Our Climate Journey with Paul Ahn
“To me, sustainability is all about small steps—doing what you can, with what you have.”
Paul Ahn
General Manager,
Seattle Yard
Paul Ahn is the General Manager of Zum Seattle. He started in 2022 at the beginning of the Seattle contract, and has been part of the exciting growth journey from one school contract to eight school contracts entering this school year. Paul grew up in the state of Wisconsin, and is an enthusiastic supporter of all Wisconsin sports teams. In his free time he enjoys playing golf, reading books on his Kindle, talking tech and game design with his 12-year old son, and rooting for the Seattle Mariners baseball team.
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 all about small steps—doing what you can, with what you have.
I grew up in Wisconsin, where I spent a lot of time outdoors. My friends and I were constantly bicycling, golfing, playing tennis and baseball, camping, canoeing—we were always outside. From an early age, I had a subscription to National Geographic magazine (which I still have), that deepened my understanding and appreciation for nature. So our natural environment matters a great deal to me.
Sustainability feels like such a big idea, though, that it can be hard to live up to. My family and I do our best to recycle, as our way of contributing. We recycle and donate everything humanly possible: glass goes to the major recycling center, batteries and tech go to hazardous material dropoff, there’s a separate place for plastic bags, we hardly throw anything away. When our son outgrows his clothes and possessions, we donate them. Minimizing trash and maximizing the things that stay in circulation through recycling and donations are some of the few things we as consumers actually can control—and we do that in our household.
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 lived in the Bay Area for fourteen years. During that time, I felt the temperatures get warmer and warmer. It used to be freezing in the summer in San Francisco—the city is famous for it—but you just don’t experience the same temperature drop that you used to.
Now, I live in Seattle, where I’ve been for about ten years. The same changes are happening here—the summers are hotter, the winters are more mild, it only rains a fraction as much as it used to. “It must rain so much in Seattle,” people always say when they hear where I live. It used to. It doesn’t as much anymore.
Decades-long shifts in weather patterns across cities are one of the clearest ways my family and I have experienced the climate crisis as we’ve moved across the country.
What can Zum do to be a leader in sustainability, to spearhead the charge in the fight against climate change?
I have to start by saying that, even though I work at the Seattle yard, I came in to see the Oakland operation, and it’s truly impressive—the switch from traditional to electric buses. It’s inspiring.
And of course we can always push the envelope further. As GM of the Seattle yard, I’m always looking at ways to improve our operation, and one thing we could certainly do more of is recycle. Of course we have bins, but there are lots of parts related to our buses and infrastructure that we might be able to donate, recycle, or reuse. It’s something I’ve thought about before and now want to consider, given how important sustainability is to our mission (and how important recycling is in my own home).