School of Sustainability Graduate Culminating Experiences
Student capstone and applied projects from ASU's School of Sustainability.
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- Creators: Burmeister, Matthew
The project focuses on the creation of 300 pest identification booklets that provide five villages in Kaffrine the proper education to prevent locust plagues from forming. I have partnered with the Global Locust Initiative (GLI) to help make these booklets come to fruition as the booklets target the lack of early detection awareness that is at the root of locust plagues. By providing the villages with these booklets, the farmers and community members, will be more educated on how to identify and act on the early threats of a plague. Additional outcomes of creating these booklets are as follows: improved well-being of the farming community, increased millet yields, and enhanced global food system sustainability. As locusts are a migratory pest, it is recommended that more stakeholders are provided the proper educational material to help them identify the early threats of a locust plague to prevent negative externalities from being imposed on the surrounding ecology, individuals, and agriculture.
Across the world, music festivals draw in millions of fans and generate billions in revenue (Fesicket Writers, 2018). While the festival scene is extremely popular, stakeholders are beginning to take notice of its negative impacts. When improperly managed, festivals damage natural systems, miss out on opportunities to support and engage with their fans, and exclude local businesses. The movement for sustainable music festivals has already begun, but it is still far from being the industry norm. Only a select few festivals have embraced sustainability as a core value while many others are still making no effort to mitigate their impacts. Even though many drivers are pushing for the transformation of this industry, the unaddressed barriers are holding organizers back. Sustainable Sound: Festival Guide has been created to educate organizers on how to plan and operate sustainable music festivals. It is based on tried and true methods to create holistically sustainable events. In this context, a holistically sustainable event is one that does not damage natural systems, protects and engages with its fans, and is economically positive. Various case studies from some of the world’s most sustainable festivals will also be highlighted throughout the guide. According to M3F, The Cosanti Foundation, and ASU’s CSSI, Sustainable Sound offers important and easy to understand information that festival organizations can use to improve the sustainability of their events.