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You may not have noticed, but as you walk around the UW campus more of those plants and flowers at your feet are species native to Puget Sound.

That’s because UW’s Society for Ecology Restoration student guild (SER-UW) native plant nursery has been working to restore areas on campus by increasing native species biodiversity and creating open spaces for students to engage with the natural world just steps from their residence halls. 

Since 2013, SER has been removing interloper invasive species in Whitman Walk, a north campus site near McCarty Hall and Kincaid Ravine, an urban...

Earlier this year, the CSF awarded a grand total of $105,367 to 6 projects in the first round of funding for 2015. One of the projects proposed innovative adjustments that would optimize the use of a gift Mother Nature likes to shower upon Seattle: rainwater. 

CSF spoke to Amy Kim, Assistant Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering and Heta Kosonen, a PhD student in Construction Engineering, about their proposed sustainable rainwater system in the Construction Materials Laboratory (CML) in More Hall.

Can you tell us about...

On Friday April 24th, 19 volunteers helped to clear a patch of English ivy in the green belt behind PACCAR Hall. Lead by ESMR major Ben Sari, they cut away at this invasive species for several hours before completion. Volunteers came from several corners of UW, drawn together from Facebook posts and tables at Earth Day in Red Square.

There were multiple reasons for cutting away the ivy, Sari says. First of all, it’s an invasive species; clearing the ivy away makes room for native plants to grow. The thick covering of ivy also housed pests such as rats; clearing the ivy eliminates...

The CSF helped support the UW Night Market put on by the Taiwanese Student Association last weekend to support their recycling and waste control. Read on to see how the event went!

Thousands flocked to Red Square on Saturday night to celebrate Taiwan’s rich culture with food and entertainment.  

The 15th annual UW Night Market featured 22 food vendors, games, and a full lineup of performances including special guests singer-songwriter Joseph Vincent and seven-member rock/hip-hop group Lions Ambition. Throughout the night, dance crews, singers, and even an Elvis...

The ASUW Student Senate passed a resolution in support of the UW dedicating 25 percent of its food purchases to Real Food, or food that is fairly produced (from farm to table,) by 2020, with an annual one percent increase.

The Real Food Challenge (RFC) is a national campaign that encourages universities to purchase Real Food. To be considered Real Food by RFC standards, food items must fulfill at least one of the following criteria: local and community-based, fair, ecologically sound, and humane.

These proposed changes in R-21-34 are part of the Real Food Campus Commitment,...

A trip to Israel sparked a UW student's dream to leave a mark on the enviroment.

"There was a full moon, a massive brilliant orb, and stars everywhere,” said Will Fantle, co-creator of ReThink, a UW club focused on business sustainability. “They took us out in silence and told us to go find a spot in the desert. We sat out there for what felt like hours. I just lay there looking up at the stars thinking about what I wanted to do with my life."

As part of Birthright, a program designed to strengthen Jewish identity, Fantle, then a sophomore, traveled to Israel on an all...

Last Wednesday, students in the Program on the Environment (POE) and Community, Environment and Planning’s (CEP) jointly-offered Grant Writing Practicum class (ENVIR 495E/ CEP 498A), presented their projects in Wallace Hall to showcase the quarter’s efforts. Students were given 10 minutes to present their proposal, followed by five minutes of Q&A with an audience consisting of faculty, CSF Committee and staff members and fellow students. The goal of the class was to help students develop their grant writing, project development and project management skills to specifically address...

Walk by the IMA at any time of the day and you’re bound to see students on treadmills and elliptical machines, running and walking for miles on end. That is potential energy.

At CSF’s inaugural Brainstorming Workshop last Tuesday, one of the sustainability project ideas discussed was how to turn the energy generated by students working out into a useful power source. Not only could this provide a platform for real-time energy metering, but it could also make students more aware of their consumption of energy in their daily lives. A student who attended the workshop said, “If there...

UW is currently undergoing Salmon-Safe recertification after first being certified in 2011.  Salmon-Safe is a regional eco-label that ensures a site (farm, vineyard, university campus, landscape, etc.)  has minimized its impact on local watersheds by increasing the quality and reducing the quantity of stormwater discharged.  Through a grant from the CSF, the Sustainable Stormwater program has catalyzed student efforts to become integrally involved with the recertification effort and is leading the process.  Learn more about the Salmon Safe program from this video and get involved with the...

Dani Gilmour describes herself as a former junk food fiend, something one wouldn’t expect from the coordinator of Husky Real Food Challenge (HRFC).

Since she was a child growing up in Cheney, Wash., she has known she wanted to address climate change, but food production had never occurred to her as something that has a significant impact on the environment. Gilmour attributes her newfound interest in food to the food-related classes at the UW and opportunities to volunteer at the UW Farm during her first year on campus.

“Coming to Seattle, that’s when I started to care about...

The Engineers Without Borders chapter at the University of Washington (EWB-UW) is collaborating with the UW Farm to construct a greenhouse by the Center of Urban Horticulture (CUH). This project was funded in part by the Campus Sustainability Fund. EWB-UW is continuing its construction of the greenhouse this year, led by Adi Junus, Sergey Lukin, and Nammy Tran.

When one thinks of Engineers Without Borders, their participation in a local community project in Seattle is not necessarily the first thing that comes to mind. This is partly due to EWB’s global focus, which is articulated...

Tucked behind the Washington Arboretum, the Yesler Swamp might be overlooked by the casual passerby at first glance. However, the swamp is host to a multitude of environmental restoration and education projects that UW students are engaging in to bring more attention to this hidden gem. Carolyn Foster and Tyler Licata are two Community, Environment, and Planning (CEP) students who are leading restoration efforts at the Yesler Swamp under the Yesler Swamp Project (YSP), which is a student-led restoration project. The main focus of YSP is environmental restoration and community building....

On Wednesday, October 22nd, a group of six speakers from across the University of Washington came together to discuss sustainability, especially as it relates  to their personal research and projects, as part of the SustainableUW Festival. Comprised of three different UW schools (College of the Environment, Foster School of Business, and the School of Public Health), the panel focused on identifying and addressing the barriers to solving the largest issues currently affecting sustainability.   

Think of what you ate for lunch today. Do you know where your food came from? This is a difficult question for most people to answer due to the complexities and lack of transparency in the food system. Don’t fret yet; passionate students that are a part of the Real Food Challenge are aiming to address these gaps in knowledge to create a more sustainable and transparent food system. The Real Food Challenge (RFC) at the University of Washington is a chapter of a larger national organization committed to working with universities to supply real food to their students. The RFC defines real...

We've scratched the surface of Sierra magazine's Cool Schools list on Treehugger before, but this time I've decided to dig into one of the schools so we can learn more about what makes it so green.

The University of Washington (UW) topped the list this year, and Aubrey Batchelor, Program Coordinator in UW's Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability office, said green programs and projects...

A wall of vegetation now climbs the south side of Gould Hall, after the opening of the Biodiversity Green Wall and Edible Green Screen on Monday.

The sustainable, vertical wall creates more efficient methods in plant growth, water circulation, and biodiversity. The wall was a collaborative project within the UW College of Built Environments’ Green Futures Lab (GFL).

“The idea to build the Green Wall was inspiring,” said Leann Andrews, lab manager at GFL.

The upper wall is 80 to 85 percent native plants, and the lower wall is about 50 percent native. Biodiverse plants...

"UW pays compulsive attention to buying local: More than half of the school's food is produced within 250 miles of campus. Administrators are also firmly committed to using renewable energy. Above, student Jamie Rowe, who coordinates UW's Campus Sustainability Fund, places her bike on one of the school's seven bicycle-repair stations"

From a student-run farm to fix-it-yourself bike stations around campus, students at the University of Washington have taken a campaign to increase environmental sustainability in new directions over the past two years.

On Friday, during the school's annual Earth Day ceremony, the UW will celebrate its environmental efforts as part of HuskyFest, a three-day celebration marking the 150th anniversary of...