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

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Beneath the Streets: New Tools for Managing Degrading Sewer Infrastructure

Description
Infrastructure degradation is a chronic problem for fats, oils, and grease (FOG) pretreatment programs at wastewater utilities, which can lead to harmful bypass and high loss of a renewable energy feedstock. Not only does this exacerbate the potential for environmental harm, but not taking advantage of this resource leaves most…

Infrastructure degradation is a chronic problem for fats, oils, and grease (FOG) pretreatment programs at wastewater utilities, which can lead to harmful bypass and high loss of a renewable energy feedstock. Not only does this exacerbate the potential for environmental harm, but not taking advantage of this resource leaves most FOG anaerobic digestion programs non-resilient and non-scalable. It is vital that there are strategies utilizing a sustainability perspective and integration of hard and soft infrastructure management principles to address this infrastructure degradation issue before there can be fully implemented zero-waste, FOG resource recovery initiatives. This applied project sought to answer the question, “How can municipalities sustainability manage the issue of degrading FOG pretreatment infrastructure?” with an emphasis on providing an applied example where a sustainability approach can mitigate complex, infrastructure problems. In partnership with the City of Tempe’s Environmental Services Section, this project addressed the issue of degrading infrastructure by crafting and implementing a comprehensive Infrastructure Assistance Program (IAP). Designed to assist food service establishments (FSEs) and wastewater utilities, the IAP provides pathways for preventing FOG infrastructure degradation through initiatives that bolster hard and soft infrastructure to support a more efficient means of achieving compliance and local goals for resource recovery and renewable energy.
ContributorsPhillips, Katie (Author) / Mac, Cassandra (Contributor) / McNeil, David (Contributor) / Dalton, Richard (Contributor)
Created2018-04-27
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Exploring Sustainability Literacy through Nature Journaling in School Gardens

Description
Day-to-day decision makers on agricultural operations play a key role in maintaining both a sustainable and food secure agricultural society. This population, also defined as Principal Producers by the 2017 USDA Agricultural Census Report, has witnessed a significant decline in recent years, raising many questions surrounding why farmers are retiring…

Day-to-day decision makers on agricultural operations play a key role in maintaining both a sustainable and food secure agricultural society. This population, also defined as Principal Producers by the 2017 USDA Agricultural Census Report, has witnessed a significant decline in recent years, raising many questions surrounding why farmers are retiring faster than they can be replaced. To look closely at this phenomenon, this study focuses on the State of Ohio to hear first-hand from producers what they need to be successful through a series of semi-structured interviews. This study also maps recent changes in variables that define this issue from 2007-2017 using QGIS and USDA Agricultural Census data. The findings from this study show the recent decline of mid-sized agricultural operations and provide evidence linking declining rates of principal producer populations with specific features consistent with industrial agriculture. These findings are specific to the State of Ohio, but also raise much larger questions about which populations are experiencing more rapid rates of farm exit, and what implications these trends have for food security on a broader scale.
ContributorsMoore, Phillip (Author) / Chhetri, Nalini (Contributor) / Leonard, Bryan (Contributor) / Shrestha, Milan (Contributor)
Created2020