The zipping-sound of a duct tape roll is cut off by the beeping of a radio. Employees mill about, some in Tyvek suits on an 80-degree day, others wearing high-visibility gear and hard hats. A 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit at 8:08 a.m., but luckily chaos hasn’t ensued because it’s just a drill.
As government agencies across three states participated in the regional Cascadia Rising earthquake preparedness exercise, the University of Washington took the opportunity to test coordination between its emergency response teams across campus. It’s one of only two universities participating in the state.
UW Recycling, of Facilities Services' Building Services Department, is the proud recipient of a Washington State Recycling Association (WSRA) 2016 Recycler of the Year award.
The power plant electrician asks the group if they’re ready with their stopwatches, then counts down. Three—two—one—the lights go black for a beat. Five giant diesel engine backup generators, each larger than a pickup truck, begin to roar.
The lights are back on; surgeries continue without missing a beat, and priceless research continues to stay frozen in a lab on campus. It’s a monthly test of the University’s backup power generation capabilities down at the Power Plant.
In preparation for this weekend's Windermere Cup and the opening day of boating season, crews from Facilities Maintenance & Construction installed a bronze plaque commemorating the 1936 UW men's crew team featured in The Boys in the Boat.
In a disastrous dream schemed up by UW Emergency Management, a substation just west of campus has exploded. The power is out across most of north Seattle, including the University. Smoke clouds are billowing toward campus and generators will only last so long.
Emergency Management, Transportation Services, UW Surplus, Grounds Management and UW Recycling joined the celebration on Red Square this past Friday to help educate the community about their sustainable practices and programs for Earth Day.
In PACCAR Hall this past February, three digital boards were plastered above metal garbage, compost, and recycling bins. The displays scrolled through photos and animations of plastic water bottles, Cheerios containers, and compostable napkins to educate community members how to sort recyclables, compost and trash.
For the past few months, UW Recycling has been using their new application, Streams, to better connect their administrative office to crews in the field. Through smart phones and tablets, Streams enables employees across campus to access their collection routes online, and log changes that occur throughout their day.
The IMA’s racquetball and squash courts have 204 mercury-vapor light fixtures using 250 watts each, requiring heavy and unsustainable ballasts, warm-up and cool-down times of 5-10 minutes, and plenty of maintenance calls to maintenance electricians to replace burned-out bulbs.
But now those headaches are gone, replaced with the ease and energy savings provided by LED upgrades.
On March 29, 2016 at its annual awards ceremony, the U-District Partnership recognized UW Facilities Services with its Keep the U-District Beautiful award.
This past weekend outside of Suzzallo and Allen Libraries, Grounds Management began taping off an American elm tree that could pose a risk to campus safety.
“You know, I really don’t think I’m the person to talk to about this,” said Facilities Maintenance & Construction Director Damon Fetters. “This is all the work of employees coming together to make safety a part of the culture and a part of the work that they do.”
Facilities Services set a record safety incident rate of 7.9 for 2015, well under the target of 9. Facilities Maintenance & Construction and Campus Engineering & Operations helped lead the way by coming in significantly below target, and Facilities Employee Services and Emergency Management met their 0-incident targets.
They say the best way to learn a foreign language is immersion—spending time in the place and within the culture where that language is spoken daily, and where its citizens conduct their lives using it. This concept of immersion is the mindset of the Vice Chancellor of Administration at University of California-Riverside, Ron Coley. Coley researched Lean and Balanced Scorecard in higher education, learned about UW Facilities Services, and reached out to Charles Kennedy to learn more.
There’s no doubt that the University has plenty of rivalries. With Washington State University only a few hours away, Huskies across campus are always looking for ways to conquer in competitions.
