Sustainability Highlights

Anniversary celebration propels school into its next decade

From a Wrigley Lecture by Michael Pollan to a Festival of Sustainability at ASU, the events of April 14 not only celebrated the evolution and accomplishments of the nation's first School of Sustainability, they spotlighted the foresight and collaborative spirit of the university as a whole.

An early, bold innovation at most innovative university

Kicking off the Festival of Sustainability at ASU on the front steps of Wrigley Hall, Benefactor Julie Wrigley spotlighted the School of Sustainability's role as a model for the 150 sustainability programs established since its inception. Click below for a video recording of her remarks.

Ringing in the Next 10 in the social media sphere

Thanks to the ASU Wrigley Institute's social media team, the School of Sustainability's 10th Anniversary was a popular topic both on campus and in the Twitter-verse, where a global audience of nearly 25,000 followers could watch the festivities of April 14 unfold. Click below for the highlights.

Best-selling author takes a look at your next meal

Part of the School of Sustainability's 10th anniversary celebration, author and food activist Michael Pollan – named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine – described in his April 2016 Wrigley Lecture how we can fix our broken food system.

WaterSim debuts at largest science festival in US

ASU's Decision Center for a Desert City was one of only 30 NSF-funded projects invited to represent the organization at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C., where the DCDC team introduced attendees to its water supply and demand simulation tool – WaterSim.

LightWorks draws VIP crowd at energy innovation summit

Former Vice President Al Gore and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim were among the dignitaries who stopped by the ASU LightWorks booth at the ARPA-E summit – held in Washington, D.C. – to admire the solar technology developed by senior sustainability scientist Zak Holman.

Partnership to increase educational success of Native Hawaiians

With a shared mission to improve the communities around them through education, Arizona State University and Hawai‘i’s Kamehameha Schools have partnered to promote cooperation in key areas like sustainability, research and innovation.

Expect the unexpected in age of The Anthropocene

According to Sir Crispin Tickell, member of the Board of Directors for Sustainability at ASU, how we cope with the accumulating effects of our actions is a major issue for society and requires both understanding and political leadership – a sentiment he expressed during an April Sustainability Series talk.

Let's talk water abundance, not scarcity, says new initiative

Announced at a recent White House Water Summit, a new ASU initiative called FutureH2O – under the direction of sustainability scientist John Sabo – will look for opportunities to harness the abundance of Earth's water using methods the university is uniquely poised to apply.

Mexico to modernize power grid with help from ASU

Thanks in part to the energy economic modeling proficiency of Decision Theater, ASU was named a participant in a three-year, $26-million grant to help Mexico – a country in the midst of updating its energy industry – explore its energy options and the ways it can connect with its neighbors.

Status of sustainability in the Colorado River Basin

At an annual keynote hosted by Decision Center for a Desert City, the directors of the Colorado Water Conservation Board and Arizona Department of Water Resources agreed that the ample water supply in the two states is the result of careful planning and conservation, and should not be taken for granted.

New tool helps corporations apply analytics to water use

ASU's Center for Biodiversity Outcomes is behind a revolutionary Green Infrastructure Support Tool that helps corporations like Dow Chemical apply analytics to their water use, simultaneously supporting water conservation, habitat restoration and the bottom line.

ASU mends the trails of iconic mountain on Earth Day

The largest turnout in the event's seven-year history, roughly 150 volunteers from the ASU Wrigley Institute and other organizations hit the trails of "A" Mountain – Tempe's only nature preserve – collecting up to 150 bags of trash in commemoration of Earth Day.

Conservation biology students launch Nature@ASU

Nature@ASU – which launches in the fall of this year – will serve as an extensive resource for future conservation biologists, providing them with mentorship opportunities and introducing them to the wide range of career options in the field.