ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes professor of practice and senior director of the blue production program for Conservation International’s Center for Oceans, Jack Kittinger, and ASU-CI former postdoctoral research associate Elena Finkbeiner, co-authored a new Nature publication titled “Towards a sustainable and equitable blue economy.”

Blue economy is the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth. This concept has recently gained much attention due to the growing concern about the future state of the ocean as human exploitation and ocean-based industries continue to increase.

Continue Reading

One of the most consequential questions of our time is: How do we generate enough energy to meet our needs?

The question is particularly important as previously reliable sources of energy, such as oil and coal, have been proven to pollute our planet with consequences ranging from a degrading air quality to a tilt in the fragile balance of the global climate. In an effort to address the question, researchers from the Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery at Arizona State University are exploring new technologies that could generate alternate methods of energy to satisfy global demand.

Continue Reading

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.

Continue Reading

During the U.N. General Assembly and Climate Week, philanthropist and fashion icon Diane Von Furstenberg hosted a pitch night in New York City for the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge 2019 awardees. The five WE Empower Challenge awardees — one from each United Nations region — pitched to a high-level panel of judges selected from WE Empower Challenge partners.

Judges and audience voting determined the 2019 winner of the $20,000 cash prize to be Leah Lizarondo, CEO and co-founder of 412 Food Rescue and entrepreneur-in-residence at Carnegie Mellon University.

Continue Reading

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.

Continue Reading

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.”

Continue Reading

MyEffect is a woman-led business that aims to drive positive change and further the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals via engagement on a positive, empowering social media platform. As someone who is passionate about sustainability, gender equality, and changing the way we interact with social media and the attention economy, WE Empower Challenge Intern Jordan Leiter is excited to showcase just how multifaceted MyEffect’s mission is and how it benefits gender equality and positive digital practices.

As the founder of MyEffect and a young female entrepreneur who has struggled to find her place in the tech community, Kelly Lovell (pictured) has “taken an active role in advocating for policy developments that advance women’s economic empowerment and prosperity, and this work has influenced MyEffect’s culture and technology.” According to Lovell, “MyEffect prioritizes gender equality and strives to provide equal opportunities for women to contribute innovation — particularly the next generation.”

Continue Reading

If you’ve been on the internet in the past couple of years, chances are you’ve heard of a plant-based diet. According to Forbes, plant-based dieting remains one of the most influential trends impacting the food and beverage industry. People adopt plant-based diets for a variety of different reasons, from a concern about the environment and animals to a simple desire to eat healthier. However, experts say there’s a good reason to hesitate before adopting such diets: the possibility of becoming nutrient deficient.

Continue Reading

Thunderbird School of Global Management student Darcy (DJ) Nelson was selected to join the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge 2019 awardees in New York City for Climate Week. Nelson journaled her day-to-day experiences with these five women entrepreneurs in an article for Das Tor, Thunderbird's student newspaper. Read all about the exciting and impactful week and see photos from the event in "A Week With WE Empower."

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.

Continue Reading

The ASU School of Life Sciences and the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes invite you to a Hugh Hanson Seminar to learn about marine wildlife conservation efforts in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador.

This presentation will take place on Thursday, October 24, 2019, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the School of Life Sciences, Wing-C, room 202, ASU Tempe campus.

Light refreshments will be served. RSVP is required.

Continue Reading

Justin Stritch, co-founder of the Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative and senior sustainability scholar in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, recently won the Outstanding Early Career Scholar Award from the Center for Organization Research and Design.

Continue Reading

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."

Continue Reading

In 1988, U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed Hispanic Heritage Month, a month long event (Sept 15 - Oct 15), into law in order to honor the contributions of persons of Hispanic, Latina/o, Latin@, Latinx heritage; thus recognizing this period as a time for millions of individuals to celebrate their collective and country-specific ethnicities. Over the years, identity monikers have changed, with the most recent update as Latinx and Latinxs (plural for Latinx), pronounced la-teen-ex; this change was made to include non-binary, gender-neutral, LGBTQ, and gender-fluid individuals as an extension of what has already been recognized as a heterogeneous, U.S. Latin culture as a whole.

As celebration comes to a close on Oct 15th, the UREx SRN would like to acknowledge the contributions of all Latinx SRN members and communities who are working on extremes research within the network!

In the spirit of the UREx mission for diversity, equity, and inclusion:

Happy Latinx/Heritage Month 2019!

Reference: Arredondo Advisory Group

 

On October 8, 2019 our WE Empower UN SDG Challenge Co-chair, Amanda Ellis, met with Maureen Metcalf and two 2018 WE Empower awardees Hadeel Anabtawi and Habiba Ali, for a powerful talk in which they told their inspiring stories that demonstrate how women leaders can make a difference in the world to promote positive change.

Metcalf is the founder and CEO of the Innovative Leadership Institute (formerly Metcalf & Associates) and a renowned executive advisor, author, speaker and coach who brings 30 years of business experience to provide high-impact, practical solutions that support her clients' leadership development and organizational transformations. In her podcast “Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future” she discusses how women leaders are making a difference by promoting positive change in their local communities — which can then have a global impact. And who better to discuss this with then the innovative changemakers that comprise the WE Empower Challenge!

Continue Reading

Acclaimed journalist and author Earl Swift made two presentations at Arizona State University on October 8 and 9 to discuss his latest nonfiction book, “Chesapeake Requiem," which tells the story of Tangier Island, Virginia — the United State's first town to be lost to climate change.

In advance of his visit, Swift was interviewed by local NPR affiliate KJZZ, where he spoke about his experience living on Tangier Island and the greater implications of climate change on the fate of U.S. towns. "What we need to do is develop a rubric for which communities we save and which we surrender, because it's pretty clear we don't have the time, the money or the means to save every place that's going to be threatened," Swift said.

Continue Reading

Our 2019 WE Empower UN SDG Challenge awardees and co-chairs were thrilled to participate in the SDG Action Zone during the UN General Assembly week in New York.

Once upon a time, economists believed that there was a limit to economic growth.

Many economists held this belief, including founding fathers such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill. They based this conclusion on, among other things, the fact that there was a limited supply of land. And for hundreds of years, the theory of finite growth prevailed as economists acknowledged the interdependence of natural and economic systems.

That is, until recently.

Continue Reading

Biodesign Institute Building C in 2019 was certified LEED platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council, for its strategies to achieve high performance in sustainable site development, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere efficiency, materials selection, indoor environmental quality and innovation in design. Water stewardship was a project prerequisite, with an array of water-efficient fixtures leading to a projected 42 percent water savings beyond the LEED baseline.

Zoya Lytvyn knows that the best investment that a government can make for its citizens is in its education system.

That’s why she's changing the way Ukraine educates its children. She founded Novopecherska School — a K-12 school serving 500 children with its own unique curriculum developed by experts from the Netherlands, Great Britain and Canada to combine Ukrainian national standards with international cutting-edge teaching techniques.

Continue Reading