REI to stop selling clothes, cookware with ‘forever chemicals’
REI aims to have all cookware and apparel sold in its stores free of PFAS by fall of 2024. PFAS have been linked to cancer and other health problems.
Business
This archive collects stories about businesses — from startups and local enterprises to multinational corporations — taking meaningful action on social, environmental, and economic challenges. These reports highlight moments when commerce and accountability intersect in constructive ways.
GE installs world’s first spiral-welded wind turbine tower
Spiral-welded wind turbine towers could quietly dissolve one of the biggest barriers holding back wind energy: the highway. Because conventional towers must be trucked in, U.S. road regulations cap their diameter — and therefore their height — well below what the physics of wind actually allows. Keystone’s mobile factories build towers on-site from coiled steel, removing that constraint entirely and making towers tall enough to reach stronger, more consistent winds. One tower doesn’t rewrite the industry, but it proves the concept works. If the approach scales, it could bring competitive wind energy to regions that have never had it.
Walmart raises minimum wage by 17%
Starting in early March, store employees will make between $14 and $19 an hour. About 340,000 store employees will get a raise because of the move.
Danske Bank quits new fossil fuel financing
Denmark’s biggest bank has declared an end to fossil fuel financing, after concluding that 99.9% of its carbon footprint comes from financed emissions.
Kenya is producing its first electric buses
Electric buses are now being assembled in Kenya for the first time, marking a genuine shift in how East Africa thinks about clean public transit. A Nairobi startup called BasiGo partnered with a veteran Mombasa assembler to build 1,000 electric buses over three years — creating over 600 jobs in manufacturing, maintenance, and charging. What makes this especially promising is BasiGo’s pay-per-kilometer financing model, which makes electric buses as affordable upfront as diesel for everyday operators. Kenya’s already-clean electricity grid means these buses will run on genuinely green power. It’s a hopeful template other African cities could follow.
Pfizer to sell all its drugs in 45 low-income countries at non-profit price
Pfizer’s not-for-profit pricing pledge now spans all 500 of its medicines — including chemotherapy and oral cancer treatments — across 45 of the world’s lowest-income countries. That’s a major expansion of an accord the company launched in 2022, which originally covered only patented drugs. By including off-patent medicines too, Pfizer is acknowledging that even decades-old cancer treatments often remain out of reach where generic supply chains never took hold. For patients across much of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where cancer and heart disease are rising fast, this could quietly move the floor on what’s possible. And when the world’s largest drugmaker makes a move this broad, the rest of the industry tends to notice.
Slovakia’s last coal mines to close in 2023
Lignite mining in the Slovak Upper Nitra region is coming to an end as the last two coal mines will close by the end of 2023 following the government’s plans to stop subsidies for domestic mining.
3M to end ‘forever chemicals’ output at cost of up to $2.3 bn
3M, one of the world’s largest makers of PFAS, will halt all production of these “forever chemicals” by the end of 2025, walking away from a business that brought in roughly $1.3 billion a year. The company expects to absorb up to $2.3 billion in pre-tax charges to exit — a sign it sees long-term liability as the bigger risk than lost revenue. The move follows mounting pressure from regulators, lawsuits, and a coalition of fund managers overseeing $8 trillion in assets who urged dozens of companies to phase PFAS out. Compounds linked to cancer, thyroid disruption, and developmental harm have turned up in drinking water and food supplies worldwide, and 3M’s deadline signals that the era of treating them as ordinary industrial inputs is drawing to a close.
New blood cancer therapy successful in three-quarters of trial patients
The Phase 1/2 trial data from Janssen Research & Development covered hundreds of myeloma patients. Based on preliminary trial data, the FDA has granted it “Breakthrough Therapy” designation.
World’s first solar car goes into production
Solar-powered cars have moved from moonshot idea to manufacturing reality — and that shift matters more than any single vehicle rolling off the line. Lightyear’s debut model uses curved solar arrays across its roof and hood, harvesting enough sunlight to cover up to 40 miles daily — matching most people’s actual driving habits. At $255,000, it targets early adopters, though with solar panel costs having dropped over 99% since the 1970s, wider accessibility may follow. A car that generates its own fuel from sunlight quietly answers one of the strongest critiques of electric vehicles.