The environment of creativity fostered by ASU was recognized in July 2016, when the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association released their annual rankings. According to the groups, ASU ranks 38th among worldwide institutions in utility patents earned, with 55 patents secured in 2015.

“It’s a very nurturing culture that makes it easy for folks to file patents,” says Senior Sustainability Scientist Rolf Halden, who has been awarded six patents in the last six years.

Halden, who directs ASU's Center for Environmental Security, works to improve human health by studying exposure to toxic chemicals and inventing ways to clean up contamination in soil and groundwater.

ASU's Zero Waste Program has created a Blue Bag Recycling Program that extends cross all four of their campuses. These bags are available to any community member and with 540 blue bags placed in 77 buildings across the campuses, 2,500 pounds of waste was prevented from going to the landfill.

Tempe, AZ (June 30, 2016) – The U.S. Department of Defense Office of Economic Adjustment awarded $941,469 to Arizona State University and the City of Surprise to fund the creation of the Arizona Military Energy Land Use Plan (AME-UP). In partnership with the City of Surprise, ASU is working hand-in-hand with multiple stakeholders and military installations to create interactive community planning and web tools for stakeholder development of renewable energy projects.

The AME-UP project will last the duration of 20 months, ending December 2017, and will be broken up into four phases: data collection, outreach, tool development and testing/verifying. The two outcomes of the project will be a best practices plan for assessment of existing and planned energy projects and an online interactive web-mapping tool that can be used by city and community planners, military personnel, renewable energy developers and other stakeholders.

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Christine Vogt, Director of the Center for Sustainable Tourism at Arizona States' College of Public Service and Community Solutions, provides 7 tips on how to enjoy a sustainable vacation.

Manjyot Bhan – a native of Mumbai, India – graduated from the School of Sustainability with a Master of Science in 2010. She also earned a PhD in Public Administration, with a focus on Environmental Policy, from American University in 2015.

Bhan is currently a Policy and Business Fellow at a think-tank called the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) – formerly the Pew Center on Global Climate Change – in Arlington, Virginia.

Why did you choose ASU's School of Sustainability?

During an environmental economics undergraduate class at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai, I realized all our assumptions in textbook economics and of the marketplace were made based on private costs – without accounting for other costs such as environmental, social and health damages to society. My desire to pursue the field of sustainability came out of a classroom experience.

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Throughout the 1970s, the “Golden Age” of environmental law, Congress developed some of the most influential and enduring legislation still effectual in environmental policy today.

In a two-week course this fall, ASU students will have the opportunity to earn credit while getting first-hand insight from two of the “Golden Age” influencers themselves, Leon G. Billings and Thomas C. Jorling – the two senior staff members who led the Senate environment subcommittee during the 1970s.

Students will review key environmental legislation, such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and Superfund. But more than just the laws themselves, students will learn about the behind-the-scenes political inner workings that made consensus possible, and will assess both the formal and multidimensional components of that process.

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We need your help naming a new program at ASU’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability!  The program brings ASU students and faculty together with a local city government to address urban sustainability challenges over the course of a year.  It would be similar to SDSU’s Sage Project.

Names and/or acronyms should embody terms like:

• city or community
• sustainability
• resilience
• livability
• university/education/ASU
• partnership
• and urbanism...just to name a few!

Be creative!  If your name is chosen for the program, you’ll receive bragging rights and some Wrigley Institute swag.

Up for the challenge?  Ready… Set..GO!   Email your program name suggestion to anne.reichman@asu.edu.

For the fourth year in a row, the School of Sustainability sponsored a study abroad excursion to Morocco, where Arizona State University students studied the complexities of sustainable development.

Senior Sustainability Scientist Mary Jane Parmentier – who served as a member of the Peace Corps in Morocco in the 1980s and has maintained contacts there – led the program.  Students learned about the differing priorities among the unique cultures in this North African nation, then digested that knowledge during nightly meetings.

The study abroad program has evolved from year to year, becoming more culturally immersive and focused on evaluating sustainability solutions that are being implemented in host countries. For more updates from this excursion and others, visit the Global Sustainability Studies Program's blog.

According to Senior Sustainability Scientist Joan McGregor, Aldo Leopold – known as the father of wildlife management – is the person with whom any discussion about sustainability should start.

"He really was, at least in the West, one of the springboards for environmental ethics," she says.

To explore how modern concepts of sustainability relate to Leopold's work, ASU hosted its third Extending the Land Ethic Summer Institute in June of 2016. The four-week event combined classroom discussions with field trips to places like Arcosanti, Grand Canyon National Park and Homolovi State Park.

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On June 10, School of Sustainability alumni in the Washington, D.C. area connected and caught up over dinner at Ardeo+Bardeo.

The fantastic evening, hosted by the School of Sustainability Alumni Association, was attended by Dean Chris Boone and eight sustainability grads, including Manjyot Bhan, MS '10; Chris Harto, MS '09; Debbie Namugayi, MA '14; Becky Schwartz, BA '10; Mike Herod, EMSL '15; Brian McCollow, BA '13; Alex Rogers, MSUS '15; and Robert Horner, MS '10.

To receive invites to future events, click here to make sure your information is up-to-date and keep an eye on your email.

Lexie Krechel graduated from the School of Sustainability in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in the Society and Sustainability track.

Krechel also earned a Minor in Social Work along with a Certificate in Public Administration and Management. She currently works as the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Tempe Community Action Agency.

Tell us about your current job and how it is related to sustainability.

I found my current position at Tempe Community Action Agency by looking on nonprofit job boards. I knew that I wanted to stay in the nonprofit world, but just needed to find the right organization. I decided to pursue a position at TCAA because I wanted to be able to see the impact that my work was having on the community.

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According to an Arizona State University study led by Senior Sustainability Scientist Kevin Gurney, federal data on power-plant carbon dioxide emissions is significantly flawed.

Power plants are responsible for roughly 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions nationwide. Inaccurate data concerning these emissions undermines the federal Clean Power Plan, which is designed to strengthen the clean-energy trend by setting a national limit on the carbon pollution produced by power plants.

“This policy relies on the achievement of state-level CO2 emission-rate targets,” write the study's authors. “When examined at the state level, we find that one-third of the states have differences that exceed 10 percent of their assigned reduction amount. Such levels of uncertainty raise concerns about the ability of individual states to accurately quantify emission rates in order to meet the regulatory targets.”

To meet an increasing demand for sustainability education, ASU's School of Sustainability has made its offerings even more accessible. Now, students at ASU's Polytechnic campus can enroll in the school's popular undergraduate degree programs, like its Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in sustainability. Its 18-credit minor in sustainability is also available to Poly students, and makes a strong complement to virtually any major. Students attending a Maricopa County Community College may be eligible for MAPP.

Students at the School of Sustainability are reinventing the future of a world at risk. The school's programs introduce students to the concept of sustainability and how its application can transform the world for the better. This program is transdisciplinary, drawing from many academic fields. Students explore the interaction between societal, economic, and environmental factors and develop solutions to challenges at the local, regional and global levels.

Marina Acosta graduated from the School of Sustainability in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in the Policy and Governance track. She also minored in Psychology.

Currently, Acosta is in the Master of Science Obesity Prevention and Management program at ASU.

Why did you choose Arizona State University?

ASU is my home and I couldn’t imagine going anywhere else. I did not apply for any other schools. This was close enough to my family and allowed me to experience great diversity while receiving a top-notch education. Also, I’ve always wanted to make a difference and when I learned about the School of Sustainability, I knew that there would always be something for me to do. I thought it was an innovative and fast-growing field, and I was right.

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Leonardo Beltrán Rodríguez, undersecretary for planning and energy transition under Mexico’s Secretary of Energy, is managing the most significant reform of Mexico’s energy sector in more than 70 years – and ASU is helping him do it. In June 2016, Beltrán met with ASU leaders to formalize a relationship of future collaboration in energy research and education.

“ASU is one of the premier universities in the U.S. in terms of energy research, with nationally recognized centers...,” said Stephen Goodnick, deputy director of ASU LightWorks. “ASU also has strong partnerships within Mexico, with more than $35 million worth of projects related to Mexico either in partnership with Mexican entities or with a focus on Mexican topics, cultures or materials.”

TUV Rheinland Group has joined forces with Arizona State University (ASU) to create TUV Rheinland PTL, LLC, the most comprehensive, sophisticated, state-of-the-art facility for testing and certification of solar energy equipment in the world.

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Aaron Redman is a PhD student in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. He studies how individual attitudes, values and actions interact with policies and development interventions to modify the sustainability of the outcomes and the potential for long term success.

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The Science for Nature and People (SNAP) working group on Ecosystem Services and Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) aims to identify sites that significantly contribute to global biodiversity.

In April 2016, the group met to develop recommendations and guidelines for documenting ecosystem services in KBAs, and how these areas influence human well-being. This group is a collaboration of scientists from The Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO), the Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

On September 28, 2016 (time and location TBD), the Hugh Hanson Seminar Series welcomes Jessica Hellmann.

Dr. Hellmann is the director of the Institute on the Environment and a professor in the Ecology, Evolution and Behavior department at the University of Minnesota.

Her research focuses on environmental response to climate and other environmental changes, and how humans and ecosystems can respond and adapt to these changes. She also engages with the public to educate and implement strategic plans.

Narayanan Neithalath’s strides in research to improve the design and development of sustainable infrastructure and construction materials have been earning international attention in his field.

The latest recognition for the professor in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University comes from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), which has awarded him a Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize.