Blogs

Dozens of UW students have traveled over the last few years to La Vega del Volcan, a remote village high in the mountains of Guatemala. The students listened to community members discuss some of the problems facing the village, and worked to help develop sustainable solutions.

Since January 2014, UW Engineers Without Borders (EWB) has been working on completing a multi-purpose community center in the area. The UW team is traveling back this upcoming winter break to finish building the outdoor superstructure. 

Update: UW Recycling and UW Sustainability have decided not to continue a pilot program to recycle nitrile lab gloves. The pilot program, which took place over the course of spring quarter of 2016 in nine labs in the Molecular Engineering and Sciences (MolES) department and Materials Science and Engineering department, reduced the proportion of lab waste that gloves made up from an average of 23% to 7%.

The UW Farm is offering a limited number of peak-season CSA shares, available for five weeks in August.

Summer and barbeque season are in full swing. Especially in Seattle, the summer months often provide the best weather to grill and host a party outside. Parties can be a tremendous amount of work and details that increase sustainability are often overlooked or cast aside for ease. Here are eight easy tips to help green your summer party:

It's time to think twice about your carpet.

For well over 100 years, carpet has been the single most popular choice for American floors, but not without its drawbacks. Producing carpet requires the use of a host of harmful chemicals, and each year landfills acquire millions of tons of carpet that will take thousands of years to decompose.

Here in the Pacific Northwest we’re so accustomed to being surrounded by nature that we take it for granted. We have neatly paved trails with swarms of trees on our right and left, we can drive for miles on end and be surrounded by luscious evergreens and shrubs on either side, or we can go for a hike and see a variety of wildlife before our eyes.

Whether we like to admit it or not, the burning of fossils has negatively impacted our environment for quite some time now. And although we can do our part in reducing our carbon footprint, alleviating the large-scale effects of global warming lies within the grasps of the U.S. government and fossil fuel companies who follow the guidelines our administration sets.

Currently, there is no incentive for companies to use cleaner energy, let alone stricter regulations or laws calling for cleaner practices, allowing corporations to keep reaping the benefits of fossil fuel production.

Join UW Sustainability for a Green Bag lunch talk on paper reduction and Green Offices with Lily Gebrenegus, UW Grant and Contract Accounting associate director, and Chris Toman, UW Sustainability Program Specialist, on June 30 from noon to 1 p.m. in HUB 337.

Tucked behind an assortment of trees along UW's Stevens Way is a garden unknown to many. The UW Medicinal Herb Garden is home to about 1,000 plants from around the world, spread out across seven plots, and provides a relaxing escape from the surrounding campus.

The garden hasn't always been as richly populated as it is today. There's one man in particular who has doubled the plant collection over the last 20 years.

Update: UW Recycling and UW Sustainability have decided not to continue a pilot program to recycle nitrile lab gloves. The pilot program, which took place over the course of spring quarter of 2016 in nine labs in the Molecular Engineering and Sciences (MolES) department and Materials Science and Engineering department, reduced the proportion of lab waste that gloves made up from an average of 23% to 7%.