A Thought Leader Series Piece

by Leah Gerber & Penny Langhammer

After a half-century of isolation, the Republic of Myanmar has reengaged with the international community following democratic elections in 2015. The country is experiencing rapid political, social and economic change, presenting it with both risks and opportunities.

Comprising a large portion of the Indo-Burma region, Myanmar is home to a remarkable diversity of unique species and ecosystems. While the country has maintained this rich biodiversity for centuries, Myanmar now faces challenges in sustainably managing its natural life-support systems and must address climate variability, water scarcity, agricultural productivity and energy security.

Recognizing that biodiversity underpins a range of ecosystem services that are required for sustainable development, Myanmar updated its National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan in 2015 and confirmed its commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals last year.

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The ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes and Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology have partnered to host a series of dialogues exploring ways in which institutional transformation can lead to diversity and inclusiveness in STEAM+H (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics and health) opportunities.

The series, titled “Community of Scholars Committed to Inclusive STEAM+H Pathways,” has drawn active participation from approximately 25 faculty and deans.

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In April 2017, Walmart announced an ambitious goal to reduce emissions by one billion tons (a “gigaton”). The company invited key suppliers to join Project Gigaton by making climate commitments that will help the company reach its target by 2030.

That's where The Sustainability Consortium, founded through a partnership between ASU and the University of Arkansas, comes in. The organization will act as an official measurement partner, collecting data on emissions – both upstream and downstream in the value chain of products – from participating Walmart suppliers.

“Climate change is one of the gravest threats we face. It also presents unlimited opportunities for companies that choose to lead," said Euan Murray, TSC Chief Executive. "By taking a science-based approach to set such an audacious goal, Walmart cements its place as a leader with Project Gigaton. The Sustainability Consortium is proud to support Walmart in this critical initiative and we look forward to helping them deliver."

In March, two representatives from Arizona State University attended the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s 2017 Liaison Delegate meeting in Montreux, Switzerland. Amy Scoville-Weaver represented ASU’s Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO), and William Brandt attended on behalf of ASU LightWorks.

The WBCSD is a CEO-led organization of forward-thinking companies that galvanizes the global business community to create a sustainable future for business, society and the environment.

The conference, Roadmap for Impact in Today’s Reality, focused on the drastic political changes over the past year, implications for sustainability and the critical opportunity for the private sector to engage in new ways on sustainable development. As part of the conference, WBCSD released its CEO Guide to the Sustainable Development Goals.

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A blighted neighborhood is transforming into a community hub, complete with a vegetable garden tended by refugee families, thanks in part to a $2,500 gift from Mortenson Construction to ASU’s School of Sustainability.

Working with the humanitarian organization International Rescue Committee, ASU students and residents cultivate produce in an aquaponics greenhouse at 1616 West Camelback Road, a low-income neighborhood in Central Phoenix that has limited nutritional options.

"Through careful and intensive design, this project could become a place for the refugee community to call home and feel integrated into the neighborhood," says Josh Greene, a senior in architectural studies.

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As the current presidential administration rolls back numerous environmental regulations, Senior Sustainability Scientist Leah Gerber considers the consequences of losing the Endangered Species Act – another item queued for the chopping block.

In an April 2017 commentary in Christian Science Monitor titled "Is the endangered species act facing extinction?," Gerber touts the services biodiversity provides us - among them, food, medicine, clean water and air. Not only do these enhance rather than impede our lifestyle, in Gerber's opinion, the plants and animals that make up our ecosystems enrich our lives in ways often ascribed to art.

According to Gerber, who directs ASU's Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, these benefits provide solid ground for a bipartisan effort to strengthen the ESA's ability to protect endangered species rather than to limit or invalidate it.

"For those species that we deem worthy of protection, we must promote their recovery and be willing to pay for it," Gerber writes. "For the losing species, we need to prepare for the consequences of their disappearance from Earth."

Sustainability is a field written in pencil, at best, according to School of Sustainability Professor of Practice George Basile.

In an April 2017 interview with GreenBiz,  Basile explains that sustainability is always evolving, requiring its practitioners to be keen learners.

"When you implement sustainability even today, very quickly people find out what it’s like to be a pioneer," he says. "You’ll find yourself in new territory."

The students who enroll in sustainability courses at ASU are not intimidated by this prospect. In Basile's opinion, School of Sustainability students are among the best.

"They’re willing to learn. They’re motivated. They come with a great breadth of backgrounds and they really are solution-oriented," he explains. "They’re looking at 'how do we build the future we want.'"

Today, State Press published a featured story covering the ASU-Conservation International (CI) Knowledge Partnership managed by the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO). As part of the partnership, ASU recently welcomed six CI scientists as Professors of Practice.

“The idea [behind this partnership] is to create additional research, education and engagement activities for students and faculty in the realm of biodiversity conservation,” explained Beth Polidoro, CBO Associate Director of Research and professor of environmental chemistry.

Students will have the opportunity to be mentored by the Professors of Practice, enhancing their ability to bridge academic knowledge and practical applications to help solve real-world biodiversity conservation issues. In addition, they will be exposed to networking opportunities and one-on-one career mentoring.

Amy Scoville-Weaver, CBO Project Manager, coordinates this initiative and helps create connections within the university. “Sustainability, it's across disciplines, and I think it doesn't matter what you're doing, even if you're a literature major and are interested in biodiversity," she explains. “Ultimately, everything is connected back to the foundations of life.”

At the beginning of April 2017, ASU held its 7th annual Human Rights Film Festival in the College Avenue Commons Auditorium on its Tempe campus. The festival – sponsored in part by the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability – was a free, three-day event open to the public.

This year, the festival embraced a domestic theme, as every documentary it featured highlighted human rights abuses within the United States. These topics included immigration, racism, poverty, reproductive rights, and indigenous rights such as the conflict over the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“Film is a powerful way to convey experience,” says Senior Sustainability Scholar LaDawn Haglund, who founded the festival and continues to serve as its director. “It transcends an intellectual understanding of an issue to reach people’s hearts. With human rights violations, this is so important because statistics and facts make us numb rather than outraged, which is how we must feel — at least momentarily — if we want to create a world where such violations are stopped.”

Xochimilco, Mexico City is the last remnant of the complex lacustrine system of wetlands that was the basis for agriculture and livelihoods in pre-Columbian times. However, the water is no longer provided by natural springs, but is provided by the discharge of treated wastewater from the neighboring, densely-populated and impoverished borough of Iztapalapa.

The water quality is not good, not only because of its source, but also because of numerous illicit discharges of sewage into the wetland from the irregular and expanding urban settlements on the wetland’s fringe. Water quality concerns have undermined fishing and agricultural livelihoods, and threaten the ecotourism activities of the area.

MEGADAPT – led by School of Sustainability Professor Hallie Eakin – recently conducted a Transformation lab (T-Lab) in Xochimilco. While there are numerous sustainability challenges associated with Xochimilco, the T-lab focused on the issue of informal/irregular settlements and the urbanization of the historic wetlands. The MEGADAPT team proposed the T-lab as a collaborative arena where participants could discover and mobilize agency to address urbanization.

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In a recent publication by the Ecological Society of America (ESA), Dr. Leah Gerber, Founding Director of ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, shared advice to early career ecologists on why it matters to engage with the business sector and best approaches.

“Engaging with big business offers an opportunity to have tremendous impact on the decisions that are made by these companies,” explained Gerber. “One reason NOT to engage is the hope that deep pockets will provide untapped basic research funding.”

On February 2017, Dr. Gerber was named an ESA Fellow. Gerber was selected for her pioneering efforts to integrate marine ecology and conservation science into tenable policy and decision-making tools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GArLnmVQqU&list=PLmV7x-JlhKmpwqt-J11PasidmidnQz62V&index=1

Chris Chappell graduated from the School of Sustainability in 2012 with a Bachelor's of Science, focusing on Sustainable Ecosystems. Chappell is currently the Social Media Coordinator for the Arizona Wilderness Brewing Company in Gilbert, Arizona, where he acts as both a communications hub and resident photographer for the brewery.

Chappell educates the public, as well as his fellow brewery staff, about the story of every beer: from its locally-sourced ingredients, to its deliciously brewed end.

Where are you working now?

Arizona Wilderness is a very fast-paced brewery in the sense that we have five daily food specials, weekly beer tappings and weekly bottle/can releases. Most of these beers and food specials utilize local ingredients, either sourced from a local farmer or even ethically foraged by our brewers, or have some sort of interesting story behind them. It is my job to gather all of the information on these and convey it to the public, via social media, and to our amazing staff.

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Torin Sadow, a BA alum in Sustainability and Urban Dynamics and a BS in Planning, took on a challenging project as a Sustainability Intern with the City of Bisbee Public Works. Sadow was responsible for helping the City of Bisbee create a municipal sustainability plan.

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How might climate change affect Arizona? A decrease in crop yields, for one thing, according to Andrew Berardy – a postdoctoral research associate with the Food Systems Transformation Initiative – and Senior Sustainability Scientist Mikhail Chester.

After studying the food-energy-water nexus that governs agriculture in Arizona, the pair found that the state's yields could drop more than 12 percent per 1 degree Celsius. This would have cascading effects – including more irrigation and increased food prices – that would be felt throughout the region.

In light of roll-backs in environmental protection by the Trump administration, Berardy and Chester advise that farmers upgrade to more efficient irrigation methods like drip irrigation. Their findings were published in IOP Science.

On March 27-30, ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO) researchers will lead a workshop in Myanmar to identify ways in which biodiversity conservation can enhance human well-being (e.g. food security, climate regulation, flood protection) in the country. This workshop is part of CBO’s Ecosystem Services and Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) project, supported by the Science for Nature and People Partnership.

Myanmar is a biodiversity hotspot, abundant in unique species and ecosystems. 2015 democratic elections in this country have led to rapid political, social and economic change. In recognizing that their social and economic success depends on their natural wealth, last year Myanmar stated its commitment to the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.

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In partnership with Conservation International (CI) and the Nereus Program, the ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes is hiring a full-time postdoctoral research associate to work in the Honolulu, CI Hawaii offices.

This postdoctoral fellow will develop high-impact science to support sustainable management and conservation interventions in global fisheries and aquaculture.

The fellow will directly support the three goals of the ASU-CI Knowledge Partnership: protect biodiversity, promote sustainable development (particularly in food production and fisheries), and train the next generation of conservation biologists

For more information and to apply, click here>>

We’ve portioned out more of the Colorado River’s water than it can deliver. What now?

Senior Sustainability Scientist Dave White, who directs ASU's Decision Center for a Desert City, delivered his ideas for staying afloat in a March 2017 KED Talk. He demonstrated how the lessons he learned while rafting the Colorado River in 1998 are applicable to today's proverbial water rapids – namely drought, climate insecurity, population growth and overallocation.

"The solutions to these problems will require courage, skilled and experienced leadership," says White, "....and the recognition that the vitality of the American West depends on everyone paddling together."

Spotlighting the Sustainability Teachers' Academy – a program of the Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives – ASU was recognized with a 2017 Best of Green Schools award from the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council.

The award, presented in collaboration with the Green Schools National Network, acknowledges the importance of cultivating lifelong awareness by planting the sustainability seed early and, particularly, ASU's efforts to achieve just that through community education.

The annual Best of Green Schools awards recognize 11 individuals, institutions, projects and events representing the best environmental efforts in schools across the country. ASU was honored in the higher-education category.