Sustainability News

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.

School of Sustainability Professor Marco Janssen is one of the co-chairs of the African Commons web-conference that is being held from July 13-27. The conference is freely available online and consists of various live webinars and more than 50 pre-recorded talks on various topics including fisheries, conservation and water governance.

This virtual conference was planned before the COVID-19 crisis, as an affordable, inclusive and low carbon footprint conference. The current COVID-19 crisis has major impacts on the African commons, and is one of the topics of the debates during the conference.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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On Tuesday, Arizona State University’s Global Futures Laboratory, in partnership with Foreign Policy, convened a panel of leading global thinkers to discuss the surprising but powerful links among the coronavirus, climate change and inclusive governance.

“Scientists warn, COVID-19 is not a black swan event. Rather, as astrophysicist Adam Frank has pointed out, it’s a ‘fire drill’ for climate change,” explained Amanda Ellis, director of global partnerships at ASU Global Futures Laboratory. “We need to build back better and create a new normal to keep our planet habitable. To do that, we must call out the failures of global governance and the inconsistencies of national governments.”

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Recent tragedies have brought increased awareness to issues of systemic racism in our nation today. But racism is not new --which calls for greater understanding of history and identifying approaches to tackle racism.

The ASU Committee for Campus Inclusion hosts the first of a series of important dialogues on systemic racism. Through a moderated panel discussion, we highlight the history of racism in America, what it looks like today, the role of anti-racism, and what we can do as members of the ASU community to tackle systemic racism.

Panelists include sustainability scientist Bryan Brayboy, President’s Professor and Director, Center for Indian Education; Stanlie James, Vice Provost, Inclusion and Community Engagement; Mako Ward, Clinical Assistant Professor and Faculty Head, African and African American Studies, School of Social Transformation. The moderator is Cassandra Aska, Deputy Vice President and Dean of Students and University Chair of Committee for Campus Inclusion.

Video available.

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.

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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."

On July 1, School of Sustainability master's student Hailey Campbell will be speaking in a virtual dialogue on the Role of Youth in Climate Action. The event is hosted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC. Register online for this event, which takes place at 6:00 a.m. Arizona time.

Campbell, a 2020 Barrett, the Honors College graduate who majored in sustainability, represented Arizona State University during the 2019 U.N. Climate Convention (COP25) held in Madrid, Spain. It was there she became involved with YOUNGO, the Children and Youth constituency to the UNFCCC.

"I started contributing to official YOUNGO submissions to the UNFCCC, hosting meetings with the Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) Work Group, and working with my peers to make ACE the focal point of COP26," said Campbell.

"When the time came for this webinar, the UNFCCC Youth focal points invited me to be a participant for our region to share my climate action story," she said.

In fall 2019, 29,842 (35%) of ASU undergraduate and graduate students were the first in their family to attend college. Thanks to the efforts of many, the number of first-generation students attending ASU has tripled since 2002.

The First-Year Success Center, in partnership with Access ASU, American Indian Student Support Services, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, Office of Applied Innovation, Student and Cultural Engagement, TRIO Student Support Services, and Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions, is excited to announce the second annual First-Gen Zone conference for ASU faculty and staff.

Read the request for proposals. Proposals are due by noon on August 3 and can be submitted online.

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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.

Two new world records of lightning — the horizontal distance a bolt travels and the time duration of the flash — have been recorded by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The new records for "megaflashes," verified with new satellite lightning imagery technology, more than double the previous records measured in the U.S. and France, according to the WMO.

“This will provide valuable information for establishing limits to the scale of lightning — including megaflashes — for engineering, safety and scientific concerns,” said Randy Cerveny, an Arizona State University professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and the “chief rapporteur” of weather and climate extremes for WMO.

“It is likely that even greater extremes exist, and that we will be able to observe them as lightning-detection technology improves,” Cerveny said.

Water is a critical issue in Arizona, and a new water-mapping tool created by the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University has collected a vast array of maps and data sets to show a wide-ranging view of water in the state.

The Arizona Water Blueprint visualizes information on groundwater, rivers, agricultural irrigation, dams, ocean desalination, critical species and other concepts that are important not only to policymakers but also to any Arizonan concerned about water.

The first-of-its-kind map creates a holistic view of water in Arizona that was missing, according to Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy.

A town hall event hall hosted by ASU’s Construction in Indian Country program brought together tribal and business leaders to discuss the economic outlook and address the current situation in Indian Country as they continue fight COVID-19.

The event was hosted by Arizona State University’s Marcus Denetdale, program manager for Construction in Indian Country. Panelists included sustainability scholars Jacob Moore, associate vice president for tribal relations at ASU, and Traci Morris, director of ASU's American Indian Policy Institute; Jonathan Nez, president of the Navajo Nation; Brian Howard, research and policy analyst, American Indian Policy Institute; James Murphy, chief executive officer, Willmeng Construction; Larry Wright Jr., tribal chairman of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska; and Martin Harvier, president of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.

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Join by Zoom on July 15 for a robust discussion on an ASU/Tempe research project to detect the presence of coronavirus in wastewater and identify hotspots.The City of Tempe has created a website (best viewed using Chrome) to explain the new field of wastewater epidemiology.

In an innovative partnership to prevent and reduce the spread of COVID-19, the City of Tempe is working with scientists from Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute to study the city's wastewater. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is the science of studying community sewage for public health information.

To better understand the science behind the wastewater data, this dashboard displays emerging research about the “COVID-19 gene copies per liter” measured within collection areas throughout the city. An example of “gene copies per liter” measurement is similar to measuring the amount of salt in water. The more salt in the water, the saltier the mixture. Similarly, the more COVID-19 genes copies per liter, the stronger the virus’ signal.

Rosa Inchausti leads Tempe's Office of Strategic Management, which identifies and adopts new technologies that advance the quality of life for the community. Sustainability scientist Rolf Halden is expert in determining where in the environment mass-produced chemicals wind up, their impact on health, and how to remove them.