School of Sustainability Graduate Culminating Experiences
Student capstone and applied projects from ASU's School of Sustainability.
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- All Subjects: Food Systems
- Creators: Prosser, Paul
Description
"Community and Composting in Victory Acres” implemented a pilot composting program for a local neighborhood in an effort to increase community cohesion. Victory Acres is a low-income, culturally diverse neighborhood located in Tempe that used to have easier access to the Escalante Community Center before the 101 freeway divided the community. Residents of the neighborhoods surrounding ECC do not have access to the Escalante Community Garden except on Community Harvest Days twice a month. The goal of the project was to reconnect broken ties to the ECG through a neighborhood composting service. Through composting, residents could directly benefit from the community garden’s composting capabilities while encouraging a more sustainable method for dealing with food waste. The composting pilot project in Victory Acres was used as a way to mitigate the greenhouse gases emanating from food waste along with other neighborhood issues. The project would encourage aspects of community cohesion, sustainability, and happiness. By the completion of the project, composting in the neighborhood could continue through increased access to the Escalante Community Center Garden. An assessment via survey responses was made on improvements in perceived community connectedness, sustainability, and happiness. The pilot was unsuccessful in gaining a large client base for composting participation, but it was successful in exploring challenges and barriers to implementation of projects in Victory Acres. Several intervention points were explored, several lessons were learned from successful and unsuccessful engagement techniques, and opportunities arose for further future research.
ContributorsKiefer, Alyssa (Author) / Cloutier, Scott (Contributor) / Prosser, Paul (Contributor)
Created2017-04-28
Description
Stern Produce has been a prominent agricultural produce distributor in Arizona since 1917, with three distribution locations in the state: Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff. The company is a wholesale supplier of produce, meat and dairy products. Stern Produce is seeking to create comprehensive sustainability metrics to develop sustainability baseline information on their operations. This project, in partnership with Stern Produce’s Sustainability Coordinator, provides a final report that describes the sustainability indicators and metrics, provides recommendations for future growth, and highlights immediate areas of impact using the Hart and Milstein’s Sustainable Value Framework (2003). Under the three tenets of people, earth and business, the sustainability areas to focus on for Stern Produce are: sustainable procurement (internal and external); fleet management; organizational continuity; sustainable communities; and, sustainable building operations. By formulating sustainable focus areas, Stern Produce is acknowledging the significance of integrating environmental consciousness with economic performance and social benefits. Based on the findings, the project will assist Stern Produce in identifying intervention points and find new ways to mitigate negative operational outputs. Moreover, the project will facilitate cross-department engagement and involvement, provide data for sustainability key performance indicators, and further social commitments to operating sustainably. Measuring and reporting operations also improve transparency within the company and with external partners. Furthermore, the assessment proposes sustainability initiatives to address staff and community wellbeing concerns. Thus, the project uses a triple-bottom line approach to assess Stern Produce and translate the sustainability indicators into value for the company.
ContributorsFernandes, Nagelle (Author) / Prosser, Paul (Contributor)
Created2017-04-28