Sustainability News

One of the most consequential questions of our time is: How do we generate enough energy to meet our needs?

The question is particularly important as previously reliable sources of energy, such as oil and coal, have been proven to pollute our planet with consequences ranging from a degrading air quality to a tilt in the fragile balance of the global climate. In an effort to address the question, researchers from the Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery at Arizona State University are exploring new technologies that could generate alternate methods of energy to satisfy global demand.

Continue Reading

As more locations across the country begin to transition to utilizing renewable energy sources, officials in such locations face a daunting task: How do they compensate the workers and communities that financially relied on those nonrenewable sources of energy?

While the question may be hypothetical, scenarios like that are not. One recently played out in Page, Arizona when the Navajo Generating Station closed down. The coal-fired power plant had operated for 40 years, serving as a financial support for the community of Hopi and Navajo tribes. Now that it’s closed, workers are at a loss as to how to meet their needs.

Continue Reading

Phoenix local Lizzy Noble had always wanted to be an architect growing up. Ironically, it was in the pursuit of this goal that she developed a love for sustainability.

“My freshman year of high school, I enrolled in the EPICS/engineering program of my school," Noble said. "The director of this program was one of the first sustainability gurus I met and would always assign us 'green projects.'"

These projects in tandem with a field trip to Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability motivated Noble to head down the career path of sustainability. Noble is a recent graduate from ASU who studied business sustainability and supply chain management. In this Q&A, she takes us through her history and what she's doing now, as well as what sustainability means to her.

Continue Reading

Arizona State University student Matthew Burmeister has been doing incredible work in sustainability with "Sustainable Sound: Festival Guide," a guide to making music festivals more sustainable, which originated from a Sustainability Connect project.

Based on his experiences, Burmeister has some "sound" advice for students who are inexperienced in sustainability projects: “Don’t give up — when I first came up with the idea for 'Sustainable Sound' I had zero connections with anyone in the festival industry or even any experience in event planning. Regardless of my unfamiliarity with the field, I wanted to do this project so badly that I took the time to reach out to industry professionals and dug into the existing research and frameworks. After countless phone calls, emails, pitches and rejections, I am now working with some of my favorite festival organizations to help them transform their events.”

Continue Reading

If you’ve been on the internet in the past couple of years, chances are you’ve heard of a plant-based diet. According to Forbes, plant-based dieting remains one of the most influential trends impacting the food and beverage industry. People adopt plant-based diets for a variety of different reasons, from a concern about the environment and animals to a simple desire to eat healthier. However, experts say there’s a good reason to hesitate before adopting such diets: the possibility of becoming nutrient deficient.

Continue Reading

As global concern about climate change continues to grow, there has been a corresponding dual increase in the demand for sustainability education from students and more sustainability professional development opportunities from teachers and other professionals.

Continue Reading

A quest to merge his passions for social justice and environmentalism led Andrew Kennedy to Arizona State University's School of Sustainability.

"I initially wanted to study conservation biology in high school because I absolutely loved learning about ecosystems, animal biology and how to protect valuable species," Kennedy said. "However, I was also very passionate about politics and justice."

Continue Reading

Biodesign Institute Building C in 2019 was certified LEED platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council, for its strategies to achieve high performance in sustainable site development, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere efficiency, materials selection, indoor environmental quality and innovation in design. Water stewardship was a project prerequisite, with an array of water-efficient fixtures leading to a projected 42 percent water savings beyond the LEED baseline.

The five awardees of the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge convened in New York this month for a packed week of training, networking opportunities and speaking engagements to boost their businesses.

The WE Empower UN SDG Challenge is a first-of-its-kind global business competition for social entrepreneurs who are advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals and inspiring entire communities to act to create the world we want by 2030.

Continue Reading

Marty Anderies, a senior sustainability scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and a professor in the School of Sustainability, was one of several authors of a journal article, "Transnational corporations and the challenge of biosphere stewardship," published in the journal Nature, Ecology & Evolution. According to the authors, transnational corporations are increasingly aligning their business models to support a stable planet.

Continue Reading

Since September 20, more than 6 million people have marched worldwide as part of the Global Climate Strikes, spurred on by a youth movement laser focused on making climate policy a priority. In the latest article from Global Futures Laboratory thought leaders, "Why the Youth Movement Matters," Peter Schlosser, Steven Beschloss and Nina Berman look at the wave of young people who are organizing and rallying around the notion that the climate crisis is not a future problem - it is a now problem.

You can read the response on Medium. To ensure you don’t miss any Global Futures Laboratory Medium posts, follow our Medium channel directly, or follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn where we announce all new posts.

Michael Brown, Samantha Cheng and Jim Tolisano, along with dozens of conservation and development researchers and practitioners representing ASU's Conservation Solutions Lab, have penned a new opinion piece, released September 24, 2019, on Mongabay. The scientists call for a crucial change in the way conservation efforts are undertaken.

The scientists argue that conservation efforts must specifically engage frontline communities – those people intimately situated in and around landscapes targeted for conservation – and elevate their role such that they can take the lead in planning and directing nature conservation.

Co-developing solutions with frontline communities requires groups that fund, implement and research conservation to revise their role and approach. In addition, learning from community experiences and adapting solutions over time can improve conservation efforts globally.

On September 21, Arizona State University and the City of Tempe conducted Tempe’s first Heat Walk: a community event orchestrated to help city officials and ASU researchers understand how residents experience heat in their neighborhoods, parks and multi-use paths. According to Jennifer Vanos, an assistant professor in the School of Sustainability and senior sustainability scientist the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, “Our goal is to ensure that public spaces that are meant to be used for activity, play and active transport are thermally comfortable and safe from extreme heat for as much of the day and year as possible."

Continue Reading

People are killing coral reefs.

These reefs — some worth $1 million per square kilometer per year — are being destroyed by overdevelopment of coastlines, improper disposal of sewage, overfishing, ocean acidification due to climate change, and many other human activities. In addition to that, these reefs are poorly mapped, limiting our understanding of them.

Enter Greg Asner and Robin Martin.

Continue Reading

Although she was raised to love and care for the environment, Andie Wilkerson almost didn’t study sustainability.

“Going into college, I didn't even realize sustainability was an option,” Wilkerson said. “I applied to ASU intending to be an environmental engineering major, but two weeks before orientation, I discovered the school of sustainability through the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability's website.” Wilkerson read about the program and by the time she was done, she had decided to change her major.

Continue Reading

The National Academy of Public Administration has inducted Nicole Darnall, associate dean and professor in Arizona State University's School of Sustainability, into its 2019 class of fellows. Darnall is one of eight NAPA fellows from ASU. An induction into NAPA is one of the highest honors of a public administration official.

Established by Congress in 1967, the nonpartisan NAPA conducts work for federal cabinet departments and agencies, aiming to “improve governance and advance the field of public administration,” by focusing on intergovernmental evaluation, financial management, strategic planning, organization assessment, performance management and human capital.

Continue Reading

Arizona State University professor Heather Throop penned a new research article that advances our understanding of dryland litter cycles. Drylands are arid ecosystems characterized by a lack of water. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, drylands  "have been shaped by a combination of low precipitation, droughts and heat waves."

Litter in this case refers to parts of plants that have detached and fallen to the ground. A litter cycle is then the journey of litter from its location on the ground, its movement by horizontal or vertical vectors (such as water), and its eventual decomposition in the same or a secondary location. The litter decomposition rates in drylands are often underpredicted, resulting in a key knowledge gap that is important to address because litter decomposition has a significant influence on ecosystem properties. 

Continue Reading

Moved by the beautiful scenery she witnessed during a hike, Casey Rapacki decided then and there to dedicate her life to protecting the planet and its species.

“I love our planet, but I fight for social, economic and environmental health for my love of living beings,” Rapacki said. “The planet will continue on, and I want to make sure that we thrive along with it for years to come.”

Continue Reading

A simple question propelled Dawson Morford into the field of sustainability.

“When picking a major I had a close friend say, ‘Don’t you like all that renewable energy stuff?’ He was right — I always liked learning about all of the cool ways that society was creating energy," Morford said. "This then brought me to the arena of sustainability and I have not looked back since."

Continue Reading

Arizona State University professors Osvaldo Sala, a drylands researcher and Regents Professor in the School of Life Sciences, and Meenakshi Wadhwa, a cosmochemistry expert and the new director of ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration, have been elected to the 2019 class of the American Geophysical Union Fellows. The election is an honor just 0.1% of AGU members in any given year enjoy. To be elected is a recognition of “attaining scientific eminence through achievements in research, as demonstrated by a breakthrough or discovery, innovation in science or the development of methods and instruments, or sustained impact," according to the AGU.

Continue Reading