Female leaders in tech-driven sustainability

Traditionally tech has been a male-dominated sector, but with a fundamental shift in the workforce landscape, the tide is finally turning. Restructures, AI and the move towards sustainability are opening new doorways for women to enter the sector, particularly in leadership positions. These changes have created channels for women from non-engineering or IT backgrounds to join the field and grow their skills laterally. 

In the early 2000s, just 9% of tech sector positions were held by women. Today, women make up 35% of the workforce, with leadership cited as a key driver for this progress.¹

Sustainability leadership is one of the notable pathways facilitating this change. The Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) is touted as the fastest route into the C-suite for women with 54% of CSO positions currently female-held.² Tech companies have been pioneers in encouraging this pathway, with women currently occupying CSO positions at major firms like Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Amazon and Apple. 

This shift to truer representation is also being felt downstream, with the number of women in sustainability management roles increasing from 39% to 63% in 9 years.² Clearly, representation matters when it comes to making more space at the table.

Let’s look at pioneers in the field:

Melanie Nakagawa, Chief Sustainability Officer at Microsoft

Former senior government official Melanie Nakagawa now leads sustainability initiatives at Microsoft, where she combines technology, business, and policy to enact change. Under her leadership, Microsoft launched the AI4Science project, an initiative that uses large language models to create climate-positive outcomes.

Recognised in sustainability magazine’s ‘Top 100 Women of 2024’, Nakagawa leads Microsoft’s drive to impact neutrality and philosophy of using technology to build a more sustainable future. She is also instrumental in building Microsoft’s carbon-negative initiative by 2030 and plans to remove historical carbon emissions by 2050.⁴

Aileen Tan, Group Chief People and Sustainability Officer at Singtel Group

Since Alieen Tan joined Singtel in 2008, Singtel has won accolades for its people-focused sustainability approach, most recently Impact Enterprise of the Year in the Sustainability Impact Awards. 

The Business Times describes Aileen’s people-first approach as a ‘superpower’ that acknowledges the synergy between people and sustainability in achieving a wider impact on business operations.⁵ With human impact at its core, her strategy has created an army of advocates, all driven to achieve sustainability for Singtel, its customers and our communities.

Tan’s non-technical background shows that women are bringing new perspectives to the tech sector and, in turn, opening gateways for the next generation to achieve tech-driven sustainability.

Kate Brandt, Chief Sustainability Officer at Google

Like Nakagawa, Kate Brandt spend formative years with the US government acting as an advisor on energy and climate change. 

Now with Google, Brandt leads the pursuit of sustainability for both the business and application of their products spanning the operational, product, supply chain and building impact areas. Under her leadership, Google has achieved seven consecutive years of 100% renewable energy and enabled 2.9 million metric tons of GHG emissions reductions from fuel-efficient routing in 2023 alone.⁶

Using the vast swathes of data available, Brandt led the development of AI-driven products that alert citizens to immediate and encroaching climate impacts such as natural disasters and urban heat islands.

Greater female representation at all levels brings significant financial benefits. Companies with more than 30% female workforce are highly likely to financially outperform those with fewer than 30%.⁷ It is this incentive that is leading tech companies to seek female leadership and, combined with the high representation in sustainability, achieve green goals at the same time.

Led by pioneers in the tech-driven sustainability space such as Nakagawa, Brandt and Tan, women will find more seats at the table and increased opportunities for self-determinism in the tech-enabled future.