the UW Sustainability blog
Today we continue our “Meet the Ecoreps” segment with our Marketing and Outreach Coordinator, Alex Huff! Alex is from Woodinville, WA and is a Senior in the Program on the Environment here at UW. He is also a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity where he holds the position of philanthropy chair. In his free time Alex enjoys playing music and exploring the vast world around him.
Over the next couple weeks we will be running a segment of blog posts called “Meet the EcoReps,” so you can get to know us a little better!
Do good for the environment, earn money for your RSO, and get into football games for free!
UW Recycling and Intercollegiate Athletics are looking for a reliable and environmentally aware student organization to provide recycling outreach to tailgaters prior to each home football game. The shift is 3-5 hours, depending on game start time, and a minimum of 6 volunteers per game is required. You will be walking throughout the parking lots to distribute recycling bags to tailgaters, promote recycling, and answer questions.
What was once a bustling sawmill in the late 1800s is now home to more than 100 species of birds, turtles, ducks, and even a beaver family.
I’m talking about Yesler Swamp, one of the few true swamps remaining in Seattle and a unique part of Washington’s vanishing urban forest. It’s hidden in a grove of trees just east of the UW Center for Urban Horticulture, remaining a fairly unknown public area to this day.
You may not have noticed, but as you walk around the UW campus more of those plants and flowers at your feet are species native to Puget Sound.
That’s because UW’s Society for Ecology Restoration student guild (SER-UW) native plant nursery has been working to restore areas on campus by increasing native species biodiversity and creating open spaces for students to engage with the natural world just steps from their residence halls.
When his friends were buying cars, UW student Scott Calvert was busy saving money for a better bike.
It's a passion he's sharing with UW by working at the ASUW bike shop - a hub for the UW biking community that's detailed in this video.
Photo courtesy of Meili Powell, Tali Haller, Dana Chapman, and Mikayla Richardson
Last spring, a group of UW students traveled more than 200 miles to help teach three sixth grade classes about the environment.
"Our overarching goal was to perpetuate love for the environment, but also teach kids how to affect change on the local level," said Tali Haller, one of the UW student teachers.
On May 19-21 EcoReps hosted the annual Green Greek Competition, a contest aimed at educating the Greek Community about sustainability and helping chapters go green. The EcoReps group set up tables on the median of 17th Avenue with activities designed to promote sustainable behaviors within the community. During the three days Greek members could participate in games such as a minute-to-win-it waste sorting challenge, trivia, and recycling basketball.
A refined Chevy Malibu sits in the far corner of the UW EcoCAR lab as a reminder of UW’s second place finish last year in the three-year automotive engineering EcoCAR2 competition sponsored by General Motors.
The EcoCAR group is hoping to match that success in the current EcoCAR3 competition, a four-year process to redesign a Chevrolet Camaro to be as energy efficient as possible while keeping its performance.
Students: Are you interested in sustainable science and engineering? Do you want to network with professionals in this field? If so, please help launch the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) UW Student Chapter on Wednesday, May 20, from 5-6 p.m. in Allen Research Commons Room Red C.