The Power of Women in Cleantech

In the last two decades, news media pundits, politicians, and even celebrities have weighed in on the demographics of tech industry professionals.  There is no doubt about the fact that more and more women are finding ways to thrive and succeed in the tech industry, pushing the edge of technology as we know it further forward.  At Inerjys, we see women not just as a powerful addition to tech, but as a foundational part of its history and the key to cleantech’s future.

An industry can never live up to its potential when it ignores or discourages half of the world’s population from entering its talent pool.  Any approach to a global challenge that does not include women and ensure their equal treatment will never truly address the problem, let alone do it efficiently.  Can you imagine how much further we would be had the full potential of the human race been tapped into from the get-go?

Cleantech is a unique industry; it is young compared to many other industries, and it is fueled by the need for cutting-edge innovation with a powerful urgency.  The demand for clean technologies, green solutions, and improved energy efficiency in our daily lives requires the best and the brightest. There’s no room for antiquated concepts of workplace inclusion that would push out some of the world’s most promising innovators.  To do so would be both fiscally foolish and ecologically disastrous.

Women are inseparable from the process of progress, technological or societal, and I believe we need to do everything we can to encourage women to keep coming to cleantech as an industry while retaining the incredible talent that’s already here.  Inerjys was built on principles of equality, and, as such, we’re proud of the women that are leading our company and our industry to a position from which we’ll all be able to address the challenges of climate change and energy usage together.

Companies who want to lead this industry and capitalize on the momentous change cleantech is bringing to the world cannot afford to underestimate the incredible women rising in this field.  Much like how clean and green technologies are all about rethinking the way we source, allocate, and utilize energy, it’s well past time that industries worldwide rethink the way they source, allocate, and utilize talent.

Thankfully, the professional and inventive women of our industry are already leading the way to radically changing the way our world works and thinks.  All we have to do is ensure the industry doesn’t slip backward into old, self-defeating behaviors that categorize obsolete hiring and business models.