Sustainability News

On the heels of a meeting about climate change with Pope Francis last month, John Browne, Executive Chairman of L1 Energy and board member of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University, penned an op-ed for Bloomberg Opinion. Browne’s editorial focuses on the great energy shift that needs to happen, with oil and gas companies adapting to be a positive part of the energy transition rather than victims of it.

As a former chief executive of BP, Browne made waves in the late ‘90s when he voiced his concern about climate change and stated that oil and gas companies have a responsibility to take action. Today, Lord Browne of Madingley remains a vocal proponent of shifting energy sources and consumption without harming the world’s poorest people. He believes society already has the tools to do just that.

Read the entire op-ed on Bloomberg Opinion.

Bulent Bicer, Project Manager of Research at Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, recently represented ASU at the annual Top Executive Conference (TOPEX) in Fiji. TOPEX is hosted by the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation, the country’s chief employer organization. This year’s theme was “Change and Transition: Readiness and Resistance,” and about 200 executives were in attendance.

Bicer presented on behalf of Amanda Ellis, who develops relationships throughout Hawaii and Asia Pacific as the Director of Strategic Partnerships for ASU’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability. Bicer and Ellis worked together on the presentation titled “Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development Goals,” which provided an overview of renewable energy as part of human development, and, more specifically, the importance of renewable energy in Fiji and other island nations.

During the presentation, Bicer spoke about ASU’s past and ongoing activities in Fiji and the Pacific Islands, such as SolarSPELL and Vocational Training and Education for Clean Energy (VOCTEC).

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It’s predicted to be 116 degrees in Tempe on Tuesday. Scorching.

That kind of extreme heat is a dangerous annual stress on city resources. Last year, the Tempe Fire Department responded to 141 calls for heat-related emergencies. There have been 84 heat-emergency calls so far this year.

So, Arizona State University researchers are working with the city of Tempe on ways to mitigate the effects on the people who live here. A team from the Urban Climate Research Center has several projects happening now, which the city discussed in a press conference on Wednesday.

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Arizona State University School of Sustainability alumnus Andy Stein was just named to the seventh annual “Double Chai in the Chi: 36 Under 36” list, selected by the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago’s Young Leadership Division (YLD). The list highlights the societal contributions of Chicago’s young Jewish population.

“To see so many people creating new opportunities that better our community is truly inspiring,” said Alex Entratter, current YLD campaign chair and former honoree. “This is just the beginning of a bright future for these individuals and the community they are impacting."

Stein graduated from ASU with a Master of Sustainability Solutions. While at ASU, Stein was concurrently a Project Manager for the Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives. Now, Stein is a Sustainability Program Coordinator at Northwestern University, where he focuses on the university’s Built Environment Program. He has a particular interest in sustainable building practices and incorporating sustainability into business operations.

When asked by the “36 Under 36” list’s organizers to describe himself in 10 words or less, Stein responded: “Passionate about creating a healthy and sustainable future for everyone.”

Three times farther from the sun than Earth, a massive asteroid made of metal floats in space between Mars and Jupiter. Its name is Psyche, and it could be the core of an early planet that survived violent collisions when the solar system was forming. Psyche was the sixteenth asteroid ever discovered, in 1852, but only recently has a spacecraft mission been initiated by Arizona State University and NASA to study this asteroid in more depth.

Unlike most other known asteroids, which are primarily rocky, Psyche appears to be made almost entirely of nickel-iron metal — much like Earth’s own core. According to ASU’s Psyche website, “The asteroid Psyche may be able to tell us how Earth’s core and the cores of the other terrestrial (rocky) planets came to be.” Scientists can’t investigate Earth’s core directly, so studying an asteroid with a similar makeup may be the next best thing.

ASU leads the Psyche mission, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for its management, operations and spacecraft navigation. The spacecraft is slated to launch in 2022, and then it will spend nearly four years cruising through space, using the gravitational field of Mars to increase in speed, until it reaches Psyche in 2026. Upon arrival, the spacecraft will orbit Psyche for 21 months, mapping and studying the asteroid’s properties.

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Diane Trimble now has two degrees from Arizona State University, but the journey to those achievements wasn’t easy. Trimble dropped out of college in Nevada in the mid-1990s, but in recent years, she wanted to become a better role model for her sons and community. Thus, she enrolled in online classes at Arizona State University through the Starbucks College Achievement Plan partnership and earned a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership in 2016. But she didn’t stop there. This year, Trimble graduated from the Executive Master of Sustainability Leadership (EMSL) program in the School of Sustainability.

We asked Diane questions about how her ASU education has changed her life for the better and what sustainability means to her.

Question: What was your “aha” moment when you realized you wanted to study the field you majored in?

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Earth is experiencing a Great Transition as its peoples slowly shift from fossil fuels to wind, plants, natural processes and our sun.

It’s not the first time people have changed where they get their energy sources, but as energy historian Chris Jones

said, what makes the Great Transition different is that this time we need to get rid of something, instead of just adding something. Climate change is the binding constraint.

Arizona State University is part of a new coalition of 13 leading research universities committed to tackling climate change. The group — called the University Climate Change Coalition — includes universities from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Read the full story on ASU Now to learn how ASU energy scholars are confronting the difficult challenges of transforming the climate narrative and enacting change through policy.

Arizona State University means business when it comes to achieving carbon neutrality by 2025. The University Sustainability Practices (USP) team is leading the charge and recently launched the ASU Carbon Project, a program that “purchases and generates offsets for difficult to mitigate ASU carbon emissions at the rate of about 44,000 metric tons each year,” according to the project’s website.

Though the university is taking action to reduce carbon emissions by using energy-efficient lighting, upgrading HVAC systems, installing solar panels on campus and more, not all emissions can be eliminated entirely. The good news is these emissions can be canceled out by purchasing carbon offset credits and supporting local projects that mitigate carbon.

Corey Hawkey, the Assistant Director of USP, said that they are developing local projects that directly support ASU research efforts related to urban forestry, walkability, shade and urban heat islands. “We are going to be working with the Urban Climate Research Center to plant trees where they want to ‘test’ them,” he added, referring to efforts in the Valley to fight urban heat islands led by David Hondula, a Senior Sustainability Scientist at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability.

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Arizona. Where you don’t have to shovel sunshine, as the old tourism ads chortled. At Arizona State University, students and alumni are Sun Devils. The sun is in the university logo. Solar panels cover almost every structure.

It’s natural then that solar panels take the biggest slice of ASU’s energy research pie. Financial estimates for the next decade point to more than $1 trillion invested in renewable energy globally.

Read the full story on ASU Now to learn more about the evolution of solar energy technology happening at ASU, where researchers are look to find affordable, reliable solutions.

This spring, Arizona State University surpassed 500 sustainability scientists and scholars at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability. The 500th member was Christine Buzinde, a professor at the School of Community Resources and Development, an academic director for youth leaders and a sustainable tourism researcher and advocate.

Buzinde answered several questions for us below about the significance of sustainability in tourism and the value of youth-centered social change.

Question: How would you describe your work?

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Anthony Contento, an Arizona State University School of Sustainability student, wasn’t looking to get a master’s degree. But after he found out about the Master of Sustainability Leadership, he couldn’t help but enroll. It was the perfect opportunity to learn how to apply sustainable practices to his family's New York business in construction and demolition debris recycling.

On top of working on his master’s degree, Contento recently earned a LEED Green Associate certificate because, he said, “the area of green building is closely related to construction and demolition debris recycling.”

Contento answered a few questions for us about how he will use his sustainability degree to build a more sustainable future in New York State, where he lives.

Question: What was your “aha” moment when you realized you wanted to study sustainability?