Sustainability News

This guest post is by Chris Williams, Senior Vice President of Conservation at American Rivers. We’ve partnered with American Rivers to share the adventure of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in Google Maps. -Ed.

For 6 million years, the Colorado River has flowed through the heart of the desert southwest, its waters slowly carving out a canyon so vast it can be seen from space—yet so remote it didn’t appear on early maps of the region. It wasn’t until 1869, when John Wesley Powell led a small exploration party on a rafting trip, that the natural wonders of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon came fully into view.

Now with Google Street View, you can ride the whitewater rapids, cruise the sleepy river bends, and discover the side canyons that make the Colorado River a treasured resource.

Start at an iconic spot like Deer Creek Falls or North Canyon, or climb up to the Nankoweap Granaries. Geology fans will enjoy formations like Hermit Shale and Tapeats Sandstone. On your journey, look out for wildlife like big horn sheep and signs of a volcanic dam that naturally occurred centuries ago.

While you admire its grandeur, remember that the river is also at risk. One of the United States’ most important resources, the Colorado River provides drinking water for 36 million people from Denver to Los Angeles, supports a $26 billion recreation industry, and irrigates nearly 4 million acres of land that grow 15 percent of our nation’s crops. But it’s also one of the most endangered, dammed, diverted and plumbed rivers in the world, thanks to a century of management policies and practices that have promoted the use of Colorado River water at an unsustainable rate. By the time it reaches the Gulf of California in Mexico, the river is barely a trickle—a ghost of its once magnificent self. You can see evidence of the river’s decline In Street View, like the high water mark (showing 1950s driftwood on top of the rock), or sedimentation along the river’s edge down by Lake Mead.

We’re proud to partner with Google and Street View to raise awareness of the need to protect and restore the river. It’s time to speak up and protect the wonder of the Grand Canyon and the riches of a healthy Colorado River. Join American Rivers and help us protect and restore this iconic river of the west—for today and for future generations.

Hawai'i has an unprecedented opportunity to advance the global agenda for greater sustainability. Hawai'i Green Growth brings Hawai'i leaders from energy, food, environment and other sectors together to achieve sustainability in Hawai'i and be a model for integrated green growth.

As the most isolated population on the planet, Hawai'i exemplifies the urgent need for action on the global priority for green growth. Hawai'i's people depend on imports for 95 percent of their energy and 90 percent of their food.

Leaders have unanimously committed to 2030 targets in clean energy, local food, natural resource management, waste reduction and smart sustainable communities. More information can be found here.

Julie Ann Wrigley, business woman, conservationist and philanthropist, brought leaders of Arizona State University to the table in 2014 to help envision a more sustainable island community. They hope to learn as much as they contribute to sustainability research, education and outreach. Photos of the Big Island Conversations visit can be found here.

“At the heart of Hawai'ian values is the concept of Malama 'Aina – to care for the land – to ensure a sustainable and bountiful future,” says Wrigley, who is co-founder of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability.

In the opinion of ASU Wrigley Institute Director Gary Dirks, “Hawai’i is on the leading edge of important sustainability issues, is under pressure to make progress and has a consensus to move forward. ASU is intensely interested in what lies ahead.”

Each year, Popular Science accepts nominations for the brightest young minds in science and engineering, then identifies what it refers to as the "Brilliant 10." Among those in its just-released 2015 cohort is Arianne Cease, a sustainability scientist and assistant professor in ASU’s School of Sustainability.

Cease is cited for her investigations into what transforms individual locusts into ravenous swarms that devastate crops and threaten livelihoods, and her work identifying strategies to stop the insects from swarming.

“We are working to address the age-old challenge of locusts and locust plagues, which are a problem around the world for food security,” said Cease. “We are working to understand what causes plagues so that we can address the problem in a new way, by incorporating local farmers and human communities into the equation.”

The fall meeting of the Board of Directors for Sustainability at ASU will be held in San Francisco next month. The meeting will begin at 12 p.m. on Monday, October 5, and end by 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 6. The agenda will be distributed to meeting participants later this month. Please contact Vanessa Davis (v.davis@asu.edu) for further details.

In his essay, Seeing the full picture: save nature, live better, M. Sanjayan seals the perceived separation between humans and the natural world, demonstrating how conservation is actually in our own enlightened best-interest. Sanjayan's essay is accompanied by a condensed video of his Earth Month Wrigley Lecture.

On August 21, 2015, the ASU Wrigley Institute launched the latest version of its website. The new site not only serves as a portal to all things sustainability at ASU, but offers an improved experience to visitors. This is most apparent in its flattened, streamlined navigation, which allows visitors to browse with ease; adaptable and mobile-friendly layout; and new expert search function.

Additionally, the new site provides greater visibility to the institute's numerous units and initiatives, as well as to its latest Prospectus and 2014 Sustainability Highlights magazine.

The site's launch coincides with that of multiple sub-sites, including Decision Center for a Desert City and the newly-established Living Wisdom: The Global Program for Traditional Knowledge and Sustainability. Such sub-sites will gain Google's favor through improved search engine optimization as a result.

A team of biologists led by ASU researchers has discovered that - when subjected to a temperature of 110 degrees Fahrenheit, even for a few minutes - lizard embryos die. In addition, the researchers learned that previous studies on lizard resilience to warming temperatures ignored early life stages like the embryonic, producing overly optimistic forecasts.

Even if a lizard survives the embryonic stage, repeated exposure to above-average but not lethal temperatures can negatively affect a lizard’s physiology and behavior. Given this information, many more places in the United States could become uninhabitable for lizards than previously expected - an occurrence with far-reaching consequences.

Sustainability scientist Michael Angilletta says, “Because lizards are prey for animals such as birds, snakes and mammals, the harmful effects of climate change on embryonic lizards could also negatively affect other species.”

In his essay, Reimagining Phoenix by Pitching Waste, John Trujillo explains how the city's transition from a linear to circular economy centers on a critical shift in the way trash is regarded. Trujillo is the director of Public Works at the City of Phoenix and heads the Reimagine Phoenix initiative.

School of Sustainability professor Sonja Klinsky recently returned from a United Nations meeting in Bonn, Germany, where she helped fine-tune a draft of a global climate pact. Klinsky discusses what occurred at that meeting and the goals of the pact in this interview on Arizona Horizon.

EMSL graduate Tim Trefzer is recognized with an EBie Award from the US Green Building Council in NYC for his work in greening the Georgia World Congress Center - now the world's largest LEED-certified convention center.

Not only did Trefzer achieve LEED certification for the center in 2014, he championed other sustainable improvements like instituting a solid-waste management policy to improve waste diversion and requiring paper products to have a certain level of recycled content.

Bruce Rittmann is Director of the Biodesign Institute's Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology, a Regents' Professor in Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering's School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, and a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist in the ASU Wrigley Institute. His interests lie in better understanding microorganisms so as to take advantage of the services they can provide to humans and our environment.

In this video, Rittmann provides renewable energy and the decontamination of water and soils as examples of such services. He adds that, through increased investment in our partnership with microorganisms, we can achieve worldwide independence from fossil fuels.

David Pijawka, a senior sustainability scientist and professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, has been awarded $80 thousand by the Navajo Nation to continue his work with its planning community.

The award comes after Pijawka and a team of researchers evaluated the processes, quality and outcomes of the Community-Based Land Use Plans developed by the Nation's chapters. The team found that updates were needed, and recommended that they be guided by the latest technical planning knowledge, tools, methods and professional practices. In response, the Nation asked Pijawka to spearhead the effort.

The award will cover the production of two guidance documents, as well as training for the Nation's regional and chapter planners. Training will occur both on-site and at a  ten-day workshop held in June 2015 on ASU’s Tempe campus, which will feature topics like community visioning and participation, geographic information systems, legal issues, and cultural and sovereignty considerations.

Authored by Matthew D. Bartos and Mikhail V. Chester, and published in Nature Climate Change on May 18, 2015.

Among the summer reading recommendations shared by faculty and staff from across ASU in a recent ASU News article are several from the ASU Wrigley Institute.

Distinguished Sustainability Scientist Chuck Redman believes it is important to have a deeper understanding of poverty (for those of us lucky enough not to have experienced it firsthand), and suggests several books that could contribute to this. He was seriously moved by “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich, a writer who attempted to adopt the lifestyle of the working poor herself.

Redman adds that there are a variety of books on climate change that have reached the mass market and are quite readable. A bit more academic is Tim Flannery’s “The Weather Makers,” which tries to put the history, science and future into context. A bit less academic is Thom Hartmann’s “The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight.”

Brigitte Bavousett, a student recruitment and retention specialist for the School of Sustainability, requires Sustainable Cities students to read David Orr's “The Nature of Design.” Although 13 years old and a "classic" in the field of sustainability, Bavousett says it is very thought-provoking and relevant to current concerns. The variety of topics ranges from "slow knowledge" to "loving children."

Arizona State University has been named one of the nation’s most sustainable colleges for the sixth year in a row by The Princeton Review's "Guide to 353 Green Colleges." The annual guidebook identifies and measures colleges with exemplary commitments to sustainability.

In this year’s green rating, ASU was noted for its use of renewable energy, its number of LEED-certified buildings and available transportation alternatives.

Bruno Sarda is Director of Sustainability Operations for Dell, a consultant for the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, an adjunct professor in the School of Sustainability and a Senior Sustainability Scholar in the ASU Wrigley Institute.

Sarda is a leading practitioner in the field of corporate sustainability. In his role at Dell, he is responsible for business integration and strategy, information strategy, measurement and reporting. Recently named one of the ‘most influential sustainability voices in America’ by The Guardian and ranked sixth in GreenBiz’s Sustainability Twitterati index, he actively participates in a variety of cross-industry efforts such as the Global Reporting Initiative and The Sustainability Consortium.

In this video, he discusses strategies for furthering sustainability in both business and academia.

Video »

Regents’ Professor and Distinguished Sustainability Scientist Rebecca Tsosie is appointed vice provost for Inclusion and Community Engagement.  Her expertise will help the university continue to grow in the areas of diversity, inclusion, new knowledge systems and community-building.

In her new role, Tsosie will help the Arizona State University community further understand and learn how to address complex issues associated with race, gender, ethnicity, religion and other forms of diversity. She will offer guidance to university administrators and work in collaboration with campus organizations, such as the Committee for Campus Inclusion and the Faculty Women’s Association, in order to operationalize ASU’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

It is her hope to develop a transformative model of inclusion and community engagement that will set an important standard for leadership in higher education.

Article by sustainability scientists Shade Shutters, Rachata Muneepeerakul and Jose Lobo is featured in Palgrave Communications - a social science journal by the publishers who produce Nature.

Anthony Brazel, Emeritus Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, and V. Kerry Smith, Emeritus Regents' Professor and Emeritus Professor of Economics, WP Carey School of Economics, were recently honored for their contributions to urban socioecological research in the CAP LTER research program.

Dr. Brazel, an urban climatologist, has been the driving force behind research on the Phoenix urban heat island, collaborating across disciplines with faculty and students at Arizona State University as well as with colleagues at the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, CAP's sister urban LTER site. His research has led to Phoenix being the most studied urban heat island in the United States, and his former students now staff numerous climate-related agencies.

Dr. Smith is a renowned  environmental economist whose work with CAP has focused on the economic valuation of environmental amenities and ecosystem services, contributing important new perspectives to CAP's research program. He has also collaborated on the Phoenix Area Social Survey and has been an important mentor to students interested in entering the economics field.