Interviewed by Ellie S. (11th Grade)
Jocelyn bridges the gap between complex technology and actionable business strategy as part of the Google Cloud GTM team. She helps North American startups and enterprises navigate the future of data, with a recent focus on expanding the Gemini Enterprise ecosystem. Her holistic approach—rooted in an Applied Mathematics education and hands-on data science experience at IBM and Accenture—ensures clients don’t just move to the cloud, but leverage it to accelerate innovation and prepare for the Generative AI era. Beyond her corporate impact, Jocelyn is shaping the future of business intelligence as an Adjunct Professor at Santa Clara University.
Jocelyn is equally dedicated to the future of our planet; she continuously explores the complex relationship between capital economies and environmental challenges, striving to uncover sustainable practices that balance economic growth with ecological preservation.
Could you share a pivotal moment or experience that ignited your passion for Climate Advocacy and sustainability?
Jocelyn: For me, the spark didn’t come from a textbook; it came from a conversation with my mother about how much the world had changed in just one generation. I remember asking her how she possibly survived the sweltering summers of her childhood without air conditioning in Southern China. Her answer stopped me in my tracks: ‘Because back then, summer wasn’t this hot.’ Realizing that the ‘normal’ I was growing up with was actually a symptom of a warming planet was my first wake-up call. She also used to point out a local waterway that, in my eyes, looked like nothing more than a murky drain. She told me that when she was young, that was the river where the whole town gathered to wash their clothes and socialize.
Seeing that transformation—from a life-giving resource to a polluted industrial runoff—made the cost of ‘progress’ feel incredibly personal. These stories taught me that environmental degradation isn’t a distant threat—it’s a thief that has already taken away the cool summers and clean waters of my mother’s generation. I advocate for sustainability because I want to ensure we don’t have to tell the next generation even sadder stories about what we’ve lost.
If you could implement one major policy or initiative or research to advance sustainability globally, what would it be and why?
Jocelyn: If I could launch one global initiative, it would be a Generative AI platform dedicated to the ‘Personal Circular Economy.’ Currently, our sustainability efforts are too focused on the point of purchase—buying ‘green’—while we ignore the ‘graveyard’ of half-used products already in our homes. We’ve all been there: the healthy food we forgot to eat or the shampoo that didn’t suit us, both destined for the trash.
My initiative is a smart app that syncs with your digital shopping history to track the entire life cycle of your belongings. By leveraging RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) and advanced AI reasoning, the app doesn’t just give generic advice; it provides hyper-personalized exit strategies. It might suggest using that neglected body wash as a delicate detergent for wool, or generate a custom recipe for the specific wilting vegetables in your fridge. The goal is to shift the global needle from a ‘Take-Make-Waste’ model to a ‘Never-Waste’ mindset, turning sustainability from a chore into a seamless, automated part of daily life.
AI is a hot topic right now, in your point of view what are some of the AI initiatives or potential applications you are using in your field and around greener future
Jocelyn: While everyone is talking about the software side of AI, the physical impact of running these models is just as critical. In my day-to-day work, I partner very closely with Google Cloud customers on data and AI initiatives. Because of that, compute—and the massive energy it requires—is a topic we are constantly discussing. For me, a greener future for AI isn’t just about what the algorithms can do; it’s about how we power and cool the infrastructure behind them.
One of the most fascinating initiatives in this space is seawater cooling, which Google actually started pioneering over a decade ago. The concept is brilliantly simple: seawater is naturally cold, especially at depth. Instead of relying on massive, energy-hungry mechanical refrigeration, we can just pump that deep seawater through a heat exchanger to cool the data centers.
Now, there is a trade-off. The initial ‘plumbing’ for a seawater system is incredibly expensive. Because saltwater is so corrosive, you have to build the infrastructure using high-end materials like titanium. But once it’s built, the benefits are undeniable. First, the operational costs drop significantly because you aren’t fighting physics to create cold air; you are just moving naturally cold water. And second, because you are eliminating those massive, compressor-based chillers, you have far fewer moving parts. That means the mechanical failure rate of the cooling system drops drastically.
Jocelyn: So, from my point of view, the most impactful AI initiatives are the ones that rethink our physical infrastructure—using the natural environment, like the ocean, to run our compute power efficiently and sustainably.
Closing thoughts
Call to Action of Ecolyst readers: Turn “what’s next” into a sustainable “what’s possible.”
