Matching Items (16)
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- All Subjects: environment
- Creators: School of Sustainability
Description
Soiled: An Environmental Podcast is a six episode series where common environmental topics are discussed and misconceptions surrounding these topics are debunked.
ContributorsKuta, Tiffany T (Co-author) / Jones, Cassity (Co-author) / Turner, Natalie (Co-author) / Boyer, Mackenzie (Thesis director) / Ward, Kristen (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Eng Program (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
A large section of United States citizens live far away from supermarkets and do not have an easy way to get to one. This portion of the population lives in an area called a food desert. Food deserts are geographic areas in which access to affordable, healthy food, such as fresh produce, is limited or completely nonexistent due to the absence of convenient grocery stores. Individuals living in food deserts are left to rely on convenience store snacks and fast food for their meals because they do not have access to a grocery store with fresh produce in their area. Unhealthy foods also lead to health issues, as people living in food deserts are typically at a higher risk of diet-related conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Harvest, a sustainable farming network, is a smartphone application that teaches and guides people living in small spaces through the process of growing fresh, nutritious produce in their own homes. The app will guide users through the entire process of gardening, from seed to harvest. Harvest would give individuals living in food deserts an opportunity to access fresh produce that they currently can’t access. An overwhelming response based on our user discussion and market analysis revealed that our platform was in demand. Development of a target market, brand guide, and full-lifecycle were beneficial during the second semester as Harvest moved forward. Through the development of a website, social media platform, and smartphone application, Harvest grew traction for our platform. Our social media accounts saw a 1700% growth rate, and this wider audience was able to provide helpful feedback.
ContributorsTobey, Anna Elisabeth (Co-author) / Raimondo, Felix (Co-author) / Balamut, Hannah (Co-author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / Givens, Jessica (Committee member) / Satpathy, Asish (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
South Mountain is the largest municipal park in the nation. It is a bundled amenity, providing a series of linked services to the surrounding communities. A dataset of 19,209 homes in 155 neighborhoods within three miles of the park was utilized in order to complete a hedonic estimation for two nearby urban villages, Ahwatukee Foothills and South Mountain Village. Measures of access include proximity to the park, trailhead access, and adjacency to the park. Two regressions were estimated, the first including lot characteristics and subdivision fixed effects and the second using the coefficients for each subdivision as the dependent variable. These estimates describe how the location of a house in a subdivision contributes to its conditional mean price. As a result they offer a direct basis for capturing amenities measured at the neighborhood scale on home values. Park proximity, trailhead access and adjacency were found to significantly influence the price of homes at the 5% confidence level in Ahwatukee, but not in South Mountain Village. The results of this study can be applied to issues of environmental justice and park access in determining which areas and attributes of the park are associated with a high premium. Though South Mountain was preserved some time ago, development and future preservation in the City of Phoenix can be informed by such studies.
ContributorsRamakrishna, Saritha Kambhampati (Author) / Abbott, Joshua (Thesis director) / Smith, V. Kerry (Committee member) / Schoon, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
In this study, the packaging and labeling of milk and coffee was compared between Walmart and Sprouts. The pricing, the sourcing, the certifications and the overall shelf presence of the items was taken under consideration. After studying the packaging of both, a new design incorporating the applicable labels, customer appeal and appropriate green marketing was created for both the commodities.
ContributorsBhatt, Rashi Hitesh (Author) / Collins, Shari (Thesis director) / Keahey, Jennifer (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Poetry serves as a window through which we can convey emotions and experiences otherwise difficult to access and express. This chapbook addresses the moments in life that have dramatic transformational effects and those moments and events we wish to deny. Through my poetry, I reveal the honest revelations of hurt and pain, and the raw emotions evoked from the things that have occurred throughout my life. In doing so, I confront these painful experiences from a place of conscious awareness of the way in which they have impacted my life, and I allow others access to my hurt, self-hatred, and imperfection acknowledged throughout. This chapbook symbolizes the movement from a place of denial to a place of awareness and finally to a place of transformation and growth. As my poetry transformed from weak poems only accessible on an abstract level to powerful poems of honest and tangible pain and hurt, I experienced my own transformation. Allowing myself to candidly share my experiences with others has enabled me to grow from these experiences.
ContributorsLarson, Amanda Beth (Author) / Montesano, Mark (Thesis director) / Comeaux, Alexandra (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
With the overall health of the environment rapidly declining \u2014 mostly due to human behaviors, solving the problem of nature deficit disorder and getting more children interested and aware of nature could be paramount to improving the environmental health of our planet. In this study, the relationship between children's learning and emotion is explored. Pre- and post-tests were given to children attending a week-long summer freshwater ecology camp; their knowledge of and emotional connection to different ecological concepts were measured. Two separate ecosystems were tested \u2014 a freshwater ecosystem that was taught over the course of the week, and a marine ecosystem for comparison. Increases in knowledge and emotion were seen in every freshwater ecosystem concept. Additionally, the knowledge and emotion scores were correlated, suggesting a positive relationship between them. The marine ecosystem did not show improvements in concrete knowledge, but showed increases in abstract learning, indicating that the abstract concepts learned about the freshwater ecosystem were able to transfer to the marine. Overall results show the ability of a hands-on learning experience to foster an emotional connection between a child and the subject matter. However, long-term studies are needed to track the relationship between children and their knowledge of and emotional connection to the subject matter.
ContributorsMossler, Max Vaughn (Author) / Pearson, David (Thesis director) / Smith, Andrew (Committee member) / Berkowitz, Alan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
This thesis looks at the theory and empirical evidence that surrounds the debate between environmentalists and economists regarding the link between trade liberalization and environmental degradation. The main points of the theory are the scale, composition, and technique effects which, when aggregated, are ambiguous as the harm or benefit of trade's effect on the environment. The empirical evidence studied ranges in time periods from the early 1990s to 2011 and mainly focuses on the existence or absence of an environmental Kuznets curve for certain pollutant. However, the data still proves to be inconclusive. The debate about the possible link between trade and the environment is as important as ever, especially in regards to carbon dioxide emissions. Going forward, it is extremely important that international cooperation regarding emissions targets and abatement goals increases. Trade will prove to be an invaluable tool in this endeavor as it provides a mechanism for the spread of green technology as well as can be used as a method of environmental policy enforcement.
ContributorsCotterell, Emily Claire (Author) / Mendez, Jose (Thesis director) / McDaniel, Cara (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
“In the Dark Room” consists of a body of poetry with accompanying visual art exploring themes of tenderness, violence, memory, and distortion. The poems revolve around the self, the beloved, and the body. The speaker reflects on notions of harm and love towards themselves and others as relationships begin to decay, fogging the mind of the speaker, leaving them feeling as if they are trapped in a haze, their sense of time, warped. The title of the project reflects this, as a dark room is commonly used to develop film photographs. The idea of developing images leads to ideas of perception and performance. The poems encapsulate the gauze the speaker lives in by balancing precise, physical details with emotionally charged moments of urgency prompted by the speaker’s uncertainty and desperation. Questions and commands are utilized to draw out the inner action in the speaker’s mind as well as to illuminate different layers present in the work. The corresponding photography and collage serve to highlight the emotional depth of the pieces, as well as add accessibility and interest for the public. The photographs function as stills from a film, adding an element of movement, inspiring visceral emotions that elevate the written work, while the collage ties the mediums together by reflecting central imagery through the inherent fusion of the form. The body of work aims to translate vulnerability into a relatable human experience by exploring the confusion caused by emotional wounds.
ContributorsSamons, Karson (Author) / Ball, Sally (Thesis director) / Diaz, Natalie (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The objective of this study was to evaluate sustainability knowledge and practices in place at university-associated food pantries across the United States. A survey was sent to university- associated food pantries and responses were collected at a rate of 25% (n=84 of 326) to assess the knowledge and practices of this topic. The pantries surveyed were chosen solely based on ability to contact through email (emails were retrieved from online sources) and about 50% of the 680 university-associated pantries in the United States were sent the survey. The data was analyzed by quantifying the qualitative responses to the 9 sustainability- rated questions addressing zero- waste practice, barriers to offering sustainably sourced foods, types of sustainable donations, desire for sustainable products, and client demand for sustainable products and practices were posed to pantries. Results from this study provided insight into awareness of sustainability in these pantries and also assessed what sustainability practices are already being practiced by these pantries. Among those surveyed, a low percentage of university-associated pantries actually provide sustainably sourced foods (9.5%), but given the choice about a third (38.1%) would choose to offer these foods. It was reported that availability and cost were perceived as main barriers to providing sustainably sourced foods and that a small proportion of pantries teach their clients about zero waste practices, compost, and recycling. There is little client concern about this issue. Most pantries reported recycling more often than composting and also reported participating in some zero-waste practices. These results are unique to this study as not much research has been done in this area to assess environmental sustainability awareness in university-associated food pantries. Further research is required to further evaluate pantries across the nation as this sample size is approximately 12% of all university- associated pantries in the United States.
ContributorsCrowe, Alexandra B (Author) / Bruening, Meredith (Thesis director) / Payne-Sturges, Devon (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
"If we really believe in food, we must do something about it, for our voices should be raised above the rest," James Beard said. Today, the word "sustainable" is being linked to almost every facet of our lives. Everything from restaurants to cars to school supplies are marketed as green or sustainable. Businesses have a lot to gain if they are environmentally conscious (Friedman, 2017). Companies that genuinely care about the planet cultivate positive reputations. Needless to say a company's brand and reputation are arguably the most important differentials amongst its competition. Additionally, a company's social responsibility goes hand in hand with talent retention. Companies that care about their staff and the community are more likely to recruit employees that will be advocates of the product and business (Friedman, 2017). A healthy work culture encourages productivity, recruitment and retention. Unfortunately some businesses stretch the truth and make bold sustainability claims in order to reap the above benefits. When it comes to the food service industry, which restaurants are actually living up to the claim of being sustainable? I embarked upon a journey to find the restaurants and chefs that are creating exquisite dishes while protecting the environment and preserving the food chain system. Initially I developed a list of 30 prospective restaurants based upon published material bringing awareness to their environmentally conscious initiatives. Ultimately I selected three diverse restaurants from the list that successfully met the sustainability requirements. I utilized criteria established by The Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) as my guideline to evaluate the establishments (Our Sustainability Framework). I immersed myself in the restaurants, camera in hand, to discover more about the ecofriendly food movement in Arizona. I created a YouTube channel where I posted all of my edited film in order to heighten awareness of these socially and environmentally responsible establishments. The vlog series features a different restaurant in each episode highlighting the sustainable culinary and business concepts as well as the savory items on the menu. During this quest I discovered how these restaurants have remained successful while minimizing their ecological footprint. These establishments can serve as a guide to other chefs and business owners who are looking to accomplish the same feats.
ContributorsRandock, Nicole (Author) / Vogt, Christine (Thesis director) / Stephens, Glen (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12