Arizona State University has made the “Green Honor Roll,” rating as one of the nation's 18 "greenest" universities, and is named among the top 120 Best Western Colleges.

This is the third year in a row that ASU made The Princeton Review’s list of most environmentally friendly institutions – a list that salutes the institutions that received the highest possible score, 99, in this year's rating tallies.

Continue Reading

Since Tempe Town Lake was created in 1999, CAP LTER scientists have been using this artificial body of water as a field and teaching site. The failure of one of the inflatable dams on July 20, 2010 and the subsequent draining of the lake presents additional research opportunities to the CAP LTER community and a chance to explore ways of managing such human-made ecosystems. Read more …

BAGSVAERD, Denmark – August 2, 2010 – Novozymes has become a founding member of The Sustainability Consortium, a new global organization with aims to improve the sustainability of consumer products. The company will join a diverse group of academics, governments, non-government organizations and businesses to fulfill The Sustainability Consortium’s mission of driving a new generation of products and supply networks that address environmental, social and economic imperatives. Other members include Dell, Disney, Wal-Mart, WWF and BASF to name a few.

Continue Reading

Q&A with Elinor Ostrom

Dr. Ostrom (1933-2012) was a research professor at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and was founding director of the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity. In 2009, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for her work in economic governance, particularly as it applies to shared resources such as pastures, fisheries, and groundwater basins. Her research examined ways that institutions and users operating at widely different scales can work together to sustain such resources.

Arnim Wiek: Lin, thank you very much for agreeing to have a little interview here in the preparation of the International Conference on Sustainability Science in Rome in June. We have structured the conference along different streams, and I’d like to chat a little bit with you about three different challenges we try to address here.

Elinor Ostrom: Good. Good.

Arnim Wiek: The first one is – and all of them I have kind of selected to make it kind of relevant to also with what you’ve been working on in the field of sustainability science and governance issues. The first one is everybody knows you have been working very, very extensively on local governance issues – on the local level and getting a good sense for how people self-govern and self-organize.

Elinor Ostrom: May self-govern.

Arnim Wiek: “May,” yes exactly. May self-govern natural resources and the interactions between societal demand on the one hand side, and natural capacities on the other hand. My question is – we have one stream that is focusing on global governance.

Elinor Ostrom: Uh huh.

Arnim Wiek: The big question I think that is circulating in our field for many, many years is how do we use your insights from the more local/regional level for insights on the global level?

Elinor Ostrom: Well one of the big insights we have, going way back to our study of metropolitan governance and urban services, is that it is rare that there is just one level that is the level for everything. So, if we take metropolitan governance first, what we showed is that while there were some services better performed at a big metropolitan area, there were many others that were better performed at a smaller or medium. Vincent Ostrom and Charlie Tiebout and others developed the concept of polycentricity: multiple units at different scales that had developed – potentially, if it was a polycentric system – ways of working together, and that’s never perfect, but at least ways of doing so.

Well if you think about a polycentric approach to global warming, then I think we can start using some of the lessons. Some people don’t know about the earlier work, but the lessons of polycentricity are that if you can organize some things at very small and medium and large and find ways of getting them to relate, you could usually do a lot better. Global warming, I argue, has been misconceptualized. It’s been looked at as you, an individual, you produce something, and it goes oom! [pointing upward] only. Well, that’s wrong. So the pollutants that you –when you drive, your car is producing pollutants – some of them are local.

You’re finding that you have a lot of money being paid for gas. Well that’s family. Your health isn’t as good as it could be if you biked. That’s you, so individual, family, local. If we can find more ways of encouraging those things; not that you are going to solve – by solving some of the local and regional – are going to solve global, but it has an impact.

What we need to be doing is the innovative programs around the world that are working on it – and there are – understand how they work, enhance the probabilities others will do it. To some extent, we challenge our national leaders, “Okay you guys, there are ways of doing this and move on.” We need the global, but we just wait for it.

Arnim Wiek: Right, right, right.

Elinor Ostrom: Bad.

Arnim Wiek: Yeah, don’t wait.

Elinor Ostrom: Don’t wait, move and then push to get the global as well.

Arnim Wiek: Yeah and this is on the – this is on the causing side as well as the effect side right? I mean when we play out and say, “How does this actually impact on the local level?” It is again tangible and people can relate to it.

Elinor Ostrom: Yeah. They found, for example, they’ve done a recent study on the impact of metropolitan pollution efforts in metropolitan areas where they have substantially reduced pollutants. Some of the life long – the average expected life is two to three years more. Well, that’s a fairly substantial thing for a big population.

Arnim Wiek: Yeah. Yeah.

Elinor Ostrom: So that also reduced global problems, but so it’s how we think of it differently.

Arnim Wiek: Right. Excellent. The second stream we are concerned about, I think not only in this conference, but also in our emerging field of sustainability science is that we have defined this field already a decade ago as a strong problem-oriented field. So we are concerned about how do we address problems? The point is that there is quite some debate about that we are getting better and better in understanding and analyzing these problems.

The question is: at the same time sustainability science is encouraged to make a strong contribution to the solution of the problems, how do we bridge this gap between getting very, very rigorous understanding of the problems to actually creating strong solutions for these problems? Some might argue this is not really in the domain of science of any longer. This needs to be then policy domain, but some might argue well this is actually still in the science domain.

Elinor Ostrom: If they’re not linked, we’re in trouble and so part of our problem is how we link science and policy. So, not all policy scientists are going to do all of the hard work on the biophysical side and vice versa, but if we don’t develop communities that can communicate with one another, then we don’t make anything other than progress on one. And I will argue that you won’t have progress on the policy if they don’t understand the problem.

Further, we won’t make much progress if we think there’s a single solution, and so part of our problem is how do we study a variety of efforts that were successful or failed.

Arnim Wiek: Right.

Elinor Ostrom: Failures are very important to study because what we may find that successes have eight variables and failures have six of the eight but not two.

Arnim Wiek: Yes.

Elinor Ostrom: We are dealing with complex problems and complex solutions, and we need to understand the complexity of both.

Arnim Wiek: We have another stream in our conference. It’s focusing on education for sustainability. We have a PhD seminar and special stream on sustainability and education. The question that is kind of circulating in our field is how can we teach a field that is still in development? What are kind of the critical challenges we need to overcome in order to strengthen our field and to develop a strong position our students can gain from?

Elinor Ostrom: Well, partly, you need both to be training students in the diverse sciences, and no one student should learn everything. But then what are the fora for discussions where there’s respect across disciplines and getting that community – that’s a sense of community that we’re struggling with issues that people who are just disciplinary aren’t. In order to do that, we’re going to have to learn a little bit more about some of these questions. Right now I have some of my students really looking into GIS and remote sensing because I think being able to do over time and spatial and temporal in the same analysis is very powerful for us.

This is very technical, so not all of my students need to do this or are interested. They’ve got to be fascinated; but around our seminar tables, we’ve discussed some of the assets of GIS and remote sensing enough that people are beginning to understand some of the lessons that they can learn. They don’t have to do it themselves, but they’ve got to respect what they can get from that form of analysis: and that is, it takes a while just to develop that but that’s the kind of community you need to be developing. We need all of us.

Arnim Wiek: Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Great. Thank you very much Lin for sharing some of your thoughts related to this conference with us.

Elinor Ostrom: I wish I could join you for it, but – [Laughing]

Arnim Wiek: Next time.

Elinor Ostrom: Yes, that would be nice.

July 30, 2010

Continue Reading

Continue Reading

TEMPE, Ariz. (July 13, 2010) — Is Arizona prepared to take the lead in the shift to renewable energy, using its greatest natural resource – the sun? A major research effort led by Arizona State University and initially funded through a grant from Science Foundation Arizona is trying to answer that question by analyzing how best to use solar and other sustainable energy throughout the state.

A top official from the U.S. Department of Energy, Undersecretary Kristina Johnson, recently visited the project, and other VIPs are coming soon. The hope is that the Az SMART project will provide an example for other states to follow in President Obama’s plan to reduce emissions, reduce foreign oil dependence and create jobs in a clean technology economy. The project includes tools to benefit homeowners, businesses and the leaders who need to make informed decisions about which power-generation methods to use and where to locate new facilities, such as solar fields.

Continue Reading

The Spring 2010 edition of the Network News is now available online.

Read Article »

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Arizona State University a $6 million grant as part of a program focused on algae-based biofuels.

The program supports the development of a clean, sustainable transportation sector – a goal of DOE's continued effort to spur the creation of a domestic bio-industry while creating jobs. This round of DOE funding totals $24 million for three research groups to tackle key hurdles in the commercialization of algae-based biofuels.

Continue Reading

Q&A with Jin Jo

Dr. Jo graduated from the School of Sustainability in May 2010 as the nation’s first Ph.D. in sustainability. His doctoral studies, chaired by School of Sustainability Assistant Professor Jay Golden, focused on the use of sustainable building strategies and renewable energy to reduce negative impacts of urbanization. This fall he will join the faculty of Illinois State University.

What inspired your interest in sustainability as an academic and research focus?

While pursuing a master’s in urban planning at Columbia University, I had the chance to study with Jeffrey Sachs and other faculty in the fields of environmental planning and sustainable development. Outside the classroom, I worked with local community groups such as Sustainable South Bronx. Both experiences stimulated my interest in creating mitigation strategies to reduce energy and material intensity, water consumption, and environmental impacts in cities. Faculty in the School of Sustainability furthered that interest by providing opportunities to work alongside local utility companies and city governments to develop and implement my ideas.

What are the most important sustainability-related projects you’ve been involved with at ASU?

In one project, I partnered with Arizona Public Service to model the electricity savings and environmental benefits from a cool roof system, using data I collected on the utility’s solar-reflective roof. For a project with the city of Chandler, I helped assess the feasibility of a photovoltaic system for the new city hall building by modeling several different available options and assessing the costs and energy production of each. On a follow-up project, I analyzed over 900 primarily commercial buildings in Chandler to assess the impacts of urban-scale photovoltaic installations. Finally, I developed a model that individually optimizes for each building the costs and benefits of cool roofs and renewable energy systems over entire life cycles.

How will your career work affect sustainability in the “real world”?

As a new faculty member in Illinois State University’s Renewable Energy Program and coordinator for the Center for Renewable Energy, I will enjoy unique opportunities to work with governments and industries to assess the impacts of urban-scale renewable energy applications. Results from this work will inform the decisions of utility companies and policymakers at many levels.

What is the world sustainability challenge that concerns you the most?

I believe the biggest sustainability challenge is to understand complex urban systems, particularly at the regional level. Major cities currently produce a significant impact on global and regional climate change due to their rapid population growth and physical expansion, but little is known about the regional effects of mitigation strategies. It is critical that we give city planners the knowledge and tools they need for assessing how different strategies can help them address energy consumption, water use, and environmental impacts.

May 28, 2010

Recognizing 30 years of research by thousands of scientists, the American Institute of Biological Sciences at a May 18, 2010, ceremony honored the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network with its 2010 Distinguished Scientist Award. The award is presented annually for significant scientific contributions to the biological sciences.

Continue Reading

As part of its most comprehensive study of climate change to date, the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) issued three reports emphasizing why the United States should act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop a national strategy to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change.

Continue Reading

The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) has announced that the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network will receive the 2010 AIBS Distinguished Scientist Award. CAP LTER, as one of the 26 sites in the LTER Network, shares in this honor. Read more...

Guided by the principle that today’s cities are laboratories and their leaders are researchers in the new science of urban sustainability, Arizona State University’s (ASU) Jonathan Fink, along with two British colleagues, will lead Comparative Urban Genetics: Towards a Common Methodology for Pragmatic Analysis of Cities. The workshop event takes place this weekend, May 21-23, at University College London (UCL) in London, England.

Continue Reading

It's considered an exceptional achievement when college undergraduates earn opportunities to conduct research under the guidance of top professors.

That makes Rahul Mitra especially exceptional.

He’s only a junior at Corona del Sol High School in Tempe, and already he’s working with an engineering research group at Arizona State University.

Read more »

I am very pleased to inform all of my CAP LTER colleagues that our renewal proposal to the NSF has been recommended for funding! This is a tremendous accomplishment that is owed in large measure to all of your intellectual efforts. Recall that we began the process of conceiving the next stage of LTER research at our 2009 Annual Symposium, with working groups brainstorming ideas. Every one of you should feel some ownership in this successful renewal. Read more....

Kendra Busse will be defending her thesis Effect of Residential Landscape Design on Undercanopy Microclimate on Monday, May 17, 2010 at 10:00 AM in Room 330, Wanner Building, Arizona State University at the Polytechnic Campus. To read her abstract go to /docs/caplter/KendraBusse_051710.pdf

In February 2010, CAP LTER began collecting data once again at 204 sites in metropolitan Phoenix and the surrounding desert. This effort, Survey 200, takes place every five years at the same 204 sites and is a core, long-term monitoring initiative. Long-term monitoring allows scientists to better understand long-term trends or phenomena that are slow cycling in nature.

Field technicians carry out a suite of research activities at each of the 204 sites, measuring tree and shrub height and girth, obtaining arthropod samples with sweep nets, and gathering voucher specimens of annuals. They take several soil cores at different depths, which will be analyzed in CAP scientists' laboratories for organic matter, heavy metals, soil bacteria, and black carbon, as well as other attributes.

Survey 200 provides a cross-section of the various environments in the CAP study area from upland desert environments accessible only by hiking and helicopter to residential yards festooned with petunias and roses to salvage yards with damaged vehicles and scrap metal. This year's survey is the third conducted since 2000 and is scheduled to be completed in June 2010.

Shangraw appointed Director; van der Leeuw appointed Dean; Melnick continues as chief operating officer and executive dean

ASU President Michael M. Crow today announced R.F. “Rick” Shangraw, Jr. has been appointed director of the Global Institute of Sustainability, a key all-university research initiative. Shangraw also serves as ASU’s senior vice president for Knowledge Enterprise Development.

Simultaneously, ASU Provost and Executive Vice President Elizabeth D. Capaldi announced the appointment of Sander van der Leeuw as dean of the School of Sustainability. He will also continue as director of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and co-director of the Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative.

Rob Melnick continues as GIOS chief operating officer and executive dean. He, along with Shangraw and van der Leeuw, form the institute’s new directorate providing overall leadership to GIOS and its School of Sustainability.

Continue Reading