WWU & Local Sustainability News

October 20, 2009

 

October 13, 2009

Tackling renewable energy solutions
WWU Front article on Climate Action Plan presentations

Western’s Climate Action Plan, drafted in June 2009, faces public scrutiny this week through a series of on-campus forums as Western attempts to move closer to climate neutrality...

July 27th, 2009

A Postcard from the Pleistocene
WWU Professor Andy Bunn and WWU students study climate change and permafrost thawing on the Kolyma River in Antarctica.

June 29, 2009

Bringing 'Green Marine' to Bellingham
There's been some buzz recently about what to do with the Waterfront Innovation Zone, and the right choices could be a great economic boost to this area. The new facility was the topic of conversation at a Technology Alliance Group meeting held on June 19. Staff from the key players in the project - Port of Bellingham, Western Washington University and Bellingham Technical College - were on hand to give an update and talk about the possibilities.

April 21, 2009

WWU an EPA Green Power Challenge winner
The Ivies, anchored by University of Pennsylvania’s purchase of 192 million kWh, chalked up the best conference performance, purchasing a total of 225 million kWh of green power. Here in the Pacific Northwest, four colleges and universities bested their respective conferences: Oregon State University (Pacific-10), Western Washington University (Great Northwest Athletic Conference), The Evergreen State College (Cascade Collegiate Conference), and Pacific Lutheran University (Northwest Conference).

Colleges record big savings with clean energy
The EPA is highlighting a number of colleges and universities, including several in the Pacific Northwest, that have demonstrated a commitment to clean and efficient energy.
Regionally, the nationwide leaders in the competition included Oregon State University, which derives 74 percent of its power from renewable sources, according to the EPA. Others included Western Washington University and Evergreen State College, both of which are said to be 100 percent powered by renewable energy, while further south, the University of California at Santa Cruz also made the list.

May 23, 2008

Rose Woofenden, president of WWU Students for Renewable Energy,
interview segment

May 22, 2008

WWU solar panels can produce up to 2,300 kilowatt hours a year

BELLINGHAM — Western Washington University began using 12 new solar panels Wednesday to offset energy costs.

The panels, on top of the Viking Union, will generate between 1,900 and 2,300 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, depending on the amount of available sunlight, said John Thompson, assistant marketing director at Western Washington University.

The Solar Demonstration Project was organized by WWU’s Students for Renewable Energy and funded by donations from Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Puget Sound Energy and the WWU Foundation President’s Campus Enrichment Fund. Local company Alpha Energy donated the panels.

The project also includes an interactive educational kiosk inside the Viking Union that explains how the system works and how much power the panels are producing.

May 19, 2008

Get your green on in Raleigh!

The WWU Office of Sustainability would like to send you to Raleigh, NC
in November 2008 to present your campus sustainability research at the
nation?s largest campus sustainability conference.

If you are an undergraduate WWU student and have completed research on sustainability at WWU as part of a class, please consider applying for
the AASHE 2008 Campus Sustainability Conference Scholarship. The
scholarship recipient will receive funds for airfare, accommodations and
conference registration fees.

For more information on the AASHE 2008 conference, see:
http://www.aashe.org/conf2008/index.php

 

April 29, 2008

Dining Hall Customers Reduced Food Waste by 34%!

Last week the three dining halls were trayless in recognition of Earth Week. The aim of trayless dining is to reduce our impact on the environment. It serves as a reminder that sometimes our eyes are bigger than our stomachs. Many universities around the country have been trying out trayless dining programs at varying levels, and results show that it works very well to curb the amount of food that is thrown away.

So how did WWU’s Dining Halls fair? On Monday, April 21, customers scraped their leftover food scraps into a compost bin and dining hall staff “Weighed the Waste,” to compare the amount of food thrown away on a “Trayless” day versus a day with trays. The results were encouraging. Without trays, food waste was reduced by 631 pounds, or 34%! On just the first day of no trays, dining hall customers went from throwing an average of over 1800 pounds of food away to about 1200 pounds.

April 17, 2008

Reducing Waste, Going Trayless, Composting, and more!

Earth Day is Tuesday, April 22 and University Dining Services is celebrating with a whole week of activities that we're calling "Earth Week," April 21 through April 25.

Less Food Waste with Trayless Dining Earth Week is a good time to reflect on how we can help reduce our impact on the environment. Did you know that each day in Western’s Dining Halls, customers throw away approximately 1,842 pounds of food? To reduce this food waste, and at the request of the Residence Hall Association (RHA) and the Campus Dining Committee, the Viking Commons, Ridgeway Commons and Fairhaven Commons will be “trayless,” Monday, April 21 - Friday, April 25.

Many college campuses across the nation have been participating in “trayless” dining programs and statistics show that it works to reduce food waste between 30% and 60%. Western’s own Viking Commons reduced waste by 45% when it was trayless for the first seven weeks of Summer Quarter 2007.

Apr 15, 2008

WWU Professors Participate in International Workshop on Sustainable Community Development

Nicholas Zaferatos and Gigi Berardi, professors in Western Washington University's Huxley College of the Environment, and James Loucky, professor in WWU's Department of Anthropology, participated as expert contributors at an international workshop March 24-28 at the Rockefeller Foundation Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy.

The workshop was hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation and focused on the development of a fair trade olive-oil industry linking rural Mediterranean agricultural communities to the global marketplace...

Mar 05, 2008

Woodring College Receives Sustainability Education Grant

Western Washington University's Woodring College of Education has received a grant from the Russell Family Foundation to fund research into
strategies for including education for sustainability in the pre-service
preparation of teachers. The $139,000 grant will fund a new project,
Sustainability Education for New Teachers, created in partnership with
Facing the Future: People and the Planet, a nonprofit
curriculum-development organization based in Seattle.

Feb 27, 2008

WWU Challenges Residence Halls to Reduce Electricity Use

Western Washington University's Office of Sustainability is coordinating the "Go for the Green" program in eight of the University's 16 residential communities to reduce electricity use and carbon dioxide emissions.

The challenge, which began in January and will last through March, has each WWU residence hall competing to gain points which can be earned by decreasing electricity use, attending programs about sustainability, filling out surveys and signing a pledge to reduce consumption.

The first month's results show an average reduction of 12.8 percent from January of last year, surpassing the original goal of five to 10 percent. Fairhaven Residences is in the lead, with a decrease of 24.8 percent as compared to last year.  

This reduction prevented more than 22,500 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere as well as saving the University $3,695, said Kimbrough Mauney, coordinator of the Residents Resource Awareness Program (ResRAP).

The residential community with the most points will be announced after spring break. The winning residence hall will receive the grand prize of the Upfront Theatre troop performing in their hall. The program has also collected more than $2,500 worth of prizes from companies such as REI and the Eagle Rock Challenge Course in Mount Vernon.

Other sponsors of the program include the Environmental Center, Students for Renewable Energy and the Outdoor Center.

The participating residential communities include Mathes, Kappa, Edens, Edens North, Higginson, Fairhaven, Buchanan Towers and Birnam Wood.

For more information, contact Rebekah Hook at (360) 650-2011 or visit http://www.wwu.edu/goforthegreen.

Feb 21, 2008

WWU to Work with Kitsap Transit on New Hybrid Passenger-Bus Design

Western Washington University's Vehicle Research Institute (VRI) is
working with Bremerton-based Kitsap Transit to produce a prototype hybrid passenger bus that will get double the miles-per-gallon of its existing buses.

Feb 21, 2008

WWU Professor to Lead International Effort on Building Sustainable Economies

Western Washington University associate professor Nicholas Zaferatos has been named the principal investigator of the EuroMed Sustainable
Communities project, an effort sponsored by the European Union to build
sustainable economies across cultural and political boundaries.

January 31, 2008

Hundreds of profs hold green 'teach-in'

"Global warming issues took over lecture halls in colleges across the
country Thursday, with more than 1,500 universities participating in what
was billed as the nation's largest-ever "teach-in."

Organizers said the goal of the event, dubbed "Focus the Nation," was to
move past preaching to the green choir, to reach a captive audience of
students in many fields who might not otherwise tune in to climate change
issues."

January 31, 2008

Varied groups tackle climate change issue

"But how do you stop something like that, or at least limit the effects?
That’s the goal behind Focus the Nation — getting people to brainstorm
about personal, local and national solutions to limit climate change and
its effects...

“This is an incredible opportunity on college and university campuses to
create solutions to the challenge of climate change,” said Seth Vidaña,
with WWU’s Office of Sustainability. “It’s produced interesting
discussions and a lot of people who were motivated before they came to the
discussions were very motivated after they left.”"