Title:Georgetown receives national sustainability award

Georgetown has been awarded the 2023 Green Ribbon School Postsecondary Sustainability Award by the U.S. Department of Education. The university is being honored for its efforts to reduce sustainability impacts and costs, improve health and wellness, and provide environmental education.

Georgetown takes a broad-based, practical approach to sustainability, including minimizing climate change emissions, increasing the energy efficiency of buildings, reducing waste, providing environmentally conscious transportation, and plant-forward dining options.

Walk through campus and you will see the green roofs and vegetable gardens that make Georgetown a certified bee-friendly habitat. There are other features that might not be so visible: solar panels and even bioswales—drainage channels to collect runoff and ecologically filter it before redistribution. The award also recognizes Georgetown as a co-creator of the Wellbeing Project to support social changemakers.

In recent years, Georgetown established the Earth Commons Institute to accelerate education, research, and action on the most pressing environmental and sustainability challenges locally and globally. The Earth Commons has already introduced a master’s degree in Environment and Sustainability Management.

“College campuses operate like mini cities where students learn to live sustainably in green buildings, and where the university scales its impact through sustainable business decisions,” says Meghan Chapple, Georgetown’s vice president of sustainability. “As places of learning and discovery, higher education institutions have an important role to play.”