A team of citizen science volunteers from Skeptical Science surveyed over 12,000 peer-reviewed climate science papers finding that over 97% of those papers agreed that humans were the cause of climate change.

The survey expanded on climate scientist Naomi Oreskes' survey of 928 peer-reviewed climate papers published between 1993 and 2003 that also showed the same majority ruling. Naomi Oreskes visited the Global Institute of Sustainability in April to speak at the Institute's Wrigley Lecture Series on the spread of climate change denial.

The survey by Skeptical Science also showed that consensus has grown slowly over time between 1991 and 2011. Surveys like the ones from Oreskes and Skeptical Science can help alleviate the misconceptions behind climate change and lead to more informed decisions and behavior.

A recent article part of the National Science Foundation's Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) investment highlights urban heat island research by ASU's Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) and several sustainability scientists.

With triple-digit summers, Phoenix is well known for its urban heat island effect—when temperatures in urban cities are significantly higher than rural communities due to the increased use of materials like asphalt and concrete that re-radiate heat.

"It's all due to the effects of humans," says Sharon Harlan, a senior sustainability scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability, an assistant professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, and a researcher in NSF's Coupled Natural and Human Systems grant. "We've modified the surface of the land in ways that retain heat."

CAP LTER scientists found that temperatures were significantly lower under tree canopies in green parks—what they call a "microclimate ecosystem service," or what we call shade. This could be a way to counteract the urban heat island effect in cities.

Bruce Rittman, a distinguished sustainability scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability and the director of ASU's Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology, is a 2013 Water Environment Federation Fellow. He joins 15 other recipients who have made impactful contributions to the water industry and water quality research.

"WEF is very pleased to recognize these truly outstanding water quality professionals," said WEF Executive Director Jeff Eger. "The 2013 Fellows are among the worlds finest in service to water quality, the environment and public health."

Dr. Rittman is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is well known as developing biofilms used to clean contaminated drinking water. He is a leader in the Membrane Biofilm Reactor project that uses bacteria to get rid of water pollution. As director of the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology, Rittman leads teams investigating renewable bioenergy, biofuels, and human health.

On May 1, 2013, Hank Foley, Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate school at Pennsylvania State University, visited the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability to discuss the successes of the Department of Energy's Efficient Energy Building (EEB) Hub and the potential of a mini-EEB Hub at Arizona State University.

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This summer, two PowerParasol solar systems will be installed near the Memorial Union and on the Gammage Parkway medians. The PowerParasol systems are designed by Strategic Solar Energy, the same company who developed the PowerParasol structure over Sun Devil Stadium's parking lot. There will be some pedestrian restrictions near the Memorial Union and at Gammage Parkway, but both projects aim to be completed by November.

“These projects are the first deployment of the PowerParasols over pedestrian space,” said David Brixen, associate vice president for ASU Facilities Development and Management. “They are designed to create the most dramatic pedestrian experience of any campus solar array.”

In all, the projects will consist of 3,096 panels to generate an estimated 1,477,611 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year.

George Basile, a senior sustainability scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability and a professor in the School of Sustainability, recently commented on a study on 1,305 national small businesses that shows a positive correlation between sustainability and profit.

"Businesses are finding that consumers want businesses that are about building a better future," Basile says. "Businesses that have strong sustainability plans tend to do better."

The study found that those businesses who strongly added sustainable practices had higher sales than those who only incorporated some sustainable methods. "Green businesses" are those that are aware of the impact of their decisions and find the environment and local economy very important.

Osvaldo Sala, Arizona State University's Julie A. Wrigley Professor of Life Sciences and Sustainability and a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist, joins 17 scientists as an Ecological Society of America 2013 Fellow. The Society's fellows program aims to recognize and support scientists who conduct research in a wide variety of sciences and who serve our society.

"I was surprised and honored when I learned that I had been elected Fellow of the Ecological Society of America," Sala says. "This is the largest ecological society of the world and an organization that groups the brightest and most influential ecologists."

Sala is the third Sustainability Scientist and School of Life Sciences professor elected as a fellow, following Nancy Grimm and Stuart G. Fisher. Sala's research spans ecosystem ecology, biofuels, biodiversity scenarios, and natural resource management.

Bob Litterman, member of The Board of Directors for Sustainability at ASU, investigates pricing carbon emissions in the current edition of "Regulation," an expertise-based magazine published by the Cato Institute.

Litterman explores the idiosyncrasies and probabilities of an unknown future that will face huge impacts of today's energy choices. As a solution, many scientists and economists suggest pricing carbon outputs; essentially, the more carbon you put in the atmosphere, the more you get charged.

However, with the uncertainties surrounding climate change and its impacts shrouding proper tax pricing, no one can really predict how much we should spend today to insure tomorrow's future.

"I believe that given that uncertainty, a cautious approach that weighs the cost of catastrophic outcomes above the potential benefits of hedging future economic growth is justified," Litterman writes. "It would be best to get started immediately by pricing carbon emissions no lower, and perhaps well above, a reasonable estimate of the present value of expected future damages, and allow the price to respond appropriately to new information as it becomes known."

Author

Dave D. White

Co-director, Decision Center for a Desert City

Associate Professor, School of Community Resources and Development

Senior Sustainability Scientist, Global Institute of Sustainability

Arizona State University

Publication

Society and Natural Resources published online on June 14, 2013.

Abstract

This case study applies the theoretical concepts of frame and framing processes to identify and describe the diagnostic and prognostic frames for water sustainability expressed through an environmental decision support system. The research examines the development of WaterSim, a computer simulation model of water supply and demand in central Arizona. Qualitative data were generated through semistructured individual and group interviews, participant observations, and document analysis. The analysis identified a diagnostic frame defining the water sustainability problem as uncertain and long-term water supply shortage caused by prolonged drought, climate change impacts, and population growth. The prognostic frame for water sustainability defined the solutions to be urban residential water demand management, retirement of agricultural lands, and conversion of agricultural water to municipal uses to achieve safe yield of groundwater. The results of the study are discussed in terms of implications for decision support systems (DSS) design.

Arizona State University scientists and policymakers share their ideas and opinions regarding Arizona's largest city's water conservation and consumption in a recent New York Times article. The article, written by Fernanda Santos, tells a positive story about how a metropolitan region can survive, in fact flourish, in a desert landscape that only gets an average of eight inches of rain per year.

The fact that golf courses are irrigated with graywater, treated wastewater is used in power plants and urban wetlands, and efficient, water-saving technologies used in buildings may be helping Phoenix consume less water than large cities like Los Angeles.

"We’re often maligned as being an unsustainable place simply for existing in an arid climate," said Colin Tetreault, senior policy adviser for sustainability for Mayor Greg Stanton and an ASU School of Sustainability alum. "But that’s just myopic."

On June 10, 2013, Dave White, DCDC co-director and Senior Sustainability Scientist with the Global Institute of Sustainability and an ASU contingent, had the unique opportunity to travel to Tec de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico to participate in an exchange program focused on sustainability education.

Dave presented the sustainability research, education, and community and institutional outreach efforts conducted by DCDC with an emphasis on two key aspects.

First, the ongoing research and stakeholder outreach project which involves faculty researchers from both ASU and Tec. This project, informally called the Water Innovation Consortium, involves stakeholder engagement, social science, hydrology, and integrated decision support and was funded by the two universities along with Inter-American Development Bank and FEMSA Foundation.

Second, Dave also met with colleagues from Tec taking the opportunity to learn about their approach to sustainability education with the aim of improving our related efforts at ASU.

Dave met with specific faculty partners including Dr. Jurgen Malknecht, Director, Water Center for Latin America and the Caribbean(CAALCA), Tec de Monterrey.

Additional information in Spanish from the Agencia Pernambucana de Aquas y Clima (APAC).

By Fernanda Santos of The New York Times

June 16, 2013

PHOENIX — The hiss of sprinklers serenades improbably green neighborhoods early in the morning and late at night, the moisture guarding against the oppressive heat. This is the time of year when temperatures soar, water consumption spikes and water bills skyrocket in this city, particularly for those whose idea of desert living includes cultivating a healthy expanse of grass.

Half of the water consumed in homes here is used to irrigate lawns, but there is a certain curiosity about the way water is used in Phoenix, which gets barely eight inches of rain a year but is not necessarily parched.

The per capita consumption here, 108 gallons a day, is less than in Los Angeles, where residents average 123 gallons a day. And though humid Southeastern cities like Atlanta have grappled with recurrent water shortages, there is no limit here to how many times someone can wash a car or water flowers in a yard.

"We’re often maligned as being an unsustainable place simply for existing in an arid climate," said Colin Tetreault, senior policy adviser for sustainability for Mayor Greg Stanton. "But that’s just myopic."

Phoenix gathers its water from several places. It relies on melting snow in the north to feed the rivers that supply its water system: the Salt and the Verde, which begin and end in Arizona, and the overstretched Colorado, which slices the Southwest. It pumps from aquifers, strained by development over time, and then works to replenish them whenever water is in surplus, which happens occasionally.

To irrigate its many golf courses, it reuses most of the water drained from bathroom faucets and washing machines. It uses treated wastewater to cool a nuclear power generating station and to feed a man-made wetland complex known as Tres Rios, home to more than 150 species of birds.

A system of canals crisscrosses the city and stretches beyond its boundaries, a legacy of the prehistoric Hohokam Indians that allowed fertile farms to flourish in the desert. To this day, half of all the water used in the Sun Corridor, the area from Phoenix to Tucson, goes to agriculture, according to a 2011 report by the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University. Steadily, though, much of the farmland has given way to development.

Figuring out how water will be used here is like solving a puzzle speckled with blank pieces, in which the unknowns are the housing market and climate change.

Water managers weigh wet and dry cycles over the past 100 years against climate change models designed in the previous year and demographic projections. They also analyze the way parcels of land are zoned to make assumptions about how water will be used.

Over all, demand for water has declined steadily in this and in many other metropolitan areas, because of water-efficient technologies like low-flow toilets, and stricter building codes. Still, the draining of rivers and other water sources — from overdevelopment, poor management, climate change or a little bit of all of these — has forced communities to rethink their strategies. Some have used money as the main incentive to get people to give up their addiction to turf.

Tucson, where grass is hard to find and true desert living is a source of pride among residents, consumes less water than Phoenix, but it has a bigger problem. The city relies heavily on a dwindling supply of groundwater. To safeguard its supply, the city has an aggressive conservation campaign that includes rebates for residents who harvest rainwater or use water reclaimed from bathroom faucets for landscaping.

The city of Mesa pays residents $500 for every 500 square feet of grass they remove from their yards. Scottsdale, which has the highest per-person water consumption among Arizona’s cities, offers at least $125 for removing the same amount. Las Vegas pays $1.50 a square foot of grass replaced by landscaping appropriate for dry regions.

Phoenix, where water consumption is down from 250 daily gallons a person in 1990, does not have rebate programs. "It costs all the taxpayers money if you do that kind of thing," said its deputy water services director, Brandy Kelso.

"I don’t want to mean that we don’t do conservation," Ms. Kelso added. "We just approach it differently."

A modest list of zoning and other rules — controlling responsibilities over leak repairs, limiting the amount of potable water used to irrigate 10 or more acres of grass, and imposing restrictions on the types of plants allowed in certain public rights of way, to name a few — have helped the city evenly reduce indoor water use over time, she said.

Reductions in outdoor use have been much less homogeneous, though. Affluent neighborhoods like Arcadia, a former citrus grove on the eastern edge of the city, remain lush oases. But in Phoenix’s outer ring, where most new housing has sprouted, grass has largely given way to rocks and dirt.

Master-plan communities like Fireside at Norterra, in the city’s northern fringe, go as far as regulating the kinds of trees, shrubs and flowers that can be planted.

"You may want to plant begonias," Tamara Swanson, the development’s general manager, recalled having told prospective buyers, "but they wouldn’t do well here anyway."

But is green in the desert a bad thing? Not necessarily. Dave D. White, a director of the National Science Foundation’s Decision Center for a Desert City, which studies water management decisions in central Arizona, said grass "cools off the landscape" and trees provide shade.

The idea, Dr. White said, is striking the right balance between conservation and growth. In the verdant corners of Phoenix, he and other researchers are looking at whether a homeowner’s switch to desert landscaping might cause a ripple effect that would eventually change the neighborhood.

"There’s a need to use water to make our community livable, but in an intelligent way that thinks about long-term sustainability," he said. "Because there’s no new supply out there."

View the article at The New York Times.

Clean Air Cab, a local sustainable taxi cab company, has awarded two School of Sustainability students with scholarships to fund their education in the upcoming year. Incoming freshman Maria Eller plans to study diversity and sustainability while senior Sean Martin plans to explore sustainable consulting.

"We designed our scholarships to reward individuals who share our same values in conserving our ecology and creating sustainability within their thinking as it pertains to their actions, community projects, and future business structures," says Steve Lopez, founder and owner of Clean Air Cab.

Both Eller and Martin say the scholarship will take some pressure off and allow them to focus more on their studies.

OAKLAND, Calif. and PHOENIX, Ariz. – June 12, 2013 – GreenBiz Group, The Sustainability Consortium, and the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, a program of the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University, will be coming together for the Sustainability Solutions Festival, a unique and powerful partnership among three leadership institutions.

The three entities have agreed to align interests and audiences as part of the weeklong series of events to be held in Phoenix, February 15-22, 2014. The week will include the 2014 GreenBiz Forum, sustainability-focused innovation fairs, a green "Un-gala" and meetings and workshops for the board and network of The Sustainability Consortium and other events.

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The AZ Water Association recently awarded Sustainability Scientist and Professor Peter Fox the Nathan Burbank Environmental Educator Award for teaching and mentoring students on the water industry in AZ. Fox is a professor of environmental engineering in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University.

"Both his work mentoring students and his research on drinking water have greatly benefited the state of Arizona," says Edd Gibson, director of the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. "He is a great colleague and contributor to our school and the community."

Fox's research interests lie in sustainable water systems, water reuse, and desalination.

Members from the ASU chapter of Engineers Without Borders will visit the rural area, Bondo Rarieda, Kenya to provide assistance on a defective dam as part of the Kenya Water Project. The dam has been breached several times due to the rainy season, not allowing the communities to capture and store the excess water for use.

"Our plan is to design this system, teach [local residents] how to build it properly and explain to them why it makes a difference," says Danielle Worger, an industrial engineering graduate student and the co-program manager for the project.

The project aims to equip the locals with the knowledge and training needed to upkeep neighboring dams in order to provide long-term, sustainable solutions.

CAP Director Nancy Grimm and CAP scientist Darren Ruddell are co-authors of a newly-released report, Assessment of Climate Change in the Southwestern US. This report is a contribution to the 2013 National Climate Assessment and focuses on the projected future of the region's climate. It provides important and timely information to decision makers. Grimm is a co-author under the urban chapter while Ruddell co-authored the chapter on human health.

This summer, Senior Sustainability Scientist and School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy assistant professor Mary Laura Lind will begin her research as part of a $400,000 National Science Foundation grant awarded earlier this year. Under her direction, engineering graduate and undergraduate students will investigate transport properties of membranes at the nanoscale.

This research will help inspire better water filtration and waste water technologies while also finding a way to use the filtered materials as sources for biofuel. Lind and her team hope to find more energy-efficient methods of transporting and filtering water.

“Her work on membranes for liquid phase applications, especially water purification and treatment, is an important part of ASU’s overall research thrust in energy and sustainability,” says ASU chemical engineering Regents’ Professor Jerry Lin.

Sitting in your gray cubicle, writing a note on a Post-it using a bright red pen so you really remember to email Stan tomorrow and what happens? The ink in that plastic pen runs out just when you finish the “t” in “Stan.” Now what will you do with the pen? A trash can is right below your desk, but what if your red pen could give life to a new blue pen?

Enter ASU’s Materials Management team

In 2009, a group of employees from ASU Stores and Mail Services saw unwanted office supplies piling up in the trash and decided to do something about it. Back then, Mail Services was already collecting CDs, VHS tapes, and cell phones while ASU Stores was gathering toner cartridges for recycling. When the two departments merged in 2011 to create ASU Materials Management, their recycling and reuse efforts multiplied. Since then, the team has saved 400 pounds of CDs, DVDs, plastic jewel cases, more than 150 cell phones, and over 17,000 toner cartridges from the landfill—not to mention countless pens, markers, and rubber bands.

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Solar Impulse, the innovative Swiss solar-powered airplane, arrived in Phoenix on May 4, 2013 marking a succesful first leg of their 2013 Across America mission. The Solar Impulse team participated in a variety of events including the Phoenix Event Week, Arizona State University's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Spring 2013 graduation ceremony, and a meeting with Gary Dirks, director of ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability and ASU LightWorks, to learn about ASU’s impressive research and development of solar energy. The Solar Impulse airplane took flight from Phoenix on May 22, 2013.

Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, the pilots and founders of the Solar Impulse, plan to fly across the USA from coast-to-coast solely through the use of solar power in their “Across America” challenge. Piccard and Borschberg marked the first leg of their trip as they landed in Phoenix on May 4, 2013. During their time in Phoenix, the Solar Impulse team hosted a Phoenix Event Week that highlighted both the innovative solar airplane and Arizona’s significant strides in solar energy and clean tech development. During the event, Bertrand named Arizona Governor Jan Brewer “Solar Queen” because of the significant investments in solar power that have been made in Arizona. The Solar Impulse Phoenix Event Week proved successful with the support of 2,200 people that came to the Phoenix Sky Harbor International airport to see the solar airplane.

Piccard and Borschberg also addressed the 2013 spring graduates of the ASU Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. The pilots spoke about their project and the Solar Impulse team, which is made up of 90 engineers, technicians, technical advisers, organizers, and communications and media managers. Piccard noted the significance of speaking to ASU engineering graduates as a meaningful part of their trip to Phoenix. Both pilots pointed out the importance of engineers having a diverse set of skills and collaborative techniques, skills that ASU engineering students have learned from the university’s interdisciplinary approach to education and research.

The Solar Impulse has broken barriers from being the first airplane that can fly day and night without the use of fuel. The Solar Impulse left Phoenix heading to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and their landing took place on Thursday, May 23rd. In their trip out of Phoenix, Solar Impulse was followed by a helicopter crew that captured the event on film. Watch the video of the Solar Impulse takeoff from the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport here.

Solar Impulse states that “the development of efficient and renewable energies is as important for the security and prosperity of our society as for the protection of the environment and our natural resources”. The steps that Piccard and Borschberg have taken speak highly to the advancements in solar technology and have helped changed the way we see the future of energy. Arizona State University is also an excellent example of taking the lead to incorporate solar as a present and future energy source, and we commend the Solar Impulse team for their vision and initiative.

Written by Gabrielle Olson, ASU LightWorks

Photos retrieved from Solar Impluse.