An Earth Day Commitment: Join the GW Sustainability Journey


May 8, 2010

Meghan Chapple Brown

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, which represents just one opportunity to celebrate our commitment to the planet that serves as our home and our life source. Yet, it is also an appropriate moment to reflect on and affirm our ongoing commitment to sustainability.

By making smart decisions today, we can improve the quality of life for today’s and tomorrow’s generations. With population shifts toward urban centers already underway, it is clear that within 20 years the majority of our world will live in cities. Given The George Washington University’s urban location at the heart of the nation’s capital, we have a particular opportunity and responsibility to help green our cities so that our natural systems will be healthy and thriving.

George Washington’s stature as a center of intellectual discourse also affords us an opportunity to contribute to sustainability research, policy and practice beyond our campus boundaries. We can have a large impact on the current dialogue around sustainability and, especially, the next generation of leaders. While GW holds sustainability as a core value, the university is also positioning itself for the future. The next wave of research and career opportunities will be rooted in sustainability. Also, being good stewards of our natural resources will lead to efficiencies and savings that we can reinvest in academic learning, research and further campus improvements.

Sustainability at George Washington is a long-term and far-reaching enterprise across our business operations. We have committed that all new construction will be LEED certified, with our newest buildings, South Hall, a LEED Gold building, and the soon-to-be-completed Pelham Redevelopment Project, as symbols of that commitment. We are creating green spaces, including the newly dedicated green plaza near South Hall, which is a model for reclaiming rainwater and reducing urban run-off. And over the next three years, we will be building on these efforts with specific plans to address climate change, water conservation and improving our ecosystem.

Our efforts to address climate change are already well underway. By May 15 we will finalize our Climate Action Plan, which will set a date for the university to achieve carbon neutrality. A major component of that plan will be a new $2 million revolving Green Campus Fund to seed projects that will modernize our buildings and make them more energy efficient.

Another component of that plan will be using our campuses as a test-bed for green technologies. As a first step, we will be putting out a call for technology to provide solar heated water in several of our residence halls. This will not only reduce our carbon footprint, but will also help save money in the long-run by cutting our energy use. These are just two of the student and staff-generated ideas that we will be implementing as part of our Climate Action Plan. In addition to these major investments, small actions will ensure we reduce our impact. To start, I encourage students, staff and faculty to reduce your personal energy usage at GW and in your commute. The collective actions from the entire GW community will continue to be critical to our success.

We are also leveraging our strengths in research and teaching to enhance our intellectual contributions to sustainability across the university’s many disciplines. We already offer more than 130 courses and 14 certificates and degrees related to sustainability, ranging from the well-established undergraduate environmental studies major to a new master’s program in sustainable urban planning.

Our intellectual contributions are also bolstered by several research initiatives, such as the Solar Institute and the recently chartered Institute for Sustainability Research, Education, and Policy. These efforts in our classrooms and our institutes are providing the foundation for our intellectual contributions. At the same time, faculty members and the Office of Research are working on strategic visions for our academic efforts around urban sustainability, water, and food and health, as we continue to position George Washington to educate the next generation of leaders and decision-makers on an issue of vital importance to our nation and our world.

It is the next generation of decision-makers – our students – who continue to take leadership on sustainability. As a university, we have a responsibility to provide our students with the skills and knowledge for tomorrow. We also have a responsibility to follow their lead as they initiate projects such as the GroW community garden, host a business and climate change conference, and lobby our nation’s leaders on Capitol Hill.

Through our sustainability commitments at the George Washington University, we are taking responsibility for ensuring a better quality of life for today and tomorrow. While the journey is not easy, direct or simple, it is a journey worth taking for the sake of future generations. I invite you to join me on this journey and contribute your ideas and actions that will make all the difference.