Georgetown Green Office FAQ

Georgetown’s Green Office program is a voluntary, flexible program designed to help the university meet its sustainability goals. Through this program, the Office of Sustainability encourages and supports members of the Georgetown community for taking the lead in adopting environmentally responsible office practices in your work space.

The Green Office Program has several key objectives toward an overall goal of increasing campus sustainability and achieving our university sustainability commitments:

1. To recognize the leadership taken by you and your office to go green in your work space.
2. To make it easier for your office to be green, by providing guidance and resources from our campus sustainability experts.
3. To increase campus awareness of sustainability by offering a consistent framework for and education about what “green” means in our campus work spaces.

1. Ensure that your office’s leadership and other members of your office are on board.
2. Complete the Green Office Program Checklist to express interest and learn more about next steps.
3. Plan to attend a Green Office Brown Bag, which will include a presentation by a Sustainability team member about the program and how it works.
4. Make a plan to implement the actions from your Green Office Program Checklist, including the starred items.

In addition to feeling good about being a green office leader, by helping to conserve environmental resources, your office will receive:

• Guidance on your office’s unique sustainability challenges and resources provided by the Office of Sustainability and/or other sustainability affiliates at Georgetown.
• Opportunities for inter-office peer-learning, to share success stories.
• A Hoya Green Office certificate to display in or outside your office.
• Recognition for your accomplishments on the Georgetown Sustainability website.
• An electronic logo to add to your email or display on your website to show your green commitment to other members of the Georgetown community.
• Opportunities to show off and share your office’s proudest green accomplishments to other GU employees at an annual celebration in 2023.

Any Georgetown office can participate, including those on the Main and Medical campuses, at the Law Center, International Campuses, or those in leased space. As the program evolves and as sustainability improvements are made throughout our campuses, the qualification criteria will also expand to include other ways for offices to participate.

Yes. Given the shift to more community members working virtually, you can also request to commit your home office.

Our program is relaunching in 2023.  We are excited to share an updated list of offices participating in the program in the new year.

In addition to the benefits described above, you will also be taking meaningful steps toward actually reducing your impact and the university’s impact on the environment.

The Green Office program is run by the Georgetown Office of Sustainability.

The Green Office program does not currently provide a framework for energy retrofits of your physical space. You can earn points in the Green Office program by reducing the number of electric appliances and equipment and selecting energy friendly models. For additional information or support regarding the energy use in your campus workspace, please contact the Planning and Facilities Management.

Overall, the Green Office program successes will be measured by the number of offices that participate, indicating the spread of awareness of sustainable practices and culture. In future years, we hope to develop a way to measure the impacts more quantitatively in terms of resources saved.