Women's Leadership Center at Williams Bay Debuts First 'Bold Ideas' White Paper: Balancing the Benefits of AI & the Health of Our Planet

Inaugural white paper offers six actionable recommendations and showcases women leaders driving environmentally beneficial corporate AI adoption.

WILLIAMS BAY, Wis., June 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Women's Leadership Center at Williams Bay today released its first 'Bold Ideas' white paper, Balancing the Benefits of AI & the Health of Our Planet. The paper explores how artificial intelligence can be leveraged to enhance both operational efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Drawing insights from a range of women experts across the fields of business, technology, sustainability, transportation, supply chain, government, NGOs and academia, the report outlines six practical steps any organization can take through its executive team, board and suppliers to adopt AI sustainably.

The white paper also examines the potential risks and rewards of AI technology with insights from women leaders at organizations including Google, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Keurig Dr Pepper, Duke University, Microsoft, EY Atlanta, and others.

"This collection of perspectives demonstrates the often-underrecognized impact of women who are at the forefront of shaping pathways forward," said MarySue Barrett, Senior Strategy Advisor of the Women's Leadership Center at Williams Bay, project lead, and civic leader with expertise in infrastructure and sustainable development. "The 'Six Recommendations for Action' are practical and readily implementable. These are steps every organization should be taking now."

The white paper is the first in a series of 'Bold Ideas' impact initiatives to be activated by the Women's Leadership Center, a unique convening space under development at 333 W. Constance Boulevard in Williams Bay, WI, set to open in 2026.

"We think of 'Bold Ideas' as audacious approaches to global concerns," said Ann M. Drake, President of the Women's Leadership Center at Williams Bay. "The Center will be a place where big ideas are born and take flight, as we host multidisciplinary gatherings of women leaders with extensive, intersecting expertise," Drake explained. "We believe the ideas and interactions we foster here can create a brighter future, for everyone."

Balancing the Benefits of AI & the Health of Our Planet is now available for viewing and download here.

The report was developed in collaboration with AWESOME (Achieving Women's Excellence in Supply Chain Operations, Management, and Education), a professional community for senior women in supply chain founded by Drake in 2013.

"The supply chain perspective, and the contributions of AWESOME Advisors, are especially relevant to this conversation about sustainable AI," affirmed Michelle Dilley, CEO of AWESOME. "Supply chain intersects every stage of a product's lifecycle, from sourcing, labor conditions, manufacturing, global logistics, to reuse and recycling — and this extends even to the AI components themselves."

"Through these conversations with leaders across supply chain, a range of industries, and sustainability, it is clear that while AI creates environmental impacts requiring our attention and collaboration, it also has enormous potential to accelerate the net zero solutions our planet desperately needs," said Barrett.

As the white paper concludes: "It is up to humans to deploy AI responsibly and ethically, to establish guardrails, to insist on transparency, and to direct AI to solve problems and improve our world for all."

About the Women's Leadership Center at Williams Bay
Located on the stunning shores of Geneva Lake in southeastern Wisconsin, the Women's Leadership Center at Williams Bay will convene leaders in a unique meeting place designed to spark creativity, collaboration, and bold solutions to complex global challenges. Founded by philanthropist and former supply chain CEO Ann M. Drake, the Center is dedicated to exponentially elevating women's leadership by supporting new talent, improving systems, and encouraging bold ideas. To create a future in which women are at the forefront of advancing and improving the world we live in, the Center will host initiatives and events focused on five key areas: public and private enterprise, global supply chain, engineering and technology, infrastructure and design, and space and astrophysics. Leading the design is Studio Gang, the architecture and urban design practice founded and led by MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang, known for an approach that draws insight from ecological systems. When it opens in 2026, the Center will be a place where conversations happen that could change the world. For more information: womensleadershipcenter.org.

About AWESOME
AWESOME is a professional women's group with a mission of advancing and transforming the future of supply chain leadership. Since its inception in 2013, the organization has been bringing together senior women leaders in supply chain for connecting, learning, collaboration, recognition, and inspiration. The AWESOME community is now more than 1,500 women in diverse senior supply chain leadership roles across a broad spectrum of organizations. The impact of the organization extends to leaders in all areas of supply chain, the business community, and beyond. For more information, visit awesomeleaders.org.

Media Contact:

Jennifer Nix
EVP, Marketing, Communications and Strategy
Women's Leadership Center at Williams Bay
[email protected]

SOURCE Women's Leadership Center at Williams Bay NFP