TOP 10 Most-Read Thought Leaders in Sustainable AI

Discover also our 2026 Rankings of the Most Read Thought Leaders in AI, Business Impact, Carbon, Circularity, Climate Change, Energy, Energy Transition, Environmental Sustainability, ESG, Green Tech, Nature, Renewables, Social Responsibility, Sustainable Business, Sustainable Finance, Sustainable Lifestyle, and Overall. Explore how this year's leaders compare to the most influential voices of last year!

illuminem is proud to present the most-read Thought Leaders in Sustainable AI globally, as recognised by illuminem's ever growing community of 700,000+ readers.

AI was 2025's defining sustainability paradox. The same technology being hailed as a tool to optimise grids, model climate risk, and accelerate clean energy was itself becoming a country-scale consumer of resources. Global data centres drew an estimated 448 TWh of electricity in 2025 – enough to rank as the world's eleventh-largest electricity consumer if treated as a nation – with a projected water footprint in the trillions of litres. As residential electricity prices climbed and host communities began to push back, the question sharpened: was AI an instrument of the transition, or a threat to it?

The voices on this list refused the easy binary. They argued that the answer depends on choices – where data centres are sited, how they are powered and cooled, who bears the costs, and whether the technology is governed for public benefit or left to the market. From sustainable AI practices to digital justice, from green data centres to nature intelligence, they mapped a field where the stakes are no longer abstract.

Facundo Armas tops the list as Global Head of Sustainable Business at Globant, working at the intersection of ESG, sustainable IT, and AI governance. His most-read piece introduced the idea of "climate agents" – the next frontier of AI deployed deliberately in service of a sustainable world. In a year dominated by anxiety over AI's footprint, his was a constructive vision of what the technology could be made to do.

Joining him on the list, Joe Romm, fmr. Acting Assistant Secretary at the US Department of Energy exposes the deadly connection between AI data centres and PFAS, Vincent Ruinet, Founder of climate tech advisory Vinculum, examines the green data centres powering the AI era, and Vilas Dhar, President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, a philanthropic organisation dedicated to advancing AI solutions, charts the UN's AI turning point.

Drawn from over 2,500 thought leaders publishing on illuminem Voices, the ranking below reflects the voices that shaped how the AI conversation evolved in 2025. Please join us in congratulating the Thought Leaders of the Year in Sustainable AI, and every voice contributing to this vital global debate on illuminem.

1️⃣ Facundo Armas - Global Head of Sustainable Business at Globant
Country: Argentina 🇦🇷
Most-Read Thought Piece: Climate agents: the next frontier of AI for a sustainable world
Profile: Facundo Armas is Global Head of Sustainable Business at Globant, specializing in AI and environmental sustainability. He drives digital transformation at the intersection of ESG, sustainable IT, and AI governance – working with financial services, policymakers, and enterprises on climate tech, carbon management, and responsible AI deployment.

2️⃣ Joe Romm - Fmr. Acting Assistant Secretary at the US Department of Energy
Country: United States 🇺🇸
Most-Read Thought Piece: The deadly connection between AI data centers and PFAS
Profile: Joe Romm is a senior research fellow at the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media, and an influential voice in climate and energy. A former Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, he is the founder of Climate Progress and author of ten books, including Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know. Named by Rolling Stone among the "100 people reinventing America," Romm is also the creator of the hit podcast Decoding Taylor Swift, blending storytelling, media, and climate insight.

3️⃣ Shep Hyken - Customer Service and Customer Experience Expert
Country: United States 🇺🇸
Most-Read Thought Piece: When it comes to experience, we must stay human in an AI world
Profile: Shep Hyken is Customer Service Speaker and CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and bestselling author of eight books. He helps clients enhance customer and employee experiences, working with Fortune 50 companies and smaller businesses alike. He has been a weekly columnist for Forbes.com since 2014.

4️⃣ Riad Meddeb - Director of the Sustainable Energy Hub at UNDP
Country: Algeria 🇩🇿
Most-Read Thought Piece: Why we need a digital energy stack to tackle energy poverty
Profile: Riad Meddeb is Director of the Sustainable Energy Hub at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), where he focuses on helping countries to achieve their energy and climate goals and advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

5️⃣ Vincent Ruinet - Founder of Vinculum
Country: France 🇫🇷
Most-Read Thought Piece: Green datacentres: powering the AI era
Profile: Vincent Ruinet is an expert in tech funding and climate with experience in venture capital, private equity, and infrastructure financing, including roles at ENGIE and Future Positive Capital. As the founder of Vinculum, he helps entrepreneurs raise capital, structure M&As, and scale their businesses. He also shares his expertise as a mentor at Techstars and a guest lecturer at HEC.

6️⃣ Philipp Petry - Partner at Impact Strategies GmbH
Country: Germany 🇩🇪
Most-Read Thought Piece: AI, EUDR, and the rise of nature intelligence
Profile: Philipp is a Partner at Impact Strategies GmbH, working on integrating AI into product solutions, with a focus on the ESG sector. In addition to this role, he also researches as a Doctoral Researcher at the Universität Koblenz on how AI augments decision-making under complexity. He previously held positions as Chief Sustainability Officer across multiple companies.

7️⃣ Niladri Choudhuri - Founder and CEO of Xellentro Consulting Services
Country: India 🇮🇳
Most-Read Thought Piece: Practicing sustainable artificial intelligence
Profile: Niladri Choudhuri is the founder and CEO of Xellentro Consulting Services, specializing in IT consulting, and president of Green Computing Foundation. With over 32 years of experience, he is a thought leader in IT Service Management and an ambassador of the DevOps Institute. Dr. Choudhuri is also the chief organizer of the DevOps India Summit. He has authored several publications on sustainable IT practices.

8️⃣ Aparna Kumar - Fmr. Chief Information Officer of the State Bank of India
Country: India 🇮🇳
Most-Read Thought Piece: Sustainable AI: The competitive imperative that will define the next decade
Profile: Aparna Kumar is the former Chief Information Officer at State Bank of India, where she led digital transformation, cloud strategy, and fintech innovation. With prior leadership roles at HSBC and HDFC Bank, she brings over two decades of experience driving large-scale IT, data, and cybersecurity initiatives across India's top banking institutions.

9️⃣ Monica Sanders - Founder of The Undivide Project
Country: United States 🇺🇸
Most-Read Thought Piece: The digital economy runs on data, so does inequality
Profile: Monica Sanders is the founder of The Undivide Project, an organization addressing climate resilience and digital justice in underserved communities. She is the inaugural Social Innovator in Residence at Grinnell College and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University. Monica has served as Senior Committee Counsel for the House and Senate Committees on Homeland Security and as Senior Legal Advisor at the American Red Cross. She won an Emmy for coverage of the 9/11 tragedy at CNN and earned the Tropaia Outstanding Teaching Award at Georgetown University.

🔟 Vilas Dhar - President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
Country: United States 🇺🇸
Most-Read Thought Piece: The UN's AI turning point
Profile: Vilas Dhar is President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, a global philanthropy that funds and advances initiatives of artificial intelligence and data science for positive social impact. He studied at Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, and advises the UN, the U.S. Government, and academic institutions including Stanford and MIT on AI policy, responsible innovation, and digital governance.

Congratulations to our most-read thought leaders of the last year. In a time when the sustainability conversation was pulled in every direction at once, the voices on this list helped move it forward with clarity and intellect. We are proud to amplify their voices, and look forward to what comes next.

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