Awards & Recognition

The University of Washington has again been named to the Princeton Review’s Green Honor Roll, receiving a perfect score for the 2012-13 academic year. This marks the fifth year the UW has achieved this distinction.

The Princeton Review—known for its education services helping students choose and get into colleges—annually measures the sustainability of higher education institutions. This “Green Rating” includes environmentally-related practices, policies and academic offerings.

The notion of keystone species, the loss of which can reverberate throughout the food web, is a concept taken for granted today but was unheard of when University of Washington biologist Robert Paine pioneered it in the 1960s.

Seattle is a long way from Detroit, but the West Coast team claimed a key win in last weekend’s student race car competition.

The University of Washington Formula Motorsports team took first place at the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers competition held June 19-22 in Lincoln, Neb. It’s one of the largest U.S. competitions that challenges engineering students to design and build a small race car fit for an amateur driver.

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.

UW outcompetes PAC-12 schools

In the grand champion category comparing paper, glass and can recycling with the amount of garbage thrown away, the UW outcompeted all the PAC-12 schools entered in this year’s Recyclmania, an eight-week contest when universities and colleges are ranked on how much recycling, food waste and trash they collect.

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.

Husky Green Awards announced
Husky Green Awards went to seven individuals and teams, with winners announced April 19 during the kick-off event for Earth Day on the University of Washington campus.

The award, now in its fourth year, recognizes students, faculty and staff who have demonstrated leadership, initiative and dedication to environmental stewardship and sustainability. A new award this year, the Husky Green Legacy Award, went to the UPass Advisory Board.

Other winners are:

For 21 colleges and universities, paving paradise to put up parking lots is a thing of the past.

The Princeton Review released its Green Honor Roll, which recognizes schools that received a green rating of 99, just in time for Earth Day.

According to the Review, the rating measures "a school's performance as an environmentally aware and responsible institution" and primarily considers sustainable campus living, academic coursework in sustainability and sustainable school policies to determine the score.

While the UW men’s basketball program fell short of advancing to the NCAA tournament this year, the UW made it to the top four of another March Madness competition.

The UW advanced to the final round of the second annual Environmental March Madness Tournament, a national competition recognizing colleges and universities that demonstrate environmental excellence and sustainability efforts.

$22,500 Awarded to Environmental/Clean Tech Innovators