Daimon Eklund's blog

Each spring, students in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences take advantage of a unique opportunity to help shape the University of Washington's Pack Forest.

During the SustainableUW Festival, deans and students from three different schools came together to discuss "Solving Grand Challenges," identifying the barriers to solving the largest issues regarding sustainability in various disciplines, and how we can start to address them. 

UW Transportation Services is looking for students, faculty and staff to share their commuting stories and serve as models for the University of Washington community.

The best stories will be selected for a photo shoot to show off their commuting option and will be featured by Transportation Services.

If you have a commuting story to tell, let Transportation Services know by clicking this link. You could be be the face of commuting at UW!

Did you know there are more than seven miles of tunnels running under the UW campus? The tunnels are used to deliver steam and chilled water from the UW power plant to buildings across the university, providing heating and cooling throughout the year.

Even in winter, there are plenty of good hikes which are easy to get to from Seattle and are usually snow free. If you're looking for suggestions, the Seattle Times features 10 local trails to try this winter picked by the Trail Mix hiking club.

For example:

South Tiger Mountain

Interested in getting out and working in the dirt this weekend? You're in luck! Saturday and Sunday there are ways for you to get out and help with campus efforts.

On Saturday, the UW Farm is having a work party at their Center for Urban Horticulture site, and just a stone's throw away the Yesler Swamp Project is also going to be working on restoration of the swamp area. Both events start at 10 a.m. Learn more about this event and the Yesler Swamp project:

Want to know how UW Athletics is working toward sustainability? For the long weekend, here's a video of the Husky Highlight keynote address during the SustainableUW Festival detailing the sustainability efforts of the athletic department. Karen Baebler, assistant athletic director for sport operations, takes us through some of the green features of the new Husky Stadium and other facilities, discusses why these actions are important to UW Athletics and brings in a few special guests.

There are several opportunities to study at the UW's Friday Harbor Labs on San Juan Island this spring and summer, but application deadlines are coming up fast.

The Daily took a look at what Seattle's new composting ordinance means for the University of Washington.

The law prohibiting food waste and compostable items from trash headed to the landfill went into effect on Jan. 1, as part of Seattle's push to divert 60% of the city's waste away from the landfill. UW is already at 60% diversion, but the campus has a goal of 70% waste diversion by 2020.

Here are some highlights from our Sustainability Events calendar for the week of Jan. 12, 2015. If you know of any events which should be added, let us know.