In Our Nature

The need to conserve water has been readily apparent this summer, as water levels in Washington have dropped enough for the City of Seattle to call on residents and businesses to voluntarily reduce water consumption by 10 percent. The University of Washington supports this effort, and in today's look at the Sustainability Dashboard you can see how the UW has been reducing water consumption for years.

Since 2001, the UW has spent about $3 million on water conservation efforts. Those efforts have led to a continued downward trend in water...

With the Huskies playing their first home game of the season tomorrow, it’s only fitting that we remind fans of the Stadium’s many sustainable features.

UW practices sustainability all over campus, even in the largest structure of all. During the 2012 Husky Stadium renovation, over 95 percent of construction waste was reused or recycled. Concrete was removed from the lower bowl, crushed on site...

Energy conservation measures aren't just good for the environment. At the University of Washington, our conservation is also good for the budget.

Conservation measures at the UW added up to a savings of more than $14 million over the last fiscal year in avoided utility costs. That includes nearly $6 million in savings due to water conservation, and another $4.76 million for electricity conservation.

You can see this information and more on our Sustainability Dashboard, including downloads of the Excel documents with...

EPA is calling for entries in its fourth annual Campus RainWorks Challenge, a green infrastructure design competition for undergraduate and graduate students.

Student teams, working with a faculty advisor, will submit design boards, a project narrative, and a letter of support describing a proposed green infrastructure project for a location on their campuses. This year student teams will be encouraged to incorporate climate resiliency into their stormwater management designs.

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Craving something fresh, delicious, local and sustainable? Satisfy your taste buds or learn a thing or two about sustainable living at this year’s CHOMP! festival, the first sustainability living festival organized by King County. The event will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sept. 13 at Marymoor Park near Redmond.

CHOMP! offers a full day of free fun where attendees of all ages can enjoy a wide variety of activities. Listen to some of Seattle’s up and coming indie artists, go on a scavenger hunt, ride bikes, jump on trampolines...

From taking showers to eating breakfast, individual actions can contribute to making UW more sustainable.

UW Students, faculty and staff are putting sustainability at the forefront, continuing to set the bar high for universities around the country. UW takes conservation of any kind seriously. So much that it has decreased its water usage by over 770,000 gallons per day since 2001. UW is also proud to source local food – 53 percent of food purchases...

What was once a bustling sawmill in the late 1800s is now home to more than 100 species of birds, turtles, ducks, and even a beaver family.

I’m talking about Yesler Swamp, one of the few true swamps remaining in Seattle and a unique part of Washington’s vanishing urban forest. It’s hidden in a grove of trees just east of the UW Center for Urban Horticulture, remaining a fairly unknown public area to this day.

Two UW students hope to change that. Back in 2013, Carolyn Foster and Tyler Licata started the...

At one end of the Prairie Line Trail running through UW Tacoma's campus is an innovative rain water treatment facility, although it may not be immediately apparent to the casual eye.

The rain garden uses plants, soil, steel troughs and an underground tank to keep pollutants washed off Tacoma's streets from entering the stormwater system. Stormwater is collected and run through six treatment cells which use soil to filter out pollutants before returning the treated water to the...

UW labs are proud to be national leaders in sustainability. Whether it’s diverting waste or cutting down on energy use, sustainability is a way of life for many lab members. 

Ever since the Green Laboratory Certification program was implemented in the spring of 2013, tracking sustainability in UW labs has never been easier or more effective. By the end of the 2014-2015 school year,...

This week we finish out our “Meet the EcoReps” segment with our Green Greek Coordinator, Kiyomi Morris!

Kiyomi is a junior at UW in the Program on the Environment and is a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. Kiyomi is from Monroe, WA where she enjoys spending time with family and friends and just being outside as much as possible in her free time. After she graduates, she wants to travel and work for a...