Each spring, students in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences take advantage of a unique opportunity to help shape the University of Washington's Pack Forest.
In Our Nature
the UW Sustainability blog
Home - Recent posts
The UW Farm has released its 2014 annual report. Read about the Farm's education initiatives, events, the first on-campus CSA and the volunteers who made it all possible.
We are excited to share that UW Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability is now UW Sustainability! We updated our name to help us make better connections with the UW community while keeping sustainability as the focal point of our name and consistent with the University’s sustainability brand, “Sustainability: It's in our nature.”
We continue to promote sustainability across the University of Washington by engaging, connecting and informing members of the UW community. Our office provides sustainability resources for students, faculty and staff. We work to encourage...
This post was originally published in the UW Green Labs newsletter.
Reducing your lab's energy use
With regular maintenance, you can significantly increase the efficiency and the lifespan of your lab’s freezer or fridge. In fact, regular maintenance of your ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezer can save your lab up to $280 per year in energy costs.
One important part of freezer and fridge maintenance is cleaning the condenser coils and filters. Over time, these accumulate dust and dirt, which reduce both air flow through the filters and the coils’ ability to...
"In order to divert the majority of people, you have to make it second nature for them." - Cameron McCallum
The Physics Instrument Shop has been a certified Green Laboratory since June 2013. Run by about seven people, the shop handles nearly all the purchasing and machining for UW's physics department. Although the shop deals exclusively with materials, it is incredibly waste efficient. Purchases are always made in bulk and leftover materials are recycled or stocked for later use. Additionally, the shop processes surplus items for the...
Lab workers put in long hours in the search for data and answers, so when the Green Laboratory Certification program wanted to reward participants, coffee was a natural choice.
The Green Labs program has been delivering responsibly-grown and locally-roasted coffee from UW Husky Grind to all the labs that participated in the program in 2014 to recognize and thank them for the extra effort they've put into making their labs green.
Campus laboratories are an important area of...
The unseasonably warm February means there are plenty of opportunities to get outside and see sights which normally aren't available until later in the year.
The Seattle Times has a list of several good options for garden walks around Seattle (many flowers are already starting to bloom) and waterfalls further afield.
For example, Franklin Falls near Snoqualmie Pass:
Snuggled up beneath the Interstate 90 freeway...
A classroom challenge to reduce students' carbon footprint has turned into one of the six research projects awarded a Green Seed Fund grant this year.
In the Green Seed Fund's latest round of funding, 25 proposals were received totaling $1.5 million in requests. A committee of students, faculty and staff awarded about $250,000 in funding to the top six proposals, including "Carbon Challenge: Footprint Reduction through Curricular Development and Community Building."
The groundwork for the proposal began a year ago with Ellen Moore. In addition...
The UW Farm recently featured alumni Michelle Venetucci, who worked on the Farm in its early days from 2008-2011. She was involved with the effort to expand the Farm from its initial site at the Botany Greenhouse to its larger location at the Center for Urban Horticulture.
Venetucci found digging in the dirt wasn't the only way to get involved in the Farm. She helped create an online presence for the Farm, including building an early website.
My favorite part about the farm was...