Sustainability - GeekWire

Aug 26, 2026, 6:38 AM

Not dead yet: The race to give spent EV batteries a second life on the grid and beyond

A decade or two on the road will drain an EV battery’s range and hobble its acceleration. But while it peters out for daily commutes, that battery still has a lot of juice left. This episode of Positive Charge from GeekWire focuses on companies resurrecting these batteries to power off-grid communities, industrial sites and energy-hungry data centers. Read More

Aug 24, 2026, 7:21 AM

Why McKinstry leader Matt Allen is betting on clean nuclear, geothermal and smarter buildings

Matt Allen, chief client officer for the Seattle-based construction and energy services firm McKinstry, is hopeful. He’s betting that climate tech innovations including more efficient building operations as well as fusion and geothermal energy can help his company and its customers meet their carbon emissions goals. Allen shares his thoughts in this sustainability leader profile. Read More

Aug 17, 2026, 7:01 AM

Go inside Endurance Energy, the Seattle startup tapping underwater volcanoes for geothermal power

Endurance Energy is running full-tilt in its cavernous new Seattle facility as it prepares to deploy a 100-kilowatt generator to an oceanic volcano off the coast of Oregon. The company is betting that the technology can one day electrify entire cities. We got a look inside. Read More

Aug 7, 2026, 10:40 AM

This is way mo’ fun: Baby blue Waymo ‘Ojai’ spotted in Seattle, adding to robotaxi test fleet

GeekWire spotted a boxy baby blue Ojai in the parking lot of a Fred Meyer store in the Ballard neighborhood on Friday morning. Read More

Aug 5, 2026, 10:21 AM

Washington state’s next-gen ferry era kicks off with 3 new hybrid boats in $1.15B deal

Washington state’s aging ferry fleet is getting a climate-friendly makeover as construction begins on new hybrid-electric vessels. A Florida shipyard is under contract to deliver three 160-vehicle ferries at a total price tag of $1.15 billion. The first plug-in vessel should be completed in 2030.
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Aug 5, 2026, 6:22 AM

What’s working in climate tech (and what’s not): 4 big ideas from a rooftop full of investors and founders

Investors and founders at a Pacific Northwest Climate Week happy hour named the technologies drawing too much money and the ones showing real promise. Hear from them on new episode of GeekWire’s Positive Charge podcast. Read More

Jul 30, 2026, 8:29 AM

Off the train, into a VW bus: Amazon helps fund free shuttle service for Bellevue light rail riders

Visit Bellevue announced this week that it’s launching a free electric shuttle pilot program on Aug. 3 to help riders on Sound Transit’s 2 line continue their journey to other downtown destinations. Read More

Jul 22, 2026, 6:04 AM

The greenest goodbye: Human composting and the science of becoming soil

In 2020, Recompose was the first U.S. company to develop the technology needed for the commercial composting of human bodies, disrupting a funeral industry that had been largely unchanged for decades. Now 14 states have legalized the climate-friendly practice and more than a dozen others are considering it. Additional startups have launched to offer a greener goodbye and all are looking to scale. Read More

Jul 21, 2026, 5:30 AM

Next-gen battery startup Sila raises $300M to expand manufacturing plant in Washington state

Sila, a startup producing next-generation battery materials, on Tuesday announced $300 million from investors, which will help fund the expansion of its Moses Lake, Wash., manufacturing plant. The company is seeing increased demand from AI-driven applications such as drones, space technologies and wearable devices. Read More

Jul 15, 2026, 8:51 AM

M&Ms, solar panels and plain language: Inside the climate strategy of Slalom’s Meagan Breidert

Four years ago, Meagan Breidert shifted her career into climate work to tackle “big, challenging, complex problems” — landing a role as Slalom’s senior director of sustainability and impact. In this profile, Breidert shares her wish to get coffee and talk chocolate with the Mars CSO, her dream environmental innovation, and other insights. Read More

Jul 14, 2026, 10:20 AM

As General Fusion makes historic Nasdaq debut, report shows global funding surged to $4.5B

General Fusion’s stock is trading up after it became the first fusion energy company to go public on a major… Read More

Jul 10, 2026, 2:47 PM

General Fusion set to become the first publicly traded fusion stock on a major exchange

British Columbia-based General Fusion on Friday completed its deal to become first publicly traded fusion stock on a major exchange.… Read More

Jul 9, 2026, 9:00 AM

Microsoft’s carbon emissions climb 25% as tech giants grapple with AI’s energy toll

Microsoft’s annual sustainability report shows a 25% emissions jump fueled by AI energy demands, testing its 2030 climate goal to become carbon negative. But its chief sustainability officer remains optimistic that long-term investments in carbon reductions and a “portfolio approach” can still rescue their ambitious targets. Read More

Jul 2, 2026, 10:24 AM

Inside the race to power AI data centers with fusion energy — and the surprise detours along the way

While some tech giants are looking to the stars for nearly limitless clean electricity, the actual path to commercial fusion energy involves an unexpected down-scaling, an expansion to traditional nuclear power, and a tight 2028 deadline. Go inside Seattle-area fusion startups Helion and Zap as they try to harness the reactions that power the sun. Read More

Jun 30, 2026, 6:11 AM

‘Forever chemicals’ are everywhere — but these companies are out to destroy them

Can we actually annihilate the toxic “forever chemicals” polluting our water and soil? The debut episode of GeekWire’s Positive Charge podcast dives into the Herculean challenge of destroying PFAS — long-lived contaminants linked to serious health effects like cancer and immune suppression. Read More

Jun 24, 2026, 10:10 AM

General Fusion announces first steps to deploying its clean energy in Italy as tech uncertainty remains

British Columbia-based General Fusion is charging ahead with its goal of commercializing fusion energy, creating a roadmap for a deployment in Italy, hitting new temperature goals and pursuing an IPO through a SPAC. The progress continues despite setbacks in recent years that include layoffs, a public plea for funding and ongoing uncertainty about the viability of its technology. Read More

Jun 23, 2026, 1:28 PM

Lime rides World Cup fever in Seattle to single-day trip record during USA vs. Australia match

Seahawks legend Marshawn Lynch was among the riders who helped Lime set a new single-day ridership record in Seattle, with 83,000 trips recorded on shared bikes and scooters. Read More

Jun 22, 2026, 10:27 AM

Building a ‘digital twin’ 10,000 feet underground: PNNL, Nvidia and Fervo team up on geothermal AI

As tech giants hunt for massive amounts of clean electricity, PNNL, Nvidia and Fervo Energy are partnering to develop a new public tool that aims to eliminate the guesswork of drilling into the Earth’s molten depths. Read More

Jun 22, 2026, 7:11 AM

Riding the clean energy waves: How Sila’s Gene Berdichevsky built a next-gen battery powerhouse

From the ashes of clean tech 1.0 to scaling automotive-grade silicon anodes in Moses Lake, Sila co-founder and CEO Gene Berdichevsky shares why patience, market forces, and material science are the true keys to the energy transition. Read More

Jun 16, 2026, 8:39 AM

Next-gen nuclear company TerraPower plants flag in UK

TerraPower, the Bellevue, Wash.-based nuclear energy company, announced the opening of a subsidiary office in the UK as it pursues its first international deployment. Read More

Jun 16, 2026, 7:17 AM

Helion secures world’s first regulatory licenses for fusion power plant being built in Washington

Helion Energy announced Tuesday that it’s the first company in the world to receive regulatory licenses for a fusion power… Read More

Jun 16, 2026, 6:00 AM

Startup led by Microsoft veterans debuts the first real-time carbon tracker for AI workloads

A new tool from Seattle-based startup Neuralwatt calculates the exact AI carbon footprint tracker metrics for individual prompts in real time to curb data center emissions. Read More

Jun 12, 2026, 9:22 AM

Oregon data center battery maker ZincFive to go public via SPAC deal valued at $600 million

Oregon-based nickel-zinc battery manufacturer ZincFive is headed to the Nasdaq via a $600M SPAC merger with SparkLabs Group to fund increased manufacturing to meet growing demand. Read More

Jun 11, 2026, 12:36 PM

With $54M and a SpaceX playbook, Seattle’s Endurance races to tap deep-sea volcanic power

With $54M and a SpaceX playbook, Seattle’s Endurance races to tap deep-sea volcanic power Read More

Jun 11, 2026, 7:30 AM

Inside Lime’s Seattle warehouse, where 15,000 bikes and scooters are prepped for a World Cup surge

In a sprawling facility south of downtown in Georgetown — a space that serves as the base of operations for the company’s presence in the Seattle region — Lime is rolling out new devices, doing regular maintenance on its existing fleet, and preparing a suite of services designed to handle many thousands of riders. Read More

Jun 8, 2026, 2:57 PM