Seeking sustainable solutions to unfettered development, a team of ASU researchers has been working to create an innovative, physics-based model that can predict how gardens and farms can most efficiently be integrated into cities.

Natural vs. artificial – which Christmas tree is better for the environment, and can consumer choice really make a difference?

Carole Mars, senior research lead at The Sustainability Consortium at ASU, delves into what makes a Christmas tree "green," and whether other considerations come into play for consumers decorating for the holidays.

So, which tree is really more environmentally-friendly?

It depends on how consumers use it. Mars explains that there are several options for environmentally-conscious shoppers seeking to lower their environmental footprint. Locally-sourced natural trees that are composted or recycled will have a ‘break-even point’ of approximately four years, after which their environmental impact will be mitigated. On the other hand, artificial trees must be used for at least eight years to have a lower environmental impact than their natural counterparts, but can easily be re-used and re-purposed year after year.

Thus, it is crucial for holiday consumers to plan ahead when selecting their Christmas trees to find the perfect  compromise between tradition and conservation.

In a world where climate change poses an ever-growing threat, reducing conventional energy use is paramount to protecting the atmosphere.

An assistant professor at ASU, Liping Wang explores using thermal radiation to meet the demand for sources of renewable energy and energy conservation devices. With this aim, Wang is developing nanowire-based metamaterials, which are more flexible and tunable – and therefore yield the best results.

Wang says these technologies can help to produce high-efficiency renewable energy sources and to recycle waste heat. By re-using this previously-wasted heat, the demand for conventional energy sources declines and – in turn – so do greenhouse gas emissions and the acceleration of climate change.

by Sharonah Fredrick, Assistant Director of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at ASU

How did the medieval Norse and Inuit peoples adapt to their changing climates in 14^th century Greenland? Can people today learn from these histories?

On October 6, 2016, the School of Sustainability, the School for Social Transformation, and the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (ACMRS) came together to grapple with these kinds of imaginative and scholarly questions.  At an event titled “Climate Change in Historical Perspective,” panelists covered topics that moved from the ancient Americas through medieval Greenland, and from contemporary communities threatened by climate change in Ecuador and Morocco through ethnogeological studies of Diné (Navajo) and other Indigenous knowledge of Earth systems and processes.

With reference to ancient documents and stories, panelists posed interdisciplinary questions to the audience to break through artificial barriers between the arts, social sciences/humanities and the sciences.

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The rapid melting of Arctic ice is among the most dramatic effects of climate change. This is because the thawing of permafrost is likely to drive temperatures even higher throughout our planet and cause a number of cascading effects.

Recognizing that human habits are unlikely to change enough for this melting trend to be reversed, Steve Desch – a School of Earth and Space Exploration professor – decided to explore other options.

Desch formed an interdisciplinary research team, including sustainability scientist Hilairy Hartnett. The team created an innovative ASU class called "Geodesigning the Arctic" that focused on one solution in particular: using a windmill pump, buoy and hose to artificially increase the thickness of Arctic ice.

The next steps for the team are working with colleagues internationally to promote the idea of Arctic ice management and applying these ideas to saving – and perhaps creating – more Arctic ice.

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With giraffe populations diminishing 40 percent over the last 30 years, and numerous other species facing grave population declines, humans must re-evaluate and adapt our behavior to safeguard the planet's biodiversity.

In a recent interview with ASU Now, Senior Sustainability Scientist Leah Gerber indicates that humans will not only have to act swiftly to halt threatened species' declines, but will also have to choose which species to preserve. She adds that how we make those decisions – whether we base them on charisma, cost-effectiveness or ecosystem significance – is up to us.

Gerber, who is also the founding director of the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, is working to find ways to address these biodiversity challenges at ASU.

Save the date! CAP will be holding its 19th Annual Poster Symposium and All Scientists Meeting on January 13th at ASU's SkySong facility in Scottsdale. Diane Pataki, Professor, Department of Biology at the University of Utah, will be the keynote speaker. Dan Childers will give us an update on CAP LTER and there will be presentations by the leaders of the research teams.

On December 15, 2016, ASU’s Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO) hosted an open house to welcome students, affiliated faculty, staff and community members into its new location at the School of Life Sciences, Wing A, Room 351. Guests had an opportunity to network, enjoy refreshments, earn a prize, and share about the accomplishments and future goals of the Center.

The Center, a partnership between the School of Life Sciences and the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, is on its third year of operation. It continues to expand as it welcomes new staff, postdoctoral research associates and a group of six Professors or Practice, in partnership with Conservation International.

Anna Jean Bettis is a dual Sustainability alum, having first completed a Bachelor of Arts with an international development track and recently finishing her Masters of Sustainability Solutions (MSUS) at ASU with a focus on conservation.

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By leading the World Meteorological Organization’s confirmation group and curating the events it substantiates at ASU, sustainability scientist Randy Cerveny helps the Geneva-based United Nations agency keep track of the world’s weather, climate and water.

Cerveny, who lists a 2.25-pound hail stone that fell in Bangladesh among the oddities in the archives he maintains, says it can take anywhere from a few months to a few years to verify an extreme event and that a lot can be learned from these records. In a December 2016 interview with ASU Now, Cerveny explains that these records not only help us prepare for these events but help us understand how our climate is changing over time, as well.

He stresses that these changes in climate guarantee that we will see more records fall in the future.

A school that originally started as an experiment has become a leading example for other sustainability programs nationwide

by Nicole Randock

Students enter college today with the expectation that a job will be awaiting them upon graduation. The hefty price tag for their education is expected to reap valuable, lifelong rewards. As reported by collegedata.com, the cost of a degree at a “moderate” in-state public college averages $97,000.

A diploma is an investment and after only 10 years in existence, Arizona State’s School of Sustainability is offering a good return on that investment. The school surveyed its undergraduate alumni last year and found that 48 percent had jobs related to sustainability, which is double the national average in other fields, according to the Arizona Science and Innovation Desk.

The School of Sustainability offers students a one-of-a-kind interdisciplinary education while providing them with ample resources, mentors and internship opportunities.

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In a December 2016 interview with ASU Now, School of Sustainability student Jason Tibbetts shares that he originally planned to attend an out-of-state school. He ultimately opted for Mesa Community College due to its reputation and proximity, and learned about the School of Sustainability there.

"I have always had a passion for the environment and self-sufficiency, but I never had a name for it until I heard about the sustainability program at ASU," Tibbetts says.

Tibbetts enrolled in the school's Bachelor of Science program shortly thereafter. In addition to classes in the Sustainable Energy, Materials and Technology track, he is a husband and a father of three, as well as the owner of an edible landscaping business.

Alongside the likes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkley, ASU has landed on the National Science Foundation’s Top 10 list for research expenditures in the United States among universities without a medical school.

ASU also has the largest university research portfolio in the state of Arizona when medical school spending is not factored in — the first year that has been the case.

“The work that ASU’s researchers are doing is changing the world at an incredibly fast rate,” said ASU President Michael Crow. “From the sciences to the humanities, from NASA research and Department of Defense funding, the impact this university can make on the state, country and world will continue to increase.”

As droughts and fresh water shortages continue to be a challenge for the nation's southwest region, many are seeking more aggressive and effective water conservation solutions.

In a December 2016 interview with ASU Now, Senior Sustainability Scientist John Sabo says that businesses can help lead the charge to conserve water, and to set an example for others to do the same.

Sabo, director of ASU's Future H2O initiative, attended Business H2O – a conference in Las Vegas that explored how industry can reduce water consumption and overall costs through advancements in water technology. He explains that not only the environment, but also companies themselves can benefit from saving water.

According to Sabo, "If the incentives are set up right, a business can sustain supplies of cheaper water into the future by investing in conservation."

School of Sustainability Professor Nicole Darnall has been awarded the Social Science Research Council's 2017-2019 Abe Fellowship for her research on sustainable public procurement.

The fellowship is designed to encourage international multidisciplinary research on policy-related topics of pressing global concern and to support researchers who are willing to become key members of a bilateral and global research network built around such topics. It strives to promote a new level of intellectual cooperation between the Japanese and U.S. academic and professional communities committed to and trained for advancing global understanding and problem solving.

As part of her fellowship, Darnall will extend her sustainable procurement research (with scholars in ASU's Center for Organization Research and Design) to assess the barriers and facilitators of Japanese local governments' green procurement decisions.

Nicole Darnall, a sustainability scholar and professor in the School of Sustainability, has been awarded the Social Science Research Council's 2017-2019 Abe Fellowship for her research on sustainable public procurement.

The fellowship is designed to encourage international multidisciplinary research on policy-related topics of pressing global concern and to support researchers who are willing to become key members of a bilateral and global research network built around such topics. It strives to promote a new level of intellectual cooperation between the Japanese and U.S. academic and professional communities committed to and trained for advancing global understanding and problem solving.

As part of her fellowship, Darnall will extend her sustainable procurement research (with scholars in ASU's Center for Organization Research and Design) to assess the barriers and facilitators of Japanese local governments' green procurement decisions.

As the nation's farming population continues to age and retire without replacements, our shortage of farmers is more grave than ever. Meanwhile, thousands of military veterans are returning home seeking meaningful, peaceful employment.

In order to combat both of these issues, filmmaker Dulanie Ellis suggested veterans take over for retiring farmers – an idea explored in her documentary "Ground Operations: Battlefields to Farmfields."

Sydney Lines, coordinator of the Food Systems Transformation Initiative at ASU, hosted the film screening and subsequent panel discussion in downtown Phoenix. In an interview with ASU Now, Lines expresses her enthusiasm for the concept of veterans replacing retiring farmers. She notes not only the special skills veterans have to fill these rolls, but also the beneficial and therapeutic effects farming has on veterans returning home from war.

Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts Dean Steven J. Tepper led a team of ASU faculty and students to  Design Miami, an international conference for sustainable design.

At the conference, the ASU group presented to students and experts alike on design strategies to achieve the United Nations' goals for prosperity and sustainability.

Students on the team received eye-opening exposure to sustainability, learning concrete ways that it can be applied to a variety of concepts and disciplines.