Factors that Influence the Exit Rates of Sustainability Science: A Graduate Student’s Perspective

By Colin Kunzweiler

Sustainability has been called both a buzzword and the issue of our age, but the field’s explosive growth demonstrates that it is also an “infectious” concept and field. Through a population model that included states of susceptibility, exposure and infectiousness (Figure 1), two authors recently explored individuals’ introduction to and progression within the emerging discipline of sustainability science (1). … Continue Reading

Occupy Creation!: The Role of Religion and Ethics in Addressing Climate Change

By Rev. Doug Bland

Standing on the steps of the Newman Catholic Student Center across the street from ASU’s campus and the Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS), Rev. Jan Olav Flaaten told the story of climate refugees in the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu.  As he recounted the story of rising sea levels, Flaaten grasped the blue shower curtain that encircled him and slowly raised it from his knees to his waist to his chest.  He finished the story with only his nose sticking above the rising cloth waves. … Continue Reading

On Listening and Being Heard at Occupy Wall Street

By Allain Barnett

It was a Saturday night, and I was glued to my computer screen, watching closely as a large line of police officers closed in on a group of citizens occupying a public park in Chicago. … Continue Reading

Occupy Sustainability: Is This a Special Moment?

By Charles L. Redman, PhD

About a month ago I sent out an email to School of Sustainability (SOS) students and colleagues posing the question of whether key elements of the Occupy Wall Street movement share important similarities with our own quest to encourage and implement a sustainability transformation in society. I received a dozen replies that supported further dialogue. My goal here is to stimulate discussion of these issues with the hope that we can learn from what is happening and, if you choose to do so, encourage you to contribute to the success of this movement.

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The Problem with “Sustainability”

By Robert Kutter

It might seem like a strange message from the soon-to-be former editor-in-chief of a publication on sustainability, but I don’t like the word “sustainability.” It hides the truly admirable part of what my classmates are trying to do: solve difficult problems with new approaches for the benefit of people and the environment. Actually, sustainability connotes keeping things the same, which is the opposite of what my classmates are trying to do: change things for the better.

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Skills for Sustainability Professionals

In response to a growing need to move the world toward sustainable development and sustainable practices, a whole new professional track has emerged in the last decade. In 2010, the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP)—the professional association that serves the needs of people working in this field—undertook a research study to answer the question, “What should a sustainability professional know how to do?” What we learned should inform everyone entering and working in this field.
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The Second Green Wave

Enrollment in post-secondary, degree-granting institutions swelled 26% between 1997 and 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Moreover, the last decade has seen a dramatic upsurge of interest in the environment and sustainability on college and university campuses—in and out of the classroom.

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Phosphorus and food security: Framing a global sustainability challenge through art

By Laura Turnbull

The role of art in science has gained precedence as a means to engage non-scientific communities in key science-related issues. ASU’s Sustainable Phosphorus Summit explored how art can serve as a universal language by which to communicate critical sustainability challenges – with colorful results.

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A tale of two neighbors: the United States’ and Canada’s distinct but intertwined paths to sustainability

By Genevieve Metson

The U.S. and Canada are the largest trading partners in the world. According to the U.S. Department of State, the total trade between these two countries exceeded $610 billion in 2008. Seventy-five percent of Canada’s exports go to the U.S., and 20% of U.S. exports go to Canada. They also share the longest non-militarized border between any two nations and a vast continent with a multitude of natural resources. Their close geographic, economic and political ties make them strong partners but also leave each vulnerable to decisions across the border. As a citizen and resident of both nations, I can attest to these close ties and to the double-edged sword of such an intimate relationship.

The close relationship between these two nations intertwines their futures as well. If either nation strives for a more sustainable society, it should not expect to succeed by acting in isolation. However, their distinct histories, political systems and geographic realities mean that the path toward sustainability will be different for Canada and the U.S. These nations must coordinate their dissimilar strategies toward sustainability.

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TSR and Dialogue on Sustainability

By Robert Kutter

This year, we want to make The Sustainability Review (TSR) more accessible and reach a wider audience. We’ve made changes to TSR’s format to help meet these goals. But before talking about these changes, I’d like to briefly explain why I think engaging a wide audience is so important in sustainability.

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Rapid response: Sustainability demands more speed and agility from universities

By R.F. “Rick” Shangraw, Jr.

If you’ve ever wondered why sustainability is so difficult to achieve, consider the Thanksgiving dinner. Each year in homes across our nation, many hours of preparation go into making a big meal that is consumed in a fraction of that time, followed by a lengthy cleanup effort and several days of leftovers. While overly simplistic, it’s an example of the inherent difficulties in balancing production and consumption while also managing their byproducts of waste and surplus.

Whether the goal is wise use of natural resources or economic stability, achieving stasis—the state of optimal balance—is a highly dynamic process that requires timely intervention to keep systems in check. Many experts agree that a variety of factors, including exponential population growth, are increasing the frequency and severity of change in many previously “stable” ecosystems.

As a result, there is an urgent need for more rapid innovation in response to changes in our natural and societal ecosystems in order to sustain or improve living standards and protect our planet. Research universities can play an important role in catalyzing this innovation, but only if they learn to accelerate the pace of discovery and improve the mechanisms for quickly driving these discoveries into the marketplace. In particular, we desperately need innovations that enable society to identify and correct imbalances earlier to prevent cascading effects.

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Electric Utilities Could Determine the Success of the Renewable Energy Industry

By Bradford Pete-Hill

In the last decade, the advancement of the renewable energy industry in the United States has depended primarily on the efforts of product manufacturers and environmental groups. They have used in-house marketing and outreach programs to gain the public’s interest in renewable energy and to explain the benefits of clean technologies. However, in order for the renewable energy industry to further its market expansion in the U.S., it should transition from self-promoting programs to those that employ and rely on state and regional electric utility¹ companies for more substantial growth.

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Students’ Perspective on Building Knowledge for Sustainability*

By Tischa A. Muñoz-Erickson and Thaddeus R. Miller

* Op-Ed previously published on February 2009 in the Newsletter of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE), Pages 24-25; http://www.ecoeco.org/pdf/Feb2009.pdf

Newsletter editor: Bernardo Aguilar-González

In the fall of 2007, we joined twenty-eight other students as the first class in the School of Sustainability (SOS) at Arizona State University. As one of the nation’s first schools to offer degrees in Sustainability, we knew that we were embarking on an experiment. Previous training in environmental science and policy, as well as exposure to transdiciplinary fields such as ecological economics, which work across academic disciplines and in conjunction with society, partially prepared us for the problems and opportunities that arise when obtaining a degree in Sustainability.

Building knowledge for sustainability demands exposure to such academic backgrounds, and much more. The School of Sustainability has brought in students and faculty from completely different fields, such as anthropology, ecology, economics, engineering, geography, geology, and the humanities, to engage with each other and sustainability. This unique blend of personnel has a profound effect on the way we work across academic disciplines and approach real-world issues.

As we–students and future scholars and practitioners in the field–attempt to build knowledge for sustainability that will contribute to solutions for society’s problems, we face what we see as three key questions:

1)  How do we become agents of change, while working in the context of academic institutional constraints?

2)  How do academic institutions balance the production of more stable, disciplinary knowledge with innovative knowledge for sustainability?

3)  How do programs like SOS develop and maintain an identity while adapting to an evolving societal discourse around sustainability?

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President Crow: American Research Universities Must Lead Our Emergence from the Stone Age

By Michael M. Crow

During the past few years many of us may have confronted the disturbing realization that the standard operating procedures of our contemporary culture often fall short of the mark or even produce entirely unintended consequences.  The near-meltdown of global economic markets and our faltering efforts to revive the economy, to consider but one scenario among many, offer stark evidence that we seem to be grappling with the escalating complexities of the present and future stuck resolutely in the mindset of the past.  This is to say nothing about our success in shaping a world that in all likelihood cannot sustain our long-term enhancements in wealth generation and, more generally, quality of life for humanity.  Given the apparent limitations in our knowledge matched with our overwhelming hubris as well as capacity to exercise brute force, and there is only one possible conclusion:  as a species we are still mired in the final decades of the Stone Age.

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Behavioral Adoption: The Greatest Challenge to Sustainable Living

By John M. Quick

Sustainability has been defined by the United Nations as the human ability to meet “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” While one would be hard pressed to find an individual who is ideologically opposed to this tenet of sustainability, one may encounter similar difficulty in locating a person whose lifestyle truly embodies these ideals. Visions of a healthy, thriving, and “green” planet inspire warm and positive feelings in many people. Yet, as it turns out, human nature is such that thoughts are often not followed by actions. While the minds of some of the world’s citizens may be captivated by the notion of sustainability, taking real action in support of it can prove difficult. This discrepancy between thought and actual behavior presents sustainable living with its greatest challenge.

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An Apocalyptic Warning: Art’s Take on the Environment

By Heather Findling

When you walk into the “Defining Sustainability” exhibition at the Arizona State University Art Museum, you are thrust into a world of warning. The exhibition challenges viewers to step out of their day-to-day bustle, examining events such as industrialization and natural disasters, and to consider that the human existence is based on a limited supply of natural resources.  Artists convey themes of conservation, decay, and survival.

The exhibition starts with older, more historic pieces, gradually bringing the viewer to the present with contemporary art. Some pieces depict land as an untouched utopia, while others challenge the notion of industrial “progress.” Some render apocalyptic messages of environmental abandonment and collapse. The quiet and serene atmosphere of the gallery allows visitors to let their mind wander, with sustainability texts ever-present to bring back ones’ focus.

Oscar Oiwa’s "Black Snow II," Oil on canvas 227 x 444 cm (90"x180"), 2003, Arizona State University Art Museum collection, Tempe, Arizona. Reproduction courtesy of artist Oscar Oiwa and P.P.O.W. Gallery, NY, NY.

As I enter the gallery space, one piece in particular catches my attention: Oscar Oiwa’s multi-paneled Black Snow 2, painted in 2003. The visual attraction does not come from the painting’s size (90” x 180”); instead, it derives from the painting’s mysterious and illusive oranges, yellows, reds, and blacks. There is a peaceful quality to the painting. Yet at the same time, a sense of uneasiness pulls at me.

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Arizona Testbowl: Denying Human Rights and Experimenting with the Ecological Integrity of the San Francisco Peaks

By Kyle Boggs

In Northern Arizona, on the slopes of the state’s highest peak, stands an on-going controversy illuminating deep cultural divides. Here, human rights and environmental justice stand in opposition to enhanced skiing recreation. As the dominant Euro-American culture shifts its perception of progress to achieve a just and sustainable future, the fight to save the San Francisco Peaks from contamination and further development stands at the crossroads of this transition.

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