ADA Approved Pathways at the UW Farm: Promoting the Intersection of Environmental Justice and Sustainability

Executive Summary:

The UW Farm comprises three green spaces located on the University of Washington Seattle Campus. All three sites offer growing spaces for: food and community-building, academic coursework and field trips, service learning, volunteering and also activities for the general public. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the UW Farm continued operations as an essential food production operation supplying households, the UW Food Pantry, and area food banks.

Total space maintained by the UW Farm is 6 acres with 1.75 cultivated for crops, Many visitors enjoy walking through the farm from dawn to dusk, 365 days a year, 7 days a week. There are no gate fees, perimeter fences or NET ID required to enter the farm spaces.

However, farm trails and pathways do not currently provide access for those with disabilities. Removing barriers for accessing green spaces would help address a sustainability issue on campus - Social Sustainability. As stated on the College of the Environment Climate Justice and Sustainability website page;

“Environmental justice serves as a lens through which social justice principles can be incorporated into the realm of fair sustainability.”

The issue of access, environmental justice and sustainability are intertwined. In fact, the city of Seattle reports that 6.4 % of the population has a disability or 46,971 individuals, but on our campus the number increases. According to UW DOIT, 19% of post-secondary students have disabilities. How does our campus address disabilities through the lens of Environmental Justice? By removing barriers to enjoy, recharge and experience the outdoors.

The UW Farm at the Center for Urban Horticulture is accessible by walking, bicycling, bus and by car. But once you arrive, the single ADA pathway stops before you can enter, preventing food access for those in wheelchairs. If there were ADA pathways then people in wheelchairs could learn about urban farming and related issues, recreate, and help plant, harvest and consume the produce grown on campus.

Only the farm site at the Center for Urban Horticulture offers the potential for ADA approved pathways, due to gentle slope, proximity to restrooms, handicapped parking and amenities. This site also provides the largest number of CSF-funded projects for learning about sustainability and is adjacent to the Union Bay Natural Area, Miller library, and event areas and classrooms - all wheelchair accessible.

The UW Farm and students would like to help provide more access to the farm space, but lack funds to do so. The UW Farm budget is cobbled together with grants, sales of produce, and requests for donations from donors and departments. The farm does not receive any Student Activities Fee funding, or Academic Based Budget funding. We would like to ask CSF for the necessary support to install ADA approved pathways from one end of the farm to the other, running east -west and connecting key areas, the Native garden, World Cultural Kitchen, Heritage Orchard and Wapato Pond. These pathways would also connect visitors with disabilities to other CSF-funded projects - Compost Toilet, Vermiculture Facility, SuperShed, Children’s Garden, and Greenhouse. 

Student Involvement:

As noted in the Executive Summary, this project will directly involve and affect UW Students, primarily First Nations students and their tribal elders, and those with disabilities. Access to green spaces on campus, and historic lands of the Coast Salish tribes will be provided at the Native Garden, Wapato Pond and the World Cultural Kitchen. Wheelchair accessibility of a pathway system will combine with proximity to already existing ADA approved restrooms, classrooms, event space, a library, and free parking.

Students who visit the farm for courses, engage in CELE service-learning (over 150/year) and RSO volunteers will have the opportunity to participate in the construction of the pathways and enjoy the completed green spaces. These pathways will also improve the green space for the general public, who visit the farm daily.  

During the few weeks that we will work on the pathways, students and volunteers will be on the farm helping with harvests, plantings, weddings and in class. We can ask for assistance on any day when we have regular volunteer shifts, ( nine 3-hour shifts, five days a week).

The UW Farm also has 10-week internships including a Winter quarter Environmental Justice intern. Every year this individual focuses their attention on researching ways the UW Farm can act to make the space and programs more equitable and sustainable. During and after completion of the new pathways, this intern will recruit volunteers for maintenance of the trail and work on outreach.

Responsibilities:

  • Overall Project supervision - David Zuckerman and Perry Acworth, budget, equipment, labor and volunteer management
  • Cultural Kitchen Path and Main Farm Pathway - Perry Acworth, UW Farm Manager
  • Heritage Orchard - Althea Ericksen, UW POE undergraduate senior, capstone
  • Wapato Pond project - Kove Janeski, UW MLA, masters student, 2nd year, studio project
  • UW Farm AmeriCorps Volunteer - Chrina Munn, UW Alumnus, volunteer tracking, recruitment and records
  • ASUW Student Disability Commission - Toby Gallant

Education & Outreach:

Our project will be publicized and educate the UW community in the following ways:

  • The UW Farm, lies within its administrative unit, UW Botanic Gardens, SEFS, College of the Environment. UWBG has a new full time outreach position who is also the lead for the DEI. Andrew Asaki is one of the collaborators for this CSF application. If we received CSF funds, the UW Farm Manager will work with Outreach to publicize the ADA access.
  • The farm also works with multiple faculty, CELE, and units across campus who visit for courses, labs and field trips. During those times
  • The UW Farm maintains a website page and the Farm Manager, working with the Environmental Justice Intern, will create a dedicated website page for Environmental Justice and Access to the UW Farm, the Center for Urban Horticulture, and adjacent Union Bay Natural Area. The website will feature a map showing the ADA pathways, parking spaces, and amenities.
  • Word of Mouth - Thousands of students make their way to the farm each year, so news of the Trail would be sheared by word of mouth.
  • The ASUW Student Disability Commission RSO will help promote and broadcast the trail to those within the disability community.
  • The Daily - UW Farm manager would also contact The Daily and ask for an article profiling the trail.
  • The UW Farm newsletter, The Weekly Dirt will feature an article and multiple social media posts will occur to promote the new trail access.
  • UW Sustainability hosts events for tabling and promoting groups and activities centered on sustainability. We will continue to participate and provide an ADA Trail map/brochure of the farm at these events.
Environmental Impact:
  • Environmental Justice
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
  • Social Justice
Project Longevity:

The ADA pathway maintenance will be the focus of the Environmental Justice intern, which is a UW Student, supervised by the UW Farm Manager. Normally offered Winter quarter for the last three years, the internship will be extended to Spring and Fall quarters. This internship is advertised on the UW Farm Internship website page.

Maintenance of borders, grassy adjacent areas are maintained by UW Grounds.

Using farm tools already in our possession, the removal of leaves, trash, debris, twigs, etc. will be performed by the Environmental Justice intern and UW Farm volunteers under the supervision of the UW Farm Manager, AmeriCorps Volunteer and Production Manager. 

The organic materials and trash can be disposed of in the near by compost pile, recycling and trash bins.

 

Environmental Problem:

Working with the ASUW Student Disability Commission and the Intellectual House Interim Director Casey Wynecoop, it was learned that access to the UW Farm would be appreciated by students with physical disabilities and tribal elders. The Intellectual House interim Director requested ADA approved walkways for the World Cultural Kitchen adjacent to the Native Garden so that tribal elders can teach food ways.

As it happens, new signage will be installed in Spring 2023 (See Oliver Norred CSF Interactive Dynamic Sign Design project) for those with vision and/or hearing impairments. The signage will be installed by the end of Spring quarter 2023 at the same site where the proposed trail would be installed.

What is needed now are ADA approved trails or pathways that can accommodate wheelchairs and those with ambulatory challenges. Pathways that are nearly level and made of ¼" minus gravel are considered ADA approved.

Currently the Main Farm pathway, Heritage Orchard, Wapato Pond and World Cultural Kitchen (adjacent to the Native Garden) offer learning, recreation, and celebration areas, but they are uneven, seasonally muddy, weedy, and strewn with bark chips and rocks.

What is needed now is an ADA approved trails that would provide access through the farm for those with physical mobility challenges. Because the farm trails or pathways do not currently provide access for those with physical disabilities, the site is not Environmentally Just. This is a prime example of an element of Sustainability, known as Environmental Justice (and Disability Justice!).

For the first time, this project will bring together the ASUW Student Disability Commission RSO, disability students, Native Garden volunteers, tribal elders, the UW Farm team, UWBG Arboretum crews, and hundreds of student volunteers in the construction of new pathways through the farm.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The impacts of this project will be measured in the following ways:

Participation from the disability population

  • The ASUW Student Disability Commission will visit the site for guidance and feedback. This is our first project working together to provide Environmental Justice for our community. We will seek input from visitors who have disabilities which will inform improvements for access and user-ship in the future.
  • We will learn from this group how best to promote and invite those with disabilities to participate in farm events and/or just visit.
  • We will invite First Nations students, staff, faculty and tribal elders to the site. We will seek feedback on user-ability, improvements and methods for promoting visits to the green space which includes the Native Garden

Participation form volunteers

  • To measure involvement of volunteers, the UW Farm AmeriCorps Volunteer tracks all hours, classes, events and academic usage of the farm. The AmeriCorps Volunteer will recruit and involve the community and measure involvement via our records.
Total amount requested from the CSF: $17,220
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Description of materials and labor. Pathway materials (includes commercial landscape fabric; gravel) $12/linear foot by 5’
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Wapato Pond Pathway$12/linear foot85'1020.00
Main Farm Pathway $12/linear foot250'3000.00
Cultural Kitchen Pathway$12/linear foot125'1500.00
Heritage Orchard Pathway$12/linear foot100'1200.00
UWBG Arboretum and UW Grounds crew labor only$33/hour5 individualx10daysx$33/hour9900.00
Equipment rental/electric compactor$120/day5 days600.00

Non-CSF Sources:

Total donated and In-kind contributions are $9393.50. See attachment for details
Student Volunteer Contribution75 volunteers2 hours each18.69/hour2,803.50
See Attachement
Project Completion Total: $26,614

Timeline:

Due to wet winters in the PNW, most of the activity will occur from May-September, with primary work in June-August
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Phase 1 Path creation - Cultural Kitchen & Main PathJune-August 2023September 1, 2023
Phase 2 Path creation - Wapato Pond, Heritage OrchardJune-August 2024September 1, 2024

Cross-Cultural Collaboration at the Burke Meadow: Maintenance, Management and Education for a Living Exhibit.

Executive Summary:

The Burke Meadow is located adjacent to the Burke Museum and the primary campus entrance from the University District light rail station from NE 43rd St. The ~10,000 s.f. meadow is planted with a diverse mix of prairie plants native to the region, many of which are important food and medicinal species relevant to indigenous cultural needs and practices. Since 2020, an interdisciplinary team of faculty, staff, and students have collaborated on developing and implementing plans to monitor and manage this unique habitat in an urban area to support the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture mission to “care for and share natural and cultural collections so all people can learn, be inspired, generate knowledge, feel joy, and heal.”

More specifically, the team works together to coordinate volunteer work parties and public events, study plant community changes, and communicate the importance of the meadow as a living exhibit on campus. The work has been supported, financially and through in-kind donations, by the Campus Sustainability Fund, the Burke Museum, UW Grounds, Urban@UW, and the Departments of Biology and Landscape Architecture with advice and contributions from external partners including members of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Oxbow Farm and Conservation Center, and the design firm Gustafson Guthrie Nichol.

This proposal seeks the opportunity to extend this work for an additional year beyond our initial three-year agreement with CSF to support student employment, materials and supplies, and event coordination. The team is requesting $28,240.

Student Involvement:

Financial support from the CSF and other sources (Urban@UW, Burke Museum, and Department of Landscape Architecture) over the past three years has continually supported 1 - 3 undergraduate and/or graduate students on partial graduate appointments (0.2 FTE) or hourly undergraduate positions. This proposal requests funding for one partial graduate appointment (0.2 FTE) for 12 months, June 2023 - May 2024.

The student will work in collaboration with the full team on the project, but coordinate directly with an undergraduate student recently hired by the Burke Museum to support all activities related to the meadow. These responsibilities include monthly data collection and entry, coordination of volunteer and formal events, educational and docent opportunities, and internal/external communications.

Education & Outreach:

Formal and informal activities to promote education on regional nature and society relations are at the core of this project. This deeply collaborative work engages practices and perspectives from indigenous knowledge, eco-feminist perspectives, and Western science methods. It requires a strong commitment from all partners with a focus on building and extending relationships and trust. The strength of this work is not in its outcomes, which are substantial, but in the ways in which the team works together to support the meadow and community.

External project communications can be found on the Burke Museum website and Instagram as examples. All team members - students, faculty and staff - regularly provide tours of the meadow to UW classes and the public. Last year, a student employed with the project presented the team’s collaboration to those gathered for the annual celebration of the meadow. This year, all students will be participating in the annual activities providing tours of the meadow.

One educational example of the collaboration was the recent design workshop hosted by the Burke Museum and the Department of Landscape Architecture. In an effort to control browse in the meadow the team came up with an idea for ‘weaving’ fences to deter the eastern cottontail rabbits who are frequent visitors to the meadow and who feast on the new shoots of the young plants such as camas. The team worked with UW Grounds to gather dogwood ‘whips’ (new growth) from around campus and invited a Yakama tribal elder and Master weaver to join with a group of interdisciplinary students from American Indian Studies, Anthropology, Archaeology, and Landscape Architecture among others to design and install fences that protected three areas in the meadow which were heavily planted with camas last fall. During the process, the student discussions moved away from the work of building fences to exclude the rabbits to building baskets that hold their food. For us, this was a breakthrough moment in our learning activities, and all drew much from the experience. The baskets are currently installed in the meadow and will be there through camas bloom in late June with the team coordinating efforts to expand on this work next year.

Lastly, members of the team have presented this work at professional conferences (Community of Educators in Landscape Architecture) and the team has been invited to publish their work in the journal Ecological Restoration as part of their Restoration Notes series which highlights new and innovative strategies to promote ecological restoration and management activities. These are great opportunities to extend our approach and learning for others.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Environmental Justice
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
  • Social Justice
Project Longevity:

For this proposal we are seeking 12 months (June 2023 - May 2024) of funding to support the partial appointment of one graduate student, materials and supplies, and event coordination. The funding will serve to help bridge the gap while we continue to seek longer term options for funding. To date, the project has been financially supported by CSF as well as the Burke Museum, Urban@UW, and the Department of Landscape Architecture. Current efforts to secure longer term funding include opportunities to engage in a Mellon grant through the University of Washington and other sources, but none have been secured at this time and it is necessary to maintain continuous support for the project.

Environmental Problem:

The Burke Meadow is a living exhibit with the Burke Museum, and essential to the mission of the museum to “care for and share natural and cultural collections so all people can learn, be inspired, generate knowledge, feel joy, and heal.” It was designed and incorporated into the overall site design of the museum’s new campus because of the historical and contemporary importance of meadow habitats in the region as locations of direct intersection between nature and culture.  This project offers great opportunities to more fully understand the potential of this habitat type in the context of a highly urbanized and managed environment.

Our proposal for maintenance, communication and monitoring is intended to provide information for designers, property managers (like the UW), and the public to learn about the ecological and cultural importance of regional meadows for this region and identify cultural practices and management strategies to translate their establishment in similar and distinct land use contexts.

Climate change impacts are shifting ecosystems, including urban ones, and it is necessary to adapt to these changes. Lowland meadow habitats are unique and endemic to the northwestern region of the United States and are particularly adept to the combination of seasonal fires, drought and occasional flood inundation. For centuries, Tribal communities have actively managed these environments to support environmental health and, in turn, cultivation of culturally significant food and medicinal plants. Our collaboration seeks to integrate this knowledge base with methods from Western science while incorporating eco-feminist perspective on building natural and cultural relations through active engagement and formal and informal activities that support education.

This project proposal also aims to provide ongoing research around the economic resilience of culturally significant landscapes such as meadows within urban landscapes. Management and utility costs for designed landscapes can be exponentially high and hardy, native landscapes like the camas meadows may reduce those costs over time once these plants are established. Combined with increasing public and campus-wide participation through educational programming, labor costs around management are monitored.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The impacts of this project will be measured primarily in three ways:

Scientific Knowledge

The empirical research conducted through monitoring the establishment and survivability of this habitat type in an urban condition in relation to a variety of management strategies serves to benefit the establishment of this habitat type in other urban areas and long term management. As a culturally significant landscape type, this impact not only enhances our ecological understanding, it deepens our cultural connection to the landscape.

Educational Outcomes

Most directly, this project provides students, faculty, and staff engage in a culturally-relevant collaboration to learn about the ecology of meadows, their cultural significance, and how to work across disciplinary limitations to knowing and understanding. Approaches to measure educational impacts include, but are not limited to formal and informal activities that promote student and public knowledge. 

Financial Savings

A direct impact of this research will be to identify management approaches that streamline the labor necessary to care for this project as it matures. In an effort to identify adaptive pathways to balance ecological health and maintenance costs, labor hours (paid and volunteered) will be tracked and compared against estimates for the care and maintenance of more familiar campus landscape types.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $28,240
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Grad Student17681221216
Benefits377124524
Supplies/Materials200012000
Events5001500

Non-CSF Sources:

sourcewhatamounttype
UWLA/ BurkeVounteer Labor200+ hoursin-kind
Mellon Foundation / BurkeGrant~$10,000applied / not yet received
Project Completion Total: $28,240

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
monitoring12 monthsMay 2024
maintenance12 months (every 2 months)May 2024
work parties12 months (every 3 months)May 2024
public events12 months (2x/year)May 2024

Project Approval Forms:

Sustainable Stormwater Feasibility: The Historic ASUW Shell House

Executive Summary:

Getting to Zero: Sustainable Stormwater Feasibility at the The Historic ASUW Shell House

Currently at the site of the ASUW Historic Shell House, stormwater from the building and adjacent parking areas mixes with toxins and flows directly into Lake Washington. The objective of this feasibility study is to investigate the viability of using bio-filtration and retention systems to treat all stormwater onsite at the Shell House location, and to create designs and accompanying documentation for implementing this strategy. The goal is to utilize naturally filtered grey water for toilet flushing and irrigation, while ensuring that all stormwater runoff is prevented from entering the lake, and providing onsite interpretation of these systems.

It is well documented that the leading cause of degradation in the Puget Sound and Lake Washington comes from stormwater pollution.  The University of Washington, as a waterfront campus and continued growth, has a growing coverage of impervious surfaces supported by antiquated stormwater infrastructure that increases stormwater pollution and poses significant ecological and human health risks. However, new sustainable and innovative landscape solutions are available that can remediate pollutants and not only naturally clean the water, but also recycle it for other purposes rather than draining it into the lake, which causes significant negative environmental effects.  

This site, at this time, is a unique opportunity to demonstrate ecological stormwater systems to the campus and larger community. The Shell House, the UW’s first Seattle Historic Landmark, is about to embark on an extensive renovation of the building  and site into space for the campus and visitors, including student spaces, event venues, historic and cultural exhibits, and a restored waterfront. The site already gets abundant traffic, including on foot for waterfront access and during stadium events and by boat during the spring and summer months, yet with the new light rail,  the upcoming UW Continuous Waterfront Trail Concept that runs directly through the site, and the popular book and upcoming movie “Boys in the Boat,” it will only increase. By creating a visible, beautiful and sustainable onsite water treatment along with interpretive educational displays, it has the unique potential to be a transformative landscape. It will provide the opportunity to showcase how responsible development of existing sites can be designed to respect the environment, encourage biodiversity, connect with historic narratives of people and place through design and interpretation, and create beautiful gathering places all while visibility demonstrating the highest level of sustainability at the University of Washington.

This project is unique; it will be the first to demonstrate a net-zero stormwater treatment of a building on campus and the first to incorporate these systems on campus in an existing building (the renovation of the building being a sustainable act in itself). Together with UW Recreation, The College of Built Environments Center for Preservation and Adaptive Reuse, The Green Futures Lab and students across campus, this feasibility project will research appropriate site-specific ecological stormwater systems, present design schematics, and investigate educational alternatives for the UW Project Team to implement as the design phase begins for the shell house renovation next year.

Student Involvement:

Undergraduate Architecture students from Arch 402 (Merlino, Spring 2023) will be working with the research and design team and incorporate early schematic concepts in their designs for the building over the quarter, and focusing on the interpretation, exhibit and educational component of the stormwater systems around the building (see above for interpretation design explanation). Each student will propose different design options and approaches to interpretation, and will be presenting their design proposals at the end of the quarter, presenting their full projects to faculty, architects, landscape architects, project stake holders, and the ASUW Shell House board at the end of the quarter. Our two graduate students will begin in summer to work with the undergraduates and their designs to research, refine and develop engineered proposals, graphics, models and outcomes.

Additionally, students will identify peers across campus in late spring for collaboration, incorporating the Winter Quarter ASUW Shell House UW Student Survey responses, engaging with students from AIS, CEE, and Design to identify best practices in the design of educational signage and interpretation methods. The class will end the quarter by holding a design charette that will focus on compiling their combined best design strategies, and a propose a schematic 3-D walk-through/educational app or on-line site to be created when the building is completed. We will be consulting with Owen Oliver, designer of the UW Indigenous Walking Tour and recent UW AIS graduate, on his 3D walking tour of campus, in order to build upon his incredible interpretive tour.

Two graduate architecture and landscape architecture students will be working with the Green Futures Lab and Center for Preservation and Adaptive reuse staff, with consulting engineers for, to work on the specifics of water loads, infrastructure, retention and system analysis, design and plant selection. This process will be over the summer and early fall, and incorporate work from the undergraduate studio, including cultural and historic research on native representation and interpretation, ecological systems, site design and programming.

As the preliminary feasibility phase of the project, we expect further involvement by students across campus to increase during the implementation phase. This landscape (and building) restoration has the capacity to be a multi-disciplinary, research and educational site.  We see this as the catalyst for involving students in hands-on, demonstrated built projects as the building and site begin the development phase in 2024.

This project will be directed by Professor Kathryn Rogers Merlino (Architecture, adjunct Landscape Architecture),  Director of the Center for Preservation and Adaptive Reuse in the College of Built Environments in consultation with Professor Nancy Rottle, Director of the Green Futures Lab.  As the first collaboration between these two centers who engage with students across the university, this project will be the first on campus (and perhaps of the region) to demonstrate comprehensive sustainability in the reuse of an existing building as well as net-zero reuse of stormwater in innovative landscape systems.  As leaders in our respective areas, we will publish this project on our websites, social media, and publications, and continue to engage students from around campus in all our on-site work.

Education & Outreach:

Gathering Place for All: This is one of the most popular and beautiful sites on campus. When completed as a completed student and event center, this project will have an exceptional opportunity to educate thousands of visitors – UW community and visitors alike - on sustainable, responsible and beautiful ecological landscapes. The site already gets plenty of traffic both on foot during stadium events and by boat during the spring and summer months, yet with the new light rail, upcoming UW Continuous Waterfront Trail Concept that runs directly through the site, visitors will grow in numbers. Additionally, the site is a prime destination for fans of Daniel James Brown’s 2013 book “The Boys in the Boat,”, with the Shell House as the main setting, and has already attracted thousands of visitors to the site from outside Seattle. In 2022, the ASUW Shell House tour won “Travelers Choice” award from Trip Advisor, attaining a 5 star rating from the thousands of visitors who toured the site.  The upcoming film adaptation of the book directed by George Clooney (Fall 2023) will continue to make this a major destination in the city. By creating a visible, sustainable onsite water treatment and educational display, we will be showing visitors how both saving an existing building and treating its onsite water in a way that respects the environment and salmon is the highest level of sustainability at the University of Washington.

Indigenous Historic Landscape: Long before the Montlake Cut connected Lake Washington and Lake Union, the Lakes Duwamish people would come together here to portage across the narrow isthmus that spanned the water. The spot’s Lushootseed name — stəx̌ʷugʷił (stukh-ug-weelth) — means “carry a canoe.” For over 8,000 years, the Lake Washington People used this site a natural portage. The project will engage with AIS students and faculty to build upon research on indigenous history of the site which is the current site for the Willapa Spirit Honor Canoe. In the summer of 1989, the first Coast Salish canoes in decades slipped through the Montlake Cut in what became known as the Paddle to Seattle. Quinault native and UW educator Emmett Oliver planted the seed for a native cultural resurgence far greater than he could imagine. Decades later, his legacy remains with the storage of the Willapa Spirit Honor Canoe in the ASUW Shell House. In her 2018 course “Engaging with the Waterways: Welcoming the Willapa Spirit Canoe to Campus," UW AIS faculty Cynthia Updegrave examined the history of destruction and healing between the UW and the lands it occupies. We will build upon her research on how ‘landscape is memory’ and work with AIS faculty and students and with Owen Oliver, recent UW graduate and author of the UW’s Indigenous Campus Tour to investigate how design methods of landscape and representation can reflect cultural and ecological systems and erased histories of indigenous experiences and landscapes.

This location is also identified in the Waterlines Project Map documented by the Burke Museum. The lakeside site represents a past and present that will merge and overlap as the original waterlines are marked by the new innovative, sustainable landscape design and incorporate narratives of this canoe journey culture. The project will look to be guided by these historic waterlines, and guidance of the Burke Museum Waterlines Project, the UW Canoe Family and the AIS Department will engage in these narratives.

Active Learning: This project will not be an invisible wetland on campus, but an interactive, learning landscape with signage indicating the complex and beautiful natural water treatment processes that are occurring onsite. In Spring Quarter, Architecture 402 students will begin to design individual concepts and mock up models on how on-site physical interpretive signage and seating will enhance the visitors experience of the site. Through the UW Fabrication Lab, students will use laser cutters, 3D printing and the wood and metal shop to produce model-size proposals of interpretive signage and incorporate them into their building and site design projects for the quarter. These will be presented at the end of the summer with their final design projects, and several students are interested in continuing the project over the summer once the stormwater design proposal is underway.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Transportation
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
Project Longevity:

UW Facilities is nearing the end of their capital campaign and will begin the design and construction of the site in building in the next year. This site is well supported by the University, and will be operated and maintained by UW Recreation and the University for generations to come.

More on the project can be seen here: 

https://magazine.washington.edu/feature/a-cathedral-and-a-landmark-asuw-...
https://www.washington.edu/ima/waterfront/asuw-shell-house/
https://www.washington.edu/ima/waterfront/asuw-shell-house/history/
https://www.washington.edu/ima/waterfront/asuw-shell-house/news-and-awards/

Canoe Family at the Shell House
https://sites.uw.edu/sustdawg/2018/09/26/willapa-spirit-canoe/

Videos of the site:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raCIbrkH6kU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXJlXhDEpNo

Environmental Problem:

The goal in sustainable water treatment in urban sites is to be like a natural ecological system, balancing intake with outflow of waters of similar or better quality – however,  that is rarely the case in urban environments.  For example, when it rains on campus, the rainwater runs into a network of storm drains that lead directly into local bodies of water. Along the way, rainwater picks up contaminants such as heavy metals, oil, toxins, pathogens, chemicals and trash, which goes untreated and flows directly into fish and wildlife habitat. This stormwater falls on various surfaces including buildings, roads, parking lots, sidewalks, loading docks, and landscaped areas. While some of the water may be absorbed by the soil, most of it ends up in the nearest storm drain, and ends up in Lake Washington. Additionally, stormwater runoff can cause erosion and sedimentation, which can negatively impact salmon habitat by filling in the spaces between rocks where salmon lay their eggs. This can prevent the eggs from hatching, and reduce the amount of available habitat for juvenile salmon. It can also increase the water temperature of streams and rivers. This can be harmful to salmon, as they require cool water temperatures to survive. Warmer water can reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, making it more difficult for salmon to breathe and survive. Untreated polluted water can also reduce the amount of available habitat for salmon, and can also make it more difficult for salmon to find food and avoid predators.

The site challenge:  Currently, there are existing catch basins and stormwater conveyance pipes located around the Shell House building with several piped outfalls into Lake Washington. On the north side of the building, there are two existing catch basins that collect surface stormwater runoff from the adjacent asphalt area. These catch basins appear to flow into Lake Washington to the south and east via 6-inch and 8-inch diameter pipes. The 8-inch diameter pipe flows to the east of the building and there are 6-inch diameter pipes running along the southwest and northeast sides of the Shell House building. There are existing roof downspouts on the southwest and northeast sides of the building. The downspouts daylight near the ground surface into a concrete channel that flows to a small area drain at the north corners of the building. These systems are traditional outflows to Lake Washington, and would typically be reconstructed with similar systems. We propose an alternative to the traditional drainage systems, which currently allow stormwater to be discharged into Lake Washington as a “receiving body of water,” and treat all water onsite through constructed wetlands. To achieve this goal, we will explore the feasibility of implementing biofiltration and retention systems, and using filtered greywater for toilet flushing and on-site irrigation. These methods not only showcase ecologically sustainable systems and advanced water quality treatment technologies, but also create a beautiful natural habitat.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

  • Water Recycling
  • Water Treatment
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Environmental Justice
  • Salmon Habitat Protection
  • Educational Interpretation
  • Demonstration Gardens
  • Beauty and Delight

With the ultimate goal of treating all onsite stormwater through innovative and sustainable sustainability, we will study the feasibility of how the Shell House site can treat all onsite stormwater through bio-filtration and retention, utilizing filtered grey water for toilet flushing and on-site irrigation. These are innovative sustainable treatment mechanisms that would provide a visible demonstration of ecologically sustainable systems and innovative water quality treatment technologies while also providing beautiful natural habitat.

The research and design feasibility, based on UW Recreation's Validation Report of site conditions, will focus on the research, design and construction feasibility of the following systems:

Subsurface Engineered Wetlands: These are systems that replicate the functions of natural wetlands by filtering pollutants and improving water quality and by the hydrology and vegetation of a natural wetland. They also provide a habitat for diverse plant and animal species while providing ecosystem services such as water purification and flood control, and can hold water for recycling uses in toilets or irrigation.

Bioswales - a landscape element designed to manage and treat stormwater runoff through shallow, vegetated drainage ditches engineered to slow down and filter stormwater as it flows through the landscape. Also designed to mimic the functions of a natural wetland, they are typically located in areas with high levels of stormwater runoff, such as parking lots, roadsides, and other paved areas.

Rainwater collection - a water cistern collection system involves the collection and storage of rainwater for later use by installing a cistern or storage tank, which captures rainwater from the roof of a building, then treated and filtered to remove any debris or contaminants before it is used for non-potable purposes such as irrigation, cleaning or toilet flushing.

Permeable Pavements & Porous Asphalt: Instead of capping soils with impenetrable materials, a permeable surface of concrete or asphalt is utilized for areas where hard surfaces are necessary (roads, highways, parking lots, sidewalks, etc).

Through our research and design phase, we will produce documentation of all research relating to current water loads on site, results from proposed wetland processes, predicted recycled water content, impact on ecological systems, and resulting landscape restoration processes.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $31,959
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ASUW Shell House: Sustainable Stormwater Feasibility Study Budget
BUDGET
ItemCostDetailTotal
Graduate MLA/M.Arch Student24/hr plus benefits480 hours x 24 plus benefits13,973.00
Graduate M.Arch Student24/hr plus benefits200 hours x 24 plus benefits6,986.00
Engineer Consultant10,000Flat fee, consulting10,000.00
Studio Supplement 1,000Signage mock-up materials1,000.00
31,959.00

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

ASUW Shell House: Sustainable Stormwater Feasibility Study Timeline
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Research and DevelopmentJune-July7/30/2023
Design & SystemsJuly-September9/1/2023
Interpretation DesignNow-October10/1/2023
Implementation ProposalOctober11/23/2023

Sustainable Stormwater Feasibilty @ the ASUW Shell House

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Energy, Information, and the New Work of Building Operations in the Digital Age

Executive Summary:

The built environment industry is in the midst of a data revolution paired with a drive for sustainable campus operations. Innovation, information, communication access, and integration provide an opportunity to utilize this abundance of data to reach sustainable goals and benchmarks. Digital twin and Internet of Things (IoT) enabled devices are emerging ICT (information and communication technology) with the potential to reduce buildings’ energy consumption if strategically used, maintained, and operated. However, transitions to use digital twin supported operations will need organizational changes in the ways work is done in order to best utilize this data-rich technology. Using new technology in the old operational ways will not change energy consumption.

This research seeks to understand how the facility and sustainability management groups at the University of Washington will need to change and adapt in order to leverage digital twin technologies to achieve lower energy consumption and better performing built environments in the university campus setting. In this research, we propose to develop a framework detailing how the existing work of facility strategists and operators will change with the implementation of a digital twin based system, and what new work will be introduced for the facility management team in terms of energy management practices. We intend for this framework to help guide UW facility managers and sustainability strategists in the technology adoption process in order to ease the transition period and most optimally utilize technological systems to their highest potential sustainable output. Our research questions are outlined below: 

  1. How will the existing work (roles, responsibilities, teams, practices) change for facility managers/operators on the UW campus when transitioning from a traditional BAS to a modern energy management system to promote energy efficiency on campus?
  2. What new work will emerge when transitioning from a building operated by a BAS to a modern energy management system such as a digital twin?

To complete this research we propose a series of case studies of University of Washington campus buildings in various stages of technological integration. Currently identified building case studies include the campus wide energy meter monitoring program, the automation window actuators in Founders Hall (as part of the smart building infrastructure), the lighting control occupancy sensors in Founders Hall and the automatic window tinting technology implemented in the Health Sciences Education building. Our research team has built a partnership with the UW Facility Maintenance division, particularly Mr. Cesar Escobar and the Department of Business Innovation and Technology, who have agreed to partner with us on this research in UW campus buildings and support us throughout the research process. UW facilities maintenance will provide us direct lines of communication to other UW divisions such as the Campus Sustainability and Energy, Utility, and Operations units who have also expressed interest and support in this project. This study aims to assist UW Facilities Management as a whole in sustainable technology integration and adoption for energy management practices. The proposed cost for this study is $19832.60 and a budget breakdown can be found below. 

Student Involvement:

This project will directly involve UW students through the participation of a UW graduate student in the department of Construction Management to assist in data collection, interviewing, and observations during the summer quarter of 2023. This graduate student will take on the role of a research assistant (RA) and will support the project lead in data collection, processing and analysis. If this project extends past the summer, then at least one RA will be brought on board in the autumn quarter to additionally assist in data analysis. If we find that we need further support in the summer and fall quarters we will look towards College of Built Environments students to assist in a volunteer capacity. The development of this research project and topic interest has additionally led to the formation of a student research group which meets weekly to discuss research, potential opportunities, and new advancements in the field of building digital twins/IoT integration led by Dr. Dossick and Ph.D student Daniel Dimitrov. Through this student research group we have created a community around digital twins at the university and have been able to foster student involvement and interest in the field of advanced  building technologies. Our relationship with the UW Facility Management teams has also opened doors for other students in our research group to engage in studies with the Facility Management team and further support both research in the field of emerging DT/IoT technologies and the UW FM team's sustainable efforts. With the support of the CSF, we can continue to find ways to incorporate our excited and enthusiastic undergraduate and graduate students who would like to research sustainable building technologies like digital twins and IoT devices.

Education & Outreach:

With our research setting being an active university campus, we believe it is important to make the UW community aware of this project and its potential benefits to campus life. At the conclusion of this research, our team plans to widely disseminate our findings in order to share our results and contribute to the body of knowledge and public awareness. We will publish our technical report on the University’s Center for Research In Construction’s website (cerc.be.uw.edu, https://cerc.be.uw.edu/ctop-lab/ ) in order to spread awareness to the UW student and faculty body. We intend to additionally publish our findings on the UW Construction Management department website in order to further spread awareness to our community and target students interested in built environment research. We also intend to publish our research findings in industry and academic journal articles and present at conferences to build awareness of the research results. We will be sharing the status of our research at the Engineering Project Organization Conference in June, 2023 and would like to present the results of this research at the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) Building Innovation Conference in September, 2023. We have submitted an abstract for the conference and are excited to share the results of our research with the industry's leading group of innovators. 

Our education goals for this project are multifaceted. Firstly, we would like to educate facility managers, operators, and technicians on an individual level on how to use the new digital twin/IoT based devices which are being integrated into UW facilities all over campus in order to maximize their potential sustainable output. This in turn may serve to educate the UW Facilities Management Department as a unit on organizational strategies, training, onboarding processes, and data management strategies for future technology adoption and transition periods. We also intend for this research to be published within relevant academic journals and then contribute to the body of knowledge within sustainability, technology, and construction related literature. Finally, through potential conference presentations we intend to spread awareness of our research to as many interested parties as we can.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
Project Longevity:

The long term management and maintenance of this project will be conducted through continuous research and involvement with the UW Facility Maintenance division through a partnership with expected research outcomes and results for both parties. UW Facilities Management and particularly Cesar Escobar from the Department of Business Innovation and Technology have agreed to provide continuous support and oversight for this project in addition to access to UW facilities with digital twin/IoT based technologies throughout campus. This research project will be the basis of project lead Daniel Dimitrov's PhD dissertation which additionally ensures the long term continuation of this research until adequate conclusions can be made and tangible results can be produced. In addition, this research is supported by the continuous management, advisory, and oversight of Dr. Carrie Sturts Dossick, Dean of Research at the UW College of Built Environments who will help ensure that this project remains on track in the long term and serves as Daniel's PhD Committee Chair.  

In terms of long term funding for this research, we have applied to various external (non UW) fellowship and grant opportunities and are continuing to search for additional application opportunities. These fellowships for which we have already applied and are awaiting response from within the Spring Quarter include The Bullitt Foundation Environmental Fellowship, The Charles Koch Foundation, and the Link Foundation Modeling, Simulation, and Training Fellowship. This is a continuous effort and our team continues to seek further funding opportunities in order to bring the most possible value out of this research project.

Environmental Problem:

The sustainability challenge we would like to address with this research focuses on the high energy use of buildings and intends to aid in the mission to reduce campus wide building energy consumption by optimizing the work processes that support sustainable energy management. Buildings are some of the leading consumers of energy as they account for over 40% of the energy consumption nationwide (energy.gov). A campus as large, active and technologically developed as the University of Washington is no exception, requiring significant energy consumption to maintain its day to day operations. The UW is actively taking steps to reduce their energy consumption through the integration of advanced building energy monitoring and control technologies and has committed to taking steps towards decarbonizing the Seattle campus entirely.  However, this is a monumental goal which will require major efforts campus wide, including the advancement of building technologies and operational strategies. While capital projects invest in new systems, the facilities management teams are challenged by learning to maintain and operate these systems.  The UW facility and energy management teams have seen an uptick in technological adoption and integration in campus buildings and are actively trying to learn and adapt to these novel and advanced tools, recently forming a new team to manage these systems. However, we have already identified tension and hesitation from facility maintenance teams to adopt these new technologies, learn how to operate novel systems, and change the ways they have been working for decades, which leads to complications in the push for campus sustainable development. Innovation is a complex process of iteration, capacity building, and shifts in professional practices which is at the core of what our team would like to investigate.This research seeks to understand the complexities, tension points, and organizational processes which must accompany the drive toward advanced sustainability on campus buildings through the integration of digital twin/IoT based technologies. The results of this research will support campus operations innovation through the identification of how facility organizations must change to most optimally use new digital twin/IoT technologies for optimal sustainable operations.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

We believe that technology alone is not enough to achieve maximum sustainability, but rather the people using and operating technologies play a pivotal role. This is why we intend to tackle the issue of technological adoption through a qualitative lens in order to get a full and realistic view into the UW Facility Management teams to understand what practice changes (e.g. roles, responsibilities, skills, knowledge) are necessary to support digital twin/IoT based technologies and their integration. The results of this study can then inform UW Facility Management practices and accelerate the effort to increase campus wide sustainability. Our project's impact will be measured through the evaluation and feedback of the UW Facilities Management teams with whom we work and do this research. The goal is for the developed framework at the conclusion of this research to support both sustainable and organizational improvements in terms of technological integration that leads to energy savings. At the conclusion of this research we intend to additionally measure our sustainable impact through assessing the effect of our framework on not only the satisfaction of the UW FM staff, but additionally the actual energy savings (ex. kWh of electricity saved) attributed to the changes in practice informed by our framework. We additionally intend to leverage our professional network of digital innovation specialists from both the technological and organizational side to conduct interviews and share our research findings in order to measure our impact and outcome transferability to other settings.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $19,833
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Column 1: description of cost, Column 2: cost for summer quarter, Column 3: total costs
Research Proposal Budget Summer Quarter Total:
Direct Costs
01 Salary Details
Role: PhD, Summer Hourly 2023 654324 hours per week
Role: MS, Summer Hourly 20235664.624 hours per week
Role: PhD, TBD Fall & Winter 2023 0TBD (after feasibility study)
Salary Total: 12207.6
02 Benefits
Role: PhD, Summer Hourly 2023 1407
Role: MS, Summer Hourly 20231218
Role: PhD, TBD Winter & Spring 2023 0TBD (after feasibility study)
Role: MS Student Winter & Spring 20230TBD (after feasibility study)
Benefits total: 2625
Personnel Total: 14832.6
03 Other Contractual Services (ex. interview transcription, publication support etc.)2000
04 Travel (ex. conferences) - NIBS Building Innovation conference3000
05 Student Aid 0
Total Other Direct Costs5000
Total Direct Costs19832.60

Non-CSF Sources:

Potential other funding sources include the above. Awaiting responses from all fellowship/grant applications by June, 2023
Grant Applications:
The Bullitt Foundation Environmental Fellowship
The Charles Koch Foundation
The Link Foundation Modeling, Simulation, and Training Fellowship
Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

This study includes participant observation, interviews, and document collection which will span throughout the summer quarter
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Project Formation/Kickoff1 monthJune 2023
Begin meetings with Facility Managers and University Sustainability Managers for qualitative data collection1 monthJune 2023
Focus group interviews (FGI) - Within each case with facility managers, O&M staff, operators, technicians, and sustainability strategists2 monthsJune - July 2023
Participant Observation - Meetings, day-to-day operations, interactions around tech. etc.2 monthsJune - July 2023
Expert Interviews: Building Digital Innovation Specialists - Digital Twin Consortium, National Institute of Building Sciences2 monthsJuly - Aug 2023
Data Analysis 2 monthsJuly - Aug 2023
Final report writing1 monthAug. - Sept 2023
Conclusions and editing 1 monthAug. - Sept 2023
Report findings and publish 2-3 weeksSept. 2023

52nd Spring Powwow

Executive Summary:

First Nations is hosting the 52nd Annual UW Spring Powwow at Hec Edmundson Pavilion during April 8th and 9th. The event is open to Native Americans, University students and faculty, the general public, and many local vendors who are invited to promote their cultural designs and creations. The event will also host performers, both singers and dancers, from across the Pacific Northwest, United States, and Canada. Although Native American tribes differ from one another, powwows are a tradition all hold due to their shared experience of oppression. When the US government began forcing tribes onto reservations, many tribes had to reconcile their displacement and sharing confined land with rival tribes. Powwows came out of this tense period as a way for different tribes to gather, build relationships, and share each other's culture. Today's powwows serve the same purpose, to gather Native Americans from any tribe and celebrate our cultures together. We welcome non-Indigenous individuals to attend and learn about our culture and traditions. First Nations also aims to encourage Native youth to pursue a post-secondary education by creating a space on campus that is accessible to our Indigenous communities for cultural celebration. Native students only make up 1% of US college students, often leaving our community's needs unmet. According to the Postsecondary National Policy Institute, "24% of 18–24 year-old Native American students are enrolled in college compared to 41% of the overall U.S. population." In order to help our communities gain financial stability and combat public health crises, we need to support Indigenous students and encourage them to pursue higher education. We estimate the total cost at $68,950.00, the majority of which goes to affording the facility rental of Hec Edmundson Pavilion. First Nations is primarily supported by the Student Activities Office and Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center.

https://pnpi.org/native-american-students/

https://www.powwows.com/history-of-the-powwow/

https://sites.uw.edu/fnuw/powwow/

Student Involvement:

The Spring Powwow is fully planned and organized by students in First Nations at UW, with advising from Christina Coop, our SAO advisor, and staff at the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center. Beginning in January,  the powwow committee, comprised of First Nations officers and members, meets weekly on Friday at 1:30pm to plan the powwow and delegate tasks.

Some of our officer positions are created around the annual powwow. The Powwow Chair is elected every year and responsible for organizing the Powwow Committee. The Fundraising Chair is responsible for grant writing and raising funds specifically for the powwow. All other officer positions are also heavily involved in the execution and promotion of the event, since this is the largest and most looked forward to event organized by First Nations. 

In addition to officer roles, the powwow creates dozens of volunteer opportunities. It is a large event with roughly 4,000 attendees throughout the weekend. We require volunteers for many roles, including: vendor loading/unloading; concessions; cooking; set-up; mic-running; and more. For the duration of the weekend, roughly 50 volunteers are necessary since the event runs from 11am - 7pm and volunteers are needed for set-up and cooking beginning at 9am each day. First Nations usually fulfills this demand for volunteers through First Nations members, students taking AIS 379 (Powwow: Tradition and Innovation), and students involved with the Multicultural Greek Council. 

Education & Outreach:

Our powwow is promoted through multiple avenues, largely propelled by the Native community. We begin with updating our website, which is currently counting down the days to powwow, then post our official event flyer on all First Nations social media accounts. Because First Nations is lucky to have a strong community, our links and flyer are shared by many other UW RSOs, departments, and individuals in and outside of the UW community. First Nations' powwow has a reputation among Indigenous communities in Washington and the surrounding states, so Native organizations such as Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center promote our event through their channels without compensation. Our concentrated promoting efforts go towards designing the powwow flyer and distributing it around strategic spots on campus. We typically print 300 flyers for this campaign. First Nations is also interested in finding new methods of advertising on campus, such as virtual advertisements on various monitors throughout the Seattle campus. 

Environmental Impact:
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
Project Longevity:

The planning for powwow begins every October, soon after the academic year begins. The Fundraising Chair begins researching and applying for grants, the bulk of which are due in the month of December. Other officers are also involved, discussing strategic activities to host that will set powwow up for success, such as having a fry bread workshop. Most Natives love fry bread, so teaching our members how to make it is beneficial to them and also prepares potential volunteers on how to make fry bread for powwow. These are the types of activities that occur throughout the year at First Nations. January to April is when specific preparations are made for powwow organizing. The Powwow Committee begins meeting at the start of winter quarter every week for planning, decision-making, and delegating tasks. We have worked with the ECC and Christina Coop for well over a decade on powwow advising, planning, and fundraising. They were major contributors in helping powwow return last year after a three-year hiatus due to Covid-19. Many students did not know what powwow looked like or entailed, so these advisors guided the RSO through the process. 

First Nations funds this event through many channels. We receive major support through OMA&D and the ECC to afford the facility rental of Hec Edmundson Pavilion. This expense is over half of our budget and the OMA&D commits $30,000 alone to help the Spring Powwow take place. Aside from this major source of funding, First Nations has a Fundraising Chair dedicated to grant writing throughout the year in preparation of the event. This year, we are in the process of soliciting the Tulalip, Cowlitz, Spokane, Stillaguamish, and Puyallup tribes through their charitable foundation applications.

Environmental Problem:

As stated in the executive summary, only 24% of Native students between the ages of 18–24 are enrolled in college compared to 41% of the overall U.S. population, according to the Postsecondary National Policy Institute. Despite this shockingly low enrollment rate, Indigenous Americans only make up 1% of college students in the US, so our needs are frequently disregarded. There are multiple factors which contribute to this phenomenon, many stemming from high poverty rates among Native populations. One avenue Indigenous People can take to help improve their communities is by going into higher education and returning to their communities, or advocating for Indigenous needs in their respective fields. The First Nations RSO was formed in 1989 to promote American Indian and Alaskan Native culture through events such as the annual UW Spring Powwow; to advocate for Native students’ interests, needs, and welfare; to supplement and complement the formal education of Native students at UW; to implement the American Indian Retention and Recruitment (A.I.R.R.) Program; and to provide the physical and sound environment in which to achieve the above objectives. Our intent with the Spring Powwow is to encourage Native youth to pursue a post-secondary education by creating a space on campus that is accessible to our Indigenous communities for cultural celebration. When Native youth visit and see themselves represented by Native students proudly sharing their identity and culture on campus, they begin to realize they too are capable of pursuing higher education and in fact their presence is celebrated. The powwow is also a great opportunity for the UW community and general public to learn about Indigenous cultures and traditions. We hope students, faculty, and members of surrounding communities will accept our warm invitation to celebrate a wholesome, educational experience.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

We measure the success of powwow though number of attendees, number of volunteers, number of vendors, amount raised from vendor fees, concession sales, and qualitative feedback from performers, volunteers, vendors, and attendees. Keeping track of the number of volunteers and vendors is simple as we can tally volunteer sign-ups and vendor RSVPs. We will be able to measure the financial success of the event through the sum of concession sales less supplies expense, as well as the total of vendor fees collected. However, we have not historically measured overall attendance of powwow simply because the event is large, free to the public, and occurs over multiple days. Requiring attendees to RSVP or purchase a ticket is not in First Nations' interest as we do not want to deter anyone from attending. This year, we are in the process of designing a method to measure attendance and will implement it at powwow. After the event, we will evaluate whether this system is accurate, feasible, and reliable. 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $10,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

52nd Powwow
2022-2023 Budget
Principal Event ItemsCost
Facility Rental$42,120.00
Insurance$755.00
Security- 3 UWPD Offc (19 hr @ 95/hr)$2,257.00
$45,132.00
Volunteer staff/security expenses
30 radios for security and committee$990.00
Meals and green room supplies for security/volunteers$600.00
Parking permits/gas reimb for security$150.00
ID materials for secuirty and committee$200.00
$1,940.00
Publicity
Printing for 250 posters$300.00
$300.00
Honoraria
1 Host Drums ($3000 ea)$6,000.00
MC, Arena Director, Head Dancers$3,300.00
Lodgings for head staff$3,200.00
$12,500.00
Remaining Event Costs
Frybread Tent Equpiment Rental (Cort Party Rental)$1,328.00
Motor pool'- pickup and drop off equipment$200.00
Office expenses (Stationary, postage)$400.00
Concession stand/Elder Dinner$4,000.00
Misc. honoraria'- honor songs, opening prayer, mic holders$150.00
Drum day pay (100/sessn x 3 sessns x first 10 drums)$3,000.00
$9,078.00
Total Expenses$68,950.00
Total Expenses w/o Facility Rental$26,830

Non-CSF Sources:

Sources and amounts of funding First Nations is currently in the process of soliciting.
SourceAmount
Tulalip10000
Cowlitz12500
Stillaguamish5328
Foster DEIDonation in Kind, Head Staff Lodging
Foster UDS200
HUB SAO500
GPSS Special Appropriations750
GPSS Diversity Fund500
Student Diversity Event Fund999
ASUW Special Appropriations2000
UWAA Fund500
OMA&D30000
Project Completion Total: $68,950

Timeline:

Tasks First Nations needs to complete for Powwow to operate, weighted from 1-7 where 1 is the highest priority.
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Finalize Head Staff1 month2/20/23
Hire Drummers1 month2/27/23
Hire Security2 weeks2/27/23
Purchase insurance1 day3/01/23
Competition Dancer Registration1 month03/31/23
Rent Fryers for Fry Bread1 week3/15/23
Purchase concessions supplies2 weeks4/05/23
Print Promotional Posters1 week3/15/23
Vendor Space Taping1 day4/7/23

Dynamic Interpretive Signage at the UW Farm

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Menstruation Station

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions

Executive Summary:

As humans design with large amounts of glass surface area to increase human well-being through views of nature and increased natural daylight, we are placing birds in danger. Each year hundreds of millions of birds die due to collisions with these glass surfaces, threatening local biodiversity and impacting North American populations. This project intends to conduct a student-led two-phase, two-year bird building collision monitoring study of a set of University of Washington Seattle campus buildings. This project aims to understand when and where collisions occur on campus and how best to prevent future collisions. This project asks to consider its funding to protect local biodiversity on campus, benefiting students, faculty, and staff while reaching a larger audience of community members, researchers, and designers.

There are five goals for Phase 1:

  • Provide a year-round data set to determine vulnerable species and campus designs conducive to collisions.
  • Develop a transdisciplinary independent study course that will introduce students from any major to bird building collisions as a conservation and sustainable design issue. This course will allow students to engage in a research project on campus without traveling or paying field trip fees. This accessibility and actively seeking to support students from marginalized, LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities will welcome students not traditionally included in environmental conservation practices and design fields.
  • Raise awareness locally about bird building collisions on campus through campus and community outreach, including tours, signage, visual mitigation techniques, and an informational app or website.
  • Identify buildings or features to retrofit with vinyl design patterns that will be applied to the surface of the glass. The approval to retrofit glass surfaces will be obtained after local data has determined that the building or feature is a hot spot for collisions. Ten campus building coordinators are open to retrofitting options, with the Life Sciences Building manager verbally requesting mitigation at their site.
  • Commission artwork from student or community indigenous artists as designed collision mitigation artwork that emphasizes indigenous presence on campus.

There are four goals for Phase 2:

  • Monitor retrofitted buildings for effectiveness, continue retrofitting where needed, and continue monitoring for collisions in Autumn 2023 and Winter 2024.
  • Conduct a perception study of how students, staff, faculty, and campus visitors perceive the bird-protecting designs by asking if their site or campus experience and connection to campus biodiversity are affected by the addition of these designs. This data will also be submitted for publication, the first on this topic.
  • Submit the year-round monitoring results indicating vulnerable species and designs conducive to collisions for publication.
  • Submit the observed effectiveness of retrofitted buildings or features for publication to provide the foundation needed to implement effective bird-protecting designs on campus and in the community.

Student Involvement:

Student involvement in the project is crucial for building the foundation for a bird-friendly campus and impacting the field of study through actively participating in data collection and research. The students will not only benefit from contributing to campus research but build a foundation of knowledge of sustainability, bird biology and identification, active stewardship, and increased well-being through campus walks. Students will be involved in this project through two paid research assistant positions, an independent study course, commissioning indigenous students' designs for retrofitting, student volunteers, and through the collision data app/website, any student or community member can participate in the study. Both research assistants are expected to contribute as co-authors, and students enrolled in the independent study course or as volunteers have the option to be included as an author based on their contributions.

This project will directly affect UW students by offering a local, accessible opportunity to participate in a transdisciplinary project. Conservation research and volunteer opportunities are often located off-campus, requiring additional time and funds to travel to the location. Additionally, some environmental courses do not include field trip costs which often are hundreds of dollars per quarter. Participating in environmental or sustainability projects is often necessary for career development. However, volunteering is privilege-based as the expectation is that all students have extra time and funds to participate. By only asking for a few hours of participation a week, students can build their experience and knowledge on campus without time, financial, or transportation burdens. Further, by allowing for volunteer opportunities, any UW or Seattle community member can participate in the study and enjoy the benefits of connecting with nature without lengthy commitments.

Additionally, the project lead and sponsoring department are committed to supporting and seeking students not traditionally included in environmental conservation practices and design fields to participate in the project. This includes designing monitoring routes that meet the accessibility needs of all students and volunteers.

The project includes the following student roles in addition to the project lead:

  • Two paid research positions are required for the project. Each position is 10 hours a week and will be responsible for a few monitoring hours each week, coordinating volunteers, and filling in as needed. Additionally, each position will have detailed tasks.
    • The data research assistant position will be in charge of app or website designs, data entry and clean-up, merging collision data with sets of GIS, weather, and design data, running reports, and creating detailed visuals for publication and outreach. The project has recognized informatics major Jacob Harper as qualified to fill this role beginning in Autumn 2022.
    • The outreach and education research assistant position will engage the campus and the local community to help recruit students to join the independent study course or volunteer, reach out to indigenous artists and students on campus to commission indigenous artwork to mitigate collisions, plan campus tours for students and architects, and assist with the design perception study. Additionally, this position requires design skills to produce visual outreach materials.
  • The independent study course focuses on understanding and mitigating bird building collisions as a conservation issue and sustainable design challenge. This class allows students to participate in one of the first academic courses addressing the topic and earn credits for their involvement in the project. While the background of the course will include literature from multiple locations, local species and design examples will be observed by students on campus. The students will receive 1-2 credits in the course and will be expected to participate in building monitoring.
  • Indigenous vinyl murals created by indigenous students or community members will be commissioned for at least one of the mitigation designs to be applied to the surface of a collision hot spot or building.
  • Student volunteers will be recruited through campus outreach initiatives such as visiting classes, speaking with student groups, signage, and campus birding tours led by the outreach research assistant and project lead. The volunteers will be asked to monitor buildings for two hours a week during the 49-day monitoring period. After consulting with students on campus, some prefer the flexibility of volunteering rather than enrolling in a class or applying for research positions. The budget includes a placeholder for volunteer recognition breakfasts held once a quarter on the last day of monitoring. This will likely be sponsored by the College of the Built Environments (funding TBD). Additionally, volunteers will be included in bird walks on campus planned for the independent study course.
  • Students unable to participate in the course or as a volunteer can still be involved in the project through the data collection app (or website). Data about and photos of a collision victim can be submitted anywhere on or off campus, connecting the student to local biodiversity while supporting the project.

Education & Outreach:

Through education and outreach, this project will engage with four stakeholders: students, faculty, and staff on campus, the Seattle and the Pacific Northwest communities, researchers in avian conservation, and designers and architects. Throughout both phases of the project, education and outreach about the importance of preventing bird building collisions will be crucial as there is a lack of awareness of the issue. By reaching students who will enter careers in fields that contribute to collisions, this project will create new stewards for protecting birds and biodiversity. This will be achieved through campus events such as art installations, class and volunteering opportunities, two research positions, and informational signs near retrofitted buildings. Further, through publication, the data and solutions have the potential to educate a global audience of researchers, designers, and conservationists. Particularly, architects and designers will benefit greatly from the project's results, including the project partner, the College of the Built Environments.

The UW and Seattle community will find out about the project through focused outreach campaigns, an app or website, mitigation designs as an educational tool, and publications in the following ways:

  • Through focused campus outreach, students from underrepresented, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ communities will be encouraged to apply for the research assistant positions, join the independent study course, or participate in the study as volunteers.
  • Bird building collisions happen across campus and Seattle, any time of day. While the project can identify hot spots where most collisions happen, monitoring efforts cannot gather data from all sites. By introducing students, faculty, and staff to an app or website, allowing them to report collisions at any location, they will not only be introduced to the project but be part of the project without a formal commitment.
  • Mitigation designs designed by student and community artists will include signage about the project. They will be used as an educational tool for communicating the importance of protecting birds.
  • While publications may reach a small audience, part of the outreach goal is to promote the research to local and national avian conservation networks and non-profits.

Additionally, the project will involve the UW and Seattle community through campus tours, volunteering opportunities, and collaboration with the Seattle Audubon Society in the following ways:

  • Campus tours led by the project lead and organized by the outreach research assistant will lead students, faculty, and staff to hot spots of collisions on campus, mitigation techniques, and areas of thriving biodiversity. The tours will target local architecture firms to communicate the need and feasibility of mitigating bird building collisions through design.
  • In addition to volunteering to monitor buildings for collisions, the project will reach out to the UW community to gather information about their perception of bird-safe windows and which patterns are more aesthetically pleasing. One hurdle often faced when retrofitting buildings is the perceived design aesthetics. Architects and designers often question if window patterns are burdensome to occupants. The UW community can help clarify this issue, benefiting both birds and designers.
  • The Seattle Audubon Society community is supportive of the campus monitoring project and is eager to help or promote the project as part of their Bird-safe Seattle goals as well as contribute $5000 to campus mitigation designs.
Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Environmental Justice
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
Project Longevity:

The project aims to highlight the issue of bird building collisions as a conservation, sustainability, and biodiversity issue on campus and in our region. While not a goal of this project, the UW Collision Mitigation group, led by this project's lead, is currently working towards Bird-Friendly Campus Guidelines that this project's data will support. Furthermore, campus architects, faculty of the College of the Built Environments, and more than a dozen building managers support this project and protecting birds on campus, indicating a momentum for further study and mitigation. Through this project, the campus will become a lasting example of how a bird-friendly campus supports biodiversity through signage and the physical designs applied to glass surfaces. Additionally, the College of the Built Environments and the project lead will explore the long-term management of the app or website. To further secure the project's longevity, the project will attempt to make the app or website data downloadable to the public to identify hot spots in the future.

Environmental Problem:

Each year, up to one billion birds are lost to bird building collisions in the United States (Loss et al., 2014). This enormous yearly loss is one of the four top anthropogenic threats birds face contributing to a 29% net loss of avian populations in North America (Rosenburg et al., 2019). Additionally, this critical conservation issue threatens biodiversity locally, regionally, and for migrating birds throughout the Americas. Protecting biodiversity such as birds also increases overall human well-being through visual and audible connections to nature.

Birds collide head-on into transparent and reflective glass surfaces, killing them, in most cases, instantly. Birds cannot perceive transparent glass surfaces as solid or distinguish between reflections of habitat space or flight paths in the glass. To date, most bird building collision studies focus on fall and spring migration in the central and eastern areas of the United States. A 2021 study by DeGroot et al. monitored collisions on the University of British Columbia campus for five seasons (two winters, fall, spring, and summer), indicating bird building collisions are a year-round problem in the Pacific Northwest and that collision patterns can vary regionally. Additionally, based on a few previous studies, design features of college campuses are likely conducive to collisions. The University of British Columbia, a campus similar in design to the University of Washington, estimates a loss of 10,000 birds yearly to collisions. However, bird building collisions can be prevented through gathering local collision data, applying collision mitigating designs to the surface of the glass, and targeted education strategies.

There are one published study monitoring collisions in the Pacific Northwest and six studies monitoring mitigation designs for effectiveness on in-use buildings. This indicates a significant knowledge gap nationally and in our region in this field of study. The field of study concerning bird building collisions is primarily funded by building owners that have collision issues, small local non-profits, bird-safe product manufacturers, and non-paid student or volunteer-based studies. Projects on this topic have yet to be funded by resources such as NSF. This project seeks to further establish the study of bird building collisions as a vital field of research through example. Additionally, this project has focused on CFS to fund this study for three main reasons:

  • To lay the framework for protecting local biodiversity through campus-based student-led initiatives that can be repeated on any campus and actively supports students not traditionally included in environmental conservation practices and design fields.
  • To educate, support, and provide a foundation of knowledge of avian conservation for students from all academic backgrounds to professionally participate in this emerging field or become lifelong stewards of avian conservation.
  • To prevent conflicts of interest by not accepting funding from private building owners or manufacturers of bird-safe products.

While this project is research-focused, the research will be conducted by students refining their research skills. Further, the results of this project will directly impact the campus community by protecting local biodiversity.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

This project aims to address the issue of bird building collisions in three ways:

  • Collecting collision data on campus contributes to the local study of collisions and identifies local collision patterns, design hot spots, and vulnerable species.
  • Mitigating collisions on campus through design strategies and education while monitoring the designs for effectiveness in an ecologically salient setting.
  • Providing students with an opportunity to contribute to an environmental conservation study locally while building a foundation of knowledge of why collisions happen, how to prevent them, basic avian knowledge and observation of campus biodiversity. Student involvement will be measured through student contribution in quarterly reports, data collection, and active participation.

The impact of this project will be measured in three ways:

  • Through quarterly reports accessible on the project's app or website outlining the monitoring results, student involvement, sharing the number of specimens donated to the Burke Museum, and goals completed over the quarter reaching the campus and local community.
  • Through student contributions and participation, the goal of building a local connection to biodiversity and supporting students from underrepresented communities and groups will be assessed quarterly.
  • Three research papers will be submitted for publication to reach a broader academic audience. The three publications will evaluate the perception of designs available to prevent collisions on campus, collision monitoring results, and the effectiveness of campus mitigation designs.
Total amount requested from the CSF: $107,002
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Please see the attached Budget PDF for a detailed budget.
ItemCost per Item
Total Wages96,001.60
Designed Retrofitting Patterns and Signage15,000.00
Monitoring Supplies (Total for all quarters)500.00
App or Website Host/Platform Fees500.00

Non-CSF Sources:

Please see the attached Budget PDF for a detailed budget.
Seattle Audubon Society Support (Retrofitting)5000.00
Project Completion Total: $107,002

Timeline:

Please see the attached Timeline and Tasks PDF.
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

File Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - AARF JBOWES 2022.docx, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - Budget.pdf, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - Project Hours.pdf, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - Timeline and Tasks.pdf, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - Building Approvals Chart.pdf, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - PASF (Allen Lib).pdf, File Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - PASF (Benjamin Hall ).docx, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - PASF (HUB).pdf, File Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - PASF (Marine Studies).docx, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - PASF (Molecular Engineering).pdf, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - PASF (Ocean Sciences).pdf, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - PASF (Pop Health).pdf, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - PASF (Winkenwerder Forest Sciences Laboratory).pdf, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - PASF EMAIL (Chem Lib).pdf, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - PASF EMAIL (Fishery Sciences).pdf, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - Benson Hall (Email - Pending Approval).pdf, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - South Campus Buildings (Email - Pending Approval) .pdf, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - Burke Bird Donation (EMAIL).pdf, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - Seattle Audubon Funds (EMAIL).pdf, File Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - PASF (Life Sciences Building).docx, PDF icon Evaluating Campus Bird Building Collisions - PASF Benson Hall (Email).pdf

Student Athletes of UW for Sustainability (SAUWS) Union Bay Restoration Project

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Biomedical Engineering Society Mentorship Program

Executive Summary:

We are the Biomedical Engineering Society at the University of Washington, and we are writing to express our desire to obtain the support of the Campus Sustainability Fund to fund our novel mentorship program centered around educational equity. Our mentorship program aims to not only create a mentorship ecosystem centered around underserved and underrepresented communities, but also aims to break the cycle of environmental disparities for underserved students as well. We hope that by inspiring, supporting, and preparing these students for potential careers in engineering and STEM, we will help to make a mark on generational wealth gaps and disparate environmental outcomes.

Student Involvement:

The main goal of our mentorship program is to give prospective first and second-year engineering students, especially those from underrepresented communities, equitable access to opportunities at UW by pairing them with a junior or senior in the bioengineering department. Through our recruitment process, we tabled at large-scale events such as the 1000+ person Engineering Launch and also reached out to identity groups such as the Engineering Dean’s Scholars Program. Programs like these specifically provide academic support to engineering students from low-income neighborhoods, which is the same demographic that our mentorship program aims to support.

Data from Autumn 2021 indicate that within the College of Engineering, women and underrepresented minorities only constitute 30% and 13% respectively of all BS degree recipients, and they only make up 22% and 6% of all PhD degree recipients. Oftentimes, students from these backgrounds are systematically barred from opportunities that prepare and enable them to pursue a career in engineering due to a number of factors. For example, women were traditionally discouraged from a career in STEM because of deeply-rooted gender expectations (Xu, 2017). Underrepresented populations often coincide with socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, and students are subsequently raised in neighborhoods that simply lack the institutions that can provide professional development opportunities. In addition, individuals growing up in lower socioeconomic status (SES) homes are exposed to toxic pollutants at higher rates, including air pollutants (Hajat et al., 2015). As defined by the EPA, these include particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and sulfur dioxide. Hajat et al. suspect that this impact is likely tied to the locations of homes; specifically, the location of homes from higher SES families is located closer to urban amenities and scenic views that do not have the same health impact that toxic pollutants have on low SES families. Given this urgent need to resolve both generational health and environmental disparities, our mentorship program is crucial for the success of future students.

From a pool of 50+ mentee applicants, our committee of four diverse BMES officers across all three bioengineering cohorts hand-picked over 30 mentees hailing from underserved and underrepresented communities. Through this selection process, we not only aimed to increase future representation of these communities in the Department of Bioengineering, but also throughout the College of Engineering as a whole. Through our year-long mentorship program, mentees have biweekly meetings with their paired mentors, and will gain their mentors’ perspectives into engineering major placement, bioengineering research, and extracurricular leadership. These are all areas that have traditionally favored students of higher income strata. Socioeconomically advantaged students are more likely to afford and hire private tutors or counselors that support students in their coursework as well as career planning decisions. They also enjoy the privilege of a broader selection of research opportunities to choose from, whether or not they are paid or volunteer-based, whereas their socioeconomically disadvantaged counterparts have to worry about securing an income to sustain themselves and can thus only consider paid opportunities, which are already rare and more competitive to begin with. Therefore, our goal is to provide students of lower income brackets and underserved communities with these same educational enrichment opportunities as their peers free-of-charge and to enhance their careers in bioengineering, competitiveness for research opportunities, and leadership potential in the future. Through these mentorship pairings, we also hope to spread awareness of equity issues such as environmental equity throughout the bioengineering department.

While some mentorship programs exist at UW, they are often driven by a niche goal. For example, some mentorship programs are aimed specifically at helping students find research opportunities. While these opportunities are undoubtedly important, they lack the breadth and depth needed to make meaningful impacts on students’ lives, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds. As such, our mentorship program aims to take a uniquely broad view of mentorship and aims to support students not just in specific roles, but rather throughout a spectrum of academic, extracurricular, and networking opportunities. As such, our mentorship program is uniquely suited to make a long-term impact on students’ lives.

Education & Outreach:

The mentorship program fulfills both the educational and outreach components through a cohesive combination of discussion prompts and large-scale events. Every month, the BMES and graduate JEDI committee create a monthly list of 8-10 discussion prompts centered around mentorship themes. For example, themes such as “Dead Week December” (finals) and “No-Reply November” (research/internships) these past few months have provided light-hearted guidance for mentors and mentees alike about academic-related topics that are of high priority to them. These themes are also shared with the JEDI committee, who help provide feedback to us in order to make well-rounded, cohesive discussion themes. In addition, the discussion prompts are paired with a set of resources put together by the members of JEDI, BMES, and other groups across campus. For example, “Dead Week December” resources involved valuable study tips from CLUE tutors for the introductory classes, which are some of the classes where this “hidden curriculum” of college can most benefit those with prior experience. Through our mentorship program, we hope to not only encourage diverse classes of future engineers, but we also hope to empower students to shape the bioengineering department and other engineering departments according to their desired outcomes.

Since our goals are to create strong, long-lasting pairings between mentors and mentees, we will pair these “discussion guides” with a monthly activity for them to do together while discussing these prompts. For the current quarter, these events include activities such as learning how to destress with their mentors over bowling in the HUB or career-changing chats over a Starbucks coffee. As mentors and mentees get to know each other better throughout the year, our activities will eventually shift to group professional development opportunities to allow for connections to the rest of the BMES Mentorship Program and industry partners as well. We believe that having memorable discussions and activities is a crucial part of long-lasting mentorship pairings and relationships between peer mentors and mentees.

In addition to one-on-one discussions between mentors and mentees, we also hope to use our budget to schedule program-wide guest speaker events for group networking and awareness across participants of our mentorship program. We will try to host educators and other prominent figures in higher education, and will aim to host these in conjunction with current events such as the BMES/JEDI “Coffee Chat” series focused on informal mentorship with bioengineering faculty members. For example, Dr. Kelly Stevens hosted our November “Coffee Chat” and covered the topics of inclusivity and diversity in our communities. As such, bringing in prominent professional development experts will help to not only supplement this informal networking between mentors, mentees, and experts in the field, but will also help to give individuals the skills they need to be successful in STEM.

Environmental Impact:
  • Community Development
  • Social Justice
Project Longevity:

As part of BMES, we have a diverse team of 17 officers that work together to support initiatives like the BMES Mentorship Program. With the support of this established leadership structure, as well as our affiliation with the national BMES program, we believe that we have the networking necessary to build a diverse and effective coalition of bioengineers for both educational and environmental justice. In addition, our close collaborators in the graduate JEDI committee and meetings with Dr. Wendy Thomas have helped to establish a broader view of our long-term impacts across the university. We meet with the JEDI committee every month, something that helps us with not only our financial outcomes and budgeting goals, but also our goals with growing our program across the College of Engineering as well. We aim to expand this mentorship program to different engineering departments and we believe that our own networks, such as the Engineering Peer Educator Program, the General Studies 199 class, and our close collaboration with the BMES Outreach Program are key cornerstones to this plan.

Similar to our expansion plan, we also believe that our experienced financial team has the capability to manage and organize a budget necessary for this plan. The current Treasurer of BMES at UW works closely with Elizabeth Mounce, the current Fiscal Specialist Supervisor of the UW Bioengineering Department, to track and manage our spending throughout the year. In addition, our current treasurer has held multiple treasurer positions in the past, managing annual budgets of over $400,000 in the past. Combined with the oversight from our faculty and graduate student collaborators, we believe that we will be able to manage funds granted to us both efficiently and responsibly.

Environmental Problem:

The main goal of our mentorship program is to give prospective first and second-year engineering students, especially those from underrepresented communities, equitable access to opportunities at UW by pairing them with a junior or senior in the bioengineering department. Through our recruitment process, we tabled at large-scale events such as the 1000+ person Engineering Launch and also reached out to identity groups such as the Engineering Dean’s Scholars Program. Programs like these specifically provide academic support to engineering students from low-income neighborhoods, which is the same demographic that our mentorship program aims to support.

Data from Autumn 2021 indicate that within the College of Engineering, women and underrepresented minorities only constitute 30% and 13% respectively of all BS degree recipients, and they only make up 22% and 6% of all PhD degree recipients. Oftentimes, students from these backgrounds are systematically barred from opportunities that prepare and enable them to pursue a career in engineering due to a number of factors. For example, women were traditionally discouraged from a career in STEM because of deeply-rooted gender expectations (Xu, 2017). Underrepresented populations often coincide with socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, and students are subsequently raised in neighborhoods that simply lack the institutions that can provide professional development opportunities. In addition, individuals growing up in lower socioeconomic status (SES) homes are exposed to environmental pollutants at higher rates, including air pollutants (Hajat et al., 2015). As defined by the EPA, these include particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and sulfur dioxide. Given this urgent need to resolve both generational health and environmental disparities, our mentorship program is crucial for the success of future students.

From a pool of 50+ mentee applicants, our committee of four diverse BMES officers across all three bioengineering cohorts hand-picked over 30 mentees hailing from underserved and underrepresented communities. Through this selection process, we not only aimed to increase future representation of these communities in the Department of Bioengineering, but also throughout the College of Engineering as a whole. Through our year-long mentorship program, mentees have biweekly meetings with their paired mentors, and will gain their mentors’ perspectives into engineering major placement, bioengineering research, and extracurricular leadership. These are all areas that have traditionally favored students of higher income strata. Socioeconomically advantaged students are more likely to afford and hire private tutors or counselors that support students in their coursework as well as career planning decisions. They also enjoy the privilege of a broader selection of research opportunities to choose from, whether or not they are paid or volunteer-based, whereas their socioeconomically disadvantaged counterparts have to worry about securing an income to sustain themselves and can thus only consider paid opportunities, which are already rare and more competitive to begin with. Therefore, our goal is to provide students of lower income brackets and underserved communities with these same educational enrichment opportunities as their peers free-of-charge and to enhance their careers in bioengineering, competitiveness for research opportunities, and leadership potential in the future. Through these mentorship pairings, we also hope to spread awareness of equity issues such as environmental equity throughout the bioengineering department.

While some mentorship programs exist at UW, they are often driven by a niche goal. For example, some mentorship programs are aimed specifically at helping students find research opportunities. While these opportunities are undoubtedly important, they lack the breadth and depth needed to make meaningful impacts on students’ lives, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds. As such, our mentorship program aims to take a uniquely broad view of mentorship and aims to support students not just in specific roles, but rather throughout a spectrum of academic, extracurricular, and networking opportunities.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Our impacts will be measured by sending out an "exit poll" for students that "graduate" from our mentorship program and go on into engineering. We will use this exit poll by comparing its results with those provided by the UW College of Engineering. The UW College of Engineering placement data is widely accessible and available on its website, and it details the number of students that request placement each year, as well as the number that are accepted into one of their top two engineering major choices. We aim to use a similar system to evaluate the efficacy of our program. We will ask each mentee whether or not they were accepted into one of their top two engineering major choices at the end of the mentorship program. We will then take the percentages of students accepted into their top two engineering majors from both the UW College of Engineering as a whole and from the BMES Mentorship Program. Our hope is that we will see an increase in the number of students that are accepted into one of their top two engineering majors in the program compared to the rest of the College of Engineering. While our goal is a 30% increase in the BMES Mentorship Program compared to the UW College of Engineering, any sizeable increase in acceptance statistics will be encouraging news that our mentorship program is making a meaningful impact on students across UW. This method also ensures that those who enter our program wanting to do one major but quickly find that they change their mind about that specific engineering career are accounted for properly as well.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $5,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Canva Pro (1st member)120 1120
Canva Pro (2 additional members)602120
Discussion Prompt Activities (per month)750 5 3750
Professional Development Events Site Reservations 9101910
Physical Materials (paper, poster boards, etc.) for Recruitment90 190

Non-CSF Sources:

NameTotal (per)NumberTotal ($)
UW College of Engineering ROS Project Grant 7501750
Project Completion Total: $5,750

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Finalize Recruitment for Peer Mentorship Program N/ASep 2021
Co-Sponsor Coffee Chat Events with the JEDI CommitteeN/AOct 2021 - Present
Send Mentorship Program Applications N/ASep - Oct 2021
Match Mentors and MenteesN/A Nov 2021
Kick-Off Meeting N/ANov 2021
Monthly Discussion Prompts October - July each year July 2022
Monthly Discussion Prompt Activities October - July July 2022
Professional Development EventsOctober - July July 2022

Project Approval Forms:

Indonesian Student Association at the University of Washington, ISAUW's Annual Event, KERATON

Executive Summary:

ISAUW is a 501(c)(3) non-profit cultural organization dedicated to promoting the diverse Indonesian culture to the communities in the Greater Seattle area. ISAUW’s vision is to become the leading Indonesian Student Association in the United States. We aim to achieve this by building a respectful, well-rounded, diverse, yet nationalistic young Indonesian community in the Greater Seattle Area and in the United States. Established for over ten years, ISAUW would like to carry on and improve the legacy of our previous years and hold the most successful Keraton Indonesian Festival to date. Our team consists of 42 members, and we have three divisions - the Operations team, the Communication and Outreach team and the Finance team. Each division plays a unique role, but we all work together to ensure that Keraton will continue to uphold our goals of sharing Indonesian culture, spreading environmental awareness of Indonesia to our community and to make a greater sustainable impact than we have ever done before. 

As the largest Indonesian cultural event on the West Coast and second largest in the United States, Keraton has experienced high growth, culminating in 2019’s event that attracted over 12,000 people. ISAUW expects many visitors this year as well and will be showcasing the diversity of Indonesia through traditional food, dance, music, and art relating to Keraton 2022’s theme of Indonesian Retro Films. Beyond ISAUW’s purpose of entertaining and educating the community about Indonesia, we also wish to create a memorable sustainable impact through our event. This year, we have decided to take a greater step towards sustainability by collaborating with Solar Chapter, an Indonesian, UW-registered student organization based in many parts of the world that aims to spread awareness on the environmental issues happening in Indonesia to educate our community on their projects. Furthermore, we are planning to have a batik awareness and creation booth, traditional Indonesian games, a photography contest, and many more booths designed to enrich the visitors’ knowledge about Indonesia and Indonesian retro films. ISAUW also guarantees to put the different aspects of sustainability as one of our top priorities in preparation for this event. Our total estimated budget for Keraton as of today is around $43,000. With this, ISAUW would like to apply for CSF funding to make Keraton possible again this year.

For more information on our student organization, refer to www.isauw.org

Student Involvement:

Throughout the years, ISAUW has always put a significant emphasis on creating great leaders in our community. Every year during our recruitment period, we aim to select members who demonstrate leadership qualities. Keraton is a massive event within student organizations and the amount of commitment delivered by our officers is extraordinary. A lot of officers that have been involved in previous Keratons have shared that their work and time in ISAUW has prepared them for real life work experiences post-graduation. With a shared vision to celebrate Indonesia’s diverse culture and making Keraton a huge success, our 40+ members are involved in Event Organizing, Creativity Management, Inventory Management, Sponsorship, Treasury, Marketing & Communication, Design & Documentation, as well as Information Technology. Ever since officers joined the organization in Fall, they have been committing their time and creativity to lead their teams successfully to gather what is needed for Keraton; such as searching for funds, performances, food vendors, etc. 

Beyond this, officers in ISAUW have the opportunity to learn to communicate and partner with small and big businesses in the United States and Indonesia, allowing them to hone excellent interpersonal skills. In Keraton, ISAUW receives volunteers who are students from diverse community colleges and universities in the Greater Seattle Area, including Edmonds Community College, Shoreline Community College, Bellevue College, and more. 

Moreover, almost half of the food vendors in Keraton are contributed by other Student Organization Bodies from various community colleges and universities, such as The Indonesian Student Association of Seattle University (ISASU), Bellevue Indonesian Club (BIC), Indonesian Student Association of North Seattle College (ISANS), Indonesian Student Association in the United States in Seattle (PERMIAS Seattle), and more. Hence, ISAUW members can expand their channels, meet new people from various backgrounds, and create new experiences for students that would be useful for their future endeavors. 

Our students are involved in planning the logistics of the event, for example renting space and equipment, to ensure safety and comfort for the thousands of guests we are hosting. Our students also lead the marketing and promotion of the event, taking the initiative to use their creativity to reach out to as many people in the Greater Seattle area that would enjoy the activities provided in Keraton. Our students also ensure that we obtain the funding needed to host such a large event, planning and executing fundraising events, reaching out to sponsors and partners. These are just a few of the many responsibilities that our students hold in ISAUW.

Education & Outreach:

Keraton has consistently received critical acclaim from both Indonesians and non-Indonesians who attended our event. This year, we aim to go above and beyond while adhering to COVID-19 safety measurements and guidelines. We will require attendees to show proof of vaccination before entering our outdoor festival and to have their masks on at all times. To ensure that only people who have demonstrated proof of vaccination can enter, we will install fencing around the festival so that they would pass through our check-in booth. Following COVID-19 guidelines ensures our communities' safety throughout the pandemic and aims to maintain COVID-19 awareness.

To introduce a new aspect of Keraton this year, ISAUW plans to collaborate with Solar Chapter. Solar Chapter is a UW-registered, large non-profit organization based in the United States and other parts of the world, to educate the greater community on the environmental issues Indonesia faces and aims to help developing remote areas in Indonesia through spreading awareness. We will be collaborating with Solar Chapter in Keraton to educate the Seattle community on their current project on providing clean water access to Kareka Nduku, a village in Sumba, Indonesia. We hope attendees will become more aware of the world outside their own from Solar Chapter's booth and share the importance of being environmentally sustainable through our everyday actions. We also aim to share the impact that Indonesian University students are making to the Seattle and Indonesian community, and we hope that sharing it with our attendees will make a meaningful impact to them.

Furthermore, attendees of Keraton will take home the knowledge of Indonesia's rich culture through our traditional games, cultural Batik Making booth, coffee-tasting booth and retro-themed photography contest. ISAUW’s Batik booth will not only be showcasing Indonesia’s cultural, ancient art form, but we aim to take a step further by educating our guests about the Clean Batik Initiative (CBI) in Indonesia which promotes sustainable practices in Batik art and clothing. The CBI have been successful in developing an electric stove with a thermostat, to help reduce energy consumption, costs in batik making, and have started using natural dyes in their batik making. The Clean Batik Initiative (CBI) plays a big part in inspiring the Indonesian community in being more sustainable in every aspect of our lives, and we hope that our Batik booth will inspire others to do the same. In addition, we will also be selling Batik clothing at our booth so that our attendees can take home a token of our Indonesian culture that is also meaningful to the sustainable impact back in Indonesia. 

Furthermore, we will also introduce Indonesia’s different coffees through the Indonesian coffee tasting booth. We will educate visitors about the different types of coffee while also letting them taste the coffee. This year, we will continue to use samples of coffee beans that are certified sustainable. Lastly, we will have a couple cultural booths this year, where we will showcase unique cultures in Indonesia through Indonesian Cultural Films. Here we will include topics about social sustainability where we tell people about the growth in women empowerment and gender equality through these Indonesian Retro films that show an increasing growth and development in Women’s roles in movies. 

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Waste
  • Water
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
  • Social Justice
Project Longevity:

Keraton was first established in 2011, and it has been occurring annually during Spring until 2019, before the pandemic-hoping to resume Spring 2022. Encountering various aspects, ISAUW has already developed a  standardized frame that fulfills all the systemized expectations of how our event,  Keraton, is being prepared and would proceed. Historically, every year Keraton  has not just greatly increased in participants but there has always been new innovation and improvements. This event is only possible thanks to our 40+ officers passionate about Indonesia’s cultural exposure. Our officers spend so much of their time towards this organization, especially for Keraton. As students graduate every year, ISAUW would have a different batch of officers each Fall after recruitment (new officers that join and officers from previous years). This cycle could prove the longevity of Keraton, because every new school year, we would have a new team assembled from the many applicants we receive. Other than that, ISAUW also has a connection with UWAIN (University of Washington Alumni Indonesia). This connection allows us to have a community of Huskies that have experienced Keraton; advising the good and bad, supporting our funding, and thus supporting the longevity of Keraton. For example, this year we have connected with UWAIN more than ever virtually, with members from Indonesia supporting our ISAUW students through this pandemic and giving insights on Keraton. Hence, we strongly believe that Keraton would be a long term event, constantly improving every year, learning from mistakes and learning from each other.

COVID plans

ISAUW acknowledges the current situation in midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and potential disruptions that may interfere with large mass gatherings. This year, we are optimistic that KERATON 2022 will be able to be orchestrated in accordance with the current CDC, Washington state, and University of Washington guidelines. The event will take extra precautions in ensuring our guests safety as well as the community of Seattle. ISAUW has come up with a draft plan of the precautions we would take in KERATON to make sure that the safety of all our guests and staff are our top priority. Our draft plan is currently in the process of being confirmed by our SAO advisor, as well as E&HS (Environmental Health and Safety).

Our plan consists of having designated eating areas at the location, such that they are only allowed to take off their masks and eat their food at those areas. We are also going to have a booth at the front of the venue to make sure that everyone who has attended the event has been vaccinated and has their masks on. Once their vaccination cards have been checked, we will put a wristband around their hand to indicate to all food vendors and ISAUW officers that they have been verified by the front booth. All food vendors have to sign a contract to ensure that they do not serve any guests any food if they do not have the wristband around their hand, and all those who do not have wristbands have to be redirected to the front booth. If a guest comes to the event without a mask on, we will be handing out free masks to ensure that everyone at the event will be wearing masks. Announcements will be made frequently throughout the entire event to remind everyone to have their masks at all times, unless they are at the designated eating areas. Hand sanitizers will also be readily provided at every booth at Keraton. Furthermore, all food vendors are required to get a food permit, so that they are aware of health and safety measures, and are aware of the covid precautions needed to be taken in the event and when preparing the food. All food vendors would have to show proof of their food permit before they’re allowed to set up their booth at Keraton. We will also meet with all food vendors prior to the event to give them a briefing of all the Covid measures needed to be taken at our event to ensure the safety of all our guests. This year, we have also decided to have more hand-washing stations around the venue for guests and food vendors to wash their hands, and we would also make announcements throughout the event to remind everyone to wash their hands and sanitize.

Environmental Problem:

Energy Use 

Electricity usage

The last Keraton had a high amount of electricity usage, and we aim to cut this down by using lower-voltage lighting during the day, as well as limiting the use of light, when unnecessary. 

Paperless transaction

Keraton will minimize carbon footprint by utilizing a seamless touch-free paperless payment system. We’re planning on using Square’s touchless payment reader and system that uses customer’s smartphones or cards to connect with our POS devices through RFID.

Carbon Footprint

This year in Keraton 2022, we will mitigate several Sustainability challenges. During previous years of Keraton, we’ve used unsustainable food trucks for some of our vendors. This year, we will only be fully utilizing booths at Keraton instead of food trucks as we have been considering our food truck vendors’ carbon emissions as one of the main proponents of Keraton’s lack of sustainability. 

Community Development

Keraton gives an opportunity for Indonesians, both raised in the United States and in their motherland, to celebrate their shared heritage by promoting volunteerism and community engagement between ISAUW members tasked with planning Keraton and the Seattle community. In preparation for this annual event, ISAUW has created many different opportunities throughout the academic year for volunteering and engaging the Greater Seattle community to make this event possible. 

Cultural Representation

The Indonesian community is underrepresented in the United States. Keraton is the second largest annual Indonesian festival in the United States. This event is one of the most impactful ways we can promote our community externally. Through Keraton alone, more than 5000 non-Indonesians could learn more about the culture of one the Asia’s most vast countries annually. 

Waste

Misplaced trash was one of our largest contributors towards a lack of sustainability last Keraton, thus we will double the number of trash cans and recycling bins in Keraton in order to ensure that waste is properly disposed of, and items are recycled if they can be. At Keraton 2022, we would also like to promote Sustainability amongst our volunteer crew, hence before Keraton 2022 we will hold a seminar reminding the volunteers on the importance of sustainability. 

Food

We will highly encourage vendors to use prepackaged goods to minimize food waste and spread of COVID-19, but special requests might be made by some vendors to maintain the authenticity of their cooking by making cultural food on the spot. 

Water

Clean water is wasted a lot on washing cooking equipment when vendors choose to cook on the spot. Since we’re encouraging prepackaged food, we can minimize water usage by using sustainable water containers instead of huge water tanks. 

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Energy Use

Paperless transaction

The number of papers saved from shifting to paperless transactions can be roughly counted by the number of transactions occurring during Keraton. Assuming that there’s 13,000 visitors and each visitor purchases at least 1 transaction, we already saved 13,000 paper receipts from being made. 

Carbon Emissions

This year we aim to use 3⁄4 of our carbon emissions from that of Keraton three years ago by requiring all food trucks to use our given booths. 

Waste

For Keraton 2022, we are shifting to 99% compostable utensils and packaging. While this is an important metric, arguably the largest and most important metric for Keraton 2022 is educating the students involved in Keraton on the importance of Sustainability. Coming from Indonesia, a country that rarely puts sustainability as a priority, we would like to educate officers, volunteers, and the general public on the importance of recycling and composting. This fits in line with ISAUW’s vision which is to develop a new youth generation of Indonesia, and sustainability is an aspect that we would like to bring up with the Indonesia community in Seattle.

As for a more direct approach towards vendors, the best way to prevent waste going through the wrong bin is to actively discourage misplacement of waste. We will remind each vendor that for every waste that’s not put properly, they will get charged accordingly when the waste management bill comes to ISAUW. 

Community Development & Cultural Representation 

At the end of Keraton, we would ask both attendees and event organizers a series of questions that asked about their experience, satisfaction, and how much they learned about Indonesia’s diverse culture. We would also make a Keraton recap digitally available through our Youtube channel and website to further quantify people’s experience. 

Food & Water

By reducing the number of food being cooked on the spot by half, we could reduce the number of water required by about half. The typical restaurant uses 7000 gallons of water a day. Assuming that all the 15 vendors we’d be having would contribute to the water waste of a restaurant, we could mitigate water waste by at least 3500 gallons since at least half of the food will be prepackaged.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $10,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Campus services - floodlight rental$1,100.00
Event Insurance$500.00
Honey Bucket and Water$2,000.00
Events Staff$2,400.00
Radio Rental (for staff)$400.00
First Aid$150.00
Recycling$200.00
Electricity $5,000.00
Tenting and rental equipment$3,000.00
Assembly Permit$400.00
Stage, Lighting and Sound System$14,000.00
Equipment $500.00
Canopies$50.00
Decorations$2,500.00
Transportation(U-Haul)$250.00
Guest Star Fee$7,500.00
Event T-Shirt$500.00
Committee, Volunteers and Performers Consumption$2,000.00
Newspapers, Balloons, Posters Printing$800.00

Non-CSF Sources:

We will also be doing fundraisings and looking for external sponsorships outside of UW to help fund our events.
ASUW Special Appropriations
Wells Fargo Fund
UW Alumni Association Fund
HUB RSO Fund
GPSS Special Allocations
Project Completion Total: $43,250

Timeline:

ISAUW expects each member to fulfill their significant roles. We encourage our fellow ISAUW members to showcase their project ma
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Sponsorship6 monthsApril
Fundraising events2x per quarterApril
Ivars Volunteer work8 months (1-2x per member every quarter, except )May
Marketing of event3 monthsMay
Host external events to gather community8 months (1-2x per quarter)April
Merchandise sales5 monthsFebruary
Develop website2 monthsJanuary
Event preparation (decoration, food vendors, equipment, staging, etc.)2 monthsApril

Project Approval Forms:

Queer and Trans BIPOC Artist-Scholar Graduate Student Collective

Executive Summary:

Queer and Trans BIPOC Artist-Scholar Graduate Student Collective project brings together a collective of seven graduate students & artists in interdisciplinary fields to support our artistic and academic studies. The collective members are a part of UW’s English department, Communications department, Gender Women Sexuality Studies department, DX arts department, and Dance department.  Along with being able to continue creative scholarship through collaborative workshops and conversation meetings, we will provide public talks/ art viewings, workshops and consultations to other graduate & undergraduate students and to the wider Seattle public for the sake of encouraging creative scholarship for the next generation of academics, both in the university and beyond. We aim to secure a studio near campus, or somewhere accessible to most UW members through transit (public or private), to house our discussions, public talks/viewings, consultations, and workshops. In total, we are requesting $29,950 to bring this project to UW so that we can make an impact of personal and communal sustainability to combat rigid academic settings with creativity. Many collective members’ projects focus on environmental sustainability by looking at environmental food practices, the detrimental building of cities and gentrification, and the imaginative ways we can build new worlds for liberatory and safe futures.

Student Involvement:

There are many ways in which our project encapsulates student involvement including (1) residencies open to both graduate and undergraduate students to work on collaborative projects (2) Graduate to undergraduate peer project-based mentorship. (3) workshops and campus talks open to all UW faculty and students (4) funding opportunities for undergraduate students for resource support for their proposed creative projects and material/supply grants. Each of these goals will be organized and executed through the collective work of the collective.

Education & Outreach:

Funding his project will allow us to build healthier, more equitable and diverse communities in academia, by offering support to undergraduate artist-scholars  who are early on in their academic career and don’t have adequate support and understanding for how to infuse their arts into their scholarship or the other way around.

In order to foster this environment, we will provide mentoring opportunities where undergraduates are paired with a  collective member for support, discourse, and educational feedback regarding specific projects and artistic philosophy alike. In addition to this, there will be opportunities for learning through external artist workshops and visits, and assistance with art project planning and funding.

We have a working  plan to advertise with all of the art departments, as well as with the queer center on campus for focused undergraduate mentoring support. The external artist visits, and/or workshops will be open to the university community at large, and therefore will be advertised at a wider scale.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
  • Social Justice
Project Longevity:

Our project is concerned with creating site-specific performance, theater, visual art, and other arts-based public facing work to address issues of social justice and inspire deep self-introspection. The “longevity” is measured by the ability of our work to encourage social and personal mobilization amongst our audiences and witnesses, rather than creating a specific material project to live on forever. The funds, as detailed in our application, will be delegated to each collective member and selected undergraduate student to see their specific projects through. While the collective of people do not dissipate, the projects themselves will be hinged on the budget we are allotted, and when that budget is used to its full capacity, we would still have done the necessary work we were called to do given the resources. Our work under the “Sustainability Grant” would be complete, but our work as artists, creatives, and performers continue on where the resources reside.

Environmental Problem:

This collective seeks to build a sustainable community for those who’s identities, scholarly interests, and creative mediums are not adequately supported in our disciplines, yet our creative mediums and identities are intricately tied to the contribution we intend to make in our fields; thereby, calling attention to a need to build a space for us to imagine what a new wave in academia can look like when queer and trans BIPOC peoples are able to contribute with our imaginations.

Pairing this aspiration with conversations about environmental sustainability has highlighted that subjects like community protection , food accessibility , housing practices, and  environmental care are subjects that are very much tied to or factors that are considered for the demographic that we are hoping to support. We hope to create a space for dialogue around these subjects, perhaps offset the impact they have, or amplify in other cases, and when it feels meaningful to support the creation of art that is environmentally based or focused.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

There are many aspects to this project that will require us to measure impact differently. For the public programing, like talks, art viewings, and consultation, we will monitor impact by keeping track of participation and feedback forms. That is, we will keep a log detailing who showed up to events, why they participated, and what they took away from the events. For our own works and workshops, we will keep track of the progress through goal setting. Each workshop and round-table meeting (where we discuss our works and their scholarly impact), we will set communal and personal goals to be completed by the next meeting. These goals will ensure that we stay true to our commitments to provide creative scholarship to UW’s and the greater Seattle communities. We will be able to provide a log of goals with details about how we were able to keep such goals.  

Total amount requested from the CSF: $29,950
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Budget Items for Collective proposed expenses
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Funding Undergraduate Students’ projects 3003900
Funding the collective projects and materials 100077000
Studio Space and equipments 16,400
Compensation for workshop collaborators 30061,800
Compensation for collective members45073,150
Residency7001700

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $29,950

Timeline:

Proposed Timeline (please see attached supplement for details)
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
initial planning; outreach; placing events on calendars 3 monthsSpring 2022
The start of activities for collective 3 monthsSummer 2022
Continue quarterly activities 3 monthsFall 2022
Finish up year of the collective 3 monthsWinter 2023

Resiliency Tunnel

Executive Summary:

As the student population of the university increases, so does the need for food. The UW Farm has supplied the UW Food Pantry with produce each year, but as the climate changes, the increasing discrepancy between demand during the academic year and the summer growing season is resulting in inadequate supply, which we seek to address. Climate impacts to the UW campus are already felt by the Farm, in the form of extremes of moisture, heat, and cold that reduce crop output. This inclement weather leads to the loss of over 1,800 pounds (15%) of UW Farm production each year. The Resiliency Tunnel, a proposed high tunnel and educational space to serve the needs of the UW Farm and the Food Pantry, will address this issue. The proposed location lies between the Center for Urban Horticulture and the Ceramic Metal Arts building on a vacant lot adjacent to the UW Farm. Creating a modified north-wall greenhouse, a highly efficient structure often used in colder climates, will allow us to grow up to an estimated 4,000 pounds of produce throughout the year, feeding our UW community and beyond. The project further incorporates small-scale solar and rainwater catchment systems, creating a sustainable and resilient space for long term benefit.

Our core project team is a highly interdisciplinary group of undergraduate and graduate students, directed by undergraduate lead Emma Maggioncalda. Our team members are pursuing degrees ranging from Landscape Architecture to Electrical Engineering, and have strong supporters across the University, including Perry Acworth of the UW Farm, Christina Owen of the UW Botanic Gardens, Steve Tatge of UW Facilities, Joanna Pang of UW Facilities Engineering Services, Daimon Ecklund of UW Sustainability, Polly Olsen of the Burke Museum, Meredith Kruger of the UW Food Pantry, and more (Project Support Forms attached). Together we share the ambitious goal of creating an agricultural structure and landscape that sustainably and respectfully gives back to the community and surrounding areas. Details for a conceptual design and further information can be found at the following website: https://resiliency-tunnel.webflow.io/. The unique nature of this project calls for innovative solutions and detailed planning. At this stage, we have been advised by UW Facilities to conduct a rigorous feasibility study to investigate the exact location of our site as well as perform a detailed cost estimate for total project costs and investigate design feasibility and geotechnical conditions. We request a total of $12,000 to cover costs for 1) surveying the land and investigating geotechnical considerations ($7,000) and 2) any additional potential costs we may incur in completing a feasibility study, including hiring technical experts on an as needed basis ($5,000). It is important to distinguish between our project and the existing UW Farm: this project serves as an independent entity to the farm, yet will provide direct tangible benefits through crop production to the farm once established, and go further to provide both tangible and intangible benefits to the broader UW community and surrounding areas.

Student Involvement:

The development of the Resiliency Tunnel brings together a wide range of disciplines. We utilize many pathways to increase on-campus awareness of and engagement in our project, further outlined in Education and Outreach. Our core team was formed by members of the credited RSO UW Solar, though we greatly expanded team size by conducting outreach. This outreach was performed through classes, professors, advisor mailing lists, Instagram, and LinkedIn to gather students from different areas of study, which has permitted us to engage over 30 UW undergraduate and graduate students from the programs listed below:

  1. Architectural Design
  2. Electrical, Chemical, Industrial, and Computer Engineering
  3. Environmental Science, Atmospheric Science, Chemistry, and Biology
  4. Construction Management
  5. Finance/Economics, Information Systems, and Business Administration
  6. Urban Planning
  7. Landscape Architecture
  8. Evan’s School Environmental Policy

To prepare to analyze the feasibility of a new building on campus, we are organized around our existing disciplines and the expected content of a feasibility study. We, and our work, emerge from smaller, focused teams: design, outreach, funding, and finance. The paragraphs below offer an indication of roles and responsibilities, but also preliminary work that is already being conducted toward a feasibility study for this project.

The design team collaborates on architectural design, energy generation, and hydrology, assisted by students from Construction Management specializing in feasibility. The architectural design team has focused on developing a rough order of magnitude of the design and investigating the site conditions. UW Project Delivery Group (PDG) is in the process of assigning a Project Manager to our project; this individual and additional staff will assist with project delivery primarily after the feasibility study is completed, which students will shadow. Students participate in development of a Request for Proposal (RFP), and will have the opportunity to manage the selection of a contractor by developing a scoring system to evaluate bids. This project will likely be a Job Order Contracting (JOC) project with UW PDG. We will delineate the exact location of the structure within the identified plot of land during the feasibility study process, for which we are in contact with users of the Ceramic + Metal Arts building. Kristine Kenney, the UW Director for University Planning and Architecture, has advised we pursue funding for rigorous land surveying as part of the feasibility study process. Julie Blakeslee has expressed she is willing to connect us with UW Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) to assist with surveying and permitting. We will define the scope and receive feedback from individuals within UW Facilities and later have our design evaluated by the UW Design Review Board. The energy generation design team is putting together estimates for the power needs for each component: Regular lights for daytime, germination lights (used frequently for 1-3 months of the year), the pump for the irrigation system, and ventilation for air circulation and temperature control. The team is also weighing options for getting additional power in the winter months when solar is less efficient. Current options for energy sources include connecting to Seattle City Light’s grid directly, or connecting to an existing UW building. Students in hydrology are focusing on methods for rainwater collection and storage, agricultural water requirements variable by season, and potential uses of excess collection, such as rain gardens. The outreach team has been in contact with far-reaching members of the UW community and beyond to gather sponsors and communicate with stakeholders, as well as to gather insight during the design phase. Once in service, the tunnel will provide opportunities for the UW Farm to increase overall campus awareness of an agroecosystem, with research opportunities and an emphasis on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). 

COVID-19 has not noticeably impeded our work. We were able to meet in person during Fall 2021 in the Urban Infrastructure Lab, though we have been meeting over Zoom during 2022. We have had occasional in-person meetings with faculty, including meeting with Perry Acworth and David Zuckerman at the UW Farm to discuss site conditions. We have meetings scheduled with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), faculty, community partners, and more as needed.  We also enjoy the ease of use of a central email address, resiliencytunnel@gmail.com, for our communications with outside entities and / or multiple groups.

Education & Outreach:

This project and its development represent a distinct opportunity for students to engage in the design and analysis of a potential new building on campus–albeit a building of limited and purposed functionality. The longer aim is, of course, to fund and construct the building. Yet, at all stages of the design and feasibility process, students will be originating ideas, working with one another, and sourcing the faculty and administration in our learn-by-doing process. The proposed services of the Resiliency Tunnel are fundamental to the operation and well-being of the UW Farm, which is an institution of growing importance to the student body.

The UW Farm currently engages the UW community by removing barriers to participation in the urban food system: no fee is required for participation; sites are open from dawn to dusk, 365 days per year; site access is available to UW students, faculty, staff, and the general public; farm research and facilities provide food for the community; and the farm was declared an essential operation during the pandemic (staff, research allowed to work on-site). Produce is delivered to three sectors: 1) sold to multiple UW dining locations, or “farm to campus;” 2) a weekly paid subscription box, or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA); and 3) regular donations to UW Food Pantry. In 2017 MOU was signed with the Intellectual House, for space to grow food for First Nations students. Today, there is a Native Garden, where First Nations Students, under the leadership of a Food Sovereignty Liaison co-managed by the Farm Manager and Director of the Intellectual House, can grow culturally important produce. Annually, over 2,000 visitors from at least 24 units, plus the general public, visit the three farm sites either as a volunteer, for a laboratory assignment, field trip, tour, research, or internship. In addition, over 5,000 people “visit” the farm or learn remotely via social media, educational videos, the website, and a weekly newsletter. However, increasing awareness about the causes and impacts of climate change have increased demand for education on sustainability and innovation that has not been matched by expanded facilities and opportunities.

This project benefits from the wide breadth of UW community engagement permitted by our involvement with several key groups. We have utilized the post sharing feature on Instagram so related groups on campus (UW Sustainability, the UW Food Pantry, the UW Farm, and the UW Foster School of Business) could share our advertisement on UW Solar’s Instagram pertaining to volunteer or credited opportunities for students. UW Sustainability will continue to share educational information on the project with the community, which will raise awareness and serve as one pathway for gathering future volunteers. We have additionally received assistance from several departmental advisors (including from the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS) and College of Built Environments (CBE)) in distributing advertisements through emailing lists. These connections will assist us with educating the UW community about opportunities supported by the tunnel design and construction process as well as its operation once implemented.

An important vehicle for raising awareness for our project will be an informational video we are developing with a non-profit called the 2050 Project (2050project.us), started by two alumni of the UW Evans School for Public Policy. This video will highlight the origin and significance of the project, student and community groups involved, and our overarching vision. Additionally, it will serve to inform the public, gather additional student volunteers as needed, and potentially draw investors to sponsor additions to the tunnel, such as indoor vertical farming. As we approach implementation, we plan to increase our engagement efforts through a number of additional avenues, potentially including on-campus signage, tabling in Red Square, holding an event as part of UW Sustainability’s Earth Day week, and publishing in student news sources. We hope to participate in the UW Indigenous Food Symposium later this year, in which we will seek consultation on integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in our project as well as our aim to raise awareness of the impacts of historic boarding schools on local Indigenous communities. We also plan to enhance the educational opportunities permitted by the tunnel by collaborating with local and Indigenous artists, creating interactive installations that go beyond simply revealing design details and elaborate further on the role of food in IIndigenous communities; specifically the repercussions of boarding schools.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Waste
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
Project Longevity:

This project benefits from the structural support and institutional knowledge of Professor Whittington of UW Solar, Perry Acworth of the UW Farm, several members involved in leadership of the UW Botanic Gardens at the Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH), and miscellaneous faculty as mentioned above. Professor Whittington has overseen several other successful UW Solar projects that progressed similarly with CSF, in which many cases ultimately did not incur costs for hiring technical expertise during the feasibility study phase. UW Project Delivery Group (PDG) is in the process of assigning a Project Manager to our project; this individual and additional staff will assist with project delivery primarily after the feasibility study is completed, which students will shadow. Our team would appreciate more information on who provided support during the surveying phase on the former CSF project in the UBNA that involved implementing a boardwalk.

The presence of the Resiliency Tunnel will create cost savings for the UW farm by mitigating the need to rent indoor growing space from the CUH and sourcing its own water and energy. These annual savings for the UW Farm will support the operations of the tunnel, boosting the financial sustainability and resilience of the farm. Additional funding could be attained in the future from EarthLab to enhance the research capabilities of the structure, and our team will continuously research other relevant funding opportunities within UW Solar. The input of resources should be considered in terms of the sophisticated, resilient infrastructure they will make possible. The thorough design and implementation of this structure has and will create opportunities for those in the UW community and beyond. Any advancement toward this vision will contribute to the establishment of these opportunities.

Environmental Problem:

The sustainability challenges we are addressing with our design proposal are multifaceted and include: high food waste and inadequate yields, limited facilities for educational purposes that rely heavily on utilities, and missed opportunities to demonstrate sustainable food systems to the community including incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK).

In 2020, over 1,800 pounds of produce at the UW Farm - roughly 15% of annual production - were spoiled by rainstorms and unexpected frost, conditions becoming increasingly frequent and intense due to climate change. Our solution revolves around a high tunnel, a USDA-approved method for season extension, to protect crops and extend the production season by multiple months. The Resiliency Tunnel will enable the UW Farm to better capture produce with higher nutritional value in greater quantities, and ensure it reaches food-insecure populations. The execution and operation of this plan will notably contribute towards action VI of the UW Sustainability Action Plan, involving a target that 35% of food is from local sources by 2025 (UW Sustainability).

The solar installation will provide power for electrical needs and the rainwater catchment system will mitigate the structure’s demand on natural resources for irrigation of crops, increasing the resilience of the food-energy system to future disruption, particularly during droughts when water savings are critical. Once in service, the tunnel will serve as a center for innovation, research, leadership, and access to organic fresh vegetables and a healthy lifestyle. Educational opportunities would include the ability to conduct research experiments, demonstrate methods for crop protection, food system resilience, and farm waste reduction, while also highlighting the value of innovative practices and perspectives such as Traditional Ecological Knowledge, indoor vertical farming, and more.

As we build a new system serving the UW community, we must acknowledge that we are building on the usual and accustomed lands of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Tulalip, Muckleshoot, and Coast Salish people. The Resiliency Tunnel will foster relationships with campus and community Indigenous organizations by incorporating Indigenous perspectives in the design, planning, and construction phases. Initially, produce will be shared with the Intellectual House and Indigenous students. The dichotomy between the agricultural space within the Resiliency Tunnel and the Indigenous remedies surrounding the high tunnel represents a potential physical manifestation of the impact of American Indian Boarding Schools on the agricultural practices of Native communities and their health. Incorporating culturally significant medicinal herbs and plants in and around the Resiliency Tunnel will help integrate this important story with the purpose of the tunnel and the surrounding farm while also offering a direct benefit to members of the Indigenous community as a space to use and connect with culturally significant plants. Integrating the Indigenous teachings of Resiliency Tunnel into existing courses at UW, and hopefully, the future creation of courses focused on this subject, as well as educational events and information at the space, can serve as a form of education for non-Indigenous students and the broader Seattle community.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

All through the design and development process, including feasibility study, the Resiliency Tunnel project will pull together interested students to learn about how to conduct these types of activities, from faculty and directly from Campus administrators and staff with expertise in the design and construction fields.

The UW Farm currently tracks the weight of all produce that is harvested and composted daily, weekly and annually. Previous seasons have been recorded including harvest amounts and waste amounts, which can be compared with relative amounts after the high tunnel is implemented, directly measuring the impact of our building on production. There is additional historical data on the number of individuals from the UW community and beyond that utilize the farm space, which can be compared with data to be gathered once the tunnel is implemented. This could include the addition of students able to receive instruction within the structure, the impact of increased awareness, and the creation of new, diverse educational opportunities for students and the public alike. There is much room for further analysis of trends before and after tunnel implementation such as the number of research projects conducted at the Farm, events coordinated by the Farm and the Intellectual House on campus, crop growth in the co-located native garden, visitors to the UW Food Pantry (who will utilize increased crop yields), and more educational and community outcomes. More definitively, records on historical water and electricity usage as well as the associated financial demands can be compared before and after tunnel implementation. We can measure energy generated by the panels in kwh (estimated to be 16 kwh per day) and water collected in cisterns by the gallon.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $12,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Surveying + Geotechnical ($7,000) + Hiring Technical Expertise ($5,000) = Total of $12,000 (Detailed in attachment)
ItemCost per ItemQuantity
Surveying + Geotechnical$7,0001
Hiring Technical Expertise$5,0001
Total Costs$12,0001

Non-CSF Sources:

N/A
N/A
Project Completion Total: $12,000

Timeline:

This is a rough timeline from the beginning of our project to end, advised by Prof. Jan Whittington and UW Facilities
TaskTimeframe
Investigate location by conducting pre-feasibility study By December 1st, 2021
Define purpose and estimate massingBy December 1st, 2021
Submit Letter of Intent to apply for funding for full feasibility studyBy December 1st, 2021
Generate systems diagrams (attached)By February 7th, 2022
Request funding for feasibility studyBy February 7th, 2022
Construct conceptual designSpring - Fall 2022
Conduct feasibility study, including surveying and geotechnicalSpring - Fall 2022
Develop schematic and detailed designSpring - Fall 2022
Submit design to Design Review BoardSpring - Fall 2022
Investigate permittingSpring - Fall 2022
Form a Request for Proposal (RFP)Spring - Fall 2022
Use cost estimate developed with UW PDG to submit request to CSF for full project cost fundingBy December 1st, 2022
Implement Job Order Construction (JOC) with UW PDGSpring - Summer 2023

Eat Local Food Fair

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
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Brockman Memorial Tree Tour Renovation

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Racial Justice and Equity in Environmental Science and Beyond

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BEEducated Smart Sensor + Hive

Executive Summary:

Our project entails the creation of a SMART Hive model based off of the Langstroth Hive design and complete with sensor technologies that allow beekeepers to monitor the hive condition, detect hive stressors, and alert beekeepers to intervene before colony collapse, a deadly environmental issue that affects thousands of hives in the United States. As part of this project, we will conduct virtual and in-person workshops to teach UW students about the pollinator crisis and how to plant pollinator gardens (see our prior work with pollinator education: www.thebeeducated.org).

Student Involvement:

We are currently wrapping up the User Research portion of our project. Our UX Team recently sent out a survey to beekeepers, receiving around 40 responses from around the world. They are now in the process of conducting interviews with these beekeepers to finalize insights for our sensor/hive model. As they complete that stage, Audrey Anderson, our principal investigator, is continuing her research into the causes for colony collapse. Her report detailing her findings will be presented by the end of June.

Our next steps are to invest more time into the build process for a device that will run a Computer Vision algorithm to monitor the hive population/condition and contain sensors that relay data about measurable factors such as humidity or temperature back to an app such that the user can interact with their SMART Hive. As part of these next steps, the SWE (Software Engineering) team will begin building the app prototype in React Native. In order for the Electrical Engineering team to begin assembling the microcontrollers and such though, we will need the grant in order to purchase the necessary hardware. Without the grant, we will be unable to engage with the build process for the sensor and hive itself.

If this project were to be fully funded though, we could continue with the build phase for the sensor device and physical hive prototype. To advise us on this process, we reached out to UW EE professor Shyam Gollakata who previously worked on innovative research pertaining to a sensor that could be placed on a bee to track it. He agreed to advise us on this project. We are also reaching out to pollinator research labs across the country to visit them (virtually) and gather their advice or insight for our hive design. Once we finish the build stage for both the sensor device and hive model, we intend to deploy the single SMART hive at the UW arboretum. Since the weather is not optimal during the summer and winter for planting, we cannot immediately plant a pollinator garden before introducing our hive model. Thus, we would return at a later date, early next year, to begin adding the flowers to the space. In the meantime, we would focus on our education and outreach efforts by hosting virtual workshops in the summer about the pollinator crisis and in-person workshops in the late summer/fall to introduce UW students to sustainable pollinator gardens.

In terms of opportunities for student involvement, although we currently have a team of 8 UW students working on various research efforts within this project, we are actively looking to recruit more volunteers. Through our incubator program Dubhacks Next, we have a hiring page in order to recruit more UW students to join the project. These positions include Recruitment Coordinator, Business Team Lead/Member, Environmental Science Researcher, and SWE Lead/Member to name a few.

Another way in which UW students can be further involved, besides our outreach efforts, is through volunteering with us to build the pollinator garden at the apiary once we reach that stage. Furthermore, once we add the bees to the hive, through a partnership with the Puget Sound Beekeepers Association, we can create a program to train UW students to become beekeepers and have them maintain the SMART hive for the foreseeable future.

To track student involvement, we will have volunteers and workshop participants fill out brief surveys to keep a record of their participation.

Education & Outreach:

Our outreach/education goals include teaching at least 100 UW students from the general student population about the importance of pollinators via virtual workshops, leading at least 2 in-person pollinator garden planting sessions at local parks with at least 20 UW students in attendance, and distributing at least 20 seed packets of a PNW pollinator-friendly seed mix to UW students who would like to start their own sustainable pollinator garden. 

To advertise this event, we will coordinate with professors we have previously contacted for their support to present to their classes about the project. Moreover, we will also email other professors in the Chemistry, Psychology, and Biology departments who may have students interested in learning more about bees. 

To expand our reach, we will create events for the Pollinator Garden Planting Sessions (In-Person Workshops) where we will present an informative guide on how to create a sustainable pollinator garden (BEEducated_ Launch Kit for Community.pptx). By communicating with public relations departments, we can post about our project and workshops soon after acquiring funding to promote our outreach efforts. We will also draft up a press release to facilitate the coordination process with the PR department. 

Finally, to take advantage of other resources and communication channels UW students are likely to use, we will make a post on the UW Reddit as well as send in similar press release blurbs and photographs to Smirk and The Daily to both recruit volunteers and share information on the project. We will also create informational flyers (PgK Flyer_Check-In.pdf)  that could potentially be distributed through the residence halls.

To measure the impact of our efforts, we intend to have all student participants fill out a survey after each virtual workshop and in-person gardening session. We will also have students who take home a set of pollinator-friendly seeds to build their own pollinator garden fill out this form that documents the progress of their garden: https://forms.gle/epys7g2gaDSpdne96.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
Project Longevity:

A beehive itself has the most longevity and can last for up to 100 years, the microcontroller is likely the first to fail and will need to be replaced every roughly five years. To ensure it will remain in use, we will be working with the PSBA (Puget Sound Beekeepers) as well as other UW student volunteers who may be interested in learning about bees or beekeeping. Once in place, the hive should need minimal maintenance and funding. There will also be the oppurtunity to fit other beehives in the area with similar sensors and equipment.

Environmental Problem:

Bees are a vital part of our agricultural and economic systems, as they pollinate 71 of the top 100 food crops—about 90% of the world’s nutrition. However, due to a combination of factors such as parasites/pathogens, pesticides, climate change, and human mistreatment, hives in the U.S. have faced the threat of colony collapse (“Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD)) which is characterized by the mass departure of worker bees from a colony, effectively leaving the hive to die out. Based on recent studies, CCD affects sites with fewer than 5 hives at a rate of 14-17% in the U.S., resulting in the loss of thousands of hives and reduced crop viability/value. Moreover, since the pollination from bees enables genetic diversity and food production, it’s clear that bees remain a vital part of our ecosystem as they preserve nature’s biodiversity.

For our project, we’re building a SMART Hive complete with sensor capabilities that help beekeepers monitor the conditions of their hives, be it through analyzing photos of bee behavior to identify possible mite infestation, identifying abnormal behavior due to insecticides, or even simply monitoring the hive’s temperature. These, along with various other environmental factors that influence the bees’ health (symptoms of climate change and other weather concerns) pose serious concerns for beekeepers.

By establishing a partnership with the Puget Sound Beekeepers Association (PSBA) through David Zuckerman, we hope that the PSBA will sponsor our project at the UW Arboretum’s apiary (an apiary that PSBA maintains) since it is not in an enclosed area to access and it already has a public outreach component on beekeeping. Originally, we had hoped to install our SMART Hive at the UW Farm, however, installing a hive there is not possible due to public liability and safety concerns. Hence, we will focus on deploying our hive at the apiary in the UW Arboretum and work with David Zuckerman (Manager of Horticulture) to fulfill the necessary approval process.

Without bees it will be very difficult to maintain current food production and levels of biodiversity. Thus, the BEEducated project will mitigate the likelihood of colony collapse occurring by providing beekeepers with an affordable and efficient method to track the conditions of their hives

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

There are two main ways the impacts can be measured, the students involved and the condition of the bees. The measurement of student involvement is relatively simple with counting and occasional brief surveys. The condition of the bees and ease of use is something a little more difficult to measure, but the plan involves user experience surveys as well as collecting data about the conditions of the hive to extrapolate useful information concerning the bees’ numbers and health.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $3,910
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Budget Breakdown with items and purpose
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Technology + Licenses5601560
Research Honorarium100011000
User Research Compensation2520500
DHT 11 Sensor5420
Electret Sensor1.501015
Raspberry 3 Pi1002200
GPU8001800
Additional Hardware/Software Componenets3001300
Wood Slabs1001100
Package Honey Bees2001200
Hive Tool15115
Bee Brush10110
Bee Smoker40140
Seed Packets250100
Printing Educational Flyers50150

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $3,910

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Recruitment3 weeksEnd of May
Community Partnerships3 monthsAugust
Flyers + Digital Materials2 weeksJune
Complete training a model to ID varroa mite2 monthsJuly
Select cloud service2 weeksJune
Core Experience1 monthJuly
Conduct virtual pollinator crisis education workshops and recruitment of volunteers2 weeksJuly
Implement sensors into hive design1 monthAugust
Design and Implement Secondary Items1 monthAugust
Usability Study2 weeksAugust
Improving Models4 monthsOctober
Host in-person sustainable pollinator garden workshops highlighting other sustainable points on campus1 weekSeptember
User testing and further design iterations5 monthsOctober

Project Approval Forms:

Q Center Menstruation Station: Making menstrual wellbeing sustainable and accessible

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UW Farm Interim Development Coordinator

Executive Summary:

During the last two years, the UW Farm has cultivated a dramatic increase in student use and interest, a doubling of food production and land area, new organic and Salmon-Safe certifications, a new food security role on campus in partnership with the UW Food Pantry, a growing food sovereignty partnership with wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ Intellectual House, and expanded demands for research collaborations.  The University Sustainability Action Plan identifies food sustainability as a priority for our campus.  In that plan, there is strong support for university facilities to purchase directly from the UW Farm and for the farm to grow as a living laboratory for campus. Concurrently, UW Farm funding has stagnated in part because of rising student labor costs and pandemic-related decreases in Housing and Food Services (HFS) purchasing and UW Grounds support. It is critical that the UW Farm develop a strategic action plan to address the challenges in meeting present and future demands for academic programming.   

The UW Farm Advisory Committee has been working closely with the Farm Manager to identify areas in need of staffing and mechanisms for funding and fundraising. This is a crucial moment of farm growth.  We urgently need support to collaborate in developing a strategic action plan for the farm for the next ten years. This process includes identifying areas of need and options for staffing to fill those needs, identifying and creating pathways for additional revenue, and working with UW Advancement to identify outside funding sources for the UW Farm. With this support, the farm can continue to respond to growing student demand, center outreach to diverse student populations, and be a shining example of sustainability at UW.

This strategic, short-term position - the UW Farm Interim Development Coordinator - is available for a graduate student to learn with the farm leadership as we research and build a coalition across the university.  Specifically, this graduate student role - designated as a Research Assistant (RA) - will work with the UW Farm Manager to help identify needs, assist in organizational tasks, analyze student involvement data, prepare materials for strategic planning meetings, develop graphics for presentations with potential campus partners, and work with farm staff to ease some of the administrative burdens of running a campus farm. Currently, there is only one permanent staff member, so gaining the support of an RA would make a substantial difference. Additionally, this role will support the farm through an important capacity-building moment, with increased need for food security, food sovereignty, and food systems programming through the pandemic and beyond. The outcome of this work includes a strategic action plan for a more sustainable program better scaled to the farm’s funding model and student demand. The proposal requests $45,045 to support this RA position and $7,200 to support the farm manager’s time collaborating in this work, totalling this grant request to $52,245.   We believe this position is vital for helping the farm move forward with a long-term strategic action plan for growth in both production and education for our campus.  

This proposal is designed to help the UW Farm develop the strategic capacity of the farm to manage growth in its operations.  The RA will be housed in the Environmental Studies department and will report to Dr. Eli Wheat (Program on the Environment & Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health & Co-Chair - Farm Advisory Committee).  However, the student in this position will also work closely with Perry Acworth (UW Farm Manager) and Dr. Yona Sipos (Core Faculty - Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health & Co-Chair - Farm Advisory Committee). This position is essential to the sustainable functioning of the UW Farm, as the RA will further develop and support the potential for transdisciplinary academics and help grow ongoing programmatic relationships centered in access, inclusion, and equity, as exemplified by our relationships with wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ Intellectual House and the UW Food Pantry.

Student Involvement:

One graduate student will be hired part-time as a Research Assistant (RA) for 20 hours per week for three quarters. This student will report to Eli Wheat with site supervisor, Perry Acworth. It is essential that the student understand the educational programming and production systems of the UW Farm. However, the primary job of the RA will be to help strategize and support the creation of a stronger cross-campus coalition of departments and units willing to help integrate the farm more deeply within academic programs and opportunities. In collaboration with the UW Farm Advisory Committee, this student will help translate these relationships into mutualistic funding partnerships through a long-term, capacity-building strategic plan.

Education & Outreach:

We envision that with the support and capacities of this Research Assistant, the UW Farm will be able to move from reacting to student needs to proactively developing educational opportunities for students, faculty, and community members alike. In this, we aim to to extend the breadth of transdisciplinary courses and programs offered by departments and units in partnership with the farm. Experiential and hands-on learning opportunities abound at the farm and support student access to high impact practices of active learning. Increasing access, inclusion, equity, and justice in food production spaces is central to our mission. The RA will further help the farm realize this principle by cultivating justice-driven, generative partnerships. Additionally, we will create mentorship opportunities to support students interested in farming and food systems - especially those historically excluded from these spaces. Increasing farm capacity can also translate into innovative research opportunities for students and faculty. Beyond university partnerships, we also hope to advance community engagement and educational opportunities by providing a thriving space that local schools and organizations can use to inspire students. Finally, supporting the academic success of all students on campus also means ensuring that they are food secure. We can contribute to this through collaboration with our partner, the UW Food Pantry. The UW Farm is a powerhouse of visionary activity. This RA position will provide vital support for a strategic analysis of our efforts and help us focus our work in ways that best match student needs and university priorities.    

To communicate this work to the broader UW community, the RA will assist in social media engagement and publication strategies such as writing for the UW Farm newsletter. Specifically, the RA will contribute social media content to post on the UW Farm’s and other UW social media platforms. This RA will also mentor UW Farm AmeriCorps members and student staff interested in gaining this outreach skill. Using data from the analysis of student involvement, the RA will also reach out to student-run journalistic organizations, like The Daily, Currents, and FieldNotes to raise awareness of student-driven research and advancements in environmental justice taking place on the farm. Finally, the UW Farm will continue to take an active role in recruiting community engaged service learners through the Community Engagement & Leadership Education Center (CELE).

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Waste
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
  • Social Justice
Project Longevity:

The UW Farm has a well established reputation of excellence in leadership on campus sustainability efforts. This project will have an enormously important impact on the future of the UW Farm and its continued growth in integrating with academic departments and units across our university. This is a strategic moment to craft a sustainable strategic action plan for the UW Farm to grow even deeper roots and multi- and transdisciplinary partnerships to support its longevity.  During the COVID-19 pandemic, the farm’s prominence and potential has been increasing through strengthened and persistent partnerships with the UW Food Pantry and wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ Intellectual House. Student food insecurity is rising, as is support and demand for programming related to sustainable food systems and agriculture. The UW Botanic Gardens (UWBG) - the academic program in which the farm is housed - is currently undergoing a programmatic restructuring that includes hiring a new Director and creating a new position of Academic Coordinator. Additionally, the College of the Environment has recently initiated the search for a new Assistant Teaching Professor in the Environmental Studies department - this hire has in it some time to support curricular development at the UW Farm. Now is the right moment to invest the time and resources in supporting student sustainability learning and leadership on the farm by developing appropriate cross-campus support. Though this RA-ship is only planned for three academic quarters, the support during this transformative time will enable staffing to make both quality production and education possible on this site into the long term.

Environmental Problem:

The UW Farm is currently meeting a number of priority areas in sustainability, but is facing challenges in programmatic sustainability. The UW Farm is well-known throughout the campus community and within the larger bioregion of Cascadia as a center for teaching and inspiring food system-engaged student sustainability leaders. As student and community interest in the farm has continued to grow, farm management has had to face a difficult choice: either scale back programming and risk excluding certain student groups and units, or work with the campus community to identify and sustainably support programs that are in high demand, but are currently underfunded. Though the food production poundage coming out of the UW Farm is impressive, the sustainability challenge we are meeting isn’t measured in pounds of carbon or kilowatts of energy. It will be measured by our success in scaling farm production and education activities to match the capacity of our labor force. The outcome of this project will be a strategic plan that identifies and cultivates an actionable path forward for the UW Farm to sustainably fund staffing for transdisciplinary and applied ecological, environmental, and food system sustainability programming to support student learning and community leadership.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Since the sustainability challenge that the UW Farm is grappling with is that of scale and programmatic sustainability, we believe the following measures will best capture the specific impact of this RA-ship:

  • Collaborating with the Farm Advisory Committee and partners to complete a strategic action plan which will help guide UW Farm priorities and cross-campus partnership development.
  • Analyzing and presenting student-use data to determine centers of student activity and potential untapped departmental collaborators.
  • Constructing a benefit-cost analysis tool that will help guide UW Farm decision-making, for example as we weigh opportunities for growth and development against costs of programmatic expansion.
  • Identifying a sustainable staffing model for the farm and suggesting pathways forward to build or restructure farm practices to meet that model.     

We also imagine that this strategic capacity-building RA-ship will enhance the sustainability of current UW Farm goals. These goals, and their associated impacts, include:

  • Providing students with practical urban farming experience, from planning to production to the table.
  • Creating a model of sustainable and resilient urban food production at the UW.
  • Providing reliable, predictable, certified organic, salmon-safe certified, GAP or and quality food-safety certified produce for sales, including but not limited to the UW Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), and UW Housing & Food Services (HFS).
  • Providing over $17,000 worth of produce and garden starter seeds and plants free of charge for other uses such as the Humblefeast, UW Food Pantry, student gleaning teams, UW Farm events, and select campus fundraisers and non-UW organizations and area food banks.
  • Facilitating food sovereignty initiatives and the growing of traditional foods and preserving of farming practices in cooperation with wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ, the UW Intellectual House under the Office of Minority Affairs, including the Native Garden Plot at the Center for Urban Horticulture.
  • Linking, supervising and mentoring the practice of urban farming directly to over 24 interdisciplinary academic programs in the study of food, including but not limited to coursework, independent research, capstone and culminating experiences, and other experiential-learning opportunities including mentoring and collaborating on numerous ongoing CSF grants.
  • Being a welcoming neighbor to the immediate community by engaging with visitors and offering volunteer programs to both UW and non-UW individuals.
  • Supporting remote learning via multiple platforms daily, especially in the COVID era, to the general public and UW students and faculty in the areas of urban food systems, sustainability and resiliency.
Total amount requested from the CSF: $52,245
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

This amounts to fully covering one graduate student for 9 months with a benefit load of 22.4% and tuition waiver for 3 quarters.
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
RA salary ($/month, over 9 months)26199$23,571
Benefits ($/month, over 9 months)586.6569$5,280
Tuition Waiver (per quarter)53983$16,194
UW Farm Manger Time - supervision ($/hour)40180$7,200

Non-CSF Sources:

Faculty time for this project is supported by in-kind support from CoE, the School of Public Health, HFS, and wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ
ItemCost Per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Faculty Time - Yona Sipos ($/hour)55144$7,920
Faculty Time - Eli Wheat ($/hour)55288$15,840
Project Completion Total: $76,005

Timeline:

Where Q1 = Fall Quarter 2021, Q2 = Winter Quarter 2022, and Q3 = Spring Quarter 2022
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Stakeholder MeetingsQ112/17/2021
Budgetary Option Matrix For EducationQ112/17/2021
UW Farm User Data AnalysisQ112/17/2021
Draft Strategic PlanQ23/18/2022
Continue to Build Coalition of SupportQ23/18/2022
Final Strategic PlanQ36/10/2022
Strategic Plan Presentation Q36/10/2022

Solar-Powered Electric Bicycle Charging Station Network

Executive Summary:

UW Solar proposes to build a solar-powered charging station adjacent to the Molecular Engineering and Sciences building that will serve ten electric bicycles (e-bikes). This charging station will also contain a second-life electric vehicle (EV) battery for energy storage. The total estimated cost of this system is $28,430, and the estimated time until the installation is complete is 4 quarters. The team has already raised $5,000, and therefore is asking CSF for $23,430 to complete the project. This project serves the combined sustainability goals of promoting sustainable transportation, reducing emissions, and increasing the visibility of solar on campus.

The design idea is a continuation of the product research and development for the PotentiaLi Energy team, which was recently awarded the Clean Energy Prize in the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Competition. This award includes approximately $5,000 that the team is making available for this project. Based on initial calculations, one charging station battery can charge up to ten e-bikes using only one second-life EV battery, five solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, and a maximum power point (MPPT) charge controller. The solar panel system will feed the battery, which can support e-bike charging at any time of day. UW Solar students, with assistance of the UW Infrastructure Lab, will track the success of the station by recording the electricity produced in kWh and the number of bikes charged per day, and report these results through the UW Solar website (http://uwsolar.be.uw.edu/).

Anne Eskridge, Director of Transportation Services, confirmed that there are several bike racks with canopies that offer opportunities to site this project. According to our analysis of solar capacity opportunities, the most promising location is the bike rack by the western corner of the Molecular Engineering and Sciences building. It is a pre-existing structure with proximity to the Burke-Gilman trail and constant exposure to the sun. Our project team includes UW Solar members and two mentors, Professors Jan Whittington and Daniel Kirschen.

Preliminary research from the team suggests that many components are available on the market at reasonable prices. Table 1 below outlines the costs associated with these components. The cost of the battery includes the cost of a battery management system and any testing that will be done on the battery, which can be done at the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds.

System Components Function Cost Estimate
Second life batteries  Energy storage $2200
Solar Panels Energy Generation $1800
MPPT Charge Controller Tracks maximum power transfer $500
Charging cables Provide power to bikes $200
Metal lock box Electrical security  $400
Other Electronic Components Current limiting, digital interface $500
Total   $5600

Table 1: System Components Cost Estimate

There are additional costs associated with the project installation, which are reflected in Table 2. The project will have to be installed by a vendor since it involves a change to campus infrastructure. Installation will be overseen by the UW administration and shadowed and advised by the student team. As with past UW Solar projects, students will work with administrators such as UW Procurement to produce and publish an RFP, select a contractor, and oversee construction and commissioning.

Budget Item Function Cost Estimate
Installation Cost Permitting and Installation $20,600
Installation Administration (30%) UW Procurement & Capital Projects $6,030
Sales Tax (8.8%) Tax on installation cost $1800
Total Estimated Cost   $28,430
Existing Funds   $5,000
Requested Funds from CSF   $23,430

Table 2: Requested Funds from CSF

This project is a proof-of-concept which will be useful for improving the sustainability of campus infrastructure, encouraging more environmentally friendly means of transportation and sparking interest in renewable energy.

Student Involvement:

Our team consists of an interdisciplinary group of undergraduate and graduate students from UW Solar who specialize in different aspects of PV system design and installation.  The participating students are both undergraduates and graduate students from the following programs or majors: Mathematics, Architecture, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Science and Resources Management, and Urban Design and Planning. The team has a partnership with UW Transportation, and has the support of faculty in the Urban Design and Planning and the Electrical and Computer Science Department. The assets will be transferred to UW Transportation, as they will be part of the bike system.

Up to this point, Radha Iyer and Josh Philip have conducted architectural design, mechanical analysis, and site assessment. Owen Johnson and James Clough have been working on electrical design. Kelsey Foster is the team leader, project manager, and initial designer of the electrical system. Evan Gray and Stanislau Kabacheuski are members of the PotentiaLi Energy team along with Kelsey. They are MBA students and provided marketing and financial expertise during the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Competition. The UW Solar advisor is Professor Jan Whittington. Professor Daniel Kirschen has advised the project as well and represents the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. The entire team participated in the proposal and cost estimation process. If funded, the team will expand to include students from all three campuses and additional majors, and will recruit new members through UW Solar.

Education & Outreach:

One of our goals is to demonstrate the feasibility of using second life batteries with solar power to provide energy. Additionally, bringing e-bike charging infrastructure to campus will help publicize e-bikes as a more attractive alternative to commuting by vehicles powered by fossil fuels. Current PV systems on campus are “out of sight and out of mind” for most students on campus. Our system will bring these technologies to a level where all students can learn, interact, and benefit from them. We are designing our system such that the PV systems would be visible from the ground level, and choosing a heavily trafficked location for the installation. As part of the system, each charging station will have an interface to display the state of charge for each bicycle. In addition, there will be a main display to show the power entering the system from the PV panels, and power leaving the systems to the load. The project will provide education about the capacity and benefits of a PV system. We also plan to place signage near the charging station canopy that will explain the project and the campus entities involved. Should we receive CSF funding, this signage will also prominently display the role of the CSF in making the project development and installation possible.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Transportation
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

The three main components of our project that will need to be maintained over time are the panels for energy generation, the battery for energy storage, and an MPPT charge controller for distribution of energy to the bikes themselves. The longevity and maintenance of these components is as follows:

The standard warranty period for solar panels is 25 years, however, panels can continue to produce sufficient amounts of energy long past this threshold, for up to 70 years. Electricity generation can then be guaranteed to last for at least 20 years.

Batteries will be stored within a waterproof housing, as will the remainder of the  components such as the charge controller. This housing itself will be encased within a secondary steel structure to keep wiring and cables safely stored. The full assembly will then guarantee that all electrical components are protected from the elements, and so will need little to no maintenance. All electrical components will be securely placed within housing that will only be accessible to maintenance personnel. Once the second-life battery reaches the end of its life (which will be a minimum of ten years), it can be recycled and replaced with a similarly rated second-life battery. Additionally, any second-life batteries purchased will have a warranty period of at least ten years.

We expect to receive a warranty from the contractor for 25 years as part of the bid, however, if this is not possible the budget is designed to include enough funds to replace some items such as cables and the battery at least once within the project lifespan. UW Transportation, as the intended owner of the asset, is a self-sustaining organization on campus with its own budget and resources that could be potentially available for maintenance. Overall our project is designed to remain intact and functional for a minimum of 25 years. If more funding is necessary, we look to fund the project as we have done so thus far, with grants and prizes.

Environmental Problem:

Target 10 of the University of Washington’s Sustainability Action Plan (SAP) is focused on the need for UW to reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030. The bike station project addresses two of the main action items identified for this target in the SAP: The implementation of the campus solar plan and the electrification of the UW Transportation Services vehicle fleet.  Solar for bike canopies is a potential area of expansion for the campus solar plan. E-bikes are already in use for mail services on campus, and are becoming increasingly popular with students, staff, and faculty, but e-bike charging infrastructure has yet to be considered by UW. The UW transportation electrification plan to convert the vehicle fleet to EVs will result in an influx of end-of life EV batteries. However, once these batteries are no longer suitable for use in EVs, they can be used in second-life applications that are less degrading, such as for small-scale battery storage. The solar e-bike charging station is an ideal application for these batteries.

In addition, the UW SAP includes Target 7, which is to lower dependence on automobiles for commuting to campus. E-bikes offer an easier and more reliable mode of transportation than traditional bikes and may prove to be attractive alternatives for people willing to try riding instead of driving to campus, especially if the possibility of charging the bike is available on campus. For people who want to commute regularly on an e-bike to campus, bike ownership can be more affordable than e-bike rental. Lastly, the UW campus electrical grid tie with Seattle City Light is nearing capacity, and its upgrade will cost $40 million or more---which means that any effort to generate off-grid electricity on campus will be beneficial to the campus as a whole, providing more independent, renewable, and local power.

As a result, our project is an example of sustainable infrastructure from a renewable energy use, transportation electrification, and material waste reduction standpoint. UW Transportation Services has already expressed interest in the ability to charge mail delivery bikes in our proposed facility.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Our team intends to implement a meter that will measure how much electricity is produced by the solar panels and used by e-bikes. The data will be stored as kWh of energy, and can be used to demonstrate the ability for a renewable energy system to meet the demand of electrified transportation in an off-grid application with battery storage. Furthermore, we will analyze the project in a cost-benefit analysis study comparing conventional commuting fuel costs to e-bike infrastructure and charging costs. The electricity saved will be directly compared against non-renewable sources of electricity, but it will also be converted into miles traveled so that we can approximate the amount of carbon emissions that were avoided by using a solar-powered e-bike over a standard gas-powered car. Additionally, we will track the number of bikes charged each day, and we can estimate an upper limit to the number of cars that were kept off the road. In addition to tracking the impacts of solar power, we will also analyze the benefits of repurposing lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles. At the end of their useful life in a vehicle, EV batteries still contain about 80% charge capacity. By repurposing a battery, we avoid the harmful emissions associated with the production of lithium-ion batteries. We will calculate the reduction in emissions for each charging station constructed. The educational impact can partly be measured by the number of students involved in the project, which we are predicting will expand after recruiting for UW Solar in fall quarter 2021.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $23,430
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

This table gives a high-level overview of our budget. For a more specific cost breakdown, see the Executive Summary.
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Installation Cost20600120600
Installation Administration603016030
Sales Tax180011800
TOTAL28430

Non-CSF Sources:

The money left from the $5000 prize after tax will go towards the funding of this project.
Non-CSF SourceTypeAmount
Clean Energy PrizePrize Money$5000 (before tax)
Project Completion Total: $28,430

Timeline:

This timeline is subject to change, but reflects that the installation should be complete by the end of Spring Quarter 2022.
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
System Component Identification5 monthsJune 7th, 2021
Research and Initial Design7 monthsNovember 1, 2021
Design Feasibility Study and Modeling1 monthDecember 10, 2021
Site Approval4 monthsFebruary 15, 2022
Standards and Regulations Approval3 monthsFebruary 15, 2022
System Prototyping and Baseline Testing3 monthsApril 1, 2022
System Construction and Installation3 monthsMay 15, 2022
Project Publicizing 3 monthsJune 3, 2022

Biodiversity Green Wall Restoration

Executive Summary:

Spearheaded and designed by the Green Futures Lab with funding from the CSF, the UW Biodiversity Green Wall was completed in the fall of 2012, transforming two blank concrete walls into lush urban habitat. Located in the southeast corner of Gould Hall on 15th Avenue and NE 40th Street, the award-winning project has been widely publicized and has the potential to provide numerous benefits such as reducing building energy needs, mitigating heat island effects, conserving potable water, reducing stormwater pollution, and increasing urban biodiversity. https://greenfutures.be.uw.edu/2019/07/25/biodiversity-green-wall-system/

Early 2019, the required irrigation system for the Biodiversity Green Wall (Green Wall) malfunctioned and has not been able to be repaired. Consequently, there has been 100% mortality of the plantings on the wall, despite considerable effort to keep them alive over the summer by hand watering. Most recently, Covid-19 has barred progress and efforts to get the Green Wall up and running again.

Since Fall of 2020 we have been engaging in conversations with Green Wall stakeholders, including UW Facilities, UW Grounds, PAE Engineering, and TRANE Engineering to deduce issues and determine solutions. PAE was able to determine that there was a communication malfunction between the controller and the transducer electrical systems, resulting in the failure of the potable backup water system. Unfortunately, Covid delayed any further investigations.

There is strong renewed desire in getting the irrigation system functioning again, and the Green Wall planted before students return to campus this coming Autumn term. We have had reputable mechanical engineers troubleshoot the Green Wall System to assess what needs to happen in terms of mechanical and electrical fixes to get it up and running again. Although there is some indication that the controller is working, the wires within the system are not colored according to industry standard and documentation on the system is missing, so PAE Engineering has recommended to us to replace everything (controller, transducer, wiring, and user interface) with a simpler system.  While we are hoping to repair rather than replace the system, we have been advised that the labor to diagnose and repair could be a similar cost to replacing it with a better, more straightforward system and so are using the quote we have received for that in this proposal.  However, we are continuing our consultation from other experts.

Once the Green Wall irrigation system has been repaired, we will begin replanting efforts which will require replacing the soil and plants. We have worked with Solterra Solutions in the past and will seek a similarly qualified company and prioritize using Pacific Northwest native plants. Plants from the UW SER nursery will also be sought. Re-design and planting efforts will be student-led, with current Green Futures Lab Manager Emma Petersen taking the lead. We are also looking into long-term maintenance solutions to ensure the continued success of the Green Wall and its critical water harvest and irrigation system. While all organization of the project will be student-led, the Green Wall requires the mechanical engineering expertise and continuity of maintenance by professionals who will be able to adequately oversee the unique, sustainable irrigation system, as well as the plant survival and health;  we expect these to be two different entities. We have reached out to Campus Stewardship to hopefully provide plant and irrigation system stewardship in the future, but in the meantime we anticipate needing outside expertise and so have included line items in this budget to fund a water system overseer for one year, and likewise, for plant establishment and maintenance for one year.

The Biodiversity Green Wall has proven to be an invaluable resource and asset to the College of Built Environments, the University of Washington, and the surrounding community,  but currently the Green Wall is not able to provide any of its prior sustainable and educational services. We feel very strongly that repairing and renewing the Green Wall is a priority for the College of Built Environments, Department of Landscape Architecture, and the UW Green Futures Lab and its revival will be a happy symbol of better times when students return in the autumn.

Student Involvement:

Student involvement for the Biodiversity Green Wall peaked during the design and construction portion of the project. Students logged over an estimated 1,350 hours working on design, coordination, construction, documentation, monitoring and dissemination. The Green Wall has been an integral part of the College of Built Environments and Department of Landscape Architecture as a learning tool and will continue to do so, should it be renewed, providing ample opportunities for students to use the wall as a research tool.

Current Graduate Student and Green Futures Lab Student Manager Emma Petersen will be leading the effort to repair the irrigation system and replant the Green Wall over Spring and Summer 2021. She will operate as the main point of contact between different stakeholders and coordinate any activities needed to help renew the Green Wall. This offers her a chance to develop skills in project management, construction, campus coordination, maintenance, research, and leadership of peers, UW staff and a contractor. Emma will be graduating from the UW this Spring and wrapping up her Green Futures Lab duties this summer. After we search for and find a suitable replacement candidate, Emma will work closely with the new Green Futures Lab manager over the summer so they can learn the project management skills necessary to oversee the maintenance organization of the Green Wall. This person will be in close contact with the professional maintenance steward and be the main point of contact for any communication surrounding the Green Wall.

Students will also be able to take part in installing Green Wall plants this summer following all UW Covid-19 protocols. Emma Petersen will take the lead on the new design scheme for the Green Wall, potentially with help from other landscape architecture students and the new Green Futures Lab manager. After the Green Wall has been repaired and replanted, students will be invited to use the Green Wall as a case study and a research tool once again.

Overall, the Green Wall repair will create two job opportunities for students to learn valuable project management experience, and an undetermined amount of volunteer opportunities in the future.

Education & Outreach:

The College of Built Environments houses over 700 students and 185 faculty/staff in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning, Construction Management, and Real-Estate - all disciplines that directly benefit from the educational and research components of the Green Wall. Because of its ecological and stormwater benefits, the Green Wall also has the potential to appeal to the Engineering Departments as well as the College of the Environment. With its proximity to the main campus and Schmitz Hall, the Green Wall has the potential to be a stopping point along guided Campus Tours, reaching out to prospective students as well as demonstrating UW’s commitment to sustainability. Students will have the opportunity to research and monitor the Biodiversity Green Wall and present their findings in various courses as well as co-publish and present this research at conferences and in academic publications. Because of its online documentation, the Biodiversity Green Wall has the potential to be a role model for other Design Colleges and Universities across the country as a showcase of sustainability and a display of integrated interdisciplinary work. The Green Wall aligns with the goals of the College of Built Environment to integrate sustainability for a “tangible improvement of built and natural environments.”

We have some remaining funds from our last round of CSF funding which is budgeted to create educational signage. We are still planning on creating this signage for the enjoyment of students and passersby once the wall is functional again.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Project longevity is very important to us. We have already proven that the Green Wall can be constructed and successful but none of that necessarily matters unless the Green Wall continues to live and operate on the side of Gould Hall. As stated before, in order to prevent irrigation and system failure issues in the future we believe our best option is to hire  a professional with mechanical and electrical engineering expertise to ensure that the water system is functional and easily understood. Therefore have included a line item in this budget to fund this maintenance professional for one year. UW Grounds has indicated that they are not able to provide the irrigation scheduling and oversight or plant maintenance so we have also included a line item to hire an outside landscape contractor. In the future we will look to the Campus Stewardship Office for further financial assistance for ongoing stewardship. While we try to include student involvement wherever possible in this project, the unfortunate reality is that students move on after a few years and do not necessarily have the expertise to oversee the necessary mechanical, electrical, irrigation or plant health aspects of the Green Wall. Hiring  professionals to oversee the Green Wall maintenance will ensure system failure does not occur again, and that the plantings on the wall will thrive and continue to provide their environmental benefits.  Leadership from the Campus Sustainability Fund, with long-term knowledge of the project, is also making this recommendation.

Environmental Problem:

The Biodiversity Green Wall has proven to successfully address several environmental problems in one holistic system.  Issues of native habitat destruction, interrupted food webs, polluted stormwater runoff, carbon reliance, urban heat island effects, water consumption and waste, climate changing conditions, and atmospheric impacts are addressed through the multiple components of the demonstration project. Additionally, the project will explore variations of the aesthetics of “green” technologies, as well as maintaining and budgeting for sustainable systems.  

Located at Gould Hall and populated with local and native herbaceous and evergreen plants, the Biodiversity Green Wall harvests rooftop water diverted into a “living wall”, providing native habitat, rainwater reuse, stormwater volume runoff reduction and water quality improvements.  The Green Wall provides vertical habitat, potentially assists with building insulation and summer cooling (reducing costs, energy use and carbon emissions), and provides educational and aesthetic opportunities for students, faculty and staff. The Green Wall addresses several aspects of sustainability outlined in the UW Climate Action Plan including water recycling, sustainable land use planning, sustainable and local food production, energy and carbon footprint reduction, and UW green marketing and branding efforts.  

The Green Wall is a small scale project, acting as a working model to educate, inform and excite the campus community about “green” technologies and test the capacity of these systems to address multiple sustainability issues.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Building Performance:  The 200+ buildings on campus depend on large amounts of energy, which is correlated to both global climate and local heat island effects. Rising energy costs during the current financial crisis may need to be paid with increased tuition. Our initial research, funded by a UW Green Seed grant, showed that the area behind the Green Wall did experience a cooling effect which in turn reduces building cooling costs in the summer. Research also indicated mollification of the heat island effect near to the vegetation on the wall. The Varey Garden as a whole benefits from the Green Wall’s mitigation of the urban heat island effect.

Water Consumption:  With a reliably-functioning water harvest and irrigation system, we will be able to track the amount of potable water use that the water harvesting system provides. Existing flow sensors in the system, and digital tracking allows researchers to quantify these benefits.  Also, the water sensors built into the irrigation system will allow quantification of the stormwater that is prevented from entering the city’s drainage system from the impermeable roof surface of Gould.  With over 325 acres of impermeable surfaces on campus (UW Salmon-Safe-Assessment, 2010), and a significant percentage of irrigated landscaping, data from the Biodiversity Green Wall could be useful to project water bill cost savings and gallons of water reused.

Biodiversity:  Campus and urban development degrades native terrestrial habitat, interrupting food webs and local landscape ecologies.  The Biodiversity Green Wall has researched the potentials for vertical surfaces to serve as biodiversity corridors and feed native seed banks. We have carefully documented the plants grown on the wall, identifying those that are most successful to grow in this situation, and documenting the value of native drought-tolerant species.  In our “UW Green-Seed” - funded research we made over 600 hours of observation on the wall, verifying its use by insects and birds.  Dark-eyed juncos nested on the wall, successfully raising at least one brood of chicks.

Human Delight:  Because the Biodiversity Green Wall is within view of passers-by on 15th Ave., from users of the new Population Health Building, users of the Varey Garden, and those in the Green Futures Lab, students will have the opportunity to assess human response to the Green Wall through sociological and perceptual studies.  Such Nature + Health studies will help inform campus staff of the value of these green new technologies, and the potential to visually educate and inspire the campus community.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $40,570
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

We have been advised that the Campus Technology Fee funds could be applied to the Water Harvesting Upgrade / Repair and Maintena
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
(TRANE controls) Controller/Water System Replacement and/or Repair + Servicing$18,130
(TRANE controls) Service 4 quarterly on site inspections Monthly remote inspection$7,920
Transducer, Sensors, Irrigation Components$600
Student Management (2)$24 hr. w/ benefits120 hours 60 hours = 180 hours$4,320
Plants + Soils$6,000
Plant Maintenance and Irrigation Oversight$300/month12$3,600

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Define Irrigation & System IssuesNow05/31/2021
Replace Controller, Transducer, Wiring, System Interface as neededSpring 202106/30/2021
Redesign planting schemeSummer 202108/31/2021
Resoil and replant wallSummer 202108/31/2022
Water System inspections - 1 year2021-202208/31/2022
Maintenance and Irrigation Stewardship - 1 year2021-202208/31/2022

Rhizomet (Environmental Heavy Metal Bio-Extraction Project)

Executive Summary:

We are Washington iGEM: a team of undergraduates at the University of Washington dedicated to solving problems in medicine and the environment using synthetic biology. Our project goal is to engineer E. coli to extract lead and arsenic from wastewater with target proteins, and construct a biofilm-based filter. We currently own lab space within the UW Biochemistry Department and will conduct our wetlab research at this site. Due to the experimental nature of our project, we estimate the total cost of our project to be $25,000-$30,000 and are thus requesting CSF to provide $17,000 - $22,000 to fund the remainder of our project. In addition to the negative health effects on ecological life, heavy metal pollution affects human health in detrimental ways and is the cause of millions of deaths and disabilities worldwide. With the guidance from professors, mentors, and advisors, the Washington iGEM team is strongly motivated to cure local water used by the University of Washington/Puget Sound area and beyond.

Here is a link to our website which shows all of our prior research projects:

Washington iGEM 2020

 

Student Involvement:

Team Composition:

Our team is primarily run by UW undergraduates students who are strongly motivated to induce environmental change. We had a recruitment cycle in Winter 2021, and currently, we consist of 24 undergraduate students who are all divided into subteams: Drylab, Wetlab, Human Practices, Web Development, Fundraising, and Design. Our team consists of members from various majors such as bioengineering, biochemistry, computer science, biology, and business, all of which are essential in executing a successful project, allowing collaboration of students from different backgrounds. The team is also assisted by three advisors who are dedicated past team members as well as UW graduates. In addition, Dr. Frank DiMaio, a UW professor from the Biochemistry Department, provides our team with his expertise in protein modeling, and Dr. Mari Wrinkler from the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department mentors us in kinetic modeling. We are also communicating with Anna Lauko, a graduate student from the Baker Lab, who has expressed interest to be our mentor for our wetlab research. Our team is thus well equipped to handle our project’s goals.

Subteam Descriptions:

Wetlab: in charge of the hands-on parts of synthetic biology. Focus on executing lab experiments, analyzing data, and sending parameters for drylab modeling.

Drylab: responsible for the creation of complex systems that require extensive computational modeling of proteins and reaction kinetics. Aim to optimally improve the function of existing proteins and design novel proteins to robustly develop the project by utilizing cutting edge software and applying biochemical knowledge.

Human Practices: facilitate discussions with faculty, advisors, professionals, and impacted citizens from the Puget Sound area and beyond to explore topics regarding ethical, social, political, economic, biosafety, and biosecurity factors related to the project’s research. Human Practices seeks to expand upon the technical aspects of the project to fit in a real-world context.

Web Development: maintains the portal between the team and the rest of the world. In charge of creating a project wiki page that illustrates clear visualizations of our project’s experimental data and processes.

Fundraising: manages all the finances and the raising of funds for the project. Responsible for applying to grants, presenting on crowdfunding platforms, and contacting potential sponsors, such as UW departments and companies that have similar goals.

Design: responsible for creating graphics, videos, and animations for our team’s website, presentations, public events, and merchandise.

Inclusivity:

Even though we already had a recruitment cycle earlier this year, any UW student with a passion for synthetic biology, environmental sustainability, and health are always welcome to join our team. Due to our team’s organizational structure, new members are easily able to make a difference and we pride ourselves on how well we’ve been able to maintain an environment for members to stay actively involved. Over the past year, we’ve noticed an abundance of students at UW who would like to get involved in research, and a large portion of them are interested in synthetic biology as well. Especially amidst the pandemic, only a limited number of them can get into research labs. Thus, our team aims to be inclusive by offering the opportunity for students to gain skills applicable in any lab and allow them to gain more experience in their field of interest. We also plan on including UW students during the implementation of our product. In order for the implementation phase of our project to be successful, we realize that a big part of the UW community will need to support us. We also would like to involve members of the community during the installation or launch of our product.

Education & Outreach:

Outreach - Partnerships:

We are devoted to educating the UW and the local community on pollution. Forming partnerships with other organizations with aligning interests and similar visions is an outreach goal. From a long-term and professional standpoint, our team plans to partner with local companies conducting similar research to host events and spread awareness to the general public about pollution and how synthetic biology is a sustainable solution. Our team is currently in contact with the Washington Department of Ecology, Teck American, and the Everett and Tacoma (Asarco) Smelter Restoration Sites, as well as non-profit groups such as The Northport Project and Environment Washington. As far as educational outreach within the UW community, during the upcoming school year, we hope to partner with other RSOs that are involved in environmental sustainability such as EcoReps, UW SEED, SeaDawgs, SAGE, and UW Net Impact to collaborate on a university-wide event. We are planning this event to be a synthetic biology workshop because we want to provide more opportunities for UW students, especially underclassmen, to gain tangible research experience. Those who participate in this workshop will get to perform a series of mini-experiments that parallel the research conducted by modern synthetic biologists. We have already initiated contact with some of the listed RSOs and we have everything in place on our end to execute this workshop event. Additionally, we plan to raise awareness about the problem through holding a variety of educational outreach events at the UW, catering to both faculty and students. Our annual Fall flagship panel event allows students to ask questions and learn more about our project and synthetic biology as a whole. We will include team members, professors and other experts in the field. Our team is currently in the midst of reaching out to those in the Department of Biochemistry, Oceanography, Bioengineering, and Civil and Environmental Engineering to gauge the interest of potential faculty speakers. Our goal through this event is to pique students’ interest in solving problems that affect the world around them through synthetic biology. This will also give our team the opportunity to publicize our heavy metal extraction project and earn support from UW students. We held a similar event in 2019, which consisted of a diverse panel. UW professors such as Dr. James Carothers and Dr. Jesse Zalatan, as well as local research scientists participated, and we believe a similar event will be worthwhile in our outreach efforts this year. For all our outreach events, we will use our non-CSF funds to support these events, though we expect these costs to be fairly minimal.

Outreach - Education:

Synbio for Everyone, which branched out from Washington iGEM, focuses on spreading knowledge about synthetic biology to younger children, and is currently expanding from the area of synbio to all sciences. They concentrate on improving synthetic biology education accessibility and reducing education equity gaps in STEM through outreach events. In 2019, we collectively published a 200-page curriculum, which has been translated into 20+ languages, and has been implemented in local underserved schools, STEM events, and in three different continents. This contributed to our team winning the Best Education and Public Engagement Award in the 2019 international iGEM Jamboree competition. Synbio for Everyone is now more involved in nonprofit STEM educational projects. However, we work together in our outreach efforts. In collaboration with Synbio for Everyone, we have many future events planned. For example, we want to host an event where we will teach synthetic biology to middle schools in the local Seattle area through a hands-on approach. We want to be involved in inspiring the next generation of scientists which is why we feel this endeavor is worthwhile. We also plan to host a science fair event for elementary school students. We have developed simple, fun, and safe mini-science experiments for kids to rotate through, that will teach them basic science concepts.

Outreach - Communication:

In terms of formally publicizing our research, all our findings and results will be kept track under the official Washington iGEM RSO Page (http://students.washington.edu/uwigem/#/) and the Washington iGEM Wiki Page (https://2021.igem.org/Team:Washington). It will include information about all parts of the project, from project description, design, experiments and results, modeling, and parts, to stakeholders and collaborators involved, available to the public. We also provide updates to the project as it progresses, both on our websites and on social media. Our primary method of communication to the UW community is through social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. We will advertise our events and project accolades through these media.

Environmental Impact:
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

We define long term as longer than 6 months. After 6 months, when we have developed our  solution, we plan to participate in the international iGEM Jamboree competition, the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium, and the Environmental Innovation Challenge, where we hope to receive more funding to further our project. If successful, we hope to build this project up into a startup. As a startup, we would employ the Lean Startup methodology, where we will refine our product while constantly getting feedback from stakeholders. This way we wouldn’t waste any resources, and effectively use the funds given to us. Not only do we envision our project to benefit many stakeholders in Washington state, but other locations around the nation and the world. As a startup and due to the theme of our project, we would heavily value corporate social responsibility. Many of the places we have identified that are affected by heavy metal toxins, do not have equitable access to clean water and are overexposed to environmentally unsafe pollutants. Low income communities have higher clean water insecurity, which is why these locations take priority in our long-term implementation timeline. Our project aims to address and advocate for environmental and social sustainability.

Our current biofilm based filter targets arsenic and lead, but we plan on refining its design and potentially develop a more versatile device that can extract other toxic heavy metals. There are not any current plans of commercializing our product, but we plan on forming local government partnerships that would allow us to treat polluted waters. In the long term, we will continue managing this project with our mentors giving us advice and feedback.

Environmental Problem:

Sustainability Challenge:

The challenge at hand is developing an extraction method to reduce the level of heavy metal pollution in water. Heavy metal toxicity is responsible for many health crises. It interferes with blood, bones, and the nervous system, resulting in anemia, osteoporosis, and cognitive defects. The true extent of damage is difficult to quantify due to the many adverse health effects, but lead poisoning alone accounts for half a million deaths a year and 9.3 million disabilities (WHO). Smelters have historically been strong contributors to heavy metal pollution in the environment, and their cleanup efforts have been extremely expensive.

How This Project Addresses the Sustainability Challenge:

We want to develop a sustainable synthetic biological solution to extract heavy metals from wastewater. Our goal is to engineer E. coli to extract lead and arsenic from wastewater with target proteins, and construct a biofilm-based filter. The use of biotechnology has been increasingly popular and commonly used due to its sustainability and more cost efficient aspects. Engineering bacteria, such as E. coli, with the target proteins and designing them in a way to extract heavy metals avoids releasing more toxic and inorganic compounds back into the environment. Most E. coli are actually harmless and found in the human intestinal tract. They are the most common organism engineered in labs and can be easily manipulated with well documented details and extensive reference literature. We are currently working on extracting arsenic and lead from water because we identified that abnormally high concentrations of these heavy metals are pervasive in the environment and have the potential to cause serious acute and chronic diseases such as pulmonary disease and cardiovascular disease. Compared to current in-use remediation procedures that involve excavating and replacing wastewater and polluted soil, our solution, by addressing this problem at its source, will be much more cost-effective and efficient in preventing heavy metals from impacting the environment, benefitting both the smelters and the people affected. For example, by collaborating with Teck Resources, a smelter upstream of many cities along the Columbia River, to treat heavy metal pollution at its source, our solution has the potential to benefit large populations of people in Eastern Washington.

Preliminary Installation:

All experimental research will be conducted in our laboratory in the UW Biochemistry Department. Though we suspect lead and arsenic to be the primary contributors to heavy metal pollution in waters, we don’t know for certain that UW/Lake Washington/Puget Sound is solely affected by these specific metals and to what extent these waters are polluted. Thus, we would need to execute a feasibility study to determine how to best suit the needs of the Pacific Northwest. Once we know what specifically needs to be improved, we can swiftly modify our synthesized proteins to extract harmful agents in local waters. Currently, our human practices team has conducted a preliminary extensive literature review, and have found studies that highlight heavy metal pollution in bodies of water bordering the UW, including Lake Union, Shilshole Bay, and the strait of water that connects them. Additionally, sites like Everett, Tacoma, and Northport have high concentrations of heavy metals that exceed safety limits set by the Washington Department of Ecology. With Lake Washington and Lake Union being in such close proximity to our research base, UW will be a great starting point for preliminary installation in terms of a testing site for our biofilm-based filter. Areas located around smelters such as Everett affected by heavy metal polluted wastewater and contaminated soils that pose significant risks to human and wildlife health can be prioritized following successful results at UW.

From our research, we believe that although the UW campus itself has a lower concentration of heavy metals compared to manufacturing sites, we can still produce significant results by focusing on bodies of water proximal to the UW with industrial and shipping activity, such as Lake Union and other nearby areas, such as the UW’s Union Bay Natural Area. Taking into account UW’s environmental sustainability and conservation goals, reliance on waterways, and how many UW departments conduct health and ecological research in local Seattle waters, we envision our project to have an immediate impact on the UW community. After establishing that our product indeed makes a difference, we can expand to other areas outside of UW, such as Northport, Everett, and Tacoma, that are affected with chronic and acute debilitating diseases.

Out of the total amount we are requesting from CSF to fund our project, we expect nearly 100% of the funds to be allocated to research. As for implementation costs, we plan on using our existing funds to purchase necessary testing equipment. Since the physical implementation of this restoration project is mainly driven through student efforts and volunteers, the labor and high overhead costs can be largely omitted from the implementation costs of our project. The remaining cost of implementation can be partially attributed to monitoring the levels of heavy metal pollution using analytical services provided by the College of Forest Resources to analyze and ensure the efficacy of our product. Each test costs $14, so testing would cost $700 for 50 tests total, with multiple water analyses before and after our product installation. More details in regards to how we will utilize funds can be found in our budget document.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Our project’s impacts are currently being measured and published on our team’s website on a monthly basis.

Key Performance Indicators:

  1. Scientific Progress: Verification of our product (system, proteins, or bacteria) with lab work through the use of spectrometry and other methods will show the accuracy of our filter. Recording the number of hours of total research completed on a daily basis will help ensure we adhere to our project’s timeline. We are at the planning stages of our project, so currently, this serves as the strongest performance measure.
  2. Prototype Success: Once we develop a viable prototype, recording how many liters of water we clean will be a suitable measurement. We will do so by comparing the concentration and amount of heavy metals detected before and after the treatment. A significant reduction in heavy metals would indicate success, and as of now, our target is 80% removal of heavy metals in contaminated samples.
  3. Environmental Education: we plan on hosting a variety of events for outreach purposes. This will help expose our project’s goals to the general public, and attendance at these events can be monitored to determine its success.
  4. Competition Success: We plan on applying for various environmental challenges, and the feedback that we receive from these events will help evaluate the progress of our project. We expect to present at the international iGEM Jamboree competition in Fall 2021, the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium, and the Alaska Airlines Environmental Challenge in the near future. The feedback that we receive from these events will help evaluate the progress of our project and recommendations on how to improve our product design.
  5. Implementation Sites:  Expanding from the lab, we have identified multiple towns and stakeholders affected by wastewater pollution. Having the opportunity to work with the local government and various environmental organizations to use our designed product will highlight the success of our project on a grander scale. From a long term perspective, the number of sites in which our filter is implemented will serve as the next measurement.
Total amount requested from the CSF: $20,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Full Detailed Budget is attached in an Excel file in supplementary documents section due to CSV formatting errors.
ItemTotal Cost
Molecular Biology Reagents750
gDNA Extraction Kits750
PCR: Mastermix, Polymerase, Cleanup Kits/Purification Kits450
Heating Mantle300
Gels: Agarose, SDS300
Lysis Buffer225
Antibodies1500
Western Blot Setup6000
Primers150
Genewiz - Synthesized DNA750
Agar Plates450
96-Well Plates300
Crystal Violet30
RPMI Media150
Immunoblotting300
Tubes/Conicals300
CaCl275
Western Blot - Primary and Secondary Antibodies1000
Biofab3000
Geneious (Software, 1 year, 5 Activations)2000

Non-CSF Sources:

Most of our existing funds were received from UW departments and we do not have restrictions for what these funds may be use for
SourceAmountGrant Application
Applied Math Department500N/A
Biochemistry Department2000N/A
CSE Department3000N/A
Institute of Protein Design (IPD)2000N/A
Microbiology Department 250N/A
Husky Seed Fund5000February 2022
EarthLab Innovation Grant5000January 2022
Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge Prototype Funding2500November 2021
Project Completion Total: $30,000

Timeline:

We organized our timeline based on the tasks each subteam plans to do until project completion.
SubteamTaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
DrylabDevelop ODEs to Describe Bacterial RemediationMay - Jun 18Jun 18, 2021
DrylabModel and Stimulate Bacterial Growth and Metal AbsorptionJun 18 - Jul 16Jul 16, 2021
DrylabModel Existing Protein Binding SitesMay - Jul 16Jul 16, 2021
DrylabOptimize the Structure of the Heavy Metal Binding ProteinJul 16 - Aug 13Aug 13, 2021
DrylabValidate and Optimize Model ParametersAug 13 - Sept 30Sept 30, 2021
DrylabPrepare Models and Findings for the WikiJul 16 - Oct 1Oct 1, 2021
WetlabSoftware (Geneious) TrainingMay - Jun 30Jun 30, 2021
WetlabFinalize Product Design and ProtocolMay - Jul 20Jul 20, 2021
WetlabPreparation for Lab WorkJul 20 - Aug 15Aug 15, 2021
WetlabComplete Lab Work and Process ResultsAug 15 - Oct 15Oct 15, 2021
WetlabFinalize Wiki EntriesOct 15 - Oct 25Oct 15, 2021
Human PracticesContinue Stakeholder Discussions for Regions Beyond the Puget SoundAug 1 - Sept 30Sept 30, 2021
Human PracticesDevelop Educational Outreach MaterialsJun 14 - Aug 31Aug 31, 2021
Human PracticesCollaborate with UW Departments: Oceanography, Fisheries, Forestry, UW Wetlands, etc.May - Jun 30Jun 30, 2021
Human PracticesImplementation of ProductSept 16 - Nov 30Nov 30, 2021
Human PracticesImplement Educational Outreach to Local and Affected PopulationsAug 1 - Sept 30Sept 30, 2021
Human PracticesReceive and Address Project Feedback from Affected Populations in the Greater Puget Sound AreaJun 1 - Jul 31Jul 31, 2021

Racial Justice and Equity in Environmental Science and Beyond

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Sustainability Action Arena: Video Games for Sustainability Targets at UW

Executive Summary:

The UW Sustainability Action plan has 10 targets ranging from increasing student engagement to sourcing more food locally, and despite UW's world-leading sustainability program, not all students are aware of the current goals of the plan and how they can contribute. Our group EarthGames would like to build an app that illustrates the 10 targets of the UW Sustainability Action Plan, to be played by students, faculty, and staff. The game will be both an educational tool and also a promotional tool, connecting the player to different events and groups on campus. Sustainability Action Arena will be playable on web browsers and mobile devices. The code will also be made available under a creative commons license, so other universities or groups could use the game framework to highlight their own sustainability goals. 

The prototype would be designed over the summer by our core EarthGames group, including Prof. Dargan Frierson of the Atmospheric Science department, Prof. Jessica Kaminsky from the Civil and Environmental Engineering department, lead developer Rikki Parent, a UW alumni and an experienced EarthGames programmer and artist, and at least two student employees. During the summer, this core group would get feedback on the earliest game models from UW staff. Then the 10 rough sketches of the games would be digitized by our resident game developer, Rikki Parent, and 2 to 3 hired undergraduate students over the rest of the summer. Once the Autumn quarter 2021 begins, undergraduate students in the class ATMS 495: EarthGames Studio would test all 10 prototype games while taking the class for course credit only. Another 2 to 3 undergraduates would be hired to continue building the game for a total of 5 hired students. This was the way our employee Rikki at EarthGames first learned to develop games in 2018, through a grant from CSF that funded a more experienced game developer, as well as her and other students. The importance of having an experienced designer at the start of a project is essential to its success, and once that foundation is laid, the students' own creations can flourish. During autumn quarter, we will perform several testing activities to understand how much our games help players learn about the Sustainability Action Plan. 

The game would be built and promoted online, requiring no location on campus other than the ATMS 495 class space. The proposed cost of this project is $29917.60, and we would like to start right away if funding is awarded.

Student Involvement:

Over the summer, two to three undergraduate students would be hired, using the funds from CSF, at 5-10 hours per week. They would help in the initial creation of the app, alongside experienced game developers. Then two to three additional students would be hired in autumn quarter, and we expect approximately 10 students to participate for course credit only in the EarthGames Studio class. From design and coding of the app, to testing effectiveness and publishing a fully functioning product, the students will take an active part in creation and testing of the games.

The ATM S 495: EarthGames Studio would be offered in autumn 2021, allowing more students to participate in the development of the project for course credit (students who are taking the class for credit will not be paid employees). During autumn quarter 2021, undergraduate students in the class ATMS 495: EarthGames Studio would play and test all 10 games, checking for quality of learning, and quality of play, allowing students to participate in the development of the project. This would  generate skill building for the students involved. The focus of the class would be on testing the effectiveness of the games developed over the summer, and polishing the games to enhance the overall experience. We would also be able to hire another two to three undergraduate students who are not in ATMS 495 to continue with the development of the game into its final stages, including promoting the games in multiple UW clubs.

From students who join the EarthGames class in the Atmospheric Science department, to students involved in the game jam and clubs that UW hosts, we have access to many students interested in learning game development with a green focus. We will interview students who previously took an EarthGames Studio course, and who want to continue. We will reach out to the game related clubs at the UW and see if those students would be interested as well.

Education & Outreach:

Professor Frierson will use the game as a class topic and assignment in his classroom for a day and will encourage other sustainability professors to do the same. A classroom setting allows multiple people to play the game and compare thoughts. We would like to have promotions in the HUB space, particularly the gaming center. The game will be promoted online using our EarthGames website (https://earthgames.org/), as well as through multiple clubs including UW E-sports, UW gaming coalition, and the Game Dev Club at UW, and green RSOs previously highlighted in our 60 Second Sustainability game. We will post to these clubs online spaces (including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Discord, and Twitch), as well as hopefully have students in those clubs who are new members of EarthGames Studio. We will also post a full developer log of the game on the Discord multifunctional online chat tool, and through GitHub. This can act as a way for people to share their thoughts during the development cycle, and should anyone want to adapt the game themselves later on. Graphics can be shared, as well as code, and sources. By inviting this and future ATM S 495 classes to this Discord channel, they can see how a game is made from start to finish. We will make the code and art available under a creative commons license (CC-BY-NC-SA), so other higher educational sustainability initiatives can adapt the games for use on their campuses. We believe the CC licensing will also help with generating more impressions of the game and the Sustainability Action Plan. The game will be designed in the open source game engine Godot.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Transportation
  • Waste
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
  • Social Justice
Project Longevity:

EarthGames updates all of its previous projects on the various app stores whenever needed, so we expect this game to be useful for many years. We continue to update even the original games we made like Climate Quest, which was created in 2015. All of our games are still functioning and many are used each quarter in UW classes.

Looking forward, the class ATMS: 495 EarthGames Studio, can continue to use Sustainability Action Arena as a teaching tool by having students update the ‘current events and groups’ in the game. This benefits EarthGames Studio by having simple and ongoing tasks for students, and it benefits UW Sustainability to have an app continuously updated with current events.

Previous CSF Project (and its impact) and Other Prior Experience

EarthGames developed a game called 60 Second Sustainability in 2018 with funding from CSF. The game had 21 different levels, which each introduced the work of a different environmental RSO. Our staff member, a UW student at the time, Rivkah Parent first worked with EarthGames doing art for these games, and learned programming and game design as well. The game was successful in communicating the mission of the RSOs in a concise manner, and is still used in orientation and classes at UW to introduce environmental RSOs.

This project was how our employee at EarthGames first learned to develop games in 2018, through a grant from CSF. The importance of having an experienced designer at the start of a project is essential to its success, and once that foundation is laid, the learning becomes endless. EarthGames, and lead designer, Rivkah Parent, has experience developing high-quality, visually appealing, fun games in a short time and on a limited budget. Our team as a whole has included programmer/artist students from UW Seattle and UW Bothell who have taken the EarthGames Studio independent study course or volunteered, and two faculty liaison with a strong track record of supporting student outreach and engagement. EarthGames has released 13 apps to the Apple and Google Play app stores, and our itch.io page.

The primary difference between Sustainability Action Arena and 60 Second Sustainability is the learning goals. While 60SS focused on RSOs that students could join, SAA will focus on the quantitive targets for sustainability on campus. We see the two projects as complementary, in that learning about the targets will inspire more participation in green RSOs, and vice versa.

Environmental Problem:

This project addresses awareness of the most critical sustainability efforts at the UW, as defined in the Sustainability Action Plan. We believe that, especially among students in more tech-oriented majors, there is a lack of knowledge of the sustainability goals of the university, and how they as students can contribute to the accomplishment of these goals. These tech-oriented students are particularly accessible via initiatives involving computer gaming. In our past projects on campus, EarthGames has found that there are a large number of tech-oriented students who want to help out with sustainability efforts, and share their work and knowledge with fellow students.

We will create ten “mini-game” levels, one for each target of the plan. These levels will act as unique tools to educate those who are interested in sustainability at UW, particularly it will advise them how they can get involved in each of these Sustainability Actions. We will include actionable items that the players could participate in, in the real world, as well as some quantitative information about the targets. For example, links to current organizations and events, small changes in daily activities, or a realistic view of what a more sustainable life looks like.

Example: mini-game Target #1, Doubling Sustainability Engagement of Students, Staff, and Faculty

Players must lead “virtual characters'' through a maze of the UW and surrounding neighborhood to reach sustainability events such as Sustainability Stories and Whole U Quarterly Seminars, as well as volunteer opportunities on campus and around the community. The player would be successful if they can reroute enough virtual characters to the events to double the number of people participating in the events. Links will be provided for real-world events on campus.

Example 2: Target number 6: 35% of food is from local sources by 2025.

This game will be designed to raise awareness of where on campus students can purchase locally sourced food, and which items are local. By reinforcing the importance of food choices for sustainability and highlighting local options, we hope that our game will be able to assist in achieving this target as well. For instance, students will be able to recognize that food from Field Roast, Alki Bakery and Seattle Bagel is actually locally processed, and that the UW Farm is a provider for food options across campus.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

We have three primary strategies for measuring impact. First, we will perform testing of the games during fall quarter, and will measure, via pre- and post-surveys, how much new information the players learned about the Sustainability Action Plan. Some of these tests will be performed in advance of release, so the games can be modified for better impact. 

Second, we will encourage teachers at UW and RSOs to use the app in their events, and will attempt to track engagement from them via short questionnaires. For comparison, Prof. Frierson typically uses the 60 Second Sustainability game as a homework activity in his 100-level classes at UW, and this often leads to over 100 student impressions per year. 

Third, the project's impact would also be measured by the downloads and plays of the game on various platforms. Each of the app stores that we use have anonymous download tracking, and we plan to use this for Sustainability Action Arena as a way to measure success without privacy concerns.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $29,918
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
EarthGames lead developer Rivkah Parent monthly salary, $3463/month + 30.3% fringe benefit rate4512.295.524817.60
Hourly student employees are paid at $16.69/hour + 22.2% fringe benefit rate = $20.40/hour. 5 students will work an average of 50 hours each, for a total of 250 hours.20.402505100.00
Prof. Dargan Frierson (Atmospheric Sciences): Unfunded project lead 0N/A0
Prof. Jessica Kaminsky (Civil and Environmental Engineering): Unfunded collaborator 0N/A0
Students of ATMS: 495 (Autumn Quarter) Unfunded UW students: Will receive college credit through course ATM S 4950N/A0

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $29,918

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Plan 10 games based on the UW Sustainability Action Plan. These would be simplified concepts, drawn with paper and pen, with simple point systems. Should be able to play the games without any digital aspect.Early summer 2021 July 31
Have multiple students and stakeholders play all games (using paper and imagination) and discuss elements of learning, fun, and feasibility. Early summer 2021August 15
Receive feedback to ensure educational message for each Action Plan Target is clearSummer 2021August 15
Use feedback to increase learning and fun. Flesh out point system and overall flow of game (set goals for the player).Summer 2021September 1
Digitize the prototypes in the Godot game engine. If the games are fully formed on pen and paper, writing the basic code should be straight-forward to our experienced employee.Summer 2021September 15
Post the game to itch.io website (privately) so that ATM S 495 students can perform tests of all games, checking for quality and learning of players. These students would receive credit only.Autumn 2021October 1
Ensure the game runs smoothly on mobile and web devices. Post the game to both Apple and Android app stores for free. Autumn 2021December 1

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Global Sustainability Case Competition

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Eraced Magazine

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Intro to Engineering Science Kits

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Project Orca, University of Washington Human Powered Submarine

Executive Summary:

As an undergraduate engineering team at the University of Washington, our main goal as the Human Powered Submarine team is to provide our roughly 50 team members with as much real engineering experience as possible by designing, manufacturing, testing, and racing a competitive human powered submarine. We believe that the experience we gain will propel us into our post graduate engineering careers. Given our philosophy, this year we decided to take a more sustainable approach to our normal engineering practices.

Each year our team engineers a new submarine for a given competition by building on past designs, and pursuing new innovation challenges. We use the same hull for two years in a row, and every other year we design and manufacture a new and improved  version. This school year (2020-2021), we will be manufacturing a new hull.

In years past, we have almost always manufactured our hull using a carbon fiber polymer reinforced composite layup process. All the materials used in this process are very detrimental to the environment. The production of carbon fiber releases a significant amount of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere as well as being about 14 times as energy intensive as steel manufacturing. In addition, the epoxy resins normally used in the manufacturing process are plastics that create a lot of waste and tend to sit in landfills after use.

In order to reduce our carbon footprint as an engineering team, give our members valuable sustainable engineering experience, and set a sustainable example for other engineering clubs, we have decided to manufacture our submarine hull using a sustainable and natural process. After researching for the duration of autumn quarter, we have decided to manufacture our submarine hull using natural flax fiber and a recycled foam  core in a resin infusion layup process. This material has been proven in many other applications so we expect it to be very feasible for our intentions. We are seeking $2000 in funding for the purchase of these sustainable materials for our hull.

Our work will be conducted in several lab and manufacturing shop locations at the mechanical engineering building. Our members have already assisted in the research and sustainable design of the hull and will continue to assist in manufacturing the submarine hull throughout the remainder of the school year, under the supervision of our team leads and guidance of our faculty mentors.

Student Involvement:

The Human Powered Submarine team consists of 50 students in various engineering and engineering undeclared majors. The team is split up into six sub-teams who are responsible for different systems within the submarine. These sub-teams include: drivetrain, controls, propulsion, hull, electronics, and dive and safety. Each of these sub-teams are made up of anywhere from 2 to 15 members led by a team lead. The team as a whole is overseen by a technical director and an administrative director. Each respective sub-team works on a different aspect of the submarine, and it is the hull team’s job to design, manufacture, and test the new hull.

Project Orca consists of the manufacture of our composite hull using the resin infusion layup composite manufacturing technique. As hull team lead, I, Alex Bartoletti, am responsible for leading members of the hull team to complete this process. These team members will be directly involved in the hands-on processes of preparing the hull mold, practice layups, preparing the flax fiber for layup, vacuum sealing, epoxy matrix infusion, and post processing of the hull. These members will attend or have already attended safety training in the Mechanical Engineering Composites Prototype Lab and will continue to learn about best practices while working with composites from our team’s industry sponsors.

About 7-10 members will be involved in preparation of the female hull tooling mold at various stages. We will receive the mold as sheets of raw foam from the manufacturer and 1-2 members will spend about 2 hours gluing sheets together and cutting off extra sections in order to create a block of foam out of which the tooling mold can be machined. Once the machine work is finished, multiple members will work on the mold at separate times to clean the mold surfaces, seal the foam, smooth the surface and add mold release to the mold surface. This is a significant amount of prep work that will require research and hands on participation from team members.

Once the mold has been prepared, these same 7-10 members will have to prep the flax fiber and foam core to be laid up and laminated. 1-2 members will use drawing software and the CNC fabric cutter in the composites shop to cut out layers of flax fiber from a roll while conserving as much fiber as possible. 3-4 members will then have to prepare the mold for resin infusion. This is a tedious process that will take several hours. It consists of laying up the layers of fiber and core material and applying vacuum bagging materials and infusion tubing. Once members have applied a vacuum and decided that the system is leak-free, they will mix the epoxy resin and begin the infusion process. The infusion process itself will take less than an hour but the part will then need to cure under a vacuum for about 48 hours to reach maximum strength and durability. This process will have to be completed for the top and bottom halves of the hull, the hatch, and to join the halves of the hull together.

After the lamination process has been finished, all members will still have to work on sanding the exterior of the hull to remove scribe lines, blemishes, and prepare the hull surface for painting. This entire process is expected to take about 3 months to complete, starting at the end of winter quarter and ending near the end of spring quarter. But, even after this process has been completed, this hull will continue to be the centerpiece of our work on the Human Powered Submarine team for the subsequent two years. All of the rest of the members of our team will work to integrate a drivetrain, control system, propulsion system, electronics system, and safety system into this hull.

Covid-19 has made it more difficult for our team to access the composites lab, but many of our members are already certified as critical personnel, and may access the shop at any time while following strict guidelines. Those who do not currently have shop access will still be vital towards project Orca, so we plan to begin the process with as much involvement through research as possible and continue our work as soon as we can have an adequate number of members working in person.

Education & Outreach:

A human powered submarine is not a common sight. This makes our submarine one of the centerpoints of attention at University of Washington events such as the Dawg Days RSO Fair, Engineering Launch, Discovery Days, and Introduce a Girl to Engineering. At each of these events our submarine is on full display for all University of Washington students to admire. Our team members occupy booths and tents where onlookers can come ask questions and learn more about the materials and development of our submarine. Specifically at engineering discovery days and Introduce a Girl to Engineering, we instill the idea of engineering for sustainability in the minds of elementary, middle, and high school students who come to learn about STEM at the University of Washington.

In addition, we have made it our goal to document the sustainable design and manufacturing processes of our hull to share with the other engineering teams at the UW. This will also be a major talking point at our International competition where we will discuss our sustainable efforts with the judges and other competitors. There are many other student led clubs and projects that incorporate the use of polymer reinforced composites on various scales. These teams almost solely use carbon fiber and fiberglass as reinforcement. We believe that by reaching out to these teams and educating them on our sustainable endeavors, we can help urge them to shift their practices towards a more environmentally friendly direction. Once our hull has been successfully completed, we plan to reach out to these teams with more specific and meaningful information.

Covid-19 has made planning education and outreach more difficult than normal. There is so much uncertainty that we are still unsure what we will and will not be able to do. Until times are more certain, our social media platforms and newsletters will be vital to informing people in and around the University Washington about our sustainable endeavors.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

The Human Powered Submarine team consists of a dedicated group of about 50 undergraduate students in various engineering majors. We are supported by a plethora of motivated faculty and passionate sponsors that encourage us to push boundaries and forge ahead. Over the next several years, our team members will design, build, redesign and rebuild hull componentry and features in preparation for a competition each year. We expect to use this hull for at least the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 competitions seasons. Although naturally biodegradable, the fiber will not break down inside the hull while in its resin matrix. Only minor exterior touch ups may be necessary. Future years leads will oversee the development and path of submarine subsystems and hull maintenance. With access to some of the most advanced labs, shops, and workspaces in university engineering we will maintain and improve the integrity of the hull. We also have multiple sources of funding from our team members, sponsors, and engineering departments. This gives us the freedom and peace of mind to explore and implement new features and processes that other teams may not have the ability to do.

At the end of this hull’s life, the team will look into next steps for the hull. They may decide to put it into use again, display it, auction it for team funding, or research ways to break down the resin matrix, obtain, and reuse the original flax fiber. Alternatively, at this point the team could decide to pursue a new innovation or hull material or go back to using carbon fiber reinforced composites. If the team decides to use flax fiber again, they may pursue additional funding from the CSF, sponsorship from the sourcing companies, or even buy the material outright. Much depends on the team interests and budget at this point in the future.

Environmental Problem:

In years past, our engineering team has almost always used a carbon fiber reinforced polymer layup process to manufacture our submarine hull. The materials in this process pollute the environment and increase the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. The production of carbon fiber releases a significant amount of greenhouse gasses and it is about 14 times as energy intensive as steel manufacturing, for comparison. In addition, the epoxy resins and foam cores normally used in the manufacturing process are non-recyclable and create a lot of waste.

This year, to mitigate our environmental impact, we have decided to manufacture our hull using environmentally sustainable materials that still retain our strict material strength requirements. We started by researching natural fibers, recycled carbon fiber, and dissolvable resin matrices and ultimately decided to use natural flax fiber.

Our research into natural fibers was initially disappointing but we ended up finding a perfect fit. Preliminary research pointed towards difficulty obtaining and manufacturing using natural fibers. Natural fibers have the tendency to soak up moisture more than carbon fibers and fiberglass. Since we are building a submarine, this initially turned us away. But after further research, we found a company called Bcomp in Europe who manufacture flax fiber called Amplitex. Their fiber has been used in many applications throughout Europe ranging from racing boat hulls to Formula 1 composite parts. The flax fiber offered the strength and stiffness we needed and was already proven to work well in industry.

After our research and calculations, the team determined that the flax fiber was our best option in terms of strength, sustainability, and availability. In addition, through our sustainability research and contact with various sponsors and composites suppliers we found recycled foam to use as a core material at no additional monetary cost, further increasing our sustainability.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Project Orca aims to reduce the carbon emissions associated with using carbon fiber while involving and educating our team members about sustainable solutions. Calculations had to be performed to make sure that the carbon dioxide emissions from producing carbon fiber would still be significantly more than the emissions from shipping the flax fiber from Europe to the US on a cargo ship. Team members compared flax and carbon fiber carbon dioxide emissions by assuming negligible flax production emissions and negligible carbon fiber shipping emissions. Using formulas for carbon fiber production and electricity use emissions, as well as a formula for fuel consumption to quantify cargo shipping emissions, we found that carbon fiber production creates about 100,000 times the carbon emissions as shipping flax fiber for the same mass. This is so large because the flax fiber is such a small percentage of the max load carried by the cargo ship.

Millions of college engineering students are graduating each year and entering the workforce in all different industries and capacities. At a time where our environment is at a critical tipping point, it is more important than ever to educate our younger generations in the area of sustainability. It is important that new engineers enter the workforce conscious of their environmental responsibility and more prepared than ever to innovate old and environmentally detrimental processes. Our impact is measured by our reduction in carbon emissions and the idea of engineering for sustainability that we can instill both on our team and in the engineers around us. We believe that metrics we can use to track this include the number of submarine showcase events we have attended, number of teams we have reached out to and educated about sustainable engineering, and number of members we have graduated into the engineering workforce.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $2,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Flax Fiber Types and Quantities
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Biax 45 Flax 63.5m Roll1143.0011143.00
2x2T Flax 50m Roll812.501812.50

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Project Completion Total: $2,000

Timeline:

Hull Manufacturing Timeline
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Mold Surface Preparation1 weekMarch 19, 2021
Fabric and Foam Core Preparation2 daysApril 1, 2021
Vacuum Bagging1 day per infusion (at least 3 necessary)June 1, 2021
Resin Infusion and Curing2-3 days per infusionJune 1, 2021
Post Processing2-4 weeksJune 18, 2021

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On the Ground

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Learning from the food brigade: pivoting pediatric care to meet basic food security needs during COVID

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UW GSAH Reading Group: Dismantling the Canon

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Race and Environmental (in)Justice: Healing through Nurturing Roots

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Understanding community perspectives of climate resilience in the Puget Sound region

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Growing resilience and equity: Food systems amidst the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism

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Cultivating Inclusive Conservation Practices seminar series

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Health Impacts of the (In)visibility of UW Custodial Workers

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Power to the Pollinator Project

Executive Summary:

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Electric Bicycle Mail Delivery Program 2.0

Executive Summary:

UW Mailing Services’ Electric Bicycle Mail Delivery Program has been a huge success. For the last three years, UW Mailing Services avoided using mail delivery trucks to deliver campus mail with the implementation of electric cargo bicycles. When UW Sustainability won the Gold Standard Rating for University campuses, and UW Mailing Services’ Electric bicycles were mentioned in the award. Inevitably, this CSF sponsored program has had a positive impact on both the environment and the community, and several universities and organizations have reached out to learn about the program and to carry on the mission for sustainability. In order to further expand the program, to meet customers’ increasing demand, and to expose the sustainability impact to others, UW Mailing Services plans to launch a 2.0 program. In order to do so, Mailing Services is requesting the Campus Sustainability Fund’s help to purchase two large Rhino-Berlin bicycle cargo boxes for $6000.

When the university shut down operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, UW Mailing Services took on the role of central receiving for the entire campus. Freight and packages that would have normally been delivered to department buildings by a private carrier were instead delivered by the UW Mailing Services bicycle team. Meanwhile, bike deliveries to the UW Medical Center and the Seattle Children’s Hospital increased as well.  The Mailing Services bike team quickly discovered that they would need to purchase larger cargo boxes in order to accommodate the increased package volume and still avoid using trucks for mail delivery.

From June 2020 to Oct 2020, the Mailing Services bicycle team has delivered a total of 14,111 packages. The delivery bicycles have traveled over 8,209 miles with a team average of 75 miles per day. Over just five months, the bicycles' environmental efficiency has far surpassed that of the mail trucks by eliminating the need for 821 gallons of diesel, which would have translated to $1,937.32 in fuel costs and 3.6 tons of CO2 being released into the atmosphere. The new cargo boxes will increase the carriage capacity and optimize bicycle delivery. Once the new cargo boxes are implemented, the numbers of packages delivered per mile ridden will increase as well as the amount of CO2 emission avoided. It will be a good indicator showing Mailing Services’ commitment to the UW Sustainability Action Plan.

The project will be managed by both student workers and staff at the UW Mailing Services. The students will be working on CSF reports and social media promotions, as well as running various kinds of metrics to visualize the electric bicycles’ impact. After the CSF funds are depleted, Mailing Services will fund the remaining maintenance cost for the program.

Many students have been highly involved in the 1.0 program in the past. Mailing Services intends to keep students’ high involvement in the program by clarifying their responsibilities such as running metrics, handling social media promotion, and participating in outreach events.

The safety of the staff and UW community is the first priority of the electric bicycle delivery program. All current riders are considered career bicycle couriers with more than 5 years experience before joining the UW bicycle team. Mailing Services’ biking crew goes through riding safety education upon onboarding and consistently reviews safety procedures through wabikes.org. Each rider is equipped with safety equipment including reflective jackets, pants, gloves, helmets, etc. All student riders are provided extensive training and are only sent out on independent deliveries after stating they are 100% comfortable operating the electric cargo bicycle.  All Mailing Services staff, including mail delivery bikers, are required to wear masks at the Publication Services Building and on campus when making deliveries. Mailing Services’ mail delivery service is usually contactless, which means that the bikers are not exposed to UW staff or patients at the hospitals.

Student Involvement:

There are currently two students involved in this program. Jimmy Tan, who has worked at the UW Mailing Services Mail Preparation for over 2 years, took over the project facilitator position for Electric Bicycle Mail Delivery Program 1.0 in Fall 2019.

Fabian Villarreal is also actively involved in this program. Fabian is a project specialist intern at UW Creative Communication whose expertise is in promotion and social media marketing. Fabian is updating the program’s social media pages and working on new signage for the sides of the cargo boxes.

Dalika Ung was highly involved in the Electric Bicycle Mail Delivery Program 1.0, where she had been keeping track of the program metrics. For example, she was in charge of calculating the number of miles a bicycle had traveled as well as the number of carbon emissions avoided. Dalika graduated in June 2020 but her job will be turned over to Jimmy and Fabian.

Mailing Services student bicyclist Natalie Schwartz graduated in the spring of 2020. There is a possibility that Mailing Services will hire additional student cyclists when it is safe for all students and staff to return to campus. UW Mailing Services staff are WFSE contract classified employees and the use of student labor can only be utilized when there is an excess of work that cannot be completed by the union staff.

Jimmy Tan and Natalie Schwartz both represented the Electric Bicycle Mail Delivery Program at UW sustainability and transportation events and provided outreach and developed partnerships with other UW departments and organizations.

Education & Outreach:

In addition to the daily exposure the bicycles have to the 80,000 students, staff, and faculty working on campus and in the medical centers the project facilitator would display and promote the bicycles at all sustainability and transportation related events. The project facilitator will educate the public on the efficiency of the new cargo boxes as well as promoting sustainability for CSF.

The program specialist intern will be dedicated to promoting the program on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter by posting photos and program metrics. These posts and the subsequent UW Sustainability reposts will increase online exposure and expand the program's audience and a greater number of people will be able to see the significance of the electric bicycles and cargo boxes.

In the past, UW Creative Communication has done graphic design for electric bicycles to promote bicycles and sustainability. Mailing Services will be taking advantage of the Creative Communication department’s support to potentially design more posters for promotion. These posters could be attached to the larger new cargo boxes and displayed at various events.

With the increase in exposure of the sustainable electric bicycles and cargo boxes, Mailing Services anticipates that additional schools and organizations will reach out to Mailing Services. UW Daily has contacted Mailing Services to inquire about the possibility of having a Podcast to discuss the first Electric Bicycle Mail Delivery program, which would include the upgrade of the cargo boxes for the second program. Universities such as the University of Buffalo, Portland State University, University of Houston, Indiana University at Bloomington and UCLA have already reached out to UW Mailing Services to learn about the Electric Bicycles Mail Delivery Program. Mailing Services would like to be able to highlight the improvements that the new program will make.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Transportation
Project Longevity:

The long term management of the project will be done by the staff and student workers of both UW Mailing Services and Creative Communications. Sam Somphet, who is the Finance, Accounting, & IT Manager, will be managing any funding from CSF. After purchasing two cargo boxes, UW Mailing Services will use the remaining CSF funding to cover any unexpected costs and will fund all maintenance of the program after the CSF funding is depleted. Mailing Services supervisor Doug Stevens will continue to manage the Electric Bicycle Mail Delivery Program and will oversee the purchase of the cargo boxes. UW Mailing Services is currently working with UW Grounds to incorporate a bicycle maintenance and repair area that will be located on the first floor of the Publication Services building. It is anticipated that there could be potential maintenance work for the cargo boxes as well as other bicycle components. All repair and maintenance of the bicycles will be done by a certified mechanic from G&O Family Cyclery.

The student project facilitator will be keeping track of the metrics quarterly and report to CSF, while the project specialist intern will be working on the social media promotion and graphic design. They as well as the future student biker will represent the bicycle program at multiple UW events to introduce the new cargo boxes to the public.

Environmental Problem:

The increased demand for delivery services to UW Campus, UW Medical Center and multiple Children’s Hospital locations has the current cargo bicycles operating at full capacity and can result in multiple trips to the same locations or the use of delivery vehicles.

Delivery vehicles utilized by Mailing Services contribute to the environmental problems of global warming, climate change, noise pollution, and dependence on fossil fuels. Mailing Services vehicles burn both diesel and gasoline which could release six metric tons of CO2 as well as other harmful toxins into the atmosphere. The size of the delivery vehicles and the noise of the internal combustion engines contribute to the problem of noise pollution and vehicle congestion on campus.

The implementation of larger cargo boxes will limit the need for vehicle deliveries and help mitigate the environmental problems associated with vehicle delivery and support the UW SAP goal of the 45% Reduction of GreenHouse Gas Emissions by 2030. The continued use of cargo bicycles will also help the UW achieve another gold sustainability rating from STARS.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The impacts of the new cargo boxes will be measured through the comparative amount of CO2 emissions saved monthly. From June 2020 to Oct 2020, there have been 14111 packages delivered through Mailing Services’ bicycles, which was an average of 129 packages per day. The bicycles have traveled over 8209 miles, average 75 miles per day, and have saved 821 gallons of diesel which costs about $1937.32. Furthermore, 3.6 tons CO2 have been offset from the atmosphere. These metrics were calculated through carbonfootprint.com by inputting projected miles traveled and vehicle models into an algorithm.

Doug Stevens, the Mailing Services supervisor, will oversee students and staff as they continue to keep track of monthly metrics and record the number of packages delivered by electric bicycles monthly. The Mailing Services student workers will keep track of fuel savings and the amount of CO2 output avoided. The student project facilitator will consolidate different kinds of metrics and helpful information to report to CSF quarterly.

Mailing Services has been working towards UW Sustainability Action Plan action X, which is a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emission. The metrics will indicate the bike program’s impact on the environment and progress towards the Action X goal.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $6,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Cargo boxes + shipping + tax + unperceivable maintenance fee
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
rhino cargo box large for Bullitt from larryvsharry1317.3022638.86
rhino standard colour graphite black RAL 9011 matt-2-
Total2638.86
shipping and packaging via air freight - door to door - to Seattle/WA1891.81
16%Tax730.49
Contigency Fee738.84
Total6000

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $6,000

Timeline:

All timeline items are contingent on when we get the fund in hand
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Note:All timeline items are contingent on when we get the fund in handFor example: 12/01/2020
Order Cargo boxes3 days12/04/2020
Manufacture + Delivery6-12 weeks1/15/2021
Install3 days1/19/2021
Update C2 website2 weeks2/2/2021
Social Mediaon going
Continue metric trackingon going

Kincaid Ravine Restoration Project

Executive Summary:

The Kincaid Ravine Preliminary Master Plan and Capital Improvements Program completed by UW CEP 498 students during Winter and Spring Quarters 2020 respectively, provide the basic framework for the 3.6 acre site’s long-term environmentally sustainable capital improvements which will provide the following benefits for the campus community following it’s six-year build out:

  • Improve Pedestrian Connectivity, with a system of trails joining existing built features on and adjacent to campus;
  • Provide Environmental Resilience, by controlling invasive plant infestations within the ravine, improving habitat for wildlife, provide erosion control, and improve site’s hydrological functioning;
  • Implement Flood Control Measures; by expanding the wetlands, and creating a system of sustained management measures;
  • Improve Public Safety, to ensure cleanliness of entire ravine, increased opportunity for vigilance on-site, creation of sustained public safety conditions; and
  • Promote Public Enjoyment, by accentuating site’s interpretive features using environmental educational signage, and a place for passive recreation.

Most importantly, this work will be conducted using the stewardship of UW students, both graduate and undergraduate, in both an employment and student capacity. Ultimately, the site will prove to be highly impactful in terms of all the improvements cited above, and provide meaningful environmental, social, recreational, and transportation upgrades to this site, the Burke-Gilman Trail, and the campus overall. The UW Seattle campus accommodates more than 47,000 total students (undergraduate & graduate), 5,800 academic staff (including faculty), and 16,000 administrative staff. This totals more than 70,000 potential users of this remarkably significant space which is the last remaining native open space on this huge campus.

CSF has been funding work on the Kincaid Ravine Restoration Project since 2010. During the past 2-1/2 years undergraduate students enrolled in CEP 498 have been working on various elements of the project and have completed the final draft of a Master Plan for the site which has been reviewed and approved by the office of the UW Campus Architect. It is expected that next steps in the implementation of the Master Plan will begin in Winter quarter 2021 dependent upon the availability of funding to support a graduate student who will be leading this work. This current request to CSF is for $9,500 which will fund two positions: (1) a graduate student who will lead other students' work; and (2) a licensed landscape architect to guide student work.

Student Involvement:

At the present time, our team is pursuing opportunities for bringing a graduate student on-board in order to coordinate the upcoming Kincaid Ravine process about to begin during Winter  Quarter, 2021. We are making efforts in various departments at the UW including Environmental Horticulture, Landscape Architecture, and Environmental and Civil Engineering.

The Kincaid Ravine restoration effort began in 2013 and has since produced three Master’s theses and numerous technical reports. The restoration program was re-started in 2018 by UW’s Department of Urban Design and Planning through a course led by David Blum, Affiliate Instructor. This course, CEP 498, engaged Fred Glick, Landscape Architect, to work with students by teaching them the rudiments of the landscape architecture site master planning process needed here. Their work on this project produced the Master Plan which we can share with the committee. As such, our group is well positioned to complete the final tasks required prior to the start of actual restoration. Currently, we need a grad student to lead the information gathering stage required to complete the Action Items cited last Spring, 2020, prior to moving forward with Implementation.

Following completion of the Preliminary Master Plan in Spring, 2020, the Campus Environmental and Land Use Planner and Fred Glick, Landscape Architect assembled a list of Action Items needing to be completed prior to implementation including, among others:

  1. Determine extent of prior wetlands work by the two consulting firms retained at that time by the City of Seattle;
  2. Identify all wetland and buffer permitting requirements needed to move forward;
  3. Determine classification of wetland delineations completed previously and date of delineation (Note: 5-year “lifespan”). Determine exactly what is allowed under existing code.
  4. Identify drainage and safety issues.
  5. Refine proposed changes in vegetation and trails on site.
  6. Request participation and support of the King Conservation District.
  7. Share with the consultants the current work underway, an effort that will lead to a complete access and environmental education opportunity at Kincaid Ravine;
  8. Review City Codes and the permitting process resulting in documentation needed to move forward;
  9. Determine whether an engineer’s report is required for permit allowance;
  10. Engage campus Environmental and Land Use Planner in an ongoing advisory role per her request (i.e. from Office of the University Architect);
  11. Obtain requisite approvals and grant funding;
  12. Identify and initiate discussion with non-profit agencies and organizations interested in working on Kincaid Ravine, for example:
    1. EarthCorps
    2. UW Maintenance
    3. UW Engineering
    4. UWPD
    5. ...and more.

The implementation of the Master Plan will begin in Winter quarter 2021 dependent upon the availability of funding to support a graduate student who will be leading the above work. This current request to CSF is to fund the position of the graduate student who will lead other students’ work on this project:

In addition to a graduate student who will be in a coordination role to determine the results of the 12 Action Items listed above, we will continue to work with CEP Students as well as Landscape Architecture and Engineering Students, whom to date have included a cross-section of students attending UW from other countries, including BIPOC students who have been well-represented. We believe the Kincaid Ravine project will benefit greatly from their participation. Currently we have plans to connect with the UW chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and the non-profit “Nurturing Roots”, but we are also exploring collaboration with other groups. Ultimately, it is important to us to include these often left out voices in a project that can and will provide a benefit to the whole community.

The Kincaid Ravine restoration effort began in 2013 and has since produced three Master’s theses and numerous technical reports. The restoration program was re-started in 2018 by UW’s Department of Urban Design and Planning through a course led by David Blum, Affiliate Instructor. This course, CEP 498, engaged Fred Glick, Landscape Architect, to work with students.

The students’ work on this project produced the Master Plan which we can share with the committee. By working closely with the Office of University Architect, UW Police Department, UW Facilities and Maintenance Departments, and other stakeholders we have created a Master Plan which will successfully address the various site issues enumerated above. Further student and campus community engagement will lead this work. A fully restored Kincaid Ravine will become the natural attraction accessible to everyone that it has always been meant to be.  As such, our group is well positioned to complete the final tasks required prior to the start of actual restoration.

Safety. Our team is well aware of the range of safety needs both during early planning for Kincaid Ravine, and for ongoing operations and maintenance purposes later during and after capital improvements. For example, during the Covid Pandemic crisis, our work has transitioned to on-line coursework using Zoom meetings, which is the manner in which our Spring, 2020 class was successfully conducted. Initially, students weren’t even allowed on campus, but that has since changed and on-site investigations are now acceptable as of this writing. In addition to the Covid safety issues, there are others such as hypodermic needles found randomly at the site, possibly left there by homeless folks who regularly camp out on-site due to its relatively secluded condition even within the highly used campus environment. Our team’s direction to students who must walk through the site to investigate it properly for master planning and eventual construction, is to wear heavy soled hiking boots or work boots to be certain these “sharps” will not in any way endanger them when walking through the site.

Education & Outreach:

Leadership: Student Involvement:  

A graduate student will be leading the work on this project which will be completed with the assistance of other UW students during the 2020 - 2021 academic year. Our team is currently reaching out to various University Departments and Organizations to locate and engage the graduate student for this work. In addition to the grad student, the undergraduate class members involved in Kincaid Ravine have been enrolled in CEP 498, led by David Blum, faculty instructor and Fred Glick, Landscape Architect. Currently, at least 10 undergraduate students have enrolled in CEP 498 for Winter Quarter, 2021.

Education:

The project will be integrated within the undergraduate course CEP 498 during the 2020 -2021 academic year.  Faculty teaching this course includes E. David Blum, Affiliate Instructor and Fred Glick, licensed landscape architect. This is a 5 credit course meeting twice per week and includes field work if permissible. The work completed to date by this class includes the following four quarters over the last 2-½ years:

  • Fall 2018: Developed preliminary environmental inventory for Kincaid Ravine
  • Spring 2019: Developed environmental assessment of Kincaid Ravine
  • Winter 2020: Completed Preliminary Master Plan for Kincaid Ravine
  • Spring 2020: Completed 6-Year Build-Out Program, including Capital Improvements Program elements for Kincaid Ravine

Mr. Blum and Mr. Glick will continue to educate the Graduate Student about the project vision, the nature of the site, the goals of the site development master plan, an overview and synopsis of the work to be accomplished, specifically the Action Items listed above, and the coordination and communications efforts so critically important to getting this project moving forward again.

Outreach, Behavior Change:

This project includes many elements of educational and outreach components that cultivate an awareness of the Kincaid Rainve among students, faculty and visitors to campus. Among the various levels of outreach include the objective of working closely with:

  • The office of the Campus Architect, specifically the University Environmental and Land Use Planner who has graciously offered to serve as an ongoing Advisor to this project;
  • The Campus Sustainability Fund staff;
  • The UW Department of Civil Engineering;
  • The UW Campus Police Department;
  • The Departments of Community and Environmental Planning, Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry;
  • The UW Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
  • UW Police Department: security

The project effort to date has included the CEP students working with these and other departments for over two years and has plans to continue doing so throughout the course of this grant and beyond. In addition, we hope to also reach out to the following organizations:

  • UW College of Built Environments: academic faculty support and student engagement
  • UW School of Environmental and Forest Resources: academic faculty support and student engagement
  • UW School of Social Work: academic faculty support and student engagement
  • UW School of Public Health: academic faculty support and student engagement
  • UW Facilities: technical assistance with property operations & maintenance
  • UW Campus Maintenance: technical assistance with property maintenance
  • UW Chapter of National Society of Black Engineers: site design and community engagement
  • UW Latinx Student Organizations: community engagement  
  • Nurturing Roots: community engagement
  • UDistrict Non profit Organizations: community engagement  
  • The Black Student Union;
  • The Departments of Community and Environmental Planning, Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry;
Environmental Impact:
  • Transportation
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
  • Social Justice
Project Longevity:

The long-term work to be completed over the next year will be carefully taught to the grad student who is hired to lead this work effort day-to-day. Mr. Glick and Mr. Blum will work closely with the student to teach her/him all about the project. We will review all work completed to date in the first two phases, including the 2013-2016 grad-student led period and the 2018-2020 CEP 498 timeframe. Mr. Glick will work closely with this grad student on a regular basis, and be available for ongoing guidance, instruction and general assistance.

The truly long term management and maintenance of this project will be conducted according to the process outlined in the Capital Improvements Program completed by UW CEP 498 students in Spring Quarter, 2020. This O & M Plan describes both the 6-year project build-out as well as the fundamental components of the project requiring maintenance from build-out moving forward to subsequent years. As described in the O & M Plan, project components include the eventual upgraded and expanded wetlands, the soon-to-be newly built trail system, environmental education signage to be implemented, modest sitting areas, an art mural along the 45th Street Viaduct wall, and the upcoming conversion of the western half of the ravine’s terrain from heavily invasive plant dominated to native plant dominated, similar to the eastern half of the ravine’s terrain, that was completed during the 2013-2016 graduate student led effort. This work will need to be handled through a combination of future grant funding, University O & M funds and staff labor (such as daily UWPD patrols to find and relocate homeless folks using the ravine) and more.

Environmental Problem:

Leadership & Student Involvement:

All work on this project is to be completed by UW students during the academic year 2020 to 2021. It is expected that a graduate student will lead the project work.  

Education, Outreach & Behavior Change:

This project includes many elements of educational and outreach components that cultivate an awareness of the Kincaid Ravine among students, faculty and visitors to campus.

Our challenge is to complete the planning and design of this project using sustainability methods possible. These include: a) upgrades and improvements to the on-site wetlands, water sources (seeps, storm drainage) with the goal in mind of ending flooding of the Burke-Gilman Trail, b) complete removal of invasive plant species on-site and replace them with native plant species to ensure that Kincaid Ravine continues to be a place for environmentally native ecosystem, c) installation of safe, pathways using native materials that will allow the UWPD to patrol Kincaid Ravine on a regular (daily) basis to assure any homeless people who are found there are relocated to safe, sanitary housing.

Improve Sustainability:

This project improves the sustainability of the UW campus and/or operations by improving and maintaining one of the largest remaining natural areas accessible to all who live, work and visit the campus. Specific impacts include reductions of: carbon emissions, energy use, waste, pollutants, toxins, removal of hypodermic needles making the site safer for visitors, students and staff, prevention of flooding of the Burke-Gilman Trail. Improvements will be made to biodiversity and provide enhanced opportunities to support environmental justice and equity. Project components are environmentally sustainable in design and implementation. Areas of sustainability identified in the CSF request for proposal include: Living Systems and Biodiversity, Transportation, Water, Environmental Justice and Social Justice.

Problem Statement:

As a practical matter, every aspect of this project is about sustainability of several types. The principal problems the project hopes to resolve include: (1) existence of invasive plant materials dominating the site and forcing out native plants thereby destroying the native ecosystem; (2) a wetland system that is not able to adequately accommodate the quantity of storm runoff during significant storm events, thereby flooding the Burke-Gilman Trail, an adjacent, significant non-motorized transportation route; (3) a significant native open space which has gotten overrun by vegetation which prevents students, faculty and visitors from safely and easily walking through the site; and (4) a large, native open space on the campus which has several interacting ecological systems which are not easily understood by folks attempting to visit this site.

How This Project Addresses the Sustainability Problem:

The key components of the project include: (1) removal and replacement of remaining invasive plants throughout with native plants, to once again produce a significant environmental setting that becomes a native ecosystem once again; (2) upgrading and expanding the existing wetlands to capture enough runoff from the surrounding hillsides to prevent future flooding of Burke-Gilman Trail allowing the Trail to be utilized year-round, as is its intended purpose; (3) installation of a system of pedestrian trails enabling safe use and circulation by students, faculty and visitors; (4) a new trail system that enables daily patrols by UWPD to regularly locate homeless people and redirect them from Kincaid Ravine to safe and sanitary living conditions elsewhere; and (4) installation of environmental education signage along the trails for enjoyment and education of visitors and school groups.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

IMPACTS DATABASE:

Our project impacts will be measured by creating a database of the following site conditions on a regular basis. These include:

  1. INVASIVES VS. NATIVES: Monitoring the condition and quantity of native vegetation on a semi-annual basis, to learn how well it has adapted to replacing the invasives; quantification methods include (a) mapping specific locations of invasives that become re-introduced, (b) measure the number of square feet (area) and a percentage of the site’s total area of such invasives, (c) generate a quantity take-off of such invasives; and (d) future M & O costs to continue to remove invasives and replace with natives.
     
  2. FLOODING: Monitoring whether or not flooding of Burke-Gilman Trail is prevented during storm events due to the Ravine’s wetlands absorbing all runoff from the site and being at capacity; includes engaging student investigators to go out to the site after every 5 - 10 year rainstorm or higher, to view, photograph and record potential flood conditions or lack of same across Burke-Gilman Trail;
     
  3. SAFETY ALONG TRAILS: Monitoring whether students and visitors to Kincaid Ravine can walk safely through the site year-round; Impacts here will be measured by recording on a map of the site at regular intervals such as monthly, year-round, whether the trails’ surfaces are holding up well, or being eroded away by foot traffic, or natural elements such as storm run-off or wind conditions. The student assessment will include mapping all locations where improvements and repairs are needed, and making those insights available to Campus Maintenance.
     
  4. ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION: Requesting feedback from school groups who come to the Ravine to learn about the native ecosystems on the site, to learn whether they enjoyed their visits and understood the educational information found on the environmental education signage to be installed; Impacts here will be recorded as a) liked; b) disliked; c) no opinion; d) needs improvement; and e) what kind of improvements are needed to improve the environmental educational aspects of the site.
     
  5. HOMELESS CAMPS: Working with UWPD to learn how well the newly accessible site is working to enable their officers to patrol on a daily basis to relocate possible homeless folks to more safe and sanitary conditions; Impacts here will be recorded by student investigators as "evaluations of the trail system and campus operations and maintenance activities" by UWPD officers.
     
  6. HYPODERMIC NEEDLES (SHARPS): Searching the site to determine whether sharps have been substantially reduced and removed from the site, thereby reducing potential harm to visitors. This will be a task that can be double-covered by both student investigators and UWPD officers, simply by walking the length of the new Kincaid Ravine’s trails to see whether anyone can spot such harmful devices, locate where they’re found on a map, and report such instances and locations to UWPD for safe removal from site.

Feasibility, Accountability:

The work completed to date demonstrates that the applicant can attain the technical knowledge, necessary approvals, and project management skills in order to complete this additional work successfully.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $9,500
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Graduate Student Stipend$23 per hour326 hours$7500
Licensed Landscape Architect Consultant$60 per hour33 hours$2000

Non-CSF Sources:

King Conservation District Potential Grant ItemAmount
Student Salary$26,100
Professional Services and Consultants$33,000
Permitting Costs$10,500
Total$69,600
Project Completion Total: $79,100

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Hire the grad studentCurrently in processJanuary 2021
Received KCD GrantCurrently in processFebruary 2021
Complete action itemsStart when funding is receivedJune 2022
Receive all permitsStart when funding is receivedJune 2022

Mental Health for Every Adolescent

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Sending Gratitude Across the Globe

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Whipping up Resilience in the Kitchen

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

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Leadership through Sustained Dialogue

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EOP Scholars Academy Resilience Project

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Empowerment Training for UW Medicine Frontline Women

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Growth of Transfer Students

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Seeds of Freedom

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Bike Tube Upcycling

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Living Art

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Total amount requested from the CSF: $950
This funding request is a: Grant
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Budget:

Budget Description for Small Grant
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Plants for living wall15.9931500
Materials for living wall25.9910250
Workshop materials5.99850
Art Therapist to do workshop with us in tandem150

Non-CSF Sources:

Other Funding Sources
Grant TitleAmount
Husky SEED Fund1000
Project Completion Total: $2,000

Timeline:

Timeframe of Project
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Living Wall DesignMarch 2020Beginning of April
Continued workshops with VSLApril 2020Mid April
Build-outApril 2020End of April
Workshops with all other studentsApril 2020Several times
PlantingMay 2020End of May
Workshops with both veteran and non-veteran studentsMay 2020Several times
Training for studentsJune 2020Several times
"Gallery show"Starts June 2020June-Sept 2020
Monthly workshops/trainingsOn-going from summer onMarch 2021

Project Approval Forms:

Sustainable Pots and Clamshells from Pulp Mold

Executive Summary:

Our project centers around obtaining a pulp moulding machine capable of creating pulp molds that can replace a variety of plastic products across campus. The machine would be housed in the Wollenberg Paper and Bioresource Science Laboratory in the basement of Bloedel Hall. Our main mold aims to replace the plastic pots currently used by the UW Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) in the Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH). Our second mold is a clamshell tray designed to replace those currently in circulation at campus dining halls, however, as we have currently not been able to contact HFS to discuss the feasibility of this mold our main focus in this proposal will be the molded pots. Prior to receiving the machinery, we are aiming to create some prototype molds to test how the pots would perform structurally, however, these feasibility tests will not be conducted until we have access to campus again.

Student Involvement:

This project can be continuously student-led by undergraduates in BSE and supplemented by ESRM students involved in SER. BSE undergraduates, especially members of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI), are more likely to be involved because running the machinery and producing these products is relevant to their industry. Learning about this technology is highly applicable to the industry, as plastic products are being replaced by molded pulp products at an increasing rate. These students would be in charge of production, quality control, and continued campus outreach. Production of these products could also be integrated into the BSE curriculum as a permanent part of the Paper and Bioresource Center. This would include an introduction to the machinery in 200-level BSE courses, which would prepare process engineering students to study sustainable production lines later in their undergraduate career. In the students’ senior year during BSE 436, they would learn how to analyze and improve upon the pulp products created from the machine. Lastly in the design-based BSE 480-481 courses, students could explore design economics and perform a full LCA on the machine’s process. In total, the incorporation of this process into the curriculum accounts for 40 students consistently working on production, analysis, and improvements.

Another possible avenue for student involvement is opening an opportunity for an ESRM student to take the data on the end-use of the biodegradable pots. This would provide valuable information for the production and improvement teams, and more data for the project’s progress.

Education & Outreach:

To increase the market size for the biodegradable pots after production, we plan to give away samples of our product to applicable campus groups. This involves contacting UW grounds, botanic gardens, and possible food vendors on campus to see if our products are viable replacements for their plastics.

In addition, there are several TAPPI and BSE-related events in which free samples and/or demonstrations could be incorporated. Specifically, TAPPI holds an annual Christmas fundraiser, during which our products could be sold to the public. Sustainability-focused booths and tables at campus events in Red-Square can feature our product.

In terms of education, the technical process detail can be integrated into the BSE curriculum across multiple classes, involving freshmen through senior students in sustainable production processes. ESRM/SER students, and those taking ESRM 412, could also be directly impacted in the education of biodegradable containers in particular. More details in the ‘Student Involvement’ section.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Transportation
  • Waste
  • Water
Project Longevity:

This will be an ongoing project run by students, most likely in the BSE major. Kurt Haunreiter, the BSE lab technician and staff supervisor for the project will ensure the project will have a team of students working on the continuation of the project, as well as making sure the equipment stays in good shape. As for future maintenance, Kurt has done some research and determined that any of the parts that might wear out over time are easily obtainable in the US and that he would be able to purchase them if they are damaged. Future students will be in charge of running the machine and producing the pulp pots for continued production. Additionally, this project has the possibility to evolve and increase in scope. Once the machine is obtained, other molds can be obtained for $24,000 each. Therefore, if students on this project find a different product they can produce to increase sustainability on campus, they only need to obtain funding for the mold.

Environmental Problem:

The molding machine will serve as an example of sustainable manufacturing on a pilot scale.

Plastic pots are often used by agricultural and horticultural campus groups. Even though they can be reused, they are still washed out with excess water and bleach. The production of biodegradable pots hopes to decrease the carbon footprint, water usage, and waste associated with these groups. Additionally, the biodegradable pots could improve the soil for plant growth through nutrients in the pulp.

Environmental benefits of these biodegradable pots include:

  • Better aeration for roots
  • Decay of the pot allows roots to grow out into surrounding soil
  • Prevention of transplant shock
  • Compared to peat pots, digested fiber pots require less fertilizer, reducing the possibility of burnt roots
  • Use of brewer’s spent grain - a waste product of a local industry
  • Use of  on-campus plant waste, such as ivy, in the pulp mixture

The additional mold for either food or beverage containers would replace even conventional paper containers. The main difference is the use of non-wood materials in the mold such as wheat straw and brewer’s spent grain. In addition, the products would be made on-campus, reducing transportation.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The way we can measure the impacts of our project is two-fold. As the saying goes “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” and that is also in order of importance. A plastic pot, even if reused or recycled, still has carbon emissions associated with its production, and it will eventually end in a landfill or nature as litter. SER estimates that they go through 800 1-gallon plastic pots a year. A clear measure of our progress is how many plastic pots we can divert from being purchased. Every biodegradable pot that we produce, will fill the need of one plastic pot and thereby preempt the purchase and manufacture and transport of a plastic pot. Another important measure to take into consideration is the carbon emissions that go into the transportation of the plastic pots. Plastic pots, even made locally, are still damaging to the environment but that damage scales the farther away they are manufactured. Often these pots are sourced overseas and require a great deal of polluting transportation to make it to our campus. Once we know where the pots are sourced from we can perform a life-cycle calculation of the carbon emissions that go into one pot to produce it and transport it to Seattle and scale that up to our production of biodegradable pots. We are also working with SER to see if we can utilize some of the plant waste they gather from their clean-up efforts across campus and incorporate it into our pulp mixture.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $129,375
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
KZ-80 Pulping System Cabinet$5,0001$5,000
ZJW2-6650K Mould Machine$79,0001$79,000
Pressure Washer$1,0001$1,000
Forming Mold Set$24,0001-2$24,000-$48,000
High Pressure Water Pump$1,0001$1,000
Vacuum Pump$5,5001$5,500
GZ Auto Drain System$4,5001$4,500
Air Compressor$4,5001$4,500
Air Tank$5001$500
KH40B Forming/Vacuum System Cabinet$2,5001$2,500
Wiring MCC$5,0001$5,000
Transportation$5,0001$5,000
Tariff$37,8751$37,875
Previous CSF Funding-$70,0001-$70,000
Total$105,375-$129,375

Non-CSF Sources:

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Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Final ProposalApril 15, 2020
Make Prototype MoldsHopefully we could get started on these in fall, assuming campus is openOctober 2020
Order the equipmentIf approved, the equipment would hopefully be ordered in MayMay 2020
Equipment TransportationThe equipment will take 5-7 months to arrive at campus, so we can expect an October/December arrival if the order is placed in MayOctober-December 2020
Testing PhaseOnce the equipment arrives/is installed we can begin making test molds to determine the best consistencyNovember 2020-January 2021
Make and distribute the potsOnce the equipment is ready and the correct consistency is determined, we will hopefully be ready for production by JanuaryJanuary 2021

Improving the Benefit-to-Carbon Cost Ratio for University of Washington Air Travel

Executive Summary:

With UW air travel nearly eliminated to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the UW community is looking to rethink our options. We want to take this opportunity to examine the unique benefits of travel to UW students, faculty, and staff  in the context of the high cost of emissions from travel - especially as technological solutions for remote collaboration and learning are being rapidly improved and culturally normalized.

Air travel is a highly carbon intensive choice, yet students value unique world learning experiences while faculty and staff need to collaborate, network and share their findings with others. At the last assessment (2014), air travel made up 11% of UW’s carbon budget. The goal of this proposed project is to identify (and ideally get the campus to implement) policies and protocols that will reduce UW’s carbon emissions associated with flying. The proposed cost of the project is $14,901, which will enable Forrest Baum (a Program on the Environment (PoE) Capstone Student, who drafted this proposal) to collect data about flights taken by faculty, staff and students at UW in 2019; to conduct interviews with UW faculty, staff and students to determine why they fly and assess how their views about alternatives to flying having changed during the COVID crisis; to identify policies and protocols that UW could implement to reduce emissions associated with flying while maintaining its educational and research missions; to create and distribute communication materials across campus and social media about the impact flying has on UW’s carbon footprint and what steps could be taken to reduce these emissions; and, importantly, to document a framework for continued future tracking of UW’s air travel carbon emissions. The funding will enable Forrest to work on this topic full time over the summer and ten hours per week during Autumn and Winter quarters. The work will be supervised by Dr. Kristi Straus (Lecturer, Program on the Environment) and Dr. Rebecca Neumann (Associate Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering). Dr. Straus is a leader in sustainability education and teaches a class (ENVIR 239: Personal Choices, Broad Impacts) focusing on personal choices and action to combat climate change. Dr. Neumann is passionate about understanding and mitigating climate change, both in her research program and in her personal life.

Student Involvement:

This will be a UW Program on the Environment (PoE) Capstone project conducted by one PoE student, Forrest Baum. Forrest drafted this final proposal. He will:

  1. Review literature of previous studies and current views on the topics involved.
  2. Quantify the CO2 equivalent emissions associated with different types of trips for UW faculty, staff and students, including: to conduct research, attend conferences and meetings, give and host seminars, travel to and from campus for out of state students, travel for athletic games, and study abroad.
  3. Design and implement a study that gathers information not covered in previous inventories.
    • Calculate the CO2 eq associated with out-of-state/international student travel. How often do out-of-state and international students fly round trip home:UW each year? As well as the average distance flown per trip.
    • Assess the benefit of various types of trips (e.g. study abroad, research collaboration, presenting findings) to both the individuals taking the trip and the overall mission of the University, through an online survey of students, faculty and staff.
  4. Determine if and for whom these trips have unintended negative consequences.
  5. Identify policy changes or institutional approaches that minimize air travel with low benefit-to-carbon costs (or have large unintended negative consequences), and enable alternatives to air travel for certain types of trips. 
  6. Provide recommendations and reach out to the appropriate campus units, offices and organizations to enact these policy changes and approaches. 
  7. Use these experiences to create a framework for accessing, compiling and analyzing data needed to continually track UW’s air travel carbon emissions.

Forrest will collect the required data on air travel at UW by harnessing travel reimbursements and trips booked with the central travel account, study abroad enrollments, seminar announcements, trips taken by the athletic department, and surveying students who fly to and from campus. 

Education & Outreach:

The overall goal of this effort is to reduce UW’s carbon emissions. To accomplish this goal, the project will raise awareness about the impact of air travel on UW carbon emissions and identify policies or institutional approaches for reducing these emissions while maintaining the educational and research mission of the university. In 2014, a team of graduate students mentored by the UW Sustainability office documented that air travel comprised 11% of UW’s carbon budget (2014 report here). Importantly, the assessment determined that UW is under counting emissions associated with flying due to a lack of easily accessible data.

Forrest’s efforts for this proposed CSF project will build upon and update the efforts of the 2014 report. His work will be written up as part of his capstone project and will be compiled into several forms. Some of these will be directed at changing UW policies, while some will be directed at changing student, staff, or faculty behavior.

  1. A short Public Service Announcement (PSA) video to share the takeaways and encourage implementation of the identified policies and approaches.
  2. An easily digestible report that will be shared with UW Sustainability, UW Travel Office, the UW Environmental Stewardship Committee, and other relevant offices across campus.
  3. A detailed report providing step-by-step instructions on how to access, compile and analyze data needed to track UW’s air travel carbon emissions in future years.
  4. A visually compelling poster will be made and distributed to environmental Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) on campus
  5. An infographic that will be created expressly for distribution on various UW social media channels (e.g. RSOs, Program on the Environment).

The goal of these outreach products is to encourage implementation of the identified policies and approaches for reducing air travel, while also motivating individuals to reduce their air travel whenever possible.

Environmental Impact:
  • Transportation
Project Longevity:

This specific project will cover three quarters, involving intensive full-time study during the summer quarter and 10 hours per week during the Autumn and winter quarter. We expect this work to be complete at that time, with our results being used to inform concrete steps UW could use to reduce CO2eq associated with flying.  This work should support UW in achieving the goals of the UW Climate Action Plan and UW Sustainability Action Plan. As such, we do not anticipate a need for long term management, maintenance, or funding for this work. As long term University of Washington faculty members, both Kristi and Rebecca are enthusiastic about the opportunities to work with various UW entities to shepherd this project forward and continuously lobby to ensure that recommended policies and approaches are implemented. If additional questions emerge from this work, Kristi and Rebecca will be happy to mentor additional Program on the Environment Capstone Students in finding answers to those questions.

An additional lasting benefit of the work will be a documented framework for streamlining the information-gathering process for the air-travel carbon budget to ensure that future emissions numbers can be gathered and analyzed as a part of the regular UW reporting systems, and be available on a regular basis as needed.

Environmental Problem:

The sustainability challenge is that air travel is carbon intensive, yet often seen as necessary for student learning, and for professional development across student, faculty, and staff communities in the university. Presenting at conferences requiring air travel has often been a requirement of grant funding and an opportunity for career advancement. Previous studies have found that even environmentally conscious members of the university community often utilize a high amount of air travel. There is a general need for society to rapidly reduce carbon emissions to prevent catastrophic impacts of climate change, and the UW community is taking up the challenge. Through the Climate Action Plan, the UW has a goal of being climate neutral by 2050. We have made progress in reducing our emissions, but we need a full assessment of our impacts in order to understand how to achieve our sustainability goals. The UW needs to be aware of the impact flying has on our carbon emissions and needs to actively reduce these emissions while maintaining our mission. Our project will identify policies and approaches for accomplishing this goal, and our work can lead to an overall reduction in UW's carbon emissions. Current prohibition on travel has created an opportunity to test alternatives which are now being considered as viable replacements. By looking into and analyzing the benefits and challenges of air travel compared to alternatives, we hope to give a fuller view of these aspects in all available options.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

We will measure the impacts of air travel in CO2 equivalent emissions (CO2eq), which is measured in tons of carbon-emission equivalent of greenhouse gases. Surveys to evaluate personal and professional benefits to individuals and the UW mission will be more personal and complex. Evaluation of unintended negative consequences and “replaceability” of air travel will also be evaluated. We will also calculate the potential CO2eq emissions saved by UW if identified policies and approaches are implemented.

Other project impacts:

  • UW Undergraduate Forrest Baum will get hands-on experience with grant proposal writing, effective survey design, and data analysis to answer questions about which he is passionate. The impact will be measured with the completion of his capstone project and formal presentation of his work to the UW and Seattle communities.
  • Campus-wide education about the impact that flying has on UW’s carbon emissions, and the benefit/costs associated with different types of flights. This impact will be measured by the number of campus organizations/offices that read our outreach materials and number of people reached through traditional and social media (e.g., through news stories and outreach campaigns) 
  • University of Washington adopting our recommended approaches will result in reductions in UW travel and associated CO2eq 
  • University of Washington community members interacting with our work can lead to reductions in air travel and more thoughtful choices in regards to additional sustainability behaviors
Total amount requested from the CSF: $14,901
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Student Support (Summer)$16.39/hour40 hours per week x 12 weeks = 480 hours$7867.20
Student Support (Fall & Winter)$16.39/hour10 hours per week x 20 weeks = 200 hours$3278.00
Student Benefit Load Rate20.9% of salaryn/a$2329.35
PoE Administration Support (PoE does not have a full time administrator and we have learned that administration of CSF grants is not time negligible)$30/hour4 hours per month x 9 months = 36 hours$1080.00
Admin Benefit Load Rate32.1% of salaryn/a$346.68

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Literature Review40 hoursSummer 2020
Research Design40 hoursSummer 2020
Collect Data from UW Offices80 hoursSummer 2020
Create and Test Survey40 hoursSummer 2020
Administer Survey120 hoursSummer 2020
Calculate Carbon Emissions40 hoursSummer 2020
Assess Pros/Cons of Various Travel or Alternatives80 hoursSummer 2020
Identify Policies & Procedures for Reducing Travel40 hoursSummer 2020
Capestone Report60 hoursFall 2020
Step-by-step Flying Emissions Framework Report40 hoursFall 2020
Digestible Campus Report20 hoursWinter 2021
Poster10 hoursWinter 2021
Infographic10 hoursWinter 2021
PSA Video40 hoursWinter 2021
Meet with Campus Groups and Offices20 hoursWinter 2021

Project Approval Forms:

Camas Meadows Monitoring at Burke Museum

Executive Summary:

We propose a 3-year plan to monitor the establishment and growth of the Camas Meadow recently installed as part of the new Burke Museums site development. The purpose of this monitoring is to develop a strategic, long-term management plan to assist UW Grounds in mitigating increased costs for maintenance while ensuring the ecological viability and sustainability of the project. Our proposal is grounded in a collaborative approach to support educational goals, and will work with a committed stakeholder group which includes students, a faculty member (Landscape Architecture), the Burke museum, UW Grounds, wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ (Intellectual House), Urban@UW, Oxbow Nursery, and GGN (landscape architecture firm). The project further proposes working with our project partners to develop interpretive strategies and communication plans of the environment as part of the Burke Museum’s mission to educate the public on the natural history of the Salish Sea Region.  As part of this process we propose hosting annual student-led workdays open to the UW community and broader public to be timed with the bloom of the camas plants (April) and harvest of the camas bulbs (June/July).

In a recent survey, it was estimated that in the early stages of Euro-American settlement in the Cascade region there were more than 5,000 acres of prairie habitat of what is today King County.[1]  Though not a dominant ecosystem type within the region the prairies offered critical habitat for many plant, insect and animal species, while further providing resources and nourishment of native communities and peoples. [2] Today, very little of the historical extent of prairies in the region remains, with only a few scattered remnant patches of any significance in size and the plant communities of both have been heavily impacted by the encroachment of invasive grass species. [3]

The landscape design for the Burke Museum included eighty thousand native plants. Most of these plants were propagated by locally collected seed. For example, much of the camas seed was collected on a small island in the San Juans and the bulbs were nurtured for up to four years in a nursery prior to planting. Establishment and growth of the plants community in the project will be tested against varying management including hand weeding, mowing, and potentially controlled burning. The results of the monitoring research will be compiled into a findings report, that will include a recommended maintenance manual to be shared with UW Grounds, and other land management and design teams interested in understanding how to establish and nourish this rare habitat type. The proposal for three years of monitoring, includes the seasonal employment of five students, the establishment of a long-term management plan, the development and implementation of interpretive strategies, and student-led work days for public education totals $21,720.

[1] Perasso, David (2018) “Prairies in King County?” (Report), Accessed 2.26/2020; https://davidperasso.net/Camas_Field_files/kingCoPrairies.pdf

[2] Kruckeberg, Arthur R. (1991) The Natural History of Puget Sound Country. (Seattle: University of Washington Press), pp. 284 – 290.

[3] See Perasso, 2018 and Floberg, J. et al. (2004) “Wilamette Valley-Puget Trough-Georgia Basin Ecoregional Assessment, Volume One (Report), Prepared for The Nature Conservancy with support from the Nature Conservancy Canada, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington Department of Natural Resources, Oregon State Natural Heritage Information Center and the British Columbia Conservation Data Centre. Accessed 2.26/2020

Student Involvement:

The Camas Meadows Project will take a hands-on, student-led approach to urban land management research. This initiative will first and foremost help students gain research and field experience by studying an existing project on UW campus at the new Burke Museum. Often, landscape architecture students are taught that once in practice, they have considerable creative control over conceptual and construction plans but rarely get to work on the management and maintenance of a given site once the firm has completed the design. Planting plan documents have detailed instructions around planting written by landscape architecture professionals but how does that ensure that information is implemented, improvised upon and passed on? And how does that go beyond planting instructions and into maintenance, management and care? And how can the management of a given site become an educational opportunity to communicate that site’s ecological and cultural significance to the public at large? How can a given site not only become a sustainability model but stay a sustainability model years after its design and construction? This project provides students with the opportunity to work directly with landscape architects, interpretive specialists, land maintenance professionals to understand the issues, concerns, and opportunities in translating the design of urban camas meadows into established and managed landscapes. While we will build knowledge from the several existing research projects on camas meadows in the region such as Novel Plant Communities and Partnerships: Creative Strategies for Habitat Conservation and Restoration in Western Washington Prairies by the Center of Natural Lands Management and Evaluating the Purpose, Extent, and Ecological Restoration Applications of Indigenous Burning Practices in Southwestern Washington published by UW Press, our proposal is unique in that it is investigating the establishment of this plant community type in an urban condition.

With the support of the Campus Sustainability Fund, this project will employ students to collaborate with a diverse team of project stakeholders, develop research methodologies, conduct field research, synthesize findings and communicate those findings to diverse audiences from academic publications to public information. The students for this project proposal will act as interlocutors to bridge the gaps of communication between seemingly disparate entities (private firms, clients, maintenance services, plant nurseries, students, visitors) with the intention of developing management strategies that reduce UW Grounds’ maintenance workload of the meadow.

This project will employ a total of five (5) students over three (3) years. In year 1 and year 2, two students will be employed, with one as lead researcher. The assistant researcher will then become lead the following year to ensure that knowledge gained from the project continues within the student body network and that the management plan stays active, pertinent and evolving. This also will build stronger relations between partners and stakeholders (UW Landscape Architecture Department, the Burke Museum, wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ [Intellectual House], UW Grounds, Urban@UW, GGN and Oxbow Nursery) to be informed of project progress on a biannual basis and continue in the development of interpretive strategies and management practices.

With the support of the faculty advisor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and other partners, the students’ key roles will be: research best management practices of the camas meadows, perform and monitor said best practices as experiments, design interpretation for the meadows and eventually create the management plan document. A student lead researcher will primarily research best practices and establish methods to conduct experiments. The student lead will work alongside an assistant researcher student by the second or third academic quarter to monitor management plan implementation (mowing regularly or semi-regularly, hand-weeding, flame weeding/controlled burning, seed-saving, bulb harvesting and propagation). The intention is that the student lead will transition out of their position so that the student research aide can take their place after their one year contract is finished. At times, the two student researchers will implement the management practices themselves with the help of fellow students (through landscape architecture courses or wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ [Intellectual House]) and Carlson Center service learning volunteers. There will be programming opportunities for campus-wide volunteer work and education days, especially during April (weeding) and June (harvesting) that coincide with UW annual events like Earth Day and graduation celebrations.

Education & Outreach:

Education and outreach is at the core of our proposal. Our project is intended to help advance the university’s objective to utilize all aspects of its facilities and campus as a learning environment. Working closely with project partners, the Burke Museum and wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ (Intellectual House), we will develop interpretive and communication strategies to educate the UW community and public of this rare yet significant and culturally important habitat type. The monitoring  and assessment of management strategies of this site will further integrate with the Burke Museum’s educational mission to provide living knowledge of our environment with the hope to inspire others to explore opportunities that recognize the importance of their surroundings and to potentially offer new and insightful ways to improve and increase our knowledge and interactions of historically important and endemic habitat types and conditions. The research into the establishment and evaluation of distinct management studies will further be disseminated in academic journals and other media outlets such as UW News.

The Camas Meadow is centrally located and adjacent to a primary entrance to campus when the light rail station on NE 43rd St. opens in 2021, and will have high exposure. In many ways, this site will be the first faculty, staff, students, and visitors to see upon entering campus and opportunities for informational outreach will be high. It is our intention to further offer student-led volunteer ‘work days’ on the site to assist with management while educating the public about camas and native meadows as well as the other native landscapes located adjacent to the Burke museum. Initial ideas for public engagement include ‘harvest days’ in June or July during which the camas bulbs will be dug, and during ‘burn days’ during which a portion of the meadow will be burned. These are preliminary ideas, but working closely with UW Grounds, the Burke Museum, and wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ (Intellectual House) will identify the most appropriate strategies for interpretation and outreach.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Environmental Justice
  • Cultural Representation
  • Social Justice
Project Longevity:

The Camas Meadows Project's longevity will be a total of 3 years for the management report and plan. The interpretation strategies will extend beyond this 3 year mark.

The active timeline for the management plan portion of our project is June 2020 - December 2022.

2020

[June - September]  Research Methods Development, Stakeholder Meeting (2), Field Monitoring, and Student-led Public Workday (1)

[October - December]  Data Analysis

2021

[January - March] Adaptation of Methods, Preparation of Field Season

[April - September]  Stakeholder Meeting (2), Field Monitoring, Interpretive Strategy Development, and Student-led Public Workdays (2)

[October - December]  Data Analysis and Interpretive Strategy Refinement

2022

[January - March] Adaptation of Methods, Preparation of Field Season

[April - September]  Stakeholder Meeting (2), Field Monitoring, Student-led Public Workdays (2), and Interpretive Strategy Deployment

[October - December] Synthesis of Findings, Preparation of Management Manual and other publications and Project ends.

Environmental Problem:

The Camas Meadow is an integral component of the designed landscape associated with the Burke museum. It was designed and incorporated into the overall site design because of its historical importance in the ecology and culture of the region and its direct association to the mission of the museum. This project offers a great opportunity to more fully understand the potential of this habitat type in the context of a highly urbanized and managed environment. Our proposal for monitoring is intended to provide information for designers, property managers (like the UW), and the public to learn about the ecological and cultural importance of camas meadows for this region and identify cultivation and management strategies to translate their establishment in similar and distinct land use contexts.

Climate change impacts are shifting ecosystems, including urban ones, and it is necessary to adapt to these changes. Camas meadows are unique and endemic to the northwestern region of the United States and are particularly adept to the combination of seasonal fires, drought and occasional flood inundation. For centuries, tribal communities such as the Nez Perce in Oregon have been implementing controlled burns in order to cultivate camas in open clearings as an agroecological practice that imitates naturally occurring seasonal fires. Before chemical weed and pest suppression, fire maintenance was adopted in specific ecosystems of plants that benefited from this regime. Because of this cyclical occurrence, sporadic larger wildfires during drought seasons were significantly less frequent. As climate change continues to bring less snowpack, longer droughts and more wildfires, urban and peri-urban landscapes will continue to experience the effects of it, much in the same ways as their rural and wilder counterparts.

This project proposal aims to provide ongoing research around the economic implications of native landscapes like camas meadows in urban landscapes. Management and utility costs for designed landscapes can be exponentially high and hardy, native landscapes like the camas meadows may reduce those costs over time once these plants are established. Combined with increasing public and campus-wide participation through educational programming, labor costs around management may be monitored to see if they see a significant drop as well.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The impacts of this project will be measured primarily in three ways:

Scientific Knowledge / The empirical research conducted through monitoring the establishment and survivability of this habitat type in an urban condition in relation to a variety of management strategies will serve to benefit the establishment of this habitat type in other urban areas and long term management. As a culturally significant landscape type, this impact not only enhances our ecological understanding, it deepens our cultural connection to the landscape.

Educational Outcomes / Most directly, this project will provide five students with the opportunities to work on a project of scientific and design inquiry, to collect, analyze, and synthesize findings, and identify strategies for communicating these findings. Approaches to measure other educational impacts will emerge, and be related to the development and deployment of interpretive strategies for the visitors of the Burke Museum and UW campus.

Financial Savings / A direct impact of this research will be to identify management approaches that streamline the labor necessary to care for this project as it matures. In an effort to identify adaptive pathways to balance ecological health and maintenance cost

Total amount requested from the CSF: $21,720
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Camas Meadows Project Budget Proposal
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal CostNotes
Student (Hourly)$24.24 (21.2% load rate)715$17,331Student hourly combined with load rate and multiplied by 715 total hours in a 3 year duration. Average student hours per week is between 8-10 hours.
Faculty (Summer Support)$1,239 (23.9% load rate)1$1,239
Field Equipment$2501$250Field-based research equipment
Public Field Days$1506$900Rentals
Interpretive Strategy Development$1,5001$1,500Construction costs
Management Report and Management Plan$5001$500Printing and Publication Fees

Non-CSF Sources:

Camas Meadows In-kind Support
SourceAmount (Hourly)HoursTotal
In-kind (Public volunteers)$18240 $4,320
In-kind (UW Grounds)$4030 $1,200
In-kind (Stakeholders)$6075$4,500
Project Completion Total: $21,720

Timeline:

Camas Meadows Project Timeline
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Stakeholder Meetings ½ day, 2X annually September 2022
Research Methods Development 2 months (annual review) August 2020
Field Monitoring April to September annually September 2022
Student-led Work Days 1 day, 3X annually September 2022
Interpretation Collaboration (with Burke and Intellectual House) Ongoing, 2020 - 2022 September 2022
Create Management Plan 3 months September 2022
Dissemination of Findings Ongoing, 2020 - 2022 December 2022

Project Approval Forms:

Fresh Food Recovery for the UW Food Pantry

Executive Summary:

Breakdown for this funding request is as follows:The UW Food Pantry is a flagship project of the Any Hungry Husky Initiative, which works to address food insecurity on the University of Washington-Seattle Campus. The Food Pantry provides foodstuffs such as canned goods, grains, fresh produce, and ready-to-eat meals free of charge to any Husky Card-holding student, staff member, or faculty member. The Food Pantry is currently undergoing a phase of rapid growth: in the last 24 months, total visits have increased over 500% from 748 visits in the 2017-18 academic year to 3,845 in the first two quarters of the 2019-20 year. This improvement is significant, but there is still a great deal of unmet need: a 2018 study conducted by UW faculty members suggested that approximately 20% of students had experienced food insecurity in the 12 months preceding the study.

Shelf-stable food available to Pantry users is primarily sourced from bulk purchases funded by donated funds, as well as corporate and private donations. However, the Food Pantry is presently expanding efforts to ‘glean’ recently-expired or unneeded produce and ready-to-eat meals from on-campus locations including the dining halls, the UW Farm, the District Market, and the Nook. By rescuing food that would otherwise be disposed of, the Food Pantry is able to feed community members in need while diverting food from the waste system.  Food sent to landfill and compost, produces methane as a by-product and contributes to climate change. In 2018, the UW estimated that its operations resulted in the compost of 1.7 million pounds and the landfill of 1.3 million pounds of food, while only about 15,000 pounds were rescued or donated. Although not all of this food is suitable for gleaning (e.g. health codes generally prohibit the donation of hot food tray leftovers) the sheer scale of these numbers make it clear that the gleaning program has a great deal of room for expansion.

In order to grow the Food Pantry’s gleaning initiative, funding for two key resources must be secured: the Pantry requires both an expanded capacity for cold food storage and the continuation of a currently-existing staff position to implement and nurture the gleaning program. Presently, the Pantry’s ability to glean food is limited by the amount of cold storage space available; the 18 cubic feet of storage our current fridge provides is no longer sufficient to store all the refrigerable goods we glean, nor does it hold enough food to provide all of our visitors with fresh produce and meals on a daily basis. A new refrigerator would allow us to store more fresh food for longer periods of time, improving the Pantry’s ability to provide visitors with nutrient-dense food while allowing us to divert a greater amount of food from landfill/compost destinations to individuals who need it.

The University of Washington Food Pantry therefore requests $35,000 of funding from the Campus Sustainability Fund for the purpose of funding the continuation of a gleaning coordinator position as well as the purchase and installation of new refrigeration. The funding of these two key resources will help prevent thousands of pounds of food from going to waste annually while providing Huskies with safe and enjoyable sources of nutrition.

Funding Information

The following provides additional context about our funding request that is not captured in other parts of this request.

Breakdown Total
Gleaning coordinator salary $17.00/hr x 15 hr/wk x 52 wk/year x 20.9% benefit load $13,260 wages, $2,771 benefits = $16,031.00
New cold storage purchase - two refrigeration units $2,299 + $1,019 x 10.1% sales tax + $250 delivery and misc $3,904.00
Farm and Pantry supplies  Compostable produce bags and transport bags, twist ties, rubber bands, thermometers, etc.  $1,000.00
Retrofitting of facilities  To be determined  $14,056.00
TOTAL   $35,000.00

 

We are currently awaiting feedback from the UW facilities team in regards to any mechanical, electrical or infrastructure adjustments that would need to be made for the addition of the cold storage. Adjustments could include reflooring an area of the Pantry so as to not have the fridges stand on carpet, or rewiring the electrical details to account for additional power needs. The Pantry would return any unused funding as soon as we confirm that there would be no unexpected costs in installing the refrigerator, and are prepared to give a more exact number for our request at the time of our presentation to the CSF board after we received estimates on expected work. Other sources currently funding the Food Pantry include $34,065 from the Services and Activities Fee Committee for the purpose of funding wages for two Pantry interns and two Pantry staff members, and an estimated balance of $56,600 in the Husky Hunger Relief Fund for the purpose of food and operating expenses. This fund is discretionary as it is donor supported, and is what the Pantry currently uses for food purchases, miscellaneous operating expenses, and would utilize for the gleaning coordinator position if alternate funding can not be secured. We are requesting funding from the CSF as a grant status and would not intend to pay back the grant.

Student Involvement:

First and foremost, students are involved in the project at the most basic level - they make up roughly 99% of visits at the Food Pantry. In addition, the position of gleaning coordinator is a student-run position. The continuation of the position would allow for hands on learning for the gleaning coordinator as well as the opportunity to lead teams of student volunteers in gleaning based projects. The Pantry itself is also student-run, having both student staff and student volunteers, and exists to be a resource for students as well as other campus members. The continuation of the gleaning position gives a student the possibility to have an impact on the food system within UW, as well as the lives of other Huskies. With the addition of more refrigeration, the gleaning coordinator would be able to increase gleaning capacity, ultimately increasing the amount of food available to Pantry visitors as well as expanding upon the scope of food rescue possible on campus. The Food Pantry introduced the gleaning coordinator position as a pilot project in 2019; the success of this position has rendered it  integral to the ability of the Pantry to serve its audience and expand its operations. Student staff and volunteers work in the Pantry everyday that it is open, but no extra student volunteers will need to be recruited at this time for this project.

Education & Outreach:

To ensure the UW community can find out about our project, the Pantry will be posting on both of our social media sites about the funding award as well as in our e-newsletter sent out to Pantry shoppers and subscribers. In addition to these announcements, we would also make a page on the Food Pantry website dedicated to announcing the funding award and maintaining gleaning updates every quarter to demonstrate the funding being put to use. Additionally, as has happened in the past, food-relevant classes can learn about the Food Pantry in class as a campus resource, food system, or however else it would fit into the course curriculum. Further campus support can be seen in the attached Project Support Forms from the UW Farm, HFS, and Student Life.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Waste
  • Environmental Justice
  • Social Justice
Project Longevity:

If granted the CSF funding, we would anticipate receiving the funds in June. Funding for the gleaning position would be implemented right away since the position is currently filled, and the new cold storage would be ordered at that time as well. While waiting for the fridges to be delivered (estimated at two to four weeks), the Pantry would perform any retrofitting to the space deemed necessary by the internal facilities team, and aim to have the fridges set up and running by mid August. The team assigned to this project would consist of the Pantry staff as well as already established Pantry volunteers if needed. The project is just short of being “shovel-ready”; all that would be needed is the reorganization of the current Pantry furniture to accommodate the new fridges, as well as the determination of any wiring adjustments needed for a commercial refrigerator.

The long-term funding of the gleaning coordinator is still to be dertimined.  After the FY2021 we will pursue funding support from organizations like CSF and SAF, as well as off campus grant opportunities.  There is also interest from donors for this position which creates an additional potential revenue source to support this position in the long term. Once the refrigeration units are purchased the maintenance can be worked into the annual Pantry operations budget.

Environmental Problem:

The Current Problem

The UW campus prides itself on being a leader in sustainability efforts, and our minimal waste ideology is a large part of said efforts. The Food Pantry supports minimal waste through the rescue and diversion of leftover food from compost or landfill and instead to students who would not otherwise be able to afford it. Diverting food from landfill to the hands of hungry students is important because it provides  food for students, staff and teachers struggling with food insecurity issues and it reduces methane gas which is generated by landfill.

There are currently two challenges facing the Pantry.  The first challenge is to acquire funding to extend the grant funded Gleaning coordinator position past the deadline. Currently, the part-time (15-17 hrs weekly) gleaning coordinator oversees gleaning, or the collection of unconsumed food, from multiple dining locations around campus. The coordinator also trains volunteers, acts as the main contact point for donating organizations and helps promote the organization through social media.  Just this week the coordinator was able to step in and help the two remaining UW Farm staff with picking, washing and packing the produce to ensure that the Pantry would receive a share of the fresh produce. If the coordinator was not able to assist with the process, all the food on the farm not going to HFS would have been composted due to a lack of staff.

The second challenge is adequate refrigeration space for the current supply of donated food and additional space needed for the upcoming fresh produce season.  Currently, we are able to store our gleaned food in our household refrigerator and we have been granted temporary access to a fridge at the By George Cafe for the duration of spring quarter due to COVID-19 closures. This extra bit of storage has proved extremely useful as we have been able to accept more gleaning donations as well as make less trips back and forth across campus and can simply restock from the By George fridge. This is a temporary fix and can help with the current volume but will not be enough to help during the extremely busy fresh produce farm season in summer and fall.

The Food Pantry has a strong partnership with the UW Farm, which delivers farm-fresh, organic produce on a weekly basis that we would not be able to purchase from the stores we order our bulk goods from. Refrigerating the produce helps prolong freshness and nutrient density, especially in the upcoming warm months of the year when produce will be at peak production. Due to the limited capacity of the current fridge, the Farm produce frequently ends up kept out at room temperature because of the prioritization of other items such as sandwiches with meat and dairy, ultimately ensuring that the produce will have a shorter shelf life. The refrigerator model we are hoping to purchase has a clear door which would allow for a visually pleasing display of the produce, making it more likely that Pantry visitors choose nutritious, fresh options over shelf-stable alternatives.

In addition to the storage of fresh produce, insufficient fridge storage means that the Pantry sometimes needs to decline donated food requiring refrigeration simply because we do not have the space to store the food. This leads to food that could have been offered to students needing to be thrown away or diverted elsewhere simply because of storage limits. Unfortunately our current fridge is a household refrigerator, not a commercial one, and almost half of the unit is a freezer which we are unable to utilize for produce. The change from our current unit to an all fridge unit would result in an increase from a total of 18 cubic feet of fridge space to a total of 82 cubic feet of cold storage.

It is the mission of the Food Pantry to provide food assistance to students, staff, and faculty who for whatever reason are struggling to put food on their plate. Food insecurity is directly addressed through our no-cost, no-questions-asked model as well as the numerous support services we partner with and can direct students to. Food insecurity is negatively correlated with student success, and redirecting neglected food to campus community members addresses both hunger and health through nutrition, relieving strain on the hunger portion of a struggling Husky’s life and allowing them to focus their efforts on other pressing priorities.

How The Project Addresses the Problem

By extending the gleaning coordinator position and acquiring an additional refrigeration unit,  the Pantry will be able to serve more students, staff and teachers dealing with food insecurity issues.  The Pantry will not have the problem of turning down food that needs refrigeration and will be able to keep the donated food fresher longer.  The Food Pantry is able to assist in the sustaining of education through dependable access to food at no cost. The Pantry also provides the opportunity for campus members to know where their food is coming from, specifically the UW Farm and campus eateries, while supporting waste diversion. Subsequently, the gleaning coordinator position provides valuable hands-on experience regarding food waste and how to manage cross-campus food operations.We currently glean from dining locations out of the 30+ on campus, but with additional funding and space, we would work towards maximizing our gleaning reach to include as many locations as possible.

We can be sure that with the increase in food recovery, the food will be put to good use and that there will not be a gap in supply and demand through the Pantry business model. Pantry shoppers' weekly allotment is dependent on how much product we have; when there is more product, we have lower fewer limits on abundant product, and when there is not enough, we impose more limits to spread the supply. This type of negative feedback system allows for us to buffer the provisions and make sure there is enough for everyone while also ensuring that there is never food leftover at the end of the day. Ready-to-eat food is almost always the first to go, especially when the limits are high. In the month of March 2020, the Pantry gleaned 572 lbs of food from HFS and the UW Farm alone, which is a significant increase from March 2019, when we gleaned 422 lbs from HFS and UW Farm.

Since gleaning is not an exact science, we cannot predict how much food is gleaned from week to week. However, as of recently, the Pantry has been averaging around 150 people a week. Since February 2019, the UW Food Pantry has redistributed over 3618 lbs of gleaned food to put in the hands of food insecure students. This is 3618 pounds of food from Center Table, The Nook, the UW Farm, Suzzallo and the HUB Starbucks, and City Grind Espresso that would otherwise have been thrown away. In addition, the 2019-2020 school year (we are including summer 2019 in this calculation), the UW Food Pantry so far has had over 2,535 visits from shoppers—all of whom are UW students, staff, or faculty. In 2017-2018 alone, the UW Food Pantry had 748 shopper visits. This means the number of visits from the 2017-18 school year have over tripled compared to the 2019-20 school year. This upward trend of visitors is no doubt related to awareness about the Pantry since opening, but also due to the ability of the Pantry to provide for its visitors, which can be built upon by the continued gleaning and the improvement of our cold capacity storage.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

This project's impacts will be measured by the increased amount of food storage and delivery allowed at one time, which will be tracked through the gleaning sheet kept on-site at the Food Pantry where we track source, type, temperature, and weight of food. We will also be able to monitor total gleaned food from campus, with the goal of expanding gleaning to other locations on campus. Despite the COVID-19 closure mandates, we have already had an influx of dining establishments on campus indicating that once they open back up, they would like to initiate gleaning partnerships with the Food Pantry. Additionally, data will be calculated to determine what percentage of Pantry visitors are accessing gleaned food to assess the popularity and necessity of the gleaning program, and to demonstrate the impact of the project.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $35,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Gleaning coordinator salary16,031.00116,031.00
1x 1-door refrigerator and 1x 2-door refrigerator3,904.0013,904.00
Compostable produce bags and transport bags, twist ties, rubber bands, thermometers, etc. 1,00011,000.00
Retrofitting of Pantry - Labor14,056.00114,056.00

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Install of new cold storage1-2 months August 1
Continue gleaning coordinator1 dayJuly 1, 2020
Estimate from UW facilities 30 daysMay 15, 2020
Retrofitting complete 1-2 monthsAugust 1

3D Printer Material Recycling Program

Executive Summary:

The ubiquity of 3D printers on campus has created a large source of plastic waste that the City of Seattle has decided won’t be recycled at their facilities (
https://twitter.com/SeattleSPU/status/775753287232475136), meaning all 3D printing waste generated at the University of Washington goes straight to a landfill. The project proposed here is designed to create a 3D printer material recycling program that all offices, laboratories, and communal spaces at the University of Washington can benefit from to redirect a large amount of this waste back into usable material. 

This project will be located primarily at the makerspace, Area 01, in Maple Hall. This location is the site of our collaborators, Precious Plastic, who already own Filabot extruder and custom made plastics shredder. Precious Plastic (https://www.preciousplastic-usa.com/) works to collect, recycle, and redistribute bulk plastic that would normally end up in a landfill. Because of the highly precise requirements of filament used for 3D printing, our project will focus on carefully screening the input material and carefully controlling the fabrication of recycled filament. This niche recycling is why our proposed project will complement the work Precious Plastic is doing by offering an alternate output for recycled plastic. The creation of usable filament will also incentivize groups to contribute recyclable material as they will be eligible to receive a percentage of usable material in return.

This collaboration will help reduce our operating cost by reducing the amount of expensive equipment this project will need to order. There will be recycling consumables, outreach materials, and salaries totaling about $9000 for the initialization phase and day-to-day workflow for the academic year afterward. Once this project is funded and out of the initialization phase, it will be able to smoothly run for as long as there is a small amount of support funding and student interested in participating in this project.

Student Involvement:

Although this project is being initiated by Lydia Smith who is the lab manager for the Amy Orsborn lab in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department, all subsequent members and collaborators of this project will be either graduate or undergraduate students at the University of Washington. Lydia’s role will be limited to the initialization of the project, an approximately 6 month, or 2 quarter period. Starting in the fall of 2020, Augusto Millevolte will be a first-year graduate student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department and will be assisting in getting the project off the ground, helping with outreach, training of new students, and fabrication of recycled materials. Given the demands of graduate students, his role will also be limited to the initial 6 months of the project.

Starting in the summer of 2020, we will be heavily recruiting undergraduate students to participate in this project. As this project will be collaborating with Precious Plastics, who are housed in the Maple Hall Makerspace, Area 01, we will have access to the population of undergraduate students who either work or utilize the resources there. In addition, we will be posting to the University’s Undergraduate Research Program Database (https://www.washington.edu/undergradresearch/students/find/) to solicit interest in students who wish to work on this project. Initial undergraduate students brought on during the summer of 2020 will be a part of the initialization of the project and will spend a large amount of their early time in Fall 2020 with the project learning how to run the machinery from the members of Precious Plastic, keep detailed and informative records of materials and training documentation, as well as collecting and processing the primary material. Once the project is out of the initialization stage, these undergraduate students will be responsible for running day to day operations as well as training more junior students to supplement their workload and eventually replace them.

Students involved with this project will be tasked with any of the following duties including designing/posting posters/flyers about services this project provides, answering emails sent to a project-specific email, bringing collection materials (bags, labels etc) to requesting groups, bringing donated materials to the project office, sorting/cleaning donated materials, maintaining donation records, processing & recycling materials, and handling returns of purchased materials.

Education & Outreach:

One of the ways we will looking to help support this project is by applying for work study to financially support the undergraduate researcher. Use of work study funds presumes that students will "learn work skills that are transferable to future career paths". As part of this project, students will primarily learn about project management, recycling pipelines, and 3D printing.

In order to give back to the community, the members of this project will not only be involved in all of the tasks mentioned in "Student Involvement"  but may also volunteer to speak about the project at events such as orientations or ‘trash talks’ given by Waste Management and sustainability groups on campus. Collaborating with Waste Management on UW campus will be the most important part of networking the project can do as they already have a large number of collaborations for recycling in the community and can reach an even larger audience. This collaboration will give us access to email lists and newsletters where we can electronically distribute information about our project.

In order to get as much participation as possible for this project, it will also be important to circulate posters and emails about our services to a broad audience on campus. Despite living in the digital age, posters advertising talks, research opportunities, and services on campus are still widely circulated on corkboards in all buildings (dorms, offices, laboratories, hospitals) on campus and are therefore be an important audience to reach.

One key feature of this project is it will generate a large amount of useable material from all the recycled filament created. Material created will be distributed through 3 sources: 1) Distributed back to labs, offices, groups that donate maters, 2) sold to anyone on campus for a discounted price, and 3) donated to local makerspaces and libraries to improve education about 3D printing to a wider audience. Donating this material will support underrepresented and underprivileged groups' ability to become involved in 3D printing.

Environmental Impact:
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

Ideally, this project should be able to run indefinitely so long as there is a small flow of funding available. As the project is ramping up, there will need to be a lot of oversight of the project to get it fully functional. There will need to be a large amount of community outreach to establish relationships with maker spaces and labs on campus to set up sources of recyclable materials. There will also be a lot of work to set up the workspace and create safety guidelines and operating procedures as well. Once these relationships and documents are developed most will only need to be updated infrequently. After this, the current employees would only have to spend the majority of their time on the day-to-day operations of the project, focusing on record-keeping, collecting recyclable materials, processing the materials into usable filaments, and redistributing the newly created materials. The more streamlined functionality of the project will allow more senior members to train new junior members. This will keep the project running even after the initial students' employees graduate. With only a small amount of funding to sustain employee salaries and operating costs, after establishment, the project will be able to carry on for many years to come even with student workers graduating. This would only cost about ~$1600/quarter (assuming $16/hour, 5hours/week, and 9weeks/quarter. This is expected to increase as Washington state minimum wage laws increase with the cost of living) to have two undergraduate students managing the equipment and outreach of the program after the initial 6-month initialization phase of the project. We will also submit this undergraduate position as a work-study position, applying for federal funding to help supplement the salary costs of the undergraduates working for this project. Assuming continued funding and generated income from the sale of the recycled materials, we will be able to continue this project so long as we can find willing participants for this project.

Environmental Problem:

Given the ubiquity of 3D printers on campus and the high amount of waste generated, this project seeks to create a small space where any office, classroom, or lab on campus can bring their excess/waste filament to be ground down, melted, and spooled into usable filament for future projects. Recycling the material on campus would reduce the amount of material that ended up in landfills and would also reduce the amount of new product that needed to be ordered. As the 3D filament is not commonly found in brick-and-mortar stores, all of it is purchased online (usually from Amazon) involving the manufacturing and shipping of all materials to campus. As this project will generate usable filament, we plan on giving back a portion of recycled material to donors to incentivize participation. All of the remaining filament generated will be donated or sold at a steep discount to groups on campus or in the community that may not be able to easily afford their own material. This would allow underrepresented and underprivileged groups to have the ability to become involved in 3D printing in cases where material cost may have been prohibitive.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Due to the nature of this project it will be easy to quantify the impact this project has on the environment. As previously mentioned, there are numerous sources of waste associated with 3D printing and because current, widely-available recycling focuses on commonly used plastic and 3D printed materials are commonly excluded. In fact Seattle Public Utilities publicly stated all 3D printed material should be thrown into the garbage and they would not be accepting them as compostables or recyclables. This project would be directly siphoning material out of the landfill and back into the production process. We will be able to quantify the amount of material saved from landfills by weighing the shredded material before it is recycled into usable filament. As more makerspaces and labs

Total amount requested from the CSF: $8,910
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Project Budget
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Outreach Materials per quarter1004400
Recycling Materials per pound1050500
Project Manager Salary per quarter (assuming $25/hour, 5 hours/week, 9 weeks/quarter)112522250
Student Salary per quarter (assuming $16/hour, 5 hours/week, and 9 weeks/quarter)72085760

Non-CSF Sources:

non -CSF funding
SourceAward ($)/quarterQuantity
Work Study Funds5406
Project Completion Total: $8,910

Timeline:

Project Timeline
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Posting position, interviewing, hiring undergraduate student.1 quarter.August 21, 2020
Designing, ordering, posting outreach materials1 quarterAugust 21, 2020
Purchasing recycling materials2 weeksJuly 3, 2020
Establishment of project space and development of training/safety materials1 quarterAugust 21, 2020
Collecting and processing materials from Fall Quarter1 quarterDecember 11, 2020
Collecting and processing materials from Winter Quarter1 quarterMarch 12, 2021
Collecting and processing materials from Spring Quarter1 quarterJune 4, 2021

Food System Coalition Campus-Wide Dolores Documentary Screening

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Electrochromic Glazing System for UW Health Sciences Education Building

Executive Summary:

Project Summary

In order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and to respond to the climate change emergency, it is necessary for University of Washington to invest in new building technologies that can reduce building energy consumption while at the same time improving the student experience and supporting the institutional mission of the University. Currently, the University is in the planning and design process for a new Health Sciences Education Building (HSEB) located on NE Pacific St. on the South end of campus, which will serve students, faculty and staff for generations.

A relatively new technology, the electrochromic window (ECW) is being considered for a number of the teaching spaces. This technology aims to reduce energy consumption, increase visual and thermal comfort, and reduce maintenance over the life of the building. Like self-tinting prescription glasses, ECWs are an optical glazing (window) technology by which the visible and solar transmittance of a window can be controlled between a transparent state to a very darkened state thus providing a range of visible light transmittances (Tvis) and solar heat gain coefficients (SHGC) when modulated by a control system and sensors to adjust to climate conditions.

This proposal requests a total of $65,000 from CSF to fund three project components: (1) an initial feasibility and evaluation phase for two students to work with the UW Project Development Group and the Miller Hull Partnership (leading the design team) to assess the technology and evaluate its potential impacts ($6,000); (2) to fund a portion of the incremental cost (added cost beyond conventional windows) of installing the ECWs at the HSEB (approximately $45,000) ; and (3) student labor to provide education, outreach, and post occupancy evaluation and storytelling about the technology ($14,000). If, after the initial feasibility phase, the design team or the UW Project Development Group elects not to incorporate ECWs the balance of the funding will be returned to CSF.

Furthermore, the process of design and evaluation of ECWs and dynamic shading systems will be incorporated into a UW course (ARCH 535) offered in by a faculty member in the College of Built Environments during spring quarter during the duration of the project.

If funded, this project will contribute to UW campus sustainability by maximizing energy performance, and improving the classroom experience while showcasing new building envelope technology that sets new sustainability standards on campus.

Student Involvement:

This project will be entirely student-led, with guidance and collaboration from the HSEB design team (Miller Hull Partnership and PAE Engineering), the UW Project Development Group, and a faculty member in the Department of Architecture. The initial feasibility phase will be completed by two UW Department of Architecture, Master of Architecture students, Connor Beck and Ben-Hsin Dow. Both are currently employed at the UW Integrated Design Lab (UW IDL) working in the area of building performance and they will be offered on-going IDL computing and space resources to complete this work. This will include life cycle cost assessment of the technology from reduced energy consumption and potentially reduced cooling equipment sizing.

The project leads will seek out stakeholder students via the Department of Health Sciences Administration to get user feedback on the proposed technology. Due to the timeline of the project (expected completion in 2022) current students involved in the project may be required recruit future students to complete outreach, communications and awareness-building activities.

Visual displays and interactive media will be exhibited in indoor public spaces incorporating the data storage and trending capabilities of the ECW control system.  

Education & Outreach:

The evaluation of and incorporation of a new technology for a future teaching facility offers a number of educational an outreach benefits. First, it will provide the opportunity to include UW students in the decision-making process inherent in evaluating a new technology for the Campus. This will provide hands-on engagement in life-cycle-cost assessment where critical issues of user experience, energy performance, and operations and maintenance are evaluated. The findings from this process will inform future projects at UW and will be incorporated in the outreach and education component. Once the project is constructed, students will have the experience of a new type of classroom experience using the dynamic glazing to improve their comfort and the classroom experience.  This project will offer an opportunity to develop messaging and storytelling via visual displays and/or interactive media that is exhibited in indoor public spaces and shares energy-savings and other aspects of the design. Specific strategies for community engagement will be established in the initial phase of the project, depending on the interactive feedback capabilities of the specific ECW system.

Concurrent with the design process students in the College of Built Environments will have the opportunity to learn more about ECWs and the project development process for the HSEB in a course, ARCH 535: Daylighting Design taught by Associate Professor Christopher Meek, with assistance from Connor Beck and Ben-Hsin Dow, the students participating in the CSF-funded project.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Community Development
Project Longevity:

The ECWs will be designed with the intent of serving for the design life of the building enclosure. EC glazing is rated for at least a 25 years and will be covered with basic warranty guaranteed in the contract with the contractor. Though the system will require a control system and localized occupant control switching. Other than managing and maintaining a commercially available control system, we do not anticipate significant additional operation and maintenance cost.

In the unlikely event of a total system failure, the “failure mode” of the ECW system will revert to act as convention double pane, clear glass. This system would appear similar to standard glass in the rest of the building. If this happened, the installation of conventional blinds or shade would likely be required.

Environmental Problem:

In order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and to respond to the climate change emergency, it is necessary for University of Washington to invest in new building technologies that can reduce building energy consumption while at the same time improving the student experience and supporting the institutional mission of the University. Buildings are responsible for over 40% of carbon emissions in the United States. Building heating, cooling, and ventilation (HVAC) and lighting use well over 50% of Campus building energy. Electrochromic windows have the potential to reduce energy consumption in all of these areas and potentially reduce the cost and size of building mechanical systems when incorporated as part of an integrated design process.

ECWs are an optical glazing (window) technology by which the visible and solar transmittance of a window can be controlled between a transparent state to a very darkened state thus providing a range of visible light transmittances (Tvis) and solar heat gain coefficients (SHGC) when modulated by a control system and sensors to adjust to climate conditions. By dynamically responding to local climate and immediate solar conditions, as well as real-time internal conditions within a building, electrochromic windows control the amount of heat and light emerging a space, while reducing glare and improving access to views outside.  EC glazing is made five layers of ceramic material coated onto a pane of glass.  A small electrical current is sent through the ceramic coating which causes lithium ions to transfer the ceramic layers. The tint within the window pane is the result of this process.  Reversing the direction of the polarity allows the window pane to clear.  Window tint percentage can range anywhere between 0% and 99% for increased glare and heat control.  The tint system may be occupant controlled or set to automation using a control system in which the system can be intelligently optimized to reduce heat and glare issues. The inclusion of ECWs can eliminate the requirement for mechanical building blinds or shades, facilitating glare control and space darkening for audio visual displays.

In a study conducted by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, ECWs have shown measured building cooling load reductions of 19-26% and lighting power savings of 48%-67% when combined with photo-responsive lighting controls. The saving potential varies by building type, use, and climate zone, due to variability in heating and cooling loads, solar exposure and glare control requirements. For this reason ECWs are frequently modulated by controls that adjust visible and solar transmittances by window or facade to reduce whole building energy consumption and maintain visual comfort.

More importantly, and number of studies, most notably by Lisa Heschong with the Heschong Mahone Group, have correlated access to daylight and views with significant improvements in student learning. A growing body of photo-biological research shows that occupants experience many positive physiological results when being exposed to natural daylight and to outdoor view.  Naturally-lit environment has values of triggering positive responses within human’s endocrine system. Wellness benefits are range from mental clarity, visual acuity, or even regulation of body system for better sleep. Although traditional blinds or curtains also provide lighting autonomy to the occupants, typically the devices are regularly left closed for extended periods, which results in reduced access to daylight and view. The weather-responsive controlling mechanism and the flexible light transmittance of EC glazing exclude the concerns led by manual-control operation, and potentially reduce the cost of maintenance.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The primary impacts are to implement and demonstrate a new sustainability technology in a prominent student-focused building on Campus.  Estimates show that EC glass reduce building energy consumption loads by about 20%.  Maximizing natural light and minimizing heat and glare allows students and workers to function at a higher level with less fatigue and eye strain. Workers in buildings with optimized tint control reported a 56% decrease in drowsiness throughout the work day which leads to a more productive and attentive population of students.

The long-term scope of the project may require a post-occupancy questionnaire and will require data collection from the system to evaluate impacts and tell the story of the system as part of the demonstration. This would be done in coordination with the UW Office of Sustainability.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $65,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Incremental Capital Cost45000145000
Student salaries (feasibility)300026000
Student salaries (edu/outreach)7000214000

Non-CSF Sources:

TBD
Project Completion Total: $145,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Phase I1 year2020
Phase II1-3 years2022
Phase III1 year2022

Student Sustainability Forum

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Africa Now Conference [Virtual]

Executive Summary:

The African continent is home to the largest youth population in the world. With the increased access to information and new platforms to mobilize, youth across the continent are fighting to address corruption and create ways to contribute to the growth of their specific country. This revolution is one that cannot be ignored; the African continent has abundant resources and limitless potential that generally goes unacknowledged and continues to be exploited by outside actors. Africa’s youth across the diaspora are eager to help their nations achieve the long-overdue potential that experts have been predicting for decades. Here in Washington, we’ve decided to join the revolution by supplementing the educational pursuits of young professionals and cultivating them to unlock the future of Africa, now.

Inspired by the Green New Deal’s efforts to address climate change and economic inequality; two problems disproportionality affecting Black and African peoples across the globe, Africa Now conference seeks to make its 2020 conference a point of intervention. With the youth of the world working tirelessly to let the institutional powers that be understand that the future is not only now but us, this conference will serve as a place for collective action.

This year our theme is Achieving a Sustainable Future - our goal is to highlight the importance of environmental sustainability in local and global African communities.

This encompasses looking at sustainability through a holistic lens, an approach that we believe aligns with the CSF’s efforts in expanding the scope of sustainability.

Africa Now defines sustainability as addressing the environmental, economic, social, and political aspects of Africa’s continued growth. This year, our theme is centered around environmental sustainability. We want to analyze and identify practical solutions for environmental sustainability through the lens of  politics, business, education, media and technology. Our holistic approach to environmental sustainability also takes into account that black and African communities bear the brunt of climate change.

Africa Now is seeking $20,500 from the Campus Sustainability Fund to assist in organizing our third annual conference to inspire young Black students and professionals to join the movement for sustainable, afrocentric, African development. By tapping into the network of young, Black students and professionals in Washington, we can bring together an interdisciplinary group of driven individuals to evaluate how our skills can play a role in the sustainable growth of our common, ancestral homeland.

The Africa NOW Conference -- hosted and organized in collaboration with the African Student Association, Black Student Union, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, and other student organizations -- brings together over 200, young, Black students and professionals. The conference provides them with the insights, knowledge, and resources necessary to envision sustainable ways to improve their communities in Seattle, Africa, and across the Diaspora. Through an all-star panel, dynamic breakout sessions, and networking, we’ll inspire and equip young Black professionals to fight for a sustainable future for Africa. This will be held on the UW Seattle campus.

Student Involvement:

From its inception, the vision of the Africa Now Conference has been driven and realized by students. After two annual conferences and a transition to a non-profit, this still remains true. The Africa Now Conference is entirely organized by current UW students in the Seattle Area and supported by an alumni who is also the founder of this vision. In regards to student involvement, the Africa Now conference is a think tank full of dedicated students who work to enhance the reach and impact of the conference and one another. Comprised of 11 executive board members, and a team of volunteers, the conference planning committee brings students from a myriad of backgrounds, departments and student organizations who are all committed to fulfilling the demands of the conference.

The most important approach for ensuring that UW students are interested in attending the conference is for it to be organized by students. Because the organizing board is composed of students from all academic and experiential backgrounds, it is aware of the general interests and concerns that our peers share; this allows us to target speakers, facilitators, and resources that can best address those needs. Given the success of the past 2 years, the Africa Now conference saw a significant increase in students interested in getting involved in the conference again. The level of interest required the Program Directors to institute an application process to select this year’s organizing board; and like every aspect of the conference the selection process is also conducted be fellow students who have dedicated their time and effort to the purpose of Africa Now.

Understanding that there is a need to be organized and direct in assembling the organizing board, not all students are able to be selected. However, the Africa Now conference realizes that all students who express an interest in having a direct involvement with the conference are able to provide a myriad of resources and abilities that can also serve well on the day of the conference if they choose. All previous applicants are contacted by the organizing board to gather student volunteers for lead up events and the day of the conference. Recruitment for volunteers is not only done by the conference’s board members but in collaboration with the black organizations both on and off campus that we work with throughout the entire process.

Beyond serving as organizers or volunteers, the best way for students to get involved in the Africa Now Project is by attending the conference itself. The conference will be a great opportunity for students to learn about afrocentric, sustainable development projects and how to be involved in making that a reality. Despite the afrocentric nature of this event, the strategies and tactics of the conference can be applied to communities and countries that do not belong to the African diaspora. As such, Africa Now will seek to reach out to FIUTS, FASA, MEChA and other student organizations that serve students and communities of color. These groups could not only explore strategies for sustainable development, but they could also learn how to be better allies for Black/African people.

Education & Outreach:

Education, outreach and behavioral changes are at the center of the Africa Now conference purpose. Because our goal is to educate, organize, and mobilize, the Africa Now conference recognizes that this can only be done through the continued expansion and collaboration between Black and African Organization within the Seattle community, organizations back on the African continent and Africa Now. Each year one of our primary goals is to bolster our networks for the purpose of increasing the number and diversity of our attendees. Continued collaboration between fellow black student organization on the UW campus such as the Black Student Union, African Student Association, the African Studies Department; and non-UW organizations such as Mother Africa allows the Africa Now conference to deliver a holistic education and provision of practical tools that yield changes in our attendees.

At the 2020 conference one of the specific ways we hope to educate conference attendees is through a case competition. Attendees will be presented with real life situations and problems on sustainability (or lack thereof) across the 4 key areas (political, environmental, social, economic) of sustainability in selected groups. Students will, with measured guidance from workshop leaders work in their groups to bring about a resolution and recommendations to the problems they’re assigned. The purpose of this is to increase the engagement and networking potential of the conference but most importantly interact with applicable knowledge. Through this we hope that students will be willing practitioners of the tools and skills they’ll learn at the conference. We believe that beginning the process of applying sustainable practices to real time scenarios will work in changing the attitudes of the students. We understand the propensity for inaction after such events, and the case competition will hopefully place attendees in the space of believing in their ability to be the agents of change needed.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Transportation
  • Waste
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
  • Social Justice
Project Longevity:

The feasibility of this project is best demonstrated by the past two annual Africa Now conferences, which conference attendees rated as a success. The first, which was held in May of 2018 had over 100 registered attendees. In our 2019 conference, we accommodated for over 180 attendees. This year’s planning committee will leverage and build on the experiences of these past two conferences, as well as the feedback from the surveys that our conference attendees completed. For our 2020 conference, we will spotlight the work that has been continued since our last annual conference.

The organizing board takes seriously the procurement of long term sponsorships and partnerships for the longevity of our conference and mission.  After transitioning into a non-profit organization Africa Now now has access to a pool of potential donors that it had previously been unable to work with. In past years those who expressed an interest in funding the conference were unsure how to proceed after being informed that we lacked the necessary tax write off codes. As we move forward with a fiscal sponsor -Mother Africa, we plan on reaching out and establishing these sponsorships and partnerships. We believe that this strong relationship between Africa Now and its supporting community in the Greater Seattle Area and beyond are what will allow us to continue enriching global perspectives, supporting grassroots efforts across the African diaspora, and providing individuals with the network and resources to tackle problems facing the African continent and its diaspora.

Environmental Problem:

The central focus of Africa Now is raising a local awareness about the unsustainability of global development projects, especially those taking place in African countries and communities. We want attendees to recognize the unique position of Africans - on the Continent and throughout the diaspora - to play a role in addressing the problems that arise from those projects. Africa Now sees development as having 4 key areas of impact that determines whether or not a project is sustainable: environmental, economic, political, and social. Each of these aspects is important to ensure that projects are truly sustainable for the people, their country, their land, and the world.  While the political and social areas are typically more locally/regionally isolate, the environmental and economic impacts and pressures can be - and typically are - global in nature.

Our primary goal for the 2020 Africa Now conference is for attendees to have a forum to explore strategies for developing sustainable solutions for their communities throughout the African Diaspora and in Africa within the 4 key areas. The conference will provide attendees learning opportunities, discussion forums, tools and resources that will allow them to leave the conference with actionable solutions they can implement so as to contribute to environmental sustainability in their communities. This year, we plan on incorporating seven separate breakout sessions throughout the conference in order to allow our attendees to learn from individuals who are experts within their fields but also tap into their existing knowledge as a collaborative group. We want to provide new interactive ways for our attendees learn, network, and take action with those who are in these fields and those who are interested in the development of the African continent, and our approach to education, outreach, and behavior changes provide the means to do so. Because our goal is to educate, organize, and mobilize, the Africa Now conference recognizes that this can only be done through the continued expansion and collaboration between Black and African Organization within the Seattle community, organizations back on the African continent and Africa Now. Each year one of our primary goals is to bolster our networks for the purpose of increasing the number and diversity of our attendees. Continued collaboration between fellow black student organization on the UW campus such as the Black Student Union, African Student Association, the African Studies Department; and non-UW organizations such as Mother Africa allows the Africa Now conference to deliver a holistic education and provision of practical tools that yield changes in our attendees.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The Africa Now views the impact of our conference in two parts- direct sustainable outcomes and the impact on education and behavior changes. Each year the  committee works diligently to ensure that we are not only teaching attendants and our communities sustainable practices but being practitioners of these efforts ourselves. This includes recycling as much of our conference materials as possible and having the conference and all lead up events on the UW campus. Encouraging ridesharing to our events, minimizing hardware advertisements which often require widespread use of paper, and supplementing with a strong online presence as a part of our marketing/advertising also allow us to increase our sustainable impact. Adding modes of transportation as a category on our exit surveys will also give us a better understanding of pre-conference impacts that can be used in the future for other purposes such as providing accommodations and increasing our accessibility. Our speakers are often local to Washington state which not only reduces travel costs, but let's our audience know that there are people within their own state, and oftentimes city, who are doing the work that they want to be a part of. In the event that we do have to fly-in a speaker or two, Africa Now plans to mitigate the impact of air pollution by having a tree planting day. We’re currently working on identifying local organizations such as Plant-for-the-Planet Washington to achieve this should we fly-in a speaker.

Our plan for measuring the impact of our conference is through the follow up survey which we have conducted in previous years, as well as connecting with students on the ways they’ve implemented the solutions and recommendations they’ll identify during the case competition (refer to Outreach, Education, and Behavior Change section). We plan on having a spotlight section of the conference which will allow past returning attendees to share the ways they’ve gone about implementing the tools they’ve received at past conferences to measure the impact of our conference.

At the 2020 conference one of the specific ways we hope to educate conference attendees is through a case competition. Attendees will be presented with real life situations and problems on sustainability (or lack thereof) in selected groups. Students will, with measured guidance from workshop leaders work in their groups to bring about a resolution and recommendations to the problems they’re assigned. The purpose of this is to increase the engagement and networking potential of the conference but most importantly interact with applicable knowledge. Through this we hope that students will be willing practitioners of the tools and skills they’ll learn at the conference. We believe that beginning the process of applying sustainable practices to real time scenarios will work in changing the attitudes of the students. We understand the propensity for inaction after such events, and the case competition will hopefully place attendees in the space of believing in their ability to be the agents of change needed.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $20,500
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Conference Line Items
Plates and Utensils $200
Conference decor$600
Physical Promo - Video $400
Digital Promo (Website)$1,100
225 Reusable Water Bottles $3,000
Program Booklets $200
Name Tags $100
Media - 2 Photographers & 1 Videographer$2,000
Speakers (7 x ~ $1000)$7,000
Live Entertainment$800
Featured Artists$2,200
Bus Vouchers for Students $250
Stickers - Decale $500
Venue$2,000
Lanyards $150
Total $20,500

Non-CSF Sources:

Sources of funding and sponsorship outside of the CSF
AdditionalSourcesof Funding
ECC Student Event FundAfrican Chamber of CommerceBlacks at MicrosoftAfricans at BoeingAfricans at T-Mobile
VenueFoodFoodFoodAdvertising
Project Completion Total: $28,500

Timeline:

Conference tasks with estimated time frame and completion dates
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Reach Out to SpeakersEarly JanuaryJanuary 14th
Secure SpeakersEarly FebruaryFebruary 10th
Apply For FundsJanuaryFebruary 10th
Organize Lead Up EventsDecember- FebruaryFebruary 28th
Reserve VenueJanuaryJanuary 31st
Book Photographer, Artists, Caterers, etc.FebruaryMarch 1st
Organize Volunteers/ Media OutputMarchMarch 31st
Open RegistrationEarly AprilApril 5th
Registration Period/ Close RegistrationLate AprilApril 28th
Finalize day-of detailsEarly AprilApril 25th
Conference Packet/ DecorLate AprilApril 27th
Analyze Survey DataMid MayMay 20th
Grant ReportingMayMay 31st

Project IF - Phase II

Executive Summary:

Project Indoor Farm (Project IF) is an organization run by students and community members aiming to create a more sustainable campus food system through urban indoor farming. 

We envision three phases of operation for Project IF:

Phase I: Feasibility study (completed in December 2019)

Phase II: Full operation on the University of Washington campus (2020 and on)

Phase III: Transfer the successful experience to other suitable organizations (2022 and on)

In the proposed Phase II operation, Project IF’s goal is to grow leafy greens and herbs for the University of Washington Housing and Food Services – providing locally sourced, sustainably grown produce to dining halls, cafes, and restaurants on campus. Project IF addresses sustainability by helping to eliminate transportation, packaging, and other resources traditionally used when growing and distributing food. Equally important, this project will create a space for students to apply their knowledge and passion from the classroom to our farm directly impacting sustainable urban agriculture. Running day-to-day operations and improving the farm through design projects and research will provide a unique learning opportunity with real world application. Project IF fills the gap of giving a hands-on experience to students within indoor urban agriculture, a rapidly expanding industry that will play an increasingly relevant role in helping feed the world.

The 2020 grant request from the UW CSF will enable Project IF to proceed to Phase II and begin to allocate resources to education. With additional funding, Project IF will build on the Feasibility Study and scale up its farming efforts by expanding the physical farm, paying student staff, and setting aside funding for operational resources, business ventures, and research and design projects. The plan is to have Project IF’s production financially support its educational endeavors. 

Student Involvement:

Student involvement is the key to Project IF’s success. All our activities aim to foster awareness of the strains on our food system. This is not possible without consistent and committed student involvement. To continue incentivizing and engaging as many students as possible, we designed a set of clear metrics to monitor impacts which will help us narrow in our focus. The data we collect will give us the insight to understand Project IF’s social reach and potential to grow on other campuses.

We summarized eight ways for students to get involved with Project IF with varying levels of commitment: 

  1. Produce consumption. The easiest way to be involved and support Project IF is to dine on campus and eat our greens! Students can enjoy fresh, locally grown produce at the HFS-sponsored organizations we will partner with! With virtually zero transportation and waste, this metric demonstrates how sustainability is truly a core value that UW students stand for. 
  2. Website and monthly news. Our outreach team will publish a monthly newsletter about Project IF and other related stories that we think are worth sharing with the student subscribers. Students can subscribe to our monthly newsletter or view it directly on our website. 
  3. Social media. We have accounts on three major social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. This is another easy way for students to stay in touch and learn how to be further involved in Project IF.
  4. Farm tour. We will routinely host farm tours upon request. In the recent past, we hosted about 2 to 3 tours every month. We expect the frequency to increase by a fair amount once we reach the full operation in Phase II. For those who have hands-on experience, we will also provide an unofficial certificate of urban farm training as a souvenir. 
  5. Student staff. Since Project IF is designed to be student-led with minimal oversight. We expect to have 10 to 15 students trained as paid staff to work at Project IF every year.
  6. Student volunteer program. In addition to the student staff that work at the farm, we will also accept student volunteers to help with various tasks ranging from farm operations to outreach and education.
  7. Independent or capstone projects. We currently have 15 project ideas (with more to come) for students to start working on. With the collaboration of Professor Eli Wheat and Professor Sean McDonald, we hope these project ideas come to fruition. We also encourage students to consult with us on their ideas for possible projects.
  8. Class collaboration. With three class collaborations (ENVIR 240, LARCH 501D, NUTR 303) already in progress for the coming winter and spring quarters, we would love to be part of more courses on campus and share our vision and story. It is another great channel for us to engage and interact with students in depth and potentially recruit more student-staff/volunteers and inspire more independent projects.

We view all aspects of student involvement as part of the impact we make. We will capture the quantitative data for all eight possible ways as part of the measurable metrics of student involvement and its intrinsic social impact.

Education & Outreach:

The core mission of Project IF is to raise awareness on the food ecosystem, both locally and globally. Realizing the problems in the current food system is the first step towards solving the global food crisis and improving our local food ecosystem. Project IF can raise awareness by providing students with locally grown food and encouraging them to question where their meals come from. When students learn that the salad they had for lunch was grown by their classmates, it will spark their curiosity and automatically make them directly involved in the solution. It will also provide students with an example of how their peers dedicate their time to act more sustainably. This dining hall exposure will create a unique platform to highlight Project IF and its mission, leading to more student involvement through online resources, farm tours, and working with our organization. Through this exposure, more people will gain individual insight into what they can do to help to improve the future food system. It’s like planting a seed: once becoming aware, actions are sure to follow. 

In the Phase I feasibility study (2019), Project IF has grown to encompass 15 volunteers who have worked to expand the farm’s operations and outreach. Volunteers have established a formal website (https://projectifuw.wixsite.com/projectif), social media platforms (https://www.instagram.com/projectifuw/) (https://www.facebook.com/projectifuw/) (https://www.linkedin.com/company/project-if-uw/), a user-instruction software called Aquarium (https://www.aquarium.bio), and promotional material such as this video (https://www.instagram.com/p/B4dYGOmlqo1/?hl=en) to attract students to support and even join Project IF.

In recent months, we have had the privilege of meeting with students and faculty members and providing tours of the farm to different classes with the goal of increasing engagement and awareness of the benefits of urban farming on campus.

In our Phase II Education endeavor, we will continue to provide education and research opportunities to students who are interested in learning about indoor urban farming. In the summer of 2019, we collaborated with Professor Gundula Proksch as part of the Global Sustainability Scholars tour in Seattle and partook in the panel discussion with student scholars. Most recently, we have been collaborating with Professor Eli Wheat and Professor Sean McDonald within the Program on the Environment. We will be featured in Dr. Wheat’s ENVIR 240 Urban Farm curriculum this spring and have plans to provide students with the opportunity to conduct a small research project for honors or independent study credit. Project IF will also be listed as an available project in Dr. McDonald’s senior capstone series this upcoming spring. In addition, we will continue to give tours of our farm to classes such as Professor Julie Johnson’s Climate Changed Urban Agriculture studio LARCH 501D and interested student groups. Similarly, we will be presenting in Dr. Yona Sipos’s NUTR 303 Neighborhood Nutrition class and providing in-depth farm tours to their two lab groups in the winter quarter.

We see Project IF as an interdisciplinary endeavor. From agriculture, environmental science, urban planning, and public policy to production planning and logistics, we welcome students from all majors and backgrounds. Our hope is that they can apply their passion to our farm. We would love to see our farm incorporated into the UW’s curriculum and serve as an opportunity for students to apply their learning to shaping the local food system, enriching their experiences at the UW, and ultimately promoting sustainability.

Another form of outreach and education is the relationships Project IF can create with like-minded local organizations. For example, our team has been in contact with Nathan Hale High School. We have reached out to Mr. Matt Davis in hopes of having the opportunity to speak to his students, and working together to expand their extensive urban farm to include an indoor growing unit.

Lastly, Project IF aims to participate in the U-District Farmer’s Market through Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets. Increased production capacity gives our team a means to hold a booth every week at the market and provide readily available, sustainable, local produce to the community. This would expand Project IF’s reach beyond the campus to the neighboring communities. 

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
Project Longevity:

Hardware Longevity

According to the manufacturer, there are two hardware components, the LED light and the submersible pump, that have a life expectancy of around 10 years. With such information, we don’t expect to run into any hardware longevity issues within our first five years (a very conservative estimation). However, since the light and water are so vital to the success of the indoor farm, we will monitor the equipment closely.

Organizational Structure and Management Longevity

We structured Project IF to be a sustainable project with no expiration date. Financially, in 11 months, the operation will reach the cash flow breakeven point. In other words, Project IF will be able to start supporting its educational components, including research and outreach, with the net income (~$150K) generated annually. And in less than three years we can recover all the upfront capital investment ($250K). However, it is not our goal to continuously expand the operation to maximize the financial gain. Our goal is to strike a healthy balance between production (generating revenue) and education (creating impact). Once the balance stage is reached, we will keep the steady operation on both farming production and food education moving forward under the sustainable structure we envision. 

Once the proposed Phase II is proven successful and stable for two years, we plan to start Phase III and reach out to other universities and/or organizations. We will work to transfer our experience to help them create their own version of Project IF in their community. This will be a slow process with many unpredictable challenges, but we are optimistic that the organic process of establishing the Phase II operation will open new doors of opportunity for us to pursue Phase III. We envision in Phase III, that UW Project IF will become an informational hub of sustainable urban agriculture and a platform that can provide opportunities to all different communities to join us to feed the world in a sustainable way.

Our vision of the Phase III operation inspires and encourages us to properly and thoroughly collect all the tangible data from both environmental and social impacts in the Phase II operation. Having the data on hand with a compelling story will be the key of success to our Phase III operation. 

Environmental Problem:

Project IF was founded in July 2018, and since its inception, has received a generous grant from the University of Washington Campus Sustainability Fund (UW CSF). This grant funding went towards successfully setting up the indoor farm in Condon Hall (~300 square feet), which includes a hydroponic system with 32 vertical growing towers and LED lights, a seedling rack with germination and seedling trays, and other equipment. Project IF was able to complete its initial Phase I objective to establish the infrastructure necessary to expand the farm’s output of produce. To date, we have grown over 150 lbs. of buttercrunch lettuce. Recently, we have also tested arugula, mint, and microgreens. In addition, we have had the opportunity to donate a large portion of our product to the local University District Food Bank, as well as donating some to the UW Student Veteran Lounge and engaging in outreach by attending local sustainability events. 

For Phase II, we aim to create a sizable on-campus farm (~3000 square feet) to provide a supplemental amount of leafy greens and herbs to dining halls, food banks, and cafes on campus such as the Husky Grind and Cultivate. According to the UW Housing and Food Services, the UW main campus serves about 20,000 meals a day. There are more and more student movements, like Huskies for Food Justice, requesting UW to source more food locally. Sourcing food locally from Project IF can help to cut down food transportation costs and consumed packaging, be a secure stream of produce, improve quality and freshness, and overall reduce UW’s carbon footprint. With a larger space and more resources, we also hope to produce a wider range of leafy greens and herbs, from buttercrunch lettuce to arugula and mint. While more product would be grown, our hydroponic system offers a sustainable alternative to traditional farming methods to produce higher yields with fewer resources. Our goal with Phase II is to maximize the positive impact of indoor urban farming on the UW community.  

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Both the social and environmental impact are tightly connected to student involvement. Our measurable metrics are designed to capture both. The eight different metrics are listed below with how we intend to collect the data. 

  1. Produce consumption. We will monitor the total amount of produce that is grown by students, sold on campus, and consumed by students and faculties. The average number of “food miles” an American meal travels from farm to plate is about 1500 miles. By tracking how much Project IF produce is consumed, we can reverse-calculate how many food miles we help to eliminate. 
  2. Website and monthly news. We will track the growth of traffic on our website and the number of subscribers for the monthly newsletter.
  3. Social media. We will track our overall reach and engagement on each of our social media channels. 
  4. Farm tour. We will track all the visitors to our farm tour and the IF certificate we give to those who partake any hands-on experience at our farm.
  5. Student volunteer program. We will track how many students volunteer at Project IF and their individual roles, achievements, and hours worked.
  6. Student staff. We will track how many student staff work at Project IF and their individual roles, achievement, and hours worked.
  7. Independent or capstone project. We will keep track of projects that are executed by students and measure the outcome and implementation of each finished project.
  8. Class collaboration. In addition to tracking class collaborations, we will capture the number of students that attend each section of a given class that Project IF is a part of. We will also highlight each collaboration in our monthly Project IF newsletter. Lastly, we will conduct a pre and post survey to better understand what students have learned with their involvement in Project IF.
Total amount requested from the CSF: $150,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Please see the Funding Information document in the supplementary documents.
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $250,000

Timeline:

Please see the Accountability and Feasibility document in the supplementary documents.
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

No-Till Soil Health and Weed Management Toolkit

Executive Summary:

The UW Farm began in 2006 as a student-powered project growing vegetables behind the old Botany Greenhouse. Today, thanks to the power of their vision and the support of the CSF, the UW Farm cultivates about 2 acres of growing space with two full-time staff and four part-time student staff. This past year we hosted twelve classes from across university departments, interacted with more than 500 students, and grew more vegetables than ever before. However, with this expansion we have felt a squeeze on our tool shed. Due to the inevitabilities of working with enthusiastic beginners some of our tools have been broken, while others we simply do not have enough of, leading to bottlenecks in production.

We would use this CSF grant to restock with high-quality tools designed to last, allowing the next generation of students to experience the efficiencies that small-scale farming has to offer. In addition to having enough tools, this grant would allow us to purchase the tools necessary for a no-till system. No-till systems are part of the so-called “brown revolution” in agriculture, which combines ancient ways of growing with new understandings of soil health (Montgomery 2017). Given the proper tools, we will be able to demonstrate a highly efficient system that produces healthier plants, sequesters carbon, saves water, and preserves soil health for the long haul. The proposed cost of our grant is $14,500 dollars, which would go primarily towards purchasing tools, soil tests, and soil building materials.

Montgomery, David R. Growing a revolution: bringing our soil back to life. WW Norton & Company, 2017.

Student Involvement:

The tools purchased with these funds will be used by and for students on the UW Farm. Although this grant will not directly fund any student jobs, the tools will be used by our four student staff in farm production and education activities. These tools will be used by hundreds of volunteers, because we host 50-80 service learners each quarter as well as community volunteers, labs, and tours. This past year we interacted with 200 students in labs, 600 students on tours, and 200 service learners. Every one of these students either used our tools themselves or saw them in use, creating a huge opportunity for learning when we introduce these new tools. Responsibilities of volunteers on the UW Farm include multiple different production related tasks, including weeding, harvesting, washing, packing, and planting.

 

Education & Outreach:

Our primary mode of education will be with the classes and volunteers that interact with the UW Farm. We pursue education through production, so as students are volunteering we can use these tools as a gateway to talking about soil health and no-till management. For example, the question of what kind of hoe to use leads to further questions, such as how different weeds indicate soil health, how no-till management can reduce weed pressure, and how this applies on a broader scale to agriculture. This quarter, Eli Wheat and Adam Houston will be teaching a class on soils and carbon sequestration in agriculture, and we are hoping that our students will be able to use these tools to develop their own hypothetical management systems as part of their class work. 

Our secondary mode of education will be through informational signage in our tool shed. We already have a set of simple signs with the name of the tool, a picture, and a description of its use. We will be expanding these signs to include the new tools that we purchase, as well as updating our old signs. We also plan on making "CSF" stickers for the handles of our tools so that every time we show a student how to use a tool, we can remind them of where it came from. In addition, we will be using our Instagram, which has 1,387 followers, to publicize our new tools and systems. 

Our specific outreach goals include interacting with at least 600 students during the Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall quarters in 2020. All of these students will be exposed to our tools in some way, whether for a few minutes during a tour or over the course of service learning for a whole quarter. We track all student interactions with the UW Farm, so we will have a clear picture of usage by the end of the year. 

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
Project Longevity:

The tools purchased with these funds will be high-quality and designed to last. In addition, the UW Farm has a long-term commitment to education and production at the University of Washington, and will employ these tools in our systems as long as the UW Farm continues to exist. This is a one-time investment with a long-term payoff in terms of ecological health, student wellbeing and education, and farm productivity.

Environmental Problem:

The effect of tillage on soil intersects with a number of crucial environmental and social problems relating to the sustainability of human agriculture. Long-term use of tillage can cause a precipitous decline in the amount of organic carbon stored in the soil, which is then released into the atmosphere. It is estimated that by the time of the Industrial Revolution, humans had already contributed one-third of our total greenhouse gas emissions simply by tilling the soil (Lal 2004). Soils with less organic matter absorb less water, contributing to poor performance in droughts and increased erosion. Plants in unhealthy soils require more chemical fertilizer and more pesticides. Tillage also brings new weed seeds to the surface with every pass, creating a vicious cycle of more cultivation and more work (Montgomery 2017).

While the UW Farm currently operates on a low-tillage system, having the right tools would allow us to engage students more effectively in different models of agriculture. Every item in our budget fits into our system to promote soil health, sequester carbon, grow better crops, and make our labor more efficient. In this proposal, we will focus on three specific items and how they fit into our system: the broadfork, the flame weeder, and compost.

Broadforks are the most important garden bed preparation tool for any no-till grower of our scale (Fortier 2014). They allow us to aerate and loosen the soil without disturbing soil life. They also will reduce weed pressure, because they do not invert the soil and bring buried weed seeds to the surface.

In order to further reduce the amount of soil disturbance from weeding, we propose to purchase two different models of flame weeder, one for each of our sites. Flame weeding uses a gas torch to kill weeds when they are just beginning to germinate. This technique can be used to quickly create weed-free beds without cultivation of the soil. While it may seem counterintuitive to burn fossil fuels to kill weeds on a sustainable farm, the flame weeders in our budget actually use very little natural gas due to their efficient design, and they are a long-term investment in reducing the weed seed bank present in our soil.

One of the largest expenditures in the budget is for sixty yards of compost. No-till systems generally apply layers of compost that are several inches thick in order to boost soil organic matter and suppress weeds. We currently have access to compost made from UW leaves and coffee grounds, but that is only available in the fall and contains plastic and other litter. A large quantity of high-quality compost from Cedar Grove would be an important investment in soil health for the UW Farm.

Fortier, Jean-Martin, and Marie Bilodeau. The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-scale Organic Farming. New Society Publishers, 2014.

Lal, Rattan. "Soil carbon sequestration impacts on global climate change and food security." Science.

Montgomery, David R. Growing a revolution: bringing our soil back to life. WW Norton & Company, 2017.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

As mentioned in the "Sustainability Challenge" section, no-till management will likely improve a number of metrics for the UW Farm. We will be focused on tracking soil health metrics through the use of spring and fall soil testing with the Cornell Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health test. This is the best available test for understanding the biological properties of our soils, along with the nutrient content. We will be testing certain growing areas in the spring and fall that we will be tilling and compare them to those that we do not till. Our quantitative measurements will allow us to estimate the amount of carbon we are sequestering in our soils through our management methods.  This will go along with qualitative observations over the course of the season, such as weed pressure, soil quality, and crop vitality. 

In addition, as mentioned in the "Education & Outreach" section, we will be tracking student involvement with the UW Farm in order to assess educational outcomes. 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $14,500
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

This table is a budget for farm tools to be purchased with the CSF grant.
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
People’s Broadfork - Meadow Creature20061200
Tilther - Johnny's7001700
Compost - Cedar Grove36602160
Paper Pot Transplanter Set - Johnny's250012500
Silage Tarps, 50' x 100' - Johnny's3002600
Pyroweeder - Farmer's Friend8501850
Flame Blade - Farmer's Friend1001100
Seedbed Flame Weeder Set8001800
Propane Tank - Seattle Propane70170
Gridder - Johnny's4001400
Long-Handled Wire Weeder - Johnny's506300
Narrow Collinear Hoe, 3-3/4" - Johnny's506300
Wide Collinear Hoe, 7" - Johnny's506300
Glaser Wheel Hoe, 12" - Johnny's4502700
Weed Guard Plus Paper Mulch, 48" x 250' - Gempler's605300
Pacifist Wire Head Master Kit - Johnny's706420
Mutineer Hoe Handle656390
Collinear Hoe Head Master Kit456270
Jang JP-1 Push Seeder - Johnny's4501450
Soil tests - Cornell University6015900
Six-row seeder - Johnny's6751675
CSF Stickers - Vistaprint361 roll of 25036

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Purchase and assemble tools1-2 weeksMarch 2020, or as soon as funds are received
Spring soil testing1-2 weeksMarch 2020 with UW Soil Science classes
Tool usage and education10 - 20 yearsTools will be used on the UW Farm for the duration of their lifetime, beginning March 2020
Fall soil testing1-2 weeksNovember 2020 with UW class

Heron Haven Restoration

Executive Summary:

Home to the largest Douglas-fir on campus and an imperiled heron rookery, Heron Haven has the profound potential to become a thriving, biologically-rich greenspace that students, faculty, and staff can engage with.

If ‘empty’ spaces on the UW campus were looked at through the lens of an ecologist, many would be identified as ecologically unhealthy and in need of remediation. Heron Haven is currently one of these unhealthy spaces. Though the site beautifully frames a view of Mt. Rainier and the Cascades with its towering stand of mixed conifers, it’s ecology is threatened by our changing climate and many common invasive species. 

Situated immediately south of Drumheller Fountain is a wedge of greenspace lovingly dubbed Heron Haven, so named because of the heron rookery that exists in its upper canopy. Despite being central to campus and situated immediately in the vicinity of UW’s environmentally-focused departments, Heron Haven hopelessly exists without a keeper. It is densely vegetated, but with various monocultures of invasive weeds, including the smothering groundcover English Ivy. Cherry laurel, Himalayan blackberry, English hawthorn, and Italian arum have also successfully outcompeted native species, suppressing much needed plant diversity. A lack of plant diversity means there is also a lack of diversity in all other organisms that inhabit this space, from insects, to mammals, to bacteria. The low diversity of flora and fauna contributes to poor environmental resiliency, especially in the face of imminent climate change.

This project aims to re-establish native flora that can withstand the aforementioned stresses of climate change while also maintaining and restoring populations of native fauna. I propose restoring the site by removing invasive plants, establishing native plantings, and adding human elements, such as paths, seating areas, and interpretive signage. Doing this would turn Heron Haven into an activated, welcoming space that invites students to interact with the environment around them rather than idly passing by. Through close collaboration with the UW chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration, UW Grounds Management, the Department of Landscape Architecture, the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, and many individual volunteers, Heron Haven will become a space that embodies the natural character of our unique Cascadia ecoregion, connecting students to the unique landscape in our own backyard.

I am seeking $56,161 to complete the ecological restoration and redesign of Heron Haven. The vast majority of the grant will cover the cost of plants, which must be able to fill a 38,000 square foot site (plant costs were calculated at a rate of $1.00 per square foot). The SER nursery will be the primary source of plants, but due to their small capacity, it is likely that a considerable percentage of the plants will have to be purchased elsewhere. The other costs will be broken down further in the budgetary section of the proposal, and encompass other important costs such as the costs to obtain nurse logs, and a fund to ensure the site is managed into the future.

Student Involvement:

The Society for Ecological Restoration-UW, an environmental group on campus, has been instrumental in the creation and development of the Heron Haven project. The Heron Haven Site Manager, Nikoli, has already involved members from every aspect of the organization in the restoration process. Site Managers of the SER-UW organize volunteer events, in which students interested in learning about restoration techniques are invited on a site tour, a tools safety lesson, and led through restoration activities that involve removal of invasive species and planting of native plants. Once Nikoli graduates, the management of the Heron Haven site will be passed onto another student, who will take on the task of maintenance and upkeep of the site. A new officer position will be created in SER-UW that is in charge of ensuring the success of Heron Haven, and our many other completed sites. Julianna Hoza, the Site Manager for the recently completed Paccar Site, will be assisting Nikoli in the leadership of Heron Haven, by monitoring the survival of many key species. Annabel Weyhrich, and Xavaar Quaranto will also be shadowing Nikoli during the entire process, holding work events with volunteers. 

The Heron Haven site, as a site that requires extensive removal of English ivy and planting of hundreds of native plants, will host dozens of volunteer work events throughout the school year. Once the site is established, the Heron Haven site will need yearly maintenance performed by volunteers, which will provide ample opportunity for students of every background to become involved in restoration and sustainability activities. Several thousand volunteer hours will be required to restore Heron Haven, providing ample opportunity for students to become involved throughout the year long process. Volunteerism is just one of the many student activities that restoration of the Heron Haven will provide for students. In previous years, the SER-UW has hosted Service Learners, who are committed to volunteering with the SER-UW for the quarter. Heron Haven is a site that is uniquely large enough to allow the SER-UW to take on Service Learners again. Volunteers and Service Learners may become inspired by their time spent on the Heron Haven site to take on their own leadership position. And if not, the time spent on Heron Haven will still remain a valuable part of their ecological education at our university. 

Research throughout the School of Environmental and Forestry Science has largely depended on students ability to travel great distances to perform field work. However, there are many students who are unable to travel to perform research, as they are constrained by time, finances, disabilities, or other factors. The presence of the Heron Haven site on campus, and with such close proximity to SEFS laboratories, allows for the unique opportunity for forestry and restoration research to be performed by students without the additional burden of travel. Already, an undergraduate student Julianna Hoza is designing a research project to monitor the survival of plant species established on restoration sites throughout campus to compare restoration practices. Some species that she will specifically monitor on this site are sword fern, salal, thimbleberry, and redwood sorrel. Research opportunities can be largely self-determined, and will be a collaborative effort between the student researcher and the current manager of the Heron Haven. Research projects have been conducted with the SER-UW as a part of student capstones, and thus implementing further research projects at the Heron Haven site will be likely.

Education & Outreach:

The Heron Haven site is located in the heart of campus, with thousands of students passing by it daily. The high visibility of this project means it will receive organic exposure among students, with increasing awareness each quarter as students alter their routes to accommodate new class schedules. As students learn about the site and its design both during and following completion, it will become a destination for group meetings, spontaneous conversations, and casual gatherings amongst a thriving ecosystem. Activities on the site will be formally publicised using outreach efforts instigated by the Society for Ecological Restoration-UW. The SER-UW is the organization that has thus far overseen work performed on the Heron Haven site, and has connections to a wide range of networks that reach across campus. Events on Heron Haven will be posted on the SER-UW calendar, shared in their weekly newsletters, advertised during club meetings, and discussed during SER-UW outreach events. Additionally, information about the Heron Haven is made available on the SER-UW website under “Current Projects”, where the public can go to learn more about the site and reach out to Nikoli with questions. 

As information about the Heron Haven site spreads through these outreach techniques, we will also work to build on our established educational partnerships with existing campus programs and curricula. Multiple departments on campus - L ARCH, SEFS, Biology, and ESRM - feature plant identification courses that require students to be exposed to living plant specimens. Two of the primary destinations for plant identification practice are the Union Bay Natural Area and the UW Arboretum, but their distance from main campus presents a challenge for students to access these natural areas. Once restored, Heron Haven will become a native plant demonstration area on main campus where students can learn about plants native to the Pacific Northwest - especially ones typically found in a forest understory.

In addition to the students who are actively seeking out native plant identification practice, interpretive signage and plant ID placards will create low-commitment educational opportunities for students, staff, and incidental visitors alike. This signage will be permanent installations on the Heron Haven site, and will have information on native plant species, the heron rookery, ecosystem services, and anthropogenic impacts on the environment. Alongside this signage, site visitors will be able to witness the decomposition of installed nurse logs and the life they harbor, exposing them to the slow processes that shape our native forests. There will be opportunities to observe the establishment of nesting sites by bird species who have lost many of their favorite food sources and trees to the influx of invasive species. Through making these processes and systems evident, the hope is to promote a sense of biophilia not only within recurring students involved on site, but also among people who may only visit the site once. 

Instilling students with knowledge in the field of restoration ecology is a central goal for the Heron Haven site. Heron Haven will act as a living laboratory for students of ecological restoration and other programs in the ESRM and SEFS departments. As long as this project is stewarded by SER-UW, its care, management, planning, and labor will be overseen entirely by students. The opportunities for students to learn by managing a real restoration site, participating in boots-on-the-ground restoration work, and collaborating interdisciplinarily will help create well-rounded students who are better prepared to solve restoration problems outside the university environment. The site can even act as an inspiration for students to undertake similar projects on campus as it matures.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

Resilience and sustainablility are the two primary goals of this project. The replacement of invasive weeds with native plants is inherently sustainable and will require diminishing effort to maintain over time. Installing a diverse understory will prevent invasive species from returning, and their natural propagation will eliminate the need for weed pulling and other maintenance activities that already have to occur yearly. 

Restoration of the site depends on clearance of weeds, after which native plants can be installed. Plant installation will follow a schedule of initial planting, active maintenance, and then passive maintenance over time. Any planting done in a particular season will be actively maintained over a period of 5 years following installation. Active maintenance will include regularly scheduled volunteer events, plant replacement, and identification and analysis of plant mortality. After a period of 5 years, passive maintenance will begin to ensure the investment’s survival. Passive maintenance will include volunteer events to remove weeds, with declining frequency over time.

This project will remain under the management of the SER-UW, which has been continuously and consistently stewarding restoration projects on campus since its inception in 2008. Funding for future volunteer events and plant replacement will be earmarked out of this funding request, and used at the discretion of the future Site Manager in SER-UW who will be individually dedicated to the continued oversight of Heron Haven. Stewardship of the site will also be featured in future iterations of the Intro to Restoration Ecology course led by Jon Bakker, with work also slated to be done through the Restoration in North America course led by Caren Crandall. Over the course of the next year, the project will likely be seen by other SEFS and ESRM professors who want to get their students out in the field.

Environmental Problem:

When looked at in reference to the three pillars of sustainability, Heron Haven currently lacks in all categories. Economically, maintenance on Heron Haven by UW Grounds includes many tasks that amount to several thousand dollars a year in costs to the university. Socially the site doesn’t have any glaring equity or inclusion issues, but lacks in spaces for general use. Finally, the environmental condition of the site is deplorable and in dire need of restoration as discussed throughout this proposal.

The environmental issues with Heron Haven are numerous, and the primary reason for undertaking this work in the first place. The site has a limited ability to filter stormwater, function as habitat, provision oxygen, cycle nutrients, and act as functional habitat for countless native species. Two of the most critical issues that need to be addressed, are the site’s ability to sequester carbon, and the survival of certain species given the harsh reality of climate change. Plants for the project will be sourced from various nurseries with the hope of obtaining as many unique genetic individuals as possible. In completing this project, all of these valuable systems will be returned to a functional state, and given the genetic variability needed to combat the changing climate. 

A key piece of this project is the implementation of social spaces designed for anyone to utilize. These designed spaces range from a large wood round repurposed as a bench/table, to a therapeutic trail with ample seating for contemplation and casual chat; all of which will stand up to the elements for decades to come. The most valuable space for social activities, and the change that will save UW Grounds the most money, are the proposed forest meadows. These native floral plantings will replace the grassy knolls both on the southeast corner of the site, and northern triangle. The current turf grass lawns require biweekly mowing by grounds staff, emitting CO2, costing the university money, and disturbing the imperiled herons who require a near silent nesting habitat.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The environmental impacts of restoration sites are commonly measured by the ecological services the restoration site provides. The Heron Haven site will provide ecosystem services in the form of carbon sequestration, water filtration, oxygen provisioning, nutrient cycling, soil retention, and habitat provisioning. Current estimates suggest that individual trees can sequester several pounds of carbon per year (depending on the growth rate of the species of tree), sequestering up to nearly 50 pounds of carbon for mature trees. 50+ of trees will be planted on the Heron Haven site, and an estimated number of 30 trees surviving to maturity. Thus, with 20 trees pre-existing, the Heron Haven site has the ability to sequester roughly 2500 pounds of carbon in just trees alone. The Heron Haven site will sequester additional tons of carbon as felled logs from the UW Grounds log lot are installed on campus, saving the logs from being burned or otherwise disposed of. Additional calculations for water filtration, oxygen provisioning, nutrient cycling and soil retention can be made in similar ways with current plant physiological models. 

Additionally, invasive and unwanted non-native species will be removed from site. These plants have detrimental effects on native flora and fauna, by replacing prime habitat with vegetation that provides little shelter or food. The amount of invasive English ivy removed per work party is recorded, with a total of over 1500 pounds of English ivy having already been removed from the site. An additional 4000 pounds of English ivy and other invasive species will need to be removed from the Heron Haven site. The number of volunteers who participate in activities on the Heron Haven site are also recorded in the required sign in sheet that is provided at SER-UW events, as well as the number of hours that individual volunteers had contributed to the project. Thus, both the number of individual volunteers who participated in the project and the total number of volunteer hours contributed to this site will be essential measurable impacts throughout the restoration process.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $56,161
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

See attached formatted budget with notes
Heron Haven Detailed Budget
MaterialsMaterialsDescriptionsEstimated costs (each)QuantitysubWSST/SEATotal
Plants Detailed in planting budget $ 10.00 3000 $ 30,000.00 $ 3,060.00 $ 33,060
Plant ID Signage Labeling plantings $ 20.00 50 $ 1,000.00 $ 102.00 $ 1,102
Site Features Signage Illustrating Processes + 'Heron Haven' signs $ 50.00 5 $ 250.00 $ 25.50 $ 276
Washed Rock Edge of paths ($42 a yd w/out delivery) $ 100.00 2 $ 200.00 $ 20.40 $ 220
Flagging Flagging for planning + install $ 5.00 50 $ 250.00 $ 25.50 $ 276
Weed Control treatment of Italian arum $ 50.00 1 $ 50.00 $ 5.10 $ 55
Chicken Wire Protecting plants from rabbits 3' $ 13.00 4 $ 52.00 $ 5.30 $ 57
Stakes Used for caging 3' $ 4.00 25 $ 100.00 $ 10.20 $ 110
Plastic Sheeting Smothering Grass (maybe burlap) $ 100.00 1 $ 100.00 $ 10.20 $ 110
$ 32,002.00 $ 3,264.20 $ 35,266
Delivery/PlacementPurposeDetailsCost/MileMilessubWSST/SEATotal
Log DeliveryThe UW heavy equipment teamN/AN/A$2,500 $255.00 $ 2,755
Truck Rental Renting a truck for delivering plants $ 1.49 300 $ 507.00 $ 51.71 $ 558.71
$ 3,314
Labor TradePersonnel Job Classification WageHours neededTotal
KingLandscape Construction UW GroundsUW Employees$39.18 50$1,959.00 $1,959.00
KingLandscape MaintenanceGroundskeeper student rate*Student employee$17.87 300$5,361.00 $5,361.00
300 hours/ 5 qtrs is 60 hrs per qtr. 10 week qtr = 6 hours a wk. *1/2 UW Grounds*$7,320.00
ToolsToolsPurposeEstimated costs (each)QuantitysubWSST/SEATotal
Shovels $ 20.14 10 $ 201.40 $ 20.54 $ 221.94
Gloves Washable gloves for reuse $ 6.00 20 $ 120.00 $ 12.24 $ 132.24
Wheelbarrow (used) For use hauling mulch $ 50.00 2 $ 100.00 $ 10.20 $ 110.20
Rakes Spreading mulch $ 22.00 6 $ 132.00 $ 13.46 $ 145.46
$ 553.40 $ 56.45 $ 609.85
Subtotal $ 46,509.76
10% Contingency$51,160.74
Future Management$5,000
Total$56,160.74

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

See attached Gantt chart
Task

8th Annual Legacy Soiree - Black Student Union

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

BIOSWALE UW: San Juan Basin Regional Green Stormwater Infrastructure Facility

Executive Summary:

Our interdisciplinary team of University of Washington students, faculty, Miller Hull design professionals, and KPFF engineers would like to share with you this proposal to create a new on-campus regional stormwater treatment facility. The facility we propose would be constructed in concert with the new Health Sciences Education Building (HSEB) and serve a basin of ~34 acres which consists both of University-owned land and City of Seattle right-of-way, discharging to a UW-owned storm outfall to Portage Bay. Runoff from the existing basin is currently untreated. Creating a regional stormwater quality treatment facility will proactively preclude the need for site-by-site required stormwater treatment with any campus development by creating one regional facility. Just upstream of the existing outfall; a flow-splitter will be installed, diverting flow to an abandoned concrete flume historically used in conjunction with the teaching lab for civil engineering classes. Bioretention soil, plants, and necessary infrastructure will be installed within that flume. The proposed phase one cost of $107,649 would cover associated research-validated design and evaluation and 50% construction materials, the rest of which will be matched by other funding.

Our core project team includes Professor Amy Kim who as a faculty adviser will be responsible for overseeing the project with her PhD student, Erin Horn. Erin will play a large role in project oversight, analysis, and mentoring of graduate and undergraduate researchers working on the project. Dr. Jessica Ray, CEE, will also advise, bringing expertise on selective removal of contaminants in stormwater with low-cost composites and guide student work on the topic both in research and classroom settings. Dr. Brooke, L.Arch, will also serve as a faculty liaison for the project and will guide student research and academic work, including design and implementation of educational signage and the creation of an evaluative white paper on the project. Professional partners include Chris Hellstern, Miller Hull. Puja Shaw, KPFF PE, will be will be responsible for coordinating with UW students and staff, permitting agencies, and the project design team while also overseeing the technical design of the facility. Kara Weaver will be the landscape architecture project manager and will work with UW students and staff, permitting agencies, and the project design team to help integrate the facility into its campus context and to develop soil strategies and planting palettes.

In the first phase of this project, proposed here, work supervised Dr. Amy Kim and Dr. Jessica Ray help guide effective, research-validated media and system design. Ray and Kim will partner with UW Housing & Food Services to convert food waste to biochar to add as a potential soil amendment stormwater treatment media in the flume. Likewise, Dr. Sullivan and students will provide academic expertise in cutting-edge bioremediation plant selection and guide incorporation of campus and community environmental education around themes of ecological well-being and resilience. Student involvement will be a cornerstone of the design, evaluation, and implementation of the regional stormwater treatment facility, and graduate and undergraduate students, both paid and volunteer will drive the project.

Student Involvement:

The current budget includes directly hiring 2 undergraduate students and 2 graduate students on an hourly basis to be trained to perform water quality testing but also teach them to engage in research by investigating and identifying methods to quantify environmental, economic, and social benefits of green infrastructures. Undergraduate researchers will present their work at the annual UW Undergraduate Research symposium. Dr. Sullivan will also supervise a graduate student who will help guide L. Arch student volunteers involved in the project and will be responsible for collating the results of the course, data and design/management solutions, into a white paper demonstrating the role the new facility played in student education in ecological design and planning.

Graduate students – 2 at 100 hours/quarters for 3 quarters. Erin (PI: Kim) will provide oversight (1 quarter). Fanny, a doctoral student (PI: Dr. Ray) is investigating a new modified sand media for stormwater treatment of legacy contaminants. The new sand media will be compared to and combined with a pyrolyzed biomass charcoal-like adsorption filter media (i.e., biochar) to maximize contaminant removal (1-2 quarters). One student (of Dr. Kim) will investigate the value of multi-disciplinary project and quantify the economic benefits of green infrastructure systems (3-4 quarters). She is currently seeking a grad student that can work on a literature review of a value-driven multi-sector stakeholder decision-making framework to support the building and water intersection.

Undergrads - 2 undergrads for conducting sampling and water quality testing and assist in developing the value assessment framework.

Dr. Kim is a faculty advisor for American Public Works Association (APWA) Student Chapter.  Dr. Ray teaches CEE 357 Environmental Engineering for Civil Engineering juniors. Dr. Ray has recruited students from this class who are interested in performing stormwater treatment research. This proposed project is perfectly aligned with the interests of CEE 357 students as it merges civil and environmental engineering principles.

Education & Outreach:

The project will be shared broadly with undergraduate students in CEE through integration into existing courses such as CEE 429 (Sustainability in Building Infrastructure) and CEE 307 (Construction Engineering for 50% of the entire junior class in CEE) taught every year by Dr. Kim. KPFF and Miller Hull will invite students to project meetings, offer office visits, conduct building/site tours, provide internship opportunities, and speak about the project in classes.

This facility will serve as an ongoing resource for students in the Department of Landscape Architecture who will be provided with the opportunity to assess existing conditions, develop conceptual design alternatives and participate in long-term monitoring and adaptive management. Designs will be required to facilitate at least one of two potential program elements by developing conceptual plans for 1) growing edible plants, and/or 2) for growing native plants to remediate water quality issues. During Spring 2020, through LArch 463, Ecological Design and Planning (~50 students), an inaugural cohort of will be introduced to the site and the project. Students will have the opportunity to work with GGN and Kara Weaver PLA to develop design alternatives, which will further provide opportunities for students to network and expand their understanding of professional practice in ecological design and planning projects.

The faculty advisors Amy Kim and Jessica Ray will support the student team to participate in the US EPA’s Campus RainWorks Challenge (link: https://www.epa.gov/green-infrastructure/campus-rainworks-challenge-0) which is open to any institutions of higher education across the US.

On a campus-wide scale, students will be invited to participate in the project as it develops and will have ongoing opportunities to utilize the stormwater treatment facility for education and sustainable programming. Educational signage to accompany the stormwater treatment site will support campus community environmental education, feature relevant local indigenous knowledge and acknowledgment, and emphasize the CSF project’s ongoing strong transdisciplinary collaboration around stormwater management to holistically addresses environmental and human health as a keystone of sustainable campus development and culture.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Waste
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
  • Community Development
Project Longevity:

This work would be followed up with a second phase which would take place upon construction with additional evaluation and educational use and development of the stormwater treatment flume, during which water sampling of the flume would become an important component. Future courses would build use of the facility as a theoretical or applied system within their syllabi and could include site maintenance and/or organization of community educational events as relevant.

While this proposal includes 50% material costs, construction, permitting, and other implementation costs and supervision will be overseen by Miller-Hull and KPFF. Evaluation of project efficacy of stormwater treatment and regulation compliance would be expected regularly from SPU. Maintenance is expected to follow standard procedures in place by UW Facilities maintenance, and additional description can be found in the attached maintenance document, which highlights the benefits of having one regional facility, proposed here, as compared to constructing many with each new project, as will otherwise be required.  

Environmental Problem:

Runoff from the existing basin is currently untreated, and future development within the basin would only exceed thresholds for onsite stormwater management (OSM) – not water quality (WQ) treatment. KPFF’s analysis has illustrated that the benefits of a regional WQ facility would provide immediate, ongoing, and measurable benefits far beyond those of project-by-project OSM.

This San Juan Basin Regional Water Quality Facility, which KPFF is currently working with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) and the University of Washington to design would serve a basin of ~34 acres which consists both of University-owned land and City right-of-way, discharging to a 42 inch UW-owned storm outfall to Portage Bay. The proposed regional facility will be located just upstream of the existing outfall; a flow-splitter will be installed on the existing stormwater conveyance system, diverting flow to an abandoned concrete flume historically used in conjunction with the teaching lab for civil engineering classes. Bioretention soil, plants, and necessary infrastructure will be installed within that flume.

Moreover, the creation of this new campus regional stormwater treatment facility in concert with the new Health Sciences Education Building offers a synergistic opportunity to grow transdisciplinary campus involvement around the interconnections of environmental and human health and well-being and deepen interdisciplinary sustainable campus research and education opportunities.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Project impact will be evaluated through water quality evaluation, research-validation of design directions, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), and application of a value assessment framework. Work supervised by Dr. Sullivan will collate the results of her project design survey course, data,  and design/management solutions, into a white paper demonstrating the role the new facility played in student education in ecological design and planning.

Toward water quality assessment and research-informed design, Ray and Kim will partner with UW Housing & Food Services to convert food waste to biochar to add as a potential soil amendment stormwater treatment media in the flume. Preliminary tests will be conducted to determine the feasibility of converting food waste to charcoal adsorbent.

Regular water quality sampling will be performed with subsequent analysis to characterize stormwater pollutant profiles and bioswale treatment efficacy. Stormwater pollutant profiles will consist of analyses of trace organic compounds, trace metals and nutrients (e.g., ammonium and phosphate) which are commonly found at elevated concentrations in stormwater runoff in urbanized areas.

Stormwater pollutants will be quantified and characterized using advanced analytical instrumentation in the CEE analytical center, the Department of Chemistry Mass Spectrometry Facility, and the Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute. If a reduction in contaminant load is necessary, the CEE graduate student will apply low-cost pyrolyzed biomass product (i.e., biochar) as a soil amendment to passively absorb trace contaminants in stormwater runoff. The biochar will be prepared using a portion of compost food wastes from UW HFS cafes and dormitories and characterized under the supervision of Professor Ray who has experience in the required surface chemistry and materials characterization techniques.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $107,649
This funding request is a: Grant
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Budget:

Itemized Proposed Budget
ItemCost
2 graduate students - 4 quarters, 90 hours per quarter, $35/hr
2 undergraduate students - 4 quarters, 75 hours per quarter, $16/hr, $16/hr (Total Personnel cost = $34,800 + Benefits = $7,349)
2 conferences, 2 people per conference - $6,000 ($1500 per person)
Lab computer - $2,000
Lab consumable$500
Materials for filtration system$1,000
Water quality testing - $1,000
L.Arch student hours + other$5,000
Total Campus Involvement Funding Cost$57,649
50% Materials$50,000
Total requested - $107,649 

Non-CSF Sources:

Client sourced funding (being organized by Miller-Hull$50,000 minimum
Project Completion Total: $160,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Design and Research-Validation Part 1 CompletionSeptember 2020
Construction completionMarch 2022
Sampling and performance evaluation startsMarch 2022

Preserving Natya UW

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Self-compassion workshop pilot for first year students who are also parents

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Trauma informed mindfulness training

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eBook of the stories and experiences of students of color at UW

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Healing spaces heat map

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Diversity Includes Disability

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QTPOC Healing in the Outdoors

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Capillaries: The Journal of Narrative Medicine

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Many Voices: A Storytelling Toolkit for Community-based Oral History Projects

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Mapping for the Wellbeing of UW

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Resilience and Urban Sustainability in Public Writing Partnerships

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Neah Bay Telling Our Stories: Imagining Our Futures

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RepairCycle

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A Retreat to Build Faculty Capacity for Mindful Leadership

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Indigenizing Urban Seattle Podcast

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Women in Applied Mathematics Mentorship Program (WAMM)

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Resilience and Compassion @ Odegaard Pop-Up Events

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Carbon-Labeling Initiative

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Steam Condensate Reclamation - Feasibility Study

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Pac-12 Sustainability Conference Student Registration Funding

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Khmer New Years Show 2019

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A Green New Deal: Panel Discussion

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2019 Global Leadership Summit

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Taiko Kai Spring Concert

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Presence

Executive Summary:

Presence is a place where students can learn from one another's personal experiences & meditation journeys, inspiring personal growth via the support of a student-led, student-run community. Located within a 10-minute walk from central campus, our furnished studio meeting space provides a comforting oasis for any and all who care to experiment or expand upon topics of mindfulness.

The founding of Presence was inspired from our (Ethan and Shelby’s) time working together at the UW Resilience Lab. We worked with Dr. Anne Browning, Director of Resilience Lab, to analyze incoming data regarding the mental states of incoming freshmen. We discovered that a staggering population of students struggled with themes of belonging, social connection, and self-esteem. Through discussion, the two of us came to share that we too had personally struggled with these themes as UW students. Furthermore, we came to recognize that both of us had found support during these tough times through our own personal practices of meditation. We shared in common the experience of using meditation as a useful tool to better understand ourselves, as well as exploring how to heal in the face of personal challenges. Meditation provided long-term holistic solutions in the dealings of personal obstacles, instead of relying on consumption (commonly seen with alcohol, drugs, material possessions amongst students).  Presence was born upon the realization that meditation, having been so useful for the two of us, may be useful for other students as well. Having wished that meditation had been more accessible at UW in our time of need, we hope that it now can be accessible for students in their time of need.

Both from personal experience, conversations with other students, and exposure to mental health data at the UW; It has become glaringly obvious how great the need is at our school for students to be able to experience genuine connection and community. Although UW offers yoga through the Mindfulness program at the IMA, conversations with Mindfulness director Danny Arguetty has signified an absence of student community around such mindful topics. His program has sustained students physical need for stretching, movement, and exploration of slow movement, however Danny agrees that there is a lack of continued vulnerable and intimate dialogue between students when it comes to their own mental health. Knowing how significant and impactful community and social connection is, we see an opportunity for growth at UW. We have experienced how meditation inspires groundbreaking inner-clarity and centeredness, and we are adamant about building a much needed community based upon values of vulnerability and honesty, as well as expression and true self-acceptance.

Student Involvement:

During our weekly meetings, we often reach out to members of the club to lead an introductory activity, such as a stretch or guided visualization. Any of our members that have activities they’ve done in the past that helped them discover a mindful state, are actively encouraged to speak up. These ideas are incorporated into an upcoming week’s agenda.

We are in the process of expanding our administrative responsibilities to members who want to contribute to our overall success. The latest addition to our executive team is Jon, who has been with us since our first meeting, bringing his experience from working with the UW Mindfulness Program and Danny Arguetty. He will assist in spreading the word about Presence and collaborating with various communities who might benefit & enjoy mindfulness practices.

Our club is still nascent and Shelby and Ethan are still upholding most of the club’s responsibilities. However, we’ve made it clear to our members that if they want to contribute on the executive team, we will create an opportunity for them. Ultimately, we value being flexible and honoring our members’ excitement and interest in furthering our mission.

Some of the roles we’re considering are:

  • Marketing & Outreach: curating advertising content, hanging posters, developing an advertising strategy, thinking critically about new potential communities to reach
  • Website Management: ensuring information on the website is up to date and reflects our current status (website not yet active; in production)
  • Event Planners: plans speaker and retreat events, organizes logistics, tracks costs
  • Internal Communication: responsible for delivering reminders, messages, weekly email updates, text messages for group meeting organization

Education & Outreach:

Presence plans on taking multiple approaches when it comes to education and outreach.

First, Presence will collaborate with UW Mindfulness, and begin to gain visibility through their established marketing and outreach channels. This includes tabeling, verbal advertisement before yoga classes, and other Mindfulness marketing opportunities. Presence will also table on their own independent time, as well as in the upcoming Fall RSO fair. We will spread posters around campus in public bulletin boards, as well as in the HUB.

Secondly, Presence plans to hold meetings throughout the quarter during campus’ busiest times in public places like the Quad and Red Square. Through physical presence, our group will be a sort of spectacle from the standard students who are walking to class or sitting reading a book. We will have our branding and poster nearby so that passersby can connect the meeting to our mission, as explored further through our website that will introduce to them who we are and how to get involved. In fact, students will be invited right then and there to join us in meditation, if they are inclined.

Thirdly, Presence has collaborated with a fellow student organization called BizzBuzz whom has supported us in forming a marketing plan. They have been incredibly supportive in their role to create and design an effective and accessible website, as well as develop a MailChimp account in order to provide students with an email subscription of updates and information from Presence. They have also advised us on branding strategies to get the word out. Our website will be incredibly educational, as a section of the website will provide a “portfolio” which will outline resources for exploration into meditation and mindfulness from tried and true authors and researchers within the field. The website will also educate members of our values, mission, introduction to club members (via short bios), as well as meeting times and place. Furthermore, Presence plans on continuing collaboration with organizations in the UW community, with entities such as The Daily, Rainy Dawg Radio, ASUW Food Co-Op, Resilience Lab, Mental Health and Counseling Center. Through mutually beneficial relationships, we intend to support one another by spreading the word about what each entity offers.

Fourthly, each member will serve as a living breathing role model and poster child for Presence. We would like to create swag such as t-shirts, stickers, water bottles that will be embodied by members. As these members engage with the UW community, they will effortlessly spread the word about Presence. Each member who receives swag will be encouraged to promote Presence in an authentic way, and always be welcome and open to students who are curious about getting involved.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
  • Social Justice
Project Longevity:

As an activity that has been proven by science to be fundamental in improving mental health, we anticipate Presence to develop strong roots in the UW community. As founders, and intended graduates of the 2020 class, we intend to groom and select two presidents to carry on internal and external oversight of Presence responsibilities in the 2020/21 year and on. We will have a democratic election in which all members will cast a vote for who they like to represent them. This election process and discussion will begin Winter quarter of 2020, and voted members will then shadow the current presidents in order to prepare for the following years responsibilities. New leadership will be provided with a transitional document that outlines responsibilities, passwords, leadership advice/past experience, breakdown of meetings and events, etc that they may reference at any point and time for support when needed. Even after graduating, we will be available to consult virtually with the presidents if they are facing any challenges. Furthermore, Ethan and I will pass on our relationship with the UW Mindfulness program and program leader Danny Arguetty who serves as a mentor and advisor for our club. As a practicing yogi, Mindfulness instructor, program leader, and UW professional, he serves as an influential advisor and support to the club as an experienced adult who also shares stakes in the club’s success.

In terms of financial maintenance beyond our first two years, we aim to be sustained through the partnership among other UW entities. The UW Mindfulness Program offers the opportunity to earn support through the application to tap into a donation based fund in which they have been collecting for years now. Additionally at the IMA, club registration as a Rec Club offers an opportunity to be funded by the IMA and recreational department. Beyond the IMA, Presence will consider applying for various seed grants offered by the ASUW, RSO Department, Comparative History of Ideas Undergraduate Program, and other opportunities on campus.

Beyond institutional support, the club feels that under difficult circumstances, after Presence is fully established, that some funds could be secured through fundraising on campus. We take the percent of other clubs such as “Campus Animal Rights Educators” (CARE for short), whom have bake sales in order to earn necessary funds while mutually benefiting students on campus with intentional and thoughtful goods.

One method of financial sustenance that will not be considered is a club member fee. A club membership fee will not be considered, as we do not want to discriminate participation based on financial status, stigma and privilege.

Environmental Problem:

The primary social sustainability challenge we are facing is emotional regulation and connection with others & ourselves. We would also like to address environmental sustainability by connecting our members with nature via mindful activities in green spaces, and eco-village retreats.

Our project addresses emotional regulation and social connection by cultivating a community of vulnerability and acceptance. Meditation is natural way that our members can use to be intentionally present to their emotions, as opposed to finding pleasure in excessive consumption (food, alcohol, drugs, material pleasures). As people consume less, they derive more of their rejuvenation from the nourishment of inner-peace. Human connection and conversation, especially about heartfelt and vulnerable topics, is so immersive that things aren’t as necessary to feel whole.  The most sustainable belief is realizing that the ultimate source of happiness lies within, not externally. In working towards integrating this belief, we hope our community can provide a net of support as we all experience the ups and downs of student life. Presence is a home to our current members.

We hope to expand our capacity and share it to anyone who feels lost or is open to developing a greater sense of belonging.

We would also like to include exposure and connection to nature as a part of our club meetings. Some weekly meetings will be held outdoors for meditative walks, or meditation in nature. Additionally, we are planning to host a short retreat this summer at a local eco-village to further understand & find inspiration from self-sustaining communities who live off the land as opposed to relying on consumption.

Furthermore, we will explore minimalist lifestyles and concepts among ourselves by sharing media poems, and philosophy excerpts that promote minimalism. In the future, we also hope to partner with minimalists and mindfulness practitioners and encourage them to share their experiences with living minimalistically.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The impact of Presence will be measured primarily via participant retention. We believe that if membership is constant and participation is self-inspired and voluntary, despite the numerous distractions and obligations of student life, then Presence is accomplishing its goals. Its goals being; to foster community and belonging with emphasis on belonging to one’s self. Ethan and Shelby build personal relationships with each member, and stay in touch with participants to build community as well as build a general awareness of how each participant feels they belong, or what they personally gain from being a part of the group. In these one-on-one conversations, and sometimes group reflections on Presence, we gain feedback about what participants enjoy and dislike. We then take this information and implement it into our structure and plan to ensure that the form of the club is adapting to the participants needs. So far this scale of data collection has sufficed, however in the future when the club grows significantly larger, we will most likely in addition include quiet written reflection time or a short answer survey in order to ensure that Presence is meeting its social and environmental sustainability goals.

Additionally, our impact will be measured by the interest and involvement of members in leadership roles. It is apparent that students gain sense of belonging and long-term dedication if they are eager to play a role in maintaining and furthering the group. The more students prefer to contribute, the more we will take it as a sign that the group is self sustaining and therefor meeting its goals. More and more leadership positions will be extended as the group grows in size.

To maintain social intimacy and vulnerability, Presence will form into smaller groups that build rapport and then may participate in larger whole Presence events. Again this will ensure that communication is tight, each voice is heard among the masses of individuals, and we can maintain and gadge our ability to foster social sustainability. A sign of meeting our intended impact will include relationship building. We expect to see friendships sprout from this club, and intend to provide ample social activity for team building. If relationships are absent, we will have to reconsider our approach.  

Another measurement of Presence’ impact will levels of meditative participation and engagement. This includes the time at meetings in which we explore different exercises. Also reflection and contemplation of such themes during individuals lives outside of the meetings. Presence aims to inspire lifelong practices of mindfulness and awareness, and we will look for signs of these impacts in the stories that students share at group meetings as well as one on one conversation and shares.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $3,289
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Excel file included in other uploads below for formatting issues
Presence Budget through Spring Quarter 2021
ItemUnit CostUnitsTimeTotal CostDescription
Meeting Space: Weekly Hourly Rent$25.001.5 hours60 weeks$2,250
YouTube Red Subscription Monthly Fee$1212 years$250ability to predownload guided meditations to avoid buffering while meditating, access to more guided meditations
Swag: T-shirts, stickers, water bottles$15012 years$150club is recognizable and creates sense of identity/belonging. does not restrict access by asking students to pay for it themselves
Ad expenses: posters, flyers$5012 years$50
Ad expenses: hourly rate for student artist for red square chalk drawings$253 hoursThis Spring$75drawing chalk pathways with meditative art to draw in members. our primary tool for marketing Presence
Eco-village retreat expenses: lodging & gas$25012 years$250as a substitute for meeting over the summer, we will take a trip to an eco-village to inspire ourselves of how to live more minimalistically
Website expense: Wix Premium Monthly Fee$1112 years$264
Total Cost$3,289

Non-CSF Sources:

UW entities for potential funding
UW Resilience Lab
IMA Rec Club Center
Fundraisers
UW Mindfulness Program
Project Completion Total: $3,289

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Market Presence to greater UW public3 weeksMay 24th
Complete Website and begin using MailChimp to send member updates1 weekApril 21st
Plan logistics and date for summer eco-village retreat3 weeksJune 15th
Continue conversations with other UW entities for potential sponsorship/funding4 weeksJune 15th

Matsuri 2019

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Habitat Snags Outreach: Increasing the Urban Forest Health on Campus

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Reusable Containers in Dining Halls

Executive Summary:

The University of Washington prides itself on sustainability. The UW Farm, various rain gardens, and the mail bikes are all strong examples of how the UW promotes a culture of sustainability. The next step is to solve the problem of waste in our dining halls. The 2018 Waste Characterization Study found that 50% of the garbage in Housing & Food Services (HFS) housing contains compostable material. This is a significant issue that costs both the environment and the university. Reducing the amount of compostable containers that our dining halls use will shrink our contribution to landfills and cut the cost of removing trash from the university. The best alternative to disposable containers is a reusable container program. Through an outside company called OZZI, we, as students associated with SEED, a student organization dedicated to educating and advocating for sustainability, plan to introduce a reusable containers program at Center Table in Madrona Hall. This system will work by allowing students to purchase a reusable container, fill it with the food of their choice, return the container to one of two machines, and receive a token. This token would then be presented to dining staff in return for a clean reusable container with their food during their next to go purchase. The machines will collect the containers and HFS Dining staff will then be able to clean them. We have looked into other options, including building an in-house system, but this method is the simplest to implement and maintain. By funding a pilot program for reusable containers in one of the dining halls on campus, you will continue to promote a sustainable culture in our residence halls, promote sustainable habit formation and directly reduce single use, disposable waste.

Student Involvement:

This student driven project would primarily impact UW students living in the residential communities. It would require their involvement in actively using the program by receiving a container, returning it, and replacing it with a new, clean one. In a recent survey of 576 current residents, 52.4% of residents said they would be very likely to participate in a reusable containers program and 29.7% said they were likely to participate. Additionally, 90% of respondents said sustainability was important to them. Given these responses, SEED feels confident that demand for the program exists and that it would be used by residents.

Implementing a program like this also reflects UW and HFS’s priority of implementing more sustainable practices. This program would raise students’ awareness of ways to reduce waste and how to make more sustainable choices in their own lives.

Student volunteers will be central to informing students of the program and teaching them how to use it. These volunteers can primarily be recruited from SEED membership. SEED currently has over 30 members who are dedicated to the implementation of this program. Other volunteers from Community Councils within the residential communities could also be recruited as needed.

Education & Outreach:

We plan to spread the word about the new reusable container project through several methods. First, we will utilize posters that advertise the new container system and post them throughout the residence halls, dining hall, and other common student spaces. Second, we plan to set up tables near the new reusable container machines with educators in order to educate students on the new system face-to-face. Third, we will hold an event in Center Table, where the machines will be placed, to educate students and ignite excitement about the new program. Also, the pilot program itself is being used to raise awareness and experience about the program before an expanded program is put into place across campus.

This program heavily depends on student involvement to be successful. Students can easily start participating in the program by paying a small fee for a container either upfront or included in tuition, with each student paying between $2 and $5. Then, the students will bring back the containers to the dining halls in return them to the collection machines in exchange for a token they can use to receive a new, clean one to receive their meals in. The dining staff will take the used containers and clean them along with the other dishes and utensils used in the dining halls. In order to support this project, it is important that students are responsible with the containers. If students are able to bring back containers regularly and keep them in good condition, they will be supporting the project by helping it flow more smoothly and avoid large problems for the school to deal with, such as running out of containers or having to buy new ones. Additionally, Students Expressing Environmental Dedication (SEED) intends to keep its members involved in the project during its implementation through continued education efforts and tracking program metrics.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

The project teams that will support the implementation, management, and maintenance of this project include:

  • SEED: This team will focus on raising awareness of the program, encouraging student engagement, and soliciting feedback on the program. It will also work with other teams to ensure administrative tasks, such as ordering the machines and having them installed, are completed in a timely manner. SEED will experience a transition in leadership this Spring, and the incoming Executive Director, Jenna Truong, has expressed her commitment to completing and prioritizing this work with her new Executive Board.
  • HFS Dining: This team will support the project by working with HFS Facilities to install machines, train staff on their use and how to distribute containers, complete any needed maintenance on the machines and solicit feedback from staff on the program.
  • HFS Facilities: This team will help with the installation of OZZI machines in dining locations, and ensure their placement complies with HFS policies.
  • RCSA: This team will assist SEED in collecting student feedback on the program. RCSA will experience a transition in leadership this Spring, and the incoming President, Kennedy Cameron, has expressed her commitment to supporting this work with her new Executive Board.

Should this project be funded, the most central first step to implementing the program would be ordering the OZZI machines, containers, and supporting materials. This order would be placed immediately after funding is received, and supporting work, such as raising awareness of the program, would also begin immediately.

Environmental Problem:

The University of Washington sends tons of compostable material to the industrial composting facility and to the landfill each year. The 2018 Waste Characterization Study found that 50% of the garbage in HFS facilities contains compostable material. The large portion of that waste is generated from the food industry on campus and the to-go containers that are used. This food waste is taking up space in landfills, instead of being turned into usable compost. We recognize that this issue extends beyond our campus and see this program as an opportunity to raise awareness and incentivise sustainable habit formation that our students can take across this campus and beyond.

Our project would begin to reduce the number of single use compostable containers that are used and ultimately sent to the composting facility and the landfill. This initial project would serve as a proof of concept for a reusable container program on our campus. We have high expectations for a program of this type as institutions, such as Oregon State, have implemented a reusable container program on their campus and seen significant waste reduction; 60 tons of trash diverted from the landfill every year in the case of Oregon State.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The impacts of this project can be measured using a handful of metrics. First, we can measure the number of single use reusable containers that are not used. Second, we can track the number of times containers are used and by how many unique students. Third, we can observe the loss rate of containers due to loss, theft and misuse. Finally, we can facilitate feedback from students, dining staff, facilities staff and maintenance personnel which would allow us to gauge satisfaction with the program and determine what improvements are needed to better operate this program.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $40,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

All expenses for project
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
1 OZZI machine, 2 O2GO carts, 1,000 tokens and holders, 5 cases of OZZI liner bags, 3000 reusable O2GO cutlery, 1,000 O2GO containers (not including shipping) - requesting funding from CSF for these products$19,7082$39,416
MAXIMUM additional costs (utilities, unforeseen expenses, etc.) - NOT requesting CSF funding for this itemN/AN/A$15,000

Non-CSF Sources:

Potential funding sources
HFS Dining BudgetPotential (not guaranteed) source of funds
Project Completion Total: $55,000

Timeline:

Timeline for project
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
SEED will produce marketing to share with current residents returning to live with HFS in Autumn 2019 outlining the program. This marketing will include the basics of how the system will function, and incentives for their participation.1 monthJune 2019
SEED will facilitate the ordering of the OZZI machines, containers, and supporting materials in collaboration with HFS Dining.1 monthJune 2019
OZZI machines and containers will be placed in dining locations prior to move-in of academic year students.1 or 2 weeksEarly September 2019
Distribute physical marketing, including posters and door hangers, to explain the program to residents.1 weekSeptember 2019
Tabling at dining locations to give tutorials of how to operate the machine, explain the goals of the program, and garner student feedback.2 weeksOctober 2019
Visiting student organizations, including residential community Hall Councils the Residential Community Student Association (RCSA) and RA staffs, to explain the program to community leaders.1 weekOctober 2019
Conclusion of the pilot program at the end of Autumn Quarter 2019: SEED will solicit student feedback on their experience with the program and ideas for areas of improvement. SEED will also partner with HFS Dining to solicit feedback from dining employees and maintenance staff to better understand the implementation of the program, and potential areas of improvement. We will compile this qualitative feedback with quantitative data on usage from the machines to analyze the program’s impact. This analysis will include number of unique users, how usage varies between dining locations, trends over time in usage, and an approximation of the quantity of waste diverted by the program.2 weeksDecember 2019
SEED will present the findings of its analysis of the pilot program to HFS’s Sustainability Committee, RCSA, and senior leadership in HFS’s dining department. Based on its analysis, it will make recommendations for what changes to the program should be made to make it more effective and sustainable, and a proposed timeline for implementing a permanent program.1 or 2 weeksJanuary 2019

Project Approval Forms:

Sensol Systems: Phase 1

Executive Summary:

This project draws on interdisciplinary expertise and creativity in developing luminaire speed bumps powered by solar energy to sustainably and innovatively improve safety at the University of Washington (UW) Seattle Campus. Ultimately, we want to implement the highest performing prototype to the most trafficked, least illuminated paths on campus to keep students, faculty, and staff safe. Addressing the UW's Campus Landscape Framework objective of creating connections across the "mosaic" of the Central Campus, this prototype will improve circulation through an iconic landscape, create a unique experience, increase safety, and create opportunities for collaboration between students and industry partners. 

A hybrid solar system, meaning a system that can be both off-grid and grid-tied depending on conditions and need, will be used to power luminaires embedded in a temporary, modular speed bump. This reliably improves safety and visibility without permanently changing roadways. The modular configuration also facilitates maintenance and flexibility. 

These speed bumps would be located at different points of the Burke Gilman trail so when feet, wheelchairs, or bicycles pass over them a sensor will be triggered and spot illumination will be delivered almost instantly. The greatest load to pass over these speed bumps will be small campus vehicles, materials will be selected based on their load carrying capacity. 

Student Involvement:

We are advocating for student involvement at every point and every level of the project. It is a student run team that is designing for students. We are inclusive, always willing to include other disciplines and expertise. Additionally, we envision the long-term management and maintenance of this project to be conducted and funded by the work of a future student team. There is potential for this to be carried out in an interdisciplinary studio similar to the McKinnely Futures Studio offered by the College of Built Environments.

At this stage of the project, we are looking for undergraduates and graduates that are interested in the development and prototyping of the project (see outreach section above). Though, we are a team predominantly of graduate students and PhD students, we offer a unique opportunity for undergraduates. If we were to have interested undergraduates in the fields mentioned in the previous section on Outreach, we would offer a mentorship component to the project, especially if they are at the beginning of their university experience. We would then benefit from a fresh perspective and they from experience. We are hoping to foster relationships with UW Solar and Engineers Without Borders. In this way, we are truly inclusive.

In terms of affecting students, faculty, and staff at the University of Washington, as previously mentioned, this project will increase safety and awareness of pedestrians at crosswalks. This is a large issue with a large rippling effect of behavior change. We want our campus to be as safe as possible.

Education & Outreach:

Behavior change: Providing luminous circulation and connection throughout the UW campus, regardless of weather conditions or damage to the grid, will likely help pedestrians feel more secure and independent, while cyclists and drivers will be alerted to movement around them. 

Outreach: This project will provide the student team first-hand experience in product development, fabrication, and prototype testing (before proceeding down the implementation route). It will support the efforts of the university to improve the campus’ experiential qualities; update, control, and maintain campus lighting; and ensuring that campus users feel safe. As a team we have done individual, department, and mass outreach (not only to find more students to participate on our team, but also to bring awareness to this new safety approach). We have sent out advertisements for more team members to the Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS), Associated Students of the University of Washington (ASUW), the Mechanical Engineering Department, the Electrical Engineering Department, Applied Math Department, Civil Engineering Department, Construction Management Department, Computer Science Department, Materials Sciences Department, Architecture Department, Urban Planning: Transportation Planning, and the Landscape Architecture Department. 

Education: Students will be exposed to unprecedented sustainable technology applications and the learning opportunities that come with its operation. Additionally, the larger UW community will act as a testing ground for revolutionary infrastructure. The system will need to be inspected and maintained, this too will provide data collection and technology optimization opportunities. This project also builds on the Campus Illumination Roadmap previously supported by Campus Sustainability Fund, and could be included in their research. 

 

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Transportation
  • Environmental Justice
  • Community Development
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The UW campus has some paths where students feel unsafe at night due to poor lighting. Furthermore, due to Seattle’s weather and geographic location, it is often dark during key commuting hours. Campus safety for pedestrians is particularly important as many students, at UW and other colleges, choose walking as their primary mode of transit. Lack of safety in areas of high traffic, mixed-mode transportation can not only lead to physical injuries, but potentially a culture of distrust and fear detrimental to a sense of community or an atmosphere of solidarity. From a broader perspective, implementing adequate lighting infrastructure can be difficult in marginalized, low income, or rural communities since the costs of streetlight hardware, connection to the grid, and maintenance are often prohibitive. The expense of car ownership leads more people to walk or bike across longer distances, making safe crosswalks even more vital. Additionally, electricity from the grid can come from non-renewable sources, such as coal or natural, and it can be difficult for a local community to find an option for their street lighting that is powered by renewable energy.

ADDRESSING SUSTAINABILITY

The utilization of LED technology results in greater longevity and energy efficiency, with less energy loss to heat, than other sources of light- providing adequate lighting for users without dramatically disrupting surrounding ecosystems. The lighting technology will harvest and store its own energy, releasing fewer greenhouse gases than coal-powered electric grids. The lighting system has the capability to rely on the grid in the event of solar power failure. The controller will need to rely on external power, which for the time being is grid-tied. This prototype will also address the social/cultural sustainability aspects of road safety. Currently, the impacts of a night time accident are disproportionately higher for pedestrians than for drivers or cyclists. By creating better lighting at crosswalks, safety is improved in a more equitable fashion,
regardless of transportation choice. Accompanying this technology is the need for education and training on its maintenance and benefits. This would allow open dialogue and information exchange, empowering communities and allowing the technology to be culturally relevant. Finally, while this project’s focus is to increase safe mobility, it will do so while ensuring environmental safety. In selecting products and materials, we willl make our best efforts to exclude “Red Listed” materials. The Red List was developed by the International Living Futures Institute and catalogues chemicals known to have hazardous effects on human, animal, and environmental health, e.g. lead, BPA, cadmium, mercury, etc. We will consider the potential for off-gassing, leaching, or leaking when we develop the component. Toxicity is a great concern to the project team, and safeguarding against it for all direct and indirect users is essential.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

This project will make use of a tool that is often used in sustainability evaluation: triple bottom-line analysis. The project will be examined according to its environmental impacts, its social impacts, and its economic impacts. 

The main environmental targets of this project included reducing GHGs through alternative energy; consequently, we would like to estimate the decrease in GHGs caused by switching from a conventionally powered electrical to the new technology as closely as possible using available research. The prototype will be evaluated to see its positive benefits.The average monthly energy usage will also be calculated along with the efficiency and life span of the prototypes. Another key environmental indicator that will be measured is light output (in lux). The light output will then be used to determine the extent to which the prototypes reduce light pollution and to ensure that the light provided is not overly disruptive of animal habitat. 

For the second portion of the triple bottom line analysis, a number of social indicators will be examined. We hope to conduct a survey pre- and post- prototype installation to ask students how safe they feel at the test locations and which mode of transport they use. This survey will be useful in prototype refinement and in ensuring that pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists all feel safe at the installation locations. We will also measure the number of accidents at the prototype sites to further evaluate safety, with a particular emphasis on pedestrians. 

The economic impacts and economic sustainability of this project are vital, as the technology will hopefully be used both at UW, in Seattle, and in more marginalized communities. The costs to build and maintain the prototypes will be evaluated with an eye towards making the technology as cheap as possible while still maintaining quality and functionality.

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Ethnoforestry: Applying and integrating a new model of ecosystem sustainability on campus

Executive Summary:

Over the course of the last year, the Olympic Natural Resources Center (ONRC) has piloted the discipline of ethnoforestry on campus, bringing together a wide range of of the UW community, from undergraduates to alumni, and from across majors to enhance sustainability on our campus and showcase a different methodology of ecosystem management and health. Ethnoforestry uses knowledge from local people and applies this to ecosystem management. This project utilizes a new framework that gives equal weight to both community wellbeing and environmental wellbeing to create a more holistic form of ecosystem sustainability. Through a CSF grant for the 2018-19 academic year, we have been able to develop a wide range of projects including creating ethnoforestry garden beds on campus, developing raised beds to grow culturally important plant species, creating a capstone and internship program, and more. Through this effort, we have hosted 9 work parties this year where we have engaged 22 volunteers that have contributed 59 hours to enhance sustainability on our campus. In addition, interns have spent over 120 hours this year learning applied ethnoforestry, enhancing their skill sets, and become leaders in inclusive ecosystem management.

This next CSF grant would allow us to continue to build on our existing projects, create additional opportunities for students, and allow UW to become the leaders in this field. This project would address several of CSF’s key sustainability impact initiatives including living systems and biodiversity, environmental justice, community development, and cultural representation. A key component of this work is its interdisciplinary nature. We will continue to build our relationships with our important UW partners including the Center for Urban Horticulture, UW Grounds, and the Intellectual House.

Next year, we will expand our ethnoforestry garden beds on main campus by adding additional plants to our Paccar/Dempsey Hall site and developing at least one more garden bed in partnership with UW Grounds that will be dedicated to tribes in our region. With this grant, we will be able to wrap up this project and turn over maintenance of the sites to UW Grounds. In addition, we will finish propagating plants in our raised beds and install them on campus or move them to our ONRC nursery.

In addition, this grant will be used to connect with tribal students on campus to determine which plants species they have typically utilized and want to see represented on campus. This will give a space for people to voice their input and ensure each student is incorporated into this project. This grant would be used to fund one graduate student position in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences for one quarter during the academic year (as an RA position) and Summer Quarter 2020 (at an hourly rate). This person will spearhead all projects on campus, oversee intern and capstone students, and continue to develop this discipline. With one more round of CSF funding, we will be able to finish our existing projects, execute new initiatives, and solidify our presence on campus.

Student Involvement:

This project has always been, and will continue to be, a student run initiative that encourages participation from people studying environmental science to business and everything in between. If our expectation is that professionals will incorporate traditional knowledge, the voices and needs of a local community, and sustainability into their careers, then teaching this in an applied way needs to start at the university level. UW is at the forefront of this movement and our goal is to generate opportunities that bring students together to learn, participate, and engage. This will allow for greater collaboration and learning of this model. 

Throughout next year, we will continue to host work parties both on main campus and at the Center for Urban Horticulture where students can participate in one-time volunteer events. Through this, they will hear about the scope of this ethnoforestry work and practice these skills in an applied setting. This could be anything from transplanting seedlings to removing invasive species on our campus to installing or harvesting culturally significant plants. These opportunities have allowed students to take ownership in the project and actively contribute to sustainability on our campus. Each work party we have hosted this year has had at least one brand new volunteer that has never been engaged with this project before. There is a clear interest and need for this work on our campus and we are committed to extending our reach with this new CSF grant.

In addition, we have had outstanding interns and capstone students throughout this year that have played an active role in making this project successful. With this new CSF grant, we would take on one to two interns per quarter during the academic year and up to five interns in Summer Quarter 2020. The Summer Quarter interns will have the unique experience of working at the Olympic Natural Resources Center on applied ethnoforestry projects including working in the upcoming ONRC nursery being installed in the coming months and taking part in an ethnoforestry study on the western side of the Olympic Peninsula. This will allow for students to understand how this work could apply in a different setting away from main campus. For students who would like to integrate traditional ecological knowledge and community wellbeing into their future careers, this will be a tremendous opportunity for them. For students interested in hands-on work during the academic year, we will offer capstone projects where students can answer ethnoforestry questions that sparks their interest.

Finally, we will be conducting interviews with any tribal students who would like to participate. Throughout this year, we have been developing ethnoforestry garden beds that will be dedicated to tribes across the region. By talking directly with tribal students, we will receive input on plant species they would like to see representing their tribe or family. These species will be integrated into our planting plans so tribal students would have access to this plant material throughout the year, allowing them to continue traditions they perhaps cannot usually do on campus and to create campus green spaces that is valuing their knowledge and perspective.

We believe that sustainability is more than just restoration or water use reduction or green technology. It is about inspiring students on our campus to become leaders in this sustainability movement. Through our work, we will continue to provide spaces where every UW student feels welcome to join our project.

Education & Outreach:

We have worked hard this year to develop effective ways to promote our events and opportunities. We have partnered with the Society of Ecological Restoration- UW Chapter to highlight upcoming work parties or internship opportunities through their weekly email blasts to their listserv. Additionally, the School of Environmental and Forest Science (SEFS) regularly emails all undergraduate and graduate students about ethnoforestry events. Finally, we have collected email addresses for every person who has participated in a volunteer event and regularly reach out to inform them of any work parties. All of these methods will continue into next year and will help to build our volunteer base. We will work to find at least five more groups or listservs to post our events for next year to reach an even greater number of students. We will also utilize an equity and inclusion toolkit when developing our marketing and outreach material to ensure that it promotes and encourages diversity and equitability.

ONRC has been working on creating a social media presence to increase our reach throughout campus. In the coming months, we will be revamping our Facebook page and establishing an Instagram account. We will use this to promote ethnoforestry updates, work parties, and internship/capstone opportunities. We would like to continue attending events to promote the ethnoforestry project including the CSF Mixers and other sustainability events on campus. This has been a terrific way to reach a wider audience and we see tremendous value in each of these events. We would like to attend at least one new workshop, conference, or mixer next year to reach a wider audience.

Through these efforts, we would like to see an additional 30 new volunteers attend a work party or engage with the project. Based on our current trajectory, we believe that is certainly possible and would bring our total number of volunteers to over 50. This increase will mean that even more students will have an opportunity to learn a wide range of skills they would not otherwise receive at UW. There is no other interdisciplinary program like this on our campus or in the region, creating a very unique and accessible opportunity. Students can have a wide range of involvement based on their interest from attending a one-time volunteer event to having a summer-long internship or anything in between.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Environmental Justice
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
Project Longevity:

We fully expect most of these projects to be wrapped up by the end of Summer 2020. With this final round of funding, we hope to build on our current momentum to expand and finish our projects. Our ethnoforestry garden beds will have culturally important plant species installed and future maintenance of the site will be turned over to UW Grounds. By the end of Summer 2020, plants growing in our raised beds will be planted on campus or moved to the ONRC nursery.

We have already received funding from UW’s joint grant program between the Population Health Department and EarthLab that will fund two quarters for one RA position in the 2019-2020 academic year, travel to and from the Olympic Peninsula to visit each coastal tribe, lodging at ONRC, and supplies. This funding will be directly applied to the research components of this project and will help to increase its reach. It will also aid in the longevity of the project by funding permanent research plots and supplies for measurements.

In addition, ONRC has requested funding from the Washington State Legislature and it is currently in the State Senate budget awaiting a signature by Governor Inslee. This funding would go towards a new watershed study on the Olympic Peninsula in collaboration with the WA Department of Natural Resources. A portion of this would go directly towards future ethnoforestry research and projects. Also, the US Forest Service PNW Research Station has allocated funds towards this study with up to five thousand dollars going directly to ethnoforestry field studies. This will help tremendously with future funding of this project, especially as the on-campus projects wrap up at the end of Summer 2020 and the research component on the Olympic Peninsula continues.

Environmental Problem:

In forest and ecosystem management there is often very little value placed on incorporating traditional knowledge and the needs of local communities, both tribal and non-tribal, are often not addressed. In order to have both thriving forests and people, it is crucial that management framework change. Ethnoforestry can be a key solution to this issue by incorporating knowledge by local people. There are numerous plant species that are culturally significant to tribes across the region. Although, many of these plants are declining in abundance in the wild due to overharvesting and forest management strategies that do not promote these plants. Through this project, we have, and will continue to, engage students in this work to create future leaders that can work in an interdisciplinary way to achieve sustainability.

Our ethnoforestry garden beds on campus are a great example of applied ethnoforestry where culturally important plants are installed and can be harvested by the UW community. These species are adding to the health and wellbeing of that environment while also providing plant material for UW students who want to utilize these plants. This showcases the concept of ethnoforestry while also adding to the overall sustainability of our campus.

In order to create a project that is inclusive and representative, we will be interviewing tribal students to learn what plant species they would like to see and use on campus. By building and strengthening these relationships, we can create a project that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

This project will measure success using a variety of metrics. We would like to see at least 30 new volunteers next year attending work parties, interning, or as capstone students. We would like to have at least one to two interns per quarter and five interns during Summer Quarter 2020. Interns during the academic year will each put in 90 hours of work per quarter while summer interns will each put in 200 hours per quarter or 1,000 hours collectively. This is a tremendous amount of time each student will have to learn and practice ethnoforestry. This will certainly set them up to be successful professionals that value inclusion and promote a different framework of ecosystem sustainability that includes both community and environmental wellbeing. We would also like to interview at least 15 tribal students on campus to ensure their voice is being heard and their knowledge is incorporated into our management strategies.

We will expand the number of raised beds used and increase the quantity of plant species grown. This will allow us to grow more plants for both our main campus ethnoforestry garden beds and for our ONRC nursery. We will host at least three workshops at the ONRC nursery during Spring and Summer 2020 to bring together UW students and tribal members for collaborative plant production lessons.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $48,694
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Ethnoforestry Project Proposed Budget
Item Description Cost
Student Funding
One graduate student position Funding for one graduate student position including an RA position for one quarter and an hourly rate for Summer 2020. This includes salary, tuition, and benefits $34,994
5 undergraduate interns for Summer 2020Interns will be compensated with $200/personper week and 2 internship credits per person$8,056
Travel and Lodging
Travel to/from ONRC 6 trips to/from ONRC for graduate student position including gas and ferries$1,081
Lodging at ONRCLodging for summer (graduate student and five interns)$1,603
Travel to/ from site daily Travel to and from ethnoforestry site each day $560
Plant Production Supplies
Supplies for plant production Supplies include soil, pots, seeds, fertilizer, bleach, filter paper, etc. $1,400
Ethnoforestry garden beds
Plants Purchasing plants for the ethnoforestry gardenbeds on campus$500
Signage Signs for plants installed on campus $500
Total$48,694

Non-CSF Sources:

This details grants that we have already secured and funding sources we expect to receive. The total below reflects all values.
Source Amount Status
UW's Population Health/ EarthLab $32,749Received
ONRC Match to UW Population Health/ Earth Lab grant $25,000 Will Match
US Forest Service $5,000Pursuing, but will most likely receive
WA State Legislature TBD Pursuing
Project Completion Total: $62,749

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Additional plantings at our first ethnoforestry site 1 monthEnd of Spring Quarter 2020
Creating a second ethnoforestry bed 3 months End of Summer Quarter 2020
Interviewing tribal students on campus3-6 months End of Summer Quarter 2020
Creating additional raised beds3 months End of Summer Quarter 2020
Hosting up to three workshops at the ONRC nursery 4-5 months End of Summer Quarter 2020

Project Approval Forms:

Native Greenroof Sculpture

Executive Summary:

This feasibility study for Native Green Roof Sculpture has been developed in order to acquire site analysis and engineering/architectural consultation for the future development of the native plant (waterwise) green roof architectural structure on the UW campus.

For this study, I will gather pertinent architectural, ecological and artistic consultation for site/project development and approval. I will be working in collaboration with Landscape Architect Kristine Kenney and with campus art administrator Jaclynn Eckhardt. Sound engineering will also be crucial for the success and safety of this living structure. In regards to this, I will seek consultation and design approval from the Campus Engineering Services as well final legal approval of design from an outside firm.

Collaboration and communication, specifically with the School of Art and the College of Built Environment will also be needed in order to represent and market the projects intentions effectively. In regards to this, all pertinent connections will be made in order to complete the final project proposal with design and specs for the September CSF Grant period.

Project Description: Native Green roof sculpture will be a large environmentally driven abstract structure, built with sustainable and integral materials and implemented with a water wise native plant green roof. The bold and colorful outdoor structure will be designed so one can actively engage with it from all aspects. Colorful glazed ceramic, molded concrete, salvaged steel and greenery will be used in an open and dimensional fashion. Structural pillars will be sculpted with integrity and add interest to all sides. Walking under the structure one will see an organic ceramic design molded into the underside of the roof. The unique and free design of the green roof will provide invigorating shape, form, plant life, and texture found nowhere else on campus.

Indigenous climate adapted plants will be incorporated in the roof top garden and in other unexpected areas of the sculpture. A requirement of only a two-year establishment period of summer watering will ensure that the plants can sustain themselves with no supplemental water post establishment. Sedum, grass, native flowers and other low water plants will be selected in partnership with the Center for Urban Horticulture at the University. A plaque will be incorporated to narrate the green roofs innovation and purpose.

As we live in such a digital and formally built world today, this green roof will create a place of relief, providing people with something invigorating, natural and tactile. Walking the line of sculpture, architecture and ecology, this unique living art piece will invite people to see the blended connection that nature, art and education can have in within built environment.

Student Involvement:

As a Seattle native and a graduate Student in the 3D4M program, I care deeply about the innovation and creative representation of Seattle’s urban landscape. With my time at UW I have specifically been developing sculptural design, material studies and research relating to the creation of structures that incorporate sustainable ecology and are designed for the built environment.

To have the opportunity to build this project in a collaborative and foundational university environment would not only be something that fosters professional skills for myself, but will also be something that will inspire other students and faculty to engage in the development of more, present and future innovative projects and ideas within the University setting and the greater city as whole.

With this being said, student participation and faculty involvement is a must. For the final project proposal I plan to create a budget, which allows for two art/built environment undergraduate students to help with the building process, e.g. design, ceramic construction, metal fabrication and or consultation.

Along with project participation, Conversation with the School of Art and College of Built environment will help represent/market the projects mission and development to the student body even more effectively.

Education & Outreach:

Education and project impact will be crucial to visually represent and market through the projects process/development and as well with the completed design of green roof structure.

During the developmental period of the project, I will work with the College of built environment, and programs like Green Futures Lab and Climate Action Plan to establish proper representation of the status of the projects climate goals and innovation. Consultation and collaboration with Landscape Architect, Kristine Kenney will also help facilitate proper outcome and exposure of the piece for the University.

Because the structure will be a permanent public art piece for the UW campus, I will also be consulting with Jaclynn Eckhardt, campus art administrator and with UW School of Art to create a plan, which highlights the projects unique design, site impact, building process, collaboration and overall outcome.

I will be working closely with faculty advisors Amie McNeel, Mark Zirppel and 3D4M chair Doug Jeck, as well working with Jaclynn Eckhardt, campus Art Administrator to set a tactful plan to find an impactful site location for the best representation of the green structure on campus.

With the completion of the project, a budget will be set for the execution of a well designed educational plaque which states the green structures use of native xeriscaped plants, incorporation of repurposed material, and its cultural support for the arts in the UW community.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Waste
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
Project Longevity:

This feasibility study will take place from now until late August, when the Final project proposal is due in September. With this in mind, I will be taking time to connect with the potential stakeholders in order to gain pertinent information that will ensure the success of the construction of the green roof.

The study will be broken into 3 different stages.

Stage 1: Initial design and consultation. $25/hr + 20.9%, 25 hours, total $755

Stage 2: Adapted design, working with consultants to create professional licensed plans.   $25/hr + 20.9%, 40 hours, total $1,210

Stage 3: Drafting and attainment of documents and implementation strategy.

$25/hr + 20.9%, 25 hours, total $755

Engineering: (structural consultation) review of design and feasibility.  $3,000.

Environmental Problem:

Because of the structure’s multifaceted design, holding purpose as a green roof and a public art structure, I the project accomplishes both environmental sustainability and the sustainability and innovation of arts and culture within the UW community and as well Seattle.

With the Green roof having a xeriscaped (zero water) design, meaning that after a two-year establishment plan, it will need no supplemental water, it will be making a clear statement in support for both low water simple green roof designs, xeriscaping and native planting.

As for the two-year establishment plan, live planting will be done in the fall, bulbs will establish with winter water, and all seeds will be set in early spring. Plants included will be all native to Western Washington, selected for their supreme drought tolerance and success in green roof implementation.

In regards to site location, it will be important to bring the large sculpture to a place where the green roof can be implemented in a place that will truly benefit from having greenery and art. Through site analysis and research, a location that answers to both environmental need and design need, will be found. ADA requirements will be considered and executed ensuring that the piece meets proper engineering, safety, and accessibility requirements.

As for material sustainability, UW Sculpture faculty and Sculpture Tech Andy Fallet will ensure that longevity is set in the overall design not only that, repurposed steel will be used for aesthetic and integral integration.

Sustainability will also be meet within an artistic and socially impactful way. The colorful green roof sculpture will be built with community in mind hoping to create an uplifting piece for students to engage with and commune around. Young artists, builders, students, athletes, environmentalists and arts appreciators will not only be shown a beautiful art piece, but will experience a unique and new green sculpture, in which showcases the connection that ecology and art can have within the built environment.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Compared to technical systems in which showcase green designs, i.e. green walls with pumps and circuit sensors, the use of a xeriscaped green roof is not only low cost and low tech, but once established is designed to have minimal, if not any upkeep. From research of other designs, especially from urban green roof structures I have seen tremendous results with simple xeriscaped plantings, which support plants without irrigation.

Through research and analysis with Landscape Architect Kristine Kenney and with plant consultation from the Center for Urban Horticulture, I will work to make sure that a functional and proper design of the structure is met ensuring that the green roof successfully functions as a xeriscaped garden.

Sustainability will also be measured through quality of design and structural integrity. This is why it is beneficial to receive proper guidance from engineers, sculpture faculty and technicians.

The green roof will also highlight the much-needed use for softscaping (planting areas) in the city environment. The implementation of the green structure in a concrete environment will benefit the city environment not only by preventing dirty rainwater from entering the sewer, but also will provide an innovative and creative application of plant integration and greenery to an otherwise concrete (hardscaped) site.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $5,720
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

stage 1 initial design and consultation.$25/hr plus 20.9% benefits25 hrs$755
Engineering (structural consultation) review of design and feasibility.$3,0001$3,000
stage 2 adapted design, consultantion on creation with professional licensed plans.$25/hr plus 20.9% benefits25 hrs$755
Stage 3 drafting of documents for implementation strategy.$25/hr plus 20.9% benefits40hrs$1,210

Non-CSF Sources:

Design Consultation from Kristine Kenneyin kind
Artistic and site consultation Jaclynn Eckhardtin kind
Faculty Guideance and support Amie McNeel, Mark Zirpel and Doug Jeckin kind
Consultation from University of Washington Engineering Servicesin kind
Artist Trust: Grants for Artists Projects$1,500
Project Completion Total: $5,720

Timeline:

stage 1 initial design and consultation.May-AugustJune/July
stage 2 adapted design, consultantion on creation with professional licensed plans.May-AugustJune/July
Stage 3 drafting of documents for implementation strategy.May-AugustJuly/August
Engineering (structural consultation) review of design and feasibility.May-AugustAugust

Native Gardens at UW Farm

Executive Summary:

The proposed project will be a collaboration between the UW Farm and the Intellectual House as well as other Native American groups on campus and in the community as we work together to design and plant gardens of indigenous plants with significance in native food traditions.

The proposed project would provide on-campus space(s) for students involved with the Intellectual House to plant, grow learn and have access to culturally significant foods as a form of social sustainability and food sustainability:

  • wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ Garden at Mercer Court farm site would be at the intersection of Pacific and Boat Streets: “B” plot, measurements: 75’ x16’, Currently vacant – no plants growing there.
  • wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ Garden at the Center for Urban Horticulture would be the current “I” Plot, measures 20’ x 30’
  • Native (perennial) Permaculture garden - Renovating a previous CSF-funded permaculture planting with native perennial plants, 40’x15’.

This project addresses a number of issues related to social and environmental sustainability on the UW campus:

  1. Food Sovereignty. Food sovereignty is defined as the “(inherent)right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations.” – Declaration of Nyéléni, the first global forum on food sovereignty, Mali, 2007

    As one step towards food sovereignty for the UW community, we hope to help create spaces where students, staff, faculty, and community members can learn about, grow, and consume traditional foods.
     

  2. This project also addresses issues of food insecurity and native peoples. Food insecurity “is a growing public health problem for college students, with significant potential for adverse effects on both physical and mental health, and functioning. Food insecurity is defined as, “limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways” due to a lack of money or other resources.” – American Journal of Public Health Student hunger on campus: Food insecurity among college students and implications for academic institutions.
     
  3. This project will contribute to biodiversity and restoration by reintroducing native plant species to the UW campus at two of the UW Farm’s growing sites. It will specifically focus on the reintroduction of edible and medicinal plant species, addressing food sovereignty, food insecurity, access to healthy foods, and will increase amount of food grown on campus. These activities address social and environmental sustainability issues.
     
  4. This project will focus heavily on student leadership. UW Farm employs several student workers each year. The farm will hire a Native Garden Liaison position to work directly with members of the Intellectual House. The Intellectual House is able to hire students for Native Garden work. We plan to engage with Native American student groups on campus and envision this space to truly be student-created and led.
     
  5. This project will focus on engaging Native American campus and community members to share knowledge, stories, song, and tradition among generations. The Native Gardens will also be the site for larger educational events that could bring in students from all backgrounds to learn about food sovereignty, indigenous foods, food security, social sustainability and the history of the Puget Sound land and peoples.

UW Farm has met with partners at the Intellectual House to discuss the feasibility of this project. With the Intellectual House and UW Farm’s ability to devote funds to hire student leaders, we can ensure commitment and continued work on this project in the future. Cultivating this garden on UW Farm’s space also ensures continued maintenance of the space by UW Farm staff and student volunteers. The UW Farm also has a system for liability, food safety protocols and harvest tools and food storage. The Intellectual House has a cooking facility, food storage and areas for teaching food cooking lessons. Both facilities have space for saving seeds and hosting events.

Student Involvement:

Food grown at the Gardens will directly solve problems of food insecurity at the Intellectual House.

Cultural traditions related to food for tribes will be preserved through active sharing of indigenous recipes, medicinal knowledge, tribal planting and harvest methods, and significant plant varieties and their seed will be kept alive through living specimens and seed saving.

Students participating in the growing of crops and caring for perennial plants will learn-hands-on about how to grow food for themselves and will at the very least take home an awareness of food and social sustainability issues.

Carlson Center is the largest source for the project, along with Intellectual House members. The UW Farm hosts, on average 60 service-learning volunteers per quarter including the summer. In addition, we recruit many more via the UW ‘Trumba’ on-line calendar, facebook (3,500 followers), Instagram (1,400 followers), our weekly newsletter (1,349 subscribers), website page and foot traffic thru and by the farm sites every day. We also have over 50 active volunteers from the community that are students, recent alumni and individuals.

Education & Outreach:

  1. How will the UW community find out about your project?
    • Update UW Farm and Intellectual House websites to include grant projects tab and list all CSF projects including this one
    • Utilize UW Farm and Intellectual House facebook pages and Instagram accounts for publicity and documentation of progress and involvement
    • Include updates and involvement activities via The Weekly Dirt farm newsletter to document and publicize progress, including tribal recipes and crops 
    • Attend campus events (tabling) such as Earth Day and Dawg Daze to promote program
  2. How will the UW community become involved in and/or support your project?
    The UW Farm and Intellectual House will co-host three annual events for hands-on learning to educate, feed, empower and involve students/campus/the public about this project:
    • Indigenous Food and Ecological Knowledge Symposium, every April
    • NEW Dawg Daze involvement – host Share in the Harvest, every September, harvest team participation and preparing a community meal at the Intellectual House
    • Farm To Table community meal event hosted by UW Farm every year in late October with seed saving activities

In addition, there are over 15 classes (over 500 students) that intersect with related topics that visit the farm, have labs, and come for field trips to learn more about biodiversity, indigenous crops and traditions, food access, nutrition, farming, etc.

Over 240 Service-Learners per year help on the farm as part of class assignments. They would be involved via the Carlson Center but are all supervised on UW Farm sites.

The UW Farm and Intellectual House together are visited by many individuals. Both organizations host volunteer work parties, have an open-door policy for those that visit for personal reasons or for work, participate in events such as MLK Day of Service, CSA shareholders, alumni, conferencing, meetings, events, etc. - we are places that are open to the public and welcome involvement.

Farm Field Trip Youth education programs led by UWBG staff at CUH every April-May and Sept-October. This totals approximately 200+ k-4 youth and local K-4 teachers that will learn about native cultures, foods, etc.

Intellectual House educational activities are numerous. This project dovetails into events seamlessly.

Estimated exposure due to the website information, permanent signage, annual work parties and events: 40,000+ people

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Timeline:

  • Spring 2019: Submit LOI to CSF committee.
  • July 2019: Hold Community Meeting/ceremony with tribal Elders and on-campus project partners. Lunch provided, gifts provided to Elders. Estimated attendance: 15-35 people. Activities - Storytelling, Educational activities, Initial site designs for Mercer Court plot and the improvement/renovation of the permaculture site at CUH.
  • August & September 2019: Finalize garden designs, signage, educational content for websites, plan harvest and cooking events for fall quarter, educational materials design, production and harvest timelines, procurement of plants, purchase of hardscaping materials.
  • October & November 2019: Students, volunteers, farm manager and Intellectual house members install native gardens and signage at Mercer Court and CUH. Information and participation created due to a kick-off event during Dawg Daze. Storytelling at the Intellectual House and tours of Native garden sites and sampling foods grown in 2019 from current sites. Estimated attendance, 35-55 people. Also, over the following 8 weeks, the UW Farm will host 8 work parties to complete the work as recruited through the Intellectual House and Carlson’s Service-Learning program. Estimated attendance: 50-75 people.            
  • Ongoing, post grant: Continued involvement of community partners and UW Farm students/interns/volunteers to maintain the garden spaces. Ongoing community events, medicinal and crop harvests and meals, that allow students involved in farming and sustainability to connect with and learn from Native People and learn about the cultivation and significance of indigenous foods. See below.

Environmental Problem:

  1. The sustainability problem (statement of need), be sure to discuss the local context of the problem if your project addresses a broader sustainability concern.
    Food Sovereignty is defined as “the inherent right of a community to identify their own food system”. As one step towards food sovereignty for the UW community, we hope to help create spaces where students, staff, faculty, and community members can learn about, grow, and consume traditional foods.
     
  2. How your project addresses the sustainability problem
    This project will contribute to biodiversity and restoration by reintroducing native plant species to the UW campus at two of the UW Farm’s growing sites. It will specifically focus on the reintroduction of edible and medicinal plant species, addressing food sovereignty, food insecurity, access to healthy foods, and will increase amount of food grown on campus. These activities address social and environmental sustainability issues.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Measuring will occur through recording the following data:

Volunteer hours – all time contributed to building gardens, planting, growing produce, harvests and working on the plots is recorded in a Volunteer log. Total hours, # of students and demographics will be collected via a sign-up questionnaire (have this on the farm page already).

Harvest amounts - All produce grown will be weighed and recorded into records for the UW Farm and shared with the Intellectual house. Written as part of Farm’s annual report and shared with campus/public. For example, in 2018 5 lbs. of Ozette potatoes were grown at Mercer Court. This lead to 80 lbs. of potatoes that were harvested along with 128 pounds of Dakota squash from 25 seeds.

# of individuals in attendance each year at the three annual educational events (Symposium, Dawg Daze, Farm To Table) that will be part of this project.

# of Indigenous Recipes collected for incorporation into the UW Farm Newsletter as shared by the Intellectual House, to campus/public, archived on websites

# and Varieties of plant seeds saved and success of seed saving recorded each year

Total amount requested from the CSF: $14,405
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $14,405

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

UW-APL Clean Propulsion

Executive Summary:

The UW Applied Physics Laboratory is asking the Campus Sustainability Fund for $28,350 to purchase an electric propulsion system from PureWaterCraft and hydraulic steering controls. Funds from this grant will be used to bring a new technology into the UW Applied Physics Laboratory which we could not do without being awarded a grant or contract specifically requiring it. Optionally, a system supporting smaller hulls could be purchased for $19850 if the committee prefers.

An Applied Physics Laboratory student team, working with Engineers from UW APL and PureWaterCraft, will design a mounting and control system which will allow the motor and battery pack to move easily between a multitude of hull types such as a Rigid-Hulled Inflatable Boat (RHIB) and a Whaler style hull. The RHIB install will be set up for transport to remote locations for rapid deployment in fragile environments. The control systems will enable remote or autonomous control of the vessel for future research and development of autonomous systems and obstacle avoidance which will be used for future student projects.

Both hulls will be clearly marked UW APL and Electric Drive Research Vessel or some other indication of alternative energy to encourage outreach. A student run competition to design the graphics will further drive interest in the project. Photos of these boats will be included in project write ups and publications which may get broad distribution. These boats will be seen often while operating around the Seattle waterfront and Lake Washington and in reports and news stories when operating remotely.

UW APL will work with the Seattle Yacht Club to register the boat for the opening day Regatta, bring it to Curiosity Days: Climate Change (Formerly Polar Science Weekend) at the Pacific Science Center, and use it to develop a new pilot program for elementary students focused on sustainable research in and about our local waterways.

CSF funds will be used to purchase the propulsion system from PureWaterCraft along with a hydraulic steering and control system which will support Remote or Autonomous operation. UW APL will supply a hull for the project. UW APL will also fund the student time for the project and individual engineers will donate the mentoring time for the installation and system test.

Once the installation is complete, this project will allow UW APL Engineers and student interns the opportunity to evaluate an emerging technology for use in some of the most fragile marine environments in the world. APL frequently undertakes projects in the Arctic and other areas where they encourage or require researchers to “leave no trace”.

The UW APL is a leader in AUV development and use which requires many launch and recovery operations from small boats. Researchers Craig McNeil and Sarah Webster, along with APL Field Engineers and student helpers operate vehicles that navigate underwater using acoustics that are sensitive to noise in the water. The virtually silent propulsion system from PureWaterCraft will be ideal for tracking and recovering AUVs while the absence of exhaust makes life better for the students and Field Engineers in the boat at slow idle or station keeping waiting for a vehicle to surface.

The UW APL works with researchers, scientists and engineers all over the world and needs stay current to be able to continue to lead by example.

Student Involvement:

Students will lead the design and installation with oversight and mentoring from UW APL engineers.These boats will be used primarily by students and Field Engineers to deploy and recover AUVs and various other marine equipment or to support a larger vessel. 

The vessel will be instrumental in helping with capstone design projects for both UW Bothell and Seattle campuses. APL routinely hosts student Capstone Teams and this vessel will provide a unique framework for designing the future of clean, sustainable research and engineering. A design competition for the boat’s graphics will be created with submissions coming from local high schools and universities. The competition will promote sustainability and the winners will get to ride in the opening day float boat parade along with the students leading the design and installation of the system. 

UW APL has 32 undergraduates and 24 graduate student researchers working at present. This vessel will provide an excellent testbed to support their research and will allow them to better protect the environments they study.

Education & Outreach:

UW APL is a unique position to be a technology evaluator and innovator in the regional commercial fishing industries as well as the international Oceanographic and Marine Science communities. UW APL has a long history of being actively involved in community outreach,this is the 14 th year that the UW APL has worked with the Pacific Science Center to put on Curiosity Days: Climate Change (Formerly Polar Science Weekend). Through the Collaboratory, UW APL hosts Marine Technology startups which allows us to support them and at the same time share best practices which then spread through the industry. APL and the Collaboratory are heavily involved in OCEANS Seattle 2019, the bi-annual event for global marine technologists, engineers, students, government officials, lawyers, and advocates. Events like these help us shape the future of marine technology. 

Once the vessel is complete, a talk will be given on the Current State of Electric Surface Vehicles and the lessons learned from design through construction. This talk will be presented by the student leads and open to all UW students, faculty, and staff. 

Outreach will initially consist of 2 primary efforts. One focus will be an effort to broadcast the work the University of Washington (UW) and the Applied Physics Lab, University of Washington (APL-UW) is doing in the area of marine renewable energy and low carbon footprint marine propulsion. This will be accomplished by conducting a student logo and labeling design contest to visually brand the electric boat providing awareness to anyone that sees the boat during transportation to and from boat launch sites as well as while on the water. The resulting boat configuration will include branding on the boat hull and structure highlighting the use of an all-electric propulsion system installed by UW engineering students. The logo and labeling design will be developed by conducting a logo and labeling design contest with participation from UW students. The winning designs will be selected by the student run Electric Drive Research Vessel team with an emphasis placed on equity and a locally inspired design. Once the boat is branded, the electric boat team will work with the Seattle Yacht Club to register the team and the electric boat for participation in the annual Opening Day Regatta sponsored by the Seattle Yacht Club. UW APL will also bring the vessel to Curiosity Days: Climate Change (Formerly Polar Science Weekend) at the Pacific Science Center, a three-day event full of hands- on activities, live demonstrations, and exciting exhibits.

The second focus will revolve around a pilot program intended to involve elementary school students designing and conducting research using the electric drive boat. Following the pilot program, the electric boat team and the participating teacher will evaluate the effectiveness of the program and determine how the program is conducted in following years. The initial year of the pilot program will consist of a single class from Woodside Elementary School located in MillCreek, Washington. This school was selected because of successful outreach efforts with Ms.Goodwin, one of the 5 th /6 th grade teachers at Woodside, in previous years. Initially Ms. Goodwin reached out APL-UW seeking involvement in her classroom resulting in her classroom participating in programs such as “Classroom at Sea”. “Classroom as Sea” was a program intended to bring classrooms and field researchers together, in this case research efforts at sea. Classrooms where invited to participate in the research cruise via video chat at which time they would ask researchers questions about their work. Ms. Goodwin used this effort to develop curriculum which not only involved the Classroom at Sea but also involved APL-UW staff coming to her classroom to assist in student projects related to the Classroom at Sea experience.This resulted in yearlong curriculum allowing her class to combine science, research methods, writing, teamwork and presentation skills. The outreach program planned for the electric boat will consist of a classroom researching science that could be conducted in local waters (lakes, rivers, estuaries, etc). They in turn will develop research involving observation and data collection that can be conducted in our local water ways throughout the school year utilizing the electric boat.

Once the desired research has been agreed upon, the students will determine what field work is required, then once per month a small team of students from that class will use the electric boat to go into the field to collect data and conduct field experiments. Upon returning to class, the entire class will then utilize the collected data to fulfill curriculum requirements. The curriculum will be developed and monitored with the student run electric boat team and the elementary school teacher to ensure the curriculum outcome is in alignment with the electric boat capabilities, student capabilities and the overall educational goals for the elementary class.

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

The project consists of 4 primary tasks, with the last being the sea trials of the operational boat. The scope of work entails:

Task 1 – Motor Mount

The mounting of the motor should be relatively simple since the electric motor system being acquired is meant to be installed on smaller boats with a transom capable of 50 hp or greater. However to ensure the
electric propulsion system can be easily swapped between multiple hulls, the team will consider design and analysis to accommodate a highly mobile system. This effort will include:

  1. Design and Analysis which includes brackets, considerations for controls connectivity and verification of the selected hull transom capabilities.
  2. Fabrication of required hardware
  3. Mounting the electric motor using the designed and fabricated hardware and testing the functionality of the mounted system.

Task 2 – Controls

The ultimate boat of the electric boat project is to end up with a fully autonomous boat. This phase of the project will consider that end goal and will design the controls system to ultimately be compatible with autonomous system components and control logic. This will require:

  1. Design the system architecture for a fully autonomous boat and then design of the control elements capable of accommodating those elements in later phases of the electric boat project.
  2. Installation of the components designed in task 2.1
  3. Testing of the installed control elements.

Task 3 – Batteries

The electric drive system comes with a self-contained battery system but the team will need to consider a design to allow for easy installation and removal with the goal of a system that can be easily swapped from boat to boat. This will entail:

  1. Battery Mount design considering the range of boats the system is to be installed into.
  2. Installation of the battery pack in the selected hull
  3. Testing of the installation to ensure the battery pack is secure and can easily be installed and removed.

Task 4 – Sea Trials (system testing and validation)

Once the system is installed the team will design a series of tests to be performed to validate the project success. Upon complete of the sea trial test plan, the team will conduct the sea trials to validate the
design and system functionality. The final task is registering for and participating in in the 2020 Opening Day Floating Parade.

Project Timeline

  • Receive Decision June 1
  • Receive Funding June 15
  • Select and Prepare hull(s) August 1
  • Motor Mount Design and Installation September
  • Receive Motor and battery pack(s) September 15
  • Control System Design and Installation October
  • Battery Mounting Design and Installation November
  • System Test/Demo December
  • Opening Day Parade May 2020

Environmental Problem:

As a leader in Arctic research, UW APL operates small boats in the most fragile environments in the world, locally we have small craft operating in Lake Washington frequently and moored in the lake every day. The gas powered motors on our boats are properly maintained, however they still emit exhaust which is run underwater before rising to the surface leaving pollutants in the water and in the air. Typical outboard motors emit 10x-150x the cancer-causing emissions of a modern car due to the lack of requirements for catalytic converters. This pollutes the water and is detrimental to researching and understanding fragile marine ecosystems.

On average, switching all the gas outboards in this boat’s power class (10-50HP) to electric propulsion would result in a ~67% reduction in CO2 across the country, and even more in Washington State. Some of the sensors we design or purchase can be contaminated by oil and exhaust residue rendering them inaccurate or inoperable. Long before the UW Climate Action Plan was created, UW APL lived in a word of “leave no trace”. Please help us show the UW brand in the best way.

Looking to manufacturing impacts on sustainability, The Pure Outboard motor is designed to last 20,000 hours and the battery pack 7,000 hours which reduces the emissions of motor/battery system compared to traditional gasoline outboard motor (4,000 hours) by more than half.

While conducting research in the Puget Sound, the vessel will be charged at the Applied Physics Laboratory docks with power supplied by the UW Seattle campus. This electricity comes from 94.4% renewable energy sources a majority of which are hydro-electric.

For remote deployments, renewable energy sources will be used to charge the vessel whenever possible. Andy Stewart and his team have developed a Wave Energy Buoy that Self-deploys (WEBS) that can be used to charge the vessel in fragile marine environments with minimal impact on local wildlife. The WEBS System could be easily deployed off the edge of a mothership if in the artic and could recharge the vessel while it is not in operation. There are a number of other cutting edge renewable energy technologies that are being developed at UW APL which could provide power in the future. This vessel will serve as an excellent test load to measure new technologies that are currently under development.

When deploying from an Ice Breaker or similar large research vessel it may be most efficient to charge from the large vessel. No fuel tanks will have to be transferred between vessels or re-filled while in the water. The PureWaterCraft battery pack is designed to heat before charging in extreme environments to prevent damage to the pack.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Pure Outboard Motor6000
Pure Battery Pack8500
Pure Charger2000
SeaStar Pro Steering1600
Reactor 40 Hydraulic Autopilot1750
Optional 2 nd Battery Pack8500

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $28,350

Timeline:

Receive DecisionJune 1
Receive FundingJune15
Select and Prepare hull(s)August 1
Motor Mount Design and InstallationSeptember
Receive Motor and battery pack(s)September 15
Control System Design and InstallationOctober
Battery Mounting Design and InstallationNovember
System Test/DemoDecember
System Test/DemoMay 2020

3D Bin Displays

Executive Summary:

EcoReps is requesting $2,412 to install new 3D bins – displays with physical items instructing people how to sort their trash, recycling, and compost – in the Husky Union Building (HUB)’s food court, the Husky Den. These 3D bins should help UW divert waste from landfills, educate and engage the student body about the waste disposal process and it’s impacts, and ease the burden of maintaining the previous bin displays.  

The Husky Den has ten three-bin (compost, recycling, and trash/landfill) waste disposal stations, each of which has had 3D bin displays for the past few years. The 3D displays have been far more effective than any other form of signage currently used by the UW. A recent study by students in ENVIR 250 found that UW’s 3D displays (referred to in the study as “signs with physical items”) had the highest rate of sorting accuracy of the signage studied. Waste was disposed with 81% accuracy at bins with 3D displays, compared to just 61% accuracy for posters and 68% for videos (Chiado et al.). These bins have been the UW’s most effective education tools despite their DIY construction and informal maintenance crew.  Created by UW staff and students on their own time by sawing plastic bins in half, hot-gluing relevant compost, recycling, and trash materials onto the half-bin, and covering the open front with sheets of polylactic acid, the bins need frequent maintenance. For many years, the bins had to be maintained by a single member of the UW Sustainability Office, who cleaned and repaired the bins once a month without pay. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the bins’ open-top design has occasionally led students to use the displays as basketball hoops for food items and condiment packages. EcoReps has since taken over the cleaning of the bins, but maintaining the bins continues to require more work than is ideal. 

Over winter break of the 2018-2019 school year, HUB custodians took bins down for cleaning and they were thrown away by accident. Because HUB management and Housing and Food Services will not replace the bins, EcoReps would like to take this opportunity to 1) improve the displays by creating more effective and more easily maintained signage and 2) engage the broader UW community in a conversation about the waste disposal process. 

Student Involvement:

Students have been deeply involved in this project since its inception. During winter quarter 2019, five students led this project: EcoReps officers Julie Tolmie and Christina Cameron, and EcoReps members Justin Brave, Marycela Guzman, and Tanya Cortes. Because EcoReps is an RSO made up of both regular members and service learners, we anticipate that a few new students will join the 3D Bin project every quarter, allowing a large number of students to be involved with this project's development and implementation. Officers Julie Tolmie and Christina Cameron provide stability, keep the project moving forward from quarter to quarter, help connect the other student team members with resources and departments on campus, and maintain communication with UW Recycling and the Sustainability Office. UW Recycling's Student Assistent, Nawon Kim, has also been very involved in the design of the new 3D bin signage.

Education & Outreach:

The Husky Dens’ waste disposal signage is important to replace because UW draws students, staff, and faculty from across Washington, as well as many from out of state and out of the country. Many may not be familiar with how to dispose of compost in particular. Food waste is not the only area where students, staff, and faculty may be confused. While UW dining locations switched to compostable serviceware at all dining locations in 2016, many still do not fully understand how much of their serviceware is compostable. UW does not formally educate students, staff, or faculty how to dispose of waste properly. As a result, signage at bin stations is the primary form of waste education at UW. Improving bin signage is the easiest way to both improve waste education on campus and ensure that UW's compost system and switch to compostable serviceware have a real impact.

While most UW bin stations have 2D signage, putting 3D signage in the HUB is important because 3D signage is the most effective type of signage availabe by a large degree. A study by students in ENVIR 250 found that UW’s 3D displays (referred to in the study as “signs with physical items”) had the highest rate of sorting accuracy of the signage studied. Waste was disposed with 81% accuracy at bins with 3D displays, compared to just 61% accuracy for posters and 68% for videos (Chiado et al.). Replacing the interim 2D posters currently in the Husky Den food court with 3D signage could reduce the amount of waste incorrectly thrown in the trash by as much as 20%. 

In addition to educating the campus about proper waste disposal, our project will serve as a way to increase awareness of and engagement with the waste disposal process. Over the course of winter quarter, EcoReps and UW Recycling worked together to fine-tune the design of the new 3D bins. After looking at products from over 10 venders, we settled on a cleaner, more modern design that is both more attractive and easier to clean than the previous bins were. It is important the bin redesign will make the HUB’s signage more visually appealing because the change will help these already effective bins engage additional HUB users who might otherwise have dirtied or ignored the bin signage.  

Each 3D display will also engage passersby by including facts about the waste cycle – including what happens to trash, recycling, and compost after it’s thrown into a bin, as well as how landfills impact communities and the environment. To extend the reach of these displays beyond the actual stations and reach out to the larger campus, we will work on posters to draw in attention to the new bin displays. The posters will tell the story of how we designed the 3D displays and educate students, staff, and faculty about how the UW’s waste is processed.  

More broadly, this project will show the university’s support for a culture of environmental sustainability on campus. For many, compost, recycling, and trash stations are the most visible sign of UW’s commitment to environmental sustainability.  

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Waste
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

Once installed, the 3D signage will continue to serve as a reference and educational tool for the UW community. To ensure that the 3D signage remains clean and up-to-date, EcoReps members and officers will check up on the bins monthly to determine whether or not cleaning is required. EcoReps will also work with UW Recycling and HFS to ensure that any future changes to HFS food packaging and serviceware are communicated to EcoReps and UW Recycling so that the 3D displays' contents can be updated. As an RSO that has operated at the UW's Seattle campus for a number of years and successfully implemented environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable projects, we are confident that EcoReps will be able to continue maintaining the signage.

Environmental Problem:

This project will reduce the amount of trash UW sends to landfills by diverting waste. Trash, of which the UW produces a huge amount each day, is problematic from both an ecological and environmental justice standpoint. Transporting waste long distances to landfills, as the city of Seattle does, produces air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Landfills themselves, which can produce air pollution and runoff that contaminates groundwater streams, also tend to be located near low-income communities and communities of color.  

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

This project should reduce the amount of trash UW sends to landfills by improving sorting, and increase student, staff, and faculty's understanding of how to sort their waste. It should indirectly reduce carbon emissions produced in transporting UW's trash to the Oregon landfill where Seattle's trash goes. The EcoReps students who help with this project will also gain experience developing and implementing a project and working collaboratively with multiple UW stakeholders to see the project through to completion.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $2,412
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Project budget, including tax and 10% buffer
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Display case $73.58 ($50.59 for case, $22.99 for shipping) 30 $2,207.40
Ring table holder (36 piece set) $18.27 ($14.28-Holder $3.99 shipping) 4 sets$73.08
Package of Colored Paper for Backdrop $6.59 1$6.59
3-Bin Display materials $15.00 10$150.00
Double-sided clear mounting tape (60”) $9.16 12$109.92
Informational postersVaries by size25$100.00
Initial Total $2,646.99
Total, including 10% buffer$2,911.69

Non-CSF Sources:

Non-CSF Funding Contribution
SourceAmountContingent on CSF Funding?
UW Recycling$500.00Yes
Project Completion Total: $2,912

Timeline:

Project Timeline
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Request and receive updated list of compostable, recyclable, and landfill materials used in dining halls and food service areas1 month07/19/2019
Order and Receive all other materials5 weeks07/26/2019
Concurrently: Develop in-display and poster messaging3 weeks07/26/2019
Create and Print posters2 weeks08/09/2019
Concurrently: Assemble displays2 weeks08/09/2019
Install in HUB in time for Fall Quarter1 week09/16/2019
Concurrently: Put up informational posters in time for Fall Quarter1 week09/16/2019

Eat Local Seattle Food Fair

Executive Summary:

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Environmental Impact:
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Explain how the impacts will be measured:

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This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

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Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

TEDxUofW

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

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Non-CSF Sources:

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TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

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Keraton 2019

Executive Summary:

Keraton is one of the largest Indonesian cultural events in the West Coast, and the second largest in the United States. This year's theme is Indonesian Festival, which will walk visitors through a recollection of indonesian childhood memories by showcasing attire, foods, activities and movies through the use of imaginative decorations and design. Keraton has grown much since its inception in 2011, before it has a total of 70 attendees and this year, we are estimating an attendance of 8000 multinational visistors from all over the country. Keraton will be held at Rainier Vista, at the University of Washington and has a proposed budget totalling to $35,960.  During this event, we will also be implementing “Keraton Going Green,” which means requiring all our vendors to use compostable food packaging, as well as informing visitors of the locations of recycling and compost bins within the event location to promote environmental awareness. 

Student Involvement:

With the event being fully organized and managed by students, ISAUW develops students’ leadership and organizational skills by trusting each department with tasks that are critical to the event’s success. Specifically, the finance, design, creative management, IT, inventory, event organisers departments work together and update each other to make this event a success, checking on each other's progress for example. In addition, we accept volunteers and further create opportunities for students all-over the campus. Overall, students will be able to utilize and develop their communication skills by engaging with guests, learning about Indonesian culture, environmental issues, and gain meaningful connections.

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

we made it our mission to require all vendors to use compostable food packaging. In addition, we informed all of our visitors of the locations of recycling and compost bins within the event location. This year, aside from implementing our previous methods, we plan to promote environmental awareness through a performance during the event. Our creative management department has been working towards this and we have also sent out an application for performers who would be interested in educating guests on environmental issues. We are optimistic that these performances, guests will be better informed on the current situation of our environment while also being entertained.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Creating a Sustainable Night Market

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

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ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Vocal Theater Works Principal Production: Hydrogen Jukebox

Executive Summary:

During the spring term of 2019, the students of Vocal Theater Works will present the musical theatre piece Hydrogen Jukebox by Allen Ginsberg and Phillip Glass. The Hydrogen Jukeboxproject is an educational outreach performance that addresses ways in which our collective American culture and actions have shaped the modern world, resulting in ongoing issues of cultural suppression, war, and environmental degradation. A regional premier, this production allows Vocal Theater Works to examine central themes of this iconic work and their relevance to our local and university community.  After each performance, a panel comprised of performers and authorities from both the University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest community will engage the audience in conversation about the work and its primary themes. The students of Vocal Theater Works ask for a $6,000 grant from the Campus Sustainability Fund to help us complete this project. The Hydrogen Jukeboxproduction and post-performance discussion sessions will be held in Meany Studio Theater on the University of Washington Campus. This production represents collaboration between multiple ensembles within the School of Music, while also engaging input from across the University in the areas of anthropology, public health, and comparative literature.

For more information on this project, faculty and artistic directors involved please visit: https://music.washington.edu/events/2019-04-26/vocal-theatre-workshop-ph....

Student Involvement:

Role Creation:

Vocal Theater Works’ production of Hydrogen Jukeboxprovides various opportunities for student involvement. Eleven students will perform all principle sung roles in our double-cast production of Hydrogen Jukebox.The production also features spoken poetry and correspondence performed by a student narrator throughout the production. In their role preparation, students of Vocal Theater Works will apply their skills in acting, singing, movement, and musicianship, bringing life to individual and ensemble performances in this technically demanding work of Music Theatre. Each singing actor has the responsibility to establish the narrative world in which the sung poetry occurs, and to articulate Ginsberg’s call for cultural sustainability, peace, and environmental stewardship.

Narrator:                     Trevor Ainge

Soprano 1:                 Sarah Fantappiè, Lauren Kulesa

Soprano 2:                  Erika Meyer, Tasha Hayward

Mezzo:                        Vivianna Oh, Inna Tsygankova

Tenor:                         Will Schlott, John O'Kane

Baritone 1:                  DJ Jordan, Christopher Benfield

Baritone 2/Bass:         Jacob Caspe

Instrumental Ensemble: The instrumental ensemble of 10 players consists of both students and School of Music Faculty.

Student Development Coordinator:

Trevor Ainge serves as the 2018-2019 student development coordinator for Vocal Theater Works at the University of Washington. He serves in a leadership capacity in fundraising and outreach for this project.

Discussion Panelists:

The post-performance discussion panels will consist of the ensemble cast of Hydrogen Jukebox. Cast members will share their experiences in creating the performance and speak to the work’s promotion of themes of peace, cultural sustainability, and environmental stewardship. The panel will also consist of authorities from the wider Pacific Northwest community, including Tom Carpenter, executive director of Hanford Challenge, and Liz Mattson, deputy director of Hanford Challenge. We will seek additional input from the departments of anthropology, public health and comparative literature at the University of Washington as well as local LGBT advocacy groups.

Community Stakeholders:

In addition to the singing actors, narrator, and instrumentalists creating the production, the performance process includes stakeholders from the student population at the University as well as the broader community in the all-important role of audience members engaged in critical thinking and dialogue in the context of the shared experience of these performances.

Education & Outreach:

The Hydrogen Jukebox performances are by nature an educational outreach project. In their collaboration on this work, Glass and Ginsberg strove to form a portrait of America and assess the fruits of our collective identity. They felt that pressing social and environmental issues, with implications for both Americans and our global community, were not being addressed by contemporary politicians and media outlets. They created Hydrogen Jukebox to call attention to and assess our collective role in occasions of war, environmental devastation, cultural oppression, and the moral, health and environmental crisis occasioned by the proliferation of nuclear technology. Our presentation of this work provides the unique historical perspective of American views on the social and environmental problems that defined the latter half of the twentieth century. While the work stands as a valuable historical document, its relevance is maintained because American society still grapples with many of the same issues today. 

A predominant theme throughout Hydrogen Jukebox is the development and prevalent dependency on nuclear technology during the twentieth century. Nuclear technology in the United States was first developed as a weapon of war, and subsequently harnessed as a source of renewable energy. During the twenty-first century, the international community continues to struggle with issues surrounding the development of nuclear weapons and the use of nuclear energy. In 2011 the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in Japan disturbed surrounding communities and ecologies and posed a complex global engineering problem. We have potent examples of Ginsberg’s themes here in Washington state. Our state is home to an increasingly complicated nuclear containment dilemma at the decommissioned Hanford nuclear production site. This very site is the birthplace of our colored relationship with nuclear technology, having provided the plutonium used in the bombing of Nagasaki. After the second World War, the Hanford Site continued its production of plutonium for nuclear weapons and civilian power until 1987. Many workers involved in the development and ongoing containment of spent nuclear material have suffered due to exposure to radiation. Inadequate containment of nuclear waste at Hanford continues to pose an ongoing threat to the environment and communities along the Columbia river. A startling comparison may be drawn between Ginsberg’s imagery of a landscape marred by nuclear fallout and the tangible environmental and personal effects of living and working along a nuclear site in Eastern Washington and along the Columbia river.

Beyond documenting the largest environmental concerns of the past century, the work treats themes of the twentieth century Gay liberation movement and the lived experiences of LGBT individuals. Allen Ginsberg, author of the Hydrogen Jukebox libretto, lived and worked as a prominent gay artist in a society that criminalized his sexual identity, and his experiences are highlighted throughout the work. While strides toward equality for this community have been made since the turn of the twenty-first century, we are still working towards equal rights for LGBT individuals across the nation. Only twenty-two states have outlawed discrimination against individuals based on sexual identity and gender identity. This leaves the LGBT community with unequal protection against discrimination in housing and employment across regions of the United States. Our production of Hydrogen Jukebox will engage the LGBT community and wider campus population in evaluation of the local impact of themes and issues relating to social justice and sustainability. This Production will also serve to further the historical preservation of this important work, insuring its ongoing potential to provoke thought, discussion, and change.

The Vocal Performance department of the School of Music has a robust publicity program in place for its productions. An event and information webpage created by the School of Music marketing department has been included in this proposal. The marketing department and students of Vocal Theater Works have also created social media profiles, events, and promotional materials for this production. In addition to our internet presence, promotional posters advertising Hydrogen Jukeboxwill be created and distributed throughout campus and the wider community at the beginning of the Spring 2019 term. Invitations to departments whose fields of study are related to this work will also be sent out in the months prior to the two performance dates. If funding allows, there are also plans for local radio and print media advertisements.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Environmental Justice
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
  • Social Justice
Project Longevity:

This project does not require any long-term management or maintenance. Preparation for this project began January 7, 2019 and will culminate in two performances on April 26th and 27th, 2019.

Environmental Problem:

The primary sustainability challenge that we are addressing is a need for historical knowledge of how twentieth century American actions and culture continue to impact our contemporary world. Vocal Theater Works’ Hydrogen Jukebox production and post-production discussions will engage the community with a portrait of American culture and demonstrate how our collective actions have resulted in war, environmental degradation, and cultural suppression. We hope that audience members will evaluate their own role as citizens and work collectively to learn from past mistakes in order to create a more just and environmentally sustainable future.

Our secondary sustainability challenge will be to mitigate the environmental impact of production materials through the use of rented, borrowed and recycled goods. We will use a projector and visual media to minimize the use of physical set materials. When we must use physical goods such as props and costumes, we will use recycled materials. When acquiring goods, we will ensure that they can be reused or repurposed in future productions.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Sustainability impacts will be measured by attendance to the performance, and through participation in performance talk backs. We will hold two performances of Hydrogen Jukeboxin Meany Studio Theater, a performance space seating 250 guests. Our goals will be evaluated by the percentage of possible attendees who engage with the work.  We will also provide a physical opportunity for audience members to provide feedback as to contemporary issues and themes relevant to the work and the issues raised by the production.

We will also quantify the physical goods acquired for this project. We will evaluate our success by the proportion of goods acquired that can be recycled and repurposed in future productions.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $6,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Budget: CSF Funding Request
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Projection Design1,00011,000
Stage Sets5001500
Costumes5001500
Choreography1,00011,000
Post-Event Disussion Panel and Recognition Ceremony2002400
Body Mics40031,200
Lighting1,00011,000
Commercial Media Publicity and Outreach4001400

Non-CSF Sources:

Budget: Non-CSF Funding Sources
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal CostFunding Source
Music Direction10,000110,000Friends of Opera Fund and Cisco Matching
Stage Direction and Project Management10,000110,000Friends of Opera Fund and School of Music Budget
Professional Orchestra Player7501750Friends of Opera Fund
Projector Rental2,00012,000Friends of Opera Fund
Music Rental Fee6501650Friends of Opera Fund
Music Rental Liscencing4001400Friends of Opera Fund
Vocal Score Rental1512180Friends of Opera Fund
Project Completion Total: $29,980

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Production Meeting #11 dayDecember 10, 2019
Production Meeting #21 dayJanuary 14, 2019
Musical Rehearsal4 weeksFebruary 3, 2019
Staging and Choreography11 WeeksApril 19, 2019
Orchestral Rehearsals13 WeeksApril 22, 2019
Sound System Confirmation13 WeeksApril 22, 2019
Michrophone Purchase1 monthMarch 6, 2019
Costume Sizing for Cast1 dayMarch 4, 2019
Costuming and Props7 WeeksApril 16, 2019
Set Design Confirmation7 WeeksApril 16, 2019
Lighting Design14 WeeksApril 15, 2019
Projector Rental Confirmation7 WeeksMarch 6, 2019
Projection Design15 weeksApril 22, 2019
Discussion Panel: membership confirmation5 weeksFebruary 25, 2019
Discussion Panel: preliminary meeting1 dayMarch 14, 2019
Promotional Materials: generation10 weeksMarch 18, 2019
Promotional Materials: distributionongoingMarch 18 - April 27, 2019
Lighting Meeting1 dayMarch 4, 2019
Program Materials: compilation1 dayApril 1, 2019
Program Printing1 dayApril 22, 2019
Frinal Room Run #11 dayApril 17, 2019
Orchestra Sitzprobe1 dayApril 18, 2019
Final Room Run #21 dayApril 19, 2019
Projector Delivery and Instalation1 dayApril 20,2019
Meany Studio Theater Load-in1 dayApril 22, 2019
Piano Tech Rehearsal1 dayApril 22, 2019
Production Tech/Lighting5 daysAprill 25, 2019
Orchestra Dress Rehearsals2 daysApril 25, 2019
Performance #1, Discussion Panel1 dayApril 26, 2019
Performance #2, Discussion Panel1 dayApril 27, 2019
Set Strike1 dayApril 27, 2019
Load Out1 dayApril 28, 2019

Africa Now 2019 Conference

Executive Summary:

It is no secret that for over 500 years, the wealthy continent of Africa has been and continues to be exploited - both for its resources and its peoples. However, with the boom of communication and information technology in recent years, African voices have begun to spread around the globe, and we have learned that despite the revolutionary conflicts of the mid-20th century, African nation states remain under the influence of imperial powers. These previously-colonized countries are subject to the whim of the neocolonial and neoliberal policies imposed by international, financial institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Furthermore, by listening closely the affected, we discover that the ongoing development projects are utterly unsustainable and do not serve to truly benefit Africans.

In recognizing that current development projects are draining Africa of its natural resources, destroying its ecosystems, and exploiting its peoples, Africa Now is seeking ~$13,000 to assist in organizing our second annual conference to inspire young Black students and professionals to join the movement for sustainable, afrocentric, African development. By tapping into the network of young, Black students and professionals in Washington, we can bring together an interdisciplinary group of driven individuals to evaluate how our skills can play a role in the sustainable growth of our common, ancestral homeland.

The Africa NOW Conference -- hosted and organized in collaboration with the African Student Association, Black Student Union, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, and other student organizations -- will bring together over 200, young, Black students and professionals. At the conference, we will provide them with the insights, knowledge, and resources necessary to envision sustainable ways to improve their communities in Seattle, in Africa, and across the Diaspora. Through an all-star panel, dynamic breakout sessions, and networking, we’ll inspire and equip young Black professionals to fight for a sustainable future for Africa.

The conference will be held in the Ethnic Cultural Center from 10am - 5pm. Lunch and refreshments will be provided throughout the day.

Student Involvement:

The first annual Africa Now conference was successful in gathering over 100, mostly Black or African, UW students to discuss and explore resources and tactics for sustainable, afrocentric development in their communities in Seattle, Africa, or the larger African Diaspora. For this year’s conference, we hope to repeat the strategies that helped us to cultivate student interest and involvement last year, while learning from the approaches that lacked the desired impact. Our goal is to involve as many interested and open-minded students as possible, as long as they are motivated to fight for sustainable development projects that center Africans and other oppressed groups.

The most important strategy for ensuring UW students are interested in attending the conference is for it to be organized by students. As students, the organizing board is aware of the general interests and concerns that our peers share; this allows us to target speakers, facilitators, and resources that can best address those needs. Given the success of last years event, dozens of students were interested in getting involved in the conference again. The level of interest required the Program Directors to institute an application process to select this year’s organizing board.

However, those students that weren’t selected to be a part of the organizing board, will still be able to contribute to making this project a reality if they so choose. We will reach out to the previous applicants as well as other students to help volunteer at the event on the day of. We will need volunteers to help set up the spaces, check-in attendees, and distribute conference resources - among other tasks. Beyond seeking volunteers from prior applicants, we will reach out to our collaborators (e.g. the Black Student Union, African Student Association, African Youth Coalition, etc.) to recruit volunteers.

Beyond serving as organizers or volunteers, the best way for students to get involved in the Africa Now Project is by attending the conference itself. The conference will be a great opportunity for students to learn about afrocentric, sustainable development projects and how to be involved in making that a reality. Despite the afrocentric nature of this event, the strategies and tactics of the conference can be applied to communities and countries that do not belong to the African diaspora. As such, Africa Now will seek to reach out to FIUTS, FASA, MEChA and other student organizations that serve students and communities of color. These groups could not only explore strategies for sustainable development, but they could also learn how to be better allies for Black/African people.

Education & Outreach:

The UW and Seattle-area African student population will learn about Africa Now through a variety of channels. At the current moment, awareness of Africa Now has mainly been spread via social media and word of mouth; additionally, the organizing board is actively collaborating with other Black and African student organizations on campus to ensure their student bodies are aware of the event; we are also planning to host at least 2 lead up events to promote awareness.

Our first collaboration was the Black student “Friendsgiving” event during the middle of Fall Quarter. Breaking bread with other students on campus was our first opportunity to spread the word about Africa Now and our future lead-up events. The first lead-up event we are planning will take place on January 17th at the African Student Association (ASA) meeting. The event, organized in collaboration with the ASA, Africa Now, and African Youth Coalition, will focus on identifying the challenges of working in/with African communities. The discussion will give the UW community its first taste of Africa Now in 2019.

Following the first lead-up discussion, Africa Now will be involved in the annual Black Diaspora meeting organized in Black History Month by the Black Student Union. As co-hosts, we will help lead the discussion around what it means to be a part of the African Diaspora; in particular, we want the students to consider how they can play a role in making sustainable, afrocentric development projects a reality - both in communities on the Continent and our local communities in/around Seattle. We also plan to organize a second lead-up event independent that will take place on the Seattle Central College campus in an effort to expand Africa Now beyond the UW community.

These discussions will allow the UW students in attendance to get directly involved in shaping Africa Now. At the discussions, we will have surveys available to gauge interest in the lead-up events as well as to learn what students hope to gain from the Africa Now conference. This will allow us to ensure our speakers/events are tailored appropriately to our audience. Furthermore, they will help to eliminate any blind spots our organizing board might have.

Other than attending the lead-up events and filling out pre-conference surveys, the best way for UW students to get involved with the project will be by attending the conference itself. The Africa Now Conference is being organized with Black/African UW students in mind. While we will not restrict access to this conference, the conference theme and topic will be entirely afrocentric. We intend to reach out to students from other underrepresented and marginalized groups; because, Africa Now and the African Youth Coalition, along with many other Black/African organizations, believe that Black Liberation will inevitably lead to the liberation of all other oppressed groups. By exploring afrocentric, sustainable strategies for development in Black/African communities, other oppressed/minority groups can learn tactics for opposing the status quo and centering their peoples’ voices in projects that take place in and outside of their communities.

At the end of the conference, attendees will be required to fill out a post-conference survey in order to receive their complimentary, conference t-shirts. By requiring surveys to be filled out, we’ll be receiving as much feedback as possible, and we can use these results - in comparison with pre-conference surveys - to learn methods for enhancing future programming. These results will also be used in grant reporting and general conference evaluation.

Environmental Impact:
  • Environmental Justice
  • Community Development
  • Cultural Representation
  • Social Justice
Project Longevity:

(See previous sections for discussions on the organization of our project team and discussion of project maintainence)

Environmental Problem:

The central focus of Africa Now is raising a local awareness about the unsustainability of global development projects, especially those taking place in African countries and communities. We want attendees to recognize the unique position of Africans - on the Continent and throughout the diaspora - to play a role in addressing the problems that arise from those projects. Africa Now sees development as having 4 key areas of impact that determine whether or not a project is sustainable: environmental, economic, political, and social. Each of these aspects is important to ensure that projects are truly sustainable for the people, their country, their land, and the world.  While the political and social areas are typically more locally/regionally isolate, the environmental and economic impacts and pressures can be - and typically are - global in nature.

The traditional focus of sustainability is on the impacts that are arising from global, economic development projects and climate change. The economic impacts of development go far beyond the jobs and wealth that are created by technology innovation and resource exploitation. Economics has to do with the control, consumption, distribution, and exploitation of resources, goods, and services, and, in relation to this, economic sustainability is typically thought of as combating global poverty and wealth inequality by affecting the utilization and distribution of regional resources. In this way, economic sustainability is deeply interconnected with environmental sustainability. Environmental sustainability has to do with preserving local environments and ecosystems, and promoting a global awareness of the issues arising from climate change. Given that extracting and utilizing natural resources contributes to the further degradation of the global climate, any effort to bring about environmental sustainability must be connected to global and local economies.

While economic and environmental efforts are typically concerned with a more global mindset, social and political sustainability projects are focused on local and regional levels. Social and political sustainability are typically concerned with the capabilities, rights, and freedoms afforded to Africans and other peoples. While there are many different facets to social sustainability (cultural practices, land rights, food scarcity, etc), we believe it important to focus on the health-related aspects of society. Given the ongoing health concerns in African nations (e.g. malaria, HIV/AIDS, mental health, lack access to adequate resources, etc.), it is crucial that Africans take major strides towards addressing these issues within their own communities to break from their dependency on aid from foreign governments and NGOs.

Additionally, given the pressures that foreign governments and NGOs place on African nations, there is an urgent need for African nations to gain true independence. Ever since previously-colonized countries - both inside and outside of Africa - gained their independence, the imperial powers have been using loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to impose neoliberal policies on their former colonies. This has resulted in an illusion of independence in the majority of African Nations, which greatly restricts their ability to deal with sustainability issues, including climate change.

Given the fact that previously colonized countries are the most adversely affected by climate change and that Africans populate many of those regions, it would make sense to raise a trans-national awareness about the role that young Africans can play in contributing to sustainability locally and globally. We believe - given the natural humanitarian tendencies of many African cultures and communities - that afrocentric development will naturally lead to sustainability However, this will only occur if young Africans around the globe begin to have honest and difficult conversations about the ongoing, unsustainable projects that are continually affecting our communities.

The holistic, Africa Now conference will explore the four areas of sustainability (economic, environmental, social, and political) through a series of workshops, a panel discussion, and an inclusive resource fair. There will be four conference workshops, one for each area of sustainability, taking place during two breakout sessions; this means that Africa Now attendees will have to make a choice as to which areas of sustainability are most applicable to them, their work, and their lives.

The Africa Now organizing board has already begun to identify and contact potential speakers for the 2019 conference workshops and panel discussion. The following list of speakers are the individuals we have presently identified that could lead workshops in the relevant areas. As you can see, for many of the categories we have identified multiple potential speakers, and we hope to - where possible - pull one of each speaker to serve on our panel discussion such that the panel is as holistic as the conference itself.

Economic:

  •     Isaiah Udutong
  •     Nourah Yonous
  •     Benjamin Fernandes

Social:

  •     Christy Abram
  •     Sitawa Wafula
  •     Claire Gwayi

Political:

  •     Francis Abugbilla
  •     Belo-Osagie
  •     Kehinde Andrews

Environmental:

  •     Martin Bagaram
  •     Paulo Ivo Garrido

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The 2019 Africa Now organizing board has been working hard towards making the 2nd annual conference a reality since September of 2018. Since the end of September when the full organizing board was assembled, we have been actively working towards establishing what the conference will look like as well as putting together all of the initial details prior to contacting our potential speakers, facilitators, and resource fair individuals. Figure 1 (also included in supplementary documents) includes an extended - but not complete - gantt chart detailing much of the organizing activities that still need to be completed prior to, and following, the conference.

While there is still much to be done prior to the conference being underway, the board believes that the project is more than underway. The remaining details will be worked out by the extraordinary organizing board that was assembled for this year’s conference. The tremendous success of the inaugural conference saw Africa Now really take off in its own right. As such, there was a slight restructuring of the host organization and the way the board is assembled. The inaugural conference was hosted by the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, but we realized that it would be more advantageous if it were hosted by a grassroots community organization. As such, the primary host of the conference is the Seattle African Youth Coalition (AYC).

The AYC is also partnering with on-campus organizations (e.g. Phi Beta Sigma, Black Student Union, African Student Association, etc.) to promote and organize the event. Many of the outstanding members of this years organizing board are affiliated with one of those organizations. Having cross-campus affiliations as well as building coalitions with off-campus organization has allowed Africa Now to broaden its audience and establish deep ties with the Black and African youth around Seattle.

The full project team and organizing board is comprised of the following positions and the people occupying them:

  • Co-Program Director: Kemi Akinlosotu
  • Co-Program Director: Hawi Nemomssa
  • Advancement and Treasure Chair: Tyler Valentine
  • Secretary: Michelle Mvundura
  • Community Engagement: Mariam Tesfaye
  • Marketing Strategist: Deborah Keme
  • Graphic Designer: Ebneazer Tsegaye
  • General Officer: Mihret Haile
  • General Officer: Feven Gurmu
  • Program Advisor: Wole Akinlosotu
Total amount requested from the CSF: $13,200
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

List of organizations we are seeking to partner with
African Chamber of Commerce
Africans at microsoft
Africa Town
Ethiopian Community Center
City of Seattle Race & Social Justice Initiative
One Vibe Africa
She Leads Africa
Front and Centered
Dundu Nation
Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Black Student Union Legacy Soriee

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Gardening with Electric Bikes

Executive Summary:

Grounds Management, the UW farm and the UW Botanic Gardens (UWBG) are looking to reduce our carbon footprint by adding 7 electric bikes to our fleets. Our goals are to decrease our to reduce our reliance on vehicles that burn fossil fuels and show that electric bikes can be used as a alternative for fossil fuel burning vehicles for the majoirty of maitenance tasks accomplished on campus. These bikes would be used on main campus, the UW Farm, the Center for Urban Horticulture and the Arboretum. Each of these organizations works directly with students who would benefit from this program. We will track our gas usage with the goal of reducing the amount of C02 put into the atmosphere by 30,000 pounds.Over time we will review how often these bikes are being used, and the cost savings accrued, with the overall goal of using the money saved to supply each Grounds Management crew a bike (9 total). Switching to an all electric fleet is currently not feasible for the majority of UW departments and this grant will be treated as a feasibility study to show that electric bicycles can be financially and envrionmentally beneficial for UW departments. The overall costs requested from the Campus Sustainability Funds including a 10% contingency is $117,125.

Student Involvement:

Students will be involved throughout all facets of this project. The project is currently facilitated by a graduate student research assistant from the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences with the title Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Sustainability Coordinator. The IPM and Sustainability Coordinator will attend sustainability events and will develop educational and outreach components for the program. The graduate student will be responsible for record keeping, costs and the productivity of the project. The graduate student currently uses a truck at least twice a week. If the grant is accepted this student will rely solely on the electric bicycles. In addition there are many student volunteers that work on campus for a variety of restoration and horticulture related tasks. For example the society for ecological restoration works on multiple campus projects such as the Kinkaid Ravine. Unfortunately, these students are not able to use Facilities fossil fuel vehicles. The IPM and Sustainability coordinator will work with different grounds related student volunteer groups throughout campus and supply them with the Grounds Shop bicycles for their various tasks.

In addition this project will supply student workers and volunteers at the UW farm with a means of transportation. Students will now be able to travel with ease from the farms main site at the CUH to their locations on main campus (Mercer Court and McMahon Hall). The farm currently works with over 400 students that would directly benefit from receiving an electric bicycle. The farm has a new UW Gleaning team run primarily by students who would benefit directly from the E-bike. The team is run jointly by the UW farm and UW pantry. The pantry would be utilizing the E-bike for gleaning across campus dinning.

The E-Bicycle Mail & Package Delivery Program established a partnership with the HUB Graphic Design Office where student employees created the designs for our education outreach material. We will look to expand this partnership to include Grounds Management and UWBG.

UWBG often hosts student interns in the spring and summer quarters. These students are restricted from operating the current fleet of vehicles making transportation difficult. An E-Bike would allow student interns to safely move tools to and from their worksites, and greatly enhance their independence. Hosting student interns is an important part of the mission of UWBG and helps train the next generation of horticulturists. Having an E-Bike would greatly enhance the student intern program. 

Education & Outreach:

Climate change is one of the biggest problems facing our planet today. In 2016, transportation contributed up to 28.5 percent of the damage (Epa.gov). As one of the country’s leading institutions, it is the University of Washington’s obligation to lead the charge in the fight against climate change. Grounds maintenance is an area that burns a significant amount of fossil fuels. Finding ways to keep the productivity of grounds management high, while reducing its fossil fuel consumption is currently a high priority. Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels while keeping our productivity high and will show other Universities that going green can be financially advantageous. The University of Washington’s Climate Action Plan sets a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by 2020 and by 36% by 2035.

The goals of this program are to (1) vastly decrease the carbon footprint of UW Grounds Management, the University of Washington Botanic Gardens (UWBG), which includes WPA, Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH) and the UW Farm by reducing our reliance on vehicles that burn fossil fuels and (2) show that Electric Bikes can be used as a viable alternative for fossil-fuel burning vehicles for the majority of maintenance tasks. Many of the jobs completed by Grounds Management and UWBG can be accomplished without the need of high consumption vehicles (such as the trucks and gasoline powered utility vehicles). Switching to an all-electric fleet is currently not feasible for the majority of UW departments and this grant will be treated as a feasibility study to show that electric bicycles can be financially and environmentally beneficial for departments. Data about the economic and environmental benefits of the program will be tracked and shared by the graduate student employed by grounds management. 

Outreach efforts will be conducted by each contributing branch (Grounds Management, UWBG).  Each bicycle, which will be displayed throughout campus, will include numerous stats about the environmental and economic benefits of the program (such as the amount of atmospheric carbon that has been reduced due to each bike). Information will be included about the program on both the Grounds Management and UWBG websites. The UWBG has one of the most extensive outreach programs on the University of Washington campus in that it provides weekly adult education classes. Efforts will also be made to contact UW daily about including an article about this new project. 

Environmental Impact:
  • Transportation
Project Longevity:

Below you will find an estimate of costs associated with this project. Including the bicycles, annual maintenance costs for five years and bicycle supplies. The amount requested from CSF including five years of maitenance and a 10% contingency totals to $117,125.

The bikes for the proposed grant will be purchased through Family Cyclery. This company supplied the bikes for E-Bicycle-Mail & Package Delivery Program. The Grounds staff reviewed bicycles from three companies and thought the ones from Family Cyclery were the safest and most feasible for the jobs accomplished by the UW Farm and UW Grounds staff. The package campus delivery program has been extremely pleased with the company and we hope to continue this successful partnership.

We’ve included 5 years of maintenance on the bicycles after which, each faction on this grant (the UW Grounds Shop, and UWBG) will assume responsibility for their bikes supplies and maintenance (see attached for maintenance details).

Thank you for considering this proposal!

Environmental Problem:

The University of Washington contains one of the premier campuses in the country. However, staff and students rely heavily on fossil fueled vehicles for transportation of goods and services. Grounds Management, the UW farm and the UW Botanic Gardens (UWBG) at the University of Washington currently contain 26 vehicles that run on gas including various trucks and gators (small utility vehicles). These vehicles are used throughout campus on a variety of jobs aimed to improve the campus’s aesthetics. On average, the vehicles used by Grounds Management, UWBG and the UW Farm burn 8,000 gallons of gas a year which release 160,000 pounds of C02 into the atmosphere.

UW Botanic Gardens (UWBG), which includes the Washington Park Arboretum (WPA) horticulture staff uses 4 vehicles that run on gas, and two utility vehicles that run on biodiesel. WPA has been gaining staff in the past few years, and the fleet of vehicles must grow to accommodate these personnel. UWBG would like to expand the fleet in the greenest and smallest footprint manner possible, and a utility bike would be the perfect fit for the organization.

The UW farm and the Student Pantry rely on fossil fueled vehicles (a truck and UCar) for transporting perishable food from the farm sites and campus dining sites to the Student Pantry every week. Organic produce grown at the UW Farm and food produced at campus dining locations have been donated to the Student Pantry for more than two years. The food items are small quantities from multiple locations which are highly perishable and need to be transported to the Pantry within 24 hours of harvest. Trips occur up to two to three times a week, nearly, year-round. We estimate that this would reduce up to 2 tons of food waste per year.

A shared electric bike with attached cargo bin for the UW farm and the Student Pantry would reduce the need for fossil fuel burning vehicles and make movement more efficient, flexible and agile. Often, produce amounts are small, but are too bulky for hand-carrying. Using an electric bike is a more scale appropriate option.

Providing E-bikes to Grounds Management, the UW Farm, and UWBG will help the University towards these emissions goals.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Recently, a grant was received by UW Mailing services which provided them with an E-Bicycle-Mail & Package Delivery Program. This grant has been extremely successful and it is a desire of Grounds Management, UWBG and the UW Farm to emulate its success. Although a truck will be required for the occasional job, we are proposing to reduce our reliance on them with the goal of using1500 less gallons of gasoline per year. The reduction of 1500 gallons of gas per year will decrease the amount of C02 put into the atmosphere by 30,000 pounds and will save the University $4,500 dollars per year (at $3 per gallon of gasoline).

We propose to reduce UW’s reliance on gas powered vehicles by supplying 4 electric bicycles to be shared throughout the Grounds Management shop, 1 electric bike for the Center for Urban Horticulture staff, 1 electric bike for the WPA horticulture staff and 1 for the UW farm (7 total). Of these 7 vehicles 5 will be electric with a hatchback, 1 will be an electric with front racks and rear bags (for small jobs) and 1 will be a small fold up electric bike (for attending meetings and other non-laborious tasks). The different bikes were chosen to maximize their usage. We will also require miscellaneous accessory items such as helmets and u locks. Over time we will review how often these bikes are being used, and the cost savings accrued, with the overall goal of using the money saved to supply each Grounds Management crew a bike (9 total) and reducing the amount of gas-powered vehicles that are used per day. The bikes were split up according to the size of the department and each department’s potential need. The UW grounds shop currently has over 40 employees which is more than triple the other partnering departments combined.

Eventually we would like to be one of the first University Grounds Management Operations to run predominately on electric and people powered vehicles.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $117,125
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Gardening with Electric Bikes Budget
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Initial Costs for Bikes and Trailers:
Urban Arrow Shorty E-Bike w/paint job: https://www.urbanarrow.com/en/shorty7,306.67536,533.33
Vektron folding bicycle w/paint job https://familycyclery.com/bikes/tern-vektron-s-10-g1-folding-electric-bicycle-seattle3,34913,349
Tern GSD Electric Bike: https://www.ternbicycles.com/why-bikesforbusiness 6,568.3416,568.34
Miscellaneous Items:
Helmet* https://www.rei.com/product/128935/smith-portal-mips-bike-helmet110141540
Locks: BORDO Big 6000-Extra long length 3.9’-5mm steel links757525
Storage Shed reconstruction (For Grounds Management) -The shed where the bikes will reside needs significant work to fit the bikes. The high price is due to the reconstruction efforts that would need to occur. We would work with CSF and a student to see if it was feasible to build some sort of green roof onto this structure. This could be seed money for an additional future project.10,000110,000
5 year Maintenance Plan4,984734,888
Carport awning for storage (Arboretum)3,00013,000
Advanced Mechanic Tool Kit-AK3 https://www.parktool.com/product/advanced-mechanic-tool-kit-ak-3?category=Tool%20Kits -Tool kit which will be used for years 6-10 maintenance of the bikes that will be done in house. 305.951305.95
TOTAL
Project Subtotal96,709.62
Tax (10.1%)9,767.67
Project Total106,477.29
Project Total Including 10% Contingency117,125

Non-CSF Sources:

In-Kind Donation
SourceType of FundingDetailsTotal Hours (five years)Estimated Cost
IPM and Sustainability CoordinatorIn-Kind DonationsThe IPM Coordinator through Grounds Management will transport the bikes multiple times per year to Family Cyclery for there maintenance requirements. In addition they will track the environmental and economic success of the program. If successful grounds will look to purchase more E-Bikes and remove some of their trucks. The IPM coordinator will also work with CSF to maximize the outreach efforts of the program.20010,000
Project Completion Total: $127,125

Timeline:

Gardening with Electric Bikes Project Timeline
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Phase 1: Mid-March - Mid-May 2018
Determine Amount of Funding ReceivedMid-May - Early June
Submit an Order for Bikes and Gear Based off of the Level of Funding1 WeekJune 1st, 2019
Include information about the program on the Grounds Management and UWBG Website1 MonthJune 1st, 2019
Contact UW Daily about potentially including an article about this new project. 1 MonthJune 1st, 2019
Plan storage space construction around the Grounds Management Shop (Plant Annex 4) and at the Arboretum. 1 MonthJune 1st, 2019
Phase 2: July - September 2019
Receive Fully Equipped Models2 MonthsJuly 1st, 2019
Bikes are implemented into Grounds Management and UWBG fleets3 monthsAugust 1st, 2019
Follow up with UW Daily about potential publishing of article2 WeeksJuly 15th, 2019
Contact local media about running a story on the program1 monthAugust 1st, 2019
Start construction of storage spaces4 monthsSeptember 1st, 2019
Phase 3: October 2019 - January 2020
Evaluate current bike usage and purchase more bikes if needed.TBDJanuary, 2020
Long-Term
Monitor Program with the help of facility services. Examine the reduction of C02 before and after bikes were implemented into Grounds Management and UWBG fleet. OngoingOngoing
Grounds management and UWBG takes over payments for annual maintenance1 WeekJune 1st, 2024

University of Washington Precious Plastic

Executive Summary:

Inspired by Dave Hakken's project, Precious Plastic, the University of Washington Precious Plastic (UWPP) project plans to build a small-scale plastic recycling workspace on campus in the Maple Hall Makerspace. Housing and Food Services supports Precious Plastic and has accepted the administrative responsibility for this project. The workspace will consist of four machines that shred, melt, compress, and mold used plastic, so it can be transformed into usable products, such as 3D printing filament. We will use machines already available on the market, as well as build the remainder of the machines using open source blueprints and online resources from preciousplastic.com. This project is designed to be cross-disciplinary, providing raw material to arts and science students for 3D printing, construction projects, and as a sculptural medium. Additionally, the project will generate research opportunities in the fields of material and mechanical engineering, waste management policy, sustainability, industrial design, communications, and business development. For example, Precious Plastic could be utilized as a lab space for faculty and their classes or as culminating projects for students’ theses. In the long-term, sale of recycled plastic filament and finished products can reduce costs for University departments and create a revenue stream to eventually self-fund Precious Plastic operations.

Student Involvement:

Leadership for this project primarily stems from GreenEvans, a UW Registered Student Organization (RSO) from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. Graduate students from this program include Emily Coleman, Katy Ricchiuto, and Micah Stanovsky. The undergraduate members of the leadership team include Isabella Castro, Sierra Schonberg, Oliver Kou, Emma Turner, David Frantz, Alishia Orloff, Alexis Neumann, and Mason Clugston. After attending the Autumn 2018 Engineering Kick Off and the Program on the Environment’s Fall Kick Off event, we have received interest from over 100 students to participate in this project. We also plan to attend more on-campus events, such as the 2018 UW Sustainability Fair. We will further work with any students who would like to incorporate Precious Plastic into their capstone projects or major. This allows us to help students who need to develop individual projects while gaining interest and involvement in Precious Plastic. Through the capstone outreach, we will teach undergrad students how to work with others on projects and give them professional experience. As our project moves through its phases, we will reach out to several different disciplines and faculty on campus.

UWPP offers three overarching opportunities for student involvement:

Research & Design

We will engage with students from material and mechanical engineering to build the machines and to develop safe processes for every plastic type we will recycle. With Joyce Cooper as a faculty advisor, John Hamann, a mechanical engineering student, will use UWPP for his senior project, designing the shredder to comply with the Washington Administrative Code (WAC). Additionally, we will work with communications and graphic design students to create messaging and marketing materials to educate students about UWPP. Industrial design students could build products for the machines to create or supporting infrastructure, including specialized collection bins for certain materials. Furthermore, students from the College of Built Environments can do research regarding the collection and impact of UWPP, as well as look at the scalability of our model.

Environmental Policy & Impact

UWPP creates an opportunity for policy students from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance to discover potential solutions to a national waste crisis. We will also meet with the acting director of the Program on the Environment, Kristi Straus, to find a way to incorporate UWPP into Sustainability Studio, or another one of its sustainability classes.

Product Use & Business Development

For ongoing operations, we foresee bringing in a wide range of students to design and market final products, as well as use the 3D printer filament that we produce. We would like to allow art and industrial design students to create products that we could sell in the University Bookstore. We would also invite students from the Foster School of Business to develop a business plan for the operation with the goal to become a self-sufficient operation in the future. We envision selling the 3D printer filament to students in programs such as art, architecture, medicine, engineering, and dentistry, as well as to student organizations on campus.

 

Education & Outreach:

Our leadership will conduct presentations in undergraduate and graduate classes to raise awareness about the project and increase student involvement. The students can reach out to Precious Plastic through the use of social media (twitter, Instagram and Facebook). We will have our email in the bios for each of the social media outlets allowing anyone who is interested in UWPP to contact us. In addition, we will contact the heads of departments of majors to send out emails to the specific majors that would pertain to Precious Plastic.

The designs for the shredder and the compression machine come from years of R&D from the experiences and improvements provided by the open source community. Improvements made to the shredder and compression machines to meet safety standards will be documented and shared with the broader precious plastic community.

We will be attending several events throughout the school year such as Earth Day, Engineering Kick Off, and Program of Environment Kick off. We will reach out and attend multiple event as we learn about them and will join in. We will also reach out to FIGs, organization, and clubs around the university’s main Seattle campus—such as Comotion—which have expressed an interest in this project. On top of providing guidance in the design and production of 3D printers for student use in general, WOOF3D’s engineering lead, Raymond Guthrie, has agreed to aid in overcoming any extruder/nozzle challenges that may arise in the use of materials beyond PLA for printing filament. At Earth Day 2019, we hope to demonstrate the machines’ capabilities and produce items for the event made from recycled plastic.

Throughout the project, there are opportunities for a homework assignment, extra credit, or for experience for the students. They would come into our location and help us either create the filament, produce the items from the filament or go to learn about the organization. We will also try to work with the RA’s to have competitions between the dorms to see how much can be properly recycled. This allows engagement with the undergrad students as well as an opportunity to spread awareness of UWPP while also spreading knowledge on how to be sustainable and help the environment.

The UW Recycling department supports this project and will assist in the collection of plastics. Collection bins, initially placed in the Mapple Hall undergraduate residences, will feature education materials about the project and the environmental issues with plastic. Outreach efforts will engage faculty for class labs or field trips, and students for thesis projects or other research. We will evaluate our program by tracking the project’s costs, processes, outcomes, and impacts. This data will allow UW to act as a leader within our community and to exemplify innovation by sharing knowledge with other schools and organizations hoping to develop their own small-scale recycling facility.

Environmental Impact:
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY & REVENUE PLAN

RSO Status:

Beginning soon after project approval, UW Precious Plastic will apply for RSO status, independent from Green Evans (which current lends RSO sponsorship). This will enable UWPP to apply for funding of events, special projects, and outreach funds.

Saleable Products:

In reference to the Timeline, UWPP intends to prototype and finalize 2 reproducible products by the end of Spring quarter, 2019. Our goal is to engage industrial design, material science, and business students in market research and product design, to ensure there will be demand for our hyper-local, recycled, and student-made goods. These products will be sold at events in the nearby community, bringing in revenue. Stamped with a UWPP logo, they will also amplify our outreach effort through brand recognition and positive consumer identification. We expect to expand this product line to encompass 5-10 reusable items to replace everyday objects, commonly made from virgin plastics, instead made from plastic recycled on campus. This product line, if well-designed and properly targeted, has the potential to create revenue that will support UWPP’s plans for expansion and greater impact.

Environmental Innovation Challenge:

This entrepreneurial competition challenges UW students to innovate new ideas for sustainable products. Whether in the 2018 or 2019 cycles, the UWPP leadership team believes we could submit a strong application. In particular, these funds might apply well to the process of developing products to reduce reliance on plastics within UW departments, detailed in the follow section.

UW Departments:

As the UWPP project gains traction, we also intend to explore the possibility for replacing virgin products commonly used by other UW departments. These may include 3-D Printer filament, UW ID badge slips given to new students, or other products yet to be identified. While this idea hinges on both organization development and product research, there is great potential for both revenue generation, waste reduction, and decreased reliance on virgin plastics campus-wide.

Future Application to CSF:

To pursue the UWPP Vision outlined here, we anticipate that capacity may need to increase to reach longer-term goals of significant and beneficial impact on UW waste streams. We hope to become an integral and sustainable piece of UW Seattle’s entire metabolism. To this end, we may return to CSF with a strong portfolio, proven systems, and achievable next steps toward this vision.

CONTINUED OPERATION PLAN

We also plan on creating a structure for continued operations after the current leadership graduates. By becoming our own RSO in the coming months, we will create a transition plan for leadership and student involvement. We will develop and recruit for formal leadership roles. Our leadership team will leave the UWPP with 10-year maintenance plan, established on- and off-campus partnerships, plastic and design research and prototypes, marketing and communication materials, and operation manuals that include: machine and maintenance training, Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) broken out by the distinct types of plastic, and collection and washing standards.

Environmental Problem:

UWPP would result in four impacts on the UW Seattle Campus:

  1. Waste Diversion: UWPP will help UW Recycling meet its goal of 70% waste diversion by 2020. We estimate that, when fully operational, we will process approximately 1.5 tons of plastic a year. Our potential location, Maple Hall, generates about 56 tons of garbage a year and 21 tons of recycling a year.  If all of that material at Maple Hall was redirected to this project, it would prevent 1.23 tons of material annual from the garbage.
     
  2. Waste Reduction: Education can lead to behavioral changes. Through our outreach efforts, students can learn about the recycling process. We want to promote the lessons of a closed-loop system and encourage students to live by those principles.
     
  3. Conserving Resources: By using recycled materials in products, UW can reduce its purchasing of and dependence on virgin materials. Specific to our work with campus makerspaces and 3D printing materials, the most common type of printer filament used on campus is PLA (polylactide); PLA is primarily derived from various plant starches and can therefore be commercially composted if treated correctly, however, since “the compost of composters in the USA must be compliant with Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) regulations. PLA is not 100% compostable … if the compost still contains PLA residues, their compost does not meet the OMRI regulation requirements. Therefore, many composters regard PLA as a contaminant” and it remains far more energy- and cost-effective to recycle the material; according to a recent European study, the environmental impact of recycling PLA is over 50 times less than that of composting.
     
  4. Reducing Carbon Emissions and Pollution: Diverting waste reduces the amount of carbon emissions burned transporting this trash to recycling facilities and to landfills. In the most recent IPCC report, research found that petrochemicals, which include plastics, are the third-highest industrial emitter of greenhouse gases, and these emissions will grown by 20% by 2030. Despite the growing impact of UW Recycling programs, UW net greenhouse gas emissions show growth year over year, which, based on societal trends, will only get worse. This project will contribute to reigning in emissions generated by the University.
     
  5. Improving environmental equity: China called our practices of sending our contaminated recycling to other countries, “foreign garbage smuggling.” By not solving our waste issues domestically, we are continuing to place an unfair burden on others. Creating a model for small scale community recycling will allow us to take steps towards environmental justice.
     
  6. Cost Savings Benefits: One aspect of our project will be applying design to mitigate the problems plastic creates. Plastic film has become a recent problem for UW recycling since its removal from the waste stream costs roughly $17.65/hour to $23.51/hour to pay Waste Collector workers to sort. We hope to pose this issue as a design project for students in the Industrial Design program on campus to develop new plastic film recepticles to optimize the collection of materials.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Throughout the research, development, and initial use stages of the machines, we will develop performance metrics to monitor our success and fulfill CSF’s quarterly reporting requirements. While these data points have yet to be finalized, initial metrics are as follows:

  1. Starting with First Quarter of Operation
    1. Number of students Involved (enrolled, employed, volunteer, service learners)
    2. Number of student hours logged
    3. Number of media mentions (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
    4. Number of Class, RSO, and community groups contacted
    5. Number of events and field trips organized (UW campus and off-campus)
    6. Number of events attended and tabled  (UW campus and off-campus)
  2. Starting with Second Quarter of Operation
    1. Number of Machines Running
    2. Number of Products Designed
    3. Processable Types of Plastic
  3. Starting with Third Quarter of Operation
    1. Amount of plastic diverted (in pounds)
    2. Number of Collection Spots on Campus
    3. Amount of 3D filament or other product produced (in pounds)
    4. Amount of CO2 emittance avoided
Total amount requested from the CSF: $20,796
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Due to sit restrictions, we are unable to submit our detailed budget. Please see our supplemental materials for the full budget.
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal CostNotes
Shredder Materials3,00213002To be constructed from purchased materials.
Compression Molder Materials1,38111381To be constructed from purchased materials.
Extruder389313893Complete machine purchased.
Injection Molder197911979Complete machine purchased.
Product Molds65053250Reusable molds for end-use products.
Wood Chipper1251125For interim use while Shredder is built
Utility Carts1184472
Extruder Cleaning Liquid1810184
Scale50150
Hot Plate2661266
Hot Stamp Machine3751375
Maintenance Costs2004800Quarterly maintenance & repair.
Safety Glasses18118
Heat-Resistant Gloves12560
Respirators275135Half-mask.
PAPR Respirators112122242EH&S Staff indicate that this is the most conservative and safest respirator option.
Lab Aprons17585
Lockout Boxes16580
Collection Tote18590
Storage Shelves1701170
Storage Shelves & Bins1551155
Towels3113124-pack.
Sponges1311324-pack.
Biodegradable dish soap42521010 Gal. total.
Printed Materials & Marketing40041600$400 / quarter for 1 year.
Lockable Document Storage43143
Desk87187

Non-CSF Sources:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal CostNotes
Dabble Lab Membership1009900Cost of 9 annual memberships for UWPP leadership team.
Office Rent600127200Cost comparable to market-rate office space in University District.
Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

UWPP Project Timeline
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Outreach to students and staffOngoingN/A - Start Date September 2018
Become independent RSO1 monthNovember 2018
Produce safety, operation, and training manuals3 monthsFebruary 2019
Build and acquire machines3 monthsFebruary 2019
Plastic collectionOngoingN/A - Start Date January 2019
Material researchOngoingN/A - Start Date January 2019
Prototype design for marketable products OngoingN/A - Start Date January 2019
First products showcase and interactive demonstration1 dayApril 2019 (Earth Day)
Class visits and demonstrationsOngoingN/A - Start Date May 2019
Begin selling products through the University Book StoreOngoingN/A - Start Date June 2019
Selling 3D Printer FilamentOngoingN/A - Start Date Autumn 2019

Double Dip Conference

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Healthy building certification for the UW Tower – education and demonstration

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Life Sciences Building Rooftop Solar Array - Supplementary

Executive Summary:

UW-Solar has been working with the architects and engineers designing the Life Sciences Building for the last four years. We were part of the proposal, funding, and installation of the Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) fins on the South facade of the building, but have always been aiming to install a larger and more efficient solar panel system on the roof. This proposal is requesting $50,000 to complete the necessary funding for a rooftop solar array on the Life Sciences Building- the new home of UW Biology that was completed this fall. The proposed design is a 100 kW array that would produce an estimated 105,000 kWh/yr, which is equivalent to more than 78 metric tons of CO2e. This system is estimated to cost a total of $300,000, of which $250,000 has already been secured. Therefore, we are requesting the final $50,000 to allow us to fully build-out this system, otherwise we will need to reduce the size to 80 kW. We are hoping the funds for this project come from the new collaboration between CSF and the Student Technology Fee (STF). Producing energy by conventional power plants produces large amounts of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. By generating energy on-site using solar energy, this project would decrease the carbon footprint of the Life Sciences Building and the University as a whole. This project would provide three distinct benefits: an economic return to the University, an increase in the sustainability efforts of the campus, and exposing UW-solar students to real-world engineering design and communication with industry professionals. If funded, this project would be the fifth successful rooftop installation designed by UW-Solar, and complete our efforts on the Life Sciences Building. UW-Solar is part of the Urban Infrastructure Lab in the Department of Urban Design & Planning. We are an interdisciplinary student team that work to promote, design, and install solar installation on campus. For more information, visit our website https://blogs.uw.edu/urbanlab/projects/uw-solar/.

Student Involvement:

Over the three years that this project has been in development, a number of students have been involved. The leadership team for this project has varied between one to five people over this tenure, with Alex Ratcliff as the long-standing project manager.

The two students currently leading this project are Shivani Joshi and Alex Ratcliff. Aside from these two, there are more than thirty students actively involved in UW Solar, of which a number have been partially involved in the project when necessary. Shivani and Alex stand as the two principal students during this grant proposal stage, but at least two other students will be brought onto the team during the drafting of the Request for Proposal (RFP).

Shivani has recently joined the Life Sciences team and has been helping out in the finalisation of the CSF full proposal which includes revisiting cost and energy performance estimations. She will also be involved in future planning including contractor selection, communication with professional architects and engineers, and interpreting submitted construction documents.

Alex has been the project manager for the Life Sciences Building for the last three years. He assisted on the BIPV installation, was the student representative for the Putting the Green in Greenhouse project, and has been working diligently for the installation of a full-sized solar array on the roof. Alex’s primary responsibilities include drafting construction documents, communication with Devin Kleiner, Robert Goff, and other building managers, meeting with UW administrators to discuss the project, and the writing and review of all official documentation.

Education & Outreach:

The Life Sciences building contains a virtual dashboard that will enable interested students and visitors to experience and learn about how the BIPV panels are helping the building be more energy efficient by following the panels’ energy production. They will also be able to monitor the amount of water that will be recycled by the lab-water recovery system. The dashboard is an interactive system and will be able to engage students and visitors by giving them live updates.

The students who are directly involved with UW Solar will be able to experience a real life working environment by being present on the construction site and taking part in the process. Professionals will personally interact with the students and educate them about the detail of the actual installation as well as revise their design and make any appropriate adjustments. One of the scoring guidelines of the RFP will be a “student engagement” proposal that the contractor will be required to submit. Typically, we receive bids that allow students to join walkthroughs of the site, witness the construction of the array, review the construction documents with the project engineer, and participate in the commissioning process.

The Life Science building BIPV project will be thoroughly discussed on the UW Solar website as well as being highlighted in the upcoming edition of the Civil and Environmental Engineering newsletter.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
Project Longevity:

All of the solar panels, electrical equipment, and metering equipment to be installed will come with warranties to cover malfunctions, deficiencies, failures, etc. that typically span from 10-30 years. Warranties will be included in the specifications of the bids we receive. The lifespan of solar arrays are generally expected to exceed the warranty period; solar arrays can last up to 40-50 years if properly maintained.

The array will require scheduled maintenance in the form of yearly cleaning and equipment checks. The details of scheduled maintenance will be outlined in an Operations & Maintenance (O&M) plan submitted by the contractors along with their bid. The long-term maintenance will become the responsibility of UW Facilities and the Building Manager. Unused funds from this project budget will be transferred to UW Facilities to support the long-term maintenance.

Environmental Problem:

With this solar installation, we will be reducing the University’s carbon footprint by reducing the amount of CO2 and CO2e produced through conventional energy production. The carbon footprint of the Life Sciences building, due to its lab spaces and large physical footprint, is relatively high. The rooftop photovoltaic panels will help reduce the carbon footprint of the LIfe Sciences building as they will be using solar (renewable) energy in addition to the traditional energy production methods, thus increasing its energy self sufficiency. The rooftop space can accommodate 100kW solar array (approximately 335 standard panels) which will generate 105,000 kWh/year (estimate made using the NREL PVWatt Calculator). This is equivalent to more than 78 metric tons of CO2e, which can be compared to the amount of carbon generated from:

  • 9,000 gallons of gasoline
  • 86,000 pounds of coal
  • 185 barrels of oil

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The Life Sciences Building has installed a virtual dashboard in the first floor lobby of the building. This dashboard receives information from meters installed throughout the building, and students can interact with the dashboard to see the real-time and historical data of several building metrics including, but not limited to, the energy production from the BIPV panels and the volume of water recycled by the lab-water recovery system. The infrastructure necessary to connect the rooftop system to this system is already in place, and simply requires installing the system. In this way, students will be able to see the measured electrical production of the rooftop system recorded by the system meters. The dashboard will present data on the amount of kWh produced and may have an option to see the equivalent CO2e.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $50,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

This budget is subject change, and a revised budget will be submitted with bid from our Request for Proposal.
ItemCost Expected Funding Source
Solar Panels$80,000Original CSF Award
Wiring$15,000Original CSF Award
Racking System$10,000This Application
Labor$100,000Donation
Permitting$500This Application
Inverters$50,000Original CSF Award
Metering$7,000This Application
Weather Station$500This Application
Transformer$2,500This Application
IT Equipment$4,000This Application
Comissioning$5,000Original CSF Award
Operations & Maintenance$3,000This Application
Shipping$2,500This Application
Contingency$20,000This Application

Non-CSF Sources:

Previous awards given to this project.
SourceAmountFunding TypeNote
CSF$150,000GrantPreliminary grant awarded to the project in 2017
Undisclosed Donor$100,000DonationDonation given to fund this rooftop project
Project Completion Total: $300,000

Timeline:

Timeline is subject to change and will need coordination with UW Capital Projects &amp Development and Procurement
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
CSF Proposal Submitted2 weeksOctober 15th, 2018
CSF Award NotificationN/AEarly November, 2018
Communication with CPD and UW Procurement2 monthsEnd of November/Early December, 2018
Request for Proposal (RFP) Drafted & Submitted2 monthsEnd of November/Early December, 2018
Bids ReceivedN/AJanuary/February, 2019
Contractor Selected1 weekFebruary/March, 2019
Array Constructed4 monthsEnd of Summer, 2019

Rebound: The Bounce Back Used Notebooks Deserve

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HUB Bin Expansion Project

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Salvage Wood Project Advertising Campaign

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WashPIRG 100% Renewable Energy Plant Potting Event

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TSA Night Market 2018

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ReThink UW's Fourth Annual Resilience Summit

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Engage with Renewable Energy: Interactive Art Exhibition & Reusables Workshop

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Row for Climate

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UW Anaerobic Digester: Food Waste, Renewable Energy & Public Health (Phase 2)

Executive Summary:

The University District Food Bank (UDFB) serves some of the poorest and most vulnerable individuals in the North Seattle and University District community. The University District has one of the highest rates of poverty in Seattle, which was shown in by 2016 study that approximately 60% of University District residents have an income at or below the federal poverty threshold (Keeley, 2016). These residents often cannot access enough healthy and nutritious food and depend on UDFB to survive. UDFB distributes 45,000 pounds of food (i.e. fruits, vegetables, dairy, bread, canned food, etc.) to over 1,200 families per week, maintains a 2,000 square foot rooftop garden, and co-locates with a café (Street Bean) that employs homeless and low-income youth.

UDFB is struggling with a tragic irony though—there is too much food waste. Grocery store chains often use food banks (including UDFB) as a dumping ground for expired or damaged food, while receiving a tax break for the donation. UDFB receives food that spoils quickly, and in turn, UDFB pays ~$6,000 per year to haul away food waste to a municipal composting facility. The garbage trucks that haul away the food waste pollute the North Seattle neighborhood. The exhaust from these trucks is a public health risk for individuals and families.  This inexcusable situation prevents the food bank from using their financial resources to better serve the community.

Many residents also feel stigmatized when they use the food bank. A 2016 Seattle Times article documented the feelings of one community member, “When I was going to the food bank, it’s not like I was talking about it...it’s something people don’t talk about” (Balk, 2016). This stigma hinders the food bank from integrating into the community and increasing access to UDFB’s resources.

To address these pressing community, environmental, and public health issues, we propose building an anaerobic digester at UDFB. A digester would utilize food waste to create compost and natural gas. The compost would be used on UDFB’s rooftop garden and the gas would provide electricity to power UDFB’s refrigeration system. By reducing food waste and electricity costs, UDFB would save ~$12,000 per year. With these funds, UDFB would expand their services and hire 1-2 youth who are transitioning out of homeless. These youth would operate and maintain the digester to gain job skills. UDFB also wants to create a strong educational partnership with the University of Washington (UW). Dozens of UW students and staff already volunteer at UDFB: serving clients and working on the rooftop garden, but there is no academic partnership with UW. This is an opportunity for a UW-UDFB academic partnership focusing on civil/environmental engineering, soil science, public health, and small business development. Dr. Heidi Gough from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering would like to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UDFB to formally incorporate the digester into her graduate and undergraduate curriculum, and Dr. Sally Brown from the School of Forest Resources may also be interested in incorporating the digester into her graduate/undergraduate curriculum. 

Student Involvement:

This project would involve 10-15 UW graduate/undergraduate student volunteers per year. These students would conduct research projects on any aspect of the digester (e.g. gas composition, compost, engineering, business, etc.). A UW faculty member (Dr. Heidi Gough or Dr. Sally Brown) would supervise these students and oversee their research papers/projects.

The local small-business (Impact Bioenergy) that designs and builds anaerobic digesters would build a custom-designed digester at UDFB. Volunteers from the community (residents, UW students, nonprofit organizations) could participate in building the anaerobic digester, and the UW student volunteers could also be trained to lead digester tours for UW students and community members. 

A UW Registered Student Organization (RSO), Global Sustainability Initiative (GSI), has been the main RSO supporting student involvement and interest in this project. The undergraduate members include: Caelan Wisont, Zhaoyi Fang, Yushan Tong, and Kyler Jobe. GSI focuses on promoting sustainability on a global scale, emphasizing household-scale anaerobic digestion projects to create methane gas for stoves. GSI grew out of SafeFlame LLC, which was started by a UW MBA graduate (Kevin Cussen), and received a CSF grant in 2015-2016. GSI also connects interested students to anaerobic digestion projects and gets students excited about working with anaerobic digestion, renewable energy, and public health. GSI would promote interest among other RSOs and recruit undergraduate students from the Sustainability Studio (ENVIR 480) course to conduct research projects on the anaerobic digester.

The digester project team has also reached out to the following RSOs to increase student support/interest: Eco-Reps, Huskies for Food Justice, Students Expressing Environmental Dedication (SEED), and Engineers Without Borders.

The University of Washington (UW) is located within 10 minutes walking distance of the UDFB, but the UDFB receives relatively little attention from the UW community. Very few people at UW are aware of the food bank and its mission, and we believe this anaerobic digestion project would help establish a thriving partnership between UW and the UDFB. With an anaerobic digester, there would be a variety of departments, students and professors that could collaborate with the food bank. Several environmental departments at UW, such as Civil & Environmental Engineering and School of Forest Resources are eager to conduct research projects on the anaerobic digestion process. There is a wide range of topics and ideas that could be explored: the engineering of how to design/construct an efficient and safe digester for community-level operations, the microbiology of how food waste can be turned into compost, and the public health of how an anaerobic digester can address food insecurity. Undergraduate students, graduate students, and professors would be able to support the food bank with ideas and projects on how to improve the anaerobic digestion process. Although this project is not located on the UW campus, we believe that it is reasonable to ask for Campus Sustainability Funding (CSF) to support this project because of the potential to establish a strong academic partnership between UW-UDFB, which would give students and faculty access to digester technology. This collaboration between UW and the UDFB would be the first in the nation (we know of no other university in the U.S. that has partnered with a food bank to study its anaerobic digester).

In summary, building an anaerobic digester would allow UDFB to:

  1. Host free community workshops focusing on food waste utilization and renewable energy production.
  2. Reduce food waste disposal costs and increase services to residents.  
  3. Become a center of community education about food waste, public health, and renewable energy.
  4. Establish a strong academic and educational collaboration with UW.

Education & Outreach:

We will publicize our project in three ways:

  1. RSOs: GSI and the other RSOs listed above will advertise this project to UW students and publicize this digester project during their tabling events. GSI is the main undergraduate student group that is helping to push this project forward, and their current network with other RSOs will help raise awareness about our project on the UW Seattle campus.
     
  2. Signage: If the digester is built, we will create signage on/around the digester with educational information about anaerobic digestion. For instance, the signage will explain how anaerobic digestion works, how the gas/compost is being used, statistics/scale of the current project, how the project could be scaled up, other digester projects currently happening in Seattle, etc. These signs would be located on the outside of the digester and available for anyone to read.
     
  3. Undergraduate/Graduate Courses: The faculty members collaborating on this project (Dr. Heidi Gough, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering; Dr. Sally Brown, School of Forest Resources) will encourage their undergraduate and graduate students to conduct research projects on the anaerobic digester. Dr. Gough is primarily interested in the gas production and how changing the inputs (types of food waste) affects the composition of the gas. Dr. Brown is interested in soil science and how the type of food waste affects the chemical makeup of the compost. Additionally, we will do a quarterly presentation for the Sustainability Studio (ENVIR 480) course. This would be a 15-20-minute presentation for the undergraduate students in this course at the beginning of each quarter. ENVIR 480 focuses on sustainability, and a previous group of students from this course conducted a research project on anaerobic digestion.

In addition to publicizing the UDFB project, we will continue to investigate the interest and potential for building an anaerobic digester on the UW campus. We had originally been pursuing CSF funding and gathering student/faculty/staff support build a digester on the UW campus. There has been support for the project, but it is proving to be difficult to find a location for the digester on the UW Seattle. We will continue to investigate interest and feasibility for this UW project, as a way of conducting student outreach.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

This project will be maintained by UDFB staff. UDFB will employ 1-2 part-time staff members to maintain the digester (e.g. monitor temperature, pH, etc.). UDFB will have ongoing funding for these positions because they will be spending less money on hauling away food waste and saving money on electricity.

The academic partnership between UW-UDFB would continue in the long-run because of the MOU that would be signed by Professor Gough and Professor Brown. As the digester project gains more attention at UW, more faculty will hopefully incorporate the digester into their curriculum and more RSOs will include the digester in their outreach activities.

Environmental Problem:

Food waste is an urgent public health issue. In the U.S., approximately 31% of post-harvest food is wasted (i.e. thrown away or spoiled). This is approximately 133 billion pounds of food annually, costing approximately $161 billion (“USDA | OCE | U.S. Food Waste Challenge | FAQ’s,” n.d.). This is shocking and shameful, given national rates of food insecurity and poverty. In addition, food waste often rots in landfills, creating methane gas, which is nearly 4x as damaging to the ozone layer as CO2 emissions. We must address food waste at the local, city, and national level.

This anaerobic digester project would provide a small-scale model of how to utilize food waste to produce renewable energy and compost. The anaerobic digester that we are proposing to install is custom-built by a Seattle-based business called Impact Bioenergy (http://impactbioenergy.com/). The digester is approximately 900 square feet and can process ~850-960 pounds of pre-consumer food waste per day. The digester can store ~1,227 square feet of RNG, which would power UDFB’s refrigeration system. Although this is a relatively small-scale model, it will show how a community organization can utilize food waste to produce RNG, which reduces methane emissions, carbon emissions, and pollution associated with hauling food waste to composting facilities/landfills. Other universities in the U.S. have installed anaerobic digesters, but we do not know of any other universities/colleges in the Pacific Northwest Region that have partnered with a food bank that has an anaerobic digester.

The anaerobic digestion project would reduce pollution in the University District neighborhood by reducing the number of garbage trucks that haul away food waste from the UDFB. By diverting food waste to the anaerobic digester, the UDFB would be supporting fuel conservation and would benefit the University District (and Washington State) by advancing bioenergy, increasing the supply of renewable energy, and decreasing the demand for fossil fuels. UDFB would become a model of renewable energy and waste reduction at the neighborhood level. In summary, the anaerobic digester would:

  1. Reduce UDFB’s food waste costs
  2. Reduce pollution by not hauling food waste and avoiding methane emissions from decomposing food waste that sits in large fields.
  3. Advance bioenergy that recovers renewable resources like water and organic matter.
  4. Provide increased community resilience via renewable energy production and food security.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

To evaluate the digester’s effectiveness, we will measure:

Food Waste

  • Pounds of food waste diverted to digester from waste-stream (which usually goes to Cedar Grove composting facility),
  • Type of food waste used (X % meat, X% vegetables, etc.)

Gas/Electricity:

  • Cubic feet of RNG produced per week
  • Amount of electricity generated per day/week

Compost:

  • Pounds of compost produced per week

Pollution:

  • Carbon emission reductions of not having to haul away X pounds of food waste
  • Methane emission reductions of preventing food waste from rotting in landfill (for other facilities where food waste is not composted)

Costs:

  • Cost-savings of diverting waste (cost reductions of not hauling away food waste in garbage trucks)
  • Cost-savings of producing compost (rather than purchasing from a 3rd party)
  • Cost-savings of producing electricity/gas
Total amount requested from the CSF: $35,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Budgest Estimate
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Anaerobic biomethane system w/ 13kw power output1740001174000
Digestate Storage & Fertigation Tank10000110000
Health & Safety Equipment6001600
Transportation (Flatbed Truck Fees/Mileage)131111311
Biodigester equipment120011200
Material Handling/Heavy Equipment7001700
Permit Fees750017500
Anti-acids/Microbial Community175011750
Electricity/Gas Utility Codes320013200
Signage125011250
Rentals3001300
Project Manager5001500
Volunteer Coordinator4001400
Electrician290012900
Engineer380013800
Laboratory Fees3001300

Non-CSF Sources:

Funding Options
SPU Waste-Free Communities Matching Grant15000
Boeing ECF Grant40000
Anonymous Donation50000
Neighborhood Matching Fund100000
Project Completion Total: $210,000

Timeline:

Project Timeline Estimate
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Finalize custom design of on-site anaerobic digestion systemNovember-December 2018December 2018
Community outreach (find volunteers and raise awareness about project)November-December 2018December 2018
Collect supplies/materials for buidling anaerobic digesterNovember-December 2018December 2018
Permit AcquisitionNovember 2018-January 2019January 2019
Build anaerobic digesterJanuary-April 2019April 2019
Safety/Efficiency AssessmentsApril-May 2019May 2019
Train/Hire youth internsApril-May 2019May 2019
UW Educational Partnership begins (incorporate digester into curriculum)May-June 2019June 2019
Community Workshops beginMay-June 2019June 2019

SER-UW Native Plant Nursery - Future Growth

Executive Summary:

Overview:

Since 2013, the Society for Ecological Restoration-UW Native Plant Nursery has provided a local and sustainable source of plant material for student ecological restoration projects in Union Bay Natural Area and Yesler Swamp, as well as many restoration sites on the University of Washington campus and throughout the Seattle community. Located at the Center for Urban Horticulture, it has been a much-needed hub for student involvement in the applications of horticulture and restoration beyond coursework. With the support of the CSF, we have been able improve our production practices and educational curriculum over the past few years. We aim to keep this momentum in both areas while focusing on our growth and financial sustainability.

The Nursery is committed to the goal of providing 100% of plants to students for coursework, as well as graduate student and other on-campus restoration projects. We provide plants for two classes: Restoration of North American Ecosystems (ESRM 473) and Senior Restoration Capstone (ESRM 462-464), and over the past two years we have strengthened our relationship with both. In 2016 we provided only 32% of species for ESRM 473, but were able to provide 100% in 2017 and 2018, and while in 2017 we were able to provide only 39% of plants to Capstone, in 2018 we provided 78%. Although we have made improvements, a significant number of species still need to be outsourced to other nurseries in the region, as Capstone requests comprise the majority of our orders.

In order to provide a greater percentage of plant material for student projects, the Nursery will implement production systems for two groups of species that are in high demand but require specific infrastructure for their growth: a fern propagation unit, and rhizome beds. Production systems for both of these groups will allow us to provide more genetically appropriate plants for restoration, increase biodiversity of student projects, and offset the carbon emissions associated with outsourcing plants. As there is high demand for these species, both from students and at past public plant sales, these production systems will increase our revenue and help us move toward greater financial sustainability.

Student interest in the Nursery has also grown substantially over the past few years in terms of both volunteer involvement and interest in internship opportunities. Implementing these production systems will greatly increase the scope of educational opportunities available through the Nursery. In tandem with this, we will increase our outreach efforts to the UW student body.

A graduate RA position will guide the infrastructure projects over the course of one year while continuing to manage the day-to-day production tasks at the Nursery. Assistance will be provided by an hourly part-time student position. Interns have contributed greatly to the growth of the nursery over the past few years, and their involvement will continue to be integral to the success of this project. Support will also be provided by a faculty advisor and UWBG staff.

Stakeholders: UW Botanic Gardens, Capstone, ESRM students, Carlson Center volunteers.

Estimated Total Cost: $64,340.70

Student Involvement:

From its beginning, the SER-UW Nursery has provided valuable leadership experience for graduate students pursuing careers in the fields of environmental horticulture and restoration. The Nursery continues to be an entirely student-run project, providing graduate students with the opportunity to gain skills in project management, volunteer coordination, and team leadership. Along with guiding specific projects to advance the Nursery, the RA also manages weekly operations such as administrative tasks, coordinating volunteer work parties, directing and educating interns and guiding their projects, and planning and implementing plant production schedules. A student assistant position will support the RA with administrative tasks, group work with interns, and weekly work parties.

The intern education curriculum has been built and strengthened through the support of past CSF grants and continues to provide a valuable experience for many undergraduate students. Since 2015, the Nursery has involved 26 interns from majors across many schools and departments, including Environmental Engineering, Biology, Communications, Environmental Studies, and Environmental Science and Resource Management (ESRM). Interns are interviewed by the RA each quarter and two candidates selected based on their potential to succeed in daily nursery tasks as well as their fit for quarterly projects that will benefit both the Nursery and their individual interests.

Along with the option to gain internship credit through ESRM 399 or their school’s option, the quarter provides them with the chance to not only develop knowledge of nursery management and plant production, but also valuable skills in teamwork, communication, and responsibility. Interns are expected to coordinate with the RA and each other to complete plant care tasks and there are many chances for active leadership roles in plant sale events and weekly work parties.

Our goal is to have a further eight (two per quarter and two in summer) undergraduate interns over the course of the next year who will be directly involved with fulfilling the goals of this project while gaining valuable experience related to their fields of study. We will host Communications interns whose focus will be the further development of our outreach program. Interns in the Plant Biology and ESRM programs can gain experience in research and data collection related to propagation protocols needed for fern and rhizomatous species and their success.

Through each academic quarter since 2015, the Nursery has hosted weekly work parties that provide a unique opportunity for students across many departments and disciplines to be involved in the process of native plant production and horticulture. In addition, these volunteers are an intrinsic part of our workforce, and the Nursery would be unable to function without their involvement. Our weekly volunteer work parties have continued to be highly successful. In 2016 the Nursery hosted students for a total of 750 volunteer hours, while in 2017, students contributed 900 volunteer hours. Looking forward, our goal is to reach and maintain a minimum of 1,000 volunteer hours over the next five years. Many of these students are fulfilling volunteer credit for classes such as ESRM 100, ENVIR 240, and ESRM 412, and it is more valuable for them to have plant production-related experience versus simple labor tasks such as weeding and pot washing. Having these production systems in place would provide volunteers with a much greater variety of production-related skills to learn, and allow us to keep up with growing interest in volunteering by providing new opportunities.

The Nursery has also continued to develop a relationship with the UW Carlson Center, an organization which provides opportunities for students to be involved with on-campus and community partners and to integrate academic coursework with volunteer activity. Multiple service learning positions are available each quarter through the nursery, with each position contributing 20 hours per quarter. Besides providing the structure for students to volunteer on a recurring basis, service learners are also able to help guide other students at work parties and are often trusted with more detail-oriented production tasks. Past service learners have also applied and been accepted as interns after realizing a continued interest in native plant production through their volunteer work. The Nursery will continue to partner with the Carlson Center and is committed to providing 15 service learning positions through the academic year. 

Education & Outreach:

Over the past three years, the nursery has hosted six bi-annual public plant sales open to the UW and broader Seattle community. Since the first public sale, interest in the event has grown substantially, with attendance increasing and definite interest from the broader Seattle community in supporting a student-run organization and purchasing student-grown plants. We will continue to host bi-annual public plant sales in the Spring and the Fall of each year and continue to develop our advertising in order to reach an even broader audience throughout the Seattle area. Our goal is to host two Communications interns who will focus on the further development of this programming. Under the guidance of the RA, two interns, one in Spring and one in Fall, will help to coordinate the public plant sales and refine our promotional materials by creating reusable templates for events, updating contact lists, and creating signage for use on the day of the event.

Although we have built a strong undergraduate and graduate student community invested in the Nursery, we deal with a challenging situation in terms of student involvement. As we are located at the Center for Urban Horticulture, a 20-minute walk or 10-minute bus ride from campus, we are not as visible to much of the student body outside of the departments and programs we are regularly in touch with. As we increase our offerings of volunteer activities by implementing this project, we will also increase our visibility on campus, encouraging a wider group of student participants. Our weekly volunteer work parties not only help students to be engaged through volunteering and learning skills, they are also social activities that allow students from diverse backgrounds and majors to come together and share ideas, and we hope to continue to expand this circle.

Along with involvement in the plant sales, Communications internships will also help to facilitate this outreach to the greater student body. Interns will be involved in the creation of permanent fliers to hang in UW facilities, as well as contributing to the development of the Nursery’s social media presence. All materials created for both the plant sales and student outreach will include the CSF logo.

As has been our commitment in the past, research conducted during the design and implementation of this project will be made available to the Greater Seattle horticultural community. Over the past few years, the Nursery has cultivated a relationship with Oxbow Farms and Conservation Center in Carnation, WA. The Nursery has modeled its production practices after those of Oxbow’s Native Plant Nursery, and we continue to use their technical advice and expertise. Both a fern propagation unit and rhizome beds are established infrastructure at Oxbow, and we will rely on their guidance to continue to set reasonable goals and refine these production systems in our nursery. As we continue to expand our own production records and protocols, we are committed to reciprocating this exchange of information with the horticulture and restoration community of our region.

As we think about our outreach within the UW community and beyond, there is potential for collaboration with other organizations that share our goals and values. The Olympic Natural Resource Center is developing an Ethnoforestry project that will encourage a stronger connection between the main UW campus and the ONRC’s home base on the Olympic Peninsula. This unique project would be focused on the development of an internship program to help bridge this gap, and there is an opportunity for the Nursery to act as a host for their interns on a part-time basis. This partnership, facilitated by the two project RAs, would provide ONRC interns with a stronger understanding of native plant production and nursery work, and allow Nursery interns to learn more about tribal uses of native plants, an important and often underrepresented aspect of horticulture in our region.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
Project Longevity:

Please see attached business plan.

Environmental Problem:

Although the Nursery is able to produce much of the plant material needed for student projects, there is still a significant portion that requires outsourcing to nurseries throughout the Puget Sound region. Along with the inconvenience to students, who must coordinate their own transportation or use UCars, there is the environmental cost of carbon emissions associated with plant material pickup or delivery. The majority of native plant nurseries in the region are located outside of the immediate Seattle area and often require a 45 minute or greater drive to reach. Restoration planting projects are often done in multiple phases, and across multiple orders placed by student groups this travel and the associated carbon footprint adds up quickly.

Along with the issue of outsourcing material, there is a concern for genetic diversity as well as the responsible use of resources such as water and media. Unlike a farm or ornamental nursery, producing native plants for conservation and restoration requires the preservation of genetic diversity for many species. Although using salvaged plant material is sustainable from a financial and re-use perspective, it is often not environmentally responsible in terms of preserving this diversity. Along with this, in our past few years of salvaging plant material, we have seen that many of these species have lower survival rates, resulting in wasted resources of media, water, and fertilizer on plants that do not survive to the outplanting stage. Finally, salvaged material is only sporadically available, and even less so now that King County has ended its native plant salvage program.

Currently, the nursery relies completely on salvages for acquiring all fern species. Although we can continue to supplement our stock with salvaged material, a fern production system will provide a continuous source of material that has genetic variation appropriate for restoration projects and will be more responsible in terms of resource usage. In addition, although rhizome bed production relies on vegetative reproduction which can result in a loss of genetic diversity, we will research and implement best practices for re-incorporating new genetic material in rhizome bed production for each species. Propagation protocols will be developed for each species throughout the course of the project to ensure that we are making the most of our resources, and to have documentation that future Nursery Managers can consult and improve on.

Lastly, the provision of a greater variety of species from both the fern unit and rhizome beds will facilitate greater biodiversity in restored ecosystems. Often we are unable to fill requests for these species and are required to substitute greater numbers of fewer species, leading to a less diverse plant palette for student projects. Increasing the diversity of the plants we are able to provide will, in turn, create richer habitat not just in the Union Bay Natural Area and Yesler Swamp, but in student projects across campus.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

In order to measure the environmental impacts of this project, the RA and student assistant will be responsible for the collection of data on numbers of plants produced, which will allow us to measure how well we have met our target production goals. From this information, we will be able to measure the diversity of species supplied to student projects and assess an increase in biodiversity based on plant sale data.

A continued increase in the number of plants provided to student projects and classes will also be a measure of greater carbon offset for each restoration project. More plants produced directly on University grounds equates to a reduction in carbon emissions related to travel or shipping of material from around the state. As we continue to increase our production numbers both with this project and for species we already grow, the number of plants needing to be outsourced will decrease. We will be able to compare the percentage of outsourced plants from previous years with sales for this upcoming year and equate this to a reduction in our carbon footprint.

Although more difficult to quantify, there is also an educational component that is important to consider in terms of our environmental impact. During work parties, student volunteers are actively educated about the environmental costs associated with plant production. We discuss water usage, as well as sustainability problems with using peat as a growing media and the alternatives. They experience first hand that everything is recycled, from plastic containers to growing tags to the liquid fertilizer that we use.

This winter quarter, an intern created a survey designed to assess the educational impacts of work parties and what volunteers learned from the events in terms of plant production and sustainability, as well as areas that could be improved upon. We would like to use this survey regularly at work parties both as a way to improve them and to assess the value of the education we can provide about environmental issues.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $64,340
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Please see attached .csv for budget
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $64,340

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Design of rhizome beds and fern unit2 monthsAugust 2018
Construction of rhizome beds and fern unit2 monthsOctober 2018
Promotional materials for plant sales2 monthsNovember 2018 (for Fall plant sale in Mid-Nov.)
Student outreach fliers and social media protocols3 monthsMarch 2019
Draft propagation protocols for species4 monthsDecember 2018
Final propagation protocols for species5 monthsMay 2019

Bringing green games to the UW campus

Executive Summary:

Over the past year, a team consisting of a researcher and students within the College of the Environment conducted a feasibility study to evaluate the potential of using games to promote more sustainable actions on campus (i.e., “green games”). The feasibility study consisted of three parts: a review of existing games, hosting a game jam, and a survey of the UW community to assess receptiveness and preferences related to green gaming. The feasibility study resulted in many positive outcomes, including development of game prototypes, creating connections in the sustainability and gaming communities (both within and outside of UW), and measuring interest and preferences related to green games.

The feasibility study identified opportunities as well as challenges related to implementing green games on campus (see Appendix for full feasibility study results). Some of the most important opportunities uncovered by the feasibility study include demonstrating substantial interest in environmentally-themed games across the UW community, demonstrating potential to create games with moderate resources, and interest from other universities in using games to promote sustainability. Leveraging these opportunities, however, will require overcoming challenges also identified in the feasibility study. One of these is skepticism, particularly about digital games, which may be seen as antithetical to sustainability issues due to interfering with time in nature, being overly monetized, or even addictive. A second – and greater – challenge for implementing games to promote sustainability is competing in the “attention economy”, which includes a large marketplace of games for the purpose of making money. Environmental games geared toward raising awareness and promoting behavior changes have to compete with a well-financed industry vying for players. Finally, we still don’t know how effective games are in terms of educating and convincing players to actually modify future behavior.

The project team has taken many of the lessons learned from the feasibility study, and proposes to conduct a pilot campus gaming project with the following three objectives:

  1. Develop and test impact of games related to multiple environmental issues on campus
  2. Create a flexible engagement model for green games that can be built on in future years and deployed in many different events and venues
  3. Share knowledge and establish partnerships with other universities to help use green games on their campuses

Specifically, we will implement this pilot project over the course of the 2018-2019 academic year by developing games that engage students and encourage sustainable actions and thinking on four different environmental topics. The games will be deployed and promoted at six locations using mobile kiosks on campus over a six-week period (i.e., campaign), during which we will track engagement, player responses, and commitments to take on sustainability-based pledges. We will follow up with players two months following (via email) to evaluate follow-through and how impactful the gaming approach was to their learning and willingness to take positive action. In addition to the targeted campaign period, kiosks and individual games will also be used at special events, and for outreach in conjunction with project partners and stakeholders.

Student Involvement:

Student Leadership and Jobs

The project team includes three students, all of whom will play critical roles that will ultimately add substantially to their expertise, professional and leadership experience. Two undergraduate students will lead the majority of the creative game design and technical implementation, as well as assisting with all aspects of overall promotion and project management. A PhD student will consult on design of the evaluation component of the project, and gain access to research data that will support his PhD research in the process. Lastly, we will hire a student graphic designer to help with developing art assets for the games.

Student volunteers and partners

We will also pursue opportunities to involve students in the game development process (e.g., Earth Games class, Game Dev Club), beta-testing (Game Dev Club, HCDE, Earthgames), or in the gaming-impact evaluation stage (e.g., Information School or Program of the Environment capstone programs). As mentioned in the Education and Outreach section, we are planning to reach out strategically to student groups and research groups on campus working on specific environmental topics featured in the final games (i.e., water pollution, electronic waste, plastics, etc). Students in these groups would be invited to assist with helping develop game content/ideas, beta-testing, outreach, and promotion of specific games.

These efforts are in addition to strategically coordinating with specific project partners (see Stakeholders section) to reach UW students that are particularly interested in learning about or applying gaming approaches to promote sustainability.

Student participants

UW students will be able to play the games on the kiosks and can choose to receive a survey a few months later. By playing the games and completing the survey, students can both have a new experience related to sustainability as well as helping inform the process by which games can help shape environmental attitudes and behaviors. 

Education & Outreach:

The games will be distributed on campus using mobile kiosks for a period of three weeks at a time in a total of six locations (i.e., the “campaign”). The games will not only serve to educate players but will also help us to collect information about how and if games can link to changes in awareness, motivation, and behavior. The kiosks will be placed in six high-traffic areas where people may have a few minutes of leisure to spare, such as coffee shops, food court areas, and/or community living areas in residence halls. We have identified a priority list of locations (Table 1) on campus based on traffic volumes and space to place a kiosk where it will be visible but not impede normal operations, and are currently working with staff at Housing and Food Services on permission and to determine their preferences in locating kiosks. Our goal is that 400-500 players will interact with each of the three kiosks over the entire six-week period.

The exhibit will be promoted (using signage and instructions) at each site to encourage players to engage spontaneously. However, during the six-week period, we will also promote the project using flyers, emails, and newsletter posts directed at departments in close proximity to the kiosks to encourage students, staff, and faculty to look for them, as well as promoting the entire six-week “campaign” via social media and blog posts. Throughout the campaign, there will be a gentle incentive to seek out kiosks and play through games, which is the opportunity to enter a drawing for gift cards.

Although not a final list, game topics that are top candidates as the focus of game development include water pollution, electronic waste, plastics, composting, and energy use. Since the games will be focused on specific environmental issues, this will allow us to strategically reach out to student groups about “adopting” and helping to promote one or more games during the campaign. For example, two student groups on campus that work on issues of water quality that have already committed to assisting in this way for a game related to water pollution. They are the outreach group SEAS (Students Explore Aquatic Science) and UW’s Freshwater Initiative (https://freshwater.uw.edu/about/), a graduate student collective that spearheads research and outreach related to freshwater conservation. As the game topics are finalized (summer 2018), we will reach out to other student and research groups on campus to request their “adoption” of a topical game leading up to and during the campus campaign.

In addition to the focused campaign period, we will also use the kiosks at multiple special events during the year. Planned events include UW’s Sustainability Festival and Earth Day Celebration; however, we anticipate that the kiosks will make an attractive temporary exhibit for additional special events on campus as the project progresses (e.g., opening of the new Burke Museum).  Finally, we will work strategically with project partners and stakeholders (see below) to promote the project and games to students, staff, and faculty across campus that are interested in applying gaming approaches to promote sustainability.

Campus Partners and Stakeholders

The campus unit that we will work most closely with is Housing and Food Services (HFS). We are currently working with them on locations for game kiosks at high-traffic areas with a “captive audience” (e.g., coffee shops, community living spaces in residential halls). In addition to working with HFS on optimal locations and placement of kiosks, we also wish to work closely with them to align game content to support HFS’ sustainability priorities and/or integrate with their current efforts (e.g., meeting composting goals in eating areas).

Students Expressing Environmental Dedication (SEED) are one of the most important RSOs that we will seek to work with, both to help us align the game content with sustainability efforts in residence halls and helping us create content that engages students. Although SEED is currently undergoing an annual change in leadership (see attached letter), we have worked with them as part of the feasibility study and are hopeful that the new leadership will want to continue collaborating.

The Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship (Foster School of Business) is a priority project partner, given our strong desire to engage with entrepreneurs and change-makers at UW on the topic of environmental gaming. During the feasibility study, we engaged on an ad hoc basis with staff and students at the Buerk Center and Foster School of Business who were interested in environmental gaming approaches for promoting sustainability and/or creating businesses in more sustainable ways. For this project, we will work with Buerk Center staff to schedule specific events and opportunities for knowledge exchange, incorporating the games and mobile kiosks that we’ll produce. Some of these opportunities include: sharing knowledge and expertise in green games with classes and students (e.g., making presentations), bringing gaming kiosks to events associated with the annual Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge (http://depts.washington.edu/foster/2018-alaska-airlines-environmental-innovation-challenge/), or working with student teams who may want to collaborate on the gaming kiosks project.

The Center for Creative Conservation or C3 (under which Earthgames is housed) was a substantial partner during the feasibility study, helping to promote the game jam and survey. This project is an excellent fit for the mission and goals of C3, and we will again coordinate project activities with C3. We are also coordinating with leadership of Earthgames to share project resources and plan for project longevity. As with the Buerk Center, this will entail scheduling opportunities to intersect at specific points in the project timeline. Based on preliminary meetings with Earthgames leadership, this could include having students in the Earthgames class help with kiosk deployment, assist with beta-testing, and development or updating of games for future versions of the project. If we are required to purchase tablet computers for this project, our plan is to transfer ownership of these to Earthgames at the end of the pilot project to allow broader use over time by students and groups for sustainability or environmental gaming projects.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Transportation
  • Waste
  • Water
Project Longevity:

This project is designed as a pilot with careful evaluation of impact in the number of UW community members reached, success of the kiosk-based model for engagement, and success in using games to communicate and inspire people to take action around environmental issues. It is our hope that this model proves highly effective and could simply be refreshed and redone (on a much smaller budget) the following year, perhaps by creating updated games and pledges that bring focus to a different suite of environmental issues. If so, updating or creating new games for future years would be a great opportunity for a tangible project for students in the Earthgames class (we have already discussed this with Earthgames leadership).

However, during the project, we will also be looking at and considering options to “tweak” this model for greater effectiveness. For example, if games are effective at engaging students in residence halls, we could tie this approach into setting cooperative (or competitive) goals in dorms using the floor- and dorm-specific energy and water use data dashboards (http://www.buildingdashboard.com/clients/washington/). We are already in discussions with staff at HFS about this potential; if that is the best future direction, we would request funding from HFS to implement the campaign in future years. Similarly, we are planning to work closely with SEED as this project is related to past SEED efforts (e.g., One Thing Challenge); SEED may be interested in helping to implement a future campaign using this gaming engagement model.

In short, we are working with strategic partners to identify the best long-term project options. Toward this end, our goals are to demonstrate effectiveness of this model and create something that can be updated and re-used in future years on a substantially smaller budget, which would improve likelihood of obtaining funding from other sources.

Environmental Problem:

Over the past years, the severity of environmental issues has increased, and the negative impacts of human activity on the environment become more evident. Reversing these harmful actions and implementing sustainable actions prove to be difficult, because such habits are ingrained into our daily lives and often embedded within larger economic or even political forces (e.g., The Clean Power Plan, The Paris Agreement). Consequently, we need to identify novel ways to instigate individuals within a community, such as the UW campus, to not only act in sustainable ways every day but to constantly become better eco-citizens.

We believe that – by allowing people to connect with environmental issues in positive, creative ways – games can help people overcome boredom, despair or habits of convenience that stand in the way of action. In addition to being fun, characteristics of games that help to communicate environmental issues include interactivity (i.e., players choose directions and outcomes), capacity to communicate process, and potential to incorporate storytelling and emotional content. As such, we believe that games offer largely untapped potential to help address the broader environmental issue of engaging and inspiring people to become better eco-citizens at multiple levels. This might include changing daily actions and habits, advocating for sustainability in their community or government, or even deciding to apply their professional skills and ingenuity to sustainability problems.

At a local (campus) level, we believe games have enormous potential to help individuals make the connection between their daily actions and meeting campus-wide goals. For example, the goal of reducing carbon emissions 36% below 2005 levels by 2035 (UW Climate Action Plan) can seem abstract to an individual; however, a game can help make links between daily actions of many individuals (e.g., turning off lights, personal cups) and real environmental progress at large scales. One of the important results of the feasibility study was that people were most interested in games that helped demonstrate or realize environmental benefits while also being fun to play (see Appendix). As such, we plan to create games that capitalize on these interests and preferences to help meet campus-wide goals and support existing campus initiatives. For example, our games – both content and specific actions that individuals can commit to - will be designed to help support the UW Climate Action Plan, the 2020 70% Waste Diversion goal, and sustainability priorities of Housing and Food Services department.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Direct project success will be readily measurable using three metrics, 1) the number of students, staff, and faculty that we reach through the gaming kiosks over the academic year, 2) the number and types of sustainable actions that players commit to doing, and 3) the rate at which people report on following through on their actions. All of these metrics will be captured as a result of deploying the gaming kiosks during the campus campaign (and other special events) and the follow up survey.

The number of students and faculty that engage with the project through our outreach in partnership with stakeholders (see Partners and Stakeholders) will be another way that we track and measure project success. For example, as a result of presenting this gaming project to students in the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge, a student entrepreneurial team may be inspired to further develop and expand on this model, or use gaming approaches in a project. Another avenue that we are pursuing includes outreach to other Washington State universities, so a measure of success would be partnering with another university campus to deploy the kiosks at another campus for a period of time. We will keep track of these types of interactions over the project duration to measure project reach and success.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $15,867
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Research staff project manager$30/hr + 32.4% benefits1606,355.20
Student project manager$20/hr + 20.7% benefits1403,379.60
Student game developer$20/hr + 20.7% benefits2205,310.80
Graphic design (student contractor)$20/hr (no benefits)40800.00
Game participant incentives$25.008200.00
Kiosk design/security (locking stand)$200.003600.00
18" tablet computers$600.0031,800.00
Cloud computing for game hosting200.00
Printing/promotional costs (postcards, flyers)100.00

Non-CSF Sources:

Request approval to use remaining funds from the Feasibility Study (UW Budget 16-4912)funds rollover2,878.78
Borrow (vs. purchase) tablet computers from Information School, School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences)in-kind1,800.00
Theo Chocolatesin-kind for gaming participant prizes200.00
Aqua Verde Restaurantin-kind for gaming participant prizes150.00
Ivar's Restaurantin-kind for gaming participant prizes100.00
Project Completion Total: $19,195

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Finalize kiosk design and locations with HFS1 monthJuly 2018
Finalize 4 topics (e.g., water pollution, waste) and desired behavioral changes1 monthAugust 2018
Draft design of games/art assets2 monthsSeptember 2018
Develop game back-end for survey and mailing list1 monthOctober 2018
Game development and beta-testing3 monthsDecember 2018
Develop follow up materials/surveys/get HSB approval1-2 monthsJanuary 2018
Deploy kiosks for three weeks each at 6 selected locations & promote6 weeksJan - Feb 2018
Send out follow up survey to players to evaluate impact 3 weeksApril 2018
Present project results (e.g., UW Earth Day, other universities)2 monthsMay - June 2018

Go Team, Go Green!

Executive Summary:

The Go Team, Go Green project uses a friendly competitive spirit and school pride as motivating factors to engage in campus sustainability. A fundamental aspect of student life at UW –as well as at universities around the country and worldwide– is intercollegiate athletics. Major UW sports events such as men's football and women's basketball are extremely popular among students on campus, and also provide an important means for alumni and other community members to stay connected and involved with the UW flagship campus in Seattle. Here we propose to use this powerful community and campus social phenomenon of intercollegiate athletics as a motivating factor for sustainability.

Specifically, we will work with a broad array of student groups at UW and other Pac-12 campuses to organize intercollegiate sustainability challenges to occur during the school year in the week leading up to particular intercollegiate Pac-12 athletics matches. For example, in the week before the UW-University of Colorado football match, student groups from the Seattle and Boulder campuses will have a friendly competition for the most sustainable student group and overall campus; another such competition would occur in the week leading up to the UW-Oregon women's basketball match. Judges will be made up of students from a participating Pac-12 school not competing against UW that week.

To support these competitions, we will:

  1. Create a dedicated UW website that will house the 2018-19 line-up, digital tools allowing participants to measure and report on their carbon footprints and other environmental behaviors, a microblog bulletin board for recording their efforts and posting images or video, a timeline drawn from project-specific Instagram and Twitter hashtags (e.g., #GoTeamGoGreen), and an interactive scoreboard for game day.
     
  2. Engage student groups at UW and in the partner schools during Summer and Fall 2018 to plan for the Fall and Winter sustainability match-ups, respectively. We have already begun this process in the Spring 2018 with five Pac-12 schools: ASU, CU, Stanford, OSU and WSU.
     
  3. Organize four intercollegiate Pac-12 competitions in both F18 and W19 by:
    • posting a line-up of participating groups from the competing campuses on the project website;
    • promoting the event on social media, city-wide publications and our website, encouraging participating groups from both campuses to do the same;
    • working with the non-competing (non-UW Pac-12) school -involved in a different challenge week that year- who will be voting on the "winning" school.
    • announcing the results on game day, possibly during halftime of the sports event.

At the end of the Fall and Winter seasons, the UW students involved in the project will choose a winning (non-UW) competitor, which will receive a sustainable bamboo plaque. All school groups that qualify for award consideration will receive certificates of participation.

We envision these competitions ultimately leading to intercollegiate collaborations, sparking sharing of ideas, increased visibility for all of our respective efforts, and possible cascading impacts on sports enthusiasts as well as the athletic programs and nationally televised events themselves, throughout the Pac-12 and across the nation.

Student Involvement:

Students will be directly involved all stages of the Go Team, Go Green (GTGG) project: website design, contact with colleagues around Pac-12, social media promotion of the challenges, participation in the competitions, design of the participation certificates and award plaques, and judging of the non-UW school groups to determine who will receive those plaques. We detail some of the more complex aspects of this student involvement in the sections that follow.

Website design

The GTGG website will be the virtual home for the intercollegiate competitions. It will house the tools that participating school groups at all of the Pac-12 campuses will use to learn about the challenges, sign up their group for the competition, converse with their competitors, and record their sustainability successes. In order to raise interest and broaden participation, and because the students will want to promote their efforts on their own social media platforms, the GTGG website will also include a "news feed" culled from other social media sites; for example, filtering Instagram and Twitter posts to include those containing #GoTeamGoGreen. Our approach here will build on the successes of –as well as the lessons learned from– the peer-to-peer conversations promoted as part of the ISCFC (see http://footprint.stanford.edu/discuss): the successful climate awareness program for which Dr. Hodin is co-director.

Student involvement in the website design will occur in two phases in during Summer 2018. In Phase 1, participating students work together on overall "mock-up" design concepts for the website. All members of the Project Team will provide feedback, and our professional programmer (David Cohn) will put together a site architecture based on that design.

In Phase 2, once that site architecture is in place, Mr. Cohn will lay out one or more internal pages over which the students will have more programming and creative control. The students could then claim that page as something that they helped program, and would be credited as such. Examples of such student led aspects of the website could include the design of the page that lists the team line-ups and the "scoreboard" for game day, as well as the page element that runs news feeds from Instagram and Twitter with GTGG-related hashtags.

Contact with colleagues around Pac-12

Corina Yballa, Senior in the UW Program on the Environment (planned graduation: Dec 2018), is excited to lead the effort during Summer 2018 of coordinating with UW's "competitors" for the Fall and Winter. Among Ms. Yballa's first responsibilities will be following up on contacts we have already initiated with sustainability groups at CU, ASU and Stanford (see attached letters from all three campuses), and expanding those contacts to include at least five additional Pac-12 schools. Furthermore, Ms. Yballa, in coordination with our partner student groups at UW (see attached PAFs), will begin to make concrete plans for the Fall season competitions, including documenting the guidelines for participating in and judging the competitions, and establishing a social media presence for GTGG. During this period, Ms. Yballa will be closely coordinating with UW athletics (see attached PAF from Karen Baebler) to plan for their promotion of the GTGG challenges, and for the possibility of announcing of winners during halftime.

Sometime during the Fall, Ms. Yballa will help us identify and train another student lead who will take over for the remainder of the project. The student lead in the Fall and Winter will work closely with the partner ("competitor") schools to plan the final details for the challenges, continue the social media presence, and work as a liaison to University digital and print publications to promote the competitions.

Participation in the challenges

The groups taking part in the challenges will be student groups on the two campuses that have ongoing or planned sustainability efforts. Participating groups could be dormitories, clubs, fraternities or any other student grouping. Non-student UW groups are also welcome to join. First, the group will register on the GTGG website (which will add them to our participant page, and provide a link to their website if any). Then, they will use the microblog bulletin board to introduce their sustainability efforts, and announce what they plan to accomplish during the upcoming game week. During the week, they will post updates on the microblog and social media, as they choose.

We will provide tools that will help participants analyze the environmental impact of their plans (see the Explain How the Impacts Will Be Measured section, above), but ultimately what constitutes a 'sustainability effort' is entirely up to the group in question. These could range from traditional approaches –such as working to enhance recycling rates in dormitories– to less traditional endeavors –such as producing an original music video about ocean plastic. The student group is responsible for describing their efforts in a persuasive and engaging manner to the judges and the public at large.

Choosing a winning competitor

On game day, the previous week's posts from the student groups on the competing campuses will be judged by students from a third Pac-12 school not competing that week. So for example, the student judges of the UW-Stanford competition might be from Oregon State. We do not foresee judges being overly reliant on numeric assessments alone. Our judging criteria will encourage artistic expression and storytelling as effective aspects of sustainability that could be rewarded. Furthermore, we want to give creative latitude to the judges in announcing winners. We can, for example, imagine winners in different categories: most creative post, lowest carbon group, most ambitious sustainability effort during the week. We will encourage the judging school to announce the categories in advance, so we can post them during "competition week" on the GTGG website's interactive scoreboard, alongside a line-up of the competing groups.

At the end of the Fall and Winter seasons, the UW students involved in the project will choose a winning (non-UW) competitor, which will receive a student-designed plaque to hang in their dormitory or club office. All school groups that qualify for award consideration will receive certificates of participation that they can distribute to individual students.

Education & Outreach:

Outreach to the campus community and the broader public is connected at its core to the Go Team, Go Green concept. First, the connection with high profile sporting events is a ready-made mechanism for enhancing interest in the challenges. The average attendance at home Husky football matches in 2017 was over 68,000 (ncaa.org), with another estimated 1.4 million television viewers (statista.com). Even a brief mention during the matches of our parallel sustainability competition thus has the potential reaching enormous audiences, composed of individuals who likely span the spectrum from those who consider themselves hard-core environmentalists to those for whom sustainability is not a major daily concern. We are currently in discussions with UW Assistant Athletic Director Karen Baebler (see here attached PAF) about the possibility of announcing the weekly GTGG winner on game day, perhaps during half time of the home football or basketball matches.

Because these sports events are such potent cultural phenomena, the upcoming Pac-12 competitor for any home UW football match is well known to a large swath of the broader UW community. In this way, GTGG is providing a dual 'hook' for heightening interest in campus sustainability: the competitive element, and the specific tie-in to a competitor –the school UW will be playing the following weekend– already on the mind of many UW community members. We thus predict a receptive and captive audience for events that otherwise may not typically garner campus-wide attention.

In the lead up to this proposal, we have already forged connections with numerous student groups: the UW Student Association for Green Environments (SAGE), United Students Against Sweatshop Labor, UW GreenGreeks, UW Sustainable Gamers, the UW Sustainability Action Network, Students for a Sustainable Stanford, the CU Environmental Center and ASU Campus Student Sustainability. Each of these organizations has groups of committed students and their own mechanisms of outreach, which they will be able to use to promote GTGG. One of the central goals of GTGG is to, in turn, create a platform to increase the visibility of the diverse sustainability efforts of these partner organizations, and then to use this platform as an incubator for new ideas and new connections among such groups, within and across the Pac-12 campuses.

Social media and microblogging are the main tools that the competing student groups will use to promote their GTGG efforts, and the GTGG team will likewise use these same modes of outreach to spread the word about the project and the upcoming challenges. We will also be sure to work with UW print and online publications –such as the Daily, UW News, Friday Harbor Labs Tide Bites and the College of the Environment newsletter– to promote the competitions and highlight the achievements of the competitors with feature stories.

Recently we learned of a Pac-12 Sustainability initiative, and their discussions to highlight a Pac-12 Sustainable Game of the Week (see attached letter of support from CU Sustainability liaison Dave Newport). This latter concept was for Pac-12 to choose a single nationally televised game from the Pac-12 each week, and have a short segment during the broadcast highlighting sustainability efforts on the home team's campus. We will continue conversations with Pac-12 Conference leadership to pursue this exciting connection.

And finally, we will take advantage of certain historically-potent sports match-ups, such as the yearly WSU-UW football game known as the Apple Cup. In the week leading up to this prominent match-up, GTGG will host a parallel competition that we will call the Apple Core Cup, focusing particularly on issues of waste, sustainable agriculture, biodiversity and food choices. We expect this latter to garner particularly heightened student and community interest and corresponding media attention.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Transportation
  • Waste
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

We are thrilled about our burgeoning connections to Pac-12 and the Pac-12 Sustainability Working Group. Clearly, the individual schools and the collective Pac-12 entity are taking stock of the largely untapped potential for increased sustainability in intercollegiate sports. As such, they are committing to making the Pac-12 conference a leader for the nation in this respect. We expect this sincere commitment to translate into funds, and ideally, funds to maintain and expand the project - on individual campuses and across the Pac-12, and perhaps into other conferences across the nation.

One of our central goals during the project period is thus to demonstrate the potency and logic inherent in connecting sustainability goals to the school pride and competitive spirit embodied by intercollegiate sports. We will thus nurture our connections to Pac-12 during the project period, while building excitement for the ideas in the partner campuses.

Indeed, our parters at Students for a Sustainable Stanford are already motivated to seek Stanford University funds similar to the CSF so that they can host their own Go Team, Go Green competitions. This is precisely the kind of impact that we envisioned our concept having on other Pac-12 schools, and this impact seems to be manifesting even at these very early stages! This gives us encouragement that the GTGG concept would have longevity well beyond our project's funding period if awarded.

The power of GTGG derives from the passion and energy of the myriad existing, student- and youth-led sustainability efforts at UW, through the Pac-12, across the nation, and around the world. We are confident that the increased attention drawn to their efforts, and the connections forged among these groups that GTGG provides will create a positive sustainability feedback, lasting well beyond the end of the CSF funding period.

Environmental Problem:

(Note: we checked all of the above "areas of environmental impact" to indicate that we are not placing any limits on competing groups in terms of what aspects of sustainability they want to promote)

====

The central environmental problem addressed by the Go Team, Go Green project is: how do we encourage sustainable behaviors in those who don't often practice them? According to a 2016 Pew study, 75% of the US population reports being concerned about the environment, but only 20% say that they take consistent environmental actions. While we do not have corresponding statistics for the UW, we can assume that this basic trend is true on campus as well. How can we close this gap between environmental concern and environmental action?

Social science research offers some clues. One set of explanations for lack of environmental action is that environmental problems can seem distant and insurmountable. If instead, environmental challenges are seen as near and solvable, individuals are more likely to act (Stoknes, Energy Research & Social Science, 2014). Furthermore, social norms of behavior ("Keeping up with the Joneses" in common parlance) have been shown to be especially powerful motivators for environmental actions (Griskevicius et al., International Journal for Sustainability Communication, 2008). To put it simply: competition with peers spurs sustainability.

The Go Team, Go Green project thus uses friendly competition and community building as tools for engaging the broader UW community in sustainable behaviors. By linking intercollegiate competitions in sustainability with major intercollegiate Pac-12 sports matches, we furthermore will explicitly couple environmental sustainability to school spirit.

A second environmental problem that our project addresses relates to challenges of increasing visibility for the laudable and diverse efforts of sustainability groups on the UW campus and elsewhere. By linking sustainability to the enormous cultural phenomenon of intercollegiate sports –and doing so in a way that 'tells a story'– we offer the potential to shine bright, stadium lights on the unsung successes of sustainability groups at UW and on our counterpart campuses as well.

And finally, we address the environmental problem of what is often-times a lack of coordination between (or even awareness of) groups having common cause. We describe our project as a competition; but at its heart, it is truly a collaborative meeting place for Pac-12 sustainability enthusiasts who can better leverage their efforts in concert.

One example is Students for a Sustainable Stanford (see their attached letter of support), who are trying to persuade Coca-Cola to produce small medium and large compostable cups for their sports event concessions. They believe –and they are likely correct– that Coca-Cola would be more apt to respond to this request if it was a pan-Pac-12 effort rather than just one coming from Stanford alone.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Integrated into the project's intercollegiate competition framework are both quantitative and qualitative assessments of environmental impacts. Go Team, Go Green (GTGG) project director, Dr. Jason Hodin, is co-director of the International Student Carbon Footprint Challenge (ISCFC), a program that will relocate to the UW server as part of GTGG. The central tool of the ISCFC is a highly detailed location-calibrated student footprint calculator. With CSF funding for GTGG we will produce a slightly modified version of this calculator that targets on-campus college life a bit more directly: for example, by giving options for dormitory living. At that point, the tool will be well suited for students and groups of students on the opposing campuses to document their carbon impacts, as well as estimating carbon reductions from their efforts.

A second tool that we will use in this context is the UW commuter calculator, which breaks down commuting option by calories money and carbon saved or expended (see PAF from Marilyn Ostergren). Finally, we will link to the UW sustainability dashboard (http://green.uw.edu/dashboard) as well as any corresponding pages available on the other Pac-12 web sites, so that the competing groups on the two campuses can assess their efforts as they relate to the campus at large. Specifically, tools like the sustainability dashboard (in combination with aforementioned calculators) can allow groups to estimate how their sustainability ideas –if adopted as campus policy– could impact university-wide carbon emissions, water usage or landfill disposal rates, for example.

In addition to these numerical self-assessments by the competing student groups, we encourage qualitative assessments as well. Video documentation, artistic representations and storytelling are all effective modes of communication about sustainability. As such, the image- and video-enabled bulletin board that we will develop for the GTGG site during Summer 2018 -as well as the GTGG news feed culled from Instagram and Twitter- will encourage the posting of a wide range of documentation of the sustainability efforts of the competing student groups: from the results of their carbon audits, to short films of their sustainable action projects at work.

In sum, a broad range of environmental impacts –from carbon emission accounting to raising community awareness to site specific actions like watershed cleanups– will all be relevant actions for the competitions. On game day, students from a Pac-12 school competing in a different week will analyze the various student groups' posts that document their efforts to choose both a winning student group and, on balance, the winning school. And finally, at the end of the quarter, UW participants will choose a winning competitor to receive a sustainable bamboo plaque, designed by UW students; to qualify for this award, that school will have had to participate both as competitors and judges. All participating student groups from all campuses will receive certificates of participation, printed on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $52,205
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Salary/benefits breakdown for project director Hodin, 4 students, a professional programmer and misc material costs.
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Hodin salary7281 per month at 100% FTE0.25 FTE, 8 months (Jul-Feb)14562
Hodin benefits32.5% on Hodin salary4733
Undergrad student lead$15 per hour10 hrs/week, 8 months5200
Undergrad computer programing$15 per hour10 hrs per week, 3 months, 3 students5850
Undergrad benefits20.7% on total student wages2287
Professional computer programming (David Cohn)$90 per hour215 hours19260
2 plaques, bamboo$78 each156
paper costs (promotional materials, certificates) eco-friendly paper$2020
teleconference line UW (Zoom pro 100)$48 per year1 year48

Non-CSF Sources:

Salary/benefits breakdown for Dr. Kristi Straus
ItemCost per itemQuantityTotal Cost
Straus salary6668 per month at 100% FTE2 summer weeks, 1 week each Fall and Winter (1 month total)6668
Straus benefits24.9% on Straus Salary1660
Project Completion Total: $60,533

Timeline:

Website development and project planning in Summer 2018; project execution in F 2018 and W 2019
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Website design and development3 months 9/15/2018
Coordination with four fall competitors2.5 months 9/1/2018
Coordination with four winter competitors4.5 months11/1/2018
Planning with student groups at UWthroughout3/30/2019
Fall competitions3 months (Fall quarter)12/15/18
Winter competitions3 months (Winter quarter)3/30/2019

Ethnoforestry: Bringing a new method of sustainable forestry to campus

Executive Summary:

In current forest management practices and education traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous people is not often addressed or acknowledged. Local tribes have thousands of years of collective knowledge about the inner workings of ecosystems, plant growth, and traditional foods and medicines. This important information should be utilized to make more informed decisions about forest management to enhance both ecosystem and community wellbeing and provide a holistic approach to sustainability. As a way to bring traditional knowledge to the forefront of forest management, a new discipline of ethnoforestry has been created and will be implemented on campus through this project.

Ethnoforestry elicits traditional ecological knowledge by local people and incorporates it into the forest management process. Through this work, culturally important plants could be planted in forests where they can be harvested commercially or by tribal members to use, generating new small businesses and jobs in places hit hardest by the reduction in the logging industry. Management would be tailored to benefit the ecosystem as well as the local community. In order for this type of work to be widespread and successful, it is important to start by teaching and generating opportunities for students to learn about this in a hands-on way.

This grant would be used to execute several objectives including the following: plan a brand new interdisciplinary ethnoforestry class on campus, propagate and grow culturally important species, build an internship and volunteer program, strengthen relationships with local tribes, and construct a new nursery at the Olympic Natural Resources Center (ONRC). This project will take place at the Center for Urban Horticulture and at ONRC.

Through this grant, one Research Assistant position will be funded to spearhead the project. The RA would handle logistics, building relationships with local tribes, collaborating with other departments on campus, developing an intern and volunteer program, and more. Through this project, UW students will have a wide range of chances to get involved and learn and apply this knowledge.

In the Summer of 2019, funds from the CSF grant would be used to construct a new nursery at ONRC. This space will bring together both tribal youth and UW students for a collaborative way to share scientific information and traditional ecological knowledge. During this summer, ONRC will offer internships to local tribal youth and UW undergraduate students where they can learn about ethnoforestry, lands management, and plant production.

Through this project, ONRC will collaborate with many different groups both on and off campus. We will strengthen our current relationship with the SER-UW Nursery through the sharing of resources, staff time, and expertise. We will continue to build our relationship with the Quileute tribe and begin to work with their high school science classes to help monitor and grow plants in the ONRC nursery. We will also create brand new partnerships with UW Grounds, the Carlson Center, and other related departments. This project will be an opportunity to break the current mold of restoration and lands management and create a new, more inclusive and interdisciplinary model.

Student Involvement:

This ethnoforestry project will allow students from all majors from Environmental Science and Resource Management to Anthropology to get involved in the process. Creating a project where students from different backgrounds and fields are able to learn together in an inclusive environment will lead to success. In order to achieve this, we will create internship and volunteer opportunities on a regular basis in partnership with the SER-UW Nursery. With both projects supporting one another, we will enhance the amount of volunteer events, interns, and plants produced overall to have a greater impact on campus.

Since the Nursery has an already established volunteer base whose interests may overlap with ethnoforestry, we will partner with them to offer additional opportunities. The Nursery has agreed to work with our interns to provide more opportunities for them to learn about plant production and nursery management in their nursery. This will allow for both the RA and interns to help assist their efforts while also giving interns a more well-rounded internship experience. We will work with the SER-UW communications team to add our ethnoforestry work parties into their weekly mailer to reach more students across campus. Because we already have a strong relationship between groups, we believe that this will help gain a dedicated intern and volunteer base.

We will host one to two interns each quarter during the year and an additional three to five interns over the Summer of 2019. During the year, interns will work on a wide range of projects that will allow them to leave with a diverse skill set in topics ranging from nursery production of ethnobotanical species to restoration. Interns will assist in the creation of new beds designed to grow bare root plants (meaning plants that grow directly in a raised bed instead of a nursery pot). This style of plant growth uses less soil, is more water efficient, and allows for more plants per square foot than growing in pots. This will lower the footprint of the project by reducing resources while teaching a different method of plant growth.

In addition, interns will help with the plant propagation and production of ethnoforestry species. After, they will plan and execute a new restoration site on campus where we will install these species, showing the full process of ethnoforestry while restoring a campus green space. This project will be in partnership with SER-UW and will give us the opportunity to build our relationship with UW Grounds. Finally, interns will also help plan and execute the ONRC nursery.

Over the summer of 2019, interns will be based out of ONRC. During the internship, they will assist in the establishment of the ONRC nursery and learn plant propagation and production techniques in this new space. This will be paired with field work on a new watershed study that incorporates ethnoforestry in the study plan. Students can see the full scope of the mission of ethnoforestry from seed collection to implementation in a scientific study.

During this time, we will also work with the Quileute tribe’s Youth Opportunities Program (YOP) that offers internships for high school tribal students. YOP is a great chance for tribal youth to gain experience and new skills. Unfortunately, there is often a lack of placements for these students. ONRC has established a partnership with YOP to host interns during the Summer of 2019. This will be an excellent chance to teach young people from the Quileute tribe about lands management, restoration, and plant propagation. The high school dropout rate is high on the reservation with a lack of support to help students attend college. This internship will be a way for these students to explore future careers and a pathway to the University of Washington. Jobs on or near the reservation are often in this field, making this a good opportunity for tribal students to earn a degree and return to their home for their career if they choose. In addition, this will allow for the UW undergraduate interns and tribal youth to learn from one another. Tribal students can share their important traditional ecological knowledge and experience, while UW students can provide mentorship and gain leadership skills.

Volunteer opportunities will also be offered on a regular basis on main campus. During this events, volunteers will be able to assist in growing ethnoforestry plants, working on restoration sites, creating new plant beds, and more. Based on the involvement of volunteers through the SER network, we anticipate having 10-15 students participate at each event. In order to reach a wider audience, we will work with ESRM 100 where students must complete a volunteer requirement. In the SER-UW Nursery, this has brought in dozens of additional volunteers throughout the year, allowing more students a chance to learn and be exposed to new techniques like ethnoforestry. We will also partner with the UW Carlson Center for Experiential Learning and Diversity to offer service-learning opportunities. Additionally, we will work with interested capstone students. ESRM students are required to complete a two quarter capstone project in their final year. For those interested in ethnoforestry, this can be one of the only opportunities for them to engage in this topic. Students can work with ONRC and the Nursery to establish a research project focused on this topic. Resources and space could be made available at the Center for Urban Horticulture if students wanted to run a greenhouse experiment.

Students will be able to gain a skill set that allows them to look through a new lens and understand why incorporating traditional ecological knowledge and wisdom is a crucial step in the future of lands management, restoration, and forest ecology.

Education & Outreach:

Education and outreach will be key components of our project. One of our main goals is to have both formal and informal ways for students to learn approaches to ethnoforestry and how to apply it. Our internship and volunteer programs will generate educational opportunities and student involvement in the project. There is currently no program like this on campus for students to learn about both traditional ecological knowledge and forestry in a holistic fashion.

This project will be publicized by sharing with the SEFS, ESRM, Biology, Anthropology, and College of Built Environment communities as well as with the SER-UW network. As a former SER-UW Nursery Manager that worked on volunteer recruitment, I am very familiar with reaching out to groups on campus and will bring that expertise to this project.

The RA position will be responsible for coordinating all internships and volunteer events. In addition, this position will also be in charge of developing an interdisciplinary ethnoforestry course. After connecting with both undergraduate and graduate students in ESRM and SEFS, it has become clear that students are missing this in their education. This course would work with local tribal members and other departments at UW to create a class that is a mixture of lecture and field experience. This class would take students from seed collection of culturally important species to planting in a formalized setting.

Students will also have the unique opportunity to learn the process of designing and implementing a nursery. This type of learning-by-doing experience is rarely fulfilled by traditional classes but represents tasks that are often required in the post-collegiate life. Growers face many challenges when attempting to propagate and grow species including pests, extreme weather, and irrigation. Students will learn how to design a technologically sophisticated nursery space that is equipped to deal with issues that may arise when producing plants. The ONRC nursery will have overhead and drip irrigation installed and be set to timers to automatically distribute water at set intervals depending on current rainfall conditions and temperatures. In addition, it will have temperature and wind gauges to provide information about current conditions so the nursery can be managed accordingly. These additions will help the nursery run smoothly, reduce the amount of resources needed, and will make tasks that often take many hours and staff to accomplish and automate them. Because the nursery will not have students in it daily to complete these tasks, this system will help the plants thrive.

This nursery will also serve as a hub for local coastal tribes to learn about plant propagation and production. Both the Quileute and Hoh tribes have expressed an interest in growing their own native plants for their reservations and restore local forests with cultural keystone species. This nursery will be a space to bring tribes together for a common goal and learn from one another. Instead of having a separate nursery on each reservation, they can grow plants together at the ONRC nursery. This will hopefully strengthen their relationship with one another and ONRC. Space and tools will be provided at no charge to them. In addition, the RA position will put together propagation protocols for plant species they would like to grow in order to ensure success. In the future, we hope that tribes feel a sense of ownership and will consistently come to the nursery to help with its maintenance and teach their youth about culturally important plants.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
Project Longevity:

ONRC is partnering with other organizations to apply for grant funding to continue this effort. An existing partnership is already established with the Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship and the Nature Conservancy’s Coast Works program in Seattle. Through these, we hope to increase the longevity of the program. As we generate stronger relationships with the Quileute tribe and expand to other coastal tribes, we would like them to get more involved in the running of the ONRC Nursery. This will ensure work is done on a regular basis in the nursery and also create a hub for plant propagation information to be shared. A portion of the RA’s time will be allocated to researching additional revenue sources as well.

Environmental Problem:

The boom and bust cycle of the logging industry left many rural Washington communities without jobs and stuck in a cycle of persistent poverty. As a way to generate stable, long term jobs while benefiting the ecosystem, culturally important species can be installed into forests that can provide a source of plants for tribal members and also be harvested and sold as a non-timber forest product. Local tribes have often been neglected and ignored by forest managers and their deep knowledge of the landscape pushed aside. This can be combated by incorporating a new forest management technique and philosophy: ethnoforestry. In this new approach, traditional knowledge by tribes is highlighted and respected as key information to fully understand how we should manage our ecosystems. Through this process, culturally important plants can be grown, planted in forests, and harvested for food, medicine, goods, or commercially to be sold in the local community.

This approach can be scaled up for large ecosystems or scaled down to bring to UW’s campus through this project. This effort will help teach students how this concept can be applied to a real setting. Plants grown on campus will be used for restoring campus green spaces for students to experience the full scope of the project while increasing sustainability. Generating a new ONRC nursery will also provide a space to learn plant propagation and production, connect with local tribes, generate pathways for tribal youth to pursue higher education, and grow ethnoforestry species that can be used both at ONRC and on nearby reservations. Finally, building an ethnoforestry class on campus we be an excellent place for students to learn and practice these skills. The future of sustainability in forest management does not lie in perfecting tree growth and timber harvests. Instead, we believe creating a system that encourages ecosystem wellbeing along with community wellbeing will result in true sustainability. Teaching these concepts to students across campus will foster a new generation of professionals who can bring an inclusive approach to forest and ecosystem management forward.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Impacts will be measured through a mixture of student involvement and projects. We hope to host between six and twelve undergraduate interns next year, two to five tribal youth interns, and at least 15 volunteers per month at work parties. This will allow us to build momentum, provide projects for interested students, and establish partnerships with groups on campus. Creating bare root beds and the ONRC nursery will be impactful and increase the sustainability of the project. Bare root beds will be shared with the SER-UW Nursery to help add to their stock of available plants. It will also be used for on-campus restoration at our future ethnoforestry site. This approach to growing reduces resources and space and teaches students a new skill that is not being done on campus. In addition, creating the nursery will greatly add to the sustainability of the project and increase its impacts. This will be a unique space where both local community members and UW students come together to learn and experience plant production and ethnoforestry.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $92,800
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
** Budget uploaded to application

Non-CSF Sources:

Organization SourceDescription Amount
ONRCIn-kind Donation Donation of facility usage and staff time of ONRC staff members$5-10,000
Project Completion Total: $102,800

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Create bare root beds 2-3 months December 2018
Establish partnerships with other departments on campus 6February 2019
Establish new on-campus restoration site 6-8 monthsApril 2019
Design and construct ONRC nursery 10-12 months July 2019
Grow ethnoforestry plant species 6-12 months August 2019
Create ethnoforestry class 12 months August 2019

A Feast for the Senses: A Community Pop-Up Cafe

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Northwest Center for Livable Communities

Executive Summary:

Above all else the NWCLC is a tool for students to learn and implement the academic resources afforded to them here at the University of Washington to help better the environment around them. With 30 years’ experience, we are looking to take the next step forward to develop a multi-discipline studio (open to all majors) that will look to implement strategies for sustainability within the communities students live, work, and go to school. This studio would be interdisciplinary with the hope to involve students from all the disciplines of the College of Built Environments namely urban planning, architecture, community environment and planning, landscape architecture, construction management and real estate but, as well as other colleges and their departments. This could be students from global/ public health, communications, business, engineering, economics, sociology and the list goes on. This studio would continue the goals of NWCLC while allowing a new focus at the University of Washington campus.  This studio development will create long term and sustainable infrastructure that will bring the design and management resources at the College of Built Environments with, the long term planning of the Campus Sustainability Fund(CSF). In conjunction we will be forming a speaker series that focuses on subjects of sustainability, design, building that will be public events, outside of the studio. With this series we will not only educate the large student body and the public, but hope to attract more students to the studio. Below is our mission statement, we feel it aligns well with that of the CSF.

“The goal of the NWCLC is to partner with NGOs, Government Agencies, Non Profits, and Community Members to provide community driven, urban planning work within the scope of sustainability, cultural equity, and economic vitality. This is done through expert led and student driven work, which is facilitated though the foundations home at The University of Washington. Putting community and sustainability above all. The NWCLC seeks to build relationships within our community, from Seattle, to our more global community. With project types ranging from Feasibility Analysis, to detailed Urban Development Plans, the NWCLC's portfolio is wide ranging and ever growing.

With over 30 years active and approximately 300+ hours of professional experience, the NWCLC has made a name for itself in The Pacific Northwest as one of the leading Non-Profit Urban Planning entities at not only the University of Washington Seattle Campus, but throughout the Region.”

The NWCLC looks to build a long term partnership with the CSF. While the NWCLC is currently financially sustainable at the level in which we operate. We are seeking funding to allow us to expand in order to facilitate partnering with CSF and the university capital projects department. This would allow us to provide planning and organization work for at least one project a year. The particular project selected for UW students would be through a studio class.

Student Involvement:

  1. As stated above, the studio is made up entirely of students
    Student interaction will be, from day one to project completion.
     
  2. Student recruitment will be handled by the new marketing materials as well as a heavy recruiting camping within the college of built environments.  Any outside class hour’s work that is needed to be done, will be typically be handled by students recruited from the class. Furthermore, most organizations that we partner with CSF, UW Farm est. will be student run as well.

Education & Outreach:

The marketing for NWCLC recently went through a rebranding and is more visible than ever.  With the development of a brand new website, new logo and marketing, student body perception of the class has risen steadily. Currently there are fifteen students within the course and (our maximum) and that number has been steady for two years. The studios have been well received by the student body. To date, more than 90+ students have already been involved with NWCLC. While our community projects mentioned above, have impacted literally thousands of people with in the greater Seattle metro area, there are with plans to do projects in Eastern Washington in the near term.

With more developments occurring, the body of work can only get better as we look to expand. That being said while we look to improve the NWCLC reach, that does not mean there will be a drop in quality. Quite the opposite.  One can see the improvement in project quality as the years have go by. We expect this trend to continue. We would like to take this time to invite any member of CSF to attend a final review or mid-year review, to be able to see the projects we are currently working on. Of course, if the partnership between CSF and NWCLC came to fruition, any member is of course welcome to attend a project final review for future UW campus projects as well.

Furthermore, we hope to gain massive support from the student body, with our speaker series and the projects that are designed and built on campus. We plan to leave a lasting footprint of sustainability on campus.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Transportation
  • Waste
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

As mentioned in the Accountability & Feasibility section of the full proposal PDF. We are seeking a long-term relationship with CSF, one that may not involve long-term funding but one that would be focused in cooperation. By essentially becoming the student design firm on campus, CSF could introduce projects on an annual basis that would serve to continually expand the work portfolio of the studio.

In the Timeline portion we mention that we would like to have summer quarters as a time to begin development of projects as well as check on the maintenance of previous projects. With that in mind, we expect typically the actual maintenance of individual projects would be done by facilities or by the individual groups that we partnered with on campus.

Long-term funding wise, these projects would most likely be funded by capital projects, facilities, or on campus organizations. CSF would NOT be seen as a yearly financial supporter. 

Environmental Problem:

  1. The main issue the NWCLC looks to address are issues relating to the sustainability of in communities. Similar to our namesake we look to develop visibility of sustainable issues (though the speaker series) and sustainable solutions (through the studio), these are the primary goals of our Center currently. Unfortunately, we lack the financial resources and infrastructure currently to be as effective as we can at the local campus level.
  1. If provided with the grant from CSF, the NWCLC will address these issues with by:
    • Developing a speaker/event series- This will allow people that might not be involved at Gould Hall to come and see issues of sustainability, as well as be introduced to the many concepts that are covered within the studio. A secondary goal would be to reduce the fear of joining a studio as a non-major.
    • Developing of a non-major multi-disciplinary studio that will partner with various organizations on campus, including CSF, with the goal of completing at least one project a year on campus, in the area of sustainability. The planning, design, and implementation of the projects would be completed by students.  

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Project monitoring will be completed by a deliverable to CSF and supporting organizations this would be sent out at the completion of each quarter. These may be in the form of project reports or project presentations that could be given with all parties that are involved. Of course the project monitoring may look different for each project, but a deliverable will be developed for each project before is undertaken. 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $50,800
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Please see content within full proposal pdf
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $50,800

Timeline:

Please see attached full proposal pdf
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Keraton

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

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Non-CSF Sources:

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Timeline:

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Green Greeks Representative Program

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
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Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
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TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

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Climate Panel Event

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

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Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

UW Anaerobic Digester: Food Waste, Renewable Energy & Public Health: Feasibility

Executive Summary:

This project is seeking CSF funding for a feasibility phase trial to test whether there is capacity to build a 160 square foot anaerobic digester on the UW Seattle Campus. The anaerobic digester costs ~$95,000 and would utilize food waste from the Husky Union Building (HUB) to create compost and Renewable Natural Gas. This feasibility study would finalize: 1) Site Location 2) Gas Usage 3) Compost Usage

  1. Site Location: the current proposed site for the anaerobic digester is adjacent to the Southwest doors of the HUB. Paul Zuchowski, HUB Associate Director, proposed this location because of: a) Proximity to the HUB kitchen (food waste source) b) High degree of visibility with many students passing through these doors c) Accessible electricity and water hookups. We considered other locations on campus, but none of those locations have all three of the above features of this proposed site near the HUB. The SW doors of the HUB is currently the best available option, but we need to finalize several details: a) Cost estimate of water/electricity hookup to HUB building b) Permission to clear plants/shrubs that are currently occupying this space.
     
  2. Gas Usage: The anaerobic digester uses microbes to break down food waste and produce Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), which is chemically equivalent to methane gas. We could use the RNG in many ways, and we need to finalize what we would do with the gas. The current options are: a) Power a small generator to charge batteries for the UW Mail Services electric bicycles. We are discussing this option with Douglas Stevens, Program Support Supervisor at UW Mail Services b) Compress the natural gas into small tanks that can be used at UW student/staff/faculty barbeques, or sold to food trucks on campus or at the U-District Farmer's Market c) Clean the natural gas and plug it into the UW natural gas pipelines. Currently, charging the electric bicycle batteries seems to be the best option, but we need to finalize the following details: a) Discuss feasibility of having a battery charging station at the HUB (i.e. is it too far away from Mail Services?) b) How would the batteries be stored/secured? c) What regulations/procedures need to be in place to ensure safety of gas storage/usage?
     
  3. Compost Usage: The anaerobic digester produces compost, which can be directly applied to plants. We are collaborating with Howard Nakase and Grounds Management to provide them with this compost free-of-charge. We need to finalize these details: a) How much compost would be used by Grounds Management (i.e. would there be surplus compost?) b) Would the UW Farm be able to use any compost? C) How would the compost be transported from the digester to Grounds Management/UW Farm?

Students/Staff/Faculty Involved:

  • Dr. Heidi Gough, PhD, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
  • Dr. Sally Brown, PhD, School of Forest Resources
  • Dr. Marilyn Ostergren, PhD, UW Renewable Energy Liaison
  • JR Fulton, Housing & Food Services Capitol Planning/Sustainability Manager
  • Aaron Flaster, BA, Research Coordinator, Department of Psychology
  • Global Sustainability Initiative (RSO)

Student Involvement:

This project would involve 1 part-time staff position, and 15-20 student volunteer positions. The part-time paid staff would be responsible for maintaining the digester (e.g. monitoring temperature, monitoring pH, monitoring odor control, bringing food waste to the digester 1x per day, etc.). The volunteer positions would be undergraduate/graduate students that want to conduct research projects on any aspect of the digester (e.g. gas composition, compost, engineering, business, etc.). These volunteers would be responsible for carrying out research their own papers/projects that are supervised by a UW faculty member. The volunteers could also be trained to lead tours of the digester for other UW students.  

Student involvement and interest in this project would also come from a UW Registered Student Organization (RSO), called Global Sustainability Initiative (GSI). The undergraduate members include: Caelan Wisont, Zhaoyi Fang, Yushan Tong, and Kyler Jobe. GSI focuses on promoting sustainability on a global scale, emphasizing household-scale anaerobic digestion projects to create methane gas for stoves. GSI grew out of SafeFlame LLC, which was started by a UW MBA graduate (Kevin Cussen), and received a CSF grant in 2015-2016. GSI also connects interested students to anaerobic digestion projects and gets students excited about working with anaerobic digestion, renewable energy, and public health.

Education & Outreach:

We will publicize our project in three ways:

  1. GSI: GSI will advertise this project to other RSOs, and will publicize this digester project during their tabling events. GSI is the undergraduate student group that is helping to push this project forward, and their current network with other RSOs will help raise awareness about our project on campus.
     
  2. Signage: If the digester is built, we will create signage on/around the digester with educational information about anaerobic digestion. For instance, the signage will explain how anaerobic digestion works, how the gas/compost is being used, statistics/scale of the current project, how the project could be scaled up, other digester projects currently happening in Seattle, etc. These signs would be located on the outside of the digester and available for anyone to read.
     
  3. Undergraduate/Graduate Courses: The faculty members collaborating on this project (Dr. Heidi Gough, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering; Dr. Sally Brown, School of Forest Resources) will encourage their undergraduate and graduate students to conduct research projects on the anaerobic digester. Dr. Gough is primarily interested in the gas production and how changing the inputs (types of food waste) affects the composition of the gas. Dr. Brown is interested in soil science and how the type of food waste affects the chemical makeup of the compost. Additionally, we will do a quarterly presentation for the Sustainability Studio (ENVIR 480) course. This would be a 15-20 minute presentation for the undergraduate students in this course at the beginning of each quarter. ENVIR 480 focuses on sustainability, and a previous group of students from this course conducted a research project on anaerobic digestion. In Fall 2017, Aaron Flaster met with the instructor for ENVIR 480 and the instructor was open to having Aaron present to her students about the anaerobic digester project.
Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

At present, we do not know how this project will be maintained in the long run. We know that too many student projects often fail because students graduate, funds run out, and people forget about past projects. We won’t let that happen with this project. That is precisely why we want to carry out this feasibility phase—to clarify and ensure that we have a clear plan for how to maintain this project in the long run.

To provide ongoing maintenance, we would need to secure funding and create a part-time staff position, or incorporate the ongoing maintenance into an existing UW staff position. We are currently discussing with Howard Nakase whether the UW Sustainability Coordinator position (within Grounds Management) could be responsible for maintaining the digester. We need to finalize: a) Whether this position has enough time to take on these additional responsibilities b) If there needs to be additional ongoing funding, and if so, where that funding will come from.

Environmental Problem:

Food waste is an urgent public health issue. In the U.S., approximately 31% of post-harvest food is wasted (i.e. thrown away or spoiled). This is approximately 133 billion pounds of food annually, costing approximately $161 billion (“USDA | OCE | U.S. Food Waste Challenge | FAQ’s,” n.d.). This is shocking and shameful, given national rates of food insecurity and poverty. In addition, food waste often rots in landfills, creating methane gas, which is nearly 4x as damaging to the ozone layer as CO2 emissions. We have to address food waste at the local, city, and national level.

This anaerobic digester project provides a small-scale model of how to utilize food waste to produce renewable energy and compost. The anaerobic digester that we are proposing to install is pre-fabricated by a Seattle-based business called Impact Bioenergy (http://impactbioenergy.com/). The digester is approximately 160 square feet and can process ~135 pounds of pre-consumer food waste per day. The digester can store ~175 cubic feet of RNG, and when this gas powers a generator, it produces about 360,000 BTU of energy per day, with a 2.5-4kW energy output. This is enough to power a small generator, which can charge batteries for electric cars/bicycles. The gas can also be used directly in pipelines or tanks (if the gas is cleaned/compressed). Although this is a relatively small-scale model, it will show how university campuses and community businesses/organizations can utilize their food waste to produce RNG, which reduces methane emissions, carbon emissions, and pollution associated with hauling food waste to composting facilities/landfills. Other universities in the U.S. have installed anaerobic digesters, but we do not know of any other universities/colleges in the Pacific Northwest Region that have an anaerobic digester that serves as a model for how to utilize food waste.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

To evaluate the digester’s effectiveness, we will measure:

Food Waste

  • Pounds of food waste diverted to digester from waste-stream (which usually goes to Cedar Grove composting facility),
  • Type of food waste used (X % meat, X% vegetables, etc.)

Gas/Electricity:

  • Cubic feet of RNG produced per week
  • Amount of electricity generated per day/week

Compost:

  • Pounds of compost produced per week

Pollution:

  • Carbon emission reductions of not having to haul away X pounds of food waste
  • Methane emission reductions of preventing food waste from rotting in landfill (for other facilities where food waste is not composted)

Costs:

  • Cost-savings of diverting waste (cost reductions of not hauling away food waste in garbage trucks)
  • Cost-savings of producing compost (rather than purchasing from a 3rd party)
  • Cost-savings of producing electricity/gas
Total amount requested from the CSF: $10,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

1) Budget Esimate--Impact Bioenergy 2) Cost evaluation of Sustainability Coordinator maintaining digester for 10 days
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Impact Bioenergy Budget/Engineering Evaluation--Gase Usage800018000
Sustainability Coordinator hourly wage$20/hour10200
UW Facilities Budget Estimate (Electricity/Water)180011800

Non-CSF Sources:

SPU Waste-Free Communities Matching Grant15000
Project Completion Total: $25,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Site LocationFebruary 1-April1April 1
Gas UsageFebruary 1-April1April 1
Compost UsageFebruary 1-April1April 1
Ongoing MaintenanceFebruary 1-April1April 1

Population Health Facility Visible Rainwater System

Executive Summary:

As the human race expands to larger population numbers, there are a lot of limiting factors to consider in our plight. One of such factors is the amount of accessible fresh water which is becoming scarcer each year with increased demands. Not only are we using more water, but the quality of water is of great concern. Developing countries around the world have designed simple water collection systems but often times the water they collect contains harmful bacteria which makes drinking contaminated water a main cause of death. Our team here in EWB recognizes the need for clean drinking water and a sustainable way of life along with the parallels of this project being conducted around the globe.

In EWB, we combine our different disciplines of engineering to design, build, and implement systems that can alleviate developing nations that lack access to life essentials. This partnership focuses on implementation of environmentally and economically sustainable engineering projects, while giving future professionals a hands-on experience and opportunity to do good in the world with what they have learned.

The rainwater system we plan on adding to is a great addition to the environmentally friendly systems being used in the new Public Health building. The educational aspect of the piece, that we will provide with a easy-to-follow display, informs everyone who enters the building about the benefits of such a system and the logistics of how the system works, something that is not common knowledge. This display system will only cost around $2000 as an estimation plus the added $15000 from the additions to the system needed to put it in the lobby. The University of Washington, although not limited to, can also perform ongoing research of water quality at this site with our added filtration. Development and experiments of new water filters for drinking or other uses can also be conducted. Possible breakthroughs in water treatment can make the University look exceptional in addition to doing the world a favor.

Student Involvement:

The display and visual rainwater system in the lobby would involve any students that walk through the lobby of the building. These students will be able to see an easy to follow, possibly interactive display that would explain to them how a rainwater system, like the one that will be in the building, works and what its impact is on the environment. In this way any UW student will be involved with this project. More directly, students working on the project like the students from EWB and any design students will be involved as well. They will have a chance to research these systems and learn a lot about them to be able to put together an easy to follow display for other students. For the design students, we have been told that people in CSF have connections to people to get the word out to these students and see if they are interested in designing the visual display that will be put on the screen. As far as the engineering students go, we have already talked with students in EWB and have 15 interested engineering students on our team. There are other ways to reach out and involve engineering students who are not in the club as well, if they are interested in the project.

For our extra filtration project, depending on the department and faculty that are interested, students in related classes may be involved in the testing and research. This testing could potentially be incorporated into a curriculum or some way that the students in related classes could be involved with these systems. Either way, any student will be affected because anyone coming into the lobby will be able to understand how these systems work by looking at the visual display. With our extra filtration regarding potable water, explanations on how these filter systems work and the impact of these systems will be displayed on the screen for all to see. This will also more directly involve our engineering students on the team because they will be involved in the creation of an engineering system which will be a great hands on experience for them.

Education & Outreach:

The UW community can find out about the Visible Rainwater Treatment System in the new public health building through several different ways. The first way to reach the community is through Facebook. The Engineers without Borders Club at UW has a Facebook page that we can first post on to tell our friends and those interested about the project we will be working on and then later on to encourage them to go visit the new system. We also will possibly ask the Campus Sustainability Fund to post about the project on their own Facebook page. The students involved in the project and in Engineers Without Borders will be asked to share the post in order to reach an even greater audience. Another way to advertise about the rainwater project can be through the Daily, the University of Washington student newspaper. We will reach out to their group to request either an article about the Public Health building on campus, with a feature on our rainwater system, or we can ask to put an ad in the newspaper to educate the readers about our new project. In this article or ad, we can expand on the good the project is doing for the environment and how they can either get involved or how they can become greener. Another outlet we will be able to use to reach the community about the Visible Rainwater Treatment System in the new Public Health building through is physical advertisement. We can potentially put up flyers around campus, including the Hub, Ode, the dorm common rooms, and bus stops. These fliers will have information about the project on them and the contact information for EWB and CSF, for if they want to get involved.

UW Engineering Without Borders is a student-run organization that sees new members on a frequent basis. Our Local Projects branch within the club is often the first step for new members when joining the club, as the projects are more accessible than the international projects. Thus, any outreach that EWB conducts as a club will directly allow more UW students to work on the project. Anyone can join UW EWB, there is no application or selection process to become a member. This is an important fact, as any student that’s interested in the project can become involved as soon as the following week. Meetings are held weekly, where each projects’ members gather to give progress updates and work on coordinated tasks. Particularly interested students can assume a larger role in the project easily by seeking involvement beyond the weekly meeting.

As well as people directly related to the project, all students will see the educational benefits. Since our project includes an educational display in the lobby of the building for all to see, students that come into the building will easily be able to learn about this sustainable system and its impact on the environment. We will provide an easy to follow display that will allow for all students in all different departments to learn about these rainwater systems and how they apply to the specific building as well.

With our other project regarding extra filtration, the students in EWB that are involved will learn a lot about design, building, and implementation of engineering systems which will be very valuable for them in the future. Whichever system we implement will also be included in the display showing even more sustainable systems to students and educating them further on this topic. Students may also be involved in the research and testing of these systems depending on the faculty involved.

Environmental Impact:
  • Water
Project Longevity:

The overall timeline for this project would probably be until the Population Health Building is built in 2020. The display however and rainwater system will likely be built before the building is completely done, and the project involving those parts will be going on while the building is being built. These things however will not fully be implemented until 2020 when the building is projected to be finished. There wont be any added maintenance for the visual display and treatment system in the lobby project. For our project regarding extra filtration there will be a maintenance component that will be further researched, this will likely be ongoing as long as the system is in use.

Environmental Problem:

The part of our project involving the display system and rainwater system in the lobby is very centered around educating people on environmental issues and sustainable solutions, although this is a very important part of protecting our environment. This does however go hand in hand with the rainwater system itself which has a big impact on the environment. Rainwater systems like these allow us to use water that would normally go to waste and reduces municipal water use. Municipal water treatment takes up a lot of energy and chemicals that negatively affect our environment, these rainwater systems do not. They also manage stormwater runoff, something that has a large effect in the Seattle area because of the high volume of rain we receive. These systems manage the amount of runoff to prevent erosion, flooding and poor quality water from running into our lakes and rivers.

Our other potential project about filtering water to make it potable has a different kind of impact. If researched, filtration systems like the ones we would implement may be approved by the FDA to provide potable water to people. This would mean that people could implement rainwater systems into their buildings and homes for potable uses, such as showering and drinking/cooking. This would make a big dent in the municipal water usage that has such a negative impact on our environment.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Our projects environmental impact will be measured directly and incorporated into our visual display. People will be able to see how many gallons of water we are using with this system and therefore how much municipal water usage this saves us. A display will also be provided for whichever extra filtration system we might incorporate so everyone can see the impacts of that system as well.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $17,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Carmen from PAE has given us an estimate of $15000 for additional parts needed to put the system in the lobby
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
TV$20001 $2000
Additional parts to rainwater system (needed to put it in lobby) $150001$15000

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $17,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Display creationnot sure, 2 or so months depending on the design studentsBy the time the building is done in 2020 at the latest
Rainwater system in lobby probably a year or so2020, or whenever the building is finished, this cant be implemented until they are done building

Project IF Phase I

Executive Summary:

Project IF (Indoor Farm) is a feasibility study to run indoor farm facility on UW campus by student to provide fruits and vegetables to the cafeterias on campus. With the high potential for food crisis during the impending rise in population, we feel the urge to produce food in the most sustainable way possible at where we spend most of our time, UW.

With the funding and the assistance from UW CSF and Bioengineering department, we will have two modern farming techniques (hydroponics and aeroponics) included in the Project IF feasibility study. Hydroponics is a rather established farming technique for many years of practice. Aeroponics has proven to be the most advanced and efficient crop growing platform because of its water efficiency and root growing capability. It is even used by NASA to grow crops in the space stations. We are not only excited about to put the modern farming techniques into practice first time ever on the UW campus, but we also want to raise public awareness about the importance of preventing the forthcoming global food crisis.

This feasibility study is only a glimpse of a larger vision. It is important that we gain practical hands-on experience through this study, so we understand operational costs like utilities, labor, maintenance, and consumable cost. If successful, we plan to partner with UW campus cafeterias to build a high-efficiency indoor farming system which could be run by students and campus staff. This on-campus farm would enable the UW community to enjoy fresh organic greens that are affordable, hyper-local, and pesticide-free, help strengthen UW’s role as a leader of environmental sustainability, and act as a natural platform for the advocacy of food sustainability. By bringing food production right on to campus, we can inspire the next generation of minds to consider a sustainable, local future of food.

Student Involvement:

Our team is well equipped to complete this project successfully. Kurt Kung, our team leader, has 10+ years of experience on advanced research and rapid prototyping development throughout his doctoral education at the UW. Our project currently has a staff mentor, Dr. Gerald Pollack, who has been an integral part of this project and will continue to support our group throughout the duration of the project timeline.

To date, we have recruited more than 10 UW undergrad student from various of departments and majors who are actively contributing to the project. The information regarding the roles and responsibilities of each student team member will be posted on the forthcoming Project IF official website.

Education & Outreach:

The problem that Project IF is trying to solve is by no means trivial. Anything that we can do to raise public awareness on the future global food crisis and engage more students and staffs on campus to take part in our project will help the food sustainability movement. Besides the support from CSF, we have participated in the Science Technology Showcase (STS 2018), the Health Innovation Challenge (HIC 2018), and the Environmental Innovation Challenge (EIC 2018). In fact, Project IF won the third place at the STS and the Judges’ Favorite Award at the EIC. From experience, we know competitions are one of the best ways to recruit students for meaningful projects, and expose the project quickly and effectively to local media outlets. Moreover, Kurt Kung recently received $10,000 postdoc fellowship from the Mistletoe Research Foundation, and he intends to use most of the fellowship grant on the Project IF.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Project IF is a 12 months long project started July 1st 2018.

During the first phase [first 6 months], we will focus on designing, developing, and testing the hydroponic and aeroponic systems. In parallel, we will recruit and train engineering students to help accelerate progress and involve the student community.

During the second phase [last 6 months], we will test the system and collect viable data: utility costs, crop growth efficiency, labor maintenance, etc. to help us prepare ourselves for the next move – starting the sizable UW IF indoor farm on campus. In parallel, we will recruit students with marketing communications and public relations skills to develop a public relations media strategy for the project.

Environmental Problem:

It is estimated that global crop production will need to double by 2050 to feed the population, and it is clear that we need to find a solution to feed a growing population. Indoor farming is believed to be the future of agriculture. Growing crops hydroponically and aeroponically has proven to save 95% of water compared with traditional farming and with higher yield. Improving indoor farming efficiency and reducing its cost is a large-scale problem that many engineers and scientists are working towards. Efforts are focused on reducing labor costs by increasing the degree of automation, reducing utility costs by using more efficient lighting, and using smart control system with advanced AI to improve agricultural yields. But this won’t be enough. The rate of growth in global crop yields is not growing fast enough, and doubling the world’s food production will require much larger indoor farm footprint that operates locally and has the potential to feed billions of people in cities. And Project IF is going to take the first step at home of UW campus.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The impact of the Project IF will be measured in 3 categories: the evaluation of proposed feasibility study, student involvement level, and public awareness.

In the feasibility study, we will gain hands-on experience and measurable data on the operational cost in detail and the actual crop growth efficacy. These experience will help us reach our next goal – growing food on campus with state of the art technology to provide healthy, affordable vegetables to our UW community members.

We estimate at least 10 students will be involved in the core team for the proposed CSF project and UW competitions mentioned above. The number of student volunteers and the level of involvement of each individual will be reported in the quarterly CSF report.

To measure the impact on public awareness, we will collect opinion and attitudinal data from indoor farming and agricultural sustainability from the campus community. As part of this effort we will promote this project through digital media channels to develop public relations with the local community and media.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $30,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Half of Kurt's stipend as a post-doc in Bioe$25,0001$25,000
Compensation for committed students$2,5002$5,000
Material cost of the aeroponics system$10,0001$10,000

Non-CSF Sources:

potential funding sourcepotential funding amountdate of potential fund receivable
NSF SBIR$225,000July 2018
UW HIC$15,000March 2018
UW EIC$15,000April 2018
UW BPC$25,000May 2018
Project Completion Total: $80,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Hydroponic and aeroponic platform design and development, including testing sub-componentsJuly 2018 – December2018
Recruiting and training UW student volunteers (Environment and Engineering majors) to participate the Project IF.July 2018 – December2018
Beta test (basil and lettuce are the target test plant)January 2019 – June 2019
Recruiting and training student volunteers (Communications, Marketing, Business, MPA, and MBA majors) to help raise public awareness.January 2019 – June 2019

Global Leadership Forum

Executive Summary:

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Matsuri 2018

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Youth Engineering Green Solutions to Stormwater Runoff and Pollution Prevention

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Implementing Sustainability: Bamboo toothbrushes for UW Dentistry

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Africa NOW: Unlocking Potential From Within

Executive Summary:

The African continent is home to the largest youth population in the world and with the increased access to information and new platforms to mobilize, youth across the continent are fighting to address corruption and create ways to contribute to the growth of their countries. This revolution is one that cannot be ignored; the African continent has abundant resources and limitless potential that generally goes unacknowledged and continues to be exploited by outside actors. Africa’s youth across the diaspora are eager to help their nations achieve the long overdue potential that experts have been predicting for decades. Here in Washington, we’ve decided to join the revolution by supplementing the educational pursuits of young professionals and cultivating them to unlock the future of Africa, now.

Young professionals around the U.S. have been afforded the opportunity to pursue higher education and specialize in fields that are essential to the sustainability and progress of their country. These same skills and expertise can be used to find solutions to current issues and utilize existing resources across African nations. So why don’t we see young professionals in the US engaged with the African continent? We know that the desire is there but the primary disconnect lies in the lack of knowledge about the continent and the resources available for young professionals to engage with. Africa Now is designed to bridge this void by hosting an annual conference that provides information, resources, and networking opportunities.

Phi Beta Sigma has deep cultural roots derived from Africa which have shaped the formation of the fraternity and its values. As one of the few historically black organizations on the University of Washington’s campus, the Kappa Lambda chapter along with other prominent leaders on campus, have identified students’ desire for tangible opportunities to get involved with the exponential growth of the African continent. Through industry-specific seminars, networking, action-based resources, art, and an all-star panel, this conference will inspire and mobilize young professionals to start building Africa now and turn the continent’s "potential" into a reality.

On an annual basis, Africa Now will mobilize a community of passionate, active, young professionals that are committed to building a sustainable future for Africa. Through social media and quarterly follow-ups we will coordinate and maintain a network that can learn, share, and collaborate on relevant ideas. The relationships built between participants from diverse academic disciplines will eventually yield new foundations, entrepreneurial ventures, group sponsored initiatives and ideas that will translate into action, not only in Seattle but across the world.

Student Involvement:

Africa Now is entirely run by student-led organizations at the University of Washington. Currently, we have an executive board made up of ten students who have volunteered their time and expertise to thoroughly organize the conference and the discussions leading up to it. Our board is made up of student leaders from Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated, UW Leaders, African Student Association, Black Student Union, the Black Student Commision, Retro, and the Seattle African Chamber of Commerce. As we build this conference to inspire the next generation of leaders, the executive board has been strategically designed with positions that allow each member of the board to grow professionally and gain experience in desired career fields. As we continue to build out these positions and formalize each role, the potential experience, impact, and professional development that board positions offer will be a prominent factor in enticing members to take on these leadership roles and continue the conference from year to year.

The current board positions and the students that occupy them are listed below:

  • Conference Advisor - Emile Petri OMA&D associate vice president & Troy Bonnes Coordinator of Student Relations for the Department of Communication
  • Logistics & Program Manager - Wole Akinlosotu
  • Collaboration Chairs  - Hawi Nemomssa & Ruhuma Berta
  • Community Outreach Chairs - Joshua Dawson & Yarid Mera
  • Finance Chair - Devin Pegues
  • Shina Diadhiou Aka-Adjo & Jeane Dore
  • Marketing & Public Relations Chair - Abigayal Talkington
  • Advancement & Sponsorships Chair - Mical Bokretsion

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated is currently working with several student organizations primarily the African Student Association, Black Student Union, and the Black Student Commission. Leading up to the conference we’re organizing 3 different discussions across campus and around the city in order to discuss prominent questions that Africa Now can eventually provide answers to. These questions will also help garner awareness and anticipation for the conference in May. Our first discussion will be with other legacy groups on campus. The executive board is in the process of reaching out to the Filipino Student Association (FASA) and the Pacific Islander (PI) to host a discussion addressing our origin countries for the purpose of strengthening allies and mobilizing to solve common issues that we both face. In addition to the above organizations, we are also working with the National Association of Black Engineers, the Association for Black Business Students, the National Association for Black Accountants, Women in Informatics, and MEChA. We will work with the listed groups to form collaborative discussion sessions based on specific topics addressing such as - “Techs Role in Developing Nations” and “Exploring Sustainable Business Models Around the World”. Collaborating with diverse groups will spark interest in Africa Now across communities that we would not have appealed to through traditional marketing efforts. These discussions are also intended to spark action in other communities and show diverse groups that there is something to learn for everyone at Africa Now.

In addition to the above student organization we mentioned, the executive board has identified the following career and educational development programs here on campus. We believe these organizations represent academic and professional prospects and we plan to reach out to the following organizations to see how we can work together to make Africa NOW a successful event.

Education & Outreach:

Africa NOW’s main platform is education and action. Before the conference begins we’re aware that many people don’t understand the urgency of our title or our main cause. It’s through our interdisciplinary discussions around campus and around the city that we plan to show why our cause is so urgent. Once young professionals are at the conference we plan to inspire action through workshops, a resource fair, networking sessions and a panel discussion so that they leave the conference inspired with a newfound network of capable individuals and tangible steps to be the change for Africa’s future.

Workshops and networking sessions:

The workshops are designed for students to learn from professionals with experience in African nations and more specific industry experience that pertains to generalized academic fields that students are pursuing. We will be having six workshops up to 30min each with one round of rotations.

The workshops are:

  • Business in Africa - Entrepreneurship
  • Healthcare in Africa - Systematic Issues 
  • Tech + Engineering Africa - Environmental Issues
  • Politics & Social Action - Grassroots Movements 
  • Media and Entertainment - The Recent Exponential Growth  
  • Education - Addressing The K-12 Schooling System

We hope to provide attendees with honest speakers that give genuine insight on what it’s like to work in these fields in Africa. Therefore, we will be asking them to discuss personal challenges that they have faced, some of the outcome of their contribution and most importantly how sustainable is the field and how to better these industries. Along with the speakers, the students have up to 10 minutes during each workshop to network with one another and discuss what they learned and hopefully collaborate in the future.

Resource Fair:

The resource fair is mainly where we provide tangible action such as internships, fellowships, volunteer and other opportunities. The resource fair is key for the conference because we want to showcase that there opportunities out for undergraduate and graduates to take action in pursuing their passion for Africa’s growth. 

Some of the organization that we will invite are:

  • Africa Town
  • Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 
  • UW Study Abroad
  • Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship
  • Africa Business Fellowship
  • Peace Corps
  • CSF 
  • Buerk Center
  • Startup UW 
  • Environmental innovation challenge
  • Global student initiatives

And more!

Panel Discussion:

The panel discussion is a part of our final ceremony. We want our panelist to encompass what we are inspiring our students to achieve. We will be reaching out to highly accomplished speakers that can garner and excite a crowd of 300 young professionals as well as speak intellectually about their experiences and the state of Africa.

Here is a short list of speakers that we plan to invite:

  • Trevor Noah 
  • Akon 
  • Patrick Awuah 
  • Chimamanda Ngozi
  • Luvvie Ajayi
  • Sanusi Lamido
  • Anthony Carroll 
Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

This conference will be hosted annually by Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated. This means that members of this Fraternity will consistently lead the charge to host this conference which includes facilitating all outreach to board members, volunteers, maintaining relations with sponsors and speakers. The impact that we have at this conference will be documented in detail so that we can show potential sponsors and collaborators.

Environmental Problem:

Africa Now will start and encourage a conversation centered around building more sustainable nations in Africa. Direct consequences of climate change are interconnected with social, political, and economic challenges. According to the grassroots activists of 350 Africa, the number of weather-related disasters, such as floods and droughts, has doubled over the past 25 years and climate change has been felt in the livelihoods, food productivity, water availability, and overall security of nations across the continent such as Mozambique, Nigeria, and Somalia.

Environmental discussions often do not acknowledge the disproportional environmental consequences that industrial, political and commercial operations have on neglected populations both locally and globally. This is especially true on the African continent where resources from oil to food are exploited by corporations and foreign governments. The environmental issue is directly tied to issues in politics, society, and economics and in order to address these issues it will take a cross-disciplinary approach. We plan to implement this approach through our industry-specific break out sessions. Once students attend the first session of their choice they will be encouraged to attend a session that interests them but does not directly correlate with their intended career path or current academic pursuits.

Since our conference focuses on empowering the next generation of leaders towards building a sustainable future for Africa, we plan to address the intersections that occur with populations who are most vulnerable to the consequences of climate change in a breakout session dedicated towards environmental issues in Africa specifically issues that are being solved by modern technology. By contextualizing the interests of young professionals and exposing them to an interdisciplinary approach to solving problems, we will mobilize students to ask the right questions, seek opportunities to collaborate, and ultimately instill equity and sustainability at the forefront of the impact they intend to have on the continent.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Africa NOW’s Impact Measure:

Africa NOW is a conference that will have young professionals attending that are equipped with all of the most active cyber tools. We plan to use these tools to to reach out to the young professionals to market the event, showcase their thoughts on a live feed during the event and as well as follow up with those who attended to see their progress as a young professional and more!

Impact Before Conference:

Before the individuals attend the event itself there will be an application process if they are in high school and a registration if not. This will consist of questions that will gauge just how much and why they are interested in Africa NOW and it’s mission.

Application/Registration Questions:

  • “Why are you interested?”
  • “What are you currently doing to build a more sustainable Africa”
  • “What do you intend to learn during the conference?”
  • “What do you intend to do with the knowledge you gain from Africa NOW?”

These questions will also help us attempt to incorporate what these students are most interested in relation to the conference based on what they answered before coming to the event.

Another element of the process before the actual event is a countdown campaign that will be social media based. The campaign will consist of intriguing content about the event that will encourage young professionals to inquire about the event leading them to their attendance of Africa NOW. The Executive Board and volunteers will announce and present the event at a more increasing rate the week before the event in order to build off of the momentum already installed by previous marketing. The campaign will take place from May 13th - May 19th. It will specifically consist of actively…

  • Posting the flyer on all social platforms
  • Tabling on campus
  • Announcing the event at all of our collaborators’ meetings

Impact During Conference:

During the event we plan to measure impact in the following five ways:

  • Conference feedback through surveys
  • Social Media: Hashtags, Answering Questions Live, broadcasting Social media engagement on screen throughout the conference   
  • Photography (photo booth) + Videography + Video Campaign (to be released after the conference)
  • Participation/number of attendees
  • Diversity of our collaborations, attendees, and speakers

Impact After Conference:

After the conference, we will use the information we have collected to follow up with them as well. We will send out a follow-up email with the young professionals to see where they are at with their professional lives, specifically in correlation with Africa NOW’s mission. We will also be checking in with the vendors from the resource fair to see how many young professionals have found their way into their businesses. All of these questions will help us determine where our young professionals of Africa NOW are.

This will consist of:

  • Conference feedback through an emailed survey
  • Contact resources/ businesses to see how much engagement they received from conference participants
  • Quarterly newsletter for check-ins/reminders/encouragement
  • Create Facebook and Slack Groups to post live updates and allow attendees to stay in touch

How Will We Define Success?

  • Positive Feedback from surveys
  • An engaged community on social media
  • Actions/projects on initiated by attendees
  • Engagement between attendees and resources on the platforms that we provide
  • Inspiring attendees to create goals at the conference
Total amount requested from the CSF: $10,491
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Conference costs
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Gathering Hall $2481248
Conference Room $1581158
Data Projector $1201120
Microphones$1002100
Stage$1751175
UW Law School$5006500
Africa Now Event Banner $2002200
Shirts1,9002021900
Panel Speakers200036000
Moderator100011000

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

60 Second Sustainability: A Video Game for Sustainability at UW

Executive Summary:

EarthGames (www.earthgames.org) plans to build a video game called 60 Second Sustainability (60SS) for mobile phones and tablets that educates students about many sustainability actions they can take on campus, while promoting and building bridges among RSOs.  We seek to educate a new audience of students about sustainability actions they can take, and spread the word about campus organizations.  The cost is $26,043, which will go to student managers and a professional game developer on staff with EarthGames.  The game will be made available for free to download for mobile devices, and shown in a variety of tabling settings and events across campus.  The game, which recently won the Audience Choice Award at the UW Sustainability Game Jam, will consist of many 5-10 second "microgames" played in quick succession, which allows us to introduce many sustainability concepts in a short period of time.  

Student Involvement:

The project will involve many students across campus at various levels of commitment, ranging from building the app, to co-designing and testing microgames, to distributing the app.  Three student managers will be paid for their involvement.  Judy Twedt, a graduate student in the Interdisciplinary Individualized Ph.D. program is managing the project.  She is a Husky Green Award winner, College of the Environment Outreach award winner, and is experienced with making connections among groups at UW and in the broader community as evidenced by her leadership of  the UAW Climate Caucus Speaker's Bureau, and service with the Alliance for Jobs and Clean Energy.  Rikki Parent will serve as lead artist for the project.  Rikki is majoring in atmospheric sciences and has contributed much of the art for previous EarthGames releases including A Caribou's Tale, Erode Runner, Soot Out at the 0o C Corral, and EcoTrivia: Save the Animals.  An undergraduate programmer, potentially Alexey Beall, the creator and sole programmer of Dark Side of the Earth, will contribute to programming the game within the Unity game engine.  

We will also involve the ATM S 495: EarthGames Studio class with co-design of the games.  This largely independent study class averages around 10-15 students each quarter, and current and previous students have expressed great enthusiasm about participating in development and testing of 60SS.  The class frequently tests, critiques, and tunes prototype games in the weekly classroom meeting.  

Finally, we plan to engage a large number of sustainability RSOs in co-designing the game.  We have had preliminary conversations with groups including WashPIRG, SEED, SAGE, Green Husky Coalition, the UW Sustainability Action Network, Global Sustainability Initiative, and UW Solar about contributing their own theme, task, or action item into the micro-games. Student groups have expressed a keen interest and excitement in contributing to the microgames. This opportunity to co-design the microgames offers student RSO’s several benefits: (1) the creation of a tool to engage new audiences or members, (2) promotion of their chosen sustainability goals and values, (3) design and teamwork skill-building through the co-development process, (4) connecting with other student groups across campus through the game, to amplify and mutually reinforce the overlapping sustainability goals of groups around campus. 

Education & Outreach:

A big source of the outreach will be through existing student networks. Part of the co-design plan for each RSO will be to commit to showcase the game at one or more event(s).  

We look forward to showcasing the game at campus events including Fall Sustainability Fair, Dawg Daze, Earth Day 2019, and through coordination with Student Life and HFS. We will also collaborate with RSO’s to host drop-in events in the Odegaard Library media arcade, and the HUB Game Center, and with the UW Game Club.

Online publicity will include the quarterly EarthGames newsletter, which reaches over 500 people, and through EarthGames social media channels.  We will invite each sustainability organization who participates in co-design to write a blog entry about their microgame development process, which we expect will generate interest among game designers in the EarthGames network.  

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Transportation
  • Waste
  • Water
Project Longevity:

The 60SS app will be maintained by the EarthGames group.  EarthGames Studio is an official UW class that is offered at least twice each year.  We anticipate that the 60SS game will forge lasting relationships with green RSOs across campus, so we can roll out new microgames associated with campus groups and their evolving initiatives.  These can be released via updates through the app stores, which takes anywhere from ~1 hour (Google Play store) to ~2 days (iOS App Store) to become available.  

We will also make sure that the app continues to run on new-generation phones and tablets.  We utilize the Unity game engine, which has frequent updates in order to assure that apps made with the engine can run on state-of-the-art devices.

Environmental Problem:

With 60SS, we aim to expand the perception of ‘who does sustainability’ by using student-inspired digital games to build connections, both within existing groups and to new students who might not otherwise think about sustainability.    

A large body of market research suggests that peer modeling is a powerful motivator for behavior change. This game capitalizes on the power of peer-modeling to influence individual and collective behavior around sustainability. The games will target many, small-scale sustainability actions that students can take, including reducing waste, encouraging composting, energy efficiency, lowering carbon footprint, and joining a green group on campus.  The microgames will be linked with the current campaigns of environmental RSO groups.  By showcasing a series of individual actions that are connected to the work of student groups, the game will promote social bonding around sustainability values, and individual behavior changes. 

For instance, to support the SEED effort to encourage students to wash clothes in cold water using fragrance free powdered detergents, we could design a microgame in which the player changes a washing machine temperature setting to cold, and selects the right detergent within 4 seconds.  To help encourage proper waste disposal, we would depict the correct placement of items that when incorrectly sorted cause the most damage at UW, such as e-waste and liquid into paper recycling bins.  To raise awareness of the Global Sustainability Initiative's biogas food truck project, we may depict composting food scraps into a digester and lighting the biogas produced.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

We will measure the impacts by tracking the number of downloads of the app and the number of showings and people reached at campus events.  We will also track involvement of sustainability RSOs using metrics such as the number of microgames produced and participant involvement at different levels.  

We will solicit feedback, through surveys, from participating RSO’s in two phases:

  1. After the design phase, to assess the impact of the participation on the RSOs
  2. After launch events, to gauge the response of participants

These survey results from both end-users and RSOs will be summarized in a blog about the process of collaborative sustainability game design. 

Our goals for involvement is participation of 8 RSOs, implementation of 15 microgames, 50 students involved in game development, and 1000 downloads of the game in the first 3 months.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $26,043
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Rivkah Parent, undergraduate student artist$24.14/hour ($20/hour plus 20.7% benefit rate)200 hours$4828
Judy Twedt, graduate student manager$30.18/hour ($25/hour plus 20.7% benefit rate)200 hours$6035
Samuel Dassler, EarthGames lead designer$6685/month (salary, including 32.5% benefit rate)2 months$13370
Undergraduate student programmer$18.11/hour (including 20.7% benefit rate)100 hours$1810

Non-CSF Sources:

SourceDescription
Dargan FriersonUnfunded faculty liaison
Frierson RCR FundUsed for budget overruns
EarthGames Support FundUsed for budget overruns
Project Completion Total: $26,043

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Co-design microgames with sustainabililty RSOsSpring quarter 2018June 1, 2018
Finalize art/gameplay and test with RSO contactsSummer quarter 2018September 1, 2018
Publish game to app store and rollout in orientation eventsend of summer 2018September 15, 2018

Project Approval Forms:

Earth Day Festival: A Celebration of Diversity and Unity of our World

Executive Summary:

The realities of growing inequality, political stalemate, and climate disruption just scratch the surface of global issues we face today. It is clear that the current system doesn’t work for the vast majority of people on the planet, and we need to work toward something better. Elected officials across the globe are operating on agendas rooted in fear that divide us rather than unite us. In these increasingly polarized times, there is a dire need to build connectivity and solidarity in our local communities.

In order to address sustainable and equitable solutions, barriers between the way we view our environment, society, government, and economy must be challenged. The University of Washington builds outstanding opportunities for students through world-class academic departments and an impressive array of organizations that engage students’ varying interests; however, there are few mechanisms that facilitate lasting interdisciplinary connection and collaboration within the UW community.  While campus events like sporting events, artistic performances, lifestyle events, and talks create significant cultural value, there is a largely untapped opportunity to produce an event that brings together many of these elements, while facilitating discussion, exploration, and networking in pursuit of a more sustainable future.

For the past year, the UW Sustainability Action Network (UW SAN) has been building a collaborative campus network that engages and empowers diverse perspectives to drive collective action. UW SAN is comprised of an administrative team and an executive council representing eight student organizations. The campus-wide Earth Day event has emerged as an opportunity to showcase and expand this growing network by igniting awareness, engagement, and action beyond the same few who are typically involved in the sustainability conversation. This showcase will combine arts and performance with exhibits and activities in a “festival” type model to accomplish this widespread engagement.

UW SAN, in partnership with the UW Sustainability Office, has been developing an enhanced model of the annual Earth Day celebration to take place on the HUB Lawn. This event will feature student and local performances, PNW change-makers, sustainability projects, and campus organizations to demonstrate the power of intersectional collaboration and the current local efforts to achieve this. Arts and performance have an unparalleled ability to resonate with diverse audiences. By curating a program centered around those features, the UW SAN and its partner organizations hope to generate widespread student interest. The event will be a platform to further develop this growing network by providing opportunities for RSOs and and individuals to participate in the sustainability movement.

We are asking CSF to contribute $11,700 to this event to support performance and speaker honorariums as well as marketing materials. In order to build a world that puts people, communities and the planet first, we need to imagine what’s possible. We invite you to help us build an event that explores the realignment of our environment, society, government, and economy so that we can begin to envision those systems working better for the people and the planet.

Student Involvement:

The Earth Day event will be primarily organized and implemented by a team of student leaders. This team currently includes a 9-student planning committee and 8-student marketing team. Student volunteers will have the opportunity to be part of a large-scale event encompassing a cross-campus social movement through planning, outreach, marketing, accounting, and day-of set up of the event.

Partner organization EcoReps has committed to providing their team of 5-20 service learners for marketing and day-of-event support. SAN’s council organizations will provide additional volunteer support. We plan to further extend this volunteer network as need arises throughout the development of the program. Examples of potential opportunities for additional student involvement include illustration, design, and food programs. Outreach strategies include digital communication such as email and social media, presentations in classrooms and student organization meetings, and invitations to Earth Day event planning meetings.

The event’s programming itself will consist of diverse representation from artistic, advocacy, and sustainability focused RSOs. These student organizations will use their platforms on campus to spread the word to their communities. Tabling and performances by social justice-focused UW and community groups, culturally and environmentally-oriented interactive art, and environmental outreach through groups like WashPIRG will provide students with a wide array of opportunities to get involved. The range of perspectives and narratives will create an empowering space for students to explore the ways that their unique expertise and passions fit into the sustainability conversation.

Student coordinators will develop relationships with participating RSOs to ensure a clear understanding of the SAN mission. These partnerships will enable RSOs to effectively integrate into the program and hold valuable conversations with event patrons. They will be able to communicate their role in the sustainability movement and connect students with the many available campus resources (ie. involvement in projects, access to funding, etc).

List of project team and sub-teams

UW SAN Admin Team:

This team is the central coordinating body of UW SAN that will monitor the progress of the event throughout its development and execution. This team is dedicated to building an intersectional campus sustainability network and will be continually exploring strategies for plugging that network into the programming of the Earth Day event.

Scott Davis - Graduate in Urban Horticulture: Project Manager

Sky Stahl - Undergraduate in Business & Communications: Director of Events

Zoe Shadan - Undergraduate in Political Science & Communications: Director of Council

Sasha Jenkins - Undergraduate in International Studies: Director of Partnerships

Dutton Crowley - Undergraduate in History: Intern

Lance Bennett - Faculty in Political Science & Communications: Advisor

 

UW SAN Executive Council:

The SAN Executive Council is comprised of representatives from eight campus groups, dedicating its assemblage to SAN’s vision, mission, and values which will subsequently guide the conception of this year’s Earth Day event. Each of the council members are involved in different aspects of Earth Day, including event planning, marketing, and developing engaging exhibits with their RSOs. Throughout the planning process, the council will gather to share progress, discuss developments within the network, and brainstorm strategies for driving further student power into the event. Represented organizations currently include: EcoReps, WashPIRG, Students Association for Green Environment, UW Sustainability, Hip Hop Student Association, Net Impact, and CSF.

 

Earth Day Planning Committee:

Responsible for most aspects of the event planning including budgeting, fundraising, production and booking.

Sky Stahl - UW SAN: Event Coordinator

Zoe Shadan - UW SAN: Assistant Event Coordinator

Qifei Xu - Capitol Hill Block Party: Event Planner

Alexis Neumann - DXARTS: Art Curator

Sasha Jenkins - JSIS: Outreach & Exhibit Coordinator

Alex Urasaki - EcoReps: Outreach & Volunteer-Coordinator

Jasmine Leung - Earth Club: Outreach & Volunteer-Coordinator

Anneke Mulders - Foster School of Business: Accountant & Budget Manager

Ian Rose - CSF: Project Development

 

UW SAN Marketing Team:

This team is responsible for promoting the event and designing the marketing campaign. They will also design the branding of the event, so it exhibits the vision of holistic sustainability and leaves a strong and lasting impact.

Julian Stickley - UW SAN: Design Director

Kat Kavanagh - Net Impact: Brand Strategist

Wole Akinlosotu - HHSA: Content & Storytelling Strategist

Jen Louie - Net Impact: Strategist

Racquel West - WashPIRG: Campus Outreach & Storytelling Strategist

Keoni Moore - Design School: Graphic Design

Qifei Xu - Capitol Hill Block Party: Community Engagement & Analytics

 

UW Sustainability Office:

UW Sustainability will be the office that UW SAN and its teams work with most closely. This is a valuable partnership as it will help to maintain the successful model of Earth Day that has been put on by the UW Sustainability Office in the past while also providing the opportunity for UW SAN to increase student involvement and ideas for meaningful expansion of the event. SAN and UWS have made the following plan for working together:  

  • Weekly meetings to check progress. Each party will prepare a weekly memo summarizing the prior weeks’ developments.
  • SAN to handle programming
  • SAN to monitor accounts and make sure that program is in-line with budget
  • Toren Elste to interface with university stakeholders and external vendors
  • Daimun Eklund to integrate with student marketing committee by providing previous marketing timelines and assets, as well as plugging Earth Day marketing materials into official UW channels.
  • UWS to administer budgets
  • UWS to provide guidance throughout the project.
  • SAN and UWS to hold each other accountable for keeping up with timeline

Education & Outreach:

The marketing and branding component of the Earth Day celebration will be one of the most important tools in generating student interest and attendance. The Sustainability Action Network’s marketing committee will develop and implement strategies and content in pursuit of that goal. This strategy will be outlined and solidified in the remainder of Winter Quarter, to be launched at the start of Spring Quarter.

The proposed budget includes allocations for marketing materials, including video development and social media promotion. The marketing committee is currently working with several videographers to explore the possibilities of an engaging video to build excitement for the event. The team is exploring ways to create an artistic visual representation of SAN’s campus-wide vision. The video would have two versions: one for use before the event that specifically includes event details, and a second one that does not include the event details to serve as an ongoing marketing asset for SAN.

Arrangements have been made with UW Sustainability to plug Earth Day materials into official university channels and to supplement design support with their staff. UW Sustainability’s pre-existing Earth Day designs and marketing tools will be valuable assets for the marketing strategy and provide a framework from which the student marketing team can build.

Stakeholders and supporters of this event include a broad mix of departments and communities, generating widespread interest across campus and providing multiple channels for marketing efforts. We hope that by developing an engaging, diverse, and locally-focused program, UW students, faculty, and staff will be encouraged to attend the Earth Day event and subsequently support SAN’s network-building project. CSF’s sponsorship of this event will be an opportunity to demonstrate their critical role in this growing network.

Our education goals include:

  • Spreading understanding of a more intersectional definition of sustainability
  • Fostering connections between the various disciplines (art, music, environmental science, social justice, etc.) geared towards sustainable efforts in the environment, economy, society, and government
  • Raising awareness for existing local efforts to achieve this more sustainable community
  • Display and educate students on how they can get involved through UW, the community, or with personal initiatives

As an “Earth Day” celebration, the program should represent a vast array of culture and craft. Criteria for our selection of speakers and performers include:

  • Local emphasis
  • Representing diverse communities and cultures
  • Speaking to the intersections of sustainability

 

Local speakers we are currently reaching out to include:

Nikkita Oliver - Seattle attorney, social justice activist, and prior mayor candidate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZLwSLXRWEg

Pramila Jaypal - Seattle Congresswoman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHlubzHbNVk

Ksharma Sawant - Seattle City Council

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwosQMiiT5E&t=50s

Sarra Tekola - Seattle Social Justice Activist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJVIx7t819k&t=13s

Lisa Graumlich - Dean College of Environment

Ana Marie Cauce - UW President

 

Student Performers we are considering:

UW Steel Band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V0_r7aaSLM

UW Bollywood Dancers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TleeG5Hq1U

TAIKO  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWqUZSodp3I

RETRO https://www.instagram.com/retro_uw/?hl=en

Polynesian Island dancers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ofK08iy73k

 

Local performers we are considering:

Paris Alexa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDSjXJjWW2c

Otieno Terry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GRxyDS0k1A

Honcho Poncho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9b--8oplnM

Essam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfVQsiz4fP0&feature=youtu.be 

DON https://soundcloud.com/donofseattle/this-one-goes-out-to-the?in=donofseattle/sets/thanks-for-all-the-help-1

 

Based on our current partnerships, specific reach communities include:

  • Environmental: Through collaborations with EcoReps, Earth Club, SAGE, and the College of the Environment.
  • Social Justice: Through active student involvement from WashPIRG and contributions from RETRO
  • Government/policy: Through active student involvement from within the Jackson School of International Studies
  • Economics: Through an exhibit from Active Market Readers, sharing the sustainability component of their quarterly market reports
  • Arts & Culture: Through partnerships with the Hip Hop Student Association and ASUW Arts & Entertainment. Collaborations within the Art & Design, Music, and DXARTS departments, as well as Cornish College of the Arts.
Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Waste
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

Our goal is for this event to be pursued annually as a project that successfully engages students in a unique, empowering, and inclusive environment. The project should continually be improved in its ability to provide avenues for various campus organizations to contribute and be showcased. Because it so uniquely and appropriately aligns with the university’s values of sustainability and diversity, the evolution of this event should become a valuable asset to the university and the student body. This discussion of longevity involves two key aspects: future funding and administrative responsibility.

The contributing parties look to CSF’s 2018 contribution to this event as a “kickstarter” to launch this new vision. SAN is working closely with UWS and CSF staff to secure funding from other sources in future years. We plan to reach out to community organizations such as Whole Foods, PCC, Skanska Construction, City Arts, the Bullitt Center, and others that are are invested in sustainability. One idea is to set a goal this year to secure enough community sponsorships to match CSF’s contribution. This would provide a starting budget for the 2019 event. The student planning committee is currently developing materials to supplement this outreach.

UW Sustainability is hoping to reduce their responsibility for the Earth Day event over the coming years. As the event is based upon campus-wide collaboration, it may make sense for a range of academic departments to take on cooperative, administrative roles. With that aim, we are exploring ways for UWS to “pass the torch” through discussion with several stakeholders, including SAN, UW Sustainability, College of the Environment, the Center for Communications and Civic Engagement, and the Communications Department. These details are to be further discussed in the coming months.

Environmental Problem:

The societal and environmental struggles that our world faces are systematically intertwined in a downward spiral, necessitating far-reaching interdisciplinary and intercultural synergies to find impactful solutions. Above all else, Earth Day should seek to rebuild and rebalance our relationship with the natural world, and in doing so we must consider our predominant societal and economic habits as a global culture to drive real progress towards that goal. The unsustainable values that hurt our natural world (competition, consumption, marginalization, etc.) are hurting our local and global sense of community as well; lasting sustainability is not just about saving the trees. It is about rebalancing our relationships with each other and choosing to cooperate rather than conflict.

This concept is highlighted by the fact that the less-privileged communities of the world often see the most drastic effects of environmental injustices, such as the indigenous people of the Amazon. Residents of urban ghettos have more pressing issues to worry about than recycling. Refugees fleeing violent regimes need a roof over their heads. Environmental champions around the world are beginning to realize that it’s hard to talk about sustainability without talking about equity.

To build this inclusive movement, we must identify shared values that transcend our differences and work together to create a world that embodies those values. Although the UW has already made great strides towards sustainability, there is a need to address a lack of engagement and awareness of the interdisciplinary nature of sustainability in the larger student body.

Our goal for the 2018 Earth Day event is thus to promote a holistic understanding of sustainability in the UW community that recognizes not only the value of protecting the natural environment, but the need for social, political, and economic justice. Our keynote speakers will speak on a variety of issues and draw connections between them. They will inspire hope by offering steps that we can all take in the direction that we want to go. Poets of diverse cultural backgrounds will communicate these ideas by sharing their stories. Murals will depict the challenges we face and the solidarity that is required to overcome them. Exhibits will showcase the efforts that are currently being made on campus to address these issues and provide opportunities for students to get involved. Problems will be addressed, but will be coupled with solutions that we can work towards regardless of our race, gender, identity, income, or age.

Our goal is to foster mutual understanding and intrigue amongst one another in a way that has never been done before on campus. The event will spark conversation and encourage a re-evaluation of how our thoughts, global perceptions, and everyday actions can work towards being more socially, politically, economically, and environmentally sustainable. Students will also be able to explore ways in which the UW is already making strides towards sustainability and how they individually can get involved in this campus movement.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The Earth Day event will serve as a case study for measuring the effectiveness of the Sustainability Action Network. We hope to multiply existing sustainability efforts by making new connections between silos and exposing traditionally unaffiliated students to new ideas and opportunities. The event will be our first large-scale attempt to manifest this goal in a tangible setting. We plan to measure our impact in the following ways:

  • Attendance
  • Participation in interactive/collaborative art installations
  • Number of collaborating organizations (how many different sectors / disciplines)
  • Number of exhibiting organizations (how many different sectors / disciplines)
  • Photo documentation
  • Responses to on-site surveys that ask questions such as:
    • What does sustainability mean to you?
    • What did you learn that you didn’t know before?
    • Who do you plan on sharing this with?
    • What did you come to this event to see? What surprised you?

While not yet solidified, we are also working with several individuals and organizations to include the following components subject to additional commitments and funding:

  • Total waste-diversion (in alignment with the UW Climate Action Plan)
  • Sustainable food initiative
    • Campus / local vendors
    • Use of bio-gas food cart (if complete)
    • Locally-sourced ingredients
    • Compostable materials
  • Solar-power
    • Stage
    • Food vendors as needed
    • Other exhibits as needed

 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $11,700
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?: 0months

Budget:

Talent estimates are based on previous experience and conversations with faculty.
CATEGORYITEMCOSTFunding Source: CSF / otherNotes
STAGE PRODUCTION
Staging3000CSFQuote from Pyramid Staging
Sound2900CSFQuote from Morgan Sound
Labor Variance400otherAllowance in case of schedule change
INFRASTRUCTURE
30x30 tent1,200otherQuote from Cort Party Rentals
Tables/chairs300otherestimate
Banners/signage1,500otherStage backdrop, hanging banners. Based on estimate from previous experience
TALENT
Performers1300CSFApprox. 5 Performers @ Approx. $100-$500 each
Speakers700CSFApprox. 5 keynote speakers @ Approx. $100-$200 each
Visual artists800CSFBudget to pay for materials and commissions
MARKETING
Printing400otherEstimate
Video1500CSFQuote from local videographers
Social Media300otherSponsored posts
Photography300other2 photographers @ rate from previous Earth Day
MISC / FORMALITIES
10% Contingency1500CSFIn case of unexpected costs. To be returned if unused.
Fire Permit400other
Hospitality200other

Non-CSF Sources:

Total expected from other funding sources: $5,250
SOURCEAMOUNTSTATUS
ASUW Special Appropriations3000Pending
GPSS Special Appropriations750Pending
GPSS Diversity500Pending
College of the Environment1000Pending
Bridges CenterTBD(funds pledged, amount undetermined)
Project Completion Total: $16,700

Timeline:

Please see theUW Sustainability Section in Student Involvement to see the roles that we have outlined with them.
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Obtain FundingJan-FebFeb 28
Secure VenueJan-FebFeb 28
Establish Floor PlanJan-FebFeb 28
Initial Graphic / PosterFeb - MarchMarch 1
Equipment RentalsFeb-MarchMarch 15
Programming / BookingJan - MarchMarch 15
Video DevelopmentMarch - AprilApril 1
Website goes liveMarchMarch 26
Final Graphics & Marketing MaterialsMarch - AprilApril 1
Volunteer CoordinationMarch - AprilApril 1
Exhibitor CoordinationFeb - AprilApril 1
Production MeetingsMarch - AprilApril 7
Marketing CampaignMarch - AprilApril 20

Electric Outboard Motors, Sustainability for Washington Rowing

Executive Summary:

The University of Washington prides itself in being a world leader in sustainability and has a mission aimed towards excelling students to become leaders in the community, state and the nation. At Washington Rowing, our goals stem from the university; we pride ourselves in the pursuit of excellence, starting with our athletics and extending it to our academics and professional lives. As one of the university's oldest sports and one of the oldest intercollegiate sports in the country, Washington Rowing strives to continue our long-standing tradition of excellence by becoming leaders rather than reactionaries in every aspect of our lives. The next step in our pursuit of excellence is to reduce our environmental impact and extend the notion of creating a more sustainable sport to the rowing community across the country.  Furthermore, to educate the Seattle community about Pure Watercraft and its benefit to all users of our city’s waterways.

Washington Rowing is requesting a grant from UW CFS to take the first step towards a more sustainable sport and community.  With a CFS grant Washington Rowing can purchase a Pure Watercraft outboard motor and outfit a coaching launch with all electric power.  Pure Watercraft is a Seattle based start-up company eager to reduce the impact of small gasoline-burning watercraft on the environment and rowing is a perfect example.  Washington Rowing’s fleet burns thousands of gallons of gasoline a year and is docked regularly for charging throughout the day. The new outboard would prevent the burning of thousands of gallons of gasoline and the release of thousands of pounds of CO2 over its lifetime.  More importantly, it would demonstrate our program’s and our school’s commitment to a more sustainable future and the support of a local company.  To adhere to and advance our mission, our goal is to be community leaders in developing environmental sustainability for the sport of rowing. With UW CFS we can achieve that goal and educate the rowing community around the country about the benefits of electric outboards.

We are requesting assistance with the purchase of the motor for a launch (the term used by rowers for the boat which coaches sit in while observing practice). The cost of the motor is $8,000. The remaining expenses for the boat itself would be covered by UW Rowing. This motor costs the same as most other Honda 25 HP motors. However, the cost of the motor’s maintenance would drop significantly, saving the team money in the long run while also diminishing its environmental impacts. Of the $8,000 spent, approximately $5,200 should be saved over the next 8 years.  The 8 year distinction is a minimum lifespan of the motor that is promised to run much longer by Pure Watercraft.

Student Involvement:

There are three main focuses on student involvement for the project; proposal writing, community outreach, and student-led research.

From the start, Washington Rowing has designed this project to be student run with minimal involvement from coaches and administrators except when absolutely necessary.  I, Weston Brown, will be heading the project with involvement from 7 other students working on the project from business, environmental, and engineering backgrounds.

Beyond the proposal writing and preliminary research that goes into the project, the majority of student involvement will be in outreach and community involvement. It will be the student’s role to help spread the knowledge of electric launches to other rowing teams both locally and abroad. The 40 area rowing clubs (which will be discussed further in the outreach segment of this proposal) hold monthly board meetings for their members, and these will provide exceptional opportunities to visit the local clubs and provide sustainable education.

To further investigate the breadth of environmental impact, and the benefit of switching to an entirely electric-powered fleet, Washington Rowing is working with the College of Engineering and Pure Watercraft’s research division to analyze the acoustic vibrations emanating from both types of outboard engines. By involving undergraduates in the experimental setup and data analysis, we will extend the scope of student involvement to academia, and introduce students to our passion for effecting positive change in our environment.

In the future, we hope to expand the research component of this project by exploring in-house renewable energy generation, the effect of turbulence on sediment agitation, and novel methods of filtering point-source runoff. As athletes who spend most of their time on the water, we are acutely aware of the effect that urbanization has on our environment. We believe that maintaining a forward-thinking mindset is crucial for the success of Washington Rowing in building world-class students, athletes, and citizens of the world.

Education & Outreach:

The rowing program at the University of Washington has become a leading program within the domestic and international communities of rowing. With this standing, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to impact the community positively. Transitioning into electric motors within our own fleet of launches is only one step in creating a positive impact in the rowing community.

In addition to our own transition, we will work to educate others within the rowing community in efforts to help adapt electric launches into more clubs around the world. There are forty rowing programs within the Seattle area alone which provides us with incredible accessibility for outreach. Educating board members, athletes, and coaches about the footprint that rowing has on the environment could spark a movement towards a more sustainable rowing community here in Seattle. Eventually, we would expand our education efforts across the country and advise clubs around the nation about Pure Watercraft Outboard and the positive impact the rowing community could have in the effort to aid our environment.

Reaching out to other clubs and rowing programs is a phenomenal opportunity to impact the community. One of the biggest opportunities we have within this realm is opening booths at regattas. The Head of the Charles in Boston and Windermere Cup at our home course in Seattle have thousands of spectators from within and outside of the rowing community.  Over 11,000 athletes participate in racing at the annual Head of the Charles Regatta and 400,000 spectators come to watch throughout the weekend. In addition to that, 32 different countries come to participate in the regatta.  Washington Rowing already has an established presence at these events and in efforts to reach the broader community outside of Seattle, we would hold a Pure Watercraft tent while in attendance at the regatta to educate the community about the electric launch initiative.

Should this project be funded the turnaround from funding to action will be swift. If the grant is approved, the electric motor will be purchased as soon as funding is received.  We anticipate that the grant money will be awarded in April and if ordered then, the motor would arrive four months later in August. Washington Rowing will use internal funding to purchase the launch for the electric motor to be attached to.  The delivery of this launch will take approximately three months before fulfillment. There has been coordination with Master Mechanic of UW Small Engine Repair Mike Horm who will be ready to put together the system once both components have arrived. With the launch received in July and the motor in August the system will be ready for use for the start of school in September of 2018. The administration of Washington Rowing will communicate with the student group through all steps of the process until completion.  Once the motor installation has been completed and the launch is put in the water, student led research can commence.  Similarly, students involved in this project who will be in the Seattle area over the summer can begin travelling to local club board meetings to being the initial education process.

Many pieces that need to be in place for research are already part of the waterway system. Vibration testing requires a linear array, which is already in place in Union Bay. Washington Rowing has a 1,000 m buoy line in that space, which will be perfect for attaching vibration meters to and gaining accurate and consistent measurements.

A large part of this project is engagement with other clubs and members of the community to create a groundswell of sustainability initiatives in the rowing community. Washington Rowing plans to add a significant social media push to our educational initiative, which will be possible at no cost to the organization. Additionally, our website (www.washingtonrowing.com) will be outfitted with a “sustainability” tab on the homepage which will provide anyone who visits our site with information on our electric motor initiatives. The program has a website programmer in house, and this platform expansion can be done at no cost.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
Project Longevity:

This program will continue and be effective as long as programs in the Seattle area and the Pacific NW are still converting from standard motors. Our 10 year goal is to convert all Seattle area rowing programs to electric motors. There will be many parts of the University of Washington that will be impacted by this project. Directly affected will be Washington athletics, specifically the Washington rowing teams, who will benefit from the additional motor, less noise pollution, and an educational tool for the program. The greater student community will also benefit from this project through opportunities for environment research. Lastly, the entire campus and waterfront community will benefit from the less noise pollution and decreasing amount of CO2 emissions that are produced daily in our waterways

Environmental Problem:

On an average day, Washington Rowing fields between 6 to 8 coach’s launches, and practices stretch between 15 to 35 km. Taking an average of 7 launches going 25 km a day and approximately 245 collegiate practices a year (including summer rowing) this adds up to 42,875 km of transport currently run by gasoline outboard engines.  That distance burns approximately 2,145 gallons of gasoline and requires yearly maintenance and frequent oil changes.

Annual fuel consumption for each launch is estimated at 310 gallons a year for the fleet which is equivalent to 1,240 kWh of energy.  On average, every kWh of electricity produced in Washington produces 0.26 lbs of carbon dioxide (CO2) well below the 1.22 lb average of the United States due to investment in renewable energy.  On the contrary 23.5 lbs of CO2 are produced when burning a single gallon of gasoline. (Weight of CO2 comes from combustion with air in addition to gasoline).  Comparing the output of Pure Watercraft electric and the current gasoline outboards, carbon emissions would drop by 6,963 lbs of CO2 yearly, from 7,285 lbs/year to 322 lbs/year for the outfitted launch.

This efficiency is delivered not only from using electric power but also from Pure Watercraft’s proprietary propeller design and motor case.  With no traditional drive shaft, the profile of the motor is much slimmer, creating less drag and a more efficient motor.

Looking beyond carbon pollution, continual oil changes and maintenance of the gasoline engines (not necessary for the electric launches) produces additional waste and pollution.  Carbon emissions are commonly used to measure the environmental impact because it is a number that is easily measure.  However, emissions of other harmful pollutants like methane and sulfur oxides would be dramatically reduced.

In addition to combustion related pollutants, sound and vibrational pollution have an important impact on the fauna in Lake Washington.  Conibear Shellhouse is situated immediately adjacent to the Union Bay Natural Area and the vibrations and noise contributed by gasoline engines undoubtedly have an effect on the fish population there.  River otters and several species of bird rely on fish for their diet and the reduction of noise and vibration by switching to electric outboards will further help the Natural Area be a sanctuary for wildlife.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Our educational outreach impacts will be measured by assessing the number of programs we communicate with directly in relation to the number that purchase their own Pure Watercraft electric motors in the future.

Success will also be measured by research initiatives assessing how we have positively impacted the carbon footprint of rowing, and on Seattle (example: decrease in vibration, sound, and CO2 pollution as measured through student research projects). These research projects are rooted in education and will be utilized to further educate on what it means to be a sustainable rowing program and a sustainable Seattle. 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $8,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Motor 8,00018,000

Non-CSF Sources:

ItemAmountQuantityPrice
UW Rowing Launch Funding 1115,573
Project Completion Total: $23,443

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Purchase Motor 4 months from purchase/order dateAugust 2018
Purchase Launch for Motor3 months from purchase/order dateJuly 2018
Install electric motor on Launch, get launch fully operational2 daysAugust/September 2018
Research initiatives commencedepends on project scopeMay 2019
Host informational booth at Head of the Charles Regatta2 daysOctober 21 and 22, 2018
Visit as many clubs in the Seattle area as possible by the conclusion of 2018 to educate board members on rowing’s ability to positively impact local and national sustainability efforts.4 monthsDecember 15, 2018
The “Erg Ed” program run by the George Pocock Foundation hosts a middle school field trip to Conibear Shellhouse. As part of the “learn to row” clinic, middle schoolers will receive information about the electric motor and sustainability.2 daysFebruary 2019
Continue educational initiatives with an education booth at the Windermere Cup Regatta.1 daysMay 4, 2019

Project Approval Forms:

Sustainability Consulting and Environmental Leadership Opportunity (Green Greek Representative Program)

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Biological Control of Insects

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

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ReThink Resilience Summit 2017

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Earth Day Band: Improvisational Music Project (IMP)

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Keraton Going Green

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UW Meal Matchup

Executive Summary:

Close to 15% of American households struggle with food insecurity (USDA), while almost 40% of the food produced in the U.S. is never consumed (Baldwin, 2015). Laws are in place, like the Good Samaritan Food Donation and the U.S. Federal Food Donation Acts, that protect and encourage facilities to re-distribute their products, but many face challenges. Currently a few UW Dining halls are working with Food Lifeline. Unfortunately, Food Lifeline is overwhelmed and lacks the ability to support the growing demand. High percentages of food waste can be attributed to several challenges surrounding proper food waste disposal, challenges such as the following:

  • Lack of refrigeration space for soon to be donated food and need for increased pick-ups
  • Local agencies' lack of ability, time, or equipment to pick-up up food
  • Miscommunication leading to food waste and lack of trust

Our project will pair-up UW food waste with local non-profit agencies in need through the design of a website that would facilitate the logistics and transportation of food waste from UW Food Services without having so many food products go to compost. Over two quarters, Irini Spyridakis and Madison Holbrook will lead a team of 15 undergraduate and Masters' students. The team will research, design, build, and implement a responsive website for UW HFS Dining facilities to connect with local non-profit organizations.
 

The main education and outreach goal is to raise awareness and educate the UW community about food waste and recovery. This project will bolster the sustainable achievements of the UW and serve as a model that could be implemented outside the community. We hope to empower our team of students to see themselves as experienced food recovery ambassadors who will further sustainable practices in future education, jobs, and communities, exemplifying the motto, “each one, teach one.”

The environmental issue we’re addressing includes both food waste and people who are food insecure. Food waste is one of the biggest contributors to landfills in the US, contributing to 14% of the United States’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum, 2017). With climate change and water scarcity, the use of 25% of all freshwater supplies in food production that ultimately results in food waste is unacceptable. 

The project will be managed by Irini Spyridakis and co-managed by Madison Holbrook and housed in HCDE. We will work closely with the following UW Offices: CSF; Kara Carlson, the Business and Sustainability Manager for UW Dining with Housing & Food Services (HFS); Abebe Aberra, the Public Health Program Manager with the office of Environment Health & Safety (EHS); Laurne Ternasaki, the Food Insecurity Specialist with the Division of Student Life; Becky Bullock, Director, Risk Financing & Consulting; and dining hall managers that Kara Carlson directs us to. Additionally, we will work with non-profit food agencies that are approved by Kara Carlson.

Project “Pairing UW Food Waste with Non-Profit Agencies in Need” is asking for a total of $17042.16 to secure food recovery, transportation supplies and partial compensation for students and managers.

Student Involvement:

Our proposal has already been informed by student involvement with stakeholders, both in the UW and the community, with a goal of identifying needs, problems, practices, and potential solutions. HCDE undergraduate Madison Holbrook has worked with HCDE Lecturer Irini Spyridakis to interview, email, and speak by phone with many UW people and offices: Kara Carlson, the Business and Sustainability Manager for UW Dining with Housing & Food Services (HFS); Abebe Aberra, the Public Health Program Manager with the office of Environment Health & Safety (EHS); Laurne Ternasaki, the Food Insecurity Specialist with the Division of Student Life; Becky Bullock, Director, Risk Financing & Consulting; George Donegan, the Fleet Services Manager; David Rey, Benton Litteneker, and Andrea Benson, Managers of the HUB, The 8, and Local Point Food Courts, respectively; and Transportation Services. Additionally we spoke with three non-profit agencies: the University District Foodbank, Northwest Harvest, and Food Lifeline.

The UW people listed above helped us identify pain points in their existing food recovery system as well as UW policies, e.g.,

  • Insufficient refrigeration space in some campus food facilities, resulting in the need for two-four weekly pick-ups from non-profits.
  • Insufficient number of non-profits agencies to pick-up food.
  • Miscommunication with some non-profits in terms of food pick-ups.
  • Unreliable scheduling in terms of food pick-ups.
  • Need for ID badges or hats with agency logos for food pick-up personnel.

If the project is funded by the CSF, students will be involved in various tasks to address the pain points listed above as well as to identify further pain points through continued interviews of stakeholders identified by Kara Carlson. We will work closely with stakeholders to help improve communication, coordination, and logistics through the design of an interactive, responsive website, functional on both desktops and mobile. Tasks will include researching; designing, building, and testing the website; and outreach. This project will be developed in a two-quarter Directed Research Group (DRG) in Autumn 2017 and Winter 2018 for ~ 15 students per quarter with the majority of students from two departments in the College of Engineering: Human Centered Design & Engineering and Computer Science & Engineering. Additionally, some students from other units on campus (e.g., Geography, Nutritional Sciences, Social Work, Environmental Science) may register for the 2-3 credit DRG. HCDE will find a classroom for the weekly DRG managed by Irini Spyridakis and co-managed by Madison Holbrook.

The proposal team consists of Irini Spyridakis, a part-time HCDE Lecturer, who has an HCDE MS degree and has been teaching and supervising students in the College of Engineering for 8 years. She is passionate about sustainability issues and has added units on sustainable design and practices to her classes the past few years. Her experience in the UX design industry gives her real world project management skills to supervise a project from ideation to completion. Irini will liaise with HCDE to distribute grant funds. She will also work to match funds that the CSF provides with outside organizations to create a larger pool of resources, both fiscal and physical (e.g., plastic food pins, aluminum bins).

The proposal team also consists of Madison Holbrook, an HCDE Bachelor’s student. She has over 10 years of personal experience working with organizations, farms, and restaurants in food production and distribution. With her combined UX design work and personal experience, her insights will help guide the team and focus the project. Both Irini and Madison will leverage their experience, networks, and diverse contacts to ensure the project’s success and longevity.  

Irini will lead the two-quarter DRG, overseeing students and maintaining a regimented timeline consisting of weekly tasks and deliverables. Approximately half of the students in the DRG will donate their time in exchange for research group credits. The other half of students will be paid for their time as they design, build, test, and iterate the website over the two quarters and will not earn research credits. We are asking for funding for 7 of our 15 students who will play an integral role in designing and building the website; 1 student, Madison Holbrook will help design and build the website along with co-leading the project; and partial funding for Irini Spyridakis (she will donate 50% of her hourly rate to the project). Irini is currently a part-time lecturer at the UW, paid to teach two courses in HCDE each quarter; teaching and leading a research group is outside her job contract.

The project will consist of research, ideation and design, interactive prototype and website building, testing, and iteration. In the first few weeks of Autumn 2017, DRG students will further reach out to identified dining halls and other food services that HFS guides us to as well as potential non-profit agencies to gain further details concerning the pain points listed at the beginning of this section. Their insights into food waste donation and pick-up practices will inform our initial website ideation and prototypes that we will build in the second half of Autumn quarter. We will create high-fidelity interactive prototypes that will be utilized for user-testing, validation, and refinement of the website. The website will allow UW facilities to post a schedule that notifies participating non-profit agencies of food waste availability with ideal pick-up times. The website will allow UW facilities to connect with non-profit agencies so they can improve communication, coordination, and food collections, before food becomes waste.

During Winter Quarter 2018, students will continue designing, building, iterating, and testing the website, fostering UW and non-profit buy-in, providing a platform for conversation and collaboration around food recovery. The final stage in winter quarter will be to present the tested website to the stakeholders and launch it. Ensuring longevity of the project will also occur during the second quarter where students will reach out to all stakeholders and write manuals that document project procedures. Additionally, students will make a video documenting students’ journeys in this project.

Education & Outreach:

A main education and outreach goal is to raise awareness and educate students, staff, and faculty on campus about food waste and recovery. We envision this project will serve as a valuable learning opportunity for UW students. Students working on the project will learn to work effectively in teams, interact with UW offices and non-profits, further understand food recovery practices and their value, and understand the positive impact a well researched and designed website can have in connecting stakeholders in furthering sustainable practices.

We will encourage students to take what they have learned and apply these concepts to their own lives and communities, spreading the word about effective food recovery methods. This project will advertise and bolster the sustainable achievements of the UW while increasing students’ sustainable artifacts in their portfolios, showing industry that there are effective and efficient models that could be implemented outside the UW community as well. We hope to empower UW students who participate in this project to see themselves as experienced food recovery ambassadors who will further sustainable practices in future education, jobs, and communities, exemplifying the motto, “each one, teach one.”

Through social media, students will share sustainable practices with other students on and off campus by sharing effective methods they learned about reducing food waste and connecting stakeholders through utilization of a website. The short video that students create will  documents students’ journeys in the DRG, creating an artifact that others could refer back to as a guide for future food recovery projects. We will also encourage students to share the video and their own stories on their FB pages, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media outlets to raise the level of awareness with food recovery to the next level, informing and persuading people to take action in their own communities. We will ask that students share transferable processes, not sensitive UW data.

Buy in from the UW community and non-profit agencies will be central to the success of the website. We will need to assemble a team to oversee website updates when needed and keep in contact with all parties. In order to maintain the website and stakeholders’ participation, we will identify and work with student groups on campus who have the capacity to keep the project alive and continue to maintain working relationships with HFS, EFS, Dining Hall Managers, and non-profit agencies. When we have deployed our website in the 2nd quarter of the DRG (Winter 2018), students will write procedure manual on how to maintain the website, add or remove stakeholder names, and collect and report data.

We have identified the following groups and will reach out to them in the second quarter of the DRG to assess ability and willingness to take over website maintenance and check-ins with all stakeholders: e.g., HFS, Division of Student Life, ASUW, UW Phi Sigma Rho Engineering Sorority, UW Nutritional Sciences Program, the Carlson Center, and a huge list of groups/RSOs identified by UW-SAN.

In order to publicize and gain recognition of the UW’s sustainable achievements, beyond social media mentioned above, we will reach out to the University of Washington Daily, The Seattle Times, The Seattle Globalist, The Stranger, KUOW, and other local news outlets, along with The Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) blog, bulletin, and news.

All students who take part in the DRG as well as those who maintain the website in the future will gain practical leadership skills while furthering their knowledge of food recovery problems and solutions.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Waste
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

Buy in from the UW community and non-profit agencies will be central to the success of the website. We will need to assemble a team to oversee website updates when needed and keep in contact with all parties. In order to maintain the website and stakeholders’ participation, we will identify and work with student groups on campus who have the capacity to keep the project alive and continue to maintain working relationships with HFS, EFS, Dining Hall Managers, and non-profit agencies. When we have deployed our website in the 2nd quarter of the DRG (Winter 2018), students will write procedure manual on how to maintain the website, add or remove stakeholder names, and collect and report data. We have identified the following groups and will reach out to them in the second quarter of the DRG to assess ability and willingness to take over website maintenance and check-ins with all stakeholders: e.g., HFS, Division of Student Life, ASUW, UW Phi Sigma Rho Engineering Sorority, UW Nutritional Sciences Program, the Carlson Center, and a huge list of groups/RSOs identified by UW-SAN.

Environmental Problem:

Food waste is a growing problem in the United States (US). Between 30-40% of food in the US goes uneaten, resulting in 133 billion pounds, amounting to $1 trillion dollars of wasted food (USDA, 2017; Smith, 2015). The biggest contributors to food waste are American households representing 44% of food waste and restaurants, representing 33% of food waste (Foodbanking.org, 2017). These numbers are troubling for a number of reasons. It is important to note that the energy, labor, land use, and water involved in food production is also wasted, resulting in increased CO2 emissions as the US is still primarily reliant on fossil fuels for energy production. The US cannot afford to continue wasting food production resources. The costs are staggering at 10% of the total US energy budget. With climate change and water scarcity, using 25% of all freshwater supplies in food production that ultimately results in food waste is unacceptable. Additionally, food waste is the biggest contributor to landfills in the US, contributing to 14% of the US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum, 2017).

The economic and environmental costs are further disturbing when food insecurity numbers are taken into account. Close to 15% of American households struggle with food insecurity (USDA). In 2015, 42.2 million people were food insecure (Alisha Coleman-Jensen et al., 2016). Increased food recovery work is needed now more than ever in order to address the larger crisis that also includes social and humanitarian concerns. 

In 2013, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency initiated the U.S. Food Waste Challenge that invites all stakeholders in the food chain supply system to join in and participate. Various stakeholders include food manufacturers, supermarkets, restaurants, universities, schools, local governments, farms (big and small), and agricultural processors. The Challenge asks all entities to reduce, recovery, and recycle. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has their own challenge and sits under the larger USDA Food Waste Challenge.The EPA provides information about how to improve sustainable food practices.

With a committed vision to improve food waste and with collaboration across various entities, we plan to reduce the UW’s CO2 footprint related to food waste and help HFS further reach its goals. The University of Washington is one of the nation’s leaders in AASHE’s rankings of sustainable dining halls and is paving a successful path for others to follow and learn from. Food waste affects everyone in the UW community at the economic, social, and environmental levels and we hope to educate and empower member of the UW community in our work with HFS and the CSF.

Sources:

https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/faqs.htm
Alisha Coleman-Jensen et al., U.S. Dep’t of Agric., Econ. Research Serv., Household Food Security in the United States in 2015 6–7, 10 (2016), http://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/err215/err-215.pdf.
https://www.foodbanking.org/
https://westcoastclimateforum.com/food
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150122-food-waste-climate-change-hunger/

Smith, 2015. January 22, 2015.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Reducing the amount of food that goes to landfill and compost will result in a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. We can measure the reduction in emissions by using the following formulas that Bill Horwath from the University of California Davis measured for well managed and less well managed compost piles:

1 kg CH4 per dry ton materials * 23 kg CO2 per kg CH4= 23 kg CO2
9 kg CH4 per dry ton materials * 23 kg CO2 per kg CH4 = 207 kg CO2

Regarding food insecurity, we can measure humanitarian success with the following numbers from the West Coast Climate Forum that found that with reducing food loss production by just 15%, over 25 million Americans could be lifted out of food insecurity and fed nutritious meals. According to the Food Recovery Network’s calculations, 10,000 pounds of recovered food could provide 8,000 meals.

Our educational impacts will be measured as follows:

  • Students' hours contributed
  • Numbers of students engaged
  • Views of our how-to-be more active in food recovery video (will not show UW sensitive data)
  • Pounds of food waste recovered
  • Potential meals provided to non-profit agencies
Total amount requested from the CSF: $17,042
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Project manager $35 + 25.4 % benefits20 wks at 5 hrs/wk$4,389
Project co-manager $1520 wks at 6 hrs/wk$1,800
7 students $1520 wks at 4 hrs/wk$8,400
Inteplast Group PB100420R 10" x 4" x 20" Plastic Food Bag $22.071000/Box : 8 boxes$176.56
Bedford Industries Inc. 4" Red Laminated Bag Twist Ties$2.65 2000/Box : 4 boxes $10.60
Carlisle 10622C05 StorPlus Red Food Storage Box - 26" x 18" x 9" $37.4950 containers $1874.50
Tablecraft 1537N White 21" x 16" x 7" Polyethylene Plastic Bus Tub, Bus Box $5.89 50 boxes$294.50

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Research 2 week
Ideation 2 week
Prototype and building 2 week mid-quarter Autumn
Testing 2 week
Cont. prototype and building 4 week
Testing 4 week
Cont. prototype and building and launch4 week end of Winter quarter

UW-Solar Life Sciences Building Photovoltaic Implementation

Executive Summary:

UW-Solar is a student-led organization working with architecture firm Perkins+Will to install building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) and rooftop photovoltaics (PV) on the new Life Sciences Building of the University of Washington Seattle campus. The intended installation will serve both as an ancillary source of electrical power and a heat gain control measure on the building envelope. The BIPV panels will also be highly visible and showcase UW as a steward in sustainable construction. The rooftop PV will generate substantial clean energy and reduce the building's carbon footprint.

Student Involvement:

Students from the UW-Solar group, consisting of both students enrolled in a College of Built Environments studio and student volunteers, will be directly involved with the project. The students currently involved with UW-Solar range from undergraduate freshmen to Ph.D. candidates, and come from the UW Colleges of Engineering, Business, Built Environments, and Environmental Sciences. Students will lead the feasibility study and present options and recommendations to Perkins+Will regarding the design of the rooftop PV. Students will also work with Perkins+Will throughout the project, allowing them to become involved in a professional setting, working on project development, design, and construction management during the installation. All students directly involved in this project are receiving school credit through VIP-courses in the Engineering Department.

Education & Outreach:

The BIPV of the Life Sciences Building will be placed on vertical glass fins on the building’s southwest facing facade. The solar array will be highly visible to building occupants, pedestrians along the Burke-Gilman Trail, and commuters traveling along NE Pacific Street. Representatives from UW Facilities supported the installation for this reason during design review meetings in December, citing the ability of this project to showcase the University of Washington as a steward in sustainability.

Although the rooftop PV will not be visible from the street, students, faculty, and visitors can interact with the Siemens dashboard to view the energy produced by the system. In addition, UW-Solar plans to use events and public displays on campus to showcase information about the project. This will communicate the impact of local clean power and raise awareness within the community about energy conservation and renewable energy production. Campus outreach will also include information dissemination through UW student organizations devoted to sustainability, clean energy, and green buildings.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
Project Longevity:

The estimated lifetime of the BIPV installation is 25-30 years. The estimated lifetime of the rooftop PV installation is 35-40 years. Operations and Maintenance costs are incorporated into our budget.

Environmental Problem:

A solar installation directly adresses the problems of climate change, air pollution, and energy independence. Solar cells generate clean electricity on-site, which reduces the carbon footprint of the building.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The addition of BIPV and rooftop photovoltaics to the new Life Sciences Building will have a positive impact on the environment through the on-site production of renewable energy as well as the reduction of energy consumption. BIPV will increase energy self-sufficiency and resiliency by producing nearly 5,000 kWh per year. Initial estimates for rooftop PV range from approximately 80,000 to 110,000 kWhrs of clean energy output per year. In total, we estimate that adding BIPV and rooftop PV will generate approximately 110,000 kWh per year. The presence of vertical fins will control heat gain to the building, decreasing energy consumption associated with internal environmental controls.

A Siemens dashboard located in the lobby of the Life Sciences Building will display the energy metrics for building. Students, faculty, and visitors can interact with the dashboard to see real-time energy production data, including the energy generated by the BIPV and PV systems.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $150,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Items marked with *** are what CSF funding will be used for.
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Panels***238.6037088,282
Inverters***15037055,500
Racking System3037011,100
Weather Station5001500
Wiring20,000
Transformer4,00014,000
Labor (Installation)120,000
Metering7,00017,000
Permitting500
Commisioning4,000
Operations & Maintenance***150/year40 years6,000
Shipping3,000
Contingency35,000
BIPV ADDITIONAL COSTS
Remaining Balance from $600,000 budget for BIPV245,118

Non-CSF Sources:

Note: If we are unable to raise the necessary funds to complete this project, we will return the full award to CSF
NameAmount to be RequestedEstimated Application Date
Seattle City Light GreenUp Program150,000Fall, 2017
American Solar Energy Society50,000Fall, 2017
Department of Commerce Energy Efficiency and Solar Grants300,000Spring, 2018
Project Completion Total: $600,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Search for Additional FundingOngoingSummer, 2017
Apply for fundingOngoingFall/Winter, 2017
Construction of Life Sciences Building2 yearsJuly 12, 2018
Apply to Department of Commerce Grant1 monthSpring, 2018
Draft/Submit Request for Proposal2 monthsSummer, 2018
Construction of Rooftop PV6 monthsWinter, 2018

U-Bike

Executive Summary:

Problem

University of Washington students have access to several cycling services on campus; UWild provides low cost bicycles for day and weekend use as well as bicycle programs and classes; Pronto bike-share is intended to offer users bikes for 30-45min trips between two bicycle hubs; and the Bike Shop provides a low cost bicycle repair, parts and free maintenance classes. These programs provide valuable services but fail to provide feasible cycling options for students who do not have access to a bike but could easily commute to campus by bike. This gap in service is detrimental to the University’s commitment to encouraging sustainability on campus and to students who would consider biking to campus if the option was made more accessible to them.

Solution

In order to provide students access to a bicycle they could use for commuting purposes I have created a plan to implement a new program called Cycle Pack. Cycle Pack is a bicycle library program that encourages bicycle ridership by providing long term bicycle rentals to UW students. Unlike bike share, which provide short term bicycle rentals between two hubs, and regular bike rentals, which facilitate daily or weekend use, a long term rental gives users an experience of bicycle ownership and the ability to commute by bicycle. The experience of ownership teaches users about the various ways a bicycle can fit into one’s everyday life as well as the responsibility that stems from maintaining and preventing bicycle theft. It is our view that providing an experience of bicycle ownership is the best way to demonstrate the value of a bicycle to a user and foster a desire to purchase a bicycle after completing the program. It is our goal to do more than just increase bicycle ridership on and to campus. We hope that providing this service will encourage sustainable cycling habits that persist into the rest of a user’s life.

Initially this program will start with a fleet of 20 bicycles. These bikes will be rented out to UW students for the duration of a quarter for a $50 sustainability fee. UWild will house the bicycle fleet, handle the maintenance and facilitate the rental transaction; EcoReps will be responsible for generation of advertisement materials; and UW Sustainability will assist in the promotion of the program, as well as facilitating a quarterly meeting between all the associated organizations partnered with the program. The quarterly meetings will be used to discuss marketing strategies, reflect on survey/application results, set goals, and plan for expansion of the program. The members of this meeting will be; UWild's assistant director Matt Jensen; UW Sustainability’s sustainability specialist, Sean Schmidt; The CSF Coordinator; The EcoReps Coordinator, the EcoRep’s Cycle Pack Outreach and Marketing Coordinator; and finally, UW Transportation Services’ active transportation specialist, Ted Sweeney.

Funding Requirements

For the first three years the program is running, data will be collected from applications, end of use surveys, marketing expenses, and component repair frequency. After three years there should be ample data on program costs and a plan will be drafted to expand the bicycle fleet. During the 5th year of service, the expansion plan will be implemented. After 5 years the initial grant money will be used up, and the program will rely on the revenue generated from the sustainability fee to continue its expansion efforts and keep up regular maintenance on their current bicycle fleet.

Organization

The implementation of this program, and the administrative functions will primarily be carried out by Matt Jensen of UWild. UWilds motto is “Live curiously. Experience nature. Be Wild.” It is UWild’s mission to engage students in outdoor activities through; educational classes, access to rental equipment, facilitated trips, and the fostering of adventurous clubs. Cycle Pack would expand the options of UWild’s current rental options. The organizations currently possesses a bicycle fleet which Matt oversees and maintains. Cycle Pack would expand the existing fleet managed by Matt and provide a new quarter long rental option. This option would supplement the existing daily and weekend rentals currently offered through the program.

Another promising feature of working with Matt is that he has a pre established relationship with the UW Bike Shop. He currently enlists bike mechanics from the Bike Shop to help maintain the current UWild bicycle fleet. While the initial plan for this program could not find a way to incorporate the Bike Shop, Matt’s relationship with the shop may lead to deeper collaboration between the two organizations in the future.

Student Involvement:

How will your project directly involve/affect UW students?

This project will specifically target UW students in order to foster sustainable transportation habits before students graduate and start making long term housing decisions that lock them into less sustainable transportation modes. Cycle pack will also be enlisting the services of EcoReps, a student run organization dedicated to advancing the sustainability efforts on the UW campus, in order to provide marketing support for program. By engaging EcoReps in the planning and marketing process, we are ensuring a student presence in the governing structure and messaging of the program.

If you plan to use student volunteers in your project, how will you identify and recruit student volunteers?

While Cycle Pack will be enlisting students to help with the program, this relationship is conducted through EcoReps. EcoReps is an organization that already conducts massive outreach to the UW community and engages students to participate in sustainability projects. One aspect of ecoreps that will make them indispensable is their ability to take on quarterly service learners. This structural element ensures consistent engagement in the organization, and as a result, guaranteed engagement in this proposed program. In the operation manual I drafted, I created a role of an EcoReps: Cycle Pack Marketing and Outreach Coordinator. This information will allow EcoReps to either advertise the role to the UW community, or enlist a service learner each quarter by posting the position to the Carlson Center website.

Education & Outreach:

How will the UW community find out about your project?

EcoReps will be responsible for the generation of advertising materials which will be distributed at; tabling events, posted in campus buildings, displayed on sandwich boards, and published digitally by EcoReps, UWild, UW Sustainability, and Cycle Pack, on their respective websites and facebook pages. EcoReps will assign the duties of advertising Cycle Pack to the Cycle Pack Outreach and Marketing Coordinator. This position will either be filled by one of Ecoreps quarterly service learners or a volunteer with the organization. Each quarter Cycle Pack will provide $100 for marketing of the program in order to purchase materials, and supplement the EcoReps printing budget. In addition to the network of supporting organizations I have brought together, this program is a result of my senior project in Community, Environment & Planning. I anticipate that my major would also be interested in advertising this program to their students and using it as both an example of the work CEP students produce and as a marketing tool for attracting new students to their program in the future.

How will the UW community become involved in and/or support your project?

While this program is only available to UW students, there are many ways the UW community can get involved in the program. Organizations interested in partnering with program can help fund the expansion of the fleet or assist in advertising efforts, and in exchange the logo of the organization will be added to the Cycle Pack fleet as well as our promotional materials. In one bicycle program I looked into, the head trauma research center of the associated university funded the purchase of bicycle helmets with their logo on for use by the bicycle library. Another way for the UW community to get involved in Cycle Pack is for faculty and staff who are interested in Cycle Pack to hand out informational materials to their students, or offer up Cycle Pack as a case study for their students to research, analyze, and suggest design improvements. Currently, the only way this program plans to involve the UW community, is through the currently partnered organizations, and the student involvement efforts conducted by EcoReps.

Environmental Impact:
  • Transportation
Project Longevity:

The revenue generated by the sustainability fee will be used to both fund the expansion of the Cycle fleet as well as the maintenance and marketing of the program once the initial grant money has dried up. If the program is fully utilized each quarter, the maximum revenue generated by cycle pack over five years is $15,000. This funding will be crucial to maximizing our ability to expand operations while ensuring regular maintenance and marketing costs will remain consistent. The argument could be made that this funding should revolve back into the CSF, but this would be drastically detrimental to our long term goals of expansion. Our current three phase plan consist of, phase one; test out marketing strategies, determine the rate of component decay, and other operational costs over the first three years of operation. After three years, the program enters phase 2; the development of a long term expansion plan in the quarterly cycle pack meetings. Finally, phase 3; the expansion plan will begin to take effect in summer before the fifth year of operation, and continue throughout the fifth year. Cycle Pack meetings from this point forward be used to amend the expansion plan as new variables emerge.

Environmental Problem:

Problem

Bicycle ridership in the United states is abysmal by European standards. In 2009 the percent of bicycle commute trips in America was 0.5%. This pales in comparison to the Netherlands where  26% of commute trips are made by bicycle. There are many reasons for this large difference in cycling rates but one of the largest has to do with the decentralization of American cities in the 20th Century as a result of the mass production of the automobile. American cities of the early 20th century were overcrowded and heavily polluted as a result of the industrial revolution. Cars made it possible for citizens to live farther away from the urban core and escape the smog of polluting industry. Europeans underwent a similar growth pattern, but due to the limited space they had to expand into, and the cost of oil after WWII, the dream found in America wasn't as feasible in Europe. This meant that the growth found in European cities corresponded to the need for public and active transportation networks. In America, our cities are finally beginning to densify, but they are still being designed to handle massive amounts of single occupancy vehicles. Because the focus has remained on cars; the American transportation network is not designed for active transportation modes, housing choices do not take into consideration using active transportation modes to get to work or the store, and there is an active resistance to funding transportation projects that don’t improve the ability of citizens to commute by car.

In America, 26% of greenhouse gas emissions are a result of or transportation. Transportation is “the second leading source of GHG emissions in the United States.” CO2 and other greenhouse gasses are not the only problems associated with automobiles; Cars pollute the air with noxious fumes that are carried by the wind and settle in areas surrounding the roadways; rain water sweeps away oil and chemical byproducts left on the roadways and this can pollute the land and waterways surrounding a road; the noise pollution generated by cars can also negatively impact humans and animals surrounding roads; the construction and maintenance of our roads generates large amounts of pollution both from the materials used and the machines that install them; the manufacturing and transportation of automobiles are huge sources of environmental degradation and generation of greenhouse gases. Clearly as a society, we need to rethink of the car as a convenient option, and really look at how it is hurting both our health and the health of the environment as a whole.

How your project addresses the environmental problem?

Recently there has been a lot of pressure to increase the efficiency of vehicles and reduce the pollution they cause, but to truly target the problem, more effort needs to be done to make alternative transportation options more feasible. While there will always be certain trips that make vehicles necessary, there is no reason that the majority of trips can’t be made by using public or active transportation modes.

Seattle and Portland have been leaders in the effort to integrate the bicycle into their city. Through the construction of bicycle infrastructure, cycling is made safer and more convenient for riders of all ages. While infrastructure improvements are the ideal solution to the problem, there needs to be public support for these changes. Therefore education and grass root efforts targeting social change are needed to build public support for infrastructure projects. The project that I am proposing fosters public support for bicycles by supplying users an experience of bicycle ownership. Even if a user doesn’t end up ultimately purchasing a bike at the end of the program, they will learn about the value a bicycle can offer a user in the city.

In addition to educating students on the value a bicycle can play in their everyday life, this program will also get more cyclists out on the road. When researching the psychology behind the choice to cycle, I found that one of the easiest ways to encourage people to cycle is simply by having more cyclists on the road. There are two reasons for this; first, the more cyclists on a road contribute to a feeling that the road is meant to be used by the user; second, users, and especially college age users, are attracted by the social aspect of cycling. While this program is intended to have the biggest impact on the users of the program, this aspect has the potential to motivate commuters to the university as a whole.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Many of the effects of this program will not be measureable. However, in an attempt to improve the program, and access if the program’s message reached the user, a survey will taken after each user completes the program. The survey will ask students to reflect on their experience, ask them what elements contributed to their experience and what could be changed, and finally, if they are more likely, after completing the program, to own a bicycle in the future.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $25,055
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Maintenance line items were calculated by finding component decay rates then weighting the cost of repair after x quarters.
ItemDescriptionBudgetCostApproximate Repair Frequency (Miles or Years)Estimated Lifespan (Quarters)QtyTotal or 5 Year CostTotal W/Tax
Crankset (Chainrings + Crankarms + Chain guard)26/36/48tMaintenence$51.7530000 miles605.00$258.75$283.33
PedalsWellgo PlatformMaintenence$14.00?605.00$70.00$76.65
ChainKMC X9Maintenence$18.003000 miles933.33$600.00$657.00
Freewheel, CassetteShimano Acera 11-34t 9spdMaintenence$26.738000 miles2412.50$334.13$365.87
F/DShimano AltusMaintenence$21.518000 miles2412.50$268.88$294.42
R/DShimano AceraMaintenence$37.808000 miles2412.50$472.50$517.39
Shifters (Set)Shimano AceraMaintenence$42.93?3010.00$429.30$470.08
Front Brake Rotor + Caliper + LeverTektro HDM285 160mmMaintenence$29.0020000 miles456.67$193.33$211.70
Rear Brake Rotor + Caliper + LeverTektro HDM285 160mmMaintenence$29.0020000 miles456.67$193.33$211.70
HeadsetFSA No.10PMaintenence$18.0010000 miles3010.00$180.00$197.10
Front + Rear (Spokes, Hub, Rim)Joytech 100x9mmMaintenence$197.0030000 miles605.00$985.00$1,078.58
Front TireSchwalbe Delta Cruiser 700x35cMaintenence$18.493000 miles933.33$616.33$674.89
Rear TireSchwalbe Delta Cruiser 700x35cMaintenence$18.493000 miles933.33$616.33$674.89
Disc Brake Pads (Set)Tektro Disc Break PadsMaintenence$15.002000 miles650.00$750.00$821.25
FendersPlanet Bike HardcoreMaintenence$38.00?3010.00$380.00$416.10
LockKryptonite Kryptolok Series 2 STD U-Lock with Bracket: 4x9inMaintenence$40.9515 years456.67$273.00$298.94
LightsBlaze SetMaintenence$70.008 years2412.50$875.00$958.13
Bike Computer/ OdometerPlanet Bike Protege Computer BlackMaintenence$23.75?3010.00$237.50$260.06
Bike Computer/ Odometer BatteryPack of 20 CR2032 ($8.35)Maintenence$0.421.5 years475.00$31.31$34.29
BikeDew PlusStartup$463.00nana20.00$9,260.00$10,139.70
FendersPlanet Bike HardcoreStartup$38.00nana20.00$760.00$832.20
LockKryptonite Kryptolok Series 2 STD U-Lock with Bracket: 4x9inStartup$40.95nana20.00$819.00$896.81
LightsBlaze SetStartup$70.00nana20.00$1,400.00$1,533.00
HelmetsTedStartup$25.00nana20.00$500.00$547.50
Key BoxBarska 64 Position Key Lock Box with Key Lock, BlackStartup$66.00nana1.00$66.00$72.27
Bike RegistrationBike 529 (UW Police Use This)Startup$10.00nana20.00$200.00$219.00
StickersCycle Pack Logo + Sponsor LogosStartup$52.00nana1.00$52.00$56.94
Bike Computer/ OdometerPlanet Bike Protege Computer BlackStartup$23.75nana20.00$475.00$520.13
LubeBoeshield T-9 Lube, 1 Gallon ORM-DStartup$114.99nana1.00$114.99$125.91
DegreaserFinish Line Citrus Biosolvent, 128oz (1 Gallon) ORM-DStartup$99.99nana1.00$99.99$109.49
Marketing (No Tax)Promotional materials and printing $100/quarter (No Tax)Marketing$100.00nana15.00$1,500.00$1,500.00

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $25,055

Timeline:

TaskStart DateEnd DateDuration (Days)
Finalize Program Details12/6/20166/18/2017195
CSF Letter of Intent12/6/20163/27/2017112
CSF Full Proposal3/27/20175/1/201736
Order Bicycles6/1/20178/1/201762
Order Bicycle Components / Accessories6/1/20178/1/201762
Initial Advertising6/1/20179/18/2017110
Phase 1: Data Collection9/27/20176/12/2020990
Fall Rental (Y1)9/27/201712/15/201780
Winter Rental (Y1)1/3/20183/16/201873
Spring Rental (Y1)3/26/20186/8/201875
Fall Rental (Y2)9/26/201812/14/201880
Winter Rental (Y2)1/7/20193/22/201975
Spring Rental (Y2)4/1/20196/14/201975
Fall Rental (Y3)9/25/201912/13/201980
Winter Rental (Y3)1/6/20203/20/202075
Spring Rental (Y3)3/30/20206/12/202075
Phase 2: Plan For Expansion6/12/20209/29/2021475
Fall Rental (Y4)9/30/202012/18/202080
Winter Rental (Y4)1/4/20213/19/202175
Spring Rental (Y4)3/29/20216/11/202175
Phase 3: Expansion Implementation6/11/20216/10/2022365
Fall Rental (Y5)9/29/202112/17/202180
Winter Rental (Y5)1/4/20223/18/202274
Spring Rental (Y5)3/28/20226/10/202275

Biodegradable Pots - Replacing agricultural and horticultural plastics on campus

Executive Summary:

This project proposes the production of molded biodegradable pots to replace agricultural and horticultural plastic pots on campus. These pots will be made using switchgrass and brewer’s spent grain, both of which are readily available to the Paper and Bioproducts Center located in the basement of Bloedel Hall; a floor layout of this lab can be found attached to this proposal in Figure 2. The Paper and Bioresource Center focuses on conversion of raw bio-materials into pulp, paper, products, and fuels; making it a synergistic fit for this new sustainable molding technology. A current sustainability issue is resolved by fabricating these pots with up to 60% spent grains, preventing these grains entering landfill. Currently, a team of 5 Bioresource Science and Engineering (BSE) students has been established to begin production of these biodegradable pots, with the intent of creating a precedent of sustainable products on the UW campus. Our long-term goal is to provide the campus with sustainable alternatives to disposable plastics across campus organizations, research facilities, and classrooms wherever possible. 

Student Involvement:

This project will be entirely student-led by undergraduates in BSE, with support provided by ESRM students involved in SER. It is likely that student volunteers and student-employees involved will be student members of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI), as this machinery is directly applicable to their industry. These students will be the ones in charge of production, quality control, and continued campus outreach, and will be sought out beginning in Autumn quarter 2017.

Additionally, production of these biodegradables will be integrated into BSE curriculum as a permanent part of Paper and Bioresource Center. This includes an introduction to the machinery in 200-level BSE courses, to prepare these process engineering students to study a sustainable production line later in their undergraduate career. Learning opportunities will continue into the students’ senior year during BSE 436 (a papermaking laboratory course) where the product can be analyzed and improved upon. The design-based BSE 480-481 courses is where students will explore design economics and perform a full LCA on the process. In total, the incorporation of this process into the curriculum accounts for 40 students consistently working on production, analysis, and improvements. Perhaps the most important stakeholders to this project are the future students who will gain valuable hands-on experience with the production of sustainable products. This technology will continue to be highly applicable to industry as more plastics are being replaced by molded pulp products.

Additionally, a possible avenue for student involvement is opening an opportunity for an ESRM student to take data on the end-use of the product’s life. This will provide valuable information for the production and improvement teams, and more data for the project’s progress. 

Education & Outreach:

To increase the market size after production, we plan to give away samples of our product to applicable campus groups. This involves contacting UW grounds, botanic gardens, and possibly food vendors on campus to see if our products are viable replacements for their plastics. In addition, there are several BSE student group-related events in which free samples and/or demonstrations can increase exposure of our product. For example, TAPPI holds an annual Christmas fundraiser, during which our products can be sold to the public. In addition, we can partner with sustainability-focused booths and tables at campus events in Red-Square and have them feature our product.

In terms of education, the technical process details related to both manufacturing and raw materials can be integrated into BSE curriculum across multiple classes and grade levels, involving freshman to senior students in sustainable production processes. ESRM/SER students, and those taking ESRM 412 as detailed in the ‘Student Involvement’ section will also be directly impacted in the education of biodegradable containers as well. We will begin incorporating process information into relevant class starting in Autumn quarter 2017 after production has begun. 

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Waste
  • Water
Project Longevity:

We currently have a start-up team of five BSE undergraduates that intend to work on this project until their graduation in June of 2018. This means the preparation and start-up will be overseen by these five students, and continued by the BSE and UW SER-affiliated students mentioned above. Pulp-molding production gives these students additional access to self-sustaining design projects, an asset that will always be in demand in the BSE program. Currently, prototype pots have been fabricated and characterized at the bench-scale. The next steps post-funding are ordering the molding machine parts and assessing physical utilities once the equipment arrives. Though we have attached the approval forms from grounds and facilities to install, it’s likely that we will contract-out the installation of equipment given the complexity of current infrastructure in the Paper and Bioresource Center. Figure 2 has the finalized location of the mold machine on the floor layout as approved by Kurt Haunreiter. As of now, the following are assured: supplier, start-up team, potential market through UW SER, raw materials, space, and infrastructure. Figure 1 shows a chart of the current start-up timeline through the end of August. Once the product is produced in a sustainable fashion, outreach and education of these campus biodegradable products can begin.

Environmental Problem:

Many organizations on campus work with plants for landscaping, agriculture, and horticulture research. Although the end-uses strive to be a sustainable as possible, currently, most of these plants are housed in disposable plastic plant pots. These plastic pots are often washed out for re-use using excess water and possibly bleach, creating hazardous runoff. By offering a biodegradable plant pot, this project hopes to decrease the carbon footprint, water-use, and waste associated with the use of disposable pots. At the same time, soil health and plant growth will be improved by nutrients in the pot that originate from pulp, brewer’s spent grain, and black liquor fertilizer. Finally, the molding machine’s use to make the pots will serve as an example of sustainable manufacturing on a pilot scale.

Environmental benefits of these biodegradable pots include:

  • Better aeration for roots
  • Improved growth and survival
    • Decay of the pot allows roots to grow out into surrounding soil whereas planted (roots are unable to expand when planted from plastic containers, thereby reducing growth and survival [1]).
  • Prevention of transplant shock
  • Less fertilizer needed compared to peat pots, reducing possibility of burnt roots [2]
  • Increased nutrients in the soil through the use of brewer’s spent grain – this reduces the amount of grain in landfills
    • Study showed distillery waste combined with peat compost enhanced the contents of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and sodium in the soil [3].
    • Increasing distillery waste by 25% has a positive effect on seedling height [3].

References

[1]M. Theuer, "Plant pot that fertilizes when it biodegrades", US 20050188612 A1, 2017.

[2]J. Pullen, "Cellulosic molded transplanter pot or other products containing bagasse components", US 3102364 A, 2017.

[3]M. Bustamante, C. Paredes, R. Moral, E. Agulló, M. Pérez-Murcia and M. Abad, "Composts from distillery wastes as peat substitutes for transplant production", Resources, Conservation and Recycling, vol. 52, no. 5, pp. 792-799, 2008.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

While production start-up is our priority, monitoring the impacts of the pots is an important aspect of this project. There are three possible pathways for data collection; all of them are entirely student-led and could directly compare CO2 emissions, water consumption, waste, and soil/plant health related to our biodegradable products in comparison to that of plastic containers. Since the entire process from raw bio-materials to end-product is conducted on campus, a full life-cycle-assessment (LCA) of our products can be conducted by these students.

  1. The first monitoring method is providing an opportunity for data collection for an Environmental Science & Resource Management (ESRM) student’s capstone project via our partnership with UW Society of Ecological Restoration (SER). This will begin after production once Autumn quarter begins in September 2017.
     
  2. Secondly there is an opportunity for this project to be analyzed by Bioresource Science and Engineering (BSE) students in the BSE 426 and 436 lab classes. In both cases, at least one life-cycle-assessment can be conducted by a group of students each year, in addition to process efficiency modifications.
     
  3. Lastly, as per the CSF’s suggestion, integration with ESRM 412 “Native Plant Production” could be a valuable source of research for efficacy regarding the growth of native plants in our pots. This data could then be fed to the BSE students working on production to continuously improve product qualities.
Total amount requested from the CSF: $70,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Itemized Budget - Biodegradable Pots
NameFixed or VariableQuantityUnit Price (quantity included)Reorder necessary?
Machinery - Directly from quote
Operation PlatformFixed11285.72No
Control Cabinet for pulping and forming systemFixed13587.32No
Reciprocating forming machineFixed19142.89No
Auto drain systemFixed13428.59No
Hot-pressing machineFixed16031.77No
Hot press and forming mold X4Fixed418095.28No
Parts shippingFixed14000No
Other - Estimated Costs
Installation, (infrastructure wiring, piping)Fixed115000No
Sprayer (for black liquor fertilizer)Fixed12500No
Start-upVariable12000No
Chemicals (release agents, shipping)Variable11000Once per year
Raw materials and shippingVariable11000Variable
Equipment sparesVariable12000Variable

Non-CSF Sources:

Non CSF Funding Sources
Non-CSF Funding SourcesCoverage
Paper and Bioresource Center maintenance budget Chemicals, raw materials, and spare parts beyond 1st year of operation
Project Completion Total: $70,000

Timeline:

TaskStartEstimated Completion DateDuration (Days)
Mould Machine4/01/178/01/17122
Quotes4/01/174/30/1729
Purchase Order6/01/176/02/171
Delivery6/02/178/01/1760
Utilities7/01/177/15/1714
Install MCC7/01/177/15/1714
Pull Wire7/10/177/05/174
Equipment Install8/05/178/14/179
Install Auxillary Equipment8/05/178/10/175
Install Molding Unit8/07/178/14/177
Procedure Development8/05/178/10/175
PPA8/01/178/04/173
Potential Problem Analysis8/01/178/03/172
Schedule "A" items8/03/178/04/171
Start up8/14/178/25/1711
Machine CCO (Construction Check Out)8/14/178/18/174

UW-Solar Life Sciences Building

Executive Summary:

UW-Solar is a student-led organization working with architecture firm Perkins+Will to install building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) on the new Life Sciences Building of the University of Washington Seattle campus. The intended installation will serve both as an ancillary source of electrical power and a heat gain control measure on the building envelope. The BIPV panels will also be highly visible and showcase UW as a steward in sustainable construction.

Student Involvement:

Students from the UW-Solar group, consisting of both students enrolled in a College of Built Environments studio and student volunteers, will be directly involved with the project. The students currently involved with UW-Solar range from undergraduate freshmen to Ph.D. candidates, and come from the UW Colleges of Engineering, Business, Built Environments, and Environmental Sciences. Students will lead the feasibility study and present options and recommendations to Perkins+Will. Students will also work with Perkins+Will throughout the project, allowing them to become involved in a professional setting, working on project development, design, and construction management during the installation.

Education & Outreach:

The BIPV of the Life Sciences Building will be placed on vertical glass fins on the building’s southwest facing facade. The solar array will be highly visible to building occupants, pedestrians along the Burke-Gilman Trail, and commuters traveling along NE Pacific Street. Representatives from UW Facilities supported the installation for this reason during design review meetings in December, citing the ability of this project to showcase the University of Washington as a steward in sustainability.

In addition to this inherent visibility, UW-Solar plans to use events and public displays on campus to showcase information about the project. This will communicate the impact of local clean power and raise awareness within the community about energy conservation and renewable energy production. Campus outreach will also include information dissemination through UW student organizations devoted to sustainability, clean energy, and green buildings.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
Project Longevity:

The design of the BIPV is intended to last the life of the building and does not require much maintenance. Maintenance includes washing of the fins and checking to whether the equipment is still operational. As part of the agreements we are establishing with the stakeholders, we will be fine tuning the operation and maintenance plan and policy for the installation and determine who will fund the maintenance if any money is required. Listed below are those we have been working with throughout the initial phases of this project: University of Washington - College of Arts & Sciences The Life Sciences Building will be the new home of the UW Biology Department. Thus, the College of Arts & Sciences has a direct stake in the buildings development, and have been represented by Steve Majeski (Associate Dean) at design review meetings. Project Approval Form Attached. University of Washington - Major Capital Projects This project requires the direct approval of from the UW Capital Projects group. UW-Solar has presented proposals to the Capital Projects group, and has been in contact with Steve Tatge (Director), Troy Stahlecker (Senior Project Manager), and Jon Lebo (Director). We have verbal confirmation from all three of these stakeholders at our first stakeholder meeting at the end of Dec. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for them to turn in their forms. As soon as we have them in hand, we will send them to Molly @ CSF. Perkins+Will - Architecture and Design Firm UW-Solar has been in collaboration with Project Architect, Devin Kleiner, throughout the last several months. (We felt as an outside consultant did not need to sign a project approval form. If this is not the case, we would be happy to provide one.) NOTE: We have uploaded our formatted budget to the Project Approval Forms section.

Environmental Problem:

UW-Solar requests $7,500 for this feasibility study in order to continue working with Perkins + Will, and to maintain the option of a Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) funding contribution to the project with a full project application coming in March. This $7,500 will not be immediately spent, and will be returned to CSF in the event that a BIPV installation is not possible.

The goal of this study is to assess the feasibility of installing 120 shading panels with BIPV along the southwest facade of the Life Sciences building. Initial design consisted of perforated metal panels as shading elements, which has been estimated to cost approximately $675,000. The additional cost add-on for these metal shading panels to be converted to BIPV will be dependent on the classification of panels chosen, and could range from $100,000 to over $300,000. Because of this cost magnitude, UW-Solar is also examining funding options from the Bonneville Environmental Fund and from the Washington State Department of Commerce.

UW-Solar views this as an opportunity to convert a static building element into a featured example of sustainable infrastructure; this is especially true as only a fraction of the cost of the total installation must be raised (considering the $675,000 that is already set aside for the metal shading elements). This project is not only in line with the mission statements of both UW-Solar and the Campus Sustainability Fund, but is also an excellent opportunity for the University as this would be a highly visible and unique solar application. Providing both a source of renewable energy and opportunities for student involvement in campus development, this project will surely promote environmental consciousness at the University of Washington and throughout the Seattle area, via the prominent nature of the installation on the Life Sciences Building.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The addition of BIPV to the new Life Sciences Building will have a positive impact on the environment through the on-site production of renewable energy as well as the reduction of energy consumption. Power generation from BIPV will increase energy self-sufficiency and resiliency. Initial estimates for the 6,000 ft2 of surface area range from approximately 20,000 to 50,000 kWhrs of clean energy output per year. The presence of vertical fins will control heat gain to the building, decreasing energy consumption associated with internal environmental controls. Overall, the carbon footprint and energy costs of the building will be reduced.

As part of this project, each fin will have microinverters that will be able to read the energy generated. Smart meters will be installed that will callibrate the amount ambient temperature to look at performance and amount of daylight/solar radiation available to each fin on any given day. Through these devices, we will be able to determine kWh produced and GHG emissions avoided. Through modeling we will be able to determine the decreased energy consumption of the Life Sciences Building.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $7,500
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost
Panels $167,500
Inverters $83,750
Wiring $41,875
Racking System $88,875
Labor $390,000
Permitting N/A
Commissioning $8,000
Metering $7,000
Weather Station $500
SubTotal $780,000
Contingency (20%) $195,000
Estimated Project Cost: $975,000
Estimated In-Kind Donations
Item Approximate Value
Design Consultation $20,000
Staff TimeUnknown
Stamped Drawings from Engineer $50,000
In-Kind Donations Value $70,000
Project Value $1,045,000
Known Funding
Item Value
Life Sciences Building Project Budget $675,000
Amt Already Funded $675,000
Total Funding Needed $300,000

Non-CSF Sources:

Funding SourceAmount of Ask
Life Sciences Project Fund675,000
Bonneville Environmental Fund15,000
WA State Department of Commerce200,000
TOTAL900,000
SourceIn-Kind Donation
Perkins+WillTime for consulting and coordination for project installation
Affiliated EngineersTime for consulting and coordination for project installation & Engineering Stamps
UW StaffTime for consulting and coordination for project installation
Project Completion Total: $975,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Funding Research/Applications4 monthsMarch 2016
Full Feasibility Study (FS)4 monthsMarch/April 2016
FS: Design (Solar Analysis, PV/Inverter options, Design Review Board Approval, etc)1 monthFeb 2016
FS: Contractor Agreements2 monthsMarch 2016
FS: Budget Analysis2 monthsMarch 2016
FS: Institutional Frameworks (Establishing rest of the permission required for the project)1 monthFeb 2016
FS: Development of Education & Outreach Plan1 monthFeb 2016
FS: Policy (Coordination with SCL)2 monthsMarch 2016
FS: O&M (Development of O&M policy/plan and gathering of agreements)3 monthsApril 2016

UW Floating Wetlands Project Phase I

Executive Summary:

Floating wetlands are an emerging green technology that grows native wetland plants on buoyant frames to mimic functions provided by natural floating wetlands which have been largely removed due to shoreline development.

We propose to create a UW Floating Wetlands Demonstration Project that would occur in two phases, with an end goal of installing floating wetlands demonstration prototypes along the University of Washington shorelines.  This proposal is a request for the funding of Phase I, a feasibility analysis to further investigate optimal locations, permitting, design, and long-term viability.  Phase II funding will be sought after feasibility is determined in Phase I and will comprise completing floating wetland implementation documents, obtaining permits, construction, installation, maintenance and evaluation procedures.  Improvement of Union Bay aquatic habitat and moderation of pollutant loads is anticipated through the deployment of these floating wetlands.  Furthermore, this project will serve as an example for other Seattle water bodies and showcase UW’s leadership role in green technology and public/community partnerships.

Research and implementation of floating wetlands has been conducted worldwide and, while there are freshwater floating wetland projects underway locally, implementation of these structures along the WRIA 8 shoreline would be unprecedented. Measured environmental benefits have included: carbon sequestration; reduction of phosphorous, ammonia, nitrogen, heavy metals, and other aquatic pollutants; reduction of biological oxygen demand and food chain re-connections; climate adaptation and water temperature mitigation; habitat re-creation; and shoreline protection and beautification. (Dodkins)  Particularly, implementation of floating wetlands in the Union Bay area has the potential to replace lost function in the migration corridor for juvenile salmon along the Lake Union and Lake Washington shoreline.  Permitting to install new shoreline structure will require considerable discussion, education, and design response which is why a feasibility study is required as a first phase.

Many studies and precedents have informed the Green Futures Lab’s work with floating wetlands thus far and prior work on floating wetlands can be viewed on the Green Futures Website at greenfutures.washington.edu.  Phase I would build upon work already underway by Landscape Architecture graduate students working through the Green Futures Lab, College of Built Environments, and also require outreach to students and faculty in other departments including: Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, Environmental Science and Forestry, and Engineering.  The cost to advance this research is $11,379.00, which includes the employment of 2 graduate students for 20 hours per week for 10 weeks during summer 2016, and 8 hours a week for 10 weeks during autumn term, for a cost of $9979 with benefits. The remaining $1,400 will be used for materials and travel expenditures as detailed below.  In the future Phase II, students from these various departments would again be recruited to participate in detailed design, construction, installation and observation.

State and local agency awareness of the potential benefits of floating wetlands would be promoted through Phase I discussions,  and  implementation of Phase II would allow for outreach to the public and greater UW student body through the built demonstration wetlands, accompanying signage, publicity, and expanded partnerships for monitoring and stewardship of the project.

Dodkins, Ian, Anouska Mendzil, and Leela O'Dea. "Enterprise Assist: Floating Treatment Wetlands in Water Treatment: Treatment in Efficiency and Potential Benefits of Activated Carbon." Sustainable Expansion for the Applied Coastal And Marine Sectors (2014). Web.

Student Involvement:

In order to complete Phase I of the UW Floating Wetlands Project, this grant will provide funding for the work of two student team members for 20 hours (each) per week for 10 weeks during summer 2016 and for continued work of 10 hours a week through November. The scope of the work will consist of:

  • permitting research, including meetings with permitting agencies;
  • site feasibility research and analysis;
  • synthesis of existing habitat impact research;
  • materials research;
  • structural design research and prototype development;
  • construction of prototypes to test materials and structural design in response to regulations laid out in prior stages;
  • research of impact measurement techniques;
  • research and proposals for public educational opportunities
  • production of an illustrated design and feasibility analysis report

Through this process, students will gain valuable experience in: collaborating with an interdisciplinary team; conducting relevant research; translating new expertise into a design proposal; the iterative design process; exploring regulatory processes; and organizing and presenting their findings.  Additionally, there will be a division of responsibility between the two students that will provide specialized experiences such as researching construction techniques, providing biological expertise, leading volunteer efforts, and heading communications to other departments.  The work of these students will culminate in a cohesive document illustrating the anticipated environmental and social impact of the UW Floating Wetlands Project and a specific proposal for implementation.

These positions will be open to students in all UW departments and there will also be opportunities for volunteer positions.  Because of the nature of the project, cross-departmental collaboration between Built Environments, Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, Environmental Science and Forestry, and Engineering will be necessary.  Likewise, conversations will be necessary between the students and regulatory agencies including UW Facilities Services; UW Real Estate, Planning and Management; UW Botanical Gardens; WA Department of Natural Resources; King County Water, Land, Resource Division; City of Seattle - Restore Our Waters; Seattle Shorelines; Save Union Bay Association; and local tribes among other organizations.  This lengthy list of collaborators illustrates the high level of commitment and organization required of those working on the project in order competently proceed with Phase II.  Most importantly, this level of collaboration will lay the groundwork for continued involvement from each of these departments during Phase II.

Education & Outreach:

As noted above, Phase I Feasibility will focus outreach on potential partners and student personnel;  this process will initially publicize the concept, benefits and application of floating wetlands. This will ignite awareness in our students, faculty and staff, and promote conversations with agency partners about floating wetland technology and urban habitat restoration.  As the project progresses, it will be publicized through the Green Futures Lab website’s “New and Events” page, with updates throughout project implementation (Phase II) such as permit approval, final design, and construction advertised via the website.

A significant part of Phase I is also researching how best to reach out to the public once the structures are built and implemented in Phase II.  The UW Floating Wetlands Project has the opportunity to be a unique and exciting deployment of a new technology and, as such, educating the public to the function of these structures is a top priority.  This goal will be addressed in Phase I through research on educational outreach and interpretation as well as through the actual design of the prototypes.

An important goal of Phase I is to raise awareness and education amongst internal organizations through the conversations required of the feasibility study. As we have continued to explore opportunities with floating wetlands, it has been necessary to approach many organizations regarding our proposal and few have been aware that this technology exists or of possible benefits gained by varying the design approach.  To date we have contacted individuals from the following agencies:

  • University of Washington Real Estate, Planning and Management
  • University of Washington Botanical Gardens (Union Bay Natural Area)
  • University of Washington Facilities and Services
  • UW Wetland Ecosystem Team, School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences
  • King County DNR, Water and Land Resource Division
  • King County Wastewater Treatment Division
  • City of Seattle, Restore our Waters
  • Seattle Public Utilities (SPU)
  • Department of Ecology NW
  • Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW)
  • Washington Department of Natural Resources (WADNR)
  • Save Union Bay Association

This outreach has included presentations, conversations and resource distribution including the work of a graduate student affiliated with the Green Futures Lab who has created an online database of floating wetlands information at tinurls.com/floatingwetlandsSeattle.  In order to comprehensively analyze implementation feasibility, spreading an understanding of the ecology, engineering, potential design, and required permitting for floating wetlands across agencies is crucial.  This process will enrich possibilities for Phase II implementation and increase the creative and collaborative potential of future public education.  Involvement and support from organizations such as Save Union Bay Association will provide education and outreach far beyond our own reach to those within the greater UW community. 

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Determining the role of maintenance within floating wetland structures is crucial to the design analysis during Phase I. Having seen the critical role maintenance and its funding play in the long-term success of our Green Wall and Edible Green Screen project, we are gearing our design exploration of floating wetlands to low-maintenance and, ideally, something that will incorporate safely into the natural ecology of a selected site. Working off of our existing body of knowledge, we would like to explore different materials to assess their durability and, in contrast, their likelihood of biodegradation. Unlike our Green Wall, the floating wetlands are physically less accessible which would require a design that is capable of sustaining itself with little to no maintenance. Again, this is something that we view as critically important and would require substantial consideration within our feasibility study.

Environmental Problem:

As Puget Sound and its contributing waters experiences an increase in waterway traffic, shoreline armoring, and stormwater runoff, valuable shoreline habitat has decreased dramatically.  Only about 25% of Seattle’s shorelines are beach, naturally vegetated, or landscaped leaving 75% of surfaces as rapid runoff points for pollutants which, in turn, degrade and jeopardize a number of plant and aquatic species. (Toft 2003)  Although Union Bay provides relief from the the rest of Seattle’s heavily developed shorelines, its habitat has, nonetheless, been heavily compromised.  As a result of development and land uses, wetland ecosystems in Seattle have experienced “significant losses and degradation.” (Puget Sound Partnership 2011)

The UW Floating Wetlands looks to capitalize on the adjacent Union Bay Natural Area’s existing vegetated shoreline - the second largest in Seattle - to better understand how installed floating wetlands can mimic those that are occurring naturally.  Discussion with the Fred Hoyt at the Union Bay Natural Area during the feasibility phase will help to establish a significant precedent to the benefits of monitored aquatic vegetation and would provide evidence supporting Phase II implementation of floating wetlands as rehabilitative habitat for the WRIA 8 shoreline.

Across the globe, floating wetlands have been deployed with positive results in carbon sequestration; reduction of metals and pollutants; climate adaptation and water temperature mitigation; habitat renewal; and shoreline protection and beautification.  A growing body of research exists that supports these claims including Floating Treatment Wetlands (FTW) in Water Treatment: Treatment efficiency and potential benefits of activated carbon by Dr. Ian Dodkins, Anouska Mendzil, and Leela O’Dea which details the physical, biogeochemical, microbial, and vegetative components of floating wetlands and their positive impact on aquatic environments. Through the feasibility study, students will be able to compare these findings in discussion with local scientists and agencies to establish a list of benefits and monitoring practices specific to our proposed locations.

There are relatively few floating wetland projects in the Puget Sound area, and even fewer that are publicly accessible. Additionally, concern for the perceived potential ambush habitat beneath overwater structures has impeded adoption of floating wetlands as a viable strategy to actually create better salmon habitat.  Our initial prototypes have addressed this issue by allowing light penetration and partially submerging the floating wetlands to provide a shallow surface column of water that may serve as refuge for the vulnerable smaller and juvenile salmonids. Funding of the Phase I Feasibility Study will allow us to meet with regulators to present such innovative designs and explore approaches and standards that will allow future permitting of such habitat structures. Construction, installation and interpretation of floating wetlands in a subsequent Phase II will allow evaluation of the efficacy of such prototypes to potentially institutionalize their more widespread adoption on freshwater shorelines, and to inspire and educate the UW community and the public on their multiple benefits.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

We will measure the impact of Phase I Feasibility Analysis through the impact of our outreach to potential partners.  This will take the form of committed partnerships at the UW and with governmental and nonprofit organizations for Phase II implementation; commitment  of matching funding for Phase II implementation; student interest and engagement in assisting in construction of the prototypes; and encouragement from agencies to apply for permits to construct the floating wetlands in Phase II.

Although there exists an extensive body of literature on the positive impacts of floating wetlands, in order to comprehensively understand their potential impact on surrounding habitats specific to the UW waterways, conversations must be had with involved partners including Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, Environmental Science and Forestry, and Engineering regarding monitoring in a future phase.  Through these conversations, opportunities and potential for monitoring and measuring the impact of floating wetland prototypes during Phase II will be identified and conveyed in a comprehensive document to be used during Phase II.  Through exploration of monitoring opportunities, there is also potential in finding sources of funding for monitoring the wetlands, once constructed, over several seasons;  this would also constitute a measure of impact of the Phase I Feasibility Analysis.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $11,379
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?: 0months

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Student Employment$15/hour + 18.8% Benefits2 Students @ 280 hours each$9,979.00
Materials for design prototypes including: growing medium, raft material, plants (based off of prices for constructed floating wetland prototypes)$3004$1200
Travel Expenses for exploratory trips to nearby floating wetlands including Hicklin Lake$.54/mile + $31.153$200

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Contact permitting agencies2 WeeksJuly 1
Meet with Permitting AgenciesOn-goingNovember 1
Contact UW affiliates2 WeeksJuly 1
Meet with UW affiliatesOn-goingNovember 1
Research Materials and Site Feasibility6 WeeksAugust 15
Develop Prototype Designs3 WeeksAugust 15
Prototype Construction and Testing6 WeeksSeptember 23
Develop Implementation Plan2 WeeksOctober 21
Develop Educational Plan2 WeeksOctober 21

Project Approval Forms:

Tribal Water Security Colloquium: Rethinking Our Relationship With Water

Executive Summary:

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Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

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This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

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Non-CSF Sources:

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TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

SER-UW Native Plant Nursery Improvements

Executive Summary:

Overview:

The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery is a student-run project with a mission of providing native plants and horticulturally focused educational opportunities to the UW community.  We have grown substantially in depth, breadth, and impact over the last academic year due to the hard work of four nursery managers, six interns, a dedicated group of volunteers, faculty and staff support, and the generous CSF grant that we received in 2015. The infrastructure required to support the Nursery is in place; we have laid the groundwork for a thriving university resource.  We now seek to create a sustainable management plan for the SER-UW Native Plant Nursery as well as increase and improve our outreach efforts to UW students and the surrounding community by providing support for two Research Assistantship positions.  We plan to reach a wider network of students from across campus through engaging and interactive workshops and by developing a cohesive nursery management plan to increase our success in growing native species. The Nursery is only beginning to show its potential.  Dedicating the 2016-17 academic year to nursery planning and curriculum development will establish the intellectual infrastructure required for future nursery managers to continue this important work. 

Project Goals

  • Conduct plant production comparisons to identify how to successfully grow more native plant species to be used in on-campus and student based restoration projects
  • Research and develop a management plan that outlines proper and sustainable fertilizer use, plant development protocols and timelines, and sustainable irrigation practices.
  • Develop a curriculum for volunteer events and reach out to a more diverse group of UW students.
  • Write, plan, and host classes every other month, open to students and the public on topics related to native plant production and care.

The Need

The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery fills a unique niche on campus, providing native plants for student-run restoration projects as well as hands-on, horticulture learning opportunities.

Growing native plants is different than growing fruits or vegetables in a farm setting; the knowledge base for the hundreds of native species is not as well known or refined. The Plant Production RA would research and develop a detailed plan for the Nursery, including details on species to grow and proper growing techniques. Synergistically, the Education RA would create and lead classes on native plant topics. Most plant nurseries do not have the time to run experiments to determine the best method of growing each of their native species, nor do they have the same imperative to share their research the way an educational and research institute such as UW does. We have the unique opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to the horticulture community at the University of Washington and beyond by testing the effectiveness of our growing methods. The knowledge gained would benefit UW by allowing additional plants to be installed on campus, as well as extending to the greater horticulture community of Puget Sound.

Key Stakeholders

UW Botanic Gardens, UW Grounds Management, ESRM classes, Capstone, Carlson Center Volunteers

Estimated Total Cost

$78,050.16

Student Involvement:

The SER-UW Nursery is an entirely student led project with 2 graduate students serving as Nursery Managers and two undergraduate interns per quarter. Graduate students manage and provide leadership to this nursery while interns build skills and experience in the environmental field. This core team works together to host weekly work parties that engage interested students in horticulture-based activities ranging from sowing seeds to salvaging native plants.

We rely heavily on the volunteers who attend our work parties to help us complete many of our propagation tasks.  Many of those volunteers show up to our work parties to fulfill a class requirement, such as ESRM 100 and ESRM 412; the Native Plant Nursery is an on-campus organization where those students can volunteer with to fulfill their class requirement.  Volunteers also come to work parties simply out of their own interest when they see our announcements through our email lists or our Facebook page.

Every task associated with growing plants at the Nursery is done by a student.  In the past year, we went from about 20 individual volunteers per quarter to 50, with each volunteer working about 3.5 hours on average.  From Fall quarter 2015 through Winter 2016, we had 24 work parties that culminated in about 900 volunteer hours.  One of our biggest  partnerships was working with the Construction Management honors society, Sigma Lamda Chi, who lead our volunteers in the construction of our hoop house at five separate events.

We have also recently partnered with the Carlson Leadership and Public Service Center, hosting service-learning students in Winter and Spring quarters of 2016, providing volunteer opportunities at the Nursery for a wide variety of students.

Throughout this school year, the Nursery has supported six interns, two per quarter. Every quarter, we determine what our needs will be for the next few months and advertise for interns with skills to complement those tasks.  Interns go through an application and interview process, and they are able to receive class credit for ESRM 399 for their work at the Nursery if they are accepted.  During the internship, interns build knowledge of nursery management, plant propagation, communications, teamwork, and leadership.  We rely on our interns to take an active role in care for the plants, including regular watering of the plants, leading volunteer work parties, helping to manage large projects like plant sales, and a myriad of tasks that help the Nursery run smoothly.

In the next year, we want to further expand our ability to provide opportunities for student leadership and involvement by diversifying the students we reach.  We have primarily worked with students in the ESRM major or related majors, as they are the students who have a natural interest in native plant production and care. We would like to improve our relationship with the Carlson Center by increasing the number of volunteers we can take on per quarter, as those students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and interests.  We believe we can provide a unique experience for volunteers, as we have a hands-on learning component to our work parties that feeds into ecological awareness of native plant production and care.

As we work on our education efforts, we will reach out to the education department for interns in the Fall quarter of 2016 and Winter quarter of 2017.  Reaching out to students from different departments and creating a diverse network of skills and knowledge will promote a cross-pollination of ideas that will benefit the students involved as well as the Nursery as a whole, strengthening our ability to further reach out and fill the needs of more UW students.  Our weekly work parties are a place where volunteers from all parts of the campus can come and meet each other.  The work parties are not only a place where students put in volunteer hours--they’re also social, allowing people to meet students from other departments and with different interests and backgrounds.  At every work party, students are active, engaged, and learning new skills--we have the opportunity at the Nursery to reach out to a wider community of students to spread awareness of the need for native plants and the importance of growing native species for use in restoration projects.

With our curriculum, we hope to even further spread knowledge and stewardship of native species to a wide set of students with varying backgrounds in ecology and restoration work.

Education & Outreach:

More and more, Seattle residents are becoming aware of the consequences of planting and gardening with non-native or invasive species.  However, there are few opportunities for students or local community members to take classes that teach topics on native plant care, what native species to grow, and what benefit native plants can bring to the ecosystem.

The nursery currently provides informal opportunities for learning during our regular weekly work parties.  Our Education RA’s work would create more formalized, 10-15 minute lessons on native plant production for each of these weekly work parties, where volunteers would participate in a mini-lesson on a pertinent topic before beginning the volunteer work, improving the education quality for students at the work parties.

At weekly work parties, we often simply show the students what we’re doing and how to do it, whether it’s washing pots for later use or sowing seeds for germination.  We do not have a formal plan for how to run these work parties, and part of the Education RA’s job will be to write up 10-15 minute lesson plans on pertinent topics.  At each volunteer work party, we will teach the short lesson and then continue on to the volunteer activity; students volunteering with us will gain valuable knowledge as a part of their volunteer experience, increasing the education potential of these volunteer events.

Possible Weekly Work Party Class Topics for Student Volunteers*

Class Topic Associated Volunteer Activity(ies)
Pathogens & Pests: How they function in a nursery setting Pot Washing
Growth Needs of Plants: Water, Sun, Food, and Space Up-potting  (re-potting plants that are growing too big for their current pots)
Seed Anatomy:  Parts of a seed & how it grows Seed Sowing
Plant Maintenance: What goes into caring for a large number of plants Weeding/Watering

*Classes will be subject to change as we gain feedback from volunteers on what they would like to learn from these experiences.

The Education RA would also write and lead monthly public classes that would be open to both students and members of the public, providing a source of information for any interested individual to learn basic knowledge about native plants, increasing environmental awareness through education. These classes would focus on topics related to native plants and would be held every other month (October-May), providing an opportunity for students and community members to attend a class on a topic related to growing native plants. The topics will be presented in 1.5 hour-long classes open to UW students and the general public, held at the Center for Urban Horticulture and supported by UW Botanic Gardens public education staff. Classes will be held on weekday evenings and will be offered free of charge with a suggested donation. depending on the topic. Curriculum would be written, put into practice, and then modified based on feedback from participants and the RA’s experience. We will be working with the UW Botanic Gardens education staff to create classes that are relevant and unique to native plant care and production.

The goal for these classes is to provide a free source of information for people to use and enjoy. The classes will work to inform students and the public about why the use of native species is important and how we can improve our ecosystem even within the city limits by incorporating native plants into our landscape.

Possible Public Class Topics*

  • Native Plants: Replacing Invasives & Non-Natives
  • Understory species to finish a restoration project
  • Resilient and low-input gardens: Using native plants in the landscape
  • Spring ephemerals and native understory plants
  • Art and Nature: Seedling Development and Watercolors
  • Attracting Native Pollinators and Pollinator Pathways
  • Native Plants with Edible Fruit

*Class subjects subject to change based on feedback from participants and UWBG

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
Project Longevity:

The Nursery is actively seeking funding for its long-term operation and has done extensive research on other sources of funding. We are organizing and participating in a planning retreat with SER-UW (Society for Ecological Restoration, UW chapter) on May 9th to determine future long-term funding options for the SER-UW organization as a whole. We are also working towards finding funding that will support a staff position at the Nursery. In the future, education courses to the public could be used as a source of income to help support the nursery; currently, we wish to offer classes for free or donation to determine interest in the community as well as solicit feedback for the classes. Currently, the Nursery makes some revenue from contract-grown plants and public plant sales, which is then held in the SER-UW RSO account and helps us to partially self-fund supplies for the nursery. We have also had meetings with UW Botanic Gardens and the UW College of the Environment Advancement Department to determine the best approach for future funding. These groups advised us that finding private donors, non-UW based grants, or unallocated departmental funds was unlikely. They advised that the best possible way for funding the Nursery next year would be through on-campus grants, such as the CSF program. The specific goals of this grant proposal--writing a management plan for the Nursery as well as writing curriculum for volunteer work parties and evening classes--will be completed within the 2016-2017 academic year. These projects are meant to be resources for future Nursery managers, and are specifically intended to support the long-term success and impact of the Native Plant Nursery. We are already operating a functioning native plant nursery entirely through student leadership and volunteer work--the new RA positions will only strengthen and improve how we function.

Environmental Problem:

The Native Plant Nursery was founded in 2013 to fill a need: on-campus restoration projects like Kincaid Ravine and Whitman Walk needed a place to grow and care for native plants before they were installed at the restoration sites. Over the past few years, the Nursery has begun to expand to fill the needs for those restoration projects as well as provide native plants for restoration classes like ESRM 473, Restoration Capstone, and UW Grounds Management.  With the support of CSF, the Native Plant Nursery has spent the last year engaging students from across campus, expanding our partnerships, successfully growing 75 species of native plants, and constructing our hoop house.

Without the Nursery, students must buy plants from nurseries all over the state, and the carbon footprint associated with delivery and pickup can be significant.  The financial cost and hassle are also greater for buying plants from multiple nurseries in various locations.  The SER-UW Nursery provides an on-campus source of plants, cuts the carbon footprint associated with pickup and delivery, does not require Ucars for transportation, and is also often the cheaper option for students.

The hoop house project has allowed us to provide a home for our plants so we can successfully grow them to fill the needs of student-run restoration projects--but now we face the challenge of running the nursery as sustainably and efficiently as we can.  Plants require water, fertilizer, growing media, plastic containers, and many other resources when grown in a nursery setting.  The Plant Production RA will work on developing best practice guidelines on fertilizer use, irrigation requirements, and plant care so that we can use water and fertilizer responsibly and locally source as many of our supplies as we can.  The Plant Production RA will compare different fertilizer types, research and compare different irrigation systems, and create plant protocols for 15 new species to determine the best practices for the nursery.   All of our efforts will work towards growing plants that will go into the landscape to restore ecosystem functions.  We believe that it is important to have this source of native plants for student projects on campus, closing the loop of plant production, care, and installation.  On-campus native plant production increases our sustainability as a whole and involves students at every step of the process.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Having a Plant Production Research Assistant position dedicated to designing and implementing comparison experiments to determine what methods of growing, fertilizing, and irrigating are best will drastically improve the quality and quantity of native species produced. By refining our system, we will be able to grow more plants using fewer resources and provide additional plants to student based projects on campus. Instead of classes and students reaching out to nurseries from across the state, they will be able to use our native species that were grown on campus for them, forging the missing link.

We will measure our success in several ways, the main one being how many native plants we are able to source out to student-run projects, UW Botanic Gardens, and UW Grounds Management. So far this school year, the Nursery has provided 800 plants for on-campus and student based restoration projects. The more plants we sell to on-campus projects, the lower the carbon footprint will be for each restoration or planting project as plants would be provided here at the University rather than from nurseries throughout the state. Our success will also be in the management plan itself: the completion of the management plan, with irrigation recommendations, timelines on plant production, and specific plant protocols for at least 15 species will allow future nursery managers to use the plan strategically. We will also work on being able to rely on organic fertilizer rather than conventional fertilizer and incorporate our fertilization methods into the management plan.

Each year, new student managers will become involved with the nursery. These students, although surely highly qualified to perform some aspects of the job, likely won’t have the full set of skills required to successfully manage a nursery. These students will have to teach themselves how to operate the nursery and care for the variety of native species every year. Providing this learning experience fulfills an important part of our mission.  However, as it stands now, the nursery’s productivity, sustainability, and the quality of the plants themselves will be at the mercy of each students’ skills and experience.

A detailed management plan would improve continuity and consistency of knowledge from year to year, allowing us to increase the number of plants produced as well as ensure their health and high quality. A continuous supply of healthy plants will lead to more partnerships with UW students, classes, and groups, increasing the overall sustainability of our campus landscape and community.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $78,051
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
See Attached File "Budget Proposal 2016-17"

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Create propagation protocols for 15 new species 9 MonthsJune 2017
Conduct experiments on the growth of 10 species using varying soils, fertilizers, and irrigation techniques4 MonthsJanuary 2017
Write management plan4 MonthsJune 2017
Finalization of public class topics2 MonthsJune 2016 (UWBG requires a 3-month advance notice of class topic and plan)
Writing Public Class Curriculum & Volunteer Work Party Curriculum5 MonthsFebruary 2017
Incorporating participant feedback and editing curriculum into a manual for future use by the Nursery and UWBG education staff5 MonthsJune 2017

Putting the Green in Greenhouse Revision

Executive Summary:

*Original Full Proposal and Budget Linked Below*

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

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If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

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Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Planting and Installing Pollinator Habitats at the University of Washington Farm at the Center for Urban Horticulture

Executive Summary:

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Project Approval Forms:

Next System Teach-In

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

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Explain how the impacts will be measured:

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Project Approval Forms:

Lab Glove Recycling

Executive Summary:

Labs account for over 20% of all space on campus. Nitrile lab gloves are a significant source of waste produced in labs across all departments. A recent waste audit concluded that gloves are the second largest source of waste in campus labs. UW Sustainability and UW Recycling propose a pilot program from April 2016 to June 2016 (Spring Quarter) that would recycle used, non-hazardous nitrile lab gloves that are currently being sent to the landfill. The gloves would be collected by campus labs from the Molecular Engineering and the Materials Science & Engineering departments and then shipped back to their producer, Kimberly-Clark, where they would be recycled into products like park benches and chairs.

Student Involvement:

UW Sustainability’s Green Labs Intern will coordinate with UW Recycling, UW Sustainability, and participating labs to develop and implement the pilot. Our recycling processing partner will be Kimberly Clark. The Green Labs Intern will also coordinate, solicit feedback, and collaborate with students working in the five participating labs to develop educational and outreach components of the program. The participating labs will include both graduate and undergraduate students who will be actively involved in the program design and will provide feedback throughout the pilot. In addition, the Green Labs Intern will organize waste audits from the labs before and after the pilot and will collect and analyze data regarding recycling rate and program cost. Student volunteers and students working in the labs will be recruited for the sorting.

A meeting will be scheduled with students from each lab to discuss their responsibilities during the program. Students from each of the five labs will be making signage for the glove recycling bins. The students will be responsible for making sure the gloves are recycled in the bin and fill the pallets when the glove bins are full.

Education & Outreach:

Outreach and education will highlight the environmental benefits of recycling gloves. The program will educate, encourage, and promote the ease and benefits of diverting non-biohazardous gloves from the landfill bin to a recycling bin. In addition, the program would educate lab users on which types of gloves are accepted for recycling (Kimberly-Clark brand only, nitrile, and non-hazardous). There will be signage made to educate labs how to recycle the gloves.

UW Recycling and UW Sustainability will post on social media about our pilot program to the UW community about our vision of diverting glove waste. UW Sustainability will also feature a blog about the glove recycling program.

Once our pilot program complete, the results will be shared to the labs and UW community. If it is successful, the program could gradually expand. The program could be promoted through Green Lab Certification. Another possible method is to sign up small groups of labs in individual buildings, then eventually work with Departments to operationalize building-wide program.

Environmental Impact:
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

Our request is to fund a pilot program with a definite end date. The pilot would be used to determine if it is financially and operationally sustainable for UW Recycling to expand the program and continue long term.

Environmental Problem:

Labs account for over 20% of all space on campus, yet they produce tons of waste. Used nitrile lab gloves are a significant source of waste produced in University labs across all departments. Recently, a waste audit conducted from 20 DEOHS labs determined that used nitrile gloves account for 20% of the volume and 22% of the weight of waste generated from the labs. That represents the second and third largest source of lab waste, respectively. Only compostable materials (primarily paper towels) were a larger source of waste by both measures. In response to the waste audit, UW Recycling piloted a lab-specific paper towel composting program with much success, leaving gloves as one of the largest sources of non-hazardous lab waste on campus, if not the largest.

Recently, Kimberly-Clark developed technology that breaks down nitrile gloves into pellets that can be recycled into plastic products, like waste and recycling containers, park benches, and chairs. Gloves are being used and disposed daily. This pilot program would have a significant environmental impact by diverting gloves from the landfill and reusing them to make new products.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Before the labs begin recycling Kimberly-Clark nitrile gloves, a waste audit will be conducted for one week with each lab to establish pre-pilot waste levels.  The gloves will be collected in their own bins. When the labs begin the recycling program, the rate of filling the pallets and numbers of gloves used will be monitored. By comparing how many gloves are being thrown away and how many gloves are being recycled, we will be able to measure how much waste is being diverted.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $2,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Shipping Cost$600.002$1,200.00
Signage and Labels$200.00
Sorting Material$550.00

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Develop education materialsMarch 2016March 31
Pre-pilot: Waste AuditApril 4April 8
Implement lab glove recyclingApril 11May 27
Post-pilot: Waste AuditMay 23May 27

Project Approval Forms:

Kincaid Ravine Restoration Budget Amendment Proposal

Executive Summary:

Since February of 2014 the UW Campus Sustainability Fund has substantially supported the restoration efforts in Kincaid Ravine (located in the NE corner of campus along the Burke-Gilman Trail and 45th Street Viaduct). The grant funding from CSF has primarily gone to pay for EarthCorps crew days (to perform restoration work), project materials (plants, mulch etc.) and support for student project management and outreach. Over the past two years Kincaid Ravine has been transformed from a neglected urban jungle covered in invasive species and void of biodiversity and trash to an amenity along the Burke-Gilman Trail as you enter campus.

While much has been accomplished already, longer term funding and stewardship is necessary to ensure that Kincaid Ravine continues its trajectory towards a healthy urban forest full of biodiversity and opportunities for education and respite. Currently about 2.5 acres of the 3.6 acre ravine are in active restoration. With the remaining funding available (only 3-4 EarthCorps crew days are left) original targets to restore the last acre of the ravine are not feasible. In order to achieve this goal and others, a budget amendment of $35,000 is being requested from CSF to continue funding restoration efforts through the 2016/2017 academic year.

Below are the major components of the budget amendment request:

  1. North Slope Invasive Removal – This involves phase I invasive species removal and planting of a suite of native species in the last acre of the ravine that is not yet in active restoration. EarthCorps will primarily use mechanical removal of invasive species, though herbicide treatment will be considered as a last resort on steeper slopes to minimize soil disturbance and erosion. No herbicide has been used in Kincaid Ravine so far.
  2. Conifer Tree Planting – A major goal in the restoration of Kincaid Ravine is to re-establish conifer cover. Mature conifer canopy in the ravine is almost non-existent which is representative of a highly disturbed forest. We propose to plant larger (5 gallon pots) conifers to accelerate this process and ensure for better survival of conifer trees. The majority of conifers planted in the ravine have been bare root or in 1 gallon pots with an estimated survival rate of only 50-60%.
  3. Site Maintenance – Maintenance work is essential part of stewardship at Kincaid Ravine. It is typical for restoration sites to require 3-4 years of continued invasive species control to ensure invasive species cover does not re-establish. Maintenance work will be focused around native plants that have been installed to give them a better chance for long term survival. Maintenance will also include some summer watering.
  4. Surface Water Drainage Improvements – Enhancing wetland habitat through hydrology modifications. This will also reduce flooding of the Burke-Gilman Trail.
  5. Student Project Manager Stipend – Explained in student involvement section. Monitoring statistics will continue to be collected on invasive species cover and native species survival and composition. Websites: https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=kincaid%20ravine%20restoration%20... https://society4ecologicalrestorationuw.wordpress.com/current-projects/k...

Student Involvement:

The restoration work at Kincaid Ravine directly involves graduate students from the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS) and the College of Built Environments, undergraduate classes in Environmental Science and Resource Management (ESRM), the UW Restoration Ecology Network and the University of Washington chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER-UW). SER-UW, the Kincaid Restoration Team and EarthCorps hold 1-2 quarterly volunteer work parties in Kincaid Ravine (over 40 student volunteers participated in the autumn quarter of 2015) and the site will continue to serve as a laboratory for graduate and undergraduate students to study hydrology, soils, ecological restoration and wildlife.

SER and students in SEFS will continue to lead these volunteer opportunities and work to further develop relationships with project partners on campus, such as UW Environmental planners, UW’s landscape architect, UW Grounds crew management and non-profit groups such as Stewardship Partners and EarthCorps, who have been essential in the restoration efforts at Kincaid Ravine. Partnerships with other UW RSO’s have been formed over the past year too, including the Society for Ethnobotany and Sustainability and Stewardship for Northwest Women.

The budget amendment would fund the current student project manager and a student project manager for the 2016-2017 academic year. There has been a precedent in previous funding of this project to give a stipend to project managers of roughly 3,500 dollars for the academic year. The first three student project managers (including the current project manager) have all taken this project on as part of requirements for completing their master’s in environmental horticulture (MEH). This requires enrolling for a minimum 9 independent research credits over the course of the degree. 9 credits with an expectation of 4 hours of work per credit per week multiplied by a 10 week quarter gives you a total of 360 hours. That would equate to roughly ten dollars per hour ($3,500 stipend / 360 hours = $9.72/hour). This funding is not supposed to constitute an hourly rate, but a stipend that compensates partially for the time and energy invested in managing work at Kincaid Ravine.

Responsibilities include managing budgets and grant reporting, updating project partners on work, coordinating and leading volunteer work parties, preparing outreach materials, collecting monitoring data, creating planting plans, coordinating work plans with contractors, and leading “pet” projects such as wetland hydrology assessments, planting of pollinator gardens, “place making” and trail development. The current student project manager will far surpass the 360 hours (and 9 credits) and has actively been involved at work at Kincaid since December of 2014 without taking any compensation to date. Funding a project manager to oversee the work conducted under the budget amendment is also essential for the 2016/2017 academic year.

Ideally there will be another MEH student project manager who has to take credits and report their work to their committee as part of graduation requirements. If not, funding would be used to compensate an SER officer position at Kincaid Ravine. This will require a very detailed job description with responsibilities (similar to the ones listed above) and hour expectations for management work next year. Student project management is responsible for coordinating many student activities at Kincaid Ravine. This includes: Master’s in Landscape Architecture Interns - Two landscape architecture students have been working to put together designs for the “place making” aspects of the ravine.

The design includes trails, interpretive areas and also incorporates plans for restoration and wetland hydrology improvements into the design. UW-REN – The UW Restoration Ecology Network is in its third year working at Kincaid Ravine. This relationship has been hugely successful in bringing in students to the ravine who learn the full process of restoration from site assessment and planting plans to invasive removal, planting and planning for long term maintenance. The student project manager mentors this group and helps facilitate volunteer work parties and secures materials for the UW-REN work site. ESRM- ESRM 100 students are regular volunteers at the ravine. Intro to Restoration Ecology (ESRM 362) also uses Kincaid Ravine as a field trip site when studying restoration projects. SER-UW. The Society of Ecological Restoration UW-Chapter is a student group that is essential for recruiting volunteers and advertising events. SER-UW includes the work at Whitman Walk and the SER-UW nursery.

The partnership between the nursery and Kincaid Ravine has been especially successful over the past year. Plants are readily available on campus and donated to the ravine. Communication with nursery managers is important so they are aware of planting needs in the near future. Student involvement is very important to the work at Kincaid Ravine. This budget amendment would ensure that this connection with the student body would continue while restoration at the ravine is completed.

Education & Outreach:

We already have some pretty well established channels for education and outreach at Kincaid Ravine. This includes the Facebook and SER-UW website pages for Kincaid Ravine (listed in the executive summary). We also use EarthCorps and the SER-UW email list to publicize events at Kincaid Ravine. Kincaid Ravine has also given multiple presentations for CSF events and presented to ESRM 362, UW-REN and SEFS 549. Monitoring data collected last spring and this coming March will be presented at the annual SER-NW regional conference in Portland this April. Kincaid Ravine newsletters are sent out quarterly to an email list of about 40 project stakeholders and volunteers. These newsletters are also posted to the Facebook page and the most recent one had a reach of about 250 people. Outreach goals are meant to inform the campus community and general public about the work at Kincaid Ravine and to make the ravine a more recognizable and utilized open space on campus. Outreach is also an attempt to engage people directly in work at the ravine through volunteer opportunities or internships. For example, the landscape architect interns found out about this work and got involved through SER-UW meetings. With extended restoration work and student project management under the proposed budget amendment these outreach channels will continue to be used to educate people about the ravine and get students involved. Education efforts include interpretive signs, scientific reports and presentations at conferences, classes and student group meetings. The use of “before and after” photos have been particularly useful at showing the difference the work at Kincaid has made since 2014. There is also the original restoration management plan and year 2 management report created by the previous two student project managers as part of their thesis requirements. These documents are excellent for detailing the work, challenges and needs for adaptive management at Kincaid Ravine from year to year.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
Project Longevity:

We have funding from King Conservation District to have maintenance days at Kincaid Ravine through 2018. This CSF budget amendment would allow us to ramp up work and put the entire 3.6 acres of the ravine into restoration by the end of the 2016/2017 school year. After this we will utilize the King Conversation District grant. After 2018 the goal is that the need for active management in the ravine will be greatly reduced. We have discussed long term stewardship through occasional SER-UW run work parties and a more active partnership with UW Campus Grounds. We will be presenting the work at Kincaid to the Campus Ground gardeners in the spring of 2016. At that time we will discuss ways for grounds to have an active role at the ravine after funding is gone.

Environmental Problem:

Kincaid Ravine was a neglected open space on campus overrun by invasive species and trash from homeless encampments until restoration began at the site in early 2014. The lack of biodiversity (from a plant and wildlife standpoint), degraded wetlands, erosion and public safety were all problems at Kincaid prior to restoration. The project has already seen a transformation from 100 percent invasive species cover to less than 10-15% in most restored areas, and 4,000 native plants have been installed in the ravine. Biodiversity is already much improved at the ravine, and by installing benches and interpretive signs and removing lots of trash and debris the ravine is a much more inviting place. Funding the budget amendment will allow us to continue these efforts into the last portions of the ravine (as delineated by last year’s Memorandum of Agreement signed by the University’s vice president) while also performing better long-term stewardship (maintenance), addressing the hydrology issues and improving wetland habitat and establishing a denser conifer cover. These results are already happening, but we need one last funding push to make sure the entire area of the ravine is moving towards a healthy and sustainable forest.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Monitoring efforts will really ramp up this spring now that we are 2 years into active restoration. We will measure invasive species coverage, native species survival, species richness and conduct an inventory of mature trees in the ravine so we have a baseline to measure our canopy composition off of going forward. We will continue to track the number of plants installed at the ravine (currently at 4,000), the number of volunteers and continue to monitor the hydrology of the wetlands (flow volumes, infiltration rates, sediment deposition etc.). Outreach metrics referenced in the Education and Outreach section will be used to quantify how aware the public is of Kincaid Ravine. We have used and will continue to use modeling tools like iTree to estimate the effect the ravine has on carbon sequestration and air quality.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $35,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
North Slope Invasive Removal$1220 per EarthCorps Field Day6$7320
North Slope Invasive Removal$75/hour EC project management12$900
Conifer Tree Planting$1220 per crew day4$4880
Conier Tree Planting$75/hour project mgmt8$600
Conifer Tree Planting materials$7-8 per tree plus delivery $75500$3575
Surface Water Improvements$1220 per EC crew day2$2440
Surface Water Imrprovements$75/hour project mgmt4$300
Site Maintenance$1220/ EC crew day4$4880
Site Maintenance$75/hour project mgmt20$1500
EarthCorps Parking$15/day16 days$240
Taxes9.60% of above costsn/a$2557
Student Project Mgmt stipends$2904 stipend per year2 years$5808

Non-CSF Sources:

King Conservation districtfunds 12 maintenance days at ravine through 2018
Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Conifer PlantingNov-Feb 2016/2017Feb 2017
North Slope Invasive RemovalSummer 2016 through Feb 2017Feb 2017
Surface Water Drainage ImprovementsSummer/Fall of 2016end of 2016
Site Maintenance Spring 2016-summer2017end of summer 2017
Student Stipend2016-2017final payment in early 2017

Project Approval Forms:

Fossil Fuel Divestment Pacific Northwest Network Spring 2016 Convergence

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

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Non-CSF Sources:

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TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Environmental Display for Paccar Hall

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

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TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Urban Forest Management Plan

Executive Summary:

The purpose of this project is to complete the tree inventory database for the University of Washington Seattle campus and to develop a comprehensive urban forest management plan. The campus tree data currently available is incomplete and outdated, making management challenging and evaluation of tree resources impossible. The goals are to capture the ecosystem benefits provided by the urban forest, effectively manage the urban canopy, and provide a database resource for future research and educational opportunities. 

Student Involvement:

Project involvement will largely target students from the College of the Environment. Once funding approval has been established, we will coordinate with Professors David Ford and Gordon Bradley for potential curriculum involvement or internship establishment. We expect that 60% of the work will be performed by students, with a combination of both graduates and undergraduates. Tree Solutions professional arborists and UW staff will provide training to students who will be involved in all stages of the project. Specifically:

  • Students will be part of an advisory committee charged with establishing the goals and vision for the urban forest, review of the management plan, and establishing policies.
  • Students will be involved in data collection, analysis and report development through dedicated student intern positions that will be advertised through the appropriate departments.
  • Students will participate in updates/development of tree tours and other outreach information in collaboration with UW staff.
  • The dataset provided by this project will also be available for students interested in studying trees on campus.

Education & Outreach:

Our outreach goals are to raise awareness on campus and in the greater community of the tree resources on campus and efforts to sustainably manage these resources. We expect that there will be positive publicity surrounding these efforts. Tracking publicity will be one way of evaluating the extent and manner in which we are reaching an audience.

Student involvement in the entire process will be a form of outreach that we expect to spread beyond the participants as they share their experiences with other students and members of the greater community.

Much of the information resulting from this project will be available through interactive websites. Measuring visitation to the Brockman Tree Tour, Native Tree Tour and tree information websites will be one way of evaluating the extent to which we reach an audience.

  • We will update the University of Washington, Facilities Services, Grounds Operations and Capital  Projects Office websites with information about the project and will submit content for the Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability website.
  • We will contact campus media such as The Daily, UW Today & Weekly and UWTV.
  • We will also notify a diverse group of University departments that will impact the greatest number of students (i.e. ASUW, SAO), so that they can share information about student opportunities through their list serves and newsletters.
  • We also have the resources to hang banners around campus that will identify, educate and publicize this project that is being supported by the Campus Sustainability Fund.
  • Staff and volunteers that are in the field will wear clothing that will identify whom they are associated with and what they are doing around the University campus for the next 3 to 6 months.
Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The urban tree management plan will be a tool that facilitates increased sustainable management of the trees on campus. Ecological/environmental services (such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity, reduction of energy use, etc) provided by the trees will be quantified. A benchmark of the current status of the urban forest will inform specific management goals. Areas of preservation importance as well as potential improvement to the urban forest will be identified by parameters such as canopy cover and biodiversity. According to the US Forest Service Center for Urban Forest Research (http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/programs/cufr/), urban trees provide the following ecologic and economic benefits:

  • reduced energy use by shading and insulating areas around buildings
  • improve air quality and sequester carbon by filtering air borne pollutants and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
  • improve water quality and reduce flooding by intercepting rainfall and reducing stormwater runoff and erosion

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Data gathered from this project will provide a benchmark of these impacts as the urban forest now functions. One of the goals of the management plan will be to sustain and increase the quantifiable impacts. These will be measured by maintaining the database of tree information and utilizing iTree software for impact analysis. Kava Vale, a graduate student in the School of Forest Resources, is already leading this effort. iTree is a tool that aids in calculation of urban forest canopy cover, diversity and structure, as well as measurements of its environmental value in terms of carbon sequestration, air quality improvement, energy savings, and stormwater reduction runoff among other parameters.

The management plan will identify impact goals. Data gathered through this project will provide a benchmark of current impacts and will be used to set future goals. Current trends in the urban forest, such as reduction of tree canopy, will be compared to future trends. Data gathered and the subsequent management plan will be shared and used by a number of campus departments, including Facility Services, Capital Projects, and academics. The data and the plan will also be important for streamlining regulatory procedures related to the management of the urban forest on campus.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $63,760
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemTotal
Personnel & Wages
Students Estimated $18,600
ConsultantEstimated $42,690
General Supplies & Other
Signs and brochures for Brockman Tree Tour and Native Tree TourEstimated $2,470
CSF GRAND TOTAL$ 63,760

Non-CSF Sources:

Source/DescriptionAmount Requested
FS & CPO Staff Salaries$23,500
CPO Matching Funds $40,260
Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Start Date/Begin Funds(Includes Pro Staff Hours**)(March 28, 2011)
 Field work 600 hours**June 10, 2011
Data input, classification & planning(Includes Pro Staff Hours**)
 Analysis 214 hours July 1, 2011
 Creation of the Urban Forest Management Plan400 hours**August 19, 2011
 Brockman & Native Tree Tour360 hours** September 23, 2011
Completion Date/End Funds(September 23, 2011)
Submit final report to CSFSeptember 26, 2011

Project Approval Forms:

EcoReps Solar Table

Executive Summary:

Students on the University of Washington campus lack awareness and exposure to solar energy and therefore lack in energy consumption mindfulness. They walk into libraries and buildings on campus and plug in to charge phones and laptops at all hours of the day, but rarely do they stop to consider the source of the energy they are benefiting from. Solar charging tables on campus will allow for hands on experience interacting with energy alternatives. The tables are visible and located centrally on campus; in front of the Husky Union Building (HUB). Our hope is that this one table will act as a pilot test, and will pave the way for increased excitement towards solar energy and its many applications, including installation of more solar charging tables throughout our diverse campus. Students across campus will be able to interact and benefit directly from the charging capabilities of the table and its longevity will ensure that students will have access to the table for over 25 years. The grant money received would go directly to the purchase and implementation of the solar charging tables, while the maintenance funding will come from the HUB facility. The Associate Director of the HUB, Paul Zuchowski, has agreed to take on the maintenance that will accompany the table for a 6 year time period, after which a reassessment of the value to table contributes to the HUB and our campus will dictate whether maintenance is continued by the HUB or whether responsibilities are transferred to UW Solar, or Facilities Services. We are two students that are passionate about sustainability and are hoping to leave a lasting mark on the University of Washington campus. We held executive positions for the RSO EcoReps this past year and gained experience in executing sustainability based projects and surveys across our campus, this has lead us to pursue funding for this project that we hope will increase energy consumption mindfulness and pave the way for solar projects in the future.

Student Involvement:

This project is unique in its ability to engage the whole campus. The entire University of Washington Seattle campus will have acess to the table and its charging capabilities. The table will provide shade and rest for hundereds of students each day and also allow students to charge their devices in an outdoor setting. In addition, our project gives the opportunity for 2+ service learners to conduct surveys. From these surveys that assess student sustainable behavior, infomation will also be gained as to how frequently students use the solar table. Data will be gathered through observation and in-person surveys.

Education & Outreach:

These service learners will also employ marketing and outreach techniques, like customizing sandwich boards that help inform students of the tables and their functions. When surveying at UW Bothel earlier this year, we asked over 60 students how often they used UW Bothell’s solar picnic tables. We found that only 3 of the 60 students were aware of the function of the tables and it brought to light the necessity for marketing and outreach. While EcoReps tables at events like Farmers Markets, Earth Day, and other tabling opportunities, a poster will be used to inform students of the presence and function of the solar table. The HUB will designate a television to advertising the solar tables during the first and last weeks of the quarter so that new students have an opportunity to see the table and recognize its purpose. The table will be included in the UW Sustainability mailing list and discussed on Facebook during the weeks EcoReps service learners conduct surveys.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
Project Longevity:

The HUB will maintain the table for a 6-year period, at which time the value and function of the table will be assessed and maintenance of the table will continue. UW Solar has expressed interest to maintain the table after this 6-year period. Facilities Services will help maintain the tables, restoring them from vandalism and assisting in upkeep for 5-years.

Environmental Problem:

The problem we hope to address with our project is a lack of awareness towards energy use. Students on campus are uneducated about the impact of energy consumption and energy sources in general. The implimentation of a solar powered charging table will allow students to directly interact with an alternative energy source in a postive way, establishing an openminded student body and paving the way towards an increasingly solar energy friendly campus. 

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Surverys conducted through UW Sustainability and EcoReps will be used to measure student impact, specifcially their thoughts aboutsolar energy and their increased awareness of alternative energy sources and behaviors. This could be done with a bi-quarterly survery that is used to chart changes to student behavior from the first week of the quarter to the last week of the quarter throughout the school year. Behavior changes could range from reduced energy use, to increased sustainable practices like composting and recycling.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $21,931
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ConnecTable Pricing
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal CostFunding SourceLifespan
ConnecTable Cafe Solar Charging Station Base Price14999114999CSF25 Years
Bench/table top upgrade250012500CSF
Steel color upgrade5001500CSF
Additional shade panels (2)120011200CSF
Tax1888.60CSF
Shipping134311343CSF
Inverter2251225HUB10 Years
ProStar Solar Controller2001200HUB15 Years
220 AH VRLA Sealed Gel Battery7501750HUB12 Year
MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracker)3501350HUB
Battery Capacity Meter60160HUB
Digital Meter 21001100HUB
Remote Temperature Sensor50150HUB

Non-CSF Sources:

Non- CSF Source Funding
SourceTimespanTotal Cost
HUB6 Years1735
Project Completion Total: $23,666

Timeline:

Project Timeline
TaskTimeframe
OrderingMay 2017
InstallationAugust 2017
AdvertisingSeptember 2017
MaintenanceAugust 2017-August 2023

ASUW Student Food Cooperative Bulk Buying Storefront

Executive Summary:

The ASUW Student Food Cooperative (SFC) proposes a cooperatively run Bulk Buying Storefront, selling locally sourced, organic dried goods and cooking essentials. The Bulk Buying Storefront will be run out of the slightly refurbished HUB 131 kitchenette and will be available to all University of Washington students and staff. We are requesting $2500 for our initial bulk goods budget, and anticipate the rest of the costs to be funded through our ASUW budget. We will be providing these goods to students at a reduced cost in comparison to other bulk buying stores, and therefore anticipate generating only enough revenue to be financially sustainable and perhaps repay the CSF as a loan in at least two years.

The ASUW Student Food Cooperative is heading this project. To find out more about the SFC, you can read more at our website, http://sfc.asuw.org/. We also have been working closely with Sean Farris of Student Life and have received support from ASUW.

Student Involvement:

The Storefront will be entirely staffed by student volunteers from the University community and the current members of the Student Food Cooperative. The students will be volunteers, but will get some sort of discount, perhaps 10-15% off of all items in the store. We anticipate having anywhere from around 30-40 volunteers, to allow for flexibility within student’s busy schedules. Each volunteer will be expected to work one to two, two-hour shifts per week, signing in and out of schedule books and filling out daily sanitation and organizational check lists. The role of the general storefront volunteers will be to sell all bulk-goods to students, be an educational tool for customers, and do all daily tasks. ASUW SFC Co-managers shall regularly oversee volunteers to ensure proper service and adherence to safety regulations. If volunteers fail to come to shifts without finding a replacement or notifying their shift manager, the Co-manager may discontinue their volunteer status. Absences will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Volunteers shall in return complete quarterly evaluations regarding management structure, leadership, and our products. The ASUW SFC shall conduct quarterly evaluations of all volunteers and members. All volunteers and operational managers will meet on a monthly basis to check in on ordering, promotion, sanitation, to voice opinions and ideas, and to connect with each other. In addition to general members, there will also be opportunities for leadership roles that go beyond the day-to-day tasks of running the storefront, outlines below.

The following are descriptions of the roles and responsibilities of the employed and internally selected representatives of the ASUW Student Food Cooperative.

  1. Organizational and Operational Managers:
    1. Cooperative Co-Managers
    2. Financial Officer
  2. Committee Coordinators/Members: Visioning, Fundraising, Membership & Outreach, Publicity, Education & Programming
  3. Liaisons: UW Farm, ASUW, Central Co-op
  4. Member Volunteers: Upkeep, daily tasks, monthly staff meetings

First and foremost, we want this bulk-buying space to be an opportunity for students to create a community centered around food sovereignty, one in which the students can learn from each other not just about food but about the cooperative model and leadership roles within it.

Education & Outreach:

As a new entity on campus, it will be critical for the Bulk Buying space to be widely publicized and marketed around campus. To both recruit possible workers for the space and to attract customers, the following recruitment plans will be enacted:

Media: social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms, will be used in conjunction with traditional print media through the UW Daily spread word of the Bulk Buying Club and what it stands for.

Active Recruitment: The ASUW SFC will actively recruit members to work in the Bulk Buying Club through tabling, presenting in lectures, and partnering with various other campus entities and student organizations. The ASUW SFC will also work closely with the Office of Volunteer Opportunities to connect interested interested members of the UW community with the Bulk Buying Club.

Grand Opening: a grand opening celebration for the space will be widely publicized, possibly featuring music or other attractions. Either discounts or giveaways will be offered to a number of the space’s first customers to incentivize interest.

We want the new cooperative space to serve as a powerful educational tool for students to learn about the power of collaboration and cooperatives, local food, sustainable practices, and responsibilities of maintaining a ‘storefront.’ We expect that the storefront will allow for learning not just for those who volunteer with the storefront, but also our customers, who will learn about where their food is sourced, why bulk-buying is a sustainable way to consume food, and why a cooperative model is a self-empowering one. We plan on having information posters and pamphlets available at the store, as well as a book-exchange or library that has books on the topic of food and sustainability. We also want to train our volunteers to be educational tools, available to answer questions or have discussions about the purpose of buying in bulk.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Transportation
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

We are proposing a permanent bulk-buying storefront on the UW campus. We plan on being sustainable financially, both in making profit and also by annually applying for ASUW funding and grant funds. The management and maintenance of this project is long-term, and we hope on being able to expand our store-front space with time if this project proves successful.

Environmental Problem:

All aspects of bulk buying are more sustainable for our planet. Bulk buying reduces waste, as purchasing food in bulk allows for fewer or even no packaging. Less packaging also allows for less energy use. Additionally, we intend to source our food from United Natural Foods Incorporated (UNFI) and Central Co-op, which are both local sources. Local food ensures shorter transportation trips, which reduces carbon emissions and energy use. It also will reduce transportation for students, which will also reduce the University’s carbon footprint from fuel emissions. Finally, our food will be organically produced, which means less water pollution from pesticides traditionally used in food that is not organically grown.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

One University of Portland study researched the amount of waste diverted by buying in bulk.

Some figures:

  • Bulk almonds would save 72 million pounds of packaging waste for all Americans- so in two years of this program, if we had 200 students for 2 years buying almonds from our storefront instead of in packaged amounts, we would save approximately 96 lbs of plastic waste, just from almonds!
  • Bulk oatmeal would cut packaging waste by one fifth.

See this link for further information: http://www.bulkisgreen.org/Docs/2012-PSU-BIGStudy.pdf

In addition to the numbers, we hope that having this storefront will allow for students to make sustainable food choices in all aspects of their lives. We want students to think differently about food and food waste and the importance of having control over how and where your food was produced.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $2,500
This funding request is a: Loan
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?: 36months

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $2,500

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Electronic Waste Educational and Information System

Executive Summary:

We are looking to bring an educational digital waste streams solution to campus. Designed to be mounted in front of waste receptacles, we've created an engaging software for iOS that allows for users to come up and look up where their waste belongs. After users select whatever they have in hand, they'll be provided the accurate information of where each piece goes, whether its recyclable, compostable, or trashable. 

For example, if you have a coffee cup from By George, users will select the image, and it will take you to an item breakdown, telling you exactly where the cup, sleeve, lid, and where any other pieces go, essentialy simplifying their process. After users have selected the item, it will also provide the users what the ecosavings of their contribution is, (how much CO2, Landfill Space, and Energy they've saved.)

For this pilot launch (potentially 3 months, could be longer or shorter), HFS has agreed to set up units at McMahon, HUB, LocalPoint, Mercer Café 815, Rotunda and By George. We'll initially just set up one unit for the first week, check for kinks and potential hazards, and then we'll bring them to other sites. We'll take an index of all the items that HFS provides and sells to students at every specific venues and then upload it to our databases.

Recently, PACCAR has acquired a new electronic waste system, within their research and partnership with UW Garbology and UW Recycling, they had discovered that 48% percent of waste on campus was incorrectly placed. "After the installation in PACCAR was placed above the bins, incorrectly sorted waste levels dropped to 40 percent, an 8 percent decrease. Additionally, the amount of waste that was correctly diverted from landfills rose ten percent, from 46 percent to 56 percent." What we're looking to do is take this to 6 high traffic food sites, and add the ability for students to interact with it.

On top of this, we've recently launched a separate pilot with the Space Needle, and have been seeing success of several hundreds of uses per day through our analytics unit.

Student Involvement:

Student involvement in this project is segmented in a few different aspects with variance in participation. 

Project Leads:

Benjamin and I are responsible for the software design and the building of the product itself. We've built it from scratch and will continue to focus on the technical development, item indexing, and communication between different University departments.

Ari, our other project lead, will be focused on developing the proper marketing and framing of this project so that we can have proper media coverage, promoting the University and proper waste disposal.

The three of us will  have the task of observing and interacting with students in order figuring out how to attract more users and innovate through different types of research and development, as well as testing phases to maximize the impact. We'll constantly be tinkering the software over the duration of the pilot launch and increasing the number of items we support.

Students Clubs, RSO's and Departments:

A key aspect of this project will be promoting awareness of recycling on campus. While the EcoTab is a tool to help users figure out where their waste goes, in order to reach our goal of reducing improper waste, we have to both inform students of the importance of recycling, as well as what tools are available for them to do so. 

Tabling with different RSO's and departments will successfully allow us to reach out to students and inform them of what tools are out there for them. 

We've opened conversations with students at UW Recycling, and look to include and partner with students and leaders of RSO's "Green Husky Coalition," Students Expressing Environmental Dedication," and "EcoReps" to discuss different strategies and plans of action to promote several different tabling events throughout campus with the goal of promoting recycling.

Professors and Faculty

We'll also be looking to seek advice from the team that created the Animated Waste Display including:

Karen Cheng and Kristine Matthews, professor and assistant professor, respectively, of the Visual Communication Design Program in the School of Art + Art History + Design.

Anthropology professor Peter Lape and doctoral candidate Jack Johnson to study the installation's potential impact.

Education & Outreach:

Our project will be publicized to campus by connecting with different on campus resources through mediums such as different tabling events, the actual physical units, and proper media coverage. 

If our project does get approved, we will reach out to the leaders of the aforementioned RSO's and faculty and discuss the opportunities available in order to broaden on-campus student awareness. From a media perspective, we're well connected with the Daily and look to have an extended piece about the new infrastructure on campus.

We'll also open conversations with the Marketing/PR/Outreach positions of both HFS and UW Recycling. We expect some success with additional media outlets such as the "Seattle Times" as they could be interested in covering a large piece about this new electronic waste guide due to our close relationship with the Seattle Public Utilities and our successful beta launch at the Seattle Space Needle.

Our outreach goals are to not only inform students and faculty of this new clean tech solution, but to encourage and excite the people of Seattle with new and easy ways to access the information of where their waste goes. We believe that as technology moves forward in many different ways, consumer facing clean tech is often absent. We want to bring something that everyday people can harness and learn from. We want to show that the University of Washington is not only a sustainable university, but a university that innovates to achieve better results.

While there are a lot of extra features and value adds on the EcoTab, the focus is for students, faculty, and visitors to properly dispose of their waste in the correct manner. It should be understood that this is a tool that will help train current and new students in properly disposing of their garbage. We don't expect this to be a tool that a student will go up to every single day, or a tool a student will access every single time they throw something away, but we see this as a tool where once a student accesses it, they can have a quick and memorable learning experience that will carry on the next time they have the same waste.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Waste
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

The long term management and maintenance of this project will be managed by me, William Zhou, and the other project leads. We will be in close communication with HFS, CSF, and UW Recycling throughout the entirety of the project and beyond. If the pilot launch is successful, then two things may happen. If we reach an agreement with HFS post pilot, then we will create a software license for HFS and they will pick up any long term or month to month costs associated to keep the service running. In the future, if the product is deemed successful and useful by the parties involved, then we will reapply for additional units to be placed in more areas on campus.

****I was asked to address these additional questions via email****

Have you explored lower cost alternatives to ipads?

Unfortunately, our code is written all in "Swift" the native language for iOS, which has taken us 6 months to develop. But yes, we did consider this in the beginning of the project, however, we decided to forego any other platforms such as Android for a few reasons.

  1. Android hardware (tablets) have no standard, and have many different variations on screen size, and performance between different models. In our experience, units of the same model also seem to have more inconsistencies on processing ability, longevity, and battery life.
  2. iPads were/are the most popular tablets, and because the EcoTab is built for ease of use, we decided to go with the most familiar model to end-users.
  3. Part of the value in this project is that we will be continuously updating the software to improve it's usability. Many lower cost alternatives to the iPad Air 2 will either no longer have support for updating their operating system, which means we won't be able to update the software itself, or, the hardware within the product will no longer be able to run the operating system smoothly, meaning we'll have poor performance for the software.

What is the longevity of this project?

What happens to the ipads after the month trial period?

Depending on when we'll be able to get everything set up, and the timing of summer quarter, the pilot may end up running for longer than a month long period. However, assuming that we fail to reach an agreement with HFS, the iPads and kiosks can easily be donated to Kane Hall and repurposed for students to check out and borrow. They can be used for future events or projects, and provide an easy format for surveys or other programs. These kiosks will be University of Washington branded.

Will the software be licensed to UW or sold to UW?

If the pilot is successful and we reach an agreement with HFS, then we will most likely create a software license agreement with HFS.

If successful, what is your plan to expand?

If successful and all things go as intended, we'll look to reapply to the CSF grant for more units around campus, and perhaps bring it to other universities in the future.

Environmental Problem:

The environmental problem that we are addressing is one that Americans face every single day. How do we better the environment and reduce our waste footprint? There are an infinite number of upsetting statistics to cite, such as the one earlier, regarding how ineffecient we currently are with our waste management, but what I'm going to cite, is how waste infrastructure is effective.

Waste streams infrastructure creates tangible changes:

When the University of Washington introduced Minimax containers into 60% of building, 1251.59 tons of food waste were diverted from Academic and facilities buildings on campus, and $674,387 in disposal costs were saved due to the waste diversion through recycling and composting.

When the University of Washington introduced the Animated Waste Display in one building, they immediately saw an 8% waste reduction on site. According to their study, when no signage was added, the bins did not impact regular waste disposal behavior.

According to the recap of Recyclemania, Brenda Pulley, Vice President of 'Keep America Beautiful' “Research shows people are more likely to recycle when they see it as part of the culture around them,”

Simply put, we want to reduce the amount of misappropriated waste that gets thrown into incorrect containers. By doing so, we will increase the rate of materials that are properly recycled and composted, and decrease the amount of waste that is unnecessarily trashed.

Our project seeks to combat this misappropriation of waste both directly and indirectly. Through the educational aspect of the electronic waste guide system, students can properly learn of how to dispose of their garbage, which is especially important for Seattle Transplants, as many other cities and states do not emphasize the importance of proper waste reduction. Students, faculty, and visitors can easily educate themselves in a short amount of time on a relatable tablet format. Indirectly speaking, we see this as an investment in a new generation/era of waste disposal infrastructure. It's an opportunity for our community to be the leaders of a new clean tech movement, and for young leaders to empower generations of old and new. 

Billions of dollars are spent into waste sorting facilities, which if given additional thought, is a reactive approach to correct garbage disposal. With this in mind, minimal effort has been put into a proactive approach, the education of consumers; when people correctly sort their own waste.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The EcoTab actually estimates the environmental impact of the properly recycled/composted goods that are provided on site. Asssuming that a user properly disposes of their waste according to the icons, a user can then confirm their waste selection, and are taken to the last page which is an EcoSavings page, where they can discover their own contribution to reducing CO2, Energy, and Landfill space. They can also explore how much total CO2, Energy, and Landfill space a venue has saved over the course of: one day, one week, one month, and one year.

We determine these estimates by weighing and massing every single item that is provided by HFS, e.g. compostable napkins, cups, utensils, plastic packaging etc. We then use waste savings rates and conversions of different materials when properly recycled, ie: plastic, aluminum, paper etc, which are provided by the comprehensive waste management company "Waste Management Inc," in order to accurately estimate the grams of CO2 reduced, the kilowatt hours of energy saved, and the volume of area saved by proper waste disposal. 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $13,694
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
iPad Pro and Kiosk stand and case bundle$1519.006$9114.00
Shipping and handling of iPads and Kiosks$459.62N/A$459.62
Estimated installation costs including cords, cables, tapes, locks and potential outside labor costs$500N/A$500.00
Estimated Amazon Webservices and Heroku cloud server costs and maintanence for the backend databases$1220Over the course of the 3 month pilot launch$1220.00
Stipend for 3 months$8003$2400.00

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $13,694

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Index all the items provided by HFS and upload to databases1.5-2 weeksWe can start this as soon as the application is approved
Meetings with different RSOs to do tabling events1 week
Tabling eventsTBD
Media outlets and coverageTBD
Shipping of iPads and KiosksTBD
Installation once materials arrive1 week
One unit launch1 week
Second unit launch1 week
Full launch with all units3 months

Earth Day 2016 Celebration

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Campus Illumination: An Implementation Strategy for Sustainable Exterior Lighting

Executive Summary:

The Campus Illumination team proposes the creation of an actionable roadmap for improving the energy efficiency and comprehensive sustainability of campus-wide exterior lighting at the University of Washington Seattle Campus (UW). This roadmap will be the product of a multi-disciplinary effort through which students will collaborate with experts from both on and off campus to collect data regarding existing lighting conditions and to delineate lighting guidelines for future campus development. The Campus Illumination roadmap aspires to:

  • Consolidate the design, technical, and operations expertise of various campus and off-campus entities in order to streamline and enrich the transition toward sustainable campus lighting
  • Serve as an actionable tool for implementing campus lighting with a more comprehensive vision of sustainability
  • Provide hands-on, applied learning experience for students to carry out the goals of the UW Climate Action Plan
  • To develop a tool for updating GIS databases in the field for immediate and accurate campus data

Exterior lighting constitutes a significant share of overall campus energy consumption and current lighting conditions at UW exhibit a fragmented legacy of light fixtures, presenting an opportunity for measurably reducing electrical loads. Yet it is critical to not simply take a one-for-one fixture replacement approach, but rather to adopt a holistic definition of sustainability that takes into account human experience, maintainability, and dark sky measures alongside energy efficiency. This project will produce an essential tool for the UW community by instituting best-practice measures for sustainable lighting across campus, in order to streamline and optimize the transition from inefficient fixtures to a sustainable nighttime campus environment.

With a definition of sustainability that encompasses campus experience and feasibility over the long term, this roadmap is an invaluable addition to the campus infrastructure in coordinating and catalyzing new low-energy lighting. The roadmap will be the result of extensive student-led data collection and collaboration with lighting design professionals and campus offices. The document will:

  1. Deliver design guidelines for exterior lighting within specific campus typologies. Using the Campus Landscape Framework, the team will identify the needs and qualities of distinct campus spaces—such as residential landscapes, urban frontage, and parking lots—to establish context-specific guidelines. This strategy ensures that lighting needs are tuned to achieve maximum efficiency while responding to site needs and uses.
  2. Articulate an overall vision as to how these spaces transition and relate to each other in order to enhance the legibility and navigability of the nighttime campus.
  3. Delineate an implementation strategy that identifies areas with the most significant opportunities for energy reduction and environmental amelioration. This guide will be used as a reference to inform the retrofitting and replacement efforts of Campus Engineering, to coordinate the lighting design of new campus development, and as an educational tool for the wider campus community.

This project is asking for $71,601.06 to support the students and outside experts involved in orchestrating this cross-disciplinary and trans-institutional effort. Funding will primarily support student leaders in coordinating the data collection and analysis, producing a report, and refining and publishing the ultimate roadmap. Funding will also support the creation and implementation of signage that will engage the wider UW community. Guidance from faculty and the development of an application for updating lighting data in the field will be supported entirely in kind.

Student Involvement:

Campus Illumination will be coordinated by a Graduate Student Research Assistant from the Department of Landscape Architecture, who will work with the project partners to oversee data collection and analysis, facilitate design visioning, and ultimately produce the final roadmap deliverable.

An application for updating GIS data in the field will be developed by a Geography student to be used for quantitative data collection. A student intern employed by the Integrated Design Lab (IDL) during the summer quarter will implement this application to collect data regarding existing campus fixtures to update the GIS database.

The data set collected for this project will be enriched with additional assessment performed by students enrolled in the Architecture 435 Environmental Lighting course in Autumn 2016 and IDL student employees. These students, primarily from departments within the College of Built Environments, will have an opportunity for hands-on applied learning to identify key opportunities for enhancing the campus experience through exterior lighting. The students will engage with experts from within and outside of the University to develop a rich understanding of environmental lighting practices. In addition to external and faculty expertise, the students will have a unique opportunity to communicate with the UW administrative offices that develop and maintain the campus. This interaction sparks a larger inter-university conversation in which students and staff can collaborate to envision a more sustainable future for the campus.

Funding will largely support a Graduate Student Research Position to administer the project throughout its duration. This tuition-exempt position will enrich the project by ensuring the utmost commitment of the student leader and ensure the degree of investment necessary for the roadmap to achieve its highest possible impact on campus sustainability. Students from the College of Built Environments will be employed by the Integrated Design Lab (IDL) to assist with the implementation and analysis of data collection, providing applied learning experiences on campus in addition to valuable work experience in the IDL’s off-campus Bullitt Center office. The creation of the roadmap will be supported by generous in-kind donations of faculty and staff time.

The project will be administered in three consecutive phases, starting immediately after funding and culminating in the Spring Quarter of 2017:

Phase 1: Building a foundation (Spring-Summer 2016)

The first phase is primarily concerned with data collection to serve as a concrete basis upon which the ultimate design guidelines will be constructed. A graduate student from the Geography department will create an application with which data regarding existing campus light fixtures will be added to the GIS database in the field. Student interns employed by the UW Integrated Design Lab (IDL), will collect data to update exterior lighting information across campus including wattage, controller type, and fixture images. This GIS data will create a portrait of campus lighting conditions that will be indispensable toward creating actionable guidelines, and will also be a valuable tool that is publicly available for research and other planning pursuits.

The data collection phase includes a public survey to gain a sense of the larger community’s current attitudes toward campus lighting techniques. This information will be used to inform design decisions, and to gauge how the campus community perceives current lighting strategies. Community feedback will allow the team to assess how new lighting technology on campus relates to human experience, and how energy-efficient lighting can be implemented in a manner that enriches the campus experience.

Phase 2: Exploring possibilities (Autumn 2016)

The second phase will contribute further detail to the exterior dataset by exploring campus lighting with a more qualitative lens. Students enrolled in ARCH435: Principles and Practice of Environmental Lighting, adapted in response to this project, will assess strategic regions of campus (see Appendices 1&2) to investigate lighting strategies, and use technical tools to measure lighting fixtures. The students will have the unique opportunity to engage with professionals from the Lighting Design Lab, guest lecturers with expertise in exterior lighting, and campus staff involved in lighting the campus. Students will build a knowledge base of low-energy lighting technology and combine that with lighting design concepts to generate potential campus lighting strategies that will be sustainable in the long term.

Phase 3: Creating a roadmap (Winter-Spring 2017)

The final phase of the project entails a synthesis of the data collected and design visions created in phases one and two. The graduate student lead will work with professional partners to translate the student efforts into a deliverable that contains actionable design guidelines and an implementation plan. This roadmap will be a tangible tool that will be used by UW staff to move toward deeply sustainable lighting practices that significantly reduce energy consumption while enhancing the nighttime campus experience. This roadmap will also be a publicly available educational tool that will serve as a valuable resource for exterior lighting concerns and for illustrating the role exterior lighting plays in sustainability. This tool will streamline the partnership between Seattle City Light and the University in delivering lighting incentives and focus the efforts of Electrical Engineering and the Office of the University Architect in working toward a comprehensive approach to exterior lighting sustainability. 

Education & Outreach:

This project engages the community from the outset by performing a survey that gathers attitudes regarding nighttime lighting conditions on campus. By incorporating community input into the final roadmap deliverable, the project ensures that “sustainable exterior lighting” encompasses the experience of the campus community at large. In addition to the survey, signage will be displayed near certain fixtures across campus during the initial stages of the project. This signage will include graphics related to outdoor lighting energy consumption, as well as information for accessing the survey. This intervention will spread awareness of the project throughout the UW community, giving the project momentum and increasing public recognition of the role campus lighting plays in overall UW sustainability.

The GIS dataset that will be compiled in phase one of the project will become a tool for public use in researching the campus. GIS software is widely used across campus, both in the classroom and for planning purposes, and more robust data regarding lighting will enhance public knowledge about exterior lighting energy consumption.

Additionally, this project will serve as a catalyst for collaboration between various campus offices, moving the University toward a more integrated approach to campus sustainability. It will merge the efforts of the Office of the University Architect to improve the experiential qualities of campus, Campus Engineering and Operations’ work in updating, controlling, and maintaining campus lighting, and the UWPD’s objective of ensuring that campus users feels safe and secure. This project will develop a strategy that integrates all of these goals rather than addressing them as separate programs. The roadmap enacts a model of inter-departmental and inter-institutional collaboration that is critical for realizing sustainable interventions efficiently and effectively.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
Project Longevity:

The value of the roadmap lies in its capacity to operate far beyond the project’s completion. The roadmap project stems from the expressed interest of the Office of the University Architect, Campus Electrical Engineering, and Seattle City Light, who will use it as a tool for retrofitting and replacing existing fixtures. The roadmap will also lend guidance toward future campus development in line with the Campus Landscape Framework so that campus projects will be designed with a vision toward overall campus efficiency, legibility and navigability. These guidelines will prioritize maintainability as a critical component of sustainability, and will strive to improve maintenance efficiency and ease for campus staff. This will be achieved by close collaboration with campus staff during the creation of the guidelines. Furthermore, this tool will streamline the partnership between Seattle City Light and the University in delivering lighting incentives. The Campus Illumination roadmap will be developed with a vision for the short-term future by catalyzing immediate projects for more efficient and environmentally sensitive lighting, and the long-term future by ensuring that sustainable lighting is an integral and thoughtfully considered component of future campus development.

Environmental Problem:

This project addresses the UW’s potential to significantly reduce its electrical consumption through the successful implementation of high-efficiency lighting technology with sensitivity to lighting needs across campus. Lighting comprises roughly 35% of overall electrical consumption at the UW,[1] with exterior lighting constituting a significant share of this load. The project team envisions a campus with a 40% reduction in lighting power as a result of the implementation of the design guidelines in the roadmap. Our project will provide clearer knowledge of exterior lighting’s role in overall energy consumption, and will be used to implement high-performance lighting at the campus-wide scale.

Though the simple replacement of high-pressure sodium (HPS) fixtures with light-emitting diode (LED) technology will inevitably result in somewhat decreased electrical loads, such an approach fails to capitalize on potentially much greater energy reductions. For instance, a recent study[2] on the UW campus indicates that improved visibility and perception of security can be realized at lower power densities using LEDs. Current parking lot recommendations are based only on photopic illuminance, an objective measurement of light level, without considering the color spectrum of the light source. Since bluer-spectrum light improves scotopic (nighttime) vision, outdoor scenes illuminated by bluer light are perceived as brighter. As such, LED lights—which have higher color temperatures than conventional HPS—can actually operate with much lower power densities without sacrificing perceived safety and security. Indeed, to be judged equally bright, measured LED illuminance is predicted to be 54% of measured HPS illuminance.[3]

Our proposed roadmap will translate these research efforts into action by providing a tool for the campus to implement low-energy lighting technology at its highest possible efficiency. In addition to parking lots, specific campus locations—such as residential areas and formal plazas—have different lighting needs. The proposed roadmap will outline strategies for each of these contexts to achieve maximum energy savings while creating the ideal nighttime environment across campus.

Furthermore, outdoor lighting can significantly influence the patterns of wildlife within and above campus. Unshielded exterior lighting can render terrestrial and aquatic habitats vulnerable to predation and can disrupt circadian wildlife patterns, leading to decreased biodiversity. Dark-sky measures such as full cut off optics (FCOs), back light shielding, and low-illumination accent lighting are critical to creating a campus environment more sensitive to the patterns and needs of local ecology. The roadmap will incorporate such measures into its guidelines so that the UW definition of sustainable lighting comprises not only energy efficiency, but also responds to its wider influence on the environment.

The GIS database of campus lighting that is updated and expanded by the project team will function beyond the bounds of the project timeline by providing a tool for measuring the impact of the exterior lighting measures set forward by the roadmap. As the database continues to be updated following the implementation of the roadmap, the project team, campus operations, and the larger community will be able to access and interpret the resultant energy savings.

[1] “The Source of Our Power.” UW Capital Planning and Development.

[2] Rea MS, Bullough JD, Brons JA. 2015. “Outdoor lighting based upon predictions of scene brightness and of personal safety.” Lighting Research Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

[3] Rea MS. 2013. Value Metrics for Better Lighting. Bellingham, WA: SPIE Press.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The GIS database of campus lighting that is updated and expanded by the project team will function beyond the bounds of the project timeline by providing a tool for measuring the impact of the exterior lighting measures set forward by the roadmap. As the database—including wattage information—continues to be updated following the implementation of the roadmap, the project team, campus operations, and the larger community will be able to access and interpret the resultant energy savings.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $71,601
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
RA - Landscape Arch. Salary$2,031 per month12 monhts$24,372.00
RA - Landscape Arch. Benefits$359 per month12 months$4,038.00
RA - Landscape Arch. Tuition$5,159 per quarter4 quarters$ 20,636.00
Lighting Design Lab (LDL) Technical Input$122.13 per hour162 hours$19,785.06
Materials (Signage, printing costs, etc.)$2,500.00

Non-CSF Sources:

ServiceContributorDonationNotes
Field Solution DevelopmentGeography student employee, Facilities ServicesIn-kind donationGIS application developed by Geography student
Technical InputLighting Design LabIn-kind donationAdditional hours, equipment use, etc
50% Student Intern, summer quarterIntegrated Design LabIn-kind donation
25% Student Intern, 2016-2017 academic yearIntegrated Design LabIn-kind donation
Seattle City Light Conservation ResourcesSeattle City LightIn-kind donationIncentives for implementation
Professional staff timeOffice of University ArchitectIn-kind donationDesign guidance
Faculty timeIntegrated Design Lab / College of Built EnvironmentsIn-kind donationTechnical input, Arch 435 course
Project Completion Total: $71,601

Timeline:

PhaseTaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
1Development of online tool for on-site GIS data collection3 monthsMay 2016
1Signage design and implementation2 monthsMay 2016
1Survey design and distribution2 monthsJune 2016
1Evaluate survey data1 weekJune 2016
1GIS data colection3-4 monthsOctober 2016
2Environmental Lighting course3 monthsDecember 2016
2Qualitative assessment of campus typologies2 monthsNovember 2016
2Measurement and analysis of lighting conditions2 monthsNovember 2016
2Design guideline visioning3 weeksDecember 2016
3Roadmap development4 monthsMarch 2017
3Roadmap production and distribution3 monthsJune 2017

2nd Annual UW Resilience Summit

Executive Summary:

ReThink was lucky enough to have benefitted from the CSF grant last year, and hosted a widely successful first UW Resilience Summit. Despite the positive feedback from both professionals and more importantly students, however, there are many changes we know we need to make to achieve a greater impact with the project. The Summit will be a paneled event that focuses on a specific topic relating to environmental and economic resilience. This event is modeled after the Resilience Challenge hosted by Sustainable Seattle in the fall of 2014 and 2015. Held in the UW Intellectual House, ReThink will team up with one or several clubs from across campus to draw an ideal crowd of around 80-100  students for the event (adjusted this year for the venue allowance). These students will spend 2-3 hours listening to an in depth panels of industry specialists, discussing relevant topics in breakout sessions, and create individualized plans of action that may simply consist of a changed mindset, or even turn into future CSF proposals.

Beyond the experience members of the planning committee will gain from organizing and marketing this event, all participants of the Resilience Challenge will get exposure to a diverse array of students from other disciplines, and informative and inspiring presentations and discussions from professionals in their fields of interest. It is a fantastic opportunity for students to broaden their perspectives from the narrow views represented in their respective majors.

To ensure the Resilience Challenge draws the numbers we have projected, ReThink will partner with all participating parties and RSOs to employ a collaborative outreach strategy. This will involve placing marketing materials such as posters in the various buildings of departments we are seeking to target, and coordinating our online advertising through list-serves and Facebook promotion.

Our event last year focused on climate change, and this year its focus will be different. The Resilience summit is targeted discussion, but does not address one specific environmental problem but a broad set of challenges that persist in today’s society. We hope to hold this event annually with different subjects, to allow students the chance to delve deeper into these issues rather than giving a broad overview. We will provide the information for participants to become educated on these important topics, and resources for them to take away post event.

Should this event be successful for the second year running, we will look to secure an ongoing naming sponsor for the, such as a corporation with the funds to do so or a UW department that deems it a worthy cause, like UW Sustainability. These options will be explored when we gauge the outcome of the second event, and refine it even further to be exactly what students - from each end of campus - want and need.

The following report will enumerate the specific event objectives, logistics, and funds requested.

Student Involvement:

The event will be catered to a group of around 100 students. Initially the ReThink members (and members from our partnering RSOs) will complete the planning and logistics. This will include reserving a space, finding donations for food, contacting speakers and industry specialists, working with UW ESS office to uncover UW’s underlying problems with sustainability, reserving tables and creating advertisements. ReThink and its partners will increase advertising closer to the event using social media, flyers and word of mouth. Students who plan on attending will be required to sign up using a catalyst survey to guarantee their attendance.

Our executive team of 6 will be working approximately 4-10 hours per week combined throughout the next three months in order to secure a venue, strategize marketing and outreach, and contact the necessary professionals who will highlight the topic of this year’s summit. In order to find those professionals who will best educate (and equally important, inspire) the student audience, our team will seek panelists from this list and more:

  •     Our Foster School of Business advisor, Ruth Huwe, who is well connected within the business and sustainability professional community
  •     UW Sustainability
  •     Sustainable Seattle
  •     The Buerk Center of Entrepreneurship
  •     Our own personal connections within the community

A large part of the challenge is bringing students together to find the root cause of UW’s environmental issues in order to create a feasible solution including a plan of action. We will need to source an industry specialist that can act as a facilitator through the process, and a team of five students will work on securing this facilitator as well as developing a curriculum for the challenge. These students will do research to find out which aspects of sustainability are most pressing.

They will select five areas to focus on, which we will use to find the most applicable industry specialist to have at the event. These students will be looking for topics that together cover the spectrum of sustainability. Examples include: green architecture, waste and waste water management, clean tech and recent cleantech innovation and our food system. These students will have some of the most intensive roles as they will be responsible for setting the tone of the event.

The 80-100 students attending the event are expected to be engaged and thoughtful members of the audience. Action post-event is not required, but will be highly encouraged and enabled by our team.

Education & Outreach:

The monetary support of the CSF grant will enable us to perform the best possible outreach for the UW Resilience Summit in various relevant areas on campus in order to gain excitement and attendance that outweighs last year’s event.  Keeping environment in mind, while still maximizing the potential for outreach to many attendees, we are not planning on utilizing the money for superfluous and wasteful items like flyers, but instead plan to create eight eye-catching and aesthetically appealing posters that will illustrate the importance and quality of this event. ReThink has identified the most influential halls on campus that identify with the goals of this event and the club, such as the UW Foster School of Business, the Art and Design School, the College of the Environment, and others. The posters will be displayed in high-traffic areas, such as cafes and main entrances in order to attract the most attention.

Other means of outreach will involve members giving a brief presentation to classes in these departments, particularly 100 and 200 level courses with primarily undergraduates as well as upper-division classes to reach upperclassmen. The goal for outreach is to fill the event space to capacity and to have a wide range of attendees from various departments on campus. This will ensure that the summit and discussions result in a diverse collaboration of interests and disciplines in order to foster the most productive and creative collaboration possible. The goal for the entire event is that students will leave with an invigorated passion for worldly environmental issues that is cemented with goals and true markers of success for sustainability and resilience.

By advertising to such a wide audience, we will trigger word-of-mouth marketing that reverberates across campus. The ReThink Facebook page will also be an important channel to market the event to UW students, as well as email marketing through our collected member list and individual promotion by board members and our sustainability ambassadors. Our multi-faceted marketing approach will maximize our outreach, and ensure that our environmental message will be heard loud and clear throughout the UW campus.

Environmental Impact:
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

Due to the multi-club involvement and the scope of this event, we will coordinate closely with all relevant parties throughout the planning process. As you can see in the timeline, we have set up some specific milestones to ensure that we remain on schedule. We will conduct this correspondence by phone, email, and in-person meetings with RSO partners and other sponsors. There is no long-term maintenance of the project; it is for inspirational and educational purposes and what students choose to do with their experiences will not be monitored by us. **Pertaining to the project approval form: Graham, the CSF coordinator last year, handled our budgeting internally last year due to the one-time nature of the event. We did not seek out a project approval signatory this year, as he advised us last year that this would likely be the case again.

Environmental Problem:

The environmental problem that we hope to combat with this event is the same as that which we addressed last year: the widespread lack of education on pressing global environmental issues that UW students have received. These issues apply to every student on campus in almost every academic discipline, yet not all students are required to--or have room in their schedules to--take courses that touch on these issues, and independently sought information can often be misleading. Furthermore, though the University of Washington has undertaken many steps to be a sustainable campus, there is so much more that can be done, and we believe this starts with student education, involvement - and most importantly interest.

Our Second Annual UW Resilience Summit will help combat this issue by providing a single day event going into depth into an issue of critical environmental and economic importance, such as agriculture, infrastructure, clean technology, and others. In this way, students will be able to get the facts on these pressing issues without needing to take an
academic course and without a large commitment of their time. Last year, we focused on Climate Change, and found that while students were responsive, many knew much of the information presented already. It is a challenge to create a curriculum that caters to students both new and practiced in the area we choose to focus on, but we believe going into greater depth on a specialized topic of resilience will gather more interest and promote more than a surface level engagement with the topic.

Additionally, we hope to attract a larger audience of students with the speakers we will have present at our event. Not all students on campus have a strong desire to learn about sustainability issues, and we believe that the promise of connecting with professionals and faculty members in a variety of fields will encourage a wider array of students to attend, thereby educating a larger percentage of UW’s campus.

The second aspect of the UW Resilience Challenge will be to identify key sustainability
issues still present on campus and in the university community, and how students can work with each other and the administration to create a plan for change. After students have heard from each speaker panel, they will organize themselves into breakout groups of 5-6 students with 1 speakers per group. In these groups, students and speakers will identify key sustainability issues and create different plans to facilitate change on campus and in society. The wide variety of students in attendance will inspire a cross-disciplinary discussion that the campus may have never seen, and will set the stage for many more discussions on campus sustainability to come.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Last year, we aimed to establish a campus resiliency plan at the summit will include 6 month, 1 year, 5 year, and other time sensitive goals for the student and campus community to reach. At the Summit last year, the breakout session lead by Corey Weathers was both engaging and productive; students brainstormed tangible solutions to combat climate change on campus, and were also given the tools to reference the facts discussed during the panels via a collaborative website post-event. (For more information on this, please email us or ask us during our presentation!) Our goal last year was to have students create action plans and track the progress of those programs, however several hours was not enough for students to form concrete action plans as opposed to 8-9 hours given to the attendees of the original Pacific Northwest Resilience Summit. Through this event, we aim to inspire collaborative action, but we believe this starts on a personal level - therefore this is nearly impossible to track.

Though campus action is an important component to the Resilience Challenge, as we stated above one of our primary goals is simply student education on pressing sustainability issues. This cannot exactly be monitored at all, as there is no way for us to measure how much one student has learned, or how much their mindset on environmental issues has been altered. However, as we are striving for interdisciplinary involvement, we will set goals of departmental attendance and evaluate how well that was achieved. For example, if we set a goal of generally having 25% business students, 30% environmental students, 25% engineering, math, or science students, and 20% students representing misc. departments, we can track attendance after the event and see how close we were to reaching those goals. Last year, we were able to track the demographics for roughly ⅔ of our attendees (the rest of our attendees did not register for the event beforehand and did not fully complete our in-person registration sheets) and found that we received approx. 45% business students, 35% environmental studies/science students, and 20% other students. We know that this year, we need to focus heavier on marketing the event to science and engineering students, because they are essential to the conversation. In this way, we used the demographics of our audience to measure our impact across the UW campus.

 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $1,250
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Rigid Posters$508$400
informational handouts (for counselors, professors, etc.)$0.50100$50
Room Reservation$800$800

Non-CSF Sources:

ItemCost
Catering$1000
Project Completion Total: $2,250

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Choose Datecompletedcompleted
Recruit other RSOs to partner withnow-Feb 26thFeb 26th
Reach out to potential speakers and get commitmentsFeb 1st - March 4thMarch 4th
Reach out to all departments on campus notifying them of eventFeb 1st- April 29thongoing
Order & solidify cateringMarch 1st-30thMarch 30th
Begin physical marketing across campusMarch 28th-April 29thApril 29th
Purchase/gather all supplies needed for the eventApril 29thApril 29th
Open and close event registrationApril 18th - May 5thMay 5th
Have event-May 6th

Project Approval Forms:

2016 UW Night Market

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Composting Toilet at the Center for Urban Horticulture

Executive Summary:

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. The lack of a bathroom on the worksite negatively impacts productivity and disrupts workflow (individuals have to stop work and leave the site to use the nearest restrooms), disrupts programing on the farm, and impedes access to any bathroom on weekends (the nearest bathrooms are locked on the weekend, a time when the farm has routine volunteer hours).

The UW Farm is hoping to attract a new cohort of visitors--school groups-- in increasing numbers to the farm.   The youth education program at the UW Farm site will face significant obstacles if there aren’t bathroom facilities in close proximity. Walking children and their chaperones and teachers to the nearest bathrooms offsite could consume a significant portion of the field trip time (as much as 30-minutes of a planned 90-minute tour), time that could be otherwise used to expose children to the concepts of sustainable agriculture and urban farming, and to inspire environmental stewardship. Given the incredible and rich educational opportunity the farm provides, it would be a shame not to be able to take full advantage of the available time.

The farm would not be the only beneficiary however. An outdoor bathroom would greatly benefit a variety of community and university groups who operate adjacent to the farm. The facility would be an indispensable resource for: community visitors to the Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA) and the CUH during daylight hours; participants in the neighboring Seattle Tilth Youth Garden Works program; youth participating in other educational programs at CUH; student ecologists and volunteers doing restoration work in UBNA; and UW grounds and maintenance members who frequently do work in the area.

In keeping with its mission to be an educational resource for people interested in learning about sustainability, the farm selected an outdoor bathroom facility that showcases green architecture, closed-loop nutrient cycling and solar energy.

Since the farm is not connected to the sewer line, a composting toilet provides an innovative and environmentally sustainable solution.  The composting system we plan to install is the M54 Trailhead single stall model produced by Clivus Multrum. This system is certified under the National Sanitation Foundation’s Standard 41 to be in compliance with health codes.  It is a completely self-contained unit, as it internally separates liquid and solid waste, breaks down solid waste, and eliminates all harmful pathogens within the tank. The system has a solar panel mounted on the roof, which provides power to the ventilation fan, ensuring an odorless and efficient environment.

We do not need to apply for a permit with the King County Department of Public Health because we will not need to excavate soil (as the tank will be placed at grade) and we will not be using the humanure on the production beds. We will not need a building permit from the city because it is a premade unit, does not need a concrete foundation, and it does not need to connect to any utility lines as the sole power source is a mounted solar panel.

Installing an advanced composting toilet system at the CUH could pave the way for similar projects to be approved within the UW and in the greater Seattle area. The Fiddlehead Forest School at the Arboretum, for example, shares the farm’s plumbing and water constraints, and plans to closely monitor the project and learn from our experience.  If the UW Farm can show that a composting toilet is a viable option and worth the upfront cost, it could enable other entities to follow the farm’s example. As novel as it may seem however, Clivus Multrum’s composting toilets are a tested, known product and a safe choice.  They have been installed throughout North America in parks, at trailheads, and even at other universities. Locally, several organizations dedicated to environmental stewardship, including Islandwood on Bainbridge Island and the Piccardo P-patch in Seattle, have installed Clivus Multrum’s composting toilets.

We are seeking funds from the Campus Sustainability Fund in the amount of of $33,000 to purchase a composting toilet and the cost of shipping.

Student Involvement:

The most direct way that this project would affect UW students is that it would enable them to work more comfortably and for longer durations at the farm and other outer lying areas at CUH. The UW Farm has countless opportunities for students to become involved and having a bathroom facility on site would enhance student’s time there as it would allow them to have a more continuous work flow and to be assured that will be provided with basic amenities during their work period. 

Additionally, students at the farm are in charge of giving tours to UW classes and to many outside visitors (in 2015, 542 students toured the farm). The composting toilet would be a highlight to talk about on such tours and would give students an opportunity to teach and discuss with their peers some of the environmental problems that this system addresses.  

Lastly, the youth education program provides tremendous opportunity for UW student involvement from building the garden, to planning curriculum, and leading the field trips. Since children are invariably fascinated with anything to do with feces, the composting toilet will provide a unique educational opportunity on the farm field trips and a lively segue to discussions of water consumption and conservation, nutrient cycling, and energy conservation.

As the UW Farm is largely student run, the entire process of planning and implementing the composting toilet will be an opportunity for student involvement. As such, this project provides students with the chance to learn about this sustainable practice from the ground up, and is a unique opportunity for hands on, interactive learning.  

Education & Outreach:

Highlights

  • Unique educational opportunity to discuss closed loop systems and water consumption
  • Engage a more diverse range of students and departments with the farm and CUH/UBNA space
  • Further UW as a leader in sustainability and innovation

Education

Having a composting toilet on campus will provide tremendous educational opportunities across various disciplines. A composting toilet addresses a number of the topics that are very relevant to current issues of sustainability, such as water usage and nutrient cycling. The composting unit is a way to add an important tangible real world example of a sustainable alternative to current practices. The compositing unit would enhance discussions about sustainability happening in various classes on campus (e.g. environmental, fisheries, and public health classes). Other potential departments that might incorporate a visit to the composting toilet would be civil and environmental engineers, landscape architects, and environmental health students. Thus this project would enable the farm to engage students who may not have a particularly strong interest in sustainable agriculture.  

For those students who do have a strong interest in sustainable agriculture, this will provide an incredible opportunity to learn about another form of composting. Composting is an essential component to maintaining soil fertility, something that is talked about extensively on the farm. Currently at the farm, we have both hot composting and vermi-composting; adding the composting toilet would further enhance learning about composting and soil fertility for students.

To maximize the educational value of the composting toilet, the farm will install informative signage to teach users and visitors about the importance of conserving water, waste water pollution, the need to create more closed loop systems, and information about how the composting toilet renders human waste into a usable, pathogen free form of fertilizer. This would increase awareness primarily within the UW community, but can also provide educational opportunities for visitors to the CUH.   

Because the UW Farm hosts tours for over 500 students, and has about 150 active service learning students, 20-30 committed volunteers, and a team of 12-15 leaders each year, this composting toilet will have a direct educational impact on the student population at UW, as well as individuals from outside the University. Since the composting toilet will be physically located at the CUH site, it will be used as an active learning tool for students working at and visiting the farm.

Outreach

The UW Farm has an extensive social media presence. If awarded this grant, we will immediately publicize the project, identifying the CSF as a funding source and Clivus Multrum as the manufacturer of the toilet. We will also at that time reach out to departments and students who might be interested in seeing the installation of the unit and/or visiting it after its completion. The farm also has a good relationship with the UWBG and the Whole U, both of whom we would approach to publicize our project in their newsletters and online presence.

We would also like to showcase our project and engage students in as many ways as possible. Ideas that we have for this include: partnering with (a) department(s) on campus and having a film screening and a series of discussions about water usage and water pollution, having a pizza bake/social event at the farm to celebrate the opening of the toilet, and table in red square highlighting current projects on the farm, with compost and water consumption as a main focus. 

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Waste
  • Water
Project Longevity:

As previously stated above: Dependent upon usage amount, the system usually needs to be emptied from every year to every several years. Clivus Multrum will provide this service. This system is designed based upon standard federal guidelines for restroom structures, ensuring the unit will last about 20 years. The poly compost tank is the longest lasting piece of this unit and can be salvaged and properly recycled by a city recycling facility. The rest of the unit can be disassembled and recycled and disposed of.

Environmental Problem:

Highlights

  • Requires no water to operate
  • Will not adversely impact wetlands and wildlife
  • Requires little energy inputs to maintain and has great longevity
  • Operates with solar power

Composting toilets are a sustainable solution for decreasing high volume water usage from toilets. According to the EPA’s WaterSense program, toilets are the largest consumer of indoor water usage.[1] In addition, treating wastewater is an energy intensive process, and waterways are still polluted from ‘clean’ wastewater. In a public building such as Merrill Hall (at CUH), large numbers of people are using the restrooms daily and flushing after each use.  New standard toilets use 1.6 gallons per flush, while water sense toilets use on average 1.28 gallons.1 The composting toilet that we propose to install requires no water and little energy to operate.

This system poses no threat to the nearby wetlands and its inhabitants. The UW Farm and staff members of the UW Botanic Gardens are working in collaboration with a number of individuals across departments such as Jim Morin, a Civil Engineer from Campus Engineering, and Erin McKewon and Doug Gallucchi, from the UW Environmental Health and Safety Department.  These collaborations ensure that the composting toilet system is placed in a location that is an appropriate distance from the adjacent wetlands and natural area. It will not be located in an area designated as a wetland and it will have greater than the required 200-foot setback from the shoreline.

To analyze the environmental impact of the composting toilet, usage throughout the year will be kept by use of a counter device placed in the facility. From that information, we can calculate the gallons of water saved each year. Beyond the tangible, this project would also further the CSF mission to “Create a sustainable campus and foster an environmentally conscious university culture.” Having a composting toilet on campus is an opportunity to encourage the community to think about their individual and collective water consumption and pollution caused through the normal action of flushing the toilet. Efforts like this composting toilet are an important first step in starting a dialogue among students about sustainable consumption and lifestyles.

The UW Farm has one paid staff member, the Farm Manager, and a team of student staff, as well as a student composting team, who will be responsible for maintaining the unit’s cleanliness and ensuring that it is fully stocked. The farm will also purchase and add the bulking agent (pine saw) once a month to the tank. The UW Farm staff is committed to following through on this project and ensuring that the composting toilet is well maintained. Dependent upon usage amount, the system usually needs to be emptied from every year to every several years. Clivus Multrum will provide this service. This system is designed based upon standard federal guidelines for restroom structures, ensuring the unit will last about 20 years. The poly compost tank is the longest lasting piece of this unit and can be salvaged and properly recycled by a city recycling facility. The rest of the unit can be disassembled and recycled and disposed of.

[1] http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/indoor.html

 

 

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Highlights

  • Requires no water to operate
  • Will not adversely impact wetlands and wildlife
  • Requires little energy inputs to maintain and has great longevity
  • Operates with solar power

Composting toilets are a sustainable solution for decreasing high volume water usage from toilets. According to the EPA’s WaterSense program, toilets are the largest consumer of indoor water usage.[1] In addition, treating wastewater is an energy intensive process, and waterways are still polluted from ‘clean’ wastewater. In a public building such as Merrill Hall (at CUH), large numbers of people are using the restrooms daily and flushing after each use.  New standard toilets use 1.6 gallons per flush, while water sense toilets use on average 1.28 gallons.1 The composting toilet that we propose to install requires no water and little energy to operate.

This system poses no threat to the nearby wetlands and its inhabitants. The UW Farm and staff members of the UW Botanic Gardens are working in collaboration with a number of individuals across departments such as Jim Morin, a Civil Engineer from Campus Engineering, and Erin McKewon and Doug Gallucchi, from the UW Environmental Health and Safety Department.  These collaborations ensure that the composting toilet system is placed in a location that is an appropriate distance from the adjacent wetlands and natural area. It will not be located in an area designated as a wetland and it will have greater than the required 200-foot setback from the shoreline.

To analyze the environmental impact of the composting toilet, usage throughout the year will be kept by use of a counter device placed in the facility. From that information, we can calculate the gallons of water saved each year. Beyond the tangible, this project would also further the CSF mission to “Create a sustainable campus and foster an environmentally conscious university culture.” Having a composting toilet on campus is an opportunity to encourage the community to think about their individual and collective water consumption and pollution caused through the normal action of flushing the toilet. Efforts like this composting toilet are an important first step in starting a dialogue among students about sustainable consumption and lifestyles.

The UW Farm has one paid staff member, the Farm Manager, and a team of student staff, as well as a student composting team, who will be responsible for maintaining the unit’s cleanliness and ensuring that it is fully stocked. The farm will also purchase and add the bulking agent (pine saw) once a month to the tank. The UW Farm staff is committed to following through on this project and ensuring that the composting toilet is well maintained. Dependent upon usage amount, the system usually needs to be emptied from every year to every several years. Clivus Multrum will provide this service. This system is designed based upon standard federal guidelines for restroom structures, ensuring the unit will last about 20 years. The poly compost tank is the longest lasting piece of this unit and can be salvaged and properly recycled by a city recycling facility. The rest of the unit can be disassembled and recycled and disposed of.

[1] http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/indoor.html

 

 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $33,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
M54 Trailhead pre-fab unit$28,9701$28,970
Shipping v$4,0301$4,030

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $33,328

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Determine LocationMarch 1-4March 4
Order unitMarch 4
Receive UnitEarly April
Begin using Early April

Project Approval Forms:

University of Washington Farm Greenhouse

Executive Summary:

The University of Washington Farm (UW), a registered student organization, would like to build a greenhouse at our Center for Urban Horticulture site on campus. The UW Farm is partnering with the University of Washington chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) to plan and implement this project. In order to build a greenhouse, the UW Farm will need to level the ground at the Center for Urban Horticulture site, run electricity to the greenhouse, and equip it with benches and supplies for spring and winter vegetable production. Additionally, the UW Farm plans to install heated benches for seedling growth.

The UW Farm is currently renting a small space at the Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH) greenhouse at a prohibitively high cost for only two months of the year. Building a greenhouse at the UW Farm will allow for a more flexible and productive planting plan, an extended growing season, and an overall increase in yearly production. A large portion of crops grown at the UW Farm is sold to Cultivate, the District Market and various other HFS locations. Extending the growing season with the greenhouse will allow the Farm to provide locally and sustainably grown produce to dining halls, restaurants and grocery stores on campus for a larger majority of the school year.

The EWB students will build the greenhouse from scratch. This will allow students to learn how to build a sustainable structure from the ground up, rather than putting together a pre-made kit.  The EWB students anticipate that it will be about $500 cheaper to build the greenhouse from scratch than using a kit. Additionally, the EWB students have decided to hire an engineer to run electricity to the greenhouse. The UW Farm will grade the site ourselves.

The student engineers and farm leaders will work in tandem, along with help from drop in volunteers and service learners, to build the greenhouse and develop a growing system. Each quarter, the UW Farm hosts between student service learners through the Carlson Center, farm leadership positions and the farm internship class.  Additionally, this grant will fund a greenhouse intern for a full growing season following the completion of the greenhouse. Professor Jennifer Ruesink, a biology professor at the UW, teaches the farm internship class on campus and has agreed to oversee the greenhouse intern. The EWB students are working under the advising of Professor Mark Benjamin, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington.

The UW Farm is requesting $22,310.00 to complete this project. The total cost did increase slightly from our original estimate however we were able to secure the tools for the greenhouse through other means.

Please see the chart below for a full breakdown of the costs. The total costs listed in the chart include an estimated ten percent sales tax and delivery fees. There will be no additional cost for utilities for the greenhouse or for the grading of the greenhouse site. 

Student Involvement:

The UW Farm currently hosts 40 to 60 students as service learners each quarter. Additionally, twelve students hold farm leadership positions and three students are enrolled in the farm internship class. The UW Farm is confident that these numbers will increase over time. While the construction of the greenhouse will be directed by EWB students with their faculty mentors as advisors, a large majority of the farm leaders and some of the student volunteers will be involved regularly with building the greenhouse and developing a growing system. The UW Farm is run primarily by volunteers with only have one paid staff-member, and will rely on student and volunteer labor to complete this project.

Seven EWB students have completely planned and set up a budget for the building of the greenhouse. They have decided to build the greenhouse completely from scratch and set up a plan and timeline for building it. Throughout fall quarter, work hours were held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 1pm to 5pm, Tuesdays from 1 to 5pm and Thursdays from 9 to 11:30am, and every other Saturday from 9am to 2pm. Throughout spring quarter, a majority of these work hours will involve building and then planting and growing seedlings in the greenhouse. Volunteers and service learning students will learn hands on the benefits of a season extension and what goes into building, maintaining and working in a greenhouse.

Three farm leaders, Center for Urban Horticulture Managers (CUH), are in charge of leading the Center for Urban Horticulture workdays. These leaders will coordinate with the EWB students to plan the workdays that will involve working on building the greenhouse. While the CUH Managers will be most involved in the building of the greenhouse, there are many farm leaders who will be involved in the behind the scenes aspects of building and implementing the greenhouse. The Social Media Coordinator and Designer/Signage Coordinator will be in charge of publicizing and spreading awareness about the building of the greenhouse and the events involving the greenhouse.  Additionally, the 2 UW Farm photographers will help to document the process of building the greenhouse. The other six farm leaders will be on hand to assist other leaders in their positions.

Furthermore, the UW Farm plans to have a greenhouse intern for a full growing season following the completion of the greenhouse. The intern would oversee construction, coordinate volunteering efforts, plan and implement a greenhouse planting schedule from spring through fall, maintain the greenhouse throughout the growing season and plan and implement a winter growing schedule. Students will be actively involved in most of the aspects of building and working in the greenhouse and build further connections between people, our land, and our future since food is so intimately linked in all those aspects of life.

Following the completion of the greenhouse, service learners and volunteers at the UW Farm will have the opportunity to work with the plants grown inside of the greenhouse. Volunteers and service learners will have the opportunity to learn hands on the benefit of using a greenhouse in urban agriculture.

Education & Outreach:

The mission of the UW Farm is to be a campus center for the practice and study of urban agriculture and suitability. The UW Farm hopes to be an educational, community-oriented resource for people who want to learn about building productive and sustainable urban landscapes. The building of the greenhouse will help the UW Farm further these goals.

The UW Farm hopes to raise awareness about the positive benefits of using a greenhouse to implement the practices of urban agriculture. The greenhouse at the UW Farm will be built and implemented completely through student and volunteer labor. Volunteers and service learning students will learn hands on skills about what goes into building, maintaining and working in a greenhouse. Furthermore, the greenhouse intern will be involved in all aspects of the greenhouse, through planning what is grown, assisting with construction management and leading other students. The EWB students have been learning about what it takes to build a sustainable structure throughout the entire planning process. Members of the farm intern class, taught by Professor Jennifer Reusink, will learn about the building of the greenhouse and participate in the building and implementation of the greenhouse as part of the class curriculum. The UW Farm holds Farm Ed seminars each week at the botany greenhouse. Following the completion of the greenhouse the UW Farm hopes to relocate these classes to the new structure. The greenhouse will play an active role in the Farm Ed seminars and participants will be able to learn about what it takes to build a greenhouse from scratch and implement a planting schedule.

The UW Farm holds about 35-50 tours each year to UW classes, faculty, donors, and outside organizations. During spring quarter the greenhouse will have a leading role in these tours, as people on them will be able to see the greenhouse being built.

Following the completion of the greenhouse, the UW Farm hopes to hold a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate our new endeavor. This event and the completion of the greenhouse will mainly be publicized through Facebook and our email newsletter that goes out to 1,137 subscribers. The UW Farm Facebook page has 1,729 likes with engagement around 2,000 views per week.

Finally, the UW Farm has been in contact with The Daily and hopes to have them include a feature about the new greenhouse. This will spread awareness about the project to members of the UW student body and faculty who are not actively involved in UW Farm workdays and volunteer hours. 

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The UW Farm currently has to almost completely shut down growing during winter months, as harsh weather and frost prohibit growth.  Building a greenhouse at the Center for Urban Horticulture site will allow us to extend our growing system through the winter months and produce more food throughout the school year. The greenhouse will provide stable growing conditions and shelter from the elements, making it much easier for these plants to survive the winter and grow into adulthood.

The UW Farm currently sells produce to University of Washington Housing and Food Services and Cultivate Restaurant. This past autumn quarter, 1938 pounds of produce from the UW Farm went to HFS and the UW Medical Center and 506 pounds of produce was donated to the University District Food Bank. These numbers will increase with a greenhouse because extending our growing season will allow the Farm to provide locally and sustainably grown produce to dining halls, restaurants and grocery stores on campus for a larger portion of the school year. The produce grown at the UW Farm is environmentally friendly, extremely-locally grown, and a great alternative to less local food sourced by Housing and Food Services. The extended season of production will lessen the carbon footprint of the University of Washington community as more locally and sustainably grown produce would be available.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The UW Farm currently measures production by weighing the produce harvested and recording where it is sent. The UW Farm plans to measure the impact of the increased production that will result from the implementation of a greenhouse by weighing the produce produced with the new greenhouse and comparing those numbers to the production in previous winter quarters.

On a broader scale, urban sustainable farming is an experiment aimed at counteracting the environmental problems created by large-scale industrial agriculture. The practices used by large-scale industrial agriculture, including the use of heavy machinery, erosion and depletion of soils and the destruction of biodiversity from monoculture, have significant negative environmental implications. The UW Farm is committed to upholding the values and practices of urban organic farming. The greenhouse is a small addition to this goal that will enable UW students to better understand agriculture and innovative, sustainable ways to produce environmentally friendly food. 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $22,310
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemComponentCost/ItemQuantityTotal Unit PriceDeliveryTax (10% default)Total Cost
Greenhouse FoundationGalvanized Steel, 1-5/8" diam, 17-gauge37.164148.647914.86242.5
Baseboards - 2" x 6" x 12 ft12.9716207.526120.75289.27
Post Pounder27.5127.502.7530.25
Post Driver Cap3013015348
DY-20 Hoop Bender1164.7920.46.4891.67
Concrete work1148048528
ToolsReciprocating saw blade18.97237.9403.7941.73
Cobalt drill bits6.47319.4101.9421.35
Marking Spray5.2715.2700.535.8
Framing and InsulationGalvanized Steel, 1-3/8" diam, 17-gauge11.3175848.25084.83933.08
Insulation 6mil245.72491.455.9832.39579.77
2x4 8'5.3730161.17916.11256.21
2x4 10'6.77427.0802.7129.79
Polycarbonate sheets - 4' x 8'50.957365.65035.67392.32
Wiggle Wire and channel21643282032.8380.8
Parachute cord, 1000'3913913.552.5
Silicone sealant, 9.8 oz6.24212.481.2513.73
Frame ConnectionsFlat brace bands0.422410.0801.0111.09
Perlin Clamp2.483996.7209.67106.39
T-Clamp1.451014.501.4515.95
Line rail clamp1.9611.401.1412.54
Aluminum Dome post caps0.5463.2400.323.56
Standard fence bracket1.163237.1213.033.7153.86
steel rail end cups (hinges)1.232024.615.732.4642.79
Steel u-bolts172727.279.2
Gate corners4.23833.8403.3837.22
Galvanized Deck Screws, pkg 1012.31449.2410.744.9264.9
Bolts1208.8500.899.74
Steel Eyelet Screws228.5400.859.39
Steel Eyelets Screws0.582210.9121.0923.99
Nuts1.4922.9800.33.28
Foundation bolts0.13344.4200.444.86
Heating System - Piping1" PVC pipe3.331859.945.9965.93
1" PVC cap (5-pack)2.4337.290.738.02
1" PVC elbows (5-pack)2.66513.31.3314.63
1" PVC Tee0.74107.40.748.14
1" PVC valve3.21238.43.8442.24
PVC solvent and cement7.4817.480.758.23
1" PVC coupling0.42229.240.9210.16
Zip ties, 100 pk11.23111.231.1212.35
Pipe insulation1.392838.923.8942.81
Heating System - Bench KitBench-top mat kit and equipment1,800.0011,800.001802,043.00
Heating System - HardwareBoiler Security100110010110
Boiler1,000.001,000.001001,000.00
Benches2x4, 8', pressure treated7.1281576.7257.63634.39
Paint and Sealant40140444
Hardware Cloth70214014154
Dirt WorkDirt253895095950
Electrical Work (extending electricity)16,250.006256,250.00
Greenhouse Intern6,496.006,496.00
TOTAL22,309.88

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $22,310

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Jig and arch testing2 days4/12/2014
Marking and digging1 day4/13/2014
Pipe prep, driving and leveling; bench making5 days4/18/2014
Arch and frame assembly2 days4/20/2014
Bench making5 days4/25/2014
End frame assembly2 days4/27/2014
Insulation setup2 days5/4/2014
Boiler and piping2 days5/11/2014
Bench-top assembly2 days5/18/2014
Boiler troubleshooting, touch-ups2 days5/25/2014

Project Approval Forms:

Sustainable Stormwater Coordinator Phase 2

Executive Summary:

The Sustainable Stormwater Coordinator (SSC) position designates a SEFS research aide appointment to spread awareness about and physically improve stormwater treatment on campus. This is accomplished by investigating the current quantity and quality of campus stormwater, analyzing a suite of suitable water management tools, and building a collaborative student-faculty-administration approach to this pressing issue. In sum, continuation of this project seeks concrete and actionable runoff strategies, informed by water quality testing of discharges from parking lots, rooftops and sports fields.

Responsibilities include:

  • Conduct outreach and education to students and faculty about stormwater issues
  • Engage and support students and departments pursuing stormwater related projects, such as rain gardens, bioswales, smart irrigation and water recycling
  • Sample stormwater on campus for oil + grease and metals in order to determine pollution hotspots
  • Support Salmon Safe recertification
  • Identify stormwater rebates or stormwater project funding possibilities

Presently, the SSC has made significant progress in advancing the responsible handling of our fresh water resource at UW as each of the supported projects/endeavors has benefited from assistance with some or all of the following roles/responsibilities: funding identification, program development, design, materials acquisition, water quality testing, documentation, facilitation of permitting, facilitation of contracted consultations, site visits, and facilitation of administrative collaboration for the following projects/endeavors:

  • Development of UW Seattle campus Stormwater Sampling Plan
  • Prairie Rain Garden
  • Kincaid Ravine Hydrology Improvements
  • Kincaid Ravine Memorandum of Agreement (stream and wetland protections)
  • Water Recycling System for Society for Ecological Restoration-UW Hoophouse
  • Development of campus-wide Curb Cut plan
  • UW-Seattle Stormwater Resource Guide
  • Identification of Surface Water Management Rebates and Stormwater Project Funding
  • Salmon Safe (SS) Recertification, SS Student Awareness Campaign and SS certification of UW Farm
  • Sustainable Stormwater resource drive and list serve news updates 

Despite this progress in establishing a baseline of momentum, the importance of continuing the SSC position is urgent. Funding from other sources has not been secured and the potential discontinuation of this position would hamper progress and threaten follow-through on many of the projects listed above. The position has increased visibility and awareness of the CSF by connecting promising student led projects to the CSF. In so doing, a strong network of projects has an aggregate effect of success. These projects are all linked and supportive of one another, leading to a tight knit web of sustainability.

The SSC position is overseen by hydrology Professor Susan Bolton and the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. It consults with campus Environmental Engineer David Ogrodnik, Engineer James Morin, Landscape Architect Kristine Kenney, Environmental and Land Use Compliance Officer Jan Arntz, and Grounds Manager Howard Nakase.

$9105 is requested to continue the SSC position, water quality testing and analysis, and outreach and education through December 2015.

Student Involvement:

The core student group has identified ‘Continued Accountability’ as a primary objective, and envisioned the student SSC position through SEFS, with department administrator Wendy Star serves as budget administrator. The creation of this position has the written support of HSS, 12,000 Rain Gardens, Puget Soundkeeper, SER-UW, the Kincaid Ravine Restoration team and Salmon Safe. 

The SSC provides a forum for students to develop the skill set and knowledge base to pursue projects related to water use and waste, including exposure to important local organizations and partnership opportunities in the Seattle restoration community. A multi-disciplinary core group of students, which meets in various contexts throughout each academic quarter, provides support to the SSC, including communication and networking, outreach and education, and assistance in water and soil testing.

The role of the SSC in empowering other students to initiate, implement and complete stormwater related projects on campus is vital to student leadership in this field. Between rain gardens, bioswales, water recycling hoop houses and other projects, the SSC has worked closely with six students on varying phases of grant writing, project design, permitting and implementation. The SSC has been in contact with dozens of other students in a more advisory role, providing information, pollution hotspot tours and project idea suggestions.  With funding, this work of empowering students to develop their own projects successfully will continue into 2015-16.

The Project on the Environment Capstone internship program was a unique opportunity for an undergraduate student to spend 15 hours/week working exclusively on Sustainable Stormwater projects. The 2014-2015 intern final deliverable list included a comprehensive document on student stormwater education, outreach and engagment with local Salmon Safe vendors, engagement with the Salmon Safe organization and research into UW stormwater policy. Through the process of accomplishing these deliverables, the intern networked with professional organizations, attended meetings, annotated a bibliography, conducted research, coordinated with faculty, and generally built her skill sets of research, informative writing and outreach. Continuation of this internship program for the 2015-16 year will be a valuable asset to Sustainable Stormwater and will provide an undergraduate student with a dedicated experience to develop professionally.

Student leadership in the Salmon Safe Re-Certification process has been valuable to students, administrators, the Salmon Safe Assessment Team, and surrounding stakeholders. Accomplishments include the development of two documents, "A Student Perspective on Stormwater Education and Outreach at the UW-Seattle", written by Sustainable Stormwater intern Emily Warnock and "Recommendations for Stormwater BMPs and Compliance" written by SSC Matt Schwartz. These are valuable in the Salmon Safe process and have been submitted to key UW administrators and the Green Infrastructure Partnership. Similar endeavors will continue as the SSC continues to work within these avenues.

A new curriculum project is underway (described fully in the Outreach section), in which the SSC will work with undergraduate collaborators in fact finding, fact checking, writing and image production of water use/stormwater related content for this important contribution to the UW environmental curriculum. This is an opportunity to accelerate progressive stormwater education with undergraduate collaborators within the project and once it is complete, in the classroom setting.

Education & Outreach:

Currently, the University of Washington, Seattle, claims five rain gardens, two outside the Molecular Engineering building and the Center for Urban Horticulture, respectively, and one outside the Community Design Center. A bioswale- a drainage way that partially filters stormwater as it is carried from Point A to Point B, is planned by Husky Sustainable Storms outside the Burke Museum. These projects have begun the conversation about responsibly handling our fresh water resource at UW.  However, it is quintessential to unite these efforts under a singular and organized umbrella. This maximizes efficiency, minimizes redundancy in communicating with administration, and ensures ongoing monitoring and maintenance of campus stormwater projects. To this end, the visage of environmental stewardship around campus can be better understood and publicized. 

Furthermore, by channeling student stormwater efforts over the long-term, facilitating communication between students and admin through one informed and capable liaison, and collaborating with off-campus entities, the SSC has helped to establish UW’s leadership in the greater stormwater community. The SSC hosted April's Green Infrastructure Partnership monthly meeting at UW, bringing together interested students with over 30 professionals in the Seattle green infrastructure community. 

Sustainable Stormwater has begun participation in a fantastic educational curriculum project with the oversight of Timothy Billo, Ph.D. Lecturer in the UW Program on the Environment. Sustainable Stormwater will be contributing in all aspects of the curriculum involving text and images relating to urban stormwater, forest hydrology, impacts of climate change on hydrology, glacial history, marine ecology, and current local issues of water pollution and green stormwater infrastructure in the Seattle area. This is an exciting opportunity to introduce undergraduates to cutting edge information about water issues and ecosystem function as it pertains to their local environment. The project involves development of an engaging beginner-intermediate natural history curriculum for use in College of the Environment classrooms. It will have a strong focus on the connection between healthy watersheds and functioning ecosystems. The curriculum will be piloted by ENVIR 280: Natural History of Puget Sound, ENVIR 440: Environmental Pedagogy and potentially other introductory environmental classes once completed.

The curriculum project is one step in the greater strategy of integration of water use and stormwater education into classes at UW. For example, the presentation by the Director of 12,000 Rain Gardens to ESRM 426 this past winter quarter, resulted in several students reaching out to Sustainable Stormwater for more information and one student requested an informational interview. The Director also connected with grad student Malcolm Howard to provide consultation in the construction of his Prairie Rain Garden. These connections provide students with real world networking experiences.

By having this stormwater point person, combined with regular meetings, water projects around campus will continue to unite, heighten impact through symbiosis, and share information and resources.  Opportunities for student involvement are numerous, including assisting with water and soil testing, contributing design ideas, creating outreach materials, attending local lectures and conferences, and using our data and designs for their own classes and/or projects. The SSC will continue to put students in contact with relevant local NGO's and governmental projects, and identify productive networking relationships in the realm of stormwater. 

Moreover, outreach to administrators is also important to instigate change on campus. With parking lot redesigns throughout campus, the SSC channels student voices of water related considerations to the appropriate administrators.

The SSC will also pursue educational signage for the Prairie Rain Garden and SER-UW Water Recycling Hoophouse, to describe hydrology features, as well as recognize project partners like CSF, with a representative logo.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Transportation
  • Waste
  • Water
Project Longevity:

By utilizing the Project on the Environment internship program, volunteers, and through general resourcefulness, the SS project came in under budget. This allows previous SSC funding to continue through the end of July (it was envisioned to run out by early June). Funding to carry the position through from August- mid December is requested, which extends the position only one full quarter into the 2015-16 academic year (autumn). Financially, the SSC will continue research into fee-reduction for stormwater treatments (North Seattle Community College saves $60,000+ in annual stormwater fees, the direct result of a campus-wide collaboration where students applied for tax credits through Seattle Public Utilities). Since UW spends ~$1.3 million in annual stormwater fees, economic incentive is clearly justified. Contact with Seattle Public Utilities has been established and conversations with Tasha Bassett, Program Coordinator of the Utility Systems Management Branch have begun. UW has been identified as a candidate for a Stormwater Facility Credit Program, but it will take more time to work through the necessary steps to actualize this process. Once this happens, the financial savings could potentially be used to fund the SSC, but this process needs more time. Furthermore, converting the SSC from a Research Aid position in SEFS into an F2 internship with Facilities has proved elusive at this moment in time. It is a very viable option for transferring the responsibilities of the SSC into a 15 or 20 hour F2 internship, potentially with the Campus Environmental Engineer as supervisor, but has not been guaranteed at this point in time. Updates on this process will be provided to the CSF as soon as they are are available. As far as long term management of specific projects, the SSC has been intentional not to adopt project ownership over any project. Instead the role has been advisory and/or shared ownership, so as not to leave any projects without continued leadership, should the SSC position eventually lose funding.

Environmental Problem:

A total of 27,000 gallons of stormwater are produced as runoff from a one-acre parking lot, after one inch of rain. In UW parking lots, stormwater picks up oil, grease, metals and coolants from vehicles, and it proceeds largely untreated into Lakes Union and Washington. The EPA has listed hydrocarbons, like phenanthrene, as priority pollutants due to carcinogenicity concerns of the compounds; inorganic pollutants are also of concern because of their potential toxic effect on aquatic life, as they affect the pH, alkalinity, and conductivity of the water. Other impervious surfaces, like roofs, compound the quantity of overland runoff and inhibit on-site infiltration.

Typical stormwater systems address water quantity and flooding concerns, but ignore water quality. In recent years, pressing concerns about salmon health and subsequent Southern Resident Killer Whale endangerment have helped propel these issues to the forefront of water management. Moreover, in some cases, stormwater is mixed with sewage and several times a year, continuous rains overwhelm treatment facilities, leading to overflow across Seattle and around the Puget Sound. This can inundate roads, homes and waterways with sewage.

This project investigates the most pressing water pollution sources on campus in order to develop a reproducible model for treating polluted runoff from parking lots and roofs around campus. A variety of stormwater management concepts are accepted by the City of Seattle, urban residents and local non-profits as an effective means to prevent flooding, reduce water pollution, and beautify the area. This project explores the feasibility of rain gardens, bioswales, rainwater catchment, street edge alternatives (SEA), de-paving, phytoremediation, and mycoremediation. Understanding this range of options, and the realistic opportunity to implement these innovations within the existing campus design, and future campus re-designs, is critical to help UW take a leadership role in reducing quantity and improving quality of its stormwater. Moreover, the water quality analysis involved in this project, helps to focus future projects in the areas where they are most needed. The Hydrology Lab will be utilized free of charge for pH, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen. The King County Envrironmental Lab and the SEFS Analytical Service Center  http://www.sefs.washington.edu/research/analytical_lab/ will be utilized for metals and carbon testing at a fee for sample preparation and analysis. 

Salmon Safe has endorsed the SSC to assist UW in meeting the Salmon Safe Certification standards.The SSC will continue to generate an ongoing commitment of political will towards progressive stormwater policy and true environmental stewardship. 

To close with an example, if the contaminated stormwater from UW parking lots discharged into an Olympic sized swimming pool (~650,000 gallons), rather than Puget Sound, the parking lot N5 (an average sized lot at UW) could fill it with polluted stormwater in about 3 winter months. The sports field parking lot E1 could fill the pool in about 3 days of heavy rain.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The impacts of Sustainable Stormwater are understood through the quantity and quality of stormwater projects implemented over the near future on the UW campus. If the groundswell of current excitement about stormwater management can be channeled into successful projects, then the SSC position will be justified.  Water responsibility closely relates to UW’s standing amongst the greenest schools in the nation. In 2013, UW ranked the lowest "water score" of the top 13 Green Schools (http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201309/coolschools/complete-rankings.aspx) and momentum towards returning UW to the top ten would benefit significantly from improving its reputation on water use and handling.

The SSC will continue to generate an ongoing commitment of political will towards progressive stormwater policy and true environmental stewardship. In terms of policy, the University of Washington was recently certified as a ‘salmon safe’ institution as the beginning of a paradigm shift towards increasing consciousness about our water footprint and impacts on fish habitat.  With the full support of the certifying agency (see attached letter), we suggest incorporating the efforts and findings of the Sustainable Stormwater Coordinator into meeting the Salmon Safe Certificate Condition 4: “The UW shall perform an integrated stormwater management plan for the UW campus that evaluates opportunities to provide additional quantity and quality treatment of stormwater runoff including prioritizing such opportunities and establishing a proposed timeline for completion.”  Ellen Southward of Salmon Safe, the certifying agency, actively works with the University to integrate our findings into the certification process. If successful, this will be a large step towards progressive stormwater policy.

Positive relationship building with administrative officials about stormwater policy is understood through our success to Salmon Safe re-certify UW. Impacts within the greater stormwater community is gauged by networking relationships built with local organizations and other academic institutions (ie: NSCC) working on these issues. Impact on the student body is measured by interest in joining/volunteering for our project, and response to our social media campaign. Educational efforts are measured in terms of political will, policy shift and outreach success. Although these parameters are difficult to measure, we aspire to gauge the qualitative paradigm shift towards stormwater sustainability.

In another sense, the quantitative water quality data speaks for itself- the urgency for action on stormwater is determined, in part, by these findings. Additionally, it will provide a valuable baseline of information. In order to assess the positive impacts provided by any rain garden or bioswale over the course of the project, a baseline for comparison must first be established. The initial conditions of the area of interest must be defined and include the identification and quantification of the pollutants present in the soil and surface water prior to the installment of any rain garden type project. Organic compounds, hydrocarbons and more specifically polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) resulting from incomplete combustion of fuel, are targeted. The quantitative work is done using high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with a hydrocarbon specific column; further characterization of the polluting species will be done via gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

Total amount requested from the CSF: $9,051
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
SSC salary1678/month4.57551
Water/soil testing500500
outreach materials10001000

Non-CSF Sources:

Long term funding
SPU Stormwater Facilities Credit Program
F2 Facilities internship
Project Completion Total: $9,051

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Water quality testingcontinual12/15
Resource development and outreachcontinual12/15
Curriculum development8 months12/15
Funding identificationcontinual12/15
Training new SSC1 month9/15

Yesler Swamp Trek Stop

Executive Summary:

Our team is proposing a $65,000 construction project on the western shoreline of the Yesler Swamp lagoon to offer UW students and other visitors a unique wildlife observation platform.  The viewing platform will be called the “Yesler Swamp Trek Stop” (YSTS) and it will offer a permanent bird-watching post to rest, reflect, and interact with the different species that reside in wetland and swamp ecosystems around Lake Washington.  Our team has been hosting volunteer restoration events at the Yesler Swamp and documenting them on a website since October of 2013. (yeslerswamp.weebly.com)

The primary goals of this project are to:

  • Build a bird blind structure with an extremely low environmental footprint that adheres to green building specifications and communicates the importance of resource conservation.
  • Provide a unique and identifying landmark for the Yesler Swamp.
  • Provide an opportunity for the public to engage with the swamp and its biodiversity through interpretive signs (explaining the swamp ecosystem and services).
  • Provide an exceptional view of the swamp lagoon, Lake Washington and Mt. Rainier.
  • Provide an outdoor classroom for groups visiting the UW Center for Urban Horticulture.
  • Build a stronger connection between the Yesler Swamp and the well established Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA).
  • Raise awareness about the Yesler Swamp and the opportunities it presents for students and the greater Seattle community to actively engage with nature.

Background Story:

The Yesler Swamp is slowly transforming from a neglected and degraded wasteland into a restored green space and prospering ecosystem in the heart of Seattle.  This community around the Yesler Swamp, part of the Montlake Fill, is now an environmental treasure in Seattle; and it’s amazing considering that this place was home to Henry Yesler’s timber mill, a US military base, and garbage dump.  Now this place provides a sanctuary where people can trade in the cacophony of urban life for the tittering of hundreds of birds; an urban oasis where people both young and old can be fascinated by the natural world.

The Yesler Swamp Trek Stop will border the western edge of the swamp and the eastern end of the UW Center for Urban Horticulture, southeast of the botany greenhouses.  There will also be a wooden boardwalk twenty yards away, providing a permanent loop trail through the swamp.  The nonprofit organization The Friends of Yesler Swamp has raised enough funds to construct the first phase of the boardwalk adjacent to the proposed location for the trek stop.  Upon completion, this boardwalk will be donated to the UW.  Our team’s collaboration with the Friends of Yesler Swamp and their boardwalk endeavor will help establish the Yesler Swamp as an attractive destination for UW students and the surrounding neighborhood communities.  UW students have been restoring the swamp every year since 2000, which demonstrates that the site holds a place in students’ hearts. Our project team also has strong history of educational tours and events at the Yesler Swamp that we consistently document on our website: yeslerswamp.weebly.com.

Student Involvement:

Our project will incorporate student leadership and involvement during the design and construction phases through collaboration with the faculty and students in the College of Built Environments and the College of the Environment.  Ideally, our team would like to work with architecture and biology students to design a sustainable, ecological, and innovative shoreline viewing platform.  As the project progresses through the design phase, we will involve students from different realms of campus to ensure the bird blind incorporates interpretative signage that is easy to understand and engaging.  Students will also be invited to participate in the site’s restoration and clean up thus allowing them to feel a sense of ownership and pride in the swamp.  In addition, it will create future opportunities for students to immerse themselves in the natural landscapes surrounding the UW.

Education & Outreach:

One of the fundamental purposes for building the YSTS is to foster an environmentally conscious culture.  In the beginning, our main goal is to promote restoration efforts at the swamp and educate the student body about complex ecosystems existing on the UW Campus. This will take the form of posting fliers throughout the local community to advertise volunteer opportunities (ie. the UW Botanic Gardens/Center for Urban Horticulture, Laurelhurst Neighborhood, Main Campus, University Village, and Ravenna Neighborhoods) and hosting guided tours to showcase the newly constructed boardwalk trail.  These efforts will bring awareness to the weekly work parties currently hosted by the Community, Environment, and Planning Program and the Friends of Yesler Swamp partnership.  Our past work events have involved Seattle Preparatory seniors, Boy Scouts, Laurelhurst Elementary 5th graders, and Edmonds Community College students.  Connecting with local youth allows our project to foster environmental stewardship and inspire sustainable behavior changes for future generations.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Waste
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Upon completion, the YSTS will mix educational and long-term sustainable design elements by adhering to green building specifications. In doing so, the YSTS will be easily maintained and blend in with the surrounding environment.  We plan to build the YSTS out of reclaimed materials from local vendors such as Second Use Building Materials and Salvage and the RE Store to lessen the project's environmental impact.

In addition, our team plans to offset the environmental footprint created by the construction project by restoring the native shoreline surrounding the trek stop and introducing native plant varieties that attract birds to the area. The site where the trek stop will be located is infested with invasive plant species that are crowding out native plants and obstructing the view to the lagoon.  Restoring the site to its natural state will benefit fish and mammal species and open new possibilities for students to encounter wildlife on campus, while simultaneously demonstrating the importance of preserving the Yesler Swamp.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The success of our project will be measured by:

  1. Number of volunteers (both students and others)
  2. Number of visitors to the YSTS

These measurements will be tracked through sign-in sheets at work events and permanent sheets at the viewing platform for guests. 

  1. Sustainability Score Rating

The sustainability score of the structure will be assessed during the projects design/build phase according to the US Green Building Councils Neighborhood Development LEED specifications, http://www.usgbc.org/resources/leed-neighborhood-development-redline-v2009-current-version.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $65,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Phase 1 - 4
DPD Permit$12,000
Site Prep$6,000
Erosion Control$3,000
Drainage $2,000
Foundation Support$7,000
Phase 5 - 7
Design/Build Course$30,000
Long Term Upkeep$5,000

Non-CSF Sources:

HowardSWrightEndowment
Friends of YeslerSwamp
NeighborhoodMatchingFund
Project Completion Total: $65,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Project timeline posted below as PDF file calledYesler Swamp Timeline

Replacing Chemical Fertilizers with Compost, Compost Tea, and Biosolids

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Floating Wetlands Phase II

Executive Summary:

UW’s Green Futures Lab (“GFL”) is seeking to design, permit, and install demonstration floating wetlands (“FWLs”) to function as aquatic habitat in Pacific Northwest salmon migration corridors, through three separate project phases. Phase I, funded by CSF, has identified permitting pathways and appropriate, fish-friendly design parameters to realize this potential. In a future Phase III we hope to deploy FWLs for demonstration and study.  Phase II Floating Wetlands Demonstration will build from our Phase I research and design progress to: determine specific potential sites; create detailed design prototypes reflecting site nuances, species’ needs, and permitting requirements; and apply for permits for the selected prototype design(s).  The final design proposal for permitting will utilize design exploration and prototype development from students in an interdisciplinary Floating Wetlands Seminar and a linked volunteer Floating Wetlands Design-Build Lab, informed and engaged by the Floating Wetlands Student Project Team (“Team”).

Phase II will develop designs for yet-to-be-determined sites; no installation will occur during Phase II.  Sites of interest include UW shorelines along Portage Bay and Union Bay, along with other shorelines in the Lake Washington stream system (the salmon migration corridor encompassing UW shorelines).  The budgeted cost of Phase II is $12,050.

In order to address shoreline hardening – a contributor to decline of critical species and a “Vital Sign” targeted by Puget Sound Partnership – while improving water quality, we seek to design, prepare documents, and receive permits for FWLs in salmon-bearing waters for the first time in the Pacific Northwest.  We will use progress made toward submitting drawings and documents for permit review as a metric in gauging success of Floating Wetlands Demonstration, Phase II – Prototype Development.

The GFL’s work with FWLs began in 2013 with a seminar which produced Floating Wetlands Research and Design Investigations, Volumes I+II.  This prompted installation of 360 sq ft of student-developed water treatment FWLs in Redmond as well as King County-developed FWLs at the Brightwater Treatment Plant and Education Center.  The current Floating Wetland Demonstration builds from this initial water-quality-specific research, taking next steps to push for viability of FWLs for freshwater shoreline habitat restoration in the region.  Our 2016 CSF grant (Phase I – Initial Feasibility Study) allowed us to analyze and synthesize regional salmonid research, permitting processes, and design considerations to inform this proposed Phase II – Prototype Development.

Jackson Blalock, a Master of Landscape Architecture candidate, will lead Phase II.  SEFS and SAFS students Corrine Hoffman and/or David Hagopian will continue Student Team involvement. The Team will present their research and design parameters to a special Floating Wetlands seminar, engaging these students throughout Spring term as they assist with design development and influence the Team’s designs as presented to permitters. The Floating Wetlands Seminar will engage multiple departments in recruiting students for seminar participation as well as for an extracurricular Floating Wetlands Design-Build Lab to further project development under the scope of the CSF grant.  Both seminar and Design-Build Lab will build capacity for Phase III - Installation by broadening awareness of the project.  Professor Nancy Rottle, Director of the GFL, will be involved throughout the project. Mason Bowles (King County Department of Water Resources), Jason Toft (UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, Wetland Ecosystem Team), and Jeff Cordell (UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, Wetland Ecosystem Team) will continue to advise as needed.  Julie Blakeslee (UW Environmental and Land Use Planner) will also provide consultation services with the project as we move forward.

The  GFL’s previous work is available at: http://greenfutures.washington.edu/index.php/projects/detail/floating-wetlands

Student Involvement:

The Floating Wetlands Demonstration, Phase II – Prototype Development will provide employment for two students from Spring through Summer 2017.  In Spring 2017, two students will work approximately 10hrs/week, and again two students will work approximately 10 hrs/week during Summer term (hours may be otherwise distributed to include a third student team member.)  The compensated positions will engage students from different departments, and  there will also be opportunities for volunteer positions.

As an initial benchmark, the Team will compile existing documentation and design parameters into a form which is accessible and informative for other parties interested in developing FWLs in the region, and for consumption by students in the Floating Wetlands seminar and volunteer Design-Build Lab. From here, work will target the specific development of the FWL prototype through site selection and analysis, detailed application of Phase I’s design parameters to the selected sites, and development of a drawing set and documents for permit application.  See “Accountability” chart below for timeline.  Throughout this work, the project Team will be in conversation with various permitting agencies and affected parties (e.g King County, City of Seattle, WA Department of Ecology, WA Department of Natural Resources, Muckleshoot Tribe, UW Capital Projects, community groups), seeking feedback on design and siting in order to develop a successful permittable design which addresses multiple stakeholders’ needs. 

Project development and student involvement will also occur through the Spring 2017 LARCH 598 F Floating Wetlands Seminar, in which the student Team will function as advisors and “clients”, to expand the project’s outreach and education potential and to ensure appropriate design solutions, as well as to benefit from registered students’ dedicated efforts to further explore and refine site-specific designs.  The Team will present their research and design parameters, engaging these students throughout Spring term to ensure that their prototype designs are appropriately developed in response to needs of juvenile salmon and other considerations.  The Team will adapt work produced in the class to a selected site and refined design for permit application, as innovative ideas are expected to come from the seminar’s interdisciplinary design explorations.  In this sense, the 20 – 25 students involved in the Floating Wetlands Seminar will be providing an in-kind donation of ideation and design document production to the Phase II project, while expanding their awareness of and competence in applying FWLs as a viable sustainable technology. The Landscape Architecture Department has allocated faculty time for this special seminar, but funding is not available for the student Floating Wetlands Team; CSF funding will only be used to support the contributions of the student Team, and materials for students to develop floating wetland prototypes in the seminar and Design-Build Lab described below.  

In addition, the Team will use the course as a base point to recruit volunteer participants in a “Floating Wetlands Design-Build Lab” in which materials and assembly mock-ups for proposed FWL designs are tested.  Led by the project Team and running concurrently with the Floating Wetlands Seminar, the Design-Build Lab will test the efficacy of material assemblies presented through design proposals in a fun, inviting, and educational hands-on atmosphere.  Students in the seminar will be likely to participate in the Lab, as this provides an opportunity for them to take FWL ideas off of papere and into reality, providing learning experiences alongside valuable portfolio and resume material.  Through these linked processes, the project Team, seminar students, and volunteers will gain valuable experience in: collaborating with an interdisciplinary team; conducting relevant research; translating new expertise into a design proposal; the iterative design process; exploring regulatory processes; and organizing and presenting their findings.  

Education & Outreach:

GFL’s Floating Wetlands Seminar will provide an avenue for students to engage with the Floating Wetlands Demonstration project in a manner productive to the GFL as well as enlarge individual students’ educations.  Outreach for the Floating Wetlands Seminar will be conducted through multiple avenues, including UW’s College of the Environment, College of Engineering, and College of Built Environments (as well as with respective individual departments within).  Additional outreach will be conducted through the Center for Urban Horticulture, student groups such as Society for Ecological Restoration-UW, and others.

Specific outreach and education goals for Phase II of the Floating Wetlands Demonstration include:  

  • furthering student understanding of the permitting complexities and Tribal Treaty Rights; surrounding aquatic structures, prototype realization, shoreline restoration, and shoreline development;
  • furthering understanding of the aquatic processes ongoing in the fish corridor that the UW campus contributes to – or inhibits – particularly in relation to out-migrating juvenile salmon;
  • creating awareness of the benefits and limitations of floating wetlands as a sustainable technology
  • stimulating cross-departmental conversation and teamwork, utilizing the Floating Wetlands Demonstration to bring students together from different fields to develop solutions.  The Floating Wetlands Design-Build Lab will invite students who are interested in the project to assist with prototype development and material assembly testing through fun, informal, hands-on activities which leverage volunteer involvement to help grant funds stretch further.  
Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

As Phase II-Prototype Development will advance and permit a final design for our Floating Wetland Demonstration project, we do not presently request funding for long term management and maintenance. Phase III-Deployment will be funded separately at a future date, with planned installation between October 1, 2017 and April 15, 2018 in compliance with City of Seattle’s salmon-protection work windows. In-water FWL deployment is expected to last for approximately 18 months, during which time GFL staff will handle all maintenance in-house. The FWL will be removed from the water at the end of this lifespan in accordance with salmon-protection work windows, or – if deemed beneficial by regulatory agencies – allowed to decompose in situ.

Environmental Problem:

Polluted runoff from urban and agricultural lands has taken a massive toll upon wildlife populations and ecological function in the Puget Sound.  Shoreline development has compounded this problem and disconnected beneficial aquatic-terrestrial connectivity by removing vegetated buffers along shorelines, often replacing these healthy riparian zones with rip-rap, bulkheads, and other forms of shoreline armoring.  As such, pollution reaches our waters while ecologically-beneficial nutrients and food sources’ contributions to aquatic habitats are diminished, leading the Puget Sound Partnership to list (fresh and marine) water quality and shoreline armoring as “Vital Signs” of Puget Sound and contributing watersheds’ health. 

FWLs are an emerging green technology that grow native wetland plants on buoyant frames to mimic functions provided by natural wetlands and riparian zones, which have been largely removed due to shoreline development. Overhanging vegetation drop needed insects and detritus for food and aquatic root systems purify polluted water and provide refuge for small fish. FWLs have been consistently shown to improve water quality world-wide, but they have yet to be integrated into habitat restoration.  Due to the immense scale of shoreline hardening in the greater Puget Sound and the likely long-term duration of such shoreline alterations, FWLs provide a particularly relevant solution to address shoreline habitat loss.   However, FWLs have not been applied toward aquatic habitat and have so far had limited use in the PNW due to concerns over salmonid habitat and the potential for increased predation upon juvenile salmon as a result of over-water structures.  By developing the region’s first permitted FWLs in a manner that creates refuge and nursery habitat for juvenile salmonids while discouraging predation, the GFL’s FWLs have potential to not only improve water quality, but also contribute to aquatic habitat restoration in a manner that addresses regional concerns, serving as an example for other Seattle water bodies and showcasing UW’s leadership role in restorative green technology and public/community partnerships.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The impact of Floating Wetlands Demonstration, Phase II – Prototype Development will be measured by the progress made toward site-specific design drawing sets and ensuing permits issued that will allow for Phase III installation of approved designs.  As a first-of-its-kind project in Washington State (and greater Pacific Northwest), successful permitting of the Floating Wetlands Demonstration will have great impact as it sets precedence for accepted feasible designs and navigates a permitting route for future shoreline habitat restorations and water quality improvements utilizing FWLs. 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $12,050
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Spring student staff (2)$15/hr + benefits = $18/hr10hr/wk, 12 wks = 2160 x 2$4320
Summer student staff (2)$15/hr + benefits = $18/hr10hr/wk, 12 wks = 2160 x 2$4320
Construction materials (testing)$350/mockup6$2100
Travel to meetings, presentations, supplies, etc$200$200
Printing$150$150
Permit application fees$960$960
TOTAL$12,050

Non-CSF Sources:

problems changing number of row/columns, uploading Project Approval Forms. See separate email to Kyle McDermott
Project Completion Total: $12,050

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Compilation of existing research, analysis, and design parameters3 weeksMarch 27, 2017
Advisement on seminar content and development of Design-Build Lab process2 weeksMarch 27, 2017
Focused site selections (6)3 weeksApril 17, 2017
Design development and final proposal selection(s) (working with seminar and Lab)10 weeksJune 9, 2017
Design refinement with permitting agencies12 weeksJuly 7, 2017
Production of drawing set for permits3 weeksJuly 28, 2017
Permit submission3 weeksAugust 21, 2017

Electric Bicycle Mail-Delivery

Executive Summary:

Our project involves replacing UW Mailing Service delivery trucks with five electric assist cargo bicycles complete with fully secured cargo boxes and trailers. This proposal entails restructuring our delivery methods to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of the bicycles. Through incorporating our main operation in the Publications Building, located in the Southwest campus, as well as two additional satellite locations, we can utilize our resources cutting costs and emissions. We are currently running a light bicycle operation from one of those satellites which is located in the Communications Building on central campus. The other satellite will operate from our UW Tower Mailing Services platform.

Our proposed cost estimate is $77,798. This would allow us to purchase five electric assist bicycles with cargo carrying capacity, rider gear, project education, and bike maintenance. This funding will support a large reduction in energy consumption, carbon emissions, noise pollution, and vehicle congestion created by UW Mailing Services vehicles.

All metrics for the project will be measured and made available to the campus community via a vast public outreach campaign.

The project will be supported long-term by a joint team of Mailing Services employees and student interns. UW Mailing Services will assume the long-term maintenance costs associated with the project.

This proposal was developed by Dylan Been (Student Coordinator), as well as Douglas Stevens and Jeffrey Schwartz (UW Mailing Services).

Student Involvement:

Dylan Been, Foster School of Business 2017, is currently serving in the role of Student Coordinator and Project Facilitator. We have an agreement in place with the HUB Graphic Design Office where student employees will create the designs for our educational outreach material. We also have a set maintenance schedule with the student run ASUW Bike Shop in order to provide maintenance on the non-warrantied parts and accessories. In the future, we will recruit student team members who will manage the project long-term. This position will be filled either through an internship program offered by UW Mailing Services, or through Carlson Service Learners. Responsibilities will include maintaining project outreach, social media, and program metrics. The new team member will also aid Mailing Services in applying for additional grants as they expand their fleet of cargo bikes.

Education & Outreach:

Our main educational and outreach goal is to promote the benefits of alternative forms of transportation. We are going to achieve that goal by educating the campus community through our graphic design and media campaigns.

1) Graphic Design

  • CSF and educational “fun facts” posters/banners will be displayed on cargo bikes and trailers (CSF example included under Project Approval Forms)
  • Utilize Creative Communications Transit Messaging Program to promote the bicycle program and CSF on the sides of UW vehicles and inside the UW Husky Shuttle buses
  • Promote CSF at UW and Sustainability events

2) Media Campaign

  • Utilize the UW Daily for ad space. Encourage the Daily to do a front page feature on the cargo bikes and CSF involvement in the program
  • Utilize social media. Create Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts to promote the bike program and publish updates
  • Partner with UW Media Relations & Communications to create a regional/national press release. Encourage local media to do a story on CSF/Bike program. (KUOW, ABC, CBS, NBC, local affiliates, The Seattle Times, The Stranger)
  • Create informational page on UW Mailing Services web page

 

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Transportation
Project Longevity:

Long-term management of the project will be handled jointly by Mailing Services employees and interns hired by the department. Duties will involve tracking environmental metrics as vehicles are replaced by cargo bikes, managing social media outlets, and presenting the project at CSF events. Interns will also work jointly with Mailing Services to provide project check-in reports to CSF. Routine maintenance on the bikes will be scheduled by Mailing Services. Additional funding to handle long-term maintenance will be provided by Mailing Services. These costs will include replacement parts and electric driveline issues following the conclusion of the three year warranty.

Environmental Problem:

Delivery vehicles utilized by Mailing Services contribute to the environmental problems of global warming, climate change, noise pollution, and dependence on fossil fuels. Mailing Services vehicles burn both diesel and gasoline which release six metric tons of CO2 as well as other harmful toxins into the atmosphere. The size of the delivery vehicles and the noise of the internal combustion engines contribute to the problem of noise pollution and vehicle congestion on campus.

The implementation of cargo bikes to replace delivery trucks on campus will mitigate the environmental problems associated with vehicle delivery.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

To measure and quantify the benefits of our project we will be using the carbon footprint calculator from carbonfootprint.com to track the amount of CO2 emissions saved, and we will compare current fuel usage with those of previous years.

The carbonfootprint.com website allows us to enter the make, model, and year of each vehicle, as well as how many miles each vehicle travels. It then uses that data to formulate total emissions. There are currently three daily truck routes on central campus that, when combined, average 10.5 miles a day or 2,625 miles across campus annually. Additionally, there are two daily off-campus routes, which average 9 miles, or 2,250 miles annually. With those statistics in mind, the Mailing Services vehicles release 1.75 metric tons of CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere every year.

UW Mailing Services staff and student interns will track both fiscal and fuel savings. There will be monthly reports conducted, comparing current statistics with those of preceding months and years to quantify fuel saving. This information will be relayed to the project’s student coordinator, who will then add the statistics to the environmental metrics. The end goal of the metric tracking will be to show the University community the environmental and economic savings that come with a continued commitment to sustainability. Not only will our proposal show UW’s ongoing commitment to environmental preservation, it will also help the University’s unabating Climate Action Plan of 2005, to reduce the emission levels of 2005 by 15% before 2020.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $77,798
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Initial Costs for Bikes and Trailers
Cargo E-bike (w/ Extra Battery)$6,1245$30,620
Front and Rear Cargo Boxes6,000530,000
Surly Rear Trailers80032,400
Graphic Design125011250
Total$64,270
Annual Maintenance Costs
E-bike full tune ups (3 Years)$3305$1650
2 Sets of Sintered Pads965480
Brake Rotors1045520
Chain255125
Bosch Chain-ring and O-Ring205100
Shift Cable and Housing305150
Set of Tires825410
Flat Tire Fixes755375
E-bike Rental During Maintenance1505750
Hydro Brake Maintenance405200
Warranty Process505250
Total$5,010
Initial Costs for Riding Gear
Citizen Messenger Bag (Bike Courier)$1542$308
Garbage Barge Bag (Bike Courier)3842768
Rain Caps466276
Water Resistant Gloves926552
Helmet926552
Courier Key Chain9546
Leg Strap17469
Waterproof Pants756448
Water Resistant Shoes19661,173
Utility Pouch1046621
Total$4,813
Project Subtotal$74,093
Contingency Fee (5%)$3,705
Project Total$77,798

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $77,798

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Phase 1: Mid-March - Mid-May 2017
Determine Amount of Funding ReceivedTBDMid-February - Early March
Submit Order for Bikes and Gear Based off Level of Funding1 WeekApril 1st, 2017
Submit Graphic Design Order to the HUB1 WeekApril 1st, 2017
Optimize Routes to Reduce Maximum Amount of Emissions2 WeeksApril 15th, 2017
Create Social Media Campaign for Program2 WeeksApril 15th, 2017
Develop Informational Page on Mailing Services Website1 MonthMay 1st, 2017
Hire Intern or Carlson Service Learner1 MonthApril 15th, 2017
Phase 2: Mid-May - June 2017
Receive Fully Equipped Models1.5 - 2 MonthsMay 15th - June 1st 2017
Install Logos on Sides of Cargo Boxes1 WeekMay 15th - June 1st 2017
First Bike Routes Begin, Metrics TrackedOngoingJune 1st, 2017
Feature Developed and Published for UW Daily2 WeeksJune 1st, 2017
Encourage Local Media to do Story on Program2 WeeksJune 1st, 2017
Phase 3: October 2017 - January 2018
Apply for More Funding if NeededTBDJanuary 26th, 2018
Continue Metric TrackingOngoingOngoing
First Diesel Vehicle ReturnedTBDDecember 31st, 2017
Long-Term
Intern Continues to Monitor ProgramOngoingOngoing
Submit New Graphic Design Order with Updated Metrics1 Week June 1st, 2018
Develop Method for Bike Storage on CampusTBDJune 1st, 2018
Mailing Services Takes over Financial ResponsibilityTBDMarch 15th, 2020
Additional Vehicles ReturnedTBDDecember 31st, 2018

University of Washington Campus Sustainability Challenge: Feasibility and Design

Executive Summary:

It is estimated that more than 1.2 billion people around the world play games worldwide; in the US 49% of people play games using consoles, websites, or portable devices (Duggan 2015). Games can be used for many purposes other than profit, however, and organizations like Games for Change (http://www.gamesforchange.org/) and UW’s own Earthgames (https://earthgames.org/) support development of games for purposes of education, awareness, and social change (Mitchel and Savill-Smith 2004, Baranowski et al. 2008, Thompson 2012). If well designed, games can translate to real-world knowledge and behavior change. For example, the Facebook game “Half the Sky” has attracted more than 1.3 million players who – by playing – have generated $500K in donations toward alleviating oppression for women and girls around the world (Dasgupta et al. 2012).

Our project assesses feasibility and design for games to encourage sustainable actions by students throughout their tenure at UW. The project will accomplish four objectives: 1) review of existing environmental games or challenges, 2) hold a "Game Jam" to engage students and staff across campus in creating multiple game prototypes, 3) conduct an online student survey to gain feedback on sustainability concerns and technology/gaming use, and 4) create a formal business plan to develop and implement a final game design in a future project.

The environmental problem we seek to address is how to engage with large numbers of individuals to take actions that reduce use of resources and improve their knowledge and actions related to sustainability and conservation. We believe that web or app-based games have a unique and enormous potential to help address this need across diverse demographics. Games offer an efficient package to present information; they are also interactive and fun, offering an alternative to a “doom-and-gloom” approach that can lead to apathy for conservation and sustainability.

The proposed total cost for the project is $6,868.00, and would entail working with multiple departments and campus services. We would work closely with UW Sustainability to incorporate existing sustainability and education efforts. We have consulted with First Year Programs about the project and made a plan to keep them apprised of progress, but determined that Housing and Food Services (ie, residence hall programs and leadership) may be a better avenue for a game to reach a large number of incoming students. We would seek to work closely with and gain considerable feedback from them as part of a feasibility study. The School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS) has agreed to physically host the Game Jam and provide financial management.

Our project team is a Research Scientist (SAFS) and two graduate students (Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management Program, Communications Program) who have substantial experience in research, innovative science communication, art, project management and environmental game development. All three project leads are part of EarthGames at UW, which supports students in developing environmentally-based games.

Student Involvement:

This project team includes two graduate students, who will help implement all of the major project components including the comprehensive literature and gaming review (Table 1), organizing and holding the Game Jam, creating a student survey, and creation of the final formal business plan.

The Game Jam will be an opportunity for substantial student involvement. Our target for participation in the Game Jam is 5 teams (18-20 students); we anticipate some faculty or staff will participate as well. We will also recruit 8 students (not Game Jam participants) as panelists to judge entries. The Game Jam will be held over a weekend. Students are matched to form teams that (ideally) have diverse skills and experiences; teams work together over the weekend to design a gaming app around the theme of engaging and encouraging students to adopt specific actions that reduce use of campus resources and/or introduce students to campus sustainability information. We will ask teams to include incentives that students can earn into their game design, and provide a list of possible incentives that have been used by campus programs in the past with success (e.g., custom buttons, patches, t-shirts, food or coffee). Although not required, we will encourage teams to consider using existing UW Sustainability information and resources in game designs; these include features on the UW Sustainability website such as “A Century of Sustainability”, the campus sustainability map, or the “Sqwatch” mascot as a character.

Teams will be asked to develop a game design and prototype over the weekend using the skills within their group (the three project leaders will also provide technical and design support to teams as much as possible). Teams will also create a 1-2 minute video about their game (e.g., see video for the game “AdaptNationhttps://vimeo.com/141361531) for judging by the selected student panelists, who will be asked to score games based on criteria including creativity, design, and feasibility in implementing the game at UW. An awards ceremony to distribute prizes to the first, second, and third place entries will be held the following weekend.

Lastly, we will involve a large number of students through an online survey (Qualtrics program, UW license) that we will create related to technology use, gaming, and sustainability. The goal of this portion of the project is to gather information from approximately 400 UW student respondents; in addition to being offered an incentive for completing the survey, in a thank you at the end of the survey respondents will be invited to view the videos created during the Game Jam and learn more about the feasibility study and project goals.

Education & Outreach:

As part of the review stage of the project, we will engage with the departments and campus services where a sustainability app could be broadly distributed to incoming students. These include First Year Programs (U101, Student Orientations, and Dawg Daze), Campus Sustainability, and Housing and Food Services. We have already had preliminary meetings with First Year Programs and Campus Sustainability to discuss distribution options and existing sustainability education efforts that could be incorporated into a game; these initial contacts would be followed up in more depth, and also initiated with Housing and Food Services. Our goals in collaborating with these campus services is to understand the dominant sustainability challenges at UW (for emphasis in a gaming app) and decide on the most effective way to reach a broad and large audience of incoming students.

For the Game Jam, our goal is to create student teams with diverse experience and interests including research, computing, design, sustainability, and communication, and we will promote the event broadly. We have identified the following student groups and campus associations to invite to participate in a Game Jam: Engage Science Speakers, ComSciCom Pacific Northwest, Earthgames, the Center for Game Science (student listserve), Human Centered Design and Engineering (student listserve), the College of the Environment (student listserve), UW Green Teams, UW Sustainability Facebook Group, and all of the environmental student groups currently operating at UW (http://green.uw.edu/content/environmental-student-groups). We will promote the event by emailing these groups and/or posting to listserves about the Game Jam, as well as creating posters for distribution across campus (e.g., HUB). Students who participate will have the opportunity to be recognized by the community at the end of the Game Jam for their work, but can also use this as a resume-building opportunity if needed since teams produce a game prototype. We will request feature story coverage of the Game Jam and winning teams by UW Today and UW Daily via a press release prior to the Game Jam. If this is not successful, we will write a blog post about the event for distribution on the Earthgames website, and promote the blog post on social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook).

The student survey will be a way to gather information, but also to inform students about the project and potential for use of gaming in sustainability and conservation efforts. The student questionnaire will be designed using the program Qualtrics, for which UW has a license (the questionnaire will be open to anyone but students will have to enter a uw.edu email address to be eligible for the gift card drawing). The questionnaire will survey students by asking what environmental issues are of most importance to them, how they prefer to engage with environmental issues, and their current preferences and use of gaming and apps. We will gain feedback on a draft of the survey from UW Sustainability, and approval from Human Subjects Division before implementing the final survey. Respondents will be thanked (and informed about the results of the drawing) one week after the survey has closed; in that thank you we will include additional information about the feasibility study and a link to the Vimeo channel with the Game Jam videos. Our team has experience using Qualtrics to conduct multiple surveys where results have been published in peer-reviewed publications (Mims et al. 2016, Kuehne et al. 2016); we expect that an open survey distributed to UW students with a gift card drawing incentive will generate at least 400 responses, and this is our goal. We will distribute the survey through the same channels used to recruit Game Jam participants as well as requesting approval to post flyers about the survey in all of the residence halls. On completing the survey, students will also be given a link that they can share with other students to further promote the project and survey.

Environmental Impact:
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

The feasibility study and all intended products (game prototypes and formal business plan) will be completed within the project timeline without a need for long term management and maintenance.

Environmental Problem:

More than ever, the onus is on individuals to identify and solve the sustainability challenges we face, even as solutions to environmental problems will continue to be interdisciplinary and complex. We therefore need ways to integrate technological, economic, and social expertise across all disciplines, and gather the attention and ingenuity of all people. We believe that web or app-based games have a unique and enormous potential to help address this need across diverse user groups and geographic areas.

By conducting a feasibility study for a large-scale sustainability gaming app for the UW campus, we will be synthesizing what is currently known about environmental gaming, engaging the UW community in developing potential game ideas and designs, and examining the limitations and potential of this kind of technology to improve sustainability awareness and actions. This project will not only summarize existing information and attitudes of students related to sustainability and technology, but create a formal business plan around the two best and most feasible game designs and establish a strong foundation to implement a campus-wide challenge.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

At the stage of the feasibility study we will not have any measures of environmental impacts, but measures of outreach and education include the number of Game Jam participants (18-20), game prototypes (4-5), student panelists (8), and the number of student respondents for the survey (400).

Total amount requested from the CSF: $6,868
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Research staff project manager$30/hr + 32.4% benefits80 hours$3,177.60
Graduate student project manager(s)$20/hr + 17.9% benefits130 hours$3,065.40
Game Jam awards$50.008$400.00
Survey participant incentives$25.006$150.00
Printing costs of signs and final productsN/AN/A$75.00

Non-CSF Sources:

VendorItemPurposeQuantityTotal Value
Aqua Verde Restaurantgift certificatesGame Jam awards2$50.00
Recycled Cyclesgift certificatesGame Jam awards2$50.00
CostcoGift certificateGame Jam foodNA$75.00
Starbucks coffeeCoffee/pastriesGame jam foodNA$60.00
Project Completion Total: $7,103

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Literature and game review2 months9/30/2017
Recruit student participants and panelists for Game Jam1 month9/30/2017
Hold Game Jam and awards ceremony2 weeks10/31/2017
Develop student questionnaire/Human Subjects Division approval1 month10/31/2017
Questionnaire open to students, invitations and reminders3 weeks11/30/2017
Hold drawing for survey, thank respondents2 weeks12/15/2017
Synthesize all results into formal business plan for top 2 designs6 weeks1/31/2018

Dual Flush Toilets at Women's Odegaard Restrooms

Executive Summary:

Roughly 50% of the water average American use at home comes from toilets.  It is an unavoidable act of water consumption, but we are looking to minimize that usage.  New technological advances are providing the world with water-efficient toilets capable of reducing water consumption while maintaining a level of cleanliness and sanitation.  Our grant project aims to integrate dual-flush technology at the women’s bathrooms at Odegaard Undergraduate Library.  Currently, the women’s toilet only has one flushing option at 1.6 gallons per flush.  What we want to introduce is the same 1.6-gallon per flush for solid waste with the addition of a 1.1-gallon per flush for liquid waste.  The Sloan EBV 550A Dual Flush Side Mount works as a sensor flushing system that will use a 1.1-gallon flush when the user has spent less than 90 seconds on the toilet and a 1.6-gallon flush for anything longer.  There are also buttons for manual flushing for either option. 

We are working with the UW Facilities Plant Services with Rich Dierck, Lance Karvonen, and Jeff Hnilo.  We will coordinate with Lynda Ekins, Odegaard Building Coordinator, to find the best times for installation.  Jeff Hnilo, UW Facilities and Services Plumbing Lead, will be assisting us throughout the project.   We will work to install the Sloan EBV 550A Dual Flush Side Mount ($242.64 per, which includes a discount percentage for orders over 20 items) to all 23 toilets in the women’s bathrooms.  This model simply replaces the flushing mechanism and will be a relatively simple procedure that will require one mounting kit per two toilets (12 total mounting kits at $34.95 per) (approximated installment fee: $3000).  Outreach and informing UW members and other users of Odegaard Library will be done by all campus emails, posters, and signs (budgeted at $300).

We will also be in contact with the City of Seattle: Seattle Public Utilities to search and find rebate options for the dual-flush toilets.  Because the dual-flush will be saving 0.5 gallons for every liquid waste flush (1.6 gallons for solid waste is the standard requirement), each toilet will be up for a $75-$150 rebate.  On top of that, Odegaard has the opportunity to save further funds from lower water consumption.  That number is subject to change until we see progress after the dual-flush mechanism has been installed.  Getting the rebate requires us to fill out a form for approval that will be reviewed and subject for rebate. 

In conclusion, the dual-flush technology has the potential to save considerable amounts of water annually.  The UW Tower recently had a project very similar to this and experienced significant water conservation and cost saving.  With the help of Jeff Hnilo, we are confident that we will be able to carry out this project in a timely and organized fashion.  

Student Involvement:

Vincent, Robert, and Jeff Hnilo will oversee all operations.

Jeff Hnilo, Plumbing Lead N.E. Zone Facilities Services, will help us purchase the necessary items (Sloan EBV 550A Dual-Flush Side Mount and Mounting Kits) to be installed and work with UW Facilities and Services to install the dual-flush toilets at a proper time.  We are working our idea with his recommendations to install dual-flush mechanisms at all women's bathrooms at Odegaard Library.  The installation is a simple process as all we are doing is replacing the flushing handle with the new Sloan EBV 550A model.  We will replace the existing toilet flush handle with a dual-flush mechanism and set to a 1.6 gallon flush for solid waste and a 1.1 gallon flush for liquid waste.  This is an improvement over the current 1.6 gallon flush for all flushes.  After purchasing we all will coordinate UW Facilities and Services have a UW affiliated workforce to install the new piece on all the toilets.  As Jeff will be supervising us, if this project experiences any substantial long-lasting issues, it will be a simple procedure to switch back to the previous flushing mechanism, as only the handle has been changed.  

Vincent and Robert will outreach to the UW communities and other Odegaard Library users.  We will send emails and have posters and signs around Odegaard to teach users about the dual-flush toilets for the women's bathrooms.  We will also use the outreach as a way to campaign for water conservation.  This will be explained in more detail in the ‘Education and Outreach’ section.  We will also be in contact with the City of Seattle to negotiate rebate deals for low-water consumption toilets to mitigate the cost of the project.  Obtaining a rebate will require us to fill out a form for the project with all specifications and outreaching to coordinators to make sure Odegaard is given the rebate.  

Education & Outreach:

We want to use articles, all-campus emails, posters around and inside of Odegaard Library, and informative signs inside bathrooms to educate users on what this project is and how to use the new toilets.  

If possible, we would like to have an article published about the project.  We feel that this will accomplish two things.  Firstly, it will get the message out about the new dual-flush toilets.  Secondly, it can showcase how UW, CSF, and its members are taking action to conserve water and be sustainable overall. 

All-campus emails will be sent to all UW students, faculty, and staff with a short explanation of our project, why the dual-flush toilet is important for water conservation, and an explanation on how to operate the dual-flush toliet.  

For those who may not check their UW email or who do not attend the school, will be able to see our posters both inside and around Odegaard library containing similar information to the all-campus emails.  Just in case that those posters are missed by anyone, we will also have signs placed in the bathrooms and inside each stall holding each dual-flush toilet.  Both the poster and the sign will briefly explain the purpose of the dual-flush and how to operate them.  This process will use the $300 budget for supplies.  We also want the signs to be long-lasting or pernament.

The outreach methods (emails, posters, signs) will include something similar to this:  UW students, The Campus Sustainability Fund have introduced dual-flush toilets at Odegaard Library for the women's bathroom!  The new flushing technology will auto flush at a lower 1.1-gallon flush for liquid waste when being used for less than 90 seconds and a 1.6-gallon flush for solid waste when used for over 90 seconds.  There are also buttons for manual flushing where green is for the 1.1-gallon flush and silver is for the 1.6 gallon flush.  We want to remind you that this new installation is completely sanitary and complies with regulatory standards.  With this feature, you will be able to save millions of gallons of water every year!  (additional pieces will include images on how to use them, other ways to conserve water, statistics on how much water is saved)

The big idea is that we want to reinforce how students, and any users of these toilets, are saving water.  That little reminder can go a long way.  I always notice the number of how many water bottles have been saved when I refill my bottle at a water-fountain station.  These water-efficient toilets can do the same, thus letting students know that they are conserving with every flush.  As we outreach to teach students about the new toilet installments, we want to also provide examples of other water conservation examples.  Just a few tips or reminders that can help them lower their carbon footprint.  

Environmental Impact:
  • Water
Project Longevity:

The installment of the new dual-flush technology will last indefinitely, until they are replaced with better technology, or if there is some kind of malfunction and a replacement is needed. Toilets and toilet handles don't break too often, so we are confident that this can be considered a project that will have long lasting benefits.

Environmental Problem:

We cannot live without water.  In fact, nothing can live without water.  Water conservation helps conserve our struggling environment, and every act of saving helps.  After all, consistent savings add up fast. 

Our dual-flush toilet project has the potential to save millions of gallons of water every year.  Currently, Odegaard Library uses 1.6-gallon flushes for all toilets.  While men have the option to use a sub-1-gallon flush urinal for liquid waste, women have no alternative to the 1.6-gallon flushing toilet.  The dual-flush technology will save half a gallon of water when used properly, and that will add up fast and will make a difference.  The installation of dual-flush is a simple procedure, as explained previously, and is a great opportunity for the University of Washington to continue to lead universities as a sustainable leader.  Water conservation needs to be a way of life, not just an option we consider from time to time. 

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Water Conservation Impact:  Our project will be saving water.  More specifically, 0.5 gallons for when the toilets are being used for liquid waste.  Water savings can be seen after installment when new utility-water bills are compared to older utility-water bills.  This will give a good estimate of how much water is being saved as well as how much money is being saved.  We aim to install dual-flush technology at all 23 women's toilets, and because Odegaard has such high-traffic, expect to see a considerable amount of water saved.  

Mentality Impact: We want to address how our project can inspire people to act more sustainably.  The signs and posters act as more than just inforamative 'how to use' this, they are also a reminder that the user is saving water.  This is not only good for the person to know, but that individual may see that being sustainable can be simple.  We want to include other sustainable habits on our signs, posters, and emails so users can find other ways to add sustainable habits to their lifestyles.  

Total amount requested from the CSF: $14,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Sloan EBV 550A Dual-Flush Side Mount$242.64 23$5580.72-6000.00
Mounting kit$34.9512$419.40-500.00
Outreach supplies (signs/posters/etc.)$3001$300
Installation TeamTBD1approx $5500.00
Funds for error10-15% of total budget1$1700

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Purchasing all necessary pieces4-5 weeksLate March-Mid April, 2017
Writing the All-campus email1-3 weeksMid March, 2017
Making outreach posters1-3 weeksMid March, 2017
Making outreach signs1-3 weeksMid March, 2017
Hiring a installation team4-5weeksLate March-Mid April, 2017

Project Approval Forms:

Friday Harbor Labs Composting Facility: A home for our Rocket 700 composter

Executive Summary:

Project description: We are applying for funding for materials to build a facility that would house a Rocket A700 composter acquired by Friday Harbor Labs (FHL). We are also asking for funding to hire a student (the “FHL Student Compost Ambassador”) to provide outreach for the composting process, to monitor the project and its implementation, and to initiate an e-waste recycling program at FHL. This project will be supported in the initial stages and over the long-term by FHL maintenance and dining hall staff to ensure that the composter is adequately maintained. FHL has also committed to maintain continuing funding of the aforementioned Student Ambassador position for four additional years (2018-2022).

Location on campus: UW’s Friday Harbor Labs marine station is located on San Juan Island.

Proposed cost (CSF): $52,700
Proposed FHL match (year 1): $45,335
Proposed FHL match (years 2-5, per year): $17,000

Environmental problem the project is seeking to solve: FHL has a long history of environmental stewardship as well as marine and terrestrial ecology research and education, and is a beacon of ecological connectedness and sustainability in the Pacific Northwest. Nevertheless, the lack of a fully sustainable solid waste disposal program at FHL represents a glaring disconnect, and a clear and easily addressable area for improvement. FHL hosts hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and visiting scholars year round, and as such generates thousands of pounds of compostable food waste annually. Currently, all of this waste is shipped off island to a landfill in South-Central Washington. In 2014, FHL acquired an industrial Rocket A700 composter through the CSF. The composter and associated bins, however, must be housed in a dedicated dry and animal-proof facility which FHL does not currently have.

We are therefore applying for CSF funds to offset ~80% of the material costs for construction of a facility that would not only house and provide power to the Rocket A700, but would also centralize and improve campus solid waste disposal of all types, including recycling, landfill waste and a new e-waste program. An additional benefit is the production of copious finished compost that could be used for mulching around the FHL grounds, and fertilizer for a vegetable garden that will be initiated during the project period, primarily by interested FHL undergraduate and graduate students. We are also including a request to CSF to fund the first year of a five year FHL Student Compost Ambassador position, who would take responsibility for monitoring the functioning of the operational Rocket A700, would be the primary point person for outreach to the community and beyond about the program, and would submit quarterly reports to the FHL administration on successes and challenges.

Website: More information on Friday Harbor labs may be found at http://depts.washington.edu/fhl/

People and departments involved: We have obtained Project Approval Forms from the heads of FHL maintenance (Fred Ellis), FHL dining (Laurie Spalding) and FHL director Billie Swalla, and the Acceptance of Administrative Responsibility Form from the FHL administrator Mark Tetrick.

Student Involvement:

This project will provide 5 hours of student support per week to an undergraduate or graduate student for up to 5 years (first year from CSF funds, and subsequent four years from FHL, est. cost $8,000/yr), which we will call the FHL Student Compost Ambassador. This Student Ambassador will lead outreach efforts to educate and include the greater FHL community, and will recruit undergraduate and graduate student volunteers interested in assisting in composting and waste disposal efforts around campus. In addition, the Student Ambassador will hold group meetings with FHL maintenance, FHL dining and FHL administration to coordinate volunteer efforts at various stages of the project, set up an e-waste program at FHL, and compile quarterly reports to share with all parties.

Student involvement in community outreach:

The Student Ambassador will coordinate the design and creation of signage to be placed in the composter facility, as well as give a 2 minute overview of the composter and associated waste disposal to the FHL community at the quarterly “All FHL Dinner.” This quarterly dinner is the ideal setting for a quick introduction to the FHL community, because attendance is mandatory for all arriving students and well-attended by the entire community.

The Student Ambassador will also be responsible for coordinating undergraduate and graduate student, faculty, and staff volunteers interested in helping with the composting process and/or in working in a proposed community garden that will use compost from the facility. In addition to coordinating ongoing volunteer assistance, we envision the Ambassador coordinating a few designated days each quarter where interested students, faculty, and staff would work on the community garden and in helping FHL maintenance with composting tasks. This position would give the Student Ambassador the opportunity to build leadership, communication, and management skills, and undergraduates and graduate student volunteers would gain knowledge about composting and e-waste practices.

Student coordination with FHL staff and administration in initial stages and beyond:

Furthermore, the Student Ambassador will participate in planning meetings involving the heads of FHL maintenance (Fred Ellis) and FHL dining (Laurie Spalding), FHL administrator Mark Tetrick, and FHL Director Billie Swalla. In this way, the Student Ambassador will be able to influence and directly participate in the design and execution of the new facility. The Ambassador will then report back to any interested FHL student volunteers, who would then likewise be able to be involved in decision making at each stage via the Ambassador as their liaison. Furthermore, the Ambassador will recruit interested volunteers for various phases of the project construction per their interest, and taking into account safety issues as regulated by Mr. Ellis.

WA state and UW both have extensive programs to recover e-waste from the landfill stream, and to ensure that the e-waste recycling is handled sustainably and ethically (see ewaste.ee.washington.edu). During the first year of the project the FHL Student Compost Ambassador will work with FHL units, the UW e-waste program, and the San Juan Island e-waste transfer service (Consignment Treasures LLC) to develop a workable e-waste disposal plan for the labs, and to thus include publicly-accessible e-waste disposal bins and signage in the proposed FHL solid waste disposal facility.

The Student Ambassador will also write quarterly reports that will include an updated guide to proper use of the facility, ambassador activities that were conducted, a log of all volunteer hours and food waste composted, and a list of future needs for the facility. This report will be essential in communicating regularly with FHL maintenance, the FHL dining hall staff and the FHL directorship on the state and needs of the facility, and to provide continuity to subsequent Ambassadors. 

Education & Outreach:

How this project will be publicized:

Publicizing the project to the resident FHL community will be primarily carried out through signage and an introduction at the quarterly “All FHL” Dinner by the Student Ambassador, as outlined in the student involvement section. Notes about solid waste disposal, recycling, e-waste and compost will be added to the brochures distributed to all visitors when they arrive at FHL, and in the informational signs posted in campus housing units. 

Furthermore, this project will be publicized to the FHL community, to the University of Washington campus at large, and to the greater San Juan Island community through media, such as the Islander and Seattle newspapers, regional environmental newsletters and blogs, and through the Lab's social media feeds. In addition, updates on the project will be publicized in FHL’s monthly Tidebites newsletter, quarterly Intertidal Tidings newsletter, and the annual FHL Bulletin, all of which have broad distribution. The project will be publicized to the greater campus by contacting the press offices of the College of the Environment and UW Daily.

Specific outreach and education goals:

The primary outreach goals are to educate the FHL community on alternative methods and benefits of composting food waste rather than sending it to the landfill, benefits of using compost in landscaping, and benefits of recycling e-waste. Information on small-scale composting methods will also be provided for visiting students and researchers who may be inspired by this information to begin composting after leaving FHL. The signage will also be designed to increase the likelihood that all waste items are disposed of in the appropriate bins.

A long term goal of the community garden will be to provide ingredients back to the FHL dining hall, to be used regularly as well as featured in special meals, such as the aforementioned quarterly "All FHL" Dinners and the 4th of July celebration.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Transportation
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

Friday Harbor Laboratories is committed to long-term maintenance of the composter facility and we are including an estimated annual contribution that FHL has agreed to contribute towards this project. In addition to FHL committing to cover operational utility costs, weekly efforts by FHL maintenance and FHL dining staff will include composter upkeep, ongoing wood chipping and collecting food waste. A breakdown of these ongoing FHL matches can be found in the “Non-CSF Sources” budget section of this proposal, and would total an estimated $10,500 annually, or $52,500 over 5 years. Furthermore, the Student Ambassador outreach position will create signage and directly communicate with the FHL community to ensure that only compostable materials will enter the compost stream. FHL administration has graciously agreed to fund this position for four years (at $8,000/yr, from 2018-2022) following the initial year of the project. Initially this program will be limited to FHL dining hall staff coordinating food waste from the dining hall to the composter to ensure proper use. In subsequent years of the project, the FHL Student Compost Ambassador will coordinate with other FHL units to determine the feasibility of expanding the composting program to encompass the other FHL housekeeping units (i.e., student and researcher housing with their own kitchens). Please note that the $98,035 listed as "Project Completion Total" reflects our estimated project costs (CSF + FHL match) for the first year of funding. Ongoing operation costs beyond the first year are all committed as matching funds from FHL, and are listed in the "Non-CSF Sources" budget table.

Environmental Problem:

While city-wide composting is available on and around the main UW campus in Seattle, there is no publicly-available composting facility on San Juan Island where UW’s Friday Harbor Labs (FHL) marine station is located, and all solid waste is transported from San Juan Island by truck and ferry. This represents both a substantial cost to the labs through our solid waste disposal contract with San Juan Sanitation, and is also a significant source of carbon and other pollution, both from waste pickup/transport, and from the emissions associated with landfill disposal of this otherwise compostable material (see the “Explain how the impacts will be measured” section). The proposed facility will mitigate this problem by providing a space to compost this food waste, as well as a dry location to store the wood chips or leaves (derived from FHL landscaping) that are mixed with food waste for efficient operation of the Rocket A700 composter, per manufacturers instructions. Finally, the facility will yield usable compost that the FHL grounds crew will put into use in landscaping, and in a student-run vegetable and flower garden.

During the busiest summer months, FHL dining staff estimate that they generate approximately 190 liters of food waste per week; all of the other resident scientists combined produce perhaps an additional 100 liters per week. At maximum capacity the Rocket A700 can handle 700 liters per week, so this device is sufficient to handle all of the food waste produced at the labs year round. During the summer, we estimate that the Rocket A700 could yield enough compost to cover a garden area of 2 m x 2 m (4 m2) every week, or 100 m2 per year, thus providing plentiful compost and mulch both for landscaping and gardening.

An additional environmental concern is that there is currently no central, easily accessible location for e-waste disposal at the labs, and much of this material thus ends up in the solid waste stream. Environmental impacts from electronics relate to their manufacture, shipping, and 'end of life' disposal, as well as associated components (e.g. cables, remote controls), via CO2 and other (non-greenhouse) pollutants released, including carbon monoxide (a poisonous gas) and smog. The metal components of electronics, such as lead, copper and platinum, must be obtained by mining, which can be quite destructive of natural habitats, depending on the mining techniques used. Poorly regulated mining operations will pollute waterways (thus harming people and other animals downstream) as will improper disposal of electronics when they are no longer working or needed. The metal components in electronics can be recovered –and the aforementioned pollutants mitigated– by recycling, as is done ethically and sustainably by both WA state and the main UW campus (ewaste.ee.washington.edu). See the “Student involvement” section for our plan to institute e-waste recycling at FHL for the first time as part of the newly proposed facility.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The most obvious and immediate impact of the composting facility will be to lower the carbon footprint of the Labs by diverting thousands of pounds of food waste every year from the landfill, and help to ensure that e-waste stays out of landfills as well. Processing the compost locally will also result in reduced carbon and other emissions inherent in the pickup and transfer of food waste from the labs, to the San Juan Island transfer station, off island from there to the Skagit County solid waste facility, and then by rail to a landfill in Klickitat County (South-Central Washington). There will also be additional carbon emissions reductions with respect to the production and transport of composting materials that the Labs currently purchases yearly for its grounds maintenance.

We have used available EPA documentation (www3.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/ tools/warm/pdfs/Landfilling.pdf) as well as the footprint calculator and documentation designed by co-applicant Hodin (footprint.stanford.edu/calculate) to make an estimate of yearly carbon emissions savings that would result from the initiation of FHL composting using the Rocket A700 composter. We estimate that the FHL dining hall alone generates approximately 5,000 kg (5 metric tons) of compostable food waste annually. Landfilled food waste, inclusive of transport emissions, generates approximately 2 kg of equivalent CO2 emissions for every kg of food waste; composting would eliminate these emissions, mainly through the avoidance of methane production from landfill (anaerobic) breakdown of food waste, as methane is 20 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2. 

Therefore, we estimate an approximate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of 10 tons from diverting this FHL dining hall food waste from the solid waste stream. Subtracting the emissions inherent in the electricity needed to run the composter year-round (approximately 0.15 tons of CO2 equivalents per year), we estimate that the composter will reduce FHL CO2 emissions by 9.85 metric tons per year.

Once the first year of the project is completed, the FHL Student Compost Ambassador will coordinate with other FHL units to determine the feasibility of expanding the composting program to encompass the other FHL housekeeping units (i.e., student and researcher housing with their own kitchens). We estimate that doing so would save another approximately 1 metric ton of CO2 emissions equivalents per year.

The addition of an e-waste disposal and recycling program to the solid waste facility would also result in reductions in both carbon and non-carbon emissions from various avenues. First, recovery of reusable electronic components obviates the need for them to be mined, produced and shipped anew. Second, avoiding the landfill disposal of electronic waste reduces toxic runoff from those landfill sites. Since FHL currently has no specific accounting of e-waste generated and disposed of yearly at the labs, these impacts are difficult to quantify. But we expect the potential environmental 'savings' of a comprehensive FHL e-waste recovery program to be substantial.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $52,700
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal CostNotes
Facility enclosure, material costs (slab and structure)35,000135,000FHL head of maintenance, Fred Ellis, has estimated the total materials cost as $45,000. FHL has agreed to a $10,000 match, so the CSF portion would be $35,000. See attached MaterialsEstimate sheet for a breakdown of the $45,000
Permitting costs1,70011,700San Juan County
Design fees (UW Design Services)8,00018,000Estimate provided by Mark Miller (Manager, UW Design Services)
FHL Student Compost Ambassador8,00018,000Based on Graduate Student salary, 5 hours per week for 9 months, inclusive of benefits, and indirect cost recovery

Non-CSF Sources:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal CostNotes
Facility enclosure, material costs (slab and structure)10,000110,000This is the pledged FHL match as referenced above
Heavy equipment rental, relocation/demolition3002600This is pledged FHL commitment ; backhoe and dump truck rental fees
Heavy equipment rental, excavation3002600This is pledged FHL commitment ; backhoe and dump truck rental fees
Tradesmen labor hours (FHL maintenance staff)$60 per hr376 hours22,560This is all pledged ("in-kind") FHL maintenance staff labor costs; See attached LaborEstimates sheet for breakdown
Supervisory labor costs (Fred Ellis, head of maintenance)$70 per hr22.5 hours1,575This is all pledged ("in-kind") FHL maintenance supervisory labor costs; See attached LaborEstimates sheet for breakdown
Signage printing, laminating expenses etc 1,00011,000FHL has committed labs printing and laminating equipment for this effort
Wood chipping (needed for efficient Rocket A700 compost production)4,000per year4,000Yearly pledge of commitment from FHL
Composter maintenance, estimated (FHL maintenance staff)4,000per year4,000Yearly pledge of commitment from FHL
Collecting food waste and filling composter daily2,000per year2,000Yearly pledge of commitment from FHL
Utility costs500per year500Yearly pledge of commitment from FHL
Estimated cost savings from diverting food waste from solid waste pickup-1,500per year-1,500Estimated yearly savings (thus a negative value here)
FHL Student Compost Ambassador8,000per year8,000Yearly pledge of commitment from FHL, 2018-2022. Estimate is based on Graduate Student salary, 5 hours per week for 9 months, inclusive of benefits, and indirect cost recovery
YEAR 1 (2017-2018) FHL total match45,335145,335total of rows 2-12 above
YEARS 2-5 (2018-2022) FHL total match17,000468,000total of rows 8-13 above, multiplied by four years
Continuing FHL total match, yearly after 20229,00019,000total of rows 8-12 above; this is a yearly FHL commitment beyond the 5th year
Project Completion Total: $98,035

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
1st Student Ambassador chosen, planning meetingssummer 20179/30/17
Design processsummer 20179/30/17
Permit application review period90 days11/15/17
Construction of enclosure376 hours (19 days) over 2 months2/28/18
Rocket A700 operational, testing1 month3/31/18
Rocket A700 full operationbeginning Spring Quarter 2018ongoing
Signage posted by Student Ambassador2 weeks3/31/18
First Ambassador's quarterly report 1 week3/31/18
Summary staff meeting for future plans (especially for summer 2018 with full resident population at FHL)3 hoursMay 2018

Sustainable Learning Space - Fisheries Courtyard

Executive Summary:

Our campus is beautiful. But to what degree does it reflect our values of education, sustainability, restoration, conservation, cultural celebration and natural history?  Can we forge a path where outdoor spaces connect to indoor spaces and learning is everywhere?  Can we create multi-use landscapes that attend to views and scenery, and also to sustainability and culture?

In 2013, a proposal to build an outdoor "sustainable learning space" for Environmental Studies (Program on the Environment) students on the north lawn of Wallace Hall was born out of the tragic loss of Tikvah Weiner, then PoE Administrator, to breast cancer. At the end of her life, Tikvah spoke to the PoE community about her desire to see this area used for the benefit of students, as a demonstration of sustainable practices; a place where experiential learning extended out of the classroom and into the adjacent green space.

Following Tikvah's passing, a gift fund was established in her honor to help create the garden. In 2016, students as well as faculty and staff from Landscape Architecture, PoE, UW Grounds, UW Farm, Intellectual House (wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ), and College of the Environment Dean's Office came together to create an exciting plan to bring Tikvah's garden to fruition. Located on the east Fisheries lawn (immediately west of Parking W35), the proposed 9,000 ft garden will:

  • create an outdoor classroom allowing discussion sections of up to 20 students to use the space for learning "in the green," and more broadly as a place for the PoE community, and the UW community, to assemble, interact, socialize and learn from the space and each other.
  • showcase (including interpretive signage) a series of sustainability features, including the use/creation of:
  1. "green" (e.g., local, recycled content, natural, sustainable) materials throughout,
  2. a rain garden to handle on-site water management from all hardscape, and with the potential to handle a portion of roof run-off from Wallace Hall
  3. a "pocket ecosystem" featuring native and pollinator-based plantings providing habitat for native pollinators (e.g., bees) and songbirds,
  4. the use of culturally significant native species through collaboration with wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ staff, students and faculty working to highlight indigenous connection to and use of native natural resources,
  5. edible elements will also be considered, based on input from the campus Landscape Architect, the Grounds Manager, and the UW Farm Manager.
  • begin the intentional connection of spaces across campus (including the Mercer Court UW Farm, the "Drug Garden," and culturally-significant gardens at wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ) that allow visitors to interact, learn from, and engage in multi-use, multi-benefit sustainable landscapes.

Impacts will be measured by area conserved as openspace; increased avian and insect habitat; on-site stormwater control; hours of active student engagement in the design, maintenance, and construction of the site; as well as a formal tracking of use once the project is completed.

This proposal is seeking $71,610 in funding from the Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) to complete the estimated $135,722 total cost for the project (augmented with funds from PoE $26,750 and LA $37,362). 

Student Involvement:

The Sustainability Learning Space is a collaborative project between PoE and LA, incorporating input from wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ and the UW Farm. It involves students, staff and faculty; alumni and donors. We are a collective with a vision of sustainable landscape across campus. We start with the "backyard" of the Program on the Environment. Students have led, and continue to lead, in design of the project. Students will also lead in building the project; and ultimately in its use. Finally, students will work cooperatively with staff in site maintenance. Once built, the garden space will be used by Program on the Environment classes meeting in Wallace Hall, Landscape Architecture studios focusing on sustainable design, and experienced by hundreds of people daily as they circulate through the space during class changes, and serve as part of the "western gateway" onto the campus.

Students involved in this project include:

Landscape Architecture (LA): Under the direction of Professor Daniel Winterbottom and Teaching Assistant Victoria (Tori) Shao, 14 undergraduate and graduate students have enrolled in a two quarter (Winter-Spring 2017) design-build studio (LA474/475) focused on this project. The LA students will take the lead on design and construction with input and support from students in PoE and other collaborators. Tori will lead the presentation of this project to the CSF.

At present, the LA students are in the initial stages of design and have only just (26 January 2017) presented their first round of designs to the PoE community. Strong elements from these initial designs will be brought forward into an integrated design plan, to be presented to the PoE community on 10 February 2017. (Prior to that design review, there is a planned feedback session for CSF, to make sure that sustainability element is beyond those highlighted by PoE students can be strengthened, if necessary).

Program on the Environment (PoE): With support from Director Professor Rick Keil and teaching faculty Sean McDonald, Beth Wheat and Kristi Straus, 10 PoE students have been meeting with the LA students to help deepen the sustainability and ecosystem services aspects of the project, as well as provide direct input on how PoE students would use the space for learning activities. In total, we estimate a minimum of 12 PoE students will interact with this project in the design phase, with additional involvement during the build phase. In particular, Tessarae Mercer, Franny Olson, Jenna Duncan and Kate Vachon have already attended the LA Design-Build studio class to provide feedback on garden uses. Franny is an active UW Farmer who wants to integrate edible elements to create better connectivity to PoE. Tessarae is also active with the UW Farm. She sees interesting opportunity to incorporate permaculture practices in the Wallace garden. Jenna and Kate are interested in environmental education. They see the Wallace garden as a demonstration space to focus on mindfulness activities. At the first Design Review (26 January 2017), these PoE students as well as staff, faculty and alumni, attended and provided feedback. These students, and others, will be involved in refining the sustainability elements of the final garden design. Crucially, PoE students and staff will also identify, develop, and implement a maintenance plan with support from students in LA and the Grounds Services program through UW Facilities Maintenance and Construction.

UW Farm: Under the direction of Farm Manager Sarah Geurkink and with support from teaching faculty Beth Wheat, students involved with the UW Farm (and particularly with the Mercer Court facility, and secondarily with the native pollinator project at the UWBG Urban Horticulture site) will provide input on edibility and pollinator habitat functions of the garden, and help LA student designers realize larger landscape connections to the UW Farm, especially including the Mercer Court gardens, which already provide visitors with learning and gleaning opportunities.

ɫǝbʔaltxʷ: Under the direction of Ross Braine and with support from Emeritus Professor Tom Hinckley, students will work with the LA student designers to help realize extension of culturally significant plantings and garden spaces begun around wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ to highlight and celebrate culturally significant plants and habitats, and the connection of local indigenous peoples to native flora.

This garden has been many years in the making, and many students who have played key roles have graduated. We mention a few here:

LA Studio (LA504): Led by Ken Yocom in the weeks before the passing of Tikvah Weiner, these 14 students worked with the entire PoE community to bring Tikvah's wishes for the creation of a garden celebrating students and sustainability to life. Working from lists of attributes created by PoE students, staff and faculty, initial designs were presented to the PoE community and friends/family of Tikvah. These designs were later coalesced into a single conceptual design by then students Patrick Pirtle, Mafida Takkeidine and Keising Yu, working with Ken Yocom and then PoE Director Claire Ryan, with RA funding from both CoEnv and PoE. It is this design that has formed the starting point of the current Design-Build Studio effort.

Future students involved in this project: The garden will be integrated into the educational curriculum of PoE and LA to facilitate formal learning opportunities (see below). In addition, the garden will act as a literal gateway to the Fisheries buildings, providing many students with the opportunity to learn "along the way." This function will be augmented as the South and West Campus plans are fully implemented, and this garden grows to incorporate a much larger green space extending to the water. It is our hope that pre-emptive design of this sustainability showcase will provoke a similar e?ort across this larger space, allowing us to truly realize the "stacked functions" of water management, native habitat and ecosystem services, cultural use and celebration, edibility, education, and most honestly - joy.

Finally, the LA students have already reached out to the new childcare facility located adjacent to the Brooklyn Parking Garage (less than one block from the garden) to speak with caregivers about potential uses of the garden to preschoolers. 

Education & Outreach:

This proposal and the project described are primarily geared toward education and outreach for the UW community and the greater public. Specific educational goals will be to provide an outdoor educational landscape that informs the UW community and public on sustainable landscape strategies including on-site water management; native plant identification, community ecology and habitat features and characteristics of ecosystem services; edible landscapes; and culturally significant plantings. On-site, these design strategies will be articulated through interpretive signage and offer the opportunities for formal and informal learning by offering a gathering space to host instruction.

Landscape Architecture: Within LA, this garden will act as an anchoring point for demonstration of sustainability features and environmental signage related to same, allowing future generations of students to visit a site on campus that features sustainability elements.

Program on the Environment: Within PoE there are many opportunities to directly integrate the garden into ongoing courses. It will become a teaching classroom for ENVIR 440 - Environmental Pedagogy, will be integrated into The Natural History of the Puget Sound Region (ENVIRO 280) as a long-term monitoring site, and most importantly will be used as a site for the Environmental Studies Capstone (ENVIR 494, 495, 496), a three-quarter independent project each student must design and complete that focuses on integrating classroom learning (content, concept, skill) into a "real world" project with well-defined deliverables. Through the capstone process, we envision deepening the sustainability and outreach features of the garden, and ultimately connecting the garden to the larger planned green space (see above).

Outreach will be completed through employing several strategies including online resources and curriculum integration. The project will be featured on the websites and blog postings for PoE, LA, wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ and the UW Farm, will be featured at the UW Sustainability Fair, and the annual OUT / in / FRONT gallery hosted by the College of Built Environments. We will also invite UW Today, UW-TV, and the UW website to cover the project.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

In collaboration, students from PoE and the Grounds Services program through UW Facilities Maintenance and Construction will develop a long-term maintenance plan for the site. The site will become the joint responsibility of PoE and UW Grounds for maintenance, and may also be attended to by students associated with the UW Farm (depending on the degree to which the site reflects edibility) and/or wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ (depending on the degree to which the site reflects cultural plantings and use). The PoE program will conduct seasonal work parties to provide major maintenance needs while UW Grounds will provide regular maintenance services.

Environmental Problem:

Recent research in the environmental sciences and education has shown that as we become a more urban society opportunities for building greater environmental literacy across all age classes has been decreasing. This project seeks to offer an opportunity for students and the public to gain a greater understanding of how environmental systems can be designed and incorporated at the site scale. As discussed above, we envision a future campus where all of the functions of the landscape are integrated and showcased, allowing the UW community and the public to engage in experiential learning - literally – as they walk across campus.

For many, the functions of the land are hidden: habitat for native species, pollinator refuges, the slow collection and dispersal of stormwater, air filtration, carbon sequestration, food and resource production, cultural grounding, physical and mental well-being. Within the current campus, landscape is well-used for transit, for views and scenery, and for the provision of spaces to gather and play. Ecosystem services are less well articulated to the point where some landscapes are completely non-native, non-edible, non-cultural, and may even contribute to species invasion.

We seek to use the Fisheries Courtyard Sustainability and Education Garden to accomplish two functions:

  1. creation of sustainable landscape elements, including storm-water management, habitat creation, cultural celebration and potentially edibility.
  2. showcasing of these elements within an intentionally designed outdoor learning setting so that formal and informal experiential education regarding sustainable features of landscape design and function can take place.

 

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The Sustainability Learning Space will conserve and improve local insect and avian habitat through the development and implementation of a native planting plan that is focused on locally significant plant community structure to provide foraging, nesting and/or migratory stop-over habitat. Shifts in the visiting bird community will be monitored as part of an ongoing effort to track wildlife use on the University of Washington campus by the course The Natural History of the Puget Sound Region (ENVIRO 280).

The rain garden will be designed to accommodate all of the stormwater runoff generated from impervious surfaces on the site. The garden may receive water from sources adjacent to the site such as the Fisheries Science Building roof, or sidewalks surrounding the site.

Project impact will also be measured through student on-site work hours, through all phases of the project and subsequent use. Formal events in the garden will be monitored through an online reservation calendar hosted by PoE. There have also been suggestions to have an on-site book for visitors to reflect on the space of the garden and their visit for a more informal catalog of use.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $71,610
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Note: See attached Final_Budget.pdf for final reported expenditures
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Rental Equipment$2,500 (includes use of truck, front loader)1$2,500
Lumber$12,5001$12,500
Lighting$5,5001$5,500
Concrete$1,7502 (concrete pours)$3,500
Steel$5,0001$5,000
Irrigation$4,5001$4,500
Fasteners$1,2001$1,200
Paving$10,0001$10,000
Native Plantings$8,0001$8,000
Soil$3,0001$3,000
Informational Signage$1,5004$6,000
Steel Bending$2,0001$2,000
Steel Fabrication$4,5001$4,500
Contingency (5%)$3,4101$3,410

Non-CSF Sources:

Unit/DepartmentDescription of ExpenseAmount
Program on the EnvironmentGift Fund$26,750
Department of Landscape ArchitectureSalary for Professor (2 quarters)$29,062
Department of Landscape ArchitectureSalary for Teaching Assistant (2 quarters)$8,300
Project Completion Total: $135,722

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Project Design1 monthearly February 2017
Construction Documents, Site Survey, and Material Procurement1 monthMarch 2017
Site Preparation and Construction3 monthsJune 2017
Interpretive Signage Design, Fabrication, and Installation2 monthsJune 2017

Engineers Without Borders Sol Stations

Executive Summary:

The Local Projects sector of the University of Washington Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) will design phone charging stations powered by solar energy. Once the design is complete these stations will be implemented throughout the University of Washington Seattle campus, in convenient locations such as near bus stops and outdoor seating areas. The goal of this project is to provide sustainable, convenient charging for students and to illustrate how clean, renewable energy can power student lives.

The first part of the project will be a research and development phase. Our team will begin by creating an electronic design of the system with mathematical equations and measurements. There will be two main designs, the first being an electric system consisting of a battery, a solar panel, and a charge controller to regulate the amount of charge for students phones to work properly. The other design will be of the station itself, consisting of a locking metal box to enclose the electric system, with the solar panel on top, which will be covered by weatherproofing. Once our team and mentors (mentors consisting of Rebecca Neumann and Faisal Hossain) have approved the design we will move onto development. We want to make the most efficient, viable design possible, therefore we will build our first unit and run tests to make sure it works. Once that is completed we will implement the first unit on campus to gather data on use and effectiveness. This will help us determine where to build the next stations so they will be most useful and effective. This information, along with discussions between us and campus entities described in project approval, will help us to find the most viable on campus locations.

As engineers, we want to develop the best possible units. It will cost $1,830 to build one unit. Our student outreach and education team will also complete surveys and do research to find the most optimal locations for charging stations, and the most useful aspects of system for students. Once all of the research and development is completed our team plans on building 8 charging stations and the total will be $14,640. This, with $200 for any unforeseen maintenance costs, will have a grand total of $14,840.

Student Involvement:

Student Roles

Maeve Harris is a second year Civil and Environmental Engineering student. As our Project Lead, she will be responsible for ensuring the project moves along according to our timeline and budget. She has also been the lead on communicating with officials on campus, in order to attain project location approval. Maeve is excited to apply her classroom engineering experience to the design and construction of our solar powered charging station.

Brian Bednarski will be completing his Electrical Engineering degree in the spring. He has experience designing and building solar powered electric car charging stations. His previous experience makes him a valuable asset to the team as we design and protocol the electrical system.

Connor Kafka is a second year electrical engineering student. He was recently the lead on designing the electrical system for a solar powered kiln, which is located on campus. Connor will be contributing to the design and construction of the electrical system.

Mike Barsamian is in the final stages of completing his Mechanical Engineering degree. He will be assisting with the design and construction of the solar powered charging stations.

Chester Pham is a third year Chemical Engineering major. Last year he was the treasurer of the UW Engineers Without Borders chapter, and this year is our Vice President. This makes him more than qualified to be our Logistics Manager. As Logistics Manager, Chester will be responsible for purchasing materials, and keeping our budget on track.

Brittany Lydon is a senior in Mechanical Engineering. With her mechanical engineering background, she can help with design and construction of the charging stations. Brittany will also be in charge of Education and Outreach. She is enthusiastic about involving the entire UW campus through education and outreach.

Espen Scheuer is a first year student. His intended major is Material Science and Engineering. Espen is very interested in solar panels, and has become the lead during our research stage. He has been researching solar panel design and construction and relaying that information to the team as we enter the design phase.

Emily Rosenfield is a first year, undeclared, student. She will be assisting Brittany Lydon with the Education and Outreach aspect of this project, as well as helping to complete general team tasks.

Abby Snyder is a first year student. Her intended major is industrial engineering. Abby will be assisting Brittany and Emily on the Education and Outreach Team. Abby will also be the safety officer, making sure each student uses equipment safely and effectively. She will complete a safety talk before construction of the stations begins.

Tyler Petrie is a first year student. She is intending to major in electrical engineering and will be assisting to design the electrical system. Tyler also works for The Daily and will be a major contact between our project and the newspaper.

As necessary, we will recruit student engineers from outside of the club to assist with design and construction. We would likely do this by emailing professors and visiting the classrooms of upper level engineering courses in order to find students who would be interested in working on this project.

Sub Teams

The Electrical Team will be responsible for designing and building the electrical system of the solar powered charging station. They will be doing work necessary circuit work to have them running smoothly. This work can be completed in the Electrical Engineering Building.

The Mechanical and Civil Team will focus on overall design and construction. They will be working on the energy tree, and solar panels to make sure all the parts of the design fit together in a functional and efficient way. This team will also be in charge of all the weatherproofing and casing of the system.

The Education and Outreach Team will be in charge of communicating with the UW campus. They will put together surveys to be completed by UW students and faculty in order to identify preferred charging locations. Also, they will be in charge of any events or social media promotions that are done to raise awareness about this project. This team will design an educational poster to have on the completed charging station so that students can read about sustainability while their phones charge.

The Task Force Team is responsible for keeping all members of this project accountable and to make sure the project proceeds according to schedule.

An Analysis Team will be needed to record data on the amount of phones charged and electricity saved. They will also be in charge of monitoring the condition of our stations, making upgrades and replacing parts as needed.

Volunteer Opportunities

All of the students participating in this project are volunteering their time. Students will be donating about three to five hours a week to this project through group meetings and design work. This project provides a valuable opportunity for students to volunteer and gain engineering experience. We are also currently accepting additional members to the club to work on the project and are open to any interested volunteers.

Conclusion

While everyone involved in this project has different engineering interests, it is a collaborative environment that gives students a fantastic opportunity to gain experience across a wide range of engineering fields. The students will also gain valuable collaborative skills to prepare them for the engineering workforce.

Education & Outreach:

How will the UW community find out about your project?

The UW community can find out about the solar stations through several different mediums, ensuring we are reaching as many people as we can. We plan to advertise the charging stations in a green way by using technology to our advantage. We will request to send out a student-wide email about the charging stations with supplemental information on how to get more involved with making the campus green. We also plan to put the news of the charging stations on our EWB Facebook page and request to post it on the UW Sustainability or UW Campus Sustainability Fund Facebook pages. We will also reach out to the UW Sustainability Twitter page so as to inform more people.

Another outlet we will utilize for advertising is physical media including using the campus newspaper, The Daily. We will request an article and/or advertisement about the charging stations so as to spread the idea of a greener campus. To provide the community with information about the charging stations, we will put up an information panel on each charging station that has detail of the station itself as well as information on how to get involved in sustainable projects in the future. The panels will have Engineers without Borders’ contact and Facebook information, the contacts for the College Sustainability Fund and any other sustainability group who wants their information advertised. To make the panels more personal, we can include shorts summaries about each of the Engineers without Borders’ projects.There will also be a power meter on the charging station  to display how much power is being used at that time, similar to the meters on the water fountains counting the amount of bottles filled. We can also put flyers up in coffee shops, the District Market, Local Point, The 8, The HUB, Suzzallo Café and other high-traffic areas around campus to maximize exposure.

By using a combination of these mediums, we plan to reach as many students as we can to inform them about this project, and also to get involved in its development.

How will the UW community get involved in and/or support your project

We are planning to get the community involved in this project throughout its development, but are also are planning to continue advertising and promoting the importance of green energy and a sustainable campus long after this project is completed. Several phone charging projects using solar energy have been very successful on campuses across the country. Currently Brigham Young University is also creating a similar project for charging phones for their campus and public places. The University of Houston made solar-powered cell phone charging stations in 2015 for their campus, and experienced extremely positive results. Likewise, the University of Miami had a similar idea which became very popular with their students. These previous examples have shown that the solar panel charging stations will be widely used and appreciated by the students on campus. We plan on creating our own legacy with the three steps described below.

Step 1: Reach out to other sustainability groups on campus in the planning and advertising of the project

There are many groups on campus that focus on sustainability including Earth Club, SEED, EcoReps, and Green Husky Coalition. We can approach these groups asking if they want to get involved and promote this project. This will open the project to more students on campus with different areas of experience which will allow for a broader range of ideas when developing this project. We believe that this input from other groups is very important because there could be non-technical aspects and concerns that we, as engineers, may have not considered. Working with these groups will ensure a lasting, sustainable impact on campus.

We will also consider conducting an online survey to students on campus to make sure we address the needs and wants of the students. This input is vital because we want to make sure our ideas accurately represent the concerns and mindset of the students who will be using these charging stations.

Step 2: Continue sustainability outreach to campus after project is completed

One of the best ways for the community to get involved with this project is to continue the efforts for building a sustainable campus even after this project is completed. We plan on having posts at each station with information on the project itself and also ways to get involved with sustainable projects around campus. There will be a list of people or groups to contact for those who are interested in creating a more sustainable campus.

Step 3: Reach out to younger students from schools around the area to teach them the importance of sustainability

This project has the unique opportunity of spreading awareness of sustainability beyond the UW campus because EWB has experience with STEM outreach in middle schools around the area. We plan to use that experience to widen the awareness of this project. We have gone to local middle schools to expose them to the STEM field and attempt to show the students the positive impact STEM can have on communities. We plan to continue this outreach and using this project to teach younger students in the Seattle area the importance of sustainability and green energy in the STEM field. By reaching out to younger students, we hope to create a sustainable mindset and culture that will perpetuate throughout schools all around the area. To do this, we will both visit schools and use the project to show the potential of integrating green energy in everyday lives. We will also try to set up trips where students can come up to campus to see the power stations and learn about how the project was developed. This potential for outreach and broader impacts makes this project uniquely beneficial for communities all over the Seattle area and can result in creating a culture of sustainability and environmental awareness.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
Project Longevity:

Engineers Without Borders is a longstanding club at UW. International Projects last at least 5 years so EWB has a record of continuity with projects and communities. As a chapter of EWB we will finish our project and have a written analysis of the project describing how the goals have been met. As part of EWB’s mission we will not only finish this project, but also keep it running sustainably. Our organization will take responsibility of the long term management and maintenance of our project through our established Local Projects Team. We will include a committee within this team to oversee the management and maintenance of our charging stations. We will provide funding for maintenance of our project through our large fundraising efforts and set aside funds in our yearly budget for this purpose. We understand that parts of our design such as the battery and solar panels will have to be replaced around every decade or less depending on use. Some of these costs are requested for in the budget. Other costs can be funded through our club as long as the charging stations are still in use on campus.

Environmental Problem:

Busy college students on-the-go need to use their phones for work and to keep track of their lives. Having a convenient way to charge these devices is critical to student success. Meeting this need for immediate power with clean energy is not only beneficial for students, but also the environment. In addition, having students seeing and using clean energy provides a great opportunity to promote sustainability.

Our project will provide students with immediate access to charging power in areas on campus where there are no outlets such as at bus stations, and also promote clean energy and help students to see and learn about clean energy while in between classes. Students and visitors alike are reliant on energy for using cell phones. Outdoor areas do not have the infrastructure needed to meet the energy needs of our students. This system can provide for this need while promoting renewable energy and improving areas of campus that may be underutilized.

As a part of our education and outreach we will be designing a system that will record how many times the charger has been used. It will also have the total amount of clean energy that was used in place of power drawn from the grid.

In order to minimize waste, we will choose a suitable battery that can be easily recycled. Currently, we are considering a sealed AGM battery which lowers hydrogen emissions. Other benefits of this battery include that they don’t need to be filled up with water, they are better in closed spaces, and if they break they don’t leak liquid. They can be recycled, reused, and last approximately 5 years. We are also using solar panels which can last about 10 or more years. We plan to buy our panels from the solar panel companies, either REC Solar or Sun Power which have good reputations for sustainable manufacturing. As this project is focused on sustainable energy sources, where we buy is especially important to our team. Buying from a company which emphasizes sustainable manufacturing practices will ensure that the environmental impact is minimal and the energy saved from our charging stations is as large as possible.

The rest of the electrical system will be designed to last indefinitely and will need minimal repairs besides replacing the battery and panels. While evaluating suppliers to purchase from, we will factor in the means of production and materials used and their environmental impacts. A small part of our funds will be allocated to maintenance repairs. Repairs and maintenance of all the stations will be done by our Engineering Without Borders, Local Projects Team. The UW EWB chapter has consistently been active since 2005, it will remain active long after the installation of these charging stations. Maintaining and repairing the charging stations will always remain a priority for EWB’s Local Projects Team.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Our team plans on having a device attached to each of the stations outlining the amount of power being produced by each station using the solar power. Similar to the water bottle fillers that count the number of plastic bottles averted, there will be a meter counting the number of phones charged by the station, as well as the electricity saved in kWh. This is an important piece of the project because it engages the user, by showing him or her the energy saved when they choose to charge a phone from a renewable energy source.

The Analysis Team will periodically check in on the project by measuring data and analyzing results. In this way we will be able to keep track of electricity saved. We will also be monitoring how frequently the stations are used.

We are analyzing our impact by completing a life-cycle analysis, looking at the “cradle to grave” system. This will ensure that the project will have a sustainable life span and when parts no longer work they are recycled and replaced by new working parts. Our research team as vetted the Solar Company, Sun Power, which focuses on sustainability and has won “Cradle to Cradle” certification. They are the first and only solar company that has that distinction. Our focus is to promote sustainability on campus so we need to measure and analyze ourselves for sustainable practices.

The solar panels will be on bus stops or near the HUB’s outdoor seating so no extra land will be needed for the solar panels.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $14,840
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal CostComments
High Capacity Lipo Battery Pack (20 Ah)$2502$500
Solar Panels (100W) $3001$300
Microcontroller / power management$801$80
Printed Circuit Board / voltage divider$501$50* Can order for same price in sets of 3-4
Wiring, cabling, charge ports, connectors$100n/a$100* Will only need to purchase once in bulk
Analog Circuitry$20n/a$20
System stand$3001$300
Weatherproof casing$1001$100
Panel/turbine mount$2501$250
Bolts and concrete adhesive$301$30
Arduino voltage stats, etc.$1001$100
Total per unit: $1,830.00
Each Unit Multiplied by 8$1,830.00*8Total:$14,640
Plus $200 for unforseen maintenence$1,830.00+$200Total:$14,840

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $14,840

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Electrical Design/Station Design Beginning of February to End of March March 31st, 2017
Surveying of Students for Optimal Locations and beginning outreach End of March to End April April 20th, 2017
Meetings and Decisions on Location of Stations End of March to End of April April 20th, 2017
Buy MaterialsEnd of March March 31st, 2017
Prototyping and Building of First UnitEnd of March to End of May May 26th, 2017
Installation of First UnitEarly JuneJune 2nd, 2017
Monitoring of the System and More Surveys on Student Use and Effectiveness Throughout JuneMay 19th, 2017
Building of the 7 Stations Throughout the Summer and into the Fall October 20th, 2017
Implementation of the 7 StationsEnd of October to Early December December 4th, 2017
Promotion of the ProjectThroughout Fall Quarter 2017December 14th, 2017
Monthly Promotion of Sustainable Ideals on the Stations Throughout the end of 2017 and into the future Unknown

Interactive Biogas Food Cart

Executive Summary:

We propose the UW Campus Sustainability Fund sponsor the design and construction of a biogas powered food cart for use at campus events and high foot traffic areas on the University of Washington campus. The cart will cook hot dogs, popcorn, and other food items which can be given away or sold at these events. The food cart will also act as an educational aid by displaying signage on biogas as an alternative energy to inform students while they wait for their food. Furthermore, student volunteers will proactively work to promote food cart appearances and sustainability events via social media and food cart student workers will share their perspectives and knowledge on alternative energies while preparing food. We believe this high visibility use of alternative energies will provide countless high impact “teachable moments” on the uses of alternative fuel sources such as biogas and further the University’s reputation as a leader in sustainable development.

 

The problem this project seeks to solve is poor knowledge of many of the alternatives to fossil fuels that exist. Many students at the UW have heard of biogas but may not know how it’s generated or what practical uses and limitations the technology possesses. We intend to introduce and inform students on this alternative energy option in order to better inform and encourage students to lead more sustainable lives. We expect this introduction may lead to a greater interest in biogas in future years and proposals focusing on sustained use of biogas at the UW.

 

In addition to the broad educational net the food cart casts for customers during its operations, we believe the 10 – 20 students directly involved in the design, construction, promotion, and operations of the food cart will benefit immensely from the experience. They will have the opportunity to commit significant personal time to a design and build process as well as the pride of successfully completing a complex task that benefits the UW Community and the environment. It is our hope that this project may provide the impetus for some students to pursue a career in environmental sustainability.

The project will be managed by SafeFlame (a local start-up founded by current MBA student Kevin Cussen, with experience building biodigesters and managing complex projects) and the food truck will be built by student volunteers from ENVIR 480 (Sustainability Studio), the UW chapter of Engineers without Borders, and other interested students. The project is being sponsored by UW Sustainability, with material and educational support from the College of Engineering, HSF, UW Dining, as well as numerous local institutions - including SafeFlame, King County Co. Conservation District, Central Co-op, Herrera Environmental and others.

Student Involvement:

Students are involved at every step of this project; from design & construction of the food cart, to promoting and maintaining steady biogas production within the digesters, to widespread public outreach. Our project, with the support of the Campus Sustainability Fund, will not only enrich student experiences and the culture that permeates the University, but will also act as a bridge for big ideas starting at the University to impact the wider world. Furthermore, the widespread engagement this project creates between students & student organizations with organizations in the local & global sustainability communities reinforces the commitment to sustainability that the University of Washington represents.

 

Project sponsorship will be provided by Ms. Toren Elste, Events and Outreach Specialist with UW Sustainability. Ms. Elste will be the primary point of contact for organizing participation of the food cart at events and keeping the operations team up-to-date on upcoming events that are a good fit for the sustainability theme of the project. Ms. Elste will donate her time as project sponsor.

 

Project vision and management will be provided by Kevin Cussen, an MBA student at the Foster School of Business. Kevin has experience leading complex projects through his career in the global health and environmental sectors and has a particular passion for alternative energy. Kevin Cussen is the co-founder and CEO of the biogas start-up SafeFlame, and will leverage his knowledge, network, and expertise in this area to drive the project towards success. Both he and SafeFlame co-founder David Crawford, a practicing civil engineer, will make in-kind donations of their time as advisors to the design, construction, and operations teams. In addition, Mr. Cussen will be responsible for keeping grant deliverables on track, following UW policies and procedures, interfacing with grant administrators, performing project update memos, buying / reimbursing purchases, scheduling volunteers, scheduling input gathering, coordinating transportation, and other project related tasks. Once the food cart is operational, Mr. Cussen & student volunteers will proactively work with Ms. Elste and other community stakeholders to look for opportunities to showcase the technology at various UW events.

 

Scientific and administrative support will be provided by Dr. Mari Winkler, an Assistant Professor specializing in biodigestion and waste water treatment with the UW College of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Dr. Winkler and graduate research assistant Aparna Garg will ensure students have a good understanding of the digestion process and will support students in the design, construction, and operation of the food cart. Additionally, Dr. Winkler has provided access to safety coursework to ensure student workers are prepared and informed on how to work in a workshop and lab safely. Dr. Winkler and Ms. Garg will be donating their time to the project.

 

The design and construction team will consist of a group of 9 students from Winter quarter of ENVIR 480 (Sustainability Studio), a group of interested students from the UW chapter of Engineers without Borders - including projects team lead Maeve Harris, as well as other interested students from the UW community. The design and construction team will be responsible for drafting and iterating on designs for the food cart, building the cart, testing the efficacy of the digesters, and troubleshooting any problems. In coordination with Mr. Cussen, UW Sustainability, UW Housing and Food Services, and UW Dining, the team will also be responsible for operating the food cart at events. Throughout the winter quarter, students from ENVIR 480 will donate their time in exchange for class credit. However, we ask for appropriate budget to pay two part-time students workers throughout the spring and summer quarters in order to keep the food truck operating and to vend food and knowledge at UW events.

Lastly, several UW departments have given approval for this project and shown a commitment to ensuring it’s success. These include UW Housing and Food Services and UW Dining who have agreed to provide scheduling and permitting assistance to ensure this project obeys all rules and regulations dictation the operations of such vehicles. This assistance will be rendered voluntarily.

Education & Outreach:

Many students at the UW have heard of biogas but may not know how it’s generated or what practical uses and limitations the technology possesses. We intend to introduce and inform students on this alternative energy option in order to better inform and encourage students to lead more sustainable lives. We expect this introduction may lead to a greater interest in biogas in future years and proposals focusing on sustained use of biogas at the UW.

We propose a multi-pronged approach to education. First, the 10 – 20 students directly involved in the design, construction, and operations of the food cart will benefit immensely from the experience. They will have the opportunity to commit significant personal time and energy to learning the in’s and out’s of this alternative energy - a skill they can bring to future projects. Additionally, they will learn and practice all stages of the design cycle, which is undoubtedly applicable across many sectors. At the end of the day, each student will have the pride of building something with their hands that benefits the UW Community and the environment as a whole. For members of Engineers Without Borders, the experience will build directly upon their coursework. For others, this may develop a new lifelong passion.

Provided the final proposal is approved and a budget agreed upon by the end of February, the team can begin construction of the food cart immediately (SafeFlame will front initial costs while payment structures are put in place). Our hope is to have the food cart operational by April 22nd (Earth Day), though this is admittedly an ambitious goal. We would then plan to showcase the food cart at campus and local events throughout the Spring and Summer quarter as advised by Ms. Elste.

In addition to the obvious use of biogas as a cooking fuel source, we would cover the trailer with informative signage describing other uses of biogas and resources for additional information. Students will have the opportunity to read about the digestion process while they wait for their meal and while eating. Signage will also outline other groundbreaking efforts the UW is performing in the areas of research and conservation to prime student’s interests in sustainability. Part-time student workers will proactively work with UW Sustainability, specifically, Communications Coordinator Daimon Eklund to keep abreast of these efforts.

Throughout the grant period, students will advertise upcoming food cart appearances and other mission aligned material via word of mouth and social media outlets.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

The UW chapter of Engineers Without Borders, has agreed to work with the project team to transition ownership of the food cart at the end of the grant period. Kevin Cussen and Maeve Harris have brainstormed 3 primary approaches to sustaining the impact achieved through this project beyond the grant period and are happy to work with the CSF Committee towards their preferred sustainment approach. 1. Converting the digesters from plug-flow to batch reactor type digesters to minimize labor needs. Plug flow reactors have the benefit of creating gas at a steadier production level but require upkeep on a weekly/bi-weekly basis to do so. Batch reactors on the other hand require much less maintenance (i.e. filling the reactor once every few months). Transitioning from plug-flow to batch would reduce the amount of refilling and maintenance needed from 10+ hours a month to 3 - 4 hours every 2 months and allow EWB to continue operations of the digester beyond the grant period. 2. Depending on Engineers Without Borders situation at the end of the grant period, EWB may be willing to take on ownership (without need for a conversion) for the food cart and continue operating it using the existing sourcing strategy. This approach would provide an active project for chapter members to work on and continued outreach into the UW and local community. 3. Lastly, EWB has offered to take ownership of the food cart in order to disassemble the cart for parts. These parts would then be used in the ongoing operations of the chapter.

Environmental Problem:

Human activities, especially in developed countries such as the United States cause organic waste to accumulate in landfills and rot. When this decomposition takes place in an anaerobic environment, common in landfills, it produces methane and other greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is 25 times more effective at trapping solar radiation than carbon. By capturing methane and burning it in our food cart, the methane is broken down into water vapor and carbon dioxide. This reduces the amount of methane released into the atmosphere, the volume of waste entering our landfills, and provides a useful output for the energy.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Since our desired impacts fall into two primary categories, education and sustainability, we will measure key performance indicators in each of these segments.

 

Education

Person hours contributed

Number of students engaged

Events attended

Views on Facebook

 

Sustainability

Number of pounds of organic waste repurposed

Pounds of fertilizer created

Meals prepared

Total amount requested from the CSF: $21,176
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
The upload feature was not working, document sent to CSF Coordinator Kyle McDermott.

Non-CSF Sources:

The upload feature was not working, document sent to CSF Coordinator Kyle McDermott.
Project Completion Total: $21,176

Timeline:

The upload feature was not working, document sent to CSF Coordinator Kyle McDermott.

University of Washington Sustainability Action Network (UW-SAN)

Executive Summary:

UW Sustainability Action Network (UW-SAN) will be a campus wide sustainability resource center that provides online and in-person support for student driven projects. The online component of UW-SAN will consist of: 1) a blog and website with resources, events, updates on student projects, and archives of student organizations and projects, and 2) a networking website that connects student groups for coalition building and provides a space for projects to form. The in-person component will include student staff, volunteers, and faculty, based at the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement (CCCE). The UW-SAN team will provide in-person guidance, leadership, and support throughout the development and implementation process of student projects.

Our preliminary groundwork reveals a rich diversity of UW student activity around sustainability, environmentalism, democracy, and the economy. We plan to help students understand the interconnections among these areas, with the aim of broadening student engagement on sustainability issues. The goal of UW-SAN is to bring diverse groups together around a shared vision of learning through community building, research, and action. The Rethinking Prosperity project at CCCE started this engagement process, leading to a study on the feasibility of UW-SAN.

During the study we found strong consensus on the need for an institutionalized resource center to support student led initiatives on campus and in the community. We have contacted over 50 campus organizations, workshopped the technology needs, and tested the basic idea framework at the spring Next System Teach-In, which drew over 300 students and community members. The teach-in, supported by the Campus Sustainability Fund and seven UW departments, drew diverse organizations such as United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA), Academic Workers for a Democratic University (AWDU), Harambee: Association of Black Social Workers, Net Impact, Shift Change, Urban@UW, and Environmental Studies. At the teach-in students and community members identified the need for greater coalition building and deepening our understanding of sustainability. This is an investment in social capital at UW.

Similar to the origins of the Campus Sustainability Fund, UW-SAN seeks to become an institutionalized resource for student engagement, education, and sustainable coalitions built upon widespread grassroot support. The 2009 UW Climate Action Plan described the need for deepening academic engagement, environmental literacy and awareness, and for a central hub and web-based clearinghouse of scholarship (Sec. 2). UW-SAN would support student scholarship and engagement across disciplines and further help students see the path from research to action. A wide variety of campus groups have voiced their support for the efforts of Rethinking Prosperity and UW-SAN.

UW-SAN will be based in the CCCE office, located within the UW Department of Communication. Metrics for success will be based on coalition development, project success, platform usage, and ultimately the environmental metrics of the projects we support. UW-SAN will be run by three teams (Platform, Outreach, and Project Support), comprised of CCCE student staff, faculty, and volunteers. We are asking for $52,000 for platform development, student staffing, and material needs to support student coalition efforts over two years.

Student Involvement:

Several hundred students, community members, activists, and faculty attended the The UW 2016 Next System Teach-In in April 2016. It was an all day symposium to collectively imagine and seek ways to move towards the realignment of the environment, the economy, and democracy so that all three systems work better for people and the planet.  At the teach-in we identified the need to develop institutional support for student and community coalition building efforts.

UW-SAN will be run primarily by student staff and volunteers. Three UW-SAN student staff will be hired to create the network and provide support to projects, as well as maintain relationships with student organizations. It will bring together student activists with overlapping interests and goals, and ultimately benefit the student body as whole through supporting broad-based coalition building around issues of sustainability.

There are over 50 sustainability-focused groups and over 50 social justice focused groups currently at UW. UW-SAN will provide a space for collaboration and coalition building, bringing together traditionally siloed spheres of education, engagement, and activism. UW-SAN has the potential to reach thousands of campus students in meaningful discussions and activities that address today’s most pressing issues around the environment, sustainability and democracy.

In addition to the nine student groups (identified in the executive summary) and seven UW departments that supported the Next System Teach-In, the UW-SAN grant development team has identified the following sustainability/environmental focused student groups as being potential project and coalition allies:

  1. Students Expressing Environmental Dedication (SEED)
  2. Earth Club UW Chapter
  3. Carbon Washington UW Chapter
  4. EcoReps
  5. Sea Dawgs
  6. Green Greeks
  7. Climate Change Working Group
  8. Divest UW/Confronting Climate Change
  9. SAGE (Student Association for Green Environments)
  10. Student Conservation Association, UW Chapter
  11. Green Husky Coalition
  12. Husky Real Food Challenge
  13. UW Shellfish Farm
  14. UW Farm Care
  15. Society for Ecological Restoration University of Washington Student Guild
  16. International Forestry Students' Association - UW Chapter
  17. American Water Resources Association
  18. Fish and Turtle Club
  19. Climate Justice Forum

The development and maintenance of UW-SAN will rely on continued involvement and outreach to campus groups, students leaders, and faculty, and will grow as campus coalitions gain momentum. Because UW-SAN will be maintained by students involved in student activism and network building, UW-SAN can evolve as needed, and remain flexible, accountable, and ultimately productive for years to come.

Student involvement will consist of three overlapping types of engagement:

  • Cross group and campus networking
  • Project collaboration and development
  • Project launch and student involvement

Cross Group and Campus Networking:

Many students will learn about and start to become engaged through events proposed by campus groups. We envision a fall launch event and spring showcase as our large events. Other students may first learn of our efforts through our social media or through a link to our website (see the Education and Outreach section for more information). On our website students will be encouraged to understand the breadth of sustainability issues and the history and landscape of student sustainability action. Students looking to go beyond simply understanding the landscape will be encouraged to explore our networking platform where projects are actively emerging and create a profile. Everyone on campus is invited to contribute material and student staff will build the resource archive.

Project Collaboration and Development:

UW-SAN’s network site will provide a centralized location for student announcements and student projects alerts, which create opportunities for connections and network building. In- person assistance through project workshops will be hosted by hired and volunteer student project support staff. This in-person engagement will help students develop their projects from conception to fruition, utilizing CCCE’s community support network, and resources.

UW-SAN will hire student outreach coordinators to maintain strong relationships between UW-SAN, student groups, and community organizations. Continuing to host events and working closely with diverse student organizations, coalition support will be relationship based, and drive continued interest and utilization of UW-SAN – bringing in group support, funding opportunities, and activists to fill volunteer and staff positions.

Already RPH-UW, a social justice and health focused registered student organization has approached the UW-SAN team to support their interdisciplinary investigation on the environmental and health impacts of corporate donors to the UW School of Public Health. UW-SAN can offer support by connecting RPH members to appropriate faculty and researchers, assist RPH in obtaining departmental resources and support, identify campus and community groups with similar/overlapping interests, connect RPH with relevant historical archives, and assist in finding creative ways to share the findings of their investigation. This is just one small example of how UW-SAN can amplify student work.

"As co-founder and officer of the registered student organizations Radical Public Health and Climate Justice Forum, I’ve had difficulty identifying and building relationships with other like-minded activist groups on campus and the broader Seattle community. UW-SAN would be a great resource for RSO’s and other student groups seeking to expand their reach and develop long-lasting coalitions on campus, particularly for those groups led by students new to Seattle activism."

~ Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot

Project Launch and Student Involvement:

Both the information website and the networking site will be spaces for students to further develop their thinking and project concepts. In addition to being consumers of the site content, UW-SAN will bring students into content and network curation and management for the online platform development and maintenance. Students will be able to access key resources and models on which to base their projects. UW-SAN’s development team identified student turnover (either from graduation and/or fluctuation in school work-load) as being a form of brain drain and reduced capacity for campus sustainability organizations. Project support, publicity and on and off line networking offers 24/7 continuity for student initiatives.  The project archive both honors student work and provides models for incoming student cohorts. Online network development will be complemented by collaboration workshops hosted by UW-SAN staff (see education section for more information).

Education & Outreach:

Outreach & Education Goals:

  1. To initiate and facilitate meaningful relationships between campus groups and individuals.
  2. To spread the vision of UW-SAN as a way for previously isolated projects and initiatives to come together and realize large-scale change.
  3. To offer opportunities to individuals searching for ways to apply their passion and talent to a meaningful project that will have tangible results. 

General Outreach Strategy:

UW-SAN will be publicized to the student body several different ways. Our primary form of advertising will be through direct outreach to organizations and other Registered Student Organizations (RSOs). Every year there are over 800 RSOs, and we will make UW-SAN a well known resource to them. We will do so by drafting an informative email to be sent to all RSO presidents, as well as any other organizations that would fit well in the Student Action Network.

In order to reach the campus beyond RSOs, we will table in Red Square with informational flyers for the general student population. This will be an opportunity to share our projects with students and provide information regarding upcoming events and ways to get involved. Since UW-SAN is positioning itself as a resource center and project facilitator, opportunities for individual (rather than group) student engagement would be on a per-project basis. Depending on what collaborative projects are going on, there may be opportunities for third party individuals to get involved. Tabling will be an opportunity to let students know what projects we’re working on, share the vision of UW-SAN, and offer ways to get involved.

Beyond direct outreach and tabling promotion, we hope to have the link to our website published on official University of Washington pages that will attract others browsing the internet looking for ways to get involved. We also help to publicize UW-SAN with brief information sessions at courses of faculty affiliated with UW-SAN.

Fall Launch Event:

To kickoff UW-SAN, we will host a launch event each fall that will gather UW campus groups for a formal introduction to the network. In this launch, we will touch on the broad issues of sustainability, environment, economy, and democracy and communicate the importance of collaborating to gain momentum in reducing environmental impacts. Speakers will explain the online resource center and project support program, and announce upcoming events and workshops for groups to immediately become involved. Beyond the first year, this will serve as a school year kickoff, recapping previous projects, unveiling new opportunities and resources, and familiarizing people with UW-SAN’s platform.

Collaboration Workshops:

Workshops will be held to explore collaboration between campus organizations. A facilitator will meet with select groups that have coalition potential and guide them through an ideation session in which they ask the question: what types of opportunities for collaboration are there between us? Most campus groups have only worked in isolation, so this will be an chance to discover the potential of a coalition. If opportunities are identified, the facilitator will work with the team to identify next steps and give a preview of the resources that UW-SAN has to offer.

Project Workshops:

Workshops will be held for more concrete project concepts. Groups with a collaborative idea can arrange for a project workshop where a trained facilitator will guide the team through a project launch plan. The workshop will identify the primary goals of the project, outline a tentative timeline, and connect the team with relevant resources in the UW-SAN resource center. This will be an opportunity for coalitions to develop their idea, create a plan, and get access to the people and resources that can help them succeed.

Spring Showcase / Outreach Events:

Each Spring UW-SAN will partner on a large-scale outreach/showcase event to which the the student body is invited. The event will feature live entertainment and other activities to draw interest. The showcase will communicate the mission of UW-SAN and feature several projects it has been working on throughout the year with opportunities for students to become involved. The key to effective organizing is public support, so this event will be a way to gain widespread awareness and interest amongst the student body and extended community.

This event will merge artistic expression with social engagement, as art and music are a means for people of varying backgrounds and perspectives to come together. It will be an opportunity people to enjoy themselves in a setting that has valuable meaning attached to it.

Entertainers will be mindfully selected based on their brand image to ensure that their values are in alignment with those of UW-SAN. UW-SAN PR and Social Media will plug into this event for promotion and documentation, exploring creative ways of generating campus interest before and after the event.

Potential collaborators for this event are Rainy Dawg Radio and UW Arts & Entertainment. Both of these organizations are well-integrated into the UW student community and host art and music events on campus throughout the year. To plug UW-SAN’s network into the artistic community on campus would open up new opportunities for generating student interest and exploring the possibilities of media development.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Transportation
  • Waste
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

Funding from the Campus Sustainability Fund grant will get UW-SAN off the ground: hiring the staff needed for platform development and outreach/engagement of campus organizations. UW-SAN will continue to seek long-term funding to sustain the program. Unlike narrowly focused projects, UW-SAN has the ability to seek additional funding from a wide breath of funders (including but not limited to UW based funding organizations) once it is in motion. We plan to offer the developed project as a funding target to community donors. Successful coalition projects will be used as leverage for future grant funding. The broad base of support, as seen at the 2016 Rethinking Prosperity Teach-In, reflects the sweeping interest in intersectional coalition building and the potentiality for UW-SAN’s sustained support and influence. We will continue to support the project through technical support from communications department, and staff support from the Center for Communications and Civic engagement.

Environmental Problem:

The major environmental problems we face today, from climate change to species extinction, are driven by a set of integrated, systemic drivers in the economy that encourage constantly increasing extraction, consumption, and pollution of natural resources. But as environmental advocates we face barriers to reversing these trends because we are cornered into a narrow band of accepted solutions and lack a collective engagement strategy strong enough to make change. Through online platforms, outreach, and events, UW-SAN  will build a broader understanding of campus and community sustainability in terms of the technical, economic, and democratic challenges that must be bridged across campus organizations and with community groups. The many kinds of activities, events and projects that we envision will help promote broader understandings about solutions, and make UW a place where people find new ideas and models.

UW-SAN will join fragmented groups with ideas and passion for changing the nature of the current dig, burn, dump economy. We will revitalize civic engagement around the concept of sustainability. We will inspire and build bridges between student projects, and create a network of advocates strong enough to take on ambitious sustainability initiatives at a scale that can make a significant campus contribution to global environmental challenges. We envision UW students entering the world as ambassadors for positive change.

Working in coalition, students can advance ambitious changes in policy and practice that begin to shift the campus environmental impact.  The actual proposals that might come from students may vary.  One can imagine policy concepts like a university with an one-earth equivalent ecological footprint or that runs on 100% energy generated from democratically owned sources within 100 miles of campus.  Other programs might include cooperative fix-it centers and lending libraries.  All of these would require a significant ramp up in collaboration and engagement in thought and action that bridge environment, economy, and democracy.  In sum, by networking sustainability efforts on campus we will overcome hurdles and be able to achieve larger environmental goals required to restore a healthy environment.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The UW-SAN will amplify existing sustainability efforts through scaling up the impact of existing groups and engaging large numbers of currently unaffiliated students in learning and doing.  We will directly expand the capacity of groups participating and the environmental consciousness of the entire campus community.  While it is difficult to attribute specific energy or water metrics to the project, we will monitor and aggregate success metrics through the groups with whom we work. We believe the networking services we provide are vital to the ultimate success of campus sustainability efforts of all kinds. Our goal is to produce dramatic leaps in progress toward campus environmental goals.  

Specifically we will measure:

  • Number of students engaged in UW-SAN networks
  • Document understandings of sustainability on the part of  the groups we work with through how they describe themselves in their literature and their programming.
  • Measure the number and level of collaboration on projects between the groups.
  • Chart the levels of participation at our events and in affiliated group events.
  • Statistics of visits and engagement with our online platform.
  • Aggregated metrics of participating groups to show collective impact
Total amount requested from the CSF: $52,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Faculty Advisor (in-kind)Lance Bennett1Personal contribution
Office Space (in-kind)Lance Bennett1CCCE offices
Platform Development and Maintenance100001$10000
Events6$4000
Printing10001$1000
Student Undergrad Hourly$15-17/hr2$21000
Student Grad Hourly$22/hr1$16000
TOTAL$52000

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $52,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Platform developmentMay 2017 through December 2017December 2017
OutreachOctober 2017 to June 2019June 2019
Project SupportJanuary 2018 to June 2019June 2019

Project Approval Forms:

SER-UW Whitman Nature Walk: A Pathway Through Restoration

Executive Summary:

The intent of this proposal is to support the University of Washington’s student chapter of The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER-UW) to better achieve our mission of promoting restoration ecology as a means of sustaining the diversity of life on Earth and reestablishing an ecologically healthy relationship between nature and culture. We are requesting funds to develop interpretive displays, more useable spaces at our on-campus restoration site, and resources to keep pace with our members interest in conducting both restoration projects and community outreach events (e.g. collaborative meetings, seminars, and travel to conferences).

Our restoration site, The Whitman Nature Walk, is located on north campus between Whitman Court NE and the Denny Field IMA tennis courts along the Whitman Walk pedestrian path (Fig 1). The northern section of Whitman Walk  is a small forest tract that has been restored by SER-UW over the past five years and is the nexus of our organizations efforts. This site embodies the mission of SER-UW and the proposed interpretive displays would be located here. SER-UW also participates in restoration activities at other locations across campus, and throughout King and Pierce Counties. We also maintain a native plant nursery at the UW Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH) and hold outreach events at the UW School for Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS). The total amount requested for these projects is $14,712  and would endow these increasingly popular activities.

The environmental problem this project will address is complacency and detachment from natural communities in urban settings. SER-UW has worked diligently since our founding in 2008 to restore a Puget Sound lowland forest community to north campus adjacent to McCarty and Haggett Halls. Funding to develop interpretive displays would be an effective educational tool that would leverage existing work to demonstrate the benefits of restoration ecology. Furthermore, our work along Whitman Walk is adjacent to the much larger, but inaccessible Kincaid Ravine Restoration Project, a CSF funded project to restore a 2.2 acre tract of forest.  The Whitman Nature Walk will act as the interface between the UW campus and Kincaid Ravine upon completion, providing an accessible point to learn about the importance of ecological restoration and a welcoming outdoor community space. The additional funding requested will help SER-UW increase outreach aimed at spreading awareness, recruiting students, and collaborating with other student groups and off-campus organizations.

To monitor the impacts of the proposed work we will maintain records of our membership, total number of volunteer hours, relationships with partnering organizations, and number of outreach events and attendance. To measure effect we will compare these numbers with pre-grant numbers from the 2013-2014 academic year. Because this proposal also funds tools and equipment for restoration we will also set up an annual monitoring program at Whitman Nature Walk to measure changes in plant cover by species.

SER-UW information can be found online at our Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/UWSER

and website

http://students.washington.edu/seruw/

 

SER-UW partners with numerous organizations, both on and off campus, to accomplish our restoration goals (Table 1).

 

Student Involvement:

Student involvement is essential to our work and this project involves students in several different ways. Requested funds for equipment and supplies will enable us recruit larger numbers of students for restoration activities and to provide hands on experience, the interpretive displays will provide opportunities for students to participate in the design and installation, and the outreach events will provide the chance to interact with restoration professional for seminars while opening doors to work with other student groups through collaborative meetings.

Restoration activities such as native plant salvages and work parties bring together dozens of students from the UW community each quarter for direct hands-on interaction on and off campus. Whether they are students from our partnership with the Introduction to Environmental Science (ESRM 100) course or dedicated SER-UW members these events foster a sense of ownership in the project and help SER achieve its mission. There are few opportunities like ours that empower students to take part so directly in molding their campus. Requested funding will allow us to recruit more volunteers by providing needed equipment and supplies.  The same equipment and supplies will also help us act as a resource for other student groups interested in restoration. For example, we are partnering with the Kincaid Ravine restoration project and having tools on hand would greatly help in planning for the first planned work party on February 18th.

The interpretive displays will create opportunities for student involvement in restoration across many disciplines. Already, we have an intern majoring in landscape architecture developing a site plan to outline how and where interpretive displays will be located. We hope to partner with a University of Washington furniture making class to create benches from cherry sourced from the site along Whitman Walk, and work with the art department to develop works that represent the transitions the site has undergone during the restoration process.

The restoration seminars will provide students with the opportunity to reach out and interact with professionals in the field of restoration ecology. Additionally, each seminar will provide the opportunities for larger number of students to learn about and get involved with restoration.

Education & Outreach:

This proposal will utilize several methods to publicize our work to the UW community. SER-UW activities will be advertised widely and made available to all students, signage and web postings will describe our endeavors .

The primary advertisment method for our north campus student woods will be the site itself. It is located in a high traffic area in north campus adjacent to several large dormitories. In its current state, the site is undifferentiated from the surrounding campus. Our organization is currently discussing the installation of UW signage identifying the site. These combined with the proposed interpretive displays would create a high visibility site designed to encourage students to spend time at the site and learn more about our activities and the native vegetation. We will also use other methods to actively promote the restoration of the Whitman Walk landscape including posts on our Facebook page and website, continued use as an outdoor classroom as part of a collaboration with the Introduction to Environmental Science (ESRM 100) course, emails to our 150 members and relevant listserves, and posters.

Restoration Ecology Outreach Events will use similar avenues of active advertising listed for The Whitman Nature Walk. Our organization seeks to be as inclusive as possible and always disseminates event information widely. 

Our educational goals are to inform interested students about the importance of healthy functioning ecosystems to society and the role restoration ecology has in improving measures of ecosystem health including biodiversity and ecological function. In Washington State, many of our cherished ecosystems are degraded. Whether it is declining forest health in the dry coniferous forests of the eastern Cascades, loss of habitat for Puget Sound oak savannas, or fragmentation and establishment of invasive species in the lowland forests of our own backyard, in all cases management actions that fall under the discipline of restoration ecology are necessary to reverse degradation. Developing interpretive signs along The Whitman Nature Walk will showcase the importance of restoration on campus for a large number of students while the proposed restoration outreach events will provide more in depth exposure to this field.

Secondary educational goals of The Whitman Nature Walk interpretive display is to act as a public face for other restoration projects on campus and showcase the value of established natural communities for university planners. UW has several existing or planned restoration projects in addition to our efforts. These include sites between NE Walla Walla Lane and the Ship Canal, adjacent to the Conibear Shellhouse, the Union Bay Natural Area, and a planned project for Kincaid Ravine. These sites are all less accessible to students and our site has the potential to bring attention to these sites and educate students about the extent of restoration work on campus. Whitman Walk is also within the footprint of the North Campus Master Housing Plan Update. This document includes the demolition and remodel of the McCarty and Haggett residence halls. The plan notes the forested nature of the vegetation is part of the character of this section of campus but also notes the vegetation appears “unkept” and “abandoned”. The  natural plant communities of The Whitman Nature Walk and Kincaid Ravine restoration projects will be incorporated into the north campus redesigned as an inviting community space with an educational benefit. This process could provide an educational opportunity in and of itself for university staff by incorporating natural plant communities into the design of large residence halls.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

With the increased global connectivity that has accompanied our modern age, natural ecosystems are losing their ecological authenticity. In the Greater Puget Sound region, several non-native invasive plant species such as Himalayan blackberry and English ivy invade and dominate swaths of land which historically supported a diverse suite of native flora and fauna. In order to combat the negative impacts of invasive species SER-UW has a adopted a two-pronged approach. We hope to practice principles of environmental restoration to return land overrun with invasive species to a natural and healthy state thus encouraging greater biodiversity and providing habitat for native wildlife. We also aim to cultivate community involvement and environmental stewardship through utilizing these projects as opportunities to discuss human-impacted ecosystems and the ways in which we foster sustainable lifestyles.

The Whitman Nature Walk project has long been our outlet for both of these goals. It serves as a place to actively practice principles of restoration ecology and as a classroom for ecological awareness. As our group’s work has progressed, the site has transitioned from an ecologically degraded area on campus to a rare and precious example of a healthy native forest which can serve not only as a beautiful natural space but also an invaluable teaching tool.

Furthermore, we hope to expand our impact through work away from our restoration site through the expansion of our social and educational outreach. A large part of ensuring environmental health is the dissemination of information about the problems that we all face and the ways to mitigate them. We seek funding to expand this communication. Holding events open to the wider university community will have huge benefits and inspire lasting environmental change.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

To measure the impact of our outreach efforts on the UW community we will track SER-UW membership and event attendance statistics and the number of each event type with the goal of increasing all three. SER-UW membership will be tracked under the assumption that greater outreach will spur more students to get involved with restoration ecology and thus these efforts should be detectable. Since there is no requirement of involvement once a student becomes a member our metric for membership will be based on new members. We will compare enrollment rates for the funding period (2014-2015 academic year) with the previous year. Event attendance statistics will also provide another metric of how well our outreach efforts are generating interest in this field. Because the number of events our organization hold fluctuates we will measure total number of attendees per quarter rather than average attendance rates. For example, if we hold more events average attendance may drop but the total number of students involved may increase). We will track the number and type of events to ensure that outreach funds are being used to increase our outreach capacity. We expect the number of restoration events to stay stable but a doubling in outreach events designed to disseminate information (e.g. collaborative meetings, seminars, conference attendance, etc).

To measure our impact on ecological restoration of The Whitman Nature Walk we will set up an ecological monitoring project to track the status of our efforts. Since restoration efforts have been underway for some time monitoring efforts will not provide baseline information however they will enable us to track the progress of native plants and maintenance efforts to keep invasive species from returning to the site. The site is small (~ 0.5 acre), thus we will conduct a complete inventory of trees and shrubs greater than 0.3 meters tall. Common multi-stemmed shrubs such as Indian-plum and California hazelnut will be recorded as individual clusters. For each tree we will record species, height, and diameter at breast height (DBH). For seedlings and saplings less than 4.5 feet tall we will measure basal diameter. For tall shrubs we will record species and height and number of stems for multi-stemmed species. While many of these individuals were present before restoration efforts began this information will allow us to characterize the structure of the overstory and understory. Most tree data can be supplemented with information from the UW’s extensive tree inventory. This data will be collected every five years. Monitoring for the groundcover layer where most of our restoration work has been concentrated will use 10-20 10-meter line transects systematically located across the site to measure cover of each groundcover species (i.e. those not measured as trees or large shrubs). These plots will be measured annually to track cover of native and non-native species. Success will be measured as a <1% cover of nonnative groundcover and upward trending cover, abundance, and evenness of native species in the groundcover layer.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $14,712
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost/ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Restoration Activities
Shovels$20 20$400.00
Pitch fork$30 3$90.00
Metal rake$20 4$80.00
Wheel barrow$70 3$210.00
Potting soil$4 30$120.00
Truck rental$50 4$200.00
Lanscaping cloth$50 4$200.00
Food & Refreshments$80.00 6$480.00
McCarty Interpretive display
Art materials$1,000 1$1,000.00
2' x 3' Interpretive sign (site history)$1,000 1$1,000.00
1' x 1' Interpretive sign (species)$250 8$2,000.00
Crushed stone$300 1$300.00
Railraod ties$20 55$1,100.00
Park benches$400 5$2,000.00
EarthCorps (Project Management)$69.00 6$414.00
EarthCorps (Crew day)$1,179.00 2$2,358.00
Seminars/Outreach Activities
Food & beverages$1606$960.00
Speaker Fee$3006$1,800.00
$14,712.00

Non-CSF Sources:

Source/DescriptionAmount RequestedDate RequestedDate Received
Ackerley Learning To Lead Together Scholarship$1,500 12/1/20131/6/2013
Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Cost
Complete McCarty Path restoration activities3 months$1,780
Design and procure McCarty Path interpretive displays6 months$4,000
Construct paths and install interpretive displays6 months$6,172
Seminars/outreach events6 months$2,760

Educational Signage + Benches for Kincaid Ravine

Executive Summary:

Educational signage and benches for Kincaid Ravine aims to install 2 benches handmilled from leftover timber cut down by the campus arborist, and three 12"x12" educational signs designed by UW Museology students and produced professionally by Fossil Graphics. This educational "nook" is located just south of the wetland, on the eastern perimeter of the Kincaid Ravine restoration site, approximately 15 feet off of the Burke Gilman Trail (BGT). See attached map. It will create an essential education and outreach component to the sustainability initiatives already occurring in Kincaid Ravine. The total budget of $3,382 includes the costs of design, materials, production, and shipping of signage, as well as materials and production of the benches.  The Society for Ecological Restoration- UW (SER-UW) will spearhead installation. Kincaid Ravine Student Project Manager Matt Schwartz and the Kincaid Ravine 2015 intern Andrew Jauhola will coordinate and oversee the process.

Specific Concerns:

  1. Public Safety has been an ongoing issue in Kincaid Ravine.  Homelessness is a challenging issue to consider during restoration projects- since the homeless are continually neglected, displaced and marginalized in our society. However, the pervasion of intravenous needles and trash on site is unacceptable on a campus site and is damaging to public safety as well as to restoration efforts. The three principle means to reduce encampments are 1) the installation of “Restoration Crews On Site, Please Vacate the Premises” signs in 2014    2) the clearing of dense vegetation to eliminate ‘hidden areas’   3) the conversion of the site into an actively useable space for students and volunteers.   The third action may eventually include an official path that would connect north campus to the stadium area. Signage and benches are a preliminary step in accomplishing this goal of converting the Ravine into a functional space for UW students, classes and community members. Increased traffic in the ravine would make it more difficult for encampments to establish. The educational nook would also serve as a meeting place for classes that want to explore the ravine. Signs and benches are the next logical step in advancing the University’s commitment to the site and are a symbol of UW taking back this once neglected area.
     
  2. See attached map for location details. Red rectangles = bench locations. Black squares = sign locations. See Environmental Impact section for content details. See Project Longevity section for maintenance details.
     
  3. Benches and signage were not in the scope of the original Kincaid Ravine grant, the Supplementary Ask, or the grant provided by the King Conservation District. Those grants are focused solely on ecological restoration and due to the formidable challenges of severe environmental neglect, steep slopes and homeless encampment cleanup, there is not an opportunity to allocate those funds towards this educational aspect. Converting Kincaid Ravine into a safe and ecologically healthy forested laboratory is an ambitious process that will yield years of specialty projects- such as the Educational Nook, Wetland Enhancement, Pollinator Gardens, etc.. These will each need separate funding as they develop in their own rights.

Student Involvement:

The lead on this project will be Andrew Jauhola, a Project on the Environment capstone student that will be interning in Kincaid Ravine this winter quarter. Other students connected with the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) will be involved in supporting this project and installing the benches and signage. Matt Schwartz, the current graduate student Project Manager at Kincaid Ravine will be supporting Andrew and SER volunteers in this effort. Museology students Angela Mele and Kate Nowell will be designing the signs and facilitating production. Through designing, building, and installing signs and benches in Kincaid Ravine, a diverse community of students will experience valuable teamwork. Students may also learn from each other through a wide array of knowledge and skills required in this project.

This will be an excellent opportunity for students from multiple departments to work with Facilities Services and professional production companies to successfully design, produce and install signage and benches. Working with real world type situations, students will gain career experience. Students will be required to coordinate with each other as well as institutions to create quality signs and benches. This type of teamwork, organization and institutional coordination is not exclusive to this project, but is highly applicable to the futures of the many parties involved; a valuable experience for students and faculty.

Andrew Jauhola will be conducting pollinator research at Kincaid Ravine this winter as part of his capstone senior project. He will be gaining valuable skills in research, proposal writing, outreach coordination, and restoration designs and protocols. By providing information and research Andrew will work with Project Manager Matt Schwartz not only to install signs, benches, and pollinator gardens, but also to publish a valuable pollination pamphlet for restoration practitioners around Seattle.

Many other students involved will learn and gain experience from this project. Matt Schwartz will learn managerial skills through coordinating and working with the many collaborators on this project. Many SER volunteers will gain valuable hands on experience through project design and implementation. Angela and Kate could apply what they will learn from their role in this project in many future real world situations.

Kincaid Ravine is a living, breathing, haven of opportunity, not only to conduct in depth research and capstone projects, but also to educate and foster community on campus. Through a variety of events and work parties, volunteers have managed to remove a substantial amount of invasive species and replace them with healthy native plants. The removal of invasive species such as Himalayan blackberries has opened Kincaid Ravine up to researchers like Matt and Andrew, who are excited to further the cohesion previous efforts have created. Just a short walk from many busy spaces, the benches and signs put in at Kincaid Ravine will be an asset to a wonderful campus area; a natural oasis for people to learn, research, or simply enjoy lunch.

Education & Outreach:

Kincaid Ravine is not just another neglected natural area of Seattle; it is an area of active research, community, and education. With signs to show people the value of such a place, and benches for people to relax on and enjoy, Kincaid Ravine will be a healthy rest stop just footsteps from residences and campus. Making clear the legitimacy and purpose of Kincaid ravine is key to people valuing nature’s processes in the area. Also, being just off of the BGT, the benches would be a perfect rest place for the many joggers or bikers throughout the day.

Signage at this high visibility location will be an impactful tool to A) spread awareness about forest restoration ecology, and B) publicly recognize the partners and funders who have made this project possible.  Elisabeth McLaughlin, Architect of the Forest Segment of the BGT reconstruction, is enthusiastic about incorporating this educational nook into design plans for the new trail to optimize the chance for pedestrians and bicyclists to take a rest off the trail and learn about the restoration project. 

The specific environmental themes that the 3 signs will elaborate upon include

  1. Title Sign: Includes
    1. title "Welcome to the Kincaid Ravine restoration project",
      It is important to install a title sign to display that this 4 acre urban forest has an official name and that passionate volunteers are working to restore and conduct valuable research. A title sign will also educate people who are eager to learn and hopefully inspire them to volunteer and take action. Being just off of a heavily traveled trail, the title sign will inform a variety of people that Kincaid Ravine is a legitimate restoration site with stewards, students, and volunteers who seek to reinvigorate the declining ecosystem located there.
    2. ~40 words of text explaining the basic concept of forest restoration, native vs. invasive vegetation. The following text will be distilled down to ~40 words upon meeting with the designers.
      "Forests make up around 30% of the worlds terrestrial area, and yet they contain over 75% of the worlds terrestrial biodiversity. Both the amount and quality of these biomes is declining due to such factors as population, urbanization, and, most notably for our area of research, invasive vegetation. Invasive plants have the ability to spread and thrive in areas outside of their natural habitat. By colonizing an area where ecology, insects, animals and diseases fail to balance its growth, an invasive plant can out compete a native, and therefore degrade the natural balance of a native ecosystem and its inhabitants.”
    3. partner logos including the CSF, Earth Corps, King Conservation District, UW Botanical Gardens, Friends of the Burke Gilman Trail.
       
  2. Wetland Sign: 50-100 words of text explaining the importance and function of this hydrologic feature. The following text will be distilled down to ~75 words upon meeting with the designers.
    "Wetlands are the kidneys of the earth. They act as a filter for rainfall and groundwater flow, a retention and release mechanism for rainfall, and a valuable asset to native wildlife. Wetlands filter surface water by decomposing organic matter, filtering out sediments, and recycling nutrients by converting chemicals to usable forms. Plant root systems stabilize runoff allowing for the slow release of water after heavy rains, providing flood control and erosion control. Wetland impact mitigation, restoration, and creation have become increasingly common as humans have realized the unique and invaluable services wetlands provide."
     
  3. Pollinator Garden Sign: 50-100 words of text explaining the importance of native pollinators (native bees, hummingbirds, songbirds) and describing the pollinator gardens that were installed underneath the power lines (colorful spring flower bloom will be aesthetically complementary to this sign). The following text will be distilled down to ~75 words upon meeting with the designers.
    "Close to 75% of the flowering plants on the earth rely to some degree on pollinators in order to set seed or fruit. Pollinators like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds provide ecological services that are integral to ecosystems, wildlife, and the many flowering plants we rely on for food. By installing attractive pollinator gardens people will enjoy beautiful spring blooms and valuable information on the services pollinators provide.”

 

 

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

There is very little maintenance needed for this project. The benches are fixed in the ground, each with 2 long galvanized metal stakes. The benches are extremely heavy but can be moved as necessary. A chain with I-hooks and a lock will ensure that they are not stolen. They will eventually decompose in their natural process but will maintain their function for decades. The signage is made of phenolic resin with a 10 year graffiti proof warranty (Fossil Industries). The signs will be solidly mounted on a single post, and can be moved if needed. There is no additional funding needed as the project scope is intended at this point. Funding sources will need to be investigated for further developing the educational nook in the future. Future developments may include more signs, more benches, or a walking path. This would likely be up to Grounds Management as they may take over direct stewardship in the future.

Environmental Problem:

The evolution of the Kincaid Ravine restoration project is at the critical point where institutional support has grown and must be matched by community support. An educational nook will directly amplify the environmental impact of the Kincaid Ravine restoration project.

Many Kincaid Ravine work party volunteers are accustomed to students, local community members and BGT users approaching to ask more about the project, or to comment on the visible success. Signage will legitimize the restoration by deeming it official, and the benches will be a chance to invite these curious passersby to become part of this natural oasis for a few minutes. This connection to nature can be invaluable for urban dwellers. 

Studies have shown that people who spend time in natural environments can be happier and healthier. Sitting or being active in a forest setting can improve immune function, relieve stress, and improve focus. In the busy lifestyle of an urban environment, it is valuable to have natural spaces where people can relax and relieve stress. Signage and benches will bring people into this natural area, where they can enjoy the benefits provided by spending time in a natural environment.

Passersby will be able to connect the visible vegetation changes and flower blooms in the site, with written text and images that explain the purpose of these changes. It is also a technique for drawing more volunteers into the project as a way to channel the enthusiasm of the local community. 

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

As an educational and awareness tool, the impacts of this project will be understood by the increased amount of community and institutional support. This includes but is not limited to: # of volunteers, # of subscribers to the SER listserve, and continued commitment of project partners. These factors all directly contribute to the # of native plants installed, the acreage of invasive plants eradicated, the improvement of water quality factors in the wetlands, the decrease in stormwater quantity discharging from the site directly into the Puget Sound, and the # of native birds and invertebrate pollinators that use the site for food and nesting. All of these quantitative factors are measured and documented in the Project Manager's site reports.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $3,382
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $3,382

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Sign design2 months4/15/15
Sign production6 weeks6/1/15
Sign installation1 day6/1/15
Bench production2 months6/1/15
Bench installation1 day6/1/15

2017 TSA Night Market Recycling Program

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Apiary for the UW Farm

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Greek Community Energy Challenge

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Increasing drought tolerance of campus lawns with endophytes

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Surviving Catastrophe: Public Health and Solidarity in an Era of Climate Change

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Ballo Conservatio: Dance Conservation (Photography Piece)

Executive Summary:

As the world evolves, humans are slowly beginning to understand the disturbing impact their carbon footprint has on the planet’s resources. How can we grow this understanding? How can we lure individuals into thinking differently about the sustenance of our home, The Earth? I believe an effective way to increase the public’s awareness of sustainability is to change its perception of a person’s relationship to the planet. Art can do that. Art can change perceptions. It can create unexpected relationships. Art can take common notions and change them into evocative images.

The University of Washington is a gorgeous campus surrounded by the beauty of a wide range of ecosystems that require the care and attention of the University’s students, faculty, staff and organizations. The grounds are well maintained and respected. The educational activities that take place on the campus are held in highest regard. But how can we bring the inner workings of every day into sharper focus? Are all Huskies thinking responsibly and thoroughly about recycling, consumption and more environmentally sensitive alternatives in their daily living activities?

Celebrated local photographer, Steve Korn, and choreographer and graduate student, Joseph Blake, will team up to work with three UW undergraduate dance majors to create powerful visual moments of humans interacting with renewable resources––such as paper, water, recyclable dishware, etc. As is clearly evident in the accompanying images by Korn, he knows how to make inanimate objects come alive and he masterfully engages the viewer on an intimate, human level with texture, light and shadow.

www.joblakedance.com

www.stevekornphotography.com

The proposed project is absolutely possible and necessary to provide a new and unique way to integrate the arts, community and the concept of sustainability. Support from the Dance Program, Meany Hall for the Performing Arts, and faculty sponsor, Hannah Wiley, is a statement of community effort. The project will be an artistic endeavor that will span a period of a month considering the time it will take to shoot, edit and frame. The exhibit of the works will be year-long or permanent. The projected costs for an exhibit as such will cost approximately $5350.

Student Involvement:

The proposed project will include two undergraduates and one graduate dance student from the Dance Program for the photographic portion of the project. By engaging in this process, the undergraduates will have the opportunity to work alongside a former professional dancer who maintained a decade long international career in the arts community. In addition, the students will have the opportunity to work with renowned photographer Steve Korn. Working in a professional photo shoot will be an experience that will be very useful to them in their future dance careers. It will also expose them to a very different way of using the language of dance to create art. The attached images demonstrate Korn’s work with past University dancers. The thought behind the series will be that the red fabric in photo below would actually be a natural resource, such as paper.

This opportunity offers the students behind the scenes experience in artistic collaboration, contributes to their résumés and expands their understanding of non-profit work. As the graduate student/choreographer of this project I will maintain the role of Project Manager. I will oversee funding scheduling, initiate conversations with gallery directors, obtain project approvals, choreograph for the photo shoot, and mentor undergraduate students. I will also be responsible for publicity and public education regarding the exhibits.

Education & Outreach:

The final outcome of this proposed project is an aesthetic reminder of humans’ responsibilities to the planet, the campus and the community. The series will raise issues of sustainability that encourage recycling, connect the effect of humans’ involvement to nature and cultivate awareness our planet earth as home.

The culmination of the project will be a three set series of six photos that will be displayed at the Odegaard Library, the HUB and Meany Hall Theatre Lobby. These venues have been selected for the volume of students, faculty and visitors who travel through these establishments on a daily basis.

The proposed opening of the installation will occur in October. This will not only coincide with the internationally celebrated month of sustainability, but also the opening of the dance program’s highly anticipated annual performance season, Chamber Dance Company (CDC). Celebrating the opening of the company’s performance will also include the opening of the proposed project. Hannah Wiley, the founder and director of CDC, has generously offered the lobby space as a temporary gallery for this project. Annually, the performances have included 2,000 viewing participants. After CDC closes, Meany Hall for the Performing Arts, will include our work (space allowing) with a quarter-long installation of work from the School of Art in the Meany Hall gallery. This will allow for a larger volume of students and visitors to witness the message of the work over a longer period of time.

After the Fall Quarter the project is in current talks to be presented at Odegaard Library and the HUB.

For each series there will be an observational sheet and “drop box” that will allow for gallery strollers to reflect upon their interpretation of the work provided, as well as contribute solutions for how the arts and community can better affect change in support of sustainability on campus. I will collect, collate and publish these results on my website: www.joblakedance.com.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Waste
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

Following approval of the proposal and with sufficient funding this installation will be a permanent work that can be used across campus for years and years. The hope is that the work will be a jumping off point for future collaborations between the university arts community and the Campus Sustainability Fund. As of now, the proposed date for the premiere is Oct 15th with Chamber Dance Company season. After CDC closes, Meany Hall for the Performing Arts, will include our work (space allowing) with a quarter-long installation of work from the School of Art in the Meany Hall gallery. The current discussion is hanging the work for larger volumes of the community to view at Odegaard Library and the HUB throughout the 2016-2017 academic year.

Environmental Problem:

Many individuals are extremely conscientious about the role they play in sustainability. Others are less engaged, or have never been galvanized to be actively involved. This project targets the latter–– the people who have not been energized by the current arguments about the need for sustainability. This project puts a human face on the issue. It will be looking in a graphic, human language at how a person may be lured into thinking about recycling, consumption and environmentally responsible behavior.  This project literally looks at sustainability through a different lens.

The photographs will illuminate and raise issues of sustainability through human interaction. Each photo will bring to light the relationship that we, as a society, have with the world around us. The viewers will witness a “dance” between humans and natural or man-made resources: the interconnectedness between mankind and organic or manufactured elements. Hopefully these compelling juxtapositions will engender reflection and conversation, and kindle positive action. 

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

For each series there will be an observational sheet/questionnaire and “drop box” that will allow for gallery strollers to reflect upon their interpretation of the work provided, as well as contribute solutions for why they feel the arts and community can better affect change in hopes of success for sustainability on campus.  

For example, the questionnaire will include:

  • The average amount of time that he/she considers their contribution to the campus sustainability
  • Does the artwork offer new light to the human connection that we have with our natural resources?
  • Would he/she share the power of the installation with others across campus to offer change to how he/she considers sustainability?
  • How else might the arts community on campus and Campus Sustainability collaborate to offer future change?
  • What is his/her personal effort to create change when considering campus sustainability?

The opportunity for this conversation will allow for outcomes not already proposed, as well as consideration for future projects. 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $5,350
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Project Manager (Blake)$200
Dancers/Models (UW Dance Majors)1752$350
Photographer800/day3 days$2400
Photo Editing15/hr60 hrs$900
Printing/Framing$1000
Printing (posters,flyers)$149
Soil$50
Tarps$150
Paper & Plastic$0
Clean-up Supplies$50
Student Fringe rate- UG18.80%$66
Student Fringe rate- ASE (Grad Student)17.70%$35

Non-CSF Sources:

ItemCost per itemQuantityIn-KindBudget Justification
Choreographer/Art Direction$1000/day3 days$3000For photo shoot
Hair Stylist$400For photo shoot
Flyer Posting Services$0Will use UW volunteers
Marketing$200Chamber Dance Company program- donated ad space
Rehearsal studio space$0Will use no-fee UW venue
Reception refreshments$150Will seek donated items
Costumes & make-up$400For photo shoot
Reception supplies$50Collaborating with Chamber Dance Company
Rehearsal venue space$0Will use no-fee UW venue
Project Completion Total: $9,550

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Proposal SubmissionApril 22, 2016
Contact dancers and photographer (confirmation of schedule)May 31, 2016
Meeting with photographer, Artistic Director of CDC and dancers about scheduleJune 15, 2016
Meet individually with dancers about individually themed shotsJune 30, 2016
3 day photo shoot, obtain materials, and reserve studio spaceJuly 01-30, 2016 (dates yet to be confirmed)
Photo editing, printing and framingAugust/September
Prepare observational sheets, prepare announcements, contact university paper, finalize installation detailsLate September/Early October
Reception and Gallery PremiereOct 13- 16th, 2016

Engaging Students and Public in Marine Conservation Through Sustainable Shellfish Aquaculture

Executive Summary:

The UW Shellfish Farm is a project conceived by several graduate students, faculty and staff at the School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences (SAFS), in collaboration with the School of Marine & Environmental Affairs (SMEA) and the College of the Environment. We seek to establish a student-run shellfish farm at the Big Beef Creek Research Station, a SAFS field site on Hood Canal. The overarching goals of the project are:

  1. Provide students and with a hands-on opportunity to experience sustainable seafood production.
  2. Conduct outreach and education on estuarine health and climate change impacts on the marine environment.
  3. Conduct monitoring to quantify environmental impacts of shellfish aquaculture on estuarine health.
  4. Serve as a field site for ongoing shellfish research at UW.
  5. Become self-sustaining by selling cultivated shellfish (e.g. clams, oysters) through wholesalers, UW dining establishments, a subscription service, and other outlets.

Our proposal is divided into two parts:

Phase I consists of a feasibility study for the Farm, including the development of a full business plan and management model, assessment of permitting requirements for commercial shellfish aquaculture and sales, initiation of permitting process through all necessary channels, formalization of partnerships with industry and other regional stakeholders (i.e. tribes, NGOs). We are poised to begin Phase I in Fall 2015.

Phase II consists of full implementation of the plan, namely the acquisition of grow-out materials, recruitment of student interns and volunteers, construction of a physical shellfish grow-out system at Big Beef Creek, acquisition and planting of shellfish “seed”, and development of educational and outreach material. Research conducted through Phase I will inform our cost estimates for Phase II.

We currently seek funding from the CSF to initiate Phase I. Funds requested will support a graduate student from the SMEA to conduct the feasibility study over three academic quarters, and will allow us to hire legal counsel to evaluate the legal requirements for developing an aquaculture operation on University property and to assist with the permitting process. 

Student Involvement:

The current proposal (Phase I) seeks funding to support a graduate student from the SMEA for three academic quarters of Research Assistantship, with the work comprising a component of a Master’s thesis. The student will work closely with Project Coordinators from SAFS and SMEA to achieve the following objectives:

  1. Assess permitting requirements for establishing commercial shellfish aquaculture operation, seafood handling and sales. Coordinate with state and Federal environmental agencies (Dept. of Health, WA Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, Army Corps of Engineers) and legal counsel to navigate permitting process through completion.
  2. In consultation with industry partners, determine budget and staffing (volunteers and full-time /part-time staff) requirements based on desired output and estimated operating costs.
  3. Determine most cost-effective means of transportation of students between the Seattle (and potentially Tacoma/Bothell) UW campus and Big Beef Creek.
  4. Develop options for formal partnership between UW and industry stakeholders– i.e. labor/profit sharing, seed acquisition.
  5. Coordinate with Housing & Food Services to design a model for sales of cultivated shellfish at University dining outlets – i.e. pricing, volume, permitting requirements.
  6. Coordinate with Environmental Health & Safety to ensure that all proposed work abides by environmental and labor requirements.
  7. Produce final report and business plan to SAFS and the Project Team, with findings and recommendations for implementation.

At the same time, the Project Team, with the support of Taylor Shellfish, Inc. will provide technical expertise to ensure that the feasibility study is based on biologically relevant goals. Our team (see below) has decades of combined expertise in shellfish aquaculture, and will ensure that the siting and business model account for the ecology and biological requirements of the species of interest – Manila clam (Venerupis phillipinarum) and Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas). SAFS Project Coordinators will ensure that industry partners are actively engaged in the Phase I process.

Like the highly successful UW Farm, we envision that the Shellfish Farm will provide numerous opportunities for student involvement at varying levels. Students will be able to work on the water cultivating shellfish, gaining unique exposure to a sustainable and globally important food system. Further, we aim to encourage student leadership by creating opportunities to coordinate planting, maintenance, and harvesting schedules, and to lead outreach events and farm tours. We hope to build formalized relationships with SAFS, SMEA, and other academic units on campus to provide opportunities for UW students to conduct research at the Farm.

With support from multiple UW Faculty and Staff, the following graduate students are currently leading the effort to establish the Farm:

  • Daniel Gillon (SAFS) – Project Coordinator - M.S. student
  • Jake Heare (SAFS) – M.S. student
  • Molly Jackson (SAFS, Taylor Shellfish Inc.) – M.S. student and Research Hatchery Manager at Taylor Shellfish.

Our Faculty and Staff mentors are:

  • Steven Roberts – Associate Professor, SAFS - Project Coordinator
  • Carolyn Friedman – Professor, SAFS
  • Kerry Naish – Associate Professor, SAFS
  • Joth Davis – Affiliate Professor, SAFS, Owner, Baywater Shellfish Inc.
  • Brent Vadopalas – Research Scientist, SAFS
  • Stephanie Harrington – Associate Dean, Planning and Initiatives, CoENV
  • André Punt – Professor and Director, SAFS 

Education & Outreach:

While the sustainable production of shellfish is a primary objective of the Shellfish Farm, the broader impacts of the project will be realized through outreach and educational programs. Our specific outreach and educational goals are:

  1. Partner with UW academic departments (i.e. SAFS, SMEA, Biology) to integrate Farm visits into academic course curricula and student research opportunities (i.e. capstone projects). FISH 404 (Sustainable Aquaculture) is one example of an upper-level undergraduate course that, through field trips, provides students with unique exposure to a variety of aquatic farms and hatcheries in Washington.
  2. Develop outreach materials regarding sustainable aquaculture, estuarine biodiversity, marine pathogens, and the impacts of ocean acidification on marine invertebrates.
  3. Lead seminars for the UW community and general public.
  4. Train student leaders to assume roles as environmental educators.
  5. Provide a suitable space for ongoing and future shellfish research by graduate and undergraduate researchers at UW. **Note that the current proposal does not seek funding for research, nor does it directly benefit the applicants’ current research projects.

Our proposal coincides with the first year of the Marine Biology major at UW, and so we hope to take advantage of new opportunities for partnership and outreach this year. In particular, the Farm will be set to host capstone research projects for undergraduate Marine Biology students (BIO 479). The Shellfish Farm will also be able to naturally integrate with the Food Studies track within the UW College of the Environment, such as FISH 424 and BIO 465 (http://www.food.washington.edu). We foresee opportunities to contribute to food-related courses at the UW, as well as other “Farm-Ed” seminars and sustainability workshops.

Upon successful completion of Phase I, and with feasibility determined, we will design and publish an official website for the Shellfish farm. The site will host information about the farm, including an events calendar and blog. We will similarly create a social media presence for the Farm to help attract and maintain interest from the student body and general public.

In the future, we foresee students engaging in regional shellfish industry events, such as the WA Sea Grant Shellfish Growers Conference and the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association annual meeting. Such activities will help broaden support for the Farm while more importantly fostering lasting relationships between the student body and industry stakeholders.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
Project Longevity:

The University of Washington is committed to making student access at Big Beef Creek a priority. Over the long term, we envision that the farm will be led by a full-time manager (salaried), as well as by a core group of graduate students in coordination with faculty and industry partners. Because several SAFS and SMEA faculty have ongoing interests in shellfish aquaculture, there will undoubtedly be a constant flow of new graduate students with expertise in this area. Consequently, we expect consistent interest and renewed involvement of student leadership with each passing academic year. As the Farm grows, so too does the opportunity to experiment with new methods of shellfish cultivation, and to monitor the impacts of the farm on the estuary. Phase I will yield a concrete management plan for the Farm and a determination of whether and how the Farm can be self-sustaining over the long-term. The feasibility study will model potential income from sales against various methods and scales of shellfish cultivation. In addition to generating revenue through shellfish sales (i.e. 250,000 oysters x $0.35 = $87,500 per acre/year), we will seek additional funding from aquaculture and research granting institutions, including Washington Sea Grant, which has expressed initial interest in supporting the project. We are additionally exploring several models for formal partnership with industry. Taylor Shellfish Inc., the largest producer of farmed shellfish in North America, has graciously agreed to serve as a technical advisor on the project. From preliminary discussions, Taylor Inc. may be able to provide an in-kind donation of “seed” oysters and clams for the project, as well as assist in the sale and distribution of UW Shellfish in exchange for a share of revenues.

Environmental Problem:

By setting an example of sustainable shellfish aquaculture, the UW Shellfish Farm aims to turn students’ attentions to the important question: “Where does our seafood come from?” Today, over 90% of seafood consumed in the US is imported, most often with no inspection for quality or proper labeling. With many foreign fisheries unregulated and potentially overfished, it is important that consumers recognize the importance of choosing "sustainably-sourced" seafood items. Shellfish aquaculture is one seafood production system that, when properly conceived, poses minimal impact to natural systems. Rather, shellfish act as biofilters; a single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. Through aquaculture efforts, enhanced shellfish populations result in reductions in turbidity, reduced nitrogenous wastes, and improved habitat for invertebrates and juvenile fish. 

We aim to connect students with the theory and practice of cultivating shellfish. Because these animals acquire their food by filtering the water, the success of a shellfish aquaculture venture depends wholly on the health of the estuary in which they are raised. By working on the water, students will become intimately acquainted with the Big Beef Creek estuary and the environmental factors that affect it. Students will also gain firsthand knowledge and skills required to operate a shellfish aquaculture business. 

The UW Shellfish Farm aims to provide students with a hands-on opportunity to experience sustainable seafood production and to provide the UW community with a locally produced seafood item. More broadly, we hope to serve as a catalyst for conversation and awareness about marine ecosystem health and climate change.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The UW Shellfish Farm will contribute to environmental conservation through several direct and indirect means. First, the intensive production of shellfish will improve water quality conditions at Big Beef Creek. In Puget Sound, production of single Pacific oysters for the half-shell market using traditional on-bottom methods typically yields approximately 240,000 oysters per acre with a biomass of about 36,000 pounds. Over a two-year harvest cycle, production is typically 18,000 pounds per acre per year. The UW Shellfish Farm could be scaled to several acres within the 40-acre Big Beef Estuary.

Phase II of the project proposal will involve the development of an environmental monitoring program to quantify the impacts of the shellfish farm on water quality in Big Beef Creek. Specifically, we aim to monitor bacterial levels, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, and carbonate chemistry in the estuary. Data from our monitoring program could be readily incorporated into SAFS research and disseminated to the scientific community and general public.

There is both precedent and ongoing interest in establishing environmental monitoring at Big Beef Creek. From 2009-2011, Big Beef Creek was one of several sites in Puget Sound where oysters and environmental data were collected in order to better understand the relationship between environment and organism health. Several research products resulted from this effort, known as PROPS (Physiological Response of Oysters in Puget Sound, http://faculty.washington.edu/sr320/?p=589). Data collected from monitoring at BBC, like in PROPS, can readily aid resource managers, policy makers, and scientists in assessing remediation efforts, restoration activities, and allow for informed predictions of risks associated with changes in habitat quality. The Big Beef Creek estuary is also currently a priority site for the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Project (http://pnwsalmoncenter.org/project/lower-big-beef-creek-design/), and so positive attention created by implementing the farm may make the site more desirable for further conservation efforts.

Direct impacts of the shellfish farm can also be quantified through the number of students that: 1) participate in environmental outreach and education programs on the farm, 2) utilize the farm for capstone research, and 3) volunteer to work on the farm. As of Spring 2015, there are approximately 400 students participating in SAFS, Marine Biology and SMEA undergraduate and graduate programs, and hundreds more involved in other academic programs within the College of the Environment. Thus, the potential for diverse student involvement is extremely high.

SAFS Director André Punt is currently exploring options for expanding the use Big Beef Creek for student activities, including incorporating site visits into relevant SAFS course curricula (FISH 310, FISH 404, etc.). 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $27,400
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
SMEA Research Associateship Funding$7300/qtr.3 quarters$21,900
Legal Counsel$5,000$5,000
Other project expenses (misc.), including transport, printing, survey equipment$500$500

Non-CSF Sources:

NameType of DonationStatus
Taylor Shellfish Inc.Technical supervision, in-kind materialsConfirmed technical supervisory role, in talks regarding seed acquisition
Puget Sound Restoration FundFinancialIn discussion
Washington Sea GrantFinancialIn discussion
Project Completion Total: $27,400

Timeline:

Quarter 1 (tasks below)Quarter 2Quarter 3
Consult with legal counsel, UW and state agencies on zoning/permitting requirements for BBCDevelop draft business plan – Draft report with final recommendations and feasibility assessment for Committee
Consult with Taylor, Inc. and project team to determine optimal growout system - Assess budget requirements for transportation to/from site
State aquaculture permit consultation/initiate process – WA Dept. of Natural Resources, WA Dept. of Ecology - Budget/staffing requirements for daily operations, material
Federal aquaculture permit consultation/initiate process – US Army Corps of Engineers, - Consult with HFS on revenue model for shellfish sales
Produce final report to SAFS and Project Team with findings and recommendations for implementation - Consult with Taylor Inc. on potential models for labor/profit sharing
Legal Assessment of UW Real Estate HoldingsMonitor permits, coordinate with state and federal agencies to facilitate site visits as needed

A New Home for UW Biodiesel Cooperative: Construction of Permanent Lab Space

Executive Summary:

The University of Washington Biodiesel Cooperative is an undergraduate-led registered student organization that was established in 2010 as a way for students to become more involved in waste management and alternative energy through hands-on learning. After losing our lab in 2011 to an incoming professor in the Bioresource Science and Engineering Department, the Cooperative has spent the past three years seeking a permanent lab space. We collaborated with the Chemical Engineering Department to acquire temporary lab space in 2012, and through a CSF grant, were able to perform basic tests on our old biodiesel reactor. From these tests, UW Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) deemed our old reactor unsafe to run indoors without proper ventilation, and required us to narrow our search for space to facilities with chemical fume hoods.

After receiving a unanimous approval and support from ASUW in the form of an initiative to find our group permanent lab space, we contacted vice provosts, deans, department chairs and facilities services to help us in our search. Although we were heavily supported, there simply was not a viable space to support our group. Luckily, in the spring of 2013 we caught a breakthrough with UW Transportation Services and Joshua Kavanagh, who offered an open lot to us on their grounds off 25th Ave, as a part of UW Motor Fleet property. Since this time, we have collaborated with Transportation Services and the Capital Projects office to plan and permit the location with the city for the installation of a retrofitted shipping container laboratory. This new facility will be modeled out of a large shipping container, and will contain a functioning biodiesel reactor that eliminates on-campus waste through the conversion of used cooking oil generated by the campus restaurants into fuel-grade biodiesel. With the financial support of the Campus Sustainability Fund to cover the expense of building, permitting, and supplies, the UW Biodiesel Cooperative will finally be able to make this vision a reality.

When compiled, these costs are substantial, and so we are proposing a request of $89,682 to cover our startup expenses. Approximately $30,000 of this cost will cover the shipping container design and purchase, $20,000 will cover foundation and land preparation and the remaining costs will go to permitting and salaries for architects, inspections and planning services. From a previous grant from the CSF in 2012, we were able to quantitatively justify our need for a professional biodiesel reactor though vapor characterization, and from this, gained the support of the College of Engineering, as well as a sponsorship of $8,000 to go towards the purchase of a new biodiesel reactor. Additionally, the lot for our new lab saves us a significant operational costs, as Transportation Services has allowed us to occupy the space rent-free.

The website for UW Biodiesel is http://students.washington.edu/biofuel/, and current officers can be found and contacted through the officers/contact tab.

Student Involvement:

The cooperative provides University of Washington students with the unique opportunity to combine green energy management with engineering innovation. Built and driven entirely by undergraduates, the group promotes interest and education in the field of green energy engineering by engaging students in a rich learning experience. All members proactively meet on a regular basis throughout the school year and engage in activities that prepare them for future careers in the green energy field such as running diagnostic tests, designing processes from the ground up, applying for funds and grants from outside institutions, running tests to ensure that the product is safe, and paying attention to the economics of their process so that it is financially sustainable.

Currently, the new lab space project project involves the all the Biodiesel Cooperative, composed of an executive committee of six people, with around 10 general members. Each member’s involvement is voluntary, and Cooperative members belong to varying disciplines inside the University of Washington. Membership is predicted to increase based on student response from Dawg Daze promotions and attendance at general meetings, however current positions have been limited due to our lack of physical lab space. With a new lab in place, membership, research and managerial roles are also expected to increase to provide more opportunities for student involvement. The current responsibilities of each executive committee member are described below.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the face of the organization. It is the job of the CEO to manage the financials of the Cooperative, act as a mentor to the general members and maintain responsibility for the overall direction of the Cooperative as a whole.

The Chief Operations Officer (COO) is in charge of administering all committee meetings. Every week, the various members of the executive committee congregate to report on the events of the previous week, discuss next steps, and assign action items. The COO is also responsible for connecting the engineering and logistics divisions, and performing interior management whenever necessary in order to keep the Cooperative organized.

The Internal Chief Relations Officer (CRO-I) is responsible for managing all connections within the University. This person maintains communications between HFS, Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S), Capital Projects, ASUW, and all other UW organizations that are involved in the welfare of the Cooperative. The CRO-I co-leads the logistics department along with the CRO Ambassador.

The Ambassador Chief Relations Officer (CRO-A) is responsible for managing connections outside of the University. This includes a variety of organizations, from biodiesel companies and fuel distributors, to high school classrooms and even other universities. The CRO-A co-leads the logistics department along with the CRO-I, and is also responsible for all public outreach and education endeavors.

The Chief Technical Officer (CTO) is responsible for managing all of the engineering divisions of the Cooperative. This person performs strategic technical management, makes long term decisions for lab work and manages engineering agendas, suggesting next steps for the engineering teams to pursue. The CTO works closely with the Lab Director to ensure that teams follow proper safety procedures.

The Lab Director (LD) provides tactical management within the lab. This person manages the day-to-day operations in the lab, including reviewing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to guarantee safety, communicating with EH&S about safety precautions, and monitoring the chemical inventory of the lab.

Despite the responsibilities of the executive committee members, the heart of the Biodiesel Cooperative lies in the education and participation of the undergraduate students that make up its general membership. These general members help with day-to-day task and operations, and often accompany more experienced members on outreach trips and presentations to local high schools. In addition, all general members work closely with one or more executive committee members on their personal group responsibilities, and provide essential footwork and fresh ideas to the group as a whole.

Establishing a working biodiesel facility on a college campus is not an impossible task; several successful biodiesel cooperatives currently exist on college campuses across the country. However, many attempts at establishing them in other universities have failed, primarily because the students who were involved with it end up graduating and new students do not emerge to take their place. The UW Biodiesel Cooperative aims to avoid this problem by focusing their efforts on green engineering education, and encouraging the growth of new students within as a means to provide a sustainable organization that prepares students for careers in the green energy industry. Additionally, our small group mentorship strategy ensures new members are properly trained and qualified to replace their predecessors. As a testament to this, despite all of the original founding members of the Cooperative having graduated in 2012, the amount of involvement in the Cooperative is very strong and growing, and this interest will grow even further once a fully operational lab space has been constructed. The Biodiesel Cooperative is a unique opportunity for undergraduate students, as it provides a glimpse at what a career in the engineering field is like, specifically that of renewable energy. By supporting the UW Biodiesel Cooperative, the Campus Sustainability Fund can help make a tangible difference by educating future leaders in sustainable engineering and equipping future young students with the skills they need to succeed in their careers.

Education & Outreach:

The Biodiesel Cooperative will enrich the community by providing education about the biodiesel industry and using waste vegetable oil as an alternative fuel source. In the past, the Cooperative has presented to local high school science classrooms about the benefits of using biodiesel, and has reached out to local community colleges to provide a collaborative effort in alternative energy education. However the ultimate goal of the Cooperative focuses on education on campus by providing opportunities for undergraduates to gain hands-on laboratory production and research experience. In particular, the Cooperative works hard to incorporate pre-engineering freshman and sophomores in laboratory and process design though small group meetings and lectures with older and more experienced students. This sets up a natural mentorship system, and provides sustainability in the program, with older and veteran students providing guidance and education to younger students, who will quickly grow to be the new leaders.

Since the cooperative has been without a home for the past few years, the opportunities for new members to gain wet lab experiences has been limited, and new memebers have primarily worked with logistics by collaborating with university leaders, and in theoretical process design of quality control testing. With the constuction a new lab space, the cooperative can take in more students and provide them with an overall more comprehensive engineering experience.

After acquiring lab space, a main objective of this organization will be to spread our operational model to universities across the nation and around the world. The Cooperative’s finalized standard operation procedures will published freely to be used as a reference and model for other groups and universities, where the implementation of student run Cooperatives may be a difficult endeavor.

The Cooperative plans to advertise their mission in a variety of ways. In addition to our physical lab space, there have been talks with Housing and Food Services about potentially buying a vehicle that can run B100 (a fuel blend of 100% biodiesel) and advertising it with the Biodiesel Cooperative logo to display the use of locally produced fuel in action. The Biodiesel Cooperative also has been consistently present at many student activities events including Dawg Daze, the Engineering Societies Fair and Engineering Discovery Days, where we recruit a majority of our diverse membership base.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Transportation
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Currently, University of Washington Housing and Food Services (HFS) sells their used cooking oil to the alternative energy company, Sequential Pacific Biodiesel, which transports the oil from Seattle to Portland, Oregon to be refined into biodiesel. This fuel is then transported back to Seattle to be sold on the market. The transportation involved in this process typically uses petroleum diesel, detracting from the purpose of producing the biodiesel in the first place and increasing greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere.

The UW Biodiesel Cooperative offers an alternative to this production method through the establishment of a closed loop system, in which the waste that is generated from on-campus restaurants is refined on site and sold back to the campus community to be reused in transportation vehicles and other engines as an alternative to petroleum based diesel fuel.

Supporting the UW Biodiesel Cooperative will achieve the goals of the Campus Sustainability Fund by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, transitioning away from petroleum diesel and educating the community about the field of green energy research. The use of biodiesel relieves the environmental impact of fossil fuels on the University of Washington and the community as a whole by reducing carbon emissions, reducing fossil fuel use, and recycling waste oil into a useful resource. We aspire to increase recycling efforts on campus by reducing reliance on pollution-generating modes of transportation.  Biodiesel emits 78% less greenhouse gases than diesel fuel. According to the EPA, combustion of biodiesel additionally provides a 56% reduction of hydrocarbon emissions and shows a significant reduction in carbon monoxide when compared with conventional diesel fuel bringing the University of Washington one step closer to its goal of being carbon neutral.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Although the yield of biodiesel from the refining process may vary, a typical yield from waste cooking oil is 75%. Therefore one gallon of biodiesel will be produced for every 1.33 gallons of waste cooking oil. Additionally, the US Energy Information Administration estimates 22.38 pounds of CO2 are emitted from burning one gallon of petroleum diesel fuel. In comparison, B-100, or 100% biodiesel, contains many less impurities and only produces 4.92 pounds of CO2 per gallon. That means for every gallon of biodiesel that is produced and used in campus engines, the Cooperative will have diverted 1.33 gallons of waste oil and prevented approximately 17.5 pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Because we will be producing biodiesel locally, additional emissions from the transportation of the cooking oil and biodiesel fuel to and from Portland, Oregon will be eliminated.

The amount of waste cooking oil that HFS produces is roughly 3,000 gallons per year. Assuming the previously mentioned yield of 75%, we can initially produce 2,250 gallons of biodiesel in a given academic year. Using all fuel in campus engines, can save the University up to 40,000 pounds of emitted CO2 per year and significantly reduce the University’s carbon footprint. Once this has been successfully executed for a couple of years, we will expand our collection base to other university district sources and scale up our facility, with the overall goal of helping the University of Washington take a large step towards being carbon neutral.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $89,682
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Equipment & Construction
Publicity & Communications
Personnel & Wages
General Supplies & Other

Non-CSF Sources:

Source/DescriptionAmount
College of Engineering8000
Project Completion Total: $97,682

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Finalize Permit Information with the City of Seattle2 months30-Apr-14
Finalize Shipping Container Design1 month1-Mar-14
Accquire Quote and Purchase Reactor1 month1-Jul-14
Purchase Container and Install on Facility4 months1-Aug-14
Purchase all additional lab equiptment1.5 months1-Sep-14
Produce First Batch of Biodiesel2 days15-Sep-14
Run First Quality Tests on Produced Fuel3 month1-Mar-15
Sell First Batch of Fuel1 month1-Jun-15

Sustainable Stormwater Coordinator

Executive Summary:

Creation of the Sustainable Stormwater Coordinator (SSC) position aims to designate a SEFS research assistant appointment to spread awareness about and develop an informed plan to physically improve stormwater treatment on campus. This will be accomplished by investigating the current quantity and quality of campus stormwater, analyzing a suite of suitable water management tools, and building a collaborative student-faculty-administration approach to this pressing issue. In sum, this project will seek concrete and actionable runoff management strategies, informed by water quality testing of discharges from parking lots, rooftops and sports fields.

Presently, several campus stormwater projects have begun the conversation about responsibly handling our fresh water resource at UW.  However, the importance of unifying a campus-wide stormwater strategy is urgent, in line with the UW core value of “setting the bar well above merely complying with laws and standards”. The SSC will unite disparate stormwater efforts at UW and channel student efforts towards practical and feasible solutions. For example, the SSC will work directly with Husky Sustainable Storms (HSS) to expedite progress towards project implementation. Additionally, through the involvement of a supportive and engaged team of undergraduates, graduate students and faculty, the position will strongly emphasize educational and outreach aspects.

This position has precedence for CSF funding, as set by the CPO “Sustainability Intern”, which compiled energy data to inform best practice LEED building certification for UW. The SSC position will likewise develop a baseline of information, which is critical to direct successful present and future student projects. The RA position and the study will be overseen by civil engineer and Professor of Hydrology, Dr. Susan Bolton, with budget and oversight by the SEFS department. The study will be executed in consultation with campus Engineer James Morin and Grounds Manager Howard Nakase. Landscape Architect Kristine Kenney provided valuable feedback to the project and has voiced support for the proposal. She will be a valuable ally to the SSC. Establishing and maintaining productive lines of communication with these important administrators will be a key, ongoing responsibility of the SSC. 

A comprehensive feasibility study (detailed in attached ‘Strategic Plan’) will analyze the most practical, effective and cost-efficient innovations that can be designed on campus to reduce stormwater quantity and improve water quality. The RA position will spearhead this study, with support from the growing number of students involved. This student group currently operates as a sub-set of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) UW chapter, but aims to start an independent RSO called 'Sustainable Stormwater'.

Financially, the SSC will research fee-reduction for stormwater treatments (See 'Student Involvement' section). 

9 months of CSF funding will serve as a kick start to inaugurate this position, at $1678 Schedule A/month x 9 months =$15,102  funding the RA position. The SSC will explore funding options to continue the position after 9 months. SEFS will support the SSC in locating ongoing funding options once the position is established. $2415 in water/soil testing (as detailed in attached spreadsheet) is also requested.  TOTAL: 15102 + 2415 = $17517 requested

Student Involvement:

During the formation of the "Green Liver Project", the antecedent to this grant proposal, a growing number of students have proposed working on campus stormwater issues. In particular, several Masters of Environmental Horticulture (MEH) students have expressed interest in undertaking campus stormwater projects as their master's capstone project- a minimum 9-credit Independent Study (SEFS 600). Faculty adviser to the MEH program Dr. Kern Ewing has authorized the facilitation of using SSC designed campus stormwater projects for this SEFS 600 credit. Professor Susan Bolton has authorized the incorporation of the Sustainable Stormwater Feasibility study as a case study and field trip (to visit the campus sites analyzed) into both Wildland Hydrology (ESRM 426:  25 students) and Advanced Wildland Hydrology (SEFS 525: 10 students). The SSC would accompany the students on these days and present a powerpoint presentation and relevant information to the class. The same application has been authorized for Eco-systems of the PNW (ESRM 201: 70 students). The SSC has also been approved to assist in selecting a respected speaker on stormwater issues (the SSC could potentially be this speaker) for the Environmental Science and Resource Management Seminar (ESRM 429: 150 students). 

Of the student body, five students who formed the foundation of the antecedent Green Liver Project, have re-committed time and energy to the success of Sustainable Stormwater. These students contribute a small amount of time per week, on a volunteer basis. This multi-disciplinary core group of graduate students, which meets bi-weekly in Anderson 107-C, will provide support to the SSC, including communication and networking, social media outreach, and assistance in water and soil testing. In relation to soil/water testing, this will provide a key opportunity for students to learn the fundamental process of gathering and analyzing samples. It will also ensure that the rigid testing schedule can be met consistently, as several students will be able to fill in, if the SSC is ever absent. 

Sustainable Stormwater has outlined recruitment strategies, in addition to the direct outreach through involvement in classes. This includes working with the RSO office in the process to solidify Sustainable Stormwater as an RSO, and networking with relevant campus RSO’s such as SAGE, the UW Farm and Earth Club. We envision a collaborative campus event with SER on World Water Day (3/22/15) next spring. This will be a valuable networking tool that would encourage student involvement.

The core student group has identified ‘Continued Accountability’ as a primary objective, and envisioned the student RA position "Sustainable Stormwater Coordinator" (SSC), through the SEFS department. The SSC is a permanent position that will establish a forum for students to develop the skill set and knowledge base to pursue projects related to water use and waste, including exposure to important local organizations and partnership opportunities in the Puget Sound restoration community. The SSC responsibilities take more time than is possible on a volunteer basis. Estimated at 20 hr/week these responsibilities include:

  1. Oversee design and completion of feasibility study, project designs and web resource in 9 months (for the first term of service as funded by CSF)
  2. Coordinate and support student efforts towards stormwater policy, outreach, education and project implementation (including HSS and MEH capstone projects)
  3. Build relationships and communicate through a singular channel with administration and faculty about campus stormwater. Assist administrators to meet the five-year goals of the Salmon Safe certification standards.
  4. Identify permanent sources of funding for this SSC position, and stormwater fee reductions. North Seattle Community College saves $60,000+ in annual stormwater fees, the direct result of a campus-wide collaboration where students applied for tax credits through Seattle Public Utilities. Since UW spends ~$1.3 million in annual stormwater fees, the economic incentive of exploring this aspect is justified.

SEFS department administrator Wendy Star has agreed to serve as budget administrator for Sustainable Stormwater should it be approved by the CSF. The creation of this position has the written support of HSS, Salmon Safe, 12,000 Rain Gardens, and the Plant Microbiology Laboratory. Supporting letters from each are attached to this proposal. Please note that several of the letters are titled or use language referring to the ‘Green Liver Project’. Due to time constraints between grant rounds, new letters referencing this new proposal were not possible. The support for Sustainable Stormwater remains unequivocal and can be followed up with new letters as soon as possible. Also, please see the "Strategic Plan" attachment for a more specific breakdown of Sustainable Stormwater's objectives, as led by the SSC. 

Education & Outreach:

Currently, the University of Washington, Seattle, claims four rain gardens, two outside the Molecular Engineering building, and one each outside the Community Design Center and the Center for Urban Horticulture, respectively. A bioswale- a drainage way that partially filters stormwater as it is carried from Point A to Point B, is planned by Husky Sustainable Storms outside the Burke Museum. These projects have begun the conversation about responsibly handling our fresh water resource at UW.  However, it is quintessential to unite these efforts under a singular and organized umbrella. This will maximize efficiency, minimize redundancy in communicating with administration, and ensure ongoing monitoring and maintenance of campus stormwater projects. To this end, the visage of environmental stewardship around campus can be better understood and publicized. Continuous educational signage at campus restoration sites is an active project of SER, and Sustainable Stormwater will utilize this tool to link stormwater projects on campus.    

Through comprehensive outreach and educational campaigns we aspire to bring stormwater stewardship to the forefront of environmental sustainability at UW.  Our target audiences are the UW Research Community, UW Student Body, UW F2 Staff, UW OPB Staff, and UW Faculty. We intend to reach these audiences by the creation of a facebook page, posters, pamphlets, class raps, maintaining a website, and reaching out to media outlets including but not limited to: The Daily, UW Today, The Stranger, and The Seattle Times. We also intend to support and represent the CSF at all sustainability focused activities for the campus community, including Dawg Days, Earth Day, and the UW Sustainability Summit. Additionally, an educational series of design charrettes with stakeholders, hosted by the Sustainable Stormwater partner from 12,000 Rain Gardens, will bring campus landscapers up to speed on best practice related to rain gardens and other bio-retention options.

Sustainable Stormwater hosts official bi-weekly meetings every other Thursday at 3:30pm in Anderson 107C, open to students, faculty, and administrators interested in the project.  A website that aims to maximize outreach capacity, and will host all gathered data and designs, is in the making. The SSC will be based out of Bloedel Hall Room 238 and have consistent office hours, as a convenience to collaborating students, faculty, and administrators.

The web resource (detailed in the section "Student Involvement") will build upon database and mapping efforts previously initiated by our collaborators at Stewardship Partners. This is a valuable tool that will give a birds-eye view to the stormwater situation on campus and could shift the emphasis of landscape management throughout the campus. The website will also include designs for cost-effective stormwater projects that students can implement in specific campus locations. The information contained in the web resource will be used in a powerpoint presentation that can be delivered by the SSC or other informed members of Sustainable Stormwater, to classes or RSO’s willing to learn about stormwater and water use. This can particularly apply to student groups like the UW Farm, student initiatives like the Kinkaid Ravine Restoration, and administrators like Facilities and Grounds Management.

Opportunities for students to become involved will be numerous, including assisting with water and soil testing, contributing design ideas, creating outreach materials, attending local lectures and conferences, and using our data and designs for their own classes and/or projects. The SSC will be able to put students in contact with relevant local NGO's and governmental projects, and identify productive networking relationships in the realm of stormwater. 

At the Salish Sea Eco-systems Conference on April 30th, we aspire to network with stormwater stewards in the greater Seattle community.

Educational efforts will also be measured in terms of political will, policy shift and outreach success. Although these parameters are difficult to measure, we aspire to gauge the qualitative paradigm shift towards stormwater sustainability. Doctoral candidate Ellen Weir studies the 'social acceptance of phytoremediation' and can incorporate the outcomes of this project into her PhD work. This relates very closely to several phytoremediation based stormwater treatments, and will serve as an important gauge of student interest in water quality issues. 

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Transportation
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

A total of 27,000 gallons of stormwater are produced as runoff from a one-acre parking lot, after one inch of rain. In UW parking lots, stormwater picks up oil, grease, metals and coolants from vehicles, and it proceeds largely untreated into Lakes Union and Washington. The EPA has listed hydrocarbons, like phenanthrene, as priority pollutants due to carcinogenicity concerns of the compounds; inorganic pollutants are also of concern because of their potential toxic effect on aquatic life, as they affect the pH, alkalinity, and conductivity of the water. Other impervious surfaces, like roofs, compound the quantity of overland runoff and inhibit on-site infiltration.

Typical stormwater systems address water quantity and flooding concerns, but ignore water quality. In recent years, pressing concerns about salmon health and subsequent Southern Resident Killer Whale endangerment have helped propel these issues to the forefront of water management. Moreover, in some cases, stormwater is mixed with sewage and several times a year, continuous rains overwhelm treatment facilities, leading to overflow across Seattle and around the Puget Sound. This can inundate roads, homes and waterways with sewage.

This project will investigate the most pressing water pollution sources on campus and develop a reproducible model for treating polluted runoff from parking lots and roofs around campus. A variety of stormwater management concepts are accepted by the City of Seattle, urban residents and local non-profits as an effective means to prevent flooding, reduce water pollution, and beautify the area. This project will explore the feasibility of rain gardens, bioswales, rainwater catchment, street edge alternatives (SEA), de-paving, phytoremediation, and mycoremediation. Understanding this range of options, and the realistic opportunity to implement these innovations within the existing campus design, and future campus re-designs, is critical to help UW take a leadership role in reducing quantity and improving quality of its stormwater. Moreover, the water quality analysis involved in this project, will help to focus future projects in the areas where they are most needed. The water testing budget spreadsheet is attached. The Hydrology Lab will be utilized free of charge for pH, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen. The SEFS Analytical Service Center  http://www.sefs.washington.edu/research/analytical_lab/ will be utilized for metals and carbon testing at a fee for sample preparation and analysis. 

Parameters for our stormwater project designs can be analyzed through the EPA monitoring platform, the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM). The System for Urban Stormwater Treatment and Analysis Integration (SUSTAIN) is also suited to our project as it assists in best management practices and low impact development techniques in urban watersheds.​​ Water quality testing will be supported by the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance Pollution Monitoring Program. http://www.pugetsoundkeeper.org/

To close with an example, if the contaminated stormwater from UW parking lots discharged into an Olympic sized swimming pool (~650,000 gallons), rather than Puget Sound, the parking lot N5 (an average sized lot at UW) could fill it with polluted stormwater in about 3 winter months. The sports field parking lot E1 could fill the pool in about 3 days of heavy rain.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The impacts of Sustainable Stormwater will be understood through the quantity and quality of stormwater projects implemented over the near future on the UW campus. If the groundswell of current excitement about stormwater management can be channeled into successful projects, then the SSC position will be justified.  Water responsibility closely relates to UW’s standing amongst the greenest schools in the nation. In 2013, UW ranked the lowest "water score" of the top 13 Green Schools (http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201309/coolschools/complete-rankings.aspx) and momentum towards returning UW to the top ten would benefit significantly from improving its reputation on water use and handling.

The SSC will work to generate an ongoing commitment of political will towards progressive stormwater policy and true environmental stewardship. In terms of policy, the University of Washington was recently certified as a ‘salmon safe’ institution as the beginning of a paradigm shift towards increasing consciousness about our water footprint and impacts on fish habitat.  With the full support of the certifying agency (see attached letter), we suggest incorporating the efforts and findings of the Sustainable Stormwater Coordinator into meeting the Salmon Safe Certificate Condition 4: “The UW shall perform an integrated stormwater management plan for the UW campus that evaluates opportunities to provide additional quantity and quality treatment of stormwater runoff including prioritizing such opportunities and establishing a proposed timeline for completion.”  Ellen Southward of Salmon Safe, the certifying agency, has agreed to work with the University to integrate our findings into the certification process. If successful, this will be a large step towards progressive stormwater policy.

Positive relationship building with administrative officials about stormwater policy will be understood through our success to Salmon Safe re-certify UW. Impacts within the greater stormwater community will be gauged by networking relationships built with local organizations and other academic institutions (ie: NSCC) working on these issues. Impact on the student body will be measured by interest in joining/volunteering for our project, and response to our social media campaign. 

In another sense, the quantitative water quality data from the feasibility study will speak for itself- the urgency for action on stormwater will be determined by these findings. Additionally, it will provide a valuable baseline of information. In order to assess the positive impacts provided by any rain garden or bioswale over the course of the project, a baseline for comparison must first be established. The initial conditions of the area of interest must be defined and include the identification and quantification of the pollutants present in the soil and surface water prior to the installment of any rain garden type project. Organic compounds, hydrocarbons and more specifically polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) resulting from incomplete combustion of fuel, will be targeted. The quantitative work will be done using high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with a hydrocarbon specific column; further characterization of the polluting species will be done via gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The data and statistical analyses will be done on work computers utilizing pre-installed software (e.g. Excel, SPSS).

Total amount requested from the CSF: $17,517
This funding request is a: Loan
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
RA tuition Schedule A16789 months15102
Water/soil testing2415

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $17,517

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Identify existing dataone month6/1/14
Analyze 3-5 sitestwo months8/1/14
Identification + quantification of pollutantsfive months12/1/14
Develop site designsfour months4/1/15
Create stormwater hotspot layer mapone month5/1/15
Assist Husky Sustainable Stormsongoing
form and solidify RSO, outreachongoing
Policy and Funding Researchongoing

Husky Sustainable Storms: Bioswale (Phase 3)

Executive Summary:

Husky Sustainable Storms (HSS) in conjunction with the University of Washington and Huitt-Zollars, Inc. is upgrading the existing stormwater infrastructure of the N1 parking lot. A sustainable system, known as a biofiltration planter will be installed on Stevens Lane. This is a large walkway connecting the University District neighborhood to campus. An estimated 2,000 students use this walkway each day. In addition to conveying stormwater from the N1 parking lot, the new green infrastructure will reduce the velocity and pollution of stormwater drained from the parking lot.

HSS consists of seven students representing 5 departments, 2 Colleges, and ranges from undergraduate to Ph.D. students. HSS has been collaborating with the Universities’ Staff in the following departments: Facilities, Transportation, Planning, and Civil Engineering.

For more information on the full project team and an elaborated description of the project, please visit huskysustainablestorms.org.

Student Involvement:

The project has had a total of seven students volunteer their time to the project. Each student had specific roles and responsibilities when it came to the design and implementation of the project.

Patrick Green, Master of Urban Planning and Master of Public Affairs Candidate
Project Manager for Planning and Outreach – Reporting Liasion
Patrick manages the project’s development and authorization process. He will manage reporting to the various funding organizations, budgeting procedures, navigating City of Seattle permitting process, and negotiating.

Stefanie Young, Master of Urban Planning Candidate
Project Manager for Construction and Implementation
Stefanie manages the project’s design development. She possesses a bachelors of architecture and professional experience in architectural project design and development. She has professional served several architectural firms in Seattle.

Matt McNair, Master of Civil and Environmental Engineering Candidate
Project Civil Engineer
Matt is working towards a Masters in Civil Engineering. His educational and professional background in civil engineering has been instrumental in researching stormwater treatment designs. Through the feasibility study, Matt will continue the site selection process as well as work closely with the UW engineering staff in researching the correct design codes for a stormwater facility.

Erica Bush, Master of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture Candidate
Project Landscape Architect
Erica is a current student in Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning. She brings her experience in design and planning to the projects landscape development. Erica will work closely with Matt and Stefanie in developing plant and soil designs that maximize the effectiveness of green infrastructure and water treatment.

Sunni Wissmer, Undergraduate in Community, Environment, and Planning Program
Public Outreach Coordinator
Sunni is an undergraduate at UW who already has experience in developing and implementing rain gardens. She will be assisting all members with their outreach work to student groups and local organizations. 

Kristen Gelino, Master of Urban Planning Candidate
Procurement Coordinator
Kristen is working toward a Masters of Urban Planning with a specialization in environmental planning. She possesses a bachelors degree from the University of Michigan in environmental science and political science and has participated in research projects in wetland ecosystems. She is helping round out the final phases of the project, especially in respects to procurement.

Michele Hill, Master of Urban Planning Candidate
CAD Specialist
Michele has a bachelors of Architecture and is currently pursuing her Master of Urban Planning. In the last phases of Design submittal, she is helping red-line all documents and help with the procurement of plants and materials.

Education & Outreach:

Due to its location, the bioswale will be served by most students and visitors to campus. A light rail station will be in constructed and in use by the year 2016, making the entryway where the bioswale is located a main entrance into the University of Washington.

Visitors at our chosen site have been documented at about 200 per hour, that number being a mean of 5 selected time periods during which visitors to the site were documented. This number includes both night and day visitors, bringing the annual estimate of visitors to 1,753,162.

The bioswale is already generating interest from several departments on campus who would like to use it for educational purposes, including but not excluded to: The College of Built Environments, The College of Engineering, and The College of Arts and Sciences. It is also going to be featured in campus tours, and will be highlighted in the Office of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability’s campus sustainability map. HSS is also currently in discussion with a number of high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools interested in visiting and learning more about the bioswale.

Husky Sustainable Storms has already developed and performed a seminar series. In this series, we explored the process of developing a small infrastructure from design through construction. The PowerPoints and talking points are available through our public website.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Currently the site is turf and impervious paving. With the construction of the bioswale, we will be increasing the amount of native plants on site and decreasing the amount of impervious surface. Moreover, we will be improving stormwater management and cleaning pollutant runoffs from the adjacent parking lots for the Burke Museum. In total, we are enhancing the current conditions when it comes to natural features, water, soil, and vegetation management.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The project design facilitates easy access to drains before and after the biofiltration system. This is two fold: (1) Access for maintenance to clean the drains and (2) Accessibility for testing the water quality coming in and out of the system.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $4,500
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Personell Type Hourly Rates Projected Time (hrs)COST
Concrete $50.00 150 $7,500.00
Landscaping $55.00 10 $550.00
Irrigation Removal/Installation $58.00 50 $2,900.00
Excavation/Grading $75.00 100 $7,500.00
TOTALS $18,450.00
Special Jobs Price per unit Projected Number of Units
Excavator - Grading (C.Y.) $80.00 250 $20,000.00
Export Material (C.Y) $9.00 250 $2,250.00
Concrete Cutting (L.F.) $4.50 40 $180.00
Irrigation Removal (L.F.) $38.00 250 $9,500.00
TOTALS $31,930.00
Material** :Price per unit*** Projected Number of Units
Plain Concrete - Per SF $8.00 540 $4,320.00
Gravel - Per SF $3.00 700 $2,100.00
Soil - CY $38.00 100 $3,800.00
Drainage Pipe - Per LF $12.00 313 $3,756.00
Type 30 Connections $75.00 3 $225.00

Non-CSF Sources:

Source/DescriptionAmount RequestedDate RequestedDate Received
EPA Rainworks Grant (Applied, Awarded in April)$15,00012.12.2012TBD
Huitt-Zollars – In kind services$15,0003.1.2012Working with Huitt-Zollars throughout the design phase.
Project Completion Total: $87,053

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Finalize CD Drawings1 month (Jan)$0
Side Sewer Permit1 day (Jan)$815
Materials2 months (Feb-March)$21,359
Construction (including 20% contingency)2 months (April-May)$64,888.80

Pipeline Project K-12 Education for Sustainability Student Outreach Coordinators

Executive Summary:

The K-12 Education for Sustainability Student Outreach Coordinators will be based in the UW Pipeline Project office in the Center for Experiential Learning and Diversity.   The Coordinators’ primary project goals will be to diversity and increase the overall number of students and community partners engaged in K-12 environmental education and ensure continued and expanded opportunities for UW students to promote sustainability through K-12 outreach and education.

The total proposed cost of the Student Outreach Coordinators is $4,050.  This includes funding for: 1) one hourly undergraduate student at $11 per hour for 10 hours/week during Winter 2013 (10 weeks) and 5 hours/week for Spring 2013 (10 weeks) and 2) one hourly graduate students at $15 per hour for 8 hours/week during Winter 2013 and Spring 2013 for a total of 20 weeks.

This project addresses the importance of raising the public’s awareness and environmental ethic to achieve optimum environmental impact through inclusive, high quality K-12 environmental education efforts.  By diversifying, strengthening and expanding K-12 environmental education opportunities, this project will develop the environmental ethic of both a diverse population of UW students and K-12 students.

Pipeline’s Environmental Alternative Spring Break (EASB) program began in 2006 with 4 undergraduate students and one school partner, the Quileute Tribal School in La Push, WA.  In 2009, a Mary Gates Leadership Scholarship recipient worked with Pipeline staff to add one additional school partner, Brewster Elementary in Brewster, WA, so 10 undergraduate students now participate in EASB annually.  There is growing interest to develop more school partnerships since the program has to turn away many interested applicants each year since the demand exceeds the number of participant spots available.  The EASB program has historically been heavily administered by Pipeline Project staff and could greatly benefit from a self-sustaining student-led model to increase the capacity of the Pipeline project to not only ensure the sustainability of this program for future students but also to spur innovation and expansion.

Metrics analyzed for over the last 6 years reveal that since 2006, the Pipeline Project’s K-12 environmental and sustainability education service-learning seminars have enrolled 126 students who have served in 15 different K-12 schools or community organizations.  Due to increased enrollment in this service-learning seminar, it will be important to cultivate new community partnerships with a K-12 environmental education focus.  While no formal quantitative analysis has been administered concerning student demographics, observations and informal discussion demonstrate that Pipeline’s environmental education initiatives largely attract white and more affluent student populations, a pattern that is reflective of the larger environmental movement in the United States.

If we do not receive funds from CSF through this grant, we will be able to sustain our current programming efforts and relationships with community partners, but we will not be able to create new partnerships, nor increase our outreach to students or develop new strategies to increase the diversity of UW students engaged in K-12 education for sustainability efforts.  In addition, CSF funding will ensure the long term sustainability of the Environmental ASB program as attention will be given to document and develop the infrastructure for a self-sustaining student leadership program model.

The Pipeline Project’s website can be found at http://expd.uw.edu/pipeline.  The Pipeline Project is led by Director Christine Stickler and Associate Director Francesca Lo.  Four returning Environmental Alternative Spring Break (EASB 2013) undergraduate participants – Mariah Doll, Jessie Huang, Laura Pfeifer, and Max Sugarman – are currently serving as Team Leaders for EASB 2013.  Samanatha Dolan, a graduate student, is currently facilitating the Winter 2013 K-12 Education for Sustainability service-learning seminar.  

Student Involvement:

Funding this project will allow us to focus energies towards expanding, strengthening and diversifying the Pipeline Project’s K-12 education for sustainability programs by funding the salaries of two student staff positions.  Specifically, CSF funding would support one undergraduate student to coordinator the 2013 Environmental Alternative Spring Break (EASB) program while laying the foundation for program expansion and developing a self-sustaining student leadership program model.  Funding will also support one graduate student to instruct K-12 education for sustainability service-learning seminar during Winter 2013 and Spring 2013 and expand partnerships with K-12 classrooms and community organizations with an environmental education focus.  A major area of focus for these two student positions will be to increase the diversity of UW students who participate in these K-12 education for sustainability experiences through developing new recruitment channels and rethinking the seminar curriculum to focus on multicultural environmental education.

By funding these two student staff positions, they will increase the diversity of and expand the number of UW students engaged in K-12 education for sustainability efforts.  In the 2011-2012 academic year, 44 students engaged in K-12 environmental and sustainability education service opportunities.  In the 2012-2013 academic year, we seek to involve 55 UW students, and in the 2013-2014 academic year, we week to involve 65 UW students.  Students enrolled in Pipeline’s Education for Sustainability seminar will participate in a variety of K-12 sustainability education activities with local K-12 classrooms and community organizations.  They will complete 20-40 service hours over the course of the quarter, which equals roughly 3-5 hours of service per week.  Their service hours will be spend meeting needs articulated by K-12 classroom teachers and community organizations, such as leading K-5 classroom field trips to the Burke Museum, facilitating hands-on activities with K-5 students in an urban school garden, leading activities to develop empathy and care for the natural world, and leading K-8 youth in a lunchroom waste reduction project.  Students will link this work with academic concepts and research explored in the course seminar.

Students participating in the Environmental Alternative Spring Break program will spend the winter quarter designing an inquiry-based environmental science curriculum, which they will facilitate in K-8 classrooms in Washington State during spring break.  Students will also develop their youth work skills and learn best practices in environmental and sustainability education by serving 3-5 hours/week (20-40 hours over the Winter quarter) in a Seattle-based K-12 classroom or community organization with an environmental education focus.

Funding from the Campus Sustainability Fund will therefore not just fund two student staff positions, but many small projects that will leave an impact both on the UW students involved and on the K-12 students and communities these students serve.   These student-led K-12 education opportunities serve a critical role in cultivating an aware and engaged community that is knowledgeable about environmental issues, cares deeply about the state of our ecological systems, and have the skills and attitudes to impact personal and policy level changes that impact our earth. 

Education & Outreach:

The Pipeline Project will publicize K-12 environmental and sustainability opportunities through a variety of strategic channels.  We will continue our usual practice of advertising these opportunities through academic advisors and faculty in related departments, including the College of the Environment, College of Education, and Community and Environmental Planning.  We will also continue to publicize these opportunities through making announcements in specific classes, through utilizing social media networking, and through Registered Student Organizations, including SEED, Earth Club and UW Farm.  We will develop new marketing and recruitment strategies to reach and attract a more diverse student population.

Our specific outreach and education goals are as follows:

Goal 1.  Improve campus outreach and recruitment efforts to attract a more diverse student population.  Given the interdisciplinary nature of environmental sustainability issues, we aim to expand our recruitment efforts beyond the academic disciplines and RSOs with an explicit environmental focus (e.g. College of the Environment, Community and Environmental Planning, SEED, Earth Club).  We aim to broaden our outreach to other UW departments including the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Diversity, the Ethnic Cultural Center, MESA (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement), in addition to a wide variety of registered student organizations.

Goal 2.  Sustain and develop new partnerships with campus and community organizations and K-12 classrooms that focus on environmental and sustainability education.   While the Pipeline Project has developed a robust set of partnerships with 15+campus and community organizations and K-12 classrooms, we recognize this is the tip of the iceberg in the K-12 environmental and sustainability education field.  We plan to use Winter and Spring quarter to identify new campus and community organizations and K-12 classroom teachers with a strong interest in environmental and sustainability education who are interested in developing a partnership with the Pipeline Project that can be sustained by Pipeline staff in future years.  

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Waste
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

This project addresses the problem of finding a way to connect the University of Washington’s commitment to sustainability to actual environmental impact through environmental education.  We believe that for sustainability efforts to have a strong environmental impact, the public’s awareness and environmental ethic need to be raised.  We believe that education is a powerful mechanism to inspire one’s interest and care for the environment.  By engaging diverse UW students in K-12 environmental education opportunities, UW students are mitigating this problem by not only increasing their own awareness of environmental issues which will compel their individual action on these issues, but they are also making a strong environmental impact by cultivating an environmental awareness and ethic amongst K-12 students in the broader community.  Thus, the outcome is a ripple effect of environmental education where UW students and K-12 students will influence their own friends, families and communities towards environmental sustainable behaviors.  Moreover, by focusing our efforts on diversifying the population of who is involved and passionate about environmental education, we will broaden the impact of individual environmental actions.  Qualitative data analysis of Pipeline’s K-12 environmental education opportunities demonstrate that a large majority of students leave with either a new or renewed interest in pursuing a career in K-12 environmental and sustainability education or a commitment to incorporate environmental education in their future engagements, whether that be as a formal K-12 classroom teacher, a volunteer activity or in their respective careers.

Specifically, the environmental concepts, issues and practices that UW Pipeline Project students address with K-12 students include, but are not limited to, food waste and composting, food justice and urban gardening, conservation and protection of healthy local watersheds, and developing interest and empathy for local ecosystems.  UW students engage K-12 students in these concepts and practices through direct outreach with K-12 school and organizational partnerships that have been specifically developed for their interest in and commitment to environmental sustainability through education.

To address the problem of the lack of diversity of those involved in sustainability initiatives, we will broaden our recruitment and marketing channels in addition to rethinking how we frame the environmental education field.  We believe that a challenge faced by the broader environmental movement in the United States is that its message and constituency has been based on white, upper/middle class norms and perspectives (Taylor, 2009).  For example, environmental justice issues that disproportionately affect low-income and communities of color have not historically been a focus of the traditional environmental movement.  We aim to go beyond the traditional focus of environmental education as primarily ecological to include a social and political dimension in our curriculum.  We hope to focus our curriculum on multicultural environmental education that emerges the environmental justice social movement with three education fields – environmental education, multicultural education and critical pedagogy (Running Grass, 1996).  By doing so, we hope to broaden the notion of what the environment has traditionally been associated with (wilderness in the distance) to that of everywhere we work, live and play.  Conceptually, this broadening of perspectives will engage the interests of a more diverse population of UW students, thus resulting in sustainability efforts that involve more diverse communities in the long run. 

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Impact will be directly measured by the number of UW students engaged in the Pipeline Project’s K-12 environmental and sustainability initiatives, the number of K-12 students reached, the number of service hours students complete in their K-12 classrooms or community organizations, the number of school and community partnerships sustained and developed, and the changes in demographic data of students engaged in these initiatives.  The Pipeline Project, in partnership with K-12 schools and community organizations, will endeavor to assess the change in attitude regarding environmental ethics and the change in understanding of environmental concepts and practices. In Pipeline’s EASB program, we currently obtain feedback classroom teachers and administer a variety of assessments for comprehension with the K-12 students to improve our curriculum and delivery.  We also collect reflection surveys from UW Pipeline Project students to gauge learning from their participation.  We will continue to use these methods and to create new methods that will specifically address the impact and value of K-12 environmental and sustainability education.  

Total amount requested from the CSF: $4,050
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost/ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Equipment & Construction
Publicity & Communications
Personnel & Wages
Undergraduate staff position$11/hr for 8 hrs/wk for Winter 201311100
Undergraduate staff position$11/hr for 5 hrs/wk for Spring 20131550
Graduate staff position($15/hr for 8 hrs/wk for Winter and Spring 201312400
General Supplies & Other

Non-CSF Sources:

We will be conducting a fundraising letter writing campaign to EASB participant contacts to raise $1,000 by March 2013.
Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Coordinate EASB 2013, develop student-led model, focus on diversity efforts2 QuartersJun-13
Facilitate Education for Sustainability Pipeline seminar, build community partnerships, focus on diversity efforts2 QuartersJun-13

Project Approval Forms:

Real Food Calculator Food Procurement Assessment

Executive Summary:

The UW Real Food Challenge (RFC) is a registered student organization (RSO) seeking the involvement of the University community to increase the volume of locally and responsibly sourced foods available for sale in campus dining and retail facilities. The Real Food Challenge is also the name of national organization that is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit. The University of Washington student group is a concordant body of this organization.

To effectively bring about change in the campus food system and to recognize where each university stands in regards to how much “real food” (ecologically-sound, locally based, fair, and humane food) it provides to its consumers, the Real Food Challenge has developed a web application called the Real Food Calculator. Universities and businesses may use this utility to gauge the percentage of real food they procure.

The students of RFC at UW are using the Calculator utility this academic quarter to assess the amount of real food that HFS purchased during the months of January and February 2013. This amount will be quantified as a percentage of the annual food procurement budget. We are requesting a grant of $3000 to fund future Calculator work after the completion of the spring project. To be explicit, this grant would support the Calculator project of 2014, ensuring its endurance as an annual assessment. The Calculator is an entirely student-driven project that relies on the support of HFS Vending Manager Micheal Meyering. Extensive outreach and educational efforts are required to engage the student population in the immediate campus food system, and we believe this grant and responsible spending will allow us to have a larger presence and impact on campus.

Using the results of the Calculator audit we are conducting this spring, we can provide an analysis of where UW stands in the greater national food system. If our Calculating work is continued as an annual institutional assessment, the progress reflected in the results can be charted and used by the University not only to improve its own food procurement standard, but the national standard as well. We intend to formalize the results of the Calculator and use them to propose the Campus Commitment. The commitment is a food sustainability policy that commits institutions of higher education to an increase in real food procurement.

*We would like to make a comment about the budget break-down in the subsequent section. The needs of promoting the project and food sustainability activism over the course of the next academic year are to be determined. The enclosed budget assumes a default "Quantity" of 1 for every "Item" for which we anticipate our funds to be used.

Student Involvement:

The Real Food Calculator audit involves students in many ways. The first is the most direct. The students will be working together on the Calculator with a member of the dining staff. This means that most of the individual product research is done by the students. This spring, we will have five students completing the audit project. As a minimum goal, we intend to double the number of student participants in this project that will be completed in the spring of 2014. The dining staff member assists in the assessment process by obtaining the product financial information we need, and to advise on and clarify data.

The next ways that students are involved in the Calculator is assisting in how the results can be effectively used. Students will be involved in raising awareness and sharing the results of the Calculator with other students and faculty on campus. This is a huge undertaking, but is necessary to make the Calculator audit worthwhile. The audit will be worthwhile when the results of the calculator educate the UW community and inspire involvement to promote a more just food system on the UW campus.

Having the Calculator finished also creates a baseline for future student involvement. Because we will have the data regarding our current level of real food, we will then have a strong base to grow and improve upon. The Calculator results will guide students to be involved in researching alternative real food options to be brought onto campus. After this research there is additional involvement in campaigning to get the food product brought to campus. The Calculator project requires a huge amount of student commitment and involvement. From the first step of starting and running the Calculator, and then following through and implementing change, students are the drivers behind this entire project.

Education & Outreach:

Real Food Challenge as a national organization holds education as a high priority and key aspect to our overall mission. Many people in our society have not been exposed to where their food comes from and how it is produced. This is a result of how complex our food system has become and the intentional non-transparency of agribusinesses that prefer not to have their practices made public knowledge. The result has been a knowledge gap between the consumer and the producer, which can lead to the consumer making decisions that could negatively affect their own health and that of the environment. The consumer has the power to make this choice, but they should at least understand the possible consequences. Real Food Challenge strives to help close that knowledge gap and help consumers make educated decisions.

Along with educating student body and staff and faculty about general food systems, we will highlight how UW fits into the national food system. And using the results of the Real Food Calculator Audit we will paint a picture of the impact UW has on the national food system through its choices in sourcing food. This way students and faculty can be educated about the overall impact of food systems in the US, and also the food system they support through their university.

Our intention is to share the results of the current Calculator assessment and educate students about the results in the fall of 2013. This will take place in the form of recruitment, tabling, public education events such as lectures and movie screenings, and various other ways in which to help stimulate discussion about university food procurement. This outreach has multiple goals. Education is the first step and very crucial. If as a club we were able to simply help bring awareness across campus regarding food system issues, we would feel very accomplished. The next goal of this outreach is to inspire students to be active in influencing the food sourcing at their own university. This can range from simply signing a petition to bring a new product to campus, or even become an RFC member and strive toward work with other students, Housing and Food Services, faculty members and administrators. We would not be able to bring about this education of the immediate food system at UW without the results of this project. The audit provides the data we need to educate effectively, exploring the progress of UW compared to other schools that are running Calculator assessments. Annual audit projects will allow us to understand the level of progress our school is making as its real food percentage changes from year to year.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Transparency in the food processing industry is poor and leads to a deficiency in the public awareness of which substances our foods actually contain. The Calculator assessment project may not directly influence campus energy consumption, water usage, carbon emissions, or other common examples of "green" metrics, but it affects food provider practices in the long-run. Intrinsically, the Calculator is designed as an evaluation tool to bring about change at the administrative level of universities via policy and implementation. The impact of changing food purchasing practices would be reflected over a long range of time through the economics of local, state and national food systems and the business models of food producers in our region.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Amongst institutions nationwide, university food service is a $5 billion industry (annual basis), which represents an enormous degree of purchasing power. Colleges and universities therefore have the potential to divert a sizeable amount of money from a system of conventional food manufacturing to a system that holds to principles founded upon growing, transporting and acquiring food in a more sustainable, ethical and humane way. The environmental impact of long-term sustainable food procurement efforts is quantified by the portion of the University of Washington annual food budget (which is now larger than $10 million) that is spent on foods adhering to "ecologically sound" criterion. The criteria pertaining to energy and biodiversity in the environment are defined under this category in the rigorous standard provided by the Real Food Calculator. Because the Calculator is a tool that allows for tracking institutional purchasing over time, the trend exhibited by this percentage changing from year to year will be one of the most meaningful indicators characterizing and validating the impact of our work.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $3,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Leadership, Skill-development Workshops10001
Publicity and Communications5001
Travel Scholarships7501
Product Research and Farm Visits2501
Days of Action5001

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $3,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Prepare and connect with regional support4-6 hours
Baseline Survey and Assessment Plan2-4 hours
Student Training 1 hour
Data Acquisition and Calculation80-160 hours (8+ weeks)
Results and Analysis1-2 weeks
Presentation and Report Writing1-2 weeks
(Total Project Length)(100-200 hours)

Project Approval Forms:

Husky Sustainable Storms: Bioswale (Phase 1)

Executive Summary:

The purpose of this project is to accomplish the following goals: 

  1. Improve the quality of surface water flowing from the UW campus; 
  2. Advance student engagement in stormwater design, implementation, and education; 
  3. Provide a demonstration for UW engineering and transportation services in addressing stormwater issues. 

In order to accomplish these objectives, HSS has divided them into two phases. Phase One comprises of 

“Feasibility Study” to be conducted in the Winter quarter of 2012. 

Proposed Project (Phase One):

HSS proposes a feasibility study to develop a stormwater design and identify the key bureaucratic paths for implementing a stormwater treatment bioswale. Through this process, HSS will develop several alternatives (three to four) for a bioswale, assessing each alternative’s feasibility in implementation, educational capacity, and cost.

HSS has collaborated with UW staff in Transportation Services, Engineering Services, and Capital Projects Office in identifying sites that improve water quality, are visible to the UW student-body, and advance green infrastructure opportunities on the UW campus. Sites that fulfill this criteria have been identified in and around UW campus parking lots. 

Proposed Project (Phase Two):

Phase Two will fund the implementation and construction of designs outlined in Phase One. HSS plans to finalize the expected construction costs in Phase One, but we anticipate the cost of construction for an improved stormwater facility to be approximately $50,000-$60,000.

This project will improve existing stormwater infrastructure on-campus.

  • Polluted run-off from parking lots can be treated through green infrastructure. We have a preferred site for treating stormwater runoff to the north-end of the main campus. Run-off from the N-5 parking lot (to the east of the main entrance to campus) scored high in a multi-criteria analysis. It is visible to students, presents several design options (as well as cost options), and advances UW’s stormwater treatment plans.
  • Although this site is our preferred site, several additional sites will be considered throughout Phase One.
  • Bio-retention cells and bioswales could provide a visual experience for pedestrians as well as an educational demonstration for students. These water treatment options employ the use of plants and soils to naturally treat stormwater. 
  • The size of the swale and retention cell must be large enough to treat the anticipated stormwater run-off. We anticipate the need to treat 2,500 to 5,000 square-feet of parking lot run-off. If a swale were the best option (cost-effective and best treatment option) then it would be 200ft to 400ft long.
  • We will locate the project in close proximity to existing stormwater infrastructure. Existing underdrains, inlets, and stormwater pipes will reduce the cost of the project significantly. 

Need for Feasibility Funding:

HSS needs feasibility funding in order to complete site selection, project design, project size, and budget. Throughout the time of feasibility funding, HSS will research ways to reduce costs.

If HSS were not to receive feasibility funding, members would continue with the project design and propose a project design in the Winter cycle of the CSF grant. This would significantly lower the possibility of constructing a stormwater project since members would lack the capital needed to collaborate with UW staff through the design process.

Student Involvement:

The project features five core staff.

  • Patrick Green, MUP-MPA (Project Manager for Planning and Outreach – Reporting Liaison)
    Patrick manages the project’s development and authorization process. He will manage reporting to the CSF, budgeting procedures, navigating City of Seattle permitting processes, and negotiating
  • Stefanie Young, MUP (Project Manager for Construction and Implementation)
    Stefanie manages the project’s design development. She possesses a bachelors in architecture and professional experience in architectural project design and development. She has professionally served several architectural firms in Seattle.
  • Matt McNair, CEE (Project Civil Engineer)
    Matt is working towards a Masters in Civil Engineering. His educational and professional background in civil engineering has been instrumental in researching stormwater treatment designs. Through the feasibility study, Matt will continue the site selection process as well as work closely with the UW engineering staff in researching the correct design codes for a stormwater facility.
  • Erica Bush, MUP-MLA (Project Landscape Architect)
    Erica is a current student in Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning. She brings a her experience in design and planning to the projects landscape development. Erica will work closely with Matt and Stefanie in developing plant and soil designs that maximize the effectiveness of green infrastructure and water treatment.
  • Sunni Wissmer, Undergraduate (Project Outreach Coordinator)
    Sunni is an undergraduate at UW who already has experience in developing and implementing rain gardens. She will be assisting all members with their outreach work to student groups and local organizations.

All members will collaborate with each other on their tasks. They will meet 4-6 hours per week. HSS membership has developed a studio course with Jan Whittington, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning, College of Built Environments to be completed in the Winter Quarter of 2012. This course, a studio course earning 5 credits/units, will focus on implementing Phase One of this project. Studio courses pair students with professional projects so they may gain professional experience. It will provide a space for students to meet and collaborate on implementing Phase One and preparing for Phase Two.

Participation with UW staff and off-campus professionals will occur in Phase One. Prior to submitting this grant, UW staff members in Engineering Services, Landscape Architecture, and Transportation Services offered to meet with students regularly throughout Winter Quarter. Their commitment to this project advances the University’s commitment to green infrastructure and stormwater treatment.

Phase Two will create additional student volunteer positions. Positions will be developed in implementing the lecture series/workshops. We anticipate that 3-5 students will be needed for these series. Additionally, we anticipate that volunteers can assist in planting the bioswale. 10-15 students could be needed for this work.

Beyond Phase Two, we anticipate that this project will provide an opportunity for students to maintain and steward green infrastructure. In the coming years, the bioswale could be maintained by students interested in green design and environmental protection. Not only would these opportunities advance the education of students, but they could reduce the operations costs for the University. Volunteer positions such as these could be offered in perpetuity.

Education & Outreach:

Phase One Outreach Methods:

  • Website
  • Facebook
  • Advertise to UW paper and UW website
  • Advertise project to professional councils in the School of Built Environments, Engineering, and water-related programs at the UW.
  • Conduct a Workshop/Seminar on Infrastructure projects for 30 students: This workshop would articulate the opportunities and process for implementing infrastructure on-campus. It would be tailored for University students interested in applying for the CSF grant.
  • Meet with five student groups to consult on navigating University policies regarding environmental infrastructure and programs. Possible groups include the Boating Center, SEED, and the UW Water Seminar. In this process, we anticipate expanding our outreach to 25-30 student-leaders.

Phase One Outreach Goals:

Work Up to 325 Hours of Staff Time:

HSS launched a new level of collaboration between students of the built environment. As a project with legal and regulatory implications for the University of Washington, student involvement of the five HSS members will be intensive and focused. 

  • 180 to 270 hours of student time: 6 to 8 hours per week for nine weeks in the winter quarter
  • 20 hours of faculty time
  • 32 hours of UW staff time

All hours will be catalogued in an excel sheet

Engage Up to 30 Student-Leaders:

Conduct a Workshop/Seminar on Infrastructure projects for 30 students. Through this project, we hope to leverage support and interest in water quality improvements among students on-campus.

In Phase One we have goals to reach 25 to 30 students involved in environmental organizations on-campus. We hope to consult with students interested in navigating University of Washington policies regarding green infrastructure and environmental policies. We hope to tailor these conversations to water quality. Example organizations include SEED, Blue Drinks, the Sailing Club, and the Water Seminar.

Receive Over 250 Web Visits:

We will advertise our web presence and monitor our website and facebook visits. Our website will be advertised to local government, businesses, and non-profit organizations. Example organizations include Friends of the Cedar River Watershed, People for Puget Sound, the Tacoma Water Center, and the Puget Sound Partnership. All organizations will be catalogued.

Engage Up to 50 Students in a Workshop:

We will strive to advertise our Winter Quarter workshop to various organizations on-campus, and prepare for 50 students to attend the workshop. We hope to video tape this workshop and host the footage on our website. Additionally, this workshop could be turned into a podcast and distributed through online media.

In Phase Two we hope to expand these workshops. We anticipate hosting 5-6 workshops through the Spring Quarter. These will feature a lecture series with student, faculty, and professional presentations on stormwater management and their contributions to climate change. At the culmination of these workshops, we wish to hold a charrette for the student community about green infrastructure design and water quality improvements. From these workshops and charrette, we plan to present our results to UW staff working in stormwater treatment and campus planning.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

All UW stormwater flows directly into Portage Bay, adversely impacting local ecology, public health, and the climate. Stormwater runoff carries harmful nutrients, pesticides, oils, and metals into our local waters. It devastates local wildlife, including migrating anadromous fish and native plant species. As the quality of local ecology diminishes, so does its ability to process chemical compounds, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Eventually, the breakdown of this capacity decreases the rate at which carbon is absorbed by aquatic plants. It even increases the methane released by harmful bacteria and algae.

Now is a critical time for UW to invest in green infrastructure methods of stormwater treatment. Specifically, NPDES permits will increase in severity and influence, further restricting the harmful pollutants that UW is allowed to convey to local waters. As a result, the University will be forced to upgrade its stormwater treatment. From interviews with UW staff, HSS has learned that parking lots are a portion of University property that harms water quality. If UW is considering water quality treatment approaches, then now is a critical time to advance green infrastructure alternatives.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Urbanization has drastically altered stormwater hydrology and composition resulting in documented negative ecological impacts. The increase of impervious surfaces in the built environment has increased both 1) the volume and velocity of stormwater and 2) deposition rate of pollutants. The remediation of both of these impacts by the design is quantifiable.

  1. The design will remediate a measurable volume of stormwater that currently enters existing stormwater infrastructure. The gallons of water treated by the system per year will be quantified.
  2. The common pollutants found in urban stormwater runoff are quantifiable and well known; the table below shows the national average concentration of common pollutants. 

Table A: National Median Concentration for Chemical Constituents in Stormwater

Constituent Units Urban Runoff
TSS mg/1 54.5 (Smullen and Cave, 1998)
TP mg/1 0.26 (Smullen and Cave, 1998)
TN mg/1 2.00 (Smullen and Cave, 1998)
Cu mg/1 11.1 (Smullen and Cave, 1998)
Pb mg/1 50.7 (Smullen and Cave, 1998)
Zn mg/1 129 (Smullen and Cave, 1998)
F Coli mg/1 1.5 (Schueler, 1999) 

 

The design can be expected to remediate all of these pollutants in addition to organic chemicals such as oil, gasoline, and pesticides. The mass of Sediment, Phosphorous, Nitrogen, and Metals treated by the system per year will be quantified. 

The design will incorporate an under drain which empties treated water from the system, as well as an attached overflow drain/access hatch. The access hatch will allow the sampling of effluent (treated) water in order to document pollutant concentration reductions. The design can be expected to have the following removal efficiencies outline in Table B.

Table B: Typical Pollutant Removal Rates of Bioretention Systems

Pollutant Pollutant Removal (%)
TSS 81
TP 29
TN 49
NOx 38
Metals 51-71
Bacteria -58

The access hatch will additionally allow the implementation of a flow meter. The flow meter quantifies the volume of water exiting the system.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $9,220
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Equipment and Construction: TBD in Phase One
Publicity and Communication:
Website$1001$100
Advertising for Outreach$1001$100
Personnel and Wages
Students$0325 hours$0
Professional Engineer Advisors to this project quoted $6000 as a standard price for stamping a project for approval, but we hope to negotiate the price or have this work completed in-kind)$60001$6000
U.W. Engineer$95 per hour8 hours$760
U.W. Landscape Architect $0 per hour8 hours$0
Unanticipated UW staff time $95 per hour8 hours$760
Unanticipated Professional Consultations$100 per hour12 hours$1200
General Supplies and Other
Printing$3001$300
CSF Grand Total:$9,220

Non-CSF Sources:

Source/DescriptionAmount Requested Date Requested Date Received
U.S Environmental Protection Agency: 9th annual P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing People, Prosperity, and the Planet. Three part grant to build comprehensive student participation in the categories of Built Environment, Water, and Infrastructure. $15,000 - $90,000 (2 years) Final Due Date December 22, 2011 May, 2012 (If received)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Governor’s Institute for Community Design. Focuses on outreach and education. Submitting for Request for Proposals Letter of Intent. Potential grant range $325,000 (minimum) to $2 million (maximum) Final Due Date December 5, 2011 April 2012 (If received)
State of Washington Water Research Center: This grant funds research of junior investigators of in engineering and scientific research. While CSF does not fund research, this grant could contribute to the educational opportunities of students as well as future maintenance costs of the project. State of Washington Water Research Center: This grant funds research of junior investigators of in engineering and scientific research. While CSF does not fund research, this grant could contribute to the educational opportunities of students as well as future maintenance costs of the project. Final Due Date December 12, 2011 March 2012 (as a government grant dependent on funds from Congress, the specific date of awards is unclear) (If received)
Project Completion Total: $9,220

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Identify a need for water quality improvements on the UW campus: Consider the UW Comprehensive Plan, UW Climate Action Plan, and interviews with campus staff (Capital Projects, Engineering Services, Office of Environmental Health and Safety, Transportation Services)June-August 2011Continual process
Initiate Site Selection: Initiate multi-criteria analysis of sites that would 1)improve the quality of water runoff; 2) educate the student-body regarding water quality issues and green infrastructure; 3) offer cost-effective alternative to stormwater designJune-August 2011Continual process
Begin Authorization Request: According to potential sites, identify authorizers pertinent to potential sites. June-August 2011Continual process
Identify Stormwater Designs: Identify cost-efficient stormwater treatment designs and research codes and permits necessary for each designSeptember-November 2011Continual process
Begin strategizing student outreach: Identify resources and facilities that would disseminate information regarding the project and the environmental values it plans to achieve.September-November 2011Continual process
Finalize Sponsors: continue site selection process parallel to sponsorship requestSeptember-November 2011Continual process
Work with professional engineer: : Identify specific permits, design codes. Collaborate with UW engineering staff and a licensed, professional engineer to ensure approval of the designJanuary 3- March 9 2012CSF Winter Quarter Deadline
Designing the bioswale: Landscape, engineering, architectural design, construction documentsJanuary 3- March 9 2012CSF Winter Quarter Deadline
Identify other potential authorizers associated with design specificsJanuary 3- March 9 2012CSF Winter Quarter Deadline

Project Approval Forms:

Husky Sustainable Storms: Bioswale (Phase 2)

Executive Summary:

HSS requests funding to construct a stormwater bioswale on the University of Washington campus. This project accomplishes the following goals: 

  1. Improve the quality of surface water flowing from the UW campus; 
  2. Advance student engagement in stormwater design, implementation, and education; 
  3. Provide a demonstration for UW engineering and transportation services in addressing stormwater issues. 

Husky Sustainable Storms (HSS) requested $9,220 in the first round of CSF funding for 2012 to implement a feasibility study for a bioswale that remediates stormwater from a UW parking lot. HSS developed four alternatives for a bioswale, assessing each alternative’s feasibility in implementation, educational capacity, and cost. Phase One is scheduled for completion in mid-April 2012. 

HSS requests further funding to implement Phase Two of this project, which is the construction of the bioswale. 

Proposed Project (Phase Two):

Phase Two funds the implementation and construction of designs outlined in Phase One. As of April 2nd, 2012 the design review process of this project is still underway. Specifically, the four alternative designs developed by HSS are being reviewed by a committee of stakeholders, including Kristine Kenney (UW Landscape Architect), Howard Nakase (UW Grounds Shop), Jim Morin (UW Engineering Services), Peter Dewey (UW Transportation Services). This team advises HSS on aesthetic, engineering, and construction feasibility and assists in obtaining approval of the design.

Because the design review is currently taking place, HSS cannot propose a total cost of the project. In contrast, HSS proposes a cost limit that guides its design development process.

Student Involvement:

The project features five core staff.

  • Patrick Green, MUP-MPA (Project Manager for Planning and Outreach – Reporting Liaison)
    Patrick manages the project’s development and authorization process. He will manage reporting to the CSF, budgeting procedures, navigating City of Seattle permitting processes, and negotiating
  • Stefanie Young, MUP (Project Manager for Construction and Implementation)
    Stefanie manages the project’s design development. She possesses a bachelors in architecture and professional experience in architectural project design and development. She has professionally served several architectural firms in Seattle.
  • Matt McNair, CEE (Project Civil Engineer)
    Matt is working towards a Masters in Civil Engineering. His educational and professional background in civil engineering has been instrumental in researching stormwater treatment designs. Through the feasibility study, Matt will continue the site selection process as well as work closely with the UW engineering staff in researching the correct design codes for a stormwater facility.
  • Erica Bush, MUP-MLA (Project Landscape Architect)
    Erica is a current student in Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning. She brings a her experience in design and planning to the projects landscape development. Erica will work closely with Matt and Stefanie in developing plant and soil designs that maximize the effectiveness of green infrastructure and water treatment.
  • Sunni Wissmer, Undergraduate (Project Outreach Coordinator)
    Sunni is an undergraduate at UW who already has experience in developing and implementing rain gardens. She will be assisting all members with their outreach work to student groups and local organizations.

All members collaborate with each other on their tasks. They will meet 4-6 hours per week. Beyond group meetings, members work individually up to 6 hours per week.

Participation with UW staff and off-campus professionals will continue in Phase Two.

Upon construction, the project will need volunteers to install plants in the bioswale. We anticipate needing 15 to 30 student volunteers for two to three days.

Education & Outreach:

Five seminars will be conducted in the Spring quarter through College of Built Environments. Seminars will focus on components of the project, including stormwater engineering design, bureaucratic navigation, design, and a community charette about stormwater on-campus. 

Engage 150 students in stormwater education through classroom visits and individual consultation. 

Continue operating and updating website and Facebook page. Advertise outreach materials to professionals and students involved in stormwater management issues.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

All UW stormwater flows directly into Portage Bay, adversely impacting local ecology, public health, and the climate. Stormwater runoff carries harmful nutrients, pesticides, oils, and metals into our local waters. It devastates local wildlife, including migrating anadromous fish and native plant species. As the quality of local ecology diminishes, so does its ability to process chemical compounds, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Eventually, the breakdown of this capacity decreases the rate at which carbon is absorbed by aquatic plants. It even increases the methane released by harmful bacteria and algae.

Now is a critical time for UW to invest in green infrastructure methods of stormwater treatment. Specifically, NPDES permits will increase in severity and influence, further restricting the harmful pollutants that UW is allowed to convey to local waters. As a result, the University will be forced to upgrade its stormwater treatment. From interviews with UW staff, HSS has learned that parking lots are a portion of University property that harms water quality. If UW is considering water quality treatment approaches, then now is a critical time to advance green infrastructure alternatives. 

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Urbanization has drastically altered stormwater hydrology and composition resulting in documented negative ecological impacts. The increase of impervious surfaces in the built environment has increased both 1) the volume and velocity of stormwater and 2) deposition rate of pollutants. The remediation of both of these impacts by the design is quantifiable.

  1. The design will remediate a measurable volume of stormwater that currently enters existing stormwater infrastructure. The gallons of water treated by the system per year will be quantified.
  2. The common pollutants found in urban stormwater runoff are quantifiable and well known; the table below shows the national average concentration of common pollutants.

Table A: National Median Concentration for Chemical Constituents in Stormwater

Constituent Units Urban Runoff
TSS mg/1 54.5 (Smullen and Cave, 1998)
TP mg/1 0.26 (Smullen and Cave, 1998)
TN mg/1 2.00 (Smullen and Cave, 1998)
Cu mg/1 11.1 (Smullen and Cave, 1998)
Pb mg/1 50.7 (Smullen and Cave, 1998)
Zn mg/1 129 (Smullen and Cave, 1998)
F Coli mg/1 1.5 (Schueler, 1999) 

 

The design can be expected to remediate all of these pollutants in addition to organic chemicals such as oil, gasoline, and pesticides. The mass of Sediment, Phosphorous, Nitrogen, and Metals treated by the system per year will be quantified. 

The design will incorporate an under drain which empties treated water from the system, as well as an attached overflow drain/access hatch. The access hatch will allow the sampling of effluent (treated) water in order to document pollutant concentration reductions. The design can be expected to have the following removal efficiencies outline in Table B.

Table B: Typical Pollutant Removal Rates of Bioretention Systems

Pollutant Pollutant Removal (%)
TSS 81
TP 29
TN 49
NOx 38
Metals 51-71
Bacteria -58

The access hatch will additionally allow the implementation of a flow meter. The flow meter quantifies the volume of water exiting the system.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $60,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Equipment and Construction
90% of grant award$45,900$45,900
Overrun is 15% of construction costs$6,885$6,885
Publicity and Communication
5% of grant award$3,607.50$3,607.50
General Supplies and Other
5% of grant award$3,607.50$3,607.50
Winter Quarter Grant Award $9,220 (already received)$9,220
CSF GRAND TOTAL: $69,220

Non-CSF Sources:

Source/DescriptionAmount RequestedDate RequestedDate Received
Swanson’s Nursery$100March 6, 2012March 17, 2012
Project Completion Total: $69,320

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Concept Design (HSS)1 weekApril 3
Design Review (UW-HSS) Contingent on UW Design Committee
Design Development (HSS) 1 week
Schematic Design (HSS) 1 week
Design Review (UW-HSS) Contingent on UW Design Committee
Construction Document Development (90% complete) 2 weeks
Design Review (Landscape Advisory Committee) Contingent on UW Design Committee
Construction Document (100%) 4 days
Final Review (Landscape Advisory Committee)Contingent on UW Design Committee
Construction1 monthLate May or Mid-September

Project Approval Forms:

UW Campus Salvage Wood Program

Executive Summary:

UW Grounds Management and UW Facilities Construction (Facility Services) seeks $43,603.00 to obtain the necessary infrastructure to augment the salvage wood program which creates products from trees that are removed from the campus-wide landscape. By keeping the tree material on campus, money is saved in disposal cost, less energy is used in waste transportation, some of the asset value of the tree is retained by being incorporated into campus projects and the investment made into that tree over time is preserved, especially if the final product becomes a permanent feature on campus.

The University of Washington Seattle campus grounds management staff manages about 10,000 trees. At some point in time these trees will be removed as a result of natural decline or death, due to disease issues, as a preventative measure to avoid potential hazards, or as part of a construction/capital project. Grounds Management is charged with the task of protecting campus assets in the landscape. Campus trees are a significant asset in both actual value and investment over time. In 2008 the total annual benefits provided by tree on campus was valued at $736,385.00 and the total annual cost of those trees were $265,100.00. (Vale, Kava. 2011. University of Washington Seattle Campus Forest Resources Analysis. Master’s Project, University of Washington Botanic Gardens. Seattle Washington.) The net benefit in dollar value is then approximately half a million dollars, in which a portion is lost when a tree in cut up and removed from campus. Facilities Maintenance & Construction seeks to obtain and build infrastructure that increases the capacity and safety for staff to process tree material in ways that protect University assets and investments related to our campus trees. The salvage wood program is a collaborative partnership between Facility Services Grounds Management and Facilities Construction. The processed wood material will be used for student, faculty and administration projects, with opportunities available for the College of built Environments programs and the needs related to CPO& Facilities Construction projects.

As trees are removed from the campus landscape and are incorporated into campus-wide projects, the story of that tree (its narrative) will hopefully become part of the project narrative. Through education and outreach efforts, the perception of trees on campus and urban trees in general will change to reflect the understanding that they have value beyond their time in the ground. Outreach and education through partners in the College of Built Environments, School of Art, Art History, and Design, and the UW Botanical Garden and Arboretum will also create opportunities for telling the story of a tree beyond the day to day campus audience. From conference tables to outdoor structures, wood from campus trees one day could be found all throughout campus each with a story, a story of a tree that grew on campus and still lives there in a tangible way.

Student Involvement:

There are numerous ways that this project will connect with students. The project is currently being facilitated by a graduate student research assistant from the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. This student position, the Integrated Pest Management and Sustainability coordinator for Grounds Management, will develop the educational and outreach components of the program and also be responsible for record keeping, tracking costs, quantities and procedures related to this project. This student will be working with multiple partners (including other students) to facilitate students, staff, and faculty use of wood from the salvage wood program. The salvage wood program has already benefited the UW chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration by providing benches for the Whitman Walk restoration area and the Kinkaid Ravine (planned for 2015). With support from faculty from the College of Build Environments and interests from the School of Art, Art History, and Design, there will be numerous ways to outreach and involve students.

Education & Outreach:

As trees are removed from the campus landscape and are incorporated into campus-wide projects, the story of that tree (its narrative) will hopefully become part of the project narrative. Through education and outreach efforts, the perception of trees on campus and urban trees in general will change to reflect the understanding that they have value beyond their time in the ground. Outreach and education through partners in the College of Built Environments and the UW Botanical Garden and Arboretum will also create opportunities for telling the story of a tree beyond the day to day campus audience. From conference tables to outdoor structures, wood from campus trees one day could be found all throughout campus each with a story, a story of a tree that grew on campus and still lives there in a tangible way.

Grounds Management already features the Salvage Wood program on their website and at outreach events such as the Sustainability Summit in October and Earth Day in April. More attention will be given to this program once the augmented infrastructure and products are available to highlight. Any products created from this project could potentially be branded with the Campus Sustainability Fund logo creating a lasting outreach impact. This project presents a unique opportunity to create a long lasting outreach tool. When deemed appropriate, products from University trees could be branded (literally burned) with CSF logo or a novel brand specifically for this salvage wood program. Interpretive signs would explain the logo brand where the product is in permanent or long term location. Additionally when a tree of significance is scheduled for removal and that tree is a candidate for the salvage wood program, signs will be installed explaining that the tree, while gone from the ground, will live somewhere else on campus in another form.

Environmental Impact:
  • Waste
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

The operation and maintenance of both the mill and solar kiln will be the primary responsibility of Facilities Services (Grounds Management and Facilities Construction). Both groups will share the costs associated with maintenance of both items. The documentation of trees will be primarily an exchange between the campus arborist and the lead carpenter for Facilities Construction. The graduate student appointee for Grounds will be responsible for record keeping, tracking costs, quantities and procedures related to this project and future developments of the salvage wood program.

Environmental Problem:

The University of Washington Seattle campus grounds management staff manages about 10,000 trees. Campus trees are a significant asset in both actual value and investment over time. At some point in time these trees will be removed. Currently, trees that are removed from the campus landscape are either chipped for use on campus or cut up, so it can be disposed of in a green waste container. Any tree material being disposed of in the green waste container represents a cost to the University without any benefit. The costs of this disposal system are both monetary and environmental: the university spends thousands of dollars annually on removal of campus tree material and purchasing lumber for projects. Transportation of these materials to and from Cedar Grove requires the use of fossil fuels and produces carbon emissions.

Facilities Maintenance & Construction seeks to obtain and build infrastructure that increases the capacity and safety for staff to process tree material in ways that protect University assets and investments related to our campus trees. This infrastructure will include a portable wood mill and the design and construction of a solar powered kiln for drying the lumber in order to make it usable for wood working products. A proper wood mill will create a safer working environment for staff than the current chainsaw mill. Also a two person team could process a log more efficiently. Having this machine could be the difference of a tree being sent to Cedar Grove or being kept on campus. The Facilities construction staff are just as constrained for time as most are so processing the logs with a wood mill is the “game changer” that could turn the salvage wood program into a bigger more integrated part of the campus.  The processed wood material will be used for student, faculty and administration projects, with opportunities for the College of built Environments programs and the needs related to CPO & Facilities Construction projects. These requested items compliment already purchased items of a wood chipper and chainsaw mill to process tree material on campus. Still, with both of these items, Grounds Management is sending 50% of the accumulated tree material off campus for disposal. Most of that material is usable wood, even diseased trees can be used if dried properly. The Gerberding Hall elm had succumb to the fatal Dutch elm disease but was used to make a conference table. By keeping the tree material on campus, money is saved in disposal cost, less energy is used in waste transportation, some of the asset value of the tree is retained by being incorporated into campus projects and the investments made into that tree over time is preserved, especially if the final product becomes a permanent feature on campus.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Each tree that is a candidate for the salvage wood program has been tagged. This is our current tree inventory practice, and that tag will follow the usable wood/lumber derived from that tree, up until the final completed product. In that way, an inventory of products is created. We will be able to provide both quantitative (i.e. number of trees salvaged, projects produced) and qualitative data (i.e. species of trees, types of lumber, diversity of projects) about this project. The impacts can also be measured by counting the amount of lumber/wood milled and potentially differences in cost (as a proxy for volume) associated with Cedar Grove hauling of green waste, comparing before and after the implementation of an augmented salvage wood program.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $43,603
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Wood Mizer LT40 Super Hydraulic 35 HP Gasoline Hydraulic Sawmill (baseprice)34,995.00 134,995.00
Mill Additions: Waterproof engine and carriage cover 274.001274.00
Mill Additions: lube mizer system750.00 1750.00
Solar Kiln Materials1000.0011000.00
Solar Kiln Construction:Labor for Facilities Construction staff 80 hours at $68.56 per hour2742.0025484.00
interpretive signs 800.00 800.00
custom wood brand300.00 1300.00

Non-CSF Sources:

SourceAmount (dollars)Comments
Project Completion Total: $43,603

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion DateComments
Purchase of Wood Mizer LT40 Super Hydraulic 35 HP Gasoline Hydraulic Sawmill3-6 monthsSeptember 30 2015
Design and constrution of solar kiln6-12 monthsJanuary 31 2016Any wood cut will need to by air-dried prior to being processed in the kiln. This process can take anywhere from six weeks to 1.5 years depending on the thickness of cut and species of tree.
Operation of sawmillongoingOnce the saw mill is obtained the process of milling the tree into dimensional wood can begin. This is expected to be an ongoing process as existing trees that already in the inventory are milled, new trees are added. Currently the trees in the salvage wood inventory (20) are about 15 feet in length and range from 15-20 inches in diameter. To process the average tree currently in our inventory is estimated to take 2-3 hours with a staff of two.
Drying of woodongoingAny wood cut will need to by air-dried prior to being processed in the kiln. This process can take anywhere from six weeks to 1.5 years depending on the thickness of cut and species of tree. Air drying prior to being put in the solar kiln allows a more even drying process, reduces splitting and results in more wood being utilized.

UW Water Recapture

Executive Summary:

Our project is aimed at wastewater capture and reuse, from the reverse osmosis (R/O) unit in the BB-Wing of the medical sciences building. Through a series of storage tanks and pumps this wastewater will have a second use in the cooling tower located in the same room. Our project will reduce total water consumed in the building by repurposing a waste product as a usable resource.

In the larger picture this project represents a rather modest savings, however, reducing consumption of water lessens the impact on our overall water infrastructure and can be considered an adaptation strategy should the predicted impacts of climate change occur, including but not limited to reduced snow pack and water availability in the Pacific Northwest.

We are requesting $10,521 for this project. We predict this investment could be recouped in as little as 4-8 years. Based on measurements over the last two years this project may save between $1,250-$2,500 per year at the current water rate of $15 per hundred cubic feet (ccf). We hope this project can be a model for potential future projects in buildings with a similar setup. However, due to the structure of the University budgeting system we were not able to propose a loan or attempt to roll the savings into additional projects.

We have been working with Dennis Garberg, maintenance supervisor for the Health Sciences building zone, along with John Leaden, a retired facilities employee, and Michael Flanagan, Analyst for Finance and Business Services at Facilities Services. 

Student Involvement:

In fall 2010, a team of multidisciplinary undergraduate students, led by Alex Chin, discovered this project opportunity while participating in the Environmental Innovation Practicum and took action for further development. The students worked closely with those in the Facilities and Alterations Department who were familiar with the conceived project and the respective units. John Leaden, who has 20+ years working in the Facilities Maintenance Department, provided support for developing a feasible plan along with his strong knowledge and experience with the operations of the two mechanical units of concern.

Since the inception of the project Alex has graduated and passed the project along to Duncan. Duncan was able to retain Nick Wang from the previous group and continue to move the project forward.

All of the volunteering will be nearly completed with a grant from CSF. Due to the nature of the project all of the work must be performed by UW personnel. However, to date there have been many hundreds of person-hours dedicated to this project. These hours were not cataloged directly but they have included touring the facilities, crafting a budget and work plan, and helping to specify the appropriate equipment with the help of facilities services.

The only remaining pieces are to view the finished product and to execute our communication plan. 

Education & Outreach:

If awarded a grant from the CSF to fund our project we would work with various communication channels throughout the University to educate the student body about our project, the role the CSF played in helping this project come to life, and the impact of our project. This includes the UW Daily as well as a couple of departmental newsletters. We would also be happy to provide images and a story for the CSF facebook page or ESS communications.

One of our main educational goals is to shed some light on the inner workings of the UW and show how students are able to have a positive impact. Second we hope that by effectively communicating our project to the student body and educating them about the CSF that more projects will be proposed to the CSF. As the former chair I wish to see the CSF continue to be successful but I also want students to know that not every project has to be a green wall for everyone to see, which is one of the inherent challenges of our project. Because it is in the bowels of the University we will have to work with facilities to get access for pictures to help communicate our story.

Unfortunately, we the students, will not be around beyond this year so ongoing communication of our project at future events such as the Sustainability Summit will not be possible by us. However, as a number of work units at the UW attend these events it may be possible for them to carry on communication of this project into the future. 

Environmental Impact:
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Water is a precious resource, even in the rainy Pacific Northwest, and all of the water that flows through our pipes is potable. This means that every drop used in toilets, sinks, drinking fountains, cooling towers, and reverse osmosis units has been treated to drinking water quality. This treatment process requires vast amounts of energy, and money to maintain the infrastructure and deliver the water. Any waste places an additional burden on these systems but also reduces the amount of water available for any number of purposes.

The University of Washington has taken great steps to reduce water consumption throughout campus by installing low-flow toilets, sinks, and showers. But there are other areas where excessive water is used and consequently wasted. Our project has identified and seeks to resolve one of these problems.

Currently, the Reverse Osmosis (R/O) unit in the BB tower of Magnuson Health Sciences building consumes approximately 300,000 gallons of potable water, annually, to provide the facility’s various purified water needs. However, at optimal conditions only 75-80% of the incoming potable water is usable. Each year approximately 90,000 gallons is discarded as wastewater, also known as reject water. Reject water is clean for industrial purposes but is not fit for human consumption.

In addition to this waste, the buildings cooling tower, which is in the same room as the R/O unit, consumes nearly 100,000 gallons of potable water each year. As a result our project expects to mitigate the consumption of nearly 90,000 gallons of potable water each year. This is enough water to provide for the drinking water needs for nearly 500 people for a whole year, every year.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Currently, water consumption and waste at both the R/O unit and the cooling tower are measured with mechanical meters that are periodically checked by facilities staff. As part of the measurement of impact of our project, facilities services has agreed to install a meter between the storage tank and the cooling tower. Additionally, a solenoid valve will be fitted to the water lines so that the water available in the storage tank is used before any additional city water is used for the cooling tower. This setup does two things:

  1. Ensures available R/O reject water is used first
  2. Allows direct measurement of the total number of gallons of R/O reject water used

With the meter on the R/O reject water line and a meter on the line from the storage tank to the cooling tower we will be able to calculate the percent of R/O reject water consumed by the cooling tower, a measure of system efficiency, as well as total gallons saved, a measure of system effectiveness.

Based on observed meter data we know there is wide variability in both R/O reject water production and cooling tower water consumption. We do know that the cooling tower consumes more water than the R/O unit produces over a given time period. For all but 3 days over the last two years the cooling tower has consumed more water than the R/O unit has produced. In addition we will have over 300 gallons of storage capacity. So we expect our system efficiency to be very high and to mitigate almost all of the 90,000 gallons currently being wasted. 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $10,521
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost/ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Equipment & Construction
275 gallon water storage tank$750.00 1$750.00
30 gallon water collection tank$350.00 1$350.00
Pump$250.00 1$250.00
Pump w/ Direct Drive$250.00 1$250.00
Misc. materials (Plumbing)$750.00 1$750.00
Misc. materials (Controls)$500.00 1$500.00
Publicity & Communications
Labor
Plumbers$100.00 24$2,400.00
Sheet Metal shop$100.00 10$1,000.00
Electricians$100.00 16$1,600.00
Refrigeration specialists$100.00 4$400.00
Overrun costs$100.00 20$2,000.00
General Supplies & Other

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $10,521

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Order Materials3 weeks2/8/2013
Plumbing1 week2/15/2013
Sheet metal1 week2/22/2013
Electric Work1 week3/1/2013
Refrigeration1 week3/8/2013
Buffer time2 weeks3/22/2013
Project Complete3/22/2013

Project Approval Forms:

Project: Zimtervention

Executive Summary:

Project: Zimtervention will establish Zimride, an online ridesharing system, as a viable option to single-occupancy vehicle(SOV) trips to and from the UW campus. This will achieve goals of reducing campus-related carbon emissions and promoting sustainable behavior change.

The principle component of the project is to fund a new student position, Campus Rideshare Coordinator (CRC) to:

  1. establish a critical mass of UW Zimride users; and
  2. integrate UW Zimride into institutions and campus life

The CRC will work with Commuter Services during Spring 2011 and the 2011-2012 academic year, part-time at 10 hrs/week. This will fall under an undergraduate Student Assistant job classification, with hourly wages of $13 and ineligible for additional benefits.

This is the second phase of a graduate student project through the Program on the Environment’s Environmental Management Certificate (EMC). To date, UW Zimride has been introduced on campus with one of the most successful launches in program history, and the EMC students have begun implementation of a strategy for changing SOV behavior,relying on evidence-based principles of community-based social marketing and theories of sustainable behavior change.

Additional work is needed, however, to establish a critical mass of users and integrate Zimride into UW life as a trusted and well-known mode of transportation. As such, the role of the CRC will be to continue to implement and expand upon the community-based social marketing campaign. The CRC will also work to create institutional legacies, such as including Zimride into new student and staff orientation, promoting it for travel during academic breaks, and incorporating it into other Commuter Service programs. In short, the CRC will work to integrate UW Zimride into campus life.

Student Involvement:

Although working closely with Commuter Services, the CRC is a largely independent and entrepreneurial student position. The CRC is expected to work with and recruit other students as necessary to complete tasks, including active Zimride users. Their work will include a focus on the entire student body, with particular emphasis on students who regularly commute by car, as well as faculty and staff.

The position is envisioned as one that empowers the CRC to learn about the principles of sustainability and implementing behavior change, while developing skills and expertise related to project management, collaboration, outreach, and communications. Their work, as it relates to community-based social marketing, is informed directly from the student-led EMC Team project.

Education & Outreach:

Education and outreach are primary goals, as described in the executive summary, as they relate to raising awareness of UW Zimride and influencing student behavior. This will be based on the marketing strategy developed during the current phases of Project: Zimtervention, described below, which simultaneously markets UW Zimride and provides project publicity. By the end of winter quarter 2011, this strategy will be updated to reflect lessons learned and new approaches identified.

Marketing Strategy

Determining the barriers and benefits for engaging in a particular behavior is an important step in crafting the particular tactics for a marketing, awareness, and outreach strategy. Zimride has already identified two key barriers to ridesharing: inconvenience, both in terms of finding and scheduling rides; and trust, including personal safety and reliability. As a ridesharing service, Zimride addresses these by providing: an intuitive, easy to use interface that is designed to encourage usage; user ratings and reviews; an exclusive campus-only network; and connections to social media.

This makes promotional and awareness campaigns important, as our focus groups suggest that if potential users are unaware of how Zimride is different from other ridesharing services, they will not be interested. Additionally, because of the unique nature of ridesharing, achieving a critical mass of users is essential for successful behavior change. However, a promotional strategy alone will not lead to behavior change. As such, community-based social marketing and theories of social influence must be incorporated into the promotion of Zimride, and additional tactics employed. We have developed multiple campaigns to influence commuting behavior: 

EMAIL CAMPAIGN.

Zimride has provided sample emails based on successful campaigns at previous universities, which we have modified for different audiences (such as students and staff/faculty) as well as rideshare barriers and benefits. For example, email messages to club sports groups emphasize the social and convenience benefits of Zimriding, while messages to parking permit holders emphasize the potential for savings on gas and parking. Campus-wide email is particularly effective in marketing the program, as well as providing project outreach and education.

TABLING & EVENTS CAMPAIGN.

Building off of a community-based online campaign, an in-person campaign is also a fundamental component of success in influencing behavior. This will involve tabling at events and locations, with signing people up to Zimride using a laptop. It will also involve a raffle incentive (such as a gas gift card) and promotional materials (post cards, car decals, etc.). Targeted locations include E1 parking (and other lots, as appropriate), Red Square, and at major sporting or other events.

ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN.

Additional promotions include onsite, media, and event advertising, as well as the potential for online advertising. Posters, and other materials are less important for promotion than virtual efforts, but they do serve as prompts to remind people about ridesharing and provide outreach and education about sustainable transportation. Posters in parking garages, for example, may serve as daily prompts for people to consider ridesharing. News media can also be successful in raising general awareness and, if frequent enough, provide behavioral prompts and appeal to social norms.

TESTIMONIAL CAMPAIGN.

We recommend the CRC to develop a video and testimonial campaign. This provides outreach about Zimride and the UW’s commitment to sustainability, while helping to change social norms on campus. Zimride has found such testimonial campaigns to be effective in encouraging use. This can also be used for outreach and educational aspects related to Project: Zimtervention itself.

Environmental Impact:
  • Transportation
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

This project addresses sustainable transportation for the UW campus community. According to the Climate Action Plan, commuting contributes the equivalent of over 50,000 million grams of CO2 each year. Single occupancy vehicle (SOV) commuting, in particular, is responsible for a large share of commuting emissions. Among the UW-Seattle campus community alone, 21% of all community members (11,480) commute by SOV.

For many years, the University has made progress reducing the number of SOV commute trips, in large part by promoting U-PASS and the use of public transit. However, system capacity and budget realities constrain the transit system’s potential as an alternative for all SOV commute trips. In order to make further progress, additional options for commuters are needed, particularly those for whom other options (such as transit, walking, and biking) are not currently considered viable.

Because Zimride is a community-based, social network for ridesharing, expanding the UW Zimride network benefits all member of the UW campus community. This includes students, faculty, and staff, whether interested in commuting to campus or traveling to attend academic conferences, to visit family and friends, or to make other trips out of town. Zimride also strengthens social bonds among students, faculty, and staff by promoting a community-based form of transportation.

As Zimride members post ride matches and requests on Facebook, this makes the UW’s commitment to sustainable transportation more visible both within and beyond the UW community. Additionally, a comprehensive Zimride network ensures better access to campus by reducing congestion, making the university more accessible, and maximizing the best use of limited parking spaces.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Our project will have quantifiable, commuting behavior impacts from Commuter Services and Zimride.

From Commuter Services data, we will be able to measure and observe trends related to:

  • Number of carpool permits
  • Number of daily carpool parking transactions
  • Number of SOV parking permits 

From Zimride administrative tools, the following outcomes can be estimated:

  • Miles Saved
  • Gallons of Gas Saved
  • Pounds of CO2 Emissions Saved
  • Grams of Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Emissions Saved
  • Grams of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) Emissions Saved
  • Pounds of Carbon Monoxide (CO) Emissions Saved
  • Grams of Particulate Matter (PM) Emissions Saved
  • Grams of Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Emission

These impacts will be measured through Zimride administrative tools, which automatically calculate estimated environmental outcomes. Data collection by Commuter Services, as well as a survey at the end of the project, will measure behavior change and awareness/outreach goals. The impact of Zimride will also be captured in the campus-wide transportation survey (next scheduled for fall 2012).

In addition to CSF, this information will be reported to Commuter Services.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $8,520
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Publicity & Communication
Promotional items (car decal, eg)$200/qtr4 qtr $800
Posters/print materials$150/qtr4 qtr $600
Incentives$100/qtr4 qtr $400
Advertising$200/qtr4 qtr $800
Personnel & Wages
CSF GRAND TOTAL8,120

Non-CSF Sources:

Source/Description Amount RequestedDate Requested Date Received/Announced
Ongoing Zimride support and contracted services$7500 1/2011 Contract arranged by Commuter Services
Advertising support from Commuter Services $12001/2011 Approved for CRC use for 2011-2012
Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Prepare position description, post, and interview candidates 3 wks, Winter Qtr 2011End of Winter Qtr 2011
Finalize marketing strategy and recommended work plan 3 wks, Winter Qtr 2011End of Winter Qtr 2011
Project start date (March 28) & first installment: CRC begins Spring Qtr 2011 Beginning Spring Qtr 2011
CRC prepares new student orientation campaign for launch Autumn quarterSpring Qtr 2011 End of Spring Qtr 2011
Video/testimonial campaignAutumn Qtr 2011 End of Autumn Qtr 2011
Thanksgiving/Winter break campaign2 wks, Autumn Qtr 2011 End of Autumn Qtr 2011
Spring break campaign2 wks, Winter Qtr 2012 End of Winter Qtr 2012
Zimride survey, focus groups1 wk, Spring Qtr 2012 Mid-Spring Qtr 2012
Final report, target date for completion, and funds spent (June 8) Spring Qr 2012 End of Spring Qtr 2012

Project Approval Forms:

Real Food Challenge (RFC) UW Housing and Food Services (HFS) Audit

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Phase I of this project will require the work of one established student leader working ten hours a week for the duration of this project (projected 10 weeks). This leader will organize the Real Food Challenge (RFC) RSO, student volunteers doing the audit, the auditing project itself, and a presentation for HFS to be completed in June with the audit results. This quarter, funding may also be offered to one-two other student volunteers who wish to work roughly 5 hours a week each to support the primary leader and help perform the audit project. Additionally, these student leaders will engage over a dozen volunteers in assisting with the audit. Volunteers will come from current RFC members, the RFC listserv, and students from classes offering service- learning opportunities (such as Geography 271 with Prof. L. Jaroz).

After the completion of phase 1, student leaders will continue to lead future RFC efforts at more detailed auditing and in education/marketing.

Education & Outreach:

The main project objective is to increase outreach and education among HFS employees involved in food purchasing as well as students, campus staff and UW community members who eat on campus.
The audit results will be publicized widely at UW, as well as to national institutions like The Real Food Challenge, Sierra Club and AASHE STARS, who gauge sustainability on university campuses and will recognize the audit results and sustainability standardization practices.

This project is phase I of a long-term project to improve student demand and knowledge of a sustainable and locally based food system on UW campus. In later phases, we will conduct a review of best sustainable food promotion methods on campuses nationally and test those in UW dining halls via surveys and pre/post-test experiments. We anticipate using outreach techniques like posters, signs, message boards, social networking, and web outreach to promote current and enhanced local and sustainable food options to UW students.

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The UW Housing and Food Services (HFS) spends $8.5 million annually on food from 40 vendors. This is a huge fiscal sum that has a major impact on Washington State food economy, especially producer and process sectors. HFS currently lacks clear measurable definitions and standards to qualify “sustainable” and “local” food. When our RSO, Real Food Challenge (RFC), conducted a preliminary review of HFS purchases, we found ambiguity in definitions of local, when Coca Cola products were labeled locally based because processing plants are in King County. This audit will refine standards qualifying foods as local, ecologically sound, fair and humane, and will help clarify which specific food items HFS purchases really are local and sustainable. This will address another concern: lacking student awareness of the magnitude of the impact UW and HFS have on the food economy. Customers are not offered many transparent choices or sufficient information to eat locally or sustainably on campus.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

We are requesting $2,000 to fund Phase 1. Phase I of this project will call for funding of one primary student-leader who will spear head this campaign and organize student volunteers to perform the audit. This leader will work roughly 10 hours/week at $10/hour, and will receive funding for audit-related work done from April 2011 to June 2011 (10 weeks, and no more than cumulatively 200 hours). Additional funds will be used to support two other student leaders, who will work with HFS and students on the auditing project for 4-6 hours a week at $10 an hour, for the duration of the audit project. Many student volunteers are devoting a large portion of time and energy towards this project, which will benefit HFS business strategies and sustainability standardization practices. Funding for the preliminary stages of this project is helpful to students doing this work now, and for forming one to three established RFC student positions for interested dedicated students leading future work.

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Green Square: UW Tower Urban Garden Demonstration

Executive Summary:

The UW tower is the gateway to the University. It hosts the office of accounting, advancement, international exchanges, and many others. It is important that the building reflect the sustainable mission of the University.

The University of Washington Tower plaza has the potential to become an example of the transformative power of greenery in turning a harsh urban environment into an oasis of life and beauty. Currently, the tower plaza is dominated by brick and stark concrete walls, with a handful of aging pots filled mostly with ivy and other ornamental plants. A few years ago, the Green Team at the UW Tower started an urban garden project in the plaza. It was a discrete small scale appropriation of a few pots to replace the ivy, but very successful in engaging coworkers by organizing movie events and handing out fresh produce. Inspired by this initial tactical gardening project, we want to grow the garden started by the Green Team and transition it to a robust demonstration of the success and strategies to growing edibles in an urban plaza.

We want the new edible garden to be visually and physically engaging by including vertical elements, such as artistic green screens, and raised beds forms that engage the space and existing layout. It will be educational and involve the community in creative ways. We plan on designing a temporary urban garden feature that includes green screens, planters with a variety of edible and native plants, and a more pleasant place for people to relax and enjoy the outdoors during their lunch break or after work. The design is inspired by the tactical style and accessibility of parklet installations on roadsides; to create an inviting space that strategically incorporates benches, planters, and green screens adapted into a cohesive artistic experience that drastically alters the austerity of the plaza. It is an art installation calling for creativity, ingenuity, and continued garden maintenance. The end result will be aesthetically pleasing and vibrant, a place for people to learn about growing edible plants in surprising locations, and to enjoy the outdoors. Most importantly, it will advance to the University of Washington’s reputation in sustainability and innovation.

Up until now, sustainability projects have been focused on the main campus. The UW Tower Urban Garden Demonstration project, however, will help adapt sustainability to existing urban property beyond central campus. Due to the visitor exposure that the UW Tower receives and the anticipated increase of traffic as a result of the incoming light rail station, this project has the potential to enlighten a substantial number of people about urban agricultural practices and the university’s commitment to sustainability.

We are asking for $60,000 in grant funding to help carry out the design, construction, and initial maintenance for this project.  After the projects kicks off, we hope to establish a connection to farmer's markets to raise additional awareness and funds to help support garden maintenance.

Student Involvement:

The Urban Garden Demonstration Project at the UW Tower is primarily student-led, with some oversight from faculty and professionals in the field.  We foresee three phases of this project: design, construction, and maintenance. Student involvement is critical for each. We want this to be a multidisciplinary project which will involve students from many different majors.  So far two student service learners have been involved in the initial brainstorming and grant-writing process.  They have also been responsible for reaching out to UW faculty and staff.  We foresee Landscape Architecture, Environmental Science, Biology, and Design students to be involved in the design process, construction would be carried out by Industrial Design and Construction Management students (with oversight of a contractor).  The vision for our project is a platform, or multiple platforms, that incorporate both areas to relax and areas to grow food.  It will creatively combine benches, planters, vertical walls, all while looking aesthetically pleasing.  Since there is no complicated technology involved, we believe the project can be assembled in separate segments off site (in a studio) and then assembled all in one day on the plaza.  This will allow students to use it as part of a class project, and will result in minimal disturbance for the employees at the UW Tower.  Students from any major can be involved in maintenance phase of the project.

For the design and construction phases, we will recruit students from UW courses by communicating with professors.  For maintenance and event organization we plan on hiring up to two students for the first year after which volunteers and service learners will fill in the void.  This UW tower Green Team is already affiliated with the Carlson Center and has been receiving one service learner per quarter to work on the urban garden project (these are the students working on the grant, initial design and original idea for the project).  We plan on continuing to have service learners to maintain the garden and give them a small budget to organize events.

Depending on their roles, students will develop design, construction, event planning, research, teamwork and leadership skills. They can take the knowledge acquired in class and use it in the real world.  It will be a very hands-on learning experience.  The students will be able to add this project into their portfolio, which will hopefully help them stand out in the future and be more eligible for their dream jobs.  We believe it will be a unique experience for students to collaborate on a project of this size and scope.  They will leave a mark on the UW campus that will have beneficial effects for years to come.

Education & Outreach:

Visibility:

As mentioned above, the main aim of the garden is to showcase the potential for growth in a harsh urban environment and the importance of urban agriculture in localizing the food system and decreasing carbon footprints. The UW tower plaza is a central point for many UW employees, surrounding it are many offices that form the backbone of the university.  The UW tower houses 2000 people, most of which pass through the plaza at least twice a day.  Many visitors to the University of Washington, such as donors, also go to the UW Tower and would be exposed to the project.  The opening of the U District Link station means that many passersby will see the plaza when they exist the station, so visibility is not an issue.  However, anytime we organize an event such as a guest lecture, or a farmer’s market, we will be sure to inform students who might not go to the UW Tower daily through social media and on the University of Washington website’s events page.

One of the goals of the UW Tower Urban Garden Demonstration is to exhibit sustainable urban permaculture techniques in a manner that is accessible for the average resident. To increase participation and awareness of the garden, social media will act as a tool to engage our audience, share the process of urban farming, and inspire people to grow their own container garden. The project social media profile will also serve as a method of sharing events and fundraisers that occur on site.

Involvement:

The easiest way to get involved will be simply to use the space, and there is no doubt that it will be used. Many employees at the UW Tower complain of a lack of outdoor seating to enjoy the fresh air and have lunch.  At present, you will see people leaning on walls, even sitting on the floor!  Other than that, many events will be hosted to further educate and involve the community such as outdoor movie screenings, lectures, and farmers’ markets. 

Student involvement is essential in the whole process of the garden coming to life.  We want this to be a multi-disciplinary effort, with students and faculty from Landscape Architecture, Biology, Industrial Design, Environmental Science, Construction Management, and other disciplines getting involved. 

Furthermore, both student and faculty volunteers will be encouraged to help maintain the space.  Initially we will offer paid positions for students to maintain the garden.  Eventually we hope that most of the work will be voluntary (and in exchange for some produce), much like the UW farm functions today.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Waste
  • Water
Project Longevity:

After the project is implemented, we will direct a lot of attention and funding for maintenance and outreach that year. This would consist of having 2 paid positions for maintenance and event planning for the year. After that, service learners and volunteers would upkeep the work started by the two paid student workers. The yearly Green Team fund ($500) and money made from fundraising events such as farmers markets would be used for replacing plants and organizing events. If big improvements need to be made, and then we might apply for another grant.

Environmental Problem:

Our current food system is unsustainable. The edible urban garden demonstration project primarily addresses the need for individuals to understand where, when, and how food is grown.  The extremely long and complex supply chains that get foods from farms to grocery stores disconnects people from the production and the hidden costs of environmental degradation due to transportation emissions, and extensive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The primary focus of our project is to connect people to their food and second to introduce them about urban gardening techniques, and the benefits of localizing food production.  The garden will have other beneficial ‘side effects’ that will help impact issues like biodiversity loss, urban heat island effect, air pollution, stormwater capture, and declines in bee populations which build natural capitol and environmental services.

The garden project will increase biodiversity in the area and will provide a habitat for animals, particularly pollinators. The increase in vegetation would greatly reduce the heat-island effect inside the plaza and will help increase local air quality. The edible garden has the potential to help reduce the UW tower’s reliance on the extremely long and complicated food chain that supplies it with food.  During peak months in the past, the much smaller edible garden demonstration project was successfully producing enough food to hand out to coworkers and donate to food banks.  We hope to continue those practices and additionally plan on supply fresh produce to UW tower itself to help reduce its carbon footprint.

Although this is a small-scale demonstration project, we believe it will very successfully showcase the many cumulative benefits of urban farming, and the knowledge will radiate into the community and inspire people to start growing their own produce, planting more native plants, and thinking more about where their food comes from.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Monitoring and maintaining the UW Tower Urban Garden Demonstration will serve as a learning opportunity for University of Washington students. The students that participate in maintenance positions will receive hands-on experience upholding the sustainable practices that this project establishes by monitoring the following:

Food -- Keeping track of the food the garden produces will be key.  We will either count the individual vegetables/fruit we collect or weigh our total produce.  The monitoring technique will depend on how much our garden produces.  It will also be interesting to take this calculation one step further and measure how much carbon dioxide was displaced by consuming our local produce instead of consuming store-bought goods.  To do this we will estimate the carbon footprint of say an apple in the grocery store by seeing where it was grown, and the miles it needed to travel to get to the grocery store.

Water -- Reducing water use and managing water consumption is a key adaptation to maintain urban resilience in the face of climate change.  Some studies say that Seattle can expect a 50% decrease in water supply over the next 35 years[1].  Collecting and using storm water is a good solution to reduce water consumption and keep our plants thriving.  We hope to address storm-water capture within the demonstration garden to a) save water and b) show others how they can capture rain to minimize runoff.  We plan on measuring the water collected on a weekly basis.  This number would then correspond to the gallons of water we save.

Biodiversity -- We will keep track of the number of both edible and native species of plants we display as well as keep track of the presence of bees near the garden.

Human Benefit -- The easiest way to judge if people are benefitting from our edible demonstration garden is to see if they are using it.  Are they having their lunch there? Reading about the native and edible plants?  Another measurement will be the number of people who volunteer to maintain the garden.  We will also conduct surveys to get a better sense of people’s opinions of the project.  The most important question for us will be whether individuals have gained an interest in gardening themselves as a result of the garden and the various events we plan on hosting.

Wind -- The current UW tower patio design provides no relief from wind, acting as a “wind tunnel”. The UW Tower Urban Garden Demonstration will introduce natural wind buffers into the space through the increase of impermeable soft surface from the plant species and through the construction of “Green Screens (vertical structures with vegetation).”

Qualitative data can be collected from surveys of people’s experience with wind before and after the project. An anemometer can be used to measure wind speeds in the patio before and after the project.

[1] McClure, Robert. “Climate Change is Darkening Seattle’s Water Forecast”. Investigate West.  September, 2015. Source: invw.org/2015/09/09/climate-change-is-darkening-seattles-water-forecast/

Total amount requested from the CSF: $59,730
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Project Design$570015700
Site Preparation$25/hCrew of 4 for 10 hours$1000
Construction Materials$10,0002 raised bed planters/benches$20000
Plants and planting materialsPlants: $70/pot; Soil:$46/yd; Mulch: $70/yd40 pots, 2.5 cu. yd. soil, 2 cu.yr. mulch$2390
Construction$70002 parklet style raised beds$14000
Project Overview$50001$5000
Maintenance intern stipend$35002 students annual$5000
Maintenance and monitoring materials$1000Including additional vegetables and winter mulch$1000
Project printing$5001(including design printing and outreach fliers)$500

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $59,730

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Coordination and organization1 monthend of August
DesignFall Quarter (2.5 months)December 10th 2016
ConstructionWinter Quarter (2.5 months)March 15th 2017
Transportation on site1 day (over spring break)March 25th 2017
Ribbon cutting, initial outreachSpring Quarter (2.5 months)June 10th 2017
Maintenance year-round

Conservation and Sustainability at Manastash Ridge Observatory: Planning For the Next Forty Years

Executive Summary:

Forty years after its dedication, it's time to make changes at the University’s Manastash Ridge Observatory (MRO) that reflect the realities of how we use the facility and respect our impact on natural resources, particularly our water and energy consumption. We propose to upgrade our bathrooms, kitchen, and lighting to conserve water and energy, and to build a rainwater catchment system and a solar energy system to reduce our reliance on outside water and power. The budget for this proposal is approximately $60,000, of which $49,000 is for the solar energy system.

MRO is a small observatory owned by the UW Astronomy department. Starting with the snow melt in the spring, and continuing until through mid-October, our undergraduate majors spend days learning how to use the thirty inch telescope and conducting independent research. Each summer about twenty students use the observatory and two classes of astro 101 students from Everett Community College enjoy an overnight field trip. Year round the Electrical Engineering Department’s Radar Remote Sensing Lab uses the facility remotely.

Built in 1972 on a ridge outside of Ellensburg, Washington, electrical and telephone utilities could be brought in, but it was far too remote for city water service. The standard bathroom and kitchen fixtures make us reliant on expensive water deliveries (~$800 each time). In addition each team brings up drinking water in jugs, so the delivered water is used almost entirely for flushing. We think it’s time to rebuild the observatories energy and water systems since the last forty years have seen the maturation of low-energy lighting and low-consumption water fixtures, as well the development of an industry focused on household solar power generation.

Our plan for conservation is to construct a kitchen that is not plumbed to running water, to replace the kitchen’s energy inefficient fridge and range as well as our original “maximum flush” toilets, and to install LED lighting for our working and living areas. In order to reduce the observatories overall environmental impact, and to demonstrate the possibilities for sustainable construction, we propose the construction of a rainwater catchment system and solar grid-tie system with battery reserve. The latter option could potentially make us the first observatory capable of solar-powered astronomical observations.

We project energy savings of $3000 per year, and during our busy summer season we project that the solar array could take the observatory entirely off the grid. The surplus energy we generate (approximately $200 worth) is sold back to the grid, savings we can return to the CSF. Updating our bathrooms and kitchen could completely replace the need for water deliveries, which would save $2400 per year and reduce CO2 emissions due to observatory operations by one ton annually.

Included in the budget are computer monitors to display and create awareness on campus of the sustainable energy equipment at MRO. Of course we will also compare ongoing electrical and water costs with previous years to quantify the system’s effectiveness.

Student Involvement:

The UW’s astronomy club, the League of Astronomers, has contributed their expertise to this proposal as representatives of the people who spend their nights working there each summer. These students, many of whom spend over a week’s worth of time at MRO each summer, know the needs and patterns of observing at MRO better than anyone else.

In addition, many projects at MRO are already carried out by volunteer work parties drawn from our awesome undergraduate majors. The observatory would not be the vibrant and special place it is today without the energy and ideas of the undergraduates who stay there each summer. We couldn’t propose and implement this project without their support.

The majority of the physical work involved in this project will be completed by undergraduate students, either during visits to MRO during the summer quarter for course work, or during independently arranged trips focusing solely on the sustainability project. In addition to the volunteer positions that will be made available to our students, we will pay for one of  undergraduate students to act as a liaison. This position will coordinate the student volunteers, oversee tradespeople, and work with UW faculty and staff. The student liaison will have complete knowledge of the project and gain valuable experience both in team management and hands-on technical work.

Students will also be involved in choosing components for the project. This will provide valuable experience in choosing the best components to suit a project’s needs. Our experienced faculty and staff will also be teaching the students how to implement a robust industrial system instead of a prototype experiment.

A large part of what makes MRO so special is its role in providing hands-on observing experience, as well as troubleshooting and related technical work that is necessary in any complex facility. This project will give our undergraduates a myriad of opportunities to work directly on the infrastructure of the observatory and gain a better understanding of observatory operations, as well as sustainable technology.

MRO is an observatory specifically for and maintained by undergraduates, so apart from supervision from faculty and staff and some work that must be done by professionals, the entire sustainability project will be conducted by undergraduate students. The timely and safe completion of the project is up to them, as is monitoring the reduction in consumption achieved by the work, and regular maintenance over the coming years. This represents a wonderful opportunity for astronomy students to contribute directly to their learning environment and invest themselves in a unique resource that enriches their education and will continue to provide for many generations of students to come.

Education & Outreach:

Our outreach plan is threefold and focuses on those using the observatory, the observatory as a destination site for UW sustainability, and increasing awareness of sustainable technology and construction among the UW community.

For those that use MRO, observing here has always meant taking care of the facility and its land. We will build upon the expectation of care for the observatory, and make daily measurements and logging a part of our procedures. Awareness of consumption is often used to promote conservation (like cars that display their instantaneous mpg, or buildings that display their energy use), and MRO users will post daily reports noting water tank levels and the status of the solar system. We anticipate that bringing light to each group’s water and power consumption will lead to some good natured competition to conserve. Additionally, while some systems in this proposal are highly visible (solar arrays), others will be unfamiliar (the foot pump kitchen sink, which comes from marine systems), but each will create a facility that incorporates our commitment to conservation and sustainability.

These systems, especially the solar arrays, will make MRO a leading demonstration site in sustainable practices. An observatory that operates off the grid is interesting and unique, not just in our community, but nationally. We already operate the observatory in partnership with the Electrical Engineering Department, and we intend to offer field trips to energy systems oriented students in that department, as well as invite them to participate in optimizing the system.

Our outreach plans for the wider UW community are to display energy generation data from the solar array to campus locations. We will feed the data from the solar array and water sensors to an on-campus server, which will create a constantly updated page displaying the energy and water usage at the observatory. We will display this on monitors housed with cooperating entities on campus using a system already developed by the Physics and Astronomy Computing Services group. This system is small and efficient, but robust, and can be used to simultaneously display other media of interest to the hosting department. We would install displays in the Physics-Astronomy Auditorium building, we’ve asked to display in Electrical Engineering, and we would also ask if the CSF has an preferred display booth.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Water
Project Longevity:

All systems will be designed with as much robustness against failure as possible, and much of the long term maintenance can be mitigated through this design. But as we all know, there will be some maintenance. MRO already has the management, staff, and student support to maintain the proposed systems. The costs associated with the continued operation of these sustainability improvements are recouped from lower energy and water bills. The list of maintenance on the system includes: cleaning the solar panels to produce optimum throughput, replacing rainwater filters, and verifying transfer pump operation. All of these tasks are appropriate for our undergraduate users. Long term maintenance tasks include: replacement of batteries (every 5 years), replacement of rain water transfer pump (every 3-5 years), solar panel replacement (every 20 years).

Environmental Problem:

Our goal is to lessen the environmental impact of MRO by conserving water and energy, and as a byproduct, reduce diesel emissions created from the water delivery truck. The last forty years have seen the maturation of low-energy lighting and low-consumption water fixtures, as well the development of an industry focused on household solar power generation, so the time is right to update the facility.

We plan to reduce water use by replacing the toilets with low-flow models and building a kitchen that operates independently of the plumbing system. We estimate that the replacement of the current 3.5 gallon per flush toilets with new 1.3 gallon per flush toilets will cut the water consumption by 62%. Fewer water deliveries mean fewer diesel emissions from the water truck we hire to bring river water up to our remote observatory.

Rebuilding the kitchen to operate independently of the plumbing will institutionalize our current practise of only using water brought up from campus for washing and cooking. Currently we keep water jugs on the kitchen counter for this purpose, but along with replacing the old appliances (for energy efficient models) we will disconnect the non-potable water supply, and mount the water jug under the sink with a foot-pump to dispense it. This will make the use of clean water easy and ensure non-potable water cannot be used in the kitchen (and is conserved for toilets).

In addition, a rainwater catchment system will provide the majority of the water necessary for the toilets, eliminating water truck deliveries. We expect to utilize the rain and snowfall in the winter and spring months to fill our 10,000 gallon water tank so we can start the summer observing season with a full tank. There is very little rainfall in the summer, but with water conserving features we predict that we will eliminate our dependence on water deliveries.

We plan to mitigate energy use by updating to modern light bulbs and appliances. The use of LED bulbs, which are much more efficient than our current incandescent lighting, will also reduce heat in the living spaces of the observatory during the Central Washington summer when the observatory is open. Updated appliances, such as a modern refrigerator and induction burners, will reduce the energy consumption from the living quarters.

The solar system is designed to be sufficient to effectively take the observatory off the grid during our summer observing season. During the winter season there is less solar energy available, but greater demand to keep the dorm and water tank areas from freezing. We will mitigate this by connecting additional solar panels during the winter season, in order to increase energy generation during these short, often cloudy, days.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The impacts and overall results of our efforts to conserve energy will be measured instantaneously and with each electricity billing cycle, while water use must be evaluated on an annual basis. The most immediate and apparent measure of MRO’s environmental impact will be a reduction in deliveries of water. Water deliveries are both costly and produce heavy carbon emissions. Through rainwater harvesting MRO is expected to collect around 10,000 gallons of water per year, which equates to four tanker deliveries. The elimination of these water deliveries will reduce emissions by one ton of CO2 annually (using EPA estimate of 22.2 pounds of CO2 emissions per gallon of diesel fuel, and approximating fuel usage at 20 gallons per delivery). Optimally it will be possible to eliminate the need for water deliveries entirely by completely replenishing the water reserves by the start of the observing season and maintaining the water supply through conservation efforts.

Full metrology will be integrated into both new and existing components.  Monitoring the depths of both tanks will allow us to gauge system efficiency and confirm net collection. The overall impact will be measured on the reliance of trucking in water.  All metrology will be available via the web interface and will show the instantaneous efficiencies of the system as well as the overall performance.

The impact of the solar array will also be calculated annually. Power usage and generation will be monitored instantaneously both on site and remotely to promote conservation.  The planned additions to the power system will make it possible to monitor the observatory’s power status via the internet, enabling any interested person with an internet connection to continually monitor and measure the benefits of the modifications.

In addition to simple static solar options, we are also exploring dynamic solar options that would provide greater performance in the winter months when useful daytime hours are at a premium. MRO currently uses around 20,000 kWh per year, but during the summer we will generate a surplus of approximately 2,200 kWh per year. The solar energy system will lead to a direct emission reduction of a minimum of 15 tons of CO2 per year using EPA estimates, and an indirect reduction of an additional 1.6 metric tons by putting excess power back into the local power grid.

The reduction of annual water and electricity usage will reduce the observatory’s CO2 emissions by a total of approximately 18 tons, based on EPA estimates. This is the equivalent to the annual emissions from two average households when calculated across all forms of energy consumption. In terms of electricity, this is equivalent to removing three households from the power grid.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $59,559
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
foot pump1351135
sink1061106
kitchen cabinets1943582
countertop1201120
plumbing parts (piping, dispenser)1501150
plumbing labor1204480
induction burner1502300
refrigerator6001600
large toaster oven2501250
low flow toilets1602320
led lighting fixtures306180
soft-white, dimmable, led bulbs1012120
theatrical paint for tinting bulbs red10
red led strips for control room30260
desk lamps for control room20480
dimmer bulbs for desk lamps10440
dimmer switches138104
Batteries333.27103332.7
Charge Controller124911249
Dual Function Inverter599515995
Load Center109011090
Solar Panels481029620
Raw Power Disconnects2652530
Power Control and Monitor4241424
Conduit1300300
Wire43001200
Battery Wiring1040400
Solar Panel Mounting180008000
Control Panel Mounting110001000
Battery Mounting110001000
Rental Equipment110001000
Electrician120002000
truck and trailer rental3002600
project management liason/FTE month24002.56000
energy usage monitors1503450
Pumps280160
Tubes3200600
Cistern (2000 gal)110001000
water tank metrology equipment (depth gauges or pressure sensors)110001000
fittings1030300
gutter hangers1.38120165.6
10ft gutter section1020200
joiner4.352087
drop outlet1010100
end cap6.251593.75
filters304120
cistern pad5001500
project management liason/FTE month24000.51200
truck rental per day2004800

Non-CSF Sources:

itemcost per hourhourstotal costtype
MRO Support Staff151604400from MRO budget
design & project management601609600donated time
undergraduate labor156409600donated time
Project Completion Total: $63,959

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Interior work on water and energy conservation featuresfrom opening till end of spring quarterJune 19, 2015
Exterior earth moving: solar footings & water tank foundationfrom opening till end of spring quarterJune 19, 2015
Build/install solar arrays & systemssummer through mid fallOct 15, 2015
Build rainwater catchment systemsummer through mid fallOct 15, 2015
Implement monitoring system software/displaysmid fall through winter.Jan 1, 2016

Mobile Maintenance Trailer for the ASUW Bike Shop

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Commuter Profile

Executive Summary:

The proposed solution is a web-based tool which allows people toindicate the start and end-points of their commute and be provided with a “Commuter Profile” which gives them information about their commuting options including suggested routes (provided by Google Maps), estimated costs and benefits (money spent, calories burned, carbon emissions produced), resources available to UW commuters (e.g. U-PASS, bike facilities, ride-sharing resources, telecommuting policies, etc) and other motivational/inspirational information about the benefits of more environmentally friendly commuting options (e.g. profiles of commuters and expert
advice offered by UW researchers and professionals). My vision is that a link to this tool would be provided to all students/faculty/staff to accompany the information that is sent out each quarter with the U-PASS (this is
something that Transportation Services would help determine).

Purpose/Goal: To encourage low-impact commuting options by presenting information which conveys the message that these options are viable and achievable, and that they have significant health and monetary benefits as well as environmental ones.

Student Involvement:

This project will be entirely student driven. Students will not only do the design and technical work, but also interact with staff and faculty to gather feedback and support,conduct usability testing, and identify the substantial resources the UW community can provide (e.g. expertise on relevant topics ranging from the health impacts of different commuting modes to urban planning and policy-setting to support commuters).

Education & Outreach:

The finished project will provide education/awareness about the environmental impacts and personal/social impacts of various commuting options to everyone who uses it (potentially the entire UW community).

The process of creating the project will involve outreach to UW staff and faculty to garner their support and, in the process, create mutual awareness of the resources the UW has to address and minimize its own environmental impacts.

Environmental Impact:
  • Transportation
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The primary campus environmental problem this project addresses is carbon emissions. It also addresses problems of resource consumption and pollution produced by the operation of vehicles and creation and maintenance of roads and parking lots. Not only will a switch to lower-impact forms of transportation reduce our environmental impact, but they will reduce traffic congestion, improve health and create a more humane campus environment (some interesting research shows positive effects of reduced vehicle traffic on quality of life: www.streetfilms.org/revisiting-donald-appleyards-liveable-streets/)

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Carbon emissions: The UW monitors carbon emissions from commuting.
Mode Split (e.g. percentage of the campus population that uses each form of transportation): We regularly survey the campus population to determine commuting modes and gather other information about commuting behavior.

These parameters are the ones that will be influenced by this project, but of course, we won’t be able to assume that any changes are the result of this project alone. The evaluation phase (described above) is where we’ll attempt to tease out the effectiveness of this particular piece on commuting behavior. In future, Transportation Services could add questions about the Commuter Profile site to their existing commuting behavior questionnaire to track ongoing success.

The results will be reported to Transportation Services and, if they are compelling enough to make a good story, to the broader UW community via the Daily, University Week, etc.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $30,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Personnel & Wages
Coordinator$8,000-12,000 1$8,000-12,000
Communication designer$1,600-8,000 1$1,600-8,000
Visual designer$1,600-8,0001$1,600-8,000
Web designer$1,600-8,0001$1,600-8,000
Coder$1,600-8,0001$1,600-8,000
General Supplies & Other
focus groups$300
usability testing$754$300
CSF GRAND TOTAL$30,000

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskDate
Start DateImmediately Upon Approval
Date by which you will need the first installment of the CSF grantThe best case scenario will be that I can find a coordinator to begin Spring quarter which would mean that I would need the fund before the quarter begins.
Date by which you expect to have spent all CSF fundsJanuary, 2012
Target date for submitting final project report to the CSF OfficeJanuary, 2012
Milestones
hire the project coordinatorMarch 28 or June 20
The rest of the milestones will be dependent upon that date and upon other hires.

Project Approval Forms:

Biodiversity Green Wall, Edible Green Screen + Water Harvesting Demonstration Project Phase I‐ Feasibility and Design

Executive Summary:

The Biodiversity Green Wall, Edible Green Screen and Water Harvesting Demonstration Project is a two- Phase project to be constructed at Gould Hall. Phase I is a Feasibility and Design Study and Phase II is Construction and Documentation. This proposal is to fund Phase I with work to be completed by the end of August, 2011. A student Design Team will lead the project from initial building assessment through construction and monitoring stages. As a Demonstration Project, students will transform a blank concrete wall into a showcase of improved habitat that fosters diverse native species, a rainwater harvest method, local food production, and systems that reduce building heating and cooling energy demand that can help the campus reduce its carbon footprint and achieve its sustainability goals. A student-led design and construction effort, the Demonstration Project will provide numerous campus benefits as well as enhanced hands-on education opportunities.

The Biodiversity Green Wall, Edible Green Screen and Water Harvesting Demonstration Project will address several aspects of sustainability outlined in the UW Climate Action Plan including water recycling, sustainable land use planning, sustainable and local food production, energy and carbon footprint reduction and UW green marketing and branding efforts. Question #2 outlines additional ecological benefits such as water quality improvement, habitat creation and native plant use.

The two phase project is outlined below:

Phase I (May – August 2011)

  1. Assess the feasibility of constructing a Biodiversity Green Wall, Edible Green Screen and Water Harvesting system at Gould Hall, where students can experience, study, maintain and monitor the near and long-term effects of the installation. Feasibility will include site assessment, building structural analysis, water harvesting volumes, micro-climate analysis, and existing green wall and green screen construction methods and materials. The Feasibility Study will engage the necessary support from the College of Built Environments and Campus Facilities.
  2. Develop designs for the Biodiversity Green Wall, Edible Green Screen and Water Harvesting Demonstration Project with involvement of the College of Built Environments and Campus Facilities. Design will include structural support and soil systems, plant selection, sustainable materials, irrigation, future maintenance systems, and a detailed budget to cover costs of construction, installation, and near-term monitoring and maintenance.
  3. Develop a Feasibility and Design Report that outlines results and includes construction documents for building the Demonstration Project. The report will be displayed online on the Green Futures Lab’s Living Wall webpage as well as physically in the Lab, which is located adjacent to the proposed Green Wall and Green Screen installations.

Phase II (October – December 2011, with future funding)

  1. Work from the construction documents produced in Phase I to acquire materials and construct the biodiversity green wall, the edible green screen, and the roof water harvesting system, including structural systems, irrigation system, and planting. Work will be completed by both expert contractors and the student Design Team.
  2. Create an As-Built Plan documenting construction alterations to the design.
  3. Display video footage documenting construction as well as photos, plans, and information about the project on the GFL’s Living Wall webpage.
  4. Perform monitoring and maintenance as necessary to document environmental benefits of the Demonstration Project. Repair any problems that arise from wear and tear and document on- going maintenance needs.

Student Involvement:

The Biodiversity Green Wall, Edible Green Screen and Water Harvesting Demonstration Project will engage a graduate student manager as well as two team members to design, construct and document the project, requiring over 1,000 hours of student work. The Demonstration Project will target involvement of landscape architecture, architecture, construction management, engineering and/or horticulture students interested in sustainable “green” design practices. This project will provide valuable student learning experiences including research, preparing design and construction documents and hands-on construction. Students will benefit from advisement and oversight by faculty, while students will primarily be responsible for the research, design, and construction of the sustainable campus features. The student manager will gain experience leading the project team, engaging with a contractor, and the overall construction oversight process. The student Design Team will gain new skills assisting design development, planting the green screen and green wall, monitoring and maintenance, and sharing their work with UW students, faculty and the broader public as representatives of the Demonstration Project. A website created by the Design Team will showcase student-led results, and document construction and ongoing maintenance. Following construction, the Green Futures Lab will ensure the Demonstration Project has the faculty guidance and student stewardship needed to sustain the full life of the living structures. As a component of the Green Futures Lab Materials Library students will serve as docents of the Demonstration Project to visitors and will train incoming students to take their place following graduation.

Education & Outreach:

The Biodiversity Green Wall, Edible Green Screen and Water Harvesting Demonstration Project aligns with the sustainability goals of the Green Futures Lab, the College of Built Environments, and the UW Climate Action Plan, providing various opportunities for display, presentations, discussions and tours. The results of the Phase I Feasibility document, design plans, and videos documenting construction will be published online on the GFL's website and will be displayed in hard copy form in the Green Futures Lab. Students will also have the option to present their findings and designs in various university courses such as LARCH 498: Soils and Hydrology, ARCH 532: Sustainable Construction Materials, CM 313: Construction Methods and Materials, and other applicable engineering, horticulture or ESRM courses. Post construction, students will be invited to conduct research on the walls and water harvesting systems and to co-publish and present this research in courses and conferences. Potential opportunities for publicizing in print include the UW Daily, UW Today e-newsletter, and the UW Botanic Gardens e-newsletter. Because the Demonstration Project is a highly public "green" structure, it could appeal to professional publications or blog entries for the Cascadia Green Building Council, American Society of Landscape Architecture, or Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. Facebook will be used to reach out to the student body. Due to its high visibility in Gould Hall's Varey Garden on 15th Avenue, the Green Wall will physically market the campus sustainability image to the general public, as well as for prospective students through campus tours and program orientations. Additionally, interpretive signage will provide passive educational opportunities for visitors to the walls in the Gould Hall Varey Garden. Successful implementation of the Demonstration Project may lay the groundwork for the construction of other green walls on campus, helping the campus achieve its multiple sustainability goals.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The UW Seattle campus covers an area of 643 acres in size. Of this, 52% (an area equivalent to 334 football fields without end zones) is paved or contains an impervious roof (UW Salmon Safe Assessment). Stormwater runoff from these surfaces contains harmful pollutants that enter Lake Union untreated, causing substantial impacts to migrating salmon and other aquatic organisms in the lake system. Campus and urban development have degraded native terrestrial habitat, interrupting food webs and local landscape ecologies. Additionally, the natural habitat aesthetic is lacking on campus, and students must venture elsewhere to experience recreational connection to complex ecosystems. New techniques are needed to effectively integrate healthy habitat in the urban campus environment.

Average daily water consumption on the UW Seattle campus is 1.46 million gallons per day (Facilities Services, 2009). This can be especially problematic during the summer when river flow is low and water demand directly competes with salmon and other aquatic organisms’ needs for fresh water. Future climate predictions indicate this competition will be exacerbated due to reduced snowpack (Mote, 2003). In addition, the 200+ UW campus buildings depend on large amounts of energy for heating and cooling, that is correlated to both global climate and local heat island effects. Rising energy costs during the current financial crisis may need to be paid for by increased tuition rates. Better building insulation is needed to decrease these economic and environmental impacts caused by buildings. Similar atmospheric impacts arise from the carbon footprint of typical industrial food production, calling for more efficient and innovative ways to produce local food.

To simultaneously address these concerns, the Green Futures Lab proposes to design and construct a Biodiversity Green Wall, Edible Green Screen and Water Harvesting Demonstration Project at Gould Hall. Populated with local native herbaceous and evergreen plants, the Biodiversity Green Wall will harvest rooftop water diverted down a “living wall,” providing native habitat, rainwater re-use, stormwater volume runoff reduction, and water quality improvements. The Edible Green Screen will intercept surface runoff to grow edible vines, creating an innovative, space efficient way to produce local food. Both the Green Wall and Green Screen will provide vertical habitat, assist with building insulation and summer cooling (reducing costs), and provide educational and aesthetic opportunities for students, faculty and staff.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF: $10,185
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Feasibility Study$20/hr + 14.7% benefits60 hrs x 2 students2,753
Design + Construction Documents$20/hr + 14.7% benefits80 hrs x 2 students3,670
Advising + Oversight$45/hr + 25.8% benefits40hrs x 1 faculty2,262
Structural Consulting $10001 professional1,000
Expenses (e.g. printing of professional construction documents, feasibility + design documentation)$500Lump sum500

Non-CSF Sources:

Note: while no additional non-CSF sources are being pursued for Phase I, Phase II (construction) has good potential to garner donations. Phase I Feasibility and Design will provide the visual images, select the appropriate products, and provide assurance of constructability that will assist in securing donations and funding to construct the proposed sustainability features. The GFL will provide $2000 from a donor to assist with Phase II Construction and will pursue other matching funds.
Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Selection of student +faculty team, project kickoff (CSF funds needed)3 weeksJune 10, 2011
Structural + microclimate analysis2 weeksJune 24, 2011
Studies of precedents, materials + potential manufactures1 weekJuly 1, 2011
Green wall/green screen design development2 weeksJuly 15, 2011
Construction documents and specifications3 weeksAugust 5, 2011
Professional + faculty review1 weekAugust 12, 2011
Feasibility and design document website initiation, and CSF report (CSF funds spent)2 weeksAugust 26, 2011

Project Approval Forms:

Sustainability Service-Learning Liaison

Executive Summary:

The Carlson Leadership & Public Service Center is actively working to develop service-learning opportunities related to sustainability and environmental stewardship on and off campus, particularly for students in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines. The Center is applying for $3588 to fund a graduate or advanced undergraduate student to work as the sustainability service-learning liaison during Summer 2011. Please note, our letter of intent indicated a request for $3100.00. The slight increase is due to the increased number of weeks of funding needed to fund a student throughout the summer.

The current student service-learning liaison has seen success in the past two quarters, developing seven new partnerships with sustainability focused organizations, as well as starting a collaborative relationships with the Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability Office and the UW Farm. Funding from the CSF would enable the Carlson Center to keep the current momentum that has developed this academic year towards sustainability focused service-learning opportunities. The student will take a leadership role in implementing three concurrent goals that will build the Carlson Center’s capacity to offer service-learning opportunities to students in the STEM disciplines:

Goal 1. Develop and expand partnerships with local non-profit organizations that address sustainability issues. The Carlson Center already has long-standing relationships with numerous environmentally focused organizations. In order to support an increased number of students involved in service-learning, it is important to develop opportunties at local organizations that will offer students diverse opportunities to volunteer in the community. It is our hope that students in the STEM disciplines will be able to bring different skill sets to the organizations than traditional service-learners have previously. The student will serve as a way for local environmentally focused organizations to connect with the University and for them to be aware of the sustainability efforts happening at UW currently.

Goal 2. Identify outreach and community engagement activities already occuring on campus, particularly in the STEM fields. Many programs on campus offer outreach to K-12 students in the form of assemblies, field trips, or more extensive summer programs. In order to better understand what types of programs are being offered to the community by UW, we plan to reach out to faculty members running these programs. We also plan to discuss the possibility of incorporating service-learning into the programs or related courses taught by the faculty members.

Goal 3. Build relationships with on campus entities that are dedicated to improving environmental awareness and sustainable practices at UW. Among the many groups working to improve campus sustainability, we have identified the Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability Office and the Campus Sustainability Fund campus groups that are crafting a campus culture that is environmentally conscious. We hope to partner with these and other student groups across campus to provide students participating in service-learning opportunities to make a positive impact on campus sustainability.

Goal 4. Improve outreach efforts to sustainability focused Registered Student Organizations (RSO’s). Student groups across campus are demonstrating dedication to diverse issues in sustainability. We already have partnerships with various student groups, such as WashPIRG and the UW Farm. By connecting with more student groups, we hope to develop additional on-campus service-learning and volunteer opportunities and also link these groups with the environmental organizations in the broader Seattle community.

The new student liaison will address the goals listed above using the following strategies during Summer 2011:

Strategy 1: Develop Partnerships. The new student liaison will reach out to the organizations listed by the current liaison as organizations that would be suitable for service-learning partnerships, as well as research other potential organizations. This will involve site visits to organizations across Seattle to discuss the goals of the organizations and ways that students could provide support through service- learning. Specific organizations to reach out to include Sustainable Seattle, Sustainable Northeast Seattle, and Environment Washington.

Strategy 2: Identify Campus Activities. The current liaison has developed a list of summer outreach programs conducted by faculty in the STEM disciplines. Over the summer, the new student liaison will contact the leaders in these programs to learn more about what they offer to students in Seattle and also determine if service-learners could participate in the program during the academic year.

Strategy 3: Build Relationships with Campus Offices. The Carlson Center hopes to host a service-learning round table event during the Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability Office’s “Sustainability Summit” held in the fall. At this event we plan to bring together faculty, some who have participated in service-learning and some who are interested in service- learning but have not used it in the classroom, and representatives from community environmental organizations who are familiar with service-learning to facilitate discussions about service-learning opportunities. The student liaison would take part in much of the planning of the event during the summer in order for it to occur in October.

Strategy 4: Build Relationships with Student Groups. The Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability Office has already identified a list of Environmental RSO’s at UW. We plan to contact these groups during the early summer and late summer in order to talk about ways to provide support to them, as well as collaborate with them in the fall and throughout the year. We would also like to invite representatives of these groups to the round table event in the fall to discuss ways to incorporate on-campus service-learning and volunteer positions into the organizations.

Student Involvement:

The project will heavily involve the work of one student in the role of sustainability service-learning liaison. The work that this student does will impact the number of students, particularly those in the STEM disciplines and those focused on environmental issues, who will participate in service-learning both on and off campus.

Education & Outreach:

As outlined above, the student liaison will reach out to on campus student groups, offices, and faculty members that may be interested in service-learning. Each quarter, when service-learning courses have been decided, the liaison will go to the classrooms to present general information about service-learning and more specific information about the positions available at both local sustainability focused organizations and within on campus offices, groups, and centers. The Center will also help to publicize the Sustainability Summit event through the Carlson Center website and list serve.

Environmental Impact:
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The Climate Action Plan cites outreach and engagement as a strategy to increase academic engagement in climate change. The work of the student liaison will help to achieve the Plan’s goals of fostering awareness, positive attitudes, and positive action and will improve sustainability practices at UW. The outreach by the liaison will significantly impact the number of service-learning opportunities available for students, in turn leading to more environmental impacts by UW students. The Carlson Center will also be able to cultivate relationships between students in RSO’s and local community organizations, enabling students within those groups to engage in the off campus community in addition to their on campus work. Student work will range from habitat restoration and trail building in the Puget Sound Region to work in local community gardens, the UW Farm, campus energy audits, campus behavior change campaigns, and many others. Students who have the opportunity to engage in service-learning off campus will bring fresh ideas back to campus to encourage more sustainable practices at the University.

Additionally, this project will engage and involve students in better understanding University of Washington sustainability focused mandates and Washington state law through critical reflection on both their on campus and off campus service. The outreach and collaboration fostered by the Sustainability Service-Learning Liaison, coupled with sound principles of service-learning, will lead students and the UW campus to better understand their sustainability involvement in the context of institutional, local, state, and federal mandates regarding sustainable practices.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF: $3,588
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Hourly wage advanced undergraduate or graduate Student Sustainability Service-Learning Liaison$15/hr15 hrs/week x 14 weeks3150
Benefits Student Sustainability Service-Learning Liason13.9% of total wages1438.00

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Begin outreach to community organizations, faculty, on campus offices, and RSOs15 weeks (June 30 - September 30)Summer outreach will conclude September 30th, but outreach will continue through the academic year
First installment of the CSF grantJune 30, 2011
Last installment of the CSF grantSeptember 30, 2011
Sustainability Summit Service-Learning Round Table EventTBD (same day as ESS event)
Final Project Report SubmissionOctober 30, 2011

Project Approval Forms:

Biodiversity Greenwall, Edible Green Screen, and Water Harvesting Demonstration Project

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF: $86,800
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Biodiesel Cooperative Vapor Characterization

Executive Summary:

The Biodiesel Cooperative is seeking funds to perform a vapor characterization analysis to determine the quantity of methanol vapor released from the Biodiesel Cooperative’s production process.

Characterizing the vapors released from the reactor is important, because the biodiesel conversion involves methanol. Methanol can cause health effects when inhaled. The OSHA permissible exposure limit for methanol vapor exposure is a time-weighted average of 200ppm over an 8-hour period. The Cooperative uses liquid methanol, but since the reactor is heated during the conversion some of the methanol may vaporize during reaction. It is important to know if any of this vaporized methanols is released, because it could have health effects. The Cooperative will also be determining the flammability risk with the vapor. This research has impacts that are potentially broader than just the Cooperative. The vapors released from small-scale biodiesel reactors have not been well characterized. The vapor characterization will help to keep small-scale biodiesel producers like the Cooperative safe.

The characterization will be performed in a temporary lab space allocated to the Cooperative by Engineering Facilities Services for the purpose of the vapor characterization. This project will be done in cooperation with Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S). The ultimate goal of the project is to determine the Cooperative’s lab requirements. Once EH&S agrees to the lab requirements, the Cooperative will be able to find a lab space that meets the Cooperative’s long term needs and insures its viability. The Cooperative will be in a much stronger position to fulfill its main goals after this characterization is complete. It will be able to begin to educate individuals in a small-scale alternative energy production, while also increase sustainability on campus by repurposing a waste stream into fuel for on-campus vehicles

Student Involvement:

Student volunteer opportunities of this project can be divided into two categories: logistics and engineering. Below are the main project leaders. Each of these leaders is currently involved in the vapor characterization project in the ways explained below. There will be further opportunities for student involvement for more junior members. These junior members will help to implement the project and work directly under one of the project leaders on specific tasks, such as running the reactor or helping to write grants for the project.

Engineering:

  • Project Manager: The vapor characterization project’s manager, Steve Jeka, is responsible for writing and revising vapor testing methods, collaborating with EH&S, and communicating the project’s needs to the Chief Technical Officer.
  • Chief Technical Officer: The Cooperative’s 2011-2012 chief technical officer, Brandon Curtis, is responsible for communicating the project’s logistical needs to the logistics team, managing and scheduling the vapor characterization lab team in cooperation with the lab director and project manager, leading vapor characterization-related engineering meetings, and participating in engineering operations.
  • Lab Director: The Cooperative’s 2011-2012 lab director, Nick Wang, is responsible for assisting the Chief Technical officer by helping to manage and schedule the vapor characterization lab team, lead vapor characterization-related engineering meetings, and participate in engineering operations.
  • Head of Maintenance and Safety: The Cooperative’s 2011-2012head of maintenance and safety, Brian Parsons, is responsible for performing routine maintenance checks, enforcing safety protocol, and communicating lab supply and maintenance needs to the lab director and chief technical officer to make sure the vapor characterization project proceeds safely.
  • Assistant Lab Directors: The Cooperative’s current assistant lab directors, Andrew Byrum, Tung Hefferan, Rowdy Roddick, are responsible for specific engineering operations projects such as managing a reactor run as directed by the lab director and the chief technical officer.

Logistics:

  • Chief Operations Officer: The Cooperative’s 2011-2012 chief operations officer, Grant Williamson, is responsible for running vapor characterization-related executive meetings, creating publicity documents, writing grants and stakeholder agreements, and supporting the engineering team through attaining funding and public backing for the vapor characterization project.
  • Chief Relations Officer: The Cooperative’s 2011-2012 chief relations officer, Kathryn Cogert, is responsible for running internal vapor characterization-related logistics meetings, communicating the status of the project to stakeholders and aligning the project with stakeholder needs, and supporting the engineering team through attaining funding and public backing for the vapor characterization project.

Education & Outreach:

The Biodiesel Cooperative’s primary goal is education. The core mission of the Cooperative is to prepare students for jobs in the alternative energy industry. This preparation comes through education. This education takes two forms, hands-on learning and mentorship. The Cooperative helps students gain both engineering and business experience through operating a small-scale biodiesel plant. On the business side this experience stems from satisfying stakeholders, performing outreach, and managing the Cooperative’s financials. On the engineering side this experience involves process improvements, plant operation and research. The cooperative also provides mentorship opportunities for students in the form of more experienced students and industry professionals.

The Cooperative has a strong outreach arm. The Cooperative works with its mentors and stakeholders to educate the community about alternative energy. Since its founding last December the Cooperative has participated in several on campus outreach events. These included Engineering Discovery Days in Spring 2011, the ENGAGE event the day before the SEBA sponsored Autumn Science and Engineering Career Fair and the Sustainability Summit this October. At these events the Cooperative worked to educate the community about alternative energy industry while also giving members the opportunity to hone their communication skills. The Cooperative also has gone to classes on campus to recruit. As we deepen our relationships with departments we hope to begin to offer class presentations, lab tours, and hands on labs about alternative energy and the Biodiesel Cooperative.

The vapor characterization project is largely for internal Cooperative purposes and so will be publicized primarily to Cooperative stakeholders in the community. These stakeholders value this information, because it will help to define the direction the Cooperative takes with finding a space and showcase the Cooperative’s standard of professionalism and dedication to safety. We have numerous stakeholders involved in locating a permanent space. These most prominently include Engineering Facilities and EH&S. By giving our stakeholders the precise lab requirements we have they will be able to better connect us with community members who can help give us a home. Furthermore, the success of this project will act as a stepping-stone for stronger outreach to the rest of the campus. Once the Cooperative has a lab space, it will be able to offer more hands-on opportunities. The logistics team will also be able to focus more heavily on outreach rather than investing much of their time in locating a space for the Cooperative. While this project has a relatively small immediate impact on the Cooperative’s outreach efforts, it will enable the Cooperative to quickly improve its outreach offerings and more actively publicize itself on campus.
 

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Transportation
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Reducing green house gases has been a rising industrial endeavor in the past few years. The good news is from 1997 to 2007 the “green economy” has tripled in size. That means when current engineering students graduate to the job market, the openings will be in that industry. However, the bad news is those students are not being prepared to work in this rapidly growing sector. Internships and co-ops are readily available at large chemical companies like Dow and DuPont, but getting relevant industry experience at a start-up biodiesel plant is much more difficult. The Biodiesel Cooperative provides industry experience and works prepare students for jobs in the alternative energy through hands on experience.

Our goal is to create a non-profit entirely student run biodiesel plant at UW using waste cooking oil from on campus restaurants. This vapor characterization project is an opportunity for students to gain relevant industry experience in the alternative energy industry, as well as act as a key stepping-stone in bringing our envisioned biodiesel plant online. By characterizing the vapor leaving our process, the Cooperative will be able to determine what kind of lab our plant will be best housed in and the Cooperative will have accomplished its goal of fostering tomorrow’s energy innovators.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The impact of this particular project will be measured in three ways. First, the impact of the project can be measured by our project conclusions. The ultimate goal of this project is to determine what kind of permanent lab space the Cooperative requires. Currently, Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) requires a fume hood for us to operate because we do not know how much methanol vapor is produced during our process. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find a permanent lab space with a fume hood. After the data we collect is synthesized, we will be able to conclude with confidence whether our lab needs a fume hood or not. That conclusion will impact the success of the Biodiesel Cooperative as a whole. If we are able to conclude that a well-ventilated space would suffice, then the Cooperative will have a much easier time finding a permanent home. The impact can also be measured in the number of other small-scale biodiesel producers that the Cooperative is able to help. There is very little literature on the vapors released from a biodiesel production process. The data we collect will be a useful source for other budding biodiesel cooperatives as they determine what their “best practice space” would be. Finally, the impact will be measured in the number of students who gain experience doing research within the alternative energy industry. This project is entirely student run, and each student involve will complete the project more prepared to enter the alternative energy industry then they were before they began.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $1,620
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Methanol $450/55 gal drum (including shippinng)1$450
Catalyst (KOH)$4/lb10 lbs$40
Sulfuric Acid$20/500 mL1 L$40
Storage Totes (5 Gal Carboys)$10/unit50$500
Spill Kits$135/unit2$270
Oil Barrier$85/unit2$170

Non-CSF Sources:

Source/DescriptionAmount RequestedDate RequestedDate Received
Mary Gates Leadership Scholarship$4000Oct 25thDenied
Project Completion Total: $1,620

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Methods Refinemens with EH&S7 weeksJanuary 11th
Purchase & Procure Required Materials5 weeksJanuary 25th
Locate Temporary Lab Space with Facilities Services (or outside agent found through CSF)5 weeksFebruary 10th
Move In1 dayFebruary 11th
Perform Required Tests (Run Biodiseal Reactor at capacity on 5 seperate occasions)3 weeksFebruary 25th
Move out1 dayFebruary 28th
Analyze Data and Present Conclusions to the Cooperative, EH&S and Facility Services1 weekMarch 4th

Project Approval Forms:

Kincaid Ravine Restoration Project

Executive Summary:

Overview

We seek to restore Kincaid Ravine, a 2.2 acre urban forest in the northeast corner of campus. Our project will transform this neglected ravine from a declining and unsafe area to an ecologically healthy campus forest. This work will increase native species biodiversity, and enhance the ravine’s ability to perform important ecosystem services. It will also create an upland forested outdoor laboratory for academic exploration on main campus, as well as a space for students to engage with the natural world just steps from their residence halls.

Project Goals

1. Ecological restoration of Kincaid Ravine through removal of invasive species and re-establishment of appropriate native plant communities.

2. Engagement of students and academic units in both the initial restoration and long-term stewardship in order to create learning opportunities and environmental awareness.

Key Stakeholders

This project is being designed as a partnership between Martha Moritz (student project manager), Howard Nakase- UW Grounds (land manager), UW Botanic Gardens (faculty/administrative sponsor unit), and EarthCorps (outside expertise on restoration and major volunteer event coordination). Other project stakeholders in support of the restoration efforts include: Kristine Kenney,(Campus Landscape Architect), Josh Kavanagh (UW Transportation), Mike Ward- Seattle Department of Transportation (adjacent land owner), Kern Ewing and Jim Fridley (UW faculty members), the UW Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration, Phi Kappa Theta Fraternity (key volunteers), and a variety of other Registered Student Organizations (RSOs).

Project Phases

Planning - Spring and summer of 2013. We will lay the groundwork for success by: cementing important partnerships and conducting critical outreach with UW staff, academic units, RSOs, and other stakeholders for the initial restoration and long-term site stewardship; developing a restoration design; conducting baseline ecological monitoring; and preparing to launch the restoration work beginning in Autumn 2013. Prior to beginning the restoration efforts, the homeless encampments will be addressed in partnership with the UW Police Department, the Seattle Police Department and UW Grounds to remove any trespassers and clean up the associated debris.

Phase I - Autumn, Winter, Spring of 2013-2014. The work will involve major removal of invasive species, installation of hundreds of native plants, and other restoration work (e.g. slope stabilization, installing mulch, and creating maintenance access). This will involve EarthCorps crews and hundreds of student volunteers.

Phase II - Summer 2014-2016. The work during this time involves two to three years of maintenance, including ongoing invasive species monitoring which will guide continued removal of undesirable species regrowth, care for installed native species, and replanting when necessary. This phase will be performed in partnership with UW Grounds, EarthCorps, and student volunteers from academic units (e.g. UW Botanic Gardens) and RSOs.

Phase III - 2016 and on. The primary task will be minimal and ongoing invasive species maintenance. Based on the knowledge gained from decades of restoration experience in Seattle parks, we believe robust stewardship during the two years of Phase II will set the site on a trajectory for success and minimal maintenance in Phase III.

Student Involvement:

Our project will provide a great variety of opportunity for student involvement, including one student project manager, leadership opportunities for RSOs and a Fraternity, and significant volunteer opportunities. From the creation of the Kincaid Ravine as an open space decades ago, students have played an integral role in the protection of this urban forest. Below, we describe the history of this involvement, as well as the current opportunities for student involvement this project would provide.

Education & Outreach:

For our project to succeed, extensive outreach and educational opportunities are essential. Outreach is built into our work recruiting volunteers for restoration, and is critical to maintain the visibility of the ravine. Educational opportunities are incorporated into our work parties, and are inherent in the service learning partnerships we are developing with academic units. Our specific approaches for the various phases of the project are described below.

Planning Phase and Phase I Outreach Approach:

Partner with key academic units and other groups for volunteer recruitment, including: the Carlson Center, Program on the Environment, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, the UW  Restoration Ecology Network, and the UW Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association.

Develop and implement informative presentations to appropriate classes for volunteer recruitment and general outreach and education, including ESRM 100, ENVIR 100, restoration courses, and more.

Seek an article in The Daily in Autumn 2013, just as the project begins, to promote project visibility.

Formalize the partnership with UW Society for Ecological Restoration (SER-UW) and Phi Kappa Theta, who will take on long-term stewardship in future phases; engage EarthCorps volunteer specialists to provide technical assistance on this effort.

Phase II and III Outreach Goals:

Continue established volunteer outreach and student involvement on campus through the developed partnership with SER-UW and Phi Kappa Theta.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Kincaid Ravine is one of the last remaining pieces of undeveloped land on campus, and one of the last such tracts of land in the entire University District. It plays an important role in the campus and neighborhood ecological landscape -- providing critical ecosystem services such as stormwater retention and purification, air filtration, and habitat provision for native plants and wildlife. Equally important, the ravine has the potential to offer students the experience of “nearby nature,” whether for recreation or academic exploration.

Unfortunately, after decades of neglect and a variety of deleterious human impacts, the ravine’s ability to provide these important ecological and social services is seriously threatened. Like many forested greenspaces in Seattle, the ravine’s canopy is made up of deciduous trees that are coming to the end of their natural lifespan, and its understory is dominated by invasive plants that smother new native trees and shrubs. On its current course, the ravine’s ecosystem will decline precipitously over the next generation.                               

We are proposing a large restoration project to reset the ecological trajectory of the site, and to engage students in stewardship. Through a year of intensive work removing invasive species and planting a variety of appropriate native plants, and two to three years of intensive maintenance, we put the ravine on a course to sustain itself. By involving hundreds of students in this work, the ravine will serve as a “campus forest,” providing educational and recreational opportunities for years to come.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

We will monitor the site’s ecological conditions before and after the project:

  • During the Planning Phase, we will perform baseline ecological monitoring to determine the exact composition and abundance and native and invasive species, through line transects and photo-points.
  • We will repeat this monitoring process after the restoration work in Phase I  in order to determine our immediate impact.
  • By documenting the change in species inventory of both native and invasive vegetation, we can provide quantitative evidence of increased native biodiversity in the Kincaid Ravine.

This data will be used to guide the maintenance in Phases II and III. The invasive species data will be important when creating a long-term stewardship plan. Specific management goals will be set for individual invasive weed species in order to prioritize the maintenance in areas where the greatest ecological need is present.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $70,179
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost/ItemQuantitySub-Total
SALARIES / WAGES
Stipend for Student Project Manager6,50016,500
CONTRACTUAL SERVICES
Phase I Restoration Expenses
-EarthCorps Crew days for invasive removal1,5971219,164
-EarthCorps volunteer management Event Coordination1,59757,985
Contingency Budget for Phase I Restoration
-Potential for 5 additional crew days, additional supplies, etc7,985
Phase II Restoration Expenses
-EarthCorps Crew Days for invasive removal or volunteer management1,5971219,164
MATERIALS / SUPPLIES
Outreach Materials for Student InvolvementNANA1,200
Plants3.751,5005,625
Mulch$23/yard23 yards3,450
Other restoration materials300
Contingency for Phase II Materials2,500

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

Please see the timeline in our attached supplemental materials.TimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Campus Green Labs: Sustainable Oceanography Lab Pilot Project

Executive Summary:

Our ENVIR 480 Sustainability Studio project group partnered with Shelly Carpenter, lab manager at the Marine Sciences Building, to focus on reducing the water and energy consumption of commonly used lab equipment. We will install LED bulbs in one growth chamber in the Marine Sciences Building and faucet aerators throughout the building to test the viability of implementing these technologies in more campus labs.

Labs are hesitant to incorporate these products because no case study exists to demonstrate successful implementation. We have consulted with experts from several research institutions to identify the most beneficial, convenient, and cost-effective products available. This project will provide an example for other labs to reduce waste and earn net savings. It will also contain an educational component aimed to help other students organize similar projects in other facilities.

Student Involvement:

This project is student-centered because it was designed by students in the Fall 2012 ENVIR 480 Sustainability Studio course, focusing on green labs. Prior to our CSF proposal, our team has already done quite a bit of work to plan this project. In ENVIR 480, we created a cost-benefit analysis, wrote a memo, provided ESS with a sustainability snapshot, met with clients at the Marine Sciences Building several times, and gave a presentation to faculty members to introduce our project, which was received with enthusiasm.

Making this project a reality shows that students have the power to better their own campus. We hope that this project will inspire other students to come up with sustainability projects and utilize campus resources to make these projects happen. In order to communicate the success of this project with fellow students, we hope that the PoE Blog, The Daily, and other campus news sources will publish an Op-Ed on this project with details about the CSF process and the Sustainability Studio course to further connect us with students.

Although this project would not create any specific student jobs, it sets an example for fellow students to do a similar project within their own department. Our project website will include a page for students interested in continuing our project in other campus labs. The page will provide specific details, contacts, resources, and tips that we learned from our experience. 

Education & Outreach:

Our project would be publicized via a memo and website sent to all lab managers on campus. This memo will describe our project and provide the link to a website with the details of our case study, background information, and suggestions for simple ways to improve lab sustainability. The goal of our deliverables is to raise awareness for these products and emphasize the benefits they provide.

Within the Oceanography department, this growth chamber will advertise itself. By providing an LED growth chamber facility, we provide students and faculty with a facility that was previously unavailable. This facility will open doors for other LED-centered student projects so that other students have the chance to experiment with LED lighting.

This project will not only benefit students, but will be educational for the scientific community as a whole. In literature searches and correspondence with more than fifteen phycology experts, we could not find a single article that directly addresses the comparative effects of LED and fluorescence in algal culturing.  This project is not exactly research, but it has the potential to prompt more specific research with sustainability applications to benefit the greater good.

Although LED technology is still in its infancy, scientists and engineers have made strides in developing high-intensity, low-energy light sources. As this technology progresses, costs will decrease and there will inevitably be a shift towards LED grow lights across the scientific community. In fact, LED lights provide more manageable and precise lighting to imitate natural light, maximize growth, or create a highly specific environment for samples. According to the researchers we contacted, there is a consensus that LED grow lights are superior to fluorescent lights because the emitted light spectrum can be customized by the manufacturer, unlike fluorescent lights, which offers a fixed, sub-optimal spectrum for phytoplankton growth. In order to facilitate and expedite this collective shift to a more sustainable grow light, our project would draw attention to the viability and superiority of cutting edge LED technology.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Waste
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Campus laboratory facilities are major contributors to water use, energy consumption, and waste generation. Due to the wide variety of equipment, large appliances, sinks, and disposable products labs require, in many cases, sustainability is compromised to maintain research quality, expedience, and a smoothly running facility. This project aims to provide campus labs with simple sustainability solutions to quickly and easily reduce consumption without sacrificing productivity. In order to provide reliable advice on our website, we would like to implement LED grow lights and sink aerators in the Marine Sciences Building as a case study working towards a large-scale implementation.

Details:

There are approximately 70 sinks in the Marine Sciences Building, none of which have faucet aerators. Faucet aerators are a simple and inexpensive way to save on utilities and reduce water consumption. Installation takes less than five minutes per sink, and removal can be performed just as quickly.  Mass implementation of sink aerators throughout campus would significantly reduce water use, in agreement with the goals of the Climate Action Plan and the UW’s commitment to sustainability.  Considering the cost reduction based on a 30% reduction in water flow (taking into account filling beakers and tasks that are not affected by reduced water flow) the one-time cost of 70 sink aerators would be $1,400.00, which will last many years. UW plumbing will advise our group on the proper brand/model aerator for this facility.

On the 3rd floor of the Marine Sciences Building there are five growth chambers, each of which consumes a substantial amount of energy. The growth chambers currently use 32-watt T8 fluorescent bulbs, which we would like to replace with 19-watt LED bulbs. On their own, these bulbs would save $0.84 per month. However, we have communicated with Seattle City Light regarding their commercial energy efficiency rebate program. This program allows for $0.02-$0.23 rebate per kWh saved. They expressed enthusiasm towards working with us if this project leads to an LED conversion on a larger scale than one growth chamber for a limited period of time. Based on a conservative rebate estimate ($0.125 per kWh saved) an LED conversion in just five growth chambers would save $25.97 per month. This program would only apply for mass implementation of energy saving bulbs and must be negotiated prior to installation. If this case study is successful, this mass implementation could be considered, potentially saving hundreds of dollars per month while eliminating waste.

These figures are based on an average 30 bulbs for the five chambers on the third floor, which are in use 517 hours per month, and the cost of energy in Seattle in October 2012 ($0.092/kWh). It should also be kept in mind that these bulbs reduce the light bulb waste stream by 11% due to increased product lifetime and they do not contain harmful mercury. LED bulbs also produce less heat, reducing cooling costs in refrigerated cold rooms. It is important to note that retrofitting fixtures and installing aerators are reversible changes that will not damage the building or equipment.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

A faucet aerator is a sink attachment that reduces water flow. Shelly Carpenter has confirmed that a water meter is scheduled for installation at the Marine Sciences Building, which would allow us to measure the change in water consumption after the implementation of sink aerators. We will measure the impact of this portion of the project by checking the flow rate before and after implementation and by calculating gallons saved based on water meter readings.

Growth chambers are essentially walk-in cold rooms with shelves and grow lights used for algal culturing. We will measure the impact of retrofitting the current fixtures with LED bulbs by measuring the light output with a standard PAR probe, attaching power meters, and using these readings to calculate kWh of electricity saved. We will also create a revised cost-benefit analysis based on these findings. Finally, we will be able to document any positive or negative effects of lighting on algal culture growth rates based on the change in output spectrum from fluorescent to LED lighting. Since, there is no research literature available on topic, this represents a barrier for some labs to adoption of LED lighting for algal culturing.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $2,247
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost/ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Philips LED T8 Tube GA$49.58 (plus tax)10$495.80
Faucet Aerators$5.00 (plus tax)70$1,400.00
P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor$25.61 (plus tax)2$51.22
Shipping + Tax$300.00
TOTAL$2,247.02

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $2,247

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Install aerators, take initial measurements, install LED lights, measure light output, hook up power meter(s)Week 1*Dependent upon date of grant allocation
Start new cultures, zero output power meterWeek 2
Take measurementsWeek 3
Take measurementsWeek 4
Take measurementsWeek 5
Compile data, analyze resultsWeek 6
Create website/memoWeek 7
Create website/memoWeek 8
Create website/memoWeek 9

After Hours @ The Burke

Executive Summary:

The "After Hours @ the Burke" event will be held at the Burke Museum. The proposed cost is $2,335. The event seeks to reduce plastic waste on campus by providing fun and informational activities that demonstrate what plastics are, the impacts of plastic pollution, and how the campus community can make a difference as responsible consumers and recyclers. The Burke Student Advisory Group is partnering with SEED. 

Student Involvement:

The event will provide numberous volunteer oppotunities for members of SEED,  the Burke Student Advisory Board, and other groups. There will be 2 or 3 students working each of the event activity tables, and presenting the campus information related to sustainability.

We estimate a total of 18-20 volunteers.

Education & Outreach:

This event will be promoted to the campus through flyers and signage, as well as via digital means, such as the Burke and SEED social media outlets. Working with Emily Newcomer (an advisor for the Plastics exhibit and associated programs), the "Ater Hours" event will highlight existing campus recycling resources as well as demontrate concrete changes that students can make to reduce their impact to the environment. Educationally, the program seeks to provide enough knowlegde for the participants to be able to have a different understanding of how plastic impacts their lives. 

Environmental Impact:
  • Waste
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Plastics have quickly become ubiqioutous in modern life, but we know that they have an environmental imact that expands far beyond the useful lifetimes of both plastic products and their users. They also have been proven to leach harmful chemicals into the enviroment as they break down over time. The "After Hours" event will expose these hidden problems to students, making them aware of some of the consequences of using plastic, while providing information on campus recycling efforts and plastics alternatives that they can adopt in their own lives. 

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

SEED and the Burke Advisory group will work together to create an exit survey for the event that addresses changes in attitudes, understanding, and recycling behavior. Additional measures will include participation numbers, informal learning assessments by presenters and staff, visitor comment sheets, increased participation in SEED and other presenting groups.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $2,335
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCostDetailsTotal Cost
Facilities Staff$200 Facilities staff $200 2 gallery guards @ 4 hours ea. ($11/hr + benefits) and 2 facility staff @ 3.25 hours ea. ($13/hr + bens)
Supplies$200 Average cost of craft and activity supplies for After Hours event
Posters$75 Printing & design
Ads in UW Daily$880 Two advertisements @ $440 ea
Presenter honoraria$400 Average cost for outside speakers/performers TBD
Refreshments$400 Average cost includes $100 for volunteers; $300 for guests
Photographer$200 To document event & post to Burke social media
TOTAL$2,335 Budget will be adjusted to reflect actual amount raised.

Non-CSF Sources:

Source/DescriptionAmount RequestedDate RequestedDate Received
Burke Museum$1,500 10/1/201210/1/2012
(value of waived rental fee, in-kind donation)
Project Completion Total: $3,835

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Student planning meetingsWinter quarter
Event presentationSpring quarter2335

Project Approval Forms:

Green Wall Interactive Educational Elements and Habitat Structures

Executive Summary:

This proposal is for material and labor costs for students to design, fabricate and install interactive educational elements and habitat enhancements to the previously funded CSF project, the Biodiversity Green Wall, Edible Green Screen and Water Harvesting Demonstration Project at Gould Hall.  These improvements will include the installation of bird perches on the Green Wall, a prominent water level monitor on the cisterns, and interpretive signage with links to online data.  Gould Hall is located in a As is often the case for highly urbanized environmentareas, the environment surrounding Gould Hall is deficient in wildlife habitat and generates profuse amounts of polluted stormwater runoff.  where wildlife habitat is rare and polluted stormwater is abundant. Exposing the water harvesting capabilities, habitat value, and other benefits of the Green Wall project will help students and passersby to understand and envision more sustainable opportunities for dense urban environments.  The project will be implemented through the Green Futures Research and Design Lab (GFL) at the College of Built Environments and the student team will consult with applicable departments during design and construction (i.e. the Gould Hall building manager, campus facilities and engineering, CSF, UW Architecture Commission, and others).  Through this grant, the wall’s capacity to support biodiversity will be enhanced, and interactive and dynamic interpretive features will compellingly inform students, faculty and the public about the sustainability features and the performance of the Green Wall.

Student Involvement:

This proposal will fund the labor costs for two students at the College of Built Environment to design, buy materials, fabricate and install the interactive educational elements and habitat enhancements.  It will also fund a student to design a robust Green Wall project page on the GFL website complete with live-streaming, or frequently updated monitoring information. There is a great deal of student interest in the Green Wall project, and we anticipate that there will also be significant volunteer participation among students, particularly during the installation and fabrication phases.  The project will be completed by the Green Futures Lab, directed by Professor Nancy Rottle, who was also the lead faculty advisor for the design and construction of the Green Wall.  This proposal will be student-led, with students obtaining design feedback from appropriate faculty and staff (College of Built Environments, Gould Hall building manager, campus architect, landscape architect, and facilities, CSF etc.).  Students will submit the signage design to the University for approval before fabrication. Students will use the shop at Gould Hall to fabricate most of the elements (design students are well-versed in the shop, and go through shop safety training).

Education & Outreach:

This proposal is primarily geared toward education and outreach.  The Green Wall project has been widely publicized (see below) and has played a critical role in both promoting green walls and advancing the technology.  The GFL receives visitors from across the country on a regular basis that are interested in implementing a green wall elsewhere and are looking to the UW Green Wall for inspiration.

Despite the success of media outreach campaigns, the Green Wall project currently has an untapped potential to provide educational opportunities to members of the general public who visit or pass by the site. By implementing this proposal, the inner workings of the Green Wall project (such as rainwater capture in the cisterns) will be revealed and thus provide a much more in-depth educational experience than is currently available. This will be particularly educational for those with an untrained eye in sustainable design. The signage will include QR codes that will link to online information the Green Futures Lab website to further explain the project and convey current monitoring results, and to the CSF website to instruct how students can create sustainability projects of their own.

Already implemented education and outreach for the Green Wall Project:

  • UW TV- The Daily Double Shot
  • UW Today
  • Seattle Times
  • AIA What Makes It Green Award, Honorable Mention
  • AIA headquarters WMIG Gallery
  • Future Energy Conference, Seattle
  • CBE Blog Postings
  • Gallery Display in Gould Court Café
  • UW Sustainability Fair
  • OUT / in / FRONT 2012 Gallery
  • King 5 News
  • UW Website
  • Conservation Magazine
  • Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, Architecture + Engineering
  • Green Infrastructure Partnership
  • You Tube (time lapse video)
  • Switchboard, the National Resource Defense Council’s blog
  • Blog posting in Atlantic Cities
  • Involvement of over 60 students, faculty and staff and a local contractor
Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Our urban environment contains many environmental problems (i.e. issues of native habitat destruction, interrupted food webs, polluted stormwater runoff, carbon reliance, urban heat island effects, water consumption and waste, climate changing conditions, atmospheric impacts amongst others). The Green Wall project has many environmental benefits that address these problems (i.e.  water recycling, stormwater attenuation, air purification, noise attenuation reduction, habitat to increase urban biodiversity, urban heat island reduction, heat island mitigation, enhanced building performance, local food production).  The features provided by this project would educate the public about these benefits, some of which are not obvious to the untrained eye, and explain the inner workings of the Green Wall to better educate the public about living walls and water harvesting systems.  The water level measuring device, signage and web page would promote environmental literacy in our urbanized society, informing future professionals about sustainable design techniques and sparking interest in these techniques among the general public.  We intend to include a web link (e.g. smart phone QR code) within the signage to direct visitors towards dynamic explanatory graphics and text on the web page, which will include monitoring results and possibly live data, engaging the public interactively and educating them about the ecosystem services provided by the Green Wall project.

Additionally, we have observed substantial avian interest in the Green Wall, and it appears that birds are looking for perches to access the shelter, nesting material, and food source of plants growing on the wall.  Some are using the light poles but cannot reach the plants from these.  We propose to enhance the Green Wall’s biodiversity value by adding structural perches that will enable songbirds to access seeds and insects on the plants from a suitable proximity, and to successfully nest in the wall (as one bird attempted to last year.).  Bird perches would enhance both increase the biodiversity habitat value of the wall, attract more attention to the wall through bird activity and songs, and enhance the human viewing and educational experience.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Installation of an external water level measuring device will enable the GFL to monitor the levels of water stored in the cisterns and the volume detained from entering the sewer system.  Using a visible, creative design will also enable the public to monitor these water levels. In addition, tThe Green Futures Lab recently received a grant from the UW Green Seed Fund for monitoring of the Green Wall project.  The GFL would be able to employ some of these funds towards measuring the effectiveness of the bird perches.  Students working on the project would be able to compare avian visitations to the Green Wall before and after the bird perch installation, noting species types as well as frequency and duration of visitations.  With development of a public website dynamic online Green Wall resource, data collected via the monitoring project with regard to the habitat value, water usage, stormwater detained, and thermal modulation would become available to the public on the website that CSF funding would support.

While educational benefits are difficult to measure, we would be able to gather some information by monitoring usage of the GFL’s website.  This will allow us to see how often people use the QR code provided on the interpretive signage by the Green Wall to link the website, and what types of information on the Green Wall they seek out most frequently.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $5,500
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost/ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Equipment & Construction
Installation of Water Level Measuring100011000
Interpretive Sign Printing/ Fabrication2502500
Materials (Steel, piping, float, etc)5001500
Publicity & Communications
Website Design and Maintenance by Student17.350870
Personnel & Wages
Project Management by Student17.316280
Design, Fabrication and Installation by Students17.31362350
General Supplies & Other

Non-CSF Sources:

Source/DescriptionAmount RequestedDate RequestedDate Received
Green Seed Fund$40,478 12/5/20131/9/2014
Project Completion Total: $49,978

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Design of Interactive Educational and Habitat Elements1 monthJul-14
Order and Purchase Materials3 weeksAug-14
Fabrication and Installation of Elements2 weeksSep-14

UW Night Market

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

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Non-CSF Sources:

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Project Approval Forms:

Understanding Pro-Environmental Behavior

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Tap That

Executive Summary:

Project Tap That's goal is to educate University of Washington (UW) students about the harmful effects of single-use plastic water bottles, promote the use of reusable water bottles, and ultimately ban the sale of plastic water bottles on campus. Many students do not equate their food and consumption choices with real world problems because the effects are not immediately (or ever) felt or seen by the consumer. Project Tap That seeks to bridge the educational gap between student consumption and environmental impact through a multi-year campaign−similar to Seattle University and Western Washington University−that will take the following steps:

  • A year of education and outreach focused on project visibility and spreading information about the impacts of disposable water bottles.
  • A second year of outreach focused on gaining student and faculty support through signatures while still spreading information.
  • An attempt to start a dialogue with UW faculty about renegotiating the contract with Coca-Cola and banning the sale of plastic water bottles on campus.

Project stakeholders and partners will mainly be UW students, HFS staff members, and UW Recycling administrators. The UW Earth Club will be assisting Project Tap That with outreach, putting up posters, handing out flyers, and tabling events. UW art students, (there are currently two), will be creating, designing and installing the art piece in the HUB by fall 2015, as well as helping with graphic design of educational materials. HFS representative Michael Meyering is supplying Project Tap That with information about water bottle sales on campus. Project Tap That will be using this information for educational materials and for the amount of bottles used in the art pieces. UW Recycling representative Liz Gignilliat has granted the project access to recycling bins, which will be placed around campus to procure bottles for the art piece. Director of the HUB Lincoln Johnson has approved the placement of 1-2 large art projects in two specific locations in the HUB. UW Art advisor Elizabeth Copland is assisting Project Tap with facilitating student interest.

Project Tap That is asking for a total of $7,456.59  to be used for art supplies, visual media, and 500 promotional reusable water bottles.

Student Involvement:

Project Tap That is partnering with UW Earth Club to promote the campaign, increase its scope across campus, and provide a base of passionate students to carry the project through to completion. The students in Earth Club will assist Project Tap That with tabling and other outreach efforts. Additionally, building off of previous research and experience, Earth Club will inform the direction of Project Tap That and provide a starting point for gathering more information from students about barriers to selecting tap water.

Project Tap That will also be working closely with multiple students from the School of Art to create the art pieces as well as appropriate visual media and a logo. The art students will be working over the course of late spring and early summer of 2015 to create the art pieces in order to display their work in the fall. Once the campaign is up and running, any interested students will be invited to weekly RSO meetings and to help with campaign efforts.

Education & Outreach:

Education is a central component of Project Tap That. The first stage of the project, which will take place in fall 2015, will involve having a weekly or bi-weekly outreach table on campus as well as tabling at prominent events−like the annual Sustainability Summit and Dawg Daze−to raise awareness about the campaign. At the table there will be educational materials, an opportunity to talk with a representative from Project Tap That about the issue, and information about how to get involved with future events. Tabling will also involve a bottled water vs. tap water taste test to demonstrate the taste consistency. Students will taste bottled water and tap water, without knowing which is which, and will be asked if they can identify the source of the water. Bottled water is often chosen over tap water due to arguments about differences in taste. Depending on what the students say, this activity will provide a basis for Project Tap That to educate students about similarities in bottled and tap water in terms of taste, but large differences in terms of environmental impact.

Project Tap That will host quarterly screenings of the documentary Tapped (2009) and/or Plastic Paradise (2013) where the promotional water bottles will be handed out to participants following a post-movie discussion. Project Tap That is also discussing creating a resident student organization which will allow interested students to meet weekly, help volunteer with events and learn more about the campaign and the cause. The RSO will also allow for the current members of the campaign (Dillon, Rachel & Emily) to find motivated students to take over campaign responsibilities following our graduation (Spring 2015).

Two art pieces made solely out of plastic water bottles will be placed in two locations of the HUB. These art pieces are designed to show students the vast amount of plastic bottles that are consumed, many of which end up in landfills. The art pieces will be accompanied by signs that provide information about the impacts of bottled water. In addition to this, signs that contain information about the ecological benefits of choosing tap water will be placed by water fountains. All educational materials will contain Project Tap That’s logo, so the campaign will gain recognition over time. Tabling, signage, and the reusable bottles will spread awareness about the campaign to the UW community.

Through these educational efforts, we want to achieve these goals:

  • Achieve a well-known presence on campus
  • Educate as many individuals as possible about the impacts of plastic water bottles.
  • Convert individuals from plastic water bottle users to reusable water bottles users.
  • Gain support in our long-term initiative to ban plastic water bottles on campus.

Project Tap That will also look into pursuing an ASUW resolution for a ban on selling plastic water bottles in campus stores once the educational campaign has started and a certain amount of signatures have been collected. Passing a resolution with ASUW will strengthen the campaign’s message and show that students view this issue as important, which will increase traction when working with the administration on this.

Project Tap That recognizes the important role that the installation of water fountains has in changing behavior and encouraging the use of reusable water bottles. However, at this moment, the members of Project Tap That are unable to devote an adequate amount of time towards researching and coordinating the logistics of installing additional water fountains. Project Tap That decided to focus on education and outreach rather than water fountain installation because originally, another team had written a CSF proposal for a project that was focused on the installation of new water fountains, but decided not to submit the proposal to the CSF. Project Tap That acknowledges the benefits of installing new water fountains and will begin researching and evaluating the feasibility of installing water fountains in various locations after the educational campaign is launched and underway.

Environmental Impact:
  • Waste
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Project Tap that will be working with UW Earth Club to implement various parts of this project and will continue doing so in the future. The members of Project Tap That are also working to establish a Project Tap That registered student organization (RSO) to recruit students who are passionate about and dedicated to the goals of this campaign. Creating an RSO will ensure that this project will continue to be maintained in the future by cultivating a dedicated support base of students that will sustain the project. Student volunteers will assist with tabling events, collecting signatures for the bottled water petition, and educational events such as the documentary screening. Funds from the CSF will be used to create or purchase educational materials and bottles that will incentivize students to use a reusable bottle. Future funding will depend on what types of activities or outreach Project Tap That decides to engage in, but Project Tap That will look to external sources of funding after the campaign has begun.

Environmental Problem:

In 2010, citizens in the United States consumed approximately 42.6 billion plastic water bottles. However, the rate of recycling plastic water bottles in the U.S. is only 23 percent, which means that over 9 billion bottles (well over a billion dollars worth of plastic) are sent to landfills or end up in the oceans each year.  Additionally, it takes around three times as much water as well as a ¼ of a liter of oil to manufacture and transport each bottle, which creates a substantial carbon footprint and wastes one of the most precious substances on the planet in an effort to make a profit. Plastic water bottles create a very large impact on the planet that can easily be avoided.

According to data directly from HFS Building and Sustainability Manager Michael Meyering, nearly 180,000 plastic water bottles were purchased in 2014 for sale on campus. This is a substantial number of bottles that are being transported to campus, and eventually wasted after only a few minutes or hours of use. A large number number of these bottles are disposed of on campus and end up in the landfill each year. A 2012 survey done by the UW Garbology club on disposal kiosks around the university campus showed that approximately 30% of all recyclable plastic ends up in the trash or mistakenly in the compost (UW Garbology 2012). Better recycling practices would reduce the number of bottles being “wasted” on campus; however, these bottles still require large quantities of oil and water just to be produced and transported, and are usually just recycled into more plastic bottles and other plastic products. Project Tap That seeks to reduce and eventually eliminate the amount of plastic bottles UW contributes to landfills and will work with HFS representatives to track the amount of water bottles sold after the project has been implemented to determine the success of the outreach.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

HFS representative Michael Meyering is supplying Project Tap That with information about water bottle sales on campus. This information will be used as a baseline for measuring the impacts of Project Tap That. Based on data provided to Project Tap That from Michael Meyering, 180,000 plastic water bottles were purchased in 2014 for sale on campus. After the campaign has been launched, Project Tap That will again meet with Michael Meyering to track and collect data about water bottle sales on campus to evaluate the impact of the campaign. This data can be converted into the amount of plastics diverted from the landfill, the amount of energy saved from making the bottles, and the amount of greenhouse gas emissions reduced from transportation.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $7,457
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Scissors59.6953.30
Plastic glue 2 oz.54.9927.45
Glue gun57.9943.95
Hot glue (255)138.0341.84
Wire (32 ft)23.437.55
Posters1000.6571.50
Banner210.0022.00
Leaflets10000.45495.00
Liberty BPA-free aluminum bottles50011.505750.00
Storage unit for bottles for the art project 1 unit for 4 months229.00 per month938.00

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $7,457

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Creation of logo, fliers, and educational mat2erials3 monthsAugust 2015
Collection of water bottles for art project3 monthsAugust 2015
Developing the art piece4 monthsSeptember 2015
Installing and displaying the art piece2 monthsOctober 2015
Documentary screening1 monthOctober 2015
Campaign tabling (weekly or bi-weekly)9 monthsJune 2016

Sustainable Lighting for UW Farm, Phase 1

Executive Summary:

Food scarcity in urban populations is a significant and growing problem that the world is beginning to address. Indoor farming is a solution that many are adopting. Growing food indoors allows food to be localized in densely populated areas, which can significantly decrease costs and increase quality and quantity. The largest obstacle to realizing these benefits is the prohibitive operating costs associated with traditional horticulture lights. The University of Washington is dealing with this same problem in the wide variety of greenhouses throughout campus. There is a clear need to retrofit these structures with energy efficient alternatives.

In partnership with the University of Washington (UW) Farm, as well as IUNU, a Seattle-based startup comprised of UW Alumni and graduate students, this project will increase the efficiency of the University’s indoor horticulture lighting systems. This project’s aims can be broken down into two separate phases; 1) to conduct a feasibility study to compare the energy usage and plant output of the High Pressure Sodium (HPS) indoor horticulture lighting systems currently used by UW Farm with the high-efficiency plasma lighting systems developed by IUNU; and 2) install the high-efficiency lighting systems in the newly constructed UW Farm greenhouse for supplemental lighting.

The feasibility study will aid the subsequent Education and Outreach of this project by collecting data over a twelve-week period on the energy usage and plant output of both the HPS and plasma systems. This data will be provided to the UW Farm so that they have evidence to justify retrofits and materials for education and outreach.

In order to conduct the feasibility study, lettuce, alliums, basil, and brassica will be grown as this is what the UW Farm intends to grow with the lights once they are installed in Phase Two. These varieties of vegetation were also chosen under the guidance of Liz Van Volkenburgh who is a professor in the Biology Department at the university and a specialist in plant physiology. In order to set metrics for the feasibility study, pounds per watt will be used to measure the energy efficiency of the two lighting systems. This metric uses the pounds of produce grown and compares it to the input-wattage used by each lighting system in order to display output in the context of efficiency. To test the quality of the produce grown, we will conduct a blind taste test and shelf life analysis.

Furthermore, plasma lighting is a relatively new technology and there is a demand for more research into its potential horticulture applications. Growing interest surrounding energy efficiency and indoor horticulture are driving these demands. Plasma light is estimated to be 30% more energy efficient than LEDs and 50% more efficient than high-pressure sodium systems. The UW’s ownership of plasma lighting fixtures will provide a resource for UW undergraduate and graduate students to have an opportunity to produce unique, marketable research in future endeavors.

In order to complete this project, $1,788.49 is being requested for Phase One of this grant: the feasibility study, and an additional $8,029.99 is being requested for Phase Two; the purchase and implementation of the lights in the various greenhouses, the total cost of this project being $9,818.58 between the two phases.

Student Involvement:

Phase One of the grant implementation will only require two to three people for setting up the materials for the study. The set up will require the help of UW Farm staff, who have generously offered space to be used for the study in their facilities’ storage rooms. The cooperation of IUNU staff will ensure that the lighting systems are properly set up for their maximum operating efficiency. The feasibility study will be conducted in two side-by-side grow tents, one housing the new IUNU Dual Plasma system, and the other housing the High Pressure Sodium system. These tents will be held under the same conditions and the same four types of plants will be grown to assess the quantity and quality of the vegetation produced. Pictures will be taken on tripods throughout the course of the ten-week study in order to get a visual comparison of the vegetation produced under the different conditions. The majority of the data gathering can be conducted by a single person who will be taking pictures and measuring both electricity consumption and plant output throughout the ten-week study. This position will be funded with a stipend of $1,400, based on 10 hours of work per week over 10 weeks.

Phase Two, the implementation process and subsequent education and outreach, has many possibilities for a wide variety of both student and faculty involvement. The initial implementation will require only two people to install and configure the three additional IUNU Dual Plasma units being installed in the UW Farm greenhouse. However, cooperation from the UW Farm staff will be necessary to facilitate the educational opportunities presented by this grant’s implementation. Educating the staff of both of these organizations will allow for a trickle down effect, spreading information about the new high-efficiency lighting systems to tour groups and other groups interested in the technology. Given that UW Farm staff lead 35 to 50 tour groups around the facilities each year, their involvement is essential in educating the public about this grant’s implementation.

UW Farm also hosts around 40 to 60 service learning students each quarter that will be educated about the new lighting systems. This allows for groups of students to learn about the new technology each quarter and walk away with a better understanding of how the UW Farm is striving for more sustainable growing infrastructure.

Taking student and faculty involvement a step further, having new technology implemented on campus allows for research opportunities for many students coming from a variety of disciplines. The Biology Department has already seen groups who are interested in studying plant physiology, and have requested and received grant money to purchase devices measuring the physiological properties of plants grown on campus. These students will be encouraged by staff to study the new emerging technologies for growing plants such as plasma lighting systems, and develop well-structured studies that concentrate on the physiological properties of plants grown under different lighting systems. In briefly speaking with Liz Van Volkenburgh, it is my understanding that the university’s Biology Department has great interest in conducting cutting edge research on the affects of different supplemental lighting systems on plant physiology. Having new lighting systems on hand, such as the plasma systems that are being funded by this grant, would allow for furthered research in this largely untouched field of academia.

The scope of this project reaches beyond the feasibility study and the implementation of the lighting systems. This project presents an opportunity for students to learn about new indoor farming technologies, energy efficient technology development, and the creative ways that the UW is cutting energy consumption.

Education & Outreach:

To educate the university community about this project, several steps will be taken. The planned education and outreach goals, along with explanation detailing how to reach them are outlined in chronological below:

  1. Compile and distribute a report on feasibility study findings, condensing data into a single document, including a PowerPoint presentation. Displaying the findings in multiple formats will help individuals consume and distribute information.
     
  2. Publish findings on the UW Farm website. Since energy efficiency is a key component of the UW Farm’s mission, a report detailing how indoor food production can be made more efficient will be a welcome addition to the website.
     
  3. Create signage to post in the greenhouses with installations including data and a brief description of IUNU as a company, and why their product is being implemented. People are often confused why greenhouses may need more lighting, and providing an explanation is important. Supplemental lighting in greenhouses allows for vegetation to obtain the required amount of light to grow in months where the natural lighting cannot provide in regards to suboptimal sunlight angle on the horizon and the amount of sunlight provided during daytime hours. Additionally, few people actually realize the consumptive nature of the high-pressure sodium lights currently used in most greenhouses.
     
  4. Use data to educate UW Farm and Botany Greenhouse staff about the new technology and encourage them to mention the efficiency of IUNU lighting systems in their tours. Considering that the UW Farm gives about 35-50 tours annually to a variety of different groups, this will be a great opportunity for the public to be educated about the new, energy-efficient technology that was implemented through this grant and also give the opportunity to highlight the success of UW alumni in the sustainable indoor farming industry, a great selling point for the universities sustainability goals. Due to the number of people that are reached through these tours, a large amount of publicity will be generated from the tours alone. The UW Farm also maintains social media outlets, which reach thousands of people. A highlight of the new sustainable measures implemented through this grant will make for great, sustained postings, as plants grown through this new technology continue to grow delicious fruits and vegetables for UW students and faculty to consume.
     
  5. Contact the University of Washington Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee to include implementation of lighting systems in future Climate Action Plan (CAP) for the university. A greenhouse lighting retrofit is an untapped energy saving resource that that few Universities have considered. Reducing this energy waste will be an important accomplishment to note in the UW’s CAP.
     
  6. Educate students and professors, upon request, about the new lighting systems in order to garner interest in further studies on a variety of biological impacts of plasma lighting systems. This may include classroom presentations, brown bag presentations, or simply personal visits with graduate students and professors. There are many preliminary reports suggesting that plasma lighting and the full spectrum that it produces may have benefits that go far beyond just energy savings. Increased shelf live, reduction in diseases, and better quality produce are just a few. Research, with the scientific rigor that the UW is known for, will surely advance indoor horticulture, and the University of Washington’s reputation.

Through these Education and Outreach goals, we can reach as many people as possible through continued education and study of the implementation of this grant.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
Project Longevity:

The education and outreach portion of this project will be continuous and largely unfunded. The report and outreach material will be conducted mostly by myself in writing the report and contacting the mentioned groups, something that is a byproduct of the feasibility study. The UW Farm staff will be educated about the new lighting systems upon the completion of the feasibility study, and will thus be able to provide details about the new lighting systems to tour groups as part of the routine tours given. Maintenance of the IUNU Dual Plasma systems is incredibly simple and requires very little attention. The majority of the attention required will be the actual tending of the plants that are grown from the supplemental lighting, which is an action already done by the UW Farm staff. Furthered implementation of more lighting systems and retrofitting current greenhouse lighting systems around campus would be greatly encouraged and this operation could be funded by future CSF grants or money from the different departments hosting the various greenhouses. Furthered study of the plants is also greatly encouraged and this will be taken under control by the hosting department of the research study. All-in-all, the continued management of the education and outreach materials is what provides longevity for this project, and this is maintained by the trickle-down knowledge of the lighting systems from person to person.

Environmental Problem:

Many greenhouses around the University of Washington campus, including those run by the UW Farm, currently use High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lighting systems in their supplemental lighting of produce and other vegetation, which are an older, more energy intensive lighting source. IUNU’s Dual Plasma lighting systems consume 50% less energy and produce 70% less heat than comparable HPS lighting systems, greatly reducing energy used during operation. HPS lights waste energy by producing heat, rather than light. In turn, there is a significant reduction in the operating cost while using IUNU lighting systems, as well as a significantly decreased environmental impact from the reduction in energy usage.

In addition to IUNU Dual Plasma’s high efficiency, these systems also utilize plasma bulbs that emit light in the photosynthetically active radiation spectrum (PAR). The PAR output of the Dual Plasma is accompanied by a healthy amount of UVA and UVB, which creates light more similar to the sun. This full spectrum output produces better tasting and healthier vegetation in comparison to the current HPS systems being used. This means that the energy being consumed by these lights is a more effective way to grow plants.

Year round food supply is becoming a larger demand as our climate changes and the amount of people on the planet continues to increase. As such, food is becoming harder to grow as demand continues to rise. It is essential that we have reliable and efficient methods of growing food. Plasma lighting is at the forefront of the indoor lighting technology, in both plant output and energy efficiency, and with more evidence scientifically proving this, the feasibility of indoor farming to supplement traditional farming methods becomes increasingly more substantial.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Metrics for the feasibility study are where the majority of the impacts of this project will be measured. In order to show the energy efficiency comparison between the plasma and HPS systems, we will consider pounds of produce per watt consumed by the lights. The side-by-side comparison completed during the feasibility study shows the amount of energy consumed in relation to the amount of produce grown. This data can be used to determine the amount of kWh’s of electricity saved by the implementation of the plasma lighting systems. The data can then be extrapolated out to determine how much energy over a given time the new, high-efficiency plasma lighting systems will save. Projections show that each plasma fixture saves 6.75 kWh of energy per day relative to traditional fixtures. Based on average national energy prices of $0.13/kWh, this equates to energy savings of $319/fixture/year.

To assess the quality of the vegetation produced, a more qualitative approach can be taken. The shelf life of the produce grown by each of the lighting systems will be determined and reported in order to show the quality of the produce. A blind taste test will determine the flavor of the different produce grown between the two systems. This will insure that the quality of the produce grown by the plasma system meets or exceeds the quality of the HPS system, ensuring that it qualitatively produces equal or better tasting produce. Another measure taken throughout the feasibility study will be the “greenness” of the different vegetation. This method is used by plant physiologists and was recommended by Liz Van Volkenburgh, to assess the quality of plants produced. By using paint chips in the green spectrum, the shade of the vegetation is compared to the different paint chips, the darker green on the spectrum that the plants have, the healthier it can be assumed that the plants are.

Biomass will also be used as a determinant of the quality of the vegetation produced through a more quantitative method. Assessing the biomass of the vegetation produced by each lighting system will allow us to determine the biological material that each plant being researched produces. This will better give us a quantitative measure for the quality of the vegetation produced.

Because food scarcity is the largest issue that indoor farming addresses, it is necessary that quality is a primary objective while considering the implementation of new lighting technologies. Poor quality produce is generally wasted. Without consistent access to quality produce, food scarcity will remain an issue.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $9,819
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Feasibility Study (Phase One)
Labor$1,4001$1,400
GripTight GorillaPod Stand$32.802$65.59
Apollo Horticulture 60"x60"x80" Mylar Hydroponic Grow Tent for Indoor Plant Growing$149.952$299.90
Brassica Seeds$4.001$4.00
Basil Seeds$1.501$1.50
Lettuce Seeds$1.501$1.50
Alliums Seeds $2.001$2.00
Scythe SY124010L Mini KAZE 40mm Silent Case Fan$6.992$13.98
IUNU Dual Plasma$2,0001$2,000
$1,818.48
Implementation (Phase Two)
IUNU Dual Plasma$2,0003$6,000
Signage$29.991$29.99
$6,029.99

Non-CSF Sources:

Discount from IUNU$500 off each unit
Project Completion Total: $9,819

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Feasibility Study Set-up1 week2/11/15
Feasibility Study10 weeks4/22/15
Data Report1 week4/29/15
Implementation of Lighting Systems1 week4/29/15

SER-UW Nursery Expansion

Executive Summary:

PROJECT BACKGROUND

The University of Washington’s Society for Ecology Restoration student guild (SER-UW) native plant nursery was established at the Center for Urban Horticulture in the spring of 2013. The SER-UW nursery maintains an inventory of 1000-1500 containerized plants native to the Puget Sound and used in planting efforts at two CSF funded restoration sites: Whitman Walk and Kincaid Ravine.  The nursery also delivers educational benefits to students studying horticulture and ecological restoration at UW by providing experiential learning through volunteer activities. On average, 30 students per quarter participate in nursery work parties that focus on basic horticultural practices.  The work that SER-UW conducts is an applied complement to the curricula of the Master of Environmental Horticulture program (MEH) and the ESRM Restoration Ecology concentration. Although often overlooked, horticulture is an important facet of ecological restoration; understanding proper growing techniques and identifying or growing high quality nursery stock is imperative to successfully achieving restoration project goals.

OUR MISSION

Storing and caring for our plants is a considerable task, and we have vastly exceeded the available space. We request funding for the creation of a hoophouse devoted entirely to the SER-UW nursery, to be constructed at the Center for Urban Horticulture.  The expansion would provide more space for our plants and better resources for our educational programming.  Our project goals are twofold:

To further provide hands on learning opportunities in the propagation and production of native plants to University of Washington students.

To provide an economical and local source of native plant materials to UW undergraduate and graduate students, UW Grounds, the Arboretum, and the greater community.

PROJECT TIMELINE

The goal is for the nursery to exist in perpetuity, but only the first two years are within the scope of this proposal.  These initial phases are described below.

Phase I:

In addition to the programing that SER-UW already provides, infrasture upgrades will be made in order to increase plant production capacity and quality of care for our plants. This includes building a hoophouse exclusively for the SER-UW Nursery with storage, a potting bench, growing tables, an irrigation system, and a pot-washing station. Co-managers will be funded to work 15 hours a week to construct everything but the hoophouse. Our first crop of natives will be planted, and will be ready to sell in the fall of 2016. Co-managers will initiate discussions to find permanent funding sources for a full-time manager position.

Phase II:

A new set of co-managers will focus on increasing the clientele of the nursery in order to grow more plants for campus and UWBG Arboretum planting projects, in addition to providing a suite of commonly used plants for capstone and MEH projects. They will also focus on obtaining a long term funding source for a permanent full-time position.

Phase III:

The nursery will transition into a campus recharge unit or self-sustaining center. A single full-time manager will be in charge of plant production, education, and sales.  

To accomplish our mission, we request $77,000 for two years.

Student Involvement:

Students are the heart of SER-UW. It is a completely student-run organization with a mixture of undergraduate and graduate students as officers and members. At the nursery, students are encouraged to participate in work parties where we pot up, irrigate, and organize our plants. With a CSF grant, we intend to increase the number, variety, and consistency of work parties with more of an emphasis on propagation from seeds and cuttings. The nursery also provides opportunities for nursery management and production research. For example, current ESRM 412 students are helping with designing the irrigation system and determining the sun/shade and irrigation requirements of each species we grow in order to help us efficiently organize the greenhouse.

VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT

The nursery already successfully involves roughly 30 student volunteers at an average of four volunteer events each quarter. By holding ten work parties per quarter, at a consistent time each week, we expect to increase our volunteer numbers to at least 80 students per quarter and 300 students per year.

The SER-UW nursery has existing partnerships with three ESRM courses, including ESRM 100: Introduction to Environmental Science, ESRM 362: Introduction to Restoration Ecology, and ESRM 412: Native Plant Production.  These courses encourage students to volunteer with SER-UW for class credit. We do our best to accommodate and utilize volunteers from these courses, but finding the time to do so is often difficult. Increasing our hours in the nursery will greatly increase our availability for these students.

We also recruit volunteers through our website, http://students.washington.edu/seruw/, our listserv, the hortgrads list serve, our Facebook page, and with help from the SEFS communications manager Karl Wirsing. Another strength in our volunteer recruitment is our ability to network with volunteers through our own organization. Students referred from our on-campus restoration projects and native plant salvage events get to see the crucial role the nursery plays in the success of the salvage and restoration processes. We also intend to increase student involvement with the help of a communications intern who will increase our web presence.

INTERNSHIPS

Each quarter the nursery managers will coordinate an internship for two undergraduate students looking to get more involved in nursery management and plant production. Throughout the year there will be a total of six interns who will be expected to work 8 to 10 hours per week, assisting the managers with watering, weeding, and weekly plant propagation tasks. Individual learning objectives will be created for each student depending on their interests and the current needs of the nursery. For fall quarter, a student will be selected for his or her carpentry skills to facilitate the building of potting benches and plant production tables. For winter quarter, one intern will focus on communications, i.e. website design, branding, and social media, to promote plant sales and outreach. The interns for spring quarter will focus on plant propagation and fulfilling orders. Each intern will receive ESRM 499: Undergraduate Research or the equivalent from their home department.

NURSERY MANAGERS

In phase I, the project will be coordinated by two part-time managers with complementary roles. Anna will function as the Education and Outreach Coordinator, focusing on the recruitment of volunteers, the development of internship positions, administration, and budget management. Kelly will function as the Nursery Coordinator, heading up the construction of the hoop house and associated building projects, coordinating plant sales, and developing the nursery’s planting plan. Both managers will share the tasks of running weekly work parties and overseeing the care of our plants. For phase II, a  new pair of nursery managers will concentrate on plant propagation, establishing relationships with UW customers, and fulfilling orders.

Although the long-term goal is to support one full-time paid nursery manager, the initial phases of the project will require two part-time co-managers. During phase I and II, we will be building our hoophouse, writing a business plan, developing a planting plan and researching our propagation protocols, in addition to caring for our plants. These diverse tasks will be best accomplished by two managers with different skillsets. Also, because we are both full-time students, neither of us can devote 30 hours a week to this project. By dividing the work-load between us and drawing on our respective strengths, we will be ensuring the highest likelihood of project success.

Increasing the the quantity and quality of activities at the SER-UW nursery does not necessarily require building a new hoop house or getting paid, but as volunteer managers and full-time students, working to help pay for school and focusing on our coursework must take priority. We cannot currently devote the time or energy required to improve our volunteer outreach, or provide the attention and consistency of care that our plants really need. Funding two part-time positions would allow us to prioritize our time in the nursery and help us to achieve these goals.

Education & Outreach:

PUBLICITY

Beyond our normal means of communication described in the volunteer recruitment section, we would seek additional forms of communication for increased publicity. The UW Farm has already offered to highlight the expansion project in their newsletter. We would also collaborate with the SEFS newsletter, Offshoots, to do a piece on us to promote the new hoop house, volunteer events and projects the interns are working on.  Advertising our public plant sales on the HUB digital display will attract students, faculty, and staff that are not reached through other means, and will help us attract new customers and engage new volunteers from other campus departments.

Internally, we would develop a quarterly newsletter to update people on our listserv. We will continue to post pictures and events announcements to Facebook. We usually receive high response rates, 100-900 views and 1 or 2 new page likes, for pictures from work parties with students tagged in them.

OUTREACH & EDUCATIONAL GOALS

Our outreach is completely centered around the the student involvement described above with three different levels of educational goals: volunteers, interns, and nursery managers.

Volunteers

Weekly work parties will be advertised to the entire UW community as open events where anyone can drop in to learn about current nursery projects and lend a hand. These informal work parties will allow us to engage students, faculty, and staff that wouldn’t be interested in a long term internship position, but might still enjoy getting their hands dirty for a few hours.

With increased frequency, these work parties would significantly augment horticulturally focused learning opportunities on campus, where formal learning opportunities are limited. The two plant production courses are only offered in spring quarter and scheduling conflicts and limited class sizes reduce the accessibility of these courses for students. The SER nursery currently provides occasional opportunities for learning; by increasing our growing program and available hours, we would significantly increase the opportunities for students to engage in native plant production throughout the academic year.

Volunteer learning objectives include the benefits of using native plants in landscaping, plant care, and basic plant production methods. Yessler Swamp, UBNA, a rain garden, and the UW Farm pollinator project are all within short walking distance of the SER nursery, and will be used often to demonstrate the potential applications of native plants. Our hope is to engage the public in a conversation about the benefits of native plants and their many applications in our urban landscape.

Interns

Nursery managers will work with the interns to develop specific learning objectives. Experience for all interns will include plant production, propagation skills like scarification and stratification, plant ID, irrigation, and weeding. During the first phase of the project, interns will also make a significant contribution to the establishment of the nursery through constructing our physical structures, crafting our web presence, or helping us draft a business plan. Just as importantly, interns will practice skills that are more broadly applicable to all jobs such as working independently as well as in a team, attention to detail, communication, and time management.   

Even as the nursery transitions into Phases II and III, internships will continue to be an important component of the program. Intern responsibilities will be focused on plant propagation and production, but other new and diverse learning opportunities are sure to become available. Researching, designing, and installing a rainwater catchment system on the roof of the hoop house is just one potential opportunity. Through these positions, we will continue to provide more intensive learning opportunities to students, supporting our mission of increasing the horticultural learning opportunities on campus.  

Nursery Managers

The educational goals of the nursery managers and upper level horticulture students are centered around the skills necessary to set up a native plant nursery and educational resource center. In particular the nursery managers will learn how to put together a business plan to eventually make the nursery a “recharge center” or “self-sustaining” unit within the university. This will ensure the financial sustainability of the operation. The managers will learn how to interact with contractors to successfully build a hoop house on a budget and in a timely manner.

Plant production and propagation skills to be practiced are seed collection, cleaning, scarification, and stratification. The managers would also develop efficient systems for material and equipment purchases, soil orders, pot washing, record keeping, and plant sales. Bridget McNassar, the Nursery and Restoration Manager for Oxbow Farm and Education Center, a local non-profit native plant nursery, will serve as our plant propagation advisor.

The nursery co-managers will practice their volunteer and employee management skills through weekly work parties and overseeing quarterly interns. We anticipate that a valuable mentor-mentee relationship would be fostered between the quarterly interns and the nursery managers.

NURSERY SUPPORTERS

In addition to the restoration projects managed by SER-UW, our nursery has the inventory to supply plants to project-based restoration courses. These courses are the foundation of the ESRM and MEH programs and require the procurement of native plant materials. This is a considerable hurdle for professors and students because it is time consuming and difficult to deal with many different nurseries to source the plants. Since its first sale in March, the nursery has already supplied ESRM 473: Restoration of North America, two UW-REN capstone groups, and the Washington Park Arboretum with native plants, suggesting that there is a substantial demand for native plants beyond our own projects.

For phases II and III, plants will be produced to facilitate new projects with the Arboretum, campus grounds, and graduate projects from students of SEFS, College of the Built Environment and the biology department. By expanding the SER nursery as outlined in this proposal, many of these plant needs can be met right here on campus, eliminating the need and associated carbon costs of sourcing and picking up plants from off-campus nurseries. These projects will in turn be financially supporting the nursery, enabling us to grow the next round of native species and closing the native plant loop in a way that benefits everyone.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
Project Longevity:

During the first two years, the nursery will be co-managed by two MEH graduate students. In addition to their nursery management duties, the phase I managers will be responsible for the recruitment of future co-managers for phase II. Finding replacements should not be difficult since the infrastructure will be in place for a fully functioning native plant nursery, it ties directly to the MEH program, and there will be funding for labor- a rarity in the MEH program. During phase I, Kelly and Anna will also initiate the discussion to find permanent funding for a full time staff person to manage the nursery for phase III. Because of the broad applicability of the native plant nursery there are many potential departments who could partially fund a position through cost-sharing modeled after the UW Farm manager position, which is funded by Campus Housing, Health Services, and the College of the Environment. Potential partners the SER-UW nursery are campus grounds, the planning office, College of the Environment, UWBG, College of the Built Environment, and the Biology department. Funding through the Services and Activities Fee will also be investigated. The co-managers for phase II will be responsible for following through with securing funding for the full-time nursery manager position based upon the recommendations of the phase I managers. In phase III, the nursery will transition into a recharge unit or self-sustaining unit depending on the makeup of the clientele, i.e. mostly on-campus versus off-campus clients. Wendy Star, SEFS administrator, will help us develop a business plan that allows us to best achieve our goals of functioning as a not-for-profit entity, where the nursery is able to support as many if its own expenses as possible.

Environmental Problem:

Wildlife habitat fragmentation and degradation, shoreline resilience, stormwater filtration, and loss of pollinator habitat are all problems that the practice of restoration ecology is capable of addressing. The need for restoration within the city of Seattle has been described in Green Seattle Partnership’s 20 Year Strategic Plan (2005) and City of Seattle’s Urban Forest Management Plan (2007). Examples of projects addressing these problems exist right here on campus, including the Union Bay Natural Area, Kincaid Ravine, and Whitman Walk. The key to success for each of these projects is the availability of high quality native plant stock that is highly adapted to the local environment.

The landscaping on UW campus is world-renowned and a point of community pride, yet most of the plants are non-native ornamental species. Ornamental landscape plants typically demand more water than native species, and provide fewer benefits to wildlife. Research from CUH’s own director, Sarah Reichard (BioOne 1997), found that landscaping with nonnative species is a serious vector for the introduction of invasive species.  The University of Washington has shown a commitment to sustainability, and already has many native plantings on campus. By continuing to install native species wherever appropriate, UW will be reducing the resources required to maintain these landscape features, increasing the benefits to wildlife on campus, and providing a highly visible example of native plant use in landscaping.

As a native plant nursery focused on educating the next crop of restoration practitioners, we have a responsibility to teach students sustainable best management practices (BMPs). In the nursery setting this includes choosing sustainable rooting media that is not comprised of moss collected from peat bogs in Canada, a practice which destroys valuable habitat in an ecosystem that recovers very slowly. Other BMPs include efficient irrigation systems that recycle rainwater, careful application of organic fertilizers to limit runoff, and integrated pest management strategies to reduce the use of pesticides. The SER-UW nursery will eventually be able to expose students to all of these practices in an experiential learning setting.  Graduate students interested in researching these methods and their application in the nursery, will be encouraged to collaborate.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The educational impact of the nursery expansion will be measured by the quantity and quality of hands-on learning experiences we are able to provide to our volunteers and interns. This will be measured by tracking attendance at weekly volunteer work parties through sign-in sheets. We will also follow-up with volunteers each quarter by sending out a survey, asking how we can improve our work parties. Internships will be measured both by their successful completion and by the accomplishment of the agreed-upon learning objectives. Managers will sit down with interns at the end of the quarter for an evaluation session, where both managers and interns will evaluate each other’s performance.

Our goal of increasing the supply of native plants to campus projects will be measured by the number of plants sold and number of projects supported. All plant sales will be tracked by species, and total numbers will be calculated at the end of each quarter and each academic year. The number of student projects and campus entities that purchase plants will also be tracked. During Phase I, we will only have the plants that are currently in stock available to sell to capstone groups and MEH projects. In Phase II, our first crop of purpose-grown natives will become available. As we increase our stock and tailor our crops to the needs of our customers, we hope to increase the number of plant supplied and the number of projects we are able to support. Every project that we supply with plants will in turn be financially supporting the next crop of plants at the nursery.

Ecological impacts are notoriously hard to quantify. Although the simplest method is to quantify the number of plants delivered and the number of customers reached, the environmental impacts of our nursery will be much further reaching. It would be interesting, after the nursery has become established, to have a student perform a life cycle assessment of our plants and to compare them to plants purchased from other area nurseries. We expect that this assessment would take many factors into account, including the reduced carbon cost of sourcing plants from far away, using peat-free potting media, avoiding synthetic fertilizers, and the water-saving impacts of the rainwater catchment system we would eventually like to install.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $77,651
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Please see attached Budget document.

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $77,651

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Please see attached Timeline document.

Project Approval Forms:

ReThink- Student Resilience Challenge

Executive Summary:

While many RSOs focus their events on a single topic or target a specific major, ReThink’s goal is to reach as wide of an audience as possible, and we are seeking funding for an event that will do just that. We are requesting $1726 to host a “Resilience Challenge” which will implore participants to consider and engage with real-world problems surrounding predominantly business and the environment. This event is modeled after the Resilience Challenge hosted by Sustainable Seattle on October 2nd (more information on this event can be found here: http://pnwresilience.org). Located in the HUB, ReThink will team up with several clubs from across campus to draw an ideal crowd of around 100 students for the event. These students will spend three hours listening to panels of industry specialists, discussing relevant topics in breakout sessions, and collectively creating a plan of action with a realistic timeline and implementation strategy.

Beyond the experience members of the planning committee will gain from organizing and marketing this event, all participants of the Resilience Challenge will get exposure to a diverse array of students from other disciplines, and informative and inspiring presentations and discussions from professionals in their fields of interest. It is a fantastic opportunity for students to broaden their perspectives from the narrow views represented in their respective majors.

To ensure the Resilience Challenge draws the numbers we have projected, ReThink will partner with all participating parties and RSOs to employ a collaborative outreach strategy. This will involve placing marketing materials such as posters in the various buildings of departments we are seeking to target, and coordinating our online advertising through list serves and Facebook promotion.

To be clear, our event does not address one specific environmental problem, but rather a broad array of challenges that persist in today’s society. We will provide the information for participants to become educated on these important topics, and resources for them to learn how to get engaged.

Due to the nature of the event, the measurability of the event prior to its conclusion is quite limited. However, one the key outputs of the discussion segment of the event will be to come up with time-sensitive goals, and a way to measure them. We will then assign a student representative to each these goals in order to monitor overall progress towards them.

The following report will enumerate the specific event objectives, logistics, and funds requested.

Student Involvement:

The event will be catered to a group of around 100 students. Initially the ReThink members (and members from our partnering RSOs) will complete the planning and logistics. This will include reserving a space, finding donations for food, contacting speakers and industry specialists, working with UW ESS office to uncover UW’s underlying problems with sustainability, reserving tables and creating advertisements. ReThink and its partners will increase advertising closer to the event using social media, flyers and word of mouth. Students who plan on attending will be required to sign up using a catalyst survey to guarantee their attendance.

Our team will be working 3-5 hours a week for the next two months getting in contact with experts in sustainability. We will work to select 7-10 professionals that can educate the student audience on both our current situation and solutions that are being implemented. The students planning the event will use contacts from the Buerk Center of Entrepreneurship, Foster School of Business, and the ESS office to find those professionals that can most strongly influence the students at the challenge. We will also be looking for people who will work well with students through the brainstorming process. A large part of the challenge is bringing students together to find the root cause of UW’s environmental issues in order to create a feasible solution including a plan of action. We will need to source an industry specialist that can act as a facilitator through the process.

Marketing the event will also take a team of five to ten students. We will create a marketing schematic that emphasizes the importance to the challenge while illustrating its innovation and enjoyability. We will also find a graphic designer to create our images, Facebook banners, poster and an email template. The bulk of the advertising will take place in the month prior to the event. We will use this time to spread awareness across the campus, making sure to target a wide variety of majors and specialties. The goal is to form a group of students from all disciplines so that we can create solutions that address each part of the issue.  We will also be publicizing this event to the greater Seattle area with an emphasis on sustainable Seattle businesses. We will be assigning two students to do community outreach for the event starting in February and continuing until the day of the event. We intend to have representatives from these companies attend the event as well. The representatives will be able to provide the students with real world knowledge and expose problems that arise in a business setting.

We will have a team of five students work on developing a curriculum for the challenge. These students will do research to find out which aspects of sustainability are most pressing. They will select five areas to focus on, which we will use to find the most applicable industry specialist to have at the event. These students will be looking for topics that together cover the spectrum of sustainability. Examples include: green architecture, waste and waste water management, clean tech and recent clean tech innovation and our food system. These students will have some of the most intensive roles as they will be responsible for setting the tone of the event.

Education & Outreach:

The monetary support of the CSF grant will allow the best possible outreach for the UW Resilience Challenge in various halls on campus and relevant buildings in order to gain an excitement and attendance unlike any past ReThink event. To keep in the best interest of the environment while still maximizing the potential for outreach to many attendees, we are not planning on utilizing the money for superfluous and wasteful items like flyers to publicize, but rather eight eye-catching and aesthetically appealing posters that will illustrate the importance and quality of this event to those who see them. ReThink has identified the most influential halls on campus that identify and will resonate best with the goals of this event and the club, such as the UW Foster School of Business, the Art and Design School, the College of the Environment, and the College of Engineering, just to name a few. The posters will be displayed in high-traffic areas, such as by the cafes and the main entrances in order to attract the most attention.

Other means of outreach will involve members giving a brief presentation to classes in these departments, particularly 100 and 200 level courses with mostly undergraduates. The goal for outreach is to fill the event space at capacity with attendees and to have a wide range of participants from various departments on campus. This will ensure that the meeting and discussions will result in the most diverse collaboration of interests and ideas in order to promote the most productive and creative collaboration between students with various areas of expertise. The goal for the entire event is that students will leave with an invigorated and informed passion for worldly and environmental issues that is cemented with goals and true markers of success for a plan that will have longevity.

By advertising to such a wide audience, our goal is to trigger word-of-mouth marketing that will reverberate across campus. The ReThink Facebook page will also be an important channel to market the event to UW students, as well as individual promotion by board members and inspired club members. With our multi-faceted marketing and outreach approaches, we will maximize our outreach, and ensure that the environmental message will be heard loud and clear throughout the UW campus.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Transportation
  • Waste
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

Due to the multi-club involvement and the scope of this event, we will coordinate closely with all relevant parties throughout the planning process. As you can see in the timeline, we have set up some specific milestones to ensure that we remain on schedule. More specifically, this will entail working especially closely with Terri Butler who is in charge of Sustainable Seattle, as well as the presidents of respective clubs we choose to partner with for the event. We will conduct this correspondence by phone and email with Terri, and by email and in-person meetings with the RSO presidents.

Environmental Problem:

The environmental problem that we hope to combat with this event is the widespread lack of education on pressing global environmental issues that UW students have received. These issues apply to every student on campus in almost every academic discipline, yet not all students are required to--or have room in their schedules to--take courses that touch on these issues, and independently sought information can often be misleading. Furthermore, though the University of Washington has undertaken many steps to be a sustainable campus, there is so much more that can be done, and we believe this starts with student education and involvement.

Our adaptation of a Resilience Challenge for the UW campus will help combat this issue by providing a single day event touching on several issues of critical environmental importance, such as agriculture, infrastructure, global climate change, and others. In this way, students will be able to get the facts on these pressing issues without needing to take an academic course and without a large commitment of their time. Additionally, we hope to attract a larger audience of students with the speakers we will have present at our event. Not all students on campus have a strong desire to learn about sustainability issues, and we believe that the promise of connecting with professionals and faculty members in a variety of fields will encourage a wider array of students to attend, thereby educating a larger percentage of UW’s campus.

The second aspect of the UW Resilience Challenge will be to identify key sustainability issues still present on campus and in the university community, and how students can work with each other and the administration to create a plan for change. After students have heard from each speaker panel, they will organize themselves into breakout groups of 7-8 students with 1-2 speakers per group. In these groups, students and speakers will identify key sustainability issues and create different plans to facilitate change on campus and in society. The wide variety of students in attendance will inspire a cross-disciplinary discussion that the campus may have never seen, and will set the stage for many more discussions on campus sustainability to come.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

As this is a discussion and future action based event, we cannot set guidelines for impact measurement until the actual event. The campus resiliency plan that will be established at the challenge will include 6 month, 1 year, 5 year, and other time sensitive goals for the student and campus community to reach. In making those goals, students, speakers, and other members of the university community will establish a framework for measuring how well those goals are met, and a course of action in the event those goals aren’t met on time. For example, let’s say that at the UW Resilience Challenge a 5-year goal was set of extending the current goal of 70% waste diversion by 2020 to 90%. In the steps to reach that goal, a 1-year goal of having composting bins in 100% of campus buildings was established. One could measure this goal’s environmental impact by estimating the amount of compostable material diverted from landfills in each of the buildings in which compost bins were introduced, and then measuring the current percentage of UW’s total waste diverted from landfills. For each goal made at the challenge, we plan to have a separate student representative take on the responsibility of monitoring the progress of each goal and report their findings to the leaders of the partnering organizations. Should this year’s Resilience Challenge be as successful as we believe it will be, we will have a second part to the challenge in the spring of 2016, where we will evaluate progress made, and introduce new goals or alter current ones as the participants see fit.

Though campus action is an important component to the Resilience Challenge, as we stated above one of our primary goals is simply student education on pressing sustainability issues. This cannot exactly be monitored at all, as there is no way for us to measure how much one student has learned, or how much their mindset on environmental issues has been altered. However, as we are striving for interdisciplinary involvement, we will set goals of departmental attendance and evaluate how well that was achieved. For example, if we set a goal of generally having 25% business students, 30% environmental students, 25% engineering, math, or science students, and 20% students representing misc. departments, we can track attendance after the event and see how close we were to reaching those goals. We can then take that information and use it to determine our marketing and outreach efforts for next year’s challenge.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $1,605
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Posters for Marketing$508$400
Room Reservation (HUB)$6001$600
Easels$158$120
Name tags (Attendees, volunteers, and speakers)$7 for 1002$14
Post-it Easel Pad$3212$384
Post it Notes$11 for 5-pack6$66
Recycled-Material Pens$7 for 50-pack3$21

Non-CSF Sources:

Funding SourceItems/PurposeTotal Cost
Sustainable SeattleGiveaways/Food$500
StarbucksCoffeeFree
Trader JoesFood~$500
Project Completion Total: $2,605

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Choose Date and Book VenueToday-Feb. 1stFeb. 1st
Recruit other RSOs to partner for eventToday-Feb 20thFeb 20th
Reach out to potential speakers and get commitmentsFeb 1st-Apr 10thApr 10th
Reach out to all departments on campus notifying them of eventFeb 1st-March 6thMarch 6th
Submit Donation requests from food and beverage vendorsFeb 1st-March 17thMarch 17th
Begin physical marketing across campus (flyers, posters, in-class promotions etc.)Apr 2nd-May 8thMay 8th
Purchase all supplies need for eventApr 3rd-May 5thMay 5th
Open/Close event registrationApril 6th-May 6thMay 6th

Project Approval Forms:

Prairie Rain Garden

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Kincaid Ravine Bioswale Hydrological Assessment

Executive Summary:

Funding for a feasibility and assessment study on potential hydrologic modifications and designs for a bioswale in Kincaid Ravine will not only help address the issue of flooding on the Burke-Gilman Trail at the edge of Kincaid Ravine, but will also add to the ongoing efforts to restore the ecological functions and habitat of the previously underutilized and ecologically degraded four acre open space located in the northeast corner of campus.  This assessment will focus on characterizing the quality and quantity of the water moving through Kincaid Ravine and determine the feasibility of constructing a bioswale that will help alleviate flooding and allow for better stormwater treatment, storage and infiltration in Kincaid Ravine.  This will require lab testing for water quality and soil and some hydrologic monitoring and modeling to determine the amount of water moving through the ravine during the wettest months.  In congruence with the soil and water quality testing (which will be done on campus), we will use outside consulting from the group 12,000 Rain Gardens in Puget Sound (http://www.12000raingardens.org/) to help provide:

  • Assessment of current hydrology (approximate volumes and sources of water, outflow volumes, and soils assessment)
  • Bioswale feasibility assessment
  • Summary report of hydrology and feasibility
  • Bioswale basic design (approximate elevations and planting plan)   

Developing this assessment study instead of moving hastily into design and construction is a prudent first step in properly addressing the hydrology issues in Kincaid Ravine and making sure the numerous groups and administrative interests associated with Kincaid Ravine are all satisfied with the work going forward.  Meeting with UW Landscape Architect Kristine Kenney and Campus Grounds Manager Howard Nakase (who would be involved with future maintenance in Kincaid Ravine) it was strongly recommended that an assessment study would be the first step in addressing the hydrology problems in Kincaid Ravine.  Kristine and Howard, along with UW Environmental Planner Jan Arnst and other groups like the UW chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration, UW Transportation Services, UW Sustainable Stormwater and students and classes in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences are all very excited about this project and want to be involved in the process.  The projected cost of this project, including the water quality testing and outside consulting will be 5,000 dollars.

Student Involvement:

The restoration work at Kincaid Ravine already involves multiple graduate students from the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS), undergraduate classes in Environmental Science and Resource Management (ESRM) and the University of Washington chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER).  SER and the Kincaid Restoration Team hold regular volunteer work parties in Kincaid Ravine and the site will continue to serve as a laboratory for graduate and undergraduate students to work with and study hydrology, soils, ecological restoration and wildlife.  SER and students in SEFS will continue to lead these volunteer opportunities and work to further develop relationships with project partners on campus, such as the UW Transportation Services, UW’s landscape architect, UW grounds crew management and off campus groups such as 12,000 Rain Gardens in Puget Sound and EarthCorps, who have been helping in the restoration efforts in Kincaid Ravine.  A creation of a bioswale will only diversify the opportunities for people and groups to get involved. 

Since work began in Kincaid Ravine there has been an influx of student groups, administrators and local community organizations with strong interest in restoring Kincaid Ravine.  The momentum got started as a Masters of Environmental Horticulture (MEH) final project by Martha Moritz in 2013.  Martha recruited Matt Schwartz who is the current Kincaid project leader and also the UW Sustainable Stormwater Coordinator.  Matt recruited current first year MEH student Dan Hintz to work on wetland hydrology and restoration and the plan is to continue to foster opportunities for MEH and other SEFS students to conduct research and applied projects in Kincaid Ravine.  This is similar to how work is done at the Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH) and we feel Kincaid Ravine provides similar opportunities for projects and research but in a totally different forested ecosystem.  Kincaid Ravine is also host to applied restoration projects conducted by students from the ESRM restoration capstone courses (ESRM 462-464).  This is the second year students from these classes have be assigned a plot of land in Kincaid Ravine and are responsible for designing and implementing a restoration plan for their plot.  The UW Society for Ecological Restoration also holds regular work parties in Kincaid Ravine and these opportunities are open to all students at UW. 

In less than two years myriad groups of UW students have become involved with work in Kincaid Ravine in one form or another.  This would not be possible without the Kincaid Restoration Team constantly working to develop buy in and support from administrative groups on campus and fostering relationships with organizations off campus.  UW landscape architect Kristine Kenney has been invaluable giving support to the restoration efforts in Kincaid while sharing her ideas and visions for the ravine moving forward.  We have also met with staff from UW Transportation Services to discuss how plans for a bioswale in Kincaid Ravine could be incorporated with efforts to upgrade the Burke-Gilman Trail within the next few years.  UW Environmental Planner Jan Arnst has also been incredibly supportive with identifying what sort of permitting and local regulations will need to be followed when developing the bioswale project.  This administrative support, along with support from SEFS faculty such as Kern Ewing, Jim Fridley and Susan Bolton, have allowed for the restoration efforts in Kincaid Ravine to gain a lot of momentum. 

This momentum is only further aided by off campus groups such as EarthCorps and 12,000 Rain Gardens in Puget Sound.  EarthCorps has been the primary contractor for the restoration work in Kincaid Ravine.  Their crews, which specialize in ecological restoration, have been removing invasive species and installing native species throughout Kincaid Ravine in 2014.  EarthCorps Project Manager Kym Foley has also been instrumental supporting this project and even received money from King Conservation District’s (KCD) neighborhood grants program to supplement the costs of their crews working in Kincaid Ravine.  Kym and EarthCorps are excited to provide any technical advice and crew support for any wetland hydrology modifications and plantings, such as the bioswale project.  Aaron Clark, program manager at 12,000 Rain Gardens in Puget Sound, has also been very supportive answering questions about potential wetland hydrology improvements in Kincaid Ravine.  If funding for the bioswale assessment is approved, Aaron will serve as the main consultant on the bioswale assessment and feasibility study.  We choose Aaron due to his ongoing support of this project, his in depth experience with designing and installing rain gardens and the fact that he will be more than willing to make the assessment and feasibility study a collaborative process with members of the Kincaid Restoration Team.  This will allow students involved with Kincaid Ravine to assist and learn from the process Aaron will go through to conduct the site assessment, feasibility study and potential designs for the bioswale.  Lastly, we will be reaching out to Raedeke Associates, Inc.  to help with the feasibility and site assessment since they are the group that did the original wetland delineations in Kincaid Ravine. 

The network of students, faculty, administrators and local environmental organizations has already made Kincaid Ravine a successful project on the UW campus.  However, it is necessary to keep this momentum going and make sure all stakeholders continue to be informed and involved with the work in Kincaid Ravine while also continuing to search for new groups and students who might have an interest in Kincaid Ravine.  The goal to make Kincaid Ravine a working laboratory for ecological restoration and habitat recovery while also serving as a tranquil open space for students and visitors to campus can only be accomplished with the support and efforts of this multitude of stakeholders.

Education & Outreach:

Restoring the habitat and ecological functions in Kincaid Ravine is a major priority, but one that must go hand in hand with the need to educate people about the importance of these ecological restoration efforts and also let them know how they can get involved or use similar practices to solve environmental problems throughout the region.  The design and creation of a bioswale will only give further opportunity to use Kincaid Ravine as a laboratory and possibly serve as a model of how to create bioswales in urban forests.  The bioswale will give opportunities to study wetland hydrology, soils and the effect plants have on removing pollutants from water and soils.  Kincaid Ravine will also be used to host interpretive signage about the restoration achievements and goals.  The site already has the advantage of high visibility next to the Burke-Gilman Trail and this visibility will be used to make sure that Kincaid Ravine is an example of how to re-establish healthy forest ecosystems. 

The Kincaid Ravine Restoration Team has already received permission from the UW landscape architect to install a bench and interpretive sign at the edge of Kincaid Ravine.  The location of this sign and bench will be very close to where the bioswale would be located.  The bench and sign would allow for a bioswale to really catch the attention of users of the Burke-Gilman Trail as they enter and leave campus.  We will post contact information and “ways to get involved” with the interpretive signage.  Not only would a bioswale improve the “view” from the trail, but it would also be a visual example of the type of projects people can incorporate into their properties and neighborhoods.  We not only want to publicize why the bioswale is important to the wetland hydrology in Kincaid Ravine, but also make it very clear and well known that this type of “rain garden” technology is relatively simple and can be done on small scales in people’s yards, at schools and around parking lots.  It will be important to emphasize the impact that bioswales and rain gardens can have on the greater public good in terms of how they can address stormwater pollution and overflow issues in Seattle.  This is another reason why we are working with 12,000 Rain Gardens in Puget Sound.  The Kincaid Ravine bioswale will be registered with 12,000 Rain Gardens and we will be contacting City of Seattle, King County and Department of Ecology to make sure this project falls within their respective goals and objectives for stormwater management and wetland protection. 

Besides continuing to ensure Kincaid Ravine and the potential bioswale provides a place for education, interpretation and restoration work parties and projects, we will continue to search for ways to get information about the progress in Kincaid Ravine out to the public.  Project Leader Matt Schwartz already writes monthly news updates to all of the involved constituents with Kincaid Ravine.  There are plenty of other opportunities along these lines such as writing a story for the school paper and presenting to ESRM undergraduate classes and other campus groups about the work in Kincaid Ravine and ways to get involved.  While in a short amount of time Kincaid Ravine has already become a project with many interested groups and stakeholders, it will be paramount going forward to continue to search for opportunities to inform the UW and outside community about the work done in Kincaid Ravine.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Transportation
  • Water
Project Longevity:

The need for the site assessment and the development of a bioswale design for Kincaid Ravine is necessary in determining a plan for a project that will fit within the landscape and be sustainable with limited maintenance over a long period of time. It is important to spend this effort on the assessment and design phase to ensure the bioswale functions properly, limits flooding, is suitable for the average amount of water on site, and matches the goals and objectives from other University of Washington interests. Once all of this is figured out through the assessment study, the next step will be to construct the bioswale. If all goes well this would be the end of the main phase of this project, hopefully completed in the next year and a half to two years. There will be need for some maintenance of the bioswale, but it should not require regular funding. The removal of sediment, invasive species and other minor maintenance of the bioswale will be carried out by students working in Kincaid Ravine and be assisted by the UW grounds management crews. One big issue going forward will be funding for the actual bioswale construction. While it is still early to tell the scale and cost of this project, it is our goal to build a bioswale with minimal intrusion into the wetland. This will help limit the need for permitting, reduce the risk of adversely impacting the wetland and hopefully keep the cost for the construction at a reasonable level. A real rough range for the cost of bioswale construction in Kincaid Ravine is anywhere from 5,000 to 30,000 dollars based on the amount of excavation and materials needed to bring in. The assessment and feasibility study will attempt to hone in on a more accurate cost estimate. While I will not rule out looking to CSF to help fund some of this, I also know CSF has already been incredibly supportive of the work in Kincaid Ravine and I have already identified a few potential grant opportunities to help supplement future funding needs. This includes the Rose Foundation Puget Sound grassroots grant program and King Conservation District Seattle Municipal Partnership fund. I will also continue to explore more options going forward.

Environmental Problem:

Wetlands are considered the “kidneys” of the landscape due to their excellent ability to store and treat water from contaminated sources.  However, a key component that allows for this ecological function to be beneficial is the amount of time it takes the water to pass through the wetland system, which is called the hydroperiod.  At Kincaid Ravine, stormwater flows have created an incised channel that quickly funnels water down from the ravine where it spills out along the Burke-Gilman Trail.  Slowing down this hydroperiod would allow for more groundwater recharge, sediment deposition, phytoremediation (ability for plants to remediate toxins in the soil and water) and more diverse wetland habitat for a variety of plant and wildlife species.

Bioswales are landscape features designed to slow down the flow of surface and stormwater runoff.  This process, along with the help of wetland vegetation, allows for the removal of sediment and contaminants.   A bioswale at the bottom of Kincaid Ravine would help slow the flow down and remove sediment and pollutants from the water with the help of a diverse planting of native sedges, rushes, grasses and shrubs in and on the edges of the bioswale.  A thorough site assessment and a bioswale design that functions properly in the landscape are crucial first steps in achieving the goals of restoring and enhancing wetland ecological functions, limiting flooding on the Burke-Gilman Trail and providing an opportunity for education and outreach due to the Kincaid Ravine’s high visibility near the entrance of campus.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

It is somewhat difficult to provide measurable impacts for this project since it is an assessment and feasibility study.  That being said, the main success of this project will be determined by taking the deliverables created (listed in executive summary) for the assessment study and using them to push towards the actual construction and implementation of a bioswale.  If for whatever reasons that cannot happen, these documents will still be incredibly useful in analyzing other plans for wetland restoration and hydrology modifications.  While designing and implementing a bioswale for hydrologic purposes is still priority number one, the approximately 1 acre of delineated wetland in Kincaid Ravine will be put into restoration in the coming year.  A bioswale provides the best potential to store water, reduce flooding and treat contaminated water and soils in Kincaid Ravine.  The construction of a bioswale will allow for measurable impacts such as amount of water stored, diversity of plant species, and we will also be able to compare the water quality at the site pre and post bioswale.  We can also study the quality of the water entering the bioswale versus water that has passed through or remains in the bioswale to show effectiveness of water quality treatment.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $5,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Water Quality Testing - metals$12.50 per sample10$125
Water Quality Testing - carbons$100 per sample5$500
Soils Testing$17 per sample20$340
sample prep$45 per hour5 hours$235
Consulting$75 per hourabout 50$3,800

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Water and Soil Testingcan be done immediately after funding is securedMay 2015
Consulting for assessment studyAaron at 12,000 Rain Gardens is able to work this into his schedule as soon as we find out if this project is funded. His assessment and report writing will be done over 1 to 2 month periodJune 2015

HydraPower

Executive Summary:

Our project, HydraPower, is a new, innovate technology that produces clean, alternative energy. HydraPower functions by capturing and generating energy from light, specifically infrared (IR) light. The device collects energy from ambient IR light, which is ubiquitously present at all times of day. Therefore, it provides stable power at all times of day without needing additional power supplied by rechargeable batteries. The ability to generate constant, stable power is a stark improvement from solar photovoltaic technologies, which are limited by sunlight.

The total cost of this project is $12,000. With this funding, we will create three fully functional prototypes by September 2015 and install them in UW campus buildings in late September, prior to the 2015-16 academic year. We’ve broken our project’s timeline into two phases. The first phase includes the physical development of three prototypes over the next six months, from April through September 2015. The second phase includes the physical installation of these devices in buildings on the UW campus, as well as continued development of prototypes that provide increased energy outputs. Funding from the Campus Sustainability Fund is intended for phase one, which will support the creation of three fully-functional devices to utilize in UW buildings for phase two. Currently, we have formal approval from the W.H. Foege Building to install one device and an accompanying poster in the building. Although we have received verbal confirmation, we are awaiting the final signature from Parrington Hall to set up the device and poster. Our third building site is still to be determined; however we are targeting one of the campus libraries in order to maximize visibility to the entire student body. Other than their locations, there are no differences between the three devices.

HydraPower’s brief history began in 2010 as a research project developed by Kurt Kung, a PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering. The initial idea for this technology stemmed from basic water research in Dr. Gerald Pollack’s laboratory. Upon realizing the technology’s potential, Kurt began to develop an initial prototype which generated one nano-watt of energy. Currently, the technology can produce nearly one milli-watt of energy output. Despite the relatively low power output, the technology’s future potential is demonstrated by its recent history of exponential improvement. The output has increased to create nearly 1,000,000 times the energy since its first iteration, and our current research suggests that similar increases in energy output are feasible.

We will begin by using these devices to help power wireless sensors in several campus buildings. Specifically, our device will be placed alongside current remote sensors in these buildings, where they will initially help generate power needed without being the sole power source. As our prototypes prove their consistency, they will then become the main power source for these sensors.

Student Involvement:

Student involvement is a critical component of our project. Initially an independent project led by Kurt Kung, HydraPower has evolved over the past several years with the aid of students from a wide variety of academic disciplines. In addition to Kurt, the current HydraPower team consists of an undergraduate engineering student and three graduate students from the Evans School of Public Affairs who work to increase public awareness and education. Each team member will be enrolled as a full-time student throughout the project period, with the exception of Kurt Kung, who will be conducting post-doctoral work for the Bioengineering department.

In addition to being designed by a group of UW students, this project will also engage the campus community by being visible in prominent campus buildings. Although the goal of our project is for the three devices to stand alone and function autonomously on a daily basis, there are various opportunities for interested parties to get involved with our project. Each of the three devices will be accompanied by a small poster which briefly explains how the device functions. These posters will also include contact information for students to get in touch with Kurt if they’re interested in joining our team or have any questions. Furthermore, each of the three devices will be set up to track motion, and our poster will invite students to wave and interact with the device. This added component is intended to engage the campus community in a more stimulating way than simple informative posters.

There are ample opportunities for students from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines to get involved with the project. Engineering students who are interested in alternative and sustainable energy are welcome to volunteer to help in the lab with Kurt. Students who are interested in the technology may also volunteer to help with educational outreach throughout campus. Over time, students could also help us with feasibility studies to find other applications for the technology. 

Education & Outreach:

This project is specifically designed to engage the campus community by being visible in prominent campus buildings. In the W.H. Foege Building, it is common to see posters lining the hallways that tout research of both graduate and undergraduate students. In Parrington Hall, it is equally common to find display cases filled with policy-related accomplishments of students and alumni. With our proposal, we hope to combine these display formats in order to educate students from across campus about the novel renewable energy research being done at the University of Washington. With CSF’s support, each HydraPower device installed will represent one more step toward a campus that benefits from sharing information and educating students across disciplines. Due to the scientific and policy relevance of our technology, this campaign will begin within the halls of Parrington Hall and Foege Building, with a third campus building site to be determined.

Our aim is to adequately publicize each HydraPower device while minimizing the physical impact to campus buildings. In order to do this, we will include a framed informational poster that includes the fully-functional HydraPower device, a bulletin for other research efforts at the University of Washington, contact information for students to get involved, and educational information regarding HydraPower devices. Specifically, information relative to HydraPower will include a variety of topics including a scientific introduction to the light spectrum, an explanation on how our technology harvests energy from infrared light, and a comparison of how HydraPower differs from other renewable energy technologies, such as solar power.

As previously mentioned, this also aims to provide an opportunity to highlight cross-disciplinary research in campus buildings. While buildings on campus do an excellent job advertising the accomplishments of students from within their respective disciplines, there is a relative lack of formal displays that facilitate sharing of interdisciplinary ideas. We hope to use our display as a way to not only highlight the value of the research behind HydraPower, but also to shed light on other current research efforts on campus. Thus, we intend to make other current research efforts on campus more widely known, in a format facilitated by renewable energy.

Furthermore, the energy that a HydraPower prototype produces provides an opportunity to power a multitude of interactive display options. These interactive options could be used to record visitation when displayed in a high foot traffic areas. For example, a motion detector powered by our technology will be used to record visitors as they wave over the sensor in order to indicate they found the display enjoyable. Thus, the product of our proposal would simultaneously display our technology to the campus, serve as a format to share information on other current research efforts, and record the number of people who visited the display. Using this information we could quantify visitation rates, identify when displays begin to go unused, and potentially shift the displays to new areas of campus to find new audiences. These figures could also be used as a rough estimate to quantify measures of outreach.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
Project Longevity:

Our team is well-equipped to complete this project successfully. Kurt Kung, our team leader, has worked on developing this technology throughout his doctoral education at the UW. Our project currently has a staff mentor, Dr. Gerald Pollack, who has been an integral part of this project and will continue to support our team throughout the duration of the project timeline. Jason Huang, an undergraduate civil engineering student, works alongside Kurt on the technical aspects of the device. Lucas DuSablon, Forrest Howk and Xinying Zeng also bring extensive educational outreach and project management skills to our team. We have also established a transition plan to ensure the longevity of the project. Kurt Kung is scheduled to defend his doctoral dissertation in late May; however he intends on pursing post-doctoral research with his department after graduation, enabling him to continue to work on the project. All other team members will be full-time students during the 2015-16 school year. In the autumn of next academic year, our team will pursue adding additional team members as needed, based on interest, need and skill-sets. In the circumstance that one or more of the devices falters during its use, we will utilize our budgeted funds to repair or replace the non-functional components. The vast majority of problems that may arise would require fixes to the device’s electronics or sensors, resulting in minimal costs. In the unfortunate event that major damage occurs to one or more of the devices, we will likely need to perform repairs that could take weeks to months. If the device is implemented smoothly and no repairs are needed, HydraPower is committed to returning these unused funds to the Campus Sustainability Fund upon the completion of the project.

Environmental Problem:

If sustainability is to continue as a priority for our nation, state, city and campus community, more renewable energy technologies are required. Technologies such as solar power and alternative fuels provide excellent alternatives to their wasteful counterparts; however there is no single technology that can solve all of our world’s energy problems. A true portfolio solution will require a variety of complementary technologies that, when implemented together as a group, could combine to meet future energy demand. Therefore, there is a stark need for not only more renewable energy, but new types of renewable energy. HydraPower presents the University of Washington with an opportunity to facilitate a new technology.

The HydraPower device is specifically designed to reduce the University’s environmental impact while simultaneously making campus more sustainable. Each device captures ambient IR light and transmits it into energy without any waste or emissions. Although the tangible energy saved will be negligible due to the current level of output each device is capable of, the technology will generate previously unharnessed energy. Future large-scale applications of the technology will result in a greater environmental impact. All technologies have their first application, and funding from the CSF will serve as a vital first-step toward future applications that will have increasingly larger environmental impacts. Additionally, an investment in this technology helps the UW diversify its sustainable energy portfolio.

In terms of the device itself, the environmental impact is minimal. In contrast to technologies that are comprised of large numbers of small components and rare earth metals that are wasteful to produce and harvest, our device is comprised mostly of one small piece of plastic. The device also utilizes water as its medium, which is both renewable and sustainable. Future iterations of these devices will aim to utilize a more ecologically-friendly material than plastic; however cost constraints limit us to 3-D printing.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

We will measure the performance of this prototype in several ways upon its implementation in UW buildings. The remote sensor will keep a running tally of the amount of energy generated, allowing us to measure the amount of energy generated by each device. Each device will also include a small sensor, which will count the number of passersby who walk by the device each day. These quantitative measure will provide us with crucial data that we can use as an initial benchmark for future iterations of the device.

As mentioned in the student outreach section of the proposal, we will also measure the impact of the project in terms of student involvement. Despite inherent difficulties in measuring and quantifying metrics such as total students reached, the device’s location in campus buildings ensures students will interact with the devices on a daily basis. Furthermore, we will include small informational cards near each remote sensor for students to read, allowing them to learn more about this unique, homegrown technology and how they can get involved in our project. HydraPower will conduct informal bi-monthly surveys in buildings with the devices to determine if students are seeing the devices and learning about the technology.

Due to the relative infancy of the HydraPower device, each device will be installed on its own instead of replacing a different device. Therefore, we will not be able to measure the amount of electricity saved, only the amount of clean energy generated. This metric will serve both as a benchmark for our team and an opportunity to determine practical applications of the device. In the future, HydraPower will utilize the data and implement these devices in lieu of other devices that use energy. 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $12,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Posters$503$150
Sensors$1003$300
Electronics$5001$500
3-D Printing Service Fee$2,0001$2,000
Nafion (synthetic polymer)$1,0001$1,000
Electrodes$1,0001$1,000
RA Position Funding Match (This is $1,128/month for 6 months, or half of the regular RA salary. Bioengineering has committed to match this amount.)$6,7681$6,768
Repairs (speculative, in case of need)$2821$282

Non-CSF Sources:

OrganizationApplication StatusAmount of Funding SoughtProject TimelinePurpose
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programIn developmentTBDJanuary 2016 - December 2016Development of 10-20 additional prototypes; continued research and development of the technology
UW Green Seed Fund ProgramAwaiting next application period$50,000January 2016 - December 2016Research Funding
Project Completion Total: $12,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Continued development of three (3) prototypesApril 2015 – September 2015September 15, 2015
Installation of three (3) fully-functional prototypes; one in the W.H. Foege Building, one in Parrington Hall, and one in a third building that has yet to be determinedSeptember 2015September 19, 2015
Continued research into expanding the capacity of the devicesOctober 2015 – March 2016March 31, 2016
Informal verbal feedback from students in each buildingBi-monthly, beginning in October, 2015March 31, 2016

Expanding Education and Outreach at the UW Farm

Executive Summary:

The UW Farm is an educational farm with the mission of being "the campus center for the practice and study of urban agriculture and sustainability, and an educational, community-oriented resource for people who want to learn about building productive and sustainable urban landscapes.” Increased demand for field trips on the Farm drives the need for a formal education and outreach program. The proposed project's goal is to create an education program for elementary school children to tour the Farm and learn about sustainable agriculture and healthy food choices.  The proposed project requests funding for two main components: 1) the creation of a physical space on the Farm where children can explore and garden and 2) the acquisition of educational materials and supplies needed to run an educational outreach program that provides rigorous, curriculum-driven field trips with engaging and interactive educational activities.

Creation of Physical Space on the Farm:

Expanding the education program entails building a Children's Garden adjacent to the production beds of the UW Farm located at the Center for Urban Horticulture.  Currently field trips are carried out in the garden beds that are devoted to food production. While the interactive component of field trips is vital to student engagement and essential for assimilation of new skills and knowledge, it is not sustainable to have large numbers of children sowing and harvesting in the Farm’s production beds without adversely impacting food production.  The Children's Garden will consist of raised beds where children can implement the sustainable farming practices they observe on the Farm.  Perennial herbs, edible flowers, fruit bushes and dwarf fruit trees, delightful for the senses, will surround the periphery of the Garden.  The idea is to grow taller plants around the edge of the Garden to physically contain the children and create the feel of an outdoor classroom.  The UW Farm will soon have honeybees, creating the added need to carefully manage the flow of children through the farm; the garden design will help regulate their movements with natural garden barriers, clear paths and an inviting garden entrance. 

Since submitting the LOI, the design for the raised beds has changed from four rectangular beds to two C shaped beds that face each other with the intention of creating a physical space in the middle of the beds for the children to gather while also creating more space for the children to work in the beds.   Another change is to have the peripheral garden of perennials, fruit trees and bushes also planted in raised beds made from metal water troughs.   The designated site for the Children’s Garden on the southern edge of the UW Farm was once a landfill in the 1920’s before the University of Washington was gifted the land.  The UW has done a laudable job restoring the wetland ecosystem including capping and safely contained the landfill but raised garden beds seems advisable on the site nonetheless.

Acquisition of Educational Materials and Supplies to Run an Education Program:

A formal education and outreach program will be developed which will include creating logistical and administrative systems for organizing field trips, developing curriculum, and purchasing necessary supplies for educational activities. The UW Farm field trips are an opportunity for children to reconnect with the land, learn where food comes from and how it is grown.  The details of this program will be discussed at length in other sections of the proposal.

Involved People and Departments

The UW Farm has a rich history of student involvement; in keeping with this history, the Farm education program will rely heavily on UW student volunteers to lead field trips and run the education program.  The belief is that by teaching children UW students will learn leadership skills and develop a deeper understanding of sustainable agriculture and ecology, thereby furthering their own educational goals.  In tandem, school children will flourish under the gaze of informed and passionate UW field trip guides.

The proposed project is the collaborative effort of the UW Farm and the education department of the UW Botanic Gardens (UWBG).  Beth Wheat, a Program on the Environment (POE) lecturer and Whidbey Island Farmer is interested in incorporating the Farm Education program into her Advanced Topics: Environmental Pedagogy course and has invited UWBG staff to present an overview of the Farm education program to the class on April 20th, 2015.  The course has a service-learning component in which the students need to develop and implement environmental curriculum.  Through this course, POE students can help develop curricula for the Farm that will have a practical, useful and enduring application.

Since UW student volunteers are a crucial component of the program, building formal and informal connections with other departments and programs is critical.  There is strong potential for fruitful collaboration with the POE, Education Department, the Islandwood Teacher Program, the Biology Program for Teachers, the Pipeline Project, and the Carlson Leadership and Public Service Center.  UWBG staff have contacted each of these entities to explore avenues of collaboration.

Websites for further information:

UW Farm: http://food.washington.edu/farm/

UWBG Education Department and Field Trip Program: http://depts.washington.edu/uwbg/education/school_youth.shtml

Student Involvement:

The project will create great demand for student volunteers in a variety of capacities including constructing the Children’s Garden and maintaining it; leading school field trips; developing educational signs; and designing curricula. Some opportunities are on a short-term basis but others require a longer-term commitment. 

The first immediate need for volunteers will be to help construct the Children's Garden raised beds.  Volunteers will learn how to build raised beds during a construction workshop with Master Gardner Helen Weber that is tentatively scheduled for 9am on May 30th.  Student volunteers will build the beds, fill them with soil and compost, and irrigate them.  These beds will need to be maintained and planted with seasonally appropriate crops on an ongoing basis by a rotating crew of volunteers.  Currently the UW Farm has student officers responsible for certain jobs critical to the operation of the Farm.  Once the Children's Garden is created an Education Outreach Coordinator position will be advertised and a student volunteer will be responsible for collaborating with UWBG education staff and UW Farm Manager Sarah Geurkink to maintain the Children's Garden.  There are regular bi-weekly volunteer work parties at the CUH Farm that will provide a consistent work force for routine maintenance of the Children's Garden.   

Student volunteers will create weatherproof educational signage for the UW Farm that explains key concepts of sustainable agriculture (such as compost, crop covers, crop rotation, and companion planting) and information about the crops planted at the UW Farm.  The signs will be moveable so that as the crops rotate through the season the signs can be moved and interchanged.  The benefit of the signs is that they are available for all visitors to read, even those who are visiting the farm without a planned tour. 

Three UW students are currently volunteering with UWBG staff to develop programming but more student involvement to develop seasonally appropriate curricula on a variety of topics is desirable.  Beth Wheat’s Advanced Topics: Environmental Pedagogy course (see the executive summary) is one possible source of student volunteers.

A core team of eight committed and reliable student volunteers will be needed to lead field trips on a regular and on-going basis.  This core team will need to be intimately familiar with the Farm, its operations and the curricula.  Since training the members of this core team requires substantial time and financial investment (a criminal history check is mandatory in order to work with minors), these field trip leader positions will require a minimum commitment of an academic year.    

Since UW student volunteers are a crucial component of the program, UWBG staff are working on building connections with other departments, centers and programs (including the Education Department, the Islandwood Teacher Program, the Biology Program for Teachers, the Pipeline Project, and the Carlson Leadership and Public Service Center) to ensure a continual stream of new volunteers.

The UW Farm and UWBG staff are committed to working with students to create volunteer positions that fulfill their academic needs and interests.

A two-quarter paid student intern has been built into the budget to help ease the educational program into self-sufficiency.  The intern will be responsible for developing systems for volunteer recruitment, for assigning student tour guides to lead field trips, for new student volunteer curricula trainings, for communicating with the various involved parties, and for schools to register for field trips.     

Education & Outreach:

Education:

The program's objective is to build a field trip program to educate elementary students about sustainable agriculture and healthy food choices while also providing UW students with an enriching and challenging educational and leadership opportunity.  Through teaching curious and inquisitive youth, the goal is for UW students to develop a deeper understanding of the underlying biological and environmental concepts and for their enthusiasm to inspire the next generation of children to care deeply about the environment.   The short-term plan for autumn is to develop a curriculum that provides a general introduction to sustainable agriculture.  Fieldtrips would be offered one day a week with no more than one trip a week to a maximum of 60 elementary children (two classes worth of students).  Upon arrival the 60 children would be divided into four groups of a maximum of 15 students, each to be lead by an instructor, ideally a UW student volunteer.  After an introductory discussion, each group would rotate through four stations that would include a service learning station, a soil station, a “take home” station and a tour of the Farm.  The field trip program is rooted in the inquiry approach to education with the belief that children learn best when they are engaged in an activity.   The service learning station is where the children will try out being farmers and contribute to the upkeep of the Children's Garden (by sowing seeds, weeding, watering, harvesting).  The soil station is where the children will explore compost from a worm bin to learn about soil fauna and flora and the interconnectedness of food webs and soil’s role in overall ecosystem health.   The “take home” station will vary depending on the season but could include sowing a seed or an art activity.  The purpose would be for the children to take something home with them to spark a conversation with family members allowing the child to assume the role of teacher.  The final station would consist of a tour of the production beds of the UW Farm where the students would observe sustainable agriculture in practice and have the opportunity to taste and smell a variety of seasonal foods. 

The field trip program would expand to offer more field trips on a variety of topics in response to demand and a solid base of UW student volunteers.  The field trip program is to be a creative and experimental learning venue for UW students to explore different teaching techniques and develop curricula for different seasons and to address different topics of interest.  To ensure the financial viability and longevity of the education program, school groups would be charged enough to cover the program costs.

Outreach:

Both the UW Farm and the UWBG have well-established formal social media networks to communicate with its student volunteers and supporters.  This collaborative project will be widely publicized on the Farm's blog, newsletter, and Facebook page as well as on the UW Botanic Garden's website and newsletter with routine programmatic updates.   The Farm also has informal avenues for publicity including a weekly book group and topical discussion groups, regular pizza bakes, volunteer hours, and potluck dinners. Volunteer opportunities for UW students to become involved will be advertised on the Carlson Leadership and Public Service Center's and the Pipeline Center's searchable online service opportunity bulletins.   Beth Wheat's class also provides a valuable opportunity to publicize the UW Farm's project and to engage students who have already demonstrated interest in environmental education.  We also plan on advertising opportunities for student engagement to the Biology Department's and the Education Department's student list serves.  The UWBG routinely publicizes current field trip offerings to local elementary schools and intends to include the UW Farm field trips in those circulations.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
Project Longevity:

As discussed above, there are two main components of the project. The first is to build the Children’s Garden. The wooden raised beds should last a minimum of 10 years and the metal raised beds even longer. The Garden once built will be maintained by student volunteers. Once the beds are built and the perennials planted, the main cost will be for seeds and plant starts each season. The second component of the project is to create a formal education program. The main re-occuring cost associated with the education program will be educational supplies. Once the program is operating smoothly, the Farm education program will charge a nominal fee for field trips, which will cover the operating costs of the Farm’s education program including maintaining the Children’s Garden. To help launch the education program, UWBG has committed the partial support of one of its education staff for the short term. However, the objective is for it to be fully self-sustaining by 2017 when the support of the UWBG education staff position ends. For this reason, a student intern is built into the budget to ease the transition to self-sufficiency. The student intern will work one quarter with UWBG staff to develop a self-sustaining system. The following quarter the intern will work independently to implement the plan. UW student volunteers will take primary responsibility for leading school field trips, however, in order to ensure continuity and reliability, UWBG education staff and volunteers will be available to provide back up support and lead field trips when needed. The Children’s Garden has been designed with future expansion in mind. The metal water trough raised beds around the periphery of the Children’s garden will be placed on pallets so that they can be moved by fork lift to allow for possible expansion.

Environmental Problem:

Franklin D. Roosevelt said that "The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself" (Letter, February 26, 1937, to state governors, urging uniform soil conservation laws.) As small scale farms have been replaced by industrial farming, agriculture has become increasingly destructive to the environment with the wide application of fossil fuel dependent chemicals (including fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, and grown hormones) detrimental to animals and plants; and with farming techniques that result in the loss of valuable arable land through soil erosion and salination.  Industrial agriculture—one of the three main sources of green house gas emissions—is heavily dependent on fossil fuels at every stage of production from fertilizer manufacturing to delivery of out of season crops half way around the world.  Unsustainable agricultural practices impact the health of interconnected ecosystems in myriad ways and push an ecosystem out of balance.    

The UW Farm education program’s goal is to be one small player in a global effort to educate children about healthy food choices for themselves and the planet.  Through learning about sustainable agriculture—an ecosystem approach to agriculture—children will grow up knowledge about the impact of their food choices and that the choices they make have very real ecological impacts that effect complex, interdependent relationships between animals, plants and their environment. Children will not only learn about sustainable practices such as cover crops, crop rotation and composting, but also about the science behind the practices—about why these practices are important for keeping the farm ecosystem in balance. The objective is to provide each child with one more positive outdoor experience in the hopes that the sum of all of them will inspire action in their daily lives and in their communities.  If today’s children collectively grow up to demand local, sustainably grown food, change is bound to come.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

To ensure that the program is meeting school curriculum needs and offering a high quality program, the UWBG education staff is working with students to develop surveys to hand out to teachers after field trips to solicit feedback on their experience at the Farm.  The UWBG’s online field trip registration site, to which the UW Farm field trips will be added, tracks the number of field trips per year, the number of students per field trip, and volunteer hours.  These numbers track volunteer involvement and the number of participants and field trips within a given year but they do not track student learning. 

It is more challenging to track the program's impact on UW students and elementary school children because individual learning is similar to planting a seed, personal growth doesn't happen all at once.  However, there are several informal opportunities for assessing the program's overall impact.  Continued UW student involvement is one coarse indicator of whether the experience is perceived as valuable and worthwhile.  Another assessment opportunity is regular group volunteer meetings during which student volunteers can support each other, discuss challenges, answer questions, and exchange recommendations.  Individual one-on-one student meetings with UWBG staff provide another opportunity for assessing the program's impact, and an opportunity to tailor the volunteer experience to the student's specific academic needs, provide two way feedback, reflect on educational progress, and identify specific steps for future attainment of educational objectives.   To assess the field trip's impact on elementary student learning, tour guides will ask questions throughout to determine student's prior knowledge and the field trip will close with a group discussion to evaluate the children's learning. 

The best way to ensure that the UW Farm education program has the desired impact is to make the program fun, and to pique children’s interest and curiosity.  Engaging curriculum and passionate field trip guides will be key to the program’s success.  Beth Wheat’s Environmental Pedagogy class and the Islandwood Program are two valuable potential sources for passionate environmental volunteers and for continual curriculum improvement and innovation.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $16,100
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemQuantitySourceEstimated Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $16,100

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Prepare for Raised Bed Workshop2 daysMay 30th, 2015
Raised Bed Workshop/Construct Bedsone dayMay 30th, 2015
Fill with soil and irrigate Raised Beds2 weeks of CUH volunteer work hoursJune 15th, 2015
Plant raised bedsongoing throughout yearnone
Plant fruit trees/berry bushes4 hourslate fall/ winter when plants are dormant 2015
Purchase educational suppliesas needed
Develop Educational Signs1 month; ongoing as neededFall 2015

Sustainable Shellfish Aquaculture (Phase 2): Engaging Students and Public in Marine Conservation

Executive Summary:

The UW Shellfish Farm concept is a collaborative effort between students and faculty from the UW School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences (SAFS), School of Marine & Environmental Affairs (SMEA), and Department of Biology, along with Taylor Shellfish Inc. and other shellfish industry stakeholders. We seek to establish a student-run shellfish farm at the Big Beef Creek Research Station, a SAFS field site on Hood Canal. The current proposal is to conduct an aquaculture research trial at the Big Beef Creek Research Preserve (BBC), where the farm will eventually be located. This project will provide critical biological information on optimal conditions for shellfish aquaculture that will inform and implementation.

The successful implementation of the UW Shellfish Farm concept depends on characterizing intertidal areas at BBC that exhibit optimal environmental conditions for shellfish growth. To that end, our team will deploy three different shellfish species at multiple sites at BBC, monitoring growth, survival, and environmental conditions over the course of one year. Campus Sustainability Funds will be used to purchase necessary culture supplies (e.g. re-usable cages) and shellfish seed, and will support students to conduct the grow-out of shellfish at BBC. A student will also continue the ongoing permitting process initiated in Phase I, assist in developing educational outreach material, and use the data generated to initiate a long-term environmental monitoring program. Involved students will gain firsthand knowledge and skills required to operate a shellfish aquaculture business.

Student Involvement:

The current proposal seeks funding to support a SAFS or SMEA graduate student. The work may be readily incorporated into a Masters thesis. The student will work closely with project coordinators to achieve the following goals:

  1. Assist in the design of an appropriate pilot-scale aquaculture trial based on known physical features of the Big Beef Creek tideland area.
  2. Coordinate with shellfish industry partners (Taylor Shellfish Inc., Puget Sound Restoration Fund, Hama Hama Inc.) to obtain necessary shellfish “seed” and growout equipment; install as necessary.
  3. Monitor growth and survival at regular intervals (2x/mo.); collect environmental data and publish to online portal (Figshare, Github, Shellfish farm blog).
  4. Continue ongoing efforts to obtain necessary permits for commercial shellfish aquaculture, seafood handling and sales as detailed in our initial proposal (Phase I). Coordinate with State agencies and UW legal office as necessary.
  5. Produce final report to SAFS and the Project team with growout results and recommendations for aquaculture site and species.

Education & Outreach:

As outlined in our initial proposal, we envision the UW Shellfish Farm achieving the following outreach and educational goals:

  1. Partner with UW academic departments (i.e. SAFS, SMEA, Biology) to integrate Farm visits into academic course curricula and student research opportunities (i.e. capstone projects). FISH 404 (Sustainable Aquaculture) is one example of an upper-level undergraduate course that, through field trips, provides students with unique exposure to a variety of aquatic farms and hatcheries in Washington.
  2. Develop outreach materials regarding sustainable aquaculture, estuarine biodiversity, marine pathogens, and the impacts of ocean acidification on marine invertebrates.
  3. Lead seminars for the UW community and general public.
  4. Train student leaders to assume roles as environmental educators.
  5. Provide a suitable space for ongoing and future shellfish research by graduate and undergraduate researchers at UW. **Note that the current proposal does not seek funding for research, nor does it directly benefit the applicants’ current research projects.

The current proposal directly addresses CSF Goal #2, the development of outreach and educational materials. Funds requested will support a graduate student tasked with the aforementioned, using the Farm as a model system. Summaries/analyses of environmental data collected as part of our pilot project will be incorporated into educational material, demonstrating seasonal patterns and anomalies in water quality and their interaction with shellfish growth and survival. We aim to promote these materials via our website (currently hosted at http://www.uwshellfishfarm.wordpress.com) and in person at local and regional workshops and conferences. 

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Based on our current feasibility analysis, a goal is to partner with experienced shellfish growers such that a UW Shellfish Farm would be self-sustainable with limited UW support. We plan to have details of this worked out by the end of the summer.

Environmental Problem:

By establishing an example of sustainable shellfish aquaculture, the UW Shellfish Farm aims to turn students’ attentions to the important question: “Where does our seafood come from?” Today, over 90% of seafood consumed in the US is imported, often with no inspection for quality or proper labeling. With many foreign fisheries underregulated, in decline, and potentially overfished, an increasing proportion of U.S. consumers recognize the importance of choosing “sustainably-sourced” seafood items. Shellfish aquaculture stands out as a seafood production system that, when properly conceived, poses minimal negative impact to natural systems. Bivalve shellfish provide ecosystem services including benthic-pelagic coupling, nitrogen sequestration, creation of biogenic habitat, and biofiltration. For example, a single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day. Through aquaculture efforts, enhanced shellfish populations result in reductions in turbidity, reduced nitrogenous wastes, and improved habitat for invertebrates and juvenile fish. 

The current proposal seeks to provide pilot-scale information on the potential for aquaculture activities at Big Beef Creek that will inform the design of a full-scale commercial aquaculture operation. Specifically, we will measure the growth and survival (yield) of three species: 1) Pacific geoduck (Panopea generosa); 2) Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas); and 3) Manila clam (Ruditapes philippinarum) at multiple, replicate sites across the Big Beef Creek tideland parcel. These species are among the primary shellfish aquaculture products in Washington State, and represent possible species to grow at the UW Shellfish Farm once permitted. In addition to basic data on yield, we will routinely monitor environmental parameters including salinity, temperature, pH/pCO2, and dissolved oxygen. This is discussed in more detail in the next section.

We aim to connect students with the theory and practice of sustainable cultivation of shellfish. Because these animals acquire their food by filtering the water, the success of a shellfish aquaculture venture depends, in large part, on the health of the estuary in which they are raised. By working on the water, students will become intimately acquainted with the Big Beef Creek estuary and the environmental factors that affect it. 

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The UW Shellfish Farm will contribute directly and indirectly to environmental conservation. First, the intensive production of shellfish will improve water quality conditions at Big Beef Creek. In Puget Sound, production of single Pacific oysters for the half-shell market using traditional on-bottom methods typically yields approximately 240,000 oysters per acre with a biomass of about 36,000 pounds. Over a two-year harvest cycle, approximate production is thus 18,000 pounds per acre per year. Depending on the outcome of the proposed assessment of habitat suitability, the UW Shellfish Farm could be scaled to several acres within the 9.7-acre Big Beef Tidelands.

Our initial proposal includes the development of an environmental monitoring program to quantify the impacts of the shellfish farm on water quality in Big Beef Creek. Specifically, we aim to monitor salinity, temperature, pH/pCO2, and dissolved oxygen  in the estuary. The current proposal will provide valuable intra-annual environmental data as we conduct shellfish culture trials  at the site. These data will guide the development of an ongoing monitoring program. Environmental data from our monitoring program will inform UW research, and will be made available to the scientific community and general public.

There is both precedent and ongoing interest in establishing environmental monitoring at Big Beef Creek. From 2009-2011, Big Beef Creek was one of several sites in Puget Sound at which researchers sampled oyster populations and water quality to better understand the relationship between environment and organism health. Several research products resulted from this effort, known as PROPS (Physiological Response of Oysters in Puget Sound, http://faculty.washington.edu/sr320/?p=589). Future data collected from monitoring at BBC, as in PROPS, can readily aid resource managers, policy makers, and scientists in assessing remediation efforts, restoration activities, and allow for informed predictions of risks associated with changes in habitat quality. The Big Beef Creek estuary is also currently a priority site for the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Project (http://pnwsalmoncenter.org/project/lower-big-beef-creek-design/); positive attention created by implementing the farm may make the site more desirable for further conservation efforts.

Direct impacts of the shellfish farm can also be quantified through the number of students that: 1) participate in environmental outreach and education programs on the farm, 2) utilize the farm for capstone research, and 3) volunteer to work on the farm. As of Spring 2015, there are approximately 400 students participating in SAFS, Marine Biology and SMEA undergraduate and graduate programs, and hundreds more involved in other academic programs within the College of the Environment. The potential for diverse student involvement is extremely high. 

Specific questions:

  • Is the shellfish going to be sold on campus? To whom? Housing and Food Services? At what cost?  Not during this period
    • Is there potential for a revolving fund loan/return on investment mechanism? Yes
  • Who is overseeing the quality control/safety of the shellfish to eat? As of now, no shellfish will be consumed.
  • Is there a way for more student involvement and engagement? Yes, addtional UW students will be included in the monitoring described in this proposal. 
  • Is there a Phase III, or is this the end goal for now? We see this as the last bridge prior to discussing a partnership. During the current quarter there will a number of discussions on how to best proceed. The end goal is to have a functional UW Shellfish Farm. The current proposal is intended to provide essential biological and practical information on how to get to our end goal of a functional UW Shellfish Farm. 
Total amount requested from the CSF: $24,872
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Graduate Student Support11,936 per quarter223872
Cages, bags, stakes, supplies5001500
Travel5001500

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Outplant shellfish2 weeksSeptember 2016
Monitor shellfishMonthlyMay 2017
Determine mechanism to implement farm3 monthsOctober 2016

Earth Day 2015 Celebration

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF:
This funding request is a:
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

A rainwater system for the Construction Materials Laboratory in More Hall

Executive Summary:

The Construction Materials Laboratory (CML: http://www.ce.washington.edu/research/construction/facilities.html) at More Hall is an instruction laboratory where undergraduate students of the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and the College of Built Environments (CBE) study different construction materials and gain hands-on experience with mixing portland cement concrete. In order to achieve the desired strength and durability of the concrete, the concrete structures are cured in a fog room adjacent to the CML. Curing is a process of providing adequate moisture, temperature, and time to allow the concrete to achieve the desired strength and durability.  The fog room produces ultra-fine water droplets in the air that is closely monitored by a programmable system that controls the humidity and temperature setting.   Currently, the prescribed relative humidity condition in the fog room is ensured by continuously sprinkling potable water to the room via two sprinkler heads with an average rate of 1200 gallons/day. By proposing to install a rainwater collection and purification system in and adjacent to the laboratory space, we seek to provide CML with a supplementary, sustainable source of water for fog room use. This will result in reducing the laboratory’s tap water consumption by an average of 600 gallons/day. The quantifiable economic benefit equals $1,800.00 per year in water consumption.  In addition to the economic benefits, the proposed project will serve as a campus wide educational tool and give University of Washington students, faculty and staff the possibility to learn more about innovative use of sustainable water management practices.

We are seeking a grant of 32,000 USD for construction materials, installation work and operational expenses.

Student Involvement:

The CML rainwater collection & purification system will be designed, operated and maintained by student teams from Civil and Environmental Engineering department and from the College of Built Environments. The student teams will consist of undergraduate students and at least one project manager will be chosen amongst the department’s graduate students. The student involvement in different phases of the project is described below:

Design

The system design* will be implemented as a Capstone project in the Spring 2015. The project group or groups of 5 students will be responsible for:

  • Estimating the monthly rainfall on More Hall roof & sizing the rainwater cistern.
  • Designing & sizing the water distribution system (gutters, pipes, pumps, sprinklers etc.) under the direction of a CEE professor and by following the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) requirements of the University of Washington
  • Choosing suitable construction materials
  • Creating a schedule for the construction process
  • Designing a sampling and maintenance plan for the system by following the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) requirements of the University of Washington

* A similar rainwater system has been explored at another K-12 institution and the proposers have been involved in the project by assisting the institution with the project management, design and installation of the system.  The effort is still on-going and is scheduled to be installed in February of 2015.

Operation

The system operation will be automated. However, continuous involvement of a few student volunteers (3-4 per quarter) will be required throughout the lifetime of the project in order to monitor the system operation and the water quality.

In order to ensure that adequate water quality is maintained throughout the project period, water samples will be collected on a weekly basis from the exit of the rooftop cistern and at the point of use within the CEE Concrete Lab. All samples will be collected in acid-washed, pre-baked (400 °C), 60-mL amber, borosilicate glass bottles and subsequently monitored for a suite of chemical and microbiological parameters, including pH, alkalinity, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total nitrogen (TN), various metals (including Cu, Pb, and Fe), turbidity, fecal coliforms, and total coliforms. pH will be determined by means of a Thermo-Scientific Orion 5-Star multiparameter meter, alkalinity, DOC, and TN by means of a Shimadzu TOC-VCSH analyzer, metals by means of a PerkinElmer ELAN-DRCe ICP/MS system, turbidity by means of a Hach 2100 series turbiditimeter, and fecal and total coliforms by plating on appropriate selective media in accord with Standard Methods.1 Samples will be analyzed within one week of collection, and stored at 4 °C prior to analysis.

(1) APHA Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater; 22 ed.; APHA, AWWA, WPCF: Washington, 2012.

 

CEE faculty and graduate students will supervise the student volunteers whose tasks will be defined in the sampling and maintenance plan.  CEE faculties, Mike Dodd and Amy Kim, previously met with officials from the Department of Health that have been involved with the Bullitt Center and the Perkins School in developing and permitting their rainwater catchment system.  The water quality information that will be gained from this study will be valuable for both the Department of Health and for the research community as not much has been published in this area.

Maintenance

Student volunteers (3-4 per quarter) and their graduate student supervisors are mainly responsible for conducting maintenance activities. These activities include but are not limited to:

  • Emptying and cleaning the rainwater cistern every summer
  • Changing the UV filter of the rainwater treatment unit
  • Cleaning & replacing other components of the rainwater treatment unit

The consultancy and help of facilities services staff will be needed with all maintenance activities involving plumbing. However, these activities are not expected to be frequent and thus we are not expecting them to cause any significant increases in facilities staff members’ workload.

Education & Outreach:

Education

Civil and Environmental Engineering department offers education in six different fields of engineering: construction, structural, transportation, geotechnical, environmental and hydrological engineering. During their junior year, undergraduate students are required to take one course on each topic and choose a major for their senior year. Although all fields of civil engineering are strongly connected to each other, CEE seniors rarely get a chance to gain hands-on experience on projects that would combine these different fields. The design and operation of the CML rainwater collection and purification system would provide CEE students, faculty and staff with an extraordinary opportunity to gain experience on sustainable water management practices and interdisciplinary teamwork. As one of the main goals of the study is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration within different fields of study, student volunteers from other departments would also be strongly encouraged.  Potential integration is with the Center for Urban Horticulture in designing a rain garden outside the CML.

The installation and operation of the CML rainwater system would not only offer opportunities for interdisciplinary project work but also for interdisciplinary research. In the supervision of CEE faculty members, the student volunteers and graduate student project managers could monitor and analyze the operation of the system by tracking changes in the quality of the purified rainwater over time and investigate the effects of different water sources on the concrete curing process in the fog room. The results of these studies could be presented in conferences and other professional events, and published in scientific journals.

Outreach

One of the goals of CML rainwater project is to serve as an educational tool and provide UW community, and anyone outside of UW interested in rainwater harvesting, with information about sustainable water management practices. All operation results (water quality and flow, required maintenance activities etc.) and a detailed description of the design & installation process of the CML rainwater system will be available to public on the project website. The project will be promoted in UW media (The Daily at the University of Washington, University of Washington Conservation magazine, UW today newsletter, The Bridge Newsletter of CEE department) and in environmentally focused local information channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, neighborhood newspapers etc.). Project group could also collaborate with King County Department of Permitting and Environmental Review and help with department’s endeavors on collecting information about the operation of rainwater systems in Seattle area by providing operation data from the CML rainwater system. Moreover, groups and individuals who are interested in learning more about the project set-up and operation are offered a possibility to schedule a site tour.

Environmental Impact:
  • Water
Project Longevity:

We are expecting our project to have an approximate lifetime of 10 years. Our budget proposal includes project operation and maintenance costs for the next 5 years. For continuous operation, we would need to apply for additional funding after 5 years of operation. However, the proposed system is flexible in that individual components of the system can be easily decommissioned if needed. We can also explore the idea of reconstructing the project after 5-10 years for a more efficient way of saving potable water in the Construction Materials Laboratory.. As for the next 5 years, the student involvement throughout the project lifetime is ensured by continuous volunteer recruiting and project promotion within the CEE department.

Environmental Problem:

Construction Materials Laboratory (CML) at More Hall is an instruction laboratory where undergraduate students of CEE and CBE departments learn about different construction materials and gain hands-on experience in mixing Portland cement concrete. In order to allow the concrete to achieve the desired properties for its intended use, the concrete structures are cured in a fog room in adequate moisture and temperature conditions. Currently, the 100% moisture conditions in the fog room are ensured by continuously sprinkling potable water to the room with an average rate of 1200 gallons/day.

By proposing the installation of a rainwater collection and purification system in and adjacent to the laboratory space, we seek to provide CML with an additional, sustainable source of water for fog room use, and a way to reduce laboratory’s tap water consumption by approximately 600 gallons/day. The rainwater system would consist of an outside cistern, two pumps, a water treatment system with UV filter, a storage tank for purified water and a sprinkler system for the fog room and have an estimated cost of 32,000 USD. The economic benefit of the system over its estimated lifetime of 10 years would be about 16,000 USD.
 

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The impacts of the CML water system will be measured by metering water flow both in the potable water sprinkler system and in the rainwater sprinkler system. The metering results will be posted to the project website on the weekly basis and the student volunteers will analyze the changes in the average daily water consumption over time. Moreover, in order to monitor the operation of the rainwater treatment unit, the quality of the rainwater will be analyzed by sampling before and after treatment. The sampling results will be available for public on the project website.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $32,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Rainwater cistern12,000112,000
Water distribution system (pipes,connectors,sprinklers)2,00012,000
Water treatment system with UV2,00012,000
Rainwater pump50021,000
Water flow meter50021,000
Water sampling expenses4,00014,000
Plumbing and installation work10,000110,000

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $32,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Set up the project team 1 month4.30.2015
Develop design1 month4.30.2015
Finalize the design and produce construction documents1 month5.31.2015
Produce an Operation & Maintenance plan1 month5.31.2015
Submit and obtain required permit(s)2 month7.31.2015
Purchase construction materials2 month9.30.2015
Install and construct rainwater catchment system2 month9.30.2015
Plumbing & installation work2 month10.31.2015
Operate project5 years minimum10.31.2020

Rainwater Catchment: Educational System on the UW Farm

Executive Summary:

We are looking to implement a rainwater harvesting system on the UW Farm for farm use and campus wide education. This system would be located beside the Burke-Gilman on the UW Farm and will be installed on a renovated sign roof. We estimate this project to cost $465.00, and is estimated to save approximately 250 gallons of water per year. This project is designed to educate people on rainwater harvesting as well as inspire them to imagine future capabilities.

Student Involvement:

Our project does not involve any student jobs, but has numerous volunteer opportunities.

Leadership – This is a student-led project with a student-written grant proposal and organization of logistics.
Builders – Two or three students will work on physically building the roof structure and gutter system. They will acquire tools, pick up necessary materials, cut wood to size, take the old roof apart, build the new one, attach the gutters and tank, and install the sign.
Engineers – An engineering student will review our roof design details and give us feedback on the structural components behind it.
Signage – One student will be in contact with the sign-making company to take the sign design in to be printed and pick up the sign.
Maintenance and use – A group of students will maintain the system and ensure it is used properly and regularly on the farm.
Education – Farm students will include our rainwater system as a part of farm tours.

Education & Outreach:

Our project will be publicized to the campus through a variety of ways including our educational signage, which will be visible from the Botany Greenhouse, the UW Farm, and the Burke- Gilman trail; UW Farm tours for biology, environmental studies, and elementary school classes; and interest in the Program on the Environmentʼs Sustainability Studio, where the development and procedure for this project are documented in the final course report, accessible online. We will also email the UW farm listserv and spread the word of our project completion through various social media outlets.

We specifically want to educate UW students on possibilities for alternative forms of water conservation and stormwater reduction that can take place in an urban environment. The idea is that if we can show how we are able to collect a couple hundred galleons of water from a simple signboard roof, this will inspire others to consider what they can do with larger surface areas such as actual building roofs. We hope that this will spur students and staff on to considering possibilities for larger scale rainwater harvesting systems on campus.

Environmental Impact:
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Stormwater is the UWʼs weakest aspect of water sustainability on campus, and our system is
designed to provide minimal stormwater reduction and water conservation. However, it helps
create a much needed awareness of stormwater, and the detrimental effects of our stormwater
on campus. This project allows for cross-campus education, as well as to the public, so that the
message of stormwater can reach far beyond our system and make an impact on a much lager
scale.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Our small system has the ability to save around 250 gallons of water per year. This information
is based off of a 15sq. ft. roof and 36 inches of annual rainfall; our formula accounted for the fact
that only approximately 70% of the water would be harvested.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $465
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Metal sign$801$80
Flex-a-spout$2.681$2.68
Downspout$20.861$20.86
Downspout clip$2.911$2.91
Outlet$14.091$14.09
Piece of gutter$15.042$30.08
Outside box miter$9.974$39.88
40-gallon rain barrel$100.001$100.00
Gutter sealant $5.001$5.00
Cinder block$6.001$6.00
Lumber$50.001$50.00
Roof panel$12.983$38.94
Shipping costs$40.00$40.00
Unforseen expenditure$35.16$35.16

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $465

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Finishing details on roof construction plan1 weekApril 16th
Purchase and receive materials for roof, gutter, and tank system2 weeksApril 30th
Order sign2 weeksApril 30th
Take down roof1 weekMay 3rd
Build new roof2 weeksMay 18th
Attach gutters and tank2 weeksJune 1st
Install sign1 weekJune 5th
Organize group of students to maintain the system1 month and a halfJune 7th

Project Approval Forms:

Yard Waste Composting Program for UW

Executive Summary:

Grounds Management of the UW Seattle Campus seeks to implement a green waste composting program; waste that currently goes to Cedar Grove will be composted and used on-site to maintain the soil health of the UW landscape. Benefits of this program will include long term cost savings, greenhouse gas emissions avoided, student opportunities for engagement and leadership and composted material will be available to campus organizations, such as the UW Farm, SEED and UW Botanic Gardens. Estimated total cost is $153,637.00 and the compost committee is requesting $78,637 from the Campus Sustainability Fund, with the rest of the costs being matched by Grounds Management.

Student Involvement:

  • A steering committee consisting of UW students and Grounds Management staff has been formed to develop and implement the composting program.
  • UW Grounds Management is working with the student organization SEED to explore the possibility of incorporating coffee grounds from Housing and Food Services into the composting material. This amendment would increase nitrogen and beneficial microorganism content in the final compost. If implemented, SEED members will lead the coordination of this effort.
  • A UW Landscape Architecture graduate student is developing the site plan and specification drawings for the composting facility (see PDF attached for a preliminary plan). This student will present the plan to the Montlake Landfill Oversight Committee for approval and will also gain valuable project management experience by working closely with Grounds Management staff during construction. Some of the construction must be performed by licensed contractors, but the work will be guided by student input.
  • The UW Grounds IPM & Sustainability coordinator, a graduate research assistant, will aid in development of education and outreach materials. She will be responsible for records keeping, tracking costs, quantities and procedures, and coordinating regulatory components of the program.
  • A UW Design student will be recruited to create the interpretive signs and any graphics needed for the Grounds Management website. We have also begun exploring potential for the project to be used ass a case study design class.
  • There is potential for a student led willow planting along the fence to enhance the aesthetic and ecological value of the site. The planting could be done in collaboration with UW Botanic Gardens, since the proposed site is adjacent to the Union Bay Natural Area.
  • Students will have the opportunity to perform research on the composting process, microbial fauna, and soils on campus as a result of this program.

 

Education & Outreach:

  • Information about sustainable practices will be incorporated into the Grounds Management website presence, which will include details about our composting program, advice on composting practices, as well as links to composting resources.
  • Interpretive signs will be developed and placed in select planting beds on campus where compost is utilized, which will describe our program and the benefits of composting.
  • Grounds Management will facilitate student engagement by hosting a workshop about our sustainable practices. This will include an overview of the composting program, science and theory behind compost, compost tea, and Integrated Pest Management.
  • Grounds Management will also participate in campus environmental events such as Earth Day and the Campus Sustainability Summit, where we will highlight our composting efforts.
  • Opportunities for student research will be available. Evaluating the compost for nutrient and microbial content would be an interesting and educational project.
  • The compost material will be available to campus organizations such as the UW Farm, P-Patches maintained by Students Exhibiting Environmental Dedication and the UW Botanic Gardens.
Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Maintenance of campus grounds results in the accumulation of large volumes of organic waste, with the greatest amount during autumn leaf drop. The current system for handling these materials is to transport them to Cedar Grove where they are composted; to maintain planting beds and lawns Grounds Management applies compost, which is ironically purchased back from Cedar Grove. Transportation of these materials results in unnecessary carbon emissions, use of fossil fuels, and additional costs.

An in-house composting program would address these issues, but the site best suited to accommodate this operation requires modification in order to meet both operational and regulatory needs. This site would also serve as a staging area for recycled timber and wood chip mulch from campus tree pruning. The current site where green waste is accumulated and disposed of could be modified to accommodate a permit exempt composting site. This would involve grading and paving the site to properly address moisture and runoff concerns, constructing bins to house the composting operation, and installing a fence around the site to maintain a secure and uncontaminated environment.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Implementing an in-house yard waste composting program would reduce carbon emissions and fossil fuel use associated with transporting waste to and from Cedar Grove facilities. It would also reduce costs associated with the supplemental nutrient needs of the campus landscape.

Current annual costs of removal of green waste and purchased compost average $55,434, and $10,000 respectively. We expect to reduce removal to Cedar Grove by at least half, as regulatory constraints limit the amount of material that can be processed on site. Thus, annual cost savings are expected to be approximately $37,717.00. The total cost of implementing our proposed compost program is estimated at $153,637, so net cost savings will be seen within 4 years.

Carbon emissions avoided could be estimated using formulas presented by Boldrin et. Al. (2009)1. They cite an example of a similar green waste composting program with an estimated 218 kg CO2-eq. tonne–1 ww of emissions avoided.
 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $78,637
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Clearing and grading, drainage installation, paving, bin construction, and security fencing installation$150,000 (includes both contracted work and UW personnel)1$150,000
Interpretive Signs$5003$1500
Permit Exemption Fee$6371$637
Compostex Geotextile, prevents runoff, leaching, and keeps piles at optimum temperature/moisture$6002$1200

Non-CSF Sources:

Source/DescriptionAmount RequestedDate RequestedDate Received
FS Grounds Management/Operational Budget$75000Approved
Project Completion Total: $153,637

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Construction Documents, Site Survey and Material Procurement1 monthMarch 2012
Site preparation and Construction1 monthApril 2012
Interpretive Signage Design and Fabrication1 monthMay 2012

Project Approval Forms:

Bicycle Repair Stations (Phase 2)

Executive Summary:

This project will build on the success of an earlier CSF project that installed five bicycle repair stations on campus by installing two additional Dero Fixits at strategic locations on campus. The new repair stations will allow students, employees, and visitors to fill their tires and perform basic repairs quickly, effectively removing maintenance and uncertainty as barriers to bicycling.

Repair stations will be installed in the Marine Studies/John Wallace Hall building cluster and at residence halls along Whitman Court. These areas were not served in the first round of installations but have since requested repair stations.

Phase 1 of this project initially proposed ten repair stations but was scaled back to five at the recommendation of the CSF selection committee. This was so we could gain experience with the repair stations on campus and see how they would be received by students and employees. Because they have been so well-received and heavily utilized, expanding to the remaining areas of campus is prudent. 

To measure this project’s success, a student intern will conduct user counts and a satisfaction intercept survey at each of the new and existing locations once the new equipment has been installed. We will also monitor visits to the Repair Station website and track emails and press related to the repair stations.

The project will be coordinated with UW Housing & Food Services (for installations at residence halls), the University Landscape Architect, Maintenance & Alterations, and Commuter Services.

Student Involvement:

This project creates one 60-hour student job. The student will be responsible for planning and siting the repair stations using a set of criteria developed by the previous student intern during the project’s first phase. She or he will work closely with Commuter Services and Housing and Food Services staff, as well as the University Landscape Architect, the Grounds Manager, and building coordinators to identify optimal locations for each station. After reaching consensus on installation sites, the intern will then coordinate with Facilities Services and oversee the installation of each unit.

In addition to managing the planning and installation of the repair stations, the intern will also be responsible for updating Commuter Services website to reflect the new infrastructure, and will conduct outreach for the project – direct to students and employees, via emails to building coordinators, and through press releases to various media contacts (The Daily, Seattle Bike Blog, etc.) – throughout their term of service.

Essentially, the student intern will manage and oversee all aspects of the project with support from Commuter Services staff. This is an excellent opportunity for a student to gain hands-on experience managing a start-to-finish small-scale infrastructure and planning process that results in tangible, lasting, and appreciated changes as a direct result of their efforts.

The student position is a core element of the project. Repair stations will be valuable campus assets; however, equally important is the information and experience that the student intern will gain while managing the project. Because of this, I believe that a student intern is a valuable investment of CSF funds. If the CSF committee funded repair station purchase and installation but determined not to fund the student intern position, Commuter Services could absorb the project management with existing staff, but the outreach component of the project would be substantially scaled back commensurate with staff availability.

Education & Outreach:

We will use a variety of techniques to publicize the bicycle repair stations to the campus community:

  1. The repair stations are highly visible, and the 2012 design includes bicycle “branding” on the station itself. Because of this, they market themselves nicely. The 2012 stations also include a QR reader that links to a series of “How To” videos for a variety of basic repairs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAtoXZV3Fhs&feature=youtu.be).
  2. As with the first phase of the project, we will market the repair stations on the Commuter Services Bike Repair website and other online locations (the existing repair stations were featured on the CSF website, The Daily, the Cascade Bicycle Club Blog, and Examiner.com).
  3. We will work with the Building Coordinators where repair stations are installed to distribute information to building residents and tenants.
  4. We will publicize the repair stations during our popular Bike to Campus Month and Ride in the Rain events, through Commuter Services’ Bicycle Interest list serve, and as part of our comprehensive bicycle branding program (slated for rollout in summer 2012).

The outreach and education goals for this project are two-fold and simple:

  1. To expose all students and employees to basic bicycle maintenance. At a minimum this means knowing how to pump up a low tire.
  2. To ensure that all students and employees have access to the necessary tools for performing simple maintenance and repairs, and that they are aware that they have access to those tools.

These goals are consistent with and complimentary to the bike classes that Commuter Services offers in conjunction with the Cascade Bicycle Club (uwcommute.com/bikeclasses), including “Spring Bike Maintenance – Keep it Rolling!” and “Flat? Just Fix It!” They also support the mission of the ASUW Bike Shop and the repair services and classes that they offer.

Environmental Impact:
  • Transportation
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

This project contributes to UW Commuter Services’ goal of achieving a 20% bicycle mode share by the year 2020. Currently, 8% of students, staff, and faculty bike to campus, compared with 19% who drive alone. These drive alone trips contribute to our campus-related greenhouse gas emissions, lead to potential conflicts with pedestrians, bicyclists, and other drivers, and detract from the overall livability of the UW campus and the greater University District.

Providing bicycle repair stations is one way that the University can encourage the UW community to bike to and around campus rather than driving. In addition to providing the basic tools that keep bicycles on the go, the stations send a clear message that bicyclists belong on campus. Often, that simple welcoming message is the trigger that converts someone into a bicyclist. The belief that encouragement can foster behavior change is at the core of Commuter Services’ most successful bicycle encouragement programs. For example, 6-8% of participants in our flagship encouragement programs, Bike to Campus Month and Ride in the Rain, report that they are new to bicycling.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

We will measure our project’s impact in several ways:

  1. Using a Googlemap of the repair stations, we will track the number of hits that the page receives and use this as a proxy for the number of students, staff, and faculty that we are reaching;
  2. We will measure the project’s benefit by the number of people who take advantage of the new and existing stations. To do this, the student intern will conduct user counts at each of the stations to determine how many people use them each day.
  3. The student intern will measure user satisfaction with the new and existing stations by developing and conducting a satisfaction intercept survey of station users.
  4. Commuter Services will continue documenting the number of bicycles parked on campus each spring and the campus bicycle mode share every two years to determine what impact the stations have on bicycling on and to campus.
Total amount requested from the CSF: $3,085
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Fixit Repair Station$9002$1800
Pump replacement rebuild kit$54$20
Student Intern$16.09*60 hours$965
Installation$1502 units$300

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $3,085

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Procure Fixit Stations from Dero1 dayJune 22nd
Hire student intern1 monthJuly 6th
Identify potential locations along Whitman Ct and Marine Studies cluster1 dayJuly 13th
Feild assess & refine locations3 daysJuly 13th
Work with stakeholders: Howard Nakase (onsite), building coordinators (onsite), and HFS (onsite) on siting issues1 weekJuly 20th
Prepare siting materials for review3 daysJuly 27th
Distribute siting materials to stakeholders for review and confirmation1 weekAugust 10th
Present to Grounds Improvement Advisory Committee1 dayAugust 21st
Revise locations based on GIAC feedback2 daysAugust 24th
Submit work order for installation1 dayAugust 27th
Install stations1 daySeptember 7th
Update website and Googlemap1 daySeptember 10th
Outreach to students and employees in Fixit-adjacent buildings2 daysOctober 5th
Develop and piolet intercept satisfaction survey2 daysOctober 5th
Administer intercept survey & conduct user counts1 weekOctober 12th
Write project summary report 2 daysOctober 19th

Project Approval Forms:

Expansion of The UW Farm

Executive Summary:

With support from the CSF, we will expand our practice to an additional full acre of land on campus, adjacent to the Center for Urban Horticulture. Expanding the production capacity of the UW Farm will allow us to amplify our contribution to the UW‟s sustainability mission in several ways. First, it will enable us to solidify a relationship with Housing and Food Services (HFS). HFS is interested in purchasing farm produce to use in campus dining halls and small cafeterias. Second, the UW Student Food Cooperative will be operating in full capacity next year, running a cafe space in the South Campus Center and a food cart for Red Square. They plan to source a substantial amount of their produce from the UW Farm. A strong relationship with the Student Food Cooperative will help generate awareness on campus about the social, economic, and political issues surrounding food, from farm-to-table. Third, we will create a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program, which will teach farmers tangible and realistic business skills associated with the production of food.

Student Involvement:

Our proposed project is brimming with opportunities for students to develop their leadership skills. The UW Farm already prides itself on guiding students to leadership roles. We have many opportunities for students to practice these skills--from helping to organize a pizza bake to organizing the Farm‟s planting schedule for the upcoming year. We have a Dirty Dozen program for students interested in learning about farming, as well as for-credit internship opportunities through the Biology Department. These programs are designed to place student learners in teaching roles as they become the backbone of volunteer leadership over the course of the quarter.

It is our vision that the UW Farm expansion project will only increase our ability to develop these types of leadership opportunities. Specifically, we will continue to develop and train student tour leaders. We will formalize and expand our education about sustainable vegetable production, strengthening the UW Farm‟s internship program, providing necessary sustainability in both knowledge and organization. We are working with Seattle Tilth‟s Youth Garden Works program to create possibilities for UW student farmers to become mentors for at-risk homeless high school students interested in sustainable food production. And lastly, we will work with our new space partner--the Center for Urban Horticulture--to develop a permaculture „food forest‟ which will be installed and cared for by UW student farmers.

Education & Outreach:

In the 2009-2010 academic year alone, over 1,600 students in classes from numerous UW departments, including Environmental Science, Biology, Geography, Anthropology, and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, as well as students from several K-12 schools, used the UW Farm as an outdoor classroom. The expanded site will allow for even greater numbers of students to visit the farm. The expanded site will also facilitate the integration of the UW Farm with a proposed “Food Studies” track within the UW College of the Environment. This integration is expected to lead to the development of an urban agricultural research program and numerous food-related courses at the UW.

Another educational benefit of the expansion is the potential to create a partnership with Seattle Youth Garden Works (SYGW), a local organization that recently established a small farm near the Center for Urban Horticulture. SYGW empowers homeless and marginalized youth through garden-based education and job skills training. There is enough space for both organizations to exist without interaction; however, the potential benefit that can come from a collaborative partnership is enormous. We have met with SYGW leaders to discuss creating a partnership that would engage via collaborative work parties, joint workshops, and UW student–SYGW teen mentorship programs.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

In setting a proud example of sustainable urban agriculture on the University of Washington campus, the UW Farm strives to turn students‟ attention to the crucial question, “Where does the food we eat come from?” Today approximately 80% of United States citizens live in cites. Opportunities for city dwellers to be exposed to the systems that grow sustainable food are few, and will continue to diminish unless deliberate steps are taken to ensure otherwise. Our current industrial food system feeds people, but not soils, it prioritizes short term profits over long term sustainable food production, and erodes the viability of rural communities. The UW Farm expansion effort is our attempt to demonstrate through the sustainable production of vegetables, that another system is possible, prudent and timely. In growing food sustainably and sourcing our food locally - to students, through Housing and Food Services (HFS) and the UW Student Food Cooperative (UWSFC), we will be able to help our students re- connect with the source of their food.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF: $76,020
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

Developing a farm on campus requires a substantial amount of infrastructural development. At our current site of only 1/4 acre, we have expanded both our infrastructure and space to their maximum capacity. Our new farm location is currently an empty field and will need many improvements. The larger infrastructural requirements include: irrigation, tools, tool storage, washing station (for meeting state health requirements), potting supplies and equipment, salaries for student Interns (this is critical during the Farm‟s initial establishment), compost infrastructure, soil amendments and seeds. The UW Farm will be respectfully requesting $76,020 from the Campus Sustainability Fund to help cover these expenses and implement our expansion project.

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Engaging Students in Discussion and Action around the Food, Land Use, and the Farm Bill

Executive Summary:

We will host nationally renowned author and farmer Dan Imhoff speak about the 2012 Farm Bill. There will be links to action Campus Affiliation: Graduate Student

Student Involvement:

The group organizing to host this event consists of undergraduate and grad students from the College of the Built Environments, in cooperation with the NW Farm Action Bill group (a community group. These students will have leadership opportunities in outreach and organizing. Students that attend any of the event opportunities will have the chance to gain experience on the issue and also in organizing and action.

Education & Outreach:

The main speaking event will be held March 1st, 7pm-9pm, in Arch Hall 147. We will do outreach including hanging posters in buildings around campus, posting in the Daily, emailing UW departments, professors, RSO's and list-serves, and communicating with the broader community. We will invite the Daily to do a story about the event to publish afterward. We want to link the Farm Bill action towards direct action on campus.

Environmental Impact:
  • Food
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The environmental problem we want to solve is lack of student awareness and involvement in the Farm Bill and in overall issues of land use and food. By engaging students in action around the Farm Bill, they will also be more knowledgeable and capable of action about food on the UW campus.

ABOUT THE FARM BILL: The Farm Bill is perhaps the single most significant land use legislation enacted in the United States, yet many citizens remain unaware of its power and scope. With subsidies ballooning toward $25 billion dollars per year, the Farm Bill largely dictates who grows what crops, on what acreage, and under what conditions--all with major impacts on the country's rural economies, health and nutrition, national security, and biodiversity. As debate and wrangling over the 2012 Farm Bill intensifies, Dan Imhoff will offer a highly informative and engaging overview of the legislation that literally shapes our food system, our bodies, and our future.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF: $500
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

We would like $500 to help cover some of the speaker fees, travel costs, and outreach costs. The NW Farm Bill Action Group (a Seattle-area community group) is also contributing some funds to the effort. I will be hosting Dan in my house to save on hotel and restaurant costs.Cost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

We also are seeking additional funds from UW departments.
Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Trashing our Food: The Costs of Food Waste in America and What We Can Do About It

Executive Summary:

The panelists at this event will discuss the problems associated with food waste, as well as the solutions. The approaches to be discussed follow the same “Reduce/Reuse/Recycle” paradigm as other waste prevention strategies. Food waste can first be reduced through programs that help food producers and food retailers better understand and efficiently meet demand without excess. When there is excess food, it can be reused or reallocated through food rescue programs and other services that match food surpluses with those in need. Finally, food waste that cannot be avoided, such as inedible components or post-consumer food scraps, can be recycled into a useful soil amendment through composting, or turned into electricity or biogas through anaerobic digestion.

Panelists will discuss how these solutions are being employed here in Seattle, including on the University of Washington campus, and throughout the U.S.

Student Involvement:

The panel is being organized by the Graduate Environmental Policy Forum of the Evans School of Public Affairs. All planning, outreach and promotion is being carried out by graduate student members of that group.

Education & Outreach:

The Graduate Environmental Policy Forum will utilize its mailing list to reach those interested in environmental policy; UW SEED has agreed to promote the event to its mailing list; the Program on the Environment and the UW Farm have also committed to alerting their faculty/staff and students about the event. The College of the Environment will include the event announcement on its event calendar. In addition, we will post a limited number of fliers around campus.

Environmental Impact:
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The U.S. produces almost 600 billion pounds of food each year and a 25-50% of it is wasted — left in fields, thrown out at the grocery store, left in the fridge until it spoils, or scraped into the garbage at the end of a meal. Wasted food costs farmers, consumers and businesses hundreds of billions of dollars every year, and the environmental costs are just as steep. It is estimated that 2% of all U.S. energy consumption goes into producing food that is ultimately thrown out. Because America’s energy economy remains highly dependent on fossil fuels, this translates into significant unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, food that is discarded in landfills creates methane emissions, itself a potent greenhouse gas.

As an institutional provider of dining and food services, food waste is an issue for the University of Washington. And all members of the UW community are affected by the environmental, social and economic consequences of food waste.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF: $250
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

We are requesting $250 to provide an honorarium to bring Jonathan Bloom, author of 'American Wasteland' (a new book on food waste in the U.S.) to campus to participate in the panel. Additional funding for the event, including room rental fee, A/V equipment rental, and promotional materials, is being provided by the Evans Student Organization.

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Tapped for Earth Day

Executive Summary:

We will be playing the movie "TAPPED" in the residence hall to inform people about drinking water & the nature.

By playing the movie TAPPED, we hope to address the issue of bottle of water and its impact on the environment. It would be an interesting experience for many people since it is a topic that does not get discuss in depth in people’s lives. It provides intriguing information about bottle of water and could raise people’s awareness about the issue. By watching this movie, people have a chance to evaluate their usage of bottle of water if any and potentially make a change and take some actions in their lives regarding to the issue. Their change in behavior will make our environment a better place. 

Student Involvement:

There will be a discussion section afterward that could get people to think more about the bottle of water issue and potentially get some student leadership to act upon the issue. The discussion session will be headed by people from SEED (Student Expressing Environmental Dedication). It will also be a good chance for the leaders in SEED to interact with other people who came to the movie. On the other hand, the residents who will be in the new residence hall, Poplar, will be invited to the event and it can be a change for the new hall to recruit hall council leaderships. Overall, the event will get students together and learn more about student leadership opportunity in the residence halls; it also trains the student leaders (SEED officers) to plan and lead an environmental event.

Education & Outreach:

The event will be advertise through RHSA (Residence Hall Student Association), NRHH (National Residence Hall Honorary), and SEED. The event will be under the bigger theme of NRHM (National Residence Hall Month). NRHM is a celebration of the many accomplishments, experiences and education opportunities that happen within the residence halls. The event will be advertised throughout residence halls. As for education, the film itself shall be very clear on its information about bottle of water and its impact on the environment. It will be a kind of environmental awareness education. The discussion session in the end of the movie also help to educate people more about the issue as students can discuss ways they can or cannot do to make the situation better.

Environmental Impact:
  • Water
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

In every building in the University of Washington, there are many water fountains that provide tap water for drinking. They are free and safe to drink. Yet, many people still use bottle of water when they are around campus. Most people do not think much of the action as some do it for the convenience and some for the distrust of tap water. However, the bottle of water creates more than just a waste issue. The ecological problems that are behind the production are great. It is often unseen and unknown to people.

Water is a necessity of life. We are using extra energy and creating pollution by shipping water around to be in a bottle in the hands of people that are uninformed and misunderstood. It is about time that people learn the true story about bottle of water and its true impact on this planet.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF: $295
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

In order to have the rights to have the movie and play it in a public area, we will need to pay the film company $295. It will give us the right to play the movie and we can also own the movie to play it in the future.

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

Husky Neighborhood Tree Planting

Executive Summary:

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF: $1,477
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Japanese Snowbell906540
Jacquemontii Birch804320
Hammer11.68446.72
Shovel9.97879.76
Stakes3.972079.40
Chainlock16.96116.96
Nails2.0012.00
Gator Bag21.9912263.80
Sales Tax9.5% of total1128.12

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

LEED Performance Analysis Intern

Executive Summary:

The U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED rating and certification program for buildings emphasizes energy efficiency through conservation and innovative technologies. Points toward certification are earned on the basis of designed building performance compared to a baseline model. While there are performance models for all LEED buildings, there is currently no comparison of predicted results with actual performance for the University's LEED projects. In order to have an effective adaptive management approach to capital projects at the University, this comparison must be made. Interns will be hired to perform the energy use analyses of University LEED-certified buildings and other capital projects. The project will entail the collection of actual energy performance data for the University’s completed LEED projects, and the predicted performance data for planned projects. Other comparisons of design baselines to actual performance will be included in this position (i.e., water, product performance comparison, etc.). Creation and maintenance of a database from this information will serve as the basis for evaluation of the effectiveness of LEED building standards on campus as well as the efficiency of other renovations and new constructions. Case studies will be developed, posted on the CPO website, and linked to other sites across the University domain.

The interns will work in the Capital Projects Office, and fall under the guidance of the Sustainability Manager, Clara Simon. The internship will be open to any student with a suitable educational background and personal interest, and will be available for four quarters, preferably filled by a new student each quarter. Priority will be given to students in a Capstone or similar program, so that the results of their efforts are shared  with other students via a student-designed presentation. Advertising of this opportunity to the College of the Environment and College of Built Environments will make this emphasis clear.

Student Involvement:

The position, if used to provide opportunities for Capstone Experiences or similar student projects, will provide 4 students with intimate working knowledge of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating and building certification system as it is practiced and implemented on current University projects. The compilation of data will be an ongoing project, but each student will be responsible for maintaining the database and making necessary analyses during his or her time in the position. Interns will have the opportunity to gain USGBC-required experience necessary to achieve accreditation that is usually only available to working professionals in the architectural, engineering, and consulting fields. 

Education & Outreach:

The goals for outreach will be open availability of the data to students, faculty, administration, and the public, as well as sufficient advertisement of the internship position to ensure well-qualified candidates. Success will be measured by the usefulness of the data for policy-making and student projects, and by the preparedness of the students to qualify for LEED accreditation after the internship is over. 

The position will be advertised through the College of the Environment and the College of Built Environments as an opportunity for a Capstone Experience as well as an open position to be filled by a suitably-qualified candidate enrolled in the University. The Capstone Experiences culminate in departmental presentations, and there will also be a link to the resulting data file on the departmental websites so that other students can benefit from the research performed by their colleagues by using it for their own unique projects and analyses.

The data will be shared by the Capital Projects Office, Housing and Food Services, and the Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability offices as described in section 6 of this application. 

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The project will directly address electricity and water use on campus. There are currently no comparisons being compiled for actual energy and water use versus the theoretical models used in the LEED certification process, or for any other University of Washington capital projects. If we are to verify and improve our resource use, these comparisons must be made. The campus will benefit by gaining awareness about the effectiveness of LEED designs, and thereafter be able to refine the process to achieve cost savings.  

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The impacts of the project will be the synthesis of data relevant to building energy use. We do not know the indirect impacts that the project will have on energy use reduction, because the comparisons of designed and actual energy use of new buildings have not been made. With the implementation of a data collection system and database, the energy savings resulting from various technologies in our new and planned buildings will be quantified, leading to the development of best practices for reducing energy use. 

The successful completion of the internship project will entail a database that can be used by Housing and Food Services and the Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability office as a basis for future policy recommendations regarding energy use, as well as for the Capital Projects Office as a basis for policy regarding building design standards. Work on this database will serve as the foundation for the students' Capstone (or similar) presentations to other members of the student body. Success will also be measured by student and faculty awareness of the internship opportunity and associated projects. 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $14,080
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Personnel & Wages
1,950 hours/academic quarter$16/hour4 quarters$12,480
LEED Accreditation Materials$400/student4 students $1,600

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $14,080

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Advertise Position5 weeks/quarterASAP
Interview Candidates 5 weeks/quarterSpring 2011
Begin InternshipN/ASpring 2011
Advertise as NecessaryAs NecesasryWinter 2012
Comlete InternshipN/AEnd of Spring 2012

Project Approval Forms:

Do It Yourself Bicycle Repair Stations

Executive Summary:

In order to encourage bicycle commuting, Commuter Services intends to install DIY bicycle repair stands across campus with the goal of eliminating maintenance and uncertainty barriers to bicycling. These fix-it stations would allow students to perform minor bicycle maintenance and repairs quickly and conveniently while on campus. The predicted effect of this project would be an increase in cycling on campus due to the removal of barriers to bicycling.The long-term goals of this project are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with driving, minimize negative impacts of congestion around the University, and create safe transportation options for students at the University of Washington.

In order to maximize the benefits of this project, Commuter Services will work with an intern whose position will be dedicated to assisting in project development and reaching out to the campus community and raising awareness about this new piece of campus infrastructure. Some of the activities the intern will be involved in will include creating a Google-powered fix-it station map, advertising the new tool to the campus community in multiple mediums, and working with various student groups to ensure that the benefits of this product are widespread around the University community; including increased visibility of the ASUW Bike Shop, University of Washington Commuter Services, and other bicycle-related interests on campus.

Student Involvement:

Students will be involved in this project on many levels. Commuter Services is planning on hiring a student intern to facilitate the site locations for the project and coordinate outreach and advertising for student awareness. The student intern will work closely with the Manager of Grounds and Operations and the University Landscape Architect to ensure
that installation sites meet both operational and aesthetic standards.

The finished product is tailored to provide a service to the student community who can use these products at their leisure. In addition to the student intern who will work diligently to make the campus community aware of this new product, Commuter Services is also planning on working with the ASUW Bike Shop to communicate between our two entities on possible future collaborative efforts. We have also talked with the ASUW Bike Shop about addressing their lack of visibility to the student community by including ASUW Bike Shop contact information and list of services on the fix-it stands.

Education & Outreach:

One of the unique features of this project is that publicity is intrinsic to the product itself. Many of the fix-it stations will be highly visible and located in areas of campus that draw considerable amounts of student traffic. In addition to the outreach inherent in the product, Commuter Services will work closely with the hired student intern and campus groups to raise awareness of this new feature on campus.Through coordinated outreach campaigns online, on campus, and through word of mouth, we hope that this new feature becomes a staple of the campus community.

Finally, as we publicize the fix-it stations, we also anticipate that this new element of campus infrastructure will be used to raise awareness of other important entities on campus that promote bicycle commuting. For example, we believe there is an opportunity to generate interest in ASUW Bike Shop services and Commuter Services bike offerings by including contact information and branding for the two organizations on the fix-it stations.

Environmental Impact:
  • Transportation
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The campus sustainability problem that this project addresses is transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions. Although just 21% of campus-related trips are currently made by single occupancy vehicles (SOV), these trips contribute a significant amount of transportation-related carbon emissions. With the Climate Action Plan’s ambitious goal of making the University of Washington a carbon neutral campus, further reductions in SOV trips to campus are necessary. By encouraging students, staff, and faculty to get out of cars and onto bikes, this project seeks to reduce transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions.

This project benefits all students, staff, faculty, and visitors at the UW by providing convenient access to the tools for performing basic bike maintenance. This will reduce the uncertainty associated with biking to and around campus, thereby removing a barrier to biking for members of the UW community.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF: $13,242
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
High Estimate
Equipment & Construction $1,033.0010 $10,331.00
Installation $200.0010 $2,000.00
Personnel & Wages
Student Intern Position$11.39/hour80 hours$911.20
CSF GRAND TOTAL$13,242.20
Low Estimate
Equipment & Construction
DIY fix-it repair stations + Delivery$1,065.005$5,325.00
Installation $200.005$1,000.00
Personnel & Wages
Student Intern Position $11.39/hour80 hours$911.20
CSF GRAND TOTAL $7,236.20

Non-CSF Sources:

Source/DescriptionAmount RequestedDate Requested Date Received/Announced
Commuter Services: staff time$500February, 2011 February, 2011
Commuter Services: maintenance & ongoing operationsEstimate: $50/station/yr = up to $500/yrMarch, 2011 March, 2011
Commuter Services: fix-it station signage/stickers $100 March, 2011 March, 2011
Project Completion Total:

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Project start dateMonday, May 16th
Interview and hire student internWeek of May 30thWeek of June 6th
First installment of CSF funds (pay intern) Week of June 6th
Identify potential locationsWeek of June 27th (15 hrs) Week of June 27th
Field assess potential locationsWeek of July 11th (20 hrs) Week of July 18th
Outreach to ASUW, HFS, and othersWeek of July 18th (2 hrs)Week of July 18th
Prepare siting materials for reviewWeek of July 25th (10 hrs) Week of July 25th
Grounds Improvement Advisory CommitteeAugust 16th (2 hrs) August 16th
Second installment of CSF grant (procurement) Week of August 15th
Procure Fix-It Stations from DeroWeek of August 15thWeek of September 12th (est. delivery)
Outreach to affected building coordinators (email)Week of August 15th (2 hrs)Week of August 15th
Additional field assessment w/ key stakeholdersWeek of August 15th (10 hrs) Week of August 29th
Final installment of CSF Grant (installation)Week of August 29th
Submit work order to FS-WorksWeek of August 29th (2 hrs)
Begin installationWeek of September 5th (begin)Week of September 19th (complete)
Create Google mapWeek of September 19th (4 hrs) Week of September 19th
Conduct outreach Week of September 19th Conduct outreach Week of September 26th (15 hrs) Week of October 10th
Project completion dateWeek of October 10th

Project Approval Forms:

Owl Boxes

Executive Summary:

Our goal is to incorporate several owl nesting boxes on conifer trees located near Denny Field, William H. Gates Law Library, and the Union Bay Natural Area. Through a physical survey of campus, we found specific trees in these areas that meet the necessary criteria for barn owl habitat. The boxes will be anchored to the trees using rings that will wrap around the circumference of the trunk, and can be loosened periodically to accommodate the growth of the tree. It is our hope that within two years, one or more barn owls will encounter these boxes and take up residence on campus. We chose barn owls because they are commonly found in the Pacific Northwest, provide natural pest control, can easily live in human-modified environments, and they are a dynamic “charismatic mega-fauna” that will add complexity to biodiversity at UW. According to our panel of experts Kristine Kenny of the UW Landscape and Architecture, Heather Swift of Cohabitats, and Charles Easterberg of the UW Sanitarian, we would have a better chance of attracting an owl if we put up more than just four boxes. To get a headstart and increase our chances, we would like to put up ten boxes.

Student Involvement:

The majority of our project involves students. We are hoping to team up with people from the UW architecture and ask them to help build our boxes. If this doesn’t seem possible, our next plan is to buy the boxes. Our project targets all students, but we would like to focus on students from PoE (Program on the Environment).

Education & Outreach:

We hope to publicize our project by going to ENVIR 100 or 480 classes to get the word out to Program on the Environment majors. We would also like to talk to people from The Daily and ask if we could get mentioned in an article as well.

Environmental Impact:
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Our campus is lush with green spaces full of native vegetation and wildlife. This is not a problem, but rather a condition that we should continuously strive to improve, not only for its intrinsic value, but also for the numerous scholarly and personal benefits provided to the UW community. Because there is a vast amount of suitable habitat and food sources for wildlife on our 643 acres, unwanted species such as rats are often attracted to live and breed here. According to campus sanitarian Charles Easterberg, the UW spends thousands of dollars each year on pest control. Often times this money is spent on pesticides that contain chemicals that can be dangerous for non-target species. Our project would not only increase overall biodiversity on campus by attracting aesthetically pleasing owls, but would provide free rat control. This project has the potential to save the University money in the long run, and could ideally be sustained in perpetuity.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF: $1,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Equipment & Construction
Owl Boxes$2005$1000
CSF Grand Total$1000.00

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $1,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Project Start Date3/28/2011
Register to become a RSO 2 weeks4/20/2011
Lookup boxes on the web for best deals1 week4/27/2011
Purchase boxes and wait for delivery 2 weeks5/04/2011
Put up boxes on campus 1 week5/11/2011
Write project report2 weeks 5/25/2011
Project Completed 5/25/2011

Project Approval Forms:

Identifying Effective Communication to Promote Composting

Executive Summary:

This behavior change project focuses on student composting.  The main objective of this project is to identify perceived motivations and barriers the campus community has to composting, and determine what communication methods on signs are most effective in fostering behavior change.  The results of this project will be valuable to Housing and Food Services (HFS), Building Services, and student and staff led groups such as SEED and Green Teams that spend significant resources on campus signage, without studying the effectiveness of their communication methods. In the long-term, this project will contribute to increased composting on campus, which will reduce carbon emissions and waste.

Student Involvement:

This project is student led.  The project team will consist of three students – two graduate and one undergraduate.  This project will gain input from campus organizations that are currently interested in promoting the use of composting.  These organizations include: ESS, Facilities, and SEED.  The greatest strength of using a community-based social marketing approach with behavior change is the emphasis on understanding the target audience of the resulting communication method.  The target audience for this project is people who use the dorm cafeterias – mostly students who live in the dorms.  Our focus groups and survey will rely on information from this target audience and will ensure that student interests and perceptions shape communication interventions.  We also hope to engage a wide variety of students in assisting in monitoring efforts.  Weighing compost totes will require volunteers to weigh totes every week.  We have attended SEED meetings and plan to collaborate with SEED to coordinate student volunteers to participate in this role.

Education & Outreach:

We will be conducting outreach in student cafeterias to recruit participation in focus group interviews and wider campus surveys.  We will also be working with student led groups, visiting classes as guest speakers and seeking other opportunities to publicize research such as the 2011 Campus Sustainability Summit.  

The main outreach goals of our program are getting organizations that work with composting interested in the findings of our project.  It is imperative that the work we do provides information for future communication work around composting on campus.  We want to inform entities across campus about how to promote composting behavior with students.  To do so we are working with these entities and will submit a full report of our results and recommendations when this project ends.  

Environmental Impact:
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The University's Climate Action Plan identifies the importance of waste reduction as a means to reducing greenhouse gases.  One area of interest cited is increasing food composting on campus.  In recent years, the availability of composting bins has increased on campus; yet, if you look inside a bin it is obvious that there is confusion about composting.  Many items that are not compostable end up in the compost bin and many compostable items end up in the garbage.  When composting bins are not used correctly they often become too contaminated to decompose, and must be taken to the landfill.  Addressing the correct use of composting bins is important because it will reduce waste by limiting landfill, contributing to the recycling of nutrients and the reduction of greenhouse gases through a more efficient waste management system. 

Determining which communication techniques are most effective in fostering sustainable behavior change will be a useful tool for groups already promoting composting on campus such as SEED, Green Teams, Housing and Food Services (HFS), and Building Services.  Groups such as SEED have already done a lot of work creating signs for composting, but these signs are not tested for effectiveness and are not based on proven strategies to internalize behavior change.  This project will provide groups with information to ensure that their messaging and sign products can be effective.  Information about motivations and barriers to composting on campus can also help identify further projects and initiatives these groups may want to implement and effective communication techniques for promoting composting behavior can also be applied to other areas of sustainable behavior change. 

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The goal of this project is to increase the amount of uncontaminated compost on campus.  Several quantifiable measures will be used to determine how much compost is sent to composting facilities.  The first is the number of compost totes that are taken to the Cedar Grove compost facility from dorm cafeterias.  HFS receives an invoice each month with the number of totes taken to the facility, and will provide our research team with this information.  Since there is a concern that totes may not be completely full when they are taken off site, we will also weigh totes.  As part of our proposal we are asking for money to purchase weigh scales that can be used to weigh compost totes (one for 1101 and one for The Eight).  We are working with the student led group SEED to set up monitoring parties where we will systematically measure the weight of compost totes before and after our project is implemented.  The last quantifiable measure we are interested in tracking is the observed amount of contamination in compost totes.  Using a Likert Scale measuring from no contamination to complete contamination, we hope to assess if there are improvements in lowering compost contamination.

For these three quantifiable measures, we will measure success on whether: the number of compost totes taken by Cedar Grove increases, the weight of compost increases, and if contamination decreases.  We intend to report this information to campus groups that are involved in composting which include: HFS, Facilities, Building Services, and SEED

Currently, there are no requirements or mandates by the UW, City, or State law.  The City of Seattle has set forth Food Service Packaging Requirements, which has some inference that appropriate containers for the collection of recyclable and compostable materials and food packaging are provided within food service areas for appropriate collection of materials.  We are going above and beyond the mandate that composting facilities are provided, and aim to improve proper usage of the required composting containers. 

Total amount requested from the CSF: $11,558
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Equipment & Construction
Scales (to weight compost totes) $119.00 2$238.00
Printing Costs of Signs and ResearchN/AN/A$200.00
Publicity and Communication
Personnel & Wages
Project Manager(s) $4,000.002$8,000.00
Undergraduate Assistant$3,000.001$3,000.00
General Supplies & Other
Focus Groups$30/group4$120.00
CSF Total$ 11,558.00

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $11,558

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Project Start DateFebruary 1, 2011
Date by which need first installment of CSF grantFebruary 7, 2011
Focus Groups1 month March 15, 2011
Survey 1 monthApril 15, 2011
Install communication interventions1-2 daysApril 30, 2011
Project completionJune 15, 2011
Expect to spend all fundsJune 15, 2011
Submit final project report to CSF officeJune 30, 2011

Project Approval Forms:

UW-Solar (Phase 2)

Executive Summary:

UW-Solar is a student led organization developing a solar installation with an accompanying industrial control system; planned to be installed on a Housing and Food Service residence hall on the University of Washington Seattle campus. UW-Solar will be providing effective outreach to students about the benefits of smart solar systems. There were five potential sites for the installation and we have currently narrowed down the selection to Lander, Mercer Building A, and Poplar buildings.

We are asking for $85,000 dollars for the pilot project. This is in addition to the money we have received from CSF for the feasibility study.

Currently there are 13 students participating. They represent five Schools, five Departments, two campuses within the University of Washington system and they range from undergraduate to Ph.D. level students. 

Student Involvement:

Education & Outreach:

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Total amount requested from the CSF: $85,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $89,500

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

The lights are on, but nobody’s home: installing motion activated lights for UW communal areas

Executive Summary:

Many of us will have noticed that the lights in communal areas of UW buildings often get left on even after the last person in the area has left. This wastage is likely to occur overnight, at weekends and over holidays.  We propose to install motion activated light switches in the corridors of 6 floors of the Atmospheric Sciences building (ATG Building), which will switch off automatically after a specified amount of time if no motion is detected. If someone walks into the area then the lights will switch back on in that area. We present a solution based on switches and sensors that communicate wirelessly, which eliminates the need for extra wiring to connect the motion sensors and the lighting circuit. The technology is well-proven and installation is straightforward.

Several environmental problems stem from electricity wastage. Washington State generates most of its electricity from hydroelectric power. Therefore, the energy savings from this project will help improve stream and river flows for endangered species such as salmon. The electricity savings are likely to have a significant future environmental impact since reduction of electricity usage at the point of use is recognized as one of the most effective ways of scaling back energy generation requirements at the power plant level due to the large loss of energy in transmission. With a growing population Seattle will need to increase efficiency in order to meet future needs using renewables.

We estimate that our scheme could prevent over 16,000 kWh of electricity usage annually, which is enough to power a student bedroom (approximated at 3 kWh per day) for almost 15 years. This wastage costs the university almost $1000 a year, which is money that could be used in productive ways. Scaled to the whole campus the wastage is very large indeed. We intend to install light monitoring devices that will enable us to log when the lights have been turned off by the system and thus allow us to quantify the exact amount of electricity saved and also to estimate any potential effects of switching on the lifetimes of the bulbs.

The estimated cost of the project, including materials, labor, taxes, advertisement and outreach costs is $7775.74. However, we calculate that due to the electricity savings, the full project costs will be recouped after only 8 years. If considering only materials and labor (i.e. without outreach, etc. costs), this is reduced to only 6.1 years.

The project will be led by Dr. Daniel Grosvenor (UW research Associate, Atmospheric Sciences) and Prof. Robert Wood (faculty Associate Professor, Atmospheric Sciences). They will also act as student mentors for 3-4 students who will be involved in the project. One of these was involved in writing this proposal.

Student Involvement:

Students will be heavily involved in the implementation of the project on a volunteer basis. Prior to writing the proposal we put out a request on the PoE blog for student help with the project and received an enthusiastic response. Yiyan Ge (in the junior year of the Program on the Environment Environmental Studies program, Department of Economics) has contributed to the writing of the proposal and will also be involved with the project implementation throughout the duration of the project. We have also been contacted by 3 more students who are interested in being involved (Kshitija Madhira, Kiddist W. Emmanuel and Cole Zuckerman).

There are several areas where students will be required. Firstly, there are some technical aspects that need to be worked out or confirmed before the installation can begin. These include: tests to confirm that the emergency lighting of hallways will not be affected as per the building fire code; the determination of the number of sensors to install, and exactly where to install them; and the choice of light monitoring and logging equipment to quantify the impact of the scheme. This will involve liaison with the installers before installation and decision making on these aspects with consideration of the project budget. Further analysis will need to be performed by students post installation too. The main part of this will be retrieving and analyzing the results of the light logger, as well as checking and maintaining their operation. Calculations will need to be performed to quantify the amount of electricity saved by the system in terms of kWh and dollars. The frequency of switching will also be used to calculate the effect on the lifetime of the bulbs, and hence bulb replacement frequency, using published data. From this, an assessment will be done to determine the impact on the cost effectiveness of the project and to quantify whether there is any increase in carbon footprint associated with increased bulb replacement frequency. N.B., preliminary research indicates that any reduced bulb lifetime will be offset by the long periods that the bulbs are switched off for, thus meaning that the actual life of the bulb in real-time will be longer than for continuous operation.

Secondly, the students will be tasked with performing the majority of the outreach and educational aspects of the project. This will include setting up and maintaining the website, Facebook page and Twitter account, making it fun and interesting. They will also be required to make high quality graphs and diagrams of the results of the above analysis and to publish and disseminate them using the different media just mentioned, as well for the various blog posts, newsletters and posters. They will also write and give the seminars describing the results, as well as staffing an information table on Red Square on the Campus Sustainability Day event. Students will also be required to write, distribute and process the surveys to assess the working hours of the building users as well as their opinions both before and after the installation.

Regular meetings between the students and the project leaders (Daniel Grosvenor and Rob Wood) will be held in order to help guide the students and keep them on track, but also to encourage them to come up with their own input and ideas. It is hoped, for example, that the students will come up with further ideas for campus outreach and advertisement of the project. It is also hoped that throughout the project the students will take an increasing amount of control, so that eventually they will be performing the majority of the project management. Thus, we feel that the students will gain invaluable experience in several key areas for career development.

Education & Outreach:

We have several ambitions regarding education and outreach. The project will be readily apparent to the some of the occupants of the building when the light sensors are triggered to switch the lights on or off. However, this may only be true for those people who enter the building first in the mornings, or who work late at night and at weekends when the occupancy is lower. Therefore, there will be the need to inform local users about the project, so that the switching of the lights does not come as a surprise and to allay fears about a lack of lighting. This will happen through emails sent to building occupants, and posters placed on noticeboards in the affected corridors, which will explain the idea behind the project, the likely environmental benefits and, once installed, the electricity savings made (as measured from the monitoring equipment mentioned earlier). We will also send out a survey to building users to both assess the occupancy times, but also to gauge their opinions on the measures and their concerns. This will have the side benefit of providing publicity for the project.

We would also like to publicize the project throughout the campus as a whole with the purpose of getting people to think about whether a project like this could work in their building, or encouraging them to think about other sustainability projects that they could initiate on campus. Through publicity of a successful project we also hope to reach people on campus in influential positions, which will hopefully aid with the roll out of occupancy based lighting throughout campus and possibly beyond. To do this we propose to write articles and newsletters for online and print media that will describe the project before installation and also to present the results after installation. Suggested media include: the UW Today email newsletter; both the College of Environment news blog and the bimonthly newsletter  (The Insider); the Program on the Environment (PoE) posts site/blog, the UW SEED (Students Expressing Environmental Dedication) site; Inter-university sustainability websites/blogs/newsletters; and local press. Other potential media will be researched and identified by students working on the project. They will also be largely responsible for writing the above articles, etc.

The students will also be involved in preparing and updating a project website, Facebook page and Twitter account. As well as general project information, these will provide regular updates on the progress of the project as it goes on. When the installation is complete, and data is being obtained from the lighting sensors, results detailing the amount of power and money saved will be posted every 2 weeks. This will include graphs of the results and interesting comparisons (e.g. “during the last 2 weeks we saved enough electricity to continuously power an electric kettle”). Along similar lines, we will produce monthly posters to present information on the project results for the last month that will be displayed around campus.

We will also encourage campus users to use the Facebook page and Twitter feed to comment upon campus buildings that seem to be bad offenders for wasting lighting energy. These sites will also be a useful way to gauge interest in the project and to gauge the effectiveness of the outreach via the number of comments being posted, number of Facebook “likes”, amount of site traffic, etc. You Tube videos may also be created to advertise the project.

The website will also contain a number of useful educational components, such as details on the cost analysis of the project, e.g. what the payback time of the project is for each floor of the building and how it was calculated; how the materials and labor costs break down; how many sensors and switches were required and where they were placed, etc. The number of times per day that the lights are switched on will also be of interest for the purpose of assessing whether this is having a significant effect on the lifetime of the bulbs. Details on the carbon footprint of any extra bulb replacements could also be provided. This will act as a useful case study for people interested in implementing similar schemes in other buildings. Seminars explaining the project implementation details, problems encountered and the savings results will perform a similar function. Such seminars will also help towards the goal of encouraging others to take up sustainability projects such as this, or other sustainability projects. One platform for the seminars could be the annual Campus Sustainability Day event where an information table on the Red Square would also be set up. The students would also be tasked with identifying other events appropriate for publicizing the project.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
  • Living Systems and Biodiversity
  • Water
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The environmental problem is one of electricity wastage and the subsequent environmental damage that results. Washington State generates most of its electricity from hydroelectric power, which affects stream and river flows with impacts on endangered species such as salmon. Additionally, with a growing population, Seattle needs to increase energy efficiency in the future in order to meet future needs using renewables. If future demand cannot be met using renewables then electricity generation from carbon dioxide emitting fuel or nuclear power generation may have to supplement the supply, with resulting impacts on the Earth's climate and on the environment. Our project will reduce the amount of electricity used for UW building lighting by ensuring that corridor lights are switched off when the areas are not in use. The reduction in the amount of electricity that needs to be generated by the utility companies will help improve stream and river flows. Also, reducing electricity usage at the point of use is recognized as one of the most effective ways of scaling back energy generation requirements at the power plant level due to the large loss of energy in transmission.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

The primary measure of the impacts of the scheme will be the amount of electricity saved in terms of both kWh and dollars. The initial estimates made in this proposal are based upon the prevention of 10 hours per day of lighting made using estimated occupancy times of 6am to 8pm for 365 days a year. It is likely that this is a conservative estimate since large savings are also likely during UW holidays and at weekends. In order to make these pre-installation estimates more robust we intend to take surveys of the building users to assess their working habits.

Once the occupancy sensors have been installed we will set up light monitoring devices that will be enable us to log when  the lights in the corridors have been turned on or off by the occupancy sensors. Since the lights were previously left on continuously this will quantify exactly how much electricity is being saved by the project. Such sensors and loggers are available at low cost and have the advantage of not requiring any devices to be linked to the electrical lighting circuits. The data from this will also be used to assess the frequency of switching, which has implications for the light bulb lifetimes. It is estimated that by requiring 30 minutes of no occupancy before the lights are switched off, the number of times that the lights are switched on can be limited to once or twice per day. Preliminary research suggests that such usage would actually increase the real-time life of the bulbs compared to continuous usage, due to the significant periods of off time during the night, which would not count towards the bulb lifetimes. The data will be able to quantify this and will allow calculations of the overall effect on bulb replacement frequency, the consequent effect on costs, and any changes in the associated carbon footprint.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $7,776
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per itemQuantityTotal cost
Equipment & Construction
Occupancy sensors94.17181695.06
Wireless switches96.368770.88
Light data sensor and logger109.58876
SUBTOTAL:3341.94
Publicity & Communications
Large A0 Posters502100
Seminars503150
Small posters printing costs0.124024
SUBTOTAL:274
Personnel & wages
Installation labor (per hour)160264160
SUBTOTAL:4160
OVERALL TOTAL:7775.94

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $7,776

Timeline:

TaskStart DateEnd DateTimeframe
Meet with the Department Administrator to discuss the financials and obtain permissions from the Chair1/28/20132/4/20131 week
Produce, distribute and analyze survey to gauge the opinions of building users and their hours of usage of the building1/28/20132/22/20131 month
Inform building users of the project through emails and posters1/28/20133/1/20131 month
Obtain final go ahead from building users and Department Chair1/28/20133/1/20131 month
Confirm that the project will not interfere with the emergency lighting1/28/20132/8/20132 weeks
Finalize the scope of the project, the equipment to be used, positioning of the sensors, and final savings estimates1/28/20133/1/20131 month
Website and Facebook page initated1/28/20133/22/20132 months
Installation and testing of the system3/25/20134/5/20132 weeks
Analysis of preliminary light meter data and presentation onto project website and other media4/29/20135/31/20131 month
Satisfaction survey of building users written, distributed and analyzed4/5/20135/6/20131 month
Spring/summer results from the project presented in fall quarter seminars8/15/201311/29/20133 months
Spring/summer results written up for a news article for UW magazines/blogs8/15/201311/29/20133 months
Continued analysis of fall/winter data9/25/20135/2/20147 months
Full year winter results from the project presented in spring quarter seminars4/21/20145/23/20141 month
Full year results/final report written up for news articles for UW magazines/blogs and project website4/21/20145/23/20141 month

Project Approval Forms:

The Denny Project: The Future of UW Waste

Executive Summary:

This project seeks to meet two objectives.  First, it will directly measure the efficacy of two new systems of solid waste management offered by UW Recycling by directly quantifying the benefits of these systems in a devoted case study.  Second, it seeks to use the results of these efforts as a means of advocating for administrative and user-based change in solid waste management at UW.

Efforts to address the first goal will be undertaken through a detailed study of Denny Hall’s waste stream.  This work will begin by characterizing the efficiency of the current system of waste disposal in Denny.  Importantly, this system does not currently provide compost bins, and this is a major problem since 1) composting is a more sustainable waste-disposal strategy than landfilling, 2) composting is cheaper per ton of waste than landfilling ($55 versus $145), 3) the UW sends about 4990 annual tons of waste to landfills (costing about $1.3 million annually), and 4) previous work shows that most of what UW sends to landfills is compostable.  Next, UW Recycling will install two systems designed to improve the efficiency of solid waste collection – and composting in particular – in Denny Hall; these systems are the MiniMax system and restroom paper towel composting.  The second half of this work will then measure whether these systems improve Denny’s waste efficiency, including improvements in both sustainability and financial expense.  Results will then be reported to UW Recycling to aid this office in convincing buildings across the UW campus to adopt these systems.

Efforts to address the second goal will be undertaken through a broad program of student involvement and project outreach efforts.  These efforts will include diverse student participation in the project proper, as well as the dissemination of results to students through social media and our website, an educational video, campus events, collaboration with student environmental groups, and presentation of results and insights to a broad range of UW classes.

This project will be conducted by the University of Washington Garbology Project (UWGP; uwgarbology.weebly.com), a student-led initiative operating in partnership with UW Recycling and the UW Anthropology.  In carrying out this project, we will draw upon the resources of these offices as well as existing ties with the Burke Museum, UW Housing and Food Services, the UW Program on the Environment, SEED, SAGE, Eco Reps, the Environmental Stewardship Committee, UW Bothell, and Shoreline Community College.  Lastly, a portion of the funding requested will support dedicated efforts to expand our network of connections as a means of increasing the positive campus-wide impacts of the proposed project.

We are requesting a total of $9000 to conduct this project.  The majority of this money ($6000) will be devoted to hiring two students as part-time employees devoted to managing project analysis and outreach efforts.  The remainder will be devoted to materials and supplies needed to implement the proposed systems in Denny Hall, conduct waste analysis efficiently, cleanly, and safely, and support outreach efforts.

Student Involvement:

Describe how many student jobs and/or volunteer opportunities your project involves and their responsibilities:
If funded, this project will provide two part-time student jobs, around 20 volunteer opportunities during sampling, sorting, and analysis, and an open-ended number of volunteer opportunities during subsequent outreach efforts.

The first part-time job will pay one student about $16.66 per hour for 20 hours of weekly work over a 12-week period.  This period will begin one week prior to sampling and sorting efforts and end two weeks after sampling and sorting is concluded.  This student will be responsible for organizing sampling and sorting efforts by managing all funding, materials, and supplies, coordinating sampling, scheduling, training, supervising volunteers during sorting, and recording and analyzing data.  This student will also aid UW Recycling in converting Denny Hall to the MiniMax and paper towel composting systems.  Once sorting efforts are concluded, this student will also be responsible for producing a written report communicating results and interpretation to UW Recycling, as well as the publication of this report on the UWGP website.  Once these tasks are complete, this student will assist Emily Newcomer of UW Recycling in launching outreach efforts, including hiring and orientation of the part-time student outreach coordinator (discussed below).  Once this is accomplished, this individual will remain with the project as an unpaid volunteer to assist Emily in supervising the outreach coordinator and outreach efforts for the duration of the calendar year.

The student outreach coordinator will be paid approximately $10 hourly for a total of 200 hours of work to be completed over the course of summer and autumn quarters 2013.  This student will be supervised by Emily Newcomer and the aforementioned student project manager in these efforts, and will work closely with these supervisors to develop ways of communicating project results, including the benefits of composting, to the UW campus and the wider community.  Specific responsibilities will include the production of a short educational video about composting to be shown at UW first-year orientation, communication and collaboration with student groups such as SEED, SAGE, and Eco Reps, organization of and participation in UW Recycling events such as Trash-Ins, a series of short presentations to large-lecture classes on campus, and management of the UWGP website and social media.  Further, this student will also assist in the recruitment of other student volunteers to aid in campus outreach efforts.

Student volunteers to aid in sampling, sorting, and analysis will be recruited through existing ties between our project and the Program on the Environment and the Department of Anthropology.  These volunteers will be responsible for attending one group sorting and analysis session per week (10 volunteers per session; sessions will take place twice weekly), aiding in the classification of collected materials, providing a weekly blog post reflecting on their efforts, and providing input and assistance during production of our educational video.  Training – including safety training – for these student volunteers will be provided by the student project manager.

Student volunteers to aid in outreach efforts will also be recruited through the channels mentioned above.  Additionally, the student outreach coordinator will be responsible for drawing in additional students by fostering ties with other organizations on-campus and beyond.  It is impossible at present to estimate the number of students who will participate in these efforts, and their responsibilities will vary according to the particular task or event for which they volunteer, as well as according to their desired level of commitment.  On the other hand, it is noteworthy that the project as designed can accommodate any students willing to volunteer for the outreach stage, as we can expand indefinitely and are willing to accommodate all levels of interest, expertise, and commitment to the project.  As such, our efforts will be focused on bolstering the number of student volunteers, since increasing these numbers also helps advance our broad educational mission.

Education & Outreach:

Explain how your project will be publicized to the campus and what your specific outreach and education goals are:

This project will be publicized both before and after the examination of Denny Hall waste commences.  Pre-publicity in many ways began last week with the UWGP’s participation in both the Burke Museum’s AIA Archaeology Day event as part of the Museum’s new “Plastics Unwrapped” exhibit, since this event afforded us the opportunity to present our past work as well as our planned future projects to nearly 1000 museum visitors.  Publicity will continue this weekend, as our project and our intended future direction will be featured on the January 2013 episode of “UW 360,” a monthly news magazine aired on UWTV.  Over the course of winter quarter 2013 we will also be discussing our project with UW students through invited lectures at several classes in both the Department of Anthropology and the Program on the Environment as a means of raising awareness for our efforts and recruiting participants for our intended spring quarter work.  These visits stand in addition to teaching about our project in my own class (Archy 205, for which I currently serve as a TA), scheduled upcoming presentations to classes at UW Bothell and Shoreline Community College, meetings with representatives of the UW Environmental Stewardship Committee, a public presentation at the Burke Museum’s upcoming “Short Takes on Plastics” event and its Recycling Fair event, participating in UW Recycling’s “Trash-In” event in mid-April, and the advertisement of the proposed project on the UWGP’s own website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed.  In sum, we are already doing much to publicize this project.

Once sampling, sorting, and analysis has begun, we will also continually publicize our project by creating a student-authored blog that documents our ongoing efforts.  This blog will be added to the UWGP website, and will be updated weekly as the project unfolds.  Student volunteers will be responsible for contributing to this blog by writing short weekly entries recording their thoughts, impressions, and insights as they confront the waste collected from Denny Hall.  In particular, these students will be asked to continually reflect on how the experience of sorting trash has changed their perspectives on composting, waste, and consumer behavior in general.  In this way, non-participants will be able to share the experiences of student volunteers as they confront the challenges UW faces in managing its solid waste.

Once this initial, waste-characterization stage of the project is complete, we will continue to publicize our results and insights by making use of these pre-existing connections and resources, while also developing new ways of featuring our work to an ever-expanding group of students.  These expanding efforts will be overseen by an undergraduate student appointed as a dedicated coordinator of our outreach efforts for the remainder of calendar year 2013.  This student will be supervised by myself in conjunction with Emily Newcomer, and will be paid as an hourly part-time UW employee to undertake a specific series of tasks.  Chief among these tasks will be the production of a short video to be shown to all incoming first-year students via UW First Year Programs, with the goal of eventually achieving universal exposure of the student body to both 1) the significant incentives for composting and recycling at UW and 2) how best to participate in UW’s composting and recycling systems (in other words, what is compostable and what is not).  This outreach coordinator will also be responsible for visiting large-lecture classes on campus and speaking briefly about composting to large numbers of students, much the same way summer internships are commonly advertised in these classes already.  Further, this student outreach coordinator will work directly with UW Recycling to foster ties with student groups such as SEED, SAGE, and Eco Reps, aid in advocacy for administrative change, stage campus events such as the “Trash-Ins” which have been previously successful, participate in environmental events in the local community, and work with the UW recycling team to creatively develop entirely new means of publicizing the need for campus-wide composting.

Taken together, all of these efforts will help our project reach its educational goals.  At the most basic level, these goals involve helping to create a UW campus where most people compost extensively by default and every student is made more aware of both why and how they should compost.  More broadly, we also want to effect student behavioral change by confronting them with the waste issues we face as a community, and by showing them how easy and productive it can be to engage in better ways of managing our solid waste on campus.  If we are successful in achieving this goal, our ultimate hope is we will in some small way encourage UW students to carry better habits and a greater consumer consciousness throughout the remainder of their lives, in turn helping them to improve the sustainability of the many communities in which they will eventually live.

Environmental Impact:
  • Waste
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

This project aims to confront the fact that the UW doesn’t compost as much as it should.  In fact, recent work by the UWGP indicates at least 60% of the waste we send to landfills is compostable.  Improving campus sustainability and reducing landfill costs therefore demand that we encourage composting across the UW campus community.

Meeting this challenge requires addressing two campus-wide needs.  First, we must ensure compost bins are accessible and convenient across campus.  This is not the case at present, especially within campus buildings, the majority of which are entirely devoid of compost bins.  Remedying this issue will require convincing building administrators to voluntarily implement composting, and as such we need direct evidence of the benefits of composting to spur adoption and implementation.  Second, we must also convince folks to make appropriate use of these compost bins once they are in place.

This project will attempt to address both of these needs through a three-part process.  The first part will generate direct evidence for the benefits of two programs offered by UW Recycling to help encourage composting in campus buildings.  In tandem, UW Recycling sees these initiatives as an ideal model for the future of waste at UW.  MiniMax, the first of these programs, encourages composting primarily by adding compost bins to hallway waste areas and break rooms within buildings.  Restroom paper towel composting, the second of these programs, encourages composting by placing compost bins in building restrooms to help prevent compostable paper towels from being discarded in restroom trash bins.  Efficacy of these programs will be assessed by means of a “before and after” examination of the trash from Denny Hall, which currently holds no compost bins despite housing multiple offices, food preparation areas, restrooms, and classrooms.  Resulting data will allow estimation of annual savings in both landfill waste and monetary cost due to implementation of these systems in Denny Hall.

Resultant data and conclusions will be submitted to project collaborator Emily Newcomer, Manager of UW Recycling.  Emily will then initiate the second part of this project by publicizing results to campus administrators as a means of advocating for the concrete incentives of program adoption.  As such, this component of the project will build upon ongoing efforts by UW Recycling to universally implement the MiniMax system, while helping to launch paper towel composting.

The third part of this project will use our results to educate UW students about the benefits of campus composting programs.  This stage will include the production of a video to be shown as part of UW First Year Programs, a series of presentations to UW large-lecture classrooms, and collaboration with a number of campus departments and organizations with whom we have ongoing working relationships, including student groups such as Eco Reps, SAGE, and SEED, faculty and staff organizations such as UW Recycling, HFS, and the ESC, and academic entities such as the Department of Anthropology, the Program on the Environment, and the Burke Museum.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

Within the Denny Hall case study, impacts will be measured using a “before and after” quantification of waste diversion rates and associated costs.  Here, a “waste diversion rate” refers to the portion of solid waste mass recycled or composted.

The “before” stage will begin with spring quarter 2013 and will sample Denny Hall’s solid waste twice weekly for four weeks to allow robust characterization of the composition of the building’s waste stream.  Each sample will consist of one day’s building-wide waste, and will be separated by bin type (trash bins versus recycling bins; Denny is currently devoid of compost bins) and then weighed to produce a waste diversion estimate for the sample.  Average Denny Hall waste diversion rates will then be calculated, and these diversion rates will be projected to annual monetary costs.  Following measurement by bin type, items in each sample will be also sorted into three constituent types – landfill waste, compost, or recyclables – according to the method of disposal most appropriate to each discarded item.  Sorted materials will then be weighed and recorded to derive the percent contribution of each sorted type to the overall building waste stream, and by extension an estimate of “potential” waste diversion rates if bin users had disposed of all items correctly.  Potential diversion rates will then be contrasted with actual diversion rates to quantify the inefficiency of the current waste system in Denny Hall, as well as the costs associated with this inefficiency.

During the fifth week of the project, UW Recycling will implement the MiniMax and paper towel composting systems in Denny Hall.  In doing so, they will introduce compost bins to all building break rooms, restrooms, and publicly accessible areas while publicizing these new systems to building users.

The “after” stage will then commence with another four weeks of sampling, sorting, and analysis identical to the first stage, while adding compost bins as a discard bin type.  At the end of this period, differences between “before” and “after” diversion rates and related costs will be quantified, allowing direct estimation of the benefits of the two systems implemented, as well as the degree to which each realizes potential diversion rates.

From this point forward, measurement of project impacts changes dramatically, as success becomes defined by the degree to which results are effectively publicized to administrators and students.  For the former group, impacts will be measured by changes in the rates with which administrators adopt and implement the MiniMax system (paper towel composting is new and provides no baseline for comparison); if project results demonstrate compelling incentives for composting, adoption rates should increase.  Effects on student behaviors will be less immediately measureable, but the number of students exposed to and/or participating in outreach events may serve as a useful proxy; as such we will work to continually increase this number as a means of enhancing the impact of this project.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $9,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

CategoryProject StageItemUnit CostQuantityTotal Cost
Equipment and Supplies
Compost Implementation
Compost Bins$100 15$1,500
Bin Liners (box 500)$100 1$100
Signs$13.33 30$400
Waste Analysis
Tyvek Suits (box 100)$145 3$435
Latex Gloves (box 100)$11 5$55
Masks (box 50)$9 2$18
Tarps (large)$30 2$60
Sorting Bins$20 3$60
Waste Bags (box 500)$36 1$36
Scale (35kg capacity, 1g precision)$296 1$296
Cleaning SuppliesN/AN/A$40
Wages
Waste Analysis
Project Manager$16.66/hour240 hours$4,000
Outreach
Outreach Coordinator$10/hour200 hours$2,000
Total$9,000

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $9,000

Timeline:

Project StageTaskTimeframeStart DateCompletion Date
Waste Analysis11 weeks4/1/20136/15/2013
Setup1 week4/1/20134/7/2013
Initial Denny Waste Sorting4 weeks4/8/20135/3/2013
Denny Compost Implementation1 week5/4/20135/10/2013
Second Denny Waste Sorting4 weeks5/13/20136/7/2013
Analysis and Results Publication1 week6/8/20136/15/2013
Outreach6.5 months6/17/201312/20/2013
Outreach Coordinator Training1 week6/17/20136/21/2013
Video Production6 weeks6/24/20137/31/2013
Class Visitation3 months10/1/201312/20/2013
Other Outreach Efforts6.5 months6/17/201312/20/2013

Project Approval Forms:

Sustainability 2.0: Applying new media ideas to green.washington.edu

Executive Summary:

The University of Washington is well recognized as a leader in sustainability among public college campuses, with our students leading the way in innovating new ways to better this image. However, you wouldn’t know it by looking around the UW’s various sustainability websites. We need a landing place that showcases, in an engaging, marketable way, the projects and efforts of our campus community to make our campus a greener place.

Working with the Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability office’s new Snapshots project, I would like to fill this hole. Using my storytelling, management, and multimedia skills, my project would create professional quality photos, videos, podcasts and written pieces showcasing our students’, faculty’s and staff's ongoing efforts to cultivate the culture of sustainability, eco-awareness, and environmental progress on our campus. I am asking for a small grant of $5,000 dollars in exchange for the time and effort of myself and others to create this content and construct a new brand for UW’s sustainability.

Student Involvement:

While this project will be funding only one or two students directly, its value will be felt by all of the students who have created the projects we will be documenting and promoting. Any project showcased in the Snapshots, including those funded under the CSF, can use the media for their own promotion and activism. As mentioned in my LOI, showcasing student projects is the top priority for this project.

Similarly, by creating and populating the Snapshots with content, we are creating a template by which current projects and future ones can update or maintain themselves. While not directly employing students, the project will be a vessel for engagement for any number of students who feel empowered to do so.

Also, in order to continue the project, I will document my duties to create an internship position through the ESS and market it to both the Environmental Studies Capstone experience as well as the Communication department. By the end of the project, a new person to fill the position will be hired to continue where the project left off. Again, this one involves one student at a time, but ideally this will continue on for quarters to come, and continue to impact the many and ongoing student sustainability projects.

Education & Outreach:

As I have hopefully made clear through this application, the main goal of my project is to promote education and outreach of overall sustainability of the campus. In this sense, my education and outreach goals mirror my impact goals as stated above. In order to accomplish these goals, I plan to dedicate a large portion of my time to social media and building connections with students and other organizations interested in sustainability on campus. All of my impacts are related: The more social connections we create, the more people will see and share the media that is featured on the Snapshots, and as a result, the higher page rank we will receive due to traffic and others linking back or using the site as a reference. All are important and unique, but all are intertwined, and will work to strengthen sustainability’s presence in students’ lives.

Environmental Impact:
  • Environmental Justice
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The problem is awareness. I firmly believe that we have the tools and technologies available right now to curb many of the environmental challenges that face us today, but they require belief in, and support by the average person. On our campus, the challenges may be smaller but our individual impact remains the same. Due to the work of students and faculty, we have built a strong foundation of sustainability, but one that remains somewhat behind the scenes. Many of the projects that have contributed to this often remain within the environmental community, or go unnoticed by The Daily and other campus news outlets. I believe that in order to reach beyond their own spheres of influence to truly create a culture of sustainability on campus, the first step is effective communication. In our current media culture, I believe that photos, videos, podcasts and written content pushed out through social media is the most effective way to communicate a message, and that is what I hope to do with this project. 

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

While overall behavior change is something that can’t be measured over the 6-month period I have slated for this project, there are indicators that I hope to measure the success of the project off of.

  1. Page views, video views, etc. – Using analytics software and the built-in views system of YouTube, Flickr, iTunesU and other sites that while likely house some of this content, I will able to see exactly how many people are being reached by the content I create, and often, where and how they came to it in order to more effectively market to them.
  2. Facebook likes, twitter followers, etc. – As our main outlet for pushing out this content, increasing our reach on Facebook, twitter, and other social media sites will become a priority for the project, and even outside of the content will contribute to the project’s goal. Currently, ESS has 534 followers on twitter and 325 likes on Facebook. And I hope to increase both of those numbers by at least 75%.
  3. SEO/Page Rank – Currently, searching for “Green University of Washington”, or “University of Washington sustainability” yields green.washington.edu fourth or lower in Google search results. Part of my project aims to increase this page rank in order to increase publicity of UW’s sustainability to insiders and outsiders to the campus alike. 
Total amount requested from the CSF: $5,000
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost

Non-CSF Sources:

Project Completion Total: $5,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date

Project Approval Forms:

UW-Solar (Phase 1)

Executive Summary:

UW-Solar is a student led organization developing a solar installation with an accompanying Industrial Control System; planned to be installed on a Housing and Food Service residence hall on the University of Washington Seattle Campus. UW-Solar will be providing effective outreach to students about the benefits of smart solar systems.

Currently there are 11 students participating. They represent 5 Schools, 5 Departments, 2 campuses within the University of Washington system and they range from undergrads to Ph.D. level students.

We are in the process of developing our website, http://www.uw-solar.org.

Student Involvement:

There are 11 students that are volunteering their time to develop the feasibility study, design and implement the UW-Solar project. These students range from undergraduates to Ph.D. students and represent over 5 Schools and Departments within the University of Washington.

There are three project leaders that manage the rest of the team. The leaders run each sub-section of the project ensuring all the necessary items are completed with appropriate timeliness and high standard.

Stefanie Young – Manager of Solar Feasibility
Candidate, Interdisciplinary PhD in Urban Planning and Design, College of Built Environments.

Jonathan Olds – Manager of Stakeholder Contacts, Permitting, and Approvals
Masters of Public Administration Candidate in the Evans School of Public Affairs and Masters of Urban Planning and Design Candidate in the College of Built Environments.

D.C. Grant – Manager of Industrial Control Systems
Masters of Infrastructure, Planning, and Management Candidate in the Department of Urban Design and Planning, College of Built Environments, and National Science Foundation Cyber Corps Scholarship for Service Recipient.

The rest of the team complements the work and experience the team managers have and the division of labor that is required for the project.

Kristen Gelino
Master of Urban Planning Candidate, College of Built Environments, with a specialization in environmental planning.

Michele Hill
Master of Urban Planning Candidate, College of Built Environments, with a specialization in environmental planning.

Otis Alexander
Bachelors of Computer Science and Systems Candidate, in the Institute of Technology. Applied Distributed Computing Lab, the Smart and Secure Computing Research Group, at UW Tacoma.

Kyle Nichols
Masters of Infrastructure, Planning and Management Student in the Department of Urban Design and Planning, College of Built Environments.

Casey Rodgers
Master of Science in Information Management Candidate, the Information School, National Science Foundation Cyber Corps Scholarship for Service Recipient.

Justin Brecese
Master of Science in Information Management Candidate, the Information School, National Science Foundation Cyber Corps Scholarship for Service Recipient.

Our faculty advisor is Assistant Professor Jan Whittington, MCRP, PhD, of the Department of Urban Design and Planning, Assistant Director of the Masters of Infrastructure Planning and Management Program, and Associate Director of the University of Washington Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity. Her research and professional practice span infrastructure development and finance, the economics of infrastructure, and environmental science.

As the project continues through Winter quarter, the project roles and responsibilities will become more defined.

Education & Outreach:

After installation, UW-Solar will position monitors and publish to the web current real-time and historical energy production and savings information from the solar panel installations. These monitors will educate the community on the importance of environmental sustainability, the use of renewable resources, advantages of energy conservation, and overall savings in energy cost as an advantage of solar power. The panels will be connected to emergency energy supplies, to advocate and educate on resilience.

The feasibility study, to be completed Winter term, plus the design and installation phases, include the solicitation of bids from firms to volunteer services and/or donate equipment. In the process of participating, the firms will educate and mentor participating students on the products, markets, and processes for developing solar and related smart systems. Obtaining donated space in the Natural Choice Directory is just one part of the campaign to interest private firms in our project, because the prospect of publications about our project and their involvement attract their participation. To establish financing and ownership arrangements for this and further installations, the UW-Solar team will include institutional and capital finance arrangements in the feasibility study, for approval by Housing and Food Services, and all appropriate UW administrators. These arrangements, perhaps the first of their kind on campus, will ease the replication of solar investments at UW and similar universities. Thus, our outreach includes contact with other public universities, at conferences or special events attended by UW-Solar participants.

Campus outreach will include the dissemination of information through UW student organizations devoted to sustainability and cyber-security. Should the project move from feasibility to design and installation – as planned in the Spring of 2013 – members of the UW-Solar team continuing their education the following fall will propose a freshman interest group on the subject of solar power, sustainability, the mitigation of greenhouse gases, and cyber-security.

Furthermore, a curriculum is being developed for seminars on siting and funding solar panels, to be offered as a graduate student-led course for credit. The completion of this pilot study will impact the larger region by providing a framework for the application of these methods to similar projects across the region. This, in turn, will enhance the overall resilience of the Pacific Northwest.

Environmental Impact:
  • Energy Use
Project Longevity:

Environmental Problem:

The long-term UW-Solar vision is for the installation of solar panels at multiple UW sites, with a model for finance and management easy to replicate; thus to encourage expansion, at UW any other public university. The main benefits to continued installations are a reduction in outside energy resource consumption, reduced energy costs, community energy resilience and independence, environmental educational opportunities, and decreased environmental impacts.

Explain how the impacts will be measured:

A component of the project is to track energy production through the industrial control system, which manages information and controls the function of the panels and flow of energy and data, showing the energy output daily, monthly, and seasonally. We will have displays in the project buildings to educate the student body on the amount of power generation created though UW-Solar project.

Total amount requested from the CSF: $4,500
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:

Budget:

ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Equipment & Construction
Solar Installation SystemTBDTBDApprox $80,000
SCADATBDTBDApprox $80,000
Publicity & Communications
Signange and MonitorsTBDTBDApprox $20
Personnel & Wages
N/A
General Supplies & Other
N/A

Non-CSF Sources:

Source/DescriptionAmount RequestedDate RequestedDate Received
Sustainable Path Foundation (TBD)$19,800Dec. 15TBD
NSF (Cyber-Physical Systems)$750,000Jan 29TBD
Natural Choice Directory (donated space for text and advertisements about the project)$1,250Early JanJan 11
Project Completion Total: $160,000

Timeline:

TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Feasibility StudyJan-March$5,000
Installation Document Development March-June$0
ProcurementMarch-JuneApprox $10,000
InstallationJuneApprox $75,000