The Cross Company Employee Climate Alliance
These employees are actively involved in their corporate green teams and have advocated for a number of internal and external climate policies. For example, Google employees successfully added fossil free options to their retirement plans, which could reduce climate impacts by shifting billions of dollars away from fossil fuels. Additionally, employee advocates at other companies are replicating these efforts with growing momentum.
Members of the Alliance have also supported state level policies like plug-in solar legislation which has been successfully passed in a growing number of states across the U.S.
This organizing culminated in ClimateVoice’s inaugural in person Employee Climate Action Retreat. This invitation-only event focused on “influence as a transformative green skill” where employee leaders joined us to sharpen their influence skills, forge deep cross company collaborations, and take bold climate action with like-minded colleagues.
Meet Van Riker
Employee Climate Action Retreat Session Spotlight
AI, Data Centers, and Hyperscaler Accountability
Madeline Dyke of Climate Reality Project hosted a session on ‘What’s Powering Your Prompts? Data Center Policy in the Age of Electricity,’ which offered a deep dive into the rapid expansion of AI and the unprecedented surge in energy demand. Currently, much of the data center growth is being fueled by natural gas rather than renewable sources. The group considered the barriers to and opportunities in powering data centers with clean energy, including the aging power grid in the United States that relies heavily on fossil fuels to meet new capacity needs.
Employee teams across companies broke into groups to consider solutions to infrastructure strain and how hyperscalers could be part of the solution. Key levers for change discussed include:
Large Load Tariffs
Clean Energy Procurement (BYONCE)
Demand Flexibility
Virtual Power Plants (VPPs)
The following testimonials demonstrate the value of convening employee advocates with their peers at other companies:
...the Alliance helped me remember that there are actually a lot of us...
The Employee Climate Alliance has been so important to my journey as an employee organizer! Especially when I was just starting my company's climate and sustainability working group, the Alliance helped me remember that there are actually a lot of us, within my company and outside of it, who deeply care about climate and are doing things about it.
The monthly meetings are a regular touchpoint for me to learn about upcoming policies I should pay attention to and connect with other employees, who are sometimes farther along the journey than I am. I am slowly building confidence to bring climate issues into the spotlight within my company.