The Campus Sustainability Fund awarded over $230,000 total to projects in the 2010-2011 academic year.

Biodiversity Green Wall, Edible Green Screen + Water Harvesting Demonstration Project Phase I‐ Feasibility and Design

Amount Awarded: $10,185
Project Status: Active: Post-implementation phase

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.

Commuter Profile

Amount Awarded: $30,000
Project Status: Completed

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.

Do It Yourself Bicycle Repair Stations

Amount Awarded: $7,237
Project Status: Completed

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.

Engaging Students in Discussion and Action around the Food, Land Use, and the Farm Bill

Amount Awarded: $500
Project Status: Completed

We will host nationally renowned author and farmer Dan Imhoff speak about the 2012 Farm Bill.

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.

Expansion of The UW Farm

Amount Awarded: $78,307
Project Status: Completed

The UW Farm is applying for $80,000 to support its expansion on ground near the Center for Urban Horticulture. This expansion will allow us to meet our goals of developing community (in UW and beyond), building connections (between people, land, and our future) and achieving a more sustainable food system. In its expansion, the farm will provide the campus with sustainably grown produce through programs such as a student-run cooperative kitchen, dining facilities run by Housing and Food Services (HFS), and donations to local food banks.

Husky Neighborhood Tree Planting

Amount Awarded: $1,477
Project Status: Completed

This project is being run by the Husky Neighborhood Assistants, an organization run out of the University of Washington’s Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards that works with students to work on issues in the greater University District Community. The tree project is meant to beautify the neighborhood, improve the canopy habitat, improve water drainage in the planter strips, and to provide students both as residents at planting sites and as volunteers at the planting event an opportunity to connect with nature in the urban environment.

Identifying Effective Communication to Promote Composting

Amount Awarded: $12,203
Project Status: Completed

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.

LEED Performance Analysis Intern

Amount Awarded: $14,080
Project Status: Completed

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.

Owl Boxes

Amount Awarded: $1,000
Project Status: Completed

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.

Project: Zimtervention

Amount Awarded: $8,120
Project Status: Completed

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:

Real Food Challenge (RFC) UW Housing and Food Services (HFS) Audit

Amount Awarded: $2,000
Project Status: Completed

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.

Tapped for Earth Day

Amount Awarded: $295
Project Status: Completed

We will be playing the movie "TAPPED" in the residence hall to inform people about drinking water & the nature.

Trashing our Food: The Costs of Food Waste in America and What We Can Do About It

Amount Awarded: $250
Project Status: Completed

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.

Urban Forest Management Plan

Amount Awarded: $63,670
Project Status: Completed

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.