In a season of documentaries that trace how a green idea survives its own success, the Project Management Institute and TIME Studios have turned their attention to the unglamorous middle of innovation, the stretch where a promising concept must be tested, fitted to real conditions, and given the structures to grow. Three episodes of the second season of The Solutionaries now stream, following REVERB, Seabound and Amini as they attempt that passage. The story matters because it returns to an old human problem, the distance between what organisations promise and what they actually deliver, and i
PMI and TIME Studios Spotlight Climate Solutions Moving From Pilot to Global Scale
59 per cent of organisations still struggle to integrate sustainability
Mark
Why does a project management body make a climate documentary?
Mimi
Because PMI's argument is that ideas fail in execution, not conception. Its own report says 59 per cent of organisations still struggle to integrate sustainability at project and functional levels.
Mark
And the three featured groups are quite different.
Mimi
Yes. A live music nonprofit, a shipping carbon capture company, and an AI infrastructure firm. The common thread is how each moved from idea to something operating.
Luke
Worth noting who is telling this story. PMI funds and promotes the series, so the framing that project management is the key ingredient is its own.
Mark
Fair. What about the numbers?
Mimi
REVERB cites 400 tours, 8.6 million fan actions, and over 464,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent addressed. Seabound says its system captures up to 95 per cent of emissions, with two pilots done and over $10m raised.
Luke
Those are the organisations' figures. The article doesn't say they were independently verified. And Seabound's 95 per cent is a ceiling, "up to," not a measured average from the pilots.
Mark
What about Amini in Barbados?
Mimi
A national AI system used by the Prime Minister and government, with services in more than 90 languages. It's the most concrete example of deployment at government level.
Luke
We don't know how widely citizens use it, or what outcomes it has produced. The source gives scale of reach, not results.
Mark
So what should a reader watch?
Mimi
Whether Seabound's pilots become commercial installations, and whether Amini's national deployments spread beyond Barbados.
The Pulse
- A stubborn gap persists: 59 per cent of organisations still struggle to bring sustainability into their projects and daily functions.
- Three ventures are being tested in public view, from live-music emissions and ship-borne carbon capture to sovereign AI for the Global South.
- Seabound's modular exhaust-capture units have moved through two pilot projects and drawn more than $10m in backing, but wider deployment remains unproven.
- Amini's national AI system in Barbados shows the model working at government scale, with citizen services offered in more than 90 languages.
- The true test lies ahead: whether these early, self-reported successes spread beyond their first projects into wider adoption.
In a season of documentaries that trace how a green idea survives its own success, the Project Management Institute and TIME Studios have turned their attention to the unglamorous middle of innovation, the stretch where a promising concept must be tested, fitted to real conditions, and given the structures to grow. Three episodes of the second season of The Solutionaries now stream, following REVERB, Seabound and Amini as they attempt that passage. The story matters because it returns to an old human problem, the distance between what organisations promise and what they actually deliver, and it offers a quiet argument that disciplined project work is how good intentions become lasting change.
Three new episodes are now streaming on TIME.com/PMI/thesolutionaries, the second season of a documentary series made by the Project Management Institute and TIME Studios. Its subject is not the spark of a climate idea but what comes after it, the slow and often invisible work of making a solution function at scale.
The season follows four people and three organisations. Adam Gardner and Lauren Sullivan lead REVERB, which helps musicians, festivals and venues shrink the environmental footprint of live music. Alisha Fredriksson runs Seabound, which is building containerised equipment for ships that captures most of the carbon dioxide and sulphur in engine exhaust. Kate Kallot founded Amini, which builds artificial intelligence infrastructure meant to let countries in the Global South hold and use their own data locally.
PMI offers the season as an illustration of a problem it has measured itself. Its recent report found that 59 per cent of organisations still struggle to integrate sustainability at the project and functional levels. The series argues that collaboration, planning, adequate resources and disciplined project management can close that gap.
The ventures report notable results, though these figures come from the organisations themselves and from PMI, which produced the series. REVERB, founded in 2004, says it has supported 400 tours and helped remove over 4.6 million single-use plastic bottles. Seabound has completed two pilots and raised more than $10m. Amini, founded in 2022, operates in about a dozen countries and has set up a national AI system in Barbados used by the government.
What remains open is whether these early achievements become wider practice. The series closes on the question every pilot eventually faces: whether it can grow beyond the people who first made it work.
Three episodes are now streaming on TIME.com/PMI/thesolutionaries: the second season of The Solutionaries, a documentary series from the Project Management Institute (PMI) and TIME Studios. The series follows people who have an environmental or development idea and are working out how to make it function at scale.
The season is built around four people and three organisations. Adam Gardner and Lauren Sullivan lead REVERB, which works on sustainable live music. Alisha Fredriksson runs Seabound, a maritime decarbonisation company. Kate Kallot founded Amini, which builds artificial intelligence infrastructure. The series was produced with TIME Studios and Good is the New Cool, and directed by Edward Buckles Jr. According to PMI, it looks at the less visible work behind innovation: testing a solution, preparing it for real conditions, and building the operational structures that let it grow.
The release comes with a data point from PMI itself. A recent PMI report found that 59 per cent of organisations are still struggling to fully integrate sustainability at the project and functional levels. PMI frames that as the distance between commitments and delivery, and the documentary is its illustration of how collaboration, strategic planning, adequate resources and disciplined project management can close it.
REVERB was founded in 2004 by environmentalist Lauren Sullivan and musician Adam Gardner. It works with artists, festivals and venues to cut the environmental footprint of live music. By its figures, it has supported 400 tours and engaged fans in more than 8.6 million environmental actions. It has helped eliminate over 4.6 million single-use plastic bottles, addressed more than 464,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, and raised over $26m for environmental and social causes.
Seabound, founded by Alisha Fredriksson, is developing modular carbon capture equipment that sits onboard ships. The containerised system can capture up to 95 per cent of the carbon dioxide and sulphur emissions from engine exhaust. The company has completed two pioneering pilot projects and raised more than $10m in equity and grant funding.
Amini, founded in 2022 by Kate Kallot, is building what it calls sovereign AI infrastructure, meant to help countries in the Global South control and use their own data locally. It operates in about a dozen countries, has digitised more than 10 million historical and institutional records, and has trained 15,000 data scientists and developers. In Barbados it has set up a national AI system used by the Prime Minister and the government, with citizen services available in more than 90 languages.
Menaka Gopinath, PMI's Chief Marketing Officer, said bold ideas are needed to meet global challenges but progress depends on turning them into action. "Projects are how great ideas become real, and the professionals who lead them make that possible," she said, adding that the featured initiatives show project management can deliver measurable climate, economic and social progress.
The figures above come from the organisations and from PMI, and the series is PMI's own project. What to watch next is whether results like Seabound's pilots and Amini's national deployments lead to wider adoption beyond the first projects.
Notable Quotes
Projects are how great ideas become real, and the professionals who lead them make that possible.— Menaka Gopinath, Chief Marketing Officer, PMI
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