The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy and Regional Administrator Dennis McLerran recognized Microsoft Corp. and King County-Cities Climate Collaboration, among other organizations, with Climate Leadership Awards for their leadership and innovation in helping fight climate change. Climate Leadership Award winners were honored for managing and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in internal and supply chain operations, as well as integrating climate resilience into their operating strategies.

This is the fifth year of the annual Climate Leadership Awards, a partnership between EPA’s Center for Corporate Climate Leadership, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions and The Climate Registry. The awards were presented recently at the 2016 Climate Leadership Conference in Seattle.

“Our Climate Leadership Award winners are going above and beyond through their outstanding actions and dedication to reduce harmful carbon pollution that leads to climate change,” said McCarthy. “Our award winners are leading the way towards a healthy environment, and demonstrate that meeting challenges of a changing climate can be done.”

King County-Cities Climate Collaboration received the Innovative Partnerships Certificate for adopting a countywide greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal of 25 percent by 2020. King County and 13 partner cities Bellevue, Burien, Issaquah, Kirkland, Mercer Island, Normandy Park, Redmond, Renton, Sammamish, Seattle, Shoreline, Snoqualmie and Tukwila are collaborating through the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration to coordinate and enhance the effectiveness of local government climate and sustainability action.

Microsoft Corp. received the Organizational Leadership Award for establishing an internal carbon fee that funds energy upgrades, and more. Microsoft committed to make its operations carbon neutral, to achieve net zero emissions for data centers, software development labs, offices and business air travel. To achieve this goal, Microsoft’s internal carbon fee places a price on carbon to improve energy efficiency and increase purchase of renewable energy. The carbon fee is based on current market pricing for renewable energy and carbon offsets. Microsoft’s business groups are financially responsible for the cost to offset their carbon emissions.