Sarah Backer
Sarah Backer joined ELI as a Research Associate in September 2022. Her current work includes assisting with the Municipal Climate and Waste Reduction Project and supporting the CWA 303(d) Training Workshops. She is also the new host of the ELI People, Places, Planet Podcast. Prior to joining ELI, Sarah interned for the EPA’s Green Power Partnerships, where she researched the program’s contributions to energy equity and developed educational content for stakeholders. Sarah is a recent graduate from Wesleyan University with a BA in Government, specializing in environmental global policy and a minor in the College of East Asian Studies and Mandarin. Her senior thesis analyzed public opinion on democracy and capitalism promotion in the United States since 2016, to evaluate the public’s shifting attitudes about America’s international role. Before college, she grew up in New York City, where she attended a K-12 French immersion school and specialized in French literature and philosophy.
Appears in 22 Episodes
Reflecting on a Half Century of Environmental Law, Policy, and Governance
Each April, we celebrate the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. This movement resulted in the creation of many of the United States' foundational envi...
Honoring Mud Lake This Earth Day
Mud Lake, written and illustrated by 2020 National Wetlands Award winner Sam Lovall, is a collection of short adventure stories set in the 1960s and 70s about children...
NEPA, Explained
When airports, buildings, highways, dams, power plants, and other federal activities are proposed, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements are invoke...
ELR Spotlight: A Primer on Climate Justice Litigation in the United States
Over the last three decades, numerous studies have concluded that African American, Hispanic, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and working-class White ...
Diplomacy Required: Women, Water, and Peace
The theme of this year’s World Water Day is “Water for Peace”. With over 2 billion people around the world lacking clean water access, tensions can arise within commu...
Unleash the Green: Legal and Policy Solutions for Green Startups
Green startups are imagining solutions to the climate crisis and leading the transition to a sustainable economy. Yet sustainable entrepreneurship remains incredibly d...
How Can Business Help Solve the Freshwater Crisis?
Billions of people around the globe lack adequate access to clean water. This freshwater crisis will be exacerbated by climate change. Liquid Asset: How Business and G...
Cumulative Impact Analysis: Massachusetts, EPA, and Beyond
Communities are exposed to pollution through the air, water, and land. Multiple sources of pollution and other environmental stressors can add up over time to cause ad...
Confidence in Climate Science: How Consensus Emerges in the Scientific Community
Building scientific agreement is a meticulous process. In climate science, this process has faced a lot of outside scrutiny. In this episode, ELI’s Staff Scientist Dr....
Swamps, Science, and Sackett: ELI's Approach to Wetland Preservation
What do Wetlands have to do with wellbeing? As vibrant and critical ecosystems, wetlands provide economic, cultural, and climate benefits to communities worldwide. Yet...
From Dubai with Dedication: Navigating COP28 Climate Commitments
A lot has been said about COP28. It has been described as a success, failure, and everything in between, but what actually happened? This week, host Sarah Backer is jo...
Every Drop Counts: At the Confluence of Water and Law
It’s undeniable that we take water access for granted – until we don’t have it or until water quality degrades, anyways. With at least forty states anticipating water ...
Can Fashion Ever Be Sustainable? Maybe.
Consumers are seeking out ethically made and climate-friendly apparel to gift this holiday season. But how do they know whether their purchases are truly sustainable o...
The Enforcement Angle: David Uhlmann and OECA
The EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) develops the Agency’s national strategy to enforce compliance with federal environmental statutes. Led...
Governing for Sustainability: A Conversation with Scott Schang and John Dernbach
The United Nation’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 integrated goals that address global challenges, including those related to poverty, inequality, cli...
COP28 Special: The Global Stocktake and Climate Equity
Today is the first day of COP28, where participants will discuss the first-ever global stocktake, an assessment of global action on climate change to date. The global ...
Eat Your T(of)urkey: How to Reduce Food Waste This Thanksgiving
An estimated 312 million pounds of food will be wasted this Thanksgiving. In this week’s episode, host Sarah Backer is joined by ELI Senior Attorney Linda Breggin and ...
Groundtruth: Valuing Lived Experience and Fostering Meaningful Community Engagement
The Biden-Harris administration has placed an unprecedented federal focus on environmental justice using a whole of government approach, including issuing executive or...
Dr. Marshall Shepherd and “The Climate Moonshot”
In this week’s episode of People Places Planet Podcast, host Sarah Backer sits down with Dr. Marshall Shepherd, ELI’s 2023 Environmental Achievement Award recipient an...
Hear from ELI’s Summer Interns: Substantive Due Process in Climate Litigation, Caribbean Climate Migration, and Community Gardening in California
In this week’s episode of People Places Planet Podcast, ELI’s three summer interns (Anna Guzman, Natalie Triana, and Alex Alvarez) sit down with host Sarah Backer to ...
Not All Environmental Rights Amendments Are Created Equally: The Climate Science Behind Held v. Montana
In this week’s 'court watch' episode of the People, Places, and Planet podcast, Host Sarah Backer and guests ELI Staff Attorney Jarryd Page and Science Fellow John Doh...
Farewell, Georgia Ray! A Special Behind-the-Scenes Episode
Georgia Ray joined ELI as a Research Associate in August 2021 and has been the Host of People, Places, and Planet for the past year. At ELI, Georgia also worked on pro...