To capture the breadth of work ASU is doing with regard to water in the arid West, ASU Now divided its recent in-depth coverage into three thematic parts: the current situation and how we got here; science and research; and law, policy and challenges.

The series tackles a myriad of subjects, from the dropping levels of water in Lake Mead and the societal changes that mandates, to the merits and pitfalls of measures like desalination and reclaimed water. Along the way, the series features the expertise and research of numerous sustainability scientists and scholars, as well as ASU Wrigley Institute units like the Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research program and Decision Center for a Desert City.

The series concludes with a quote from sustainability scientist and hydrologist Enrique Vivoni, who says, “A place like the Global Institute of Sustainability and DCDC help to serve as a glue for all of us, so that our efforts are bigger than just one professor’s efforts. I think we’re starting to make inroads in increasing our reputation, and attracting great students and doing interesting projects and generating a niche that we can become world leaders in.”

ASU's date grove is the No. 2 collection in the U.S., full of rare varieties sold to the ASU community and the public. ASU students, staff and community volunteers work to harvest hundreds of pounds of dates both in the Polytechnic grove and around the Tempe campus. The 2016 harvest began on Oct. 7.

Through funding provided by the Rob and Melani Walton Fund of the Walton Family Foundation, ASU will award a limited number of scholarships of up to $15,000 to professionals applying to the Executive Master of Sustainability Leadership program.

The online program, offered by ASU's School of Sustainability and administered through the Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, centers on four specific themes: global context, strategy, communication and leadership. In doing so, it equips professionals from all ranks within an organization with the knowledge and real-world experiences needed to accelerate their careers in sustainability.

The admissions application deadline for those who wish to be considered for this scholarship is Nov. 30.

The 2016 Climate Fiction Short Story Contest challenged writers around the world to create short stories that imagined possible futures for Earth and humanity transformed by climate change. More than 700 submissions were received from 67 countries, and winners were selected through a careful judging process involving sci-fi legend Kim Stanley Robinson and a panel of expert judges, including from ASU’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives.

The U.S. Forest Service is hosting a series of upcoming meetings in Arizona and want to make sure the larger community is aware of the public involvement opportunity to lend their voice to the Forest Plan Revision for Tonto National Forest.

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ASU partners with the Change the Course campaign to replenish water all around the world. By using the hashtag #MakeItRainASU on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, social media users can help ASU restore up to 5,000,000 gallons of water and give a new meaning to #MaroonMonsoon.

Saurabh Biswas, a PhD student in Sustainability, spent his summer visioning sustainability in Rio Claro, an agricultural village of the Delfim Moreira municipality, in Minas Gerais, Brazil as part of the United States Agency for International Development’s Global Development Research (USAID-GDR) Fellowship.

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A paper authored by sustainability scientists Ariel Anbar and Braden Allenby, along with sustainability fellow Wally Broecker, looks at the Anthropocene as an evolutionary transition to an epoch in which human activity has become one of the most important Earth systems. To successfully navigate this transition, we must develop a fully integrated environmental science that anticipates the responses of the human system alongside other Earth systems, the authors say.

From producing citrus trees and carrots to pumpkins and watermelons, ASU’s Poly Gardens envelops both a passion for growing food and a connection to surrounding nature. Poly Gardens extends past ASU and into the community by supplying a local food bank with produce. Just last year, 300 pounds of produce were grown and delivered to Christian Community Food Bank in Chandler.

In a recent report to Congress, the Department of Defense concluded that climate change will increase the risks of environmental degradation, refugee crises, political instability and social conflict.

These challenges are why Arizona State University’s Global Security Initiative is building a new program in climate and national security. Not only will the program be a hub for critical research that will enhance resilience and enable adaptation to climate risks globally, it will also support U.S. national security interests. It will achieve these things by bringing together researchers from a range of disciplines and key partners from universities, national laboratories, think tanks and government.

As Senior Sustainability Scientist Dave White – a Global Security Fellow leading the planning for the new initiative – explains, “This effort will improve our ability not only to anticipate the impacts of climate change but also to develop specific tools and strategies, deploy resources more effectively, build local adaptive capacity, and reduce the risks of social conflict.”

According to Senior Sustainability Scientist Matt Scholz, "Phosphorus is essential to life. It’s in your bones and it’s in your DNA, and it’s the energy currency for the cell."

It follows, then, that agriculture depends on phosphorus too. In fact, a large percentage of the element – typically mined in Morocco – is put into fertilizers used on farms throughout the world. The bad news is that the phosphorus-rich runoff from these farms contaminates waterways and can cause algal blooms, which stifle other forms of life.

The Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance – an ASU initiative that Scholz now manages – strives to collect and recycle phosphorus before it reaches waterways. The hope is to make the phosphorus system cyclical by extracting the element from waste and selling it back to fertilizer companies, eliminating the reliance on a finite supply from other countries.

Nalini Chhetri, assistant Director, was one of the two panelists at the whole day Preparedness Symposium organized by AZ Department of Emergency and Military Affairs, DEMA,  on 21 September 2016 at the Sheraton Crescent hotel in Phoenix.  The other panelist was Dr. Nancy Selover, State Climatologist.

Over 500 participants representing state county level agencies ranging from the military to food banks to water resources attended this annual event.  One of the three themes of People, Cyber-security and Natural Resources.  Drs. Chhetri and Selover were chosen as subject matter experts on extreme climate events and its impact on the state of Arizona.  They have been conducting DEMA funded research on emergency and risk preparedness climate information for hazard mitigation planning process.

The panelists opened up with a short video, followed with further research related findings.  In the afternoon they conducted a breakout sessions headlining the natural resources theme.

Under the leadership of Nichol Luoma – ASU associate vice president for University Business Services, University Sustainability Operations Officer and Chief Procurement Officer – the Arizona State University procurement team who won the 2016 Global Procurement Awards Sustainability Superstar Award.

In June 2016, Thomas Dempster, Research Professor and Laboratory Manager for the Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation (AzCATI), traveled to Queretaro, Mexico to install the two open-raceway ponds at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Institute of Engineering. These two ponds would support microalgal biomass production in testbeds using wastewater.

Through this new installation in Mexico, results can be analyzed and compared between the AzCATI ponds in Arizona using the same strain and under the same conditions. Both universities will research and measure bioremediation – the reduction of nitrates, phosphates and heavy metals from municipal and industrial wastewaters – as the primary sources of culture media.

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As part of the recently established Knowledge Partnership with Conservation International (CI), ASU’s Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO) is thrilled to announce six of CI’s leading scientists will join ASU as part-time Professors of Practice (PoPs) by January 2017.

CI-CBO Professors of Practice will be on campus for at least two months per year and available to engage with CBO Faculty Affiliates in research and teaching. ASU students will also have new applied research and field opportunities across CI’s global field sites.

We expect that this novel approach to co-production will not only spur innovation, but will lead to measurable and practical solutions to pressing conservation challenges. Stay tuned for upcoming networking events to engage with the PoPs!

Carolyn Phillips, owner and chief alchemist of Alchemy Pops, is a 2011 Master of Arts graduate of the School of Sustainability. Her company is based in Texas, and focuses on creating new market opportunities for Texas farmers. She is one of many entrepreneurs who graduate with a degree from the School of Sustainability.

Why did you choose to enroll in the School of Sustainability at ASU? 

In my undergrad, while I was doing my BA in Entrepreneurial Management at Texas Christian University, I took a sustainability-themed graduate level class called “Chasing Carbon” – that got me charted on a path that interested me.

There’s always been a theme in my family and community of support about being a part of the solution. This can be interpreted in a lot of different ways – one being, "if you’re not helping, you’re hurting." Being someone who has an impact and is improving lives is the general theme guiding my trajectory.

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Recently-published work by four ASU researchers – sustainability scientists Ariane Middel, Nancy Selover, Nalini Chhetri, and Bjoern Hagen – helps pinpoint how people respond to shade in the desert. They asked, “What’s key to feeling comfortable in the desert, and how does shade contribute?” The varied environments on ASU's campus offered an ideal setting for the researchers to find answers to these questions.

At a September 2016 forum hosted by the ASU Wrigley Institute, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack stressed that the country's continued food security is closely linked to its response to increasing climate volatility.

Vilsack and fellow panel members agreed that universities have a large role to play in protecting farms of the future against threats like intense storms, invasive species and droughts. In fact, the current administration has charged universities with ramping up research on climate and water issues, as well as on specific solutions like grazing patterns and drought-resistant crops.

Distinguished Sustainability Scientist Osvaldo Sala, a member of the panel, explained that universities have the capacity to work across disciplines to provide evidence-based solutions. He added that they are also aptly suited to mediate interests among the many stakeholders of shared resources.

Watch Secretary Vilsack's keynote and the first panel discussion from the Fall Forum.