Skip to Content
Report an accessibility problem

Sustainability News

Online Tools to Make Biodiversity More Accessible to Public

December 12, 2008

ASUNews

Researchers from Arizona State University are developing a Web tool that promises to revolutionize the way that park rangers, grade school teachers and members of the public access information about the living world, with support from the National Science Foundation.

> Read more

ASU Bike Co-Op keeps students green and moving

December 8, 2008

By Jessica Lagreid

Undergraduate, W.P. Carey School of Business

Student Worker, Global Institute Of Sustainability

Ever feel like you are competing in the Tour de France as you just try to make your way to class? That's because more than 15,000 ASU students pedal their bikes to campus every day. These greenies save commuting time, gas money, and tons of dirty carbon emissions. But bicycles cost money and they occasionally need repairs that can flummox cash-strapped commuters. That's why the student-run ASU Bike Co-Op was founded. Located in the back of the Student Recreation Complex, the Bike Co-Op offers ASU students low- or no-cost bike repairs and free bike rentals. And now, with new funding from USG, it's ready to expand. Hear more about what the Bike Co-Op can do for you by clicking on the audio file below, and then find the BikeCo-Op on Facebook.

[audio:http://sustainability.asu.edu/media/podcasts/bike-co-op.mp3]

ASU Wind Turbines Generate Electricity and Interest

November 18, 2008

Why has Arizona State University installed six parapet wind turbines on the roof of the recently remodeled Global Institute of Sustainability building?

Wind turbines generate electricity from a free and clean renewable resource. They don't add to global warming. And unlike solar power, the wind is often available both day and night.

Continue Reading

Planting commemorates ASU’s sustainability efforts

November 10, 2008

The Arbor Day Foundation is recognizing ASU for its best practices in campus community forestry through the Tree Campus USA program.

The Arbor Day Foundation and Toyota held a tree-planting event on the ASU Tempe campus to officially kick off Tree Campus USA. Eight other college campuses across the U.S. are also being recognized this fall for their efforts.

To celebrate this achievement, more than 100 students, faculty, and staff at ASU's Tempe Campus participated in a tree planting celebration hosted by the Arbor Day Foundation and Toyota.

Continue Reading

Sustainability Practice with ASU’s Bonny Bentzin

November 4, 2008

Interview by Sean Briggs and Kari Utley

[audio:http://sustainability.asu.edu/media/podcasts/sustainability_practices_bentzin_2008.mp3]

> Link to podcast

Kari Utley: Welcome to a special edition of iPopping Podcasts from the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at the campus of Arizona State University, I'm Kari Utley.

For thousands of years the human species has called planet earth home. Within the past few decades, the health and vitality of our planet has been threatened. Perhaps now more than ever the term sustainability is being explored. Our very own Sean Briggs sits down with Bonny Bentzin, Manager of Arizona State’s Sustainability Business Practices, to find out more.

Continue Reading

ASU Team Among Finalists for Sustainable Innovation Summit

October 30, 2008

The ASU Sun team, composed of MBA students from the W.P. Carey School of Business and PhD candidates from the School of Sustainability, has been chosen as one of the 10 finalists from a total of 138 teams that entered the Thunderbird School of Global Management’s Sustainable Innovation Summit Challenge. Sun team members include Kushal Chawda and Andrew Harbut from the School of Business and Laurence Rosenberg and Wayne Porter from the School of Sustainability.

The Summit’s mission is “To foster learning environments that enable creation of sustainable (economic, social, and environmental) value through innovative solutions to real-world business challenges.”

The Sun team members, along with the other finalists, will present their innovation challenge responses during the Challenge's Final Round to be held November 13-15, 2008 at the Thunderbird School campus in Glendale, Arizona. For more information go to http://www.thunderbird.edu/sites/tsis/index.htm.

Research Engineer Makes a Big Idea Bigger

October 22, 2008

By Michelle Schwartz

Communications and Marketing Coordinator

Global Institute of Sustainability

It's a bright idea.  Monitor a building's energy use, put the information under the noses of the building's occupants, and use it to persuade them to reduce their energy consumption. Brilliant!

ASU research engineer Joby Carlson thought so, too. But the lab manager for ASU's National Center of Excellence on SMART Innovations wanted to take it one step further.  Or really several steps.  He wanted to incorporate water and waste with energy data, he wanted to compare multiple buildings on campus, and he wanted to teach people exactly how they could reduce their resource use.  Oh, and he wanted to use ASU talent to put it all into a web-based tool that anyone could understand.

Continue Reading

World's Most Advanced Solar Testing and Certification Facility Created for Global Market by Private and Public Solar Labs

October 13, 2008

New Global-Reach State-of-the-Art Venture to be Launched with International Invitation-Only Events Featuring Company, Government, and Solar Industry Dignitaries — Stay Tuned for Details

PHOENIX/TEMPE, Ariz.; NEWTOWN, Conn.; YOKOHAMA, Japan; COLOGNE, Germany; SHANGHAI, China – TUV Rheinland Group has joined forces with Arizona State University (ASU) to create TUV Rheinland PTL, LLC, the most comprehensive, sophisticated, state-of-the-art facility for testing and certification of solar energy equipment in the world.

Continue Reading

Arizona's Largest Building Mounted PV Project at ASU

September 30, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO and WUXI, China, Sept. 30 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP - News), one of the world's leading manufacturers of photovoltaic cells and modules, today announced it has been selected to supply 1.6 megawatt (MW) of solar panels to Sun Devil Solar LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Integrys Energy Services, for its project with Arizona State University (ASU). The project will be installed on top of two elevated parking structures in the middle of the ASU's main campus using an innovating tracking system. The solar installations are to be completed by the end of 2008.

Continue Reading

ReGeneration Roadtrip: Degrees of Sustainability

September 29, 2008

Living and learning at Arizona State University's School of Sustainability

The folks at Arizona State University's Global Institute of Sustainability really rolled out the red green carpet for Sarah and me when we met them on a hot Friday afternoon. Through conversations with the school's key players and highly personalized tours of their facilities and features, they walked us through every step the university has taken to join the ranks of the world's leading environmental pioneers and thinkers.

> Read more

ASU's School of Sustainability Honored

September 12, 2008

Contributions help environment, life in Valley, group says

Arizona Republic

When Pinal County sought advice on managing its growth, students from Arizona State University's School of Sustainability reviewed the landscape from a helicopter and offered scenarios to guide planning.

> Read more

ASU and Grist.org Team Up to Provide Students with News on Sustainability and Green Living

September 8, 2008

Download the press release as a PDF.

PHOENIX, AZ, and SEATTLE, WA — In the first collaboration of its kind, Arizona State University and Grist.org, the country's leading source of online environmental news and information, today announced an agreement to send all of ASU's 60,000+ students and many faculty and staff a biweekly e-mail with news, commentary, and advice about sustainability issues.

Continue Reading

Econews Site Teams Up With ASU

September 8, 2008

NEWSWEEK

Arizona State University has often stood out for its efforts to be ecofriendly. Since launching the country's first school of sustainability in 2007, the large college—about 60,000 students—has been praised by environmental groups as one of America's greenest universities. This week, the school will announce a partnership with Grist.org, an eccentric online magazine that critically and humorously covers environmental news, to deliver a biweekly e-mail newsletter to the campus with local and national reporting on sustainability. ASU president Michael Crow, who also heads a union of university presidents to reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions, spoke to NEWSWEEK's Daniel Stone about the school's efforts.

Read more at NEWSWEEK

Environmental and Water Management Leaders Meet to Examine the Future of Earth's Water Supply

September 3, 2008

TEMPE, ARIZ.  – Leading environmental and water management experts convened today in Tempe, Arizona, to examine initiatives and strategies towards greater sustainability and preservation of Earth’s water supply as part of Rain Bird’s ninth Intelligent Use of Water Summit. Held this morning at Arizona State University’s (ASU) Global Institute of Sustainability, in partnership with Rain Bird Corporation, the leading manufacturer and provider of irrigation products and services, the two-hour symposium provided a unique opportunity for thought leaders to engage in an open-forum discussion about global water-management programs, policies, initiatives, trends, and strategies relating to water availability issues in the American Southwest and beyond.

Continue Reading