Sustainability News

A new federal report by ASU professors highlights how nearly a third of the food produced in the United States never makes it to the grocery aisle, instead ending up in landfills. The research shows that the entire food chain is fraught with unpredictability, from how much it rains to how many farm workers show up for harvest, to which apple will be plucked from the bin. Literal tons of food are thrown away at nearly every step.

Sustainability Scientists Tim Richards and Ashok Mishra, both professors in the W. P. Carey School of Business, were on the nationwide team of researchers who produced the report.

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Inspired by a vegan documentary, Victoria Erran decided to make the life-altering decision to study sustainability.

"I had just watched one of those famous vegan documentaries where it talks about how much land, water and energy it takes to grow animals for agricultural purposes," Erran said. "I was in shock, and I wanted to learn why no one was talking about this!"

The passion she felt at that moment remained with her and propelled her through Arizona State University's School of Sustainability, from which she graduated in the fall of 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts in sustainability. Continue reading to learn more about Erran and her experiences at ASU.

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Proposals are due April 1, 2020 for a new faculty fund program offered through the Walton Sustainability Solutions Service, the sustainabilty consultancy of ASU. The program is designed to provide support for projects that will create opportunities to develop new areas of business and to assist business clients in finding solutions for their problems.

The mission of the Solutions Service is to enable clients to implement sustainable solutions by leveraging our exclusive access to ASU's resources. They are seeking innovative ideas, concepts, technologies or analytical techniques that could develop into applications for sustainable decision making in the private sector.

Learn more and apply via ASU InfoReady.

Each year, the National Science Foundation releases a new Proposal & Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG). In 2020, the document’s number will be NSF 20-1.

The changes outlined in NSF 20-1 will be effective for proposals submitted or due, and awards made, on or after June 1, 2020. While the changes are not yet required, it is always best to adopt the changes immediately to be sure to fulfill the requirements. Significant changes for 2020 are as follows.

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Dream big is the motto for applicants to the MacArthur Foundation for their 100&Change competition - $100 million big! Two ASU proposals made it to the top 100 in the current round: a substance abuse prevention program – keepin’ it REAL – and the Global Biodiversity Observatory, to monitor biodiversity changes in detail. The winner will be announced in the fall of 2020.

Keepin’ it REAL – REAL stands for refuse, explain, avoid and leave – promotes substance abuse prevention among youth within their local cultural context. Flavio Marsiglia, Regent’s Professor in the School of Social Work and the Global Center for Applied Heath Research, runs the program, which has been used in the U.S., Guatemala, Mexico, Spain and Uruguay. If funded by MacArthur, the group will expand the program to sub-Saharan Africa, where abuse of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, is on the rise.

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More than 4,000 leaders will convene at VERGE 20 to address the climate crisis through action in five key markets: clean energy, electrified transportation, the circular economy, carbon removal and sustainable food systems. The goal is to solve the climate crisis by building a clean economy that is both equitable and profitable.

If you are interested in speaking at one of their five concurrent conferences, submit a nomination by April 24,2020 here. The conferences run from Oct 27-29, 2020 in San Jose, California.

NSF Human-Environment Research and Geographical Sciences Program (HEGS) NSF 20-547

Due dates

• August 18, 2020, 3rd Tuesday in August, annually thereafter, OR
• January 19, 2021, 3rd Tuesday in January, annually thereafter

Limits

• PI or co-PI can submit only one proposal for deadline date.
• Resubmissions of declined proposals cannot take place sooner than one year or more after the original submission date and must be substantially revised or proposal will be returned without review.

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Sustainability scientist Sara Brownell, an associate professor of undergraduate biology in Arizona State University's School of Life Sciences in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has been named the 2020 LGBTQ+ Educator of the Year by the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals.

Brownell’s research, leadership and personal commitment to improving science education, especially for underrepresented minorities, led to the organization’s recognition.

One of her studies looks at how active learning classrooms present challenges for LGBTQ+ students. In a second study, Brownell looks at the impacts and reasons why LGBTQ+ biology instructors decide to reveal their identities to their students. For Brownell, it’s a privilege to share her identity with the next generation of LGBTQ+ students. She hopes her actions will help LGBTQ+ students feel more comfortable and accepted in the classroom.

Just 34 hours before it was to begin, the American Physical Society (APS) cancelled its annual meeting due to coronavirus concerns. More than 10,000 people from all over the world were expected to attend the conference in Denver March 2 -6, 2020. APS will refund registration fees and assist attendees with being reimbursed for hotels. This high-visibility cancellation brings our attention to concerns among our own community members.

ASU Health Services maintains a web page on the Novel Coronavirus, the university's plans and activities, standing travel advisories, and resources for the campus community. This is the central repository for the most current information coming from the university.

The Zimin Institute for Smart & Sustainable Cities at ASU is accepting proposals in four areas; the first two themes are the major focus for this year.

1. Daily Life & Human Connection / Interaction / Engagement
2. Sustainable and Healthy Environments & Spaces
3. Inherent Security, Safety & Public Well-being
4. Infrastructure Surety, Resilience, and Integrated Functionality

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Christa Burgess began her journey at Arizona State University in another major, but she always felt something was missing.

"After my first semester I got the feeling that the major wasn't quite right for me," Burgess said. "I enjoyed biology, but I realized that I was much more interested in learning how people interact with the environment and how to help balance the needs of both people and the natural world."

After some research, she decided to switch her major to sustainability with a focus in sustainable ecosystems. Last December, Burgess graduated a semester early from Barrett, the Honors College with a Bachelor of Science in sustainability and a minor in biological sciences. She remains at ASU as part of the 4+1 accelerated Master of Sustainability Solutions. Continue reading to learn more about Burgess.

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This article was written by William H. Walker VI, a sophomore in the School of Sustainability.

Food is integral in nourishing the mind, body, and soul as well as sustaining the communities around us. We live in a society where food is wasted in the home as well as in stores. At the same time, many people live in food deserts without access to fresh produce. How can we resolve these complex sustainability issues, alleviate food deserts, and increase access to healthy fruits and veggies? Changemaker Central at ASU has an initiative that combats all of these challenges.

Borderlands (also known as Produce On Wheels Without Waste or P.O.W.W.O.W.) is a food rescue initiative hosted by Changemaker Central on the Tempe and Downtown campuses that diverts edible food that ordinarily is sent to a landfill. P.O.W.W.O.W diverts produce that is surplus, on the verge of decomposing, or quality control rejections by retailers and restaurants, and sells it at a rate of $12 for 70 lbs or $6 for 35 lbs to students.

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Dr. Reed Maxwell will presents the 2020 Henry Darcy Distinguished Lecture on Feb 28, 1 - 2 pm, ASU CDN Room 60 (Design North) entitled "Hydrology in the Supercomputing Age: How Computational Advances Have Revolutionized Our Field, and What Big Data and Massively Parallel Simulations Mean for the Future of Hydrologic Discovery." Dr. Maxwell and the Arizona Hydro Society will gather for a mixer from 2 to 4 pm at Macayo's Depot Cantina in downtown Tempe. $10 suggested donation - appetizers and no-host bar included.

Dr. Maxwell's research focuses on understanding connections within the hydrologic cycle and how they related to water quantity and quality under anthropologic stresses. He is currently director of the Integrated GroundWater modeling Center at the Colorado School of Mines.

Right now, there are hundreds of billions of locusts wreaking havoc on vegetation across Africa. Experts are sounding the alarm, including United Nations humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock, who said the swarm has the potential to be "the most devastating plague of locusts in any of our living memories if we don't reduce the problem faster than we're doing at the moment."

The outbreak has hit East Africa particularly hard as many countries in the region are heavily dependent on agriculture. Locust swarms devastate food crops and raise food insecurity, an issue many of the countries already struggle with. According to the UN, the swarms are the largest in Somalia and Ethiopia in 25 years and the largest in Kenya in 70 years. In Kenya, Joseph Katone Leparole — who has lived in the hamlet, Wamba, for most of his 68 years — described the plague as being similar to an umbrella covering the sky.

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In a global economy, it is not unusual for decisions made on one end of the world to affect what goes on in the opposite end of the globe. So, when China decided in 2018 to limit the number of reusable materials it accepted from the United States (due to their recycling facilities becoming overwhelmed), many Arizona cities like Mesa, Tucson and Casa Grande were compelled to reduce or eliminate their recycling programs.

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There is no doubt that one of the most prestigious awards a junior faculty member can receive is the NSF CAREER. If received, the grant’s five years of funding serves as a foundation for a young professor’s research program. As one might imagine, because it is so prestigious and relatively long-lasting, getting it is very competitive. The funding rate is approximately 14% to 24% depending on the directorate.

If you think you might be interested in applying, you first need to be sure that you are eligible.

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Together with colleagues from Cornell, Michigan State, Purdue, and Susquehanna University, program director and sustainability scholar Carola Grebitus will present a weeklong winter workshop on various aspects of agriculture from agribusiness, ag economics, consumer studies, marketing and applied economics. The course is open to academics (students, professors, individuals employed by colleges and universities, and other institutions of higher education) and non-academics (consultants and other practitioners from the private sector or national and international organizations).

Attendees will learn to successfully deploy surveys and experiments in research studies in these fields. The workshop will cover: designing surveys, choice experiments, auctions to collect data, related data analysis, results interpretation, and deriving recommendations to stakeholders.

Scholarships of $800 are still available for interested students. The scholarship deadline is February 25. Graduate students at different levels (MSc, MPhil, PG-diploma, and PhD) are encouraged to apply.

To register for the workshop. Seats are limited and registration is first come, first served.

Use all of your senses to develop new ways to explore food at Emerge 2020: Eating at the Edges. Look at alternative forms of food production, distribution and consumption in an effort to build a new culinary world that is more inclusive and equitable.

Event at Mesa Arts Center, POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. See website for activities and to RSVP.

ASU’s Wrigley Sustainability Institute will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day with Wrigley Speaker Meg Lowman. Referred to as "the real-life Lorax" by National Geographic, she has dedicated three decades to the exploration of tree canopies and is one of the first pioneers in the field of treetop science.

In her talk, CanopyMeg will highlight her creative toolkit for whole-forest exploration and discuss how she applies her research to create sustainability practices on local and global scales, such as designing canopy walkways to encourage ecotourism for local income instead of logging.

One of the most difficult things a person or family can experience is the traumatic loss of a loved one. A traumatic loss is unexpected, violent, or involves a person who should not yet die, like a child. For people who experience these losses, traditional therapy may be inadequate: the therapist may not understand the depth of the person’s pain, the setting may be too sterile, and there may be a push toward try psychotropic medications rather than nonmedical alternatives.

Dr. Joanne Cacciatore - senior sustainability scholar in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and associate professor in the School of Social Work – is developing a new approach. Her paper, Evaluating care farming as a means to care for those in trauma and grief, outlines her approach. Dr. Cacciatore operates the Selah Carefarm - C.A.R.E. stands for counseling, advocacy, research and education - which takes people into nature to hang out with and care for animals. Researchers know that engagement with nature has positive physiological effects. Even more, contact with animals lowers stress hormones (cortisol), heart rate, and blood pressure. Greencare therapy, of which care farming is an example, facilitates individuals’ interactions with nature with the intent of providing a health benefit.

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