Story by Cameron Greenberg and Shaleese Nuckols

Earlier this month, we joined our colleagues at Alaska Airlines in welcoming folks from around the world to Seattle for the inaugural Bloomberg Green Festival, a dynamic multi-day event dedicated to elevating conversations on sustainability. Supporting Alaska’s role as the festival’s official airline sponsor, we were thrilled to help bring together diverse voices to collaborate on climate ideas and solutions.  

As a communications specialist and an intern who joined the company this year, the event was new territory for us, but we leapt at the opportunity to attend. Over the four-day festival, we listened to talks, attended performances, and brought our perspectives to conversations in our Alaska Airlines lounge space in the festival hall. Here are three of the biggest themes we took away from the event:  

1. We live in an era of consequence 

On the second day of the festival, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee discussed his views on climate policy with Anna Edgerton, the Seattle bureau chief at Bloomberg. Governor Inslee reiterated several times how happy he was to be born now, because we are alive during a tremendously pivotal point in human history, where the future of the planet depends on our actions and the rate of innovation is soaring.

Other sessions at the festival emphasized the long-term impacts of this reality – how the rigor of society’s climate action will ripple across the lives of future generations. On a more micro-level, speakers suggested that while we still have time to make a difference, we have started to see results. This came up in a panel on sustainable aviation fuel, where leaders from Alaska joined Microsoft and SkyNRG, a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) provider, to discuss how successes in wind and solar have enabled us to take our learnings, financial structures and best practices, and streamline our approach to growing the SAF market. 

2. Every business is a climate business 

For some companies at the festival, it was immediately obvious that they were in the climate business, whether it was green building startup BlocPower;  Enso, a company focused on producing eco-friendly tires for electric vehicles; or our partner ZeroAvia, a leading manufacturer of hydrogen-electric engines. But one of the most pervasive themes at the festival was that every company must address climate risk because everybody is affected by climate change. This reality was emphasized by the sheer breadth of festival attendance; over lunch and in the Alaska lounge, we spoke with psychologists, university employees, and investment firm managers.   

The idea that everyone is in the climate business also expanded to the festival food. It was hard to believe that the coconut ice cream from Molly Moon’s was dairy free, or that the fluffy focaccia from Flora Bakehouse was vegan. It not only spoke to the world of sustainable food – how restaurants can take climate action through sustainable sourcing and waste reduction – but also challenged our preconceptions that vegan food needs to taste worse than non-vegan counterparts and inspired us to try more vegetarian and vegan fare.  

3. Next generation changemakers are here 

Gen Z and Millennials are no longer the faceless “next generation”; attendees in their 20s and early 30s flocked to the festival, bringing with them their voices, passion, and innovative approaches to climate action and leadership on sustainability. 

Some took to the Ideas Stage: 22-year-old Xiye Bastida wove parallels between her climate justice activism and her work as an indigenous rights advocate, and Wawa Gatheru, the founder of Black Girl Environmentalist, participated in a fireside chat about the disproportionate effects of climate change on women and girls. We saw others communicate their ideas through performances, such as drag queen, artist and environmentalist Pattie Gonia, who edited in climate-focused lyrics to songs like ‘Hot in Herre by Nelly’ and ‘Rain On Me by Ariana, while highlighting the connection between identity, self-expression, and the planet.  

From our first days at Alaska, the airline has made it clear that showing care is a priority, whether to the places they live and fly, or the planet we share. That focus on care is the reason the company is taking actions to reduce carbon emissions and waste, and to protect local ecosystems.  

It was gratifying to see that sense of care pervade the festival. It went into the thoughtful details of our lounge space and the remarks given by Alaska leaders, and also extended beyond our presence at the event as other attendees embraced the chance to connect and learn from one another.   

There is still much to do in the race against climate change, whether it’s at the scale of our companywide commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040 or using what we learned at the festival to make more sustainable choices in our own lives, but we can’t wait to return for next year’s Bloomberg Green Festival and see the progress that everyone has made.