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Student Spotlight: Scott Zimmermann
Student Spotlight Directory
Scott Zimmermann, MS 2008.
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"Global Investment in Low Carbon Energy"
Scott Zimmermann is finishing his final year as a graduate student pursuing concurrent degrees in the ERG masters program and the JD program at Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall). Scott came to Berkeley with an interest in facilitating the transition to low carbon and less-polluting forms of energy production both domestically and internationally. During his time at Berkeley he has worked on a variety of projects which approached this problem from many different angles: law, policy, institutions, local action, finance, and international development.
On campus, Scott was an active leader in the effort to convince the campus community to take responsibility for its carbon footprint. In 2005, Scott co-founded the Cal Climate Action Partnership (CalCAP), an initiative to identify and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are caused by the activities associated with the UC Berkeley campus. After the engaging the help of countless committed students, faculty, staff, administrators, and community members, CalCAP went on to win the Campus Sustainability Award in 2006, a Big Ideas Award in 2007, and the Environmental Protection Agency's Region 9 Environmental Leadership Award in 2008. CalCAP has been a big part of making UC Berkeley a model for climate change-oriented education, institutional evolution, research, and mitigation.
Scott’s work on climate change extended to the California Public Utilities Commission, where he interned in the office of Commissioner Dian Grueneich. Scott worked on the development of California’s greenhouse gas performance standard, a policy first of its kind which requires that the emissions from power supplied through long-term power contracts do not exceed emissions from a combined cycle natural gas power plant. Scott’s connections at the CPUC also helped provide background and insight for an independent project he worked on analyzing federalism issues associated with the proposal to build a liquefied natural gas terminal in Long Beach, California. That work resulted in a publication for which he received the 2006 Law Student Writing Competition Award from the ABA’s Section of Public Utility, Communications, and Transportation Law.
Coal contributes to air pollution in Beijing. Both photos were taken in 2005 on "sunny" days.
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Scott also had the opportunity to work on international projects while studying at Berkeley. He spent three months working in Beijing for the Natural Resources Defense Council’s China Clean Energy Program on their efforts to accelerate the transition to zero-emission coal technology in China. That work focused on the role that polygeneration of electricity and co-products using coal gasification technology can play in reducing carbon emissions and improving local air quality, and also the potential of overseas development aid and technology assistance. Scott was also supported by the Energy Foundation’s China Sustainability Energy Program while in Beijing.
The following summer Scott worked for the Asian Development Bank in Manila. While working the Office of the General Counsel, Scott helped design the Asia Pacific Carbon Fund and the Asia Pacific Fund for Energy Efficiency. He also participated on the effort to update the bank’s environmental and social safeguards policy, and he produced a legal reference toolkit on pro-poor utility infrastructure regulation.
Scott was invited to participate in Waseda Law School’s 2008 Transnational Program in Tokyo, which brought together faculty and students in environmental law from around the world to discuss how different legal and political systems remedy harms to the environment and public health. The discussions were particularly relevant to understanding how different systems will assign liability for climate change impacts.
After interacting with the biofuels research team in ERG led by the late Professor Alex Farrell, Scott became very interested in issues associated with the sustainability of biofuels. Indirect land use change associated with biofuels is increasingly becoming understood to be a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. In his ERG master’s project, Scott analyzed the issue of how to develop indirect land use change regulations that are compatible with international trade law. Also, he worked with the Environmental Capital Group to develop a methods for assessing the environmental footprint of venture capital investments in biofuels companies.
Energy & Society field trip to the High Winds Energy Center.
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One of Scott’s most rewarding experiences at Berkeley has been to take Professor Dan Kammen’s Energy & Society course twice, first as a student and then as a GSI. The course addresses energy and development issues from a broad and interdisciplinary perspective, while providing a set of practical tools that are very useful in policy, financial, and technology analysis. Scott particularly enjoyed his second time through the course when he had the chance to get to know so many inspiring and diverse students from across the campus.
With his interdisciplinary background and interests, it was a natural fit for Scott to join the leadership team of the Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative (BERC). BERC is an interdisciplinary student-led organization whose mission is to bridge the many energy and environmental schools, programs, and labs at Cal, and to connect leaders on and off-campus. Working with other BERC students at Haas, Scott helped to bring the first Energy and Infrastructure Project Finance course to Berkeley. Scott was also one of the students responsible for helping BERC to expand beyond the business school into ERG and Boalt. With over fifty members from Boalt, BERC now has a thriving chapter at the law school. ERG has always been a respected institution in the energy and development fields, but BERC has played a key role in establishing Berkeley the premier institution for graduate study across numerous programs in energy, environment, and development issues.
At Boalt, Scott served as Articles Editor, Executive Editor, and Submission Coordinator on Ecology Law Quarterly. He was also active in the Environmental Law Society, helping to organize Berkeley’s first environment justice symposium in 2005, a successful event that saw its fourth year this past spring. At Boalt, Scott was also a member of the Berkeley Chinese Law Society and Overturning Prop 209 movement. He successfully represented a Nepali seeking asylum in the United States. And he volunteered for the Center for Race, Poverty, and the Environment helping a Native American community in Alaska sue an industrial facility for Clean Water Act violations.
The Berkeley campus offers a wealth of opportunities to explore diverse aspects of environmental, international development, and energy studies. Upon graduation Scott will have completed the requirements to earn the Certificate of Specialization in Environmental Law and the Engineering and Business for Sustainability Certificate.
Scott’s interests in energy and the environment did not begin at Berkeley. In the mid-1990s Scott lived in and traveled throughout Central and Eastern Europe. The environmental and societal impacts of energy and industrial development during the Soviet-era were what first generated Scott’s interest in this field. After graduating from Stanford with a degree in chemical engineering, Scott spent eight years working in the oil and gas industry. He began his career as a process engineer for Fluor Corporation optimizing the design of refineries and other energy facilities for energy and cost efficiency. He later joined a startup software company INOVx Solutions where he led the product development team in developing solutions to improve the design, operation, and maintenance of industrial facilities.
After graduation Scott will join the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in San Francisco, working on renewable energy projects and with companies in the cleantech industry in the US and China.
6/08
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