My mission is to make sustainability part of everybody’s job.

I am a climate activist, community organizer, and co-founder of Microsoft’s 10,000 member employee sustainability community. I work for Planet Earth but provide consulting services on the people side of sustainability: employee engagement, culture and change management, community building, green skilling, and leadership development. Learn more about my work here and get in touch!

Upcoming Events

May 9 @ 9am PST, virtual, sliding scale fee

​​​Join me and Need Workshops for an immersive 2-hour workshop designed to equip you with the tools and strategies needed to cultivate an effective workplace sustainability community. Dive deep into the intricacies of community organizing, volunteer management, and influencing without authority in this engaging 201-level masterclass. Walk away with a tangible Community Management Plan, a digital artifact crafted during the session, ready to implement and share with your workplace community.

April 23 @ 5pm, San Francisco, CA

​​​I’ll be in San Francisco for SF Climate Week and speaking on a panel at the “Creating a Culture of Climate Action” event! This event is for sustainability leaders, people/HR leaders, and employee advocates that are looking to improve their organization's culture and accelerate climate action. ​Panelists include ​Anshuman Bapna, CoFounder and Chief Learning Officer, Terra.do, ​Lizzy Kolar, Cofounder, Scope Zero, Breene Murphy, President, Carbon Collective Investing, ​Drew Wilkinson, CoFounder, Climate Leadership Collective

Featured work

  • What I Learned From Getting Laid Off

    Read the blog from March 2024 here

  • Meet the Seattle punk rocker who wants your boss to take action on the climate

    Read the FastCompany article from November 2023 here

  • Workshop: How to Make Sustainability Part of Everybody’s Job, The Power of Community Organizing

    Watch the workshop recording and follow along in the digital workbook here

  • Employee Engagement for Sustainability

    Read the blog here

  • a photo of drew wilkninson saying "i see the need, i don't see anyone else raising their hand, i'm just going to do it myself"

    How a punk-rocking paralegal harnessed employee power to green Microsoft

    Listen to the podcast from the Environmental Defense Fund here

  • a group of people standing in front of a sign that says "worldwide sustainability community, driving sustainability across the company through employee activism"

    The Critical Role of Employee Sustainability Communities and How to Build One

    Read the blog

  • a screenshot from a zoom call with 3 people, a woman with curly blonde hair in the upper right corner, a woman with straight blonde hair on the bottom center, and a man with short curly brown hair and a beard in the upper right corner

    "Every Job is a Climate Job"

    Watch the video with Jamie Beck Alexander from Drawdown Labs

  • "climate voices with bill weihl, 3 questions for drew wilkinson"

    Interview with ClimateVoice

    Read the interview with Bill Weihl co-executive Director and Founder of ClimateVoice

  • Climate at Work: Building Impactful Workplace Sustainability Communities

    Watch the video hosted by Work on Climate with Zoe Samuel from Starshot Capital

  • 16 boxes with people in them waving to each other

    Microsoft Sustainability Connected Community

    Watch the video

  • Microsoft Hackathon Leads to AI and Sustainability Collaboration to Rid Plastic from Rivers and the Ocean

    Read the article and watch the video

  • 3 circles, one says "educate" one says "activate" and one says "inspire" with arrows between them

    Make Sustainability Part of Everybody's Job

    Read the blog

  • ClimateVoice: Connect the Dots

    Read the Jan 2024 newsletter here

  • Inside Job: Crafting Climate Careers Without Changing Employers

    Read the blog in the Jan 2024 MCJ Community Voices Newsletter here

  • Transforming Climate Anxiety to Action webinar

    Watch the recording of this webinar from March 5, 2024 here

Explore all work

Let’s work together

Is your organization looking for help engaging employees in sustainability? Are you looking for expertise on how to build and grow an employee sustainability community or green team? Are you passionate about developing next generation climate leaders who can transform your organization and reduce your environmental impact? I can help!

Testimonials

  • "There are very few employees who have done more to help Microsoft on its sustainability journey than Drew. I regularly talk to colleagues from across the industry about the amazing work our employees have done to self-organize. Behind most of that work, you’ll find Drew’s fingerprints."

    Lucas Joppa, former Chief Environmental Officer @ Microsoft

  • "Corporate sustainability of the future will be built on the blueprint that Drew and his colleagues have given the world, and I can't think of anyone better equipped than Drew to lead us where we need to go."

    Jamie Beck Alexander, Founding Director Drawdown Labs @ Project Drawdown

  • "Drew is a brilliant energetic organizer. He learns quickly, listens well, thinks holistically about interlocking systems, and understands how to build an effective empowered community. He's a pleasure to work with."

    Bill Weihl, Founder and Co-Executive Director at ClimateVoice

  • "Drew has a powerful combination of skills and experience as a natural organizer, presenter, advocate and sustainability leader. He has a deep understanding of what builds a healthy, thriving employee sustainability ecosystem and fortunately for all of us, he is great at teaching others how to build this at any company."

    Lisa Altieri, Founder and CEO of BrightAction

  • "Drew is in a league of his own when it comes to engaging and inspiring employees on sustainability and climate action. There is an endless pool of technical corporate sustainability experts out there, but they are crying out for people like Drew who can help them translate the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ into the ‘how’ for employees."

    Lucy Piper, Director of Work for Climate

  • "It's been truly inspiring to work with Drew. During the brief but intense project we worked on together, he clearly demonstrated his capacity for creating a plan, generating team support and bringing this all to a fabulous result."

    Robin de Vries, Product Lead @ The Ocean Cleanup

  • "Drew is passionate, organized, and driven. His willingness to go above and beyond to achieve a desired outcome is laudable. I have had the opportunity to work with him over the years on numerous employee driven sustainability initiatives and have continually been inspired by his tenacity."

    Katie Ross, Director of Carbon Reduction Strategy and Market Development @ Microsoft

  • "Drew is a great out-of-the-box thinker that has the capability to put ideas to practice. We partnered on an ambitious project to clean plastic pollution out of river systems, that would have not gotten this far without his communicative skills and resourcefulness!"

    Kees van Oeveren, Project Engineer @ Eneco

  • "I worked with Drew for 3 years and from day 1 he brought a passion for people, a fresh perspective, and a willingness to try new things that pushed our program to be better. He embodies a scrappy DIY spirit that allows him to accomplish a lot with few resources. Drew is a natural teacher and advocate who ran our volunteer engagement and leadership development efforts while leading one of the largest and most complex communities in our program."

    Jaime McGeathy, Director of Communities @ Microsoft

  • “I worked with Drew for 6 years and can say he exhibits nothing but drive, determination, and creativity to problem solve and make forward progress on some of the toughest challenges the world has in store, all while maintaining empathy and a collaborative approach. He is an absolute joy to work with and his vision and follow-through make him a true leader.”

    Holly Alpine, Former Head of Datacenter Community Environmental Sustainability @ Microsoft

  • "Drew's invaluable support played a pivotal role in our mission to empower and educate employees about climate action. His workshops were truly inspiring, feedback sessions insightful, and he realized an exceptional and engaging E-Learning module on employee engagement with us."

    Magdalena Wallis, Team Lead Community @ Glacier

a man with short brown hair standing in front a banner that says "worldwide sustainability community" driving sustainability as a core value across the company through grassroots employee activism"

ABOUT ME

I work at the intersection of employee engagement, culture and change management, community building (with a specialization in communities of practice), green skilling, and leadership development. I believe that in order to address the climate crisis with sufficient speed and scale, we need to help companies and their employees work together to rapidly transform.

I have 10 years of experience working in sustainability across the tech, corporate, and nonprofit sectors. In a past life, I was a singer in a touring punk band and an eco-pirate.

I spent the last 7 years at Microsoft and in 2018, I co-founded Microsoft’s employee sustainability community. Now, I consult organizations of all sizes on how to make sustainability part of everybody’s job through the Climate Leadership Collective.