EPIC: San Francisco Department of the Environment – San Francisco, CA

Job Title: Toxics Reduction & Healthy Communities Intern

Department/Team: Toxics Reduction & Healthy Communities Team at the San Francisco Environment Department

Location: Hybrid (4 days per week in office) in San Francisco, California

Duration: 40 hours per week for ten weeks over the summer

Reports to: Chris Lester (Special Waste Coordinator)

Areas of Interest: Toxics and chemical reduction, community outreach, policy and legislation, and potential cross collaboration with other program areas including Zero Waste, Energy, Environmental Justice, and Climate.

Summer 2023 Fellows:

Lizzie Avila

Summer 2024 Fellows:

Fiona Mooney

Summer 2025 Fellows:

Alina Zhang

Office Description

The San Francisco Environment Department (SF Environment) advances climate protection and enhances quality of life for all San Franciscans. SF Environment is a department within the City and County of San Francisco, a local government committed to innovation, leadership and collaboration in creating environmental change. SF Environment is recognized worldwide for its environmental policies and programs, which center on achieving zero waste, reducing toxic chemical hazards, advancing environmental justice, promoting sustainable transportation modes, expanding clean energy infrastructure, greening our built environment, and protecting our urban forest. We’re a passionate, mission-driven team that values credibility, collaboration, impact, innovation and equity.

About the Toxics Reduction & Healthy Communities Program:

The Toxics Reduction & Healthy Communities Program leads a variety of programs, policies and projects, ranging from reducing the use of harmful chemicals in residential, commercial and City government settings. Projects and programs we undertake at the local level often become models for scaling elsewhere! Current initiatives include:

eliminating the use of fluorochemicals in numerous consumer and industrial uses
tackling antibiotic resistance
supporting small businesses to adopt sustainable practices
addressing microfiber pollution
creating end-of-life solutions for emerging hazardous waste items

Description of the Work

The intern would work with SFE staff to advance programs and policy initiatives, engage with the community, and obtain experience working at the intersection of a variety of environmental issues.

List of Potential Projects:

Help implement the San Francisco Healthy Nail Salon Program
Conduct outreach to residents about proper disposal of toxics products
Researching products and identifying safer alternatives to toxic products
Assist with implementing a pilot collection program for household hazardous waste
Research vape products and identify collaborative opportunities with San Francisco Unified School Districts and smoke shops to serve as collection sites
Conducting outreach and technical assistance to commercial businesses and residents
Assisting in creating policies and programs that drive the use of safer products in SF
Drafting policy and outreach documents
Conducting surveys and analyzing results

Desired Skills

Data heads, you are welcome here! We would love to leverage your ability to prepare reports, spreadsheets, data and documentation for reporting information to the public.
Enjoy writing? We have many needs for public-facing materials including factsheets, web pages, presentations, etc.
Do you have phone super powers? Research by our department often involves making phone calls to a wide range of businesses, residents and other stakeholders. Those who are persistent enough to navigate a phone tree and find the right person, and then have an engaging phone voice are gold.
Are you confident, self-motivated and a well-organized individual?
Can you analyze and synthesize information from various sources?
Second language commonly spoken in San Francisco, especially Vietnamese, Spanish and/or Chinese.

Logistics:

EPIC fellows are required to work full-time (40 hours per week) for 10 weeks over the summer, and will receive a stipend of $8,000 - $9,500, depending on financial need. This stipend is intended to help cover living and transportation expenses during the fellowship, which the student is expected to arrange and coordinate.
Start and end dates are flexible (start date no later than July 6, 2026).