Welcome

As the founder and initiator of this joint campus student organization, I have a vision that I would like to share with you. The University of Washington Bothell and Cascadia Community College both have great potential for being leaders in sustainability. So far we have only partially realized this potential. This has mostly come through practices implemented by facility services as well as individual programs and faculty projects. What is lacking is a holistic approach to sustainability similar to the one proposed by the Sustainability Task Force in their 2009 report.

As an active student leader, I recognized the crucial need for more student leadership and participation in not only campus, but also community sustainability projects and initiatives. Administration, staff, faculty, and community groups cannot do all of the heavy lifting. We students must get involved. After all, we are the future.

This organization is the beginning of a foundational network that will provide training, support, education, hands on professional experience, leadership and access to opportunities for developing future leaders and ambassadors in sustainability. We will act as facilitators and communication links between both colleges, administration, staff, faculty, students, and the community.

Our kickoff event was a hugely successful Earth Day Celebration. This led to a partnership with Friends of North Creek Forest (FNCF), a neighborhood organization that is working on saving the last intact forest left in Bothell. North Creek Forest is a half mile away and connects to the campus wetland via North Creek. We will be volunteering with FNCF to provide educational assistance, trail building, grant writing, possible restoration work and other beneficial activities down the road. We will also be leading regular wetland work parties here on campus. And we are working on finishing and implementing a Campus Commute Planner application that I designed and was approved by the UWB/CCC Commuter Services Task Force. This application has huge potential for increasing and improving alternative transportation use to campus as well as providing accurate and easy to use information on all transportation options. These are only a few of our projects and successes so far. There will be many more to come, so stay tuned.

Thank you.

Maximilian Dixon
President - Sustainability Organization at UWB/CCC