Hey, we're talking to U

Arizona State and other universities plug sustainability 7

The Christian Science Monitor brings word that Arizona State University will launch a School of Sustainability in January -- the first of its kind in the U.S. ASU leads a pack of similarly green-minded schools, some of which have begun to spend in the millions wooing specialists, building green, and offering sustainable curricula.

ASU, which hopes to integrate its program such that students majoring in other areas can minor in sustainability, will hire dozens of new faculty positions and require all new campus buildings to meet specific green standards. It has big donors on board, including gum heiress Julie Ann Wrigley and Wal-Mart chairman Rob Walton. Cool offerings to entice students include a Biodesign Institute and the fancy-shmancy Decision Theater, "a learning and decision space in which the latest understanding of complex social, economic and natural processes and their interactions are visualized." Or, a space for community leaders to look into the future and realize the environmental consequences of their actions. Can we get one of those for the White House?

Campus sustainability may be a fledgling trend -- ASU President Michael Crow estimates that student interest in sustainability at the school is "in the hundreds now, but our goal is to make it into the thousands" -- but it's growing fast. Case in point: The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education has quintupled in size this year (much to the delight, we're sure, of onetime Grist InterActivist Julian Dautremont-Smith).

Sarah K. Burkhalter is Grist’s assistant managing editor.

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  1. Biodiversivist's avatar

    Biodiversivist Posted 2:59 am
    28 Dec 2006

    The U of A is a bubble in the middleof the worst urban sprawl I have ever seen, a city practically devoid of solar power in one of the sunniest cities in the country.

    In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

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  2. amazingdrx Posted 4:09 am
    28 Dec 2006

    Yep bio-dBurning coal to run air conditioning.  They even have air conditioning that just blows out into the street!
    Solar power and geothermal cooling could have the whole region exporting 4 times more solar electricity than they would use.  Venice, CA is trying to pioneer this sort of solar, zero-emission city energy plan.
    San Diego's study of their solar roof potential proves it's possible.
    Maybe that'll wake up the rest of the southwest?  I doubt it.  It seems to be a deeply ignorant, backward  region, and proud of it.
    I say blue states ought to join Canada, and let the faithbased southland join up with Mexico. Dissolve the US empire before it destroys the world, hehehey.

    http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

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  3. liminalgrey Posted 5:00 am
    28 Dec 2006

    U of A vs. ASUOoops, let's not confuse our Arizona universities:
    U of A (University of Arizona) is in the middle of egregious urban sprawl in Tucson, another city with a discernable lack of common sense regarding solar power.
    ASU (Arizona State University; the one opening the School of Sustainability), is in Phoenix, and bio-d was spot on.  Actually, the new school will be located at ASU's Tempe campus, but who are we kidding; Tempe is a suburb of Phoenix, and with the projected growth, it will soon be Phoenix.
    ASU is also home to the Global Institute of Sustainability and the Biodesign Institute; they're just oozing sustainability love!  Good, 'cause they're gonna need it.

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  4. organicqueso Posted 5:11 am
    28 Dec 2006

    The right directionSarah,

    Thanks for the info on the new program at ASU, it would have been nice if you had provided a link to the program's site: School of Sustainability at ASU
    This type of program seems to be the direction that a lot of schools are moving, kudos to ASU for being the first to put it all together. They also hosted AASHE's conference last year, I hear the atmosphere was totally charged up.

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  5. Biodiversivist's avatar

    Biodiversivist Posted 1:06 pm
    28 Dec 2006

    Not confusing the two, just comparing themI was at U of A a few months ago for parents' day and had noted the sprawl and lack of panels. I even got a University of Arizona sweatshirt for Christmas.
    http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/10/24/17380/517...
    http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/10/23/83823/917

    In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

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  6. Thad Miller Posted 3:38 am
    29 Dec 2006

    new student at the new schoolI just finished up my first semester as a Phd student at ASU and will be part of the first class at the new School of Sustainability this spring.  I hope to post some comments about the school and my experience as long as I don't get distracted by opportunities at the Decision Center, etc.

    Phd Student, IGERT Urban Ecology Fellow, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University

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  7. willa Posted 10:01 am
    29 Dec 2006

    SouthwestDude, DrX, have you, say, been to the southwest?  Sure, there are people who suck there, but there are also tons of environmentalists, not to mention large numbers of Indians and other sustainability-minded folks who would never call themselves the e-word but are nevertheless way more in tune with everything than the average non-Southwestern American.
    Sometimes it's a good policy not to insult entire regions, especially when you don't know what you're talking about...

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