Sustainability News

During her nine years in the United States, ASU student Cinthia Carvajal of Bolivia has had to learn a new language and adapt to new cultural and social norms. But she has excelled, and is receiving a double bachelor’s degree in sustainability and anthropology.

Carvajal will be giving back to her community by going out to middle school classrooms and promoting research, math and science. During the summer Carvajal also will conduct research on squatter settlements in Bolivia where she plans to apply her anthropological and sustainability knowledge to help develop more sustainable neighborhoods.

She talks about her experience at ASU.

PHOENIX - Each Sunday, ABC15.com debuts an Arizona issue - along with two opposing sides on the topic. Don’t worry, you always have the opportunity to make comments at the bottom of the page. Yeah, your opinion matters, too.

This week we're tackling the debate on whether or not $2.50 per gallon of gasoline is a thing of the past.

John Hofmeister, a distinguished sustainability scholar and retired president of Shell Oil Company, says with the U.S. producing less, but expecting to consume the same, consumers here will face gasoline prices in the $5 to $6 and the price will climb even higher.

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From creating a program to capture and re-use water to make the university more sustainable, to developing an online tutoring program to increase student success, to initiating and delivering an innovation and entrepreneurship program for tribal communities, ASU employees are helping their university and community in a big way.

In recognition of their efforts and achievement, ASU President Michael Crow hosted a reception to present the President’s Award for Innovation, the President’s Award for Sustainability, the President’s Medal for Social Embeddedness, and the Top Multiple Sun Award for Individual Excellence.

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It’s a dirty job, and ASU students rallied to do it.

Rolling up their sleeves and getting down and grimy with a full day’s waste from a campus dining hall was just part of regular class activities for students in the School of Sustainability’s Urban Composting Systems solutions workshop.

Aaron Redman, a faculty associate within the Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS), co-instructs the course with Katja Brundiers, a GIOS academic associate. The pair designed the class – comprised of six graduate and 16 undergraduate students – to asses ASU’s food-waste system, develop a reasonable vision of a sustainable food-waste system, and build strategies that help transition from current practices towards a sustainable system.

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How can Mexico take care of its world-class biodiversity in the face of climate change and other threats? On April 13-15, a multidisciplinary group of researchers from Mexico met for the second time with ASU sustainability scientists and specialists in a workshop on the Tempe campus to advance the development of an international sustainability science curriculum for Mexico’s universities.

The goal is to collaboratively design a new international master’s degree in sustainability that will train the next generation of Mexican ecological practitioners and policymakers to protect Mexico’s rich ecological resources.

At the workshop, 14 members of ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability and School of Sustainability worked with 10 researchers from two prominent Mexican institutions — the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Center for Scientific Research and Graduate Education (CICESE). UNAM researchers represented fields including ecology, biology, climatology, engineering, and ecosystem research.

During three days of meetings, the attendees from Mexico studied pedagogical approaches in sustainability science education, derived lessons from ASU’s experience developing the School of Sustainability’s curriculum, and learned formal approaches to curriculum development and implementation.

The group also reached agreement on three key issues: a broad vision for the new curriculum at UNAM, eight program level learning objectives, and five general content areas (modules) that will form the core of the program.

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ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY and UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS Press Release

April 26, 2011

Bonnie Nixon Named Executive Director of The Sustainability Consortium

The Sustainability Consortium has announced Bonnie Nixon, formerly Hewlett Packard’s Director of Environmental Sustainability, as Executive Director. Nixon will be responsible for developing and implementing short- and long-term strategies and growing the organization to include international representation, additional non–governmental organizations (NGO’s), toy and apparel sectors, and the world’s leading life cycle scientists and research institutions.

"It is really exciting to be involved in the science behind improving product footprints and empowering more sustainable production, buying and consumption patterns. The Sustainability Consortium represents an enormous opportunity to make systemic change for social equity, the environment and the economy,” said Nixon.

The Sustainability Consortium (http://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org) develops transparent methodologies, tools and strategies to drive a new generation of products and supply networks that address environmental, social and economic imperatives.

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If you’re preparing to send a high school student off to college and want to learn more about the prospective university’s sustainability record then Princeton Review’s 2011 Guide to 311 Green Colleges is for you. The Princeton Review and the U.S. Green Building Council joined forces on this year’s edition, which is available as a free download from the Princeton Review website.

The guide includes 308 colleges or universities in the United States and three institutions in Canada. Each of these schools received a score of 80 or higher in the 2010 Princeton Review Green Rating survey.

Read the full story here.

Download the four-part PDF guide here: The Princeton Review’s Guide to 311 Green Colleges Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY Press Release

April 14, 2011

Year-end donation and recycling drive earns honors for diverting waste while supporting local charities.

TEMPE, Ariz.— Every year the average U.S. student throws away nearly 200 pounds of ‘stuff’ during end-of-the-year move-out from dorms and other student housing. To turn all that stuff into gold, Arizona State University (ASU) joined with Swift Charities for Children and student housing communities (Capstone Companies and American Campus Communities) to sponsor the Ditch the Dumpster project, an annual year-end donation and recycling drive.

In recognition of the drive’s mission, Ditch the Dumpster was one of the few projects to receive the 2011 ASU President’s Award for Sustainability (awarded on April 13, 2011).

Launched in 2008, ASU’s Ditch the Dumpster initiative is held at the end of every academic year to encourage students to donate or recycle their unwanted, usable items rather than simply toss them in the trash. Over the past three years, the initiative has grown exponentially and students learn about the benefits and value of recycling and reusing.

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ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

MEDIA ADVISORY

April 13, 2011

Neely Foundation Funds Student Grant Program for Sustainability Research and Applied Projects on Food and Agriculture

May 4 deadline for $1000-$4000 applied research awards; awards to be determined by May 15

Who/Eligibility:

Graduate students in the School of Sustainability and senior and junior undergraduate sustainability majors.

What:

The C.W. and Modene Neely Foundation of Gilbert, Ariz., has awarded a grant to ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability to support graduate and undergraduate student research and applied projects.

The Neely Foundation Food and Agriculture Sustainability Research Grants Program offers funding for ASU sustainability student-proposed research and applied projects designed to support and advance food and agricultural system sustainability. Projects can cover any aspect of food and agricultural systems and range from local to global in scope. Most winning projects may expect $1000-$4000. Awards will be determined by May 15, 2011.

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Arizona State University not only is the first institution in higher education to create a School of Sustainability that educates students, but also extends sustainability education to all of its employees through its Sustainability Literacy Education interactive online program. The electronic platform informs ASU employees with examples of sustainable practices that currently are happening at ASU, the university’s sustainability goals, what they can do in large and small ways to support ASU’s promise to become more sustainable, and arms them with the necessary facts to fulfill the sustainability requirement of their yearly work-performance evaluations.

"The literacy program is based in the basic concepts of sustainability and individual responsibility to contribute to implementation," says Ray Jensen, Associate Vice President of University Business Services and University Sustainability Operations officer. "Our successes as a university in sustainable practices are directly related to how each individual employee plays a role in sustainability within their day-to-day activities."

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Tempe-area Chipotle locations to co-host fundraiser to benefit the newly established Chipotle Sustainable Food Systems Scholarship

At least one ASU School of Sustainability student to be awarded a $1,000 scholarship annually from new Chipotle fund

Who:

Chipotle (Chi-POAT-lay) Mexican Grill, the chain of burrito restaurants committed to serving food made with more sustainably raised ingredients; Arizona State University (ASU) School of Sustainability students; and all Tempe big burrito lovers.

What:

In 2011, Chipotle established the Chipotle Sustainable Food Systems Scholarship for ASU’s School of Sustainability. Through the fund, Chipotle will annually award at least one $1,000 scholarship to a School of Sustainability undergraduate student, with the first award to be given in May 2011.

To raise funds for the Chipotle Sustainable Food Systems Scholarship, the three Tempe Chipotle locations will host a fundraiser on Earth Day, Friday, April 22, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. During the fundraiser, for customers who stop by one of these locations, purchase some grub and show a fundraiser flyer, event graphic on their smart phone, or just mention they’re dining at Chipotle in support of the fund, 50 percent of their purchase will go directly to the Chipotle Sustainable Food Systems Scholarship.

Where:

- Tempe Marketplace Chipotle – 2000 East Rio Salado Parkway, Tempe, Ariz. 85281

- Rural & Baseline Chipotle – 815 East Baseline Road, Tempe, Ariz. 85283

- Mill Avenue & 11th Street Chipotle – 1038 South Mill Ave., Tempe, Ariz. 85281

When:

Friday, April 22 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

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Gas prices. Nuclear worries. Oil spills.

Are there any new energy innovations out there to help us kick our petroleum habit?

The answer might lie in a microscopic single-cell plant, a landfill or an iconic building.

For the last few months, You have shared your innovations to help improve how we use or generate energy.

We narrowed down a pool of hundreds to just seven finalists.

Who will be named Planet Forward’s Innovator of the Year?

Watch and find out!

The Global Institute of Sustainability headquarters building on Arizona State University’s Tempe campus was renamed in honor of Julie Ann Wrigley. ASU President Michael Crow, along with Rob Walton, chairman of the board of Walmart and co-chair of the Board of Trustees for Sustainability at ASU,  a crowd of community and business leaders, and the ASU community, honored the Institute’s founding benefactor as the university celebrated the newly named Wrigley Hall.

 

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PASADENA, CALIF. (March 14, 2011) -- Clean Agency, a research-based consulting firm that provides consumer product companies with life cycle assessment, carbon footprint and product packaging solutions, has become a member of the Sustainability Consortium. Clean joins a diverse group of retailers, manufacturers, government, academic and public interest groups working to reduce the environmental and social impacts associated with global consumption.

“Joining the Sustainability Consortium is an important step in our continued effort to leverage the power of business to create impactful solutions to global environmental issues,” said Seri McClendon, chief executive officer, Clean Agency. We’re eager to contribute our research expertise and to work with other consortium members to reduce negative impacts on our natural resources and influence consumption towards a more sustainable future.”

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This month, ARAMARK / ASU Catering launched its new sustainable catering menu, Decidedly Green.  The goal of the menu is to support a more sustainable food system – one that benefits health, communities, and environment.

Decidedly Green includes a farmer’s buffet, box lunches and sandwich buffets, cold and hot hors d'ouevres, break buffets and delicious desserts.

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