Through the Global Sustainability Studies Program, one of the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, 15 ASU students completed an urban sustainability policy course at Hong Kong's City University. The ASU students, all enrolled in the School of Sustainability, worked alongside Chinese students throughout the rigorous, two-week course co-taught by Professor Rob Melnick.

Students attended lectures every morning and participated in field trips in the afternoons, enabling them to see the city - one of over 7 million people in under 430 square miles. They shared their research and experience at a recent Sustainability Series presentation.

“Hong Kong was fascinating to me because of its density and the fact that it’s facing the sustainability challenges of the future right now,” said Melissa Davidson, a graduate student in the School of Sustainability’s Master’s of Sustainable Solutions. “Hong Kong-like density is going to continue to dominate our world’s major cities. Understanding the problems in a different context is going to help us as future sustainability scientists to be better equipped to deal with the problems we’re all going to face eventually.”