Programs and Communities

Transitions towards sustainability are urgently needed to address the interconnected challenges of economic development, ecological integrity, and social justice, from local to global scales. Around the world, collaborative science-society initiatives are forming to conduct experiments in support of sustainability transitions. Such experiments, if carefully designed, provide significant learning opportunities for making progress on transition efforts. Yet, there is no broadly applicable evaluative scheme available to capture this critical information across a large number of cases, and to guide the design of transition experiments. To address this gap, the article develops such a scheme, in a tentative form, drawing on evaluative research and sustainability transitions scholarship, alongside insights from empirical cases. We critically discuss the scheme's key features of being generic, comprehensive, operational, and formative. Furthermore, we invite scholars and practitioners to apply, reflect and further develop the proposed tentative scheme – making evaluation and experiments objects of learning.

An increase in population and need to protect the planet has created many initiatives and research goals in developing alternatives methods of fueling. Federal and state policies have provided a push for industries to find ways to of reducing their impact on the environment while maintaining competitiveness. In the sector of alternative fuels, large policies such as the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) in the United States are making goals to reduce vehicular fuel from coal and oil, and focus on alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. Along with the RFS and other federal policies, states are introducing independent initiatives to promote the use of alternative fuels.

Research has shown that other crops besides corn can feasibly be used to produce ethanol for fuel use. One of the major crops of interest currently is switchgrass (Panicum Virgatum L.) because of its ability to grow under a variety of weather conditions and soil types. Switchgrass does not require as much maintenance as corn and is a perennial grass that can have high yielding fields for up to 9 years.

This report focuses on the impacts from using switchgrass-derived ethanol to meet the state of Arizona’s policy to have government fleet vehicles operating on alternative fuels. The study uses a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to evaluate 22 million gallons of ethanol produced in Arizona and stored at fueling stations for use. Impacts in land use, global warming, and water quality are evaluated using software tools and databases in Ecoinvent and Simapro.

The results of the study indicate that the cultivation and harvest phase of the process will contribute the most to negative environmental impacts. According to the study, application of heavy nutrient fertilizer and the machinery needed for the additional agriculture have the potential to contribute over 36 million moles of hydrogen and 89 million CTU eq. to the air, soil, and water.

Extreme heat, a widespread environmental hazard, is experienced disproportionately by historically disinvested and marginalized communities in Tempe. The City of Tempe has thus identified the importance of preparing the City’s youth to move into positions of power within the community to prepare for a future of rising temperatures and climate uncertainty, specifically as it relates to intergenerational community resilience. The City’s long-term Cool Kids, Cool Places, Cool Futures project plans to accelerate the City’s existing climate action by activating and empowering local youth as change agents in the co-creation of cooler, more equitable, and healthier futures. This MSUS project aims to develop strategies for the youth and the city that work together to advocate for and implement youth-designed and neighborhood-focused climate action projects in the Escalante and Victory Acres neighborhoods. The envisioned solution for this project is the creation of a dual strategy to connect youths’ visions for the future of Tempe with the City’s capacity (resources, funding, etc.) to adequately implement them. To complete this, the MSUS team facilitated a visioning workshop for local youth at McClintock High School to brainstorm potential climate action projects. As a result of this workshop, an action guide was then developed by the MSUS team with strategies to help jumpstart these youth-designed projects, highlighting the necessary social and physical assets and infrastructures needed for the projects to succeed. In turn, the City received a report outlining how they can best support the youth in the realization of these action projects. Both of these strategy guides will be used in parallel to begin the implementation of the climate action projects in the Fall of 2022.

The production and consumption of goods is a global phenomenon that has significant social and environmental impacts and challenges. In 2016, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that 25 million people were victims of forced labor. Forced labor is defined as “work that is involuntary and subject to penalty.” It is a subset of modern slavery, and is a complex problem that affects all three pillars of sustainability. Fair labor, on the other hand, is voluntary, requires fair compensation, and is free from penalty. With one in five jobs tied to global supply chains, it is vital that companies and organizations are committed to sustainability within the supply chain (Thorlakson et al., 2018). One critical aspect of this commitment includes a focus on fair labor practices.

ASU’s Trademark Licensing Department currently utilizes third-party vendors to verify that any licensed product, those marked with an ASU logo or trademark, have been sourced and produced under fair labor conditions. Our project focuses on steps that can be taken to elevate fair labor practices across the ASU supply chain for both licensed and unlicensed products. The Fair Labor Solutions Team has developed two primary deliverables: an overarching report and a fair labor problem identification presentation with a script to act as an education tool for ASU staff. The report contains the following elements: a landscape analysis of fair labor, ASU’s current procurement practices, a collection of exemplary case studies, and a tiered vision towards transformational change. Our team understands that ensuring fair labor throughout the ASU supply chain is not a linear process. The goal of our deliverables is to offer a strong foundation for the university's transition to sustainable procurement.

Sustainable purchasing is the integration of sustainability criteria into procurement processes and decisions. A critical element of this is ensuring fair labor practices such as safe working conditions, appropriate pay for work, and the absence of forced labor and child labor. Enforcing fair labor standards throughout the supply chain is challenging. Working directly with the final vendor is not enough as finished products involve multiple inputs and activities from extraction to end use and many associated suppliers. Unfair and forced labor practices are especially prevalent in countries with poor labor laws and lack of enforcement. Reporting and verifying labor practices for these suppliers can be time-consuming and expensive. Moreover, ensuring that a final vendor's products and services observe sustainability standards does not mean that all the suppliers involved in product creation steps observe fair and equitable labor practices. Third-party certifications are helpful, but not always accurate. ASU wishes to (1) strengthen its purchasing practices to increase assurances that sourced products follow fair labor practices across the supply chain of vendors and suppliers, and (2) create scalable solutions that can be implemented at other universities.

Sustainable purchasing is the integration of sustainability criteria into procurement processes and decisions. A critical element of this is ensuring fair labor practices such as safe working conditions, appropriate pay for work, and the absence of forced labor and child labor. Enforcing fair labor standards throughout the supply chain is challenging. Working directly with the final vendor is not enough as finished products involve multiple inputs and activities from extraction to end use and many associated suppliers. Unfair and forced labor practices are especially prevalent in countries with poor labor laws and lack of enforcement. Reporting and verifying labor practices for these suppliers can be time-consuming and expensive. Moreover, ensuring that a final vendor's products and services observe sustainability standards does not mean that all the suppliers involved in product creation steps observe fair and equitable labor practices. Third-party certifications are helpful, but not always accurate. ASU wishes to (1) strengthen its purchasing practices to increase assurances that sourced products follow fair labor practices across the supply chain of vendors and suppliers, and (2) create scalable solutions that can be implemented at other universities.

Sustainable purchasing is the integration of sustainability criteria into procurement processes and decisions. A critical element of this is ensuring fair labor practices such as safe working conditions, appropriate pay for work, and the absence of forced labor and child labor. Enforcing fair labor standards throughout the supply chain is challenging. Working directly with the final vendor is not enough as finished products involve multiple inputs and activities from extraction to end use and many associated suppliers. Unfair and forced labor practices are especially prevalent in countries with poor labor laws and lack of enforcement. Reporting and verifying labor practices for these suppliers can be time-consuming and expensive. Moreover, ensuring that a final vendor's products and services observe sustainability standards does not mean that all the suppliers involved in product creation steps observe fair and equitable labor practices. Third-party certifications are helpful, but not always accurate. ASU wishes to (1) strengthen its purchasing practices to increase assurances that sourced products follow fair labor practices across the supply chain of vendors and suppliers, and (2) create scalable solutions that can be implemented at other universities.

Extreme heat, a widespread environmental hazard, is experienced disproportionately by historically disinvested and marginalized communities in Tempe. The City of Tempe has thus identified the importance of preparing the City’s youth to move into positions of power within the community to prepare for a future of rising temperatures and climate uncertainty, specifically as it relates to intergenerational community resilience. The City’s long-term Cool Kids, Cool Places, Cool Futures project plans to accelerate the City’s existing climate action by activating and empowering local youth as change agents in the co-creation of cooler, more equitable, and healthier futures. This MSUS project aims to develop strategies for the youth and the city that work together to advocate for and implement youth-designed and neighborhood-focused climate action projects in the Escalante and Victory Acres neighborhoods. The envisioned solution for this project is the creation of a dual strategy to connect youths’ visions for the future of Tempe with the City’s capacity (resources, funding, etc.) to adequately implement them. To complete this, the MSUS team facilitated a visioning workshop for local youth at McClintock High School to brainstorm potential climate action projects. As a result of this workshop, an action guide was then developed by the MSUS team with strategies to help jumpstart these youth-designed projects, highlighting the necessary social and physical assets and infrastructures needed for the projects to succeed. In turn, the City received a report outlining how they can best support the youth in the realization of these action projects. Both of these strategy guides will be used in parallel to begin the implementation of the climate action projects in the Fall of 2022.