In Our Nature

The Odegaard Undergraduate Library recently revamped its restroom and public area waste diversion practices in order to help support sustainability on campus.

In an effort to reduce paper consumption within Odegaard, a total of 23 paper towel containers were removed from all restrooms. Thirty hand dryer units have been installed this year, and seven were installed in By George Café restrooms in 2014. The transition to dryers has also helped to eliminate costs associated with keeping restrooms stocked. In 2014 a total of $8,388 was spent on paper towels and $1,152 went towards the...

Volunteers needed to give away free compost bins during student move-in! 

Looking to make a difference in UW campus sustainability? Volunteer with UW Recycling to give away free compost bins to incoming students at the UW campus apartments. UW Recycling will be tabling outside of Mercer Court, Stevens Court, and Cedar apartments during student move-in. We need volunteers to help educate new and returning apartment residents about recycling and composting at UW and offer residents a free compost bin for their apartment.

Dates and times of the compost bin...

Photos courtesy of UW Botanic Gardens and Larry Howard

The UW Botanic Gardens was recently voted as one of the best university gardens in the nation. With more than 20,000 plants from around the world, it has become an international hub for plant science and ecosystem research, teaching and stewardship.

The Botanic Garden's dynamic assortment of...

Photo by Wikimedia user Sage Ross

One of the most visible buildings on campus is also one of the most sustainable. The Husky Union Building (HUB) is recognized with LEED Gold status for its sustainable features both large – such as the cooling system – and small, like the materials in the bowling alley.

Most of the sustainability features were part of the renovation that turned the HUB from a dark and...

Today we continue our “Meet the Ecoreps” segment with our Marketing and Outreach Coordinator, Alex Huff! Alex is from Woodinville, WA and is a Senior in the Program on the Environment here at UW. He is also a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity where he holds the position of philanthropy chair. In his free time Alex enjoys playing music and exploring the vast world around him. He is passionate about traveling and doing hands-on work in the environment, so it makes sense that he...

How do people really use the buildings on campus? A Green Seed Fund grant allowed a team of researchers to answer that question by developing a tool to audit users and better understand the effects of occupant behavior on building energy consumption.

Project facilitators worked in Dempsey, Savery, and Gould Hall for the year-long project observing how people interacted with the buildings. The research looked at factors such as light usage, how often a room was occupied, average room temperature and humidity, workstation power and energy usage, and...

The UW's ENVIR 480: Sustainability Studio class in the Program on the Environment presents students with a sustainability topic which they engage in as part of an experiential learning course. The topics change each quarter - this spring, the students researched the UW's environmental history. This is part of a series of posts by the students on some of the information they uncovered.

The early years of the University of Washington's...

Looking for information on environmental topics but not sure where to start? The UW Libraries resource guide is for you. The libraries have compiled resource guides on many topics, including the environment, which give students and researchers links to articles, books, journals, websites and more.

Check out the UW Libraries Environment Resource Guide and see where your search takes you!

The Washington Park Arboretum staff uses utility vehicles to maintain the park grounds, but current diesel vehicles are a source of pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions (as well as being loud).

A team of researchers used a Green Seed Fund grant to discover whether biodiesel or electric vehicles would be the better option to replace the current fleet when looking at carbon footprint, performance, cost and user satisfaction.

At the beginning of the study, surveys showed users preferred the biodiesel vehicle. However, it turned out to not only...

Over the next couple weeks we will be running a segment of blog posts called “Meet the EcoReps,” so you can get to know us a little better!

This week we would like to introduce our program coordinator, Merrick Calder! Merrick is a senior here at UW in the Program on the Environment and plans to focus on sustainable business after he graduates. He comes to us all the way from Portland, Oregon, where he likes to sail and hike with his family in his free time. He has...