In September 2015, world leaders gathered at the UN headquarters in New York City to commit to a new agenda—one that “recognizes that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with a plan that builds economic growth and addresses a range of social needs, while tackling climate change.”

The ambitious agenda was enumerated in 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which addressed “core drivers of climate change,” and included clean water and sanitation, green energy, infrastructure and industry, sustainable consumption and production, climate action, managing oceans and forests, and combating desertification and biodiversity loss.

The following January, the efforts to achieve the goals went into effect. In the ensuing years, tech companies made commitments in support of the goals, especially those pertaining to sustainability.

While the goals—and any commitments adjacent to them—weren’t legally binding, many companies used them as a “compass to guide organizations” and report progress toward initiatives for the greater good, Steven Cohen, director of the Sustainability Management program at Columbia University, told Tech Brew.

“The SDGs are a broad, general set of aspirational goals for organizations and nations, and they need to be thought of that way,” Cohen said. “But they influence how companies think about what they should be trying to do.”

And as consumer expectations around sustainability have risen, Cohen said, tech companies have started to use AI to work toward the goals.

“You need people helped by these machines to help them deliver those services,” Cohen said. AI is a “tool which then frees humans to do other things that they otherwise couldn’t do.”

Via a review of Google and Microsoft’s sustainability reports, Tech Brew found that a handful of Big Tech companies have leaned on AI to further their progress toward the SDGs, which the UN condoned last year in a resolution promoting the use of “safe, secure and trustworthy” AI.

Keep reading here.—TC

Solar power leasing models are a tale as old as time: Companies install panels on a customer’s property, but the installer owns the system, which the customer pays them for.

But solar and microgrid company SolMicroGrid has created a program that turns the traditional playbook on its head.

• Through its new “energy-as-a-service” structure, SolMicroGrid is setting out to purchase existing solar arrays and microgrid systems from commercial and industrial owners and sell the energy generated back to them.
• CEO Kirk Edelman told Tech Brew that the program offers owners of solar infrastructure a way to benefit from low cost energy, while letting go of the responsibility of system upkeep.

“[Customers] may not be paying enough attention to [their solar panels], and maybe they’re not operating as well today as they did when they were first installed. Maybe you’re not seeing the same output,” Edelman said. “We can come in and write a check and buy your grid or your array from you, and then we can either fix it and maintain it and try to get it back to what you originally thought you bought, or we can enhance it.”

Edelman also told Tech Brew that SolMicroGrid can buy systems from building developers.

Born identity: The program was born out of an issue that Edelman said he witnessed in the solar industry that went unsolved. Many companies don’t want to take on the “asymmetrical risk” of securing the capital expense to own and operate a large portfolio of solar infrastructure.

Keep reading here.—TC

SEO is pushing 30, and another upstart acronym could be coming for the search discovery throne—GEO, or generative engine optimization.

As consumers are increasingly utilizing large language models like ChatGPT—72% use these tools regularly, per Accenture—they’re often using them for product recommendations, making these engines “the new influencers," and creating the need for brands to make themselves visible.

While the tools are new, they’re quickly gaining momentum. The traffic AI sources are driving to retailer websites has risen 1,200% between July 2024 and February 2025, per Adobe Analytics, and grew 3,300% year over year during Amazon’s Prime Day event last week.

• For generative AI users, 18% say it’s a top tool for purchase recommendation, behind only physical stores and ahead of social media, according to an Accenture survey.

And the engines themselves are leaning into commerce. In April, OpenAI added shopping options assisting consumers in product research through ChatGPT, while Perplexity and PayPal linked up in May to power in-chat shopping.

“It’s going to change the way people shop,” Jill Standish, global retail lead at Accenture, told Retail Brew, and retailers and brands may need to shift their marketing strategies to keep up.

Speaking their language: Consumers can use these tools for everything from vacation outfit options to grocery shopping list suggestions based on a given recipe.

Keep reading here.—EC

It began as a moonshot to map our genes, but what really came from the Human Genome Project? Nearly 25 years later, the race that reshaped science is unlocking surprises no one saw coming, from AI-powered biology to the future of disease prediction.