Arizona State University President Michael Crow named to TIME100 Climate List

PHOENIX — Arizona State University President Michael Crow has been named to the TIME100 Climate list, becoming the first university president to be named to the list full of leaders and innovators driving real climate action.

Crow was honored under the “Leaders” section of the TIME100 Climate 2024 list.

Stephen Roe Lewis, governor of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, also was named to list under as part of the “Defenders” category.

This is just the second time the magazine has released its climate list, and it prioritizes scalable achievements and recent action over commitments and announcements. Crow had previously been honored by the magazine when it named him one of the top 10 best college presidents in 2009.

“We’re not focused on ‘the sky is falling’ or scare tactics — fear only inspires shortsighted, ill-conceived actions,” Crow said in a press release Tuesday. “We’re instead focused on finding solutions and results to some of society’s biggest challenges.”

ASU’s recent innovations

Since becoming the university’s president in 2002, Michael Crow has brought a wealth of climate-related action to ASU.

Some of Arizona State University’s recent innovations include:

• Becoming the first university to require a three-credit sustainability course as part of students’ general-education curriculum, regardless of major.
• Launching the Circular Plastics Microfactory, a unique facility for recycling which is expected to divert 550 tons from landfills annually.
• Launching a state-of-the-art coral research and propagation facility in Hawaii, the largest coral nursery of its kind.
• The National Science Foundation chose ASU to lead a multi-institution initiative aimed at tackling climate change in the Southwest while driving economic development.
• The U.S. Department of Energy designated ASU as the anchor institution for EPIXC (Electrified Processes for Industry without Carbon), the DOE’s seventh Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation, focused on addressing greenhouse gas emissions from industrial process heating.
• ASU was selected to lead the multiyear Arizona Water Innovation Initiative to strengthen the state’s water supply, drawing on the university’s expertise in water science, technology, management and law.