The Hempitecture team is thrilled and beyond honored to announce the addition of Aimee Christensen to the Hempitecture Advisory Team.
Aimée's role on the Hempitecture team marks the beginning of the next chapter of Hempitecture, where she'll advise on environmental, social, and governance policies and relations as we work to scale biobased, carbon capturing building methods.
Aimée Christensen is Founder and CEO of Christensen Global, where she collaborates with visionary leaders, leveraging deep expertise and a diverse network of relationships to develop solutions for a healthy, secure and equitable world. Known as a thought-leader who delivers results, her clients have included Aleph Farms, The B Team, ByFusion, Clinton Global Initiative, Duke Energy, The Elders, FEMSA, the Global Observatory, the Global Ocean Commission, Microsoft, Ogilvy, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Swiss Re, United Nations, United Nations Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Virgin Unite, Wolfensohn + Co and The World Bank. Trained as an environmental and energy lawyer, she has spent three decades in climate change and sustainability strategy in the corporate, investment, government and philanthropic sectors. In addition to founding and leading her firm, she has worked in leadership positions at Google.org and the U.S. Department of Energy, and practiced law with The World Bank and with Baker & McKenzie’s groundbreaking Climate Change and Clean Energy practice group. She has a B.A. from Smith College and a J.D. from Stanford Law School where she authored the first ever university endowment investment policy on climate change which was adopted by Stanford’s Board of Trustees in 1999.
Ms. Christensen’s impact started early in her career. As a political appointee developing Latin American energy policy at the U.S. Department of Energy (1994-98), she drafted and negotiated the first U.S. bilateral and regional agreements on climate change (Costa Rica, Chile, et al, 1994-97) and drafted and negotiated the Summit of the Americas hemisphere-wide accord on sustainable energy (1994), launching the Hemispheric Energy Steering Committee, cooperation among 34 nations on energy policies to benefit sustainable development.
Upon launching her firm in 2005, she was named the inaugural Deputy Chair for Climate and Energy for her first client, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), helping to shape its Energy and Climate Change track including agenda and development of commitments by corporations, governments, and NGOs. In 2006 she joined Google full time, guiding climate strategy development for Google.org and advising on the company’s first climate initiatives, matching the needs of the planet with the assets of the institution. She led the development of Google.org’s RechargeIT plug-in hybrid project from conceptualization through implementation to accelerate the electrification of transportation as a major climate solution; she drove a corporate commitment to carbon neutrality; and she successfully lobbied for California’s climate change legislation (AB 32). Ms. Christensen returned to her firm in 2007, advising Virgin Unite on the development of an overarching environmental impact strategy including for Virgin companies and the development of several of Sir Richard Branson’s ground-breaking initiatives (The B Team, The Carbon War Room and The Elders). She played a particularly central role in developing the Carbon War Room, advising during its creation through public launch, and during the inception of The Elders, for whom she developed a roadmap for leveraging their power to help solve our greatest environmental challenges, briefing them at their Johannesburg, South Africa launch. During this time she also built the “Newark Green Future Network” to support then Newark, NJ mayor Cory Booker in greening the city to meet economic, health, and crime objectives.
Between 2009 and 2011 Ms. Christensen engaged strategically to advance climate change action at the national and global level, supporting clients and curating events including: drafting speeches and testimony including “Pathways to a Green Global Economic Recovery” testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee by Duke Energy Chairman & CEO Jim Rogers; at the UN “COP16” climate talks, curated, emceed and developed the messaging for “Business Action for Climate 2010,” showcasing business leadership on climate change with the CEOs of Duke Energy, Dow Chemical, The Coca-Cola Company and FEMSA and with Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and President Felipe Calderón of Mexico; and served as founding Program Chair of the World Climate Summit, a global gathering of business leaders taking action on climate change (2010 and 2011).
In 2012 Ms. Christensen was recruited to serve as Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary General’s High-level Group on Sustainable Energy for All supporting mobilization of action toward their three complementary goals: doubling the share of renewable energy globally, doubling the global rate of improvement of energy efficiency, and ensuring universal access to modern energy services. During this same period, she worked as a corporate strategist, advising Microsoft on policy engagement and partnerships for their groundbreaking commitment to carbon neutrality powered by a global carbon fee across operations to drive increased efficiency, renewable energy use and reduced emissions. In 2013 she curated the “green growth” track at the Clinton Global Initiative: Latin America, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, designing substantive conversations and objectives, recruiting and preparing speakers and introduced track and goals for green growth topics at CGI Latin America.
Now living in Sun Valley, Idaho, in addition to her global client projects, Ms. Christensen has driven efforts locally to build a resilient community model that reflects local values. She is founder and former executive director of the Sun Valley Institute for Resilience and founder and curator of the Sun Valley Forum; she served on the Sun Valley Economic Development Summit planning committee (2013-2015) and as founding Chair of the City of Ketchum’s Energy Advisory Committee (2014- 2017). She has attracted outside partners, including the Rockefeller Foundation and the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability (Arizona State University), with whom to build this model to benefit the economy and the environment. Her groundbreaking Sun Valley Forum convenes 300 global leaders and innovators annually to spark partnerships and accelerate impact. Finally, as manager of the Christensen Family Office, Ms. Christensen is overseeing the transition of her family’s investments to align with environmental values across a portfolio of early stage companies, renewable energy projects and funds, and is a founding member of Divest-Invest.
Visit: https://www.christensenglobal.com/
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