Category: Modern World

By: Brianna Reynolds

The George Washington University’s (GW) latest progress in sustainability is their commitment to eliminate single-use plastics. This is one way that GW is embedding sustainability into the culture at GW. A single-use plastic policy is a necessary step towards zero waste and circularity. Eliminating single-use plastic at GW includes vending, events, dining, departmental purchases and retail partners. To learn more about this commitment, click here.

It’s so important for large institutions to address climate change, specifically plastic pollution, because they are often the greatest contributors to environmental destruction. Plastic is indestructible, which means that it does not biodegrade (anytime soon) and cycle back into Earth’s natural systems. Plastic waste accumulates in landfills, oceans, the side of the highway, and even in our bodies. The impact of single-use plastic is significant because of its frequent consumption and short average lifespan, or time of use, of only 12 minutes.

More and more consumers are demanding sustainability, ethics, and less plastic. One way to demand change is to vote with your dollar, whether it be purchasing cruelty-free makeup, supporting Black-owned businesses, or buying local produce. Where your money goes matters. This flow of capital will bring wealth into underrepresented communities and limit suffering to animals and the planet.

To build on GW’s progress towards zero waste, let’s look at stores that will help us, the individual, on our own journeys toward less plastic use and healthy choices. 

Here are several low waste, sustainability-focused shops across the United States for your sustainable, low-waste needs:

1. Mason & Greens (Alexandria, Virginia)

Vegan and gluten free options, 100% palm oil free, BYOJ (bring your own jars + containers)

Mason & Greens is the DC area’s first zero waste shop of its kind! Mason & Greens provides sustainable dry goods and groceries. This shop has curated some of the most sustainable products on the market-- anywhere from bulk hand soap to natural deodorants to vegan baked goods. Mason & Greens welcomes you to bring your own containers to fill up on all the goodies and essentials. They are about building a sustainable model for the future that has your health and the planet’s health at the forefront. 

2. Package Free Shop (New York, New York)

Accessibility, zero waste, inclusivity

Package Free Shop’s mission is to make the world less trashy by providing you with sustainable swaps for your everyday needs. Package Free is an ecosystem of brands that make natural and package/plastic free products. This is your one-stop shop for everything you may need to reduce your waste. They offer plastic free and carbon neutral shipping for all your online shopping. Package Free is built on the principles of accessibility, only buying what you need, and adding value through education. They measure positive environmental impact through how much trash has been diverted from landfills as a result of what they sell.

*Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Package Free NYC locations are currently closed. The online store is actively taking orders.

3. Conscious Space (Fort Myers, Florida)

Local sourcing, apothecary, community building

Conscious Space is a zero waste and apothecary shop in Southwest Florida where you can explore bulk herbs, soaps, teas, essential oils, and more. Conscious Space sources ⅔ of their products from local makers! This is a small, woman-owned business that is committed to supporting BIPOC communities. They have a wide range of herbal products, zero waste essentials, and personal care goodies. 

4. ANIMALIA (Salt Lake City, Utah)

Passion, quality, character

ANIMALIA is a zero waste shop focusing on consumer consciousness and a slower, more mindful purchasing model. ANIMALIA offers a bulk refill dispensary and food waste collection. The founder of ANIMALIA desired to find goods made by artisans not machines, with care and joy not mass produced. The shop has curated products that are small-batch, fair trade, and thoughtful. This is a place where you can reconnect to humanness and the human behind each product.

5. Dry Goods Refillery (Maplewood, New Jersey)

Sustainable grocer, repurpose, package free

Dry Goods Refillery is New Jersey’s first zero waste store. Dry Goods Refillery’s mission is to bring back how grocery shopping used to be-- less waste, organic, and local. They carry all kinds of food for your zero waste pantry from spices to beans to flour. Their website features some recipes using products from the store! Dry Good Refillery partners with local businesses as much as possible and strives to have a truly circular refill system.

6. The Nada Shop (Encinitas, California)

Sustainability, simple, refillable

The Nada Shop is a zero waste store in Southern California offering refillable, natural household and body care products. The founder of The Nada Shop aims to make low waste living simple and easy for consumers. This shop has non-toxic skin care oils, soaps, hair care, and more. The Nada Shop is woman-owned!

7. We Fill Good (Kittery, Maine)

Responsible, empowerment, reduce

We Fill Good is a one stop shop for affordable and local products aligned with low waste and eco-friendly practices. We Fill Good is dedicated to finding and providing alternatives to plastic use. All of their products/partners include at least two of their values: Certified Organic, family business, Bcorp, hand made, small business, upcycle, socially responsible, woman owned, fairtrade, cruelty free, made in the USA, and recycled material. 

Cheers to progress!

Sources: 

GW Commits to Eliminating Single-Use Plastics | GW Today | The George Washington University (gwu.edu) 

PO_Educational_Sup_v16_NOV2018.pdf (plasticoceans.org) 

Planning for Climate Change Impacts at GW

Kehan Desousa

Why is it important for GW to plan for resilience to climate change? Resilience refers to the capacity of a community, business, or natural environment to prevent, withstand, respond to, and recover from a disruption, like the impacts of climate change. We know that GW and the DMV region are already experiencing these impacts, which means we need to make sure we're resilient to them.

The District and GW have been experiencing impacts related to climate change for a number of years now, like the 2012 Derecho that flooded the Mount Vernon Campus. In fact, GW's 2017 Climathon focused on "hacking" resilience in the District. Looking forward, the District is going to face increased precipitation, extreme heat, sea level rise, extreme weather, and storm surge, all of which will impact GW students, faculty, and staff.

The number of days above 95 degrees is projected to increase, with frequent warm nights; this means that core body temperatures won't get a chance to reset at night, harming human health. Heavy flash rain events are also projected to rise, causing flooding and run-off pollution from the region's hardscape surfaces. Severe storms (hurricanes and derechos) will be increasingly energized by warmer air and water, threatening flooding and power outages. The District's rivers - which are tidal - contribute to sea level rise and storm surge; tides on the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers have risen 11 inches in the past century already.

While the District government is planning for citywide resilience through Climate Ready DC and the 100 Resilient Cities Resilience Planning, GW is also taking steps to plan for resilience as an institution. In addition to considering the way climate change will impact the District, GW will also consider the global impacts of climate change, which may alter the availability of food, fuel, and other commodities.

GW's resilience planning efforts were originally inspired by a commitment made to Second Nature, a non-profit that convenes colleges and universities around climate change, but have taken on new urgency given the undeniable impacts of climate change. To begin the process, Sustainable GW has hosted two workshops with the sustainability faculty and university staff. These workshops were intended to begin the conversation around resilience as well as to begin honing discussion: what aspects of GW and our urban resilience do we need to focus on?

These ideas will be further distilled and discussed over the next several months, culminating in the development of several concrete, actionable targets that will be incorporated in GW's overall sustainability goals. That way, Sustainable GW can continue to track and advocate for progress towards the broader goal of increasing GW's resilience to climate change impacts.

Sustainable GW plans to continue to convene faculty, students and staff around this topic for the next several months, aiming to release the final Resilience Strategy to the public in early 2020. If you're interested in learning more or participating in GW's resilience planning, please contact kdesousa@gwu.edu.

Sustainable Universities in the Modern World

Lucy Hummer

In mid-2017, President Trump announced that the United States was no longer going to be participating in the Paris Agreement, which was an accord focusing on climate change mitigation. This agreement, signed by 194 states and the European Union, is the first step taken by an international body to officially work towards combatting the changing climate and its effects on both individuals and the world at large. This goal is most commonly placed within the context of rising temperatures, with the established objective that the global temperature should not increase more than 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.

As the United States is of course one of the top tier contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, it is extremely heartbreaking that the President has chosen not to comply with this critically important agreement. There is so much at stake, it is hard to image that somebody, or a group of people, could comfortably make a decision such as this at such a critical point in environmental history. Regardless, we must more forward and adapt to the situation which we are presented. How can we do the best we can to adapt to and mitigate the effects of our changing climate, even when our own government is working against us?

A movement called We Are Still In (WASI) has begun among individual businesses, universities, cities and even states, with the intention that these groups can continue to comply with the Paris Agreement, regardless of Trump’s decision. There is an Opportunity Agenda which lists 10 high-impact ways which these groups can work to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, making it as easy as possible for these individual groups to work towards mitigating their effects on our environment. GW is a signatory to WASI, and is actively working towards achieving many of these 10 opportunities.

The number 1 opportunity listed is “doubling down on renewable energy”. As GW is 50% solar powered, I can brag and say that we are a shining example of a university which is taking great leaps towards our renewable future, at least within the context of our own energy use. We, of course, are not perfect, but are continuing to focus on opportunity number 1. (If you want to know more about the Capital Partners Solar Project, it’s super cool and there’s lot of information on the website). There are also goals targeted at terrestrial carbon sequestration (the fancy way of saying plant plants) and retrofitting buildings (the fancy way of saying improve energy efficiency). Again, GW is working hard towards both of these as well.

When we think about environmentalism, we tend to be either incredibly zoomed in or incredibly zoomed out. By this I mean we either think about ourselves as an individual or ourselves as a member of the world as a whole. Everything in between tends to be neglected, and we forget about all of the groups, cultures and societies that exist in between 1 person and 7 billion. A university is a perfect example of one of those groups that exists in this middle ground. Institutions such as GW have an amazing opportunity to make a huge impact on the world for the in between, in terms of advocacy, research, investments and anything else. Universities like GW will allow for movements such as WASI for the Paris Accord to push forwards, regardless of the state of the federal government.