In Our Nature

The unseasonably warm February means there are plenty of opportunities to get outside and see sights which normally aren't available until later in the year.

The Seattle Times has a list of several good options for garden walks around Seattle (many flowers are already starting to bloom) and waterfalls further afield. 

For example, Franklin Falls near Snoqualmie Pass:

Snuggled up beneath the Interstate 90 freeway...

A classroom challenge to reduce students' carbon footprint has turned into one of the six research projects awarded a Green Seed Fund grant this year.

In the Green Seed Fund's latest round of funding, 25 proposals were received totaling $1.5 million in requests. A committee of students, faculty and staff awarded about $250,000 in funding to the top six proposals, including "Carbon Challenge: Footprint Reduction through Curricular Development and Community Building."

The groundwork for the proposal began a year ago with Ellen Moore. In addition...

Believe it or not, it’s already the third week of RecycleMania and we’re very happy to share the results of our kickoff week with you!

In other exciting news, there is another chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card this week! To enter, visit sustainability.uw.edu/pledge and fill out the sustainability pledge.

Best wishes, Huskies!

The University of Washington has hundreds of classes which touch on sustainability, but there is much more the university can do to explicitly incorporate sustainability into its academics. The interdisciplinary cross-campus Sustainability in the Curriculum Committee recently concluded, “the time is ripe for all UW campuses to make sustainability a top priority not only in its operations but across the curriculum.” 

To help determine how the UW might best work toward that goal, students from across campus will come together for a...

Here are some highlights from our Sustainability Events calendar for the week of Feb. 16, 2015. If you know of any events which should be added, let us know.

If you'd like to get a weekly email of all the upcoming sustainability events, subscribe here. And we're always adding new events as we learn about them, so see all the details and any last-minute additions on the Sustainability Events calendar.

The UW Farm recently featured alumni Michelle Venetucci, who worked on the Farm in its early days from 2008-2011. She was involved with the effort to expand the Farm from its initial site at the Botany Greenhouse to its larger location at the Center for Urban Horticulture.

Venetucci found digging in the dirt wasn't the only way to get involved in the Farm. She helped create an online presence for the Farm, including building an early website.

My favorite part about the farm was...

The Husky Real Food Challenge (HRFC) student organization wants to see UW reach 25 percent "real food" - local, ecologically sustainable, fair trade or humanely raised - by 2020. This week The Daily outlined the group's efforts.

The national Real Food Challenge organization tries to get campuses to have at least 20 percent real food, but since the UW is already near this goal, Husky Real Food Challenge is pushing for an even higher target.

It's not always easy to know what bus you need to take to get where you're going. King County Metro Transit is hoping to make it simple with a new app for iPhone and Android.

The free app works with almost all public transportation options in the area - bus, rail, ferry, even the monorail. It lets you find the best route to your destaination and gives you real-time arrival information. The app aims to combine features which right now require multiple apps or website visits into one experience.

You can find...

Week two of RecycleMania is underway! This time around, there’s a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card by participating in Mug Shots! Here’s how:

1. Bring your reusable mug to campus.
2. Post a photo of you and your mug on your choice of social media with the hashtags ‪#‎uwrecycling ‪#‎sustainableuw....

What’s in a name? The College of the Environment's name certainly calls to mind sustainability. While the curriculum of the College stretches far beyond that subject, the staff of the College’s Dean’s Office are true sustainability superstars. Currently, the Dean’s Office holds the title of Greenest Office from the Green Office Certification Program in our annual campus-wide competition, with a Gold-level certification of a whopping 99%. (This is an improvement over the previous year, when the Dean’s Office was the Greenest Office within the College of the Environment’s competition with 98...