High school students wondering what a climate career looks like can ask people who have one. The Bay Area Youth Climate Summit and the San Francisco Environment Department are hosting the free 2026 Green Careers Fair on Saturday, December 5, from noon to 2:30 p.m. at SF Environment, 1455 Market Street, Suite 13A, in San Francisco. Registration is on Eventbrite.
The fair is built for high school students, and anyone can attend. The organizers want students to see their future job as a green career, even if it sits outside a conventional sustainability path.
What happens
After a brief opening at noon, Tyrone Jue, director of SF Environment, gives the keynote. From 12:15 to 1 p.m., a panel of professionals talks about their work in the environmental sphere. The last hour and a half is a tabling fair, where students walk up to the adults whose careers, or routes to them, sound interesting and talk one-on-one.
A few questions help: what a normal week looks like, what they studied, and how they got their first job.
Who is behind it
The Bay Area Youth Climate Summit is a local environmental nonprofit run entirely by students. Founded in 2020, it had mobilized more than 8,000 youth from 230 schools through summits, festivals and protests as of 2025, when it held its first Green Careers Fair with SF Environment. Its seventh annual summit this September brought more than 150 people to the David Brower Center in Berkeley, according to its events page.
More paths for young people
Students who want to try environmental work before choosing a career have paid options too. The Student Conservation Association runs paid Bay Area programs for teens 14 to 19, and The Watershed Project's Green Collar Corps pays young adults in Richmond, San Pablo and Oakland to explore environmental careers.
