Student Organizations

Environmentally minded UW students, staff, and faculty came together with greater-Seattle sustainability leaders this past week for the second annual UW Sustainability Summit, showcasing their efforts toward a greener future.

The three-day event culminated Wednesday evening with a panel of several well-known speakers, including Mayor Mike McGinn.

Learn about some of the inaugural projects by students, faculty and staff using money from the student-funded Campus Sustainability Fund as part of the second annual Sustainability Summit on campus Oct. 26.

A few UW trucks may soon be leaving an aromatic trail of french fries and fried chicken in their wake if a few sustainably minded students get their way.

The Biodiesel Cooperative, led by a group of engineering students, is looking to convert a few thousand gallons of wasted cooking oil into biodiesel that could be used on campus in place of traditional fuel.

For the last three years a group of students has been volunteering to make a small corner of campus more attractive. They’re a student chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration, and their mission is to clear out invasive plants and replace them with native ones.

The group has been working in a small wooded area across from McCarty Hall, where a path leads from the residence halls to the tennis courts and ivy and blackberries grow rampant.

What’s the coolest university in America? By one significant measure, it’s the University of Washington.
Sierra Magazine, the official publication of the Sierra Club, has named the University of Washington the top university in the country for its initiatives to operate sustainably and limit its contributions to global warming. This is the fourth year the UW has been among the top-ranked schools; it was fourth last year

A small group of UW students stood in an open field Sunday morning, munching on granola and fresh fruit as they anticipated the groundbreaking of the new UW Farm.

As of yesterday, that wait is officially over. The UW Farm, a registered student organization that grows produce, has expanded to include a new location near the Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH) on the east side of campus.

The Science and Policy Summit, sponsored by the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, will be held on Friday, May 13, from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., at the UW Tower. The summit aims to open a dialogue between scientists and policy makers.

Professor Emeritus and National Academy of Sciences Fellow Edward L. Miles will give the keynote address, and there will be four panel discussions:

Three individuals and two groups were honored at the UW Earth Day celebration as winners of the second annual Husky Green Award. The award, sponsored by the Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee, recognizes those who have shown leadership, initiative and dedication to environmental stewardship and sustainability at the University.

Individual winners are:

Thirty thousand people shuffle in and out of the UW’s Housing and Food Services’ (HFS) many dining facilities each day, likely unaware of where their food waste ends up after it’s dropped into the compost bin.

Once an old apple core or pizza slice leaves someone’s hands, it’s picked up by a truck from Cedar Grove, self-proclaimed as “Pacific Northwest’s leading organic recycling company,” which for the last several years has been tasked with finding a place for all of the UW’s food waste.