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Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has persistently targeted attacks on power grids and energy infrastructure, often leaving whole communities in the dark. In response, a transformation is happening across the country, as war has forced Ukrainian society to quickly pivot toand start innovating infinding renewable energy solutions that can keep the power on in the face of continued infrastructure bombings. Ukrainian communities are prioritizing energy security Communities across Ukraine are becoming energy secure and energy independent: adding solar power stations to schools, hospitals, and homes; backing up that solar with battery storage capacity; and switching to more energy efficient heating and cooling with heat pumps and insulation. This is happening across Ukraine in response to the war and the years of large-scale attacks on power grids and energy infrastructure, which Russia continues to this day. Cities and communities across Ukrainefrom Kyiv and Horenka to Rivne and Zviahel to Lviv and Sheptytskyiare scaling up this energy-secure trifecta wherever possible. And its paying off both in energy independence and economic savings; in many cases, these critical upgrades are cutting annual energy bills in half or more. Hospitals have become the natural first stop for these kinds of upgrades since attacks to power grids and resulting blackouts jeopardize medical safety and medical procedures. The advanced Unbroken medical facility in Lviv, for example, which treats many of the veterans and victims of the war, is rapidly covering its many roofs with solar power and filling its basements with batteries so that its patients are protected from further energy insecurity and instability during surgery or recovery processes. School facilities have become a second stop for upgrades since their energy footprint is both substantial and switchablemeaning theres usually ample roof space for a quick solar retrofit. Since schools also come with a sizable building footprint, theyre often utilized as bomb shelters for the community, which makes the energy secure retrofit even more essential and life-saving. Multifamily housing unitse.g., homeowners associations (HOAs) in bigger cities like Kyiv and dormitories in cities like Zviahel for internally displaced persons from the warhave also become easy retrofits, transforming roofs into solar stations, backyards into heat pump housing, and basements into battery storage facilities. These HOA retrofits have been so successful at the local level, the national association of homeowners may soon become the organizing mechanism for more of these whole-system energy security retrofits, coordinating a national campaign across the country. Ukrainian industry is transforming Communities across Ukraine are seeing the future of industryand where the job markets are headedand readying the renewable workforce of tomorrow. They understand where the market is going, especially in a country like Ukraine that is quickly transitioning to a more energy secure future. Which is why theyre launching training centers and school programs to teach Ukraines youth in renewable energy technology. This is happening in coal mining towns like Sheptytskyi, where youth are learning how to build, operate, and repair solar panels and wind turbines, batteries, heat pumps, and more. Call it a just transition, or just call it smart business modeling. This is forward-thinking planning that could easily envision a future Ukraine that is exporting this industrial expertise and clean energy products across Europe and Asia. Utilities are also transforming their industry to meet the moment. Water utilities in places like Rivne are realizing that in order to sustain their business model of providing clean and accessible water to communities, solar power stations must be an integral component of their business strategy. In order to ensure that drinking water is available to residents 24/7, and free from the all-too-common blackouts that come with wartime and aging infrastructure, water utility managers are becoming powerful messengers for more solar power stations across Ukraine and unlikely leaders in the clean energy transition. Leading innovation locally In response to the war effort, cities across Ukraine have had to give up a sizable chunk of their tax revenue to the national government and as a result have had to become resourceful in thinking about local innovation, leadership, and autonomy. This is another reason to do all of the abovefrom pursuing energy security to supporting a local clean tech industrybecause nothing is guaranteed in terms of national government support during wartime. This dynamic has also led to the emergence of a new kind of local leadership that is rising to the occasion. Local mayors and their deputies are making the compelling case for the energy security and clean tech industry identified above, building new trust and momentum within the community at a time when its desperately needed. Now, these three trends above are all positive developments, even if theyre in response to an awful and devastating war. But for them to be sustainable and scalable to other communities across Ukraine who are desiring the same level of energy security and independence, viable new clean tech industry, and local autonomy, foreign aid dollars and technical support flowing into the country need to be configured accordingly. As is often the case with aid dollars and technical support from Western countries during wartimea dynamic that was visible in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for examplethose funds often go to larger foreign contractors and consultants versus local organizations doing the work on the ground. As a result, those aid dollars and technical expertise end up leaving the country instead of building and strengthening local capacity for postwar leadership and long-term viability. For these gains to be sustainable, more foreign aid and support needs to stay in Ukraine versus leaving it, building new capacity, industry, and infrastructure. Thats how the West helps Ukraine achieve the security, independence, industry, and autonomy its looking for. Much of the existing work is already being driven by strong leaders on the ground who want to build a more resilient Ukraine. Now just imagine what good could be done if U.S. funders stepped up to really scale this work nationally. And imagine if funders within the European Union seized this moment to help Ukraines accession to the EU be a role-modeled one, of a country that is retrofitting to be more climate resilient. Thats the opportunity in Ukraine. To leapfrog into a country that is energy secure and independent, leading the clean tech industrial revolution, and supporting local leaders and autonomy in the process. The West can support this vision. Its waiting to be realized.
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E-Commerce
Sams Club shoppers will soon notice a change to the retailers private-label rotisserie chicken packaging. A new tray means the grab-and-go prepared foods favorite is now more sustainable. The clamshell packaging for Members Mark seasoned rotisserie chicken sold at Sams Club is composed of a top clear lid made from polypropylene (same as before) and a bottom piece made from a proprietary polypropylene and PCR (or postconsumer recycled content). Unlike the old tray, the new one doesn’t use a carbon mineral filler, according to Packaging Dive, which first reported the change. That carbon mineral filler is what gave the tray its black color; with it gone, the now-recyclable material takes on a neutral sand color. Sam’s Club tells Fast Company that 7 bottle caps are repurposed to make each tray, and the new packages result in a roughly 25% reduction of virgin plastic. Sabert, the company that manufactures the clamshell packaging, says the tray was developed with color specialists to mask the natural juices and stains that come from cooking chicken. The tray is also microwavable, reusable, and hand and dishwasher safe. Sabert’s chief sustainability and strategy officer, Richa Desai, tells Fast Company that Sabert is “seeing more customers embrace postconsumer recycled content for food packaging as part of their own sustainability commitments to reduce virgin plastic use.” Like CVS, Target, and other retailers, the Walmart-owned Sam’s Club is working to improve its private-abel offerings as consumers turn to generic brands to save money. For Sam’s Club, though, the competition is especially fierce considering its up against fellow membership warehouse club Costco’s private-label Kirkland brand, which is bigger than Nike. While Costco’s net sales in the most recent fiscal year were $176.63 billion, Sam’s Club reported less than half as much, at $86.2 billion. Chicken could be one small step toward closing the gap. Walmart declined to provide sales figures for its chicken, though in one Reddit thread, users claimed stores sell hundreds a day. Member’s Mark currently prices its rotisserie chicken at $4.98, though prices may vary in store and online, while Costco’s Kirkland brand rotisserie chicken sells for $5.84. Costco’s chicken also comes in a bag instead of clamshell packaging, a change last year that shoppers voiced their displeasure over. While Member’s Mark may have a way to go to reach Kirkland-level sales and cultural resonance, it seems to have at least gained a competitive edge when it comes to rotisserie chickens.
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E-Commerce
As Fast Company wrapped up its latest report on the state of the design jobs market, we wondered which companies paid the highest premium for designers. We looked at the 40,000 job listings wed gathered from Googles job search engine, over a period between December 2024 and February 2025, and zeroed in on the salaries that companies were offering to prospective employees across various different experience levels (entry level, 23 years, 45 years, 67 years, and anything above 8 years). We then averaged the salaries for all jobs that a company posted across these various experience levels and identified the seven highest spenders from each of seven categories: architects, game designers, graphic designers, urban designers, interior designers, product designers, and UX designers. The good news: Not every designer needs to be in the latter half of their career to reach the highest salaried heights. The bad news: All architects actually do need to be. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); Architects Architects face a thankless pay curve: earning a top rate means coming with top experience. All the highest paid positions, mostly at big firms like HNTB and Michael Baker, require senior-level experience of at least eight years. But architecture is also the only type of design we looked at where the top paying employer includes a food companythose upscaled La Colombe interiors dont come cheap. Game Designers As Fast Company has reported, the best door into the world of game design might not be at a gaming studio: Netflix is continuing its push into gaming, and it stands out among hiring organizations for offering the highest salary for game designers with fewer years of experience than bona fide game studios do. But dont count those studios out: CD Projekt Red and Riot Games still make the list of the seven highest-paying companies for game designers. Graphic Designers Graphic designers are typically among the lowest paid in the design profession, but they might top out their salaries the fastest: The most generous hiring companies, with the exception of ServiceNow and Nvidia, dont request senior-level status: Graphite and Crocs only ask for 23 years of experience. And apparently, the Prince Georges Parks Department in Maryland, has enough funding to duke it out with Nvidia for talent. Interior Designers Like architects, interior designers need to come equipped with senior-level experience to command top pay, with no employer among our top seven listed asking for fewer than eight years. And unlike other job types with at least a mild diversity of hiring organizations at their upper limit, all the top organizations seeking interior designers are design firms like HKS and Solize. Product Designers Netflix is the only company on our list to make the highest spot in two separate design categoriesgame designers and product designersand its job listings for senior product designers offer the highest salaries on that list, at an average of $427,000. But Netflixs average salary for midlevel product designers doesnt lag far behind, at an average of $317,000, just after Anthropic, which is sparing no expense to make experiencing Claudes profuse apologies as frictionless and stable as possible. Urban Designers Urban design shows the smallest variance in how much their top organizations are willing to pay, with the narrowest band of salaries at the upper levels. Pay tops out at $169,500, and as you would expect, the most generous organizations are all in the engineering consulting, design, and construction business. UX Designers Tanium is the kind of company that few people outside an IT department would ever interact with but that seemingly every IT department does. It provides an endpoint management system demanding a particularly sophisticated set of UX chops, which it pays handsomely for, and which one doesnt need to be a senior-level UX designer to earn. Taniums top designers can expect to make $377,500 with only 45 years of experience. The list of top-paying companies is rounded out with a few usual suspects, like Google and ServiceNow, as well as Blue Origin, which is probably spending its money well in hiring designers to determine how we get back from space. This article is part of Fast Company‘s continuing coverage of where the design jobs are, including this year’s comprehensive analysis of 170,000 job listings
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E-Commerce
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