Today we have a guest post from Robert Kutter PhD, a recent graduate of ASU’s School of Sustainability. Paper or Plastic? Most consumers used to think the environmentally friendly option at the grocery store checkout was paper bags. Paper bags are made out of natural materials after all, whereas plastic bags are made from non-renewable … Read more…
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Today we have a guest post from Snigdha Nautiyal as she reflects on her first days at the School of Sustainability. I have now formally been a student of sustainability for less than twenty days. In this brief time, I have already heard the word ‘sustainability’ thousands of times from dozens of people within the … Read more…
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No! Ban this! No compromise! All too many people think these nagging scolds are what Sustainability is all about, even though there are many positive messages out there.1)One example is Carbonnation: “An optimistic, solutions-based, non-preachy, big tent film…” But it is not principally Sustainability’s image problem that concerns me, rather it is the prevalence in … Read more…
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A friend recently asked me, “What would you recommend for a Sustainable Toothbrush?” After a moment’s thought I gave up on being able to fit my response in a chat as I realized this question was actually a perfect window into a larger issue. I believe that one of the biggest barriers we face to … Read more…
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While Sustainability could be defined by the complex nature of its problems1)See my thoughts on a Sustainability Science piece by Ben Warner., what distinguishes Sustainability from most other fields is the focus on solving those problems not just trying to understand them. Unfortunately what you typically see is a laundry list of solutions for Achieving … Read more…
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One of the most exciting recent developments in Achieving Sustainability is the potential for everyone to dramatically slash the electricity they are using to light their homes. We have been exploring the history of lighting usage, demand trends, technological development and policy initiatives–see the whole series for more. But for Sustainability it is important that … Read more…
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Anthropocene has made the leap out of the Ivory Tower and continues to rapidly gain popularity both in the public and academia. The term ‘Anthropocene’ is credited to Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer who proposed that it was necessary to distinguish a new geological epoch of human domination of the planet (PDF).1)Crutzen, P. J., and … Read more…
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Sustainability Science is a new academic field that many–even some who work in it–question whether it should be a field at all. When I started here I took a stab at defining Sustainability, but Sustainability Science as an academic discipline while related needs its own defining. At the top of my reading list is former … Read more…
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When I tell people that I am working in Sustainability well over half the time they immediately bring up water (the probability increases if they know of my ties to Arizona). Yet I have come to believe that water is perhaps the worst topic with which to have an introductory discussion about Achieving Sustainability. The … Read more…
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As I have mentioned before Google has created two neat tools Ngram and Trends for analyzing the popularity of words in books and web searches respectively. Searching for different Sustainability related words produces some interesting results. I won’t be so bold as to call them insights but I intend to share some of the most … Read more…
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