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Sustainability News

Meet sustainability senior Yann Raymond

April 19, 2018

Yann RaymondAfter moving to Tempe from Northwestern France, Yann Raymond enrolled with ASU’s School of Sustainability. His focus is international development, and he has an interest in food systems and supply chain.

At ASU, Raymond scored a job with Changemaker Central, an ASU student organization focused on innovation and enterprise development. During his three years at Changemaker, Raymond used the space as an innovation hub, an arena for dialogue and collaboration with like-minded students driven by change.

Following graduation, Raymond will work with the Town of Camp Verde, where he hopes to apply his food system, entrepreneurship and sustainable development knowledge to local businesses.

Yann answered a few questions about his experiences at ASU.

Question: What was your “aha” moment, when you realized you wanted to study sustainability?

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Meet sustainability senior Mackenzie McGuffie

April 19, 2018

Mackenzie McGuffie

On a family trip to Hawaii, Mackenzie McGuffie fell in love with nature and began to appreciate the biodiversity that connected her to nature.

So she changed her major to sustainability.

During her time at ASU, McGuffie joined green ASU clubs and got a job as a student worker for the School of Sustainability. McGuffie graduates in May and is now preparing for the accelerated master’s program, which she hopes to complete in 2019.

She answered some questions about her experiences at ASU.

Question: How did the School of Sustainability prepare you, personally and professionally?

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Meet sustainability senior Tara Hansen

April 19, 2018

Tara HansenLiving near a nature preserve in Wisconsin, Tara Hansen spent much of her childhood in nature. Wanting future generations to experience the outdoors like she did, Hansen applied to ASU’s School of Sustainability.

During her time at ASU, Hansen became an ambassador for the School of Sustainability. She also tacked on a second major, in supply chain management, with a focus on mitigating the effects our food system has on the environment.

After graduation (and a brief vacation to Japan), Hansen will be working towards making a more sustainable sourcing process for Frito Lay.

She answered a few questions about her experiences at ASU.

Question: What was your “aha” moment, when you realized you wanted to study sustainability?

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Meet sustainability senior Sarah Collins

April 19, 2018

Sarah CollinsIn elementary school, Sarah Collins first learned that fossil fuels are scarce resources we could eventually use up. This is some pretty deep stuff, even for a third grader. So it stuck, and that's why Collins came to ASU's School of Sustainability to earn her bachelor’s degree.

After she graduates next month, Collins hopes to join the Peace Corps to work on environmental issues in the Philippines. She is also planning to pursue a master’s degree in public policy.

Collins answered some questions about her time at ASU.

Question: What’s something you learned while at ASU — in the classroom or otherwise — that surprised you or changed your perspective?

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Project Cities research asks East Valley residents to help create cultural map of the land

April 19, 2018

Landscape photo of Superstition Wilderness with saguaro

Think of a local spot you love to visit in your city. Is it a city park? A trailhead? A brewery or theater? If you live in the East Valley of the Phoenix area - or visit the East Valley or the Superstition Wilderness Area frequently - digital history students in an ASU Project Cities course project want to hear your answers.

The students are conducting a survey designed to identify the most important cultural landmarks of the East Valley – specifically, the Apache Junction area. The survey will inform the students’ suggestions for the City of Apache Junction to help improve geographical and cultural awareness and pride in the city.

This course project is one part of the Project Cities program’s year-long partnership with the City of Apache Junction. The partnership empowers ASU students to address the city’s environmental and social challenges through various course projects across multiple disciplines.

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Inside ASU podcast discusses ASU's sustainability initiatives

View Source | April 16, 2018

Inside ASU podcast logo

School of Sustainability undergraduate student Rett Evans shared his zero waste expertise on an episode of the Inside ASU podcast. The episode, called "Maroon and gold...and green? Sustainability at ASU," discussed the various initiatives Arizona State University is undertaking to become more sustainable.

The Inside ASU podcast, created by two ASU students, offers information to help prepare prospective or upcoming ASU students for their Sun Devil adventure.

ASU's Doris Duke Scholars

View Source | April 13, 2018

Coor Hall ExploreFour ASU sophomores, including three in the School of Sustainability, will embark on an eight-week, two-summer journey to learn the ins and outs of sustainability research. As participants in the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program, they will spend eight weeks this summer with other students and faculty at one of four field locations learning how to conduct research.

Danielle Vermeer will be living and researching in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she will develop a model that can interpret different decisions and their outcomes in an interactive role playing simulation game. Elyse Kats will spend this summer at Northern Arizona University and various field locations throughout Arizona and Utah, like the Grand Canyon studying environmental conservation and policy, particularly water and land rights. Kelly Baker says she will work to bring together many different facets of activism and showcase that conservation does not only stand by the protection of land and ecosystems but also varying groups of people that have diverse backgrounds.

Next summer, these brilliant young minds will apply what they have learned to gain eight weeks of experience in an internship. In addition, they also will attend career development workshops each January and virtual mentoring meetings every month.

Locust initiative launches

View Source | April 13, 2018

Global Locust Initiative RepresentativesRepresentatives from 12 countries gathered at Arizona State University in April for the inaugural meeting of the Global Locust Initiative, a new research and action program designed to help scientists, governments, agribusiness workers and farmers cope with locust plagues.

The initiative, a unit of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, combines lab science, fieldwork and data modeling to help reduce locust outbreaks and the effects of plagues, with the goal to improve the well-being of farm communities and global sustainability.

The initiative is led by Senior Sustainability Scientist Arianne Cease, who describes her work in a six-minute KED Talk video, produced by ASU’s Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development.

Fmr. UN Ambassador joins ASU

April 2, 2018

Amanda EllisASU is pleased to announce the appointment of Amanda Ellis as executive director, Hawaii & Asia-Pacific; director of strategic partnerships; and Senior Special Advisor for International Diplomacy, Sustainable Development and Inclusion for the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability. In this role, Ellis will create and cultivate international strategic partnerships and program initiatives that will include international sustainability, diplomacy and development, global gender issues, diversity and inclusion.

With her network of high level contacts from her time as Ambassador to the United Nations and at the World Bank Group, as well as demonstrated abilities to engage in advocacy, outreach, partnership and coalition building at the highest levels, Ellis will also support the full suite of sustainability experts across the Wrigley Institute to advance their research impact globally and to create relevant partnerships.

Until March 2016, Ellis served as New Zealand’s Head of Mission and Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. Ellis has also served as Deputy Secretary International Development and was the first woman to head the New Zealand Aid Programme.

Thunderbird names new dean

View Source | April 2, 2018

Sanjeev KhagramArizona State University has appointed Sanjeev Khagram, a world-renowned expert in global leadership, the international political economy, sustainable development and the data revolution, as the next director-general and dean of Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Khagram will join the board of directors of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, and he will play a leadership role in the future of Thunderbird’s executive education programs.

Khagram has identified three areas in which he believes the Thunderbird School can take the lead in educating students from around the world: the global and transnational nature of the world, the cross-sectoral nature of the world, and the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation to comprehensive economic advancement.

ASU launches the Global Drylands Center

March 29, 2018

Global DrylandsThe Global Drylands Center (GDC) celebrated its first six months with its official launch last Thursday. The amicable gathering hosted at the University Club brought together affiliates and faculty from diverse disciplines. A welcoming talk by GDC Director Dr. Osvaldo Sala highlighted early accomplishments, acknowledged the help and participation of affiliates and staff, and thanked the support of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and ASU Wrigley Institute.

Following, ASU Wrigley Institute Director Gary Dirks highlighted the intersecting grounds of GDC and the ASU charter. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Natural Sciences Dean Ferrán García-Pichel also gave some words, offering a historic perspective of the center as an interesting analogy between the importance of history for science and the inception of GDC.

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Endangered vaquitas: Film screening and discussion

March 21, 2018

Film poster illustration of three vaquitas swimming in coral reef with title of the film "Souls of the Vermilion Sea"Arizona State University’s Center for Biodiversity Outcomes is pleased to collaborate with local partners Plea for the Sea and Lightkeepers Foundation to offer a special screening of the short documentary Souls of the Vermilion Sea.

The free public event will occur on Sunday, March 25 from 3-5 p.m. at the university’s Memorial Union in Room 230 (Pima). The event will also be live streamed. More details are available at the following link:  http://links.asu.edu/VaquitaEvent  

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Bringing stable power to the most remote communities

View Source | February 22, 2018

DR. Nathan Johnson in front of Solar PanelsAs many as 1.3 billion people lack access to electrical power, according to Senior Sustainability Scientist Nathan Johnson. That's why the ASU engineer – who directs the Laboratory for Energy And Power Solutions – is advancing technologies for electrical-grid modernization and off-grid electrification.

One of these solutions is the microgrid, which provides independent power generation and storage. Johnson and the LEAPS team are developing microgrids that are more technically and economically viable – easier to design, scale and transport. On top of providing the world's poorest and most remote communities with stable power, this technology can improve scenarios like disaster relief and medical care.

Johnson’s approach to military microgrids won a TechConnect Defense Innovation Award at the Defense Innovation Technology Acceleration Challenges Summit.

ASU, Major League Baseball partner for sustainability

View Source | February 21, 2018

BaseballMajor League Baseball has announced it will partner with ASU's School of Sustainability on a zero waste initiative during parts of the 2018 Cactus League schedule. ASU sustainability students will engage with baseball fans and help Salt River Fields – spring training home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies – to minimize and manage their waste.

"We want do our part to ensure that future generations of D-backs fans can appreciate the beautiful Arizona landscape and will continue to focus on improving sustainability efforts throughout Spring Training and all season long at Chase Field," says Arizona Diamondbacks President and CEO Derrick Hall.

According to Christopher Boone, dean of the School of Sustainability, the partnership is a perfect fit for the school. "We are thrilled to be able to let our faculty and students apply their classroom knowledge in a real-world setting and help the Cactus League aim for the ambitious goal of zero waste," Boone said.

Slum residents make themselves count

View Source | February 20, 2018

picture of slumsIf cities in developing nations don’t address their burgeoning slums, poverty will increase, political instability will heighten and human misery will continue.

That's according to Senior Sustainability Scientist José Lobo, one of the authors of a 2018 report presented at the World Urban Forum. The report detailed the efforts of Know Your City, an initiative that organized slum residents in 103 cities to profile, enumerate and map their communities.

“The central premise of community data collection is that the data collected becomes an instrument to foster a dialogue among the many different parties (communities, public agencies, governments, NGOs, international funding agencies) about the design and implementation of effective solutions,” Lobo said.

Largest community of ecologists names ASU scientist its 2019 president

February 7, 2018

Osvaldo-Sala-Blue-ShirtThe members of the Ecological Society of America have elected Osvaldo Sala – founding director of Arizona State University's Global Drylands Center – to a three-year term on the ESA governing board. Sala will assume the role of president elect in August 2018, president in 2019 and past president in 2020.

Sala is a professor in the School of Life Sciences and the Julie A. Wrigley Chair in Life Sciences and Sustainability in the School of Sustainability. He founded the Global Drylands Center in 2017 to engage key stakeholders in dryland stewardship and develop solutions for arid ecosystems around the world. Of over 100 previous ESA presidents, Sala will be the first Hispanic person to hold the position.

Founded in 1915, the ESA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit community of more than 9,000 scientists, researchers, decision makers, policy managers and educators who are dedicated to understanding life on Earth. It is the largest community of ecologists in the world.

ASU hosts Environmental Humanities workshop

February 7, 2018

Mike HulmeIn January 2018, over 40 participants from universities around the world gathered at ASU for a workshop co-sponsored by the Environmental Humanities Initiative and the PLuS Alliance.

The workshop focused on the ways that humanities methodologies are contributing to interdisciplinary collaboration and participatory engagement on climate change and energy transition. Participants also explored how better assessment of impact might be piloted through modes of inquiry that include narrative, story, metaphor, imagery and representations that convey the cultural knowledge behind decision making.

Mike Hulme, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Cambridge, kicked off the workshop with a 2018 EHI lecture titled “The Cultural Functions of Climate.” Workshop sessions were keynoted by leading international cultural geographers, humanists and philosophers, including Giovanna Di Chiro of Swarthmore College and Kyle Powys Whyte of Michigan State University.

We followed up with Joni Adamson – English and Environmental Humanities Professor, Senior Sustainability Scholar & Director of the Environmental Humanities Initiative – to tell us more about the workshop and EHI:

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Undergrad helps the tourism industry become certifiably green

February 5, 2018

Justyn BeachInterns often wear many different hats, being responsible for or involved in a handful of different projects at any given time. This was certainly true in the case of Justyn Beach, who obtained a Pollution Prevention (P2) Internship for the Hospitality and Lodging Sector with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ).

Justyn is a Sustainability undergraduate studying Sustainability with a Policy and Governance concentration and a minor in Justice Studies. From August to November of 2017 he created a comprehensive checklist of sustainable business practices for hotels, lodges, and resorts. It served as the bridge between sustainability and hotels, lodges, and resorts across the entire state of Arizona, and it was very difficult to create a statewide program that is large enough to be effective yet not so large that it becomes unwieldy. The checklist is part of a larger Green Certification Program that is currently being developed by the Arizona Lodging and Tourism Association (AzLTA) in conjunction with Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It’s a step toward creating a more sustainable, functional business model.

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Habitat for Humanity CEO talks to KJZZ about affordable housing

View Source | February 1, 2018

Jonathan Reckford in the KJZZ studioWhile Habitat for Humanity CEO Jonathan Reckford was in Phoenix as a speaker for the Wrigley Lecture Series, he stopped by the public radio station KJZZ to talk about the importance of affordable housing.

"Housing is complicated and expensive. It's hard to tackle," Reckford said in the segment. "The only real solutions are to get the public sector, the private sector and the nonprofit community working together on community transformation."

“What we’ve seen — and the data is very strong — is that mixed-income, mixed-use communities are the healthiest approach for everybody involved,” Reckford told the show's host Mark Brodie. Reckford went into more detail about affordable housing in his lecture, "Housing for Inclusive and Equitable Cities," sponsored by the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University.

Retailers rise with the tide of responsible products

View Source | February 1, 2018

Shopping Cart in Grocery Store Aisle$200 billion worth of consumer products are now managed using tools created by The Sustainability Consortium – an organization run by ASU and the University of Arkansas – according to the consortium's 2017 impact report.

TSC helps companies define, develop and deliver more sustainable products by providing them with science-based tools. Its members – which exceed 100 and include brands like Walmart, Amazon and Walgreens – have access to research insights in almost 130 product categories. To date, 85 percent of consumer goods are covered.

“We are now seeing the tide changing in the number of companies committing to creating sustainable products for a more sustainable planet,” said TSC Chief Executive Euan Murray.