Struggling to process the Paris climate talks? Help is coming

To aid our digestion of the December 2015 conference in Paris – where governments of the world adopted an arguably game-changing international agreement on climate change – four ASU experts and conference attendees will join us for the latest installment in the Case Critical series, "Postcards from Paris," on January 20.

Since its inception in 2006 under the stalwart leadership of President Michael Crow, ASU's School of Sustainability has been boldly leading the way to a sustainable future by preparing a new generation of practitioners to address the most pressing challenges of our time. Now in 2016, the school reaches its 10th Anniversary – a milestone that will be marked with a series of memorable events from April 14-16.

With expertise ranging from international law to ecology to ideology, policy and equity, the eight ASU sustainability experts who attended the 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference in Paris were well-represented in the media, including in a CNN piece that quoted Foundation Professor of Law and Senior Sustainability Scholar Dan Bodansky.

In a recent contribution to the Journal of Sustainability Education titled "On Hope and Agency in Sustainability: Lessons from Arizona State University," School of Sustainability Dean Christopher Boone examines why students are attracted to sustainability programs and how ASU prepares students to work toward a desirable future.

Ann Marie Raymondi, a 2013 graduate of the School of Sustainability's Master of Science program, has been named a NASA Harriett G. Jenkins Graduate Fellow following a rigorous selection process. Now pursuing her master’s in biology at Boise State, Raymondi will use the award to examine the effects of fire and climate change on plant communities in the sagebrush-steppe system.

Published in the journal Sustainability, a paper authored by a team of Decision Center for a Desert City researchers synthesizes the evolution of the interdisciplinary research and boundary organization, which has enhanced adaptive and sustainable governance in the face of complex system dynamics.

Recognizing that energy challenges pertain to both technology and people, ASU LightWorks will support six energy-related research projects intended to engage veterans or active-duty military using $1.5 million in seed grants.

Recognizing that it cannot save all species threatened with extinction, the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes - directed by sustainability scientist Leah Gerber - focuses its efforts in areas like governance and decision-making so as to guide conservation choices with research-driven data.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature Council has selected Hawaii as the host of the September 1-10, 2016, IUCN World Conservation Congress – the world’s largest conservation event. Held

Kamehameha Schools teachers Rod Floro and Brendan Courtot hope to empower Hawai’i’s youth through culture and sustainability. Floro, a sixth-grade science teacher, and Courtot, a vocational technology and applied math

Though most experts agree that sustainability's primary aim is to accommodate a growing number of people on a planet with finite resources, the term is defined in different ways - as exemplified by the ASU Wrigley Institute's directorate in a recent article.

More than a dozen 11th- and 12th-grade girls spent their fall break gathering skills that will be valuable to them in future STEM careers during a workshop hosted in partnership with ASU’s Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research program.