Editor’s note: This is the first installment of an annual 4-part series on the trends impacting small and midsize businesses. Here, we study ecological trends for 2025.

Businesses are increasingly aware of the importance of sustainability as part of their long-term strategy.

In recent news that shocked the senses, Microsoft announced plans to source energy from Three Mile Island, the site of America’s most infamous nuclear disaster. The purchase agreement calls for Microsoft to buy 100% of the plant’s output over the next 20 years, and signals a shift in the nation’s energy consumption — the need to fuel the AI aspirations of titans such as Microsoft, OpenAI, Google and Nvidia. Not to be outdone, Google and Amazon have announced plans to invest in small, “modular” reactors to satisfy their energy requirements.

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