Awards & recognition

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.

The University of Washington’s Seattle campus won the 2017 PAC-12 Grand Champion award during RecycleMania, a national collegiate waste diversion tournament. The 786 metric tons of CO2 that UW kept out of the landfill is equivalent to the total amount of energy consumption of 68 households, or removing 154 cars off the road.

The student organization EcoReps supported UW Recycling’s efforts in generating event awareness on campus this year. 

Building Services Department Director Gene Woodard oversees the care of 11.5 million square feet of campus building space, as well as handling the waste generated by the occupants of those buildings. Woodard has empowered employees to put forward ideas to make the work better and more efficient, while keeping on eye on the sustainability of the UW's operations.

Environmental Studies lecturer Kristi Straus not only earned a Husky Green Award this year, but also a Distinguished Teaching Award, for her classes focusing on mindful sustainability.

The Husky Green Awards nomination deadline is almost here, and we still need your help to identify the top sustainability superstars at the University of Washington! Let us know who the top student leaders, faculty mentors, hard-working groups and behind-the-scenes staff are who keep the University of Washington sustainable. Unless you submit a nomination, we won’t know who deserves one of the annual Husky Green Awards, so please submit your nominations by the end of the day on Wednesday, March 1.

Harborview Medical Center and University of Washington Medical Center have each received the 2016 Top 25 Environmental Excellence Award from Practice Greenhealth. The Top 25 Award recognizes healthcare facilities across the country that exemplify environmental excellence and are setting the highest standards for environmental practices in healthcare.

There are many Green Laboratories at the University of Washington who practice sustainability every day. The Green Lab Certification program was created to recognize these labs, while providing resources for labs who want to improve their practices. This spring, the Green Lab program gave awards to those certified labs which showed outstanding performance even among the select group of certified Green Labs.