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Vice President - Chief Sustainability Officer, General Motors: The SustainabilityX® Magazine's Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ 2024 Awardee
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"Not letting perfect be the enemy of good – that’s what being bold in sustainability means to me. It’s not an easy journey and we often think being bold means announcing a splashy goal, but real progress is made in the steps to be “better, not perfect”, together." - Kristen Siemen, Vice President - Chief Sustainability Officer, General Motors, United States & The SustainabilityX® Magazine's Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ 2024 (#SustXGlobal50) Awardee
Kristen Siemen, appointed as General Motors’ Vice President & Chief Sustainability Officer in February 2021, spearheads the company’s journey to a zero-emissions future. In her role, Kristen is instrumental in GM’s commitment to becoming carbon neutral across all global products and operations by 2040. Under her guidance, GM has received accolades for its leadership in sustainability, including being recognized on JUST Capital’s MOST JUST Companies, Fast Company’s Brands That Matter, and earning ISS ESG’s top scores in Environmental and Social categories for QualityScore. These honors highlight GM’s unwavering commitment to integrity, innovation, and sustainable business practices under Kristen’s leadership.
Kristen began her career with GM in 1994, taking on engineering and staff roles with increasing responsibility. By 2010, she had risen to senior leadership across global engineering functions, including Electrical Engineering, Thermal Engineering, Test and Validation, and Energy Compliance. Her extensive technical background empowers her to lead GM’s sustainability initiatives with a keen understanding of the intricate link between engineering and environmental impact. Additionally, Kristen has garnered individual recognition as one of Crain’s Notable Leaders in Sustainability and was listed among the Future 50 Tech and Sustainability Magazine’s Global Top 100 Chief Sustainability Officers. She actively contributes to several advisory boards, including the United Nations Global Compact USA Board, Fortune Impact Initiative, and The Heritage Group Sustainability Advisory Board.
For Kristen, “Embrace Boldness” means being unafraid to innovate and pursue sustainable solutions that push boundaries and challenge conventional practices. She inspires her team at GM to take a collaborative approach, valuing diverse perspectives and fostering an environment of inclusivity and shared responsibility. Kristen’s commitment to creating cross-functional partnerships and empowering her team to lead with boldness has driven substantial progress in GM’s sustainability goals, helping to accelerate the company’s transition to renewable energy and net-zero targets.
One of her most transformative achievements was securing 100% renewable energy to power GM’s U.S. sites by 2025, a target that was initially set 25 years later. Through determined collaboration and a bold mindset, Kristen and her team were able to fast-track this milestone, setting an example for other corporations on the path to carbon neutrality. Kristen believes bold leadership is essential in an era when ambitious climate action is required, encouraging other companies to embrace sustainability as a strategic advantage.
Outside her role, Kristen is dedicated to promoting inclusion and gender equality in engineering and sustainability. She co-founded GM’s “Take 2” career reentry program, as well as the GM Women Ally Program, which have supported countless women returning to and advancing within STEM fields. She envisions a future where gender equity is fully realized in sustainability and engineering, and where women are empowered to lead impactful initiatives in tackling climate change.
Receiving The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ 2024 is an honour that reaffirms Kristen’s dedication to advancing GM’s bold sustainability goals. For Kristen, this award signifies the collective efforts of her team and GM’s commitment to a greener, more sustainable future. It’s also a tribute to her passion for cultivating innovative solutions and driving systemic change within the automotive industry to leave a lasting impact on the global sustainability landscape.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ 2024
The SustainabilityX® Magazine proudly presents its third edition of the Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ for 2024. This annual recognition celebrates extraordinary female leaders who embrace boldness in their pursuit of groundbreaking sustainability initiatives, reshaping industries, and driving transformative change towards a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future.
This year also marks a broader strategic mission expansion for The SustainabilityX® Magazine, with a stronger focus on aligning with the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) in addition to the original foundation of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This evolutionary expansion reflects the magazine’s ongoing commitment to advancing women's leadership in sustainability while championing social equity, environmental stewardship, and inclusive growth.
“Empowering women to lead in sustainability is at the heart of our mission,” says Supriya Verma, founder of The SustainabilityX® Magazine and one of Corporate Knights' Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability Leadership and one of The Peak's Emerging Leaders. “These trailblazers are breaking barriers and redefining what sustainable leadership looks like—showing that it’s about more than policies and practices, but also about social justice, economic resilience, and a regenerative future.”
Rooted in the magazine's guiding pillars of environmental protection, economic prosperity, social inclusion, and ethical governance, The SustainabilityX® Magazine's Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ showcases women from all sectors, industries, and regions, igniting crucial conversations on the intersection of gender equality and sustainable development.
Amidst global challenges and uncertainties, this year’s awards highlight the critical role of women in steering the world towards a more resilient, equitable future. With a continued digital format, the awards amplify voices across borders, bridging the gap between global sustainability efforts and local impact.
As Verma states, “The future of sustainability hinges on bold, inclusive leadership, and these women exemplify the courage and vision needed to transform our world. The SustainabilityX® Magazine remains steadfast in our mission to celebrate and elevate those who are shaping a future where every voice counts and every effort contributes to a thriving, sustainable world.”
View the full list: The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2024
Read the full press release: The SustainabilityX® Magazine Announces 3rd Annual Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ Under the Theme "Embrace Boldness"
About The SustainabilityX® Magazine
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is an award-winning, digital, female-founded, and female-led non-profit initiative bringing the environment and economy together for a sustainable future through dialogue, and now transforming the environment and economy for a sustainable future through the power of women's leadership. Founded on May 8, 2016, and inspired by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals by Canada's Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability Leadership awardee, Supriya Verma, the digital media initiative focuses on approaching the world's most pressing challenges with a holistic, integrated, systems-based perspective as opposed to the traditional and ineffective siloed approach with a single lens on interdisciplinary topics like climate and energy. This initiative ultimately seeks to explore how to effectively bring the environment and economy together through intellectual, insightful dialogue and thought-provoking discussion amongst individuals across sectors taking an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to untangling the intricate web of sustainability while championing women's leadership in sustainability.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is built upon the four foundational pillars of sustainability: Environmental Stewardship, which emphasizes the importance of improving environmental health; Economic Prosperity, which promotes sustainable economic growth that transcends traditional capitalist models; Social Inclusion, which focuses on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) for BIPOC, LGBTQ, and other marginalized or vulnerable communities; and Just Governance, which highlights responsible leadership, the equal application of the rule of law, and the creation of fair systems for all.
As we expand our mission to align with the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), we continue to explore the diverse and interconnected factors that influence sustainability. By recognizing how these elements interact across local, national, and international levels, we aim to accelerate progress toward sustainability goals. In essence, this aligns with The SustainabilityX® Magazine's vision of integrating environmental and economic progress for a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future through thoughtful dialogue.
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The SustainabilityX® Magazine is a proud member of the Sustainable Journalism Partnership, serves as a cause-based media partner for various events such as WIRED Impact, and officially delivers remarks at international conferences such as UNESCO's annual World Press Freedom Day Conference.
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