Arizona State University
PAE-19: Community Sustainability Partnerships

The Sustainable Cities Network (SCN/The Network), formed in February 2009 by Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability, was created to strengthen regional sustainability conversations and efforts. As a community-based program facilitated by the Institute, SCN is designed to be a bridge between the University’s research and technical capabilities in sustainability and the front-line challenges facing Arizona cities. The Network is comprised of 25 cities and towns, three tribal communities, and Maricopa County (from the Valley Metro area), in addition to over two dozen additional communities from around Arizona that desire to participate in SCN meetings, discussions and activities. SCN holds monthly workgroup and topic meetings, in addition to two large Valleywide meetings which are open to all municipal and tribal employees. Active SCN Workgroups and Subworkgroups focus on specific topics of interest to local municipalities and include the following: Solar & Energy Efficiency (SEE), Solar Finance Subworkgroup, Streetlight Technology Subworkgroup, Best Management Practices (BMPs), Water & Waste Water, Green Building, and the SCN Steering Committee. Arizona State University has partnerships with educators and communities to bring sustainability education to K-12 schools. Through a variety of programs and experiences, students and teachers learn as they participate in scientific research in conjunction with Arizona State University scientists and researchers. The Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC) is one of several interdisciplinary National Science Foundation-funded centers exploring human decision-making under climate uncertainty. DCDC research teams work with the public policy community to investigate water, climate, decision-making, and vulnerability in the urbanizing desert of Central Arizona. DCDC is designed as a “boundary organization” sitting at the interface of the realm of academia and the real of society. As such, DCDC strives to create a collaborative space for scientists and public and private entities to meet and to develop and explore “what if?-scenarios” related to the future of metropolitan Phoenix and to devise pathways to sustain a growing population in a desert environment in the era of climate change. Accounting for the time and trust needed to develop research collaborations, DCDC entertains a variety of formats for community engagement ranging from informal lunch forums and panel discussions on topics such as water law, water-energy nexus or the future of agriculture, to internship opportunities for students in partnership with leading water agencies, workshops and long-term research collaborations between water agencies and scientists. Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability (SOS) is the first school of sustainability in the nation. At SOS, community engagement is incorporated into the curriculum and the formats ranges from “Bringing the world in”, where local experts come to class and talk with students about sustainability issues, to “Visiting the world” where students go out, exploring the field and engage with experts in their work environments. The School is partnering with Arizona State University’s Office of University Sustainability Practices to offer real-world learning experience for students that focus on sustainability issues on campus and offer students to engage with staff from operations, facilities and management trying to develop solutions that advance campus sustainability.