Equitable urban cooling
In November 2020, the City of Tempe Office of Sustainability was awarded a grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to accelerate its climate action toward cooler, more equitable and healthier futures. The grant supports the Cool Kids, Cool Places, Cool Futures: Youth-driven, Arts-enhanced and Community-based approach for equitable urban cooling and emergency management project, a partnership between Tempe and The Design School. This project fosters meaningful resilience to extreme heat by empowering youth to evolve from kids to catalysts with the assistance of a broad community-of-support network through transformational positions. Several faculty from The Design School are participating in the project, including Paul Coseo, associate professor in landscape architecture and sustainability scientist, and Institute Professors Maria Rosario Jackson and Wanda Dalla Costa.