Speaker. Tech Worker Organizer. Climate Justice Advocate.
I speak truth to power —challenging injustice and inspiring action.
Is a powerful advocate for workers' rights and sustainability, and was featured in the Netflix documentary Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy. This eye-opening film exposes the manipulative tactics brands use to maintain consumerism and reveals the profound impact these practices have on our lives and the planet. Maren's bold stance at Amazon—where she was fired for standing up for workers and the environment—has made her a powerful voice in the global conversation about ethics, corporate responsibility, and consumer power.
Maren Costa is a climate justice leader, workers’ rights advocate, speaker, advisor, and tech organizer, known for challenging corporate power to drive systemic change. She is featured in the recent Netflix documentary Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy, where her fearless mission to challenge consumerism and fight for corporate accountability takes center stage.
A former Principal Designer at Amazon, Maren co-founded Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), forcing Amazon to commit to net-zero emissions and spurring Jeff Bezos’s $10 billion Earth Fund. Now, as Board President of AECJ and a leader at WorkForClimate.org, Maren mobilizes tech employees to pressure corporations for bold climate action, and is currently organizing a retreat for 50 climate action NGOs from around the world to strategize for maximum impact.
With over 20 years at Adobe, Amazon, and Microsoft, Maren has advanced human centered design, earned 16 patents, and left a lasting impact on the industry. Maren left Big Tech to focus on movement-building. She ran for Seattle City Council in 2023, advancing a climate justice and workers’ rights agenda. A sought-after speaker at major universities and global conferences, as well as multiple podcasts and films, Maren shares her expertise in systems change, sustainability, design thinking, corporate responsibility, and how to organize tech workers to counter Big Tech’s unchecked power.
A lifelong advocate for equity, she holds degrees in English and Women’s Studies from St. Olaf College and a User-Centered Design certificate from the University of Washington. She is also a mother and step-mother, navigating both the tech and activist worlds while raising four teenagers.
Maren’s work is grounded in the belief that climate solutions must address the root causes of injustice—from colonialism and white supremacy to neoliberal capitalism—and that collective worker power is the key to real change.
"The world is changing whether you like it or not. The choice is whether you want to be a driver of that change or someone left behind wondering where things went wrong."
Maren Costa