While finding e-waste solutions for businesses and organizations is our passion, we’re just as passionate about what happens in our surrounding community and with the future of green jobs.

That’s why our president, Lou Ramondetta, recently joined more than 40 Bay Area executives on a trip to Washington, D.C. to advocate for the California business community so that government resources continue to flow to our stat

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group organized the trip, and the group included a number of leaders from prominent organizations: Silicon Valley Bank , IBM , SunPower , Seagate , Apple , the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University, ChargePoint , UC Berkeley , SamTrans , Alaska Airlines , the City of Palo Alto , the City of Sunnyvale and Santa Clara County.

“We were honored to participate with such a passionate group to advocate for initiatives that positively impact California—especially northern California—and the major organizations that are members,” Ramondetta said.

The group talked to D.C. legislators about a number of issues, but Ramondetta said he was glad that they had a chance to talk about the importance of transportation, healthcare, cybersecurity and funding computer science education in K-12 schools.

If you’re living in the San Francisco Bay Area, one particularly acute issue that we’re all aware of is traffic. One option to reduce the amount of traffic, especially through Silicon Valley, is promoting alternatives to take cars off Highway 101 and the 280 corridors where traffic is severely congested.

The group urged legislators to approve full funding for Caltrain’s electrification project, which would take more cars off the road and support the Bay Area business community. The news was announced this month that the Federal Transit Administration approved a $647 million full funding grant agreement for Caltrain’s electrification and modernization.

With the funding, Caltrain can immediately access millions of dollars in federal appropriations and proceed with the shovel-ready project.

“This news, quite clearly, is electrifying,” Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino said this month. “This single step nearly doubles Caltrain ridership, which is a game changer for the congested Highway 101 corridor.”

The group also advocated for BART funding for the extension to Silicon Valley, which will link BART with Caltrain and create a system of rapid rail that circles the entire Bay Area. Bay Area voters already agreed to support BART’s expansion, a bold move that provides local matching funds.

For businesses and e-waste companies, data security is one of the highest priorities and protecting private information is a daily practice. To ensure safe and reliable online commerce and government operations, the group had a message for Washington: the public and private sector must work together to secure infrastructure, products and systems.

That’s why the group of business leaders urged legislators to take the steps necessary to ensure that government operations promote policies that respect the data privacy of individuals and companies.

“Clients trust us with all their data eradication and destruction needs for their most secure information,” Ramondetta said. “Providing trusted cybersecurity to our clients is our highest priority.”

Speaking of cybersecurity, computer science is more crucial than ever and it impacts virtually every industry in the United States. The group also stressed to the D.C. Congressional leaders the importance of providing federal funding for K-12 computer science education this year.

As we’ve stated before, the future of green jobs and the Bay Area as a region depends on educating our young people to be as knowledgeable as possible, and we strongly support that.

Surplus Service is a San Francisco, CA Bay Area-based award-winning e-waste management business that specializes in ITAD, medical recycling, electronic liquidation, reverse logistics and data eradication. As the No. 1 electronic reuse and recycling leader, our goal is to provide eco-friendly solutions that lead to the reuse of electronics rather than just having them recycled or end up in a landfill. To learn more about us, call one of our e-waste recycling specialists at (510) 226-0600 or email us at Info@SurplusService.com.