Innovation & Technology
26 World-Changing Ideas:
Improving Everything from Food to Health to Materials to Transport

How nice to stop thinking about COVID for a minute and revel in the potential of some truly groundbreaking creations! Here are some of Fast Company’s most recent list of 26 World-Changing Ideas that we’re especially excited about …

Published 4 years ago | About a 3 minute read

Image: An Icon 3D-printed house in Mexico | Icon

General Excellence: Vulcan II (Icon) – a massive 3D printer that can extrude the walls of a house in just 24 hours; new 3D-printed communities in southern Mexico and Austin, Texas offer large-scale proof that 3D-printing tech could be a viable solution for quickly building affordable housing for those in need.

Company of the Year: Abbott – From a new implant to keep babies’ hearts healthy, to fighting malaria, to addressing the social determinants of health through its Future Well Kids and Future Well Communities programs.

App: Food Rescue Hero (412 Food Rescue) – A ‘DoorDash for surplus food’ that connects extra food from restaurants to hunger-fighting organizations — and will now offer rides to people in need, as well.

Art and Design: Aguahoja (Neri Oxman and the Mediated Matter Group, MIT Media Lab) – An installation project utilizing 3D-printed “biopolymers” — materials from the natural world that could replace plastic and degrade at the end of life, eliminating the need for recycling.

Communicating complex, unfamiliar sustainability claims on CPG packaging

Join us as Applegate and HowGood share insights into marketing lessons, consumer response and understanding, and marketplace data on the expression and communication of new categories of sustainability claims on CPG packaging - as well as tips for avoiding consumer and industry backlash and controversy - Wed, Oct. 16, at SB'24 San Diego.

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Consumer Products: Evrythng – the IoT platform that makes every consumer product intelligent, interactive and trackable now lets consumers scan a package for visibility into their purchase’s entire supply chain

Food: Full Harvest – An online marketplace that connects food companies with farms to buy ugly and surplus produce to fight waste

Impact Investing: As You Sow – the nation’s leading nonprofit shareholder advocacy organization has long been persuading corporates to improve their policies on everything from packaging to energy to textiles. It also offers a suite of online tools to help average investors find mutual funds that invest in companies they believe in.

Transportation: Convoy – The company developed a program that eliminates the millions of tons of shipping emissions produced each year produced by truckers driving around with no cargo.

Global:

Asia-Pacific: Oacis (Phononic) – the system keeps spaces cool without the energy use and toxic coolants of traditional air conditioning.
EMEA: Youmma Solar Fridge (Youmma, Nidec Global Appliance) – A refrigerator designed to run on solar power to make it easier for developing-world households to keep perishable goods
North America: Etsy’s carbon-offset shipping – creating a new model for e-commerce sustainability
South America: Fazendo Futuro – Brazil’s answer to Impossible Foods or Beyond Meat; if that beef-heavy market can embrace plant-based alternatives, there may be hope for us after all.