Josh Henretig

Josh Henretig is the Vice President of Global Partnerships at Higg Co. He is responsible for developing new partnerships with key stakeholder organizations aligned with Higg Co’s mission and vision and identifying new collaboration and scale opportunities based on future product plans.

Henretig joined Higg Co after a 17+ year career at Microsoft, where he helped shape the sustainability agenda at the company, from its very first public environmental commitments in 2008, to its announcement in January 2020 to become “carbon negative”. Throughout his corporate career, Josh worked on all aspects of corporate sustainability design and execution, from product development and strategic partnerships, to developing scalable programs and tools to drive innovation while decoupling environmental impacts from the company’s business growth.

In 2016 Josh developed and launched Microsoft’s AI for Earth program, a $50 million, 5-year commitment focused on deploying Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence research and technology in the four areas of climate change, agriculture, water, and biodiversity. Before joining Higg Co, Josh led the global team responsible for investing in and supporting efforts to decarbonize energy and fuel sources, increasing material & water reuse, tracking and reporting progress against goals and managing climate-related risks and environmental compliance across Microsoft’s entire value chain.

Josh serves on the Board of Directors of Measurabl, a SaaS platform for collecting, managing, disclosing and acting upon ESG/sustainability data for commercial real estate owners, and is on the Board of Advisors for Pachama, a for-purpose organization using machine learning, remote sensing and LiDAR to bring efficiency and transparency to forest carbon markets.

In 2012, he was a First Mover Fellow at the Aspen Institute, and in 2020, he became a Distinguished Fellow at the University of Washington where he led research to understand the scope and combined impact of corporate climate commitments, and what they mean for applied research opportunities at the University of Washington.