2023 Green Careers Bus Tours
2023 Green CAreers Bus Tours (day 1)
On August 9th and 10th, Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action hosted their 2nd Annual Green Career Bus Tours, a series of visits to various companies in the Bay Area – specifically for the purpose of exploring careers in sustainability both currently and in the future.
I’m Jayden Wan, a junior at Burlingame High School and the outreach manager for SVYCA’s San Mateo County youth branch. Join me as I recap the adventures we embarked on throughout these tours, as well as what we’ve taken away from the experience as an organization.
On Day 1 (8/9), we first visited IDEO, a global design and consulting firm situated in downtown San Francisco. Traveling through the headquarters, I – along with many others – began to realize a fundamental foundation of IDEO’s success as innovators: an atmosphere of creativity defined by both the building itself as well as the elements within it. Albeit clearly upheld by gray, industrial concrete walls, and structural reinforcements protruding in plain sight, the building emitted ideas of creativity through colorful posters, vibrant paints, ornaments, exhibits, and art – if given no context, one might think that they’re in a museum or gallery. Walking past aisles of toys, products, artwork, and facilities, it grew apparent that this was a place of unhindered imagination.
Of course, this was just the beginning. IDEO’s design principles of novelty and abstraction manifested not only in its headquarter’s design, but also its solutionary ideation in both public and private sectors. More so than products, IDEO designs solutions – from social, political, economic, commercial, environmental, technological, or individual needs, IDEO’s work expands beyond most corporations’ fields of specialty.
From tackling the manufacturing of Ford’s all-electric F150 Lightning to the design of Los Angeles County’s latest system of equitable voting, H&M’s ambitious sustainability goals, or Closed Loop Partners (CVS Health, Target, Walmart, and more)’s plastic bag reduction initiative, IDEO has served as a valuable collaborator on some of the world’s most intricate challenges.
As described throughout the tour, IDEO’s approach toward design has developed not only to consider people, but also the environment. In both clients and solutions, IDEO considers a framework of sustainability metrics to ensure that their net impact on the natural world is positive. From the industrial to digital to now “climate” era, IDEO’s apprehension of the present serves as a basis for their current work and ideals.
When questioned about the growing future of sustainability and its capacity to improve the world in a reasonable timeframe, IDEO representatives responded that efforts toward the environment certainly have the ability to make meaningful change; it’s a matter of two categories. Firstoff, climate development that entails new solutions and ideas – such as carbon capture technology, renewable energy, biophilic design, etc. Secondly, existing systems and paradigms that need to change in order to adapt to a climate-conscious world – global corporations and their relationship to waste and emissions, social agreement and awareness of climate change, and government investment in climate policy. Between the two, IDEO noted that the latter would be the more difficult situation, though it would continue devoting its resources to doing its part for the Earth.
Later through the day, we arrived at Crissy Field, where we toured the newly-constructed Presidio Tunnel Tops. The park and recreation space, which opened to the public on July 17th, features modernized public facilities for people of all ages, demographics, and abilities. From within the park, one can view the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, Angel Island, the San Francisco Bay, and many more iconic landmarks from the same location. A dynamic hub of youth engagement for the Golden Gate National Parks, the Center is a model program of the National Park Service, the Presidio Trust, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Crissy Field Center programs encourage new generations to become bold leaders for thriving parks, healthy communities, and a more environmentally just society.
After stopping by the Presidio Visitor Center to meet the park’s staff, we traveled to the Tunnel Top Field Station, a hub of exploration and nature for families and youth, as well as anyone else interested! The Field Station includes a variety of interactive exhibits, puzzles, informational displays, artifacts, and much more – for the purpose of providing an environmental and historical account of the parkspace. Naturally, we had to join in on the fun and challenge ourselves with a scavenger hunt (curated by park staff)!
We then toured around the Outpost, one of many of the Tunnel Tops’ outdoor facilities – specifically, the Outpost is designed for youth to engage with one another atop unique structures and playgrounds. Simultaneously, various centers throughout the play structure help facilitate education in both English and science, with park staff maintaining learning stations for the respective topics nearby.
Although SVYCA specializes in climate policy and advocacy, it’s often important to consider other forms of environmental stewardship, such as the development of the Presidio Tunnel Top, its staff, community, and ecological benefits.
Day 1 of our Green Career Bus Tours certainly provided valuable insights into the workings of local organizations and companies, as well as the role we can play within them should we decide to. Thank you to all our planners, supporters, and sponsors for making this event possible!
2023 Green CAreers Bus Tours (day 2)
I’m Jayden Wan, a junior at Burlingame High School and the outreach manager for SVYCA’s San Mateo County youth branch. See our previous blog post recapping Day 1 of the tours if you haven’t already, and get ready for an exciting recollection of Day 2!
During Day 2 (8/10), we first traveled to Mainspring, an advanced engineering company founded in 2010 by three Stanford engineers seeking a new approach to generating clean, resilient, affordable electricity – the group introduced paradigm-shifting technology into the world of electrical engineering, sparking bold initiatives of sustainability in the sector. Mainspring’s linear generator is best known for being able to generate electricity via the flameless compression and release of fuels. Specifically, it’s the world's first generator to directly run both 100% hydrogen and 100% ammonia fuels, in addition to biogas and many other fuels.
Throughout our visit to Mainspring, we had the opportunity to meet some of the staff behind Mainspring’s success, each of them sharing different experiences in career development, as well as their current and prospective roles in the company. Additionally, we toured the laboratories in which Mainspring components and generators were made, even getting the chance to attempt electricity-making with our hands and kinetic energy!
Subsequent to Mainspring, we visited the Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center in Santa Clara, where we enjoyed a delectable lunch by courtesy of our hosts. After an invigorating presentation discussing current challenges and opportunities to the water system – as well as how water purification occurs, Valley Water staff led us on a walking tour of the facilities, showing us their elaborate sequence of water purification and dispersion. First, imported water from wastewater collection sites experiences microfiltration via tentacle-like processors, where it then travels through a reverse-osmosis station, where water is pushed through a filter under pressure through a semipermeable membrane. Afterward, the remaining water goes through decarbonization, oxidation, and UV light disinfection to ensure its purity. From there, water is able to be transported for uses such as plant-watering, cleaning, as well as drinking. Some SVYCA members even taste-tested water from a nearby purification facility!
Wrapping up the Green Career Bus Tours, we visited the newly-erected Sunnyvale City Hall, whose overall site is almost complete! Led by Larry Klein, the current mayor of Sunnyvale, we walked through the four stories of the main edifice, a LEED Platinum-ranking and net-zero emissions building. Mayor Klein’s significant contributions to climate policy in the City of Sunnyvale proceed to reflect throughout the updated building, which utilized biophilic design, automatic daylighting, extensive photovoltaic arrays, bioretention facilities, as well as an overall sleek design. Klein and his staff guided us through the construction of the site, its day-to-day uses, as well as what the City of Sunnyvale has been doing to implement sustainable measures in infrastructure and the lives of its citizens.
Throughout the process, a spokesperson from the Bay Area’s KPIX 5 interviewed SYVCA members on the significance of the tours and documented much of the content discussed.
There you have it! Our Green Career Bus Tours were a truly insightful and empowering event! Thank you to all our planners, supporters, and sponsors for making this event possible! Stay tuned for next year’s sessions!