University of Wisconsin–Madison
Written by Tia Gaffney, UW-Madison undergraduate & Zero Waste Project Assistant As an eager incoming freshman obsessed with all things sustainability, I regularly scoured the Office of Sustainability Instagram for a taste of the opportunities coming my way. One day, I came across a post about a program dedicated to freshmen living in the residence halls. “Serve as …
In the fourth episode of the SustainUW Podcast’s new miniseries, Sustainability Conversations Across the Big Ten, hosts Ren Nickel and Nate Dancer meet with Kate Nelson, John Gardner, Ahnika Seifert, Carley Rice, and Hannah Lauber, representing multiple areas of sustainability from the University of Minnesota, to discuss their zero-waste initiatives, composting, and more. SustainUW members …
The latest episode of The SustainUW Podcast miniseries, Sustainability Conversations Across the Big Ten, turns west to the University of Washington to explore how a large, multi-campus institution moves sustainability from planning to practice. Hosts John Ernst and Ren Nickel spoke with Daimon Eklund, communications manager for the University of Washington Sustainability Office, and Emily …
If you’re outside the orbit of the Center for Limnology, you might not have heard of TLS. In the Northwoods, though, it’s an established, and popular, part of the landscape. And yet, many on campus don’t know that UW–Madison operates a field station conducting long-term research on Wisconsin’s lakes far from the shores most students …
Applications are now open for UW–Madison’s Corporate Sustainability Internship Program, a summer-long internship that provides students with real-world sustainability experience in corporate environments. Rooted in the Wisconsin Idea, the program connects undergraduate and graduate students with Midwest companies seeking support on sustainability initiatives. Businesses bring forward specific project needs, and program staff match them with candidates whose skills and interests align. …
One of UW–Madison’s five institutional sustainability goals, first announced by Chancellor Mnookin in February 2024, is to reach net-zero emissions by 2048. Campus leadership set an interim target of 100% renewable electricity by 2030 as an important step on the path to this ambitious goal. Through a strategy that includes working with electric utilities, supporting …
The fourth-annual Sustainability Symposium opened with Paul Robbins, Dean of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, crediting students for the strides UW–Madison has made in sustainability, saying it was because they “would not leave this alone.” He noted that alongside the university’s net-zero goal, zero waste commitment, and RISE–EARTH initiative, UW–Madison recently earned its first …
If you’ve been in Union South or Memorial Union lately, chances are you’ve met Oscar. Oscar Sort is UW–Madison’s new AI waste and recycling assistant, introduced by the Office of Sustainability’s Zero Waste Team to improve recycling accuracy on campus. If you hold up a waste item to Oscar Sort’s cameras, it’ll identify it and …
The latest episode of The SustainUW Podcast’s new miniseries, Sustainability Conversations across the Big Ten, looks at how student leadership shapes campus sustainability work at UW–Madison and Rutgers Univesity.
This fall, UW–Madison earned its first STARS Gold rating in a broad sustainability assessment. This milestone marks progress toward Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin’s five environmental sustainability goals announced in February 2024. STARS reporting is a point-based system used by colleges and universities to measure campus sustainability efforts and compare them with those of peer institutions. As the …