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Student capstone and applied projects from ASU's School of Sustainability.

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The Knowledge-Action Gap Related to Meat Consumption in Sustainability Scientists and its Relevance for Societal Transformation

Description
Eating meat leads to several environmental threats, hence reducing one’s consumption can be a direct way to avoid environmental degradation. While sustainability scientists know about the environmental degradation due to meat consumption, many of them still choose to eat meat. It is questionable whether a broader societal transformation towards sustainable…

Eating meat leads to several environmental threats, hence reducing one’s consumption can be a direct way to avoid environmental degradation. While sustainability scientists know about the environmental degradation due to meat consumption, many of them still choose to eat meat. It is questionable whether a broader societal transformation towards sustainable consumption is likely if people with the necessary knowledge and values already struggle and fail to implement a sustainable behavior. How can they expect others to change if they do not change themselves? This paper addresses the knowledge-action gap that is prevalent among sustainability scientists regarding their meat consumption and how they deal with it. Qualitative semi-structured interviews and thematic content analysis are applied to analyze the main internal barriers to pro environmental behavior sustainability scientists face as well as what narratives and rationalizations they use to overcome the dissonance between their knowledge and actions. The internal barriers they demonstrated were emotional non-involvement and a perceived lack of power of the individual. The strategies used to overcome the dissonance were conscious consumption narratives and rationalizing the value of meat consumption, specifically its perceived sustainable dimensions. This paper also highlights that sustainability scientists do feel responsible to lead by example in the context of societal transformation, but do not always follow through with behavior change. This study concludes it is necessary that sustainability scientists do so more consequently to embrace their role as trendsetters and change agents for a sustainable transformation.
ContributorsFalkenstein, Anna (Author) / Upham, Paul (Contributor) / DesRoches, Tyler (Contributor) / von Wehrden, Henrik (Contributor)
Created2018-07-02

The Environmental, Social, and Economic Impacts of Remote Work

Description

COVID-19 brought so much uncertainty into the world and has molded this project into what it is today. The first project journey that was chosen was meant to show the impact of how much plastic waste was being produced at Starbucks. Then due to COVID-19 yet again, it changed into…

COVID-19 brought so much uncertainty into the world and has molded this project into what it is today. The first project journey that was chosen was meant to show the impact of how much plastic waste was being produced at Starbucks. Then due to COVID-19 yet again, it changed into how much paper waste there was within the State of Washington Department of Licensing (DOL) Business and Professions Division (BPD). DOL BPD is a state agency division that licenses over forty plus professional and business licenses to the residents of Washington state. Due to the pandemic, the project transformed into how the three pillars of sustainability impacts remote work within BPD. BPD is in this new and unique paradigm where the deliverable that was brought forth as this project completed are, “The 9 Benefits of Sustainability through Remote Work” (Appendix D) where this specifically showed DOL why remote work is sustainable and how it should be implemented even further throughout the agency. This list was put together with the benefits that best fit DOL BPD.
ContributorsReynolds, Jordan (Writer of accompanying material)
Created2021-02-11
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Transformation Labs as a Sustainability Intervention to Leverage the Human Factor of Social-Ecological Change in the Escalante Community Garden

Description
While we often see community gardens as material spaces managed by organizations, resources and institutional arrangements do not fully define a community garden or ensure its success. Understanding the “human factor” is key to implementing interventions at the subjective level that allow gardens to thrive. The Escalante Community Garden in…

While we often see community gardens as material spaces managed by organizations, resources and institutional arrangements do not fully define a community garden or ensure its success. Understanding the “human factor” is key to implementing interventions at the subjective level that allow gardens to thrive. The Escalante Community Garden in Tempe, Arizona is a transforming social-ecological system wherein volunteers exhibiting collective efficacy are a crucial component. To keep this undergoing transformation on a positive pathway, I leveraged a sustainability intervention, a Transformation Lab, using a set of replicable participatory tools to support personal and interpersonal dynamics beyond an organizational perspective.
ContributorsHalter, Marley (Author) / Manuel-Navarrete, David (Contributor) / Cloutier, Scott (Contributor) / Eakin, Hallie (Contributor)
Created2018-04-19