Sustainability News

Sustainability scientist Mariana Bertoni and colleague Jennifer Blain Christen – both associate professors in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering and co-founders of technology startups extending from their research at ASU – are receiving high-profile support from the Fulton Entrepreneurial Professors program as its two newest fellows.

These two-year fellowships provide tenured or tenure-track engineering faculty members with the equivalent of $200,000 in time and resources to accelerate their nascent ventures toward successful commercialization. They do so by reassigning teaching responsibilities and supplying research staff to manage laboratory groups. With freedom from these responsibilities, fellows can apply themselves to pursuing small business training and seed funding, working with patent lawyers, meeting with potential equity investors and consulting with industry advisers.

Bertoni will use her forthcoming Fulton Entrepreneurial Professors fellowship experience to advance Crystal Sonic, the technology company she co-founded two years ago to improve the efficiency and lower the cost of next-generation semiconductor manufacturing.

National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has received a $2,000,000 gift to establish the James Prize in Science and Technology Integration. The prize was made possible through a generous donation from Robert “Bob” James.

This prize will recognize outstanding contributions made by researchers who are able to adopt or adapt information or techniques from outside their own fields, and thus integrate knowledge from two or more disciplines in order to solve a major contemporary challenge not addressable from a single disciplinary perspective. Nominations for the inaugural prize will be accepted through Monday, October 5, 2020.

More information on how to submit a nomination, including FAQs, can be found here.

Skysong Innovations is ASU's intellectual property management company. Its goal is the rapid and wide dissemination of ASU discoveries and inventions into the marketplace, and so was created as a separate corporate entity to act as a proxy for ASU, which substantially increases flexibility and speed in deal-making and venturing activities. A recent article in ASU Now features the work of several sustainability scientists.

Zero Mass Water, led by sustainability scientist Cody Friesen, a professor in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, creates SOURCE Hydropanels that use solar energy to pull moisture from the air, bringing clean drinking water to communities and residences well off the grid.

Skysong Innovations team identified and pushed forward 20 COVID-19 technologies: four vaccines, two therapeutics, three diagnostic tools, seven sterilization- and PPE-related pieces of equipment and four software technologies. Sustainability scientists have led several of these.

Continue Reading

The world is experiencing changes in food and sharing during the pandemic. Food shortages in the spring and being confined together have spurred changes. Sustainability scientist Alexandra Brewis-Slade saw COVID-19 as an obvious point to jump in on questions of how illness and other crises worsen food insecurity.

The founding director of the Center for Global Health and a President’s Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change said the center identifies a key theme each year, one that they believe can reinvent and reimagine global health. “This year it was a focus on the human experience of food insecurity, working with nutritionist and food security expert Meg Bruening in the College of Health Solutions,” Brewis-Slade said.

Brewis-Slade and Amber Wutich, director of the Center for Global Health and also a President’s Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, were doing research with partners in Puerto Rico to understand how people were working together within communities, as part of work with the international Household Water Insecurity Experiences research collaboration, for which the Center for Global Health is a key partner. Bruening and Wutich are both sustainability scientists.

ASU's Center for Law, Science and Innovation is playing a leading role in Greater Phoenix’s push to become a top tech-driven “smart region.” Renowned for being nimble and keeping pace with rapid science and technology developments, the center, part of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, is helping to address extraordinary legal and regulatory questions that accompany innovation. Those challenges are exemplified as regional leaders embrace the promise of smart technology.

Co-founded by ASU, a recently launched smart-region initiative called The Connective is bringing onboard Mastercard to provide timely economic data that helps inform budget decisions and policymaking. Sustainability scholar Diana Bowman is ASU’s lead on The Connective and one of five members of the public-private partnership’s Leadership Council. She said the partnership is providing local governments with resources they otherwise wouldn’t have, including Mastercard’s nearly real-time sales data.

Continue Reading

ASU's Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering invites faculty to participate in a webinar discussion of a pedagogical framework for engineering education. The August 11 event will feature a presentation by sustainability scientists Braden Allenby and T. Agami Reddy; sustainability scientist Mikhail Chester will moderate.

Engineers today are increasingly asked to produce sustainable designs, products, and infrastructure. But what is meant by sustainability and sustainable development, and what is the role of the engineer in this domain which increasingly pervades all facets of human endeavor? This webinar, meant to provide a pedagogical framework for engineering education, will make the case that sustainability and sustainable development should evolve beyond its environmental and social origins.

Read more and register here.

There is a clear pattern on the role of reduced inequality in positively affecting environmental and economic trajectories. That is one major finding of a new paper by sustainability scientists Datu Buyung Agusdinata and Rimjhim Aggarwal. The paper, published July 15, 2020, in the journal Environment, Development and Sustainability, is titled Economic growth, inequality, and environment nexus: using data mining techniques to unravel archetypes of development trajectories.

The paper spawned out of a seed grant the authors received from the PLuS Alliance on conceptualizing and implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an integrated system, in contrast to the general practice of analyzing these goals in isolation. In this paper the authors focus on the interactions between economic growth (SDG 8), reduced inequalities (SDG 10), and climate action (SDG 13), the goals which underpin the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Examining the interactions between these goals contributes towards understanding some of the complexities and nuances of the UN Agenda.

Using data from 70 countries, Agusdinata, Aggarwal and co-author Xiaosu Ding of Purdue University applied data mining techniques to identify twelve archetypes of development pathways, each of which shows a different pattern of interactions among these goals, thus highlighting the diversity in development experience across the world and lessons it may offer in shaping future policies.

The abstract follows.

Implementation of sustainable development goals (SDGs) requires evidence-based analyses of the interactions between the different goals to design coherent policies. In this paper, we focus on the interactions between economic growth (SDG 8), reduced inequalities (SDG 10), and climate action (SDG 13). Some previous studies have found an inverted U-shaped relationship between income per capita and inequality, and a similar relationship between income per capita and environmental degradation. Despite their weak theoretical and empirical bases, these hypothesized relationships have gained popularity and are assumed to be universally true. Given differences in underlying contextual conditions across countries, the assumption of universal applicability of these curves for policy prescriptions can be potentially misleading. Advances in data analytics offer novel ways to probe deeper into these complex interactions. Using data from 70 countries, representing 72% of the world population and 89% of the global gross domestic product (GDP), we apply a nonparametric classification tree technique to identify clusters of countries that share similar development pathways in the pre-recession (1980–2008) and post-recession (2009–2014) period. The main outcome of interest is the change in per capita CO2 emissions (post-recession). We examine how it varies with trajectories of GDP growth, GDP growth variability, Gini index, carbon intensity, and CO2 emissions (pre-recession). Our study identifies twelve country clusters with three categories of emission trajectories: decreasing (four clusters), stabilizing (three clusters), and increasing (five clusters). Through the application of data mining tools, the study helps unravel the complexity of factors underlying development pathways and contributes toward informed policy decisions.

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has awarded its 2020–21 American Fellowship to Dr. Lily Hsueh, an assistant professor and senior sustainability scientist at Arizona State University, to work on her book-in-progress. Her book, under contract at MIT Press, examines the demand for, and supply of, global businesses’ climate action, across levels of governance, sectors, and in developed and developing countries.

“I am delighted to be a recipient of the 2020-21 AAUW American Fellowship,” said Hsueh. “It is a privilege to join prominent women across the arts, sciences, and the social sciences throughout history in receiving this award.”

“The AAUW fellowship allows me to complete my book, which combines large-N statistical analyses with illustrative company case studies to tell a larger narrative about the economic and political forces that motivate or dissuade private and public actors, such as corporations and governments, to combat global climate change.”

Continue Reading

Cities and towns face unprecedented challenges, even moreso now during to the COVID-19 pandemic. The unique issues local government agencies deal with demand a research-backed, multidisciplinary response. Leverage your classroom activity to add a meaningful applied learning experience for students that also makes a difference for local communities.

ASU's Project Cities manages contracts and relationships with city partners, facilitates site visits with stakeholders, offers a small budget and technology resources, and publishes project summary reports. Learn more and see the current project topic list.

Planned and continuing municipal sustainability projects incorporate some component of sustainability; economic, social, environmental, or a combination of the three. Many span multiple semesters and groups of students, allowing projects to take on big-picture, multi-disciplinary challenges. In addition, community partners seek assistance on applied projects centered around COVID-19, that examine local responses to the pandemic.

Project Cities' community partners will consider all ideas. Pitch projects via email to projectcities@asu.edu.

Together with a UK architect, sustainability scientist Sonja Klinsky, an associate professor in the School of Sustainability, College of Global Futures, has edited a special issue of Buildings & Cities. Published July 14, the issue explores the concept and relevance of climate justice in relation to the built environment.

How do responsibilities and decisions intersect with human wellbeing in a changing climate? Specific processes, decisions and actions are identified to reduce these injustices and to reduce current gaps both in knowledge and practices. Several perspectives are examined for integrating concerns about climate justice into research and decision-making about the built environment.

Read the editorial penned by Klinsky and Mavrogianni, and explore the special issue of Buildings & Cities.

In many places around the world supply chain gaps prevent goods from reaching their intended market and the people who need and rely on them. Supply chains include the system of organizations, resources, and activities that move goods to consumers and gaps can create stresses for producers and consumers alike. When these goods are food and medicine, the results can be devastating — even deadly. A large body of research shows that efficient supply chains are crucial to local, regional, and national economic development.

That’s why the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), invested in this new project, via the Building Research and Innovation for Development: Generating Evidence and Training (BRIDGE-Train) program: to advance research, translation – quickly moving research findings into practice with practical solutions – and training in supply chain management (SCM).

With a $15 million investment from USAID, Arizona State University (ASU) is embarking on a catalytic partnership with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and multiple public and private sector partners to establish the Center for Applied Research and Innovation in Supply Chain-Africa (CARISCA). The project brings together faculty expertise in the Department of Supply Chain Management in ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business and the KNUST School of Business. It’s the largest award in W. P. Carey’s history.

A new paper in Sustainability Science finds that the use of alternative water supplies, such as rainwater harvesting and greywater use, could offset up to 30 percent of total outdoor water demand for the Phoenix Metropolitan Area under modest implantation of these policies.

The paper, Simulating alternative sustainable water futures, is the work of sustainability scientists David Sampson and Nancy Grimm, sustainability fellow David Iwaniac, UREX affiliate Elizabeth Cook and CAP LTER affiliate Melissa Davidson. The authors adapted ASU’s WaterSim tool to explore differences in water demand and supply, as influenced by runoff, rainfall, changes in land use and land cover, population growth and improvements in water use efficiency.

The abstract follows.

Continue Reading

A new strategic partnership agreement will advance a shared interest in meeting the needs of learners in remote, offline communities globally by leveraging ASU’s innovative technology, SolarSPELL, a tool to build information literacy and to advance high-quality education. SolarSPELL is directed by ASU Sustainability Scientist Laura Hosman, Associate Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society.

The Peace Corps and ASU have been working together since 2015 to pair SolarSPELL’s digital library with locally-based trainers, Peace Corps Volunteers and their resident teacher counterparts. ASU provides the tools and the training that empowers volunteers and local teachers to utilize SolarSPELL libraries in their schools and communities.

Through this new agreement, Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) will advise on content specific to the locations of their postings. The PCVs are ideal liaisons because they spend two years at a posting, often in small, remote villages. The library content is hyper-localized, so having advocates embedded in the field can help determine the kind of information that is most helpful.

Continue Reading

A key component of ambient direct air capture (DAC) systems that remove carbon dioxide from the air is the sorbent material that is used to first capture the carbon and then to release it. Certain sorbent materials can pull carbon dioxide from the air as it flows over the material. It then releases the carbon when water is applied. As the material dries again, it absorbs carbon, and so on.

This elegant function of specific materials has been observed for several years by those working on DAC systems, like Klaus Lackner, sustainability scientist and professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. Lackner has developed a system called “MechanicalTree” that uses sorbent materials to remove carbon from air.Klaus LacknerKlaus Lackner in his lab. New research by Lackner and his colleagues explains how sorbent materials catch and release carbon, a key component to direct air capture systems that remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Now, in a new paper in the early, online edition of Joule, Lackner and his colleagues lay out exactly how some of these sorbent materials capture and release carbon, a finding that could lead to the smarter design of sorbent materials at the heart of all carbon removal systems.

Continue Reading

David Hondula, a senior sustainability scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, was interviewed by the Washington Post about the Heat Ready initiative, a project funded by Healthy Urban Environments.

“We talk about climate … as something mysterious and ambiguous that comes from the sky. But it is also something we are driving with the way we are paving our streets,” Hondula said in the article. “Urbanization is a critical part of the story.”

Continue Reading

Arizona State University Library’s first Indigenous land acknowledgement is a five-sentence, 116-word statement about the place that the library and the university have inhabited for more than a century.

Under the direction of Lorrie McAllister, associate university librarian for collections and strategy, the statement was crafted by graduate students Alex Soto and Brave Heart Sanchez, with input from Jacob Moore, associate vice president of tribal relations at ASU; Joyce Martin, associate librarian and head of the library’s social sciences division who led the Labriola Center for more than 12 years; and other key faculty and staff stakeholders.

Soto, an operations supervisor who manages the Labriola Center on the West campus, says the land statement does a good job of recognizing where we are as a university library, both figuratively and literally, and can serve as a launch pad for deeper conversations about how the ASU Library might integrate and prioritize Indigenous knowledge systems.

As the coronavirus continues to surge across the United States, there is little doubt that the pandemic has upended American life as we know it. From disrupting the way people move in the world, to exposing racial inequalities, to introducing new questions about surveillance and personal privacy in tracking the disease, the nation has been changed by this experience.

Arizona State University researchers in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning are studying these changes in the American public and the future impacts COVID-19 can have on individual lives.

Continue Reading

It’s a far cry from the '60s, when engineers fought scientists. Now they are in the same building, unseparated by distance or bureaucratic walls.

This is the story of how ASU's tiny geology program grew to become one of only seven U.S. institutions that can build interplanetary spacecraft. It's a story sure to instill Sun Devil pride.

It begins with the purchase of a meteorite collection, shoots to the moon with some Navy pilots who learned geology basics from an ASU professor, then turns to the hiring of sustainability scientist Phil Christensen, a self-described "accidental engineer."

The story includes interdisciplinary research and student experiences, investments in research facilities, years of hard work, hundreds of students, and an exceptional group of scientists including Christensen, Jim Bell, Craig Hardgrove, and sustainability scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton, among many others.

Continue Reading

In November 2019, Arizona State University responded to a request for information from the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, submitting a comprehensive, 70+ page response. The response incorporated input from nearly 50 faculty from across the university, drawn from our network of Sustainability Scientists, Scholars and Fellows, thus representing a truly transdisciplinary approach. This demonstrates ASU’s commitment to use-inspired science.

On June 30, members of the Select Committee released their report, Solving the Climate Crisis: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy and a Healthy and Just America.

Peter Schlosser, Vice President and Vice Provost for Global Futures says: "This comprehensive and bold new report, Solving the Climate Crisis, provides a detailed roadmap for the transformational change necessary to guide a transition to a more sustainable, resilient, just, and equitable society. The plan includes ambitious, and detailed, but achievable goals, based in sound science, along with specific policy recommendations for climate action. The plan is based on transdisciplinary, collaborative, and solutions-focused research produced by Arizona State University through its Global Futures Laboratory, which is committed to designing implementable options to sustain global habitability and improve well-being for all humankind. We applaud Representative Castor and members of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis for their efforts to assert American leadership on the international stage and stand ready to support the federal government and its partners to implement the plan."

Children playing outside during Arizona summers can face 100 days or more of temperatures north of 100°F. Too often playgrounds use heat-retaining, unnatural surfaces in the middle of parks with no shade, especially in Phoenix. These unshaded playgrounds can act as mini heat islands, which can disincentivize physically active play or even lead to burns.

ASU urban climate researchers Jennifer Vanos and Ariane Middel believe proper shading of playgrounds may be a solution.