The Macedonian-born Ivan Ermanoski concentrates on making fuels and products using solar heat. He’s a recent arrival at Arizona State University LightWorks, where he’ll be working on solarizing our society — that is, reducing the use of fossil fuels by replacing them with solar-derived fuels.

To accomplish this, he and his colleagues are planning to use a thermochemical cycle that would keep carbon dioxide from being added to the atmosphere.

The thermochemical cycle begins when a metal oxide is heated until it gives up some of its oxygen. At lower temperatures, the material wants that oxygen restored, and if exposed to carbon dioxide or steam, the material will take an oxygen from those molecules to yield carbon monoxide or hydrogen.

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A Thought Leader Series Piece

by Bob Litterman

Continuously pumping greenhouse gases into Earth’s atmosphere is a risk. We simply don’t know our atmosphere’s capacity to safely absorb these heat-trapping emissions, but we do know it’s not limitless. Evidence shows that Earth’s temperature is rising, oceans are warming and acidifying, ice sheets are shrinking, and intense weather events are happening more and more frequently — all of which directly or indirectly cause societal damage. Though Earth’s climate has always changed, it is virtually certain that this rapid trend of warming is caused by human activity since the mid-20th century. And there’s no sign of it slowing down.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, carbon dioxide accounted for 81 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States in 2016. As we drive gas-fueled cars, power electricity grids with fossil fuels, grow food and live our lives, we are dumping carbon into the atmosphere at an unprecedented and alarming rate. Once released into the atmosphere, carbon dioxide can affect climate for hundreds or thousands of years — longer than any other greenhouse gas.

At what point will we reach a catastrophic tipping point in which future generations will be unable to adapt to the impacts of climate change, leading to a significant and permanent decline in well-being?

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Arizona State University’s School of Music launched the 2018-19 Organ Series with a multidisciplinary presentation, “Walls of Sound: The Ecology of the Borderlands,” addressing the ecological impact of a wall at Arizona’s southern border.

“Our program seeks to show that the border wall is an invasive species amongst the biodiversity in the borderlands,” said Kimberly Marshall, Goldman Professor of Organ in the School of Music in ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. “Knowing that the border wall issue has been explored extensively, we focus specifically on the unforeseen ecological problems of erecting a wall through a fragile Sonoran Desert ecosystem.”

The multidisciplinary presentation consisted of video, audio and scientific work of many on- and off-campus collaborators. In addition to the music, Toby Yatso, lecturer in the ASU School of Music and artist-in-residence at Phoenix Theatre, narrated the performance. Michael Schoon, associate professor in the ASU School of Sustainability and Senior Sustainability Scientist for the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, provided expertise to the program’s narration. Samantha Lloyd, multimedia specialist in ASU’s School of Life Sciences, provided experiences and expertise on biodiversity in the borderlands through her videography work.

Read the full story on ASU Now.

Not only is Phoenix situated in the Southwest desert — the hottest region in the United States — it also happens to be the hottest major city in the country, and among the hottest in the world. More than 300 days of sun and thousands of square miles of concrete, asphalt and glass combine to make Greater Phoenix a living laboratory for the urban heat phenomenon and its associated ills.

And it’s only getting hotter.

Climate scientists predict daytime high temperatures will get higher, and nighttime low temperatures will continue their alarming upward trajectory. This is happening in a city that has already warmed an average of 5 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century, according to Nancy Selover, the state’s climatologist at Arizona State University’s Arizona State Climate Office.

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Arizona State University continues to make progress in sustainability ratings. ASU was recognized as No. 5 overall by the Sierra Magazine Cool Schools report and a top performer in the 2018 Sustainable Campus Index, achieving a No. 7 overall rating.

“As a leader in higher education that is shaping the next leaders of business, government and society, it is critical that ASU provide a campus environment and education rooted in sustainability,” said Mick Dalrymple, ASU University Sustainability Practices director. “It is nice for Sierra Magazine’s Cool Schools and AASHE to recognize the broad efforts across the university to do just that.”

For many ASU Online students, the chance to make a difference in their communities is a powerful motivator for earning a degree. Whether their goal is to advance in their current field or propel into a new arena altogether, working professionals who enroll in one of our online degrees find the flexible and robust nature of the program helps set them up for success.

Pursuing a Master of Sustainability Leadership degree enabled ASU Online student Annalise Dum to transition from the field of architecture into the nonprofit sector, where she now works as the Chicago facilities and workplace wellness manager for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Her role with the environmental action group includes overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Chicago office, in addition to consulting and advocating for the wellness component of sustainability within institutional construction projects and NRDC’s workforce.

“I focus on holistic sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and health and wellness in the workplace,” Annalise says. “I am certain that I got here, in large part, because of the MSL program. Being able to talk about the four different threads of the program and my capstone project is what sold me in my interview."

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Cancer has been a part of life on Earth since the beginning of multicellularity, yet it is a foe humankind continues to grapple with — at least in part because we still do not fully understand it.

Athena Aktipis, senior sustainability scientist at Arizona State University, studies cooperation among living things. Aktipis and her husband, fellow ASU scholar Carlo Maley, are making inroads toward a better understanding of cancer through more traditional scientific methods in their labs at the Biodesign Institute at ASU. But they’ve also conceived an unusual way to allow people to consider it anew.

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Junkee Ahn is a senior at Arizona State University studying sustainability at the Tempe campus. This summer, he took his skills abroad to South Korea to work in the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. His studies focus on sustainable energy, materials and technology.

Ahn recently spoke with ASU Student Life about his internship. "I found my internship opportunity and applied through the official United Nations website," he said. "I strongly encourage students to visit their website to search through available positions since there are many internship opportunities throughout various sectors in numerous countries."

Read Junkee Ahn's full Q&A from ASU Student Life.

Decades ago, oilmen had little interest in natural gas, the byproduct of crude oil extracted from the earth. So, they burned it off, like so many lit torches atop Texas’s oil fields. Jim Miller’s grandfather recalls reading the evening paper by their light. Miller, too, recalls living in their shadows. Now he’s living in the Valley of the Sun, working to develop a different kind of energy industry.

The native Texan says he wanted to be a chemical engineer because the successful people he knew as a child either worked in chemical plants or they worked for NASA. “That was it,” he says.

But years later, he found himself working not in a chemical plant nor at NASA but instead thinking up ways to create and harness alternative energy — energy gleaned not from fossil fuels but from renewable sources.

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On September 7, 2018, Founding Director Leah Gerber represented  the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes at a workshop titled “Biodiversity and Business” at the University of Oxford’s Department of Zoology.

The goal of the workshop was to develop a proof of concept “That the wealth of academic research and practice on biodiversity indicator development is directly relevant to businesses who are seeking to identify or develop biodiversity indicators,” as stated by the organizers.

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ASU-Conservation International Professor of Practice Jorge Ahumada recently published a paper in Oryx - Cambridge University Press, in partnership with other conservation scientists, titled “Detecting tropical wildlife declines through camera-trap monitoring: an evaluation of the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring protocol.”

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The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) announced the winners of its annual awards program to honor excellence in the profession. Among those being honored is sustainability scientist Trisalyn Nelson, foundation professor and director of the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, who is being named the Research Professional of the Year.

“Dr. Nelson’s research contributing to improving bicycling safety data and methods to map bicycle ridership stand out in the field,” said the APBP in its announcement of the award. “Her BikeMaps.org project to capture crowdsourced and official bicycling safety data allows professionals to characterize conditions in which crashes versus near misses are reported and the development of safety predictors along multi-use pathways will have a long-lasting impact on our profession.”

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A Science magazine story was published today titled “Should it be saved?” It addresses the various debates surrounding approaches to endangered species protection – in particular how decisions are made regarding funds allocation for recovery efforts.

A related story, titled “How triage became a dirty word,” was also published. This story reflects on insights shared by ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber on this topic.

Read both stories here.

Professors Bruce Rittmann and Mark van Loosdrecht received the 2018 Stockholm Water Prize on Wednesday for microbiological research and innovations that have revolutionized water and wastewater treatment. The prize was presented to them by Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden at a ceremony in Stockholm City Hall during World Water Week.

Bruce Rittman is a sustainability scientist in Arizona State University's Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and a regents' professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. He is also the director of the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology in the Biodesign Institute. Rittmann's research, along with the research of van Loosdrecht from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, has contributed to the understanding of how microorganisms can transform organic pollutants to something of value to humans and the environment.

This remarkable scientific achievement has led to the implementation across the globe of technologies that make it possible to remove harmful contaminants from water, cut wastewater treatment costs, reduce energy consumption and even recover chemicals and nutrients for recycling.

Read the full story on ASU Now.

On January 30, 3019, ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber will be partnering with Elliott Millinor and Greg Kaebnick to present a session on “Organizing concepts in biodiversity conservation.”

The session is the first in a series of four-presentations on organizing for biodiversity conservation in the age of extinction. These events are an initiative of the ASU Center for Biology + Society, as part of their Conservation Series. This particular segment on biodiversity conservation is also sponsored by the School of Life Sciences Ethics program.

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ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber will be giving a presentation at the University of Oxford’s Interdisciplinary Center for Conservation Science in London, UK on September 10, 2018, from 12:30-1:30 p.m. (GMT+1).

The presentation is titled “Casting Biodiversity Conservation as a Budget Allocation Problem,” and will take place in the seminar room at the Zoology department.

Click here to learn more.

The ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes recently secured two grants, one with the Electric Power Research Institute and one with Monsanto, to develop respective tools that will help enable each organization to estimate the range of potential operational, reputational, legal and regulatory risks associated with compliance with the U.S. Endangered Species Act for their respective industries.

The Endangered Species Act mandates that the US federal government take actions to conserve threatened and endangered species and their associated ecosystems. Critical the success of the ESA is engaging with the private sector to build understanding how biodiversity conservation and business practices can be complementary and synergistic.

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Drs. Jim Elser and Matt Scholz of the Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance made presentations on topics related to phosphorus sustainability at recent conferences in Asia and Europe.

Jim Elser, executive director of the Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance, gave a keynote address at the 4th International Conference on Environmental Pollution and Health held at Nankai University in Tianjin, China. His talk was “Phosphorus, Food, and Our Future,” regarding the critical need for this non-renewable resource in agriculture and the impact of excess phosphorus in waterways.

Other speakers at the conference represented the US Environmental Protection Agency and universities in China, Japan, Canada, several European countries, and the US. Visit http://environhealth.cn for additional information about the conference.

Jim Elser gave the same talk at the Center for Material Cycles and the Environment in the Department of Environmental Planning and Management of Nanjing University in Nanjing, China.

Matt Scholz, program manager of the Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance, made a presentation at the third European Sustainable Phosphorus Conference (ESPC3) in Helsinki, Finland. He introduced the Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance as a membership organization and North America’s central forum and advocate for the sustainable use, recovery and recycling of phosphorus in the food system. The Sustainable Phosphorus Alliances works with industry to find solutions and is the North American analog to the European Sustainable Phosphorus Platform, which hosted the conference. Matt also provided context for the phosphorus situation

Other speakers at the conference represented governments and sustainability organizations in countries across Europe. Visit https://phosphorusplatform.eu/espc3-2018 for additional information about the ESPC3 and watch the presentation made by Matt Scholz on YouTube at http://bit.ly/ESPC3_Scholz.

More information on the activities of the Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance is available at https://phosphorusalliance.org.

Flathead Lake in Montana is the largest natural freshwater lake in the western continental US (by surface area). It is also one of the cleanest large lakes in the world, with amazingly transparent water attracting people for fishing, swimming and water sports. The lake is a vital part of the Crown of the Continent, the largest intact ecosystem in the United States.

The health of the lake owes a lot to the Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS), which has conducted a scientifically-rigorous monitoring program since 1977. On August 1, 2018, the FLBS was presented the prestigious Stewardship Award by a local lake protection group, the Flathead Lakers. The Stewardship Award was given in recognition of the Bio Station's sustained and outstanding contributions to the protection of Flathead Lake and its watershed.

By all historical reports Flathead Lake was highly oligotrophic, meaning lacking in key nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen, a condition reflecting the largely undeveloped nature of its watershed in wilderness and national park. However, during the 1970’s, FLBS monitoring indicated higher levels of nutrients and algae growth due to population expansion that resulted in untreated sewage entering the lake. During this time, FLBS itself installed a modern wastewater treatment plant to treat its own sewage, a plant with advanced phosphorus removal capacities that were cutting edge at the time. Following this successful local demonstration, this technology was soon adopted by local communities such as the city of Kalispell. During subsequent years, FLBS monitoring has documented that levels of phosphorus loading to the lake as well as phosphorus concentrations in the lake have actually declined. As a result, the lake has maintained its world-famous water clarity.

However, new concerns have arisen, especially surrounding the impacts of aging and improperly installed septic tank systems associated with the lake’s growing population. In response, new distributed household and neighborhood treatment systems are likely needed to maintain the health and cleanliness of Flathead Lake. Indeed, FLBS itself needs to replace its now outdated wastewater treatment plant and seeks to implement a modular resource recovery system that will recycle phosphorus and nitrogen and capture bioenergy.

Flathead Lake is a success story in a time when about 40 percent of rivers and lakes in the U.S. surveyed by the EPA are too polluted for swimming or fishing, and lakes across the US are impacted by harmful algal blooms. The FLBS’s experience demonstrates the importance of ongoing vigilant monitoring that is connected to an engaged community in maintaining a lake’s health and cleanliness.

Dr. Jim Elser is executive director of the Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance and director of the Flathead Lake Biological Station. Read more about the FLBS and the Stewardship Award at https://flbs.umt.edu/newflbs/outreach/news-blog/posts/flbs-receives-stewtardship-award/

Arizona State University School of Sustainability undergraduate student Tearsa Saffell was interviewed on ABC15 Arizona morning news for her involvement with the Arizona Sustainability Alliance, a nonprofit organization with a mission to create and support cutting-edge, project-based sustainability solutions in Arizona. The organization recently won a $5,000 Community Heroes grant to expand their program bringing vertical gardens into low-income schools.

"We bring in vertical gardens and have the students help us set them up, and then they're able — for the entire school year — to work with the gardens, and maintain them, and harvest them and eat the delicious food," Saffell said in the interview. The first graders "say how much they love eating vegetables and how excited they are to pick them and eat them, so it's really great to see."

Saffell is a Food Systems Priority Lead for the Arizona Sustainability Alliance. Along with majoring in sustainability, she is working toward a certificate in Food System Sustainability.

Watch Saffell's interview on ABC15 Arizona.