The Georgetown University Campus Sustainability Walking Tour highlights sustainability features on campus. Members of the University community are invited to take a self-guided tour of locations on campus that demonstrate the university’s commitment to sustainability, from our commitment to sustainable energy to protecting our watershed, and more!
We are thrilled that BOLAND is the proud sponsor of the Campus Sustainability Walking Tour.
Tour Stop 1: Sustainability at Georgetown University
Georgetown University is committed to sustainability to advance the common good for current and future generations. The University takes an integrated and holistic approach to sustainability, placing value on a “quadruple” bottom line: people, planet, prosperity, and purpose. Our sustainability work is guided by a vision of creating a beneficial impact for the planet and our local and global communities.
Features near the University’s main gates exemplify this commitment. For example, rooftop solar photovoltaic panels generate clean energy on six university-owned townhouses on the 1400 block of 37th St NW, as part of the student-led “Solar Street” project. Georgetown is also the first campus in the District of Columbia to have received the Bicycle Friendly University (BFU) designation by the League of American Bicyclists, underscoring our work to advance
sustainable transportation options.
Tour Stop 2: A LEED Gold Residence Hall
Ida Ryan Hall and Isaac Hawkins Hall is a LEED Gold certified residence hall that is home to the Spirit of Georgetown Residential Academy.
This site exemplifies adaptive reuse: the process of repurposing an existing building for a use other than its original design. Constructed in the 1800s, the historic hall most recently served as the former residence of the Jesuit community at Georgetown University before being transformed in 2015 into student housing. Through reuse of building elements, the project conserved energy and resources associated with fabricating and transporting new building materials.
The residence hall contains covered bicycle parking, reflecting Georgetown’s commitment to sustainable transportation and bicycle-friendliness.
The site also features a stormwater management system to contribute to a healthy Potomac River watershed. Permeable asphalt and pavers outside of Ryan and Hawkins allow stormwater to filter through voids in the pavement. Rain that falls on the paving and other surfaces is piped to a reservoir beneath the courtyard, reducing runoff. With capacity to hold over 8,500 gallons of stormwater, the reservoir allows water to infiltrate slowly into the soil on site, avoiding discharge to municipal systems.
Tour Stop 3: Green Roof on O'Gara Terrace
The green roof on O’Gara Terrace uses sustainable design to transform a formerly-underutilized hardscape into a vibrant and engaging student space.
As a collaborative project between students and staff, the process of establishing the green roof provided experiential learning throughout all phases of design and implementation.
The site features 1,300 square feet of green roof trays containing plants native to the Washington, DC region, such as sedum, yarrow, bee balm, feather reed grass and switchgrass.
The green roof captures and absorbs rainfall, reducing the amount of runoff to the storm sewer. It also provides habitat to local birds and pollinators and helps regulate temperature, reducing urban heat island effect.
Sponsorship for the green roof project was provided by the Georgetown University Student Association and The Coca-Cola Company.
Tour Stop 4: A LEED Gold Student Center
The Healey Family Student Center (HFSC), a LEED Gold certified building, opened its doors in 2014 as Georgetown’s new “living room” providing social and study space for students.
The building reaffirms Georgetown’s commitment to environmental sustainability through its innovative green design, including numerous features that advance environmental and human health.
HFSC’s living green wall improves indoor air quality, increases human wellbeing and may reduce heating and cooling costs through temperature regulation.
A solar shading system on south-facing windows optimizes between daylight and heat gain, while a skylight brings additional daylight into the building’s Great Room.
The rain garden on the southwest corner manages stormwater runoff from the roof and terrace, improving health of the Potomac River by reducing pollution.
Tour Stop 5: Sustainability at Leo J. O'Donovan Dining Hall
The Leo O’Donovan Dining Hall building achieved LEED Silver certification following renovations in 2017. The building features energy-efficient design such as motion-sensored lighting to save energy when rooms are unoccupied and daylight-sensing lights that automatically dim during sunny days.
Hoya Hospitality has also adopted sustainable practices in its dining operations at Fresh Food Co. and LEO|MKT. Through trayless dining practices, Fresh Food Co. conserves about 145,000 gallons of water annually. Hoya Hospitality is also piloting reusable to-go dining containers and provides compostable drinking straws for to-go beverages to reduce disposable plastic waste.
Pre-consumer kitchen waste and a significant portion of post-consumer food waste from Leo’s is composted at an
off-site facility, where it is converted into soil products used in gardening in the Washington, DC region.
Leo’s strives to source food sustainably and locally. Local produce is sourced when available and in season, all coffee is fair trade, and seafood meets the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch Guidelines.
The bicycle repair stand outside the building contributes to Georgetown’s designation as a Bicycle Friendly University.
Tour Stop 6: Sustainable Transportation and Healthy Watershed
The bus turnaround in front of McDonough Arena is a pedestrian-friendly transportation hub that encourages students, faculty, and staff to use public transportation rather than fuel-intensive personal vehicles.
Georgetown University’s free “GUTS” shuttle bus service connects faculty, staff, students and other Georgetown-affiliated riders from the Main Campus and Medical Center to two metro stations, the Law Center, Capitol Hill and Arlington, Virginia.
In addition to transportation services, the bus turnaround is also an important component of the university’s sustainable water management plan, featuring design strategies like permeable pavement and a central rain garden.
The rain garden contains deep-rooted plants and collects stormwater runoff from the entire bus turnaround site. By filtering runoff back into the groundwater slowly, instead of allowing rainwater to flow off impermeable pavement to the Potomac River, the rain garden helps mitigate the District of Columbia’s stressed water systems and reduce pollution to our watershed.
Tour Stop 7: A LEED Gold Athletic Center
The John R. Thompson Jr. Intercollegiate Athletic Center (the Thompson Center) is a LEED Gold certified sports center completed in 2016.
The Thompson Center outperforms conventional buildings by using 38% less potable water and 29% less energy while simultaneously providing more fresh air indoors.
To increase water sustainability, a 10,000 gallon underground cistern collects stormwater runoff and uses this captured water to serve the lower level water closets and urinals.
The building also has a green roof and permeable pavers, which help retain rainwater and reduce water pollution. Some water that falls on the building and its surrounding site is also channeled to the rain garden in the center of the bus turnaround. The rain garden helps to filter and clean the rainwater and protect the health of the Potomac Watershed.
Tour Stop 8: Energy Efficiency at Georgetown
Georgetown University’s Heating and Cooling Plant provides efficient temperature control to 5.4 million square feet of buildings on the main campus. The plant uses centralized boilers and chillers to pipe steam and chilled water across campus to heal and cool buildings. This approach allows the university to achieve significant efficiencies through scale. Georgetown continually explores and pursues opportunities for further efficiency through centralized equipment upgrades.
In one recent example, the University installed conductivity controllers, completing a boiler blowdown controls project that reduced emissions by 1136 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year and saved Georgetown over $187,000 dollars in energy costs each year.
Through the energy-efficient operations of the university’s utility plant, Georgetown achieves significant energy conservation outcomes that contribute to our university-wide goal of reducing our carbon footprint.
Tour Stop 9: Pollinators on Campus
Worldwide, thousands of animal species pollinate thousands of plant species, resulting in seeds and fruits, including many used as human foods. Over 100 plant species in Georgetown’s many gardens produce nectar and pollen consumed by pollinators.
Georgetown faculty have estimated that about 200 species of pollinating bees, beetles, butterflies, flies, moths, wasps and birds inhabit or visit Georgetown’s campus. Here on Observatory Hill, Monarch caterpillars feed on Common Milkweed plants, and the student group Hoya Hive maintains Italian Western Honey Bee hives.
Tour Stop 10: Urban Herbs Research Garden
Urban Herbs is a project created by the Department of Pharmacology at Georgetown University Medical Center to create gardens in strips of underutilized land on campus. The gardens demonstrate urban gardening, xericulture (water-thrifty gardening) and permaculture techniques. The gardens feature medicinal plants, culinary herbs, wildflowers, fruits and ornamentals.
Plants in this naturalistic garden provide opportunities for student research and learning about native and nonnative plants, pollinators and herbivores. Classes that have utilized these gardens include Medicinal Plants and Pharmacognosy and Forest Ecology. Students also get hands-on experience in gardens through volunteer opportunities and internships.
Tour Stop 11: A LEED Gold Science Building
Regents Hall is a LEED Gold certified science building with an impressive integrated water management system. It uses two 10,000 gallon cisterns to harvest rainwater from its roof and grounds, which is used as graywater for flushing toilets and irrigating the site. This system reduces stormwater runoff and potable water demand from the building.
Regents also features energy-efficient “solar shades” to optimize the amount of heat and light from the sun that enters the building based on time of day and season. During summer when the sun is high, the shades help prevent heat buildup by blocking light. In winter when the sun is low, direct sunlight helps heat the building. Ample daylighting throughout the building uses natural light to reduce the need for overhead lighting, which reduces electricity costs for the building. Other energy-conservation features include chilled beams and a demand-controlled air management system.
The teaching garden on the terrace of Regents features native plant species such as spicebush, sedge and switchgrass.
Tour Stop 12: A LEED Gold Residence Hall
Pedro Arrupe, S.J. Hall is a LEED registered residence hall with a certification goal of Gold. Some of the green design strategies features in the building include indoor bicycle parking to support sustainable transportation, a green roof to help reduce stormwater runoff and daylighting to reduce energy consumption.
Window-integrated air temperature controls in each room save energy by curtailing heating and cooling when windows are open.
Sustainable landscape solutions include permeable paving, bioswales and a below-grade, 10,000 gallon cistern, which reduce runoff pollution and contribute to the health of our watershed.
The building also contains a demonstration kitchen, which advances wellness by providing space for hands-on nutrition education.
Georgetown approaches residential living spaces with a mission for the common good, and Arrupe Hall was designed with students in mind. Pedro Arrupe, the “Second Founder” of the Jesuits, said ‘our prime educational objective must be to form men and women for others.’ Arrupe Hall answers this call through its environmental commitment and student-centered design.