Daimon Eklund's blog

Update 4/18: The Salvage Wood Program was named one of the seven 2016 Husky Green Award winners.

The Salvage Wood Program at the University of Washington is working to make sure any trees which need to be removed on campus can have a second life.

The program, run by Grounds Management and made possible by a Campus Sustainability Fund grant and help from the UW chapter of Engineers Without Borders, turns those removed trees into lumber for projects on campus such as benches and tables.

All entries for this year's Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge must be submitted by midnight on Sunday, Feb. 21. No late entries will be accepted. To enter, upload your 5-7 page executive summary to the EIC registration website.

The UW Sustainability office is looking for a web developer to continue to develop a newly-launched interactive online interface for the Green Certification programs (green-certification.uw.edu), including improvements to the editing and end-user interfaces, new reporting tools and notifications as well as other improvement.

Right now, there's something missing at the UW’s Office of Admissions.

Tables, desks and floors are empty instead of being covered with stacks and stacks of paper applications. For the first time, most applications for admission at the University of Washington are being considered as digital files instead of pages of printed paper.

The University of Washington has a goal of reducing paper usage university-wide, in line with a Washington state law directing state agencies to reduce paper consumption by at least 30% from 2008-2009 levels and use 100% recycled copy paper.

UW is still working toward those goals, and you can see the progress on our Sustainability Dashboard's paper page. Below, you can that the amount of paper per employee across all UW campuses has steadily dropped since the law was passed.

As we prepare for this year's SustainableUW Festival, which will take place Oct. 17-23, we are remembering last year's events. The 2015 Huskies for Humanity presentations focused on connections to the Duwamish River, including restoration efforts and art installations. One of the presentations was on the Duwamish Lighthouse:

Gov. Jay Inslee joined students at the University of Washington - and several other campuses around the state via videoconference - for a conversation on climate change this week.

The event, which allowed students to pose questions to the governor, was hosted by the College of the Environment and Dean Lisa Graumlich. Inslee had recently returned from the COP21 Climate Change talks in Paris, which led to an international agreement to combat climate change.

This Fall, UW Tacoma's Carbon Challenge presented a talk by zero-waste advocate Lauren Singer showcasing how people can live a zero-waste lifestyle. The event was one part of the Carbon Challenge, a Green Seed Fund project to encourage students, faculty and staff to take steps to reduce their carbon footprint.

If you have an idea for a campus water research project, the deadline to apply for a grant through UW's Green Seed Fund is coming up!