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Sustainability News

DOE establishes new EFRC at ASU

ASU Now | August 4, 2020

powering-tomorrow-energy-reportA U.S. Department of Energy award is empowering a new center at Arizona State University to create a more resilient and sustainable electricity grid with the use of next-generation materials.

The four-year, $12.4 million award from the DOE’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences establishes an Energy Frontier Research Center headquartered at ASU called Ultra Materials for a Resilient, Smart Electricity Grid, or Ultra EFRC. While ASU will lead Ultra EFRC, researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of California Riverside, Cornell University, Michigan State University, Sandia National Laboratories, Stanford University and the University of Bristol will work within its framework.

Headed by Regents Professor of physics Robert Nemanich and Professor of electrical engineering Stephen M. Goodnick, Ultra EFRC will investigate fundamental questions about wide band gap semiconductors. Goodnick is a senior sustainability scientist and deputy director of LightWorks.

ASU, Zimin Foundation partner for future of urban tech

ASU Now | August 3, 2020

Cities generate the vibrant energy of society. However, they’re also the center of some of our most pressing sustainability issues — air and water pollution, urban heat islands, disease or security threats, and an increasing demand for resources.

Sustainable, smart-city technologies represent a unique opportunity to create solutions that advance urban areas and the well-being of their inhabitants by addressing the potentially harmful effects of the built environment.

An opportunity to work with the most innovative university on smart-city technology was the impetus for the Zimin Foundation to partner with and support ASU and the Fulton Schools on the second international Zimin Institute, focusing on future technologies that enable smart and sustainable cities.

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ASURE awarded contract to advance unmanned and robotic technologies

ASU Now | July 31, 2020

ASURE has been awarded a contract that could total as much as $42.4 million over the next five years to advance unmanned and robotic technologies and weapons systems.

The Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, awarded $12 million now to the Arizona State University-affiliated applied research lab to solve the initial task and is offering the opportunity for an additional $30.4 million for subsequent tasks. There are nine task groups in total and, according to Naval Postgraduate School, this is the school’s largest task order contract ever awarded for unmanned systems and robotics. It is also the largest contract ASURE has been awarded.

ASURE is a nonprofit organization and exemplifies a new prototype for the academic applied research lab that leverages ASU’s innovative resources to rapidly solve grand challenges with high-impact solutions for local, state and national government agencies and companies. ASURE’s expertise centers on translating ideas into dual-use solutions for technology, engineering, safety and security sectors, meaning they solve for commercial and military problems.

"This collaboration leverages the multidisciplinary expertise that exists within the Fulton Schools and ASURE’s objective of conducting applied research," said sustainability scientist Kyle Squires, dean of the Fulton Schools at ASU. "Our faculty has made significant progress to achieve broader technological capabilities and understandings of these areas in recent years, so we are eager to work with partners to develop and test robotic and autonomous systems."

Takamura teaches empathy as a path to beautiful universal design

ASU Now | July 30, 2020

Thirty years ago this month, President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law, creating protections in employment, housing, health care and access for millions of people. One of the most obvious results of the law is accessible building design — curb cuts, automatic doors and ramps.

But truly universal design, sometimes called “inclusive design,” is much more than that. It’s a design concept that makes everything as easy as possible for anyone, and includes products from smartphones to flexible drinking straws. The concept means that design that accommodates one group actually makes it easier for everyone. For example, curb cuts meant to help people who use wheelchairs also make it easier for people with strollers or wheeled suitcases.

Read a Q&A with sustainability scientist John Takamura, an associate professor of industrial design in The Design School at Arizona State University, who teaches universal design in a studio class to graduate students. He had a career designing electronics and consumer goods before coming to the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.

Bertoni, Christen named Fulton Entrepreneurial Professors fellows

ASU Now | July 30, 2020

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.

Call for proposals: Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education

July 27, 2020

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education's (AASHE's) virtual Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education is the largest stage to exchange effective models, policies, research, collaborations and transformative actions that advance sustainability in higher education and surrounding communities.

Humanity faces a series of intensifying and interrelated social and ecological crises. Solving these crises requires a holistic transformation: a shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. With a theme of "Mobilizing for a Just Transition," this year's Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education will be held October 20-22 and will focus on centering justice within this transformation and ensuring that it leaves no one behind.

Higher education has changed dramatically since AASHE closed its original call for proposals in early March. AASHE has opened a supplementary Emerging Issues Call for Proposals; proposals are due August 14.

Become a presenter and have your voice heard on vital topics such as the global pandemic, widespread protests against racism and the upcoming 2020 U.S. Election. Submit your proposal by August 14 to participate in AASHE's first virtual conference!

Podcast: Morris discusses the Native American digital divide

July 27, 2020

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, digital connections were indispensable — for education, social interactions, telemedicine, business continuity and so much more.

But in places where connectivity is limited, the challenges and tragedies of the pandemic were only heightened. This was especially true in Native American communities across America, where infection rates soared, economic opportunity fell, and, for many, isolation deepened.

In this podcast, Cisco Techbeat host Kevin Delaney speaks with sustainability scientist Traci Morris, Director of the American Indian Policy Institute at Arizona State University. A proud member of the Chickasaw Nation, Dr. Morris has studied the impact of the digital divide in Indian country.

Virtual launch party: Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

July 27, 2020

You're invited to participate in the ASU Mastcam-Z team Live Zoom webinar of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Launch. This event is hosted by Meenakshi Wadhwa, Director of ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration and Jim Bell, Mastcam-Z Principal Investigator and professor at ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration. The Webinar will feature interviews and Q and A with Jim Bell and ASU Mastcam-Z team members, as well as the official NASA live launch coverage feed.

Please register for the July 30 event. Once you have registered, a reminder email will be to you the day before the webinar.

Please be aware that there is an approximate 120-minute launch window. In case of launch postponement, the Webinar will reconvene one hour before the next launch opportunity. A new reminder will be sent with instructions to all current registrants.

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NAS establishes James Prize to recognize interdisciplinary work

July 27, 2020

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 translates ASU research into tangible, scalable solutions

ASU Now | July 27, 2020

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.

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Island and indigenous youth voices: Building back better and fairer

July 24, 2020

Event FlyerThe unprecedented global health crisis we are facing is affecting all parts of society and changing lives and livelihoods. In times of need, from climate change and natural disasters to the current COVID-19 pandemic, youth have been quick to take action and respond to the needs of their communities. That is why the Local2030 Island Network, WE Empower partner Hawaii Green Growth and Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at ASU convened a panel of island and indigenous youth to have a solution-oriented conversation on responding to COVID-19 and building back better, harnessing their creativity and innovation.

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Center for Global Health research focuses on food insecurity during crisis

ASU Now | July 23, 2020

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.

Antiracist Resources curated by the IHR

July 22, 2020

A list of antiracist resources is now available on the Institute for Humanities Research website for use in humanities courses and for the community. The IHR is led by Elizabeth Langland, director of the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, and sustainability scientist Ronald Broglio, program lead of the Desert Humanities Initiative.

Bowman helping Phoenix become a top tech-driven “smart region.”

ASU Now | July 18, 2020

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.

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Event: The overlooked role of tech in the sustainability movement

July 16, 2020

Background vector created by starline - www.freepik.comASU'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.

Mapping the nexus of economic growth, inequality and environment

July 16, 2020

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.

Hsueh awarded AAUW American Fellowship

July 16, 2020

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.”

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Call for projects: Project Cities seeks solutions-focused class projects

July 15, 2020

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.