The Center for Biodiversity Outcomes presents the brown bag event Social-Ecological Modeling to Solve Wicked Conservation Problems on Tuesday, June 21.

Brendan Denker is a Fall 2012 graduate of the School of Sustainability's Master of Science program. He also received a Bachelor of Arts in General Engineering, and a minor in French Cultural Studies from Johns Hopkins University.

Denker works as an engineer at Salt River Project, where he's been employed for the last three years. He focuses on long-term planning within the Western U.S. electric grid, represents SRP’s interests with other entities, and is involved with tracking the water-energy nexus at SRP’s power plants.

Why did you choose to study at ASU’s School of Sustainability?

I had always been interested in sustainability. I grew up immersed in recycling, composting and having empathy for others – which I always assumed was a normal, second-nature thing. However, when I got to college, it was a bit of a culture shock, because doing those things was not the norm.

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Jin Jo – a native of Seoul, South Korea – graduated from the School of Sustainability in 2010. He received the first PhD in sustainability and was a member of ASU's jazz band.

Jo is currently an associate professor of technology at Illinois State University and the associate director at the Center for Renewable Energy. In February 2016, he and two other faculty members at Illinois State University were recipients of the Outstanding Cross-Disciplinary Team Research Award.

Why did you choose the School of Sustainability at ASU?

I did my master’s degree at Columbia University, then applied for PhD programs at a few different places, including Columbia and Princeton. Although I was admitted to another university, I found the School of Sustainability was a perfect fit for what I had in mind – to explore a variety of strategies to achieve urban system sustainability.

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The Center for Biodiversity Outcomes team is expanding. We're pleased to welcome Beth Polidoro as our associate director of research, Abby York as our associate director of education and diversity, and Anahí Astudillo as our business operations specialist.

Amber Wutich and Alexandra Brewis-Slade

Wutich and Brewis-Slade created the "Global Ethnohydrology Study (GES)" that engages undergraduates students by having them carry out cross-cultural research pertaining to water, among four different countries. Their goal was to understand how cultural beliefs and practices contribute to people's access to water.

They found that interactional justice plays a key role in these culture's ability to access water. Additionally, they found that lower income families have a more difficult time gaining and securing access to water.

Announcing specialists with Arizona State University and Hermosillo to incorporate Urban Resilience and Sustainability.

April 6, 2016 – Hermosillo team press conference with Mayor Acosta Gutiérrez.

The municipality of Hermosillo was elected to nine cities in the world that make up the Network for Urban Resilience and Sustainability Climate Change, according to its the mayor.

Kelly Gravuer is a recent recipient of the Postdoctoral NatureNet Science Fellowship. In collaboration with The Nature Conservancy and the Center For Biodiversity Outcomes, Kelly will investigate how food production areas can assist in climate mitigation. She emphasizes that sustainable solutions must include ecological and sociological considerations.

Homeowners associations are good for water conservation, according to a study led by Senior Sustainability Scientist Elizabeth Wentz.

Upon analyzing water-use records for properties throughout several neighborhoods in Goodyear, Arizona, Wentz and her research team found that houses in HOAs used significantly less water than those that were not. They also found that houses in HOAs had less vegetation overall, even when minimum vegetation requirements were listed among the HOAs' rules.

The team concluded that a sense of community, coupled with fines for non-conformers, make homes in HOAs more likely to observe an area’s social and environmental norms – even if those norms are never codified in law. If HOAs shaped their standards to reflect environmentally-friendly landscaping, they could save thousands of gallons of water per household every year.

One hundred miles west of Phoenix, a Saudi Arabian-owned farming operation called Almarai grows alfalfa for hay year-round. Why would a foreign company grow one of the most water-intensive crops in the desert of La Paz County, Arizona? And what does this mean for the future of water resources in the state?

"Camels don't fly, deserts don't bloom" is a 2016 documentary by a team of seven ASU students from five countries – three of whom are enrolled in the School of Sustainability. Under the guidance of sustainability scientist Peter Byck, director of Carbon Nation, the 15-minute film explores the questions raised by this agricultural anomaly.

Jeffrey Jennings was named among the 2016 GreenBiz "30 Under 30" for his leadership in the sustainability field.

In May 2016, over 100 attendees and project members participated in the NEPTUNE fair at Arizona State University's Tempe campus. With representation from six universities – ASU, Purdue, M.I.T., UC Davis, the Naval Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School – the fair allowed student veterans and researchers to present their projects and to engage with members like professors, government officials and professionals in the private sector.

Director of ASU LightWorks® Gary Dirks gave opening remarks, and the Vets4guitars musicians – who use music as therapy for veterans – performed. In addition, visiting Assistant Professor Boyd Branch displayed his work The Veteran Project, which uses improv theater to help veterans tell their story.

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Zachary Holman 

Holman is a part of a research team that received a $2.19 million grant towards the creation of single panned window films that would increase their thermal energy and thus, their energy efficiency. He found that by using an aerosol process rather then a chemical process currently used in manufacturing that the thermal energy, strength against condensation and sound barrier of the window would be improved.

2015 was another momentous year for the ASU Wrigley Institute, with multiple milestones in solutions, engagement, education and research. School of Sustainability professor Arianne Cease was named among the Popular Science Brilliant 10, the international Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network was established with a $12 million grant, and the Walton Global Sustainability Solutions Services presented a plan to green Albania's schools to the prime minister of that country.

Eight ASU sustainability scientists, scholars and fellows attended the historic U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference in Paris, School of Sustainability grad student Anna Bettis asked Democratic presidential candidates for their climate change commitments during a televised CNN debate, and household names Tom Friedman and M. Sanjayan joined our growing list of distinguished Wrigley Lecturers.

And that's just a sampling. For a more in-depth look at what we accomplished last year, flip through our newly-released 2015 Sustainability Highlights magazine.

The Center for Biodiversity Outcomes and The Nature Conservancy are proud to announce a postdoctoral fellowship opportunity directed at solving big climate challenges while considering human well-being.

The Nature Net Science Fellowship aims to address the global climate change threat by bringing early career scientists and engineers to help solve problems at the intersection of climate change, technology and conservation.

On May 16, 2016 the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes hosted the Sustainability Event: Emerging Trends in Conservation. Leading experts from Conservation International discussed new insights, tools, modeling techniques and lessons from a myriad of perspectives, including wildlife, oceans, agriculture, protected areas, ecosystem services, valuation and accounting. The full video of the event can be seen here.

The Center for Biodiversity Outcomes is excited to announce a new project investigating how businesses manage biodiversity concerns and opportunities in their operations. This project, started in conjunction with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), looks to define what the business community needs in order to achieve their biodiversity goals. Highlighting these needs will help the academic and business communities collaboratively develop appropriate tools to better measure and monitor biodiversity.

On June 22-23, 2016, WBCSD, IUCN and CBO will hold a planning and scoping workshop in Geneva, Switzerland to address mainstream biodiversity measurement, valuation and reporting for business to help companies better understand their impact on biodiversity. The workshop will build on the Natural Capital Protocol Project to provide guidance on qualitative, quantitative and monetary valuation of natural capital dependencies and impacts, and to create a framework to inform future standards applicable at different organizational levels, to all business sectors, and across all geographies.

ASU students across all campuses "Ditch the Dumpster" by donating their unwanted items from campus residence halls instead of throwing them away. Sun Devils have participated in he donation event - which continued through May  2016- every year since 2008.

The Valley of the Sun Clean Cities Coalition is one of 90 coalitions across the country designated by the U.S. Department of Energy to reduce the use of petroleum motor fuel. These efforts are directed under the Clean Air Act and Energy Policy Act to reduce air pollution and dependence on foreign oil.

Every two years, Valley of the Sun and Tucson Regional Coalitions stage a Legislative Breakfast, where legislators, staff and civic leaders are invited to learn the latest in the means of reducing the use of petroleum fuel. This event features key speakers and a comprehensive display of alternative fuel vehicles.

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