This past week, Clearwater Innovation members Kyle Tianshi and Leanne Fan were youth keynote speakers at SEMICON West, a renowned semiconductor technology convention in San Francisco. Speaking as the keynote during the Industry Awareness and Impact session was a significant opportunity for our organization, which hopes to increase environmental awareness among corporations.
“According to the IPCC, around 71% of all carbon emissions are produced by just 100 companies,” said Kyle during the presentation.
Other industry experts also agreed that corporations held significant weight on the potential success of efforts to reverse the current trends of climate change. Mike Byer, a representative for Nikon, an optics company, said that the biggest challenge to environmental activism in the future will be corporations that seek profit over environmental protection. Others recognized that profit-driven corporations were unlikely to sacrifice revenue for the sake of protecting the planet. In our speech, we emphasized environmental policies and regulations like California Senate Bill 253 as a potential solution to the problem of corporations, but also acknowledged that more cooperation between corporations would ease the process of protecting the environment.
Clearwater Innovation also encourages environmental garage lab research, which Kyle described as “students [using] their creativity towards solving… environmental issues.” Kyle and Leanne both described their garage lab experiences while further explaining the efforts of several other garage lab scientists, three of whom were winners of the $10,000 US Stockholm Junior Water Prize.
Finally, we described different efforts Clearwater Innovation as participated in for the purpose of raising awareness about the global water crisis. Not only have we partnered with ASML and the Barrio Logan Science and Art Expo to encourage companies and youth alike to learn more about the water crisis, but we also partnered with local organizations to conduct art contests to encourage young students to illustrate the consequences of the water crisis.
Our participation in SEMICON West was a unique platform for our organization to branch out and further these aims at a large scale. The convention, noted for its focus on the latest developments and innovations, brought together a significant number of industry leaders. Even major players in the industry such as ASML that did not have exhibits at the convention still sent representatives to network with other industry leaders and view the latest innovations in the sector. Additionally, companies like UPS that traditionally did not have connections with the semiconductor industry attended and presented at the conference.
Further, the convention had a breakfast networking event dedicated to environmentalists attending the conference. Our team pitched our vision and mission statement, received positive criticism and encouragement from environmental leaders, and met like-minded youth environmental activists, including last year’s youth keynote speaker, Anandika Carthikeyan of non-profit Keep the Bay Beautiful.
In the future, we hope that our efforts to cooperate with corporations can continue for the better of the environment. “We’ll definitely be continuing our efforts to increase public awareness of environmental issues and advocate for sustainable policies,” Kyle said. “This partnership with SEMICON is hopefully just the beginning as we work on increasing our impact.”
Watch the full keynote speech below:
