Fifth Season

These companies use the creative forces of capitalism to solve big problems—and do well by doing good.

A film and TV production company whose works include the premium streaming series Severance, Chief of War, and Lady in the Lake, Fifth Season has also been a champion of giving incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people opportunities in the entertainment industry. The company is a longtime partner of Los Angeles’ Anti-Recidivism Coalition, and has provided career coaching and networking help to more than 200 formerly incarcerated people over the past six years. Fifth Season has also worked with Camp Kilpatrick, a juvenile detention center, to launch the Reel Action Film Fellowship (RAFF), providing youth at the camp with filmmaking experience and mentorship.

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Fifth Season is one of several promising startups in the indoor farming space and one that’s particularly sophisticated in its use of robotics and artificial intelligence to make food production more sustainable. The Pittsburgh-headquartered company farms “vertically,” which enables its farms to take up less space. Its automated systems, meanwhile, limit human contact so the produce has less chance of being contaminated. Fifth Season’s farms mimic the seasons, exerting control over humidity and light intensity in ways traditional farming cannot. Overall, the company says it uses 97% less land than it would take to grow the same amount of food using traditional methods, and only 5% as much water, with no risk of fertilizer runoff. 
 
Fifth Season also aims to be “farm to table” and hyper-local. It has partnered with restaurants, grocers, and supermarkets in and around Pittsburgh and Columbus to distribute ready-made salads and fresh greens. The company reported in February that it was on track to grow 500,000 pounds of produce within its first year.

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Fifth Season

Fifth Season in Fortune Rankings