Steve Christensen: COVID-19 and The Importance of Batteries

In this episode, Executive Director of Responsible Battery Coalition, Steve Christensen talks with students from the UC Riverside School of Public Policy about the important contribution of batteries in daily life, but specifically during a pandemic. About Steve Christensen: Steve Christensen is the Executive Director of Responsible Battery Coalition, a nonprofit  coalition of companies, academics and organizations committed to the responsible management of the batteries of today and tomorrow. Prior to this role, he served as the Managing Director in the U.S. Public Affairs and Crisis Practice at Burson-Marsteller in Washington DC, where his clients include some of the world’s largest agriculture, chemical and consumer products companies. Before joining the private sector, Mr. Christensen served in several roles as a senior policy official at the United States Department of Agriculture where he concentrated his efforts on supporting public health and production agriculture through the development and implementation of sound science-based public policy. Mr. Christensen is also an Advisory Board member for the UC Riverside School of Public Policy. Learn more about Steve Christensen via https://www.responsiblebatterycoalition.org/leadership-team/ Podcast Highlights: “A concern we did have when things started to close down was a state government or some official not allowing recycling of batteries...we want to make sure that recycling would remain stable so we wouldn’t see an increase in resource extraction.” -       Steve Christensen on the topic of battery production recycling and its role during COVID-19. “The reliance on batteries, as we get out of this, one of the ways we are going to manage it is through battery operated devices, from your phone to a thermometer. It all relies on battery.” -      Steve Christensen on the topic of COVID-19’s impact on battery support for the transportation in medical industries. “It is rare that you will find a food or beverage company that relies on a single source or a single region for any aspect in their business...for the next generation of batteries...the majority of those materials are coming from China and there is no where else to get them.” -       Steve Christensen on the topic of the prevalent issues within the supply change and obtaining the material needed for batteries. Guest: Steve Christensen, Executive Director of Responsible Battery Coalition Interviewers: Maddie Bunting (UCR Public Policy Major, Dean’s Chief Ambassador) Paola Loera (UCR Public Policy Major, Dean’s Ambassador) Music by: Samuel Roberts (UCR Public Policy ‘20) This is a production of the UCR School of Public Policy: https://spp.ucr.edu/ Subscribe to this podcast so you don’t miss an episode. Learn more about the series and other episodes via https://spp.ucr.edu/podcast.