George Washington University
EN-4: Outreach Materials and Publications

Sustainable GW sends out a biweekly newsletter that provides stakeholders with a snapshot of what is happening in the sustainability community at GW. It contains sections to promote upcoming events and internship, grant, and service opportunities. It also contains a section for updates and highlights in each of the three areas of concentration: sustainability in action, sustainability in the classroom, and sustainability in research. The intention is to not only highlight opportunities for students, staff, and faculty to get involved with Sustainable GW's programs, but also to provide alumni and external partners with a briefing on the overall impact of the University's sustainability programs and initiatives.

All new buildings on campus, which are built to LEED Silver or better certification standards, incorporate signage and tours in the buildings to help educate the community about the relevant sustainability features.

GW has published a sustainability campus map, paired with its progress report. The map is distributed at events across campus throughout the year, and features include green foofs, solar thermal systems, bikeshare stations on campus, and much more. The university also provides a sustainablity campus tour to interested parties. Due to the rapidly changing nature of the GW campuses and diversity of tour requests, students are trained by Office of Sustainability staff to lead tours. Additionally, the Office works with tour guides on campus to incorporate sustainability into their year-round tours for prospective students.

GW features guidelines for green living and incorporating sustainability into the residential experience on its sustainability website. Tips for sustainable living can be found at sustainability.gwu.edu/resources.

Sustainability is featured in the new student orientation in several ways. As one example, the Office of Sustainability encourages student orientation leaders to demonstrate what sustainability looks like in practice, like composting, proper recycling, energy conservation, and waste diversion.

In 2022, GW provided 26,000 branded reusable water bottles to students, staff, and faculty, to promote its Past Plastic campaign to eliminate single-use plastics. The giveaway was paired with signage across campus at more than 100 bottle filling stations to promote behavior change.

Add'l URLs for the vehicle to publish and disseminate student research on sustainability

https://www.planetforward.org/
https://gwupstartblog.wordpress.com/tag/eco-equity-challenge/
http://researchdays.gwu.edu/
https://blogs.gwu.edu/greenhub/

Add'l walking tour map URL:
https://sustainability.gwu.edu/campus-map

https://sustainability.gwu.edu/green-office-network