In Our Nature

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.

But that wasn’t always the case. Dating back to the middle 1800s, logging removed many old-growth forests in Washington state and surrounding areas. Trees were cut down to produce timber, with Douglas fir and red cedars being the most...

CSR Thursdays is a student-authored blog post series in which we share information about the corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts underway by the many and diverse suppliers and vendors of the UW. Look no further to start gaining an understanding on what businesses that provide products often purchased by students, faculty, and staff are doing to promote environmental sustainability! 

This week's company: Starbucks

On campus there are 22 cafes, and all of them proudly serve Starbucks brand coffee. Whether you are getting your morning fix, or the shot of...

Looking to learn more about green building, sustainability, equity issues, and more? The Built Green Conference at Cascadia College on September 13th is looking for student volunteers, who will recieve a complementary ticket to the event, the opportunity to attend educational sessions, lunch, and the opportunity to network with other green building professionals.

The Built Green Conference has been occurring annually for a decade with the aim of providing valuable and cutting-edge information on green building and sustainability....

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. 

The center...

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%. However, while the pilot program diverted a significant amount of lab waste from the landfill, the program could not confirm that the overall carbon footprint of recycling the gloves...

The fall quarter class Food and the Environment (C ENV110) is open to all students and has no prerequisites. In this course, Students will relate the production and consumption of food to the major areas of environmental science including energy use, water consumption, biodiversity loss, soil loss, pollution, nutrient cycles, and climate change. The course will study the basic science and how food production impacts the key processes.

Time Offered: M/W/F 12:30-1:30pm with quiz sections on Tuesday or...

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

The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program provides a weekly share of fresh produce from the student-powered UW Farm. The weekly boxes will include vegatables such as tomatoes, summer squash, basil, eggplant and more! The cost for the 5-week Peak Season CSA Membership is $200 ($40 per week). Pick-ups are every Wedensday in August (August 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31). Boxes are designed to feed a family of four. If you're...

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:

1. E-Media Invites

Paper invites are the way of the past. E-media invites are much greener and often provide automatic reminders to your guest. One option would be to use Facebook and create an event....

This fall, the Environmental Science & Resource Management program is offering ESRM 320: "Sustainable Markets," an online class open to all students.

The course introduces business concepts relating to marketing, human resource management, small businesses and entrepreneurship, and economics in the context of environmental resource management.

Time Offered: Online course with two in-person exams on 11/8 and 12/8, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Credits: 5
Professor: Dorothy Paun
General Education...

This fall's course "Sustainability: Personal Choices, Broad Impacts" (ENVIR 239) will present frameworks of sustainability via exploration of key pillars of sustainability, the history of sustainability movements, and sustainability in action. Students examine personal and global aspects of sustainability through issues such as smart growth, environmental and natural building, green business and energy, ecotourism, and international policy

This course has no prerequisites, and the only section currently open is for...