At Stanford, Ian focuses on developing best practices for scaling localized solutions to global climate change, linking technological and economic innovations with sound science and pragmatic policy. Ian co-created and teaches the courses Social & Environmental Tradeoffs in Climate Decision-Making and Implementing Climate Solutions at Scale, where students evaluate the challenges of getting to a zero pollution future. Ian has also taught Fundamentals of Renewable Power, and guest lectured for many other courses, including Engineering & Climate Change, Life Cycle Assessment for Complex Systems, and Concepts in Environmental Communication. In his research, Ian has a strong interest in improving and standardizing life cycle assessment (LCA) accounting of environmental impacts, as well as applying life cycle science to investor, company, and consumer decision-making.
Ian has worked in over a two dozen countries with a wide range of government, nonprofit, corporate, and citizen partners and clients to implement renewable energy projects and develop sustainability accounting frameworks. A particular focus of past research has been sustainability of global bioenergy utilization, using a triple bottom line approach to ensure that development incorporates sound economics, environmental protection, and livelihood improvement. With work throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, Ian has experience at conducting the fieldwork, laboratory analysis, data mining and modeling needed to generate results upon which policy decisions can be based, as well as expertise presenting results and establishing data-driven consensus with diverse sets of stakeholders.
