Bringing together passion and profession
Steve loves cars – he wrote more than 1,200 automobile reviews before joining a leading electric vehicle company, Rivian, in 2021. He doesn’t quite have a favorite car, but has a special regard for the Mazda Miata, a zippy sportscar reminiscent of his dad’s Austin-Healey (pictured with Steve, below). Steve and his dad visited many auto dealerships together when he was a kid, and he was an early and avid reader of Motor Trend starting at age 10. In the past few years, Steve’s turned his love for vehicles into advocacy for electric vehicles, driving and reviewing dozens over the years, as well as owning a Chevrolet Bolt EV and Fiat 500e. (I actually profiled Steve’s EV journey for my day job a few years ago!) He’s even spent time riding a stylish Dutch electric bike, the VanMoof, and provided feedback.
Young Steve with an Austin-Healey sportscar
Beyond cars, Steve also loves and wants to protect the environment. He’s been trained as a Climate Reality Leader by the Climate Reality Project (founded by Al Gore) and has led sessions educating the local community on the details of climate change. Steve succeeded in uniting his passion for the climate and automobiles by taking his tech writing career to Rivian, an electric vehicle manufacturer, after 20+ years at other companies. Still, he “continues to work his way toward more climate stuff” – the journey is never over, and there’s always more to do.
Pushing the day job to the next level
An early EV adopter, Steve joined Rivian “because of the climate mission.” At Rivian, he has the opportunity to work on customer-facing guides, including R1 Owner's Guides and EDV Operating Guides, as well as Emergency Response Guides that help emergency responders in the possible case of a battery fire. He’s found that at Rivian it’s easy to “get absorbed by the exciting off-roading technology, powerful performance and constantly evolving user interface and features” and not focus on the huge emissions reduction potential of the vehicles.
Steve and a Rivian R1T
I’ve also experienced the reality that it can take a lot of effort to shift even the greenest-seeming company, like one working on EVs or charging, toward emphasizing sustainability in the workplace. Steve is likewise seeking ways to get more involved in his company’s sustainability team. While sustainability roles are great, there’s still only so much that they can do when it comes to cleaning up supply chains that rely on questionable rare earth metals, or reducing emissions from employees who carpool from far away. Personally, I’ve been inspired by Project Drawdown job function action guides to greening one’s career, and I suggest them to others as well.
“I’m a climate ‘denier’ in the fact that I feel like I can live my life like normal while all this is going on, but actually we shouldn’t be.”
Steve admits, “I’m a climate ‘denier’ in the fact that I feel like I can live my life like normal while all this is going on, but actually we shouldn’t be” living anything like normal. I can relate to this sentiment, as it’s probably the case that everyone in the Western world should be thinking about rewilding ourselves and moving farther away from technology and vehicles, not toward them (even in their most efficient, electrified state!). But this shift requires such a major shift in our values, infrastructure and everything we know that it seems even more daunting than “just” making the things we already use cleaner and more climate friendly. Is there a better way?
Pursuing climate leadership in the community
Prior to joining Rivian, Steve completed Climate Reality Project training in 2018, and he’s already given about a dozen in-person and online talks in the community (despite Covid interruptions). He feels the response to these talks has been a bit mixed. Either people already seem to agree with him, as when he “visited a church in Palo Alto to talk to 27 people nodding their heads,” or communities may be a little checked out, as when 9 people showed up to a talk at a public library in a town with 70,000 residents. At other times, audience members have been fed a lot of disinformation that takes a lot of time to unpack.
A trained speaker
Although the content of the training and sessions is helpful, training alone doesn’t feel like the only solution, especially if speaking out remains a challenge for us. Still, Steve recognizes that we have to “get uncomfortable with talking now or get uncomfortable with the temperature later.” Steve also points out, “The biggest problem is no longer information, it’s absorbing it and doing something.” Figuring out what exactly to do, though, is sometimes the hardest part.
Doing it for the kids
As a grandfather, Steve cites the next and future generations as major reasons for his dogged commitment to protecting the environment. He’s already installed solar panels on his house, chosen to drive electric, shopped for a heat pump water heater and even makes (sometimes vegan) meals on a single induction cooktop. But despite all these efforts, he’s still “struggling to feel how to be more active and be who I am.” For example, even the “greenest” job can require commuting: Steve observes, “I don’t want to drive 29 miles [to work], but I don’t want to work at home all the time either.” (Perhaps companies should look into organizing eco-conscious carpooling clubs?)
Beyond career and climate, Steve is a musician, an endeavor that keeps him going and that he’s mused about turning into a climate-conscious pursuit as well, perhaps even penning the “Global Warming Blues.” While creating upbeat climate crisis music might be a stretch, it could be possible to pen some tunes that at least get people thinking while they boogie down.
The journey never ends – it evolves
Steve’s experience achieving a successful climate career and demonstrating climate leadership shows us that even being carefully trained, working at a company that makes an everyday choice (driving) more sustainable, and making climate-conscious choices in your own life may still not feel like doing “enough.” No matter the company or career, we may always feel like we could be doing something more or different – and that the impact we have is not sufficient.
Steve with an early test car, a 1992 Chevrolet Lumina (“those didn’t last long”)
We face a daunting collective challenge, and it’s easy to think that landing the right gig, getting the funds to install solar panels, or becoming a greenfluencer (if that’s a thing?) will make us feel like we’ve done our part in solving the climate crisis. But “solving” the crisis is something that won’t happen in our lifetimes, if ever. The next 10 years or so will be decisive. We absolutely have to do as much as we can. But we may not know if we’ve “succeeded” for much longer, and we’ll never achieve “enough” change to go back to guzzling fossil fuels the way we have been.
Steve’s last test car, a Volvo XC90 Recharge T8 plug-in hybrid in April 2021: “the end of an era”
It’s given me a lot of hope to talk to people like Steve who also care about the climate crisis and display a level of caring that there is not always space for discussing in the corporate world. I hope their stories inspire others to have these conversations on their own, and share what they learn. Ultimately, that’s all we can do: learn as much as we can, do as much as we can, and talk about what we know and do as often as we can. Over and over again.
Steve’s summary
Rivian is “the culmination of my career – combines cars, writing, tech writing, communication and climate”
Wrote 1,200 + auto reviews over 29 years
Tech writer for 22 years
Trained Climate Reality Leader (from Al Gore) – August 2018
EV owner, solar, plant-based diet
Senior/grandparent
Personal actions: Solar panels, EVs, vegan eating, gardening, Steve Goes Green blog, EV Ambassador (shows, meetings)
Steve’s goal: Contribute my writing skills and climate/EV advocacy to make a valuable contribution to mitigating and adapting to climate change.