Robert Herendeen's research interests include energy consumption, quantitative analysis of environmental issues, and environmental bookkeeping. Trained as a physicist, he has conducted economic input-output analyses to determine resource requirements and other impacts of consumption, following the parallels between economic and ecological systems and analysis of perturbed ecosystems.
At the Gund, Bob writes about barriers to effective energy policy and how to surmount them. He serves on the Board of Commissioners of the Burlington Electric Department. His projects cover details of energy accounting principles and net energy of energy-conserving retrofit construction. Past projects include studies on "Energy Cost Of Living", fairly allocating effects of energy/carbon taxes, and mathematics of trophic cascades in ecosystems.