by Alex Slaymaker, Master's of Sustainable Solutions

The Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability is now equipped with a system capable of achieving zero waste, defined as 90 percent diversion from landfills.  The system offers the option of recycling, composting, TerraCycling, plastic film and bag recycling, and landfilling "waste" - a term now nullified as all materials diverted from the landfill are valuable resources.

This seemingly complex five-option system is viewed as standard in many countries around the world, including Germany and Japan.

The opportunity to practice what is preached at the sustainability headquarters of ASU requires students, staff and faculty to learn how to properly use the zero waste system. In order for Wrigley Hall inhabitants and visitors to see these bins as empowering rather than overwhelming, graduate student zero waste advocates held a Zero Waste Kick-Off Party on April 9. The celebration on the first floor of Wrigley Hall helped to raise awareness about the new zero waste pilot, eliminate myths about "waste" and educate on proper diversion practices.

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By the time we reach adulthood, most Americans have come to understand that money doesn't grow on trees. But a new study published in PLOS ONE this month shows that trees do – figuratively speaking – grow on money.

Christopher Boone, dean of the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, was among the authors of the study. The article resulted from a workshop led by Boone at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.

"We studied seven cities across the U.S.," says Boone. "What we found was a correlation between low-income neighborhoods and low-density tree cover."

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A study led by ASU sustainability scientist Arianne Cease demonstrates how human food production can have a profound impact on ecosystems.

For example, phosphorous is commonly added to foods as a preservative, leading to an excess in waste streams. It can also run off and enter the water supply when waste is used as fertilizer in agriculture. When there is an imbalance of nutrients like phosphorous entering bodies of water, toxic algal blooms may result.

“These algal blooms can contaminate drinking water and reduce water clarity, oxygen levels and biodiversity,” said Michelle McCrackin, a researcher at Stockholm University (Sweden) and a member of Cease's team.

Cease's study shows that new ways of recycling nutrients to fertilize crops, along with upgrades to waste treatment facilities to remove more nutrients like phosphorus, could substantially reduce water pollution.

In a world where science and technology advance at record-breaking paces, so too must we ensure that studies in the humanities progress and obtain firm grounding. While science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines can answer the “what” and “how” of our society, the humanities offer insights to answering the “why” as well as communicating it well to others. The humanities and sciences must therefore work together in order to offer solutions to the pressing problems of our time to create meaningful change.

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A new report from Arizona State University indicates that the development of online education programs can be a significant component of an institution’s sustainability strategy based on greater socio-economic impact for a smaller environmental footprint per degree.

Using ASU Online as a case study, the Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives’ Global Sustainability Solutions Services determined that the increased access to degrees through online education creates socio-economic benefits of as much as $545,000 or more per undergraduate degree over the lifetime of the graduate while also reducing the carbon footprint by at least 30 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

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Food systems are particularly important for human societies to sustain, as well as particularly vulnerable to multiple threats related to the interconnected sustainability challenges we face.

Reflecting the breadth of food system issues researched and taught at ASU, the School of Sustainability now offers a 15-credit interdisciplinary Certificate in Food System Sustainability - a comprehensive, sustainability-oriented introduction to food systems for undergraduate students.

The certificate, which complements a variety of majors from agribusiness to English, draws from food-related courses in the social sciences, humanities, life sciences and applied sciences. Each discipline approaches food sustainability from a different angle, giving students a holistic understanding of food-related challenges and solutions.

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HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY!

We admit it. This article is a total fake. Sorry. Someday, however, something just like this could happen.

As of April 1, 2015, the ASU Sustainability website will be carbon neutral, thanks to the dedication and endurance of School of Sustainability staff. If you visit Wrigley Hall today, you won't find typical desk setups. All have been replaced with standing desks - or perhaps walking desks is a better descriptor. The desks are stationed within 8-foot-diameter wheels, which the staff walk or jog on to generate electricity.

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Karen Kao, the first person to graduate from the ASU School of Sustainability with a practice-based Master’s in Sustainable Solutions, is featured in the "My Cool Job" section of the ASU Magazine's March issue. Kao is now the sustainability program coordinator at GreenerU, a Boston-based organization that works with colleges to improve their sustainability and efficiency.

For the past four years, Arizona State University has dared brilliantly creative and technical minds to answer some of society’s most complex questions through the Emerge event. On March 6, 2015, this year’s event showcased radically new visions of the future with the theme “The Future of Choices and Values.” In a press release for this year’s event,Joel Garreau, founding co-director of Emerge and Professor of Law, Culture and Values at ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law said, “Humans today have unprecedented power to harness and reshape matter, energy and even life itself. Emerge asks what kinds of futures we should build together, at a moment in history when what we can do is almost unlimited.”

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In the spirit of the Southwest Maker Fest happening in Downtown Mesa, Ashley Yost - Communications Manager for ASU's EcoCar 3 team - appeared on Fox 10 to discuss the competition and to showcase an educational prototype ASU engineering students created for it.

A new study led by sustainability scientist Matei Georgescu reveals some of the dynamics at play as one region of the country, the Central Valley of California, braces for substantial population growth and all it entails. The study, based on computer simulations of rural to urban land conversion, shows that as areas of California grow and develop, the resulting built environment could generate additional heat.

Georgescu used ensemble-based simulations employing EPA projections of urban growth to assess urban expansion climate effects by the year 2100 in the Central Valley. He first assessed the resulting rise in regional temperatures and then explored several temperature mitigating strategies for buildings: cool roofs, green roofs and hybrid approaches. He found that as the state deploys temperature-mitigating technologies, there are secondary effects that appear to take place, such as less daytime air turbulence, which could lead to higher concentrations of pollutants.

But the urban heat island effect can be mitigated using new technologies and the latest in sustainable design techniques, said Georgescu, whose “Challenges associated with adaptation to future urban expansion” appears in the April 1 issue of the Journal of Climate. Finding the right combinations of technologies and techniques will be key.

In his essay, Happily Ever After: Storytelling and the Long View, Ed Finn argues that changing our frame of reference – taking a longer view of history – can help us change the world. Finn is the founding director of ASU's Center for Science and the Imagination.

CBO Director Leah Gerber, proposes a compromise on a total whaling ban: A market in which whales can by bought and sold.

Taking Stock of Nature

Arizona State University computer scientist Carole-Jean Wu is gaining attention for her work to improve the energy efficiency of both large- and small-scale computing nodes, encompassing everything from desktop processors, smartphones and other mobile devices to business-scale data centers.

Wu's research focuses on designs for chip-multiprocessors and heterogeneous computing systems, energy-efficient smartphone architecture and architectural energy harvesting techniques for modern computing nodes. Rather than allowing superfluous heat generated by devices to reduce performance speed, Wu decided to harvest it with a thermoelectric generator, which converts heat to electricity using a phenomenon called the Seebeck effect.

Wu’s paper, “Architectural Thermal Energy Harvesting Opportunities for Sustainable Computing,” recently received the Best of Computer Architecture Letters (CAL) award.

A Thought Leader Series Piece

By Ed Finn

Note: Ed Finn is the founding director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, where he is an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering and the Department of English.

The story goes that when beetles were discovered in the eaves of the great hall at New College in Oxford, everyone began wondering where they could possibly find replacements for the gigantic timbers that had held up the roof for hundreds of years. They needed oak trees almost as old as the building itself. As it turned out the founders of the college had planted oaks expressly for the purpose of repairing structures, with university foresters protecting them over generations. The great hall was completed in the late 1300s, and they were building something that they intended to last functionally forever.

Today it seems like the expected lifespan of a building is getting shorter, not longer. More alarmingly, our perception of time seems to be narrowing—we forget our history just as readily as we ignore the future.

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The Stair Gardens Project, a sustainable food source venture founded by Arizona State University engineering student Ngoni Mugwisi, competed and won against 191 other ventures at the 2015 Social Venture Challenge, held in conjunction with the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) conference March 6-8.

Thanks to her enthusiasm for sustainability, Lisa Estrada, Peoria’s representative on SCN’s Steering Committee, has recently changed titles. Previously the Intergovernmental Affairs Coordinator, her new title is now Economic Efficiency and Sustainability Manager. Prior to the creation of the position, much of the work in sustainability the City has completed was implemented from the grassroots level with the support of management. Initiatives have focused on integrating sustainability practices throughout the municipality; and despite the economic downturn, Peoria was able to maintain a commitment to green practices, while continually seeking new opportunities in this area. The City’s success led to widespread enthusiasm to do more in sustainability. In January of this year, there was an opportunity to create a position to specifically focus on sustainable municipal practices to guide the City’s sustainability program.

Along with the new position, Lisa is also a member of ASU’s Executive Masters in Sustainability Leadership’s newest cohort. In enrolling in the program, she will be able to learn more about sustainability, as well as the necessary tools, skills and leadership required to demonstrate its value to the City. Lisa is gaining exposure to best practices, success stories, and expert faculty. She finds it to be an “incredible opportunity to be surrounded by sustainability experts who are passionate and committed to a sustainable future.”

Education and outreach are important components of the initiatives Lisa and the City are looking to implement. For residents, the City is looking to expand Peoria’s current Sustainable University community education workshops. For employees of the City, Lisa is making an impact in educating new employees in sustainable practices, emphasizing the importance of setting expectations for all new hires. She is also working closely with City staff on developing best practices for municipal functions; a recent example, redesigning water fountains to function as reusable bottle filling stations that also track the amount of one-time-use bottles that are potentially kept out of the landfill. Other initiatives include establishing new goals for greenhouse gas emissions, greening fire stations, and looking into renewable energy opportunities. SCN congratulates Lisa for her achievements, and wishes her success in these future endeavors.

Using a three-year $600,000 grant from the Water Sustainability and Climate program, ASU engineers and sustainability scientists Mikhail Chester and Thomas Seager are leading a project that will provide a guide to boosting the resilience of infrastructure systems against potential threats posed by climatic changes.

Seager will work on developing one of the key methods the project team hopes will encourage foresight in policymaking and planning for these infrastructure networks. Using Arizona as a case study, Seager will devise a game-based learning platform – specifically a computer game – to educate leaders about possible future infrastructure vulnerability issues and how to approach the task of assessing what can be done to deal with them sooner rather than later.

The work based at ASU’s Sustainable Urban Systems Lab, which is directed by Chester, will focus primarily on desert regions because they are especially vulnerable to environmental impacts brought on by climate-related factors.

Visit Taxonbytes: From Specimens to Language, Logic and Learning

A blog by CBO Faculty Affiliate, Nico Franz, Associate Professor and Curator of Insects

Arizona State University engineering professor and sustainability scientist Christiana Honsberg was recently presented the Outstanding Faculty Award for 2014 by the Phoenix Section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). The award recognizes Honsberg’s contributions as a university faculty member working to develop a more sustainable future by making advances in the performance of solar energy systems.

Honsberg is a pioneer in advancing the photovoltaic technologies used to produce power from solar energy. She has also developed both undergraduate and graduate degree programs in photovoltaics and renewable energy, including the first undergraduate degree program in solar energy, as well as the first sustainable energy education program for the NSF Integrative Graduate Education Research and Training (IGERT) program

IEEE, an association dedicated to advancing innovation and technological excellence for the benefit of humanity, is the world’s largest technical professional society.