Ellen Moore Named "Champion of Sustainability"

Senior Lecturer Ellen Moore was named a “Champion of Sustainability” at the 2019 Washington-Oregon Higher Education Sustainability Conference (WOHESC), held Feb. 25-27 at UW in Seattle.

The award, sponsored by McKinstry, a Seattle-based architecture and engineering firm, “recognizes organizations and individuals exhibiting a forward-looking approach to innovative energy and waste reduction in the built environment,” according to a corporate press release.

Moore’s “research, teaching and practice revolve around the interconnection of media and the environment,” said McKinstry. “Part of her pedagogy involves actively challenging students to consider their environmental impact in a consumption-focused society. To date, Moore and her students have participated in the ‘Plastic Free’ challenge, where she and her students chose to go without any disposable plastic for a month; the ‘Carbon Challenge,’ where students tried to lose 5,000 pounds of ‘carbon weight’ in a quarter; and … the ‘Buy Nothing New’ movement, where they will buy nothing new for the next eight weeks.”

Also recognized were Katrina Taylor, political science professor at Tacoma Community College, and Troy Builta, a building information specialist at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham, Ore.

WOHESC is an annual conference that brings together sustainability-focused staff, faculty and students from higher education institutions throughout Washington and Oregon. The 2019 conference had more than 600 attendees and more than 110 speakers.