Climate change is battering the earth with record-setting high temperatures, more powerful storms and devastating wildfires. A slate of cutting-edge sustainability companies are fighting back with technologies that aim to curb carbon emissions and help humanity navigate a change world.
This award, presented by Amazon, recognizes the Pacific Northwest’s leaders in this space. The Sustainable Innovation Award finalists this year are Helion, IUNU, OCOChem, Ravel and TerraPower.
Now in its 18th year, the GeekWire Awards is the premier event recognizing the top leaders, companies and breakthroughs in Pacific Northwest tech, bringing together hundreds of people to celebrate innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit. It takes place May 7 at the Showbox SoDo in Seattle.
Carbon Robotics, an ag-tech company building weed-killing machines that use artificial intelligence and computer vision to recognize and zap unwanted plants, won the category last year.
Continue reading for information on this year’s finalists, which were chosen by a panel of independent judges from community nominations. You can help pick the winner: Cast your ballot here or in the embedded form at the bottom of this story. Voting runs through April 10.
Helion Energy has spent 13 years working to replicate the physics that power the sun and stars — pursuing nearly limitless clean energy for the grid. The Everett, Wash.-based company is currently developing its seventh-generation prototype while simultaneously building what it hopes will be the world’s first commercial fusion plant, in Eastern Washington.
Backers include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Microsoft has signed a deal to purchase power from that first facility. Helion has raised more than $1 billion toward its goal — though whether it can deliver remains an unanswered question.
The Seattle ag tech startup IUNU wants to bring computer vision and AI to the commercial greenhouse — deploying autonomous rail-mounted cameras and canopy-level sensors that can spot early signs of disease, track plant growth, and tell growers exactly what to do about it.
Pronounced “you-knew,” IUNU was founded in 2013 by CEO Adam Greenberg, the son of a botanist and co-founder of a clean water startup called Pure Blue Technologies. The company has deployed its technology across six countries, has additional offices in Canada and Netherlands, and has raised $60 million.
Unwanted carbon dioxide has a higher purpose thanks to OCOchem. The Richland, Wash., startup is taking water and captured industrial CO2 and turning them into chemicals that can be converted into clean-burning hydrogen fuel, used in aviation deicers, or fed to microorganisms that biosynthesize proteins.
The company has raised $11.2 million from investors plus additional grant dollars, and has multiple pilot projects underway as it scales up production. Todd Brix launched OCOchem in 2017 after a nearly two-decade career at Microsoft.
Seattle’s Ravel has developed a proprietary, planet friendly technology that unwinds the components of fabric blends through a process it calls “purification recycling.” Ravel’s target is elastane, which is known as spandex or Lycra and added to essentially every category of apparel.
The startup recovers the elastane, turning it into cost-competitive, recycled plastic pellets that serve as the raw material for making polyester fabrics. Ravel launched in 2019 and last year announced a pre-seed funding round.
In March, TerraPower became the first next-generation nuclear company in the U.S. to receive federal construction approval — a milestone for the Bill Gates-backed startup, which is engineering smaller, modular reactors designed to be assembled from factory-built components. Each reactor generates 345 megawatts and pairs with a molten salt energy storage system that can supply additional power.
The Bellevue, Wash., company broke ground on a demonstration plant in Kemmerer, Wyo., in 2024 and aims to start splitting atoms there by the end of 2030. TerraPower has raised $1.66 billion from investors and secured a $2 billion federal grant.
Astound Business Solutions is the presenting sponsor of the 2026 GeekWire Awards. Thanks also to gold sponsors Amazon Sustainability, Baird, BECU, JLL, First Tech and Wilson Sonsini, and silver sponsors Prime Team Partners.
The event will feature a VIP reception, sit-down dinner and fun entertainment mixed in. Tickets go fast. A limited number of half-table and full-table sponsorships available. Contact events@geekwire.com to reserve a spot for your team today.
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