Awards and Recognition

The U.S. Department of Education named Georgetown a 2023 Green Ribbon School Postsecondary Sustainability Awardee, an award that recognizes Georgetown’s innovative efforts to reduce its environmental impact and utility costs, improve health and wellness, and advance sustainability education. 

Georgetown is the only postsecondary institution in the District of Columbia and one of just four postsecondary institutions in the country to receive the award. 

As part of its award application, Georgetown highlighted its practical approaches to sustainability, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and waste, being on track to reduce its energy use intensity by 35 percent by 2031, and providing sustainable transportation for students, faculty and staff. Georgetown’s campus also features three green roofs on campus buildings, has bioswales, is certified as a bee-friendly habitat, and recently launched an additional food-producing garden on campus. You can read more, here.

Since 2013, Georgetown University has procured 100% green-e certified renewable electricity. In recognition of our renewable energy use and other sustainable energy initiatives on campus, the EPA named GU one of four Green Power Partners of the Year in 2013. The awards recognize the leading actions of organizations, programs, suppliers, and individuals that significantly advance the development of green power sources. Georgetown has also been an EPA Green Power Partner since 2011 and is a member of the Green Power Partnership Leadership Club. In addition, Georgetown was recognized as the largest single green power user in the Big East Conference in EPA’s 2012-2013 College & University Green Power Challenge and is currently the second-largest green power user of all campuses in the country. Learn more about these programs here.

Georgetown is committed to achieving LEED Silver Certification or higher for all new facilities and major renovations on campus. LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is a green building certification program that recognizes best-in-class building strategies and practices. Comprehensive and flexible, LEED is a green building tool that addresses the entire building lifecycle, and is transforming how buildings and communities are designed, constructed, maintained and operated across the globe.

GU has currently achieved or is pursuing LEED ratings for the following buildings:

• Regents Hall – LEED Gold
• Rafik R. Hariri Building – LEED Silver
• School of Continuing Studies – LEED Gold
• Nevils Hall – LEED Silver
• Healey Family Student Center – LEED Gold
• Pedro Arrupe S.J. Hall – LEED Gold
• Ryan Hall and Isaac Hall – LEED Silver
• John R. Thompson Jr. Intercollegiate Athletics Center – LEED Gold
• 55 H Street, the first building at Georgetown to achieve the highest LEED certification – LEED Platinum

Georgetown University has been featured numerous times in the Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges since its first publication in 2011. The publication, which is a collaboration between the Princeton Review and the U.S. Green Building Council, evaluates colleges and universities on their environmentally-related policies, practices, and academic offerings. In the Review, Georgetown has been recognized for its climate commitments, recycling initiatives, LEED-certified buildings, and the the activities of its environmental student groups.