Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability welcomes writer and environmentalist Sunita Narain, who will speak on "Environmentalism of the Poor vs. Environmentalism of the Rich" on Wednesday, March 27. The event, which is part of the Institute’s Wrigley Lecture Series, will take place from 5:00 until 6:30 p.m. at the Tempe campus in Lattie F. Coor Hall, room 170.

Narain was named one of the world’s 100 Public Intellectuals three times by the U.S. journal, Foreign Policy. She is currently the director general of India’s Centre for Science and Environment and publisher of Down to Earth magazine. Narain’s interests include equality, clean water, food safety, wildlife conservation, and climate change alleviation. Climate change, she says, is the world’s biggest issue today.

You can RSVP for Narain’s lecture here: http://sustainability.asu.edu/events/rsvp/sunita-narain.

To honor female scientists for Women's History Month, Arizona State University takes a look inside the lives of three female sustainability pioneers—Rachel Carson, Elinor Ostrom, and Nancy Selover.

Rachel Carson is most well-known for her book, Silent Spring. A fighter for the environment and people, she brought to light many environmental injustices such as pesticide use and ocean pollution. Carson was probably one of the first females to communicate the sustainability concept before "sustainability" was a word.

ASU's own Elinor Ostrom was the first woman to receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 2009. Trained in political science, Ostrom investigated how people organize and use natural resources without a government system. Later in her life, she focused her research on human impacts on climate change.

Nancy Selover, a professor in ASU's School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, is Arizona's first female state climatologist. Her main research focus and passion is water, a resource that is slowly disappearing in an urban desert oasis. As Arizona's climatologist, Selover's responsibility is to give public outreach and information on the local climate.

ASU's first Sustainability Solutions Showcase is reaching out to the community and students to find the next big idea that will help solve sustainability challenges and benefit the environment and society. Participants can share their idea with ASU's Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives and win up to $3,500.

The Showcase is a project under the Walton Sustainability Solutions' Sustainability Solutions Festival. In all, the Showcase plans to award $5,000 to winning ideas.

Through a partnership with Changemaker Central@ASU and 10,000 Solutions, the Sustainability Solutions Showcase is calling for financially viable solutions that would address multiple aspects of sustainability. Awards include $2,500 for first prize, $1,500 for second prize, and $1,000 for the People’s Choice Award.

Arizona State University just adopted, CurricUNET Meta, a program from Governet that manages curriculum changes online to eliminate excess paper use.

The new program will also allow ASU to save resources, streamline the curriculum management process, archive old curriculum more efficiently, and reinforce paperless practices throughout its six-campus system.

"Having demonstrated cutting-edge innovations in green technology, renewable energy, environmental conservation and climate science, ASU is among the most highly regarded research universities in the country," says George Tamas, Governet's CEO. "It is gratifying that CurricUNET Meta has been selected as the technology that will move the institution toward more sustainable curriculum practices."

Five ASU honors students saw the need to get unused food into the hands and mouths of hungry people and they did something about it.

The students from different majors – engineering, business and sustainability – harnessed their knowledge and passion to found FlashFood, a startup that uses a website, mobile application, and text messages to facilitate the delivery of excess food from restaurants, caterers, and conventions to community centers that serve the hungry.

Now FlashFood has been nominated for Inc. magazine's 2013 America's Coolest College Startup and is one of 12 finalists for the honor.

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A Thought Leader Series Piece

By Sunita Narain

Note: Sunita Narain is the director general of The Centre for Science and Environment. She will be speaking at the next Wrigley Lecture Series on March 27 at Arizona State University.

We all know the threat of climate change is urgent. We also know combating this threat will require deep and drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. This is when, already, the poor of the world—who are more vulnerable and less able to cope—are feeling the pain of a changing and more variable climate.

The question is: Why has the world been desperately seeking every excuse not to act, even as science has repeatedly confirmed that climate change is real? Climate change, though related to carbon dioxide and other emissions, is also related to economic growth and wealth in the world. Climate change is man-made. It can also devastate the world as we know it.

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University gymnast Kahoku Palafox recently graduated magna cum laude with a degree in sustainability from Arizona State University's School of Sustainability. She submitted a case study to the Green Sports Alliance that outlined Sun Devil Athletics’ sustainability and conservation practices. Palafox explained the processes behind making ASU's sports events sustainable, like zero-waste practices and energy conservation.

“Even having [the zero-waste] initiative has really started to open people’s eyes to [going Green],” Palafox said.

ASU's Women's Gymnastics recently hosted their first-ever zero-waste meet on Friday, March 15 that had only recycle and compost bins.

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To celebrate Women's History Month, Arizona State University asked some prominent female university professors and scientists to share who inspires them. For the National Women's History Project, this year's theme is "Women Inspiring Innovation through Imagination." In particular, ASU highlighted those female scientists in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Sustainability Scientist Alexandra Brewis Slade says her doctoral professor Jane Underwood, who passed away last year, inspires her to push boundaries and be a 'force of nature' like Underwood. Another Sustainability Scientist, Leah Gerber, cites National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration administrator Jane Lubchenco as a role model while Sustainability Scientist Jane Maienschein is fascinated by developmental biologist Beatrice Mintz.

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On February 22, 2013, ASU faculty and students attended an all-day workshop focusing on the larger social, economic, policy, and ethical considerations of solar energy. This event was sponsored by ASU's Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes (CSPO), the National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Engineering. The speakers and facilitators hosting this event included Clark Miller, the Associate Director of CSPO; Joseph Herkert, an Associate Professor of Ethics and Technology in the School of Letters and Sciences; and Chad Monfreda, a graduate research associate at CSPO.

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Arizona State University announced Gary Dirks as the new director for its Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS) on Thursday, March 14.

Dirks, also director of ASU's LightWorks, hopes to expand the Institute with global initiatives and partnerships for ASU.

“GIOS is an extraordinary place with people who understand sustainability at a very deep level and who know how to apply sustainability concepts to solve real-world problems,” said Dirks. “The challenge for me will be building on a very strong foundation to extend the reach and impact of the Institute.”

Dirks was previously the president of BP China and BP Pacific-Asia. While in China, BP's employment went from 30 individuals to over 1,300, and revenues skyrocketed from zero to $4 billion between 1995 and 2008.

“Gary has demonstrated his ability to set a grand vision, align projects and people around that vision to create solutions to grand challenges that impact our society,” said Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan, senior vice president for ASU’s Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development. “He does all of this in a rapid time frame that is consistent with the spirit of the New American University.”

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Gary Dirks, director of Arizona State University’s LightWorks Initiative and former president of BP China and BP Pacific-Asia, has been appointed director of ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS), with the goal of expanding the global impact of ASU.

"GIOS’s charter is to advance research, education, business practices and global partnerships that aid in the transformation of today’s world into a more sustainable endeavor," said ASU President Michael Crow. "With the appointment of Gary Dirks as director of GIOS, we look to increase the global impact of our work and surge ahead as a leader in sustainability."

Dirks was chosen for this role to help GIOS solve global sustainability challenges. Dirks is a distinguished sustainability scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Chair of Sustainable Practices, and teaching faculty member in the School of Sustainability at ASU.

"Gary possesses exactly the combination of skills, experience and intellectual curiosity to lead the Institute," said Julie Ann Wrigley, co-chair of the GIOS Board of Directors. "As a former global business executive, member of the GIOS Board of Directors and leader of ASU LightWorks Initiative, a better leader could not have been chosen at this point in the development of the Institute."

While in China, Dirks grew the BP operation from 30 employees and no revenue in 1995 to more than 1,300 employees and revenues of about $4 billion in 2008.

"Gary has demonstrated his ability to set a grand vision, align projects and people around that vision to create solutions to grand challenges that impact our society," said Sethuraman "Panch" Panchanathan, senior vice president for ASU’s Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development. "He does all of this in a rapid time frame that is consistent with the spirit of the New American University."

As director, Gary will chair the GIOS 3-person Directorate. The Directorate oversees the Insititute’s complex, pan-university mission and consists of the director, an executive dean and the dean of the School of Sustainability.

Dirks received his doctorate in chemistry from ASU in 1980, and after working in the energy industry, returned to ASU to lead the LightWorks in 2009. The LightWorks Initiative is ASU’s multidisciplinary research effort to harness the energy of sunlight and apply it across a broad spectrum of technology related challenges. Dirks will continue to lead the initiative as part of his new role at GIOS.

Dirks previously served as chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Beijing and as the only foreign member of the British Prime Minister’s China Task Force. He was a founding director of the China Business Council for Sustainable Development, past chairman of the China U.S. Center for Sustainable Development and served as a board member of the India Council for Sustainable Development.

In 2003 Dirks received China’s "Friendship Award," the highest recognition granted to foreign citizens, and was appointed Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George from the UK in 2005. In December 2008, he was recognized by the People’s Daily as one of the 10 most influential multinational company leaders of the last 30 years of China’s economic development.

"GIOS is an extraordinary place with people who understand sustainability at a very deep level and who know how to apply sustainability concepts to solve real-world problems," said Dirks. "The challenge for me will be building on a very strong foundation to extend the reach and impact of the Institute."

via Amelia Huggins, Office of Knowledge Enterprise and Development, ASU

TEMPE, Ariz. – March 14, 2013 – Gary Dirks, director of Arizona State University’s LightWorks Initiative and former president of BP China and BP Pacific-Asia, has been appointed director of ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS), with the goal of expanding the global impact of ASU.

“GIOS’s charter is to advance research, education, business practices and global partnerships that aid in the transformation of today’s world into a more sustainable endeavor,” said ASU President Michael Crow. “With the appointment of Gary Dirks as director of GIOS, we look to increase the global impact of our work and surge ahead as a leader in sustainability.”

Dirks was chosen for this role to help GIOS solve global sustainability challenges. Dirks is a distinguished sustainability scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Chair of Sustainable Practices, and teaching faculty member in the School of Sustainability at ASU.

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The Upside of a Down Economy: Buying Locally

Kimber Lanning, Local First Arizona

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

12:00 – 1:30 p.m.

Wrigley Hall, Room 481

Arizona State University, Tempe campus

Kimber Lanning’s lecture, “The Upside of a Down Economy: Buying Locally,” was so popular the last time, Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability decided to welcome her back for the second time in April.

As founder of Local First Arizona, Lanning’s passion for local economics stems from her upbringing and real-world education. Raised by a family of entrepreneurs, Lanning left ASU after her first semester and opened a record shop, Stinkweeds, in Phoenix.

Her entrepreneurship savvy and economic justice awareness led her to create Local First Arizona in 2003. Last year, Lanning established Fuerza Local, an education program for Spanish-preferred local businesses.

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CAP graduate student, Edgar Cardenas, has his photographic work featured in an exhibit at the National Science Foundation, "Ecological Reflections," which opened on February 28th. The exhibit, which is closed to the public, features 39 artists and writers affiliated with LTER sites based in universities across the United States. Their work involves a range of artistic media, including textiles, watercolors, and photography, as well as poetry and essays.

Cardenas' work focuses on the Tres Rios constructed wetland, part of a wastewater treatment facility maintained by the City of Phoenix. He has imbedded himself within CAP co-PI Dan Childers' research group to document the scientific research at Tres Rios while reflecting on what it means to have a vibrant, human-created wetland in the midst of the Sonoran desert.

CAP LTER is actively engaging the arts and humanities in its work through a number of collaborations that explore the nexus between science and human expression and experience.

Using social media, DCDC is reaching out to the public presenting ideas from experts and community partners on such topics as urban heat island, water re-use, and the energy-water nexus to name a few.

DCDC Water/Climate Briefings are on Vimeo. If you were unable to attend our latest Water/Climate Briefing or would like an opportunity to watch the Water/Climate Briefing again, check out all five of our 2012-2013 Water/Climate Briefings.

Follow us on Twitter for the latest news about DCDC, ASU, water, urban climate adaptation, and sustainability. The list goes on and on! Check us out @DCDC_ASU.

The story of the American West is a story of water, and of our Herculean efforts to capture and spread that water across an arid landscape.

As our western cities continue to grow, however, we need to find ways to curb our thirst. In this mini-documentary, ASU researchers talk about the West's water history, our current situation, and some social and technological options for the future.

Written, produced and edited by Kirk Davis for ASU Research.

ASU Research - ASU is delivering research breakthroughs and achieving discovery in a broad range of strategic research areas designed to address everything from next generation health diagnostic exams and cancer vaccines to reliable and efficient alternative fuels.

The Worth of Water from ASU Research on Vimeo.

A conversation with Kim Grout, Sustainability Concierge

When you walk through the third floor doors at Wrigley Hall, a petite, brown-haired lady named Kim Grout will most likely greet you. She’s the Sustainability Scientists and Scholars concierge, meaning; she coordinates meetings, flights, accommodations, and coffee runs to help them save the world.

Kim knows her sustainability stuff. She lives about 5 miles away from where she works at the Global Institute of Sustainability, but she either bikes or runs every morning and evening, Monday through Friday. The food she makes is from scratch or comes from her local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). She and her husband recently installed a solar water heater in their home and sometimes they cook meals in their solar oven. After work, Kim tends to her chickens—which are excellent scorpion killers and provide great compost for her garden. Not to mention fresh eggs.

Kim says she learned how to lessen her impact on the planet from her mom.

“I have been living this way since I was a child,” she says. “My mother was always very savvy about such things. She made everything from scratch, including yogurt, mayonnaise, bread, and ice cream. We also had a garden, chickens, and horses.”

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A team of researchers from Arizona State University, Stanford University, and the Carnegie Institution for Science has found that future sugar cane plantations can help Brazil increase its ethanol production, while also decreasing regional temperature.

“When averaged over the entire year, there appears to be little effect on temperature,” said Matei Georgescu, an assistant professor in ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, a senior sustainability scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability, and lead author of the paper. “However, the temperature fluctuation between the peak of the growing season, when cooling occurs relative to the prior landscape, and crop harvest, when warming occurs compared to the previous landscape, of about 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) is considerable.”

Brazil is the second-largest producer and consumer of bioethanol, and based on new laws and trade agreements, the country's sugar cane production will increase tenfold during the next ten years.

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The Sustainability Initiatives Revolving Fund (SIRF) annual report highlights a dozen energy-reduction projects at ASU that were supported by SIRF funds during FY2012.

Introduced in 2010, SIRF was created to provide university departments and individuals incentives and resources to create campus sustainability initiatives and practices. Led by a committee, SIRF funds are given based on three tiers that describe the sustainability initiative and its cost. Money that is saved on the sustainable projects are reinvested into SIRF.

You can view all projects supported by SIRF in the 2012 report.

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Arizona State University released its Sustainability Operations Annual Review 2012 this February. The four-panel pamphlet includes highlights about ASU’s progress in operational sustainability as well as relevant facts for each of the university’s overarching sustainability goals:

• Climate neutrality

• Zero waste

• Active engagement

• Principled practice

Download a PDF of the pamphlet from this Web page , or view a virtual version of the pamphlet on this Web page.

Please visit sustainability.asu.edu/practice to learn more about the university’s sustainability goals and how individual ASU community members can help ASU achieve climate neutrality.

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