UW Facilities

There are thousands of light bulbs on campus, which use energy and regularly burn out or fail. The UW's maintenance electricians are addressing both issues with a program to upgrade campus lights to LED bulbs, which are more efficient and longer-lasting than traditional lights.

The team recently swapped out more than 200 lights on the IMA's squash and racquetball courts, which will reduce power consumption by 78%. Kane and Meany halls have also gotten LED upgrades. 

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.

By Lindsey Boisvin, Facilities Services’ Sustainability Communications Intern

The Burke-Gilman Trail is swamped with puddles and leaves, but that isn’t stopping Ride in the Rain bike riders.

Beginning Nov. 1, UW students, faculty, and employees created teams to take on one of the rainiest months of the year as part of the Ride in the Rain challenge. Each individual logged trips longer than 0.25 miles online to attempt to meet 50,000 trips across all teams.