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With little more than a coat of paint, buildings could soon make the air around them cooler and harvest gallons of water directly from the atmosphere. Researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia have created a nanoengineered polymer coating that passively cools building surfaces while enabling them to collect water like dew-coated leaves. It’s a material solution that could help combat rising heat and water insecurity in places all over the world. The white coating, a porous paint-like material, reflects up to 97% of sunlight and radiates heat, making surfaces up to 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding air, even under direct sun. This cooler condition allows water vapor in the air to condense like dew on the smooth coating surface, where it can be collected. In a recent test, a roughly 10-square-foot area treated with the coating was able to harvest 1.6 cups of water over the course of single day. Prof. Chiara Neto and Dr. Ming Chiu [Photo: University of Sydney] This research was led by Chiara Neto, a professor at the University of Sydney’s Nano Institute and School of Chemistry. Neto is also cofounder of a startup that’s commercializing this coating, called Dewpoint Innovations. “Our main goal in designing this new material is to address water scarcity, providing a sustainable and delocalized source of water that is entirely passive,” she says. [Photo: University of Sydney] Reflective paint 2.0 Solar-reflective paint is hardly new to the world of sustainability, and it’s been used widely to reduce heat gain on everything from buildings to UPS trucks to playgrounds. This new coating builds on those applications by taking more advantage of the cooler air produced by bouncing heat off a building, creating a surface onto which water vapor can condense in the cooler ambient temperatures. The coating’s porous nature makes it more durable than typical reflective paints, which enables it to better collect dew than other surface coverings that quickly degrade. The cooling and water harvesting potential of the coating could be substantial, according to a study recently published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials. The researchers measured the coating’s performance in six months of outdoor tests on the roof of a building on the campus of the University of Sydney. Specially designed surfaces and measurement tools tracked surface temperature and dew water collected on a minute-by-minute basis alongside weather and climate data to better understand when the coating would perform best. [Photo: University of Sydney] A theoretical model extended that data to create a water capture prediction for the rest of Australia, suggesting the highest water capture rates in the tropical northeast of the country. Neto says this model could be used by extension in the rest of the world, and has identified places where the coating could be especially useful. “The areas most suited to the passive cooling effect are areas in which the sky is often clear of clouds, and the amount of water in the air is not too high and not too low (ideally around 80% relative humidity), to obtain the highest cooling of the surface and the highest water condensation,” Neto explains. She notes that the coatings need to be clearly exposed to the sky to be most effective. “If used on the walls of buildings, they would still bring some cooling, but not as much as on the roof,” she adds. The ideal configuration is at a small tilt, a roof angled at about 30 degrees, to enable the roll-off of water droplets. [Photo: University of Sydney] But even in places where the humidity is too low to harvest much dew, the reflectivity of the coating will still provide the benefit of lower ambient temperatures and reduced energy requirements for buildings. The coating is not designed to be used as a ground cover, but Neto says it could be used in tilted and flat areas around sport courts, fields, on tents, on animals sheds, and other spaces. If it were to be implemented widely, the coating could provide a steady source of water, albeit a small one. The study found that a one-square-meter section of roof treated with the coating could harvest up to 390 milliliters of water per day, a little more than a cup and a half of water from about 10 square feet of surface. Scaling up to the size of a building, that could add up to several gallons worth of water a day. That may not seem like a lot when the average person in the U.S. uses more than 150 gallons per day, but the volume could easily add up as more buildings are retrofitted, or even designed specifically, to use this coating. This passive approach to water collection “opens the door to sustainable, low-cost, and decentralized sources of fresh watera critical need in the face of climate change and growing water scarcity,” Neto says.
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E-Commerce
There are certain things that make it obvious that you are a working parent. And I am not talking about the bags under your eyes or the six cups of coffee needed to get through the day. It usually happens at 4:59 p.m. when they start to pack up so they can make it to daycare or a school recital or any number of obligations parents have. As they slip out of the open-plan cubicle maze, a child-free colleague glances over and thinks (or sometimes says out loud), Must be nice. Welcome to the us versus them of modern work life: parents versus nonparents, aka committed versus distracted or the all-in versus the always juggling. In my book How to Have a Kid and a Life, I wrote about the motherhood penalty, the well-documented hit mothers take in pay, promotions, and perceived competence. Decades of research show that when you add kids to a womans résumé, hiring managers see her as less committed and less competent than an identical candidate without children. The same studies show fathers are often perceived as more committed. Before hybrid work was an option, mothers had a clear disadvantage. The question now is: Does flexible work close that empathy gap or widen it? {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2015\/08\/erikaaslogo.png","headline":"Girl, Listen: A Guide to What Really Matters","description":"Ericka dives into the heat of modern motherhood, challenging the notion that personal identity must be sacrificed at the altar of parenting. ","substackDomain":"https:\/\/erickasouter.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} Many workplaces still worship the ideal worker. You know the typealways available and never needs to slip out for a child with a fever. In interviews for my book, women described how the bias shows up in little moments: The big project that always gets handed to the single guy and then becomes his fast track to promotion. The manager who says, I just didnt want to burden you, a move that quietly sidelines a new mom. The performance review that praises a mothers flexibility but questions her availability. Parenthood isnt seen as a strength or a crash course in time management and crises response. Its treated as a potential liability the company is doing us a favor by accommodating. Is hybrid work the cure parents need? On paper, hybrid work should be the great equalizer. Parents gain flexibility, lose the soul-sucking commute, and can occasionally make it to the school play and not worry about annoyed glances from colleagues. Studies show that hybrid arrangements can reduce stress and improve well-being, particularly for caregivers. But the reality is more complicated. Post-pandemic research on working parents finds that while many value flexibility, they worry it could hurt their careers. In one national survey, parents reported feeling pressure to hide caregiving responsibilities again. Sociologists call this flexibility stigma, which is the perception that people who work remotely or adjust their hours for family reasons are less committed and less deserving of moving up. Not surprisingly, this stigma hits mothers the hardest. So hybrid schedules can actually create a new divide: The nonparent whos in the office four days a week is seen as visible and all-in. The parent whos remote two days a week is seen as harder to reach. Never mind that they are online and answering emails at 9:30 p.m. Same output, totally different story. The backup system Heres where the us versus them really kicks in. Nonparents sometimes feel like they are the default backup system. They are the ones who stay late, travel on short notice, or cover the late-night launch because you dont have kids. Meanwhile, parents scramble to log back on after bedtime. In How to Have a Kid and a Life, I talk about this: parents trying to prove theyre as committed as ever while also trying not to miss their entire family life. Many moms told me they felt they had to be better than before and better than everyone else just to be seen as equally talented at work. The result is a workplace full of exhausted parents and quietly resentful nonparents; each convinced the other group has it easier. So, is hybrid helping? The honest answer is it depends on how we use it. Hybrid work can bridge the empathy gap when: Leaders model flexibility for everyone, not just parents. Promotion and star status are tied to measurable results, not just hours behind the desk. Parents dont feel the need to make their personal lives invisible by muting their kids and hiding school pickups. It widens the gap when: Flexibility is unofficial and negotiated in whispers. Remote days become mommy track days. Teams quietly equate butt-in-seat time with loyalty and ambition. The real opportunity isnt to build a special system for parents. Its to stop treating not having a busy personal life as a qualification. Everyone benefits from a workplace where: People can have caregiving responsibilities or a passion or a life outside Slack and still be seen as serious about their careers. Nonparents can say, I cant stay tonight without needing a daycare story to justify it. Parents dont have to apologize for being parents or prove their worth with late-night emails. If theres one thing my reporting, my book, and, frankly, my own life have taught me its this: A workforce full of burned-out, overcompensating people is bad for business and terrible for human beings. Hybrid work gives us new tools. Whether it becomes a bridge or a black hole depends on how honest were willing to be about the biases we still carry and whether were finally ready to dump the myth of the ideal worker and replace it with something real: the ideal human. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2015\/08\/erikaaslogo.png","headline":"Girl, Listen: A Guide to What Really Matters","description":"Ericka dives into the heat of modern motherhood, challenging the notion that personal identity must be sacrificed at the altar of parenting. ","substackDomain":"https:\/\/erickasouter.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
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E-Commerce
If your team cant function without you in the room, you dont have a team, you have a dependency. Too many business owners confuse supporting their team with carrying them. Instead of learning how to coach team members, they do the work for them. They jump into every problem, solve every issue, and answer every question themselves. It feels like good leadership, but its actually just bottlenecking in disguise. The goal of leadership isnt to be the smartest person in the room. Instead, its to build a room full of people who can think, solve, and act without you. That shift, from problem-solver to coach, is one of the most important moves a business owner can make. Its also the only way to scale without burning out. Heres how to make it. 1. Stop answering every question When a team member asks you, What should I do about X? dont give them the answer right away. Instead, ask: What options have you considered? What would you do if I werent here? Whats the next step you could take? This isnt about being evasive. Its about developing their decision-making muscles. Every time you solve it for them, you train them to keep coming back. When you coach them through it, you grow their confidence and capability. 2. Trade firefighting for frameworks Good managers put out fires. Great leaders build fire prevention systems. Start capturing how you think through challenges: What is your decision-making process? What questions do you ask before committing to a course of action? What patterns do you see in recurring issues? Turn those into frameworks your team can use. That could be a decision tree, a checklist, or a step-by-step doc. If its in your head, its a habit. If its on paper, its a tool. 3. Coach on outcomes, not style Many owners get stuck correcting how something is done instead of focusing on the result. If a team member gets to 90% of the desired outcome in their own way, then celebrate that. Tweak where needed but resist the urge to micromanage their method. Too much intervening or micromanaging can stifle creativity and growth. Your goal isnt to build clones. Its to build capability. Let people solve problems in their own voice as long as the standards are met. 4. Create a feedback loop. Then, step back Coaching doesnt mean disappearing. It means setting up support and structure: Weekly check-ins focused on progress, not perfection. Clear KPIs tied to outcomes, not hours. Open channels for questions but with the expectation that they will bring solutions too. When you step back with structure, your team steps up with ownership. 5. Let go of the hero identity It feels good to be the fixer, the rescuer, or the one who always has the answers. However, if your business depends on you always being the hero, youll never escape the hamster wheel. And your team will never reach their full potential. Great coaches dont chase trophies. They build champions. Be the multiplier, not the machine Your job isnt to do more. Its to make everyone around you better. Coaching is the leverage point where leadership stops being reactive and starts becoming exponential. Its the difference between growth that drains you and growth that sustains you. So the next time you feel the urge to fix something for your team, pause and ask: Is this a task to completeor a chance to coach? One builds a to-do list. The other builds a business. David Finkel This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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E-Commerce
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