Women’s History Month | What Sylvera is doing about gender inequality in climate tech

International Women’s Day (IWD), celebrated for at least a century, and Women’s History Month (WHM), celebrated for about half a century, are opportunities to focus the global conversation on gender inequalities and how to fix them. It’s also an opportunity to reflect on how different aspects of an individual woman’s identity, such as her race, her gender expression and her sexuality impact how her contributions are devalued and what can be done about it.

Climate tech sits at the intersection between the green and tech sectors. Women are underrepresented in both. According to LinkedIn, there’s a global green skills gap between women and men that has remained stagnant since 2015, and men are greening their skill sets faster. In 2022, Deloitte estimates that women will hold only 33% of the positions available at big tech companies. 

At Sylvera, we’re committed to bringing gender equality to climate tech. While we know there’s a lot to do, we’re proud of the work we’ve been doing so far. Our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) committee is holding the wider business accountable for embedding DEI into our everyday work life. There’s a long way to go, but we’re starting with the basics: establishing a baseline of metrics, increasing representation and fostering an inclusive culture.

Perspectives of women at Sylvera

We asked three women at Sylvera to tell us a little bit about what Women’s History Month means to them, what it’s like being a woman at Sylvera, their role in averting the climate crisis, why a woman's perspective on the climate crisis is important and which women in climate tech inspire them. 

Rani Shah (she/her), Senior Product Manager

Q: What does Women’s History Month mean to you?

A: Indra Nooyi recently said “The next few decades are the decades of women” and you can start to see this with the release of more and more corporate mandate policies designed to close the gender gap. Women have historically been overlooked, but having this month to celebrate women both past and present who’ve helped impact society is crucial to surface the importance of representation and why it’s important to give us a seat at the table.

Q: What’s your experience of being a woman at Sylvera?

A: From the moment I interviewed with Sylvera, it was clear that the company is an inclusive and diverse place to work and that’s been reinforced since joining. We’ve recently created a diversity and inclusion committee and it’s great to be part of a company that is proactively creating a workplace where everyone feels accepted.

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Loredana-Elena Balan (she/her), Content Management System (CMS) Engineer

Q: What role do you see yourself play in the fight against climate change? Why do you think a woman’s perspective is important in averting the climate crisis?

A: Although I do not particularly identify myself as a person with tremendous public influence, I strongly believe that climate change cannot be tackled and toned down individually. We are all responsible to do our part and do the right thing: recycle, reduce waste, spread awareness and ultimately duplicate and teach others to be more environmentally friendly. Climate change will ultimately affect each and everybody, regardless of sex or gender, but we, women, are responsible to not only do our own part, but preach and teach environmentalism to others as well.

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Cristina Calatayud Domingo (she/her), Technical Climate Consultant

Q: Which women inspire you?

A: I’m mostly inspired by my colleagues. It’s so powerful to follow them in their day-to-day work life and see them thrive.

We hope you enjoyed hearing from the incredible women at Sylvera who help us achieve our goals as an organization.

While we don’t have all the answers, we must learn from the past and take the most informed actions possible because this reality will not change without direct effort and dedication on behalf of organizations like ours.