Beginning February 8, the University of Washington will be competing for the fourth year in RecycleMania - a friendly tournament where national college campuses compete during the course of eight weeks to see which can reduce, reuse and recycle the most on-campus waste. The UW will take on nationwide universities including Pac-12 rivals Arizona State University, Stanford, University of California Berkeley, University of Oregon and Washington State University.

Under the guidance of UW Recycling, a student committee is leading the charge for event outreach. During the kickoff week of...

Read more
Category: Recycling, Compost & Waste | Student Organizations
Tags: RecycleMania | UW Recycling
UW Sustainability's weekly events banner.

Safety Expo event bannerOn Wednesday, join us for the UW Safety, Sustainability, and Preparedness Expo! We will be in the HUB Ballroom from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., offering fun and interesting activities to UW faculty, staff, and students.

The Expo will include light refreshments and door prizes. You'll be able to start your own personal, portable emergency kit...

Read more
Category: Events
Tags: Weekly Events

Hundreds of guests gathered in Kane Hall’s gigantic auditorium last week, waiting patiently for UW history professor Linda Nash to present a lecture on Seattle’s environmental past. 

“Tonight, I want to propose a different way of looking at Seattle’s history,” she began. “My goal here is to emphasize that our city is not an isolated entity, but is itself a product of connection.”

Through a collection of visuals, ranging from key Seattle leaders to businesses and...

Read more
Category: Environment | Events
Tags: history | Linda Nash

EcoReps is continuing its Green Greek Representatives blog segment with Danny Maier from the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, who wrote a piece on his chapter’s new Sustainability Chairman position:

Recently, my fraternity made a huge stride in going green by adopting a new house position called the 'Sustainability Chair.' Serving on this chair requires you to fulfill 5 major duties. These duties are as follows:

...

Read more
Category: Green Certifications | Student Organizations
Tags: EcoReps | Green Greek | Sigma Alpha Epsilon | Danny Maier

Great news! Seattle City Light is now going to rebate $600 to labs that purchase Stirling ULT (ultra-low temperature) freezers.

A graph comparing the electricity use (in watts) of two brands, Stirling and Revco, ultra-low temperature freezers.The Stirling ULT freezers are very energy efficient. The University of Washington Facilities Services conducted an analysis between the Stirling freezer and another brand freezer. The graph from the research shows that the Stirling freezer...

Read more
Category: Energy | Green Certifications
Tags: Green Labs | freezers | rebate

Interested in learning more about sustainability courses offered on campus? We have a solution for you.

UW Sustainability is introducing our newly renovated sustainability courses page. On the page you will find several featured courses from a variety of departments, ranging from the College of the Environment to the Department of Scandinavian Studies. Our goal with the page was to create a useful webpage for students and present important information to help you find a sustainability course for you. On each course's page, you will find a description, the...

Read more
Category: Academics
Tags: Sustainability in the Curriculum | Sustainability Courses

There’s a whole new lineup of sustainability events this week, ranging from discussions on global warming to chickens and worms on urban farms! Some of the week's highlights are listed below, and you can find out even more items happening on campus with our full calendar. The full Sustainability Events calendar is the best place to find the most up-to-date listings and details on all events. Also, if you know of any events, please let us know. We’d love to add them to our calendar! And if you'd like to get a weekly email of...

Read more
Category: Events
Tags: Weekly Events

Claudia Frere-Anderson at her deskWelcome to the first edition of my new quarterly blog series, Claudia's Corner!

This year has definitely begun on an active note.  I just returned from the 12th International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability at Portland State and co-presented with our Associate Vice President, Ruth Johnston, on "Transforming the University through...

Read more
Tags: Claudia Frere-Anderson | Claudia's Corner
Tim Stetter in front of a projection screen showing his UW in the High School presentation.

At Wednesday's Green Bag, event, we were lucky to hear from Tim Stetter, director of UW in the High School, who shared how the program implemented a major process reform which saved thousands of sheets of paper each year.

The UWHS program allows high school students to complete University of Washington courses in their own classrooms. Teachers in schools across the state teach the courses, using UW curriculum, activities, texts, tests, and grading scales, and students can receive UW credit for the course.

In order to keep each course up to standards, there is an application...

Read more
Category: Paper Reduction
Tags: UWHS | Green Bag
To inspire the campus community to recycle and compost during RecycleMania, UW Recycling is sponsoring a recycled art contest in the residence halls and Greek community!
 
Student teams are encouraged to make art from clean reused, recycled or salvaged materials. Each team must have at least two people, be all UW students, and at least two members of the team must be members of a UW residence hall or Greek Community. Artworks must convey the idea of sustainability and fit within a 2-foot-square...
Read more
Category: Events | Recycling, Compost & Waste | Residence Halls | Student Organizations
Tags: RecycleMania | Art | UW Recycling | contest