This business plan is centered around the creation of a digital marketplace that will promote small businesses and sustainable shopping habits throughout the community and beyond. Our business decisions will be guided by our vision which involves encouraging environmentally conscious shopping habits, supporting small artists, and raising money for charity without compromising quality. In addition to our focus on creating a social media-based digital marketplace, we aim to ultimately help local artists grow their businesses and further support the causes they care about.

For the honors thesis project, a group of five individuals collaborated to design and implement a sustainable business in the ASU community. Kandi Society is a rising jewelry brand whose top priorities include giving recycled plastic a new purpose, philanthropy, and making a welcoming, creative environment for our customers. We designed the Eco-Bead with 3D CAD modeling and produced it through a process called plastic injection molding which is explained in detail in the final paper. Kandi Society instilled a positive impact on ASU students by igniting a sustainability spark and increasing interest in repurposing materials in the future.

New Leaf was founded with the mission to address the environmental, health, and sustainability consequences of paper production today. We explored the sourcing and foundations of paper needs, supporting our assumption that paper can be created from agricultural waste. We solidified a business plan using agricultural waste after considerable sourcing research and expert and consumerism input. We determined that using forest foliage that is a potential fire hazard from a national forest could be used as a source to make alternative paper as well as contribute to sustainability efforts.

This thesis looks to explore the common barriers and perceptions surrounding sustainable living in westernized societies. We begin by understanding and explaining the complexity and importance of sustainability. Then we go on into a cultural comparison of sustainable lifestyles from places like Mongolia and Northern Arizona. After the comparison, we look deeper into mental barriers, perceptions, and influences that western minds have on the environment and how these beliefs affect their sustainable behaviors. After noticing these obstacles, we were able to research three key solutions to overcoming these barriers: daily practices, contextual motivation, and subjective values. Using these three solutions, this thesis builds out an implementation plan that allows you to help create a more sustainable lifestyle that you can start living out today.

Since its introduction, the use of technology has been rapidly expanding and has been integrated into almost every aspect of daily life. Alongside this growth, there has been an increasingly urgent movement for sustainability and to fight climate change. Because technology is so prevalent in society today, it is important to understand how the use of technology relates to sustainability and climate change. While technology has been beneficial to society, it requires vast amounts of energy to power, which causes significant environmental degradation. On the other hand, technology also has provided useful in reducing carbon emissions and mitigating the effects of climate change. This can be seen in areas such as efficient transportation and logistics systems and smart cities. Thus, technology has the potential to positively impact the environment, but its negative effects must also be reduced. Technology companies also play a large role in the reduction of carbon emissions, as they provide much of the services and technology that we use today. Companies such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have all made commitments to sustainability, and it is important that they are held accountable to these commitments. Additionally, as new technologies emerge, their environmental impact must also be calculated. The findings of this thesis show that the main negative impacts of technology come from its energy use and its life cycle, while the main positive impacts come from its indirect effect on production processes, systems, and industries. In the long-term, these indirect positive effects are expected to increase, but the energy demands of technology will also increase. Therefore, managing the energy demands of technology while also allowing for increased efficiency and reductions in carbon emissions is the main challenge that companies face regarding sustainability.

Acrylic paint is one of the most prominent supplies in the art field as it has many qualities that make it the most desirable paint, including affordability, versatility, and a fast drying time. Despite acrylic paint’s great contribution to the art field and art history, its chemical makeup and ingredients damage the local environment and aquatic ecosystems. Acrylic paint is essentially liquid latex that, when it enters sewage systems, releases microplastics directly into the waterways as well as contains harmful chemicals such as heavy metals, benzene products, or vinyl chloride. The purpose of this project was to research the qualities of acrylic paint most important to users, as well as learn information regarding people’s current usage of paint and their perspectives on paint-related environmental issues. Furthermore, I have recorded my process and published videos on social media to gain insight and feedback. Using this data, I have experimented with making a sustainable version of acrylic paint that remains desirable. Throughout this project, I have used different natural materials to create pigments and an acrylic medium and contribute my perceptions on the desirability of each alternative in this thesis.

Individual happiness is not always correlated with societal happiness. Intrinsic happiness usually stems from sources such as authenticity, self-fulfillment, and community involvement. In contrast, extrinsic happiness comes from career success, wealth status, and popularity. The difference in these sources of happiness can create an unrealistic search for happiness in society. Individuals are chasing happiness in ways that are not obtainable or fulfilling for their individual needs. Because of this, there is an excessive amount of materialism and consumerism in society as an attempt to find or replace intrinsic happiness. Thus, I propose that if humans could learn to gather happiness intrinsically, the outcome may be a society that balances maintainable happiness and a more sustainable way of living. This hypothesis is tested by interviewing four individuals about what makes them intrinsically happy versus what they believe society says happiness comes from. Open-ended semi-structured interview questions were created by drawing on happiness literature and personal experience. Participants discussed how a focus on intrinsic happiness could affect society as a whole. The results indicate that humans naturally lean toward human connection and community involvement. Both are values with inherently positive sustainability implications and correspond to a sustainable way of life. The challenge, however, is the societal values placed on extrinsic aspects of happiness and the push away from sustainability.

Plastic pollution is undoubtedly one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity today. Significant action is required in order to properly address this rapidly growing threat. The Circular Economy provides a promising model for solution design in terms of responsible consumption and production. Countdown: Circular Economy Solutions is an organization created by Jasmine Amoako-Agyei focused on addressing the threat of plastic pollution in the United States and Ghana, West Africa. The first part of this report will explain the severity of the global plastic pollution crisis and challenges with recycling. It will then present the Circular Economy as a viable model for a course of action. From there it will explain the efforts of Countdown: Circular Economy Solutions over the last two with a pathway forward. This venture leveraged the greater ASU ecosystem of resources such as Walton Sustainability Solutions, Precious Plastic ASU, the Luminosity Lab, Changemaker Central, Venture Devils, Engineering Projects in Community Service (ASU), Gary K. Herberger Young Scholars Academy, KNUST, and Ashesi D: Lab.