In Our Nature

The Green Office Certification Program encourages and recognizes environmentally-friendly behavior in UW office spaces. It also exists to facilitate sharing of best practices between offices. The main goal of the program, however, is to simply get office members thinking more frequently about their environmental impact.

This quarter, we had great participation in the program, with offices throughout campus applying. In fact, 14 offices either certified for the first time or re-certified. On average, offices scored 77% overall on the Green Office...

The UW Future of Ice Initiative is hosting the university's first Polar Day, a day of talks by faculty and students who work in the polar regions, with time for questions and discussions. 

The event starts at 9:15 a.m. at the UW Club's Yukon Pacific Room, but attendees are welcome to arrive starting at 8:30 a.m. for coffee and pastries. The first 50 people to arrive will receive a free lunch.

The UW Polar Day Schedule is below:

ENV H 439: One Health: Human and Animal Health in a Changing Environment is open to all students who have taken biology 180 or an equivalent course. If you have not taken biology 180 but are still interested in the course, email Trina Sterry at tsterry@uw.edu

In this class,

• Students will explore the One Health concept, through a case based approach.
• Topics include emerging zoonotic infectious diseases transmitted between humans...

ENV H 205: Environmental Health in Media is open to all students in all majors. Watch popular films that explore environmental health topics then discuss the ethical, legal, social and scientific issues they raise.

In this class,

• Students will explore how perspective of filmmakers and documentaries can influence the public's interpretation of environmental health issues.
• Students will also examine the science and cultural norms that support both sides of...

ENV H 311: Introduction to Environmental Health is open to all students in all majors and has no prerequisites.

The learning objectives for this class are for students to:

ESRM 320: Marketing & Human Resources from a Sustainability Perspective

The learning objectives for this class are:

Shout out to Schindler-Limnology Lab, Berg Lab, Shendure Lab, Keil Lab, and Olmstead Lab for becoming our newest certified Green Labs!

The Schindler-Limnology Lab placed at the Gold level of certification, scoring highest in the communication and education category. With about six staff and graduate students, the lab does research on water quality, fish biology, nutrient cycling, and all things inland water.

The...

SOC 201 C: Sociology and the Environment is open to all students in all majors. This course will explore a series of campus-local, state, national and global environmental problems through the lens of environmental activism and social movements.

In this class, students will:

• Explore the historical and sociological dimensions of environmental social problems.
• Be introduced to social movement theory from a sociological perspective.
• ...

Thank you to all the folks who nominated their colleagues, supervisors or peers for a Husky Green Award! The Husky Green Awards recognize people who support UW's commitment to sustainability. The award "recognizes an exemplary achievement of an individual or team from the UW community, demonstrating leadership, initiative and dedication to campus sustainability."

This year we received 25 nominations and recently chose the winners of our Husky green award prize packs. Winners won a package containing coffee...

Have you been to the Quad to see the beautiful cherry trees? If not, now is the time to go because the blossoms are in full bloom and are incredibly beautiful right now - but they won't be around long in their colorful glory.

The iconic trees on the Quad are the Yoshino variety native to japan. The trees debuted at UW in 1939, though they were initially planted in the arboretum, not on the Quad. The trees were relocated to the quad when construction began on highway 520. Good news, every single tree that was relocated survived!  

The current "crop” of trees in the quad is...