Microsoft Corp. has hired a former Biden administration official Melanie Nakagawa to lead its sustainability efforts, the company said Thursday.

Melanie Nakagawa, who left her role as the National Security Council’s senior director for climate and energy in August, is joining the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant in January as its chief sustainability officer. She has spent almost two decades working in environmental sustainability in Washington, D.C. Her appointment comes after Lucas Joppa, who served as Microsoft’s chief environmental officer, left the company several months ago.

Nakagawa will relocate from Washington, D.C., to Redmond, Microsoft said.

“Melanie joins Microsoft at a critical time,” Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote in a blog post announcing the hire. “January will mark the third anniversary of our ambitious climate goals to be carbon negative by 2030 and remove our historical carbon emissions by 2050. While I’m pleased with our progress, we must accelerate our momentum and broaden even further our climate-related work.”

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After three years of slight emissions declines, Microsoft saw a jump in 2021, especially among “scope 3” emissions — carbon emissions indirectly caused by an organization through its supply chain — according to the company’s 2021 environmental sustainability report. The increase was due in part to data center expansions, a problem Microsoft is trying to mitigate through the use of computer and data server recycling centers — one of which it’s building in Quincy, Grant County.

Nakagawa, who will report directly to Smith, will lead the company’s threefold sustainability mission, Smith said. That mission includes achieving goal to be carbon negative by 2030, providing sustainable technology to customers and partnering with other businesses and governments to spur broader climate efforts.

Nakagawa has also worked for Princeville Capital, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Public International Law & Policy Group, her LinkedIn page shows.

Source: BizJournals