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Gretchen Daily won a Heinz Award and a Midori Prize. (Vern Evans / Heinz Foundation)

The Initiative on the Environment and Sustainability

Stanford environmental faculty research recognized worldwide

Organizations worldwide recognized the accomplishments of Stanford environmental scholars in 2009-10, reflecting the increasing impact of work encouraged by the Initiative on Environment and Sustainability. Among the faculty honored:

• Gretchen Daily, the Bing Professor in Environmental Science, won a Heinz Award “for her innovative work to place a value on the services provided by natural ecosystems” and a Midori Prize for Biodiversity.

Harold Mooney won the Volvo Environmental Prize. (L.A. Cicero)

• David Lobell, assistant professor in environmental Earth system science, won the 2010 James B. Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union for “significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by an outstanding young scientist.”

• Harold Mooney, the Paul S. Achilles Professor of Environmental Biology, won the Volvo Environment Prize for being a “leading voice in the biology of global change.”

• Terry Root, senior fellow at the Woods Institute, received the 2010 Spirit of Defenders Award for Science from Defenders of Wildlife.

• Peter Vitousek, the Clifford G. Morrison Professor in Population and Resource Studies, won the 2010 Japan Prize in biological production and the environment for pioneering work in biogeochemistry.

The five are among the scholars university-wide who are also fellows or senior fellows at the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Institute for the Environment, which was founded in 2004 and remains the hub of the initiative.

The initiative is led by Jeffrey Koseff, the William Alden Campbell and Martha Campbell Professor in the School of Engineering and the Perry L. McCarty Director of the Woods Institute; Pamela Matson, the Chester Naramore Dean of the School of Earth Sciences and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor in Environmental Studies; and Barton “Buzz” Thompson, the Robert E. Paradise Professor in Natural Resources Law and the Perry L. McCarty Director of the Woods Institute.

Woods Institute initiatives

Among the Woods Institute’s missions is to infuse science into policies of business, government and non-governmental organizations. To that end, the institute sponsored a range of activities, including:

• A series of Freshwater Salons and Dialogues to explore solutions to such water challenges as groundwater depletion, using wastewater as a resource and securing drinking water and sanitation for residents of the developing world;

• An Uncommon Dialogue, co-sponsored by the Precourt Institute for Energy, on how to make large-scale solar technology a viable solution for our energy future; and

• Surveys on public perception of environmental issues, conducted by Jon Krosnick, the Frederic O. Glover Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences. He found that three out of four Americans believe that the Earth has been gradually warming due primarily or at least partly as the result of human activity and want the government to take the necessary steps to address this issue.

In 2010, research and outreach activities in the three collaborations within the Woods Institute continued to expand:

• The Natural Capital Project, a collaboration with the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund, hosted a salon focused on strategies for investing in nature, with case studies from South America, Hawai‘i and China.

• The Program on Food Security and the Environment (FSE), a collaboration with the Freeman Spogli Institute, provided media outreach for FSE scholars at scientific conferences in San Diego and San Francisco.

• The Center for Ocean Solutions, a collaboration with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Hopkins Marine Station and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, expanded the Fisheries Leadership and Sustainability Forum to facilitate communication among the eight U.S. regional fishery management councils.

Progress in energy research

The Initiative on the Environment and Sustainability also benefits from the ongoing energy-related research and teaching spurred by the Precourt Institute for Energy, founded in 2009.

The Precourt Institute includes the Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP), launched in 2002 to seek new solutions to meet the challenge of supplying energy to the world’s growing population while preserving the environment; the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, launched in 2009 to harness the skills and creativity of science, technology and policy experts to transform the world’s energy systems for a sustainable future, with initial focus on the energy grid; and the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center, created in 2006 to promote efficient and economically viable energy technology.

It also partners with the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science, which is associated with the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development in the Freeman Spogli Institute. It is working with the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research to establish a new Environmental and Energy Policy Analysis Center. Also complementing this work is the new Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance.

Multidisciplinary research remains key

Interdisciplinary research remains key to progress in environmental sustainability and energy. Faculty members in all seven schools at Stanford are addressing sustainability challenges. Grants made by the Woods Institute, the Precourt Institute, TomKat Center and GCEP encourage and facilitate innovation:

• Four teams received Woods Institute support to examine, for instance, how better industrial practices can improve both energy efficiency and productivity; the development of a computer model capable of evaluating nutrition-related health policies in India; and whether the loss of large wildlife and changes in land use increase the risk of infectious disease in developing tropical countries.
• Six Precourt projects address such issues as converting carbon dioxide to fuel, handling the fluctuations in electricity generated from intermittent renewable resources such as wind and improving the efficiency of solar cells while reducing costs.
• Four projects received TomKat Center grants to create a greener, more efficient system for delivering electricity through "smart power grid" systems.
• Nine GCEP grants investigate energy technologies in the areas of the electric grid, advanced combustion, solar energy, carbon dioxide storage, and advanced materials and catalysts.