Aster Peng Product sustainability · Engineering · Execution

Currently Exploring carbon, nature tech, renewables, and circular economy Previously Technical program manager, Google and Nest, 2014 to October 2026 Based in San Francisco Bay Area

I turn environmental intent into what actually gets built.

Twelve years at Google and Nest designing sustainability into products: the materials, the packaging, the testing, and the engineering decisions that actually set a product's footprint. More than thirty programs, never a gated launch. I'm now looking for where that work does the most good, in climate tech and the organizations building it.

See the record Write to me

01What I bring

Five things that transfer out of twelve years in hardware.

The domain was consumer electronics. The work was designing environmental requirements into the product itself, then getting them through a large engineering organization and out the other side as something shipped.

  1. Making change stick in a large organization

    Getting something adopted by a company that never asked for it is its own skill. Google's hardware packaging had no shared environmental standard, so I commissioned the research, wrote the specification, and brought every product line onto it without a mandate. It ended up feeding a public company commitment and the design guides Google later published for the industry.

    In the recordPlastic-free packagingEPEAT Gold

  2. Clarity in problems that are ambiguous and technically hard

    The work I get pulled into usually has no agreed method and no obvious owner. Skin sensitivity in earbuds was a known industry issue that nobody could reliably detect or diagnose during development. I built the clinician-designed assessment, the chemical migration testing, and the factory audits that turned it into something a design team could act on.

    In the recordEarbud skin sensitivityPixel 2 headset decision

  3. Relationships across engineering, design, and suppliers

    A requirement changes nothing until the engineers designing the product agree to it. Most of my work ran inside the engineering organization, bringing product design, materials, packaging, and reliability teams to decisions they owned and had to live with. I took the same approach to the supply base and built Google hardware's environmental supplier function myself: I led the compliance conferences in Shanghai and Shenzhen, co-created the scorecard that goes into quarterly business reviews with contract manufacturers, and launched the website the supply base now uses as its single source for specifications and training.

    In the recordSupplier chemistry programPixel 2 headset decision

  4. Prototype to launch

    I know what stands between a working idea and a manufactured product. As environmental compliance lead I sat with the engineering teams on more than thirty programs, from early design reviews through materials qualification, certification, and ramp. Before that, as sourcing owner across thirteen Nest and Google hardware programs, I spent eight days on a factory floor in China bringing up a production line a launch depended on.

    In the recordEPEAT GoldNest sourcing

  5. Sustainability depth, not sustainability vocabulary

    Restricted substances, biocompatibility, recyclability, packaging, EPEAT and ECOLOGO certification, chemical hazard assessment. I wrote the specifications Google's hardware programs still run on and led the creation of its first biocompatibility specification. I know which environmental claims survive scrutiny and which ones quietly do not.

    In the recordEarbud biocompatibilityPlastic-free packaging

02Work

Six pieces of work with outcomes I can stand behind.

Written for people outside Google. Open a row for the situation, what I did, and what made it hard.

  1. 01 Earbuds people can wear all day Google 2022 to 2024 Closed a significant gap in detecting and diagnosing the problem, and drove material changes that carried forward

    Situation

    Skin sensitivity to materials worn against the body is a known issue across the earbud industry. Inside product development there was no dependable way to detect it, size it, or trace it to a cause, so design decisions rested on assumption.

    What I did

    Started a cross-functional group and ran it for two years. Built an assessment with an outside dermatologist, introduced a migration test for the chemicals most likely to be responsible, audited the materials used on the factory line, and worked with materials engineers to substitute the worst offenders out of the design.

    Complexity

    Product design, UX research, field safety, a biocompatibility lab, and an outside dermatologist, with design decisions already in motion. Findings had to survive VP-level review to earn the resources to continue.

    Result

    A detection and diagnosis capability the development process had been missing, plus specific material and manufacturing changes that carried into later designs. The initiative closed out after two years having done what it set out to do.

  2. 02 The research behind plastic-free packaging Google 2018 onward Fed Google's public commitment to plastic-free hardware packaging, met ahead of schedule

    Situation

    Google's hardware packaging had no shared environmental standard and no reliable data on what actually got recycled once a customer opened the box. Each product line decided for itself, often on intuition.

    What I did

    Commissioned and led recyclability and repulpability studies with Western Michigan University and Resource Recycling Systems, then turned the findings into Google's sustainable packaging specification and the plastics guidance behind it. Presented the research to the design and hardware organizations and worked the conclusions into the packaging team's goals.

    Complexity

    Every consumer hardware line, plus packaging, industrial design, marketing, sustainability, and a global supplier base. Some findings contradicted popular assumptions, including the belief that compostable materials were an improvement.

    Result

    Plastic hang tabs and laminates removed from retail packaging. The research and specification fed Google's 2020 commitment to plastic-free, recyclable hardware packaging by 2025. Google met the plastic-free goal ahead of schedule, and the work fed its published Plastic-Free Packaging Design Guide and Consumer Hardware Carbon Reduction Guide. Read Google's account of reaching the goal

  3. 03 From Silver to Gold under the buyers' standard Google 2017 to 2019 EPEAT Gold for Pixel 3 and 3 XL, up from Silver on Pixel 2; Silver for Pixel Slate

    Situation

    EPEAT is the environmental rating institutional buyers use when they purchase electronics, and many public-sector buyers require it. Google's phones had registered at Silver, not the top tier.

    What I did

    Ran the certification program as the link between Google, Underwriters Laboratories, and the Green Electronics Council. Built the trackers, wrote the conformance evidence, and held cross-functional teams to deliverables they had not asked for. Wrote the environmental marking and labeling specification that every hardware program has used since.

    Complexity

    Criteria spanning supply chain, corporate reporting, packaging, product design, and end-of-life, across teams that did not report to me, against a standard that was revised mid-program.

    Result

    Silver for Pixel 2, then Gold for Pixel 3 and 3 XL. Silver for Pixel Slate. One labeling specification used on every hardware program since 2019. Later supported UL ECOLOGO Gold certification for the 2025 Pixel phone launch.

  4. 04 Turning a chemical rulebook into supplier practice Google 2018 to 2026 98% of the Asia-Pacific supply base trained; no launch gated in twelve years

    Situation

    Restricted-substance rules only work if the factories making the parts understand them. A problem found at a launch gate is expensive. A problem found in the field is worse.

    What I did

    Built and ran the first in-person supplier training on Google's restricted substances specification, then built the supplier engagement function itself: conferences in Shanghai and Shenzhen, a supplier environmental scorecard used in quarterly business reviews with contract manufacturers, a supplier compliance website that became the supply base's single source for specifications and training, and the onboarding of strategic material suppliers to a chemical hazard-assessment platform. Brought materials screening in house, replacing a wait of more than ten business days for results from an outside lab.

    Complexity

    An entire hardware supply base across several countries, several products running at once, and every finding to settle between our engineers and the supplier's.

    Result

    98% of the Asia-Pacific supply base trained at the first conference, and the entire hardware supply base reached by the later ones. Findings resolved with suppliers before they reached a gate. No build or launch gated in twelve years.

  5. 05 Should headphones ship in the Pixel 2 box? Google Hardware Pixel 2 launch, 2017 Shipped; component cost cut 40% in under three weeks

    Situation

    The wired USB-C headset meant to ship inside the Pixel 2 box was far over its cost target, and whether to include it at all was still unresolved weeks before the decision was due.

    What I did

    Rebuilt the cost from the parts up in under three weeks: alternative designs from other suppliers, pressure through the direct supplier onto its sub-tier component suppliers, a component substitution, and a cut to the engineering charges. Took the cost bridge and the design trade-offs to product leadership so the call could be made on evidence.

    Complexity

    Industrial design, product design, electrical engineering, and product management, plus external suppliers and a launch date that would not move.

    Result

    Cost down 40%, multi-million-dollar savings across the production run. The cost bridge let product management decide the in-box strategy on evidence, and the headset shipped in the box.

  6. 06 Sourcing the parts inside thirteen products Nest, then Google 2014 to 2017 Every key part dual-sourced; microphone costs down 11 to 31%

    Situation

    Nest, and then Google's hardware group, needed speakers, microphones, batteries, displays, and circuits sourced for products on twelve-month cycles. Key parts had a single supplier and prices set without leverage.

    What I did

    Ran the supplier selections end to end: requests for proposal, factory audits, contract negotiation, and a second source for every key part. Led the microphone strategy that took six vendors down to three long-term partners, built the should-cost models that made those negotiations possible, and initiated Google's first Supplier Business Reviews with strategic speaker suppliers, a scorecard the electro-mechanical team then adopted.

    Complexity

    Thirteen programs across two organizations after Nest and Google merged their hardware teams. Electrical, product design, and manufacturing engineering, reliability, and finance, in overlapping cycles.

    Result

    Microphone costs down 11 to 31%, at prices matching manufacturers ten times Google's volume. Dual sources on every key audio and battery commodity. Eight days on a factory floor in China bringing up the Nest Thermostat's sensor-flex line so it launched on time.

Chronology

  1. Sep 2017 – Oct 2026Google Technical Program Manager, Environmental Compliance, Product Integrity Engineering. Compliance lead for more than thirty hardware programs across Pixel, Nest, Fitbit, and AR prototypes.
  2. Jun 2014 – Aug 2017Nest, then Google Hardware Global Sourcing Manager, Electro-Mechanical and Audio. Speakers, microphones, haptics, batteries, displays, and passive components across thirteen programs. Fluent Mandarin, used daily with suppliers in Asia.
  3. Apr 2008 – Apr 2012Strategic Business Insights Technology Consultant at the former business intelligence division of SRI International (founded as Stanford Research Institute). Emerging-technology strategy for Nissan, Intel, Hitachi, NEC, and Mitsubishi.
  4. Sep – Dec 2007Foundation for Sustainable Development Sustainability Research Analyst, placement with the Society for the Promotion of Wastelands Development, Udaipur, India. Market-access report that became the baseline for social auditing under India's rural employment guarantee.
  5. 2014Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business MBA, Operations Management and Decision Sciences.
  6. 2007University of California, San Diego BA Psychology, minor in Asian Art History, magna cum laude.

ToolkitEnvironmental compliance (RoHS, REACH, EPEAT, UL 110 / ECOLOGO, ISO 10993, EU ecodesign) · Restricted substances and biocompatibility · Sustainable packaging · Supplier management · Strategic sourcing · NPI program management · Mandarin, fluent

03Now

The current chapter

Written
October 2026
Status
Exploring

In October 2026 I closed a twelve-year chapter at Google.

I joined Nest in 2014 sourcing the components inside its products, then moved onto the engineering side, into Product Integrity Engineering, where I spent the rest of my time designing environmental requirements into Google's hardware and making it safer to wear and use: materials, packaging, biocompatibility, certifications. The unglamorous work that decides a product's footprint.

What I want next is impact I can see. The work I found most satisfying was measurable: a material removed, a supplier's practice changed, a standard that stuck. I'd like more of that, closer to the environmental and ecological problems themselves.

I'm early in that search and treating it as study. I'm reading Drawdown, talking with people in climate, energy, and conservation, and staying open to organizations and roles I haven't imagined yet. I'm not an expert in those fields. I'm an experienced operator learning them on purpose.

04Contact

Working on something consequential? Write to me.

If you're solving a hard environmental problem, building a mission-driven organization, or thinking about how technology can support ecological progress, I'd like to hear about it. No open role required.