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Highlights

Faculty elected as a member of PACES
Sabrina Helm has been elected by the EcoOps community to represent UA employees in PACES, the President’s Advisory Council on Environmental Sustainability. EcoOps is a new project of the Office of Sustainability aimed at building a community for UA employees and alumni who want to make the UA a more environmentally sustainable place to work, study, and play. EcoOps compliments existing student-focused programs.
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CESI involved in The “G.R.E.E.N.” Summer Youth Employment Program
CESI Co-director Sabrina Helm was invited to discuss changes in daily life that can improve sustainability with participants of the “G.R.E.E.N.” Summer Youth Employment Program sponsored by the Tucson Urban League in partnership with Grace Temple Missionary Baptist Church. See the program’s annual newsletter.

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About CESI

Vision

To be recognized as providing the best instruction and consumer research on sustainable consumption. As we define it, sustainable consumption encompasses the decisions made and actions taken by consumers to improve their quality of life without compromising the ability of other consumers and living species to flourish on our planet Earth, today and in the future.


Mission

To provide consumers, as shoppers and employees, with validated tools to help them reflect on and improve the sustainability of their consumption patterns by making more informed choices about their use of goods and services and its impact on natural resources. To provide organizations, as firms and employers, with instructional tools for implementing sustainable business practices and scientific data on consumer consumption of sustainable goods, services, and natural resources.

The Story of CESI

Although there is a considerable amount of ongoing academic research and corporate interest in topic of sustainability nationally and internationally, most of the work being done is related to developing business strategies and supply-side products, methods and/or technologies. Missing from these and all other worthwhile and important activities is the voice of the consumer – the human factor, demand-side perspective.

To fill this void, we conceived of CESI in summer 2009, coinciding with The University of Arizona’s campus-wide initiative in support of scholarly activity and scientific research about the environment and its sustainability. The goal of CESI is to facilitate collaborative, innovative and integrative effort to support research, teaching and outreach activities that focus on 1) consumer rituals, attitudes and behavior associated with the consumption of food, water, and energy and 2) consumers’ sense of social responsibility as it relates to the sustainability of these and other resources.

Our long-term vision is to transform CESI into a CES Institute.

In the short term, however, CESI will involve a number of new activities related to research, teaching and outreach. By leveraging the interdisciplinary research interests of the RCSC faculty in collaboration with UA faculty from the Institute of the Environment and others, CESI will fill a void by providing a consumer and individual-level social perspective on the environment and its sustainability.

The People of CESI

Anita BhappuAnita Bhappu, Ph.D. CESI Co-Director

 

 

 



Sabrina Helm

Sabrina V. Helm, Ph.D. CESI Co-Director