Hi, I’m Drew.

My journey into working on climate change was an unlikely one! I was a singer in a touring punk band and later, an eco-pirate. I sailed the ocean with Sea Shepherd, a marine conservation organization dedicated to protecting ocean ecosystems and wildlife using direct action. After that, I spent several years working in the environmental nonprofit space doing habitat restoration for endangered species.

I ended up at Microsoft in 2016. I felt conflicted about working for a large corporate, but also saw incredible opportunities and wondered: how could the resources of a trillion dollar tech company be used to create solutions for the climate crisis? And how could I get my hands on them as a regular employee?

When I couldn’t find answers, I started organizing. In 2018, I co-founded Microsoft’s employee sustainability community, and invited thousands of my colleagues to answer those very questions with me. We created a place for employees from around the world to learn about climate change, and meaningful opportunities for them contribute solutions. The community helped push the company to become a leader in corporate sustainability, and in 2020, was made a central part of Microsoft’s strategy to become carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030. When I left the company in April 2023, the community had grown to 10,000 members and 37 local chapters.

All of these experiences shaped my theory of change: grassroots community organizing, especially when it is intersectional and inclusive, can create the kind of pressure necessary to move large power structures towards sustainable change. This is especially true with employers and employees.

And yet, we are still faced with a dilemma. While 83% of people want to take climate action in their jobs, we’re in the midst of an unsustainable talent shortage. Companies cannot find enough qualified people or resources to sustainably transform themselves.

The solution is obvious: make sustainability part of everybody’s job. Any organization trying to become more sustainable will benefit from engaging its entire workforce. By democratizing sustainability work across all roles and job functions, companies can create a culture of sustainability that will attract and retain top talent, unlock innovation, and lead to a workforce with high sustainability fluency.

I spent the last 7 years refining how to make sustainability part of everybody’s job at Microsoft - now I’m helping other companies do it too.