Loneliness isnt just a well-being risk, it is an acute business risk. The effects of loneliness dont just permeate an individual’s personal life, it can negatively impact their professional life. When employees dont feel a sense of camaraderie or belonging at work, their performance suffers.
According to research from Gartner, employees who are satisfied with camaraderie in their organization show a high enterprise contribution of 23%. But employees who are dissatisfied with the camaraderie in their organization show a high enterprise contribution of only 13%.
Organizations have taken early steps to mitigate loneliness by targeting interactions within the workplace and beyond, like mandating employees to return to the office to boost collaboration and connection. But proximity alone isnt a cure for employee loneliness. It ignores the root causes of the issue.
Moving forward, CHROs need to address loneliness in the workforce through two primary strategies: improving in-role connectedness to boost productivity and supporting out-of-work connectedness to meet employee well-being needs.
Improving in-role connectedness to boost employee productivity
Employees should have autonomy when it comes to building personal connections, as well as guidance from HR on how to make the most of their interactions. That requires CHROs to foster guided interactions that engender interpersonal cohesiveness and naturalize sharing behavior, which establishes a new, more human-centered set of collaboration norms.
There are three simple actions CHROs can take to achieve this:
1. Empower employees to personalize connection-building
CHROs should give employees ownership of building their connections with one another. Not only does this promote personalization of how they strengthen these relationships, it also encourages them to make connections according to their own needs or preferences. CHROs can help employees fortify these peer connections over time in partnership with communication leaders. In turn, they can grow employees connection with the organizations culture and community through socialization.
2. Encourage employees to be intentional about their collaboration needs
Gartner analysis found that satisfaction with collaboration significantly impacts employee performance. Now, not all collaboration supports connectedness or productivity. Intentionality helps employees think carefully and understand which mode of collaboration best suits both the nature of their work and their individual preferences.
Through guided collaboration and actively reshaping the needs and norms of how individuals interact, CHROs can equip teams to have intentionality and reciprocity when collaborating. Gartner found that organizations that practice guided collaboration achieve profit goals 10% more often than those that don’t.
3. Support affinity groups that connect employees and encourage breaks
CHROs should foster connections between employees beyond work-related tasks. Affinity groups, akin to employee resource groups, connect employees based on common interests that align with the companys business model and values. Imagine a surfboard company offering time off for employees to surf together. These benefits can boost engagement and lead to a more motivated workforce.
Support connection outside of work to boost well-being
Employees who feel their employer supports their lives outside the office are more motivated to perform in the workplace. There are several ways CHROs can support employee connection outside of work:
1. Offer employees volunteer time off (VTO)
VTO policies grant employees paid leave for volunteering activities. Some corporations allow staff to take a set number of hours each week, while others grant up to a week of leave. VTO initiatives can enhance employee engagement, build connections with local communities, and showcase corporate social responsibility.
2. Provide interpersonal, out-of-work connection perks
Some progressive organizations offer enhanced support to help employees find and make meaningful personal connections outside of work. This includes things like offering stipends for bike passes to encourage well-being in connected social settings. These out-of-office perks also provide talent attraction and retention benefits.
3. Make it easier to take a break with global recharge days
With many employees either not taking vacation days or working while on vacation, some organizations encourage employees to use their vacation days jointly to disconnect from work. If most, if not all, employees take vacation together, they can all fully disconnect from work and recharge.
Many factors have contributed to the epidemic of loneliness in the workplace, and these feelings of isolation have real business implications for organizations that dont address them.
With CEOs hyper-focused on growth in 2025, and seeing employee productivity as key to achieving it, HR has an important role to play in removing any productivity barriers, including hidden ones like loneliness. By treating loneliness, and outside of the workplace, organizatios reap the benefits of a healthier, more productive, and engaged workforce.
At its annual Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View next week, Google will try to rally developers around one of its next big bets: Android XR. Later this year, Samsung is set to release the first VR headset powered by the spatial computing operating system, and Google is aiming to attract as many developers as possible to build apps for the device.
Thats no small task for a company whose history with AR and VR has been marked by inconsistency. Google was among the first to experiment with AR glasses, gave millions their first taste of VR through low-cost mobile viewers, and even launched a stand-alone immersive VR headset before Metaonly to abandon each project in rapid succession, leaving partners frustrated.
Google has burnt a lot of bridges in the XR community, cautions an industry insider who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.
Still, theres a sense of cautious optimism among AR and VR developers that this time might be different. One reason: the competitive landscape has changed. With Apple and Meta investing tens of billions into immersive technology, the pressure is on. Android XR also aligns with Googles current strengths, particularly in AI and in its push to expand Androids reach.
A Google spokesperson declined to comment for this story.
Daydreams and Glassholes
Googles first foray into AR/VR remains one of the industrys most infamous missteps. Unveiled in 2012, Google Glass paired a camera with a tiny display and was touted as a peek into a post-smartphone world. Instead, it became a cautionary tale. Critics were unnerved by the devices always-on camera, dubbing users glassholes. A $1,500 price tag and limited usefulness sealed its fate, and Google soon dropped its consumer ambitions for Glass.
Despite that bruising experience, the company didnt fully retreat from the space. In 2014, Google introduced Cardboard, a DIY viewer that turned smartphones into rudimentary VR devices. That effort later evolved into Daydream, a more comfortable headset with a controller, supporting immersive videos and simple games.
Cardboard and Daydream did reach millions of users, but their reliance on smartphones made them impractical for sustained use. We were looking for that spark of adoption, says a former Google employee who worked on Daydream. (Former employees were also granted anonymity by Fast Company out of fear of reprisal.) That spark never came. It never became a toothbrush use case, the employee adds, referencing the goal of making the device something people use daily, like brushing their teeth.
Over time, Google did achieve that with many of its products: Billions now use Gmail, Chrome, and Maps every day. But that success may have distorted expectations for VR. You tend to forget how hard it is to get billions of users, says a second former Google employee involved in VR.
Expecting too much too soon may have doomed these projects. Its a self-fulfilling prophecy, the first former employee says.
A Long List of Cancelled Projects
Google eventually moved beyond smartphone-based VR with a stand-alone headset built in partnership with Lenovo in 2018. Running Daydream, the device had potential to compete with Metas Quest, but Google scrapped it a year later. When it didnt become a huge success overnight, they pivoted, says the industry insider.
Daydream joined a growing list of abandoned Google AR/VR efforts: the immersive storytelling series Spotlight Stories, the cloud-based video platform Jump and its professional camera line, the 3D modeling tool Blocks, the asset platform Poly, and several consumer VR cameras created with hardware partners.
Some of these projects were open-sourced upon cancellation. The popular VR painting app Tilt Brush, for example, lives on as a community-driven project on Metas Quest. Others survived the internal shakeups: Owlchemy Labs, acquired by Google in 2017, still thrives. Its whimsical title Job Simulator remains one of the best-selling games on Quest.
Many of Googles early AR/VR projects had real potentialif only the company had stayed the course. Google had all these weird, cool, fun projects and acquisitions that they made very early, but they just didn’t follow through with them, says the industry insider.
A Lack of Conviction
Beyond high expectations, insiders point to a deeper issue: Googles hesitation to publicly commit to AR and VR. Google was not willing to put a shoe on the ground the same way Meta has, says the first former employee.
The difference was that Mark [Zuckerberg] was out there, publicly saying: Im staking my future on this, agrees the second. I never felt that we had that type of conviction from [Google CEO] Sundar [Pichai].
Zuckerbergs enthusiasm for VR and the metaverse has been widely mocked, but Metas persistence has paid off. The company has sold tens of millions of Quest headsets, and its Ray-Ban smart glasses have found surprising success. Apples Vision Pro and its reported investments in smart glasses further validate the space.
Now Google is returning with big ambitions of its own. Having turned Android into the worlds most widely used mobile OS, the company wants to replicate that success with Android XR. Unlike Apple and Meta, Google plans to build this future through partnershipsstarting with Samsungrather than relying on in-house hardware.
Theres precedent for this kind of turnaround. After an underwhelming start, Googles Android TV platform eventually matured into one of the top smart TV ecosystems, with over 270 million monthly active users on Google TV-powered devices.
Googles Assets: Android and AI
To replicate that success in XR, Google will once again leverage its mobile ecosystem. Google will look to work with developers to port existing Android apps to Android XR, much like the way Apple brought iPadOS apps to the Vision Pro, says CCS Insight analyst Gebbie. This could give Google an advantage over Meta.
Googles massive AI investments could also prove pivotal. The company has already demonstrated how AI can enhance AR glasses, and Gebbie believes AI will be key in simplifying interaction within spatial computing systems.
With the tech in place, Googles future in XR hinges on one factor: commitment. This time around, Google must fully commit to Android XR if it is to seriously try and build an ecosystem, says Gebbie. If Google makes another false start, then its partners may look elsewhere.
As long as Google has conviction, I would never bet against them, agrees the second former employee.
For years, global stars have traveled to West Africa as ambassadors of humanitarian and anti-corruption efforts: Rihanna in Senegal urging world leaders to donate aid, Bono in Ghana championing transparency as the best vaccine against corruption.
All the while, Vincent Bolloré, the billionaire power broker who wields significant influence over the parent company behind their music labels, was busy building an industrial empire in those same countries.
That empire is now at the center of corruption trials, sexual abuse allegations, and a sweeping criminal complaint filed by West African nonprofits.
Vincent Bolloré stole money from our communities and used it to build an empire, Jean-Jacques Lumumba, the head of the anti-corruption watchdog group Restitution for Africa, alleges in a statement to Fast Company.
For some UMG musicians, the accusations against Bolloré present a jarring contradiction: Artists are using their platforms to fight injustice, while a powerful figure profiting from their music built his fortune through actions that critics say undermined democracy.
The Bolloré familys industrial empire traces back over two centuries to its origins in cigarette and Bible paper manufacturing. Over time, its global success allowed the family to pivot into West African industries like rubber, palm oil, and port operations. More recently, the family gained what French courts described in April as effective control of the media conglomerate Vivendi. Until 2021, Vivendi owned all of Universal Music Group (UMG), the worlds leading music company, and Bollorés fortunes were widely seen as tied to it. In 2021, Vivendi spun off UMG as a publicly traded company, unlocking $53 billion of value on its first day of trading, while allowing the Bolloré family to retain their position as UMGs largest shareholders.
Worldwide, UMG manages five million titles across some of the industrys most iconic labels: Interscope, Capitol, Def Jam, Island, Republic, Virgin. Technically the Bollorés control just 28% of UMG10% directly and another 18% through Vivendi. But that gives the Bollorés outsized sway. (Kanye West once claimed he was going to bypass label execs with contract complaints and take his grievances straight to the top: Dont need the Arnaud meeting anymore, he tweeted in 2020, referring to Vivendis CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine. I will be meeting with Vincent Bolloré.)
This complex web of corporate control casts a long shadow, even as UMG artists champion causes in regions where Bollorés other ventures have come under fire. In 2022, Usher and SZA, whose songs include UMG distribution deals, went to Ghana to headline the Global Citizen Festival benefiting West Africa. That same year, fellow UMG client The Weeknd also launched a UN humanitarian fund benefiting the same region.
But those actions coincided with a wave of divestment from Bollorés businesses on the part of European investment funds: Switzerlands largest pension funds put his companies on their exclusion list, and Norways $1.7 trillion sovereign wealth fundthe worlds largestpulled out entirely, citing human rights reports alleging abuses in Liberia, Cameroon, and Sierra Leone, including land grabs and rape.
That financial pressure mirrored growing legal scrutiny. Over the past decade, Bolloré has faced a series of corruption investigations in France tied to his business dealings in West Africaranging from election meddling to bribery and port monopolies. He was indicted in 2018, and French prosecutors continue to pursue charges related to those allegations.
Critics of Bolloré contend that artists who remain silent risk inadvertently reinforcing the same exploitative systems many of them seek to challenge.
“Dirty money off the backs of African communities”
Last month, the French National Financial Prosecutors Office said it was still working on Bollorés corruption trial related to the Togo bribery claims. This came days after Bloomberg News ran a 4,000-word investigation into the sexual coercion of women working on Bollorés Liberian rubber plantations. Workers recently set fire to the office and managers home to protest the squalid conditions.
Now, a coalition of 11 West African nonprofits known as Restitution for Africa (RAF) has filed a brand-new complaint with French authorities accusing Bolloré of using corruption, favoritism, and influence peddling to win port contracts in three additional countries: Ghana, Cameroon, Côte dIvoire.
The complaint, also filed with the French National Financial Prosecutors Office and reviewed by Fast Company, accuses the Bolloré Group of a criminal graft where it conspired with corrupt politicians to build a massive port, rail, and logistics monopoly across West Africathen cashed out, selling that subsidiary (Bolloré Africa Logistics) for $6.2 billion, more than Sierra Leones annual GDP. The complaint argues the money earned should be given to citizens of those African nations. The coalition is calling the complaint unprecedented in its pan-African character.
RAF followed that by launching a public petition on Thursday called Global Billionaire Accountability Project. Over the past month, it has worked to solicit support from 50 major artists under contract with UMG labelsthey include Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Sam Smith, The Weeknd, Usher, SZA, U2, Sting, Alicia Keys, and Billie Eilish. The group sent a letter asking them to demand that Bolloré divest from UMG, arguing that UMG artists are financially tethered to a corporate entity accused of profiting from illicit and exploitative activities.
The letter concludes: We want to ensure youre aware that these ill-gotten gains have been funding Bollorés ownership of UMGdirty money off the backs of African communities.
UMG declined to comment. A representative for Vincent Bolloré and the Bolloré Group did not respond to multiple inquiries by Fast Company.
Restitution for Africa says so far none of the artists have responded to their letter. Fast Company also sent requests for comment to the publicists of more than a dozen UMG artists who prioritize social impact work. This includes all the artists mentioned above, other industry heavyweights like Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar, as well as Angélique Kidjo, the French-Beninese five-time Grammy winner who has served as a UNICEF oodwill Ambassador in Africa since the mid-2000s. Their representatives did not respond. Bonos ONE Campaignpublisher of 2014s widely read Trillion Dollar Scandal report warning that shady business practices in places like West Africa were siphoning up to a trillion dollars every year from developing countriesalso didnt respond to an inquiry.
While many artists publicly support causes that would seem to pit them against Bollorés business pursuits, stars might fear speaking out could carry contractual and professional risks. In recent years, boldface entertainment names have publicly accused UMG of prioritizing profits over artist interests. Musicians from Drake and Iggy Azalea to Limp Bizkit have spoken outeven suedover unpaid royalties, licensing conflicts, and disputes over control of their work. And to be sure, pressuring UMG is not without risk, particularly for smaller artists who depend on the corporations support to stay afloat.
Restitution for Africa is led by the anti-corruption watchdog group Transparency International and Jean-Jacques Lumumba, a former a former banker who in the mid-2010s exposed billions of dollars worth of embezzlements by Congolese President Joseph Kabilas government and now lives in exile in Europe. At Restitution for Africa, hes turned to different corruption occurring in his part of the world. This is not a man who global musicians at Universal Music Group should be OK with taking money from, Lumumba tells Fast Company.
The French government has long grappled with its role in allowing political leaders in postcolonial Africa to steal from their own people, then park that stolen wealth back in France, or elsewhere.
In 2021, President Emmanuel Macrons government enacted a new law strengthening the legal pathway to return such corrupt assets, once seized, to their countries of origin. This followed years of high-profile cases involving hundreds of millions of euros laundered by leaders of countries like Equatorial Guinea and Congo to fund lavish Parisian real estate, high-end art, and expensive cars, the types of corruption Bono protested while in Africa and his ONE Campaign called out in its Trillion Dollar Scandal.
Past cases primarily targeted corrupt heads of state and their families. But more recently, nonprofits have sought restitution for ill-gotten corporate gains. The most prominent example involves French energy giant TotalEnergies operations in Congo. In 2019, two anti-corruption nonprofits filed a criminal complaint against Total alleging that it won oil exploration rights through bribery.
The case is still being argued five years later, demonstrating the complexities of expanding the target to include companies. But if a whistleblower hadnt revealed a web of suspicious financial transactions tying Total and Congolese political elites to various bank accounts, it wouldnt have had legs. That person was RAFs Lumumba.
In 2021, under mounting pressure, Bolloré Group parent company Bolloré SE paid 12 million to settle the Togo bribery charges brought against the corporation. Two years later, the Bollorés sold Bolloré Africa Logistics and started investing more heavily in the media industry, similar to a certain free speech absolutist tech billionaire in America. The African sale, combined with UMG artists profits, has helped breathe life into a rightwing French media juggernaut.
Chanez Mensous, head of litigation and advocacy at the French corporate ethics watchdog Sherpa, calls this quite symptomatic of the Bolloré business approach. (Sherpa has joined previous criminal corruption cases against Bolloré, and will be a party to his individual trial next year, distinct from the 2021 corporate settlement, involving the Togo port bribery allegations.)
They prey on countries with weak governance standards, Mensous says. They have the financial strength to consider sanctions and fines a reasonable economic risk they can absorb. Their relative impunity is made possible by the control they have over the media. They use SLAPPs [strategic lawsuits against public participation] to silence civil societies and journalists covering these cases.
The family currently controls the telecom giant Canal+, Europe 1, various magazines, and Frances only Sunday newspaperalong with CNews, a free Canal+ channel that Harvards Nieman Reports recently criticized for its role in mainstreaming far-right ideas. That shift began accelerating after 2017, the year Bolloré took over the channel. Since then, CNews has added figures like Éric Zemmour, the far-right TV pundit turned politician repeatedly convicted of racial and religious hate speech.
In the past few years, the network has been a place to find anti-vax histrionics, calls for Muslims to renounce their faith, interest in the Great Replacement Theory, suggestions that immigrants caused Pariss pre-Olympics bedbug infestation, and full-blown panic over le wokismethis as many UMG artists worldwide were busy promoting COVID vaccination efforts, calling out police brutality, and condemning white supremacy. Last summer, CNews rose (briefly) to the rank of Frances #1 news channel.
Bolloré is also credited with empowering the far-right French leader Marine Le Penechoing her brand of nationalism, as well as her warm feelings toward Russia. Weeks ago when Donald Trump berated Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, Bollorés outlets took cues, turning friendly fire on Ukraines European allies. The far-right broadcasters and newspapers owned by Vincent Bolloré are backing Vladimir Putin, Le Monde told readers.
“The French Rupert Murdoch”
Meanwhile, Bollorés outlets have undergone an ideological purge serious enough to inspire Reporters Without Borders to produce a documentary chronicling their repeated attacks on press freedom and the independence of editorial offices, then denouncing them as an unprecedented threat to democracy. During Frances latest elections in 2022, hundreds of journalists and activists formed Operation Stop Bolloré, a coalition that accused Bolloré media of breaking with all journalistic ethics, arguing it is no longer a matter of informing citizens, but of transforming minds.
On top of that, Bolloré lawyers have done their best to silence critical reporters and nonprofits that dig into the companys business operations, like in 2016 when three newspapers (Mediapart, LObs, and Le Point) and two nonprofits (Sherpa and ReAct) reported that a Bolloré company bulldozed West African villagers land. In 15 years, the company has hit journalists and activists with at least 20 gag lawsuits. The Bolloré media arm is eyeing expansions back in Africa, too: If a deal awaiting approval closes, the Bollorés will own South African-based satellite TV provider MultiChoice, via the continents largest-ever media acquisition, giving them a subscriber base in sub-Saharan Africa of more than 20 million viewers.
Of course, Bollorés right-wing crusade puts UMG artists in a bigger bindwhether they champion African causes or not, do they want their music profits to flow, in part, to a so-called French Rupert Murdoch who is bankrolling a political agenda many of them have publicly denounced?
UMGs ownership structure already presents an ethical dilemma for its most socially conscious performers: Beyond the Bollorés 28% control, the next largest shareholder, with 20%, is Tencentthe Chinese tech giant the U.S. government labels a Communist military asset. Noted Trump booster Bill Ackman controls the third most, with 10%.
Taylor Swift isnt active in Africa, but she has repeatedly condemned racism and the oppression of women, and has lamented the naiveté that we used to have about [bigotry]. The Imagine Dragons band members, signed to Interscope, are vocal official ambassadors of the Ukrainian state charity United24. Kendrick Lamars music criticizes racial injustice and systemic oppression, while Lady Gaga has used her platform to condemn far-right rhetoric as an attack on democracy and human rights. And thats just four of UMGs better-known artists.
While Bolloré Group got blacklisted by Swiss funds in 2023 over human rights abuses, its harder to find examples of controversial investors caving to public pressure and divesting from publicly traded companies. That highlights the challenge of holding powerful billionaires accountable who can shield themselves from accountability. It also explains RAFs long-shot strategy of seeking to leverage the platforms of celebrities whose careers arent directly impacted by a French shipping mogul, and who have largely ignored outside requests to speak out against him.
However, since RAFs letters went out, one artist has taken note of Bollorés business practices: Drake. The rapper is currently suing UMG over Kendrick Lamars Grammy-winning diss track Not Like Usa blistering takedown featuring the line Drake, I hear you like em young, with cover art showing a sex-offender map plastered with pins around Drakes Toronto home.
Just days after receiving the petition, Drakes lawyers referenced Bollorés growing scandals in a legal filing, arguing that recent headlines involving UMGs largest stakeholder call for greater transparency from the label.
Back in the 1930s, Robert W. Woodruff, president of the Coca-Cola Co., would carry a red swatch in his wallet. Of course, it wasnt just any red. It was Coca-Cola red. And so anywhere he went and encountered his brandpainted on a wall, wrapping a refrigeratorhe would pull out the little swatch to check that it matched.Woodruff understood the importance of Coca-Colas brand equity as it expanded globallya challenge that has only grown since, now that Coca-Cola sells 2.2 billion servings a day across 200 countries, 150 languages, and 30 million points of sale.But where Woodruff used a swatch, Coca-Colas design team has spent the past four years dreaming up a modern operational upgrade to its 400 pages of brand guidelines. Teaming with Adobe, it developed Project Fizzion. Trained specifically on Coca-Colas design logic, its a brand-managing AI that lives inside Adobe platforms like Photoshop and Illustrator, generates designs, and, most of all, helps keep designers across the globe brand-compliant as they dream up the next big campaign.In a design world thats equally dependent upon and terrified of generative AI tools, Coca-Cola is clear that Fizzion is not about cost cutting via AI. As its integrating Fizzion globally, its doing so with no reduction in spending on brand campaigns. Instead, the company believes its charting a path forward thats sustainable for creatives to drive better work and eliminate headaches under deadline.Fizzion was never a design automation tool, says Rapha Abreu, global VP of design at Coca-Cola. Its a creative copilot that is powered by AI but guided by designers.Dreaming up a new AIWhen Abreu joined Coca-Cola in 2021, his design teamwho spent countless hours in meetings explaining to external agencies that their seemingly great ideas broke brand guidelinesbecame almost philosophical in imagining another way forward. Given that any Coca-Cola campaign can include up to 5,000 separate assets, it had become nearly impossible to manage.We had this kind of crazy idea, Abreu recalls. What if the Coca-Cola logo could learn what to do and what not to do? They imagined software built so a designer literally couldnt place the logo in the wrong context. And if that could work for the logo, maybe the same thing could be true for colors, typography, and imagery associated with Coca-Cola campaigns. It was an enticing thought that was ahead of its time, but only a little. Within two years, ChatGPT and other GenAI tools would drop upon the world to automate all sorts of tasks that never before seemed possible. [Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]Companies including Adobe and Canva quickly whipped up GenAI tools that could suck in brand guidelines via PDF, then apply them to design templates. Sometimes they worked. And sometimes they didnt. These sorts of guidelines can have trouble scaling to new, complex projects, and of course they do. Guidelines are just words trying to articulate visual relationships that are sometimes as instinctual as they are codified. Coca-Colas idea, led largely by its global head of AI design, Dom Heinrich, was to start with the images themselves, and to train a machine on Coca-Colas visual sensibility rather than a written rule set. Given that Coca-Cola and its partners were already working inside Adobe products, partnering with the company on building out such an AI system made a lot of sense.It happens inside the tools that creatives already use, says Abreu. For us, that was the most important thing.Together, the Adobe and Coca-Cola teams developed a different approach to training AI and deploying it at scale, which they call Project Fizzion (what seems like a most certain nod to Coca-Colas carbonated roots).[Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]How does Fizzion learn?Many AIs are already trained on images, but Fizzion takes a slightly different approach. Its trained more on visual design systems, stuffed full of actual Coca-Cola assets. This means Fizzion isnt analyzing a century of soda campaigns in order to hallucinate a polar bear dressed as Santa Claus sharing a Coke. Its specifically not generating imagery like Adobes own Firefly or DALL-E, but it will create a new variation on an existing design, mixing and matching Coca-Cola assets to do so.[Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]Fizzion lives like Microsoft Copilot right inside Adobe software, considering the interdependencies of things on the screen.[Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]When youre designing a visual identity system, the model should beable to learn, not just from the images but from the relationships between all the components, how the text maps to the images other elements that need to be part of it, says Ash King, senior director of Firefly enterprise solutions at Adobe. That allows [the designer] to test various aspect ratios, free-form.Fizzion can see the canvas a designer is working on in real time, complete with the positioning of logos, imagery, and typefaces. The AI learns from Coca-Colas own designers only when a project is finalized. Once a designer has a product they likeand knows works with brand standardsthey save it as what they call a Style ID that adds to the AIs knowledge. Thats basically the visual logic of one Cola-Cola campaign. At this time Fizzion also collects all necessary brand assets for that campaign so that it can incorporate them perfectly whenever necessary. (In other words, Fizzion is pulling the Coca-Cola logo fresh every time, rather than dreaming up what its supposed to look like from old references.)[Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]This is how Fizzion is trained to learn new styles. (It also incorporates background from Coca-Colas 400-page brand guidelines, via Adobe Firefly.) From there, Fizzion sits atop a global production pipeline that allows partners to tweak the visual formula without breaking it.[Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]How teams across Coca-Cola use FizzionBuilding a marketing campaign in Fizzion can start with a prompt to generatesomething like Coca-Cola polar bears on the oceanor with a blank canvas as Fizzion watches along.At the very top of the stack, the Coca-Cola design team has full access to build or alter anything across the brand that it wants. Partner agencies that Coke hires to make ads have more limitations. They can generate a new aspect ratio for a campaign on demand, and the AI will piece it all together. But if they want to stretch the logoreal badFizzion wont let them. However, they can send that change as a request to Coca-Cola proper through the platform to get approval (saving a meeting). [Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]As design teams go down the chain from America to local markets, more and more of the design process becomes about localization. These teams have the least amount of access to tweak a campaigncertain assets and layers may be lockedthough they can still make requests up the chain. This might sound controlling (and of course to an extent Coca-Cola is very much controlling its brand). But the design team argues that having these brand guidelines integrated into design tools is ultimately more freeing for design partners.[Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]One thing that we speak a lot internally about this global system is that we need to help designers and creatives downstream do the right thing, right. So it cannot be a burden for them to try to be compliant with the brand, Abreu says. We need to make this as easy as possible.However, with kerning off the table, Coca-Cola argues that it leaves time for creatives to focus on everything else about a campaign: storytelling, having ideas, making sure cultural nuance is applied, and [focusing on] emotional resonance, Abreu says. [Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]Indeed, despite all of the checks and balances in the system, Coca-Colas designers are hoping that their creative partners continue to push back. In fact, they are depending on it, as thats the only way they believe a brand can grow and evolve. If everybody builds on the same LLM, it just follows the same kind of way of interacting with an AI. We will just get a lot of the same, says Heinrich. We believe that designers need to be more in charge. . . . [They need to] be more creative in order to push the AI to the next level. The better you are at your job and the better you push, the better the outputs are and the more uniqueness comes from them.[Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]For now, Coca-Cola is all-in with Fizzion. Since March of this year, every partner agency thats building a campaign is required to create it with a Fizzion Style ID. And the Coca-Cola team believes Fizzion is so efficient at handling design standards that its 400-page PDF guidelines will fall out of use. As for Adobe, its built a powerful design tool that, no doubt, many companies using its platform would benefit from. However, its also been designed to meet the gargantuan needs of Coca-Cola, meaning its probably too big and multitiered for many teams to adopt efficiently.Few companies are thinking on the scale as Coke is right now. So we need to take a future-forward look at this and figure out how its best applied, says King. We like to start with the use cases. We like to have something very concrete that a customer wants to do and then build backwards into what were [shipping].
In order to power Metas massive AI data center being built in northeastern Louisiana, the local utility company has proposed building three new natural gas power plants. Its a move that flies in the face of Metas climate commitments, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, wrote in a letter sent to Meta on Wednesday and shared exclusively with Fast Company.
The Senate committee is launching an inquiry into Facebook and Instagram’s parent company over this fossil fuel expansion, seeking information about how the move squares with Metas claims that it is currently net zero across its global operations, and its aim to reach net zero emissions across its value chain by 2030.
“Metas decision to power its data centers with fossil fuels while claiming net zero status is deeply troubling. This isnt leadershipits greenwashing. Families are already paying the price for climate inaction through higher insurance costs,” Whitehouse said in a statement to Fast Company. “Metas backslide from its own climate pledges risks triggering broader economic harm at a time when we urgently need corporate responsibility.
Metas mega AI data center
Metas forthcoming data center will be the companys largest, a $10 billion, four million square foot facility in Richland Parish, Louisiana. Meta expects construction to be complete in 2030, and has said it will play a vital role in accelerating our AI progress.
Meta is working on the project with the local utility provider, New Orleans-based Entergywhich has requested expedited state approval to build three combustion-turbine gas plants in order to generate 2,300 megawatts of electricity.
In a statement to Fast Company, Entergy said natural gas is the lowest reasonable cost option available that can support the 24/7 electrical demands of a large data center like Meta, and that neither solar or wind would provide enough reliable, around-the-clock energy. The site is also near Haynesville Shale, one of the most abundant natural gas shale plays in the United States. The Louisiana Public Service Commission is still reviewing Entergys proposal for the new gas plants.
Metas data center climate promises
As part of Metas climate commitments, the company has invested in both carbon removal and clean energy projects. It says it will continue this work amid the Louisiana data center project and its need for three new natural gas plants.
Entergys new natural gas generators are expected to come online between 2028 and 2029. Entergy says future upgrades to those generators could incorporate carbon capture. Meta says it’s exploring carbon capture technology at an Entergy power plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and that its working with Entergy to bring at least 1,500 megawatts of new renewables to the grid.
In 2024, Meta announced a solar farm project in Louisiana with electricity company RWE that will provide 374 megawatts of power. The company says that since 2020, it has offset its global electricity use by buying renewable energy portfolios to “match” its own electricity consumption, and that it will do the same with the new Louisiana data center.
The EPW Committees concerns
The Environment and Public Works (EPW) committees inquiry says these moves are vague and offer little reassurance about the data centers climate impact.
Meta has not shown that the planned generation from its solar plant will match its data center electricity load and displace equivalent fossil fuel generation. Neither Entergy nor Meta have disclosed details about the carbon capture project or the amount of Metas financial contribution, raising doubt as to whether Meta is meaningfully offsetting its emissions, Whitehouses letter reads. And Metas construction of new gas plants risks locking in future fossil fuel assets; a responsible corporate actor would show how these plants will be soon phased out or equipped with carbon capture.
These gaps, he adds, raise concerns that Metas commitment to achieving net zero emissions is not genuine.
Through its inquiry, the EPW is requesting various documents from Meta, including analyses and calculations about the data centers expected energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions; Metas intended carbon capture funding (and whether it’s contributing to a new carbon capture project or an existing one); details on how much carbon the company will remove from the atmosphere; and if Meta will install carbon capture at these new gas-fired plants.
Its also seeking data to support Entergys assertion that natural gas is the only power option, and justifications for why renewables with battery storage weren’t a feasible alternative. The inquiry also asks for analysis to show whether all of Metas actionsthe new gas plants, solar capacity, and carbon capturealign with the companys net zero goals.
Whitehouse has requested responses by May 28, and though Meta is not legally required to reply, the inquiry puts added public pressure on the data center projectwhich has already received scrutiny from environmental and consumer protection advocates.
The broad impact of AI data centers
Though coal is considered the dirtiest fossil fuel, natural gas comes with its own environmental harms. Burning natural gas emits carbon dioxide, and, when it leaks out of pipes before it’s burned, it emits methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas. In 2022, burning natural gas for energy accounted for 35% of the countrys total energy-related CO2 emissions, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Scientists and environmental experts have urged the U.S. to reduce its reliance on natural gas, even as demand for it has grown in recent years. The increasing use of AI, which will require new energy sources, is only adding to that demand.
The surge in AI also poses a risk to the energy grid, and could raise Americans’ energy bills. Entergys planned fossil fuel expansion for Meta’s Louisiana data center could put local utility customers at risk of absorbing hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, of additional costs, one energy consultant told Business Insider.
AI requires massive amounts of energy to operate, and if those energy demands outstrip what the grid can provide, residents will likely see both higher energy costs and more risks of outages. Utility customers across the country have already seen these impacts, as well as increased demands on the grid. In Oregon, residential rates have increased 50% in the past five years in part because the state is the fifth largest market for data centers in the nation.
Some say the lack of renewable energy exacerbates this issue. Entergy Louisiana has almost no renewable power in its system, per a recent Floodlight article; at the same time, financial consulting firms have projected a 90% increase on electricity prices for Entergy customers between 2018 and 2030.
The Trump administration has also hampered renewable energy by slashing funding and shutting down projects under development, even though experts say wind and solar are the cheapest and fastest sources of new energy to deploy. (Meta donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugurationpart of a wave of Big Tech companies appealing to the administrationand Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hosted an inauguration party for the president.)
Senator Whitehouse recently introduced legislation, called the Clean Cloud Act, that would set emissions performance standards for data centers, and also use their revenue to help consumers save on utility bills.
Like other famous structures of similar dimensions, the 48-story Transamerica Pyramid, a revolutionary 70s modernist skyscraper and San Francisco icon, has a bit of history buried beneath its ground floor.
[Photo: Nils Huenerfuerst/Unsplash]
A recently unearthed time capsule, buried in 1974 and discovered during a recent round of renovations, offers a picture of San Francisco’s past. The site of the structurethen a parking lotwas initially part of the original shoreline of the city that reeked of historical significance, from the citys growth as a shipping and banking capital. The capsule even contains a recipe for Pisco Punch, a cocktail that was invented at the nearby Bank Exchange Saloon, site of the citys original stock exchange.
[Photo: courtesy SHVO]
Part of an exhibit in the building lobby opening May 18, the time capsules contents are timeless: pictures of the buildings steel frame beginning to stretch skyward, or vintage news clippings and images of the city after its last 60s flowering. But within the cylindrical steel capsule, which looks a bit like a large propane tank, theres also a narrative about building in America, and how thats radically changed in the last 50 years.
[Photo: courtesy SHVO]
The battle over the permitting and construction of the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco from 1969 to 1972 offers a flashback to a different time in development, real estate, and construction. The tower was proposed and built in just three years, a sprint compared to the time it takes today to build a signature part of a city skyline. Construction alone for the One World Trade in New York City took eight years; the Comcast Tech Center in Philadelphia, which had issues with cracks in some of the steel frame, took five years; and the St. Regis in Chicago took four years. An analysis of high-rise buildings by Construction Physics found building speeds decreased significantly over the past century, in many cases extending the time it takes to finish by roughly 50%.
[Photo: courtesy SHVO]
Buildings are more complex and require more permitting today, including complicated environmental review processes. This time-consuming process of development has led to backlash against what opponents call stifling building regulations. It has also led to more engagement from architects around code reform issues including elevator rules and exit stairs, and the formation of the abundance agenda, a center-left push by pundits like Ezra Klein to get the nation building fast again.
The pace of the approval and the construction here is unbelievable, says developer Michael Shvo, who paid $650 million to acquire the Transamerica Pyramid in 2020, at the depths of the COVID office freeze.. The Mayor was very determined to get this thing approved, and Transamerica was very determined to get a building built, and with all the controversy, once they got the green light, they ran as fast as possible. They built it in two years, we couldnt do that today.
[Photo: courtesy SHVO]
A more humane debate
Transaerica was then a massive business conglomerate with interests in banking, financial services, and insurance. According to former public relations staffer John Krizek, who worked for Transamerica during the pyramids construction and ultimately created the time capsule, the back-and-forth between protestors and developers at the time was more humane, more respectable, and more amusing.
The conversation around the Transamerica Pyramid was, at the time, a larger debate about images, architecture, and aesthetics. The tower was not just a unique shape, but would tower above the skyline. It was to be the citys tallest building, and wouldnt be surpassed until 2018s Salesforce Tower.
[Photo: courtesy SHVO]
Artists and community members protested the building for aesthetic reasons, and general distrust of large corporations. Posters passed around the city at the time proclaimed San Francisco Gets the Shaft or Artists Against the Icicle. The citys then planning director called the pyramid, designed by architect William Pereira, inhumane.
[Photo: courtesy SHVO]
During early street protests in front of the companys office, Transamerica execs sent secretaries to bring ice tea to the protestors lining up outside. During another protest, Krizek and his colleagues printed up fake fortune cookies at a nearby Chinatown bakery, frantically stuffing messages like TransamericaNot a square outfit or People who protest pyramid seek Che-ops publicity.
Krizek recalled that the company was determined to break ground in December 1969. The building plan was announced in January of that year, and there was a tax break worth approximately $750,000 expiring at the end of December. Since Krizek and his coworkers knew that as soon as the company was given approval to build, there would be an appeal, they planned to move fast and break ground before paperwork was filed. To head off any challenges, they staged a tractor and truck near the site and sent someone to pick up the approval during the midday lunch break; they were able to get a time-stamped photo of someone digging at site while those opposing the project saw their appeal delayed as staffer enjoyed their lunch.
The emotions around this building, Ive never seen this for any other building in the world, says Shvo. The debates today are more practical; this structure will block my view or cast a shadow. You cant say that about this building, it was a pyramid designed to let the light down to the street level. It didnt block views, the only thing people could complain about was this idea of the Manhattanization of San Francisco.
Originally, Pereiras design was meant for a new building for ABC in New York City. The network passed on the project, deeming the design too futuristic, and went with another architects vision. Today, the Transamerica Pyramid stands as an icon in San Francisco, with 80% of the space leased in a challenging office market. The building ABC picked instead? Its since been demolished.
Students are still setting fire to their Chromebooks for TikTokand now they’re facing the consequences.
Fast Company first reported on the #ChromebookChallenge trend last week, following a series of school evacuations caused by students igniting laptop fires. The fires are started by inserting items such as pencils, paper clips, and pushpins into the charging ports of school-issued Chromebooks. This can cause the battery to overheat, potentially sparking a fire or explosion that releases toxic fumes.
The #ChromebookChallenge reportedly began in Connecticut and has since spread rapidly.
Newington High School was the first to evacuate students on May 1 after a laptop caught fire and the fire department was called. Since then, two students at Southington High School were arrested in connection with a separate laptop fire on May 7. The teens were charged with reckless burning, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, and second-degree breach of peace.
On May 8, a Plainville middle school student was hospitalized for smoke inhalation and is now facing criminal charges for deliberately causing the incident. That same day, Belleville High School in New Jersey was evacuated after a laptop fire started outside a classroom. Responding officers and firefighters found a charred Chromebook just outside the building. A 15-year-old student has since been charged with arson and criminal mischief.
The trend has spread westward: As of late last week, Denver Public Schools had received 30 reports of students attempting to ignite their laptops, according to Axios. The Colorado Springs Fire Department has reported at least 16 similar incidents.
With no sign of the trend slowing, schools across the countryincluding in California, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Washingtonhave issued warnings about the reckless challenge.
Parents and guardians are also being urged to talk to their children about fire safety and the dangers of blindly following social media trends.
A TikTok spokesperson tells Fast Company that it takes down content that violates the platforms Dangerous Activities and Challenges policy. The company is currently working closely with the National PTA to fund programs in high schools about online safety and civility.
In addition, searching for the term Chromebook challenge on TikTok brings up a safety warning: “Some online challenges can be dangerous, disturbing, or even fabricated,” it reads. “Learn how to recognize harmful challenges so you can protect your health and well-being.”
However, the trend is still circulating under other hashtags, such as #ChromebookDurabilityTest and #FStudent. Many of these videos go viral, garnering thousands of views and comments from fellow students and baffled adults. The clips often feature a sound bite from fitness podcaster Ben Azoulay: The F students are inventors, Azoulay says. Theyre so creative that they couldnt sit in class.
Now theyre sitting in jail cells.
Want to enjoy your job a little more? Maybe you need a BFF at work. According to Gallup, having a best friend at work increases job satisfaction, innovation, engagement, and productivity, and it decreases your chances of leaving the company. But can that friend ever be your boss?
You may think, If Im going to have a friend at work, shouldn’t it be the CEO? Why not go for the top and get the most benefits from the friendship? says Steve McClatchy, author of Leading Relationships: Build Meaningful Connections, Eliminate Conflict, and Radically Improve Engagement. Gallup is telling us that we should have a best friend at work, but it doesn’t say that best friend should be your boss.
Being friends with the boss is more complex than being buddies with a colleague. To understand the difference, McClatchy says you need to understand the definition of friendship.
Friendship is always working in each other’s best interest, he says. In that case, I would not ask my boss for an extra weekend vacation, because that wouldn’t be in the boss’s best interest. No matter how they walk that thin line with an employee who reports to them, they can always be accused of playing favorites, whether it’s true or not.
Being friends with an employee is a slippery slope for the boss, too. McClatchy compares it to the best player on the sports team being the coach’s favorite. The benefit of that friendship is a commitment to excellence, never letting that person down, and always having their back, he explains. But how do the rest of the teammates perform when one player is the favorite? You get extreme output from that one player, but if the output from the other players goes down, does it warrant that?
To determine the type of relationship you can have with your boss, McClatchy says its important to understand the levels of maturity within friendships.
Level 1: Acknowledging Each Other
The first level of friendship is acknowledging each other. This is the most basic stage of friendship, where we recognize being in the presence of someone we know. Its about making eye contact, greeting each other in an appropriate way, and responding to communication as expected.
While level one seems easy, McClatchy says your ego can get in the way. When you’re competing, your ego is your greatest asset, he says. It’s your greatest liability in relationships. If you’ve ever won or lost in a relationship, you don’t have one. The ego loves power, because it ensures survival.
When the ego feels bruised, microaggressions can get in the way at this level, such as withholding recognition, being passive-aggressive, or ignoring someone. If you cant achieve level one, the friendship has ended before it even began.
Level 2: Exchanging Facts and Honoring Agreements
The second level of maturity involves exchanging facts and honoring agreements. To be successful, you need to share information without twisting it to fit your agenda. You also need to do what you say you are going to do.
In an employee-employer relationship, the employee needs to live up to their agreements, which is their job description. If you fail to follow through, you need to acknowledge it and apologize. McClatchy calls this level trust in action, and it can get tricky with boss friendships.
In addition, bosses sometimes need to break agreements, and they may not feel a need to apologize because theyre used to having power. Before you call somebody a friend, make sure they follow through on what they say they’re going to do. And if they break their commitments, they should be able to swallow their ego and apologize. If the relationship fails at level two, McClatchy says it is not an essential relationship, and you should revert to having only level-one interactions.
Level 3: Sharing Opinions
The third level is where you can lose a relationship if you or the other person are not mature enough to see the world from a different perspective, says McClatchy.
Maturity is understanding that other people don’t see the world the same way you do, he says. Its understanding that opinions come from information and experience. I have opinions today that I didn’t have 10 years ago.
Friendships at this level mean you can disagree with someone and still respect them as a person. It also means you can seek to understand their opinion, explain your own opinion, and discuss how the difference could impact your relationship. This can be problematic if your boss has a my-way-or-the-highway approach to leading.
If the relationship fails at level three, McClatchy recommends keeping interactions to level two: sticking to small talk and avoiding triggering topics.
Level 4: Strengths and Weaknesses
People like to play to their strengths and work around their weaknesses. In friendship, that means being willing to do that for another person, says McClatchy.
No one likes to be criticized or have their weaknesses pointed out, he says. Admitting mistakes is uncomfortable and puts the ego on high alert. The egos job is to meet your needs. The problem is when someone cant admit when they need help or input. If you cant learn from the people around you, you will not achieve the fourth level of friendship maturity.
Failure at level four includes denying or blaming someone else for your mistakes, not apologizing when you should, or withholding positive feedback. If level four cannot be achieved, McClatchy says youll need to stick to the previous levels.
Level 5: Understanding Motivations
The fifth level of interaction is when you understand what motivates and demotivates another personand you use this information in their best interest.
I understand your goals, your aspirations, your values, and I use that information to help you to benefit from you, says McClatchy. This is what a best friend is all about. This is somebody who’s going out of their way, and they care as much about your success as they do their own.
You cannot get to level five with somebody and not consider them a friend; it’ll happen by default, says McClatchy. However, its difficult to get to level-five maturity with your boss because you have to navigate a direct-reporting relationship.
The power structure can’t be ignored, says McClatchy. When I’m the boss, I determine your raise and pay promotions. Right now, when I say something funny, you laugh a little harder. You’re getting a paycheck. I don’t know where the friendship begins and where the power structure ends.
If you somehow get to level five and a strong friendship emerges with your boss, McClatchy says its best to figure out a way to get rid of the power structure so you can enjoy your friendship and the business benefits from you not reporting to each other.
We rarely get to 100% trust, confidence, and maturity at work, says McClatchy. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t know what it is. As you explore your relationships, think about acknowledgment and recognition, facts and agreements, opinions, strengths and weaknesses, and motivation. The key is that they’re all about treating others with respect and dignity, whether youre best friends or not.
Around a decade ago, Chad Dale watched as some of his friends started to leave Seattle. They wanted to stay in an urban environment, but the city was too expensive for them to have all the things that they wanted to have, Dale says.
His friends who were beginning to have kids wanted backyards and guest rooms for visiting in-laws; they looked for single-family houses in the suburbs. But Dale, a developer, wondered whether there could be a different solution. What if he and several friends joined together to build their own apartment buildingand all lived in the same place?
[Photo: Andrew Storey/courtesy Johnston Architects]
Some friends had already bought a vacation home together on nearby Whidbey Island, and they liked the sense of community there. That house, with a single bathroom used by eight people, wasnt designed for communal living. But Dale realized that it would be possible to construct a new building based on the values that they shared.
He and his wife, along with 10 other familiesincluding two from the Whidbey Island projectstarted plotting what the development could look like. They decided to build apartments in a range of sizes, from 500 square feet to 2,000 square feet, based on what each family needed. They also wanted to include 24 units that could be rented out to others. And the development would be filled with shared space.
[Photo: Andrew Storey/courtesy Johnston Architects]
When they found a lot for sale in Seattles Phinney Ridge neighborhood, they also bought a full-size lot next door to use as a huge yard for all of their children. Everybody shares in the cost of that through rents, Dale says. But more importantly, theres a betterment that happens because there are other kids there. Youre not bummed that youre sharing, youre happythe experience is improved.
The building, completed in 2023, has several other shared spaces that go beyond what a typical apartment building offers. A huge rooftop deck includes a large greenhouse with dining tables inside and a firepit outside. (The building, appropriately, is named Shared Roof.) Theres a guest suite that residents can use for visitors. A soundproof room is designed for kids to practice drums or play in bands. An on-site gym goes beyond a standard shared fitness room to include the best equipment; the building financed that effort by renting the space to personal trainers, so its used by the outside community as well as residents.
[Photo: Andrew Storey/courtesy Johnston Architects]
Residents also share resources like tools. The goal is to live together and then determine what else we want to share, says Dale. Weve talked about everything from electric bikes to a pickup truck. If you use the pickup truck three times a year, it’s not worth it. And it’s annoying when you have to go rent from U-Haul. But if you have 35 groups using it three times a year, then maybe it makes sense.
[Photo: Andrew Storey/courtesy Johnston Architects]
The friends wanted to make the building as sustainable as possible, and its now on track to get LEED Platinum certification, the highest rating from the green building platform. Solar panels mounted over the roof double as a canopy for the deck space. The building has heat pumps and ventilation systems that recover energy, along with energy-saving electric heat pump dryers.
On the ground floor, Dale worked to find new businesses that would add to the neighborhooda bakery, a tap room for a brewery, a wine shop, and an Italian restaurant. The retail space surrounds a courtyard thats open to the public.
[Photo: Andrew Storey/courtesy Johnston Architects]
From the outside, it looks like a fairly standard apartment building. Inside, its clearly different: The friends who invested in the project each made their own choices about how they wanted their own apartment to look. None of theunits stack, says David Fuchs, principal at Johnston Architects, which designed the building. They’re all different shapes and sizes. Inside, everyone got to choose from several different finishes, so the apartments are unique.
The financial arrangement is also unique. “We realized very early that if youre going to ask people who could otherwise be purchasing their own piece of property to live in an environment like this, then you also need to provide a way for them to be an investor, because oftentimes thats a significant component of their retirement income or of their nest egg, Dale says. So we came up with the solution to allow folks to be investors as well as tenants.
They calculated that the return from the investment could potentially be similar to the return from owning and selling a single-family home. Three outside investors also joined the project without planning to live on-site.
[Photo: Andrew Storey/courtesy Johnston Architects]
Each of the original families had the option to invest as much as they wanted in the project; the final investments ranged from $50,000 to millions. Because of that, it made sense to have the families pay market-rate rent and then separately earn investment income from the building. (Twenty percent of the other units are offered at a more affordable rate to moderate-income tenants, through a city program that offers a tax break to developers who include affordable apartments.)
Initially, the concept was a tough sell to banks. “When we started, I was so excited about the idea that I’d go out and tell everybody, Look, we’ve got this crazy idea where we’re going to have tenants who are also owners, Dale says. “And for the most part, I just got blank stares from the groups that I was trying to get financing from, like, ‘What the hell are you talking about?'”
[Photo: Andrew Storey/courtesy Johnston Architects]
He realized that he needed to explain it differently: An LLC owns the building, and the LLC has members, as in most apartment buildings. The difference is that some of the members are also tenants.
Starting with a core group of longtime friends as tenants transformed the feeling of the building. “The people who live here now treat each other wildly differently than in a typical apartment building,” he says. “They treat the building differently. And then that all rubs off to the people who aren’t [investors] as well. Walking around in this space, people are happier. They’re engaged with each other.”
Apartment living is underrated, Dale says. If someone wants social interaction, it’s immediately available. If something breaks, the building manager can deal with it instead of the tenant. “In the U.S., we’ve got a funny way of idolizing single-family homeownership,” he says. “Apartment living is pretty incredible. In terms of function and livability, it’s actually maybe the best way to live, particularly when you’re in an environment where there are other people that you enjoy being around.”
Knowing the calorie content of foods does not help people understand which foods are healthier, according to a study I recently coauthored in the Journal of Retailing. When study participants considered calorie information, they rated unhealthy food as less unhealthy and healthy food as less healthy. They were also less sure in their judgments.
In other words, calorie labeling didnt help participants judge foods more accurately. It made them second-guess themselves.
Across nine experiments with more than 2,000 participants, my colleague and I tested how people use calorie information to evaluate food. For example, participants viewed food items that are generally deemed healthier, such as a salad, or ones that tend to be less healthy, such as a cheeseburger, and were asked to rate how healthy each item was. When people did not consider calorie information, participants correctly saw a big gap between the healthy and unhealthy foods. But when they considered calorie information, those judgments became more moderate.
In another experiment in the study, we found that asking people to estimate the calorie content of food items reduced self-reported confidence in their ability to judge how healthy those foods wereand that drop in confidence is what led them to rate these food items more moderately. We observed this effect for calories but not for other nutrition metrics such as fat or carbohydrates, which consumers tend to view as less familiar.
This pattern repeated across our experiments. Instead of helping people sharpen their evaluations, calorie information seemed to create what researchers call metacognitive uncertainty, or a feeling of I thought I understood this, but now Im not so sure. When people arent confident in their understanding, they tend to avoid extreme judgments.
Because people see calorie information so often, they believe they know how to use it effectively. But these findings suggest that the very familiarity of calorie counts can backfire, creating a false sense of understanding that leads to more confusion, not less. My coauthor and I call this the illusion of calorie fluency. When people are asked to judge how healthy a food item is based on calorie data, that confidence quickly unravels and their healthiness judgments become less accurate.
Why it matters
These findings have important implications for public health and for the businesses that are investing in calorie transparency. Public health policies assume that providing calorie information will drive more informed choices. But our research suggests that visibility isnt enough, and that calorie information alone may not help. In some cases, it might even lead people to make less-healthy choices.
This does not mean that calorie information should be removed. Rather, it needs to be supported with more context and clarity. One possible approach is pairing calorie numbers with decision aids such as a traffic light indicator or an overall nutrition score, which both exist in some European countries. Alternatively, calorie information about an item could be accompanied by clear reference points explaining how much of a persons recommended daily calories it contains (though this may be challenging because of how widely daily calorie needs vary).
Our study highlights a broader issue in health communication: Just because information is available doesnt mean its useful. Realizing that calorie information can seem easier to understand than it actually is can help consumers make more informed, confident decisions about what they eat.
What still isnt known
In our studies, we found that calorie information is especially prone to creating an illusion of understanding. But key questions remain.
For example, researchers dont yet know how this illusion interacts with the growing use of health and wellness apps, personalized nutrition tools, or AI-based food recommendations. Future research could look at whether these tools actually help people feel more sure of their choicesor just make them feel confident without truly understanding the information.
Deidre Popovich is an associate professor of marketing at Texas Tech University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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