Student-run on-campus sustainable food efforts include an herb garden, a P-patch, and the U Farm.
cover story
By Julie Garner gton Photos By Alex Cred gin
For the University of Washington, Excellence Comes in Many Forms. Winning Nobel Prizes and national championships, making scientific breakthroughs to turning out more Peace Corps volunteers and Medal of Honor winners than any other public university, the quality of the UW comes through in a cornucopia of fields. But this past fall, the UW was honored by the Sierra Club as the nation’s “most planet-minded” university in its annual listing of “America’s Coolest Schools.” By cool, the Sierra Club means the University—which long has been recognized for its leadership in conservation and environmentalism—is a superstar in its daily operations to reduce its carbon footprint and treat the earth kindly. To quote the Sierra Club magazine: “Just a few reasons why UW 30
UW
150 Ye ars
leads the pack: every building completed since 2006 has earned LEED Gold. All appliances bought are Energy Star rated. And the hydro-powered campus runs three farms, an extensive recycling program, the conservation-research hotbed Pack Forest.” Not bad for a major public research university smack dab in a thriving metropolis of more than 600,000 residents. As someone commented online, the UW is “Purple and gold and green.” Much of the credit for this honor goes to the UW’s committed student body, which has been behind many of the efforts the UW has implemented all over its Seattle campus. Here is just a sampling of the areas where the UW has outshone every other college and university across the nation: