Climate-Conscious Tech Workers: Turning the Tide from Within

“I had conversations with tech workers at large companies…with people who are at smaller startups…and with many tech workers who left the tech industry, who were really disillusioned by the ways that corporate management would obfuscate their true impacts on the environment and on communities, and essentially greenwash a lot of the actions that they were actually doing in the world.”

— Tamara Kneese

“[T]ech CEOs have locked themselves into an AI race…and they are selling this race to the public as a race for ‘technological progress.’ But really…it’s a race for land, for water, power and electricity, and for political power.”

— Eliza Pan

Description

In this moment of AI ascendance and data center accelerationism, there are thousands of tech workers who are concerned about the realities of climate change and see the tech industry’s growing role in it — and who are actively working to create change, develop better tools, and organize for collective action. In her report Turning the Tide: Climate Action in and Against Tech, Climate, Technology, and Justice Program Director Tamara Kneese examines the ways these workers have attempted to reform the tech industry from within while applying external forms of pressure through policymaking and activism. By engaging in workplace activism and forming broader coalitions with environmental justice organizations, climate conscious tech workers who adhere to the organizer mindset use their insider knowledge to advocate for social change rather than technical tweaks. What does that look like in practice?

On December 11, Kneese discussed the findings of her report with Eliza Pan, co-director of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, in a conversation moderated by Khari Johnson, technology reporter at CalMatters. Together, they explored the stakes of tech-focused climate work — and how it gets done.

Speakers

Moderator

Resources

References

• Tech Workers Coalition
• Amazon Employees for Climate Justice
• On Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Greenwashing
• AECJ’s open letter: AI Open Letter
• AECJ’s open letter solidarity statement: Solidarity with Amazon Employees
• Psst.org: a “non-partisan, non-profit public service that helps people bring forward public interest information”
• WorkersDecide.tech: Great worker-led resource about how to organize against AI in the workplace
• Climate Action Tech
• CHIPS Communities United
• Electronic Planet Research Lab

Readings

• Tamara Kneese and Hannah Lipstein, “Situating Virginia’s Data Center Alley in a New Era of Tech Power,” Data & Society, Points (2025)
• Tamara Kneese and Cecilia Marrinan, “Beyond Silicon Valley: California Data Centers in Context,” Data & Society, Points (2025)
• Sean Patrick Cooper, “‘The Precedent is Flint’: How Oregon’s Data Center Boom is Supercharging a Water Crisis,” Food & Environment Reporting Network (2025)
• Ashley Dawson, “The Costs of the Cloud,” The New York Review (2025)
• AI Now, “North Star Data Center Policy Toolkit: State and Local Policy Interventions to Stop Rampant AI Data Center Expansion” (2025)

Credits

Production: Tunika Onnekikami and Rigoberto Lara

Web Support: Alessa Erawan

Design: Surbhi Chawla

Editorial: Eryn Loeb

Additional support provided by Data & Society’s engagement and accounting teams.