While gender equality is improving in higher education institutions, professions and industry, globally women are still in the minority amongst CEOs, board and executive members of major companies, professors and political leaders.

A new report from the Global Alliance for Equity in Leadership (GAEL), What Will It Take: Equality In Leadership By 2030 outlines 10 action plans that articulate the practical actions Government, Universities and Industry must take to close the leadership gender gap.

GAEL exists to deliver programs, research and advocacy, to transform the pathways to leadership for all genders, to ensure the profile of executive leadership across 10 major sectors is inclusive and sustainable, to see the leadership gender gap close by 2030.

Working group members included sustainability scientists Wanda Dalla Costa, Ira Bennett, Dave White and Rimjhim Aggarwal, among many other contributors from ASU and beyond. The report is a product of the PLuS Alliance, of which ASU is a member.

On Thursday, March 18, 2021, PC faculty and students convened with the City of Peoria’s Planning and Zoning Commission to discuss one of the spring 2021 student projects. Project Cities students Leslie Carnie, Raymundo Cabrera, and Patricia Cooley were joined by PC Program Manager Steven Russell, and longtime Project Cities faculty member Meagan Ehlenz, to share with City of Peoria commission members about the Spring 2021 student project, Affordable Housing Study: ADU Strategies, marking the first-time students have been able to speak in person with City staff since the start of COVID-19.

“Engaging in the process and interacting with the Commissioners and City Staff members was very impactful for me as well as the project.  The city-specific data they provided regarding ADU perceptions, preferred uses, and potential pitfalls will be crucial to the successful completion of our report.”

Patricia Cooley, Masters of Urban and Environmental Planning Student

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The global challenges facing society require novel approaches to use-inspired science with local-to-global impact. The Global Futures Research Accelerator empowers the Scientists and Scholars network to develop an ASU research enterprise strategy to increase competitiveness, funding success, partnerships and societal impact. Read our Q&A for more information.

The Research Enterprise Strategy is a nuanced and novel approach to a complex and dynamic system. This program was created within the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory and Knowledge Enterprise Research Operations to help participants develop a proactive, capacity-building enterprise research strategy that aligns research priorities with resources informed by intellectual and organizational context. Participants will create a blueprint for a diverse research portfolio that includes plans for funding, partnership, and an ambitious yet realistic approach to scaling-up. Read the flyer to learn more.

Applications are open now and must be submitted by July 30. Early to mid-career faculty with a research focus are encouraged to apply. Classes are planned to run bi-weekly on Fridays, September 3, 2021 through April 29, 2022.

Solve Climate by 2030 is a nationwide effort to spark Earth Month conversations on the challenge of rapid decarbonization across the country. Join us for a discussion on the ambitious, yet feasible actions that will spur a just, green recovery in Arizona.

ASU is one of 100 universities participating in Bard College's Solve Climate by 2030, taking place on April 7th. We will have a webinar that we will record and that Bard will share nationally and globally. It is a locally controlled, globally coordinated event. The focus of the webinar is on JUSTICE and on Big Ideas, Big Actions (for your region, for your state). Each of the three speakers will address 1 big action and 1 big idea that will lead us to "Solve Climate by 2030."

Registration and more information about ASU's event.

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As part of the citizen scientist initiative taking place throughout April, we will be hosting a welcome webinar on Thursday, April 1, at 9:00 a.m. (AZ time).

As part of this collaboration,  members of the ASU community and the entire state of Arizona will be helping us document flowering plants and pollinators on ASU Phoenix-area campuses

Learn more and register.

This blog post was written by Arizona State University doctoral candidate and Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems Research Associate Estève Giraud.

Arizona State University held the world’s largest scientific meeting for the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) from February 8 through 11, 2021 where the theme of the meeting focused on understanding dynamic ecosystems. Dr. Kathleen Merrigan, executive director of the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at ASU, and Estève Giraud gave a presentation on Innovating Organic Agriculture for the occasion. The content of this talk is summarized below.

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A new book of science fiction, art, and essays from the Center for Science and the Imagination and Center for Energy & Society at Arizona State University explores how solar energy will transform the future of cities and the people who inhabit them. Created in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Cities of Light features stories by Paolo Bacigalupi, S. B. Divya, Deji Olukotun, and Andrew Dana Hudson. Get the book for free.

A webinar inspired by the book will be held Friday, April 2. More information and registration.

Read an essay by sustainability scientist Clark Miller and others; the piece is a slightly modified version of the book's final chapter. The Power of Customized and Inclusive Energy Futures.

Wondering what you can do with a Sustainable Food Systems degree? Join the ASU Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems for our first career panel on Friday, April 2nd, from 1-2pm AZ via Zoom. This event will give students a better understanding of their career options after graduation and how to achieve their career goals. This panel will be especially beneficial for current or prospective students who are interested in pursuing a career within food systems, sustainability, or agribusiness. We are honored to have panelists with experience in private, non-profit, and government organizations. The speakers will share stories of how they built their job paths and offer insights into current trends in the field. For more information on the panelists, read their biographies below. 

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By Mary Rochelle, Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Certificate student 

This blog is part of a series from the December Arizona Immersive program of the Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Graduate Certificate Program. Students virtually toured the state, meeting with farmers, ranchers, entrepreneurs, government staff and non-profit leaders. 

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The ASU Staff Council sponsors the 1st Annual Conference on Diversity and Inclusion at the university. Their goal is to provide a venue for not only the exchange of innovative ideas but also to facilitate competent and impactful action plans to address diversity, equity, and inclusion in our respective areas of influence. This conference will be held virtually via ZOOM Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, April 8-9, 2021.

Learn more and register.

Recent writing across the social sciences have emphasized the importance of the position and perspective of the researcher in understanding observer bias and reflexivity in correcting for that bias. Taking a hands-on approach, this workshop will use specific examples of how one might incorporate considerations of reflexivity and positionality into designing, conducting, and writing up research. What are the advantages of doing so? The disadvantages? How do concerns about positionality relate or not relate to more traditional concepts of bias?

Participants will learn techniques for robustly engaging in reflexivity, for understanding positionality and for weaving reflexivity and positionality into different types of methodologies and fieldwork. The workshop uses both lectures and activities where participants engage with case studies and work to develop their own reflexive and positional skills. This workshop is appropriate as an introduction for scholars interested in developing ethically grounded reflexive approaches to research methods. Participants will complete the workshop with the basic skills to deploy reflexivity and positionality in scholarly research.

The event is offered by the Institute for Social Science Research and led by Dr. Pardis Mahdavi, dean of Social Sciences and director of the School for Social Transformation at ASU. May 13, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Learn more and register.

Sustainability scientist Matei Georgescu, associate professor in ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, is lead author of a new study, Precipitation response to climate change and urban development over the continental United States, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

When rain began falling in northern Georgia on Sept. 15, 2009, little did Atlantans know that they would bear witness to epic flooding throughout the city. Georgia’s busiest expressway was underwater, as were roads and bridges; untreated sewage mingled with rising flood waters; cars and people were swept away. Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico fueled the flood of 2009.

A decade later, Arizona State University researchers are asking whether a combination of urban development — and climate change fueled by greenhouse gases — could bring about comparable scenarios in U.S. cities. Based on a just-published study, the answer is yes. Read the full story in ASU News. The abstract follows.

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What can we achieve together in this decade to put the world on a path to a more sustainable, more prosperous future for all? Join the Nobel Prize Summit, Our Planet, Our Future, April 26-28, 2021 to become part of the solution.

View the program, which includes remarks from Johan Rockström, Beatie Wolfe, Xiye Bastida, Steven Chu, John Kerry, Anthony Fauci, Ursula Von der Leyen, the Dalai Lama, and many other distinguished presenters.

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The workshop brings together three leading scholars to discuss current changes in the global economy. The speakers will address the impact of mobile money, resource extraction, and other transformative factors on economic practices in urban and rural areas of the global south.

Speakers

• Sean Maliehe, an African economic historian and ethnographer of commerce, money, and mobile phones
• Sibel Kusimba, an anthropologist focused on inter-ethnic cooperation, leadership, and environmental change
• AbdoulMaliq Simone, an urbanist with an abiding interest in the spational and social compositions of urban regions

Sustainability scholar Nina Berman is director of the School of International Letters and Cultures, which is sponsoring this event along with the Center for Philosophical Technologies, School of Politics and Global Studies, School of Art, Dean of Social Sciences, College of Global Futures, and the Department of Economics.

On March 16th, 2021 the United Nations Global Compact’s Target Gender Equality Live event convened leaders from business, government, civil society and academia to discuss and demonstrate how the private sector can help bring down barriers to gender equality by respecting and supporting the rights of women and girls.

2020 WE Empower Awardee Valrie Grant and co-chair Amanda Ellis participated in the panel discussion “When She Leads: The Power and Potential of Women’s Entrepreneurship.” The session featured a fireside chat where women entrepreneurs from around the world spoke about how their organization advances the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the obstacles they face. Following the fireside chat, a panel discussion of industry leaders discussed best practices of how to support women-led businesses and how organizations can engage in similar initiatives.

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"With the world still gripped by the coronavirus, with devastating weather and climate disasters, and with attacks on science being spread through disinformation campaigns, there has never been a greater need for scientific engagement with public policy. Leaders in the scientific community are calling for better ways to incorporate science into decision-making during periods of crisis and beyond."

Thus begins a new piece in Bioscience, Ensuring that Science Has a Seat at the Table: Scientists key to decision-making in critical times, published March 8, 2021.

Sustainability scientist Leah Gerber's work on structured decision-making was referenced as a means to improve decision-making. “Evidence and science should be used for decision-making across the board, especially in natural disasters,” Gerber said. The process of structured decision-making makes every step in that decision process transparent, she notes. Gerber is director of ASU's Center for Biodiversity Outcomes.

Read the full article.

People often think of infrastructure as merely physical assets, but they are the outcome of cultural preferences and how we generate knowledge. In this episode, Professor Mikhail Chester (@mikhailchester) of Arizona State University interviews Professor Thaddeus Miller (@Thad_Miller) of University of Massachusetts Amherst about infrastructure governance, the knowledge systems embedded in organizations and governance networks, and the values or assumptions built into those systems. We also hear about complexity and future problems, as well as the importance of transdisciplinary knowledge co-generation to solve problems in the Anthropocene. The Infrastructure and the Anthropocene Forum took place from December 7-9, 2020 and was moderated by Prof. Mikhail Chester of Arizona State University. The forum was hosted by the Infrastructure Misfits and Arizona State University's Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering.

See the whole Infrastructure and the Anthropocene playlist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvz_faOzavaSD40LmDr4RknZZxWAVqwGp

Infrastructure Misfits (un)Society: http://www.infrastructurecomplexity.org/

Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering | Arizona State University: https://metis.asu.edu/.

Listen on iTunes, StitcherGoogle Podcasts, Spotify, or Buzzsprout.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

Tackling the species extinction and habitat degradation crisis takes transdisciplinary and out-of-the-box approaches. That is why Arizona State University has become a key player in creating a livable future for all. A recent article by Kristin Toussaint in Thrive magazine highlights how ASU has become a hotspot for biodiversity conservation research and innovation.

Toussaint highlights different expert voices throughout the article, including Greg Asner, who leads the Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science; Leah Gerber and Beth Polidoro, who co-lead the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes; and Bryan Brayboy, who leads the Center for Indian Education.

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By Claire Robertson, Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Certificate student 

This blog is part of a series from the December Arizona Immersive program of the Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Graduate Certificate Program. Students virtually toured the state, meeting with farmers, ranchers, entrepreneurs, government staff and non-profit leaders. 

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A new report reveals what factors influence whether Australian governments are successful at adopting green purchasing policies, Elizabeth Bruns, Nicole Darnall, Kylie Flynn, and Angela Fox write.

In 2015, Australia’s government purchasing accounted for 36 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product. All the time, the government is buying construction material, chemicals, vehicle fleets, office materials, and electronics.

These purchases collectively contribute to global climate change, and a host of other environmental concerns during their manufacturing and use. As a result, many Australian governments are adopting sustainable purchasing policies to reduce their environmental impacts.

A sustainable purchasing policy formalises an organisation’s commitment to reduce the environmental harms associated with its purchasing and procurement.

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