Officials met their pledge to phase out fossil fuel investments in GW’s endowment and plan to reach their interim carbon-neutrality target by the end of 2025.
A Monday sustainability announcement provided an update on GW’s 2020 commitments, which officials made after years of student protests, including divesting from fossil fuel companies by 2025, achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 instead of the initial 2040 target and earning STARS Platinum sustainability distinction by 2025 — a goal they met in September. Officials said GW completed their 2025 pledges to phase out public and private investments in companies primarily engaged in fossil fuel extraction and to reach an interim carbon-neutrality target of a 40 percent reduction, though University spokesperson Julia Garbitt clarified they plan to achieve the latter this week after completing the renewable energy credit purchase outlined in the release.
The release states GW is purchasing renewable energy credits to meet its 2025 40 percent reduction target, and Garbitt said the University will finalize the purchase with 3Degrees this week.
Renewable energy credits represent one megawatt-hour of renewable energy generated, which companies can purchase to assist in their sustainability goals, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. RECs allow companies to purchase the environmental benefits associated with renewable energy generated elsewhere instead of generating renewable energy on-site.
“Following a market review of available providers and options, GW is pursuing the most cost-effective option for RECs that includes Green-e certification, an industry standard ensuring transparency, additionality, and quality,” Garbitt said.
GW cut emissions to 81,806 metric tons by fiscal year 2025 — a 36 percent drop from its 2008 baseline — according to the release, which officials attributed to increased renewable energy use, upgraded energy-efficient buildings and energy conservation measures. By FY2024, officials had reduced emissions by 25 percent, according to GW’s emissions report.
The release also states GW will match all electricity it buys from the grid with electricity generated from renewable sources in the new year, the result of a new 15-year power purchase agreement that supports the development of new solar energy.
The release does not detail the terms of the agreement and who officials are working with, but officials said it expands on a similar partnership GW, GW Hospital and American University entered in 2015 to tap into solar power from North Carolina, which became one of the largest non-utility solar projects on the East Coast.
The release also states GW received a platinum sustainability rating, which they lauded this fall as evidence of the University’s commitment to a sustainable future.
“Sustainability is one of our defining commitments as a University, and reaching these milestones affirms the progress we have made while also motivating us to go further,” University President Ellen Granberg said in the release.
The announcement comes after some community members questioned whether the University’s progress on emissions reductions — having cut carbon emissions by 29 percent between 2008 and 2023 — was on track to meet interim targets, citing limited public updates on the 2025 divestment pledge and officials’ plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
Officials’ last public update in 2023 confirmed the University was “on track” to meet their divestment goals by 2025 after the endowment’s total estimated exposure to fossil fuel companies was less than 2 percent of all total assets.
University spokesperson Kathleen Fackelmann told The Hatchet in September that GW had made “steady progress” toward meeting its divestment goal and would provide a more detailed update by the end of the year.
Prior to The Hatchet’s September request for an update on the status of their emissions reductions goals, officials had been quiet on their divestment efforts since 2023, and deferred comment in September 2024 on any additional steps officials have taken toward divestment to an April 2023 release.
The Board of Trustees voted in June 2020 to fully divest GW’s endowment from companies that focus on fossil fuel extraction by 2025. The Board’s vote came after its Environmental, Social and Governance Responsibility Task Force in 2020 set forth recommendations they believed the Board should adopt following weekslong student protests in support of fossil fuel divestment.
The Board’s vote also included a commitment to become carbon neutral by 2030, a 10 year acceleration of the University’s 2011 goal to be carbon neutral by 2040.
The catalyst for increased pressure on divestment came after then-University President Thomas LeBlanc made a statement in early 2020 comparing support for fossil fuel divestment to hypothetical support for shooting “all the black people here.” After the video surfaced, students protested the Regulatory Studies Center’s 10th anniversary celebration and rallied for divestment outside of the F Street House.
At the February 2020 Board of Trustees meeting — where about 25 students silently protested for divestment — chair Grace Speights said the Board created a task force aimed at managing the University’s environmental, social and governance responsibility.
Organizers for Revolutionary Climate Action, formerly known as Sunrise GW, have in recent years demanded officials divest from the fossil fuel industry as a whole, focusing on the RSC, a wing of the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration that focuses on regulatory policies across the government.
A 2023 report confirmed GW received at least $4.4 million for research from fossil fuel companies, like the Charles Koch Foundation and ExxonMobil, since 2010. Then-sophomore and Sunrise GW organizer Bella Kumar said the report validated the organization’s No Fossil Fuel Money Movement, which the group launched in 2021 to pressure officials to stop accepting money from six fossil fuel companies.
The Student Government Association was also involved in recent years in pressuring officials to divest from fossil fuel companies and phase out fossil fuel research funding, including passing the No Fossil Fuel Money Act in November 2022. The resolution called on the University to eventually ban accepting research funding from the fossil fuel industry.
In 2020, students overwhelmingly backed an SGA referendum calling on the University to divest from fossil fuels, with 85 percent of students voting in favor of pushing the University to divest.
Before 2020, students last pushed for divestment from the fossil fuel industry throughout 2015, once again garnering support from the SGA until officials in March 2016 rejected students’ push. A top-University official confirmed GW would look to making sustainable investments in the future instead of divesting.
