Committed to seeing that the world we live in is conserved, Lucas Joppa is an expert on all things sustainability. Over the course of his career, Lucas has worked with a combined interest in environmental sciences and data, passionately pushing the importance of new technologies in managing the Earth’s resources. Currently working with Microsoft, Lucas is pioneering the future of sustainability and is now a popular choice as a speaker for corporate events. Using his 11 years of experience with a high-profile organisation, Lucas covers topics such as carbon removal, carbon-negative and sustainability in his speeches.
Best known for his passion for sustainability, Lucas formerly worked as the Chief Environmental Officer for Microsoft. For the past almost 12 years, Lucas has been spearheading the vision, strategies and execution of Microsoft’s sustainability practices, combining environmental issues with some of Microsoft’s best technology offerings. He has also formerly been the Chief Environmental Scientist and Computational Ecologist for Microsoft, pioneering the company’s conservation and ecological theory research. On the 1st of June 2022, Microsoft is launching Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, which is clearing the path for net-zero organisations across the globe with greater insight into the environmental impact and sustainability progress. Today, Lucas is the Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Managing Director of Haveli Investments.
Lucas initially found his passions for environmental sustainability when studying at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Graduating with a Bachelor of Science, Wildlife Ecology and Zoology, Lucas furthered his education at Duke University and graduated with a PhD in Ecology. Whilst studying, Lucas began working as a Peace Corps volunteer and a graduate research fellow for Duke University. Upon his graduation, Lucas then worked as an honorary research fellow at the University of Kent before becoming an Advisor on Science and Innovation for UNEP-WCMC. In 2021, Lucas was appointed a Professor at Yale University, a prestigious university where he educates the next generation of sustainability champions.
Deeply passionate about the environment, Lucas has also dedicated his time to several other organisations concerned with the matter. Lucas has also been on the Science Advisory Board for Natural England, the Federal Advisory Committee of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, the Chair of the External Advisory Board for the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center and Chaired the IUCN Red List Informatics Working Group. Currently, Lucas is on the External Science Advisory Board for RESOLVE, the Board of Directors for NatureServe, the Associate Editor in Chief of the Ecological Society of America, an Honorary Conservation Fellow for the Zoological Society of London and a United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre Fellow. During his time at Microsoft, Lucas has also founded the AI for Earth project, which is pioneering technology solutions to environmental challenges.
With a distinguished career behind him, Lucas is now a popular choice as a speaker for a range of corporate events. Most recently he has spoken at GLOBE 2020 and the London Tech Week Virtual, delivering a range of talks central to the theme of sustainability and the environment. He was also recently invited to deliver the TED talk How To Fix The Bugs In The Net-Zero Code. Boasting over a decade of experience pioneering the sustainable practises of Microsoft, Lucas Joppa is the perfect speaker to encourage workforces to act in preserving the world we live in and ensuring a more environmentally friendly future.