School of Sustainability Graduate Culminating Experiences
Student capstone and applied projects from ASU's School of Sustainability.
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- All Subjects: Behavior Change
- All Subjects: Podcasting
The commonly accepted goal of sustainability, to fulfill our current needs and maintain the worlds systems so future generations can also fulfill their needs, unifies efforts efficiently and aligns people with future thinking. But the concepts related, and their applications are fairly ambiguous in guiding people to what exactly they can do to make choices for sustainability. Individuals choices make a difference, adding up to societal shifts that change the world for the better. In such a complex world, there is a clear need for guidance through these systems. Sustainability and Resilience (S&R) is an optimistic podcast that journeys through thought-provoking science-based sustainability challenges with a bit of comedic relief. Listeners are entertained and become empowered to know what sustainable choices are, and why they are sustainable. S&R podcast uses systems thinking to pinpoint, realistic actionable items that empower listeners with a broad-spectrum sustainability knowledge for making everyday choices. Foundational research proved, developed and formed the idea of the podcast. Recording research lead to the ability to record test episodes, gather listener feedback and update the podcast concept. The podcast was officially created with the release of the debut episode that can anyone can listen to for free on all major platforms.
The problem for this project is that participation with the ASU Sustainability Certification for Offices is low, and to date, the certification has not enhanced the sustainability of offices at ASU.
University Sustainability Practices, who administer the office certification and much of ASU sustainability efforts, is looking for ways to drive greater participation and engagement in the certification process. Three actions have been taken in the projecti n an attempt to improve participation and engagement. Surveys, focus groups, and interviews have collected data from ASU's office worker to ascertain the attitudes of workers surrounding office culture and sustainability, and to identify barriers to their greater participation in PEB.
The conclusions drawn from this phase of the project inform a robust set of recommendations that will help overcome key barriers revealed by the research, such as a knowledge gap among ASU office staff about the existence of the office certification. Conclusions and solution sets were provided to USP in a set of documents that will allow them to easily implement the recommendations, and provide a path for next steps.