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Innovation Zero Awards: Connecting Climate Innovators with Corporate Buyers and Investors
Innovation Zero Awards 2026 Finalists
By its third year, the Innovation Zero Awards have become a genuine international phenomenon in the global sustainability ecosystem.
What sets them apart is the lens: rather than rewarding the most innovative technology on paper, we focus on the most purchasable, deployable green solutions, judged from the perspective of a real corporate buyer. The goal is simple. Help the most market-ready clean solutions get visibility with the buyers and investors who can actually take them to scale.
And it's working. Some judges have already asked for introductions to the solutions they reviewed, arguably the easiest route an innovator can find to get noticed by a genuine potential customer.
- Dr Shiladitya Ghosh, COO & Co-Founder, Mission Zero Technologies
This year's numbers tell the story of that growth.
We received 570 applications from 64 countries, all assessed by a panel of over 100 leading global experts in corporate sustainability, procurement and innovation. Energy & Power was the largest category by a wide margin at 266 entries, followed by Industry, MRV, Land & Water, Transport, Logistics & Supply Chain, and Built Environment.
Mature Solution Finalists:
- SunGreenH2 (Singapore) for Energy & Power
- ZeroNorth (Denmark) for Transport, Logistics & Supply Chain
- Indra Water (India) for Land & Water
- Leaf Biotech (China) for Industry
- Renewabl (UK) for Monitoring, Reporting and Verification
- Utopi (UK) for Built
Dr Shiladitya Ghosh, COO and co-founder of Mission Zero Technologies, captured what the recognition means for UK innovators: "The Innovation Zero Awards are a perfect platform to showcase innovators on the global stage for climate and Net Zero. We're proud to be a homegrown UK company afforded this recognition."
Tulika Raj, CEO of SunGreenH2, put it in starker terms: "This award recognises that the energy transition will not be solved by incremental change but driven by breakthroughs in materials."
Ben Roberts, co-founder and CMO of Utopi, reflected on what the win represented: "Winning Mature Solution in the Built Environment is a testament to what's possible when you combine data, sustainability, and real-world impact at scale."
Promising Solution Finalists:
- Allegro Energy (Australia) for Energy & Power
- NANOPLUME (UK) for Transport, Logistics & Supply Chain
- Cultivo (USA) for Land & Water
- Novasensa (India) for Industry
- Kestrix (UK) for Monitoring, Reporting and Verification
- Navocem Infra Industries (India) for Built
Aseem Trivedi, co-founder and CEO of Novasensa, summed up what the recognition meant for his team: "This recognition reinforces our commitment to building scalable solutions that recover critical minerals from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and e-waste."
Professor Emily Shuckburgh CBE
New this year is an experimental mentorship-matching scheme that pairs judges willing to mentor with the candidate companies of their choice. It's the first time the Awards have established a direct mechanism to connect corporate buyers and innovator candidates systematically. Results from this pilot will be shared in September.
The shortlist and winners were announced on the Main Stage of Innovation Zero World 2026, with a keynote from DESNZ Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Emily Shuckburgh CBE.
Congratulations to everyone who took part this year, and to the judges who gave their time and expertise to make this possible.