2023 Green Career Bus Tours - Day 2
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. 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!
