Siddhan Shah – Tri-Valley Youth Climate Action Project, American Climate Leadership Awards 2025 Youth Finalist

Winner, Runner-Up will be Announced on April 16, 2025

The following blog is a part of our American Climate Leadership Award 2025 Series.

Siddhan Shah is among 10 American Climate Leadership Award finalists to be recognized at the American Climate Leadership Awards Broadcast on April 16.

Teenager Siddhan (Sid) Shah created environmental change through three initiatives: 1) leading a research study on urban heat islands (UHIs) and arsenic levels in partnership with UC Berkeley and TVYCAP (local environmental nonprofit); 2) organizing annual in-person outreach events (Tri-Valley Youth Climate Summit/Expo); and 3) creating an online environmental course used by 2.5million students in 3500+ US schools.

Sid identified local UHIs covering 80K residents with temperatures 14° higher than surrounding areas by building a new mobile application used by three cities’ residents. It identifies UHIs via a new method analyzing satellite and user data with ArcGIS. Sid and his team created novel designs of low-cost fixed hardware sensors that he led his group to install in 15 city locations and mobile sensors on personal cars. As a research assistant at UC Berkeley’s Gadgil Water Lab, he identified dangerous arsenic levels impacting 4 million people across 1,286 California water districts. He and his team presented to US Department of Energy and partnered with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, and two mayors’ offices to create policy.

For the past seven years, Sid and his colleagues have hosted the Tri-Valley Youth Summit and Innovation Fairs annually to teach children to create climate change solutions. They have taught 25K+ residents and partnered with 15 eco-companies/universities, such as UC Merced and ValleyLink.

Finally, Sid led his team to create an online course as part of the Go Green Initiative. This course is now used by 2.5 million students who have created 300+ community initiatives.

Join us for the American Climate Leadership Awards broadcast to honor Sid and the other ACLA finalists. Register Today for more information about the ACLA finalists.

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