Achieving campus sustainability: What practices universities are doing to become leaders in campus sustainability
Adopting sustainable practices within a university campus can help in addressing the environmental and social challenges that we are currently facing. Universities around the country have recognized the need for change and today almost all campuses have adopted various versions of their own campus sustainability plans to showcase their achievements and future goals. Through my work with the UW Sustainability Department, I researched and analyzed UW’s peer universities in the state of Washington, PAC 12, and around the country to better understand what initiatives they have implemented to be more sustainable. To accomplish this, I used the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) to compare the measurements of sustainability within each college and university. Through these reports and additional research, I found that there are many practices the University of Washington and its’ peer universities can be doing to minimize their waste, water usage, unsustainable transportation and food & dining services. From this, I provided insight and recommendations on how the University of Washington can build their future campus sustainability plan, as well as suggestions for how to improve their campus sustainability practices within water, waste, transportation, and food & dining services.