April 20, 2012
TEMPE, Ariz., – April 20, 2012 – During its annual Global Sustainability Milestone Meeting on April 18th, Walmart announced that it is integrating the knowledge products produced by The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) into the retailer’s Sustainability Index and Live Better Scorecard. Walmart will use these tools to help its merchants evaluate suppliers and their products and collaborate to make the products on Walmart shelves more sustainable.
Walmart representatives expressed that they are particularly excited about integrating TSC’s Category Sustainability Profiles (CSPs) and corresponding Key Performance Indicators into their Sustainability Index this year. Both Walmart and Sam’s Club will be using these tools as a basis for ranking suppliers in a particular category according to their sustainability progress and to inform buyers about actionable opportunities for improvement.
April 18, 2012
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Arizona State University signed a Memorandum of Understanding designed to increase their outreach to diverse and underserved communities by offering internships, joint projects, and scientific research opportunities to ASU students and faculty.
“EPA will benefit from the tremendous pool of talent, energy and commitment offered by Arizona State students,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “This collaboration will enhance participation in environmental studies by students from every corner of the state.”
April 18, 2012
Along with Barack Obama and Stephen Colbert, ASU’s own Elinor Ostrom was named among TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2012.
Ostrom, a research professor and distinguished sustainability scientist at ASU and the founding director of ASU’s Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics for her analysis of economic governance.
“Ostrom’s work sheds light on the direction society must follow to avoid misuse of shared resources, ‘the tragedy of the commons,’” writes TIME writer Robert Johnson.
April 10, 2012
InBusiness magazine writer Sue Kern-Fleischer noted that the “Net Zero” energy concept is getting “a lot of buzz lately.” She spoke with Arizona State University’s Mick Dalrymple and Harvey Bryan for a story in the April issue of the magazine, which is a collaboration of business organizations and entities in the metropolitan Phoenix area.
April 2, 2012
Scientists say worldwide collections, existing experts and technology make charting 10 million species in less than 50 years achievable; a necessary step to sustain planet’s biodiversity
TEMPE, Ariz. – An ambitious goal to describe 10 million species in less than 50 years is achievable and necessary to sustain Earth’s biodiversity, according to an international group of 39 scientists, scholars and engineers who provided a detailed plan, including measures to build public support, in the March 30 issue of the journal Systematics and Biodiversity.
“Earth’s biosphere has proven to be a vast frontier that, even after centuries of exploration, remains largely uncharted,” wrote the authors, who include biodiversity crusaders Edward O. Wilson and Peter H. Raven.
“Exploring the biosphere is much like exploring the universe,” the authors argued. “The more we learn, the more complex and surprising the biosphere and its story turn out to be.”
By most estimates, about 2 million of Earth’s species are known, with about 18,000 new plants and animals discovered each year. Experts estimate at least 10 million species on Earth are yet to be discovered or accurately classified. These species are tiny, large, buried, hidden in collections, or in plain sight.
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.
5/2 - Crow, faculty present ideas at American Innovation for Sustainability forum
5/1 - Sustainable Army: Creating a Net Zero Bootprint
4/25 - ASU team to represent US in worldwide student technology competition
4/23 - High school students show off research experience, win big
