Sustainable Life Videos: Earth, Air, and Water
Sustainable Silicon Valley’s mission includes educating the public and fostering discussions among industry, academic, and government leaders, by hosting a series of webinars, talks, and conferences about Bay Area environmental topics. Video recordings of these events can be found on SSV’s YouTube Channel. Here is a sample of recent videos.
WET Talk #4: The Wonderful Water World of Newsha Ajami
Newsha Ajami, Director of Urban Water Policy and Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University, discusses a broad range of water industry issues. Watch this video to learn more about gaps in customer access to safe water and sanitation, affordability, aging infrastructure, climate change, regulatory silos and fragmentation, workforce development, innovations, and a blueprint for modernizing the water system. (After some water music and introduction the presentation begins at 7:15 runs through 51:45 with Q&A after that.)
EARTH Talk: Healthy Soil, Healthy Planet
Soil, carbon, agriculture, and climate change are all interconnected. Mary Chambers, from the Sierra Club, explains how in the premiere SSV Earth Talk video. She also advises on how to build your own soil with native plants, perennials, compost and mulch, ditching the synthetic chemicals and reducing tilling. Healthy soil retains more water. Watch this video and learn more about regenerative agriculture, biodiversity, and protecting pollinator bees.
WaterPalooza! 2020 | The Anderson Dam Explainer
Built in the 1950s, the Anderson Dam is one of the largest reservoirs in the Valley Water System. It provides both water and recreation to local residents. The Dam is currently undergoing a seismic retrofit project to make it safer in the event of an earthquake and reduce potential for flooding residential areas downstream. Watch this video to learn more about the project from Chris Hakes, Deputy Operating Officer of Dam Safety and Capital at Valley Water.
WaterPalooza! 2020 | The Silver Tsunami Water(Round)Table
Did you know that as much as 40% of the water industry workforce and management could retire within the next 5 years? The water industry is in urgent need of rapidly developing existing talent and building a pipeline of entry level workers. Water industry workers provide essential service of clean, safe water to their communities. The industry offers good paying jobs and benefits while enabling employees to balance their professional and personal lives. Watch this video and learn more from Steven Currie, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Karoline Terrazas, Union Sanitary District, and Arvind Akela, Silicon Valley Clean Water.
WaterPalooza! 2020 | Deep Technology Dives with Gary Kremen
Gary Kremen is an American engineer, entrepreneur and public servant who many say invented online dating as founder of Match.com. More recently he serves as Director of Valley Water District 7. For WaterPalooza! Gary interviews four water industry entrepreneurs: Aaron Tartakovsy from Epic CleanTec, Derrick Du from IoTank, Galen O’Toole from Intrinsyx Environmental, and Michael Flynn from WH2O Systems. Hear about their innovative solutions for reusing wastewater, deploying sensors to tackle grease, using plants and microbes to clean up contaminated sites, and recycling wastewater into potable drinking water.
Air Quality Talk 2020 | Striking While the Air is Bad
Sustainable Silicon Valley’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Anthony Strawa, explains the various ways that air quality is measured. He discusses more specifically how the Purple Air sensors monitor air quality, as well as considerations for implementation and data interpretation. Mark Dinan, East Palo Alto resident outlines the issues contributing to poor air quality conditions in East Palo Alto and describes his quest to get better monitoring systems installed in the East Palo Alto area, including at the local schools.
Water Music Video
Sunflower Photo by little plant on Unsplash
