STUDENT INVOLVEMENT Students Expressing Environmental Dedication (SEED): A UW student

environmental group driving the success of campus sustainability programs, including the Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) Exchange Project, where over 5,000 incandescent light bulbs were replaced with energy-saving CFLs in residence halls.

Annual UW Environmental Innovation Challenge: Interdisciplinary student teams define a clean-tech problem, design and develop the solution, and produce both a prototype and a business summary that demonstrates the market opportunity.

The HiPerPod: Zero Energy Classroom program in the Department of Architecture is a design-build-test program for creating a high-performance, net-zero energy, modular classroom suited to the Puget Sound region. In 2009, it received an Excellence in Green Building Education Incentive Grant from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Project Earth: A student organization at UW Tacoma that provides opportunities to get involved and make a difference on and off campus, fostering strong community bonds.

Students approved an increase in fees to create the Campus Sustainability Fund. The fund is available to students, faculty and staff for campus sustainability projects.

COMMITTED TO THE ENVIRONMENT The UW is a founding signatory to the American College & University

Presidents' Climate Commitment and is actively developing an institutional action plan for becoming climate neutral.

There are 13 LEED certified buildings on campus and the UW's Housing Master Plan calls for new on-campus student housing to meet the standards for LEED Silver certification.

100% of serviceware from all of campus Housing & Food Services retail food service operations is compostable. The UW also recycles nearly 50% of its solid waste, including paper, cans, bottles and cardboard.

Student-run on-campus sustainable food efforts include an herb garden, a p-patch, and the U Farm.

Since opening its doors in 1998, UW Bothell has restored 58 acres of wetlands on its campus. The project has been cited as one of the best restorations in the U.S. by the Department of Ecology and the Army Corps of Engineers.

The UW launched UW Zimride, a student-led initiative that utilizes an online service to match staff, students and faculty for ride-sharing.

RANKINGS*

*Rankings listed are latest rankings available

uw.edu/discover/sustainability

The University of Washington is a global leader in environmental science research, education and technology transfer. We discover and share knowledge for the sustainability of our planet.

Environmental leadership.It’s the Washington Way.

Sustainability of the Earth

Among the top 100 green colleges, known as the Cool Schools List, the top public research university- Sierra Club Magazine The highest grade of any university in the U.S. for on-campus sustainability efforts.- College Sustainability Report Card

In the country for the Landscape Architecture undergraduate program - Dean's Survey, America's Best Architecture & Design Schools

HONORS AND AWARDS

Princeton Review named the UW to its "2009 Green Rating Honor Roll," a list that salutes institutions that received the highest possible score in this year's rating tallies, which are based on environmental practices, policies and course offerings.

The Arbor Day Foundation conferred the title of Tree Campus USA on the UW in 2009 for it's dedication to campus forestry management and environmental stewardship.

American School & University magazine named the UW a co-grand award winner of the 2010 Green Cleaning Award, recognizing exemplary green cleaning programs.

Established in 2009, the UW College of the Environment garners an average of $85 million in grants and contracts annually to support world-renowned research on climate, natural hazards, freshwater and ocean environments, sustainable forests and fisheries, environmental policy and more.

The UW was awarded Salmon-Safe Certification in 2011.

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HIGHLIGHTS

With funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation's Ocean Observatories Initiative, the UW is developing a cutting-edge cabled underwater facility that will enable researchers to detect, track and even forecast changes in the ocean in near-real time.

The UW campus is part of a regional test of Smart Grids, electrical transmission systems that incorporate information technology and allow two-way communication between energy providers and energy users.

The National Science Foundation-funded Bioresource-based Energy for Sustainable Societies program is training teams of graduate students to research potential biomass energy projects in partnership with several Northwest tribal communities.

Students and researchers at the Urban Ecology Research Laboratory study urban landscapes to help us understand the connection between humans and the environment, and how that relationship shapes the development of our cities.

With funding from the UW's Environmental Institute and the National Science Foundation, interdisciplinary teams of students, faculty and non-profit partners are exploring the science, ethics and policy implications of "geo-engineering" the Earth's climate as well as the environmental and climate impacts of ocean acidification.

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In conservation biology, UW researchers are looking at how humans impact different animal species, and how we can minimize that impact.

Sam Wasser, director of the UW’s Center for Conservation Biology, is world-renowned for non-invasive approaches to research, including training rescue dogs to locate wildlife scat, and then, through DNA analysis, determine the health and well-being of specific wildlife.

As part of Penguin Sentinels, Biology Professor Dee Boersma and her team of experts are in Argentina studying the largest Magellanic penguin colony in the world, monitoring and developing data needed to plan effective conservation efforts.

Restoration Ecology Network (UW-REN), a tri-campus initiative, serves as a regional center to combine student, faculty and community stakeholders in designing and implementing ecological restoration and conservation projects.

Students and faculty at the UW Green Futures Research and Design Lab are working together to develop innovative approaches — planning and designing of public spaces, including parks, open spaces and shorelines — that preserve the natural environment.

UW researchers, working with the global engineering firm CH2M Hill, are developing a rating system called Greenroads that assesses the sustainability of new, reconstructed and rehabilitated roads — which is comparable to the LEED rating system for buildings and the Energy Star system for appliances.

UW became the pilot site for compostable Coca-Cola® fountain cups, the world’s first compostable paper cups for soft drinks made from renewable resources. We worked with the Coca-Cola® Company, International Paper, and Cedar Grove Composting, a local composting facility, to bring the cup to market.

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