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When someone takes a shower at a new apartment complex in Washington, D.C., the water is heated in part by a brewery downstairs. The mixed-use developmentpart of a larger new neighborhood called the Bridge Districtis designed to be as sustainable as possible. That includes using waste heat from commercial tenants like the brewery to save energy in the apartments. [Image: courtesy Redbrick LMD] Atlas Brew Works, a solar-powered brewery that serves craft beers, moved into the building in November. At most breweries, the heat thats generated from the brewing process would be vented outside. But in the new building, any hot water that the brewery doesnt reuse is sent into a heat exchanger, which transfers heat to the hot water loop for the apartments. (The water itself never mixes; tenants are not showering in brewery water.) [Photo: Atlas Brew Works/Redbrick LMD] Theyre still ramping up, but theyre starting to make a lot of beer, says William Passmore, managing partner at Redbrick LMD, the developer behind the project. So were using as much of that heat as possible. Were literally transferring the heat to support domestic hot water for all of the units throughout the building. When the brewery is operating at full capacity and the complexs 757 apartments are fully occupied, around 60% to 70% of the heat for the apartments hot water can come from the brewery. The complex is also designed to be able to harvest heat from other businesses. A small grocery store that will soon open can share waste heat from its refrigerators, for example. [Image: courtesy Redbrick LMD] All of this means that residents can save money on energy bills, and the buildings have a lower carbon footprint. The heat exchange system is one piece of a larger sustainability strategy for the development, which is on track to become the largest net-zero carbon residential project in the U.S. [Photo: Atlas Brew Works/Redbrick LMD] The development is next to a metro station and a riverside bike trail, so residents can drive less. The all-electric buildings feature a solar array on each rooftopexpected to generate 228 megawatt-hours of electricity each yearwith renewable power purchased to cover additional energy needs. The developers carefully tracked the carbon footprint of construction, measuring the embodied carbon of every piece of material and even how individual construction workers commuted to the site. They used materials like low-carbon steel and produced 40 different concrete mixes, carefully tailoring the amount of cement for each part of the building, which cut the overall carbon footprint of that material by 35%. In the next phase of the development, another new building will use mass timber construction. [Image: courtesy Redbrick LMD] Even though some parts of the process didnt necessarily cost much more from an engineering perspective, it took a commitment to make it happen. You need to have the mindset and the staff and the willingness to invest in it as an organization, Passmore says. Developers typically wouldnt go this far. It’s one of those things that doesn’t sound that difficult. [But as] you start to go and try and do it, [they’re thinking], ‘Oh, you know what? Let’s put this off for the next project, he says. [Image: courtesy Redbrick LMD] The developers theory: The work is worth itnot just for the environmental benefit, but because tenants are looking for more sustainable options. In surveys, the companies found that the renters they were targeting in their 20s and 30s wanted options like this. It differentiates our product, so it helps us with lease-up, Passmore says. We hope it will help down the roadresidents will appreciate it and enjoy the lower utility bills. And perhaps theyll stay a little longer, so that will help us again.
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E-Commerce
Artificial intelligence certainly didn’t debut in 2025, but it was the year it really started to hit the mainstream. ChatGPT, at the start of the year, had between 300 million and 400 million average weekly users. By October, that number had doubled. Meanwhile, usage of other AI systems, including Perplexity and Google’s Gemini, saw similar leaps in usage. Now, with 2026 on the horizon, people are wondering what’s next. Fast Company spoke to several analysts and industry experts to get their projections on what we can expect as AI’s influence continues to spread in 2026. The bubble won’t pop While the bears on Wall Street continue to talk loudly about an AI bubble, Wedbush’s Dan Ives says those fears are overblown and the AI trade will actually get bigger in 2026. Ives says the consumer AI revolution has not truly begun, and the expected rise of robotics in the years to come, as well as the long runway for corporate use and global expansion, will drive an ongoing tech bull market. “This AI revolution is just beginning today, and we believe tech stocks and the AI winners should be bought, given our view that this is Year 3 of what will be a 10-year cycle of this AI revolution build-out,” he writes. “We expect tech stocks to be up another 20% in 2026 as this next stage of the AI revolution hits its stride.” A leap in “lazy thinking” Not all of the predictions around AI in 2026 are quite so bullish. Gartner sends up a red flag about people’s growing dependence on chatbots and their automatic acceptance of whatever those devices spew out. Through 2026, the analytics firm predicts, there will be an “atrophy of critical-thinking skills due to Gen AI use.” That, it says, will push half of global organizations to require AI-free skills assessments. “As automation accelerates, the ability to think independently and creatively will become both increasingly rareand increasingly valuable,” Gartner writes. Gen AI will move from stand-alone sites to search engines Generative AI chatbots are how many people interact with AI. They don’t require any tech knowledge (although the more you know about how to phrase prompts, the more efficient they are), and they’re free. For tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, you generally have to visit a stand-alone website to access them. In 2026 and beyond, however, Deloitte says that more people will begin to use generative AI that’s embedded within existing applications, like search engines. “In terms of daily use, accessing Gen AI within a search engine [when a search yields a synthesis of results] will be 300% more common than using any stand-alone Gen AI tool,” the consulting firm writes. Rise of the robots While humanoid robots in 2026 may not reach the levels Elon Musk predicts, we are likely to see a substantial increase in AI-driven robotics, Deloitte says. The number of industrial robots is expected to reach 5.5 million. That’s the beginning of a wavewhich could see annual shipments begin to increase until they reach 1 million per year by 2030. That increase, the firm says, will be driven by labor shortages and “exponential advancements in computing power.” A legal tsunami AI firms are already facing a number of lawsuits, most prominently involving cases in which plaintiffs argue that AI drove people to take their own lives. That has put a spotlight on the lack of guardrails around the industry. But to date, Washington has shown little interest in setting firm parameters for AI companies. (Some states are attempting to do so, however.) Gartner predicts that by the end of 2026, there will be more than 2,000 “death by AI” legal claims. The upside of this tragedy, it continues, is that it could finally push regulators to focus on safety issues. “Black box systemsAI models whose decision-making processes are opaque or difficult to interpretcan misfire, especially in high-stakes sectors like healthcare, finance, and public safety,” the analytics firm writes. “Explainability, ethical design, and clean data will become nonnegotiable.”
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E-Commerce
The design of the steel-ribbed umbrella has changed little since it was introduced in the 1850s, but the mechanical engineers and origami experts who made an umbrella that works by folding say they’ve finally improved upon it. The $249 Ori umbrella has a frameless design with a laminate composite canopy, which fits into a 3.5-centimeter cylinder smart handle with an OLED display. That means there are no steel elements that can go haywire and leave you with a misshapen mess when you’re caught in a strong wind. It seems we finally have an umbrella that looks like it was invented in the 21st century. The design team included origami experts who usually work in aerospace, research, and advanced deployable structures. And that’s where the key lay. The team used an origami technique called the the Miura-ori, invented by Japanese astrophysicist Koryo Miura in 1970, to replace the functionality of a steel frame. Miura-ori allows for a compact foldand it has since been used in satellites. [Image: Ori] “Everyone owns one, yet the umbrella is a forgotten object, stuck in the past. We wanted to turn it into a modern device: smart, intentional, premium, and engineered like a modern device,” Ori founder Modestas Balcytis tells Fast Company in an email. The canopy feels solid when it’s open, as it’s not fabric stretched over a frame, but rather a single continuous origami surface. [Image: Ori] “When it opens, you can feel the geometry locking into place, turning a flat surface into a strong, self-supporting structure,” Balcytis says. The umbrella is wind resistant, unlike traditional umbrellas that can fold and turn inside out. Oris canopy surface is also UV resistant and lasts longer than a ribbed umbrella, according to the company. The umbrella is available now to reserve and is expected to start shipping in spring or summer 2026. [Image: Ori] The Ori Umbrella is priced far above your standard pharmacy brand, and it’s being marketed that way: Promotional images look akin to those you might see for Dyson vacuums or Apple iPhones. The umbrella comes in blue, silver, and gold; charges with a USB-C cable; and opens and closes with a single click. The company is pitching its product as an alternative to poorly designed ribbed umbrellas, which often break and don’t last as long. Ori says it has tested the umbrella through 400 to 500 folding cycles. This is umbrella as high tech, and the company says it has plans to design more products using the Miura-ori technique. “Ori isn’t here to sell umbrellas, Balcytis says. We’re building a new language for folding objects.
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E-Commerce
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