Microsoft recently announced that Ms. Melanie Nakagawa will join Microsoft in January 2023 as Microsoft’s global vice president and new chief sustainability officer. She will work with multiple teams at Microsoft to play a leadership role in environmental sustainability efforts.
▲ Melanie Nakagawa, image source Microsoft
Melanie will bring nearly two decades of environmental sustainability experience to Microsoft, spanning policy, business and technology, which will be critical as Microsoft continues to advance and explore its sustainability journey, according to the report.
She previously served as Director of Climate Strategy at a climate technology-focused private equity firm, working with growth-stage companies in North America, Europe and Asia. She also has experience working on environmental and energy policy and regulatory issues in the nonprofit and academic sectors.
Microsoft said Melanie joins Microsoft at a critical time, with January 2023 marking the third anniversary of Microsoft’s announcement of its goal to be “carbon-neutral by 2030 and to remove carbon from the atmosphere by 2050,” a goal the company has been pursuing since its founding. Microsoft is very pleased with the progress it has made so far, and has announced that it must accelerate progress and continue to expand the scope of its climate-related work.
Melanie will lead Microsoft’s actions to achieve three missions.
Melanie will lead a team of world-renowned environmental scientists who will help ensure that Microsoft’s work makes full use of the best current science. The Environmental Sustainability Operations team, meanwhile, will work with Microsoft’s internal finance and business teams, as well as sustainability experts, to achieve the company’s internal operational goals.
All of these efforts will be underpinned by initiatives both large and small, including the construction of a new thermal energy center for Microsoft’s Redmond campus, the construction and certification of the Silicon Valley campus as “zero water consumption” (where all non-potable water on the campus comes from rain or recycled water), the opening of a fourth and fifth recycling center in Singapore and Chicago, respectively, to facilitate zero waste operations, and the development of a global data center. waste operation goals, investments in global data centers to enable better use of renewable energy, and investments to make Microsoft a significant global purchaser of carbon offsets.
Second, Microsoft will accelerate innovation and build advanced technologies to help customers and partners achieve sustainability goals. Melanie will work with Microsoft leadership to learn from each other.
Finally, Microsoft will work with governments, NGOs, and corporate organizations to drive progress on critical global sustainability issues. melanie and her team will play key leadership roles in initiatives that
Driving the application of climate-related data and the development of more powerful artificial intelligence.
Promoting research and development of new laws, policies and regulations in the areas of climate, energy and sustainability.
Providing support for reliable, interoperable and globally harmonized systems for measuring, recording and reporting carbon emissions.
Provide support for sustainability-related talent and skills development, both for job roles focused specifically on sustainability and for existing jobs that demand sustainability experience and skills as the times evolve.
