School of Sustainability Graduate Culminating Experiences
Student capstone and applied projects from ASU's School of Sustainability.
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- Creators: Breetz, Hanna
Description
San Martin is a region in Peru containing some of the most diverse landscapes in the world. It is also home to many farming communities, specifically coffee growers, that rely on the rich soil created by this environment. Unfortunately, along with diversity, comes vulnerability to climate change. Coffee farmers are under stress from changes in climate that have led to unsustainable farming practices, such as slash and burn, that in turn make the region more susceptible to climate change. Conservation International is working within the region to end this cycle. As a student partner, I am aiding with organization and development of a workshop in the region. The goal of the workshop is to implement scenario planning to highlight tradeoffs and opportunities so that governments, businesses and communities can make decisions knowing what the likely positive and negative consequences to the landscape and their livelihoods may be.
In the end, Conservation International is more specifically seeking to aid in the optimization of the use of nature’s benefits in the region. The scenario development approach that will be used for the workshop is the quadrant method, where values of the region are used to create an axis that will show four different futures in four different quadrants depending on the direction. An example is using the axis of rainfall (increase or decrease) and the prevalence of slash-and-burn farming (increase or decrease). The findings of the workshop will be used to construct new policies based off of the Peruvian National Coffee Plan to encourage new farming techniques for the coffee growers. While the conclusion of the overall workshop will not be determined during the span of the MSUS culminating experience, the conclusion from my work will revolve around having a successful workshop, with success being defined by participation and usable results; the work, such as a literature review and interviews and running the work plan up to the workshop, that allows the workshop to occur.
In the end, Conservation International is more specifically seeking to aid in the optimization of the use of nature’s benefits in the region. The scenario development approach that will be used for the workshop is the quadrant method, where values of the region are used to create an axis that will show four different futures in four different quadrants depending on the direction. An example is using the axis of rainfall (increase or decrease) and the prevalence of slash-and-burn farming (increase or decrease). The findings of the workshop will be used to construct new policies based off of the Peruvian National Coffee Plan to encourage new farming techniques for the coffee growers. While the conclusion of the overall workshop will not be determined during the span of the MSUS culminating experience, the conclusion from my work will revolve around having a successful workshop, with success being defined by participation and usable results; the work, such as a literature review and interviews and running the work plan up to the workshop, that allows the workshop to occur.
ContributorsDraper, Shelbie (Author)
Created2019-05-15
Description
Humans, throughout the world, build houses to live in and raise their families. The construction of houses and other buildings produces a large quantity of waste during this process. This waste is not necessarily biodegradable or derived from environmentally friendly materials. They often damage the environment causing pollution and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions (Tam, V. W., & Tam, C. M, 2012). This type of waste is categorized as Construction and Demolition(C&D) waste. My culminating experience focuses on C&D waste and this summary is divided into three parts. In the first part, the report covers the impact of the C&D waste in sustainability. Considering the three pillars of sustainability the effect of C&D waste on these three pillars are analyzed. The second part is the policy analysis surrounding current C&D waste in cities within the states of Arizona, Oregon and California. This section also covers the current practices and impact that the policies have had in diverting C&D waste from landfill. The report features application of conceptual mapping to explore the issues surrounding C&D waste in the circular economy, and intervention points for waste diversion. The third part of this project focuses on a selected intervention point: Community engagement, and education. The report also discusses the processes and strategies applied to organize an event to create art from salvaged building supplies. Stardust celebrated their 20th year anniversary in April 2017. In collaboration with them, the “Salvage This” event was organized to engage with artists, to exhibit arts created from salvaged building supplies, and promote reuse concept in the community.
ContributorsParthasarathy, Soumya (Author) / Breetz, Hanna (Contributor)
Created2017-04-28