Meet Kate Brandt, Google’s Chief Sustainability Officer
Every day, Google processes more than 16 billion searches.
That’s not to mention its millions of servers, billions of Gmail users or trillions of YouTube views.
Clearly, this company has an enormous impact on the world.
Kate Brandt, Google’s Chief Sustainability Officer, has led its global sustainability efforts since 2018.
Kate has been named number one in Sustainability Magazine’s Top 250 Women in Sustainability 2025.
Kate Brandt’s career
Kate graduated from Brown University with honours in 2007 and earned a masters degree in international relations from the University of Cambridge.
She worked for the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change as a policy analyst before serving as energy advisor to US Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.
In 2014, US President Obama named Kate the country’s first Chief Sustainability Officer.
Here, she was responsible for improving the sustainability of the government’s buildings – more than 8,800 of them – and vehicles.
She joined Google in 2016 as its Lead for Sustainability before taking on Chief Sustainability Officer in 2018.
Kate also became a Member of the Board of Trustees for the National Geographic Society in 2024.
“As the climate crisis continues to demand urgent action, women are stepping into leadership roles to drive sustainability across industries,” Kate says.
“From tech giants to luxury brands, their influence spans sectors, proving that bold leadership is key to creating lasting environmental and social change.”
Leadership at Google
Under Kate’s leadership, Google has achieved many sustainability milestones including:
- Matching energy use with 100% renewable energy for seven consecutive years
- Maintaining carbon neutrality since 2007
- Circular packaging for Google products
- Diverting more than 80% of food waste from landfills
- Partnerships with companies including Unilever, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Closed Loop Partners.
She is also steering the company towards achieving some ambitious sustainability goals.
By 2030, Google aims to help individuals, cities and other partners to collectively reduce a gigaton of carbon equivalent emissions annually.
By the same year, it hopes to reach net zero emissions across its operations and value chain, supported by its goal of operating its data centres and office campuses with 24/7 carbon free energy.
It will also replenish 120% of the freshwater volume it consumes on average across all of its offices and data centres by 2030 alongside helping to restore and improve the quality of water and health of ecosystems in the communities where it operates.
Kate says: “I am grateful to be in the position to lead Google’s efforts to achieve its sustainability goals across our business through both our products and our operations.”
Deploying technology for sustainability
There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of technology solutions Google has created that can support sustainability efforts.
It is leveraging machine learning and AI to address the growing threat of climate change – including tracking wildfire boundaries.
This tracking uses AI and satellite imagery to map the boundaries of large wildfires.
The data is then displayed on Google Maps and Google Search alongside information from local authorities to help people stay informed of potential dangers.
Project Green Light is an initiative designed to reduce stop-go traffic, and the emissions produced by it, by adjusting traffic light timings.
On Google Maps and Search, the company is highlighting places consumers can recycle different items and materials.
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