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On January 18^th, the ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO), in partnership with the Security and Sustainability Forum and ASU School of Sustainability, facilitated a free webinar titled Why Companies Should Care About Biodiversity.

Corporations engage in sustainable practices for reasons beyond creating a positive public image. Sustainability practices also improve profitability and help businesses comply with emerging regulations. Many companies look outside their own doors for help in making smart choices and maximizing the impact of those choices.

Maintaining a cooperative dialogue between corporate, NGO and academic sectors is fundamental in developing and sharing creative solutions to pressing biodiversity conservation issues.

Webinar panelists included Gabriella Burian (Senior Director, Sustainable Development at Monsanto), Mark Weick (Director, Sustainability Programs at The Dow Chemical Company), Jen Molnar (Managing Director and Lead Scientist of The Nature Conservancy’s new Center for Sustainability Science) and Beth Polidoro (Assistant Professor of Environmental Chemistry at ASU's School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences and Associate Director of Research at CBO).

A free recording of the webinar is available here.

In partnership with The Nature Conservancy's NatureNet program, ASU's Center for Biodiversity Outcomes is hiring a postdoctoral research associate.

The fellow will partner with a team of interdisciplinary faculty to address multiple aspects of biodiversity conservation in the business sector. They will also have an opportunity to work closely with CBO’s Knowledge Partners: The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the International Union on the Conservation of Nature and Conservation International.

On January 18, 2017, ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Director Leah Gerber will facilitate a free webinar exploring how biodiversity thinking not only benefits companies’ public image, but also their profitability and compliance with emerging regulations.

Panelists from corporate (Monsanto, Dow Chemical), NGO (The Nature Conservancy) and academic (ASU School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences and Center for Biodiversity Outcomes) sectors will share insights. This event is sponsored by the Security and Sustainability Forum and ASU's School of Sustainability.

In collaboration with The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, GreenBiz17 and the ASU Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, CBO will host a pre-conference session titled “Redefining Corporate Value: Changing the Equation for Cities, Food, Materials and Climate by Placing True Value on Natural and Social Capital.”

This first convening of WBCSD and ASU scholars will take place on February 13, 2017. It will focus on issues ranging from natural capital to sustainable supply chains. Attendees will learn about the work of WBCSD in redefining corporate sustainability and cutting-edge applied research from ASU scientists.

With giraffe populations diminishing 40 percent over the last 30 years, and numerous other species facing grave population declines, humans must re-evaluate and adapt our behavior to safeguard the planet's biodiversity.

In a recent interview with ASU Now, Senior Sustainability Scientist Leah Gerber indicates that humans will not only have to act swiftly to halt threatened species' declines, but will also have to choose which species to preserve. She adds that how we make those decisions – whether we base them on charisma, cost-effectiveness or ecosystem significance – is up to us.

Gerber, who is also the founding director of the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, is working to find ways to address these biodiversity challenges at ASU.

On December 15, 2016, ASU’s Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO) hosted an open house to welcome students, affiliated faculty, staff and community members into its new location at the School of Life Sciences, Wing A, Room 351. Guests had an opportunity to network, enjoy refreshments, earn a prize, and share about the accomplishments and future goals of the Center.

The Center, a partnership between the School of Life Sciences and the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, is on its third year of operation. It continues to expand as it welcomes new staff, postdoctoral research associates and a group of six Professors or Practice, in partnership with Conservation International.

Levi Strauss & Co, WWF-Pakistan, WWF-US, Earth Genome, and Arizona State University  have reached a high-level agreement regarding a collaboration focused on improving watershed health in the Ravi River basin around Lahore, Pakistan in 2017 and beyond.

The project will be a ground-breaking collective action initiative that mixes strong local stakeholder involvement alongside a powerful modeling tool to improving watershed health in the Ravi basin. The new scope will now include a powerful online decision-support tool developed by Earth Genome and ASU that both creates a sophisticated hydrological model of the Ravi basin and can project the future potential impact of large-scale intervention scenarios.

The ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes invites applications for a postdoctoral research fellowship in partnership with Earth Genome (EG). The fellow will help develop water scenario planning tools to assist companies’ stewardship of natural resources by scoping and categorizing projects in large basins across the world.

The project goal is to help Levi Strauss & Co develop science-based water sustainability targets relevant to their operations in Lahore and the River Ravi catchment (part of the larger Indus River system). Additionally, the postdoc will contribute to an ASU-Earth Genome collaboration that aims to apply cutting edge hydrologic science to develop global data support systems for the private sector.

EG is an environmental data analytics organization that provides corporate leaders, government officials, businesses and investors with insights to assist with decision-making, helping to reduce environmental risks on the planet in a time of accelerated changes.

ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO) Founding Director, Leah Gerber, along with members of the Lenfest Fishery Ecosystem Task Force, recently convened and delivered a report that serves as a multifunctional guide for Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) strategies. The report is titled “Building Effective Fishery Ecosystem Plans.”

The mission of this effort is to provide ecosystem-based solutions as the result of collaborations among universities, government agencies, commercial fishermen, and non-profit organizations. These efforts are well aligned with CBO’s mision, which is to enable discoveries and solutions needed to sustain Earth's biodiversity in a time of rapid biophysical, institutional, and cultural change.

The report is designed for an audience with knowledge and interest in fisheries, as well as for managers, council staff, advisors, and other technical professionals. In order to implement an effective EBFM system, the report proposes help in the following three key areas: (1) Provides a current status of fisheries and key principes of the EBFMs to be implemented, (2) Identifies gaps in scientific knowledge, (3) Suggests novel strategies that can be applied to fill these gaps.

Dr. Jim Collins, Affiliated Faculty of the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes has co-authored a policy forum in Science Magazine on “Precaution and governance of emerging technologies.”

Collins and seven other authors summarize the increasing debate of whether or not to add more precautionary approaches to emergent technologies. The latest report titled “Gene Drives on the Horizon” by the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) discusses the emergent technologies and ethics in the field of gene drive research.

The authors discuss the need to first correctly interpret and define precaution in each specific scientific and technological context – from its understanding, use, and its effects downstream. In the case of gene drives, they summarize the NASEM report and outline four lines of recommended research to understand the benefits and potential harms and uncertainties.

Collins et al. finish their forum by acknowledging that precaution could be grounded on emotions (risk panics or innovation thrills) and how NASEM aims to counteract emotion-based research and discoveries.

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The Center for Biodiversity Outcomes is excited to welcome its new Project Manager, Amy Scoville-Weaver.

Amy brings a professional background in brand management, strategic planning and community outreach, and has worked in a variety of positions within the humanitarian and environmental space.

She has a BA in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and a MSc in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Amy has conducted research at University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute. She is interested in the intersection between people and nature in urban environments and in understanding policy implications for strengthening community and ecological resilience.

Welcome aboard, Amy!

ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO) students and staff facilitated a series of biodiversity conversation activities during the 2016 ASU Homecoming celebration on Saturday, October 22, engaging close to 100 visitors of all ages.

Through fun and interactive games, the CBO crew shared facts on sustainable palm oil production and our dependency on rain-forests for food, medicine and shelter. Visitors also learned easy tips to become better informed consumers with capacity to positively impact food production for the benefit of all species.

Future ASU undergrad and graduate students also had the opportunity to learn about sustainability and life sciences programs available to them, as well as opportunities to collaborate with CBO partner organizations.

A previously thought to be extinct harlequin frog (Atelopus varius), known as the clown frog, has been rediscovered.

Dr. Jan Schipper, a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the School of Life Sciences and the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes has been studying a small population of this species in Costa Rica and is now working with ASU Foundation to support a rescue plan.

The Atelopus varius, is now listed under the Conservation Status of Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This status is the highest risk category assigned by the IUCN Red List for wild species; it indicates that this species is facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

Recent variation in air temperature, precipitation, stream flow patterns, and the subsequent spread of a pathogenic chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) linked to global climate change have been the leading cause of decline for A. varius (Lips et al. 2003 and Pounds et al. 2006).

Engaging people in the United States and Costa Rica, researchers are raising funds to implement a biosecurity protocol to prevent exposure of the frogs to other strains of chytrid.

We can all play a role in saving it! Watch this video to learn more.

During a recent visit to the ASU Wrigley Institute, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack emphasized the importance of continuous collaboration among different sectors to guarantee the nation’s food security in the face of increasing climate change.

The expert panel agreed that universities, in particular, have a unique capacity to work across disciplines to provide evidence-based solutions to protect farms against storms, invasive species and droughts.

This event was hosted in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A full video is available here.

In collaboration with The Nature Conservancy and the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO), Kelly Gravuer began her Postdoctoral NatureNet Science Fellowship on September 26, 2016.

Kelly is investigating how food production areas can assist in climate mitigation. Kelly is committed to developing sustainable solutions that include ecological and sociological considerations. Details on this research project can be found here.

CBO will be announcing a series to share updates on its various research projects soon.

The Earth Genome (EG) is an organization that exists to facilitate the understanding and exchange of large and complex scientific data in support of decision-making that preserves the environment, while adverting economic and social disruptions caused by mismanagement of natural resources.

In partnership with ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO) scientists and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), EG created the first tool focused on revealing options for corporate decisions on water use.

This tool, called the Green Infrastructure Support Tool (GIST), was piloted in the Brazos River Basin in Texas. EG stated, “Reactions to GIST have been overwhelmingly positive. GIST will soon cover the United States, Mexico and Canada as we roll it out globally.”

ASU's Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO) recently launched a Knowledge Partnership with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

On February 13, 2017, WBCSD will be partnering on a North American meeting with ASU and GreenBiz on the eve of the annual GreenBiz conference.

This event is still in the planning phase, but promises to be engaging and informative for WBCSD member companies.

Although plants are an essential species in our ecosystem – sustaining us by contributing oxygen, food, medicine, materials and fibers – we experience a shortage of plant experts that can help conduct research to inform important biodiversity conservation efforts.

To address this shortage of experts, ASU's School of Life Sciences launched a new master’s degree program in plant biology and conservation in partnership with the Desert Botanical Garden.

“Plants are an incredibly important part of the ecosystem,” said Julie Stromberg, a senior sustainability scientist and director of the program. “Unfortunately, people don’t really think about the fact that plants contribute oxygen, the food we eat, the materials and fibers we use, as well as medicines. As a society, we need to look at plants as the key elements that sustain us, spiritually as well as in more tangible ways.”

Dry forests in Latin America are among the world’s most threatened tropical forests. Less than 10 percent of their original prevalence remains in many countries.

The Latin American Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest Floristic Network, in partnership with other organizations, engaged more than 50 scientists and conservationists from Latin America and the Caribbean to develop an unprecedented database of dry forest tree species.

Janet Franklin – distinguished sustainability scientist and Regents’ Professor in ASU's School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning – was one of the many contributors to this project, sharing inventory data collected on a National Science Foundation-sponsored project.

ASU's Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO) is currently hiring a postdoctoral fellow in partnership with Conservation International (CI). This fellowship will focus on exploring nature’s role in achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Some of these goals include affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, and life below water and on land.

Application for this position closes Monday, Oct. 31, 2016. Additional details and the online application are available here.