By: Elizabeth Bruns, Nicole Darnall, Kylie Flynn, Angela Fox

Italian government purchases account for 10 - 11% of the country's gross domestic product. Examples of these purchases include chemicals, construction materials, vehicle fleets, electronics, and office materials. Research shows that these purchases are significant contributors to global climate change and a host of other environmental concerns during manufacturing and when in use. For this reason, Italy passed the National Action Plan on Green Public Procurement to implement purchasing initiatives that reduce environmental impacts. While the plan has a minimum criteria requirement, implementing Green purchasing policies will increase Italy's adoption at the local level and help achieve its National Action Plan goals to reduce environmental impacts.

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By: Elizabeth Bruns, Nicole Darnall, Kylie Flynn, Angela Fox

Italy was the first country in the European Union to mandate green purchasing protocols across all levels of government. The National Action Plan on Green Public Procurement sets guidelines and offers definitions on green purchasing for Italian municipalities. In Italy, government purchasing accounts for 10 - 11% of the country's gross domestic product. Examples of purchases include construction materials, chemicals, vehicle fleets, office materials, and electronics. These purchases are significant contributors to global climate change and other environmental concerns during their manufacturing and while in use.

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Join the Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science for a Coastal and Marine Science and Management Seminar Series event with coastal geomorphologist Murray Ford, who researches the impacts of sea-level rise on low-lying atoll islands in the Pacific. Ford's work combines remote sensing with geological and laboratory approaches to better understand the formation and evolution of atoll islands and the impacts of coastal hazards on local communities.

In this Jan. 28 talk, set for noon MST, Ford will present results of remote sensing, geochronological, and physical modeling studies that investigated island formation and dynamics. The future persistence of atoll islands is discussed in light of projected changes in sea level and adaptation within atoll settings.

Join via Zoom Thursday, January 28 at noon MST; password: 61504.

By Isabel Yoder, Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Certificate student 

This blog is part of a series from the December Arizona Immersive program of the Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Graduate Certificate Program. Students virtually toured the state, meeting with farmers, ranchers, entrepreneurs, government staff and non-profit leaders. 

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Researchers across the social, behavioral and economic sciences are encouraged to submit proposals to the Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier: Core Research solicitation by March 23, 2021.

The U.S. National Science Foundation’s “Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier” is one of ten transformative “big ideas” supporting bold, long-term research at the frontiers of science and engineering. The effort takes a multidisciplinary approach by supporting research at the intersection of people, society and technology, while aiming to increase opportunities for workers and spur innovations that benefit the U.S. economy. It is a collaborative effort with NSF’s directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, Education and Human Resources, Engineering, and the Office of Integrative Activities.

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The 2021 AAAS Annual Meeting will convene entirely online, February 8-11, with related pre-released materials available online now. The AAAS Annual Meeting will be conducted in English. Use the AAAS Virtual Platform to browse the video library of pre-recorded Spotlight Videos, view AAAS E-poster and Sci-Mic Podcast galleries, visit and learn at the Exchange, and more. Live virtual meeting will convene on this platform February 8-11.

Among the 20+ sessions and 43 papers by ASU presenters are the following sessions and presentations featuring sustainability scientists and scholars. More sessions are being added all the time; check the AAAS website for most current listings.

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As the world continues to cope with the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis will have an ongoing impact on progress towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In response, a Women Enterprise Recovery Fund has been launched. The aim is promoting and upscaling digital solutions for enhancing women’s enterprise growth and resilience. The Fund will provide up to US $50,000 in co-funding, along with technical assistance. Applicants to the Fund can be based anywhere globally, but the project implementation and solution must target women enterprises in one or more of the following countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal and Viet Nam.

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By Cam Petersen, Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Certificate student 

This blog is part of a series from the December Arizona Immersive program of the Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Graduate Certificate Program. Students virtually toured the state, meeting with farmers, ranchers, entrepreneurs, government staff and non-profit leaders. 

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By: Elizabeth Bruns, Nicole Darnall, Kylie Flynn, Angela Fox

Why is government purchasing so important? In Australia, it accounts for roughly 36.2% of the country's gross domestic product. Examples of purchases include vehicle fleets, construction material, chemicals, electronics, and office materials. These purchases collectively contribute to global climate change and a host of other environmental concerns associated with raw material sourcing, production, use, and disposal.

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By: Elizabeth Bruns, Nicole Darnall, Kylie Flynn, Angela Fox

Government purchasing in Australia accounts for 36.2% of the country's total gross domestic product. Examples of these purchases include vehicle fleets, construction material, chemicals, electronics, and office materials. Collectively, these items contribute to global climate change and a host of other environmental concerns. Some municipalities are implementing sustainable purchasing policies to reduce their negative impacts.

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By: Elizabeth Bruns, Nicole Darnall, Kylie Flynn, Angela Fox

Australia's government purchasing accounts for 36.2% of the country's gross domestic product. Examples of purchases include construction material, chemicals, vehicle fleets, office materials, and electronics. These purchases collectively contribute to global climate change and a host of other environmental concerns during their manufacturing and use. Many Australian municipalities are adopting sustainable purchasing policies to reduce their environmental impacts. A sustainable purchasing policy formalizes an organization's commitment to reduce the environmental harms associated with purchasing and procurement. 

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In spring 2021, ASU School of Music, Dance and Theater Professor Liz Lerman and School of Life Sciences Professor Becket Sterner will be teaching a multidisciplinary course titled "Creative Tools for Saving Biodiversity."

Why are they teaching this class?

Life on Earth has entered a sixth mass extinction, driven by pervasive human impact on the global environment. Even the most common species, such as many insect pollinators, have experienced precipitous declines in their populations over the past few decades.

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The Aligning Biodiversity Measures for Business collaboration of the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) recently published a review paper titled “Biodiversity Measures for Business: Corporate biodiversity measurement, reporting and disclosure within the current and future global policy context.”

This publication includes recommendations for policymakers, providing an overview of drivers and current practices and approaches in future business disclosure for informing global policy targets.

This review paper also provides recommendations to create a step-change in business action to measure biodiversity impacts, dependencies and performance.

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York, England, was founded by the Romans in A.D. 71. At about A.D. 200, the ancient Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan was the biggest city in the world. And Phoenix was settled in 1867. What do they all have in common? A lot more than you would think, according to a recent paper authored by two Arizona State University scientists and their colleague.

Sustainability scientist Jose Lobo was a co-author of a recent paper, Cities: Complexity, theory and history, published in December in PLOS One.

Read more about the work in ASU Now. The abstract follows.

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ASU is co-hosting the XVIII Biennial International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) conference, including an eight month virtual conference rollout. The first virtual conference, Commons in Space, is set for Feb. 24-26 and is currently accepting submissions for individual presentations, special sessions and webinar panel discussions. Submit or register for Commons in Space.

The search for the first winners of The Earthshot Prize has begun and The Julie Ann Wigley Global Futures Laboratory is proud to have been invited to be an Official Nominator for the Prize. Launched just a few weeks ago, The Earthshot Prize is the most prestigious global environment prize in history, aiming to find new solutions to the world’s biggest environmental problems.

As an Official Nominator, we are one of over 100 organizations from across the world, invited to submit nominations across all five Earthshot categories, selected for our ability to identify the most impactful solutions across all sectors, from grassroots to businesses.

We will be nominating individuals, communities, businesses and organizations whose solutions make the most progress towards achieving the five Earthshots – simple but ambitious goals which if achieved by 2030 will improve life for us all, for generations to come.

If you have any suggestions for solutions we, as an organization, should nominate, please read this one page guide and fill out the embedded unofficial Google Form for consideration.

You can find out more about the Prize, our role as an Official Nominator, and the 5-stage process to selecting winners at www.earthshotprize.org.

By: Elizabeth Bruns, Nicole Darnall, Kylie Flynn, Angela Fox

Government purchasing in Mexico accounts for 27.9% of its gross domestic product. Examples of purchases include vehicle fleets, construction materials, chemicals, electronics, and office materials. Collectively, these items contribute to global climate change and a host of other environmental concerns during manufacturing and while in use. In response, local Mexican municipalities are implementing green purchasing policies to reduce the environmental impacts of these purchases.

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By: Elizabeth Bruns, Nicole Darnall, Kylie Flynn, Angela Fox

Government purchasing accounts for 27.9% of Mexico's gross domestic product. Examples of purchases include vehicle fleets, construction materials, chemicals, electronics, and office materials. These items collectively contribute to global climate change and a host of other environmental concerns during manufacturing and while in use. In response, some Mexican municipalities have implemented green purchasing policies to help reduce the environmental impacts associated with these purchases.

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By: Elizabeth Bruns, Nicole Darnall, Kylie Flynn, Angela Fox

Government purchasing accounts for 27.9% of Mexico's gross domestic product. Examples of purchases include vehicle fleets, construction materials, chemicals, electronics, and office materials. These purchases collectively contribute to global climate change and a host of other environmental concerns when manufactured and while in use.

Some Mexican municipalities have implemented green purchasing policies to address the environmental impacts associated with government purchasing. A sustainable purchasing policy formalizes an organization's commitment to reduce the environmental harms related to purchasing. These policies can also improve municipalities' internal efficiencies, thus enhancing cost savings. 

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The Hudson River flows from the alpine peaks of New York State’s Adirondack Mountains to the harbor of New York City. Its tidal valley includes diverse suburban communities and post-industrial cities that will face new challenges from sea level rise and amplified storms as climate changes over the next few decades. In this episode, George Scott interviews Dr. Klaus H. Jacob, an expert in disaster risk at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, (@LamontEarth), Ryan Palmer, the Director of the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak (@slccurb/@sarahlawrence), and Jessica Kuonen, the Hudson Estuary Resilience Specialist at New York Sea Grant (@nyseagrant) to learn more about how these communities are planning to enhance their resilience to climate-related coastal threats.

Listen on iTunes, StitcherGoogle Podcasts, Spotify, or Buzzsprout.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.