{"id":20158,"date":"2024-05-30T09:46:47","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T16:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/?p=20158"},"modified":"2024-06-12T09:53:25","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T16:53:25","slug":"david-livingston-inaugural-innovation-and-sustainability-practitioner-in-residence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/david-livingston-inaugural-innovation-and-sustainability-practitioner-in-residence\/","title":{"rendered":"Former US presidential advisor and alumnus returns to campus to spark\u00a0clean tech\u00a0innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                          \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/David_Livingston_Top-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/David_Livingston_Top-1920x1080.jpg 1920w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/David_Livingston_Top-1280x720.jpg 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/David_Livingston_Top-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"Two people in a interview.\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  USC Dornsife alumnus David Livingston speaks at the Climate Forward conference, hosted by the USC Dornsife Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability and the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future. (Photo: Nick Neumann\/USC Dornsife Wrigley Institute.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=alumni\">Alumni<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>Former US presidential advisor and alumnus returns to campus to spark\u00a0clean tech\u00a0innovation<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  With extensive experience that includes service in the U.S. Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, David Livingston \u201910 gives students a new take on environmentalism in his role as USC Dornsife\u2019s inaugural innovation and sustainability practitioner in residence.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Kathryn Royster and Margaret Crable<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">May 30, 2024<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" 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cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>By 2030, Holcim, one of the world\u2019s largest manufacturers of building materials, will swap 1,000 of their diesel trucks for zero-emission vehicles. Microsoft has pledged to purchase nearly 300 million tons of carbon dioxide removal credits over the next 11 years.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/sustainability.usc.edu\/assignment-earth\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-16067\" src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-150x150.png\" alt=\"On a gold background, &quot;Asgmt Earth&quot; appears inside a black circle and &quot;USC&quot; inside a small, white circle that slightly overlaps the black circle.\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-500x500.png 500w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-320x320.png 320w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric.png 1250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>These commitments, and many more, arose from their participation in the <a href=\"https:\/\/initiatives.weforum.org\/first-movers-coalition\/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">First Movers Coalition<\/a>. Comprising more than 100 of the world\u2019s largest corporations, the coalition has made commitments to buy next-generation clean technology goods and services in industries like steel and shipping. The idea is that this large-scale demand will ramp up production, lower the cost of these goods and help build a more sustainable market.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a project developed in part by David Livingston, who graduated from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts &amp; Sciences with a bachelor\u2019s degree in international relations in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Livingston served as a senior advisor and managing director for energy in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/bureaus-offices\/secretary-of-state\/office-of-the-u-s-special-presidential-envoy-for-climate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate<\/a>, then headed by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, where he helped launch initiatives like the coalition.<\/p>\n<p>He recently helped USC students learn how to advance this sort of forward-thinking, market-friendly environmentalism by serving as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.usc.edu\/people\/david-livingston\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">inaugural innovation and sustainability practitioner in residence<\/a>, based out of the <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/environmental-studies\/\">USC Dornsife Environmental Studies program<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m passionate about the environment, not just from an angle of conservation, but also on the frontiers of societal and technological change,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<h2>First, California; next, the world<\/h2>\n<p>Livingston\u2019s interest in nature began early. He grew up in California and his childhood included frequent backpacking trips through the Sierra Nevada with his father and uncles. His mother nearly lost her home in the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Northern California, and the families of many of his friends were not so lucky. These experiences grounded him in the beauty, but also the fragility, of nature on a changing planet, he says.<\/p>\n<p>As an undergraduate at USC, Livingston learned, though, that a nation\u2019s natural resources are also crucial to its success.<\/p>\n<p>A class on the political economy of the Soviet Union taught by <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/profile\/robert-english\/\">Robert English<\/a>, associate professor of international relations, Slavic languages and literature and environmental studies, gave him insight into the crucial role Russia\u2019s aluminum and nickel industries have played in their economy \u2014 and politics. Livingston wrote his senior thesis on how these sectors influenced Russia\u2019s approach to climate policy and carbon markets.<\/p>\n<p>By his senior year, Livingston realized his curiosities were at a global scale. \u201cI have a big appetite for the world, and I couldn\u2019t think of myself as pinned down to just one region, or one country or one culture,\u201d he says. Solutions to climate change, which touches every part of the Earth and requires both private and public solutions, was a perfect career focus.<\/p>\n<p>After graduation, Livingston completed a stint as a <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/a-change-of-climate\/\">Carnegie<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/a-change-of-climate\/\"> Endowment<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/a-change-of-climate\/\"> Junior Fellow<\/a> before receiving a master\u2019s degree from the University of Oxford in 2013. He then worked for a number of organizations, including the Eurasia Group, where he conducted trend research, and the World Trade Organization and the United Nations, researching trade and industrial policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a really rich tapestry of different career opportunities, across very different sectors and modalities, tackling this challenge,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020, Livingston joined the Biden administration, working as a senior advisor to Secretary Kerry, who was U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. In addition to his work on the First Movers Coalition, Livingston worked on several other initiatives, including co-leading the creation of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aimforclimate.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Led by the United States and the United Arab Emirates, this coalition of more than 50 countries is working to scale up public-private partnerships and investment in climate-smart agricultural technology.<\/p>\n<p>Agriculture is often overlooked in conversations about environmental innovation, where flashy electric cars and solar panels dominate consumer interest, but it\u2019s a sector with considerable impact. It produces 10% of the world\u2019s carbon emissions but also represents an incredible opportunity for efficiency and productivity improvements, Livingston says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen people think about clean tech, we want them to also be thinking about lower carbon fertilizers, drought-resistant crops, electrified tractors and farm equipment, and more,\u201d says Livingston.<\/p>\n<h2>Loyal Trojan<\/h2>\n<p>Staying connected to USC has been an ongoing priority for Livingston. Since 2015, he\u2019s taught classes through the <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/dornsife-dc\/\">USC Dornsife Washington DC Program<\/a>, which brings USC students to the nation\u2019s capital to study and work for a semester. It\u2019s headquartered at the recently launched <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/dornsife-dc\/usc-capital-campus\/\">USC Capital Campus.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>On the University Park Campus in his practitioner in residence role, Livingston taught a course on innovation and competition in the global energy transition. He also met regularly with groups at USC, like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.usc.edu\/business-of-energy-transition-initiative\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Business of Energy Transition Initiative<\/a> at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.usc.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">USC Marshall School of Business<\/a>, to help build what he calls \u201csinews of intellectual engagement and cooperation,\u201d around clean tech on campus.<\/p>\n<p>Livingston\u2019s insider experience has benefited his students, who could hear firsthand about diplomatic negotiations and global power shifts that often take place away from the public eye but have an outsize effect on our collective future.<\/p>\n<p>His goal is to inspire new ideas \u2014 among both students and campus researchers \u2014 about the ways innovation and technology intertwine with and shape geopolitical discussion, cooperation and competition around climate change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really important for tomorrow\u2019s generation of leaders to understand the paradigm of addressing climate change by grappling with technological change and geopolitical dynamics,\u201d Livingston says. \u201cUnderstanding those underlying forces helps us be more effective at creating durable, lasting progress on climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His work as a practitioner-in-residence may have come to a close, but he\u2019s remaining on with USC. Moving forward, Livingston will be working to advance the <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife-wrigley.usc.edu\/news\/gift-launches-climate-and-carbon-management-initiative\/\">new Climate and Carbon Management Initiative<\/a> at the USC Dornsife Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability. The initiative, which recently received a $4 million gift from Ballmer Group, aims to accelerate innovation and research around decarbonization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--section-title\">\n\n    \n  <h2>\n          Related Articles\n      <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/how-climate-finance-to-help-poor-countries-became-a-global-shell-game-donors-have-counted-fossil-fuel-projects-airports-and-even-ice-cream-shops\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >How climate finance to help poor countries became a global shell game<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/two-iconic-coral-species-are-now-functionally-extinct-off-florida-study-finds\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >2 iconic coral species are now functionally extinct off Florida, study finds \u2013 we witnessed the reef\u2019s bleaching and\u00a0devastation<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/trumps-words-arent-stopping-many-countries-from-setting-higher-climate-goals\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Trump\u2019s words aren\u2019t stopping China, Brazil and many other countries from setting higher climate goals, but progress is\u00a0slow<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Livingston \u201910 gives students a new take on environmentalism in his role as USC Dornsife\u2019s inaugural innovation and sustainability practitioner in residence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":20159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,15],"tags":[66,1919],"class_list":["post-20158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-sustainability","tag-climate-change","tag-enviornment"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Former US presidential advisor and alumnus returns to campus to spark\u00a0clean 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