Left to right: Lynelle Cameron, Vice President, Sustainability & CEO of the Autodesk Foundation; Jean-Louis Missika, Deputy Mayor, City of Paris; Anne Hidalgo, Mayor, City of Paris; and Debbie Raphael, Director, San Francisco Department of the Environment; at the kickoff of the Women4Climate Tech Challenge in San Francisco.

This week in San Francisco, global leaders from government, business, and the social sector are gathering for the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) to celebrate progress on climate action and ratchet up ambition beyond that set during the Paris climate accords. It is really exciting to see GCAS kicking off strong with California state governor Jerry Brown boldly committing the state to 100-percent renewable electricity and carbon neutrality by 2045. After all, that is what GCAS is about, ambitious commitments to climate action.

At Autodesk, we’re actively participating in GCAS because our vision is to help people imagine, design, and make a better world. Every industry we serve — from manufacturing to construction — is affected by climate change, and we’re committed to delivering technology and support to our customers to help them meet this global challenge. Our customers are also driving commitments and action of their own around net-zero carbon buildings, resilient cities, and smart transportation.

This week at GCAS and in partnership with C40 Cities, Climate Nexus, and Grist, we officially launched the Women4Climate Tech Challenge, a global competition designed to spark innovation and accelerate climate solutions from women in the tech community. Lynelle Cameron, CEO of the Autodesk Foundation and VP of Sustainability, kicked off the challenge with Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo in a workshop on Wednesday. This convening of industry experts is focused around sustainable buildings, cities and transportation, and women’s role in driving innovation.

“Women, in particular women in technology, are no strangers to breaking boundaries, driving systems change and overcoming supposedly insurmountable obstacles. As we turn our hard-fought skills to the climate challenge, there’s nothing that can stop us,” said Lynelle.

You can learn more here about how C40’s Women4Climate initiative drives climate policy in cities around the world.

Continuing the vein of commitment, I’m personally excited to share that today Autodesk is joining 21 other technology leaders to sign the Step Up Declaration, a new alliance dedicated to harnessing the power of emerging technologies to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all economic sectors.

As part of this declaration, we are ratcheting up our own commitments — such as expanding our 100-percent renewable electricity pledge from our offices and cloud services, to also include our customer’s use of our products. We’re also going to ensure that all of our global Autodesk University events are carbon neutral. Read more about our sustainability commitments and progress in our new FY18 Sustainability Report, released today in concert with GCAS!

Cities4Climate workshop attendees gather to create actionable, ongoing commitments to climate change solutions at the half-day workshop held in San Francisco.

In his letter from the report, our CEO Andrew Anagnost reiterates our commitment to customers and how technology can help them meet their climate goals, saying: “This is the opportunity for business to lead. Harnessing the power of automation technologies increases our collective ability and capacity to make things better—better for our customers, and better for the planet and society.”  The report highlights Autodesk’s progress toward its commitment to sustainability and helping people make a better world, with our customers, our employees, our partners, and in our operation.

The Paris Agreement was a historic event that unified the world on climate action. Recognizing that we now need to do even more underscores the importance of the many commitments being made at the Global Climate Action Summit by government and business alike. I’m excited to be doubling down on Autodesk’s climate action commitments, and I’m proud to be helping our customers meet their many commitments with support from our technology. See you at the Summit!