Sortera named among sustainability's most innovative companies for 2026

Reposted from fastcompany.com

The planet is under unprecedented pressure. Last year was the second-hottest year on record, and the last dozen years have been the hottest in human history. We’re on track to overshoot the Paris Agreement goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Wildfires, floods, and extreme heat driven by climate change continue to break records. As many as 2 million species are at risk of extinction. Pollution keeps growing, from fossil fuels to fertilizer to microplastics. At the same time, in the U.S., federal policy is moving in the wrong direction—rolling back climate regulations, cutting clean energy incentives and research, and trying to stop clean-energy projects already under way.

As the federal government steps back, the most innovative companies and cities in sustainability on this year’s list are moving forward. Some are focused on resilience in the face of climate impacts, like Pano AI, which uses cameras and software to detect wildfires before they get out of control, and the City of Paris, which is replacing parking spaces and traffic lanes with green space to help deal with increasing urban heat.

Others are finding new ways to capture CO2, like Arbor, which combines carbon removal with creating clean, baseload power; Ebb Carbon, which uses its technology at desalination plants to permanently remove CO2 in the ocean; and Mast Reforestation, which buries trees killed by wildfires to fund replanting. To reduce emissions, Copper is helping making it easier for consumers to switch to clean induction stoves—and supporting the electric grid with a battery inside the appliance.

Several startups are finding new ways to tackle waste. Sortera uses AI to extract higher-value materials from car scraps. Matter‘s self-cleaning filters catch microplastic fibers in washing machines and factories. Nature Coatings turns wood waste into pigment that would otherwise be made from fossil fuels. And Cecilia turns hard-to-recycle plastic waste into high-performance carbon nanotubes. In the face of grim headlines, these companies show that progress is possible.

1. Pano AI

For detecting wildfires before they’re out of control

As extreme heat and drought make wildfires more likely, Pano AI is using a network of 360-degree cameras, supplemented by satellite imagery and powered by its proprietary artificial intelligence, to spot fires when they begin—making it possible to stop them before they get out of control. The company, founded in 2020, now uses its technology to monitor around 150 million acres of land in North America and Australia. Fire agencies, along with private customers like utilities, get an alert when the system detects smoke and a team of human analysts verifies the fire. The tech helps pinpoint the location of the blaze, and firefighters can use the platform to track the fire and coordinate with other agencies as they battle it. The company was the first global provider to integrate camera detection with satellite images, enabling nighttime detection. Pano AI’s engineering team continues to build new features, such as the ability for agencies to get geofenced alerts only within their own jurisdictions. In 2025, the system sent alerts for 735 fires. More than half of the time, Pano AI’s alerts came in before fire agencies received a 911 call, helping firefighters gain crucial time to respond and limit the fire’s spread.

Read more about Pano AI, No. 33 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2026.

2. Copper

For using induction stoves to help store solar power [or help boost the electric grid]

Copper is pioneering a new type of product: appliances with built-in batteries that can help support the electric grid. Last year, the company launched nationwide delivery of its first appliance, a high-end induction stove called Charlie with a 5-kilowatt-hour battery tucked inside. For customers who want to reduce pollution by replacing gas stoves, the battery makes installation more affordable by avoiding the need for expensive electrical upgrades. It also boosts the stove’s performance, from faster boiling to enabling more precise control of the oven’s temperature. And if the power ever goes out, the stove keeps working. By charging when renewable energy is cheap and plentiful and then using the energy later, it can help balance the grid’s energy supply and demand; at scale, a fleet of stoves can help utilities quickly respond when the grid is under stress. The company is now developing other battery-embedded appliances, such as heat pumps, and beginning to work with large appliance OEMs. Last August, it raised $28 million in a Series A round of funding.

Read more about Copper, No. 45 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2026.

3. City of Paris

For replacing parking spots with trees

In Paris, thousands of parking spaces are being replaced by trees. In before-and-after photos, some streets are nearly unrecognizable, like the Contre-Allée de Meaux, where two rows of parked cars and a car lane are now a mini park. It’s part of the city’s reimagining of the role of streets—not just a way to get from A to B, but shared spaces to live and spend time with neighbors. (At the same time, new bike infrastructure has helped shrink traffic and dramatically improved air quality.) Hundreds of “school streets” are now fully pedestrianized and planted with gardens, giving children a safe place to walk to school and play. The Place de Catalogne, previously a massive concrete roundabout, is now an urban microforest filled with 478 trees. Over the last winter, the city added more than 1,200 new trees on 92 streets and squares; it also planted thousands more in parks and along the city’s ring road. Since 2020, the city has planted more than 150,000 trees. In 2025, residents voted to green and pedestrianize another 500 streets. Beyond giving residents more access to nature and boosting local biodiversity, greening the city can help it better deal with extreme heat from climate change.

4. Sortera

For using AI to build America’s clean‑metal supply chain

Sortera is using patented AI to rethink automotive recycling. Each year, the U.S. generates around 25 million tons of metal scrap from cars and other products, but because traditional sorting equipment struggles to handle it, much of it is sent overseas for manual processing. At the same time, tariffs on aluminum and steel have increased demand for U.S.-made metals. Recycling offers a clear environmental benefit: Producing aluminum from scrap uses roughly 95% less energy than starting from raw ore. Domestic recycling also speeds up supply chains, cutting procurement times for manufacturers. At its facility in Indiana, Sortera uses its advanced sensors and AI to process old car parts and appliances and produce different high-value aluminum alloys that can be used in the automotive industry, construction, and other sectors. In 2025, the company raised $45 million to fund growth, and a second facility is set to begin operation in Tennessee later this year. Once it’s fully operational, it could boost annual production to roughly 240 million pounds of recycled aluminum. By combining AI-driven sorting with a domestic supply chain, Sortera is improving efficiency, reducing carbon emissions, and helping meet rising demand for U.S.-produced metals.

5. Arbor

For turning organic waste into carbon-negative electricity

Arbor turns wood waste into fuel, burns it with pure oxygen, and then uses the resulting CO2 to generate clean baseload electricity before the CO2 is captured and stored underground. The company’s modular turbines, which generate 25 megawatts of power, can be added together and are sized to help data centers and other customers quickly add capacity as they grow. (The turbines can also run on natural gas; operation is zero-emissions with carbon capture, though the full life cycle has higher emissions than when using fuel made from biomass.) While older turbines are much larger and take years to deliver, Arbor’s are designed for faster production, with components that can be 3D-printed. Frontier, a coalition of companies including Google, Stripe, Meta, and others, signed a $41 million deal to help Arbor launch its first commercial facility in Louisiana, set to begin operations in 2028. In a deal with Microsoft, the company will deliver 25,000 tons of CO2 removal while generating 5 megawatts of electricity. The company raised a $55 million Series A round last October, led by Lowercarbon Capital and Voyager Ventures.

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6. Matter

For pioneering a new filter that can capture microplastic from laundry machines

Textiles are the biggest source of microplastic pollution, shedding fibers both in washing machines and in textile factories. Every time synthetic fabrics are washed, tiny plastic fibers break loose and flow into wastewater systems, where many escape and end up in rivers, oceans, and even the air. The U.K.-based startup Matter makes advanced filtration technology called Regen that’s designed to capture that microplastic pollution. In 2025, Bosch & Siemens launched a new washing machine filter that uses the tech.

The system is self-cleaning, doesn’t rely on disposable bags or cartridges, and can run for up to 20 wash cycles before it needs to be emptied, lowering both cost and hassle for consumers. Matter also makes a version of its filtration system for textile factories, where microfibers are released at much larger volumes. Globally, factories are estimated to emit around 160,000 metric tons of microfibers every year. By capturing fibers at the source, Matter’s industrial filters can reduce pollution while also improving water reuse, operational efficiency, and overall operating costs for manufacturers. Inter Ikea Group, the company that owns the Ikea brand, is leading Matter’s current fundraising round.

7. Ebb Carbon

For pioneering scalable CO2 removal that benefits the ocean

Ebb makes modular, scalable carbon-capture technology that accelerates the ocean’s natural ability to pull CO2 from the air. The tech is designed to be added to desalination plants, which process hundreds of millions of metric tons of seawater every day; by making use of existing infrastructure, it lowers deployment costs. The unit turns industrial brine from the plants into alkaline water that can return to the ocean, where it converts CO2 to stable, safe bicarbonate. For desalination plants, the process makes it possible to produce more freshwater while also generating other valuable chemicals that the plants can use or sell. (Ebb is also working with Alphabet’s X, the Moonshot Factory, to explore ways to use one of the by-products to recycle concrete waste.) The startup, which has raised $40 million since it was founded in 2021, is deploying the technology first at facilities in Saudi Arabia, in partnership with the Saudi Water Authority. In December, the company announced that Google had prepurchased 3,500 tons of carbon removal. If the technology is added to all existing global desalination infrastructure, it could support billions of tons of carbon removal each year.

8. Nature Coatings

For turning wood waste into fossil-free pigments

Commonly used in everything from mascara to paints and tires, a pigment called carbon black is normally made from fossil fuels. Nature Coatings produces the same pigment from wood waste, avoiding pollution and carcinogens like benzene associated with the conventional process. The patent-pending products, called BioBlack, are designed for a range of industries. In 2025, the startup launched BioBlack Beauty, a colorant for cosmetics that is already being used in products like eyeliner. It also ran a pilot with Ikea, turning wood waste from returned or damaged products into pigments that the brand could use in paint, textiles, or products. In another pilot, Nature Coatings partnered with Asahi Beverages to upcycle grain and coffee-ground waste into pigment for packaging. Other customers, from Sherwin Williams to Ralph Lauren, are also testing the products. The company works with customers to create custom formulations for different applications—whether it’s ink or a pigment for a car part—so that it can exactly match the performance of the previous fossil-based version. Because the products are made from wood waste, they’re also carbon negative.

9. Mast Reforestation

For burying dead trees—and their carbon—to fund resilient reforestation

To help fund its work replanting trees in areas burned by wildfires, Mast Reforestation turned to a new solution: burying dead trees to earn carbon credits. The company learned that after a fire, landowners are faced with the challenge of what to do with the trees killed in the disaster. The wood can’t be sold as timber, so it’s often burned or left to decay, releasing CO2 emissions. Burying the wood instead prevents emissions and can generate immediate carbon credits—when trees are replanted, they typically can’t earn carbon credits for a decade. The new process is helping Mast expand its work. In 2025, the company pioneered the approach on forestland in Montana, burying more than 10 million pounds of wood and preventing the release of 5,000 metric tons of CO2. The company is now growing seedlings to replant on the land this spring. It says that the work can easily be replicated. In Montana alone, an estimated 2.8 million tons of wood destroyed in wildfires could be buried. The same opportunity exists in millions of acres of other forests in the American West, and it could help scale up reforestation.

10. Cecilia

For turning plastic waste into advanced materials

Cecilia’s modular technology transforms hard-to-recycle plastic waste into clean hydrogen and advanced carbon materials, addressing a growing stream of plastics that traditional recycling systems cannot handle. The company makes carbon nanotubes—a high-performance material known for its strength, light weight, and ability to conduct electricity—which can be used in EV batteries, airplanes, construction materials, electronics, and other high-value applications. Its energy-efficient production process runs on electricity and can be carbon neutral if it uses renewable energy, making it compatible with increasingly decarbonized power grids.

The hydrogen that the process creates can also be recycled back into the system to power itself, lowering operating costs. In a partnership with NASA, the company is testing how the process could deal with the problem of plastic waste on space missions, where trash must be managed in closed, resource-constrained environments. On Earth, the same approach can be applied to industrial waste streams that would otherwise end up in landfills or be incinerated. In 2025, the company launched a demonstration unit and began engineering a larger reactor that will be commissioned this year to begin commercial production.