On Nov. 23, the UW Sustainability Office held its ninth annual Eco Summit at Fed Hall, bringing together over 120 people, 12 speakers and 15 booths to celebrate and further discuss the future of sustainability on campus.
The theme of the Eco-Summit was “what we can do,” emphasizing the importance of collective action and coming together as a campus across faculties, departments, and disciplines to work toward sustainable change.
The Environmental Sustainability Report was released during the Eco Summit and is available on the sustainability office’s website.
“I’m thrilled to launch this year’s annual Environmental Sustainability Report. We use it to demonstrate our progress against the University’s sustainability objectives for 2025 and to build a common understanding of what and how we are doing as a campus community,” said Mat Thijssen, Director of Sustainability. “We have seen a lot of activity over the past year, with more of our targets working toward completion and some key investments being made in projects and programs. We also have a lot of work remaining before 2025, and making further improvements will require broad support across the campus.”
During the summit, there were two panels. The student panel focused on “connecting students with sustainability opportunities,” and the employee panel discussed “integrating sustainability into campus roles.”
“The sustainability community is extremely diverse and welcome. There is a cause that you will identify and is worth fighting for. There are so many challenges for the world’s climate, and they can be solved when people from all professions work towards sustainability together,” said Saad Arif Qadeer, student panellist and MealCareUW co-founder, regarding student engagement in sustainability on campus.
Along with the student and staff panels, the Green Office, Green labs and Living Planet Leader Awards were presented.
“We know that we cannot meet our campus sustainability goals without engaging people: our students and employees are critical in this mission. While we still have a lot of work ahead of us, I’m really inspired by our amazing students leading the charge,” said Andrea Bale, Sustainability Engagement Coordinator. “Through our Green Residence program, Living Planet @ Campus program, clubs, societies, and various organizations, our students are making a difference on campus and creating opportunities for others to join in. I’m also excited to see strong participation in our Green Office and Green Labs programs – despite the many setbacks and challenges of the last few years – and am optimistic that we’ll expand both of these in the year ahead.”
The summit concluded with an interactive visioning activity where everyone was encouraged to reflect on their unique roles on campus, how sustainability connects with these roles, and the support others need to work toward sustainable action.
