If you think Las Vegas is growing fast now, just give it a few years: The metropolitan area is expected to accommodate four million inhabitants by 2036.

Given the myriad challenges presented by a current population of half that number, daunting questions cascade from the mention of this statistic: Will there be enough water? What sources of energy will be tapped to meet the needs of the population? How will we manage transportation? Air pollution? Crime? Health issues? Education?

In summary, how will the community sustain so many people?

A number of initiatives are being launched at UNLV to begin addressing these and other questions associated with the issue of sustainability in Southern Nevada.

The goal of this endeavor is for UNLV to lead the charge in bringing relevant issues to the fore, networking with the community, and researching solutions to achieve a more sustainable future for the area, according to Ron Smith, the vice president for research and Graduate College dean.

“UNLV will play a major role in achieving a sustainable Las Vegas community with all its interrelated dimensions, including environmental, economic, and social/cultural sustainability,” says Smith, who also serves as the founding executive director of the new Office of Urban Sustainability Initiatives.

“We view this initiative as one that is of vital importance to our students, faculty, and the entire community. What we achieve with these initiatives today will have a lasting impact on the quality of life of future generations in Southern Nevada.”

To launch the effort, UNLV sponsored a sustainability conference, bringing together government and business leaders, faculty, and other experts in the field to discuss wide-ranging issues. More than 400 people attended the fall conference, which involved more than 60 presenters.

Titled “Shaping the Future of Southern Nevada: Economic, Environmental, and Social Sustainability,” the conference included panel discussions on environmental sustainability, health challenges, economic growth and diversification, youth and aged populations, community development and architecture, and service learning.

“A variety of topics were discussed, all through the lens of sustainability,” says Smith. “The conference was a wonderful success, and planning is under way for similar events in the future.”

Smith plans to reach out to the community and region in other ways as well with lectures, publications, and seminars, and eventually new courses and degree programs focusing on sustainability may be developed. He hopes to form a consortium with other universities in the West examining these issues and to establish a local community advisory group.

Smith has also hired engineering professor Thomas Piechota as director of sustainability and multidisciplinary research to form research teams, promote collaboration, and seek out grant funding sources.

According to Smith, the over-arching goal of all of these initiatives is to help build a sustainable Las Vegas, surrounding region, and state of Nevada. This effort includes three major areas of focus: protecting the physical environment (environmental sustainability), building the area’s economy without jeopardizing the health of the ecosystem (economic sustainability), and promoting a supportive social/cultural way of life for all citizens (social and cultural sustainability).

These three areas represent a wide variety of issues and encompass a broad array of disciplines. More than 160 UNLV faculty members from virtually all academic fields have identified sustainability as an interest and/or have pursued sustainability-oriented research. In an effort to begin addressing the nature of this research, UNLV Innovation asked three faculty members whose work represents the aforementioned areas to discuss sustainability and how their commitment to it has driven their research.

Environmental Sustainability

Dale Devitt, professor of life sciences and director of the Center for Urban Horticulture and Water Conservation

Life sciences professor Dale Devitt researches subjects that are perhaps most traditionally associated with sustainability, particularly in the desert Southwest: water supply, water quality, and efficiency of water use.

With expertise in urban ecology/ecosystems, including vegetation, soils, and irrigation systems, he offers valuable insight on environmental sustainability issues.

“Sustainability in community growth as it relates to water and the environment must be a societal goal,” Devitt says. “How this goal is defined must be based not only on our desires and wishes but also on a commitment to future generations that resources will also be available to sustain quality of life. However, such quality of life must not be maintained at the expense of the ecosystems that are also intricately linked to these same resources.”

Developing a sustainable community requires that all citizens take an active role in redefining how we live and use natural resources, Devitt says, adding that education and research are vital to this change.

Devitt, who teaches courses on water management and arid zone soils, conducts research on a number of water issues, including how re-use water (treated sewage effluent) can be employed for irrigation purposes, particularly at golf courses. He also works closely with the Southern Nevada Water Authority to evaluate plans for use of water from northern counties to enhance Southern Nevada’s water supply. Additionally, he researches the effectiveness of satellite irrigation controllers in watering residential landscaping.

“Science and technology provide hope that we can still make significant reductions in our water usage,” he says, adding that UNLV is actively contributing to this effort.

Economic Sustainability

Keith Schwer, economics professor and director of the Center for Business and Economic Research

Too often economic realities are overlooked in discussions of sustainability, according to Keith Schwer, and that’s exactly why he has joined the dialogue.

Schwer has conducted extensive research on economic impact, modeling, and feasibility of a variety of activities regarding sustainability in Nevada, from the development of renewable energy industries to storage of nuclear waste. He has also studied such issues as the social cost of gambling and high school drop-out rates.

Through the Center for Business and Economic Research, he and his staff gather and analyze information on a variety of issues that can help government officials, business leaders, and the public make more informed decisions to ensure a sustainable future for the state.

“Economic matters are all too often excluded in analysis of many of these issues,” says Schwer, a widely recognized authority on the economy of Las Vegas and Nevada.

To Schwer, sustainability involves much more than the environment; though he considers it important, he views many other issues to be critical as well, including health, poverty, safety, education, juvenile justice, and many others. His center’s many projects–such as the annual Las Vegas Perspective survey, the Southern Nevada Economic Outlook project, and the Kids Count Data Book–all seek to shed light on a variety of economic factors that shape the quality of life in the community.

“It’s vital for UNLV to conduct the research necessary to guide policy decisions if we are to enhance our community for future generations,” Schwer says.

Social and Cultural Sustainability

Cynthia Carruthers, associate professor of tourism and convention administration

Cynthia Carruthers focuses on social factors that contribute to a community’s sustainability.

“Social sustainability is first and foremost about building capacity,” Carruthers says. “The building of community capacity is the identification, cultivation, and mobilization of the human resources in a community so that it can thrive, not just survive.”

Strong sustainable communities develop their assets to realize their dreams and to deal with challenges, she says, adding that the greatest asset of a community is its youth.

“A sustainable community requires committed, empowered, caring, well-educated youth to ensure its future,” she says. “For youth to acquire these qualities, they need to receive essential assets from their communities.”

For this reason, one of Carruthers’ research interests is after-school youth development programs. She has examined the impact of an after-school program that was designed to enhance the developmental skills and abilities of young girls who had been involved with the juvenile justice system. She has also investigated the developmental impact of a multi-agency after-school program for inner city urban youth, focusing on the processes that had the most and least successful impact on the youths.

“Social sustainability requires that members of a community, including youth-serving agencies, work together cooperatively to advance the social good, for and with our youth,” Carruthers says. “There is no greater road to social sustainability than the cultivation and mobilization of this community asset.”