HGA16

UW Bothell graduate student Alison Schmidt has volunteered all over Seattle. Most of her volunteer experiences have been with Seattle Tilth, where she focused on community engagement and education on recycling and composting and local farming and student learning gardens. She has also done ecological restoration with community partners like Mountain to Sound Greenway and Friends of North Creek Forest. Recently, she began participating in the kayak cleanups with Puget Sound Keepers on Lake Union.

Kathryn Jansen is the UW Department of Surgery's medical student program operations specialist. After noticing that the department didn't have compost and recycling bins readily available, Jansen made it a priority to add several to the department's break and conference rooms.

"We produce a ton of coffee grounds and filters, along with other food waste, while trying to keep our staff and residents caffeinated all day and night," said Jansen. "I would see the garbage bin overflowing with items that could be composted."

Update 4/18: Confronting Climate Change was named one of the seven 2016 Husky Green Award winners.

In the spring of 2015, the student group Confronting Climate Change - also known as Divest UW - celebrated a victory when the University of Washington's Board of Regents voted to divest from coal companies. 

Green Husky Award nominee Katie Corp is working to make clean energy accessible.

As a graduate student, Corp is researching new materials to use solar energy in splitting water. As a Clean Energy Ambassador with UW's Clean Energy Institute, she connects with high school and middle school students to share her passion for science and clean energy. Her leadership in the program led to her being nominated for a Husky Green Award.

Update 4/18: The Native Plant Nursery was named one of the seven 2016 Husky Green Award winners.

The Society for Ecological Restoration's UW Chapter has been working to restore native plants to areas around campus, with the help of their native plant nursery. 

This past December, Salina Abraham was one of four University of Washington undergraduates to attend the Global Landscapes Forum in Paris. At the Forum, more than 3,000 people came together to forge solutions to the planet’s greatest climate and development challenges through sustainable land use. Abraham’s speech is featured in the video below.

Reducing water usage for a building the size of the UW Tower is no easy task. It took the Tower's operations staff nearly a year to replace every toilet and urinal in the tower with new, low-flush units, but it was well worth it. The project is estimated to save up to 37 million gallons of water over the next 15 years.

Update 4/18: The Salvage Wood Program was named one of the seven 2016 Husky Green Award winners.

The Salvage Wood Program at the University of Washington is working to make sure any trees which need to be removed on campus can have a second life.

The program, run by Grounds Management and made possible by a Campus Sustainability Fund grant and help from the UW chapter of Engineers Without Borders, turns those removed trees into lumber for projects on campus such as benches and tables.