Innovating for Climate Change Progress – A Seattle Scorecard

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Washington State ranks in the top 10 most sustainable states nationwide. Prominent local brands like Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, Weyerhaeuser, and Alaska Airlines are actively working to combat climate change through innovative solutions and close cooperation with each other and policymakers. Join the World Affairs Council and Northeastern University for a conversation exploring how Seattle’s private sector leaders are driving innovation and why this must become a standard business strategy across industries. Featuring industry leaders and experts, the conversation will explore current and future sustainable practices, renewable energy initiatives, and adopting eco-friendly technology to reduce carbon footprints and drive significant climate results.

Doors will open at 11:30 am for lunch and the program will begin at 12 pm. 

About our Speakers

Sheila Remes is vice president of Environmental Sustainability at The Boeing Company. In this role, she leads a team focused on continuously improving Boeing’s products, services and operations to achieve environmental goals. She also oversees environmental sustainability strategy on the Boeing International leadership team.

Remes previously served as vice president of Strategy for Commercial Airplanes, where she led cross-functional efforts to define Boeing’s strategic direction and address complex, enterprise-wide business decisions. These included greater life-cycle value for customers and internal capabilities for Boeing, growth opportunities such as services and intellectual property control, product and propulsion strategy, and environment and aviation policy.

With 30 years of industry experience, Remes brings a deep understanding of commercial aviation from manufacturing and airline perspectives.

Ara Erickson, Vice President of Corporate Sustainability at Weyerhaeuser, is accountable for the development and implementation of the company’s comprehensive sustainability strategy. A key part of her work is advancing progress on three large-scale challenges in which Weyerhaeuser is uniquely positioned to participate: contributing to climate change solutions through working forests and wood products; advancing accessible, sustainable housing for everyone; and helping our rural communities thrive. In addition to advocating for recognition of the critical role of sustainable working forests, Ara serves as a board member for American Forests, the oldest national nonprofit conservation organization in the United States, on the steering committee of The Forests Dialogue, and on the Advisory Council for the Women’s Forest Congress.

Ara is an authentic, compassionate and driven leader known for building partnerships through collaboration, transparency and honest communication. Prior to Weyerhaeuser, she served as Director of the Green City Partnerships program with Forterra, a regional conservation organization and as a forest-based researcher, environmental consultant and educator. She received her M.S. in Forest Resources from the University of Washington and her B.S. in Resource Management from the University of California, Berkeley.

Michelle Lancaster is a senior director at Microsoft, where she leads go to market and business strategy for sustainability. In this role, she guides commercial product development and sales strategies for Microsoft's growing sustainability product solution suite, Cloud for Sustainability. She’s spent the past 10 years at Microsoft, and six of those years focused on sustainability in a range of roles, from leading sustainability PR to working in the operational sustainability team overseeing the first and second annual sustainability reports to leading large strategic partnerships with customers and NGOs.

Prior to Microsoft, she spent more than a decade leading public affairs campaigns in Washington, D.C.

Chris Roe has been leading energy and sustainability initiatives since 2005, finding new ways to drive renewable energy and environmental initiatives to improve the carbon, waste and water performance of leading global companies.

As Amazon's Head of Energy and Sustainable Operations, Roe leads the strategy and execution of Amazon's commitment to The Climate Pledge, a global effort to reach net-zero carbon by 2040, ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement. He loves opportunities to build both teams and technology to inspire action and accelerate the environmental performance of Amazon's global business operations. Prior to Amazon, Roe led energy, water and sustainable building initiatives within Boeing’s real estate and manufacturing operations.

Roe has been working in sustainability for over 15 years, has a Master's degree in Engineering from Cambridge University and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington. He currently serves on the boards of the Smart Electric Power Alliance and the Smart Building Center.

About our Moderator

Fiona Creed’s career spans the diplomatic, academic, entrepreneurial and nonprofit sectors. She began as a policy analyst at the EU Delegation to the United Nations in New York City and developed that experience into her Ph.D. research on the often-fraught EU representation at the UN. As an assistant professor at University College in Cork, Ireland, Fiona taught international relations and European studies. Seeing a market opportunity, she went on to build and subsequently sell an online retail business in the United Kingdom.

Upon returning to the United States, Fiona served as the Executive Director of the United Nations Association of Greater Boston, a nonprofit organization that educates students in diplomacy and global issues through its experiential learning program, Model UN. Fiona also served as a project lead and advisor at SOLVE MIT.

Fiona completed her BA and MA degrees at University College, Dublin, Ireland, and her Ph.D. at University College, Cork, including two years as a visiting scholar at the Yale University MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies.