Some ASU graduate students are working to move the concept of sustainability beyond academia and into everyday conversation with the launch of their new journal, The Sustainability Review.
The biannual online journal published its first issue at the beginning of the month.
The idea for the review was born at a party in 2008, where editor in chief Maren Mahoney and fellow graduate students were discussing academic journals. It was then that they noticed a hole in the target readership of journals, which they believed ignored non-academic readers.
“We really want to engage people outside of academia and get people to really start thinking and learning about what sustainability is and how we can incorporate it,” said Mahoney, a graduate student in ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability.
Alison Dalton-Smith, a non-degree graduate student, was a contributing author who wrote about economic sustainability and happiness in today’s society.
“Everyone can contribute to this concept of sustainability — which crosses all our academic disciplines — and then find a home at The Sustainability Review,” Dalton-Smith said.
Dalton-Smith said providing accessible information was key to engaging the public on the individual level.
Michelle Schwartz, spokeswoman for ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability, said the journal can help readers become more familiar with the academic jargon about sustainability.
“Sustainability is a hard concept and there are many dimensions to it, so this journal delves deeper into all the different avenues,” Schwartz said.
Mahoney said she hoped that breaking down the large concept of sustainability would spark an interest in average readers.
“It’s massive, and it’s going to require change,” she said. “That’s not going to happen within the world of academics — it has to happen in the communities, so we need to reach out to them and get them involved.”
The student-run publication received financial and moral support from the University, Schwartz said, as President Michael Crow even contributed an article to its first issue.
“That kind of reassured us,” she said.
In the future Schwartz hopes to expand the journal by gathering articles from a wider variety of people in different communities and specialties, Mahoney said.
Dalton-Smith said she hopes to contribute to the journal in the future.
“It gives me a place where I can get my ideas out and an audience of people who are interested in sustainability,” she said.
“If you have a small group of people who are creating the ideas, then the ideas tend to be exclusive because people start to agree on everything,” she said. “With an issue like sustainability, you have to be able to see every possible side or view, because it really does affect everyone.”
Reach the reporter at michelle.parks@asu.edu
