In Our Nature

The University of Washington is once again among the top 10 greenest schools in America according to Sierra magazine.

The official publication of the Sierra Club ranked the UW No. 10 in its 2015 "Cool Schools" rankings. This is the sixth time UW has been ranked in the top 10 in nine years...

With a new water conservation system put into place, Mercer Court is revolutionizing the way students do laundry.

HFS uses a cistern, a tank used to catch and store rainwater for the purpose of delivering laundry services to more than 1,300 students living in the apartment complex. JR Fulton, HFS's capital planning and sustainability manager, says that about 90 to 95 percent of water used in the washing machine is coming from the cistern.

...

On the southeast side of Gould Hall, the UW Green Wall project perches, providing a home for plants, birds and insects while helping to conserve water and reduce energy needs.

A team funded by a Green Seed Fund grant is studying the Green Wall to quantify the effects of the green wall. The research is documenting plant growth, bird and insect sightings, water use, the impact on the urban heat island effect and building energy performance.

Over a year period, researchers sighted more than 17 different species of birds and multiple species of...

Do good for the environment, earn money for your RSO, and get into football games for free!

UW Recycling and Intercollegiate Athletics are looking for a reliable and environmentally aware student organization to provide recycling outreach to tailgaters prior to each home football game. The shift is 3-5 hours, depending on game start time, and a minimum of 6 volunteers per game is required. You will be walking throughout the parking lots to distribute recycling bags to tailgaters, promote recycling, and answer questions.

Your student organization will be paid...

The University of Washington has won the inaugural Sustainability Award from the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USG Corporation for its sustainable practices, especially the renovation of...

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.

Founded in 1911, the...

You may not have noticed, but as you walk around the UW campus more of those plants and flowers at your feet are species native to Puget Sound.

That’s because UW’s Society for Ecology Restoration student guild (SER-UW) native plant nursery has been working to restore areas on campus by increasing native species biodiversity and creating open spaces for students to engage with the natural world just steps from their residence halls. 

Since 2013, SER has been removing interloper invasive species in Whitman Walk, a north campus site near McCarty Hall and Kincaid Ravine, an urban...

A team from UW’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) used a Green Seed Fund Grant to increase sustainable practices in the department's 20 labs.

To better assess barriers to sustainability, project facilitators encouraged DEOHS labs to participate in UW’s Green Labs Certification program in the spring of 2014. That year, labs averaged a score of 45 percent on their Green Labs application – while other campus labs who took the application averaged a score...

Today and every Friday this summer the UW Farm will have a stand with fresh campus-raised produce for sale from 4 to 7 p.m.

The stand is off the Burke-Gilman Trail across from Gasworks Park, in the parking lot of the Fisheries Supply at 1900 Northlake Way. Each Friday you'll have the opportunity to pick up produce harvested that morning - perfect for stopping by on your way home for the weekend, or to enjoy in a nice picnic at Gasworks Park.

For more information on the UW Farm, go to food.washington.com/farm or their...

How do LEED-certified buildings measure up on indoor environmental quality? UW’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering conducted an investigation, funded by a Green Seed Grant, at the LEED Gold-certified Husky Union Building (HUB) to find out.

Professors Dorothy Reed and Amy Kim, graduate research assistant Stanley Wang, and engineering technician Yiming Liu focused on two spaces in particular – the Student Legal Services (SLS) Office and the Firecracker restaurant in Husky Den. They were able to test indoor environmental quality by...