About

Eric Masanet holds the Mellichamp Chair in Sustainability Science for Emerging Technologies in the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He leads the Industrial Sustainability Analysis Laboratory, which develops models, datasets, and roadmaps for decarbonizing the industrial and information technology sectors while achieving broader sustainability and equity benefits. He is also a Faculty Scientist in the Energy Analysis & Environmental Impacts Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Throughout his career, Masanet has held numerous service roles to advance energy and climate technology policy and their scientific evidence bases. These include serving as Head of the Energy Demand Technology Unit at the International Energy Agency, a Lead Author of the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report, an author of the Fifth U.S. National Climate Assessment, and a member of the Research Advisory Board of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. He has also supported the Biden-Harris Administration initiatives on industrial innovation, technology, and energy as a Consultant at the U.S. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In January 2024, he was appointed to the DOE's Industrial Technology Innovation Advisory Committee. Masanet holds a PhD in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley, with an emphasis on sustainable design and manufacturing. His research focuses on energy system analysis, climate change mitigation, sustainable manufacturing, and data centers and ICT. He has contributed to the development of models and analyses that inform sustainable resource systems and energy use, including detailed assessments of data center energy consumption and internet energy impacts.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Environmental science
• Computer Security
• Political Science
• Engineering
• Economics
• Chemistry
• Mathematics
• Business
• Natural resource economics
• Statistics
• Waste management

Selected publications

• A rapid embodied carbon assessment tool for priority materials

  Environmental Research Communications · 2026-03-12

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Embodied carbon limits within building materials are a driving factor in global trade, generating new research and analysis tools in industry. These product assessments, which require utilizing life-cycle assessment (LCA) across broad supply chains, can be expensive, time and data-intensive, and subject to significant variations. Existing methods and tools, such as specific environmental product declarations, typically do not capture these variations and dynamics in supply and manufacturing. Moreover, models and tools must enable stakeholders to assess customized supply chains and future scenarios. In this study, we present the Rapid Embodied Carbon Assessment and Target-setting for Emissions-intensive Materials (REDuCE) tool for building materials. We developed a tool that allows users to select production technologies, transportation mode and distances, concrete carbonation, fuel sources, and regional electricity mixes to supply customization for cement and concrete produced and consumed in California. We generated and integrated a material demand model using residential building stock projections. We provide the user with a wide range of mitigation alternatives through low-carbon production pathways, material use efficiency, transportation modes, and projected electricity grid mixes. In a case study application through four mitigation scenarios, we find emission savings up to 80% by maximizing user mitigation alternatives, primarily driven by reductions in material use intensities. This work represents a foundation for expanding LCA and embodied carbon tools to better enable stakeholders to rapidly and accurately assess customized supply chains while meeting trade requirements.

  PublisherDOI

• Realizing the potential of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) in "embodied carbon" policies for building materials: A California case study

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Maximizing the benefits of “Buy Clean” policies for building materials: Six key priorities

  Resources Conservation and Recycling · 2026-02-12

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Estimating the Embodied Carbon of New California Buildings and Bounding its Mitigation Potential to 2045

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Digitalisation and AI impacts on energy transitions and climate targets

  Research Square · 2026-03-12

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Economic benefits and cost competitiveness of green hydrogen in decarbonizing China’s electricity and hard-to-electrify sectors

  Environmental Research Letters · 2025-11-04

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract Green hydrogen has the potential to address two critical challenges in a zero-carbon energy system: balancing seasonal variability of solar and wind in the electricity sector, and replacing fossil fuels in hard-to-electrify sectors. In this study, focusing on China, we deploy a provincial-scale energy system planning and operation model to examine the technical and cost-optimal potential of green hydrogen to fully remove carbon-based fuels in the electricity and hard-to-electrify sectors by 2050. Our results show that green hydrogen infrastructure can enable more cost-effective decarbonization of both the electricity and hard-to-electrify sectors. First, in the zero-carbon electricity sector alone, utilizing green hydrogen as long-duration storage enables a 17% reduction in the electricity-only cost (ZE scenario) relative to one without hydrogen. However, cost savings hinge on the availability of underground hydrogen storage. Second, coupling the electricity and hard-to-electrify sectors by sharing green hydrogen infrastructure reduces the combined energy system cost by 6% compared to a decoupled energy system. Third, the coupled energy system also makes green hydrogen comparable to fossil fuel-based gray and blue hydrogen costs in China. Allocating the entire savings realized in the coupled energy system to just the hydrogen used as fuel/feedstock in hard-to-electrify sectors yields a 24% reduction in the hydrogen-only cost relative to the cost under the decoupled system. Last, coupling hydrogen infrastructure between electricity and hard-to-electrify sectors yields a substantially different spatial pattern of hydrogen production. In the decoupled energy system, 80% of hydrogen demand in electricity and hard-to-electrify sectors is produced locally within the same provinces, but the coupled energy system cuts local production to 30%, shifting production to high renewable energy generating provinces. Understanding the spatial patterns of optimal hydrogen infrastructure siting will help plan an integrated electricity and hydrogen system that can cost-effectively decarbonize multiple sectors and China’s broader economy.

  PublisherDOI

• Shedding light on U.S. small and midsize data centers: Exploring insights from the CBECS survey

  Energy and Buildings · 2025-04-19 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The water use of data center workloads: A review and assessment of key determinants

  Resources Conservation and Recycling · 2025-04-14 · 23 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Anionic Surfactants from Reactive Separation of Hydrocarbons Derived from Polyethylene Upcycling

  Langmuir · 2025-02-04 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Chemical upcycling of polyethylene (PE) to long-chain alkylaromatics through tandem hydrocracking/aromatization has potential to provide value-added chemicals. However, the liquid product is a complex mixture of alkanes, alkylbenzenes, and polyaromatics, limiting its direct usability. The most valuable component of the product mixture is the alkylbenzenes because of their potential as precursors to anionic surfactants. In this study, a one-pot reactive separation is described. Sulfonating the product mixture from PE upcycling with silica sulfuric acid followed by neutralization with sodium hydroxide yields sodium alkylbenzenesulfonates (up to 93 mol % selectivity), along with a separate phase of lubricant-range hydrocarbons as a coproduct. Compared to petroleum-based sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonates, the reported PE-derived surfactant molecules show competitive physicochemical properties, including surface tension and interfacial tension. According to life cycle assessment, the described reaction strategy demonstrates 20% lower greenhouse gas emissions, when considering uses for the coproducts of PE upcycling, compared to conventional linear alkylbenzenesulfonates (LAS) manufacturing directly from petrochemical feedstocks.

  PublisherDOI

• Combining Electrification, Carbon Capture, and Circularity Can Most Economically Decarbonize U.S. Chemical Production

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Arpad Horvath

  35 shared

• Ernst Worrell

  Utrecht University

  30 shared

• Nuoa Lei

  28 shared

• Arman Shehabi

  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  25 shared

• Yuan Chang

  Central University of Finance and Economics

  19 shared

• Jonathan Koomey

  17 shared

• Zhi Cao

  Nankai University

  17 shared

• Nicholas J Santero

  17 shared

Labs

• Industrial Sustainability Analysis LaboratoryPI

Awards & honors

• Head of the Energy Demand Technology Unit at the Internation…
• Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…
• Author of the Fifth U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA5)
• Member of the Research Advisory Board of the American Counci…
• Consultant at the U.S. White House Office of Science and Tec…