Join us on June 18th, this Thursday from 12-1pm, in discussion on sustainability at the UW and the vision and plan to build intersectional and equitable climate justice.
The Campus Sustainability Fund is a student-run and student-funded grant program that works to support and facilitate intersectional sustainability projects on the UW campus.Our history is one that incorporates student leadership and movement. The original idea for a student led, student funded Green Fund came from a group of students in the fall of 2009. A grassroots campaign was waged across the campus collecting over 5,000 petition signatures, 100 RSO endorsements, support of faculty and student senate, and incredible institutional support. Due to this unprecedented level of student support, a $339,000 fund was established through the Student Activities Fee (SAF) for the 2010-2011 school year. In the 2018-2019 school year, we also began our partnership with the Student Technologies Fee (STF). In a given year, the CSF grant has $400,000 available in allocations. Since the 2010-2011 school year, the CSF has allocated 3 million dollars in projects, 183 projects granted, and 40 projects currently active. Through our work, we aim to cultivate students’ professional skills through project development and delivery.
In the recent years, the CSF staff and committee has made the conscious and intentional decision to lead the CSF towards intersectional sustainability. We have committed to supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development goals and encourage project teams to align with these diverse goals in their projects. As an organization, we acknowledge that racial equity is in the forefront of sustainability and see that environmental racism is a topic many sustainability movements have failed to address and include. As a part of the evolution of the CSF, we are committed to having discussions and actions on environmental racism, racial, economic, gendered and political exclusion. We aim to work on empowerment and equitible support for students identified as non-able bodied, queer, stuggling with mental health, socialy and racially distadvaatged. The CSF team particularly recognizes the disproportionate ways in which climate change affects Black communities and excludes them from being a part of sustainability efforts. To provide more equitable support to the Black students, faculty, and staff at the University of Washington, a summer grant option will be available for students to use in order support with further equity and inclusion work.
We are partnering with the UW Resilience Lab to issue a call for proposals soliciting projects that will educate the UW community and spark dialogue about proposed solutions to environmental and societal problems that have a disproportionately negative impact on Black and Indigenous communities. In particular, we are interested in proposals that touch on themes of police reform and accountability and environmental (in)justice (and its relation to COVID-19 vulnerability) and on solutions that can be implemented on the campus or city level.
Watch the recorded Zoom video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHHll9zz8tE