What's the state of employment for climate tech and sustainability professionals? The short answer is unclear, particularly in the United States -- where President Donald Trump is eliminating various energy transition programs.
Without federal dollars or regulatory incentives, some businesses are rethinking their commitment to sustainability-focused employees.
Amid that backdrop, here's a look at sustainability-oriented companies and green energy business units that announced staff cuts in 2025 (so far), 2024 and 2023...
April 2025 Layoffs
- BP is shutting its team looking into hydrogen and liquefied natural gas for transport, especially trucks, but the move does not affect the BP Pulse electric vehicle charging business, Reuters reported.
March 2025 Layoffs
- AKQA Americas has shut down AKQA Bloom, a sustainability-focused creative agency, AdWeek reported. The shuttered organization will integrate into AKQA Americas -- though headcount reduction figures were not disclosed, AdWeek said.
- IBM layoffs may include certain employees from the company's corporate social responsibility teams, The Register reported.
- Siemens layoffs will impact more than 6,000 jobs across the company's automation business and electric vehicle (EV) segments, Smart Energy reported.
- Breakthrough Energy, the climate-focused global initiative created by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, has cut dozens of staff, according to The New York Times and a follow-up report from GeekWire.
February 2025 Layoffs
- Zendesk’s February 2025 layoffs included Shengyuan Su, director of sustainability, Trellis reported.
- Southwest Airlines is cutting jobs in its sustainable fuel operations and working to sell off a renewables company called SAFFiRE Renewables, Bloomberg reported. The moves represent "an abrupt pullback after the carrier spent the past year investing in climate-focused initiatives," the report said. The layoffs included seven out of 10 employees on two key teams that work to reduce Southwest's climate pollution and increase its use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), Bloomberg said.
- Cruise, the self-driving robotaxi business owned by General Motors, will cut roughly 50% of staff, TechCrunch reported. The remaining Cruise assets will tuck into GM as the automaker "directs its resources toward improving its hands-free driver assistance system Super Cruise — and eventually rolls out personal autonomous vehicles."
January 2025 Layoffs
- Amazon is laying off some employees in its communications and sustainability units, an executive overseeing the divisions announced internally, CNBC reported. Exact headcount reduction cuts were not disclosed.
- The city of Des Moines, Iowa, has laid off team members who oversee the city's sustainability programs, a CBS news affiliate reported. The city blamed the the layoffs on a fiscal budget shortfall.
- SolarEdge layoffs will impact 400 employees, the solar technology company disclosed in an SEC filing. The SolarEdge job cuts are part of a larger plan to "regain financial stability, better enabling us to achieve our organizational objectives this year and driving our return to profitable growth," CEO Shuki Nir wrote to SolarEdge employees in a memo dated January 6, 2025.
November 2024 Layoffs
- SolarEdge layoffs will impact roughly 500 employees. The company plans to close its energy storage division. Most of the job cuts involve employees in South Korea. SolarEdge also had layoffs in January of 2024, and Zvi Lando stepped down in August of 2024. Ronen Faier is Interim CEO as of November 2024.
- SolarZero has ceased operations, laid off 160 employees, and is facing liquidation, NewsRoom Pro reported. SolarZero, backed by BlackRock, is based in New Zealand.
- Equinix layoffs will impact roughly 400 employees -- which represents about 3% of its global workforce, Light Reading reported. Equinix is a co-location and data center provider that's shifting hard to renewable energy.
- Ola Electric layoffs will impact about 500 employees at the electric two-wheeler manufacturer in India.
- Equinor layoffs will impact 20% of the company's renewable energy employees, Reuters reported. Equinor, based in Norway, is best known for its oil and gas operations.
- Ford layoffs will impact almost 4,000 employees in Europe over the next three years, about 14% of its workforce in the region, as the carmaker faces slowing demand for electric vehicles and rising competition from China, CNN reported.
- Two fuel cell companies have announced job cuts. First up, FuelCell Energy layoffs will impact roughly 75 employees or 13% of staff, MarketWatch reported. This is the company's second round of layoffs in 2024, the report said. Next up, HyAxiom will cut 67 employees in Connecticut, Hartford Business Journal reported. Related: All layoffs involving sustainability and climate tech companies.
- Siemens layoffs may impact roughly 5,000 employees amid an automation business slowdown, CEO Roland Busch said, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, Siemens also plans to spin off its EV charging business, which includes various managed services and cloud services for EV charging networks.
October 2024 Layoffs
September 2024 Layoffs
- Origin Materials layoffs will impact 28% of staff. The company is striving to reduce its cash burn rate. Origin's mission is to "enable the world’s transition to sustainable materials." The company had a $19.5 million net loss in Q2 of 2024, compared to a $6.5 million net loss in Q2 of 2023. Still, Origin reaffirmed a "pathway to profitability requiring no additional equity capital."
- GE Vernova layoffs will impact roughly 900 employees worldwide, Reuters reported. Although GE Verona's overall business is performing well, the company's offshore wind operation has suffered from certain project delays and turbine blade failures, the report noted.
- Blink Charging layoffs will impact 14% of employees, resulting in annualized savings of approximately $9 million, the EV charging company said. The layoffs will "begin immediately and be completed in the first quarter of 2025," Blink Charging said. The job cuts arrive ahead of a planned CEO transition. Blink Charging Chief Operating Officer Mike Battaglia will succeed President and CEO Brendan Jones on February 1, 2025, the EV charging company announced in August 2029.
- Meyer Burger layoffs will impact nearly 20% of its global workforce, and CEO Gunter Erfurt has exited the business, Reuters reported. The Swiss solar panel is battling cheaper imports from China, the report noted.
- IBM laid off a substantial number of employees in mid-September 2024, The Register reported. We don't know if the job cuts involved IBM's sustainability and ESG software teams. The tech company expects to exit 2024 with headcount figures that are roughly equal to 2023, the report said.
- Swedish battery maker Northvolt will lay off some employees amid slowing growth in the EV market. The actual job cut figure is still pending.
- ChargePoint layoffs will impact 15% of company staff at the electric vehicle (EV) charging company, according to an SEC filing. Revenue was $108.5 million in Q2 of fiscal 2025, down 28% from $150.5 million in Q2 of fiscal 2024. This ChargePoint's second round of layoffs in 2024; the earlier job cuts were in January.
- Lyft layoffs will impact 1% of employees, and the company expects charges between $34 million to $46 million tied to the layoffs, The Wall Street Journal reported. Also, Lyft is discontinuing dockless scooters in Washington, D.C., and exploring alternatives in Denver, the report said.
- Germany’s Volkswagen says auto industry headwinds mean it can’t rule out plant closings in its home country - and must drop a longstanding job protection pledge in force since 1994 that would have barred layoffs through 2029, the Associated Press reported. Separately, Volkswagen in 2023 hatched a layoff plan within the company's Cariad software unit. The software setbacks reinforced VW's struggle to develop next-generation software for multiple automobile brands -- including VW's Porsche, Audi, SEAT, Škoda, CUPRA, Lamborghini and Bentley lineups.
August 2024 Layoffs
July 2024 Layoffs
- Moxion Power, a mobile battery startup funded by Amazon and Microsoft, has essentially shut down and laid off all of its employees, according to a media report.
- First Mode, a Seattle-based company that’s concentrating on reducing carbon emissions in mining and other heavy industries, will have layoffs in August 2024, GeekWire reported.
- Microsoft cut two employees from its diversity and inclusion team, GeekWire reported. Some media outlets erroneously said Microsoft laid off that entire time.
- SolarEdge Technologies plans to lay off 400 employees, of which 200 are in Israel, as it works to restore profitability and ensure financial stability, Reuters reported. This is the second round of SolarEdge Layoffs in 2024.
Continue to the next page for additional sustainability & climate tech layoffs.
