the UW Sustainability blog
The University of Washington has earned recognition from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) for its sustainability performance, with special recognition in the food & dining and transportation categories.
Judy Twedt credits two things in fostering her interest and love for the natural world: the Pacific Northwest and a scholarly interest in philosophy.
Growing up in the PNW, Twedt loved the powerful mountain landscapes, the bounty of trees and the cold, salty grey water of the Puget Sound. She also remembers having an early interest in the people of the region, something which led her to leave her home of Tacoma to pursue a degree in philosophy at Colorado college.
The new Green Dawgs program at the University of Washington encourages student groups to make their meetings, events, and member practices more sustainable. The program launched this fall, and is looking for a student Program Outreach Ambassador volunteer.
The outreach ambassador would work up to five hours a week to contact and inform student groups about the Green Dawg Certification program.
Though our city isn't known for sunny weather, solar arrays are still a highly viable source of energy for the PNW, and solar panels are starting to appear on rooftops across campus. Solar power installations can be found on the roofs of many West campus residence halls, including Mercer, Elm and Alder.
Shelby Cramer's path to the Husky Green Award started with a simple question.
"I was walking with my little sister, and she randomly asked me what this tree was, this tree that was outside our house for years and year and years," Shelby said. "I didn't know what to tell her because I didn't know what that tree was, and that was kind of a light bulb moment. I felt a weird sense of shame in not knowing my own place."
In 2009, a small group of students started a grassroots campaign to create a student-powered green fund at the University of Washington. The idea quickly gained wide support, and today the Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) has granted more than $2 million to student-created sustainability projects, giving UW students a chance to shape the future of campus.
The University of Washington's new West Campus Utility Plant (WCUP) has received an Envision Gold award from the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI). The Envision system rates sustainable infrastructure projects across the full range of environmental, social, and economic impacts.
Cassie Maylor has had a passion for the environment pretty much as far back as she can remember.
Living just outside Seattle in Kenmore, Cassie's parents regularly took her and her brother to National Geographic talks. Even as an elementary student, she was fascinated.
As the lead of the UW Tower Green Team, Bethany Staelens is always working to find ways to make her work at UW more sustainable.
Staelens, assistant to the vice provost of UW's Continuum College, has helped start UW Tower-wide initiatives such as reducing paper use and closing curtains to lower heating and cooling costs. She's also featured in a UW video highlighting the benefits of reducing paper.