Summer 2025 Soils Schneider Fellow (Stanford Students Only)

NRDC is a non-profit environmental advocacy organization. We use law, science, and the support of 3.1 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure the rights of all people to clean air, clean water, and healthy communities. NRDC was founded in 1970 and our people helped write some of America's bedrock environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act and many of the implementing regulations. Today, our team of more than 600 lawyers, scientists, economists, policy advocates, communications experts, and others work across the United States and the globe from our offices in Beijing; Chicago; New Delhi; New York; San Francisco; Santa Monica; and Washington, D.C.

NRDC is seeking a Summer Schneider Fellow to work with the Food and Agriculture team in our Santa Monica or Washington D.C. offices. Must be a Stanford student to apply.

Position Summary:

The Soils Team in the Food & Agriculture Sector would like to request a Schneider fellow to help with our team's burgeoning work to reduce US nitrous oxide emissions.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is both a potent greenhouse gas and the largest uncontrolled source of ozone-depleting emissions. Over 75% of domestic N₂O emissions are associated with agriculture, and of that, 55% comes from fertilizers. 17% of crop-related N₂O emissions are a result of nitrogen fertilizer that was not taken up by plants and enters waterways and volatizes into N₂O downstream. Improving nitrogen management can reduce agricultural N₂O emissions and protect ecosystems and people. In the Midwest alone, improved nitrogen management can reduce N₂O emissions by 50% and simultaneously reduce nitrate pollution in surface and groundwaters.

Nitrogen fertilizers also have huge impacts on energy consumption worldwide, as fertilizer production consumes 1-2% of the global energy supply, 3-5% of the world's natural gas production, and accounts for 1-3% of global CO2 emissions. There is significant opportunity to decarbonize the production of nitrogen fertilizer, mainly by improving the process by which ammonia, a key ingredient in ammonium nitrate fertilizers, is made. To chart a path to more sustainable fertilizer use, we need to consider all alternative fertilizer production systems.

We are requesting a Schneider fellow to help us explore opportunities to reduce the impact of fertilizer production and application nationally, including potential regulatory options through the Montreal Protocol, legislative options in a handful of key states in the U.S., and funding options through the Farm Bill. We need help identifying decarbonization levers with clean hydrogen, and roughly quantifying the emissions reduction potential from those decarbonization levers. The fellow will conduct critical research, write strategy memos and policy briefs, analyze available N2O data, organize and liaise with key NGO and academic partners, and propose model policy language. The fellow will also have the opportunity to join stakeholder meetings, including with legislators.

You may be responsible for:

Explore opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of fertilizer production and use.
• Identify decarbonization options using clean hydrogen.
• Quantify emissions reduction potential from decarbonization strategies.
• Analyze nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions data.
• Write strategy memos and policy briefs.
• Research potential regulatory options under the Montreal Protocol.
• Explore legislative strategies in key U.S. states.
• Identify funding opportunities through the Farm Bill.
• Propose model policy language.
• Organize and liaise with NGO and academic partners.
• Attend stakeholder meetings, including discussions with legislators.

Must be a Stanford Student to apply!

NRDC is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, both in our work and in our workplace. We believe that celebrating and actively welcoming diverse voices and perspectives is essential to solving the planet's most pressing environmental problems, and we encourage applications from candidates whose identities have been historically underrepresented in the environmental movement.

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Our offices are open and we are operating in a hybrid model. We offer NRDCers flexibility, and we ask them to come into the office and spend meaningful time there in collaboration with their colleagues. We call this purposeful presence.

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