Value proposition

Designing and shaping a future in which Earth will thrive.

Since 2004, ASU has become a global leader in sustainability efforts—creating the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, launching the first School of Sustainability in the U.S., deploying the largest solar energy portfolio of any university in the U.S. and more.

The emergence of the Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University is the next step in our continual evolution. It represents the urgent belief that we can and must make a meaningful contribution to ensuring a habitable planet and a future in which well-being is attainable.

Using the model of the multi-focused National Laboratories, the Global Futures Laboratory is creating a platform for an ongoing and wide-ranging exchange across all knowledge domains to address the complex social, economic and scientific challenges spawned by the current and future threats from environmental degradation. This platform positions a new world headquarters for an international network of scientists, scholars and innovators, it lays the foundation to respond to existing and emerging challenges and it uses innovation to purposefully shape and inform our future.

The Global Futures Laboratory provides key engagement spaces for scientists, educators and leaders across ASU and around the world to address critical issues related to the future of planet Earth. Rather than solving problems after they arise, we seek to design a future in which humanity not only survives, but thrives.

Our Vision
Managing our planet for a sustainable future.

Our Mission
Harnessing the innovative capacity of academia, the Global Futures Laboratory will develop options for proactive planetary management to achieve sustained habitability and improved well-being for all humankind.

sustainability, research, global community, responsible innovation, energy, water, oceans, food systems, decision support, ethical technology, equitable education, urban centers, biodiversity, biomimicry, complex adaptive systems, applied mathematics, heat, climate, and extremes