Eric Kemp-Benedict
Eric Kemp-Benedict is a senior scientist at SEI-US in Somerville, MA. Eric’s research focuses on the macroeconomics of a sustainability transition. From the time Eric joined SEI in 1997, he has contributed to studies on diverse topics of relevance to sustainability at national, regional, and global levels. He has also actively developed and applied tools and methods for participatory and study-specific sustainability analyses.
Eric led SEI’s Rethinking Development theme during 2011 and 2012, and he was director of SEI’s Asia Centre from February 2013 until February 2016. As director, he was responsible for research, administrative and financial leadership. He was also part of SEI’s international management and helped coordinate the Asia Centre’s interactions with headquarters and with SEI colleagues worldwide.
He has a B.S. in physics from the University of Texas in Austin and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Boston University, as well as an MAT in secondary physics education from Tufts University.
Tellus Publications (Selected)
Municipal, Industrial and Energy Water Demands Indicators and Indices for the World Water Development Report
Annette Huber-Lee, Eric Kemp-Benedict
This report develops indicators that both address the three challenge areas -- Water and Energy, Water and Industry, and Water and Cities -- and readily feed into the remaining challenge areas of the WWAP.
Global Environment Outlook Scenario Framework
Paul Raskin, Eric Kemp-Benedict
Through the Global Environment Outlook series, the United Nations Environment Programme provides a comprehensive assessment of the state of the global environment, a review of policy responses, and an outlook on the future. The first Global Environment Outlook (GEO-1) was released in 1997, the second (GEO-2000) in 2000, and the third (GEO-3) in 2002. This background paper for GEO-3 provides a scenario-based approach to illuminate the challenges and appropriate responses over the coming decades. It addresses environmental trends in an integrated framework that included economic, social, and cultural factors that ultimately shape the ways in which human activity impacts nature, and it places regional analyses in the context of global patterns.
Sustainable Development in West Africa: Beginning the Process
Charles Heaps, Eric Kemp-Benedict, Paul Raskin, Y. Sokona, Susan Humphreys
The transition to sustainable forms of development will be a long and complex process. The objective of this project is to help launch that process in West Africa, focusing on the countries in the UEMOA region, the Union Économique et Monétaire Ouest-Africaine. The study is the first to assess current patterns of development and resource use in the region, with a view to evaluating the sustainability of current practices into the future.
Polestar: System Manual for Version 2000
Paul Raskin, Charles Heaps, Jack Sieber, Eric Kemp-Benedict
The PoleStar System provides a flexible and user-friendly framework for building and assessing alternative development scenarios at regional, national, and global scales. It is an adaptable accounting and model-building framework designed to assist the analyst engaged in sustainability studies—not a rigid model reflecting one particular approach to environment and development interactions. With PoleStar, analysts can customize data structures, time horizons, and spatial boundaries—all of which can be expanded or altered easily. They can also introduce new variables, indicators and relationships to match their needs. The system can synthesize information generated from formal models, existing studies, or any other sources upon which the user wishes to draw.