The Los Gatos lobbying firm that proudly touts its “environmental, social, and governance” credentials on its website—that’s Canyon Snow, which recently announced it was adding a former San Jose City Council member to its roster—says it’s not worried about the scorched-earth anti-woke policies President Donald Trump is rolling out.
After all, says co-founder Jennifer Johnson, it’s not like the new executive orders are coming out of left field.
“We’ve seen the writing on the wall for a long time,” she says, adding this doesn’t make things any less uncertain for players in the industry. “It’s absolutely the question that is top of mind for everybody in the sustainability space.”
Canyon Snow sees an evolving landscape where companies feel pressured, on the one hand, by statements coming from the White House, while on the other hand continue to evaluate data the shows the ways in which “ESG” initiatives have bolstered their bottom line—whether that’s through stronger relationships with customers, the elimination of various risks or a reduced carbon footprint.
“It is about a lot more than diversity in the workforce,” Johnson points out in one of two interviews the Los Gatan conducted with the company’s top brass. “It’s demonstrated its value in the business framework.”
Of course, even the smaller Silicon Valley technology businesses are impacted by much more than just the way the winds in America are blowing.
So, even if Trump urges a roll-back of diversity or sustainability initiatives, that’s not going to necessarily change the reporting requirements for a local business that wants access to the European market, Johnson adds.
“We don’t see it being a broader issue,” she says of Trump’s aversion to ESG, stressing clients tend to be fond, for example, of the energy savings that result from becoming more environmentally friendly. “It is about a lot more than diversity in the workforce.”
And even if the West Valley company has to pivot, well, that’s sort of in its DNA.
Monte Sereno resident Leslee Guardino was working alongside Johnson for Solectron, a Milpitas company that was, at one time, the top contract builder of printed circuit boards.
Just after the turn of the millennium, they were tasked with heading across the pond to push back against European governments that were trying to clean up the dirtier aspects of electronics manufacturing, which promised to be a big drag on the finances of some Bay Area businesses.
“We tried to get them not to pass those laws, but they did. So, when we came back, we shifted gears,” Johnson recalls, explaining how they shared their understanding of the concerns coming out of Brussels with the broader Silicon Valley community. “We were helping engineers and compliance people; we were helping the purchasing people.”
That’s because they were working for a company whose stock, according to Barron’s, had clocked a compound annual return of 70% and more than 20,000% over the prior decade. Solectron’s customers included everyone from Dell to Sysco to Hewlett-Packard.
‘They came to me with good data and a lot of information.’
—Dev Davis, on Canyon Snow’s lobbying at San Jose City Hall
“It was mostly internal, like business to business,” Johnson remembers. “One thing we realized was, the big companies already had it figured out.”
So, in 2005, Guardino and Johnson founded Canyon Snow, targeting medium-sized technology businesses in the area, among others.
“This is our 20th anniversary,” Guardino says. “We started in Los Gatos, and we never left.”
The company came of age in the period when Silicon Valley gave birth to the so-called sharing revolution, with Facebook, Google and Twitter moving fast and breaking the media world, and ride-hailing startups like Uber and Lyft upending the taxi establishment.
They first met Dev Davis—a Stanford education researcher who later served on San Jose Council from 2016 to 2024—back when Canyon Snow had landed Lyft as one of its clients. And Lyft wanted access to the San Jose airport.
She wasn’t on the council yet, but she had it in her sights.
Davis says she no longer remembers the particulars of their first meeting, but says she appreciated how the Los Gatos company dealt with her over the years.
“It’s a lot coming at you all at once,” she says of her early days in politics. “They came to me with good data and a lot of information. And they always took very good care to have good clients.”
Davis says while she never voted on Lyft’s initial access to SJC, Canyon Snow later lobbied her on the company’s “Bay Wheels” e-bike expansion.
She remembers how Lyft wanted her thoughts on docking options at one park in her district. She says she even provided input on the ideal location.
“I said, ’Yes, that’s a really well used park,’” she recalls saying, and says she then added, “‘Maybe you want to move it a little bit.’”
Davis is quick to insert that she won’t be lobbying her former coworkers for at least the next couple years—as that would be illegal due to anti-revolving-door rules—but says she’s looking forward to sharing clients’ perspectives with other leaders, such as County Board of Supervisors officials.
“There was no grand plan to work for Canyon Snow,” she asserts. “Canyon Snow was part of the ecosystem.”
In addition to its success with Lyft, the company has had a series of other victories in recent years.
This includes a Sandhill Properties affordable housing project in District 1, a private-public partnership to connect Diridon Station and SJC (Canyon Snow represents San Jose Connection Partners), and a Buddhist temple in the Evergreen area. Regarding the latter, they just cleared a major hurdle with unanimous support for the A Khmer Buddhist Foundation’s plan.
“It’s being built right now,” Guardino says. “It’s very exciting.”
