With support from NASA, ASU Senior Sustainability Scientist Soe Myint is leading an interdisciplinary study to further understand the impacts of urban infrastructure and vegetation on local and regional climate. Using diverse analytical techniques like remote sensing and numerical modeling, Myint's team is monitoring climate in five urban areas: Las Vegas; Beer Sheva, Israel; Jodhpur, India; Kharga, Egypt; and Hotan/Hetian, China.

As part of a series that showcases the interdisciplinary studies it sponsors, NASA has invited Myint to present a live webinar describing his team’s investigation. Projects selected for the webinar series deal with interactions among components of the Earth system and promote research in emerging science areas like those identified in the Strategic Plan of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. The knowledge that Myint's team acquires will serve to support adaptive management and foster the development of sustainable desert cities.

In recognition of his humanitarian endeavors, ASU engineering professor and sustainability scientist Mark Henderson was recently presented the Making a World of Difference Award by Tempe Sister Cities. Henderson is the director of GlobalResolve, an organization he co-founded in 2006 with three fellow ASU faculty members.

GlobalResolve was created to engage the university’s engineering faculty and students with communities in developing countries to help them improve their living conditions. Today, more than 200 students and 15 faculty members participate in the social entrepreneurship and sustainability program each year. They are contributing to almost 50 projects in 10 countries that focus on boosting local economies and upgrading water, sanitation, energy, agriculture, health and education infrastructure.

A new survey from the National Geographic Society and consulting firm GlobeScan shows that humans are eating healthier diets, but not necessarily in a sustainable way.

Since 2008, National Geographic has measured consumption habits and attitudes in 18 countries for what it calls the Greendex survey. The latest survey found that consumers in five growing countries, when told how their habits affect the environment, indicated they would be open to changing their behavior. It also found that people in English-speaking countries and in Sweden were less interested in how their food was produced.

Nicole Darnall, a professor in the School of Sustainability, told National Geographic she wasn't that surprised at the slow adoption rate of sustainability, particularly in the United States.

"We subsidize traditional food production in a way we don't subsidize natural and organic foods," says Darnall. "The developing world is more nimble, less entrenched than we are. It's easier for them to consider alternatives."

Earlier this month, indigenous scholars, sustainability scientists and tribal leaders from around the world gathered in Tempe, Arizona for the "Conference on Indigenous Sustainability: Implications for the Future of Indigenous Peoples and Native Nations." The conference, inspired in part by the leadership of the ASU Wrigley Institute, served as a forum to discuss and debate indigenous sustainability and environmental issues.

The conference featured multiple panels, including one titled "Tribal Energy and the Environment" that featured three sustainability scientists: Rebecca Tsosie, Harvey Bryan and Clark Miller. These panelists highlighted the importance of indigenous people’s right to self-determination, as well as navigated the issue of natural resource sustainability with the help of indigenous knowledge.

“We are all connected, so what we do now to build better energy and other systems will have an effect across the world,” Miller said. “Indigenous and non-indigenous people will have to come together, listen to each other’s perspectives and find common solutions to common problems.”

Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan, senior vice president of ASU's Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development and a senior sustainability scientist, is one of 27 individuals selected to serve on the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE). The council will operate as an independent entity within the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which is housed within the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration.

NACIE members, who were chosen by Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker based on their ability to carry out the objectives of the council, will serve a two-year term. As a council member, Panchanathan will advise the secretary on issues related to accelerating innovation, expanding entrepreneurship and developing a globally competitive workforce.

This year, three researches from Japan and the U.S. were deemed to be no dim bulbs in the science and research community. Professors Isamu Asaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura were nominated this week for the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

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Beginning Oct. 8, scholars and practitioners from ASU and abroad will convene for a transcontinental conference aimed at reinventing the path to sustainable development. “Unpacking Green Growth,” the third conference arranged by Global Systems Science (GSS), will explore a new strategy for attaining global sustainability – one that emphasizes equal opportunity-sharing rather than burden-sharing.

Green growth pursues a comfortable standard of living for all people while improving environmental health through economic activity. Because it encourages transformative action, it shows particular promise in the developing world where systems are more supple. GSS, an organization co-founded by Distinguished Sustainability Scientist Sander van der Leeuw, organized “Unpacking Green Growth” with the intention of testing the robustness of the strategy. To do so, the conference will assemble the brightest minds in the arena of systemic solutions to global problems at events in North America, Europe and Asia.

A new partnership between ASU and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will position ASU graduate students to confront the most pressing issues faced by the developing world. Through USAID’s Global Development Lab, a Research and Innovation (R&I) Fellowships program will be established to serve as a model for knowledge exchange, supporting top-tier students as they work with USAID and host organizations throughout the world.

The ASU R&I Fellowships program will be administered by the ASU Wrigley Institute, which will use its convening capacity and international visibility to assemble a transdisciplinary cohort of exceptional fellows and faculty mentors. In the program’s initial year, applicants must be enrolled in one of five selected pilot schools: the School of Sustainability, W. P. Carey School of Business, College of Public Programs, School of Life Sciences or Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. In subsequent years, all graduate students interested in international development are encouraged to apply.

CBO partner, The Central Arizona Conservation Alliance, a Desert Botanical Garden initiative released it's inaugural website this week.

The Conservation Alliance facilitates and leverages community engagement to study, restore and promote the mountain park preserves of metro Phoenix.

Visits mymountainparks.org to get involved!

According to a recent School of Sustainability report, 73 percent of employed undergraduate alumni surveyed have found careers directly related to sustainability. Additionally, 88 percent of master’s graduates and 100 percent of doctoral graduates are in sustainability careers. These alumni hold positions with a variety of companies, including Aramark, Intel, Waste Management, Tesla Motors, U-Haul International, Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Geological Survey.

Because the sustainability field continues to grow and employers are seeking highly educated experts, the School of Sustainability launched the Executive Master’s for Sustainability Leadership, a program developed and administered through the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives. Created for working individuals who want to lead sustainability practices and programs for their employers, the hybrid program complements theory with real-world practice.

"Trout Fishing in America and Other stories" is an art exhibition that follows conservation biologists as they work to save two endangered species in the Grand Canyon: the humpback chub and California condor. The artists behind the exhibition, Bryndis Snæbjörnsdóttir of Iceland and Mark Wilson of England, dedicated over two years to collecting photos, videos and artifacts that provide a visual – and, in some instances, tangible – experience of the region and the complex conservation processes that govern its inhabitants.

"Trout Fishing in America and Other stories" is funded by the “Rhetoric and Sustainability” seed grant, offered through the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability. The exhibition represents an ongoing partnership between the ASU Art Museum and ASU Wrigley Institute, as both units participate in the Arts and Humanities in Sustainability Series. The partnership recognizes art's ability to go beyond science to understand people’s perceptions and where roadblocks to sustainable solutions implementation lie.

Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative co-founder Nicole Darnall was interviewed for a National Geographic article, "Global Survey Says We're Eating Better, But Our Diet Is Still Unsustainable." Citing a recent Greendex survey by the National Geographic Society and consulting firm GlobeScan, the article says that while humans are eating healthier diets, they are not necessarily consuming their foods in a sustainable way.

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Clark Miller, associate director of the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes (CSPO) and associate professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University, wrote an article discussing the potential of a national referendum on climate change in the United States. The article, “Are we sovereign?” was featured as a contributing piece in The Hill. Read the article here.

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With the help of two National Science Foundation (NSF) grants, ASU engineer and sustainability scientist Amy Landis has led biofuel research for the past five years. Her findings indicate that – though a promising way to replace nonrenewable fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and restore degraded soil – biofuel production has its drawbacks.

According to Landis, lands damaged by industrial waste and other pollutants can be sufficiently restored to support the growth of bioenergy crops. As a result, biofuels agriculture could become a significant contributor to soil remediation, land reclamation and natural storm water management. The downside is that many biofuel crops require fertilizers that cause water degradation. Runoff water could then transport these fertilizers to areas where they could do environmental harm.

“However, it’s not all doom and gloom," says Landis. "Our NSF-funded research also developed some creative solutions to utilize abandoned lands and waste materials to produce biofuels.”

Over the course of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the United States’ electricity system was largely built by investor-, municipally-, and cooperatively-owned utilities using generation from centralized power plants, servicing single territories.

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By Mariana Dale via The Republic | AZcentral.com on September 28, 2014

Water scarcity is one of Arizona's most serious, ever-present problems.

Which is why students, researchers, professionals and creative thinkers are ­being challenged to raise awareness for an issue that the experts believe needs to be addressed now.

A $100,000 prize awaits the group that comes up with the most innovative ­campaign to push water scarcity into the forefront of public ­conversation.

The Water Consciousness Challenge is the first phase of the New Arizona Prize offered by the Arizona Community Foundation in collaboration with The Arizona Republic and the Morrison Institute for Public Policy. Underwriting for the program comes from the Tashman Fund and the Lodestar Foundation.

The next phase of the competition will challenge entrepreneurs to create business-based solutions and products to reduce water use.

"The Valley has enjoyed water affluence for a long time because we had really great planning," said Megan Brownell, chief business development and brand officer at the Arizona Community Foundation, a Phoenix-based philanthropic organization. "It's now time to act so there won't be a conflict in 20 to 30 years."

The competition wants to create a public-service campaign that raises awareness about the challenges facing Arizona's long-term water supply so residents will feel an urgency to start working on them now.

If Arizonans don't change how they consume water and start brainstorming new solutions for dwindling supplies, shortages won't be a choice, they will be an unavoidable reality. Planning for the future of water now will help ensure there is enough water for future generations, Brownell said.

The message isn't new; it has been taught with puppets, posters, television spots, brochures and landscape-design classes for years.

But experts, researchers and industry workers agree that as long as taps gush clear,drinkable water, it's hard to keep water scarcity part of public conversation.

"One challenge is getting people to take ownership of their decisions and how they contribute to the demand side of the equation," said Dave White, co-director of Arizona State University's Decision Center for a Desert City, which studies water use and sustainability.

Continue reading at The Republic | AZcentral.com.

Signaling a new chapter in its study of urban systems, the Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC) project – hosted by ASU’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability – has received a significant award from the Future Earth initiative. The award, supported by a National Science Foundation grant, represents a chance to expand UGEC’s efforts to address urban environmental challenges with sustainable solutions.

UGEC recognizes that urban environments can serve as an excellent source of innovative, sustainable solutions and has dedicated over eight years to uncovering them, primarily by fostering promising research collaborations in the social sciences. The Future Earth award will broaden the initiative to include more of the natural sciences – areas like ecology, climatology and urban health management. This is expected to result in the comprehensive approach required to adequately address urban sustainability challenges.

In recognition of his outstanding leadership in promoting interdisciplinary research between the microbial ecology and water/wastewater treatment fields, ASU Regents' Professor Bruce Rittmann receives the 2014 ISME/IWA Bio Cluster Award.

Rittman flew across the Atlantic this week to accept the award, of which he is the first winner. The recognition comes jointly from the International Water Association and the International Society of Microbial Ecology.

ASU researchers from the Center for Integrated Solutions to Climate Challenges and Decision Center for a Desert City, in partnership with the City of Phoenix, released a report this summer evaluating the city’s Cool Urban Spaces work. The report, Urban forestry and cool roofs: Assessment of heat mitigation strategies in Phoenix, evaluated two initiatives to reduce temperatures in Phoenix: the Phoenix Cool Roofs project and the Tree and Shade Master Plan.

The urban heat island, or increased temperatures in cities relative to surrounding areas, is a significant problem in Phoenix and a priority for scientists and city officials alike. According to the study, increasing tree canopy is an effective way to cool city infrastructure, thereby mitigating the urban heat island effect. In fact, the study found that increasing tree canopy cover from the current level of about 10 percent to 25 percent could reduce the temperature of a typical Phoenix neighborhood by 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit.

Though cool roofs alone had limited impact, researchers found that they added to the cooling effect when combined with trees. City officials will use these findings to guide future urban heat mitigation efforts.