Sustainability News

Q&A with Bruce Rittmann

Dr. Rittmann is Regents’ Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, affiliated faculty of the School of Sustainability, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. As director of the Center for Environmental Biotechnology at the Biodesign Institute, he has pioneered research on microbiological systems that generate usable energy from waste products and remove pollution from contaminated ecosystems.

What event or recognition focused your work on sustainability?

In the mid-1990s, I realized that sustainability is not about “the environment” or “the Earth,” but about the ability of human civilization to survive. Earth will fare well, and so will cockroaches, but will human society continue to exist? Should it? Balancing our deplorable record of destruction with our great works of art, music, architecture, and engineering, I decided humanity is worth the effort, so I made sustainability an explicit part of my research.

What is the most important sustainability-related research project you are currently working on?

Our society’s addiction to fossil fuels is the root cause of most environmental problems. Intoxicated by hundreds of millions of years of stored-up energy to draw upon, we have built a society that depends on coal, petroleum, and natural gas for up to 86 percent of its energy. This cannot be sustained. Therefore, my most important project studies how to use photosynthetic bacteria to capture sunlight and CO2 and convert it into a form of renewable biofuel that can replace fossil fuel.

Why do you believe microbes are the key to sustainability solutions?

Bacteria can grow 100 times faster than plants and do not compete for arable land or consume and pollute our water resources. With a working large-scale microbe-based system, we could generate enough renewable energy to replace the world’s fossil-fuel use in a total area roughly equal to Texas. Microbes can provide other services as well. In our lab we are developing microbe-based systems that can purify contaminated water and increase our usable water supplies.

How do you think your sustainability-related research can affect policy decisions?

Once policymakers realize it is possible to replace fossil fuels without harming our food supply or water resources, we can focus on global cooperation instead of competition over fossil fuels. I expect some push-back from entities with vested interests in fossil fuels, but society has no choice but to move steadily over the next 20 or so years towards an energy supply that is predominantly clean and renewable.

What is the world sustainability challenge that concerns you most?

Global climate change is the most difficult technical challenge because fossil fuel use permeates every aspect of our society and we are way behind in finding solutions. What worries me most, though, is that war and terrorism may overrun civilization if we cannot find technological solutions fast enough.

October 30, 2009

Q&A with Patricia Gober

Dr. Gober is a professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and in the School of Sustainability. She is also a Policy Research Associate at Morrison Institute for Public Policy and Co-Director of Decision Center for a Desert City, one of five National Science Foundation-funded centers focused on developing fundamental new knowledge and tools for decision-making under climatic uncertainty.

When did you come to focus on “sustainability” in your research?

I’ve been a “closet” sustainability scientist for as long as I can remember. During more than 30 years interacting with earth scientists, biogeographers, and climatologists, I became more interested in our connections than our differences. Then, in 1998 I was elected president of the Association of American Geographers, which triggered the realization that my field — geography — was a potent catalyst for the marriage of science, social science, technology, and the humanities. Gradually, I moved from there to the long-term perspective, collaborative practices, and solution-oriented work of sustainability science I’m involved with today.

What is your most important sustainability-related research project?

I co-direct the Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC) to address water management decision-making in the face of climate uncertainty. The premise of our work is that society needs to prepare for the effects of climate change, but even the best climate science will never completely eliminate all unknowns. To mitigate the uncertainty decision-makers must face, we developed WaterSim, a scientific simulation and policy tool that enables them to explore the consequences of different policy scenarios on future water supplies. By asking carefully crafted “what if” questions, applying the best available scientific and institutional knowledge, and collaborating closely with water managers and policymakers, we help identify which choices avoid misfortune and are robust under a range of future climate conditions.

How does your sustainability-related research affect “real world” decisions?

Locally, our goal is to draw attention to the need for climate adaptation in Arizona — particularly to persuade water managers and the public of the need for action. We’ve also worked in collaboration with the city of Phoenix’s Water Services Department to investigate the consequences of using irrigated landscaping to mitigate the urban heat island effect.

Thinking globally, the strategies and solutions we find here can be applied to many other rapidly urbanizing regions around the world. In recognition of that, DCDC was chosen as a winner of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water in the category of water resources management and protection.

What is the world sustainability challenge that concerns you most?

Increasingly, I focus on the challenge of sustainable cities. We can no longer discuss urban water, land, or energy decisions without examining their consequences for maintaining healthy ecosystems, supporting economic progress, feeding the world’s population, and managing the risk of shortages across social groups and communities. The challenge for the world’s cities is to look at the interconnectedness of their social, economic, and environmental systems and policies. Water is but one piece of this complex puzzle.

September 30, 2009

Q&A with Nancy B. Grimm

Dr. Nancy B. Grimm is Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Science, affiliate faculty member in the School of Sustainability, and Co-Director of the Central Arizona—Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project (CAP LTER), an interdisciplinary study of the Phoenix metropolitan area.

When did you first incorporate the ideas of “sustainability” into your research?

I’ve been aware of sustainability’s relevance since the 1991 report, The Sustainable Biosphere Initiative, from the Ecological Society of America. Applying the concepts of sustainability, however, became directly relevant for my own research in 1998 when I began working in the field of urban ecology as principal investigator of the CAP LTER project. That made me consider how we can integrate the understandings of social sciences — human behaviors and actions — into ecological research.

What is your most important sustainability-related research project?

The CAP LTER project takes a long perspective on understanding human–ecological interactions in the Phoenix metro area. We study land change, climate, ecosystem structure and function, water, biodiversity, and material inputs, outputs, and transformations. Cities are prime ground for sustainability research: they are where most people live, and where both problems and potential solutions are concentrated. The key to finding urban solutions is they must be based in sound ecological principles or they won’t prove to be sustainable.

How can your sustainability-related research affect policy?

I want to help decision-makers and planners incorporate an ecological perspective into the design and construction of urban landscapes. For example, we know it’s a challenge to handle stormwater runoff in urban environments that have impervious surfaces and dramatically altered stream channels. Why not design ecologically sound ideas into the system such as nutrient removal, sediment trapping, and groundwater infiltration that have been successful in other regions? This is a conversation that must take place.

What is the world sustainability challenge that concerns you most?

In the long run, I am most concerned about climate change — not just warming, but the severe climate and weather events it will cause such as drought, floods, sea-level rise, and storm surges. These will pose significant threats to people who live where risk is greatest, mainly in cities.

How is your message getting out?

Science magazine published my ideas on the role of urbanization in global environmental change in a special issue on cities released Feb. 8, 2008. I also coordinated the society chapter in the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s synthesis book, Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, which was jointly released by the White House and has been described as the most comprehensive report to date on the possible impacts of climate change across America and the policy choices we face.

August 31, 2009

Arizona State University’s West campus is getting a new color scheme, and there isn’t a paint brush or drop-cloth in sight.

Working in conjunction with APS Energy Services (APSES), the liberal arts campus tucked in the northwest corner of Phoenix is going green with a major interior and exterior lighting retrofit. The six-month project, scheduled for completion in December, will improve the quality of lighting in offices, classrooms and public areas and reduce the overall energy demand and consumption of the campus.

The project comes on the heels of ASU’s recent selection as one of the country’s “greenest” universities by The Princeton Review for a second consecutive year.

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Q&A with Brad Allenby

Dr. Brad Allenby is Lincoln Professor of Engineering and Ethics, Professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, and Professor of Law. He is also Founding Director of the Center for Earth Systems Engineering and Management and an affiliated faculty member of the School of Sustainability. In 2008 he was named a Carnegie Foundation U.S. Professor of the Year. His research addresses Earth systems engineering and the ethical and social issues of emerging technologies.

How did your early career lead you to “sustainability” as a field of work?

More than 15 years ago, a few of us at AT&T and elsewhere began working on the ideas of industrial ecology and design for environment. From there, it was a natural extension to address sustainability issues because industrial ecology techniques provided a bridge between the practical worlds of business and engineering and the more theoretical frameworks of sustainability.

What is the most important sustainability-related research project you are currently working on?

First, I’m working with the IEEE (formerly known as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the world’s leading professional association for the advancement of technology, to focus on sustainability issues related to technology and technology systems, areas seldom addressed elsewhere. Second, I have recently been appointed a Stockdale Fellow by the U.S. Naval Academy, where I will be exploring the ethical and sustainability implications of emerging technologies in the military, such as robotics, controllable insects, and miniaturized surveillance mechanisms. This work is particularly important because so many technological breakthroughs with significant social implications occur in a military context.

How can your sustainability-related research affect policy?

My work with the IEEE and with emerging technologies for the military has the potential to affect many far-reaching policy decisions. Overall, however, I think the challenge is not to focus on the impact of individuals, but on the slow transformation of institutional and cultural frameworks.

What is the world sustainability challenge that concerns you most?

Emerging technology and national security are often overlooked as sustainability threats, but when you weigh their potential for significant disruption of cultural, social, economic, and environmental systems, they are probably more important than anything else – including climate change.

What has your work in sustainability taught you?

We sometimes get the idea that we know what we’re talking about — that we can control current trends and plan future social and environmental states. This is a serious overestimation of our capabilities. A little more intellectual humility and less ideology would help our thinking considerably in this area.

July 29, 2009

Let’s say that your office has 300 white binders with the ASU logo on the front. They were leftover from a conference, and you’re not planning another conference for a long time to come.

You don’t want to throw them away, but they can’t be recycled. So what should you do with them?

Put them on ASU’s newly debuted version of “Craigslist” – SunSET.

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Q&A with B. L. Turner II

Dr. Billie Lee Turner is the Gilbert F. White Chair of Environment and Society in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research addresses climate change by examining the interactions between humans and the environment that lead to deforestation and desertification.

How were you introduced to the term "sustainability"?

In 1987 while I was at Clark University, I became involved with an activity that led to the landmark volume, The Earth as Transformed by Human Action, which I edited along with Bob Kates, Bill Clark and others. Later I was involved with the Global Land Project and other efforts tied to global change and sustainability, and I played a bit role in developing Our Common Journey, the 1999 National Academy of Science report that staked out sustainability science.

What is the most important sustainability-related research project you are currently working on?

The Southern Yucatan Peninsular Region (SYPR) project is an interdisciplinary study of tropical forest change resulting from human-environment interactions. Begun in 1997, this project helped establish what is now known as “land change science.” A special feature on this sustainability subfield in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recently won an award from the Ecological Society of America for the best contribution to sustainability in 2008.

How do you think your research affects policy or other decisions in the "real world"?

The SYPR project, which is intended to be independent so as to maintain legitimacy among the many stakeholders in the region, nevertheless has provided the science used by NGOs and various state and federal agencies to address policy decisions. I am also currently working to create a sustainable land architecture model that is designed to be decision-maker friendly. That work is in conjunction with ASU’s Central Arizona - Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project and Decision Center for a Desert City.

What is the world sustainability challenge that concerns you most?

My largest concern is over the ideologies involved in the interpretations of the subject, especially the proliferation of extreme, polarizing views about the condition of the earth, the role of humans, and where we should go from here. These views interfere with our understanding of the dynamics in question.

June 30, 2009

North American Researchers Gather at ASU to Put 21st Century Science and Technology to the Test

Mathematicians, biostaticians and public health officials from Canada, Mexico and the United States will gather at Arizona State University this week to focus on understanding, possibly mitigating the spread of the H1N1 flu virus. They are planning to take up the challenge of proposing science-based strategies that can slow the spread of pandemic flu.

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GlobalResolve, a social entrepreneurship program at Arizona State University, helps communities around the world solve challenges through sustainable research and development.

San Francisco has become one of the most innovative cities in the world in implementing new comprehensive approaches to urban sustainability. From its groundbreaking zero waste strategies such as the residential compost and green waste recycling program, to its energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, the City has been a leader in designing and implementing programs that work. The City’s newest project, EcoMap, will allow citizens to track their progress toward sustainability goals on a zip code by zip code basis. Jared Blumenfeld, Director of San Francisco’s Environment Department, will talk about the successes and challenges the City has experienced in implementing urban sustainability programs and the many partnerships the City has developed that help it to reach its sustainability goals.

Q&A with Devens Gust

Dr. Devens Gust is Foundation Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. His research seeks to mimic the key processes of photosynthesis to create usable fuel from the sun.

At what point did “sustainability” become part of your research vocabulary?

The 1970s oil embargo made it obvious that we had to develop a more sustainable energy policy and I thought I could contribute through my expertise in organic and photochemistry. I have been working in the area ever since.

What is the most important sustainability-related research project you are currently working on?

I am director of the new ASU Energy Frontier Research Center for Bio-inspired Solar Fuel Production, funded by the Department of Energy. Our goal is to use the basic science underlying natural photosynthesis to find new approaches for producing renewable fuel such as hydrogen, which is a good medium for storing solar energy. The $14 million project involves 11 faculty members from different disciplines and will also employ and train undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral associates in renewable energy science.

How do you think your research will affect decisions in the "real world"?

We depend ultimately on the sun for almost all of the energy we use today — even fossil fuels are the product of ancient photosynthetic energy conversion. Producing useful energy from sunlight is technologically feasible, but current approaches are still too expensive to compete. Our research is devoted to developing the science behind new technologies that will be cheap and efficient. If we are successful, new energy industries and government policies will follow.

What is the world sustainability challenge that concerns you most?

Humanity badly needs a source of energy that is abundant, renewable, inexpensive, clean, and local. The sun is currently the only source that can produce such energy in sufficient quantities, but to make it usable requires not only new technologies, but new fundamental scientific discoveries. We must meet this challenge very soon because our environment, geopolitical situation, and quality of life depend on it.

May 29, 2009

Graduating senior Andrew Krause has been studying how to reduce ASU greenhouse gas emissions in an area that is often overlooked -- the conference room. His capstone project for a degree from ASU's School of Sustainability uses computer modeling to investigate how Parking and Transportation decisions affect ASU's carbon footprint.

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[audio:http://sustainability.asu.edu/media/podcasts/Brendan-Beardsley-Podcast.mp3]

You probably know that buying in bulk is a great way to reduce packaging and get a rock bottom price. Another perk is that it keeps spoiled food and dollars from going down the drain -- that's because bulk bins allow you to select only the amount you need.

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Author's: John L. Sabo, Kevin E. McCluney

Summary: Understanding the determinants of the length of food chains is of fundamental importance to ecologists. Food chain length influences the potential complexity of the community, patterns of biomass in each trophic level, and possible biomagnification of harmful substances (e.g. mercury or DDT, Post 2002). There are many factors that may affect food chain length and debate over the importance of each has recently intensified (Post 2002). Additionally, very little is known about the functioning of urban ecological communities. Here we examine the influence of resource availability (water), disturbance (wind), and ecosystem size (number of plants) on the food chain length of arthropod communities inhabiting brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) at the Desert Botanical Gardens, a remnant desert site located in the urban Phoenix, AZ area. To do this we set up a field experiment consisting of 108 sets of replicate brittlebush locations, subject to three levels of watering (resource availability; one, three, or seven times per week), leaf blower wind (disturbance; none, once, or twice per month), and number of plants (ecosystem size; 1, 2, or 3 plants in sets). Our preliminary results suggest that water increases and wind decreases food chain length in brittlebush arthropod communities, and that there is a potential interaction between these two variables. Our results suggest no support for an effect of ecosystem size (number of plants in replicate sets) on FCL, though total plant volume may exert a heretofore unmeasured effect. Overall, our results suggest strong climatic control on the length of food chains on this naturally occurring plant in desert cities.

By Rob Melnick

Executive Dean, Global Institute of Sustainability and

Presidential Professor of Practice, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University

Strolling down one of our world-famous canal banks in 2025, it's hard to imagine that a renaissance of greater Phoenix was launched in 2009 during the nation's economic meltdown. With the financial and real estate industries in tatters and major infrastructure in decline, Valley leaders nevertheless joined forces and seized the opportunity to implement bold, yet practical new ideas for creating a truly sustainable urban place.

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Communication is the basis of all social relationships between animals. Birds use acoustic signals (calls and songs) to attract and bond with mates, defend territories and warn of danger from approaching predators. Background noise reduces the distance over which a call or song can be heard. As well as natural noises (e.g. wind and rain), birds in urban habitats must compete with human-generated noise such as road-traffic noise, much of which occurs in the lower-frequency bands below 2,000 Hz. Birds in cities have been known to use a number of strategies for overcoming noise, such as singing at a higher pitch to reduce masking by the low-frequency noise, singing more loudly, or singing at night time when traffic noise is at its lowest.

I travelled to Phoenix to investigate the how birds there respond to traffic noise. In a collaborative project with researchers from GIOS and SoLS at ASU, I recorded the calls and songs of birds and measured noise levels at 24 neighbourhood parks around the city. We are particularly interested to see whether doves such as the Inca dove and mourning dove are calling at a higher pitch in noisy areas. Of all the birds that live in cities, we would expect them to have the most difficulty hearing each other in traffic noise. This is because they have very low-pitched calls that are overlapped by the low-pitched traffic noise. But these species are very common around Phoenix, which suggests that they can still attract mates and breed successfully in noisy urban environments. In the future, we would like to investigate the breeding success of doves in noisy and quiet locations, to see whether urban noise is actually having an impact on their populations.

Arizona Republic

by Ginger D. Richardson

The Phoenix region knows that all too well and, it seems, is constantly reminded of its shortcomings.

The Valley is lashed in national surveys for its poor air quality, derided for its urban sprawl and mocked for its searing temperatures and growing heat island.

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East Valley Tribune

by Mike Branom

Arizona has plenty of sunshine, but that has yet to translate into an equal amount of solar energy production.

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ASU Surplus Property has identified Zero Waste as an area that we believe can have a big impact on for ASU and the environment. Evaluating our trash tonnage over the past years led us to believe that we could make substantial contributions to this goal with new uses for discarded material. We evaluated various areas in the operation and found opportunities to reduce waste and increase revenue.

We now harvest as many varieties of metal from retired university property as possible. Chairs, tables and desks are made up of a lot of metal. We separate the metal from the wood and sell the metal at our auction to the highest bidder. The revenue covers the additional labor involved in the tear down and the profit is several times more than the cost of the labor.

Cardboard and paper coming into the department are now aggressively removed from the waste stream as well. These items reduce our trash tonnage and the captured materials are sold to local recycling companies.

ASU Surplus waste tonnage for January 1, 2007 through April 30, 2007 was 46.93 tons. Waste tonnage for the same period this year was 20.16 tons. This is a reduction in waste of 26.77 tons which equates to a 57% decrease. The savings in landfill fees was $1,873.63. Projecting these numbers for the year we come up with a total cost savings of $5,620.90 totaling 80.31 tons of material diverted from the landfill. These new recyclables are made up of metals; cardboard and paper to a lesser degree. A majority of the items removed from the waste stream are recycled with some being sold for reuse.

So remember, send your unwanted items to Surplus, we’ll sell it if we can, if not we’ll do everything we can to recycle it. Also, if you are looking for items for your department; filing cabinets, chairs, tables, etc, look to Surplus first for HUGE savings!

Kerry Suson

Property Manager

When you think about it, the theater department in any university is potentially one of the biggest producers of waste on campus.

Every production needs new sets, costumes, and a lot of lights. That means a great deal of paint, wood, fabric, steel and other construction materials, not to mention the paper for programs and scripts. There’s not a big market for used sets, or costumes an actor has worn under the hot lights.

However, changes can be made, to “green” the stage and ASU is in the forefront of taking action to do so. Some changes can be done immediately, but some take more time. For example, the investment for new lighting takes a long time to recoup, but paint can be recycled and re-used immediately.

When Linda Essig joined the ASU faculty as director of the School of Theatre and Film in 2004, she looked into buying more sustainable lighting, which is expensive, so the department is now seeking $140,000 to replace the current lighting with more energy-efficient fixtures.

The Theatre Department faculty and staff have inaugurated a “Go Green” campaign. Steps are under way to recycle steel, re-use old paint, minimize the use of volatile organic compounds, exchange materials with other organizations, recycle costumes and complete many other initiatives.

“It’s a beginning,” Essig said. “We’re in the process now of working through what we can do to move our efforts to the next level, but I’ve given the staff until January to come up with their plans.”

Stay tuned for the next act.

Judith Smith

ASU Media Relations