Our Climate Journey with Serena Wang
“Whether you’re talking about one part of a business, or the bigger planet, [sustainability] means not relying on individual Band-Aid fixes, but coming up with longer-term, holistic solutions to our problems, solutions that can be repeated over and over again.”
Serena Wang
Senior Director, Operations
Serena, Zūm’s longest-tenured employee, is a meticulous operator and an integral part of building and expanding Zum from the ground up. She currently leads Zum’s growth and strategy function, overseeing the company’s school operations, driver growth, and customer support. In her role, Serena brings nearly two decades of project and relationship management experience from her time at leading technology companies.
At Zum, we’re revolutionizing student transportation in order to build a green, sustainable future. What does sustainability mean to you?
I’m going to answer this question by talking about sustainability in my work. To me, sustainability is creating a process that can be repeated over time. We should solve causes, not effects.
For instance, I lead our customer support team. This team fields feedback and suggestions from students, parents, drivers, and school administrators on a daily basis via in-app chat, emails, or calls. Of course, we tackle each parent’s response individually, but we also must take a step back and use all the feedback we receive to solve any underlying systemic issues. That’s what it means to devise long-term, sustainable solutions that work for us and for our customers alike.
This is what sustainability means to me—whether you’re talking about one part of a business, or the bigger planet, it means not relying on individual Band-Aid fixes, but coming up with longer-term, holistic solutions to our problems, solutions that can be repeated over and over again.
Climate change is the single greatest threat to our way of life, but it can sometimes feel abstract, far away, a problem for another time. How has climate change affected you personally?
I grew up in Taiwan, and moved to the U.S. about ten years ago. I remember, as a kid, that the winters were much longer, and much more intense. Now, when I go back, I wear shorts and shirts when it should be winter. It’s a small thing, but you notice it.
I also notice the difference here in California. I’ve only been here a handful of years, but every summer, we’ve had serious power outages—like, four or five of them. Yes, some of that is the utility company, and there are things they can do to improve, but there are also underlying trends that cause these kinds of outages. Hotter weather, more strain on the power grid.
Winter or summer, those of us who are adults can tell the difference in the weather between when we were kids and now.
What can Zum do to be a leader in sustainability, to spearhead the charge in the fight against climate change?
Here again, I think leadership in sustainability is not only about the climate and the environment, but the people who live in that climate and environment.
One thing Zum is doing an incredible job at is driving equity for students and for families. So many of the students we serve come from different backgrounds: many of them are special needs, or come from foster homes, or have situations at home where they’re not always in the same home, or the same neighborhood. That can be disruptive for those kids, and school transportation can be really hard on these parents, on these families. The great thing about Zum is that, because of our student-centric technology platform, we’re able to provide steady, safe, and efficient transportation to each of these kids regardless of their situation, or where they live. The tools we’re building are equally accessible to those who come from more difficult backgrounds as those who have privilege, and as a result, even in a small way, we’re leveling the playing field.
Over time, this builds equity for marginalized kids. Over time, this creates parity between those who have resources and those who don’t. And over time, this creates a better, more sustainable life for all students, all parents, and all families. Zum should continue building and improving our proprietary routing technology, because it’s creating sustainability for the students and families we serve.