SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Feb. 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Watershed, the leading enterprise sustainability platform, and Lumen Energy, the modern solar broker for leading commercial real estate owners, are partnering to make onsite solar a more practical business decision across large, distributed portfolios of buildings. The partnership will help companies move from planning to operating projects with predictable power costs and measurable emissions reductions.

As electricity prices have risen and become more volatile, interest in onsite solar has grown. In practice, evaluations tend to slow once multiple teams are involved, with sustainability, facilities, and finance each applying different lenses, and little consistency across site-level proposals. The result is familiar: extended evaluation cycles, stalled decisions, and projects that never make it to execution even when the underlying economics are attractive.

How It Works

Watershed centralizes the customer’s site‑level energy and carbon data and models ROI and emissions across facilities so companies can embed clean power into their procurement and long‑term planning. Lumen acts as a modern solar broker for the customer, with its Lux Engine producing investment‑grade financial and technical analyses for every property. Once potential sites are vetted, Lumen runs transparent, competitive bidding with developers to secure the most profitable project at each building.

Watershed and Lumen’s partnership drives clean power programs built for speed, rigor, and scale, with:

• Fast, finance‑ready decisions; 
• Better contractual terms;
• Multi‑year, fixed pricing through PPAs or leases that reduce exposure to utility volatility;
• Measurable emissions reductions.

Albany International, a global materials science and manufacturing company, leveraged its partnership with Watershed and Lumen to build the foundation of a credible, scalable clean power strategy across dozens of energy-intensive sites. Albany International leveraged Watershed to understand its facilities and energy data across sites, and then it turned to Lumen to evaluate the ROI of proposed onsite solar projects and run a competitive bidding process with vetted developers.

“Working with the Watershed and Lumen teams allowed us to accelerate progress in our decarbonization program through both robust carbon accounting data and an efficient assessment of our operations, in order to quickly identify projects with the strongest business case that support our overall strategy,” said Anna Yates, Head of Sustainability at Albany International. 

“Watershed is built to help companies understand their own energy and emissions data and turn it into better decisions. Onsite solar is a good example of where that matters. What often starts as a site-by-site project evaluation becomes much more effective when teams can look across a portfolio of facilities, understand tradeoffs, and prioritize based on the same information. Watershed and Lumen together make that shift practical,” said Matt Konieczny, Head of Decarbonization and Energy at Watershed.

“Today's sustainability leaders feel new pressure to deliver financial ROI. Onsite solar is now often profitable, yet the buying process has been opaque, slow, and hard to compare. With Watershed and Lumen, solar becomes a transparent financial decision. Lumen brings the investment-grade analysis and competitive bidding; Watershed brings the data foundation. Together, we help companies lock in predictable power costs and capture returns in months—not years,” said Peter Light, CEO of Lumen Energy.

About Watershed: Watershed is the enterprise sustainability platform. Companies like Airbnb, Carlyle Group, FedEx, Visa, and Dr. Martens use Watershed to manage climate and ESG data, produce audit-ready metrics for voluntary and regulatory reporting including CSRD, and drive real decarbonization. Watershed is the platform of choice for companies seeking to reduce emissions; meet customer, investor and regulatory requirements; and modernize their sustainability programs. Watershed customers also have exclusive access to a marketplace of pre-vetted, high-quality carbon projects and groundbreaking virtual power purchase agreements.

About Lumen Energy: Lumen Energy is the modern solar broker for the nation’s largest real estate owners, transforming underutilized rooftops into profitable solar revenue. Their proprietary Lux Engine provides investment-grade financial and technical analysis at the portfolio level, giving owners clarity and confidence immediately. Once vetted, projects are put to bid, and leading developers compete transparently. With Lumen Energy on their side of the table, providing white-glove service at every step, owners unlock predictable ancillary income, advance sustainability and resiliency goals, and scale solar adoption across their portfolios—without distraction from their core business.

Amelia Penniman
Watershed
amelia@watershed.com