Editor’s note: This month, SDG&E’s CEO, Jessie Knight, Jr., and COO, Mike Niggli, were honored with the Scripps Institute of Oceanography’s Scientists’ Recognition Award, one of the highest awards bestowed to an individual.
The Scientists’ Recognition Award recognizes individuals that have demonstrated continuing support to UC San Diego and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Recipients of this award have helped to elevate the research capabilities of UC San Diego and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography through broad and consistent advocacy, which has helped these institutions become the world-renowned research and education engines they are today.
The Scripps Institute of Oceanography also celebrated the awards by featuring the story on its Exploration Now news site. Read below for the full story.
Around the Pier: Scripps Celebrates a Win-Win
Explorations Now, UC San Diego news site
In 2008, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a mandate for California utilities to draw at least 33 percent of their energy portfolios from renewable sources.
The impulse of many state utilities was to balk. After all, they were just getting used to a standard of 20 percent that had been enacted only five years before.
But, as San Diego Gas and Electric Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jessie Knight recounted Jan. 17, his utility embraced the stricter mandate. The difference, he said, was thanks to an earlier interaction with scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego.
Knight was among several executives of SDG&E’s parent company, Sempra Energy, who had taken part in intensive sessions with Scripps researchers to learn the fundamentals of climate science in 2007. The perspective has remained with them to this day.
“It had an incredible impact on where we went as a company,” said Knight.
Knight was one of three representatives of the Southern California business community honored with Scripps Scientists’ Recognition Awards. For the past five years, Scripps researchers have nominated business executives, donors, and community leaders for the award, which recognizes the help of corporate partners who have furthered the cause of research.
The two other recipients were SDG&E President and Chief Operating Officer Mike Niggli and Southern California Edison (SCE) Project Manager of Seismic Programs and Research George Murray, who recently retired from the utility company.
Knight and Niggli were recognized in large part for the support the Sempra Energy Foundation has given to an exhibit at Birch Aquarium at Scripps that showcases a variety of renewable energy sources, as well as for their support for postdoctoral researchers, and engaging their energy sector partners, including Southern California Edison, on behalf of Scripps. Boundless Energy opened at the aquarium in 2011.
SDG&E and San Diego Gas & Electric are registered trademarks of San Diego Gas & Electric Company.
© 1998-2013 San Diego Gas & Electric Company. The Trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
