In Our Nature

This summer, UW Study Abroad and the College of Engineering are offering a study abroad program that stays close to home.

"Sustainable Water in a Wet Region" is a field study course that looks at many aspects of water - water resource, drinking water, and wastewater - and takes students to locations on the Olympic Peninsula. The course focuses on environmental implications of climate change predictions for temperate rain forest and wet forest regions, using the Pacific...

Have you seen Zipcars around campus? Zipcar and other car-sharing services are a good complement to your U-PASS membership, providing access to vehicles when they are needed without requiring you to own (and park) a car.

There are several Zipcars available on campus, and UW students can join at reduced rates. Car sharing reduces demand for on-campus parking and can alleviate congestion on the roads. The program also includes everything you need to get around campus like gas and insurance, they also offer...

One aspect of the UW Sustainability in the Arts (SITA) initiative involves looking at art as a way to communicate about sustainability. Art can play a huge role in sustainability through embodying environmental themes and supporting activism as well as bringing people together on these issues. One event I was particularly interested in that effectively brought together art and activism was the recent DeFund from DAPL mass action.

UW Sustainablity is proud to be a partner in the new UW Livable City Year program, which connects UW students and faculty with local communities to work on real-world challenges around livability and sustainablity for a full academic year. UWTV profiled some of the students working on LCY projects this fall in this video:

Image credit: Jennifer Watts. Original photo by Steve Korn, UW Dance. Image texture from One Frozen Moment.

With the start of winter quarter comes the beginning of a new way to integrate sustainability through the Sustainability in the Arts initiative! This UW initiative aims to bring together students, faculty, staff, and other community members in an effort to explore sustainability at an operational level in different arts departments and venues as...

This fall, Jacqueline Patterson, the director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program, came to UW to talk about the intersection of climate science and social justice, and how to work to advance equitable preservation of our environment. Kane Hall was at capacity for the event, but you can watch the entire talk below thanks to the Seattle Channel.

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Are you in the Greek Community and interested in Environmental Leadership? Get involved with the EcoRep's Green Greek Representative Program! Learn more and register here.

Representatives meet every other Tuesday from 6 to 8 pm in Dempsey 112 throughout Winter Quarter, starting Tuesday, January 10th. The first hour is devoted to exciting speakers that range from CEO's of sustainability-focused organizations to spokespeople from our local utilities! In the second hour, Representatives work on a project...

The 2017 Washington Higher Education Sustainability Conference will be February 16-17 in Spokane, hosted by Gonzaga University. This year’s conference promises to strengthen our commitment to advancing sustainability in higher education institutions across Washington state.

Early bird registration for the conference - a $40 savings - ends January 10. 

The WAHESC conference is a regionally focused opportunity for those teaching, working, or...

Winter Quarter is officially here, which means the holiday break is over. As you're putting away your decorations, keep in mind the proper way to dispose of any unwanted items.

Christmas trees and wreaths can be composted for free with the regular compost collection in Seattle through Jan. 31 (find options for other cities in King County here). Make sure all...

The Clean Energy Institute is hosting Jonathan Pershing, Special Envoy for Climate Change at the U.S. Department of State, on Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 12-1 p.m. in Anderson Hall 223 for a talk on "The Paris Agreement and the Path Forward." He will discuss global efforts to combat climate change, including the outcomes of the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP 22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that recently concluded in Marrakech, Morocco.