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I speak truth to power — challenging injustice and inspiring action.

I speak truth to power — challenging injustice and inspiring action.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER, TECH WORKER ORGANIZER,
CLIMATE JUSTICE ADVOCATE & ADVISOR

Featured in: Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy

Reached Netflix Top 10 Most Watched List in Over 40 Countries Worldwide

Maren Costa IS A CLIMATE JUSTICE LEADER, WORKER’S RIGHTS ADVOCATE, SPEAKER, ADVISOR & TECH ORGANIZER.

She is known for challenging corporate power to drive systemic change. She is featured in the Netflix documentary Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy, where her mission to confront consumerism and demand corporate accountability takes center stage.

A former Principal Designer at Amazon, Maren co-founded Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, the worker-led group behind major wins such as Amazon’s Climate Pledge and the $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund. In 2020, she was unlawfully terminated from Amazon for advocating for warehouse workers’ safety during the pandemic, a case that gained international attention and led to groundbreaking labor reforms.

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. She later left Big Tech to focus on movement-building, running for Seattle City Council in 2023 on a climate justice and workers’ rights platform, backed by a broad grassroots coalition. Now, as Board President of AECJ and a leader at WorkForClimate.org, Maren mobilizes tech employees to demand bold climate action from the world’s most powerful companies. She is a sought-after speaker at global conferences, top universities, and on prominent podcasts and films, where she shares insights on systems change, organizing tech workers, sustainability, design thinking, and corporate responsibility. 

A lifelong advocate for equity, Maren holds degrees in English and Women’s Studies from St. Olaf College and a certificate in User-Centered Design from the University of Washington. She’s also a mother and stepmother of four teenagers, navigating the intersections of activism, tech, and parenting.

Maren’s work is grounded in the belief that real climate solutions must address the root causes of injustice—from colonialism and white supremacy to neoliberal capitalism—and that worker power and collective resistance is the key to real change.

UPCOMING TALKS

“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.”

“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.”

TOOLS & RESOURCES

A step-by-step guide to how Maren Costa and her colleagues transformed climate action at Amazon

198 Methods of Nonviolent Action

Systems Leadership for Sustainable Development

More In Common 2025 Strategy

Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System

Sustainable Shopping

ChangeMakers Podcast

Organizing: People, Power and Change (Guide) (Available in English, Spanish & Turkish)

Organizing Playbook for a World where She Decides

Organizing for America OFA: Community Organizer Manual

TED talk: The Power of Organizing: Betsy Hoover at TEDxDePaulU (Video)

Worker Power In The Tech Industry

ChangeNow – Engage To Transform Keynote

INVESTING IN A GREEN FUTURE: How to move your 401(k) and other investments to sustainable funds

IN THE NEWS

A step-by-step guide to how Maren Costa and her colleagues transformed climate action at Amazon

WORKFORCLIMATE.ORG

The two employees had publicly pushed the company to reduce its impact on climate change and address concerns about its…

Amazon Illegally Fired Activist Workers, Labor Board Finds

NYTIMES.COM

Like many of her peers at Amazon, Costa has been experiencing a tension between work she loves and a company culture…

Climate change, AI and ethical leadership in ‘big tech’, with Amazon principal UX design lead Maren Costa

TECHCRUNCH.COM

Former Amazon UX designer turned climate activist unpacks her journey from internal whistleblower to global advocate…
 

‘Marketing is the fuel to the fire of consumerism’: Former Amazon veteran Maren Costa

CAMPAIGNASIA.COM

Last April, Amazon fired me for standing up for climate justice and for my warehouse colleagues’ safety during COVID…

Employees organizing for justice

MEDIUM.COM

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Maren Costa Speaker Engagement Form

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When the 99.99% stand together, we are invincible. We can create a more sustainable and equitable world together.

*Your privacy is respected and your email address will never be shared with anyone.