Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.39
Liaison Dayna Cook
Submission Date Oct. 8, 2012
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.2

Northern Arizona University
ER-15: Sustainability Research Identification

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Rod Parnell
Faculty: Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability
School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability
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Has the institution developed a definition of sustainability research?:
Yes

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A copy of the institution's definition of sustainability research:
NAU’s definition of sustainability research is adapted from the definition of sustainability as approved by the Faculty Senate in January 2010 in the university’s “Global Learning Initiative”: Sustainability research and scholarly activities focus on ethical and responsible interactions with the natural world to create systems that further long-term social equity, economic prosperity, and healthy functioning of ecological systems. This includes, for example, the following issues: a. how culture determines how we construct the appropriate use of environmental resources. b. the connection between responsible engagement with the environment and global citizenship. c. the scientific basis of environmental sustainability. d. the vocabulary and concepts around environmental sustainability (e.g., finite and renewable resources, environmental footprint, global commons, peak oil). e. the role of human interactions with the environment and its relation to the root causes of many global problems.

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Has the institution identified its sustainability research activities and initiatives?:
Yes

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A brief description of the methodology the institution followed to complete the inventory:
An inventory of all funded research projects was made using a database query of awards made over the past two fiscal years to researchers at NAU, focusing on key words within the title and project abstracts. Keywords used were: Sustainab*, Environment*, Eco*, Climat*, Carbon, Global change, Renewable, Conservation, Green, Population, Water, Energy, Food, Waste, Earth, Water, River*, Riparian, Solar, *diversity, Rare, Endangered, Threatened, Wildlife. Once this query was returned, the spreadsheet was reviewed and projects not related to environmental and social sustainability were removed (e.g. the term “solar” brought up many research projects in astronomy that were deemed to be unrelated to NAU’s definition of sustainability research.) Some research areas may have been missed using this method, but we believe this is a reasonable representation of the sustainability research conducted at the university. Information put into the database included: Title of project, abstract for project, PI name, department name, and funding agency or sponsor.

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Does the institution make its sustainability research inventory publicly available online?:
Yes

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The website URL where the sustainability research inventory is posted (required if claiming Part 3 of the credit):
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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