Five Female Sustainability Leaders That Are Killing The Game Right Now
In 2020, female sustainability leaders are making larger strides now than ever before to combat global climate change and execute processes where each of their industries could work more sustainably. Each of these five leaders has been making a positive environmental impact and are role models for myself and should be for all young female girls looking to make an impact on the environment and in business.
Danielle Azoulay - head of CSR and Sustainability for L’Oréal USA
Azoulay is the head of CSR and Sustainability at L’Oréal USA from January 2020. As a part of her role, she oversees the implementation of L’Oréal’s global sustainability program Sharing Beauty With All, which addresses environmental and social impacts across L’Oréal’s value chain. Throughout her career and at her new position at L’Oréal, Danielle continues to develop and execute sustainability strategies within corporations to drive positive change, create value and increase stakeholder engagement: identify opportunities to create environmental efficiency (natural capital, carbon emissions, water) in the supply chain, increase environmental awareness through internal and external training and communications, engage employees and suppliers on sustainability issues, and measure company progress monthly and annually.
Kate Brandt - Google Sustainability Officer
Kate leads sustainability across Google’s worldwide operations, products, and supply chain since May 2018 at the young age of 34. To fulfill her role, Brandt partners with Google’s data centers, real estate, supply chain, and product teams to ensure the company is capitalizing on opportunities to strategically advance sustainability and circular economy. Brandt has pioneered and been involved with many of Google’s sustainability initiatives throughout the years, For example, Project Sunroof allows homeowners to see if their house is a candidate for solar energy and Project Air View has attached methane sensors to Google’s Street View vehicles to map leaks from natural-gas pipelines. Previously in 2014, President Obama appointed Kate to serve as the Federal Environmental Executive and under EO 13693 she became the Nation's first Federal Chief Sustainability Officer. In this capacity, she was responsible for promoting sustainability across Federal Government operations including 360,000 buildings, 650,000 vehicles, and $445 billion annually in purchased goods and services. Her work in many agencies and many corporations are very admirable to me, especially after accomplishing these feats at such a young age.
Janice Lao - Director of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Director at Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels
Lao strongly believes that business can be a force for good and needs to be in service for humanity. She has worked toward this belief all throughout her career. Since starting her role as Director of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Director at Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels in December 2016, Lao has been a major force in advancing sustainability in Asia through her work at MTR, including launching the corporation’s first-ever Green Bond, which was oversubscribed by 200%). Now in her role at HSH, she's pioneering sustainability in luxury. As her role, Janice develops and implements sustainability strategies, communications and reporting, climate change and green finance and M&A deals, supply chain sustainability, income inequality, and community investment as well as green buildings (BREEAM AP and In Use Assessor).
Hannah Jones – Chief Sustainability Officer and President of the Innovation Accelerator of Nike, Nike Valiant Labs (til 2018)
Hannah has been named one of the top professionals spearheading the fashion industry and has been a veteran at Nike, working for the company for more than 20 years. Jones has been actively changing the way companies view sustainability and social responsibility, from mandatory to an opportunity to innovate. As the Chief Sustainability Sustainability Officer for 14 years at Nike, she has worked to guide the company’s focus on rethinking materials, production methods, and business models to solve complex sustainability challenges. As an example of her work, each Nike-sponsored national football team kit in the 2018 World Cup was made with recycled plastic bottles, about a dozen bottles per player’s uniform. Additionally, 75% of all Nike shoes and apparel now contain some recycled material, while Nike has diverted nearly 5 billion plastic bottles from landfills since 2012. “We have made incredible progress over the last decade, and I’m excited to see Noel build on the leadership and change Hannah has helped define,” said Mark Parker, Nike Chairman, President, and CEO.
Arathi Gowda - Associate Director and Sustainability Team Leader, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Gowda joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in 2004, one of the largest and most influential architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban planning firms in the world, where she spearheaded and leads the firm’s weekly High-Performance Design (HPD) meetings, among other sustainability-focused initiatives. As her role, she audits SOM’s designed energy savings portfolio which accounts for nearly 400 million square feet of projects currently. During her career, Gowda realized that sustainability went from a “nice to have” to an imperative in the architecture industry. She notes in Architect Magazine, “We have reached a limit to our resources, and while that presents challenges, it motivates a necessary revolution which will let us fundamentally reposition our entire economy.” Throughout her career, Gowda has discussed with many sustainability best practices, software training, high-performance design techniques, and methods to engage and persuade clients to improve their sustainable aspirations. She has also helped develop a web-based HPD portal, which aggregates and shares environmental design knowledge that is now used by SOM offices around the world.
Want to learn more?
46 Sustainable Leaders (Who Are Also Women)
The 2019 Women In Sustainability Leadership Awards (WSLA)
Kate Brandt Is Turning Google into a Green Powerhouse
A New Challenge For Nike Chief Sustainability Officer Hannah Jones