2015-2016

Since 2001, the Taiwanese Student Association (TSA) has brought this dynamic, cultural event to the University of Washington campus. Given its success, the UW Night Market has quickly become an annual Seattle tradition. Our goal is to bring people together in celebrating and appreciating Taiwanese culture. The event includes many vendors selling various Taiwanese foods, on-stage performances, as well as cultural activities. However, we don't want it to be just a cultural event, we also hope to increase community awareness of how to maintain a sustainable enviroment.

The Earth day celebration is a popular annual gathering at the University of Washington. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the event. On April 22nd, 2015 the event was put on by UW’s student run Earth Club and assisted by the UW sustainability staff. The goal of the organizers is to bring as many people together as they can to talk about our planet and sustainability. This year the celebration was located in Red Square in the center of campus.

While built environments provide people and society with a lot of benefits, they also have significant influence on our environment. According to EPA, people in the United States spend more than 90% of their time in the built environments. However, many of them feel less engaged with buildings since they have limited access to the information and knowledge about the buildings such as how the air is heated within the buildings? Many studies show that this lack of engagement will influence how comfortable occupants feel and how much environmental awareness they have within buildings.

72 hours. 50 people. 12 schools. One World Changed!

Students from the Confronting Climate Change RSO are doing the exciting work of planning a student divestment convergence this spring 2016. Students from colleges across the northwest region will be coming together to strengthen the current fossil fuel divestment movement of the region.

The UW Center for Communication & Civic Engagement’s Rethinking Prosperity project organized the Next System Teach-In in partnership with the UW Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies. Rethinking Prosperity is an initiative that seeks to identify and communicate economic models that work for more people, within planetary boundaries. It emerged from a seminar of undergraduate seniors in Communication. The Teach-In took place on April 25th, 2016 at Kane Hall.

This project will be to design and plant a hedgerow along the southern boundary of the UW-CUH Farm; it will be composed of woody perennial plant species that will act primarily as pollinator habitat, providing forage, shelter, and most importantly, overwintering habitat for insects. By installing suitable habitat for local pollinating insects, this project will both enhance the biodiversity of the surrounding Union Bay Natural Area and benefit student food production at the UW Farm by potentially increasing the yield of vegetables grown and the genetic diversity (stress-tolerance) of the cr

The Tribal Water Security Colloquium (TWSC) was hosted by the Water is Life: water, health and “ecosystem services” class taught by Dr. Clarita Lefthand-Begay in the Department of American Indian Studies. Undergraduate students enrolled in this class collaborated by picking, inviting and hosting leaders to speak about water. In the TWSC we focused our attention on creating a space where we could learn directly from influential tribal leaders whose communities are at the forefront of climate change and environmental challenges.

The University of Washington Farm (UW Farm) proposes to purchase and install a composting toilet at the Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH) farm site. There is increasing need for an outdoor bathroom facility at the farm, to support student famers working and volunteering at the UW Farm, as well as other groups using the space. In 2015, there were over 180 volunteers working at the farm. In addition, the farm offered tours to over 500 UW students in 2015 alone.

Last year the UW student group ReThink used a CSF grant to organize the first UW Resilience Summit. This year they recieved another grant to host the event for a second year, with a paneled event that focuses on a specific topic relating to environmental and economic resilience.

The Campus Illumination team envisions a campus with truly sustainable exterior lighting that enhances the campus experience, mitigates disruption to wildlife patterns, and operates with the most efficient use of energy. The team will collaborate with UW students, faculty, staff, and off- lighting design professionals to create a roadmap to guide future development and retrofitting efforts on campus.