Sustainability News

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

New program will reduce electricity consumption, generate thousands of green jobs and create a more sustainable city in the desert

TEMPE, Ariz. – The City of Phoenix was awarded a $25-million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Energy and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to launch, in partnership with Arizona State University and Arizona Public Service, "Energize Phoenix," a project that will save energy, create jobs and transform neighborhoods.

The grant will be used as seed funding to establish a fiscally viable, permanent program that will eventually be expanded throughout the city. Locally, the funds will be leveraged by at least $190 million of additional funding from a combination of banks, local businesses and public partners.

Continue Reading

The mineral phosphorus (P) is critical to the creation of bones, teeth and DNA. "P" is also a key component of the fertilizers used to produce our food, as critical to agriculture as water. But is P, like oil, peaking? Natural and social scientists in Europe, Australia, the United States and elsewhere see growing evidence that the answer is yes. But when? That is the question.

> Read more

by Bonny Bentzin, Director – University Sustainability Practices, Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University (This article appears in the April, 2010 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

In today’s sustainability conscious world, there has been much discussion about food waste reduction options. At Arizona State University (ASU), in conjunction with our Carbon Neutrality goal, we have established a goal for Zero Waste (solid waste and water waste). Our food waste reduction strategy includes harvesting food from our landscaping, diverting food waste through appropriate donations, implementing trayless dining programs, monitoring consumption patterns and tracking orders, and the exploration of composting programs. Some of these options are proving more complex than others.

> Read more

FLORHAM PARK, NJ – BASF today announced that it is the first chemical company to become a member of The Sustainability Consortium, an independent organization of diverse global participants that work collaboratively to build a scientific foundation that drives innovation to improve consumer product sustainability. The company joins other retailers and consumer product manufacturers that have become members of the Consortium and its product "life cycle" mission, including social and environmental considerations.

Continue Reading

PHOENIX, AZ  – The Phoenix Green Chamber of Commerce (PGCC) announces today that Arizona State University's prestigious Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS) has joined the Chamber. The School of Sustainability is part of GIOS and also will be a participant in the Chamber.

The Green Chamber promotes sustainable business practices, including recycling, energy and water conservation, pollution prevention, and the use of energy-efficient facilities and equipment. It provides education forums on topical issues in sustainability, and business opportunities among members.

Continue Reading

TEMPE, Ariz. – As graduate students in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, Maren Mahoney and Zach Hughes had seen plenty of academic journals related to sustainability. But nowhere could they find a publication that made the complex concept of sustainability accessible to the everyday reader.

Continue Reading

Feb. 17, 2010/Tempe, Ariz.- The Arizona State University Alumni Association will honor faculty members and alumni involved in solving challenges with world-changing consequences.

School of Sustainability affiliated faculty member Nancy Grimm, who is principal investigator and co-director of the multi-million dollar Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project (CAP LTER), will receive a Faculty Achievement Award for Research.

The Founders' Day Awards Dinner is set for 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 24 at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, 2400 E. Missouri Ave., Phoenix. The award ceremony has been a signature event for the university for decades, and it honors individuals who exemplify the spirit of the founders of the Territorial Normal School of Arizona, ASU’s predecessor institution, who received their charter from the Thirteenth Territorial Legislature on March 7, 1885.

Continue Reading

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. has joined Arizona State University in an innovative education and science partnership aimed at sustaining a biodiverse planet. Today, Secretary Wayne Clough, head of the Smithsonian, and ASU President Michael M. Crow launched a global classroom – with one foot in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert and the other in the tropical landscapes of Panama.

> Read more

Raymond Mendez, the "original insect wrangler" who tamed 25,000 roaches, and trained moths to attack on command for the movie "Silence of the Lambs," headlines the Southwest's first Social Insect Science EXPO on Feb. 20 at the Desert Botanical Garden.

Designed for inquiring minds and families, the EXPO brings together some of the top scientists from Arizona State University, their favorite critters and the public. Attendees will be able to peer inside bee colonies and rub elbows-to-antennae with leaf-cutter, harvester and trap-jaw ants. Mendez, founder of Work as Play, which develops exhibits for zoos and museums, will bring his live ant and naked mole-rat colonies to share, in addition to speaking about his work in science, film and television, design and advertising.

Continue Reading

Best Buy, Dell, HP, Intel, Toshiba and Walmart to Establish System to Help Consumers Identify "Green" Electronics

TEMPE, Ariz.- The Sustainability Consortium, along with leaders in the manufacturing and sales of consumer electronics, today announced plans to establish a system, including social and environmental considerations, to help consumers identify "green" electronics. The Sustainability Consortium is co-administered by Arizona State University and the University of Arkansas.

Working with Best Buy, Dell, HP, Intel, Toshiba, and Walmart, the consortium will research and publish findings on the lifecycle environmental and social impacts of electronic products. These findings will be used to support efforts to identify products as sustainable or "green." This type of information is designed to reduce consumer confusion and help standardize product claims.

"Customers tell us they want to purchase electronics that have a minimal impact on our planet. This is an effort to help them do that using a common methodology that manufacturers across the industry participate in," said Scott O’Connell, environmental strategist, Dell. "This is about making it easy for customers to determine what’s ‘green’ and what’s not, and we’d like to have the whole industry involved."

Continue Reading

Timothy Lant, research director at ASU's Decision Theater, and James G. Hodge Jr., the Lincoln Professor of Health Law and Ethics at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, have received a grant to examine the role law plays in critical public health emergencies, such as the H1N1 flu pandemic.

> Read more

Climate projections for the next 50 to 100 years forecast increasingly frequent severe droughts and heat waves across the American Southwest, sinking available water levels even as rising mercury drives up demand for it.

Declining water supply will affect more than just water flowing from taps and spraying from hoses and sprinklers. It will also strongly impinge on power generation, testing the capacity of sources like Hoover Dam, with its roughly 1.3 million customers in Nevada, Arizona and California, to generate adequate power with less water.

Now, Patricia Gober and David A. Sampson of the Decision Center for a Desert City at Arizona State University are teaming with David J. Sailor of Portland State University on a $65,000 grant to wade into this deep problem.

> Read more

The sun shines bright in the Valley, but that is not the reason why China's leading manufacturer of solar panels, Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd., decided to locate its first manufacturing plant here. It is its longstanding ties to Arizona State University that helped convince the manufacturer of the benefits of metropolitan Phoenix, said Jonathan Fink, a Foundation Professor in ASU’s School of Sustainability and the School of Earth and Space Exploration.

"These earlier steps, which date back more than a decade, represent the apolitical, technology based cultivation that universities are best suited to carry out, usually behind the scenes," Fink said.

Suntech announced its choice of the Phoenix metropolitan area for its first U.S. plant on Nov. 15 and cited several reasons, including the research strengths of ASU, Arizona’s statewide renewable energy policies and the favorable local business climate fostered by groups like the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. While Suntech will provide a modest initial commitment of about 75 new jobs and a facility of about 100,000 sq feet of space, it is the fact that they chose the Valley that has many people excited.

> Read more

Daniel M. Bodansky, a preeminent authority in international climate change law, has been appointed the Lincoln Professor of Law, Ethics, and Sustainability at Arizona State University, according to Paul Schiff Berman, Dean of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

Bodansky also has been named an Affiliated Faculty member in both the College of Law's Center for Law and Global Affairs, and in the Global Institute of Sustainability's School of Sustainability at ASU. His appointment is effective Aug. 1, 2010.

"The hiring of Dan Bodansky is a tremendously positive step for advancing ASU," said ASU President Michael Crow. "On the law and sustainability front, Dan will bring us global thinking at the highest level. This is a great day for ASU."

Continue Reading

TEMPE, Ariz. (Nov. 9, 2009) — Arizonans are gearing up for more H1N1 activity this flu season, and a new survey reveals how much they really know about the virus and how they’re preparing for its spread.

The new survey of more than 700 Arizona households was designed and analyzed by faculty and students from the School of Health Management and Policy at the W. P. Carey School of Business, the Decision Theater at the Global Institute of Sustainability, and the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University. The study was sponsored by the Arizona Department of Health Services and was conducted during the month of October. The results will be used by public information officials from various hospitals, public health agencies and related organizations to determine how to best communicate to the public about H1N1 influenza.

> Read more see "New H1N1 Survey Reveals Arizonans' Flu Season Plans"

Arizona State University received a gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership and Energy and Environmental Design program for the academic complex at its Polytechnic campus.

> Read more

> Polytechnic Academic Complex

Arizona State University has topped $300 million in research expenditures for the first time in its school history. With a total of $307 million in research expenditures for FY2009 (which ended June 30), a growth of nearly 9 percent compared to FY08, ASU has made a dramatic climb in the ranks of top research universities.

> Read more

Arizona State University (ASU) is topping the charts for its efforts in sustainability. ASU earned high marks from the Sustainable Endowments Institute's College Sustainability Report Card 2010, with an overall grade of A-.

Continue Reading

by Shaun McKinnon

The Arizona Republic

Heat discriminates. Phoenix's sweltering summer inflicts the most misery and illness in poor neighborhoods, a new study shows, and among people least able to protect themselves from the elements. Conditions in those neighborhoods, with their sparse landscaping, high-density housing and converging freeways, create pockets of extreme heat that persist day and night. Inside, homeowners sometimes can't afford to turn up - or even turn on - the air-conditioner.

Wealthier homeowners, meanwhile, often in neighborhoods just blocks away, maintain lush yards and trees that help cool the air more quickly at night, shortening the hours of the hottest heat waves. They can buy further relief with a nudge of the thermostat.

The disparities present threats more serious than just discomfort on a hot day, according to the study, produced by Arizona State University researchers. Prolonged exposure to heat can cause illness or even death. The densely developed nature of the hottest areas also means more of the people most vulnerable - the elderly, children, the homebound - live in the neighborhoods where the risk is greatest.

That link between money and the ability to cope with extreme weather emerged clearly in the research. Among the startling revelations: For every $10,000 an area's income rises, the average outside temperature drops one-half degree Fahrenheit.

>Read More...