Programs
- Agrarian Landscapes in Transition
- AHIS (Arizona Hydrological Information System)
- Arizona Water Institute
- CAP LTER (Central Arizona–Phoenix LTER)
- Decision Center for a Desert City
- Decision Theater
- Ecology Explorers
- Greater Phoenix 2100
- Integrated Analysis of Robustness in Dynamic Socioecological Systems
- IGERT in Urban Ecology
- Legacies on the Landscape
- Long-Term Coupled Socioecological Change in the American SW and N Mexico
- Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics
- National Center of Excellence on SMART Innovations for Urban Climate and Energy
- 100 Cities Project
- Service at Salado
- SEINet (Southwest Environmental Information Network)
- Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research & Policy
- Sustainability Partnership
- UGEC (Urbanization and Global Environmental Change)
It’s October in Phoenix, and the public’s attention has once again turned to overseeding, ryegrass, and winter lawns. Phoenicians are blessed with a year-round growing season. This favorable climate gives residents the luxury of growing lush summer and winter lawns. Soft, deep-green ryegrass winter lawns are particularly attractive to residents and winter visitors because the level of people’s outdoor recreation and lawn play dramatically increases as the weather cools. 
When I was younger and in charge of AT&T’s Design for Environment program, I once suggested to a Bell Laboratories design team that we create a “sustainable telephone.” We all thought it was a great idea, until someone asked me what one was and how it differed from an “ordinary” telephone. Would it “save the Earth”? Or perhaps “achieve social justice”? That seemed a lot to ask of a simple telephone.