Skip to Content
Report an accessibility problem

Sustainability News

Energize Phoenix Revs Up $25M in Grants

November 2, 2010

The city of Phoenix began accepting funding applications Tuesday from multi-family housing owners along a 10-mile stretch of the Phoenix light rail corridor. $25 million in grants are available under the Energize Phoenix program, a joint public-private program that seeks to provide energy efficiency measures for about 2,000 homes and more than 30 million square feet of commercial and industrial space.

Continue Reading

Scientists From Around the Globe Convene to Address Urbanization, Land, and Climate Change

October 12, 2010

ASU hosts two international conferences to advance sustainability efforts and progress                

PHOENIX/TEMPE, Ariz. – Reinforcing its role as a leader in interdisciplinary global environmental and climate change conversations, Arizona State University (ASU) will host conferences for both the International Conference on Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC) and the Global Land Project’s (GLP) Open Science Meeting.

How have humans changed the Earth’s surface? How do urbanization and global environmental change interface? What are new pathways for sustainability that link urbanization and land change? How can we adapt to changes that have already occurred?

These themes play significantly in both of the groups’ individual and joint conferences. They are also top of mind among next-phase thinkers in the fields of environment and sustainability and are expected to play prominently in upcoming agenda-setting reports.

Continue Reading

New 'Green' Minor for Major Change

September 10, 2010

Arizona State University broadens scope of sustainability education offerings

TEMPE, Ariz. – Arizona State University (ASU) has launched a new minor in sustainability that can complement a student’s major in another academic discipline. This unique 18 credit hour program enables undergraduate students to explore the challenges of sustainability and learn what determines the sustainability of human institutions, organizations, cultures, and technologies in different environments at the local, national, and international levels.

The minor offered this fall, 2010, marks a milestone for ASU’s initiative to make sustainability education and practices university-wide across all four campuses.

Continue Reading

Leading Expert in Business Science and Supply Chain Management Appointed to Co-Direct The Sustainability Consortium

August 10, 2010

TEMPE, Ariz.—Professor Kevin Dooley has been appointed Interim Co-Director of The Sustainability Consortium for Arizona State University (ASU). Dooley, a Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management in the W. P. Carey School of Business and Affiliate Professor in the School of Sustainability, has deep knowledge and experience with the Consortium and its activities. Jon Johnson will continue as the Consortium's Co-Director for the University of Arkansas. Johnson is the Walton College Professor of Sustainability, Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas.

The Sustainability Consortium develops transparent methodologies, tools and strategies to drive a new generation of products and supply networks that address environmental, social and economic imperatives.

Continue Reading

Dr. Elinor Ostrom - ASU Professor & Nobel Laureate

August 4, 2010

Q&A with Nobel Laureate Dr. Elinor Ostrom Finding the key to sustaining shared resources Elinor Ostrom is a research professor at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and is founding director of the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity.

In 2009, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for her work in economic governance, particularly as it applies to shared resources such as pastures, fisheries, and groundwater basins. Her research examines ways that institutions and users operating at widely different scales can work together to sustain such resources.

Continue Reading

ASU named one of nation's best and greenest colleges

August 4, 2010

Arizona State University has made the “Green Honor Roll,” rating as one of the nation's 18 "greenest" universities, and is named among the top 120 Best Western Colleges.

This is the third year in a row that ASU made The Princeton Review’s list of most environmentally friendly institutions – a list that salutes the institutions that received the highest possible score, 99, in this year's rating tallies.

Continue Reading

Novozymes joins The Sustainability Consortium – a global effort to improve product sustainability

August 2, 2010

BAGSVAERD, Denmark – August 2, 2010 – Novozymes has become a founding member of The Sustainability Consortium, a new global organization with aims to improve the sustainability of consumer products. The company will join a diverse group of academics, governments, non-government organizations and businesses to fulfill The Sustainability Consortium’s mission of driving a new generation of products and supply networks that address environmental, social and economic imperatives. Other members include Dell, Disney, Wal-Mart, WWF and BASF to name a few.

Continue Reading

Is Arizona Poised to Take the Solar Lead? Az SMART Project Will Help Homeowners, Businesses, Leaders

July 13, 2010

TEMPE, Ariz. (July 13, 2010) — Is Arizona prepared to take the lead in the shift to renewable energy, using its greatest natural resource – the sun? A major research effort led by Arizona State University and initially funded through a grant from Science Foundation Arizona is trying to answer that question by analyzing how best to use solar and other sustainable energy throughout the state.

A top official from the U.S. Department of Energy, Undersecretary Kristina Johnson, recently visited the project, and other VIPs are coming soon. The hope is that the Az SMART project will provide an example for other states to follow in President Obama’s plan to reduce emissions, reduce foreign oil dependence and create jobs in a clean technology economy. The project includes tools to benefit homeowners, businesses and the leaders who need to make informed decisions about which power-generation methods to use and where to locate new facilities, such as solar fields.

Continue Reading

ASU awarded $6 million for biofuel research

July 6, 2010

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Arizona State University a $6 million grant as part of a program focused on algae-based biofuels.

The program supports the development of a clean, sustainable transportation sector – a goal of DOE's continued effort to spur the creation of a domestic bio-industry while creating jobs. This round of DOE funding totals $24 million for three research groups to tackle key hurdles in the commercialization of algae-based biofuels.

Continue Reading

Ecological research network wins national award

May 25, 2010

Recognizing 30 years of research by thousands of scientists, the American Institute of Biological Sciences at a May 18, 2010, ceremony honored the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network with its 2010 Distinguished Scientist Award. The award is presented annually for significant scientific contributions to the biological sciences.

Continue Reading

Evidence of climate change underscores need for action

May 24, 2010

As part of its most comprehensive study of climate change to date, the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) issued three reports emphasizing why the United States should act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop a national strategy to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change.

Continue Reading

ASU gathers experts for international urban sustainability workshop

May 21, 2010

Guided by the principle that today’s cities are laboratories and their leaders are researchers in the new science of urban sustainability, Arizona State University’s (ASU) Jonathan Fink, along with two British colleagues, will lead Comparative Urban Genetics: Towards a Common Methodology for Pragmatic Analysis of Cities. The workshop event takes place this weekend, May 21-23, at University College London (UCL) in London, England.

Continue Reading

Global Institute of Sustainability Leadership Directorate created

May 4, 2010

Shangraw appointed Director; van der Leeuw appointed Dean; Melnick continues as chief operating officer and executive dean

ASU President Michael M. Crow today announced R.F. “Rick” Shangraw, Jr. has been appointed director of the Global Institute of Sustainability, a key all-university research initiative. Shangraw also serves as ASU’s senior vice president for Knowledge Enterprise Development.

Simultaneously, ASU Provost and Executive Vice President Elizabeth D. Capaldi announced the appointment of Sander van der Leeuw as dean of the School of Sustainability. He will also continue as director of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and co-director of the Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative.

Rob Melnick continues as GIOS chief operating officer and executive dean. He, along with Shangraw and van der Leeuw, form the institute’s new directorate providing overall leadership to GIOS and its School of Sustainability.

Continue Reading

Tempe's A Mountain Undergoes Restoration

April 26, 2010

A popular preserve in the middle of downtown Tempe was treated to a makeover on Saturday as part of Earth Day events.

About 100 volunteers participated in a path restoration project on the Hayden Butte Preserve, more popularly known as A Mountain. In addition to redefining its hiking trails, they painted trash cans and benches, planted cacti to define paths and removed debris so water can flow under pathways.

> Read more

ASU among the first green class according to The Princeton Review

April 26, 2010

Arizona State University is one of the country’s most environmentally responsible colleges according to The Princeton Review. The nationally-known education services company selected ASU for inclusion in a unique resource it has created for college applicants – The Princeton Review’s "Guide to 286 Green Colleges."

Continue Reading

Earth Day 2050

April 22, 2010

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is an opinion-editorial article and the concluding piece to the ASUNews' Earth Week 2010 series that pays tribute to the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

By Jonathan Fink

Last fall I went to the 40th reunion of a high school class in St. Louis that I was a part of through freshman year. I had not seen any of the 75 other attendees in four and a half decades. It felt like a “Twilight Zone” episode, meeting these graying, accomplished retirees, with which my last conversations were about the latest Beatles single or whether their moms could drive them to my house to play. While most of these 59-year-olds were still in good physical and mental shape, the sobering reality was that by our next decadal reunion, many would be in serious decline.

> Read more