Georgetown University 2019 Laudato Si’ Fund

The application period for the 2019 Laudato Si Fund is now closed. Learn more about the funded proposals.
The Georgetown University 2019 Laudato Si’ Fund, named after Pope Francis’s groundbreaking encyclical on environmental justice, is a $300,000 fund available to support projects and programs led by faculty, students and/or staff that advance positive outcomes through activities in research, education, institutional action and/or engagement. The Fund is intended to deepen alignment between Georgetown’s ongoing sustainability efforts, our core mission as a Jesuit University, and Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home – strengthening our responses to global and local sustainability challenges.
About the Fund
The Fund seeks to support initiatives which help fulfill the vision, principles, practices and goals below, which have been developed as part of an ongoing strategic sustainability planning effort:
Vision
As a global research university guided by our Catholic and Jesuit heritage, Georgetown University is committed to engaging the complex issues of sustainability to advance the common good for current and future generations.
We are inspired by Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals as we embrace the call to “care for our common home.”
Our approach seeks to be inclusive of all members of our university community and all our physical campuses, both across D.C. and around the world. We seek to positively impact the external communities and partners with whom we work and to meaningfully and materially improve the planet we call home.
Sustainability Principles
- Respect and embrace the inter-connection of everyone and everything
- Celebrate and protect the diversity and vitality of all living things
- Promote health and well-being, joy and delight for all persons to flourish
- Advance justice for all with whom we share our common home
Sustainability Practices
- Establish short-, medium-, and long-term targets that enable us to continually improve and optimize our performance
- Measure, evaluate and communicate the comprehensive impacts of our actions and behaviors in an ongoing and iterative manner
- Foster a culture of decision-making which responds to the past and present while valuing and protecting the future
- Pursue sustainability as a process of recurring self-reflection that spurs critical engagement with personal and institutional ethics
- Equip and encourage all members of our community – including faculty, staff, students, alumni and partners – to contribute to the common good
Sustainability Goals
Pursue Innovative Research
- Cultivate research across disciplines to advance new understandings of sustainability in theory and practice
- Contribute to the local, national, and global dialogue in a manner which informs and improves policies and practices
Educate Leaders in Sustainability
- Prepare our students to lead through dedicated curricula, pedagogy, and experiential learning
- Leverage our setting as a real-world community to create immersive, place-based learning for all
- Foster a culture of sustainability and resilience within the university at the individual and community levels
Lead through Institutional Action
- Restore clean and healthy air, water and natural ecosystems, and foster resilience through the design and operations of our physical campuses
- Produce environmental and social benefits through purposeful procurement of products and services and the intentional use, reuse, and recycling of material goods
- Support our students, faculty, and staff in developing and scaling innovative practices which achieve sustainable outcomes in a performance-based manner
- Advance care for our common home through our institutional investments
Engage Locally and Globally
- Engage in partnerships and collaborations locally and globally to advance positive outcomes for sustainability
- Integrate our sustainability goals with those of our local and regional communities and jurisdictions
- Convene leaders in dialogue to advance common solutions
- Serve our partners and communities in work to achieve their own sustainability goals
This grant fund opportunity is generously supported by philanthropy.
Please review the information in each of the following sections before applying.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Giulia Manno, Sustainability Program and Metrics Manager, at gm906@georgetown.edu with any questions.