The UW placed fourth on this year’s Sierra Club’s annual ranking of the 20 greenest U.S. colleges, and has made the list for the last five years. According to UW Today, the UW is recognized for its sustainability initiatives, including SmartGrid to modernize, measure, and manage campus building energy consumption, and its commitment to limit its contributions to global warming.

UW graduate programs will save money and time by using a new online application review process developed by the Graduate School. Applications have been submitted online for 10 years, but reviews by faculty and staff still required printing—about 3.75 million pieces of paper and $225,000 in printing costs per year. Faster online review means programs can make offers to the best candidates more quickly, and new features simplify the scoring and monitor the progress of files in review.

UW graduate students now submit their theses and dissertations online rather than by paper, saving money and streamlining administrative steps. After a pilot in the fall, submissions began Spring Quarter 2012 and eliminated the required $25 binding fee, plus additional costs for printing and microfilming. Read the UW Graduate School blog to learn more.

Students in two courses this quarter are using online textbooks through the UW-IT eText pilot, and more classes can be involved.  Faculty can get more information and sign up to be part of the eText pilot by April 25 for Summer classes and by May 25 for Autumn classes. Usable on any computer or device with a modern browser, eTexts include full text search, highlighting, and note-taking tools for students. This pilot is part of UW’s 2y2d Teaching & Learning in the 21st Century Initiative, and will help in understanding the potential of this technology.

Now UW departments can list surplus equipment on the new uSwap online service, and also search for or request items before buying new equipment. Provided by UW Finance and Facilities, uSwap is for UW use only and is UW NetID secure. The site guides units through transferring UW-owned computers and accessories, audio/video equipment, and other items in compliance with UW rules, promoting reuse and saving money.

To achieve energy savings, reduce computer power usage, and improve system security, the UW will begin using IBM’s Tivoli Endpoint Manager. Initially, more than 3,000 managed desktops will receive this Power Management and Patch Management software, which eventually will be made available to all UW Seattle units. This effort is funded through Facilities Services and rebates from Seattle City Light Energy Smart Services, in partnership with the UW Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability Office, and UW-IT. Learn more.

The UW is at the top of the Sierra Club’s annual ranking of the 20 greenest colleges in the U.S. According to UW Today, the UW is recognized for its sustainable operations and for earning LEED Gold (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for every building built since 2006, the UW has been on the list for the last four years.

A new Web-based UW supplier registration process will make it faster to pay for goods and services, increase compliance with tax reporting and business diversity requirements, and be greener by saving paper. The new process will reduce from 30 days to 2 days the time needed to register some 3100 new suppliers each year. As part of UW Finance and Facilities lean business process improvement efforts, this approach leverages Kuali Enterprise Workflow, managed by UW-IT, to allow routing and approval of supplier data entered directly online. UW Procurement Services launched the Supplier Registration Web portal July 18, and the complete process will be in place by the end of the year.

The UW expects to reduce energy consumption and save about $700,000 in energy costs during its participation in the Department of Energy’s $178 million Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project. Now in the second year of the five-year project, the UW is installing “intelligent” electrical meters, water meters, and lighting controls in most UW Seattle buildings. To ensure reliable and secure communications, the UW Capital Projects Office and Facilities Services are partnering with UW-IT to provide an isolated, secure Facilities Network for the grid. The UW’s Smart Grid project will provide a baseline of energy consumption and test the effectiveness of the new technology.

The newly redesigned UWTV Web site makes it easy to see the upcoming TV schedule, search for and watch video from UWTV’s extensive video library, and catch up on Husky sports. You’ll also find two new additions to the Computer Science and Engineering Colloquia series – Heads in the Cloud: New Approaches for Access Technology and Smart Grids and Beyond. 

The Xerox printers used by UW-IT for university business production printing have been upgraded, with leasing and monthly maintenance fees renegotiated for an annual savings of $50,000. The printers also will transition from 30 percent to 100 percent recycled paper in the next few months as part of the larger UW Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability initiative. This is in addition to ongoing, significant efforts to reduce overall production printing.

The UW will save 300 reams of paper annually because its sixth largest mainframe report, the daily Financial Accounting System Batch Control Report, is no longer printed — it’s on the Web. Users will save time because transaction information appears online the day after processing so they won't need to wait for paper reports to arrive through campus mail. This tool was created by Finance & Facilities and UW Information Technology.

Printed reports from UW administrative systems are down 42 percent, thanks to the Office of Information Management, UW Technology, and central business units. This annual savings since 2008 equals three million sheets of paper, or a stack as high as three UW Towers. See the November OIM Highlights.

Didn't make it to the Student Tech Fair last month? Want to know what’s on deck for green computing, cloud computing, and mobile computing at the UW? You're in luck. You can listen to the presentations online in streaming audio and view the PowerPoint slides.

With an average grade of "A-" or better on the College Sustainability Report Card 2010, the UW was recognized as a leader in green building, climate change and energy, transportation, recycling, and more. Learn how you can be green on the UW Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability Web site.