Activation of brown adipose tissue (BAT) increases energy expenditure and promotes the futile cycling of fuels such as glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids, thereby improving overall energy and glucose homeostasis. Research in both humans and rodents has demonstrated BAT's beneficial effects on cardiometabolic health. Beige (brown-like) adipocytes, which appear in white adipose tissue (WAT) under specific stimuli, possess significant thermogenic capacity—a process known as WAT browning. This discovery offers a novel approach to promoting energy balance. Consequently, the two types of thermogenic adipose tissues, BAT and beige fat, have emerged as valuable targets for understanding and treating obesity and related metabolic disorders. While significant progress has been made in understanding the transcriptional mechanisms that regulate thermogenesis and beige adipogenesis through β3-adrenoceptor signaling, much less is known about the adipose tissue niche and local microenvironment that exert hormonal control over these transcriptional processes. Moreover, how resident non-adipocyte cell types in adipose tissue—such as stromal cells, endothelial cells, and various immune cells, which lack β3-adrenoceptors—sense environmental cues and communicate with adipocytes remains poorly understood. Our long-term goal is to elucidate how adipocytes sense various environmental cues, such as dietary factors and inflammatory signals, and transduce these signals to different tissue-resident cell types, particularly immune cell subtypes, to maintain metabolic homeostasis. Ultimately, this research aims to identify promising therapeutic targets for the treatment of metabolic diseases.