Dr. Stephen Bird


Professor, Political Science, Clarkson University 

Institute for a Sustainable Environment & Humanities & Social Science
Director, Adirondack Semester 

Research Affiliate at Positive Energy (University of Ottawa)

Current Projects


Sustainable Holistic Planning Systems & LEED for Communities: We work with the US Green Building Council and the New York Olympic Region (Lake Placid, North Elba, Olympic Regional Development Authority) on planning for resiliency, sustainability, and equity.


Positive Energy: I do a lot of work with my Canadian colleagues at the University of Ottawa at Positive Energy.  We focus on Canadian Energy decision-making, and I am specifically engaged on issues of energy conflict, polarization, governance, and planning processes. 


Smart Housing: Since 2013, we have been working with our IBM partners in four of our student  Woodstock apartment buildings to improve resource efficiency and use (water, energy) with our Smart Housing Project.  


Microgrid: Working with Clarkson faculty, National Grid, and GE, we our assessing implementation of multi-stakeholder microgrids. Several papers in the Tech. Change section.


Recent Publications


Bird, Stephen. Energy Conflict in North America. Cambridge University Press, under contract. 2024.  


Legault, Lisa, Stephen Bird, and Martin D. Heintzelman. 2024. “Pro-Environmental, Prosocial, pro-Self, or Does It Depend? A More Nuanced Understanding of the Motivations Underlying Residential Solar Panel Adoption.” Energy Research & Social Science 111 (May): 103481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103481.


Stephen Bird. “Canadian Public Opinion and the Green Transition.” 2023 (forthcoming). In Canadian Environmental Politics and Policy: Canada and the Green Transition (5th Ed.), edited by Debora VanNijnatten. New York: Oxford University Press.


Bustamante, Claudia (s), Stephen Bird, Lisa Legault, and Susan E. Powers. 2023. “Energy Hogs and Misers: Magnitude and Variability of Individuals’ Household Electricity Consumption.” Sustainability 15 (5): 4171. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054171.


Bird, Stephen, and Sarah Chase (s). 2023 “Canada’s National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy: Institutional Responses to Conflict in Energy.” Building Consensus: What Works. Ottawa Canada: Positive Energy | University of Ottawa. 


Hallstrom, Louis W., and Stephen Bird. 2022. “Policy Options for Forest Disturbance-Adapted Species Management:  Assessing the Rusty Blackbird in New York’s Adirondack Park Louis W. Hallstrom V.” Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies 25, no. 1. https://digitalworks.union.edu/ajes/vol25/iss1/6. Environmental Policy Section.


Research Areas



Activities: Media, Events, Lectures, etc.


The 2015 and 2018 "Last Lecture" at Clarkson: A Presentation on happiness, loss, and what matters in life to the Clarkson Class of 2018.


Board of Directors of the Adirondack Research Consortium


Some video on Fulbright Canada at University of Ottawa.