Sustainability News

In 2004, Arizona State University President Michael M. Crow convened a meeting in Temozón, Mexico, of a small but distinguished group of intellectual leaders who were exploring a new idea: sustainability science. Could sustainability be a core value of a large public research university?

It would have to instruct and inspire new generations. It would have to solve pressing real-world problems. And it would have to walk its talk.

On the 15th anniversary of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, ASU has proven it can do all of that and more. Read more about the accomplishments and evolution of the ASU Wrigley Institute in these ASU Now stories:

• The institute: Its spark, its impact
• The donor: A passion for tackling tough global challenges
• The founding director: Our efforts continue to look forward
• The current director: Designing a future in which humanity thrives

As we continue to grapple with the adverse effects of climate change, there is a renewed urgency about the need to transition to renewable sources of energy. However, transitioning comes with its own set of challenges, some of which include the high costs of some alternate sources of energy and questions about their efficiency. One renewable source of energy that ticks both of the previous boxes is solar energy.

Solar energy, while quite expensive, still remains one of the most promising sources of alternate energy. It’s why researchers at the Holman Research Group in Arizona State University have been working on innovative ways to reduce its cost. Led by Zachary Holman, an associate professor of electrical engineering and a senior sustainability scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, the research team has published new findings in the science journal Joule that show how a minute change to the industry-standard silicon wafers significantly enhances solar cell composition.

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The Lincoln Institute's Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy has announced its new Babbitt Dissertation Fellowship Program. The fellowships will assist Ph.D. students at U.S. universities whose research builds on, and contributes to, the concerns of the Babbitt Center to advance water sustainabiltiy and resilience, particularly in the American West. The fellowships are an impotant link between the Lincoln Institute's education mission and its research objective by supporting early-career scholars.

Applications are due April 1, 2020. Application guidelines and more information can be found on the Babbitt Center's fellowship program web page.

Arizona State University is offering a unique new degree that will teach students from any background how to launch a successful venture.

The Master of Science in innovation and venture development is a transdisciplinary partnership among three schools at ASU: The Design School in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, the W. P. Carey School of Business and the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

The one-year, on-campus program, which is now accepting applications, will be experiential. Students will participate in several intensive studio courses and work in teams, according to Cheryl Heller, the director of design integration, a joint position among the business, engineering and design schools.

Pakistan. Somalia. Ethiopia. Kenya. Locust swarms of near biblical proportions are currently wreaking havoc across a wide swath of southwest Asia and east Africa.

According to the United Nations, the swarms are the largest in Somalia and Ethiopia in 25 years, and the most severe in Kenya in 70 years. Firdous Ashiq Awan, Pakistan’s special assistant to the prime minister for information and broadcasting, called the infestation the “worst in more than two decades.” Both Pakistan and Somalia have declared national emergencies as they struggle to contain the impact of the pests' invasion. As a testament to the significance of the threat, Somalia’s Ministry of Agriculture warned that the locusts posed “a major threat to Somalia’s fragile food security situation.” It was a sentiment echoed by Qu Dongyu, director-general of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization.

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Applications are open through April 15, 2020, for the third annual Everything Change global climate fiction contest. The Imagination and Climate Futures Initiative at Arizona State University—a partnership of the Center for Science and the Imagination and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing—seeks short stories that help us imagine how humans can live within Earth’s planetary boundaries—at the individual level, yes, but more importantly at the level of organizations, communities, and societies, and at the level of a global human civilization.

Submissions must be 5,000 words or less. All genres of short fiction are welcome.

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Across the globe, wildfires continue to occur with increasing frequency and higher intensity. The world watched in shock as the still-burning flames in Australia engulfed thousands of homes, scorched millions of acres and burned alive more than a billion animals. The unprecedented disaster has experts worried.

In the latest thought leader piece from the Global Futures Laboratory, "A world on fire: Will we respond?," Peter Schlosser, Clea Edwards, Steven Beschloss, Nina Berman and Upmanu Lall discuss the impacts of the devastating fires in Australia and our collective responsibility to act. "It is the responsibility of all of us — Australian or not — to take this staggering moment to work for change on a global scale," they say.

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AASHE, The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, will present a Sustainability Across the Curriculum Leadership Workshop at San Diego State University on June 3 to 4, 2020. This intensive workshop teaches faculty to introduce and expand sustainability in their curricula.

To apply to attend the workshop, see the application here. For ASU faculty, the opportunity qualifies for the Sustainabiltiy Curriculum Incentive.

As we continue to witness the devastating impacts of climate change, there is a consensus that we as a human population need to transition to a more sustainable way of living. But with so many ideas and proposals, how do we decide which pathways are best? Experts from Arizona State University have created a tool to help: The Sustainable Future Scenarios (SFS).

According to a new paper published in the journal of Landscape and Urban Planning, "The co-production of sustainable future scenarios," the SFS “offers guidance to co-produce visions and transition pathways of positive futures that develop and integrate interventions for sustainability transformations of social-ecological-technological systems.”

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

Modern consumers have lost touch with how food is more than a commodity and brings more than nutritional value. Cultural, spiritual, ecological and community values are bound up in everything we eat. For food systems to be more sustainable, consumers need to embrace indigenous and place-based food narratives that foster more equitable food systems. 

To push back against the common narrative of food for nutrition’s sake, the Wisdom of Indigenous Foodways conference highlighted uplifting agricultural, social and sustainable narratives from the indigenous community.

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At the Wrigley Lecture held on January 30 at Arizona State University, climate leader Christiana Figueres said extreme events like the Australian wildfires are foretelling of things to come if we continue to sleepwalk into the future. "That world is possible, but it is not inevitable," she said.

Figueres is recognized internationally as a diplomatic leader on climate change. From 2010 to 2016, she was executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. During her tenure, Figueres brought together national and sub-national governments, corporations and activists, financial institutions and NGOs to deliver the historic Paris Agreement on climate change. To accelerate the global response to climate change, Figueres founded Global Optimism Ltd., a purpose-driven enterprise focused on social and environmental change. On February 25, 2020, Figueres is launching her new book, "The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis."

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Inspired by his passions for nature and correcting social inequities, and fueled by his alarm at the climate crisis, Cameron Chavez Reed began his Arizona State University career determined to obtain a degree that would enable him to make a difference.

“I knew I wanted to study something that could make a difference and integrate the interdisciplinary nature of sustainability into a single program,” Reed said. “ASU’s School of Sustainability has provided me this opportunity: a program that incorporates the social, political, economic, and natural ecological aspects of the incredibly diverse and complex issue that is sustainability.”

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With Hurricane Dorian threatening in late August 2019, staff from Arizona State University traveled to Norfolk, Virginia to investigate and film flooding due to the climate crisis. Norfolk is the site of the largest Naval base in the world and vital to U.S. national security. The city is also the first location in the U.S. where the threats and complications from sea level rise began in earnest.

This nine-minute documentary was produced by Steven Beschloss for the Global Futures Laboratory and co-produced, shot and edited by Kirk Davis for Knowledge Enterprise.

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A food summit co-sponsored by Arizona State University brought indigenous voices to the forefront of a conversation about transforming our food system.

The ASU Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, Food Tank and the University of Hawaii, West Oahu partnered for the inaugural Food Tank Summit, “The Wisdom of Indigenous Foodways." The event, which took place on January 22 at ASU Skysong, featured 22 speakers, almost all of them Native American or Native Hawaiian. Indigenous celebrity chefs Mariah Gladstone and Sean Sherman, founder and CEO of The Sioux Chef, were also present.

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There is near unanimous consent that we need to transition to a sustainable future. The real question is, how do we do so?

In an effort to address this vital question, Arizona State University’s intellectual network the Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes (CSPO) held an open workshop titled “What Will It Take to Transition to a Sustainable Future?” on January 22. The workshop was held at the Barrett & O’Connor Washington Center and it brought together leaders from universities, businesses, government and civil society to discuss potential solutions to the critical, complex challenges of sustainability and the future of our planet.

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Megan Warner just graduated with a Bachelor of Science in sustainability. As someone who has been dedicated to sustainability from an early age, completing the program was a dream come true.

"This program will change you in profound ways," Warner said. "I learned how to be mindful of the uncomfortable and inspiring feelings that sustainability brings."

In the following Q&A, read about Warner, her advice to those still on the journey of obtaining a degree, and her plans for the future.

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Gates Ag One - short for Bill & Melinda Gates Agricultural Innovations - is a new nonprofit begun by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The organization will focus on smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia where a total of 2.8 billion people are rural and depend on small-scale agriculture for their food and income. Half or nearly half of employment in these two regions is from small-scale agriculture. Despite their importance to local and regional economies, the yield from these farms is far below that in other locations.

Gates Ag One aims to increase access to the affordable tools and innovations these farmers need to sustainably improve crop productivity and, more importantly, to adapt to the effects of climate change. By working with partners regional and international public- and private sector partners, Gates Ag One will develop drought-resistant, yield-enhancing seeds and crops; make advancements to see that land and water are used more sustainably; and see that rural farmers have access to affordable insurance and agricultural markets. The goal is to give small holder farmers what they need to lift themselves out of poverty.

Are you working in urban climate research? It's time for your postdocs, grad students and undergraduate researchers to submit abstracts for ASU's Urban Climate Research Center third annual poster competition and showcase. Abstracts are due February 10.

View the winning submissions from 2018 and 2019.

Distinguished Sustainability Scientist Gary Marchant was recently elected by his peers as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science – one of eight fellows named in the Societal Impacts of Science and Engineering sector, for distinguished contributions to research, teaching and outreach at the intersections of law, science and biotechnology, including important work with legislative, executive and judicial groups.

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The National Academy of Sciences has announced that Sustainability Scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton has been awarded the 2020 Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship. The Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship is awarded to a scientist making lasting contributions to the study of the physics of the Earth and whose lectures will provide solid, timely, and useful additions to the knowledge and literature in the field.

The prize was awarded to Elkins-Tanton for her lasting contributions to the study of the physics of Earth and for illuminating the early evolution of rocky planets and planetesimals. She will be awarded a $50,000 prize and funds to present a series of Day Lectures, which are provided by the Arthur L. Day Bequest. The award will be presented on Sunday, April 26 at 2 p.m. in Washington, D.C., at the National Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting and will be available via live webcast.

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