Holly Alpine (née Beale)’s Post

This year, along with two full sections on my work itself (pages 53 and 54 on #CommunityEnvironmentalSustainability and page 81 on #EmployeeEngagement), my photo was chosen for the cover of the "Global Sustainability" section of Microsoft's 2024 Annual Sustainability Report. It’s one I took as I turned around while leading my first real “mixed climb” in the Alps, i.e. a climb that transitions between climbing rock, ice, and steep snow, requiring the need to swap between various tools and techniques. “Leading” - going first - takes on significantly more of the decision-making and risk. I’m proud of the climb, and proud of the photo. What’s ironic here is the content; the blurb with the photo is about how Microsoft commits to "help societal conditions that will cultivate a net zero economy," and "enable a just energy transition." However, my focus for several years internally, and now externally, is on Microsoft's "enabled emissions" - the term we've coined around emissions that are only happening because Microsoft is providing #advancedtechnology to dramatically increase oil & gas production. These ongoing efforts are actually building the societal conditions to keep the oil & gas industry profitable and extend the age of fossil fuels. As Melanie Nakagawa, Microsoft's CSO, said on stage recently at #BloombergGreen, big corporations can set the agenda in driving transformative change. She stressed how “transparency is such a key part” of how Microsoft operates - so then why is this work so rampant yet virtually absent from external reporting? While there’s so much greatness in the report and Microsoft’s work, and I’m glad to be featured, I will continue to call for Microsoft to take #responsibility and close the #leadershipgap. Let's actually enable a more sustainable world. For more info, read the recent Grist article about our work: https://shorturl.at/jkEfh And our shareholder resolution we just filed: https://shorturl.at/MADZC #enabledemissions #sustainability #climate #climateleadership #leadershipgap #corporateresponsibility #oilandgas #justtransition Greenpeace, 350.org, AI Now Institute, Amy Westervelt, Will Alpine, Drew Wilkinson, Bill Weihl, Deborah McNamara, Dr. Sasha Luccioni, ClimateVoice, Friends of the Earth, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, Hugging Face, Computer Says Maybe, Stand.earth, Public Citizen, Sunrise Movement, WorkforClimate

📢 Big news: We've now filed a shareholder resolution with Microsoft through As You Sow, urging the company to report on the risks associated with producing AI technology for #fossilfuel production. Despite Microsoft’s stated environmental commitments, the company continues to develop advanced technology (including #AI) that facilitates new oil and gas projects. We believe this ongoing support for fossil fuel extraction poses significant financial, reputational, and competitive risks, including challenges in employee hiring and retention. My own #resignation is one public example, with many more quietly disheartened employees behind-the-scenes. These multi-billion-dollar expansion projects are largely absent from external reporting and completely excluded from #carbonreporting. We believe the projects and the risks are not sufficiently disclosed to employees, shareholders, or the public. While Microsoft highlights the climate-positive applications of its advanced technologies, ignoring their role in fossil fuel production opens the company to accusations of #greenwashing. As we approach the 2024 Annual Shareholders Meeting in December, we call on Microsoft to increase transparency and provide shareholders with sensible, decision-useful information about its role in the oil and gas industry. For a live session on this topic, join us at PNW Climate Week (free!) this Friday, July 12th at 6pm @ Georgetown Steam Plant CDA. 🔗 Register to attend: https://lu.ma/77mbku5i  https://lnkd.in/gfSJ_6S5 Greenpeace, 350.org, AI Now Institute, Amy Westervelt, ClimateVoice, Deborah McNamara, Bill Weihl, Friends of the Earth, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, Hugging Face, Stand.earth, Public Citizen, Sunrise Movement, WorkforClimate, Dr. Sasha Luccioni

🌎 PNW Climate Week 🌎 in Seattle is right around the corner! I'll be in three sessions: 1️⃣ ClimateVoice's panel session on climate in the workplace 📅 Tuesday, July 9th • 4pm @ KEXP 🌻 🗨 Real world examples and practical advice on how employees can speak up internally to raise the bar on corporate climate action 🔗 Register to attend: https://lu.ma/h3skkor6 2️⃣ Make Sustainability Part of Everybody’s Job 📅 Wednesday, July 10th • 3pm @ Pitchbook HQ 🗨 Employee Engagement Workshop led by Drew Wilkinson 🔗 Register to attend: https://lu.ma/hqmhv3da 2️⃣ No AI for Oil: Inside Microsoft Employees' Campaign for Environmentally Responsible AI 📅Friday, July 12th • 6pm @ Georgetown Steam Plant CDA 🤖 🗨 Employees will speak about their campaign at Microsoft to stop the rampant use of AI in accelerating oil & gas production 🔗 Register to attend: https://lu.ma/77mbku5i Otherwise, just message me to grab a coffee ☕ ClimateVoice Nivi Achanta Drew Wilkinson William Alpine Sarah Keller Deborah McNamara Bill Weihl Lucas Joppa Dina Bass Maddie Stone Ali Sheridan David Pinsky Maren Costa Akshat Rathi Vicky Chan Alessandra Pistoia Alma Cardenas Mark McPherson Katie Krupin #ClimateWeek #sustainability #panelsessions #NoAIforOil

Since the founding of the program 7 years ago, I tried to get Microsoft to make a formal, public commitment to the Community Environmental Sustainability program. It’s great to see a community pledge published last week! While I still think the community sustainability project portion could be stronger in the formal pledge 😉, it’s great to see it mentioned in the blog post: “We invest in initiatives to enhance local sustainability. We restore sensitive watershed corridors and invest in projects to conserve trees, enhance native flora and protect ecological habitats, providing benefits to the surrounding ecosystems and honoring the natural beauty of the area.” Thank you, Noelle Walsh and my old team, for continuing the work, and I hope that the community investments continue to grow and become commensurate with datacenter investments! 👏 https://lnkd.in/gx_7FGgv #datacenters #community #pledge #sustainability #communitysustainability #microsoft

Thank you for the great questions, Bill Weihl and ClimateVoice team! There is a darker side to the uses of #AI, and now #GenerativeAI, that must be addressed. Microsoft must not prolong the energy transition by making oil and gas more profitable, and must hold themselves accountable for the emissions enabled by their technology. We cannot continue this "business as usual" making massive profits at the expense of a livable planet - especially at a company like Microsoft, who is such a sustainability powerhouse in so many ways. This darker side must come into the light. #sustainability #livableplanet #businessasusual #ESG #corporateresponsibility

It’s time to speak out, even though it’s hard: for the first time, we’re going public with our story. During my decade at Microsoft, I grappled with the cognitive dissonance of our tech; there is so much impressive sustainability work happening within Microsoft, yet it's being overshadowed by partnerships with Big Oil explicitly aimed at dramatically accelerating fossil fuel exploration and extraction. And now, the work is being supercharged with the Generative AI boom. For years, I co-led an internal Microsoft campaign with Drew Wilkinson, empowering employee voices and collaborating with executives to increase transparency and put sensible, science-based guardrails on the environmental applications of our technology, particularly AI. We feel we did everything we possibly could; my resignation at the end of January was largely because I felt we had exhausted all internal avenues. We hope our story will shed further light on this issue, inspire others to act, and build accountability in the tech industry. We are long overdue for transparency and regulation on environmental impacts of this use of this tech. I stand in solidarity with employees who continue to push from the inside across the industry as well as the organizations leaning in on this issue; I will do everything I can to empower you. Read our untold story here: https://lnkd.in/gWWF-cvn Greenpeace, 350.org, AI Now Institute, Amy Westervelt, ClimateVoice, Bill Weihl, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, Friends of the Earth, Hugging Face, Stand.earth, Public Citizen, The Sunrise Project, WorkforClimate, Grist, with fantastic reporting by Maddie Stone

In a complete 180 from the claims that companies need to keep fossil fuels in their 401(k) portfolios as a fiduciary duty, this new report from University of Waterloo in partnership with As You Sow shows the opposite. Investments in fossil fuels have lost employees billions - over $5 billion in returns across 12 tech companies! It's great to have the data behind what we see to be playing out - fossil fuels are bad investments, and employers need to protect their employees from climate-related financial risk. Thank you for this investigation, University of Waterloo and As You Sow!

Momentum is building! If you're motivated by the Earth Day posts and haven't yet signed ClimateVoice's LEAD Statement, I highly encourage you do so now. Over 775 of your peers (myself included of course, and many highly respected climate voices) have signed, calling on companies to: • Leave obstructing trade associations; • Elevate climate policy; • Advocate for specific climate policies; and • Demonstrate commitment to the transition away from fossil fuels agreed on at COP28. There's still time to act in a meaningful way, and it only takes a couple minutes. Get on it! Find it here: https://lnkd.in/ghVcQtuM Bill Weihl, Deborah McNamara

Awesome article about Drew Wilkinson and how we started Microsoft's employee engagement group for sustainability. Definitely give it a read!

For something different, here's a short piece I wrote for our sustainability newsletter - I hope you enjoy, and let me know your thoughts! #plantbased #sustainability #animalrights #herbivore #vegan #deforestation #health #journey