Kate Brandt has a history of writing her job descriptions. Before she became the first chief sustainability officer at Google in 2018, she was the first to hold that title for the U.S. government, under former President Barack Obama.

In that role, Brandt wrote an executive order that informed federal procurement priorities, and it’s a blueprint that continues to inform her ideas about efficiency, energy and resilience. There may be no chief sustainability officer in the Trump White House, but her focus hasn’t wavered.

“One thing that I have observed in my work in the public and private sector is there needs to be deep collaboration,” Brandt told me in the August episode of the Climate Pioneers interview series. “I would advise people that it’s really healthy and productive for people to have career experiences in both realms, then to use the unique insights from each to advance the public-private partnership that I think is so critical.”

That perspective has been invaluable for Google’s creation of artificial intelligence resources aimed at helping the public and private sectors reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 1 gigaton annually by 2030. Brandt’s sustainability team doesn’t have a revenue goal, but it is deeply involved in the company’s AI strategy.

Brandt self-describes as simultaneously impatient and optimistic, while acknowledging that the latter requires constant self care. Here’s her advice to other sustainability professionals who are similarly struggling to maintain a semblance of balance among the chaos. (Brandt’s comments have been lightly edited for length and clarity.)

On reframing communications about climate action:

“For me, it’s really been about how we expand the aperture of how we talk about the work — how it’s benefiting people, how it’s benefiting the planet … Something that I’ve sought to do a lot more of is share my personal why, to connect on more of a heart level with people. We can get very heady and scientific and technical.” Brandt’s “why” includes her 4-year-old daughter and the redwood trees that surround her neighborhood.

On getting to ‘yes’:

“I find so often that we can get a strong win when there’s a product solution that meets a customer need and also has a sustainability be