
Aaron Best
Masters in Public Administration
Coordinator Data Analysis
Senior Fellow
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As a Senior Fellow and economist at Ecologic Institute, Aaron Best focuses on economic issues related to environmental policy. His project work includes climate policy, sustainable development indicators, circular economy, cost-benefit analysis, economic valuation of environmental goods and services, and environmentally harmful subsidies. He coordinates Ecologic Institute's data analysis team. Aaron is a native English speaker and speaks fluent German. He also has a working knowledge of Spanish.
Aaron Best's work also focuses on issues related to transatlantic policymaking as well as the interplay of trade and the environment. He has provided economic analysis for Ecologic Institute studies on the interplay of climate and trade policy, including work for the European Parliament’s international trade committee. In addition to his research and writing, Aaron Best was previously manager of the Transatlantic Program, overseeing several of Ecologic Institute's transatlantic initiatives, including the Transatlantic Fellows and Transatlantic Interns programs. As a U.S. citizen living in Berlin, he also speaks on transatlantic environmental issues.
Aaron Best headed the Horizon 2020 project "Measuring the IMPACTS of the Transition to the CIRCULAR Economy" (CIRCULAR IMPACTS), which further developed the evidence base on the EU transition to a more circular economy. He led the project team organising the high-level conference "Measuring Progress, True Wealth, and the Well-being of Nations" (Beyond GDP). He also managed a review of the Ecological Footprint and other resource indicators for the European Commission and contributed to several climate-related projects for both EU and German institutions.
From 2006 to 2010, Aaron Best worked as a Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute. From 2010 to 2016, during his time away from the institute, he was employed as a Deputy Director at Climate-KIC, a major EU initiative to support climate-related innovation by start-ups, firms and academic institutions across Europe. During this time, he remained connected to Ecologic Institute as a Senior Associate. Since 2017, he is working again full time at Ecologic Institute.
Prior to his work at Ecologic Institute, Aaron Best worked as a research economist at ECONorthwest, the leading economic consultancy in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. He also gained significant business experience as a business development manager and program manager for Amazon.com in both the United States and England. In 2005/6 Aaron Best spent 10 months living and working in Germany as a Robert Bosch Fellow. The Robert Bosch Fellowship is an intensive program that provides future American leaders with a detailed look at the present-day institutions, politics and cultures of Germany and the European Union.
Aaron Best holds a Master's degree in Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Washington in Seattle (USA) and a Bachelor's degree (economics and environmental policy) from The Evergreen State College, an interdisciplinary liberal arts school near Seattle.