“When you find someone that breaks the mold and says ‘It’s not going to be easy, but here are some steps towards a solution,’ it’s invigorating. Really even just a person’s attitude can be very energizing. Surrounding yourself with people that have that type of attitude can be quite inspiring.”
This newsletter issue features Dr. Stephen McCord, Global CO2 Initiative TEA/LCA Research Fellow.
Dr. McCord holds a Chemical Engineering PhD from the University of Sheffield. His work focuses on assessing whether emerging carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies can help us achieve a more sustainable future through techno-economic assessment (TEA), life cycle assessment (LCA) and social impact assessment and how we can use these tools to strengthen decision and policy making. A man of diverse interests, Stephen is an avid baker who has also run marathons and cycled across the United Kingdom.
What surprised you about living in the US compared to England?
In the US, people have a very entrepreneurial and individualistic attitude, which shines through on so many different levels. It’s something you hear about a lot, and maybe this primes you to see it, but it feels like everyone and anyone is trying to find a way to get an idea off the ground or a company up and running. You see it a lot in the universities too, which is great; it feels like you are standing on the launchpad for so many of these great plans. There is obviously a lot of focus on carbon removal, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture and utilization (CCU) at the moment and, in my job, I get to meet a lot of great people with incredible ideas. I genuinely hope that as many people as possible can make their ideas work, because it feels like every success story is one step in the right direction to combating this huge global problem of climate change.
On a lighter note, there are some things that I don’t get at all: those strange ads for prescription medicines, the giant bottles of applesauce I see in every supermarket, the weird gaps in all the bathroom stalls and writing the date month first to name a few. But everyone in Ann Arbor wants to talk about the weather and the bus drivers are friendly, that reminds me of home so that’s cool.
What inspires you?
The thing that inspires me most is watching people talk about ideas. I like going to conferences and meeting people who are able to convey well thought out responses in an energetic and exciting way. There’s so much doom and gloom in the area that we work in; it’s very easy to get pulled into it and think “Oh no, there’s no real solution to these problems!”
When you find someone that breaks the mold and says “It’s not going to be easy, but here are some steps towards a solution,” it’s invigoratiing. Really even just a person’s attitude can be very energizing. Surrounding yourself with people that have that type of attitude can be quite inspiring. That’s why it’s really nice to work with Volker (Sick), who sees the big picture, acknowledges that there are challenges, but at the same time, wants to find solutions, and not necessarily just dwell too much on those problems. I’ve always been very lucky to have people around me, like Volker or Peter Styring or all of the people I worked with on the CO2nsistent project – people who bring big solutions to big problems.
