2026 ACR Climate Impact Awards Recognize Enduring Commitment to Climate Action

Susan Biniaz, 1PointFive, and REI Co-op celebrated at annual awards event

SAN DIEGO – ACR recognized trailblazing individuals and organizations for their commitments to climate action at its 2026 ACR Climate Impact Awards, which has been held annually for nearly 20 years. The 2026 ACR Climate Leadership Award was presented to Susan Biniaz, a lawyer and U.S. climate negotiator who is widely regarded as one of the most influential architects of international climate policy, including the Paris Climate Agreement. ACR also recognized 1PointFive and REI Co-Op with awards.

“These award winners demonstrate that action is an antidote, especially in challenging times,” said Mary Grady, Executive Director of ACR. “From international climate policy to corporate climate achievement and project-level actions, these leaders show the vast array of opportunities to take practical steps forward to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We thank each of the award winners for their tireless dedication.”

U.S. Climate Negotiator Susan Biniaz received the 2026 Climate Leadership Award for her indefatigable dedication over more than three decades as one of the most influential architects of modern international climate policy, from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol to Copenhagen/Cancun, the Paris Agreement, and ICAO’s CORSIA. As a lead climate attorney and highly respected negotiator for the U.S. Government, most recently as Deputy Special Envoy for Climate, Biniaz was trusted by every COP Presidency to understand diverse and often divergent government positions and to brilliantly engineer and draft solutions to achieve consensus outcomes. Through her extensive diplomatic tours, she fostered relationships with other governments and fine-tuned political compromises – including in the run up to the high-pressure negotiations of the Paris Agreement, which she is often credited with saving. Standing at the door of the Oval Office, President Obama expressed his gratitude for her efforts saying “Sue, Sue, Sue; You saved the world.”

“Thanks very much to ACR for this award and for your leadership. We negotiators may design the agreements, but organizations like ACR help bring them to life,” Biniaz said. 

1PointFive, a carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS) company, received the 2026 Innovation Award for its STRATOS Direct Air Capture facility in Texas, which is designed to capture up to 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually once fully operational. The plant is currently progressing through commissioning and start-up activities. Offering a practical solution to help a variety of sectors address CO2 emissions, 1PointFive has signed carbon removal agreements with Microsoft, Amazon, JPMorganChase, All Nippon Airways and others.

“Direct Air Capture is a vital technology that will help the world address carbon dioxide emissions and provide a way to produce domestic low-carbon energy resources,” said Anthony Cottone, President and General Manager of 1PointFive. “We’re grateful to receive this honor which represents our team’s enthusiasm and dedication to delivering carbon removal at industrial scale.”

REI Co-op received the 2026 Corporate Excellence Award for longstanding climate leadership. As the nation’s largest specialty outdoor retailer and consumer cooperative, REI Co-op has long focused on reducing its carbon emissions and contributing to climate solutions. In pursuit of its Science Based Target, REI continues to achieve year over year reductions in its Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. REI has earned certification to The Climate Label, which requires brands to create and deploy a climate transition budget towards qualifying emission reductions projects within their own value chains and beyond. As part of their ongoing commitment to maintaining climate neutrality, REI also retires carbon credits each year from a variety of high-quality projects to compensate for its operational emissions.

“We’re thrilled to receive this leadership award from ACR. Protecting the future of a healthy outdoors means we have a responsibility to invest in climate action and take accountability for our ongoing emissions. The Climate Label and the voluntary carbon market remain power pathways for doing so,” said Andrew Dempsey, Director of Sustainability, REI Co-op.

Past ACR Climate Leadership awardees include Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC; John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate; Paul Hawken, environmentalist, entrepreneur and author; Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board; Frances Seymour, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute (WRI) and author; and last year, world renowned Brazilian climate scientist Carlos Nobre.

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ACR is an internationally recognized carbon crediting program that operates in global compliance and voluntary carbon markets. A nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, ACR was founded in 1996 as the first private greenhouse gas (GHG) registry in the world with the mission of harnessing the power of markets to improve the environment. Learn more at ACRclimate.org.