May 15, 2013
Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability Alumni Chapter won first place in the Sparky’s Membership Mania Competition for the second consecutive year. This competition provides a $500 cash award to the ASU Alumni Chapter with the largest increase in membership each year. Thank you to the many School of Sustainability graduates who have joined the School of Sustainability Alumni Chapter. We appreciate your talents, expertise, and connection to your alma mater! Pictured left to right: Alissa Pierson (ASU Alumni Association), Brigitte Bavousett (School of Sustainability Alumni Chapter President), Dr. Christine Wilkinson (ASU Alumni Association).
May 14, 2013
Omaya Ahmad, a fellow with Arizona State University’s Sustainability Science for Sustainable Schools program and a School of Sustainability doctoral student, integrates sustainability in Greenway Middle School’s curriculum and established courses.
Particularly, Ahmad teaches environmental sustainability to seventh-graders and societal sustainability to eight-graders. Through Greenway’s partnership with the Phoenix Art Museum and the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Ahmad was able to use local artwork to give her students real-life lessons outside the classroom.
“I wanted to do my fellowship in the Paradise Valley Unified School District because I graduated from a school in that district,” says Ahmad. “They matched me to Greenway, because of the opportunities with the honors core there. It was such a great match. It was gratifying to watch the students learn, and I learned a lot, too.”
May 9, 2013
For his new professor of practice position at ASU’s School of Sustainability and ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Peter Byck will be teaching a new “Sustainability Storytelling” course this fall.
Students from the two schools will learn how to produce and direct their own five-minute documentaries about issues surrounding clean energy and climate change. Byck is a seasoned documentarist; his first film, “Garbage,” won the South by Southwest Film Festival and his second documentary, “Carbon Nation,” is gaining worldwide attention.
“Working with a large university like ASU will allow us to amplify stories out into the world because we need to educate the American people on clean energy,” says Byck.
May 8, 2013
Natalie Fleming graduated from the School of Sustainability in 2012 and a month later, she obtained a position at a Utah startup called EcoScraps. The company collects food waste from grocery stores, food banks, and farms and turns it into eco-friendly and sustainable gardening products. Working remotely in San Francisco, Fleming is the district sales manager responsible for training EcoScrap employees and representatives.
She gives some advice to graduating sustainability students on how to enter the job market:
“Tell everyone you meet how excited you are to graduate and how much you love sustainability,” Fleming says. “Let them know you’re on a job hunt. Share your interest with people and you never know where that connection is going to come from. It will help you get your foot in the door.”
May 7, 2013
Move-out topics like packing, cleaning, and textbooks are covered in The Green Register’s “The Green Minute.”
For instance, you can collect recycled boxes from local companies instead of buying brand-new boxes. Be sure to sell back your old textbooks, too, or donate them to local schools. And have leftover furniture? Sell it online or host a garage sale.
For more tips, learn about Arizona State University’s Ditch the Dumpster program.
April 29, 2013
Outstanding graduate and Fulbright winner Jill Brumand is an honors student and a double major in sustainability and geography. She started her academic career at Arizona State University in 2009 and will begin her graduate career as a Fulbright master’s student at Lancaster University in Northwest England.
During her sophomore year, Brumand partnered with Sustainability Scientist Kelli Larson to do some undergraduate research work on people’s landscape choices in Phoenix and the sustainability implications. Throughout the rest of her undergraduate career, Brumand worked with Dell and Maricopa County. She was also a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) student with the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) program. Brumand credits her success to the School of Sustainability.
“The School of Sustainability has a network of people who care and check up on you,” she says. “The support and encouragement of the faculty and staff at the school has been invaluable.”
April 26, 2013
For the fifth consecutive year, Arizona State University made The Princeton Review’s “Green Honor Roll,” a list that includes universities across the nation that promote sustainability in education, practices, and partnerships.
ASU has the largest collection of solar panels of any public university and numerous LEED-certified buildings. Sustainability is a core goal across departmental curriculum. The university is also pursuing carbon neutrality by 2035.
As part of the recognition, ASU will appear in The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2013 Edition, the only free publication that offers information on the top colleges focusing on sustainability.
April 24, 2013
As part of Arizona State University’s Sustainability Science for Sustainable Schools program, engineering graduate student Shawn Fink organized Mountain Pointe High School’s Earth Day celebrations. He also partnered with the high school’s teachers to create sustainability lesson plans and student projects.
The Sustainability Science for Sustainable Schools program, part of ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability, recently won the 2013 President’s Award for Sustainability. Since the program’s inception, ASU has partnered with more than ten local K-12 schools. Graduate students at ASU can learn how to interact with students, plan lessons, and gain real-world experience in teaching.
“High school students will face real, complex sustainability challenges in their lifetimes,” says Monica Elser, a principal investigator for the Sustainable Schools program. When students learn about sustainability in their classrooms and through real projects implemented in their schools, she says, “it helps them see how sustainability applies to them, and how they can make a difference in the future.”
April 24, 2013
A recent School of Sustainability alum, Andrew Krause, and his mentor, Sustainability Scientist George Basile, and two former classmates have launched the website, eEcosphere in an effort to make sustainability actions easier to adopt among everyday people.
The website is based on years of research done by Basile and other sustainability scientists. The research they compiled outlines how people and corporations have undertaken sustainability efforts. This research is now on eEcosphere in an easy-to-read, interactive format with social capabilities.
“A person may already be saving energy but might need help with water conservation; someone else might need help with both,” Krause elaborates. “eEcosphere helps people identify and adopt ideas that match their personal sustainability goals. It embeds a scientific approach in the decision-making process and encourages people to take action as a group using the social web.”
April 21, 2013
For their demonstrated excellence in fostering the successful development, implementation and promotion of sustainability, three programs at ASU were awarded the President’s Award for Sustainability:
Facilities Management Grounds Services – Grounds for Grounds
The program recycles coffee grounds into fertilizer, working towards Arizona State University’s zero waste goal.
Materials Management Recycling
The recyclable items list has grown thanks to ASU’s Materials Management, which also helps ASU Recycling staff.
Sustainability Science for Sustainable Schools
Graduate students, professors, high school students and teachers, and researchers team up to work on a project to make a local Arizona school more sustainable.
April 19, 2013
Women & Philanthropy, a group committed to supporting and investing in Arizona State University, awarded $286,541 to six promising programs this year, the highest amount of total annual funding in its 10-year history.
While this year’s grants recognize ASU’s commitment to science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics (STEAM), they also include programs that support ASU’s commitment to connect with communities through mutually beneficial partnerships.
The School of Sustainability, part of the Global Institute of Sustainability, received $30,200 to work with the journal, “The Sustainability Review,” to produce public videos highlighting current research in an easy-to-understand format.
April 16, 2013
Visit the Farmers Market @ the ASU Tempe Campus on Tuesday, April 23 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. to celebrate Earth Day 2013. This will be the last market of the spring season.
This market will feature guest vendors, Medicine Take-Back Day, prize drawings and extra tables and chairs for lunch dining.
Visit Farmers Market Special Events to learn more or email FarmersMarket@asu.edu.
April 16, 2013
Emily Allen, a sustainability and English major and student in Barrett, The Honors College, has been named a 2013 Udall Scholar by the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation. She will receive a $5,000 scholarship to use toward tuition for her senior year at Arizona State University.
Allen hopes to follow in the footsteps of the scholarship’s namesake, Morris K. Udall, a U.S. congressman who established legislation in Arizona to expand national parks and create the Central Arizona Project.
“My career goal is to work with local governments in the state of Arizona to protect fragile water resources from the pressures of overuse and rapid urban development. I plan to accomplish this goal as an attorney with a water law specialty, either in a private firm or a local municipality,” Allen stated on her scholarship application.
April 11, 2013
Arizona State University Professor Carlos Castillo-Chavez has been reappointed to the U.S. President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science.
Castillo-Chavez is a Regents’ Professor and a Joaquin Bustoz Jr. Professor at ASU. He is a faculty member in ASU’s School of Sustainability and a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist in ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability. President Obama first appointed him to the President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science in 2010.
The 12-member committee evaluates and nominates fellow scientists for the National Medal of Science—one of the field’s highest honors. Nominated scientists come from the physical, biological, mathematical or engineering sectors.
Upon his reappointment, President Obama said: “I am grateful that these impressive individuals have chosen to dedicate their talents to serving the American people at this important time for our country. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”
April 10, 2013
A celebration of food, art, and community is coming to downtown Phoenix on Saturday, April 13. Called “Feast on the Street,” the event is a culmination of numerous local community partnerships that will bring people together for a meal or two on First Street in Phoenix’s Roosevelt Row District.
“Feast on the Street is an urban harvest festival celebrating food and art in the desert, while reclaiming the city street for pedestrians,” says Heather Lineberry, Arizona State University Art Museum’s senior curator, associate director, and an event organizer. “It creates a place to gather with our Phoenix neighbors around art and food. What could be better?”
The Global Institute of Sustainability is providing composting workshops at the zero waste event and ASU’s Green Team will educate participants on recycling, composting, and waste. ASU School of Sustainability alumnus, Colin Tetreault, will act as master of ceremonies.
April 8, 2013
For Earth Month 2013, the Global Institute of Sustainability will welcome Richard Morrison, ASU’s Morrison Institute co-founder, to talk about sustainable and ethical business practices. Part of the Institute’s Sustainability Series, Morrison’s talk, “Ethics and Sustainable Practices,” will take place on Monday, April 29, from noon until 1:30 p.m.
Morrison is an Episcopal priest and a sustainable ranching business partner. He is also an attorney, focusing on Native American water rights and natural resource policy.
Morrison says his main sustainability challenge is world hunger. Morrison joined the Farm Foundation’s Dialogue Project for Food and Agriculture Policy in the 21st Century to find a common commitment to ending world hunger.
April 2, 2013
Earth Day is Monday, April 22 and Arizona State University is turning all of April into Earth Month 2013. Tempe campus and Polytechnic campus feature multiple events like workshops, lectures, and film screenings. All events are open to the public.
“ASU’s Earth Month helps us celebrate our connections to the natural resources and ecosystems on which we depend,” says Nick Brown, ASU’s director of University Sustainability Practices. “In an urban environment, it’s easy to overlook our interdependence on natural systems, and observations like Earth Day remind us of our need for good land stewardship.”
April 1, 2013
Ten films will be screened during Arizona State University’s Human Rights Festival this weekend, April 5-7, at the Tempe campus.
Human Rights Film Festival Director and Sustainability Scientist LaDawn Haglund says, “I was inspired to create a human rights film festival, in part, because in an academic environment, it is easy to get lost in heady and sometimes terrible facts. Film, when done well, forces us to bring our hearts to the issues, helping us to empathize and, hopefully, spurring us to act.”
Of the films, one is part of ASU’s Earth Week 2013 events entitled “A Fierce Green Fire.” The film explores the history of the grassroots environmental movement for the last fifty years. Another film, “Four Stories Of Water” focuses on indigenous water rights.
April 1, 2013
Naomi Oreskes will be visiting Arizona State University to give her lecture, “Who is Responsible for Climate Change?” on Earth Day, Monday, April 22 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. at Old Main’s Carson Ballroom on the Tempe campus.
Oreskes is a prolific writer, appearing in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and academic journals like Nature and Science. She was named the 2011 Climate Change Communicator of the Year by George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication.
As a writer and an academic, Oreskes researches the role of science in society and investigates society’s reaction to climate change evidence. She shares the importance and urgency of climate change to multiple audiences.
March 30, 2013
Researchers at Arizona State University, including Sustainability Scientist Marco Janssen, are using games to learn about water resource sharing and cooperation among people.
The project was recently covered in an article by the International Food Policy Research Institute, which is a partner on the project along with India’s Foundation for Ecological Security and Colombia’s Universidad de los Andes.
The research is taking place in rural India and Colombia where groups of villagers are asked to act out water use and crop growing strategies in low-water surroundings. Once their “water supply” is exceeded, the game is over.
Established in 2007, the School of Sustainability brings together multiple disciplines and leaders to create and share knowledge, train a new generation of scholars and practitioners, and develop practical solutions to the most pressing environmental, economic, and social challenges of sustainability - especially as they relate to urban areas.
5/14 - Student connects art, sustainability through experiential learning
5/13 - Scientists use crowd-sourcing to help map global CO2 emissions
