Sustainability News

From working to save Hawaiian coral reefs during the 2019 Pacific Ocean warming event to empowering hundreds of students and researchers with data from the largest constellation of satellites currently in orbit, Arizona State University’s recently launched Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science is already making waves.

Established in January 2019, the center expands upon on a vision that Greg Asner, director of the center and a senior sustainability scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, began 18 years ago at the Carnegie Institution for Science on the campus of Stanford University. It’s based on Asner’s lab work of global coral reef mapping, measuring plant biodiversity in tropical forests and hiring and supporting new faculty with a similar vision of discovery and conservation impact.

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According to the United Nations Environment Program, 20% of the global wastewater and 10% of global carbon emissions can be traced back to one source: the fashion industry. The UNEP estimates that these statistics are “more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.” Alarmed by these numbers, Arizona State University students, staff and alumni, including the Business of Fashion group at ASU, are working to change it.

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The 2020 conference of AASHE, The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, will be held Oct 4-7, 2020 in Milwaukee, WI. If you are interested in attending, and would like a discount, consider being a presenter. Submit a proposal by February 28 for an opportunity to share your expertise. Conference attendees will exchange effective models, policies, research, collaborations and transformative actions that advance sustainability in higher education and surrounding communities.

The theme of the 2020 conference is "Mobilizing for a Just Transition." AASHE aims to be part of a shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. This conference will focus on centering justice within this transformation and ensuring that it leaves no one behind.

The city of Apache Junction, Arizona has a complicated relationship with the 125 mobile home and RV parks within its city limits. Some of the parks are well managed and provide an attractive, affordable option for low income residents. But many are deteriorating, unsightly and do not conform to contemporary city codes, presenting a detriment to Apache Junction’s image as it works to attract visitors and boost economic growth.

In an effort to address this, the city partnered with the new-at-the-time Arizona State University program Project Cities, a program launched in 2017 to “connect higher education with local communities, creating a powerful combination of knowledge and know-how.” Apache Junction was the inaugural community partner during the 2017–18 academic year and renewed its partnership through the spring 2019 semester.

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New research published in Nature Sustainability presents a conceptual framework of illicit land transactions and a new approach to spatially link illicit activities to land use. The paper, Understanding the role of illicit transactions in land-change dynamics, was authored by Beth Tellman, a doctoral alumnus from ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and now a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University.

From large deforestation in Costa Rica by narco drug traffickers to illegal sand mining by mafia groups in India to illicit transactions between urban developers and politicians in the United States, corrupt land transactions are pervasive across the globe. According to one study, 40% of deforestation globally is estimated to be illegal, and that number rises to 80% in places such as Indonesia and Brazil.

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Dear Sustainability Scientists, Scholars and Fellows,

Welcome to 2020 – may it be another great year for ASU and for each of you. This new year brings some exciting new changes to our processes. We’re still working out all the details, and we will be reaching out to many of you for your input. In the meantime, here are three things you need to know.

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Nominations for the 2020 New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award are now being accepted. The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) will grant up to 10 awards to early-career investigators whose research supports the FFAR’s Challenge Areas and promotes sustainable food production globally. This year’s challenge areas are:

• Soil Health
• Sustainable Water Management
• Next Generation Crops
• Advanced Animal System
• Urban Food Systems
• Health-Agriculture Nexus

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We’re just over a week into the new year and we’ve already seen extensive wildfires in Australia and massive flooding in Indonesia, both of which have claimed multiple lives. These incidents — extreme weather events intensified by climate change — are officially the new normal, and experts are worried.

"The overall challenge is that cities, in particular, are experiencing and will experience an increase in the frequency and magnitude of extreme events,” said Arizona State University Regents Professor Nancy Grimm. “So, fires, heat waves, flooding, coastal flooding, droughts and so forth — most of these are weather-related events, and whether or not you can attribute any single one of them to climate change, we’re going to see more of them and they are going to be more severe.”

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Ever since the magical experience of riding on a turtle while on a snorkeling tour at 12 years old, Jesse Senko has been obsessed with sea turtles. It’s an obsession that continues to fuel him as he works as a marine biologist and conservation scientist at Arizona State University to save the creatures.

“Fishing gear is the greatest threat to sea turtles worldwide,” Senko said. “Sea turtles are vital for the health of the world’s oceans. They perform fundamental roles in ocean ecosystems, many of which are not fulfilled by other species. And humans need healthy oceans to survive and thrive.”

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The Salazar Center for North American Conservation at Colorado State University will award $100,000 to an interdisciplinary team working on an innovative approach to conservation and landscape connectivity. This inaugural Conservation Impact Prize will fund a collaborative project that addresses a landscape-scale conservation challenge on the North American continent. The project must provide measurable benefits to both the habitat and the community.

Non-traditional applicants and ideas are encouraged. Potential applicants must register by Thursday, March 19, 2020, at 5 PM Mountain. Applications are due no later than Thursday, April 16, 2020, at 5 PM Mountain. More information on the grant and how to apply for the Connectivity Challenge prize, plus a press release.

The Food Tank 2020 Summit begins with 22 speakers, mostly enrolled tribal members or Native Hawaiians. Mariah Gladstone, the founder of Indigikitchen, known for her 'recipes for resistance,' will speak. The reception following the talks will feature Native American cuisine tastings.

The event is ticketed but free of charge for faculty and students. The event will have a staffed table for students to sign-in, and attendees will be reported to faculty. Students can also be assigned a short-answer response to be used for extra credit. Please register and use the code 'ASU' to get the $15 ticket fee waived. Ollie the Trolley will shuttle students between Tempe campus and SkySong.

Food Tank 2020 is a collaboration of the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, the University of Hawai'i West O'ahu Sustainable Community Food Systems Program and Food Tank.

A very important change will appear in the National Science Foundation’s 2020 Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG). Although PIs need not make this change until a date yet-to-be-announced, the NSF recommends making the following change immediately.

To create compliant biosketch and current & pending documents, researchers now must use Science Networks Curriculum Vitae. SciENcv compiles information from existing systems, including ORCiD, to create the professional profile needed for a federal grant application or annual report. Researchers also can create these documents from scratch; they will have complete control over the data.

NSF will release the 2020 PAPPG in January or February. Any changes outlined in a new PAPPG take effect approximately 90 days after its release.

She runs two organizations from home, created a charity focused on helping veterans with PTSD and holds community events to raise awareness. She also helps personal brands and businesses benefit from innovative solutions. Oh, and did we mention she's a mother of two?

Meet Sha'kiya Morris, a junior at Arizona State University studying sustainability online. "To me, sustainability means an opportunity to practice mindfulness," Morris said. "I believe that with collaboration, transparency, and an openness to understanding, we can take our species to another level. But to evolve, we must first become involved."

In the following Q&A, we discuss her life, the reasons she created her organizations and why she decided to study sustainability at ASU.

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The Second International Conference on Climate Change is taking place April 1–3, 2020. This conference aims to share experiences on vulnerability issues; adaptation strategies in the fields of agriculture, livestock, forestry, water resources and fishing; and mitigation issues. More specifically, the conference is a way to:

1. Take stock of the achievements and needs in terms of research and extension in the field of climate and its impacts on the agricultural sector;

2. Create a framework for exchanges between the various actors in the field of climate and its impacts.

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In recognition of her distinguished and continued achievement in research, co-founder and director of the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN), Nancy Grimm was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2019, and will be inducted into the Academy in April 2020.  This mark of excellence in science is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive. This fall, she also was honored by Arizona State University, being named Regents Professor.

Grimm’s research interests include the interaction of climate variation and change, human activities, and ecosystems. Her long-term stream research focuses on how variability in the hydrologic regime affects the structure and processes of desert streams, especially wetland plant distribution, metabolism, nitrogen cycling, and hyporheic processes. Her related research in cities addresses how stormwater infrastructure affects water and material movement across an urban landscape. As the founding director of the interdisciplinary Central Arizona-Phoenix LTER program, she brought together earth, life, and social scientists to develop new frameworks for understanding urban social-ecological-technological systems (SETS). For UREx SRN, the SETS framing is central.

Congratulations to Nancy!

School of Sustainability PhD graduate, Melissa Guardaro has made an impact on heat action planning in Phoenix, Arizona. As part of the Nature’s Cooling System Project, Guardaro strove to address social and geographical equity concerns related to heat mitigation and adaptation strategies in under-served areas. She partnered with local groups including the Nature Conservancy, community based organizations, city officials, and the public health department to develop heat action plans for three low-income communities: Edison-Eastlake Community, Mesa Care Neighborhood, and Lindo Park-Roesley Park Neighborhood.

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Two annual fellowships were established by ASU in 2019 to support scholars in exploring the diverse history of the West, its intersections with race and violence, and American Indian history.

Joni Adamson, the director of the Environmental Humanities Initiative at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, and Michael Angilletta, a professor in the School of Life Sciences and the associate director of undergraduate programs, have been named President's Professors. To be designated as a President’s Professor is one of ASU’s most prestigious faculty honors. The recognition is given to faculty who have made substantial contributions to undergraduate education and faculty who have the ability to inspire original, creative works in their fields.

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The prominent color-field painter Kenneth Noland once said: “For me, context is the key. From that comes the understanding of everything.” Arizona State University School of Life Sciences Dean’s Distinguished Professor Jianguo Wu would certainly agree.

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Hiding In Plain Sight and Fighting For A Home are two short films on the complexities of homelessness from School of Sustainability and Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication students in Peter Byck’s Sustainability Storytelling course.

Hiding in Plain Sight spotlights a woman’s experience with homelessness and the special challenges she faces that differ from men. The film’s protagonist struggles to find nutrition, health care and shelter while trying to fill roles as a caretaker, mother and friend. First-time filmmakers Dawson Morford, Katharina Saloman and Sarah Aly El Sayed piece together a powerful portrait of a unique partnership between a homeless woman and a chronically ill man, while chronicling the plight of homeless women in Phoenix, Arizona. Highlighting the vulnerabilities of unsheltered women, the filmmakers show us there is no single narrative for the multiple demographic groups of homeless people. Women, specifically, face unique personal safety and health hurdles while living on the streets.

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