All in all, Bostock’s focus before the pandemic and throughout this pivot has been to be useful to customers, colleagues and the community.

“One thing we’ve learned from this is to start with trying to figure out how you can be useful and do something to help,” Bostock said. “The energy around that creates people who want to work with you and partners who want to help you. Look for the upside and build on that.”

Now in its fifth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 33 winners, more than 400 finalists, and more than 800 honorable mentions—with Health and Wellness, AI & Data among the most popular categories. A panel of eminent Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 4,000entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology, and more. Plus, several new categories were added, including Pandemic Response, UrbanDesign, and Architecture. The 2021 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Brazil to Denmark to Vietnam.

The winners of Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards were announced earlier this week, honoring the businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to pursuing innovation when it comes to solving health and climate crises, social injustice, or economic inequality.

Showcasing some of the world’s most inventive entrepreneurs and companies tackling exigent global challenges, Fast Company’s Summer 2021 issue hits newsstands May10.

“There is no question our society and planet are facing deeply troubling times. So, it’s important to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, impact, design, scalability, and passion to solve these problems,” says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company.“ Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have discovered some of the most groundbreaking projects that have launched since the start of 2020.”