2015-2016

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

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

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

Our vision is to provide consumers at the University with the accurate knowledge of what is and what isn’t recyclable or compostable. Our software is built for tablets, and designed to be mounted on-site in front of waste containers. When a consumer approaches with waste, they can utilize the software to determine how to properly dispose of their waste, thus reducing the University's improper waste stream and improving consumer education.

Learn more about their product on the EvoEco website.

Ecological restoration efforts have been ongoing in Kincaid Ravine since the winter quarter of 2014.  The roughly 4 acre ravine located in the NE corner of campus was overgrown with invasive species, severely lacking in biodiversity and littered with trash when Martha Moritz (MEH ’14) began to plan restoration work to transform the ravine into an asset for the University and its surrounding community.  There is much work still to be accomplished, but Kincaid Ravine is well on its way to becoming a healthy urban forest on the UW campus.

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 that would recycle used, non-hazardous nitrile lab gloves that are currently being sent to the landfill. The gloves would be collected then shipped back to their producer, Kimberly-Clark, where they would be recycled into products like park benches and chairs.

The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery is a student-run nursery established in 2013 that grows native species to provide a source of plants for restoration projects for the UW campus and UW students.  The nursery has spent the last year, with money from the CSF grant, expanding and building a new hoop house to house all of our plants.  Currently, we provide native plants to student-run restoration projects like Whitman Walk, Kincaid ravine, and UW restoration classes like ESRM 473.  We are working to also provide native species to UW Grounds Management to increase the native plants grown on campus

Floating wetlands are an emerging green technology that mimic naturally occurring wetlands by using floating frames as a base upon which to grow native wetland plants.  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. 

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.

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 Farm is a two-phase project, and was awarded one year of funding from the Campus Sustainability Fund in Summer 2015.