Ex-Facebook exec starts group to help employees push big tech companies on climate
- Bill Weihl, the former sustainability chief at Facebook, will head ClimateVoice
- The organisation aims to help employees at big tech companies press their bosses for more aggressive policies to fight climate change
Facebook’s former sustainability chief has launched an organisation to help employees at big companies press their bosses for more aggressive policies to fight climate change.
Hundreds of companies have committed to reducing emissions in their own operations to be in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement, in which governments aim to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius.
Beyond their own operations, however, many companies have refrained from advocating for broader solutions needed to avoid a global catastrophe, said Bill Weihl, who led sustainability efforts at Facebook and Google and will head the new organisation, ClimateVoice.
Employees at tech companies have objected to selling cloud services to Big Oil, and companies are reticent to exert lobbying influence on behalf of specific legislation.
“When it’s an issue that might be really important for society but doesn’t directly affect them, by and large most companies are silent most of the time,” said Weihl, who left Facebook in 2018.
ClimateVoice is launching as a volunteer effort but aims to raise funds and hire staff soon after launch. Weihl said it will seek to organise and amplify climate activism among tech employees to push executives to lobby on behalf of legislative efforts around climate.