CleanTech Alliance Awards

Michael Carter, Climate and Workforce Program Manager, King County

Michael Carter is a changemaker and trouble seeker, serving as the Climate and Workforce Manager at King County’s Executive Climate Office (ECO). His work centers on connecting communities affected by climate change with living wage employment opportunities linked to clean energy deployment. He leads initiatives like King County JumpStart, a workforce development program to connect youth to clean energy careers, and local businesses to clean energy contracts at King County. In addition, he serves as the co-chair of the Coalition for Climate Careers, a public-private partnership focused on increasing access to the green economy for underrepresented groups. Michael is committed to bridging the gap between skilled trades and clean energy deployment while ensuring equitable access to living-wage jobs for frontline communities impacted by climate change. He holds a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Southern California (USC), where his research focused on integrating workforce development into local government climate action plans.

Dr. Natalia Mykhaylova, Co-Founder & CEO, WeavAir – WINNER

Dr. Natalia Mykhaylova is the Founder and CEO of WeavAir, which develops sensor modules that improve indoor air quality and energy efficiency of HVAC systems. WeavAir has launched projects in high-risk and low-income communities that have collectively improved air quality and reduced carbon emissions in areas affecting over 200,000 residents globally.   

Dr. Mykhaylova actively champions JEDI principles within WeavAir and the broader cleantech industry through inclusive hiring and diverse team leadership. This diversity is reflected in WeavAir’s approach to problem-solving, innovation, and decision-making, allowing the company to address environmental challenges from a broader, more inclusive standpoint.   

Dr. Mykhaylova is committed to supporting underrepresented voices in the industry. She actively mentors young professionals, especially women and minority individuals, helping them build STEM careers and empowering the next generation of leaders. 

Dr. Mykhaylova has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto. She founded companies in Canada, Singapore, South Korea, and Hong Kong. She has over 14 years of experience developing sustainability solutions powered by artificial intelligence, IoT data analytics and digital twins.  

Ashley Stallworth, Founder & CEO, Bio Fiber Industries

Ashley Stallworth is a visionary leader whose work exemplifies the principles of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI). As the founder of Bio Fiber Industries and the President of the Minority Hemp Builders Association, Ashley is at the forefront of leveraging sustainable materials & technologies to create products & opportunities for healthier & safer environments for urban and rural communities. His groundbreaking efforts in agriculture, green manufacturing, construction, and distribution have empowered countless individuals while driving innovation in the clean technology sector by eliminating the need for toxic materials like drywall, fiber glass insulation and other harmful materials helping to transform the way we build in our built environments.

With over a decade of experience, Ashley has built a career dedicated to dismantling systemic barriers. Through programs focused on community resilience initiatives and partnerships with organizations Ashley has fostered inclusive economic opportunities that promote environmental justice, sustainability and social equity.

A strong advocate for diversity, Ashley actively mentors emerging professionals and collaborates with policymakers to create systemic change. His initiatives focus on ensuring equitable access to resources and opportunities, particularly in disadvantaged and overburdened communities.

Ashley’s education and expertise in environmental sciences, solution design, industrial design and sustainable business strategy and management have enabled him to blend innovation with action. 

Ashley’s leadership is not only reshaping the green economy but also inspiring a generation to prioritize inclusion in environmental and economic solutions while helping set new standard for what’s possible in clean technology, manufacturing and sustainable development now and for future.

Aquagga – WINNER

Aquagga, Inc. is on a mission to eliminate PFAS from global water supplies with advanced, affordable cleantech solutions that treat, measure, and destroy some of the world’s toughest water contaminants. The company develops and deploys PFAS destruction systems that leverage the hydrothermal alkaline treatment (HALT) process to completely destroy all types of PFAS (ultra short-, short-, and long-chain PFAS) in liquid matrices. Aquagga’s technologies ensure compliance with emerging PFAS regulations and reduce future liability for clients in the industrial wastewater, environmental remediation, defense, and solid waste sectors.

RUNWITHIT Synthetics (RWI)

RUNWITHIT Synthetics (RWI) recreates regions as living, synthetic twins, much like SimCity, except for real, for use in designing, optimizing and de-risking investments in policy, technology and infrastructure under unprecedented conditions over time.  RWI’s Synthetic Futures platform is inclusive and representative of diverse people, natural and built environments, governance, businesses, utility services, and critical infrastructure to inform integrated urban (re)development strategies and accelerate climate action with innovative plans, pilots, and programs. RUNWITHIT is a women-led, Certified Aboriginal Business with a passionate, diverse, inclusive and representative team of experts in civil, environmental, computer, mechanical, electrical engineering, social and computer scientists, 3D design and international business. We have won awards around the world for our contribution to generational thinking, dialling forward the outcomes and impacts of choices with a primary focus on sustainability, equity and resilience. RWI’s highlight wins include the United Nation’s Global Call for Decarbonizing Growing Urban Environments, ASTech award for Advanced Simulation and Innovation of the Year, one of 7 MaRS Climate Champions in Canada, Taiwan’s Top Technology Gold Medal Award, Electic Power Research Institute’s Incubatenergy Labs (2022 & 2022), Certified SET100 designation (top 100 startups in energy transition and mobility in 2021 & 2022), and top 5 in Toyota Mobility Foundation’s City Architecture of Tomorrow. 

SET Consulting (Sewer Energy Tapped)

Turning sewer infrastructure into a thermal energy network

SET Consulting provides the expertise to expedited the pathways for Public / Private partnerships, working to tap into this valuable resource within your community!

With the success of new technologies, the value of sewer thermal energy is now recognized by key municipalities within North America.  Washington DC, Seattle, Denver, Vancouver, and Toronto, have all established programs and contracts, to allow access to this resource and are benefiting from locally sourced, and owned, renewable thermal energy.

SET Consulting will work with your team to create pilot projects, programs, and train your program champion.  Based on best practices, SET Consulting works to dramatically reduce the cost and time frame for first WET projects within your community.   

It’s time for your community to tap into the reliable, renewable energy of sewer.  Let SET Consulting show you how!

Jay Inslee, Governor, State of Washington

Jay Inslee is a fifth-generation Washingtonian who has lived and worked on both sides of the state. He grew up in the Seattle area where his father, Frank, was a high school teacher and coach. His mother, Adele, worked as a sales clerk at Sears & Roebuck. Jay worked his way through college and graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in economics before earning his law degree at Willamette University. He and his wife, Trudi, then moved to Selah, a small town near Yakima where they raised their three sons. Jay worked as an attorney and prosecutor.

Jay and Trudi are now proud grandparents to six active little Inslees. Besides writing and illustrating books for his grandchildren and sketching scenes from around Washington, Jay is an avid cyclist and charter member of Hoopaholics, a youth basketball academy.

Jay first became involved in public service in 1985 when he and Trudi helped lead the effort to build a new public high school in Selah. Motivated to fight against proposed funding cuts for rural schools, Jay went on to represent the 14th Legislative District in the state House of Representatives. He was then elected to Congress in 1992. The Inslees later moved back to Kitsap County where Jay was elected to Congress in 1998, serving until 2012 when he was elected governor.

He is currently the longest serving governor in the United States.

During his time in Congress, Jay became known as a forward-thinking leader, especially on issues of clean energy and climate change. He co-wrote a book, “Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean-Energy Economy,” about fighting climate change through clean energy innovation and job-creation. As governor, he has helped put Washington state at the forefront of climate action and is helping lead numerous subnational partnerships. Since 2013, the state has passed nation-leading policies to transition to 100% clean electricity, cap carbon pollution, electrify transportation, and more.

Over the past decade, Washington has consistently been among the few states to rank as one of the best states for business and one of the best states for workers. From commercial space and sustainable maritime to advanced agriculture and forest products, the growth of Washington’s key sectors is helping attract new companies and create jobs in communities all across the state. Washington has one of the nation’s highest minimum wages, paid sick leave for all workers, a best-in-the-nation paid family leave program, and one of the highest union membership rates.

John Kane, Principal, Kane Environmental

In the early 1980s, John began his career as a field geologist collecting temperature readings from water wells in eastern Washington for the first Geothermal map of Washington State. He then worked in the Quaternary Research Laboratory at the University of Washington on a greenhouse gas/global warming research project; one of the earliest research projects confirming increasing trends in global temperature.

His environmental consulting experience started later in the 1980s working on Superfund sites in Montana and the Pacific Northwest. In 1994, he started working on Brownfields Redevelopment projects for commercial/industrial sites throughout the US.

In 2000, John founded Kane Environmental to continue the remediation of contaminated sites mostly in Washington State, as well as other western states. Last year, John sold Kane Environmental to his daughter, Emmy Kane, and continues to work as a Principal Geologist/Hydrogeologist for the firm. John earned his BS in Geosciences from Hobart College in Geneva, New York and his MBA from Western Washington University.

He considers himself the luckiest man in the world being married to Diane for 36 years and his family with daughter Emmy.