Our Climate Journey with Luis Leiva
“To me, sustainability is leaving things a little bit better–not just for the next generation, but for the people around you, right now, too.”
Luis Leiva
Operations Supervisor
Luis Leiva is the Operations Supervisor in Alameda. He joined Zum in 2022 as a driver, after a short time away he returned in his new role in 2023 just in time for Alameda Yardstart up. Before changing career paths, he was in transportation security management. Luis is a San Francisco native and he loves to cook, try new foods and enjoys watching Bay Area sports.
At Zum, we’re revolutionizing student transportation in order to build a green, sustainable future. What does sustainability mean to you?
To me, sustainability is leaving things a little bit better—not just for the next generation, but for the people around you, right now, too.
I first joined Zum as a bus driver—I got my Class B license when I joined the company. It was a while before I then joined management—now, I manage operations for our Alameda yard.
As part of my time at the company, I’ve learned so much about the effects of these buses—they’re costly for school districts, the fuel of course is expensive, and traditional buses can be very pollutive. In particular, when Oakland transitioned to its electric fleet, I learned how much better EV buses are than traditional ones.
I also learned about the small things, too—for instance idling. Idling is when we run the bus on the street while we wait for a kid to get off and go into school, or when we wait for a kid to leave their house and get onto the bus. As drivers, we’re only allowed to idle for a short period of time, which is good. Idling, I’ve learned, burns so much gas and pollutes so much—it’s bad for costs and it’s bad for the environment. So I’m really grateful that I’ve learned best practices for keeping costs and our environmental impact down.
On the side, I drive large party buses as a second, supplementary job. And with those buses, I used to idle for long periods of time in order to wait for clients. Now, after working at Zum and learning how harmful idling can be, I try to cut that time down as much as possible—I get to my destination as close to the time as possible, I make my routes more efficient, and I minimize the time the bus is simply sitting there, running.
It’s a small thing, but cutting down on idling is a way to make things better for the people around the bus who have to breathe the air. On the small scale, that’s what sustainability is about.
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 love Tahoe. It’s a special place for me and represents a major part of my childhood.
I’m used to going to South Tahoe at least once a year, in the summer. The roads are very calming, they’re familiar, and it’s so peaceful to be there in nature, away from the bustle of the city.
When the wildfires hit South Tahoe a few years ago, it was devastating. Of course the town itself suffered, but it was more than that—everything around it did, too. Specifically, I remember the roads on the way to Tahoe. There are parts of the highway where you can normally stop off, park the car, and take in the scenery. When I returned for the first time after the fire, everything was burned, gone—trees, houses, all of it. I remember a single chimney sticking out of the ground, where a house used to be.
I miss the peace I used to feel when being out in nature. I look forward to that, and now the thing I used to experience is gone. It’s heartbreaking. How do you replace that?
What can Zum do to be a leader in sustainability, to spearhead the charge in the fight against climate change?
I love that we’re transitioning our bus fleets to EVs, and of course, that means change at the ground level, too.
I manage operations in our Alameda yard, but as we were transitioning to the EV fleet in Oakland, I got tapped to help with part of that project. Part of the transition involved making sure drivers were trained to use the new electric buses. Our traditional buses used hydraulic creaks, but our new ones—the EVs—use air brakes. Earlier this year, I jumped in to make sure that drivers were certified to use air brakes. We managed to get everyone we needed to train before the start of school, so that our drivers could safely get our kids to and from school on our new EVs.
Zum is the leader in sustainable transportation, which means change and persistence at every level of the company. It was hard, and outside of normal day-to-day operations in Alameda, but I’m proud to have played even a small part in our transition to an EV fleet in Oakland, which I know is only the tip of the iceberg for us at Zum.