Versus.
The games power stretches beyond the players to the brands, creating meaningful impact in the purposes they challenge together and creating real resonance for consumers with brands via the game. UK telco brand EE created an amazing example of this at the last Womens Euro, challenging the UK Parliament and bringing fans and players together to change a safety bill against online hate. So did cosmetic brand e.l.f. with its recent U.S. National Womens Soccer League partnership to empower more women in sport helping raise a new generation of future industry leaders.
We also see the cultural impact and power of the game with the immense value of the player celebrity platform wielding more power and influence than the traditional sporting brands they used to rely on for a broadcast voice.
The most startling example is comparing player and sporting brands social reach. Nike-sponsored Ronaldo has 652 million Instagram followers, double sponsor Nikes 301 million. And the most followed female footballer, Alisha Lehman, playing for Italian team Juventus, has 17 million Instagram followers, 17 times more than traditional soccer brand Umbro. This is leading clubs and brands to rethink how they partner with playersand beyond to fansto create content. A great example is Juventus FCs creator lab, capitalizing on this impact.
Football shapes culture and society
We also see the rising power of the game as it truly stretches into shaping culture and society as these platforms and influence are used way beyond the beautiful game itself.
Football can shape the political spectrum, judging from Marcus Rashfords social activism that during COVID-19, extended free school meals for vulnerable children in the UK. His actions forced the government to reverse its decision, impacting millions of lives. His efforts earned him an Order of the British Empire MB award.
It extends to a greater impact on politics, with a move from former football players becoming politicians, ranging from George Weah moving from World Player of the Year to Liberian president, to the more recent Georgian ex-Manchester City player Mikheil Kavelashvili becoming a prominent political leader in his home country.
Its this power of the fandom, the players, the clubs, the brands, and the category itself coming together to harness an evolving and growing cultural impact that makes this coming World Cup a moment where the game and its impact will extend beyond the game itself.
Maybe it will even breathe new life into the famous Liverpool manager quote from Bill Shankly, who said that Some people think football is a matter of life of death. I can assure them its much more serious than that.
Chris Kay is the international president of 72andSunny.
