UW Sustainability

It's Earth Week! Swipe through to see just a few of the many events happening across the UW this week. See the full calendar at sustainability.uw.edu/earthday or the link in our bio.

Join us for interactive workshops to help shape the University of Washington's sustainable future across our tri-campus! We're launching the development of a new Sustainability Action Plan and need your input. We're holding in-person and virtual Community Kickoff events to mark the beginning of the planning process.
In-person will be Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 4pm in the Oak Hall Denny Room on the Seattle campus.
Virtual will be December 3 via Zoom.

See the link for more info and to register for the Zoom session.

Sustainability Action Plan Join us for an interactive workshop to help shape the University of Washington's sustainable future across our tri-campus! We're launching the development of a new Sustainability Action Plan and need your input. We're holding in-person and virtual Community Kickoff events to mark the beginning of th...

We generally aren't active on Facebook. If you want to stay up to date on sustainability efforts at UW, see the many ways to connect with us at the site below.

Connect with us Explore our menu to learn more about sustainability at the University of Washington, or follow us on social media and sign up for our email list below. You can also email us at [email protected] or contact our team. Newsletter Social media Instagram Follow us on Instagram: Watch o...

Huskies for Equitable Sustainability (HuES) is a new opportunity for students to actively engage in the UW's sustainability efforts, organized by UW Sustainability and the Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF). We'll be holding monthly sessions open to students from all UW campuses and departments. These sessions will include information about current sustainability efforts across the UW, connections with RSOs and other groups working on sustainability, volunteer opportunities and more. They will also be a venue for you to ask UW staff questions and provide feedback on what you'd like to see happen for sustainability on campus.

The first meeting is Thursday, October 24 in HUB room 145.

Huskies for Equitable Sustainability (HuES) Huskies for Equitable Sustainability (HuES) is a new opportunity for students to actively engage in the UW's sustainability efforts, organized by UW Sustainability and the Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF). We'll be holding monthly sessions open to students from all UW campuses and departments. These...

There are many sustainability-related events happening during Dawg Daze as students start Fall quarter. Check out our post to learn more:

Sustainability at Dawg Daze 2024 Welcome new (and returning) students! With Fall quarter starting, Dawg Daze has tons of events to help new students learn about campus and resources at the UW. There are many events focusing on sustainability, including campus tours and student group meetings. We've put together a list of some of th...

Starting August 30, the Link light rail will go north to Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace and Shoreline. This opens up even more of our region to the UW community thanks to the unlimited rides the U-PASS provides.

Light rail expansion increases power of U-PASS | UW Facilities Blog News & updates Sustainability Light rail expansion increases power of U-PASS Lynnwood extension opens Friday, Aug. 30 August 16, 2024 • Misty Shock Rule A Sound Transit train on the new Link extension to Lynnwood. Sound Transit When new Sound Transit light rail stations open this month, it will be...

Congratulations to Husky Sustainability Award winner Clare Tupper, the UW Tacoma Giving Garden Coordinator! Clare has been a driving force for sustainability at UW Tacoma during her years as a student and now as a staff member overseeing the Giving Garden. She has organized long-lasting community and on-campus collaborations and successfully managed and improved one of the only usable green spaces on the Tacoma campus.

Learn more about all the 2024 winners at https://sustainability.uw.edu/awards/2024

Congratulations to the Society for Ecological Restoration - UW Chapter for being named the 2024 Husky Sustainability Legacy Award winner! The legacy awards recognize sustained, long-standing impact, and the SER student group has been working to remove invasive species and restore the campus landscape with native plants since 2008. These efforts go beyond just replacing vegetation to thinking deeply about how our campus landscape is used and how to integrate the ecological restoration into also providing welcoming spaces for the campus community.

Learn more about SER and all of the 2024 Husky Sustainability Award winners at sustainability.uw.edu/awards/2024

Congratulations to the UW Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine on receiving a 2024 Husky Sustainability Award! The department was represented by Dr. Andrew Walters at the award ceremony, but this was earned by a department-wide effort to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from anesthetic gasses at UW Medicine hospitals. The department has discontinued use of desflurane, an anesthetic gas with high global warming potential;
advocated to decommission wasteful central nitrous oxide systems and switch to more cost-effective and environmentally preferred portable cylinders for nitrous oxide administration;
and developed, in partnership with Epic Sytems, an internal sustainability dashboard that tracks the emissions rates of individual anesthesiologists to inform how to reduce the environmental impact of their practice.

Learn more about all the 2024 Husky Sustainability Award winners at sustainability.uw.edu/awards/2024

Congratulations to Hemalatha Velappan, a graduate student in the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, who was named one of the 2024 Husky Sustainability Award winners! She co-founded the Institutional Climate Action (ICA) student group which has been heavily involved in fossil fuel divestment and decarbonization efforts. She was instrumental in ICA’s efforts to ask the Board of Regents to approve divestment from fossil fuel companies and was one of the principal authors of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate’s resolution calling for 95% emission reduction by 2035. Further, Hema has also served on nine sustainability-oriented committees and task forces centered on activism, advocacy, lobbying, education, communication, and community building, including the Campus Sustainability Fund committee and the Environmental Stewardship Committee.

Learn more about all the 2024 winners at sustainability.uw.edu/awards

Congratulations to Mollie Grow, a professor with UW Medicine Pediatrics, who was named one of the 2024 Husky Sustainability Award winners! Dr. Grow has served as the lead mentor to the Pediatricians for Climate Action initiative. The UW team conducted national research to demonstrate the ongoing need and interest among pediatric residents and program directors to create climate and health curricula, leading to publication in Academic Medicine. Recently she led a steering committee to propose and seek funding to create a standing committee for the Department of Pediatrics dedicated to climate change, which launched in September 2024 and has about 50 members. She chairs the committee, which has led to engagement with new initiatives, expanded involvement with UW and Seattle Children’s sustainability initiatives, research collaborations, and planning for additional partnerships.

Learn more about all the 2024 winners at sustainability.uw.edu/awards

Congratulations to Max Stafford, a Materials Science and Engineering student at UW who was named one of the 2024 Husky Sustainability Award winners! Max founded the Solar Decathlon Club at UW, which participates in a national challenge to design sustainable, zero energy buildings to address real-world issues. He has been a student leader at the University of Washington Industrial Assessment Center (UW IAC) and an undergraduate researcher at the Integrated Fabrication Lab which focuses on manufacturing techniques to improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries. Max has won several scholarships and awards, such as the Environmental Innovation Challenge Clean Energy Prize and the Puget Sound ASHRAE Student Scholarship. Max is committed to nurturing the next generation of sustainability leaders by empowering students to take proactive steps towards effecting change.

Learn more about all the 2024 winners at sustainability.uw.edu/awards

Congratulations to Becky Ryser, a staff member with UW Surplus Public Store, who was named one of the 2024 Husky Sustainability Award winners! She has implemented several initiatives to advance sustainability at UW Surplus and worked to find new ways to divert items out of the landfill, including finding groups who can re-purpose specific items or specialized recycling vendors. She oversaw the launch of an online storefront, and partnered with campus mail for office supply deliveries to increase the reach of Surplus and encourage more departments to think about re-use before purchasing new. She also serves as the face of Surplus at many outreach events, educating people on Surplus’ services and how it supports the UW’s sustainability goals.

Learn more about all the 2024 winners at sustainability.uw.edu/awards/2024

Introducing our new Planning and Policy Specialist Lauren Schultz! In her role, Lauren will be responsible for leading the process of updating the UW's Sustainability Action Plan along with other efforts. Lauren comes to the University of Washington from Triangle Associates, a northwest environmental consulting firm, where she served as an Associate on a variety of natural resource and economic development projects. In her spare time, Lauren enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and camping across the Pacific Northwest. When not immersed in the great outdoors, you'll find Lauren relaxing at a local coffee shop, cooking with her partner, or planning her next adventure abroad.

Learn more about Lauren on the "In Our Nature" blog at sustainability.uw.edu/blog or through the link in our bio.

Happy Earth Day! There are events happening across all University of Washington campuses this week and throughout April.
Join us at the Ethnic Cultural Center on Tuesday, April 23, for the UW Earth Day Fair from 11am-1:30pm, and see the full schedule of events here: https://sustainability.uw.edu/earth-day-2024

Learn how the University of Washington is working to eliminate the use of fossil fuels on our campuses, with a focus on converting our heating system from using natural gas to electrical heat pumps. Join us online Thursday morning for the "Decarbonizing our Energy System" webinar, featuring David Woodson, UW’s Executive Director of Campus Energy, Utilities & Operations.

Register at sustainability.uw.edu/webinars

We need your help! Let us know about students, faculty, staff and groups at all three University of Washington campuses who deserve to be recognized for their sustainability impact, leadership & dedication. The Husky Sustainability Awards rely on nominations from the UW community, and nominations are due by May 1.

Submit your nominations at sustainability.uw.edu/awards

Introducing our mascot, Sqwatch! We'll be posting his sustainability secrets weekly. Learn more about Sqwatch and his sustainability tips on the blog through the link in our bio or at sustainability.uw.edu/blog