April 30, 2019
This year, the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University celebrated Earth Day in a new way. Around the clock on April 22, the School of Sustainability's Facebook broadcasted a documentary series highlighting projects and people who are making an impact for a sustainable tomorrow. The successful “24 Hours of Sustainability” broadcast — presented by Wells Fargo and powered by ASU — reached more than 1.7 million Facebook users in 45 countries.
Each short video highlighted a sustainability story in one of five categories: sustainability leaders, students making a difference, conservation leaders at work, teachers inspiring action, and eco-heroes making an impact. Viewers could tune in at any time throughout the day to learn something new about sustainability.
The broadcast also introduced ideas and resources to assist K-12 teachers in integrating sustainability education into their classrooms, including a new ASU campaign on Kahoot! led by School of Sustainability professor Stephanie Pfirman and developed by ASU students. (Kahoot! is a widely used platform to play fun, educational games called “kahoots” that are popular in classrooms.) The ASU Sustainable Futures education campaign includes nine quizzes — which have already attracted nearly 500,000 players since the campaign’s launch in early April — focused on topics such as environment, sustainable food, social justice and energy.
24 Hours of Sustainability was championed by Lara Ferry, a distinguished sustainability scientist in the ASU Wrigley Institute and the associate dean of research and strategic initiatives in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, where she is also a President’s Professor.
“It was wonderful to work across academic units and really focus on solutions coming from all over ASU, at all levels, and from our partner, Wells Fargo. This was a massive team effort that really paid off because nearly two million viewers around the world were able to learn what people in a variety of fields, and really in all walks of life, are doing to make a difference,” Ferry said. “Our hope is that telling stories like these help inspire more people to take action — even a small action — moving us closer to sustainability goals.”
All of the content from 24 Hours of Sustainability is available online through the ASU Wrigley Institute.
Beyond 24 Hours of Sustainability, ASU and Wells Fargo are collaborating on additional sustainability education initiatives designed to engage a range of external audiences in sustainability actions and activities. Future projects will include the nation’s first K-12 Sustainability Education Network which is designed to expand the reach and effectiveness of existing K-12 sustainability education material, and an analysis and expansion of the Wells Fargo Regional Sustainability Teachers' Academy, which hosts professional development workshops designed to help local K-12 teachers across all subjects integrate sustainability science into their curriculum, develop campus projects and encourage community engagement.
“We believe that engaging young people in sustainability early in their academic development can help drive the kinds of behavioral changes that are urgently needed for communities and society to slow the progression of climate change and address the issues of resource efficiency that are critical to the future of our planet,” said CaSondra Devine, Wells Fargo Sustainability Initiatives Leader. “By supporting the integration of sustainability issues into K-12 education, we are working to activate a critical segment of our society to do their part to advance environmental stewardship in homes and communities across the country, and inspire future generations of sustainability leaders."