How Sailing and Technology Can Be a Platform for Climate Collaboration and Impact
In an innovative convergence of worlds, tech industry leaders and climate advocates recently gathered aboard the Translated9 sailing yacht on San Francisco Bay. This unique experience, hosted by AI translation company Translated, brought together sustainability professionals from major companies including Cisco, eBay, PayPal, NetApp, and Visa to foster meaningful dialogue on climate action.
Authors Nico Van Exel and Karen Little share five key insights from this maritime collaboration:
Bridging different worlds creates powerful connections - Moving beyond jargon and bringing diverse voices together generates authentic conversations about the human dimensions of climate change.
Friendship builds resilience and leadership - Personal connections between sustainability leaders provide crucial support networks for tackling global challenges.
Small gatherings can create outsized impact - The seven participants collectively influence millions of employees and manage hundreds of millions in climate funding across their organizations.
Perspective and patience are essential - Like sailing, climate action requires steady commitment, adaptability, and perseverance through slow progress.
Effective moral leadership drives change - Strong, values-driven leadership and cross-functional collaboration are necessary to navigate both the seas and climate challenges.
Want to read more? Here’s the full article:
It’s not every day that a tech team, an Olympic sailor, and a crew of climate-focused leaders come together on the same deck. Yet, as the wind carried us across the San Francisco Bay last Sunday, so did our conversation, steering us toward a renewed sense of purpose and commitment to climate action. This inspiring journey brought together sustainability and social impact leaders from Cisco, eBay, PayPal, NetApp, Visa, and our host, Translated, — a leading company in AI-driven translation and localization services. Translated owns two Swan 65 yachts, named Translated9 — which not only journey around the world in the Ocean Globe Race, but also serves as a vessel for meaningful connections here in the San Francisco Bay. Here are some of our key takeaways:
1. Bridging Different Worlds is Powerful — and Necessary
Takeaway: When you bring people together outside their usual circles, especially in a setting as captivating as a sailboat, the usual jargon fades away. Conversations drift from acronyms and buzzwords to authentic reflections on the human side of climate change. It’s not just about ESG or AI; it’s also about the humanity behind these efforts — the impact on our lives, our communities, and our choices. This gathering reminded us that climate solutions are ultimately about people, and seeing this from fresh angles with diverse allies brought a renewed sense of purpose.
Action: We encourage you to create your own spaces — literal or figurative — where diverse minds can meet to spark new solutions for a sustainable future. Bring together unlikely allies! In your convenings, invite people who may seem like adversaries or who are not working in your specific field. Bring in multi-generational voices, including youth, the elderly, and learn from indigenous community leaders, listen to the executive who has nothing to do within the climate in her or his day job or who may not seem to care. In doing so, we can create a resilient network of allies who are ready to navigate the challenges ahead, together. If elections around the world are teaching us anything, it is that we need to bridge divides.
2. Friendship is a Force for Resilience and Leadership
Takeway: As leaders in sustainability and tech, we are peers and colleagues, but most importantly, we’re friends. And in today’s environment, we need each other more than ever. The day on Translated9 reminded us of the importance of supporting one another — not just in our professional roles, but as allies who share a vision for a better world. Our camaraderie reaffirmed that friendship and trust are essential for resilience, both in life and in tackling global issues like climate change.
Action: Find opportunities to connect, regenerate, and inspire one another in smaller gatherings that are hyper-localized. As an example, Karen has started local gatherings in the Bay Area with friends and impact leaders who share joy and passion for making a positive difference in the world. Nico is leading sailing trips on the San Francisco Bay with friends and colleagues, and leading small travel groups into nature to help drive leadership growth and transformation.
3. Small Gatherings Can Lead to Outsized Impact
Takeaway: Our group of seven represented a collective impact much larger than our individual roles. Across all our companies, we connect to over a million employees, manage hundreds of millions of dollars in climate resilience funding, and drive AI-driven tech solutions powering Fortune 500 companies globally. Imagine what can happen if we channel these resources to make a more concerted push on climate issues! This sailing experience planted the seeds for future collaborations that could have a substantial impact, one small gathering at a time.
Action: At a time of climate uncertainty, with more frequent and severe climate induced disasters that impact people around the globe, from island nations like Haiti to urban communities in Valencia…no one is exempt. How can we catalyze more funding to climate resilience? Some examples of how Sunday’s “crew” are already working on climate efforts inside their companies are PayPal’s dedicated disaster response efforts, Cisco Foundation’s $100 million climate resilience commitment, Visa Foundation’s $22 million commitment, eBay’s climate efforts, and DocuSign’s and NetApp’s net zero climate commitments. We encourage everyone to learn more about them, and to help drive more of their company’s opportunities to channel funding to climate resilience.
4. Perspective and Patience: The Art of Navigating Long-Term Change
Takeaway: Sailing teaches us the importance of perspective and patience — qualities that are also essential in the fight against climate change. On the water, every maneuver, every shift of the sails, and every slight course correction is guided by an understanding that progress is gradual and that adaptability is key. Climate action, like sailing, requires steady commitment, the flexibility to adjust course when needed, and the patience to stay the path even when progress seems slow.
Action: With the vast resources and networks our companies bring to the table, it’s important to stay resilient, adapt, and keep pushing forward, even when the winds aren’t in your favor. Progress may sometimes be slow, but keep focusing on the small wins as building blocks to bigger success.
5. It is about effective and moral leadership.
Takeaway: Sailing requires good leadership. We cannot navigate the seas without a strong leader and a crew that is checked in, streamlined, and that communicates well; maintaining strong moral values along the way. If you are not able to lead, you are simply off the boat. In our roles, we have small teams, and depend heavily on cross-functional and multi-stakeholder alignment. We have learned leadership styles that others could benefit from, and we can support each other in developing these!
Action: In your companies, cultivate leadership that aligns vision and values, fostering a cohesive, communicative team. Just as in sailing, effective leadership in sustainability requires a crew fully engaged and morally grounded. Prioritize building strong leaders and teams that navigate challenges together. Break through the silos of corporate sustainability teams, leading through influence without authority, and engage and influence your CEO, executive team, and the Board, in meaningful collaboration, invite them along on the journey!
We will be back with more opportunities like these in the Spring. Stay tuned! And a very special thanks to the entire Translated team for making this a reality. We, like you, believe in humans!
