In Our Nature

The UW Program on the Environment Sustainability Studio class has been investigating the University of Washington's environmental history this quarter, and the students are going to share their findings with a campus walking tour on Thursday, May 28.

The tour will highlight some of UW's iconic and hidden environmental history hotspots, as it looks at how the university's past and present challenge and inspire the UW's sustainability goals.

The tour will start at Drumheller Fountain at 11:45 a.m., and is open to all UW students, faculty and staff....

If you want to enjoy fresh, campus-grown produce all summer long, sign up for a UW Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share!

CSA works like a cooperative, where customers buy a share of the season’s produce and receive a weekly selection. The UW Farm introduced a CSA last summer, and this year the program is expanding. However, space is still limited, so don't wait to sign up. All produce is grown by the UW Farm, which allows students a chance to learn about urban agriculture...

Ever wondered what benefits a green wall adds to a building? Could electric or diesel vehicles support the rugged nature of the Grounds crew’s work? Green Seed Fund teams funded in 2013-14 will hold a poster session on June 2 to share the results of their research, which took a look at these questions and more.

Teams have been working for over a year, examining how users interact with the buildings they study and work in; taking a look at indoor environment quality at the HUB; rating the carbon footprint of UW Grounds utility vehicles; studying the...

Welcome to Spring Quarter Week Eight!

There are a lot of big student events happening this week. Monday night, join the ASUW Student Food Cooperative for the Humble Feast 5.0, an "all-you-care-to-eat" local and seasonal dinner. Tuesday is the first UW Resilience Summit, hosted by ReThink and EcoReps. And Wednesday is this year's Conservation Catwalk...

Dr. Linda Steg, an environmental psychologist and a respected scholar, author and professor at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, will discuss "How to inspire people to engage in pro-environmental actions" on May 26 at Alder Hall.

The lecture will touch on what values are likely to promote pro-environmental actions, and how to activate values that increase the liklihood of sustainable choices. The evening will begin with a reception at 5 p.m. and the talk will begin at 6 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public, thanks to sponsorship from the UW College of...

For this year's Sustaining Our World Lecture, the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS) presented a talk by Molly Steinwalk, the executive director of the Environmental Learning Center in Florida.

Molly Steinwald draws from her experiences with youth education and engagement, as well as explores some of the barriers that stand in the way when promoting behavior change in a broader population. She stresses the importance of...

Hanging in Poplar Hall is a Lucid Energy Dashboard to remind students how much energy and water they are using. This same dashboard hangs in all the West Campus dorms, something one student group is very proud of. 

The dashboards allow students to see how their building is performing compared to the others, which encourages conservation. The displays are one reminder of a larger sustainability culture in the residence halls, a culture Students Expressing Environmental Dedication (SEED) is working to encourage.

“We want to push students to make changes in their lives,” said...

Welcome to Week 7 of Spring quarter!

Now that midterms are over, use your free time to join us for another week filled with sustainability-related events. Here are some of the highlights - for more information about these events or to find out what other sustainability events are happening on campus this week check out our full calendar. If you know of any events, which should be added, let us know.

If you'd like to get a weekly email of all the upcoming sustainability events,...

This post was originally published in the UW Green Labs newsletter. Each quarter, the newsletter covers a topic on how labs can improve their scores in one category covered by the UW Green Laboratory Certification Application (opens in a new tab).

Read the rest of this quarter's newsletter and subscribe to future UW Green Labs mailings.

Fieldwork and Work-Related Travel

To “green” your travel, minimize...

May is Bike Month, and UW Transportation Services wants to give you the tools to be a better-informed cyclist on the road. Whether you're looking to start riding for the first time, are looking for some extra pointers on how to ride in traffic, or want to learn how to fix your own flat tires, there's a class for you this month.

It starts this Wednesday, May 6, with "Bike Commuting 101: Getting...