Head on over to ASU’s main campus to find some great arts and crafts created by ASU’s faculty, staff, students, alumni, and student groups. I made it to the last sale and was surprised by all the great creations to be found. This is a great opportunity to support all the talent that is to be found on campus. Click the banner to learn more and to get a preview of what you’ll find.

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, March 27, 2008

Where: Hayden Lawn, ASU’s Tempe campus

Looks like colleges and students all over the country are jumping on board the with sustainability.

This is a race not only against the inevitable march of climate change, but against other colleges and universities eager to tout their green accomplishments. A school without a sustainability office seems hopelessly outdated, a passive part of the old economy instead of a vital part of the new. Signing climate commitments, university presidents are bestowed an immediate badge of honor, one that shows they know the importance of their place in the new world.

Arizona State University’s clean cities vision comes from the top down. ASU President Michael Crow came to the campus from Columbia University committed to making the university a leader in sustainability. Five years later, the university’s Global Institute for Sustainability pushes students and faculty to find solutions to resource depletion in water-deprived, population-dense cities like Phoenix, which is a stand-in for many cities worldwide coping with desertification (a threat to some 20 percent of the world’s population). “We see campuses as living labs,” says Bonny Bentzin of ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability. “In Phoenix, we’re on the frontline as one the fastest-growing communities in the U.S. We have to figure out how not only how to have a sustainable water supply, but how to manage air quality.”

Cleaner, Greener U over at emagazine.com

The Scottsdale-based, German-owned Dial Corp. approached ASU for the partnership in support of ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability, said Jay Golden, director of the National Center of Excellence — a part of the institute.The main goal of the partnership is to try to shift the market by making the public aware of sustainability and by figuring out more ecologically friendly ways of making products, he said.

Article at ASU’s State Press

Cafe Scientifique
Arizona’s Water Resources — How We Manage Water and Growth
Jim Holway
March 6, 2008
Time: 7:00-8:00 pm
Location: Connections Café, Tempe Public Library, Southwest corner of Rural and Southern), Tempe
Associate Director of Solutions, Global Institute of Sustainability; Professor of Practice, Civil and Environmental Engineering

http://sustainable.asu.edu/giosmain/events/index.htm

No other college or university offers its incoming class of students an experience as memorable and exciting as Prescott College’s Wilderness Orientation. In small groups consisting of ten students and two advanced student leaders or alumni, Resident Degree Program students travel on an extended backpacking trip through beautiful and remote areas of Arizona.

http://www.prescott.edu/highlights/orientation.html

I’d never heard of anything like this before until this summer when I found out my cousin was one of the advanced leaders. It really sounds like an amazing experience and would love to do some backpacking someday. What better way to start college then out in the wilderness learning about nature and I’m sure much more. According to Prescott College’s website 90% of incoming freshman participate in this program.

Prescott College