Todd Brady
Nominated for: Lifetime Achievement Award
Title: Chief Sustainability Officer and VP of Global Public Affairs
Company: Intel Corporation
Years in Profession: 28
Nominator: Fawn Bergen, Corporate Sustainability Manager, Intel Corporation, Direct Report to Todd.
Provide an overview of the nominee's 20-plus years of professional experience, including previous management positions held, current role, and key accomplishments. (500 words max.)*
Todd Brady is the Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President of Global Public Affairs at Intel Corporation. Todd has nearly 30 years of experience in the environmental field, including deep expertise and leadership positions in EHS, Sustainability, Product Ecology, and Public (community) Affairs. As Chief Sustainability Officer, he leads Intel’s global sustainability initiatives including climate, energy, water, green buildings and circular economy. Currently, Todd’s organization is focused on achieving net positive water, zero waste to landfill, and 100% renewable electricity by 2030, and net zero GHG by 2040.
Todd joined Intel 28 years ago, starting as an environmental engineering intern while earning his master’s degree in environmental engineering (his BS degree is in chemical engineering). From day 1 Todd stood out as an exceptional professional and quickly progressed into leadership roles, becoming a site EHS manager, followed by a role creating Intel’s first Product Stewardship/Ecology program (now a large, critical organization at Intel). He then returned to EHS and Sustainability as the Global Environmental Manager, followed by promotion to Director. In 2015, executive leadership recognized the strong business value from sustainability initiatives and wanted to accelerate Intel’s progress in sustainability and created a separate sustainability (separate from EHS) organization, under Todd’s leadership as Senior Director. As a result of his success in this role his scope grew significantly with the transition of the Global Public Affairs under Todd. And in 2022, he was promoted to Vice President and named Intel’s first Chief Sustainability Officer. At Intel, promotion to VP is significant – the candidate must demonstrate exceptional leadership skills including team and individual performance, reputation inside and outside of the company, influence and technical expertise; and requires high performance ratings, demonstrated results over their career as well as sponsorship and support from other leaders.
Please list a minimum of two examples that demonstrate the nominee's distinguished service and leadership within the fields of environment, health, safety and/or sustainability at the corporate management level. Examples may include: Company or industry-related recognition and awards, board appointments, publications, public speaking engagements, and relevant service or volunteer positions. (500 words max.)*
During his career at Intel, Todd has represented the company in numerous public forums and led industry-wide initiatives in national and international committees. He has authored more than 20 papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings on a variety of sustainability topics. He was named by Scientific American as one of ten outstanding leaders involved in research, business or policy pursuits that have advanced science and technology and one of the world’s top 20 sustainability leaders of 2022 by Sustainability Magazine. Todd is often asked to be a keynote speaker at sustainability, corporate responsibility and technology industry forums and is widely regarded one of the top sustainability thought leaders at a company often recognized for sustainability leadership.
Intel is one of the world’s largest technology companies, and semiconductor manufacturing is the core of our business. Over the course of Todd’s career, Intel has set and achieved ambitious climate change, water, waste and green building programs; often earning leadership recognitions such as #1 Most Sustainable Company by Barron’s (2022), #1 for Environment for Semiconductor Industry by JUST 100 (2023), and the US Water Prize (US Water Alliance). Manufacturing companies have potentially large environmental footprints, and those with highly visible brands such as Intel have an immense challenge of reducing emissions, water usage, waste generation, etc., while navigating company growth and expansions, technology innovations and building positive relationships with our communities around the world.
Identify and define the nominee's impact on company performance. Outline pertinent EHS&S initiatives and/or programs. Provide measurement of impact through metrics or KPIs. (500 words max.)*
Todd’s ability to successfully influence and inspire corporate sustainability action and investments at Intel has directly resulted in fully committed senior leaders (all the way up to our CEO!) embedding sustainability into operations across the company. This is not a small accomplishment since at a company the size and scale of Intel, this requires cost and people investments.
An example of a key accomplishment under Todd’s leadership is Intel’s progress in climate change commitments – reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% in 2012 (from 2007) and avoiding more than 80% of our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions in the last 10 years alone. These were accomplished during periods of significant growth at Intel (more than 3x increase in manufacturing output and complexity) and represent absolute reductions in emissions (i.e., not by purchasing carbon offsets). Additional sustainability accomplishments under Todd’s leadership include:
- water stewardship: increased water conservation by more than 100% in last 5 years, achieved net positive water in 3 countries (2021 and 2022), funding watershed projects to restore >100% of Intel freshwater consumption, first global technology company to commit to net positive water by 2030
- waste and circularity: increased global recycling rate from 25% in the mid-1990s to 87%, even while Intel’s business and production continued to grow; upcycled nearly 70% of manufacturing waste through Intel programs and partnerships with our suppliers
- renewable electricity: strategic investments over last 2 decades to reduce our carbon footprint and to help spur the renewables and attributes market; Intel became the largest voluntary purchaser of green power under the US EPA Green Power Partner Program in 2008; achieved 100% renewable electricity in US, EU, Israel and Malaysia and 93% globally
Describe the nominee's leadership style and provide examples of his/her commitment to advancing professionals within the EHS&S fields. (500 words max.)*
Todd’s leadership style is the perfect combination of transformational and visionary leadership. He demonstrates each day his commitment to growing his employees and creating opportunities to take on new projects or responsibilities, creating a culture of inclusion/belonging, and inspiring and motivating others. Todd believes that employees do their best work when they feel valued, respected, and excited about their jobs – all things that Todd role models and rewards within his organization.
Todd’s contributions to the environmental field are also significant – often leading or acting as a key contributor to cross-industry efforts or consortia. For example, in the early 2000’s Intel led industry efforts to voluntarily reduce GHG emissions associated with semiconductor manufacturing and establish a partnership with the US EPA to drive reductions across the industry. The outcome was substantial emission reductions (60% reduction in Intel’s emissions by 2012) and establishment of best practices for the entire semiconductor industry.
Another example is how Todd has managed sustainability function expansion at Intel. Going back about 2 years, Intel’s primary sustainability team focused on manufacturing and operations (the “corporate” team) scope. Since then, the number of (business to business) customers looking to Intel to help them achieve their sustainability goals increased substantially. Additionally, supply chain programs needed to evolve to increase transparency, goal setting, footprinting and reduction of environmental impacts through partnerships with thousands of Intel suppliers. All at a time where external expectations continue to grow with new or proposed legislation around climate change and other sustainability reporting. This required expanding or developing new internal policies, governance processes, committees, programs, leadership approval pathways, and to establish decision-making process and clear organizational ownership. Todd also took this as an opportunity to increase technical expertise across these new sustainability functions and staff, advising in areas such as investor relations, industry consortia and external reporting.
Provide two examples of nominee's commitment to industry advancements and lifelong learning. Examples may include: Continuing education, corporate or university teaching, patents, strategic initiatives, breakthrough program development, and other definable actions. (500 words max.)*
During his career at Intel, Todd has represented the company in numerous public forums and led industry-wide initiatives in national and international committees. He has authored more than 20 papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings on a variety of sustainability topics. He was named by Scientific American as one of ten outstanding leaders involved in research, business or policy pursuits that have advanced science and technology and one of the world’s top 20 sustainability leaders of 2022 by Sustainability Magazine. Todd is often asked to be a keynote speaker at sustainability, corporate responsibility and technology industry forums and is widely regarded one of the top sustainability thought leaders at a company often recognized for sustainability leadership.
Three specific examples of how Todd has promoted lifelong learning and advancement of the environmental field include:
- Princeton University Seminar Series “The Digital Carbon Footprint is Growing, or Is It?, found at: https://acee.princeton.edu/events/highlight-seminar-series-todd-brady/
- 2022 Forbes Sustainability Summit, found at: https://www.forbes.com/connect/event/2023-forbes-sustainability-summit/
- GreenBiz keynote “Building Community Sustainability Projects”, found at: https://www.greenbiz.com/video/intel-corps-todd-brady-building-community-sustainability-projects