The Earth CommonsGeorgetowns Institute for Environment & Sustainability is developing new educational programming for undergraduates and graduate students, expanding research opportunities for students, and creating scalable solutions for a greener campus.
The Georgetown University Jesuit values guide the Earth Commons, which builds on Georgetown’s commitment to environmental sustainability and justice. Care for our common home.
The new Institute builds upon the many years of work done by our community to expand and deepen our engagement in the environment.President John J. DeGioia says, We are thrilled to announce this new work and contribute the knowledge and engagement of our community to the urgent environment challenges facing our planet.
A collective step toward environmental change
Earth Commons will include multiple focus areas that will each address a major environmental issue such as environmental justice, climate change, energy transitions and biodiversity conservation. The institute will use an interdisciplinarity approach to connect people. These environmental challenges are being addressed by experts, students, faculty, and researchers from all disciplines, including medicine, science, policy, law, and medicine.
We cant engineer ourselves out of all these problems,” says Peter Marra, founding director of the Earth Commons. “These are science problems. These are policy issues. These are moral dilemmas. These are moral dilemmas that require us to look at environmental issues from multiple perspectives.
The Earth Commons will also be a focal area of sustainability. It will collaborate with the Office of Sustainability to use Georgetowns campus for a living laboratory. Students will have hands-on learning opportunities with faculty members and staff to help green Georgetown’s built environment.
According to Meghan Chapple, Georgetowns, the Office of Sustainability is a part of Earth Commons. They will create sustainable solutions, empower students and invite all Georgetowners to adopt a sustainability mindset in every day life. First vice presidentSustainability.
The Office of Sustainability works with local communities and other stakeholders to create a sustainable world through engagement.
How Earth Commons found its Home
The Earth Commons arose from It has been a long, hard work.Georgetown University. Georgetown Environment Initiative (GEI), a university-wide initiative, was established in 2012 to support the multidisciplinary study of sustainability and the environment. It provided grants of hundreds of thousands to students and faculty and supported environmental projects like the One Georgetown. Bee Campus, a campaign for sustainability education and projects for environmental justice in India.
Marra, the Laudato Si professor of Biology and Environment, quit his 20-year tenure at Smithsonian Institution to take over the helm of the GEI in 2019. Marra took on the urgent environmental challenges by ensuring that Georgetown’s impact was greater and that the 70+ full-time scholars who study the environment from all disciplines were empowered to address them. Monarch butterfliesAnd BirdsClimate changes Impact on womenThe overall look of the building. Economic costs.
Marra said that it was evident that Georgetown had a pressing need and momentum. The key question was how can we make the GEI more impactful, enhancing and supporting existing faculty and staff, without creating new silos and doing all of this while still being able to build things quickly, as we are working around the clock.
Marra stated that the stakes were never higher with the COVID-19 epidemic exposing socioeconomic disparities due to environmental injustice.
President DeGioia was charged with a FaCulty aDvisory committeeto advise the activities and programs of the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability. GEI was transformed into the Earth Commons. It now has more faculty, original research, and educational programs.