As employees, we have lots of opportunities to push our employers to make good decisions on climate... Individual employees are free to raise awareness and flag gaps or inconsistencies. It’s a great multiplier for your effort even if you only have a few hours a month to give.
ClimateVoices · Episode 88 · 02-25-26
An interview with Sam Gooch who won this year’s Bill Weihl Award for “Climate Action At Work.”The purpose of these awards is to honor individuals who have used their climate voice and demonstrated an outstanding commitment to advocate for climate policy, both inside their company and in organizing their peers to raise their voices.
Sam works as a technical program manager at Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., and has consistently urged the company to advocate for climate solutions. After he discovered that every retirement investment option for Alphabet employees included oil and gas stocks, Sam led a campaign to change that. He organized his peers, conducted extensive financial analysis, launched an employee petition, and met with key stakeholders across the company. He also co-wrote an OpEd in the San Francisco Chronicle to raise awareness about this topic and argued that this internal policy was undermining the company’s climate commitments. In 2025, Alphabet introduced its first fossil-fuel-free 401(k) option for employees.
Keep up with ClimateVoices – an online Q&A penned by leading climate thinkers and doers. Follow ClimateVoice on LinkedIn to stay in the loop when additional interviews are published monthly.
Read the Interview→
Sam Gooch
Technical Program Manager at Waymo
The opinions and views expressed in this interview are solely those of the individual(s) being interviewed. They may not reflect the views, policies, or positions of ClimateVoice, the employer(s) of the individual(s) being interviewed, nor of any other organizations with which the individual(s) being interviewed are affiliated. This interview is intended for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as an endorsement or official statement on behalf of such employer(s) or organization(s).