UW Seattle

Sustainability delivers a host of significant business and financial benefits to higher education. In addition to offering tremendous educational and environmental advantages to a college or university, it also makes sound economic sense -- especially with resources tightly constrained for the foreseeable future.

At the University of Washington (UW), we've implemented many conservation projects over the years that have embraced smarter processes and technologies for irrigating our grounds and powering our infrastructure.

Beginning this fall, students interested in food studies will have a new option to explore the many aspects of food, ranging from environmental impact to health to culture to eating.

A new food studies living and learning community, located in the Mercer Court Apartments, will be offered to students for the 2013-14 school year.

“The food exploration students will literally be able to grow food, harvest it, cook it, eat it,” said Julia Parrish, associate dean for academic affairs and diversity at the College of the Environment.

The UW campus would look naked without its towering pines, hardy cedars and luscious cherry blossoms. These trees, as well as the 800 other distinct tree species on campus, have helped the university become recognized as a “Tree Campus USA” by the Arbor Day Foundation for the third consecutive year.

Recognizing excellence in campus tree management, Tree Campus USA engages both the student body and the wider community in the establishment and maintenance of community forests. Since 2010 the University of Washington has held the proud distinction of Tree Campus USA recognition.

Tree Campus USA is a national program created in 2008 to honor colleges and universities for effective campus forest management and for engaging staff and students in conservation goals. Toyota helped launch the program and continues its generous financial support this year.

When I think Cleantech, my mind goes straight to the triangular logo on my waste container at work: “reduce, reuse, recycle.”  These three words are central to most enduring cleantech innovations, though sometimes in paradoxical ways.  “Reduce” is the most prone to paradox, since reducing one thing generally happens by increasing another. Let’s explore this “reduce” paradox via two well-known examples in that space.