A couple of months back, Fast Company published their list, “The World’s Top 50 Most Innovative Companies”. There are many obvious ones, like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter. Then, there were some of the companies you wouldn’t expect to see or perhaps have even heard of. Here are three I think are cool and worth watching:

SolarCity

Just when you might have thought that solar power would always remain in the margins comes a company that has become the biggest solar service provider in the United States. With 25 operation centers in 14 states, the six-year-old company’s strategy rooted in providing on-going service and support to panels they lease (not sell) to customers. SolarCity monthly-fee based agreement is backed by an on-going service relationship. This includes a PowerGuide™ power consumption monitoring system that gives homeowners an instant snapshot of their energy use. Among its loftier goals is to bring “the cost of solar to parity with grid power through economies of scale by 2016.”

SolarCity illustrates how a company can look closely at what the relationship with a client should be when it comes to energy usage. It’s clear that they value partnering with their customers with a mission to save them money. As their model continues to gain followers you can be sure the competition will soon be hot on their heels.

James Corner Field Operations

With a company name fresh out of a dystopian novel, Corner and his team are delivering transformed landscapes that take blighted urban spaces and create new destinations for the public. The second section of the High Line, an elevated green space along Manhattan’s West Side, is one of the firm’s more high-profile contributions. It’s also an approach to landscape architecture I hope many other city leaders across the globe will be inspired by. The focus of embracing urban sites that are blighted and converting them into public spaces is a key part of creating sustainable cities in the next 50 years.

Chobani

Greek-style yogurt? Yes. This five-year-old company is  $650 million-plus success story that matches a good product with bold moves. Chobani isn’t the only Greek-style yogurt out there but it’s forged a path with standout packaging and flavors the competition haven’t found a way to counter. And enough customers demonstrated fondness for the product that the company created a “Chobani Love Stories” campaign that doubled sales.

A yogurt company may seem like an odd choice to single out for innovation but it’s actually one of the riskiest ventures. It’s one thing to appeal to the energy-saving, sustainable sensibilities of a public. It’s a very different set of concerns when it comes to people’s passion for food. Yet that is exactly what all great innovation touches on — something that people can be passionate about and wish to share with others regardless of any financial incentives. You can’t ask for people to be passionate, but you can try to appeal to something deeper and risk establishing a connection. Good innovators are always doing that.

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