5 Years of Planet Reimagined

Imagine That:

Every bit of progress on climate started as an act of imagination. What if young researchers worldwide banded together to tackle our toughest problems? What if we saw “climate” in everything—jobs, food, energy, and beyond? What if we could harness the energy of pop culture like never before? For five years, Planet Reimagined has asked those kinds of questions. What started as a scrappy startup is now a global incubator that fuses research, advocacy, and pop culture to drive climate solutions. We turned “what if” into “what’s next.” And we're just getting started. Imagine that! Are you in?

Impact Stories

See for yourself what happens when researchers, advocates, and communities join forces. From rooftop gardens to arena concerts, these stories show Planet Reimagined’s action research method at work: incubating and scaling solutions that deliver for people and the planet. None of it happens without our partners. The next story could be yours.

Other stuff

Consider a Carrot: Urban Agriculture

The average carrot travels over 3,000 miles from farm to market. Planet Reimagined’s 2020 Climate + Urban Agriculture fellows asked: what if we could make that just a few steps?

Our “Consider a Carrot” and other PSAs on iHeartRadio reached 100 million listeners. Then we proved the concept: partnering with Small Axe Peppers and Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, we built an urban garden for locally grown peppers to supply the stadium’s concessions. Nachos and spicy margaritas—made without 3,000 miles of travel.

To answer that question, fellows drew on their global expertise in business, governance, and environmental design. They created a LEGO model to help city dwellers visualize rooftop gardens, published academic research, and developed an advocacy plan.

Common Grounds: From Research to Implementation

Imagine how much more clean energy could be generated if there were more land for solar and wind farms! Planet Reimagined research fellows investigated that question.

Our 2023 Common Grounds report introduced a “co-location” model for putting renewable energy on existing fossil fuel leases.

Our outreach prompted a bipartisan Congressional letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior, which then said it would accept solar and wind proposals on oil and gas leases. The story made CNN, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

By March 2025, U.S. Senators Curtis (R-UT) and Hickenlooper (D-CO) introduced the Co-Location Energy Act, turning Planet Reimagined research into federal legislation.

"A diverse energy grid through co-location is a sure-fire way to secure a resilient energy future for Utahns."

U.S. Representative John Curtis (UT-3), Chairman, Conservative Climate Caucus

Common Grounds continues promoting co-location on state lands in Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, while our new global initiative pursues opportunities from Brazil to Qatar.

Partners

"I have worked with Planet Reimagined for a long time and have seen their advocacy for the future of our planet firsthand. This new policy report is innovative and proposes promising steps the Bureau of Land Management can take to move towards a clean energy future by co-locating renewable energy on lands already leased for oil and gas production."

U.S. Representative Mike Levin (CA-49)

From Fellows to Leaders: Cultivating the next generation

At the heart of Planet Reimagined’s incubator model are our research fellows—to date, almost 50 scholars and advocates from around the world who collaborate to turn ideas into action. Trained in our signature “Action Research” methodology, fellows have produced groundbreaking work on climate and energy, healthcare, fan mobilization, and other topics.

After their fellowships, many have gone on to work in other climate initiatives related to their work with us. For example, Ghislain Irakoze (Rwanda) expanded his cleantech company Wastezon and got master’s degrees from Oxford and Stanford. Mercy Adhiambo (Kenya) became a Scripps Environmental Journalism researcher. Elias Gaveta (Malawi) trained U.S. Peace Corps forestry volunteers and co-founded Conservation Arts Malawi. Stephen Yaeger (USA) worked with Lightshift Energy to help create battery storage solutions throughout North America. Others now serve on our staff or advisory board, helping select future fellows. We’re equipping the next generation of climate leaders. Meet all of our fellows!

Amplify’s reach has grown exponentially as we’ve partnered with Billie Eilish, Renee Rapp, and Travis Childers to mobilize fans across the world. On Billie Eilish’s 2025 UK tour, a London fan who signed up at the concert went on to lead a volunteer team of 150 young people. As climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe said of our fan activation work: “Shouldn’t everyone be doing this?”

AMPLIFY: Turning fans into a climate force

It’s a huge question for social movements: how do we get people involved? Well, Planet Reimagined fellows surveyed 350,000 live music fans to understand what moves them from concern to civic engagement. They found that 72% of live concertgoers care about climate, but only a small number take action.

Fellows’ task was to figure out how to bridge the gap. Their research became the Amplify report, then Adam’s book “Amplify: How to Use the Power of Connection to Engage, Take Action, and Build a Better World.”

Partners

Then we put the research into practice. On AJR’s 2024 tour across 40+ cities, fans took 35,000 actions—signing petitions, calling lawmakers, joining local groups—contributing to climate policy wins in Washington, Colorado, and California.

Press

The Atlas Project
The Echo Project
The Brightline Project
The Northgrid Project
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Backstage Broadcast: Adam in Action

Our co-founder Adam Met is a pop star with a Ph.D. On tour with his band AJR, Adam might spend his afternoons analyzing datasets in a greenroom and his evenings on stage in front of 20,000 fans. After an arena show in Raleigh, he rushed backstage to join CNN live. Before taking the stage in Denver, he gave NPR an exclusive. He’s been widely covered in the music press and was given a TIME Earth Award. This rare blend of pop culture and policy has attracted just the kind of excitement needed for more climate wins. But Adam is the first to say: it’s bigger than any one person. Planet Reimagined is built to prove it.

During Climate Week 2025, we launched “The Neo-Industrial Revolution,” a call to action to connect climate to the things people most care about: jobs, family, clean air, a good life. The response was immediate. Austin, Texas Commissioner Brigid Shea wrote: “I love your work and your declaration. How can I help?” That note led to a Zoom call, a viral social media post, and now Brigid serves as a new senior advisor to our newest initiative, Grapevine—an AI-powered tool for cities worldwide to share successful climate policies. That’s the spirit of Adam and all of Planet Reimagined: big ideas, deep research, mass mobilization—for the win.