Equity, diversity and inclusion

We work to provide welcoming spaces for divergent views and amplify marginalized voices to ensure that we are collectively empowered to tackle sustainability challenges within our campus and beyond. We believe that different experiences enrich our programming and initiatives.

UW Sustainability strives to be a model of the work and change we seek to support across the University. We attempt to reflect on and improve our actions by embracing a continual learning mindset. Learning from past mistakes, listening to our community, and remaining nimble enough to continue evolving our work and our actions are important aspects of this work.

Students are the lifeblood of the UW, and we believe it is important to empower students to make change at the University and beyond. We put students at the center of many of our programs, and provide the support they need to be successful. We know providing students with opportunities and experience provides lifelong benefits. We also collaborate with partners across the University and in the community to provide students experiential learning opportunities and opportunities to address challenges and problems.

We embrace intersectional experiences as a strength, providing multiple lenses to view challenges and ways of addressing them. We understand that everyone has an unique identity, and that many identities bear disproportionate burdens and have been marginalized. We seek to understand each other and our unique offerings - as well as structural challenges - through listening and sensitivity to differences, while working to correct the systems creating those challenges.

As members of an academic institution, we acknowledge our individual and collective privilege in accessing knowledge and resources. Our identities and space position us to be a force for good. With this understanding, we work to ensure our actions affect positive change on our campus and in our communities.

We recognize that we must actively work to combat bias and racism, and acknowledge the true complexity of sustainability and the broader systems that must be undone and addressed in order to achieve social and ecological balance and integrity. We work to improve our inclusivity and create a more welcoming and nurturing environment for everyone. We continuously strive to educate ourselves about conscious and unconscious biases and racism in any form in order to avoid them because they harm our efforts as an office and community.

We will work to foster strong relations with community partners around the Puget Sound region and identify possible collaborations to work together in addressing sustainability challenges.

We support the wellbeing and holistic health of our staff and students. We understand wellbeing is essential to maintaining personal and community resilience in the effort to achieve a sustainable society. We believe that it will take a collective effort to address health burdens that have historically had a disproportionately negative impact on minority populations.

The UW can be a powerful institution in terms of using its research for change or to inform policy, its buying power, and its capacity for raising awareness. We advocate for UW staff, faculty and students to be thought leaders and a voice of conscience on what it will take to move our society toward social and ecological justice and equality.