the UW Sustainability blog
In 2009, a small group of students started a grassroots campaign to create a student-powered green fund at the University of Washington. The idea quickly gained wide support, and today the Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) has granted more than $2 million to student-created sustainability projects, giving UW students a chance to shape the future of campus.
SafeFlame is a local cleantech start-up founded by Foster School MBA student Kevin Cussen which aims to tackle a glut of high profile issues effecting people in developing nations. SafeFlame utilizes biodigesters to break down organic content and create biogas, which can be used as fuel for gas cookstoves. The company hopes to use its technology to help cut indoor pollutants caused by cookstoves that use fuels such as wood, charcoal, crop waste or animal dung.
The Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) will be regularly featuring alumni, project leaders and other students who help the CSF make a difference on campus. Today's alumni spotlight is on Sunni Wissmer, former CSF committee member.
UW Graduation Year: 2015
Major: Community, Environment, and Planning
Minor: Astronomy
Hometown: Steilacoom, WA
Favorite Outdoor Activity: Sailing
The Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) will be regularly featuring alumni, project leaders and other students who help the CSF make a difference on campus. Today's spotlight is on Dan Hintz, who is project lead for the Kincaid Ravine Restoration.
UW Graduation Year: 2016
Major: Master of Environmental Horticulture
Hometown: Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Favorite Outdoor Activity: Downhill skiing
The Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) will be regularly featuring alumni, project leaders and other students who help the CSF make a difference on campus. Today's alumni spotlight is on An Huynh, former CSF outreach coordinator.
The Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) will be regularly featuring alumni, project leaders and other students who help the CSF make a difference on campus. Today's spotlight is on Gunnar Colleen, who is project lead for the ASUW Student Food Cooperative Bulk Buying Storefront.
The Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) will be regularly featuring alumni, project leaders and other students who help the CSF make a difference on campus. Today's spotlight is on Jordan Hoy, who is project lead for the UW Tower urban garden demonstration.
Kyle McDermott started as the new Campus Sustainability Fund coordinator this summer. He is pursing a Master of Environmental Horticulture at UW, and came to Seattle from Northern Arizona University, where he got his Environmental Science degree with an emphasis in Communications. In Flagstaff he worked as arts writer for a publication while also working on environmental projects, a combination that serves as an example of his desire to look for interdisciplinary approaches to solving sustainability challenges.
Update: UW Recycling and UW Sustainability have decided not to continue a pilot program to recycle nitrile lab gloves. The pilot program, which took place over the course of spring quarter of 2016 in nine labs in the Molecular Engineering and Sciences (MolES) department and Materials Science and Engineering department, reduced the proportion of lab waste that gloves made up from an average of 23% to 7%.
At 15 feet tall, the new hoop house for the Society for Ecological Restoration's UW Chapter (SER-UW) serves as a reminder of all the hard work 50 student volunteers put in over the course of six days.
Working eight to ten hour shifts, students from UW’s Construction Management department, Sigma Lambda Chi and volunteers from SER-UW set out to construct a 30 foot by 48 foot hoop house at the Center for Urban Horticulture. Now, the student run native plant nursery has room for about 5,000 plants in the hoop house.