Sam
Appel

Practitioner in Residence

sappel@berkeley.edu

Program Area

Green Economy

About Sam

Sam Appel is a labor, environmental, and community organizer, researcher, and policy advocate in California with extensive experience in economic justice, environmental, and racial justice campaigns. Most recently Appel led the BlueGreen Alliance’s work in California, overseeing the development and implementation of statewide and regional policy campaigns across transportation, manufacturing, building decarbonization, industrial transformation, energy generation, oil and gas, and equitable climate investment. Prior to BlueGreen Alliance, Appel worked for the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, and the UCLA Downtown Labor Center. He holds a master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA. His interest in California climate justice policy dates back to his time at the UCLA Community Scholars Program, where he worked on a project that brought together labor groups and environmental justice organizations to analyze policies for transforming the goods movement and warehouse systems.

    Politico

    Labor unions are still giving Democrats climate headaches

    “We don’t really have a great plan for building high-quality, unionized jobs in the clean economy in the industrial sector,” said Sam Appel, a researcher at UC Berkeley’s Labor Center who wrote a report finding that around $13 billion out of $32 billion in state climate investments isn’t connected to workforce standards.

    Politico

    Transitions: Blue-Collar Green Jobs

    A University of California, Berkeley, Labor Center report out Wednesday measures the state’s progress so far, finding California has put in high labor standards for large, publicly funded construction projects such as utility-scale solar and multifamily housing development.