Mazzetti CEO Walt Vernon Named Leader of the Year at 2026 Green Power Leadership Awards

Walt Vernon, Mazzetti Principal and CEO, has been honored with the Leader of the Year award at the 2026 Green Power Leadership Awards (GPLA), presented by the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) at the Renewable Energy Markets (REM) 2026 conference in Washington, D.C. The award recognizes individuals who leverage their influence, authority, position, or purchasing power to expand the availability of renewable energy, honoring both personal achievement and vision in advancing the renewable energy market. Walt was the sole individual recipient among nine honorees this year, joining eight organizations recognized across the categories of Education & Awareness, Impactful Procurement, and Market Innovation.

Walt has spent three decades building Mazzetti from a small engineering practice into a national and international firm, guiding its transformation into an employee-owned Benefit Corporation formally committed to bending the climate curve. A licensed professional engineer who also holds LEED AP and EDAC designations along with a JD and LLM, Walt has focused much of his recent work on decarbonizing the healthcare sector, helping hospitals and health systems adopt renewable energy, electrified infrastructure, and microgrid systems without compromising patient care or operational resilience. He has helped lead microgrid projects at facilities including Valley Children’s Healthcare and Kaiser Ontario, and has worked through organizations like ASHRAE and the National Academy of Medicine to shape codes and standards that make renewable microgrids and long-duration energy storage viable for hospitals. He also founded Sextant, a nonprofit that brings clean energy solutions to under resourced healthcare facilities around the world, and coordinated global engineering support during the COVID-19 pandemic to improve ventilation guidance.

The Green Power Leadership Awards, now in their third decade, are among the most prominent recognitions in the U.S. renewable energy sector, spotlighting the organizations and individuals accelerating the transition to clean power. Walt’s recognition underscores the growing role healthcare-sector leaders are playing in that transition, as hospitals face mounting pressure to decarbonize energy-intensive operations while maintaining reliability for critical care.