Team FlashFood continues to improve its education in entrepreneurship en route to developing a venture aimed at helping communities alleviate hunger.

Most recently the group of former and current ASU engineering, marketing and sustainability students learned valuable lessons while competing in the 2012 YUM! Global Sustainability Challenge in Louisville, Ken.

The team was one of six finalists selected from among the 40 teams that initially entered the Yum! Challenge.  FlashFood members are recent ASU biomedical engineering graduate Eric Lehnhardt, computer science graduates Steven Hernandez and Ramya Baratam, along with marketing and sustainability graduate Jake Irvin, sustainability graduate Loni Amundson and junior materials science and engineering major Katelyn Keberle.

The first-place prize of $15,000 was awarded to Berkeley’s Team EZ Green. A second-place prize of $5,000 went to Louisville. FlashFood earned the Best in Showcase award, voted on by members of the local community attending the event and by YUM! employees.

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Last month, film director Peter Byck visited ASU Tempe campus to speak to an audience about lessons learned from touring and filming his documentary Carbon Nation. Byck toured the nation and interviewed over 300 people (only 61 people were actually used in the movie) to speak on behalf of climate change solutions. In his findings, Byck supported evidence that both liberals and conservatives in the U.S. are not polarized on the issue. In fact, there is vast agreement across the political spectrum when it comes to supporting clean energy initiatives and energy efficiency.

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As a key player in sustainability science, Professor Soe Myint uses his background in geospatial statistics and modeling to help policymakers and land users manage resources sustainably. This year alone, Myint was awarded three grants—by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—a notable accomplishment.

Even though all the projects utilize satellite imagery, each one has different outcomes: understanding how cities alter the environment, identifying drought-tolerant crop species, and advancing satellite imagery methods.

“Researchers at ASU are developing new materials in an effort to solve society's most pressing problems in energy, health, public safety, sustainability, and other areas,” says Myint. “These projects will help build ASU’s strategic area that seeks to identify the cause of today’s environmental challenges in land use and create solutions that will allow us to preserve our natural resources for the near and distant future.”

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via USGS Science Features on November 14, 2012

By Jack Schmidt and Barbara Wilcox

More than 16 years of USGS science will come to fruition next week in the Grand Canyon and its surroundings when the U.S. Department of the Interior releases Colorado River water from Lake Powell reservoir under its new science-based protocol for adaptive management of Glen Canyon Dam.

The November 19 controlled release, called a high-flow experiment, simulates a natural small flood that might have occurred before the dam was completed in 1963. Scientists have shown that floods redistribute sand and mud, thereby creating sandbars that help maintain and restore camping beaches and create favorable conditions for nursery habitat for native fish, including the endangered humpback chub (Gila cypha) in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Grand Canyon National Park, and the Hualapai Indian Reservation. Newly created river deposits are also the substrate on which many components of the native ecosystem depend.

At noon Monday, November 19, the dam’s river outlet tubes will be opened. Typically, reservoir releases are routed through power-plant turbines and thereby produce hydroelectricity. However, the outlet tubes allow some reservoir water to bypass the power plant, thereby allowing for larger volumes of water to directly enter the river. Flow through these outlet tubes does not go through the turbines, and these waters do not produce hydroelectricity. The outlet tubes are only used in rare times of high inflow when additional water must be released from the reservoir, or when an environmental objective is served by creating a controlled flood.

Read more at USGS Science Features.

Arizona State University adds a composting program and joins the Environmental Protection Agency’s Food Recovery Challenge. The EPA’s voluntary program kicks off Nov. 15, 2012 in celebration of America Recycles Day. According to the EPA, food is the single largest material sent to landfills and accounts for 25 percent of all waste sent to landfills.

“This year, ASU sent 6,778 tons of waste to the landfill and 25% of that total tonnage was meal scraps,” said Nick Brown, director of university sustainability practices at ASU. “In celebration of the EPA Food Recovery Challenge kick-off, we are introducing ‘back-of-the-house’ composting at two dining halls on the Tempe campus.”

Food-service workers at the Hassayampa and Barrett, The Honors College dining halls are using “Green Bins” to compost all food and paper food-service items.

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Read the EPA news release »

What does an energy narrative look like? Why do we need an energy narrative, and how do we tell that story? These are just some of the many questions ASU LightWorks, Project Humanities, and Energy, Ethics, Society, and Policy (EESP) hope to answer through a variety of collaborative interactions.

EESP is an interdisciplinary research community where graduate students at ASU have opportunities to hear from a collection of speakers, including policy makers, industry representatives, faculty, researchers, and community leaders to gain a more holistic perspective of the social implications of energy system transformations.

Gary Dirks, director of LightWorks and sustainability scientist, has expressed a need for an energy narrative that shows us what stories are already being told, what our different futures could look like, and how to understand the power of narrative as an analytical tool for evaluating our energy choices.

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In an ASU News op-ed piece, Sustainability Scientist Tirupalavanam Ganesh reflects on education and career access for women in the hard sciences amidst the 40th anniversary of Title IX. During November 5-9, ASU participating in Title IX Week, a celebration and examination of the landmark piece of legislation that paved the way for equal opportunities in education and sports for women and girls. Ganesh writes:

"Why do we have so few women in our nation’s 'hard' sciences – physics and chemistry and engineering degree programs?

Reflecting on this question in 2012, at the 40th anniversary of Title IX, helps me appreciate the function social structures, families, role models and mentors play to ensure that females have opportunities to explore and pursue education and career pathways in science. Women scientists, mathematicians, and engineers are needed to enhance our research and development enterprises. Their creativity and perspectives will only enrich the design and development of technological innovations that improve the quality of our lives in this global economy."

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A research effort led by Arizona State University engineer and Sustainability Scientist Mary Laura Lind is among 10 projects the National Aeronautics and Space Administration recently chose to support.

Lind has been awarded a grant from NASA’s inaugural Space Technology Research Opportunities for Early Career Faculty program. The new program focuses on aiding development of technologies that can help the nation reach its space-exploration goals as well as boost commercial space ventures.

The NASA grant will provide $200,000 a year –renewable for up to three years – to support Lind’s work to improve technology for wastewater recovery and recycling systems designed for use in space stations and other vehicles.

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ASU professor Rolf Halden has been appointed to lead a new effort to protect human health and critical ecosystems, called the Center for Environmental Security (CES).

“The goal of CES is to protect human populations and our planet by detecting, minimizing and ultimately eliminating harmful chemical and biological agents through engineering interventions,” said Halden, a professor in the Fulton Schools of Engineering, Biodesign Institute researcher, and senior sustainability scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University. “We will be utilizing a proactive approach to examine chemical and biological threats in the environment locally and globally, to track human diseases caused by environmental exposure, and to develop intervention strategies suitable for mitigating these threats."

The new center is being established as the 11th research center at ASU’s Biodesign Institute, and the first partnership to leverage expertise and resources of ASU’s Security and Defense Systems Initiative (SDSI), led by ASU professor Werner Dahm.

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Arizona's desert cities face many unique challenges associated with planning and achieving sustainability, particularly in urban areas. The downturn in the economy coupled with environmental changes and shifts in population and resources create unparalleled obstacles for local cities. What are communities doing to improve their livability in terms of social equity, environmental responsibility, and economic impact considering the current conditions?

Rob Melnick, executive dean of the Global Institute of Sustainability, leads Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell, Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, and Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton in a discussion that addresses the challenges and opportunities that face their respective cities. The mayors' discussion was coordinated by ASU's Global Institute of Sustainability and the Sustainable Cities Network.

With many homes still running on generators and some commuters returning to work by automobile, gasoline is in high demand in the areas hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy. Lines are long, and tempers are short.

In an interview with CBS This Morning, ASU’s John Hofmeister explains that, while there is plenty of gasoline supply to meet this demand, it cannot be distributed without electricity.

"In order to pump the gas, you need electricity. In order to run the cash register or to run the credit card system from the pump to the credit card company, you need electricity," he said.

Getting the gas to the open fueling stations is impeded by power outages, too. “If you don't have electricity at the depots, which fill the delivery trucks – or if you don't have electricity at a retail station – then you really can't sell gasoline to the public."

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Growing cities around the world sometimes encourage development of taller and taller buildings as a strategy for alleviating urban congestion and sprawl. Are  they overlooking what in many cases may be a more effective solution: building down instead of building up?

Arizona State University professor and Senior Sustainability Scientist Samuel Ariaratnam talks about the possible advantages of developing our underground “real estate” in an extensive discussion broadcast recently on the Australia Radio National network.

On the program Future Tense, Ariaratnam joins a group of experts to examine what underground construction could provide in not only reining in urban congestion but in public safety, efficient land use, environmental sustainability, and  protection from extreme heat, cold, and  natural disasters.

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The Arizona Solar Summit III took place October 9-10, 2012 at ASU SkySong hosted in partnership with ASU LightWorks. The summit’s participants included a collective group of distinguished panelists all focused on highlighting game-changing efforts regarding Arizona’s position of leadership in the dynamically growing solar industry.

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A team of Arizona State University engineering students advised by Sustainability Scientist César Torres finished in eighth place among 35 teams that competed recently in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Chem-E-Car national championship.

The competition requires students to design and build a small vehicle powered by a chemical source.

The ASU team produced a vehicle – named Hydrospark – powered by a hydrogen fuel-cell, with an electronic system to control speed, and using a chemical-reaction process to stop the car.

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ASU faculty member Phillip Stafford challenges his colleagues to implement clean energy at home. Stafford shares how he’s achieved a $12 annual electricity bill for his 5,000-square-foot, Phoenix home. To get off the grid, Stafford recently upgraded the photovoltaic (PV) solar panels on his home that generate more than 12,000 watts of electricity. He also uses LED lights, has two hot water heaters, uses mostly battery-powered lawn tools and has planted dozens of desert shade trees around his house. Stafford says that the high, upfront costs definitely are paying off.

Have questions for Stafford? Visit his ASU directory page.

A team of former and current ASU engineering, marketing and sustainability students developing a venture to combat hunger are in the finals of a national competition focusing on entrepreneurship and sustainable solutions to social challenges.

Team FlashFood will compete in the Yum! Global Sustainability Challenge Nov. 7 to 9 in Louisville, Ken., against teams from the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Louisville, the University of South Florida, the University of Southern California and American  University in Washington, D.C. Yum! is one of the world’s largest restaurant companies, with more than 36,000 restaurants under its operations, including the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains.

FlashFood is known for developing a mobile phone application to connect a food recovery and distribution network. The idea is to collect leftover and excess food from restaurants, catering services and banquet halls and deliver it to various community and neighborhood locations from where it could be distributed to people in need.

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On November 12, 2012, DCDC co-director Dave White will be traveling to the Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making (CEDM) at Carnegie Mellon University to give a seminar on Boundary Work for Water Sustainability and Urban Climate Adaptation: Lessons from the Decision Center for a Desert City.

CEDM is one of four research centers including DCDC which receives funding from the National Science Foundation under the Decision Making Under Uncertainty program.

Under the direction of PI Morgan Granger, the Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making develops and promulgates new and innovative, behaviorally and technically informed insights involving the intersection points between climate and energy. It also generates methods to frame, analyze, and assist key stakeholders in addressing important decisions regarding climate change and the necessary transformation of the world's energy system.

NSF's Decision Making Under Uncertainty Collaborative Groups

In 2004, the National Science Foundation funded a group of Decision Making Under Uncertainty (DMUU) collaborative groups for five years. The goal of DMUU collaborative groups have been to support research, education, and outreach that increase basic understanding of decision-making processes and of the information needed by decision makers; to develop tools to support decision makers and increase their ability to make sound decisions; and to facilitate interaction among researchers and decision makers. In addition, NSF's Human and Social Dynamics priority area supported interdisciplinary groups that addressed questions related to change and dynamics in human systems more broadly.

In 2010, the DMUU collaborative groups competition drew upon both of these past experiences to address the need for larger-scale projects addressing decision making under uncertainty with respect to climate change and other long-term environmental change. With this funding, NSF seeks to stimulate societally beneficial research that will enhance basic theoretical understandings in the social and behavioral sciences as well as related fields of science and engineering.

In addition to ASU and Carnegie Mellon University, the following institutions were awarded NSF cooperative agreements for Decision Making Under Uncertainty:

• University of Chicago, PI Ian Foster, Climate Decision Making Center
• Columbia University, PI David Krantz, Center for Research on Environmental Decisions

Talk Abstract

Recent sustainability research has focused on the role of knowledge-action-systems as networks of actors and their future visions, institutions, and the practices and dynamics of knowledge production for environmental decision making. This work highlights the significance of active boundary work to construct, manage, and enhance the interfaces between stakeholders for the co-production of credible, salient, and legitimate knowledge for action. While there is increasing agreement on the broad principles of boundary work, developed through a growing body of case studies, there remains a need to develop a systematic and generalizable explanation of the determinants of effective boundary work and process for evaluating outcomes. In particular, the most likely to produce desired durable outcomes. In this seminar, Dr. White addresses this question with illustrations from the Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC), an NSF-funded trans-disciplinary collaborative group designed to bridge science and policy for water sustainability and urban climate adaptation in central Arizona. He will discuss challenges inherent in designing, managing, and reflexively evaluating knowledge-action-systems for sustainable development.

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As a doctoral student in History and Philosophy of Science at Arizona State University, Lydia Pyne ended up sharing an office with her father Steve Pyne, a professor of environmental history in the university’s School of Life Sciences and senior sustainability scientist with the Global Institute of Sustainability. Steve’s extra storage space - for housing his many books and projects - also offered his daughter a small, private workspace away from the crowded graduate student office.

It also offered the pair the opportunity to turn their frequent, playful intellectual banter into a co-authored book and, for Lydia, a dream come true. Their exchanges inspired “The Last Lost World: Ice Ages, Human Origins and the Invention of the Pleistocene.” This nonfiction book is an intergenerational work representing the authors’ intellectual adventure into the rich scientific and historical underpinnings of an important geological time period.

The Pleistocene, an era that lasted from more than 2.6 million years ago to approximately 10,000 years ago, is defined by the last great ice age and the appearance of modern humanity’s ancestors. Yet, as presented in the book’s title, just what is the “invention” of the Pleistocene?

“Even the ideas we developed to explain the epoch have a history - they are themselves cultural inventions,” explained Steve. “This work argues that we need to supplement science of human origins and evolution with other scholarship.”

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ARIZONA, USA, – October 25, 2012 – The Sustainability Consortium is pleased to announce our expansion into China.  The Consortium is an independent global organization that creates science-based knowledge about the sustainability of consumer products.

The Consortium has been awarded a $2 million grant from The Walmart Foundation to launch this effort. The expansion will see The Consortium collaborate with existing members, Chinese stakeholders, civil society organizations and local research partners to improve the systems and tools for product sustainability assessment. This work will support product sustainability improvements in China and beyond.

The Consortium’s product sustainability profiles already provide consumer goods companies with a consistent way to measure and track their products’ social and environmental progress. China has a large manufacturing base and is an important part of many global value chains. The Consortium sees opportunities to apply its work in product and supply chain design, supplier development, infrastructure investments and operational design.

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Valley Metro, which operates the Phoenix area’s light rail and primary bus system, has proposed a series of fare increase that, if approved, will take effect in March 2013.

In a feature on Phoenix NPR station KJZZ, ASU’s Aaron Golub discusses the proposed increase in terms of the balance between affordability and cost recovery that all public transit needs to maintain.

“Periodically, as costs, ridership and revenues change, transit agencies need to update their fares to take into account the new reality,” says Golub, who is an assistant professor of urban planning and sustainability.

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Listen to the interview »