GW Supporting Programs & Activities

Though focused primarily on pragmatic, implementable, non-regulatory solutions for environmental, energy and sustainability challenges, the EEMI benefits also from the rich variety of supportive GW programs and activities that are relevant to its focal areas. These fall under the coordinative aegis of the GW Sustainability Collaborative and include the very active Office of Sustainability for addressing GW’s internal sustainability goals as well as other functions for integrating sustainability into academics, research, outreach and practice. For example, GW has developed a high level strategy and a climate action plan to make GW a model for urban sustainability in our nation’s capital. Each school at GW including Law, Public Health and Health Services, Engineering and Applied Science, Arts and Sciences, Business, Public Policy, and Professional Studies offers courses on Environment, Energy or Sustainability and usually on all three; including an undergraduate minor in Sustainability.

Students’ experience and learning are further enhanced through a number of student-led activities on sustainability, including Planet Forward, that help them to tell innovative stories of climate change and sustainability; GW ECO, an inter-residence hall competition to reduce electricity and water consumption; and Green GW, Net Impact, and Food Justice, which let them work on issues from environmental advocacy, to sustainable food and corporate citizenship. There is also a Solar Institute, a Sustainability Council and a GW Institute of Sustainability to support faculty who engage in sustainability related research.