Would it surprise you to know that Arizona State University (ASU) in Phoenix Arizona is actively shaping the world of social responsibility and sustainability today? A university in the desert, ASU is faced, everyday, with sustainable challenges that, despite their daunting nature, do not prevent the capital city of Phoenix from being the fastest growing city in the US. Associated with this rapid development, ASU students and faculty helped design and implement, Tempe Town Lake. This two mile long water source helps address problems of water shortage and less the destructive flooding that occurs in Arizona during the rainy season. While ASU has always faced sustainability problems, ASU moved itself to the forefront of sustainability by opening the nations first School of Sustainability (SOS) last year. Offering everything from bachelors to doctorate degrees, SOS and ASU’s president, Michael Crow’s commitment to furthering social responsibility and environmental change in higher education, is effecting a positive change across the globe. Following its commitment to sustainability and change ASU’s president started a so-called University Climate Initiative. The initiative, which is close in scope to what some American mayors have tried to do, hopes to “get other university presidents to sign up for a series of renewable-energy objectives and carbon-emission objectives.”1 While being in the desert has led ASU to take on sustainability as a way to tackle some of its major challenges to development and growth, the entire world will benefit from the work that is being done at ASU in the future.
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