Healthcare professionals tend to have many pairs of scrubs, and those scrubs can get worn out, especially with frequent washing. Or maybe some scrubs just arent the right fit, style, or comfort level anymore. Instead of tossing those in the trash, scrubs company Figs is launching a new recycling program to give old scrubs a second life.
Its the latest take-back program in partnership with SuperCircle, a recycling management company that has worked with J. Crew, Reformation, Parachute, and other brands to help keep textiles out of landfills.
Called Scrubs That Dont Suck, the circularity initiative will collect old, used, worn out, or simply uncomfortable scrubs from any brand (just launder them first, please). Figs says the idea came from their community members, who said they often have old, boxy, itchy scrubs in the back of their closet, and they’re just not sure what to do with them, says Figs’ Chief Marketing Officer Bené Eaton. Some workplaces give out scrubs, and nursing schools can require students to wear scrubs from specific brands, so healthcare workers can amass a collection.
[Photo: Figs]
People who want to send in their old scrubs can get a prepaid shipping label from Figs, or they can drop them off in person at Figs community hub locations in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Through April, for the launch of the program, customers who recycle their scrubs will get a $50 credit toward a Figs purchase; after that, theyll get a $25 credit. (Figs scrub tops start at $38, and bottoms at $44; the apparel company did more than $555 million in net revenue over 2024.)
Those sent-in scrubs will either be fiber-to-fiber recycled, meaning the fibers will be turned into new fabrics, or open-loop recycled, meaning theyll be shredded and processed for housing insulation, carpet matting, and other uses. While all textiles are still somewhat difficult to recycle, certain fibers, like 100% cotton, have “more robust” recycling outcomes, says SuperCircle cofounder and CEO Chloe Songer.
Assuming scrubs follow broad apparel recycling trends, she estimates 40% will go to fiber-to-fiber recycling, and 60% to open loop. We only work with projects that extend the life of the fiber at least five years, she adds. That way, those textiles arent being turned into items like rags that may just end up in landfills within a year or two.
Textile waste is a massive environmental issue. In the U.S. alone, people throw out an estimated 11.3 million tons of textiles annually. The majority of clothing ends up in landfills after only one owner. Its difficult to nail down specific statistics on scrubs; people do donate them to secondhand stores or set up groups to trade scrubs. But scrubs are a high frequency wear item, Songer notes, meaning they get washed frequently and generally get dirty and worn. Scrubs that may be especially shabby, poor quality, or stained may not be a good fit for donation.
The biggest point of feedback weve had is that our community has collected, for years, these really poor, ill-fitting pieces of apparel, and so they end up sort of being stuck with them, Eaton says. In April 2024, Figs did a one-month pilot of a scrubs take-back program to test out a solution. That pilot collected 45,000 pounds of scrubs. Its a great indicator in terms of what the long-term impact can be, she adds. With this launch, Figs take-back program is now permanent.
The focus on circularity also fits into Figs’s broader sustainability goals; the brand aims to have at least 75% of its scrub fabric be made of recycled and upcycled materials by 2030. Currently, its “Indestructible” scrubwear line, launched in 2024, uses 54% recycled polyester.
Scrubs can be made up of different materials; some may be cotton, others polyester, and many are a blend. SuperCircle uses near-infrared spectroscopy, or NIR, technology, which uses infrared light to identify a textiles makeup. Then it can catalogue and sort those different textiles, and send them off to the right recycling facilities. Scrubs are good candidates for apparel recycling because many don’t have zippers or buttons that can complicate the recycling process.
For textile recycling to work, Songer says, it needs scale; SuperCircle ships its material to recyclers 40,000 pounds at a time. Collecting scrubs will help SuperCircle scale and ramp up its overall textile recycling volume. This will be the first time that were getting post-consumer scrubs into textile recycling outcomes, she says. This partnership, though, is just scratching the surface of medical apparel waste, she adds; SuperCircle hopes to continue working with the medical industry more widely to help divert items like hospital gowns and linens from landfills.
At Visas ETA Transact event on April 3, the payments giant introduced three new products designed to simplify and secure payment acceptance. These innovationsAuthorize.net 2.0, Unified Checkout, and the ARIC Risk Huball aim to enhance efficiency and fraud protection for businesses navigating an increasingly complex commercial landscape.
By integrating the three new tools, Visa seeks to service businesses end to endfrom integrating with existing platforms to accepting more payments, reducing checkout friction, and managing risk efficiently.
Visa is looking to wherever appropriate to invest in next-generation technologies and uplift our products, says Rob Cameron, global head of Visa Acceptance Solutions.
Authorize.net 2.0
A major overhaul of one of the first internet platforms for e-commerce payments, Authorize.net 2.0 enhances the user experience while connecting businesses with banks and merchant acquirers across the United States. New AI-driven tools further enhance the platform by automating tasks and optimizing payment strategies. Businesses can now issue invoices simply by speaking to Authorize.net, which will generate the invoice, locate the customer, and prepare the invoice for sendingeliminating manual entry.
Subscription-based businesses, such as tutoring services, will benefit from the platforms streamlined setup to accept payments and then charge customers on a recurring basis. This saves time and allows small-business owners to operate more efficiently, Cameron says.
Unified Checkout
Unified Checkout is Visas next-generation solution for online payments, designed to create a seamless experience for merchants and customers that reduces lost sales at the checkout point. By automatically adapting the checkout page to match a businesss website, the system ensures a consistent look and feel while improving security.
Itll look at your existing website, and then itll configure a checkout page so it looks like youre still in the same environment, even though weve insulated the website from the credit card data and all the things that websites dont actually want for security, Cameron says.
Businesses can customize the checkout button order based on insights, prioritizing payment methods like Apple Pay to match customer preferences. With 25 out-of-the-box, different payment types, including Klarnas buy now, pay later services, the system helps reduce cart abandonment by ensuring customers find their preferred payment method.
The platform also enhances customer retention through tokenization, allowing returning customers to shift from guest checkout to remember me next time for a smoother purchasing experience.
ARIC Risk Hub
Visas 2024 acquisition of Featurespace led to the development of ARIC (adaptive, real-time, individual, change identification) Risk Hub, a fraud-detection and risk-management tool that enhances acquirers ability to monitor risk and protect merchants. Featurespace’s powerful, adaptive AI helps identify risky transactions and builds profiles around genuine customer activity to increase approvals and stop bad actors in real time.
This system enables dynamic settlement, meaning businesses can receive payments based on risk assessments.
If I decide youre low risk, maybe Ill decide to settle you instantly and Ill give you money right away, Cameron says, noting that for higher-risk businessessuch as those selling furniture that wont be delivered for monthsreserves can be adjusted dynamically.
The platforms ongoing monitoring allows financial institutions to approve more merchants up front. Without it, strict barriers are needed to block risky merchants. However, by continuously analyzing transactions and merchant behavior, acquirers can make smarter decisions over time. Cameron says this can ultimately boost revenue by increasing approval rates.
Additionally, ARIC Risk Hub provides fraud prevention through acquirer-backed monitoring services. If a merchant receives a suspicious order, the system can detect risks and issue a warning, which, Cameron notes, allows acquirers to actually provide monitoring services to protect their merchants.
Walking around the factory floor of Twincraft Skincare, outside Burlington, Vermont, there is the unmistakable scent of soap. The general manager points out the luxury lines and designer labels for whom they manufacture soaps and lotions, as well as the basic, inexpensive bars and bottles left on hotel room sinks. The factory runs two 10-hour shifts per day, four days a week, with an overtime option as needed. At over 400 employees, Twincraft is one of the top employers in the state.
In the last few years, theres been a boom in skincare products and, to meet demand, Michele Asch, Twincrafts chief people officer, says theyve had to hire over 180 people over the past 18 months.
But, pre-pandemic, Asch had begun to notice a problem in hiring workers: People couldnt find local childcare. One standout employee, she recalls, spent an hour driving each morning to drop her kids off in two different towns before driving to workthough she lived only 15 minutes away.
In 2020, Asch met with Aly Richards, the director of Lets Grow Kids, the organization responsible for spearheading the decade-long campaign to provide a comprehensive fix for the states childcare shortage. Via Zoom, Asch recalls asking, Aly, we make skincare. Cant I just pay into a system so we can get this childcare fixed?
But fixed isnt so simple for childcare. Childcare is an industry in crisis, where the demand is high, the supply is low, and market forces alone cannot correct it. The high teacher-to-student ratios required for childcare mean that parents pay high costsoften more than they can reasonably affordwhile providers are compensated little. Many providers rely on public benefits or are unable to afford sending their own children to the childcare locations in which they work. Like Aschs employee who had to drive an hour to find care, half of the country is living in childcare deserts, where no workable care options exist.
Vermont is in a deep demographic crisis now, says Richards. With a dwindling and aging population, Vermont was losing potential workers and the tax base that accompanies it. Many women with education and careers would work if they had access to affordable childcare. And if businesses, like Twincraft, wanted to stay, grow, and manufacture products in the state, they needed to find a way to retain young employees and bring new ones in.
Richards appointed Asch to the board of Lets Grow Kids and to the CEO Task Force, a group assigned to devise a funding plan for childcare that business leaders in the state could get behind, facilitated by a former state tax commissioner. Initially, the task force was adamantly against a payroll tax to finance childcare. But after exploring every funding optionincluding an income tax and property taxthe payroll tax emerged as the solution that checked every box, according to Asch. A payroll tax allowed the payment burden of the childcare program to be placed on workers, not retirees. As more people took advantage of the program and went to work, the revenue stream would grow.
Asch began speaking one-on-one with business leaders on the need to invest in childcare. She personally invited other manufacturing leaders in the state to meet with Richards, vet the proposal, and ask any and all pointed questions. The Twincraft conference room was filled with business leaders of Vermonts most recognizable brands: Bag Balm, Runamok Maple, Birrn Chocolates, Vermont Creamery, Lake Champlain Chocolates, Burton’s Snowboard, and Mamava.
Those peer-to-peer conversations were critically important, explains Richards, because you have a trusted business partner running a successful business. They can literally say, Ive studied this deeply with my values and my prowess and Im here to tell you, [this] is the deal with childcare in summary form.
‘Childcare is necessary infrastructure for doing business’
Childcare has long been a social policy issue without a designated home. It is part education, part parenting, part economicsas obstacles to childcare remain one of the top reasons that parents cannot access paid work. Even in message testing surrounding childcare, arguments about the economic and workforce benefits are considered the most persuasive. Data from Lets Grow Kids and the University of Vermont estimated that with the additional childcare funds in the state, 5,000 additional parents could participate in Vermonts workforce, and by parents paying less for care and receiving more income as wage-earners, and providers receiving more, there would be a $375 million annual boost to the states economy due to such influx.
Aschs biggest challenge wasnt that her business colleagues disagreed with the need for childcare, but that they didnt fully understand why this state-organized effort funded by the payroll tax was the proposed solution. Once they understood [the childcare plan] they would enthusiastically or reluctantly support it, she said. I dont pay individually to have our roads done. I pay into a system to have the trucks come in to pick up the soap. [Childcare] is necessary infrastructure for doing business.
In January of 2023, Vermonts business leaders testified in support of the childcare legislation, now named Act 76, in front of the states Senate Economic Development Committee, both for the need for childcare to support their employees and hire more, and to show their willingness to shoulder the payroll tax that accompanied it. Cara Tobin, a chef and mother of two whod opened the restaurant Honey Road in Burlington and become a James Beard finalist, testified that it was easier to open a restaurant than find childcare. Tobin was one of 10 business leaders who testified in support of Act 76, including a cross-section of business interests of the state: a solar company, an entrepreneur, a ski resort, and, of course, manufacturers.
In June 2023, the legislation passed with bipartisan support, and after a veto from the governor, passed with a bipartisan veto override. The payroll tax took effect in July 2024: 0.44% split between employees (0.11%) and employers (0.33%). Some employers, Twincraft among them, have opted to cover the entire tax for their workers. In January 2024, childcare providers began seeing a change in compensation, and since the legislation has taken effect, childcare supply has boomed in the state: 90 new childcare programs have opened, with a net gain of 1,000 new childcare spots. For the first time since 2018, more childcare programs have opened in the state than closed.
Asch has noticed that more of her employees can find chidcare closer to where they work, and have more affordable options and therefore less stress, she said. Shes exploring opening a childcare center adjacent to Twincraft.
Tobins youngest child went to kindergarten when Act 76 took effect; she hasnt been able to personally take advantage of the program, but her restaurant employees have. I see it working for other people for sure, Tobin said. This completes the circle: You are supporting your workers who can make money, then spend money in the community, and it keeps coming back around. When we support the community, they support us.
Ikea’s new collection is all about accessibility.
The furniture maker’s new Bäsingen collection, which is available this month, includes six items for the bathroom that the company designed to be easy to use for people with disabilities: a shower chair, two kids of stools with rails, a towel rail, a shower shelf, and a toilet roll holder. The products range from about $12 to about $39.
The collection was designed to be sturdy and non-slippery, with tube handles on the stools and that are thick for an easy grip. The dark color for the products in the collections was also chosen so the items would be easily visible, but stylish enough so to be something you’d want to keep out in view, Ikea says.
Sarah Fager, Ikea’s senior designer, said she started working on the Bäsingen collection “by wanting to learn more about the needs and wishes of people with physical limitations.” She said it was one of her most challenging design projects “because it was about meeting needs that were new to me,” but it was also one of her most enlightening.
“The products were created to bring great functionality together with a beautiful design, as they have a minimalistic expression that is rooted in our Scandinavian design tradition,” she said. “Bäsingen is designed to help customers create a comfortable experience.”
At least 61 million U.S. adults have at least one disability, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows. Some may have more requirements than the average user for household products, like stools with handles they can hold onto for stability for safety in the bathroom or shower.
Global sales of assistive furniture reached an estimated $4.93 billion in 2024, according to data from Fact.MR, a market research firm. And Ikea isn’t the only furniture maker that’s designing for accessibility. Last year, Pottery Barn added optional, accessible features to three of its most popular furniture lines. Ikea released Omtänksam, a collection of ergonomic products for comfort and support in 2020.
There are many people who experience impactful and common circumstantial changes that can make something as simple as taking a shower challenging, Ikea product design developer Watts Zijlstra said in a statement. Yet, we see that the home environment is often not equipped for change. The starting point for Bäsingen was a clear need for specific product functions.
In HBOs hit show Succession, patriarch Logan Roy pitted his children against each other for the top spot of leading his media conglomerate. Those whove seen the show will know how it ends, but what if he took a different route? What if he established a collaborative, multi-generational leadership team to guide Waystar RoyCo into the future? Granted, it would have made for far less dramatic tension (and probably fewer award wins) for the show. But for Roys shareholders, it wouldve been a smarter move in a rapidly changing media industry.
Succession planning is a non-negotiable principle for any thriving organization, yet its also one of the hardest to get right.
And in todays volatile, fast-changing environment, proactive planning is even more critical. There are relentless technological disruptions, and diversity initiatives are under scrutiny. For the first time in history, five generations will work side-by-side in offices around the world. These dynamics present unique challenges for maintaining growth and stability.
For CEOs, whose average age is 59, the following questions are critical: Are they equipped to engage Gen Z employees and the subsequent generation? Are they prepared to lead in an AI-driven world?
Without support, the honest answer is often no. Last year, the Financial Times reported that a record number of CEOs stepped down due to investor pressures, technological disruptions, and underperforming markets. All of these factors are making the role harder than ever.
After years of thought, I recently decided to appoint a new CEO for our U.K. and European business. It was a bold move as we skipped a few generations. But he was ready to take the reins after a lot of training, learning, and success. So far, its working. In a very short period, our business already feels more energized, agile, innovative, and resilient.
Heres how you can create the same momentum for your business.
Build an open culture of multi-generational learning
By the time Generation Alpha enters the workforce, five generations will be working together in a single workplace. Rather than seeing this as a challenge, treat it as an opportunity. Harnessing multi-generational perspectives fosters creativity, improves decision-making, and strengthens collaboration across teams.
To align generational differences, encourage multi-generational open learning. For example, you could introduce mentoring schemes that encourage a two-way flow of ideas and perspectives between senior and junior staff, rather than solely top-down programs.
Balancing continuity with the pursuit of innovation is the leadership challenge of our times. A multi-CEO model with age diversity might just be the way to navigate it. A diverse suite of leaders can help bridge the gaps between generations because it creates a synergy that benefits employees, clients, and organizational growth.
Identify and support the right successors from each generation
Finding qualified leaders has always been a challenge, and todays hyper-disruptive business environment has only made it more difficult. From tech to media, industries undergoing transformation need leaders who can navigate complexity and disruption, even though it may be the first time theyve done it.
You might be wondering whether you should promote internally or hire from the outside. My view is clear, and its that home-grown works best. Ive tried both, and in our type of business, growing a successor over time always seems to work better than bringing in someone from outside.
Once youve identified a potential successor, help them rise with a development plan that gets them to the top job. Theyll have plenty of opportunities to succeed and fail along the way. By observing how they handle these moments, you build confidence in your choice.
Just be aware that high-performing employees will have their choice of job offers, so you need to figure out how you can incentivize them to stay. Twice, Ive developed successors only to have them leave for competitors. Losing these experts can be costly and immensely frustrating.
A multi-generational C-suite acts as a safety net, retaining these individuals while equipping them with the tools and mentorship they need to continue excelling.
Act now to prepare for the future
The best time to think about your succession strategy is now. Tomorrows leaders need opportunities to observe, contribute, and think collectively about the decisions, products, and services that will define your organization in three to five years.
Invite emerging leaders to share their opinions and take on increased responsibility. Encourage them to collaborate across generations. By empowering future leaders today, you foster innovation and resilience for the years ahead.
Succession wasnt just the heart of a TV drama; its a real-life leadership challenge. For business owners, Logan Roys missteps offer a cautionary tale. Procrastination and neglecting to nurture a diverse pool of future leaders are risks that no organization can afford.
A multi-generational leadership pipeline isnt just an asset; its a necessity in an environment defined by rapid transformation and complexity. Developing new leaders while leveraging the expertise of seasoned executives positions your business to weather disruptions and capitalize on opportunities.
Dont wait. Start building a forward-thinking succession strategy today and ensure that your organization is ready for tomorrows challenges. A dynamic, multi-generational C-suite can secure your place as a disruptor, not the disrupted.
In todays turbulent economic climate, theres an intense pressure to perform. Organizations are exploring new business models and ways of working to accelerate growth and stay competitive. Boards and shareholders demand results, which pushes leadership teams to dial up their expectations. The term accountability has become a buzzword in discussions, but far too many misunderstand and misapply it.
When leaders talk about creating a culture of accountability, they often rely on shame and blame tactics. This approach might seem effective in the short term, but it ultimately undermines the culture leaders seek to build. Instead of motivating individuals to do more, it drives people to hide from responsibility.
Redefining accountability
The challenge is redefining accountability. How do you set clear, high-performance expectations and hold people to them without sliding into the counterproductive cycle of shaming and blaming? To create a culture of accountability that truly enhances performance, leaders need to think about accountability differently. That means moving away from coercion and blame to mutual responsibility and ownership, which empowers individuals to own their roles and contribute to the teams success.
Consider the case of a manufacturing company I worked with. Facing stiff competition and the need to innovate quickly, the companys executive team realized that the old ways of operating were no longer sufficient. Its traditional approach to accountability was stifling innovation and preventing the company from adapting to new market realities. The culture had to change from blame-focused to one where everyonefrom the top downfelt invested in the companys success and comfortable owning both their wins and their mistakes.
Leadership needed to break down accountability into the distinct behaviors they wanted to see: identifying the issues, claiming the issues as your own, and changing the outcomes. This approach made the change real and enabled leaders to work collaboratively to implement the new culture. Heres how:
1. Identify the issues: proactively ask for understanding
The first step to building accountability in the company was for leaders to help their teams see issues before they escalate. They brought this to life through scaled leader sprints, which were focused, short-term initiatives designed to instill key habits across the organization. This practice encouraged leaders to seek feedback from their teams and peers, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and transparency when team members felt safe to speak up.
Leaders also practiced how to pause before reacting to bad news. The simple act of taking a moment to consider the best response helped them approach problems with a clear mind, avoiding knee-jerk reactions that might discourage team members from raising concerns.
Lastly, this practice also taught leaders to invite perspectives by asking, How do you see it? rather than the more typical What do you think? This promoted open dialogue and the consideration of multiple viewpoints to understand the same problem. By cultivating these habits, the companys leaders focused more on inquiry, shifting active problem-solving to a collaborative process with the team.
2. Claim the issues as your own: embrace the outcomes
The second part of accountability for the company was about taking actions that delivered the most critical business outcomes. The company needed to train leaders to prioritize initiatives that had the highest impact on these goals, avoiding the trap of rewarding busy work that appeared productive but didnt contribute to organizational objectives.
Leaders practiced skills to evaluate their initiatives to concentrate on high-leverage actionsthose that would generate the most significant results with the least amount of wasted effort. That means setting the example of refocusing themselves on impactful actions (while stopping those that were mere activity) and then deliberately taking time in team meetings to review and reassess priorities. As a result, the leaders were able to develop a new muscle in themselves and their teams. The clarity on prioritizing the right actions over simply working harder energized the organization to continue to make the change.
3. Change the outcomes: measure and adapt
The company focused on evolving its key performance metrics to support these new priority outcomes. Leadership realized that if they tried to change behavior, yet continued to measure the same old actions, the change wouldnt stick. The company also needed to shift these key performance metrics to reflect whats more important or impactful as business priorities evolved, which required more flexibility and transparency from the leaders.
In this phase, the leaders moved to create a new dashboard, identifying the core metrics they were trying to accomplish that would tell them if they were moving the needle in response to competitive threats. They agreed to review the data quarterly and share what they learned with the organization. When the metrics moved in the right direction, there was a public celebration of the progress. And perhaps more importantly, when they didnt, the leaders engaged their teams in ideating how to adapt their actionsand what they were measuringrather than placing blame.
The new habits practiced in these three phases created visible early momentum, as the aura of shame and blame noticeably lifted. One team, for example, reduced the time that it took to get product updates to market. Their rapid prototyping test-review-fail program allowed them to experiment quickly, share learnings at weekly meetings, and fail without fear of reprisal. By shifting away from traditional views of accountability and embracing a more collaborative and trust-based approach, you can help your team achieve the high performance that current market conditions demand.
On March 1, hundreds of people gathered in Gardiner, Montana, at the northern entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The crowdwhich included residents from across the state and current and former public lands employeeswas part of a nationwide protest against the layoffs of federal workers.
Roughly 5% of National Park Service workers have been caught up in the sweeping layoffs carried out by Donald Trumps administration and Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency. This isnt counting the hundreds of others who are taking the fork in the road offer to resign from their positions. The staffing crisis facing national parks is felt not only within the federal workforce itself but also in gateway towns like Gardiner, where the economy depends heavily on Yellowstone.
There, under the Roosevelt Archnamed for President Theodore Roosevelt, who laid its cornerstone and is known for preserving over 230 million acres of public landprotesters shouted chants like Public lands in public hands! and Hey, ho, Trump and Musk have got to go. Organizers talked about what public lands mean to the local economy. The crowd even harmonized to Woody Guthries This Land Is Your Land.
The chaos and uncertainties that have come with Trumps executive actions reach all corners of the country and, as with the case of cutting funding to USAID, around the world. But Gardiner, perhaps like no other place, can be seen as an epicenter of loss following Trumps decisions. Shutting down federal funding through the Park Service could cripple the town.
Gardiner was established shortly after the park opened in 1872 to foster a symbiotic relationship that continues today. Yellowstone and Gardiner are inextricable. The western part of the towns public high school is technically inside the park, with local businesses, the Gardiner community library, and the chamber of commerce building all abutting the park boundary.
Gardiner is a company town and Yellowstone is the mill, said Richard Parks, who serves as the chair of the Gardiner Resort Area District. If somebody starts screwing with the mill, we have no choice but to be concerned.
In 2023, Yellowstone hosted 4.5 million visitors, contributing an estimated $828 million and 8,560 jobs to surrounding townships like Gardiner. Industries like rafting, horseback riding, guiding, and hospitality services are all booming subeconomies that depend on tourism to the park. Yellowstones foot traffic also provides bedrock funding to town infrastructure and community development through its resort taxa 3% charge on reservations during peak season, which has helped raise public dollars for things like updated water and sewer systems, bear-proof trash cans, and new fire engines.
The full extent to which federal firings, hiring freezes, and funding cuts will ripple throughout communities like Gardiner is still unclear, Parks said. We cant gauge the magnitude yet.
With more than 60% of the area surrounding Gardiner controlled by federal land management agencies, deficits to entities like the National Park Service, or NPS, and U.S. Forest Service are felt acutely by the community.
To Parks, the biggest question is whether Gardiner will have the traffic it needs to sustain itself this peak season. Removing hands, and expertise, from the entities that support and manage the park could degrade the experience for visitors, while news of the struggles could be enough to keep some travelers away entirely.
Its like playing Whac-a-Mole, said Parks. The uncertainty is a massive problem because you just dont know what kind of disaster to prepare for.
For Parks and other community members, the memory of 2022s devastating flood stokes worst-case scenario fears for what life could be like without the driving economic force of the park. The flood washed out 3 miles of road from Gardiner into the parks interior, severing the community from the park and barring public access for the entirety of peak season.
The slew of cancellations from the parks usual large volume of visitors caused cascading damages to locals who had already invested in the season. A study conducted after the flood found that communities like Gardiner whose park access was cut off lost 75% of their income on average. The findings, corroborated by a survey of townspeople, indicated that the flood exceeded the economic losses from the COVID-19 shutdown two years prior, resulting in a net loss of $156 million.
Cara McGary, a local wildlife guide who has been in Gardiner for over 10 years, said the flood significantly impacted her business. Now she is trepidatious about the money she has invested in permits and bookings for the upcoming season.
In Gardiner, everyone in some way is directly or indirectly dependent on the NPS, said McGary. I need federal workers on federal lands for my business to function.
McGary also underscored trickle-down effects that occur when the community is cut off from the park, like during the 2022 flood and another partial closure in 2018 and 2019 due to the 35-day government shutdown. Lack of access meant a lack of attendance to basic public lands infrastructure, leading to what McGary called a shituation, evoking scenes of overflowing pit toilets and trashed campgrounds. When that happened, volunteers throughout the community pitched in to maintain the integrity of the park that is their bread and butter.
Having a love for this place, whether that is working the land as a producer, ranger, hunter, visitor, or hikerits a value you cant put money on, said McGary. This place is held together by people who give a damn and everyone plays a critical role.
Disasters like that 500-year flood wont be so few and far between in the future, according to a Greater Yellowstone Climate Assessment led by researchers at Montana State University, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the University of Wyoming. The assessment was a first of its kind focusing on climate change impacts on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Cathy Whitlock, a co-author of the report, emphasized the ways in which climate change and its impacts will influence Yellowstone in years to come. She highlighted the increasing likelihood of high-profile disasters, but also the more gradual changes that could disrupt the ecosystem balance. In Yellowstone, projected changes are largely driven by rising temperatures and the reduction in snowpack, she said. Current trends including warming, less snow, more rain, earlier snowmelt, and drier summers are expected to continue.
According to Whitlock, every resource management decision for Yellowstone should consider the potential effects of climate change. The parks vegetation, lakes, streams, fish, and wildlife are all vulnerable.
The ecosystem will continue to experience climate change no matter who is in the White House. But our ability to monitor, adapt, and plan for environmental consequences will beat risk without sustained funding, Whitlock said.
On March 20, Mike Tranel, deputy superintendent for Yellowstone, gave an updated forecast for the season to the Gardiner Chamber of Commerce. He highlighted concerns over staffing, with layoffs resulting in a shortage of equipment operators, and people taking severance package offers leading to delays in hiring seasonal positions like entrance station workers.
Those are key people, said Tranel. The positions pay for themselves.
Although he did not specify, he also noted that the federal workforce reduction would likely cause effects behind the scenes, especially pertaining to scientific work on species like bears and wolves. Tranel said that the park was getting its full complement of seasonal workers, howeveran exception to the current federal hiring freezeand that the NPS remains confident it can pull off the upcoming peak season.We will do our best with the circumstances for the 4.75 million visitors, Tranel said.
Tourism to Yellowstone typically starts in March for the north entrance and ramps up by mid-April, when the west entrance road into the park opens. So far, Gardiner is experiencing a worrisome start, according to Chester Evitt, the owner of Mama Bears Armory, a local gunsmith and outdoor gear shop. Evitt said he has had only a handful of customers since January, forcing him to use his disability checks from his time as a combat veteran to pay the shop rent.
Evitt said that he and his family voted for Trump, but if he could take his vote back now he would.
Ive been alive for 11 presidents and I havent seen one that has been as destructive as this one, said Evitt. These cuts are affecting our little town more than the 500-year flood.
Evitt said that he tried to go to the local bank to get a loan to help him make it to May, but when he arrived, there were several other business owners there for the same reason. The bank told all of them that it couldnt offer any monetary assistance until things were more certain.
Back at the Roosevelt Arch, three weeks after the first protest, a committed band of locals again gathered to make their voices heardthis time braving sheets of wet snow and 30 mph winds. Richard Midgette, one of the protest organizers, was recently hired back as an IT specialist for Yellowstone after being let go as part of the probationary firings. But he remains frustrated and fearful, as NPS employees anticipate further payroll cuts.
Meanwhile, as Gardiner begins to wake up this spring, locals say they are open and ready for the season. The community is working diligently to navigate the chaos handed down to them from afar the best way they know howcontinuing to serve in the best interest of the park whose vitality is so closely tied to their own.
Its not about the money, its about the communitys psyche, said Evitt. Were hoping that despite the odds, we can survive.
Emily Senkosky, Grist
This article originally appeared in Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for its newsletter here.
QVC’s bringing its always-on home shopping network to a TikTok livestream near you.
The company announced Wednesday that it would host nonstop shopping livestreams on the app, the first of their kind on TikTok in the U.S. and part of a strategic agreement with the video-sharing platform, which is itself facing a critical moment. Its once-delayed ban is looming. But broadcast TV shopping needs to pivot to survive, and QVC sees TikTok as one of the best avenues to do that.
“QVC and HSN hosts have mastered live shopping moments for decades and we’re thrilled to bring this entertaining shopping experience to TikTok’s community,” TikTok Shop’s head of U.S. operations Nico Le Bourgeois said in a statement.
QVC Group, which runs the home shopping channels QVC and HSN, launched on TikTok Shop in 2024, but 24/7 live social shopping experiences represent a deeper push onto the app just days before it could go offline. TikTok could again be banned in the U.S. on Saturday if it doesn’t find a new American owner.
QVC Group says on television it reaches more than 200 million homes, but with live TV viewing in decline, it’s had to invest in other platforms to reach a new generation of shoppers. The company has its own QVC+ and HSN+ streaming services as well as accounts on social networking sites like TikTok, where it has nearly half a million followers. QVC says more than 74,000 creators on TikTok have featured their items in shoppable videos or livestreams since last August.
In some sense, TikTok and QVC’s UX are completely synergistic. The partnership retrofits the live, long-form linear tv format that made QVC famous in a context that’s familiar with young people today: an endless feed of people hawking goods. (TikTok videos are a less bite-sized as it is: uploaded videos can be up to 60 minutes long.)
The company claims that bringing its approach to sales on social at this scale will revolutionize the space. Citing its expertise putting on “large-scale, high-volume, live social shopping,” QVC Group president and CEO David Rawlinson II said in a statement the company will bring to the endeavor its lineup of celebrities, hosts, brands, and products.
“Our agreement will be a catalyst to transform shopping and discovery, not only for QVC Group and TikTok Shop, but also for social shopping at large,” he said. But first, they have to break-even. QVC Group ended Q4 with an almost $1.3 billion operating loss, and ended its year with an 8% drop in total revenue.
Social media companies have worked to grow their shopping capabilities, but social shopping hasn’t taken hold in the U.S. to the extent that it has in other countries. Social commerce accounted for nearly 30% of all e-commerce in China last year, compared to less than 6% in the U.S., according to data from eMarketer. If QVC can successfully translate its experience selling products on TV to a smaller screen, though, that figure could grow.
As of this year, EV chargers now outnumber gas pumps in the state of California.
The state has an estimated 178,000 shared chargers for electric carsnot counting another 700,000 private chargers that are installed in single-family homes, according to the California Energy Commission. Thats compared to roughly 120,000 gas pumps across the state.
The number of EV chargers nearly doubled since 2023, though part of the increase came from identifying charging stations that hadnt previously been counted. The official stats include both public chargers and those that are shared at workplaces or in apartment buildings.
Its still only a fraction of the number of chargers that are coming. By the most recent estimate, California will need around 1 million public and shared private chargers by 2030, enough to support the estimated 7 million light-duty electric vehicles that may be on the road by then. By 2035, when a rule requiring new vehicles to be electric will go into effectthe state could need more than 2 million shared EV chargers. (That’s assuming the rule survives Trump’s attempts to kill it.)
For drivers who own a house with a garage, charging overnight at home can easily cover most needs. Still, those drivers obviously need access to public chargers for longer trips. And around 45% of Californians are renters who dont have garages of their own. New building codes require new apartment buildings to make parking spaces EV ready, and also apply to existing parking spaces when older buildings are renovated or expanded. Renters also have the right to install chargers themselves when they have a designated parking space. The rules also require a certain number of parking spaces at motels and retail and commercial parking lots to be EV ready. “Retrofitting the existing stock of multifamily dwellings with chargers is a substantial challenge,” says Esther Conrad, a research manager at Stanford University who has studied the rollout of EV chargers.
Charging EVs takes substantially longer than filling up with gas, which is the main reason so why more charging ports are needed than gas pumpsboth in order to prevent bottlenecks at charging stations and because chargers are used in different places, from parking lots to street parking in cities. But as charging tech and vehicles improve, the total number of chargers that are needed is likely to shrink from current estimates, says Harrison Reilly, a spokesperson for the California Energy Commission. (In China, tech is already much farther ahead, with some new cars capable of charging in roughly as quickly as it takes to pump gas.) The state will publish a new estimate of charging needs later this year.
For the moment, Reilly says, there are enough chargers to support the number of light-duty EVs that are on California roads. That’s a major milestone; with nearly 2 million electric cars and light-duty trucks, California also has more EVs than any other state. Last year, around 25% of all new car sales there were electric.
Other states can learn from California’s policy. “First, states should be developing clear and ambitious EV targets, especially as the federal government pulls back on some of the targets for the transition,” says Jeff Prosserman, CEO and cofounder of Voltpost, a company that converts streetlights so they can double as curbside EV chargers. “They were leading the charge by looking to have as a mandate 100% of new car sales to be electric by 2035.”
The state’s requirement for new apartment buildings to add EV chargers is critical. It has also provided important financial support, including grants to add chargers in disadvantaged neighborhoods, and has pushed to help streamline permitting so projects can be built faster.
There are still obstacles as it moves forward. “One of the big challenges is the need for additional grid capacity to handle all of the charging,” says Conrad, though the state is trying to help address that. She says that even more funding is needed to add chargers in some locations where private developers might not otherwise build them. As the Trump administration tries to cancel promised support for EV chargers, it puts more financial pressure on the state.
But the network is still quickly growing now. Voltpost, for example, is moving forward on a project to add curbside EV chargers in some neighborhoods in San Francisco. “It’s in no way impacted by federal policyit’s state and city-driven,” says Prosserman.
“From what we’ve seen at Voltpost, progressive states like California are going to continue providing funding opportunities to meet their climate targets with or without support from the federal government,” he says.
Four years ago, if you found yourself at one particular intersection of Buenos Aires, you would see a nondescript, three-story parking garage with no cars inside. That building still existsbut its completely unrecognizable. Today, that structure looks like a stubby, UFO-like tower mushrooming from a concrete pedestal with a landscaped ramp curving upward. The metamorphosis is thanks to a multiyear project by New York architecture firm ODA. Ola Palermo, as the reimagined structure is known, has become a mixed-use building with cafés, restaurants, and Class A office space. The cherry on top of this (concrete) cake is an open-air promenade that peels off the sidewalk, winds up to what used to be the roof of the garage, blossoms into a rooftop park, then winds back down to the other side of the building. In a structure once defined by cars, the ramp is now be synonymous with people.[Photo: Alan Karchmer/courtesy ODA]To demolish or not to demolishODA (ranked among the Worlds Most Innovative Companies of 2025 by Fast Company) has a history of working on adaptive reuse projects, including Detroits Book Tower and 10 Jay Street in Brooklyn, but when founder Eran Chen first heard about the project from real estate firm BSD Investments, it was presented to him as an empty site.The building, which had been vacant for years, sits on a tricky plot sandwiched between two busy roads and an elevated train line. It is very close to the edge of Tres de Febrero Park (also known as Bosques de Palermo, or Palermo Woods), but before ODA got involved the two were not connected. [Image: courtesy ODA]Before arriving on-site, Chen had considered demolishing the parking garage, but when he saw the building, the idea just clicked. The building immediately captured my imagination, Chen says, noting the first thing that surprised him was the structures ceiling height. Most parking garages have low ceilings, which makes them challenging to convertthis one had a 14- to 15-foot ceiling. (For perspective: Most homes have 8- to 9-foot ceilings.) The ceiling had a waffle design, which looks like a grid of intersecting beams that create a pattern of recessed squares. This helped distribute the weight of the ceiling evenly, allowing it to span large areas without the need for additional columns for support, and creating a more open and flexible space for the buildings use. [Photo: Alan Karchmer/courtesy ODA]To top it all off, the roof afforded a clear 360-degree view. On one side, you could see through Palermo Woods, all the way to downtown Buenos Aires. On the other, theres a private racetrack and polo fields that people can visit only if they have exclusive memberships. On one side you have the haves, and on the other, you have everybody else, and this is smack dab in between the two, says Chen. He saw the rooftop as an opportunity to turn the tables and allow the parks visitors to look down on the exclusive grounds and catch a (free) glimpse of any events that take place there.[Photo: Alan Karchmer/courtesy ODA]Form follows experiencesODA kept 80% of the original structure to create a 160,000-square-foot building. A quarter of this surfaceabout 40,000 square feetis dedicated to public terraces, green spaces, and the open-air promenade. The rest is taken up by restaurants, cafés, and retail spaces. Parking for 250 cars is also available on the ground floor. But the program, or function, of the building wasnt always clear. The area isnt zoned for residential use, and commercial use wasnt the obvious choice, says Chen, as most companies who could afford rent for a modern office building would opt for a space in downtown Buenos Aires. Retail, which thrives on heavy footfall, wasnt obvious either since the site is so isolated and on the edge of the city.[Photo: Alan Karchmer/courtesy ODA]But for many years now, Chen has ben honing a new mantra. Form should not follow function anymore. Form should follow experiences, he says. If we design buildings for the human experience, people will visit these buildingsand enjoy themregardless of the program. In other words, build it and they will come? I ask. Build it well and they will come, he says. An important distinction. To turn the building into an irresistible destination, ODA made four incisions. They carved out one courtyard to let light into the widest part of the building, and shaved off slivers of the facade to make room for two sets of stairs and the ramp.These incisions amount to 20% of the floor area, but the architects didnt lose that space; they redistributed it. At one end of the building, there once was a water tower that rose above the areas height restrictions. The tower was obsolete, so Chen convinced the city to remove it. In its place, Chens team built a four-story tower based on the memory of the water tower. This concrete mushroom as he calls it, now rises above the rest of the structure, holding its most premium office spaces.[Photo: Alan Karchmer/courtesy ODA]A blueprint for the U.S.The resulting building is what Chen calls a win-win-win. It benefits city agencies because it makes a meaningful contribution to the public realm. It benefits the local community, which now has access to a public rooftop park. And it benefits the developer, who saved on construction costs (no new foundations were required) by not demolishing the building.It also benefits the environment, since giving buildings a second chance, as Chen puts it, can help lower the environmental footprint associated with building anew. (Though there could be costs associated with bringing an old building up to code.) Cities are filled with structures that are either dated or unnecessary, and of course, a big chunk of it is parking garages, Chen says.Already, architects are starting to build future-proof parking garages like this multistory car park in Calgary, Alberta, that was specifically designed to transform into a 600-person office or 50-unit residential building if (and when) the need arises. But Chen believes that residential and commercial are not the only options, especially if the buildings ceilings are low, as they often are. He includes indoor/outdoor sports venues, like pickleball courts; urban farms; and even open-air markets among the possibilities. The key, he says, is not to be fixated on the obvious programs that people might think of.
