Sustainability News

A native of Columbus, Ohio, Arizona State University sophomore Jackson Schiefelbein has always been driven to help others. So when he discovered the School of sustainability and ASU invited him to visit, he jumped at the chance and the rest is history.

"Upon learning of the School of Sustainability and the diversity of its offerings beyond environmental science, I knew this was the place for me," Schiefelbein said. "Thanks to ASU's generosity in inviting me to visit and providing significant support through scholarships and other resources, I was able to commit to making the move to ASU."

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School of Sustainability assistant professor Jennifer Vanos was recently awarded Maricopa County's 2019 Climate and Health Champion award in the research category for her outstanding work in understanding the hazards and health outcomes associated with children's playspaces. Her work, which is supported by the Healthy Urban Environments (HUE) initiative, evaluates how playspace design mediates exposure to heat, radiation and air pollution impacts.

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“I’m passionate about the intersection of food and sustainability, as well as the beauty and fashion industries,” said Arizona State University student Kiana Mays. “The way we care for our bodies, on the inside and out, is truly a reflection of how we view and treat the outer world.”

Mays has manifested her interests in social responsibility, restaurants, food waste and wellness in a number of ways during her tenure at ASU, including a stint as a report writing assistant for the Project Cities program in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability. As a former restaurant employee, she became aware of numerous social, environmental and economic issues that the industry faces on a daily basis.

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The Arizona State University School of Sustainability is introducing a new course in the Spring 2020 semester. View course flier (PDF).

“Lean Startup Problem Solving for Sustainability” (SOS 594) will present students with complex problems critical to the government and challenge them to generate solutions to fit real time U.S. Department of Defense needs. The issues in particular will revolve around cyber security, AI, national security and energy networks. Students will also be offered the opportunity to invent new technologies with a team of their colleagues.

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As more locations across the country begin to transition to utilizing renewable energy sources, officials in such locations face a daunting task: How do they compensate the workers and communities that financially relied on those nonrenewable sources of energy?

While the question may be hypothetical, scenarios like that are not. One recently played out in Page, Arizona when the Navajo Generating Station closed down. The coal-fired power plant had operated for 40 years, serving as a financial support for the community of Hopi and Navajo tribes. Now that it’s closed, workers are at a loss as to how to meet their needs.

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Phoenix local Lizzy Noble had always wanted to be an architect growing up. Ironically, it was in the pursuit of this goal that she developed a love for sustainability.

“My freshman year of high school, I enrolled in the EPICS/engineering program of my school," Noble said. "The director of this program was one of the first sustainability gurus I met and would always assign us 'green projects.'"

These projects in tandem with a field trip to Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability motivated Noble to head down the career path of sustainability. Noble is a recent graduate from ASU who studied business sustainability and supply chain management. In this Q&A, she takes us through her history and what she's doing now, as well as what sustainability means to her.

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Arizona State University student Matthew Burmeister has been doing incredible work in sustainability with "Sustainable Sound: Festival Guide," a guide to making music festivals more sustainable, which originated from a Sustainability Connect project.

Based on his experiences, Burmeister has some "sound" advice for students who are inexperienced in sustainability projects: “Don’t give up — when I first came up with the idea for 'Sustainable Sound' I had zero connections with anyone in the festival industry or even any experience in event planning. Regardless of my unfamiliarity with the field, I wanted to do this project so badly that I took the time to reach out to industry professionals and dug into the existing research and frameworks. After countless phone calls, emails, pitches and rejections, I am now working with some of my favorite festival organizations to help them transform their events.”

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As global concern about climate change continues to grow, there has been a corresponding dual increase in the demand for sustainability education from students and more sustainability professional development opportunities from teachers and other professionals.

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A quest to merge his passions for social justice and environmentalism led Andrew Kennedy to Arizona State University's School of Sustainability.

"I initially wanted to study conservation biology in high school because I absolutely loved learning about ecosystems, animal biology and how to protect valuable species," Kennedy said. "However, I was also very passionate about politics and justice."

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Marty Anderies, a senior sustainability scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and a professor in the School of Sustainability, was one of several authors of a journal article, "Transnational corporations and the challenge of biosphere stewardship," published in the journal Nature, Ecology & Evolution. According to the authors, transnational corporations are increasingly aligning their business models to support a stable planet.

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On September 21, Arizona State University and the City of Tempe conducted Tempe’s first Heat Walk: a community event orchestrated to help city officials and ASU researchers understand how residents experience heat in their neighborhoods, parks and multi-use paths. According to Jennifer Vanos, an assistant professor in the School of Sustainability and senior sustainability scientist the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, “Our goal is to ensure that public spaces that are meant to be used for activity, play and active transport are thermally comfortable and safe from extreme heat for as much of the day and year as possible."

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Although she was raised to love and care for the environment, Andie Wilkerson almost didn’t study sustainability.

“Going into college, I didn't even realize sustainability was an option,” Wilkerson said. “I applied to ASU intending to be an environmental engineering major, but two weeks before orientation, I discovered the school of sustainability through the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability's website.” Wilkerson read about the program and by the time she was done, she had decided to change her major.

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The National Academy of Public Administration has inducted Nicole Darnall, associate dean and professor in Arizona State University's School of Sustainability, into its 2019 class of fellows. Darnall is one of eight NAPA fellows from ASU. An induction into NAPA is one of the highest honors of a public administration official.

Established by Congress in 1967, the nonpartisan NAPA conducts work for federal cabinet departments and agencies, aiming to “improve governance and advance the field of public administration,” by focusing on intergovernmental evaluation, financial management, strategic planning, organization assessment, performance management and human capital.

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Moved by the beautiful scenery she witnessed during a hike, Casey Rapacki decided then and there to dedicate her life to protecting the planet and its species.

“I love our planet, but I fight for social, economic and environmental health for my love of living beings,” Rapacki said. “The planet will continue on, and I want to make sure that we thrive along with it for years to come.”

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A simple question propelled Dawson Morford into the field of sustainability.

“When picking a major I had a close friend say, ‘Don’t you like all that renewable energy stuff?’ He was right — I always liked learning about all of the cool ways that society was creating energy," Morford said. "This then brought me to the arena of sustainability and I have not looked back since."

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One of Arizona State University's newest faculty members, Sir Jonathan Bate, is an international leader in green thinking and applied humanities. Bate holds a joint appointment as a Foundation Professor of Environmental Humanities in the Global Futures Laboratory, the School of Sustainability and the Department of English.

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Although she grew up in Phoenix, Emma Goethe attended a small, private university in California until she decided Arizona State University was a better match. She transferred and hasn’t looked back since.

“I decided to transfer to ASU and it was the best decision I have ever made. Once I was admitted to [Barrett, the Honors College at] ASU, sustainability was really the only major that stood out to me,” Goethe said. “Truly, in the beginning, I didn’t know just how much sustainability covers. It’s not just about the environment, but it’s also about economics, policy and the social impacts that sustainability creates.”

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An Arizona State University School of Sustainability alumnus was one of three experts to author a report on the potential consequences of the current administration’s plan to rollback Obama-era vehicle fuel economy standards. The report from Chris Harto, a former Science Foundation Arizona Fellow (2007-2009) who now serves as a senior policy analyst of transportation and energy for Consumers Reports’ Washington, D.C. office shows that “American consumers will lose about $460 billion dollars in fuel savings in the coming years” if the plans are enacted.

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School of Sustainability junior Sakshi Hegde has always cared about the environment. So when it was time to make a decision about what to dedicate her life to, the answer was a no-brainer.

"I knew by the time I was applying to colleges that I wanted my future career to be about protecting the environment," Hegde said. "When I learned about sustainability, I knew it exemplified what I wanted to do with my life."

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As three Arizona State University alumni — Debbie Namugayi, Katherine Palmer and Patrick Ware — show, sustainability practices can be implemented into any career.

As a sustainability manager at Eastern Kentucky University, School of Sustainability alumna Debbie Namugayi works to implement broad policy sustainability initiatives across the entire campus. She also works on engaging students who aren’t necessarily concerned about sustainability, taking a different approach by incentivizing them with fun activities rather than asking them to make sacrifices. She previously worked at the University of Maryland where she promoted a “green chapter” program for Greek life and recently implemented a bike sharing project at the 16,000-strong Eastern Kentucky University.

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