The Financial Management Environmental Stewards Team scored a prime piece of “real estate” at BizTech 2008 in the form of Booth 14. Located near the busy entrance, the booth drew a steady stream of curious visitors eager to learn more about the “Purple Goes Green” banner on display. No, the banner wasn’t about changing the school colors or trading the football team for the Oregon Ducks! “Purple goes Green” is the catch phrase used by the Environmental Stewards Team to represent their commitment to campus sustainability.

The booth at BizTech also provided visibility and opportunity for the team to share with visitors the progress FM has made in the important areas of resource conservation, consumption reduction, green purchasing choices, and other environmentally sustainable workplace practices.

Team Membership
Janet Bissonette – Grant/Contract Acct. Kassy Ellefson – Purchasing Michael Fero – Treasury (consultant) Mickey Galbreth – Grant/Contract Acct. Carol Garing – Creataive Communications Jeanette Henderson – Real Estate Angie Kritenbrink – Risk Mgmt	Heidi Schwab – Equipment Inventory Sam Senturia – Treasury Graham Sherwood – HFS/Purchaisng AJ Van Wallendael – EH&S (advisor) Susan White – Student Financial Svc Clarity Wolff – Payroll Leader : Claudia Christensen – Purchasing
Sponsors: Elizabeth Cherry - Risk Management and Carla Helm - Purchasing

The booth was small, but packed with ideas and information including an office desk chair made from 96% recycled material. Green products and information displayed were intended to promote the 3R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. An Epeat Gold certified laptop streamed President Emmert’s campus conversation about sustainability, while team members, wearing green visors emblazoned with glittery, green, 3 R’s gathered email addresses from visitors so the team’s “Green Office Checklist” could be shared with other campus departments. This is a team to watch! For more information visit their wiki site: https://fmwiki.admin.washington.edu/x/YpCs

There are lots of good reasons to the use the wiki (https://fmwiki.admin.washington.edu) but here are a few tips for wiki-ing your way to a greener office:

Don't print meeting agendas:
You should already be using the wiki to plan your meetings and share agendas, but consider this: if your meeting room has a computer and monitor, you can use it to display the agenda wiki page.  There's no need to print hard copies and hand them out.  If you have an assigned
scribe, he or she can type the meeting notes right then and there on the agenda page in the wiki.  Everyone can see them and suggest changes as the notes are being typed.  Everyone will know where to find the notes, and then they won't print them out!

Don't send information-dense emails:
Email is a great way to share quick, small bits of information, but it isn't so great when you have a lot to say.  For instance, many email browsers can only display limited content, so people are tempted to print long emails rather than read them on screen.  So instead of emailing your manifesto, post it on the wiki.  Wiki pages are web pages, and because web browsers are designed for easy on-screen reading, they are easier to read than email; people will be less tempted to print them out.

You can also format material on the wiki so it's easier to read:

• Use chapter headings to clearly label your information
• Break your document into several pages if necessary
• Use links to other pages where information exists, rather than re-typing information 

And if you are reading something on the wiki and the font is too small, most browsers allow you to increase the font size just by hitting the "ctrl" and "+" keys together.

Share your own green ideas in the wiki:

Most wiki pages allow you to add content and comments. If you see something in the wiki and think to yourself "I have an idea how to make that greener," then go ahead and add your comment for everyone to see. And if one doesn't already exist, you can start a page to get
green discussions going in your area. Check out this example in the Purchasing space: https://fmwiki.admin.washington.edu/x/NwoE

You can also use the wiki as a trading post. You can let people know about excess office supplies or other materials you have so they won't have to go out and buy more. Here's an example that Financial Management is working on: https://fmwiki.admin.washington.edu/x/rpCs

If you can think of another way to use the wiki to green your work environment, go ahead and create a wiki page to describe it! Just add a "green" label to the page and it will show up in this list:
https://fmwiki.admin.washington.edu/label/green

Now get out there and be a ‘wiki gardener.’ Oh, and don’t print this article!

Grant and Contract Accounting is implementing a new system this summer. Our new system is called the System for Electronic Research Accounting (SERA). This will allow us to process requests for new budget numbers electronically. This project is led in GCA by Grants Manager Lily Gebrenegus and Director of Campus Services Kirsten DeFries.

One of our most important processes is setting up new accounts in the Financial Accounting System (FAS) for all the grants and contracts that come to the UW. Without a budget number, a principal investigator, his staff, and central offices would be unable to charge expenditures to the proper account. Establishing new accounts has been a paper-based process for the past 20 years. On June 12th, that’s all going to change!

Our process partners in OSP fill out a form in triplicate and make numerous copies of award documentation. All that paper is hand-delivered to our office which we then use to add or modify accounts in FAS. This is a very manual, paper-based process that SERA will make more transparent, user-friendly, and will save paper!

The first phase adds a new feature for campus users who are trying to get a budget number set up in FAS. Sometimes, we don’t receive all the documents we need to set up a new account in time for the PI to start spending the funds. Campus users will be able to use the system they use to prepare proposals to request a budget number before we get the award. This is called an advance budget number and it’s one way for the PI to get expenditures posted to the correct account while waiting for the sponsor to send the award.

The second phase will involve automating the set up of a fully-funded sponsored program. Stay tuned for an update on that later this year!

At Student Fiscal Services (SFS), we strive to be on the cutting edge when it comes to reaching out to our customers. Now, we’re working harder than ever to reach out to our students by meeting them where they ‘live’- online.

Our students are comfortable in their computer communities like MySpace and Facebook. They keep up with news from both their peers and the world by reading, subscribing to, and posting to their favorite blog. They don’t always have time to read through the information we send them: it’s much easier to download a screencast or podcast, and get that same information in a succinct two minutes. And they don’t always have time to come to one of the money management information sessions we offer: they’d much rather access it online whenever it’s convenient for them. There is also the fact that students are an environmentally savvy group which appreciates being able to access information online. SFS Outreach realized it would be much easier to accomplish our mission of educating students by going where they are, rather than by expecting them to always come to us.

That is not to say that we discourage students from attending an in-person Money 101 class. We still offer those classes for students who are interested and want that ‘person-to-person’ contact. What we have done is attempt to broaden our audience through the use of new digital and electronic media; with MySpace and Facebook pages, screencasts, podcasts, and a SFS blog.

MySpace

SFS Outreach first entered into the digital realm with a MySpace page in 2006. MySpace is an online social networking site. We call ourselves “Dawg Dollars”, and we use the site to share information about our office and money management in general. The site highlights many of the costs and dates that are important to UW students and sends out announcements about upcoming events. There’s information of interest to Financial Management staff, as well – don’t miss our pirate movie from this year’s Traveling Treats. We are proud to have a site that profiles many of the great people working in SFS Outreach, while also including information on rapidly approaching tuition due dates!

You can check out our MySpace at: http://www.myspace.com/dawgdollars

Facebook

A Facebook page was our second foray into the online social networking universe. Facebook, unlike MySpace, requires that we create an account as an individual, not as a group – we finally decided to put up the Facebook in the name of our fearless Outreach leader and Assistant Director, Diane Cooley (the rest of us already had Facebook accounts!). Alan Shankle, the newest member of the Outreach team, was instrumental in assisting with Facebook. You can view Diane’s Facebook account if you are already a member of the Facebook community. If you don’t have a Facebook account, it’s easy and free to sign up for one by going to the main Facebook page. We have used this site to make connections with other university community members. We plan on using Facebook to showcase events on campus, as well as promoting and advertising new online Money 101 classes and podcasts. We even added a few UW “pieces of flair” to show our Husky Pride. Go Dawgs!

If you have a Facebook account, you can view our Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1141535228&hiq=cooley%2Cdiane

Screencasts/Podcasts

Screencasts and Podcasts are both types of digital media that are distributed over the internet, to be downloaded onto a portable media player or a personal computer. Screencasts include computer screen shots. Our goal is to use Screencasts and Podcasts to give students’ access to important SFS information. We have several Screencasts up and running on our website, and more to come. For example, we have a screencast that emphasizes that the tuition due date is always the third Friday of the quarter, and another instructing students on how to request a Financial Aid check. Other topics include: Direct Deposit, E-bills, FERPA, UPASS, financial aid refunds and Webcheck.. Diane Cooley has worked tirelessly to produce these screencasts, with the help of the SFS Podcast team. The SFS Podcast team (Diane Cooley, Kyra Worrell, Rose Holbrooks, Nancy Hurja, Marisa Martin, Rachel Reichert and Alan Shankle) has assisted by suggesting topics, writing scripts and even lending their lovely voices for voiceovers. At the urging of the team, we chose to work on ‘frequently asked questions’ first: we felt it would be easier for students to access the information online than to call us frantically when a particular deadline was approaching, or worse yet, when they’ve received some kind of financial penalty.

You can view our screencasts and podcasts on our website at: http://www.washington.edu/students/sfs/outreach/index.html

Online Money Management classes

Another one of our objectives is to have several money management classes online. We know financial literacy is incredibly important to our students both now and in their future lives: it is very important that we make Money 101 classes as accessible as possible. To that end, we’ve begun putting these courses online. The following Money 101 modules are either currently online or in the final stages of production: Borrowing, Budgets, Credit Reports and Fraud. An Investments module is planned for the future. Again, Diane Cooley has taken the lead on the production, with help from the Outreach team (Diane Cooley, Norman Englund, Arlene Lalas, Rachel Reichert, Alan Shankle and Kyra Worrell), who, like the Podcast team, have written scripts and done voiceovers.

As we occasionally get requests from departments (and even the President’s office) to assist a struggling student by directing that student to our money management workshops, we are adding in quizzes to help facilitate the student’s learning and create a record that the student has taken the class. Often this struggling student owes the university or department money which they are having trouble paying back, and needs to attend our course to receive more money or keep from getting further into trouble or both. Please feel free to check out our Money 101 courses at our website (they can be helpful to everyone, not just students!) http://www.washington.edu/students/sfs/outreach/index.html

Blog

Finally, we have developed our own SFS blog. A blog is an online journal that is often interactive. We originally set up our blog on a free blog website – talking about such diverse topics as taxes and how the sub-prime mortgage crisis might affect students. However, with the help of SFS’ web guru, Paige Hamlin, we now have our own blog set up on the University of Washington server. It has the look and feel of our other web pages. The Blog has been the particular brainchild of both Paige Hamlin and Kyra Worrell.

Click on the link to access the Outreach blog: http://depts.washington.edu/sfscust/wordpress/

We have begun to measure the success utilizing these tools to reach students. In particular, we’ve measured this success with online counters – for example, during a few weeks time, our blog had over 200 hits, and our MySpace page had almost 350 views. To generate more use of these tools, we have advertised online services through different channels, including emails to UW Adviser’s listserves and by linking to the podcasts produced by the Office of Undergraduate Advising. We will continue to measure, monitor and promote these new services; all in the spirit of great customer service, process improvement and being green.

You started the day with a song in your heart and now you’re channeling legendary pro tackle Mean Joe Greene. The problem is that you wanted to know the answer to a “simple” question. Logically, you call the person, department or company that you believe to have the answer. Two hours and five call transfers later, if you are lucky, you finally contact the one person in the organization who can answer your question. If only some kindly person would offer you a refreshing cold bottle of Coca-Cola. You might even be willing to give them the shirt off your back. See this YouTube link for the full story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc0izCGKxP8

What would really be refreshing is to be able to hand off your question to an expert who can identify the path to the knowledge you seek. Financial Management’s scope of operations and complexity provide even seasoned veterans with challenges in tracking down information. Departments around the University of Washington are often confounded and frustrated in their attempts to get an answer. To quote one faculty member, a Dr. Bruce Banner (you remember the Incredible Hulk?), who when asked to “please wait” while being transferred, stated, “Don’t make me angry, you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.” Reliable sources indicate that Dr. Banner is really green, but I’d have to see it to believe it.

Under the leadership of the FM EIT and sponsored by V’Ella Warren and Ruth Johnson, the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) team has developed a program to help. Financial Management’s SPOC project began a trial period on March 17th and will conclude on June 17th. Ruth Johnson sent out an email in March stating, “The purpose of the SPOC Pilot Project is to provide customers with a simple way to make contact with our Financial Management and Treasury departments when they don’t know where to turn, to receive the best customer service possible for their complex financial questions. It is important to note that this new service supplements, but does not replace regular communications between departments and FM or Treasury."

So, the purpose of the project is to answer “complex” questions. These have been defined by the SPOC team as questions that cross operational boundaries, and/or require research or decision making authority. The College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering, Evans School of Public Affairs, and the School of Public Health and Community Medicine are participating in the pilot to allow the SPOC team to measure the benefits and costs of the program prior to a University-wide rollout.

The procedure will flow generally like this: First, the customer will be able to call 206-221-4444 or email fmhelp@u.washington.edu. The Strategy Management Group (SMG) will review the question. The members of the SMG will then assign the question to a Subject Matter Expert (SME) who will call or email the customer to verify the question, ask any necessary follow-up questions and provide the customer an estimated time to answer if it requires research. The SME will answer the customer with a copy to the SMG. Finally, the customer will be asked to evaluate their experience so the SPOC team can assess the success of the program at the conclusion of the trial.

Here are the members of the SPOC team:

Anne Barry Dave Beaulieu Charles Bennett Pramilla Chand William Christensen Diane Cooley Dawna Grand, Lead Ruth Johnston

Jerrica Kallio Christopher Malins Ginny Montgomery Jeff Petersen Tami Sadusky Jeanne Semura Dinah Walters David Wright

Think Green! The message is cropping up everywhere from bumper stickers and T-shirts to news headlines about the deleterious effects of climate change. Through the efforts of many on campus, the UW has been thinking and acting green for years and on a wide array of fronts.

The U-Pass program encourages faculty, staff and students to ride transit, carpool, walk or bike rather than drive in single occupancy vehicles. Recycling is a vital means of energy and material conservation. The Waste Not Washington Act (Chapter 70.95 RCW) directs government entities to implement waste reduction and recycling programs, purchase products made from recycled materials, and purchase products that are recyclable. Housing and Food Services recently implemented composting as part of their operation to turn kitchen and food waste into rich fodder for the campus grounds. New buildings and renovation of existing buildings on campus must achieve a minimum LEED Silver status (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) – a distinction that officially deems them “Green Buildings.” All these efforts have earned the UW a grade of A-minus in the College Sustainability Report Card, issued by the Sustainable Endowments Institute. The Real Estate Office (REO) wants to see these trends continue off-campus as well.

Commercial buildings are responsible for 12% of total water use; 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions; 65% of total waste output; and 70% of total electricity consumption nationwide. UW is a tenant in over 1.4 million square feet of clinic, lab and office space in the commercial world, which makes UW not only a large consumer of commercial space but also a potentially influential one.
In 2006, the Real Estate Office was invited to speak at a BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association) conference on the topic of Sustainable Leasing: What Do Tenants Want? REO conveyed the message to the commercial market that the UW cares about how its leased facilities are managed and operated and sustainability is key to our leasing strategy.

Location! Location! Location! is a common refrain in the real estate market and part of our strategy is to consolidate leasing activity to buildings in the U-district and/or in areas that are well served by transit. We also rate buildings based on LEED criteria: Are there shower facilities and bike storage areas? Is there a ZipCar located in the garage or nearby? Is there a LEED AP (Accredited Professional) on the building management staff? Is comprehensive recycling available? Do the janitors use non-toxic cleaning agents and do paper products contain recycled content? The list goes on and these factor into the decision of whether to lease in a particular building or renew a lease. Moreover, we added to our standard “Sustainability Clause” in the lease to include specific “boilerplate” requirements of landlords to manage and operate their buildings in as sustainable a manner as possible.

Oh, and by the way, it pays to be green! Operating expenses are lower and more predictable in buildings that have efficient and well maintained systems. Moreover, these buildings typically have better indoor air quality and temperature control which reduces employee complaints and enhances productivity. This is known as the triple bottom line: Good for the budget; good for the people; good for the planet.

These efforts may seem like small steps but as a large tenant and a visible one, REO sees the opportunity for the University to influence the pace of change in “greening” the commercial marketplace.