What case studies show employees successfully supporting climate policy?

ClimateVoices inaugural Bill Weihl Award winners provide examples of how individuals can successfully “advocate for climate policy, both inside their company and in organizing their peers.” Fiona Duggan won the Climate Policy Hero Award in 2024 for her work leading Unilever’s first Climate Policy Engagement Review (CPER) to assess whether the policy positions of their trade associations were aligned with Unilever’s climate policies. In cases where the audit found misalignment, the company pledged to work with trade groups to shift their policy stances with the option to exit if the associations did not change. InfluenceMap, a global think tank, gave Unilever’s Climate Policy Engagement Review a 100% score in 2024 for accuracy and robustness. 

Van Riker was honoured with the Climate Action at Work Award in 2024 for spearheading a campaign urging Microsoft to leave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and to lead on climate policy. He educated his peers about the U.S. Chamber’s long history of climate obstruction and organized colleagues through Microsoft’s global employee network. Van recruited fellow employees to sign an Escape the Chamber petition and this collective action helped spur Microsoft to conduct a public audit of its trade association memberships.