Ideas to Action:

Independent research for global prosperity

S. Jacob Scherr

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S. Jacob Scherr is a Senior Attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in its Washington, D.C. office. Mr. Scherr serves as Director of NRDC's International Program and a Director of the NRDC BioGems Initiative. During his career with NRDC since 1976, he has worked extensively on a broad range of international environmental and nuclear issues. He has led a number of successful advocacy campaigns, which include:

  • Greening U.S. Foreign Aid: securing a mandate for U.S. assistance for environmental and natural resources protection in developing countries (1976-78)
  • Stopping Exports of Banned Products: ending the practice of US exports of banned pesticides to unknowing customers in other nations and stimulating the creation of a global citizens effort against pesticide abuse (1976-1979)
  • Forcing an end to plutonium production and a cleanup of nuclear weapons production facilities: compelling the US Department of Energy to end the production of plutonium, to comply with environmental laws at its immense nuclear weapons complex, and to initiate the biggest environmental cleanup in history (1981 -1988)
  • Demonstrating verification of a nuclear test ban: organizing the largest privately-funded scientific exchange ever with the Soviet Union to demonstrate that a nuclear test ban could be verified (1986-1990)
  • Phasing-out leaded gasoline: encouraging the phase-out of leaded gasoline in more than 50 nations around the world (1994 -1998).

In 1989, Mr. Scherr initiated NRDC’s work on global climate change. In 1992, he founded Earth Summit Watch to monitor national implementation of the commitments to sustainable development made at the Rio Earth Summit; and he was actively very involved in the August 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. Mr. Scherr created the Earth Legacy campaign launched in June 2004 to seek the creation of an unprecedented Congressionally-mandated commission on the state of the global environment and the role of the United States.

Mr. Scherr also has worked extensively with indigenous peoples and environmental organizations in various countries concerned about threats posed by large-scale development projects. He was a leader of the successful campaign to stop the construction of a giant saltworks at Laguna San Ignacio, an important gray whale nursery, in Baja Calfornia, Mexico (1995-2000). Mr. Scherr now oversees NRDC’s initiative to protect such threatened special natural places – called “BioGems” – throughout the Americas. Over the last four years, more than 500,000 people have come to the BioGems website, signed up as “BioGem Defenders” e-activists, and sent more than 5 million messages to government and corporate officials.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Scherr has participated in numerous legal and administrative proceedings; testified before Congressional committees; published articles, chapters, and reports; and addressed university, professional, and public audiences. He has worked extensively with the media. Mr. Scherr produced both NRDC’s first nationally-televised presentation and advocacy advertising campaign.

Mr. Scherr also serves as President of the Herbert Scoville, Jr. Peace Fellowship and is a member of the Advisory Committee to the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business.

Mr. Scherr is a 1970 graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. In 1974, he received his JD with highest honors from the University of Maryland Law School. Prior to joining NRDC, he was a Fellow at the American Society of International Law and a lecturer in International Law at the University of Maryland School of Law.