Sustainability Operations Arizona State University | Fiscal Year 2019 Review Tenth in Sierra Magazine Cool Schools rankings
Biodesign C building seeking LEED Platinum certification.
As the prototype for a New American University, Arizona State University continues to find innovative ways to serve as a living laboratory and example of sustainability for broader society. ASU is committed to reimagining operational practices across the university, including the coordination of initiatives involving departments and community partners to achieve a more sustainable and resilient future.
education institutions in the world to attain this honor. Our sustainability achievements are possible because of our dedicated community members who also position tomorrow’s leaders for success.”
“We achieved campus carbon neutrality six years ahead of plan in Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions in FY 2019,” said Morgan R. Olsen, ASU executive vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer. “ASU also achieved STARS® Platinum from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education; ASU is one of only six higher
This annual review summarizes ASU’s continued efforts in the fiscal year 2019, from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2019, to achieve its operational sustainability goals: circular resource system; climate positive; collaborative action; community success; food reconnection; optimized water; personal action; and resilience and regeneration.
Circular resource system A circular resource system achieves zero waste by adapting goods consumed to maximize their use before sending them back into the economy for the most productive use possible. ASU continues to make significant progress in landfill waste reduction. In FY 2019, the ASU diversion rate was 41.8%. ASU also had a 14% aversion rate over its FY 2008 baseline. The FY 2019 diversion rate is down 1.3% from FY 2018. A cause for the decreased diversion was the improved data collection that increased the reporting scope. Specifically, more data was received from third-party-owned, on-campus housing.
Students participate in a Blue Bag material sort.
ASU waste diversion rate and on-campus students (FTE) 50%
90,000
45%
80,000
40%
70,000
Diversion rate
35%
60,000
30%
50,000
25% 40,000
20%
30,000
15% 10%
20,000
5%
10,000
0%
0 FY2007 FY2008 FY2009 FY2010 FY2011 FY2012 FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016 FY2017 FY2018 FY2019
1
Total diversion rate
On-campus students
On-campus students
FY 2007 – FY 2019
“We are a model of what we would like to see in the world.” Morgan R. Olsen ASU Executive Vice President, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer
ASU waste composition FY 2007 – FY 2019
12,000
10,000
Tons
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0 FY2007
FY2008
FY2009
FY2010
FY2011
FY2012
Diverted
FY2013
FY2014
FY2015
FY2016
FY2017
FY2018
FY2019
Landfill
2019 Milestones:
• Donate: Ditch the Dumpster donations reached an
all-time high with an institutional total of 66,740 pounds in donations.
• Green waste: Green waste collection increased by
61% from FY 2018 to FY 2019. More than 268 tons were collected at the green waste collection programs at the ASU Polytechnic and Tempe campuses.
• Volunteer: One-hundred-six individuals participated
in 71 volunteer opportunities that focused on sorting Blue Bag material and engagement at sporting events, completing 261 hours of service. The Zero Waste department earned a bronze President’s Volunteer Service Award.
• Play: One-hundred-nineteen students served as Zero
Waste Ambassadors to support Green Game efforts at athletics events during the 2018-19 school year. Through the ambassador program, eight student groups assisted the Zero Waste department with successfully diverting 50,000 pounds of materials from the landfill, which was 27,050 pounds more than the previous year.
•
Serve: In FY 2019, the Zero Waste department service team completed 2,513 recycling requests across all four campuses.
66,740
pounds Ditch the Dumpster donations 2
Climate positive In response to the climate crisis, ASU achieved climate neutrality for Scope 1 and 2 emissions1 in FY 2019. ASU reached this climate neutrality feat six years ahead of schedule amid rapid growth. This feat demonstrates leadership and inspires additional action across higher education and beyond. ASU has also reduced total net emissions, including Scope 32, by 80% per 1,000 gross-square-foot of building space and 65% per student compared to FY 2007. ASU has accomplished climate neutrality through a portfolio approach, including: Carbon offsets and renewable-energy certificates coupled with local tree planting. Energy conservation measures, such as energy efficiency retrofits of existing buildings and infrastructure. Green building design and construction. Purchase of renewable energy from large-scale, off-site generation facilities. Renewable energy associated with on-site solar generation.
• • • • •
Tree planting at Palmer Park with the City of Tempe.
Scope 1 emissions result primarily from university vehicles and combusting natural gas to generate heat and electricity for university buildings. Scope 2 emissions come from external utility providers that supply electricity and chilled water to ASU. 1
Scope 3 emissions occur in third-party commuting and air travel associated with ASU operations. 2
500 trees planted in Phoenix Scottsdale and Tempe ASU net greenhouse gas emissions and building space FY 2007 – FY 2019 30
25
20
20 15 15 10 10 5
5
0
0 FY2007
3
FY2008
FY2009
FY2010
FY2011
FY2012
Net emissions / 1,000 GSF
FY2013
FY2014
FY2015
FY2016
FY2017
Total building space GSF
FY2018
FY2019
Gross square footage (in millions)
Net GHG (MTCDE) per 1,000 GSF
25
Solar panels sizzle on the Student Pavilion. Climate positive 2019 Milestones:
• Acquired offsets to mitigate the equivalent to
• • •
Percent change in total building space, on-campus students and total net emissions FY 2019 vs. FY 2007 60% 40% 20% Percemt Chamge
44,436 tons of carbon dioxide through the ASU Carbon Project’s price on carbon for university air travel. | ASU also contracted Urban Offsets, Inc. to plant about 500 trees in Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe to fight the urban heat island and create shade. When the trees mature, ASU will acquire another 1,700 tons of carbon offsets. Installed 90 on-site solar arrays on ASU campuses since 2004. Received 65,000 megawatt-hours of solar power from the Red Rock solar installation, enough to power over 5,200 Arizona homes for a year. Returned more than $2.48 million in utility savings in FY 2019 through investments in campus energy efficiency made through the Sustainability Initiatives Revolving Fund, SIRF. Additionally, $6.97 million were invested in new energy and water-efficiency projects.
0% -20% -40% -60% -80% Total building Space
On-campus students
Totla net emissions MTCDE
$2.48 million in utility savings in FY 2019
4
Collaborative action Collaborative action is about walking the talk together. ASU embeds sustainability into departments’ daily activities, decisions, goals, policies and procedures. The Student Pavilion targets net-zero energy and zero waste and is one example of ASU’s interdisciplinary commitment. Two Sustainability Ambassadors were hired to track progress towards the goals of net-zero energy and waste, as well as design behavioral interventions to help achieve those goals.
194
Sustainable Staff Event planners trained
942 crew members support sustainability at ASU Athletics Green Games.
Additional collaborative action examples include:
• A cross-departmental team updated ASU’s Sustainable
Purchasing Guidelines to reflect improvements in best practices. The Staff Council Sustainability Committee also worked with ASU’s Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative to survey office managers and administrative assistants to determine current knowledge and practices to implement sustainable purchasing. ASU, Catellus Development Corporation, and the U.S. Green Building Council collaborated to pursue LEED — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — for Neighborhood Development certification for the Novus Innovation Corridor. The group also set a LEED-certified requirement for all Novus private development. Construction began on the new Athletics Village as well as on multiple projects in Phase Three, some of which are pursuing LEED Silver. Installed 23 electric vehicle charging stations on four campuses, allowing 46 ASU community members to charge at any one time. One hundred ninety-four Sustainable Staff Event planners were trained in FY 2019, representing 123 departments and offices throughout ASU. Educational Outreach and Student Services supported 55 sustainability-aligned student organizations to develop leadership skills and advance campus sustainability projects.
•
• The President’s Award for Sustainability was presented
to the Banner Bag program, a collaborative effort that turns discarded vinyl banners into stylish, upcycled tote bags. The bags are handmade by women from the Centers for Habilitation, which provides job skills training to individuals with disabilities. ASU provides the banners and pays for the labor and additional materials to produce the bags. The banner bags are made at the Fashion and Business Resource Innovation Center in Tempe, a business incubator that helps newcomers break into the fashion industry. The Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, together with Arizona Apparel Foundation, piloted this innovative program. The bags are sold in the Sun Devil Campus Stores. ASU paper use in recycled content FY 2019
•
1% 5%
• •
5
0% Recycled content
19%
20% Recycled content 30% Recycled content
60%
70% Recycled content
15% 100% Recycled content
Students, faculty and staff volunteer at the annual 2019 ASU Earth Fest to celebrate Earth Month. Community success ASU measures its success not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed. Community success examples include:
• ASU’s in-state student population demographics reflect
the economic diversity of Arizona’s population. During FY 2019, ASU spent $126,912,546 with federally recognized small businesses, representing 8% of total spend and 27% of suppliers utilized. Specific to Arizona-defined small businesses, ASU spent $85,414,675 through a total of 3,032 suppliers, representing 5% of total spend and 13% of suppliers utilized. Student Cultural Coalitions act as umbrella organizations for all registered cultural and ethnic student organizations university-wide. The seven identity-based coalitions3 promote and represent the voice of various cultures within the university. Student and Cultural Engagement promote the development of Sun Devil Culture through self-expression, learning, and heritage with a formation of an ASU culture rooted in inclusion, individual experience, community values, and the Sun Devil Way.
| A student-led redevelopment of Sun Devil
Civility training in spring 2018 and expansion into ASU 101 courses led to a 212% uptick in participation to approximately 8,000 students in fall 2018 over fall 2017, enabling understanding and conflict management in a world of diversity. | Coalition-led heritage celebrations engaged 14,336 students, faculty, staff, and community partners in FY 2019, a 59% gain over FY 2018. | The fall cultural events promoting identity, inclusion and self-expression among returning and new students attracted 15,733 student participants in FY 2019 versus 10,400 participants in FY 2018, a 51% increase.
•
•
fall 1980 – fall 2019
Alliance of Indigenous Peoples, Asian/Asian Pacific American Student Coalition, Black African Coalition, Coalition of International Students, El Concilio, Rainbow Coalition, Women’s Coalition. 3
$127 million
spent with small businesses during FY 2019
6
PPE 240 students engage in urban gardening and hands-on learning at the Polytechnic Garden Commons. Food reconnection Spanning carbon emissions, circular resources, health, resilience, water and wellbeing, ASU works to empower its students, faculty and staff to eat as healthy, local, organic, and “low on the food chain” as possible. ASU also aims to reduce waste and close food loops to transform its food system to create a positive impact on the environment. Anchored in Sun Devil Dining and incorporated across the university, ASU offers a wide array of tools and programs to achieve a sustainable food system.
1,489 pounds of organic produce donated to local food banks
The Polytechnic Community Garden has provided hands-on learning opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to grow local organic produce on campus, and support local food banks and a campus farm stand.
2019 Milestones:
• Donated 1,489 pounds of organic produce to local
food banks and logged 1,226 volunteer hours. Held 19 weekly farm stands and engaged with 1,011 students, faculty and staff. Hosted 14 community service events in the community garden to internal and external partners such as Coca-Cola and Stryker, as well as ASU Day of Service, and Devils in Disguise. The new Garden Commons urban green space and community garden opened in summer 2019. This new facility replaced the Polytechnic Community Garden to include a central campus location, a resource room, a raised-bed community garden, a compost area, and a large community patio.
• • •
7
• Operated 10 tower gardens on the Engrained patio for
food systems engagement with 152 pounds of organic produce grown and harvested for students, faculty and staff. Reduced pre-consumer food waste by 48% since the LeanPath Food Waste Tracking System was implemented at Sun Devil Dining locations in spring 2017. Sun Devil Dining offered 15 free farm stands in the campus dining halls, providing 800 pounds local fresh produce per event for a total of 12,000 pounds. Since 2014, the Polytechnic Community Garden has grown 2,464 pounds of organic produce that have been donated to local food banks or offered at our farm stand.
• • •
Food reconnection During FY 2019, Changemaker Central @ ASU, in partnership with Borderlands Produce Rescue, distributed rescued produce during Produce Rescue events on the ASU Polytechnic, Tempe, and West campuses. This partnership provides healthy, affordable food to ASU students, faculty, staff, and the surrounding community while diverting food waste from the landfill. During FY 2019, the ASU Borderlands partnership: 360,000+ Diverted pounds of food from landfills. $340,000+ Generated in community stimulus. 189,000+ Supplemented meals. 19,746 People were given access to fresh produce. 495 Engaged volunteers in extracurricular learning around food deserts, food waste, and food insecurity. 22 Hosted Produce Rescue events across three locations.
• • • • •
1,226 volunteer hours logged
•
Students plant seasonal herbs and pollinator-attracting annuals at the Garden Commons. 8
Optimized water Optimizing ASU’s water use involves applying a systems approach to use the right quantity and quality of water for the right purpose at the right time. Access to clean water is an increasingly critical global and Southwest regional issue. ASU conducts research, education and engagement in the water arena and is working to optimize water use in operations.
ASU wastewater and on-campus students (FTE) FY 2007 – FY 2019 1,200
90,000 80,000
1,000
800
60,000 50,000
600 40,000 400
30,000 20,000
200
On-campus students
Wastewater (gallons in millions)
70,000
10,000 0 19 20 FY
20 FY
FY
20
18
17
16 20
15
Total wastewater gallons
FY
20 FY
20
14
13 FY
20
12 20
FY
11 FY
10
20 FY
20 FY
20
09
08 FY
20 FY
FY
20
07
0
On-campus students
ASU total water use and on-campus students (FTE) FY 2007 – FY 2019 1,400
90,000 80,000 70,000
1,000
60,000
800
50,000
600
40,000 30,000
400
On-campus students
Water use (gallons in millions)
1,200
20,000 200
10,000
0
0 FY2007 FY2008 FY2009 FY2010 FY2011 FY2012 FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016 FY2017 FY2018 FY2019
Total water gallons
9
On-campus students
Students install raised bed irrigation and learn about water-saving drip techniques.
Optimized water 2019 Milestones:
• Established a partnership with the City of Phoenix to pilot
injection of a hydrogel polymer into athletic fields on the ASU West campus. The hydrogel and injection technique has demonstrated the capacity to help reduce the water consumption of turfgrass by as much as 50% in California environments. If successful in central Arizona soils and climate, the hydrogel injections may help ASU and Arizona reach their water-use reduction goals in response to the ongoing Southwest drought. Replaced 660 of more than 2,000 plumbing fixtures, such as toilets as part of a multi-year Sustainability Initiatives Revolving Fund-financed retrofit of high-water-use plumbing fixtures on the ASU Tempe campus. Students researched and collaborated with the Zero Waste department and Office of the University Architect to divert the porcelain from the landfill. The rescued toilets will be crushed into aggregate as a material for future concrete construction projects such as pathways, benches and planter boxes. Students worked with Environmental Health and Safety, University Sustainability Practices, and numerous lab
•
•
managers to compile an inventory and assessment of all 56 working autoclaves on the Tempe campus. Autoclaves are steam sterilizers used in biological and medical research that handle large volumes of water. Older units provide an excellent opportunity for retrofit with watersaving thermostatic valves or conversion to use steam generated by the Tempe campus Central Heating and Power facility. Energy-usage data was collected to lay the groundwork for a SIRF grant proposal. Developed an FY 2020 project to install water meters in 92 buildings on the Tempe campus to establish individual building water use baselines and add water data to the Campus Metabolism public building information system. Installed wastewater sampling stations on the Tempe campus and at other city locations, and developed a community health monitoring dashboard. An ASU Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering team worked with Facilities Management, University Sustainability Practices, and many City of Tempe departments to realize this wastewater project.
•
•
Personal Action Personal action involves ASU students, faculty, staff, and community members’ engagement in individual behavior that supports sustainability goals on campus and in their own lives.
2019 Milestones:
• 3,016 students and staff received their “Seedling”
certification, the highest level of completion, in the voluntary Seeds of Sustainability literacy program. Sun Devils used more sustainable commuting than FY 2018: | 874,018 Sun Devils rode the intercampus shuttles, a 22.6% boost. | 15,979 Bicycles were registered, a 29.7% uptick. | 28,946 Bicycle valet stations were used, a 10.8% increase. | 5,163 People purchased transit passes, a 9.5% gain. | 3,967 Total pledges made by ASU students, faculty, and staff to reduce their carbon footprint on Carbon Free Day.
•
Rolf Halden, director of the Center for Environmental Health Engineering at the Biodesign Institute, at the fourth annual ASU State of Sustainability Summit. 10
Resilience and Regeneration ASU will adapt, sustain, thrive, and regenerate its environment and communities in the face of climate change.
2019 Milestones:
• Completed the future visioning exercise and climate
resilience assessment workshops for the ASU Downtown Phoenix, Polytechnic, and Tempe campuses as part of the Second Nature Climate Commitment. Partnered with local communities to promote resilience and regeneration through programs such as Energize Phoenix, Reinvent PHX, and the City of Tempe’s Tree and Shade Master Plan and Climate Action Plan. ASU’s Sustainable Cities Network enlisted students through its Project Cities program to work with the City of Peoria on recommendations for drought contingency planning, transit circulator, smart city technology, and a recreation corridor plan. Students also worked with the City of Glendale on recycling program enhancements and the Town of Clarkdale on a downtown business revitalization plan, recommendations to promote green building, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and improved landscaping.
• •
• Since July 2017, ASU has provided support
for planting 662 trees throughout the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, helping cities develop more shade to make them more resilient to the impacts of the urban heat island effect and climate change. Supported six student-produced documentaries focused on local, affordable housing for teachers, homeless women, homeless veterans, as well as housing and jobs for those just released from prison. The films were supported through a Sustainability Initiatives Revolving Fund Tier 1 grant and debuted at both the ASU Downtown Phoenix and Tempe campuses to more than 200 students, faculty, staff, and community members. The films have already made an impact. For example, after screening the film about a homeless veteran who eventually finds housing, ASU Downtown Phoenix campus audience members found bedding for the veteran and a fellow homeless veteran within two days.
•
Ramsey Social Justice Foundation recognized for their support of ASU’s climate commitment.
Visit cfo.asu.edu/sustainability for more information.
Arizona State University Sustainability Operations P.O. Box 877505 Tempe, AZ 85287-7505 ©2020 Arizona Board of Regents for Arizona State University. Data in this document reflect reporting through June 30, 2019. Photography by: Charlie Leight, Emmanuel Padilla, Hailey Campbell, Susan Norton, Urvashi Manral and Vanessa Medina.