Sustainability News

The Stair Gardens Project, a sustainable food source venture founded by Arizona State University engineering student Ngoni Mugwisi, competed and won against 191 other ventures at the 2015 Social Venture Challenge, held in conjunction with the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) conference March 6-8.

An advance copy of the ASU Wrigley Institute's latest prospectus - which provides an overview of ASU’s efforts to further sustainability at the university and beyond - has been mailed to ASU's Board of Directors for Sustainability. An electronic version will soon be posted online. We welcome your feedback.

Balance-Unbalance - an international conference that looks to art as a catalyst for exploring the intersections between nature, science, technology and society - will hold its 2015 conference on ASU's Tempe campus with specific focus on issues of water, climate and place.

The Arizona Governor’s Office of Energy Policy recently honored Tempe Union’s Innovative Energy Solutions and Sustainability Project with the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Energy Education. The award, which recognizes outstanding energy education programs in K-12 schools, was created as part of the Governor's goal to prepare our next generation of energy professionals through energy education.

“Our goal is to provide our students with opportunities for hands-on learning, give them a competition edge in the environmental fields, and prepare them to be better citizens. We believe in this initiative so it’s really rewarding for the Governor’s Office to acknowledge our efforts,” said TUHSD Energy Coach Jessica Hauer. “We’re thankful to partners like ASU’s [Julie Ann Wrigley] Global Institute of Sustainability, Rio Salado College, Intel, and the City of Tempe, who share our mission.”

The Sustainability Science for Sustainable Schools program, a unit of the ASU Wrigley Institute, strives to further sustainability science by bringing sustainability projects into our high schools’ curriculum, campuses and larger communities.

Arizona State University received four LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) awards from the Arizona chapter of the USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) for the outstanding design, planning and construction of its campus buildings.

ASU architecture students from The Design School in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts helped to construct a selection of tiny spaces currently on view in “Microdwelling,” an exhibition featuring 12 structures under 600 square feet at the Schemer Art Center in Phoenix. They had just one month to construct their microdwelling spaces.

ASU architecture students from The Design School in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts helped to construct a selection of tiny spaces currently on view in “Microdwelling,” an exhibition featuring 12 structures under 600 square feet at the Schemer Art Center in Phoenix. Three of the 12 structures were built by ASU students with the help of a $3,000 grant from The Central Arizona Architecture Foundation. They had just one month to construct their microdwelling spaces, and their efforts were highlighted in USA Today.

March 3 marks the launch of ASU's new Biomimicry Center, established in partnership with Montana-based Biomimicry 3.8, and co-directed by Prasad Boradkar. In this essay, Boradkar describes how biomimicry can help us create solutions to address our problems in sustainable ways.

The Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes is the top university-based science and technology think tank in the U.S., according to the 2014 Global Go To Think Tanks Report. The report, published by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, ranks the ASU department tenth  out of 45 science and technology think tanks worldwide.

GreenBiz U, a shadow conference of the 2015 GreenBiz Forum, brings sustainability business, education and thought leaders to ASU for a discussion of the latest trends, challenges and opportunities in sustainable business. The experts will cover topics ranging from portable solar electronics to the State of Green Business report, which will be discussed during the GreenBiz Forum in Paradise Valley.

GreenBiz U is part of the second annual Sustainability Solutions Festival, a program of the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives. It marks the first campus presentation by Sheila Bonini, who was named CEO of The Sustainability Consortium, a multi-stakeholder nonprofit organization that translates scientific information into business practice, last fall.

"This is an extraordinary collaboration with far-ranging impact,” said Joel Makower, chairman and executive editor of GreenBiz Group, Inc. “By leveraging our collective networks and knowledge bases, we are convening an unparalleled group of speakers and attendees that will make this week a truly exceptional opportunity for knowledge sharing and networking among the sustainable business community."

As one of this year’s Fulbright Scholars, Arizona State University hydrology professor Enrique Vivoni will have an opportunity to work with some of Mexico’s leading experts in his field to advance his collaborative studies of the shared water resources between the U.S. and Mexico. The award enables him to spend nine months beginning in August 2015 conducting research at the Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada in Ensenada, Baja California, and the research center of Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología.

ASU Thrive, Arizona State University's new digital magazine, is now available free of charge to iPad users through Apple's App Store. The magazine features Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite and will be released three times per year. Stories are presented via text, video and audio, combining groundbreaking design and an interactive format. It is designed for those who regularly follow ASU’s colleges, programs, centers and institutes, and those who teach and learn at the university.

ASU Thrive's editorial focus will parallel the ASU Charter: a public research university measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed; one that advances research and discovery of public value; and an institution that assumes fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves. The digital magazine will follow the progress being made across the university in these areas.

Hannah Wells, who graduated from the School of Sustainability in 2011, recently passed her three-year anniversary with Crius Energy as Manager of Sustainability and began her MBA in Sustainability Management part-time at Presidio Graduate School. Wells is also coordinating a volunteer trip to Nicaragua for her company, in collaboration with GRID Alternatives, to install off-grid solar systems on 40 families' homes in March.

"After graduating from ASU I have been on a path to change the way our country uses energy, and to support corporations in being environmentally conscious...My education from the School of Sustainability prepared me to create the change I wish to see in the world and gave me the skills needed to lead this charge."

Leah Gerber is the director of Arizona State University's Center for Biodiversity Outcomes; a professor of ecology, evolution and environmental science in the School of Life Sciences; and a senior sustainability scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability. Using both field and modeling approaches, she examines important questions at the intersection of conservation science and policy.

In this video, she discusses her biodiversity research, its contribution to sustainability and how it correlates with the mission of the recently-established Center for Biodiversity Outcomes.

Video »

Senior Sustainability Scientist Leah Gerber has joined the Fishery Ecosystem Task Force, a team charged with establishing fisheries management standards that focus on entire ecosystems rather than single species. The Lenfest Ocean Program created the task force - made up of natural and social scientists - to address the need for fisheries management to consider the interconnections between fishing, fished species, humans and the well-being of the larger marine environment.

"This task force will take the next step in making ecosystem-based fisheries management a reality," says Tim Essington, chair of the Fishery Ecosystem Task Force. "We are working closely with managers and stakeholders to ensure our work will be useful and won't just sit on a shelf."

The task force will provide recommendations in 2016 after holding a series of meetings.

Over the last five years, the Farmers Market @ ASU Tempe - which started as a pilot market in 2009 and began being held monthly in Spring 2010 after an overwhelming response - has provided fresh and local food for students, faculty, staff and the Tempe community while raising awareness about healthy eating and sustainability.

We are excited to be presenting our 17th annual CAP ASM and poster symposium on January 16th from 8 am - 4 pm at ASU SkySong, Building 3, Synergy I and II rooms. The program lists the agenda for the day and abstracts for the over 50 posters being presented, which is a record for CAP symposiums. We will be printing a limited number of programs and hope that most attendees will access abstracts and other information electronically.

Attendees should note that we will be in a new space at SkySong this year. Building 3 is to your right when you enter on SkySong Boulevard. We urge attendees to carpool (parking is to the south of Building 3), bike, or take the 72 bus from the Tempe Transit Center. The Synergy I and II rooms are accessed via the lobby of Building 3. Just follow the signage.

Two Arizona State University engineers – Mariana Bertoni and Stuart Bowden – will aid photovoltaic manufacturing and supply-chain companies in advancing their technologies as part of a U.S. Department of Energy initiative. Both are faculty members in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, as well as senior sustainability scientists at the ASU Wrigley Institute.

Bertoni will work to develop technology for a novel silicon ingot growth, while Bowden will work to replace the silver in solar energy cells with copper - a more abundant and less costly material. These projects are among the research and development endeavors the Department of Energy is supporting through SunShot Solar Manufacturing 2, a program that is providing more than $24 million to 10 solar energy technology manufacturers based in the United States. The program supports the development of innovative technology for manufacturing equipment and processes that will reduce costs while increasing efficiency.

A symposium titled “The Future of the University and the University of the Future: A Global Perspective” prominently featured ideas and methods for designing universities that are implemented at ASU. The conference, which took place at the Technical University of Ambato in Ecuador, echoed President Michael Crow’s emphasis on innovation as a driving force of developing universities that meet the needs of their communities.

The symposium featured presentations by a several sustainability scientists, including Lee Hartwell, Netra Chhetri and Mary Jane Parmentier.

“This was an international conference on the design of higher education, specifically the place of science, technology and innovation, and the role of public policy, in designing universities and programs to meet the needs of society – particularly the society in which each institution is embedded," says Parmentier. "They wanted people from different countries to bring their perspective on the role of the university and best practices for university design.”

Class Descripion and Projects Desired

Professor Michael Schoon of ASU’s School of Sustainability is teaching a class in the upcoming spring semester (Jan-May 2015), SOS 321 in which he will be having small groups of SOS students research sustainability issues from a governance and policy perspective. He would like to engage with several, local communities on a limited basis and have these communities submit their “real-world” issues for analysis by the students. The course description for SOS 321 and the engagement opportunity timeline and commitment is outlined below.

Your community is invited to review the opportunity below and consider posing a sustainability issue to this class. If you are interested or have questions, please email Anne Reichman at anne.reichman@asu.edu and I will be happy to assist you. Professor Schoon would be happy to help communities develop issue submittals if they feel they need assistance. Sustainability issues need to be identified by mid-January 2015.

Thanks so much for considering this opportunity!

Spring 2015 Session (January-April 2015)

SOS 321/Community Engagement Opportunity:

SOS 321 is looking for several, local communities to pose sustainability-related research questions, both general and specific in nature, to the class so student workgroups can research and propose policy and governance options back to the communities. The community sustainability challenge should include the following:

1) Must be a specific challenge for your community (Past examples include how to reduce recycling contamination by residents, how to dispose of brine removed from groundwater, and how to plan for and mitigate the urban heat island effect.);

2) Provide practical educational research opportunity for students (Students have great insight into current sustainability science and introductory skills in policy and governance theory; however, they do not, in general, have specific technical skills or advanced training on urban policy or planning.)

3) Building on the previous point, our goal is to leverage the sustainability training, the creativity and critical thinking skills, and the vitality of our students in a way that helps their municipal partners to solve real-world problems.

SOS 321 Course Description - Policy and Governance in Sustainable Systems:

Policy and Governance in Sustainable Systems (SOS 321) is a class that requires integration of theory and practice, exposing students to sustainability issues in governance and policy analysis. Using two lenses, institutional analysis and policy analysis, students will apply a broad understanding of sustainability governance to a specific issue in the city and/or region. By partnering with municipalities in the Phoenix Metro area, students will conduct policy and institutional analyses on suggested real, local environmental issues for these participating communities. This class provides students a unique opportunity to integrate theory and practice, while identifying solutions to real, local problems.

Community Participation and Engagement:

The following is a suggested schedule for the spring 2015 course. Details will be fine-tuned with your community prior to participation:

Early to mid-January: Project ideas are submitted, discussed and finalized with the cities and the course teaching faculty.

Mid- to end of January: City officials will visit the class and briefly present information on the sustainability challenge and/or topic which is requiring research or that is being faced locally.

In February, students will prepare a Code of Stakeholder Engagement that specifies how, how often, and when students will engage with their city project partners.

February – April: Students will work in small teams (4-5 students) to research and provide answers/solutions back to their city project partners.

Early April: Student teams will present a preliminary version of their findings to the project partners. Each project will have 3-4 student teams presenting their solutions as part of a mini, in-class competition. Following feedback from their project partners on their presentations, students will submit a final project overview with executive summary to their project partners by the end of April.