Impact
Program impact
Since its inception in 2017, Project Cities has collaborated with Arizona communities to address their most pressing sustainability challenges through its innovative project-based design. While each community has unique challenges, students have researched and informed efforts for various municipal challenges, including sustainable waste management, water policy, community engagement strategies, historic preservation, and sustainability planning.
Project Cities Impact Report
2017-2022
The report documents the program’s impacts, including Project Cities’ advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals, project highlights from each community partnership, and messages from leadership.
Cities are known engines of innovation, where problems get solved, so partnering with local communites through Project Cities is central to the efforts of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory to improve social, environmental and economic outcomes, from the individual community to the planetary scale.
Dave WhiteDirector of the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, and Associate Vice President of Research Advancement, Knowledge Enterprise
Reinforcing ASU’s Charter
Project Cities reinforces ASU’s Charter mission and goals by serving Arizona’s communities through use-inspired sustainability research and action. This program reflects ASU’s mission to advance research with meaningful societal impact and improve the quality of life in local communities.
Aligning with ASU’s design aspirations
Project Cities exemplifies many of ASU’s New American University Design Aspirations, including leveraging our place, enabling student success, fusing intellectual disciplines, and transforming society. The program allows students to learn through hands-on experience and provides local cities with innovative ideas that positively impact their future.
Project Cities was awarded the President’s Medal for Social Embeddedness in 2022, a university-wide initiative to recognize the work of ASU faculty, staff, and programs for their work in social embeddedness.
Advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
As the leading international framework for sustainable decision-making, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) lay out a path for partnerships toward global peace and prosperity. The SDGs provide a set of goals and metrics for measuring project impact, offering an illustration of the benefits experienced by the cities, towns, and students who participate in a Project Cities partnership. For details on the SDGs, visit sdgs.un.org/goals.