TO: Napa County Climate Action Committee
FROM: Brian D. Bordona, Director, Napa County Planning, Building & Environmental Services
REPORT BY: Ryan Melendez, Planner II, Sustainability
SUBJECT: Presentation: Introduction to Climate Science by UC Berkeley Professor Andrew Isaacs
RECOMMENDATION
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PRESENTATION: AN INTRODUCTION TO CLIMATE SCIENCE AND CLIMATE CHANGE BY PROFESSOR ANDREW ISAACS OF UC BERKELEY HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
STAFF REQUEST: Receive a presentation from Professor Andrew Isaacs, Senior Lecturer and a leading expert on climate change and business innovation in sustainability.
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ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: The proposed action is not a project as defined by 14 California
Code of Regulations 15378 (State CEQA Guidelines) and therefore CEQA is not applicable.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
As Senior Lecturer with Continuing Status at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Andrew Isaacs is one of the only Earth Scientists teaching Climate Science at a leading American business school.
Isaacs is a scientist who began his career in NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the Johnson Space Center in Houston following undergraduate and graduate degrees in Geochemistry from the University of Michigan. At NASA, Isaacs led research on the Geochemistry of the Earth and Solar System. From NASA he was recruited to Silicon Valley to join a materials science research start-up, moving into management and executive roles in public and private corporations in Silicon Valley and Tokyo.
Since joining UC Berkeley in 1999, Isaacs has taught Technology Innovation, Climate Science and Climate Change Strategy courses for over 5,000 students. His course “Climate Change and Business Strategy,” launched as a pilot in 2007, is now offered in multiple versions for MBAs, undergraduates and executives, both in-person and online.
Isaacs’ Climate Change courses are among the longest running at any business school, and are the most popular courses on the subject at UC Berkeley. Isaacs has published 30 business case studies, many on the business issues associated with Climate Change, and is completing a text designed to help non-scientists teach Climate Change to business students.
Isaacs has delivered executive courses for more than 100 companies in the US, Latin America, Asia and Europe, with clients including Bank of America, BP, the California Public Utilities Commission, Électricité de France, Google, Hitachi, IBM, Infineon, Intel, Johnson and Johnson, Maersk, Mitsubishi, Oracle, Sony, Toyota, the US State Department and the USDA. He frequently teaches pro bono on Climate Change for the community in Northern California.
In 2022, Isaacs was awarded the Haas School of Business Sustainability Teaching Award and received the 2024 Best Haas Case Study award for his case study on Net Zero. Isaacs and his family live in rural Napa County where they operate a low-carbon ranch growing and producing wine under the Screaming Squirrel label. He has graciously provided voluntary education for Climate Science to community members, agency staff, and elected officials in Napa County since 2021.
Isaacs will present on the latest advancements in Climate Science and provide an overview about the causes of human-caused climate change and its effects.