I left my 13-year career at Google to work in sustainability. It wasn't an easy choice, but my values had changed.

Bruno Bianchini.

Bruno Bianchini Bruno Bianchini quit his job at Google to focus on sustainability in Cambodia and green finance.

While still at Google, he pursued a degree at Harvard in sustainable studies.

He says leaving Google was a hard decision, but his career shift aligns with his values.

This as-told-to essay is based on an interview with Bruno Bianchini, the 40-year-old former Head of Global Partnerships for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey for Google, who is based in the Netherlands.

It has been edited for length and clarity.

Growing up in the Italian countryside, sustainability was simply part of everyday life.

At 18, I left my small village near Milan to study at Bocconi University in Milan.

In 2005, I started my degree in accounting, corporate finance, and law.

Then I did a master's in business administration.

When I was about to graduate, a friend at the university said a group of professors had opened a boutique consulting firm.

I interviewed for the role and landed it.

That path led me first to consulting and then to Google, where I spent more than 13 years before leaving to pursue work in sustainability.

I started work as a business analyst at the consulting firm in January 2011 At 25, I was working on three projects — a hotel, a food company, and a company that made pressure gauges.