In Our Nature

The University of Washington adopted its Sustainability Action Plan, including 10 measurable targets, on July 1, 2020. The Plan will guide our sustainability efforts through 2025, with updated actions determined annual to help us work toward those targets.

The UW is starting the process of determining the actions for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins on July 1, and we need your input to guide those actions. Students, faculty and staff from all three UW campuses are encouraged to take the Plan survey and share your thoughts on our current...

UW Sustainability and the Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) are hiring a joint Program Specialist & Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Coordinator. This will be a graduate student position lasting through the summer quarter, with a possibility of continuing through Fall 2021.

This position will coordinate DEI program efforts by working to engage with and listen to the needs of underinvested and marginalized student groups and RSOs in an effort to create an inclusive and equitable sustainability programs within our office. The...

UW Recycling is excited to host another Trash Art Contest for 2021! The contest is part of this year's Campus Race to Zero Waste (previously RecycleMania).

The categories this year are literature, visual arts and graphic arts. Participants must create an art piece from items normally thought of as trash. Art pieces should express feelings or ideas about waste, or a sustainability topic that relates to waste. This contest is...

The Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) and UW Resilience Lab are hosting a grant-writing workshop for UW students on Feb. 25 at 3 p.m. At this event, participants will have the opportunity to build their grant-writing skills and learn more about the diverse pool of on-campus grants available for projects and initiatives at the UW, including CSF and Resilience Lab Seed Grants. The workshop will include an informational session followed by a brief activity that will guide participants to get organized...

Campus Race to Zero Waste (CRZW), formerly RecycleMania, starts this week at the University of Washington. For the ninth year, the UW will be participating in the friendly recycling competition between colleges and universities. As part of CRZW, UW Recycling is organizing activities to focus on plastic waste reduction. Here are some ways you can get involved.

Participate in trivia week

Show off your recycling knowledge with our trivia week on social media! Watch UW Recycling's Instagram...

We've got many different ways for you to connect with sustainability coming up, with a slate of events in February touching on various aspects of sustainability. Learn more about these events hosted by UW Sustainability below, and find even more events year-round on our Sustainability Events calendar.

Racial justice at the UW: Activism's past and future

Wednesday, February 10, 2021, 1 - 2:15 p.m.

Join us for a discussion about the history, current state and future of activism at UW....

A full renovation of Parrington Hall is now complete, bringing one of the oldest buildings on campus up to date and creating an improved learning experience for students in the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance. 

The renovation also used the principles of reusing, recycling and reducing for a sustainable process and making it a much more sustainable building. 

See the Evans School blog post highlighting all of Parrington's new sustainability features, and watch the video...

Update: watch the recording of this event on YouTube.

On February 23 at 1:30 p.m., the Sustainability staff of UW's Bothell, Seattle and Tacoma campuses are co-hosting the virtual event "Sustainability at Home." Access the event via Zoom.

For many of us, this past year has meant our home has also served as our space for work or learning. How has this affected your personal sustainability actions? We'll be discussing the impacts of the pandemic and what lessons we might take from this past year. Staff from each of the three...

This past year was unforgettable for many reasons. The challenges facing all of us certainly impacted UW Sustainability, but I am proud of what we were able to accomplish in 2020 and excited as I look forward to 2021. We are eager to continue the university’s progress on sustainability with new opportunities and goals ahead.

This past year marked the adoption of UW’s new Sustainability Action Plan. Our office coordinated much of the planning behind this document, which was officially launched in July 2020. Starting in the spring of 2019, we set out to expand the lens of...

The 2021 Washington & Oregon Higher Education Sustainabliity Conference (WOHESC) will be February 11-12. This year's conference is fully virtual, and several UW students, faculty and staff are among the speakers and panelists taking part in sessions over the two-day conference.

WOHESC is a platform for inspiring change, facilitating action, and promoting collaboration around sustainability within the Cascadia region's higher education institutions. Conversation, workshops, and networking opportunities...