(Former) Head of Microsoft Datacenter Community Environmental Sustainability and Employee Engagement | GreenBiz 30 Under 30 | Board of Directors American Forests & Zero Waste Washington
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
Kevin Brady
2mo
@HollyAlpine Unfortunately your experience is being replicated in many other sectors and many sustainability champions have similar stories. After years of trying to hard wire sustainability into companies I have come to believe that we are missing the boat by focusing too much on transparency and reporting and not as your team was on where the most significant gains can be had. Its like banks ignoring lending to oil and gas companies while reducing their energy and paper use. I thought the most important part of the memo that was quoted was "The memo goes on to outline more than a dozen recommendations for the company, including advocating for policies that align with 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming, measuring the emissions increases (or reductions) enabled by Microsoft’s technology, and ceasing to develop custom software tools aimed at increasing oil extraction." The advocacy component is sorely missing in most companies sustainability efforts and linking it to Microsoft's own products was a very good idea - sorry it didn't work out.
Egbert Schroeer
1mo
Having met Holly in 2017 and supported the sustainability community, I feel compelled to share my thoughts on this critical issue. Holly, your dedication and advocacy within Microsoft have been genuinely inspiring. The cognitive dissonance you describe is a harsh reality in large organizations. Despite commendable sustainability work, conflicting interests, like partnerships with Big Oil often overshadow it. One critical insight from my observations is the over-reliance on sales, particularly industry sales teams, to drive sustainability commitments. In companies like Microsoft, sales commitments often lack the depth needed for real change. Engineering holds the potential for impactful sustainability initiatives. Sales teams typically do what they are incentivized to do: sell. My main advice is to empower and leverage engineering teams with the expertise to implement sustainable solutions. Their involvement is crucial to bridging the gap between commitments and actionable results. Thank you for shedding light on this issue and your commitment to sustainability. I hope your story inspires others to push for transparency, accountability, and real change in the tech industry. Knowing when to speak up, and tell the truth=leadership
James Crowley
2mo
Thank you for sharing and all your efforts Holly. Both amazing to see what can be achieved by staff coming together as a cohesive voice - and the limits when cold hard cash is on the line. It’s utterly incoherent to be enabling yet more efficient extraction from oil and gas firms on the basis that they have net zero targets readily been shown to be a sham. Out of interest, do you think Scope 3 *should* include the carbon impact of these projects have on emissions?
Thank you for sharing this story Holly. I believe it will amplify awareness and public recognition of this increasingly untenable, hard to ignore elephant in the room: the dissonance within tech between pockets of great efforts to push for sustainable business models and simultaneous expansion of partnerships that accelerate fossil fuel exploration and expansion. I believe that you sharing your experiences of this will (in a myriad of direct and indirect ways) add to the growing push for accountability. So thank you. I support your work and your efforts.
Kenneth LaBry
2mo
Holly, I understand your experience and that conflict within companies, institutions of higher learning, governments and people. I have come to the conclusion that the quickest way to environmental sustainability is to make sustainable alternatives more economical than fossil fuels. We are making great progress in this both technically and with public adoption. We are driving fossil fuel into obsolescence but not fast enough. Thanks for your efforts and tenacity. Keep making a difference and speaking out.
Christoph Kung
2mo
Thank you for putting so much behind it, for being principled, and for the impact you had and will have on Microsoft's sustainability stance. It's absolutely humbling. I'm convinced this was and is an extremely impactful path.
Sarah Jefferson
2mo
Holly Alpine (née Beale) thank you for sharing. It's so hard to know when to continue driving change from the "inside" and when perhaps we can have more impact on the "outside". I imagine these oil giants are a major revenue source for Microsoft and ultimately you were up against the DNA of business: short-term profits. I'm sure this experience has equipped you even more to lead powerful change and another team/organization will be lucky to have you!
Anne Currie
2mo
well done for going public. It sounds like you really tried hard to avoid it and encourage MS to live up to their own principles
Anders Alexander
2mo
Looking forward to what you do next after this, let me know if I can help in any way
(Former) Head of Microsoft Datacenter Community Environmental Sustainability and Employee Engagement | GreenBiz 30 Under 30 | Board of Directors American Forests & Zero Waste Washington
2moAmy Westervelt and the article's author Maddie Stone also did a fantastic podcast for Drilled Media on this topic. Find it here on Spotify, or on the podcast platform of your choice: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3xWqlQ23zVVtBCQ1Ho5Eod?si=a96b5d7f125c43f2