Green Commons Awards

The Georgetown Food Recovery Network is the campus chapter of the national Food Recovery Network. It recovers surplus food from campus dining and events and redistributes it to people in need on and off campus. Students Daniella Passariello and Nadia Sadanandan started it through GREEN (the Georgetown University Renewable Energy and Environmental Network). Food comes from Leo O’Donovan Hall, Starbucks, Royal Jacket, Epicurean, and campus events, and goes to partner agencies Charlie’s Place and the Hoya Hub. The national network was founded in 2011. It now has more than 200 student-led college and university chapters working toward a food system where food isn’t wasted and everyone has access to nutritious meals.

This series of short audio portraits shares the experiences of disabled activists, artists, and first responders working on the front lines of climate response. Each piece runs about three minutes and weaves together excerpts from original interviews, giving listeners a window into how disability activists are dealing with climate disruption and pushing for climate justice. The portraits were made by disabled UK audio artist Claire Cunningham in partnership with Professor Belser, with original music by composer Matthias Hermann.

Professor Julia Watts Belser, Department of Theology and Religious Studies · 2022 · $5,000

This interactive website began as a Georgetown graduate project. It lets coffee drinkers compare the price and environmental sustainability of cafés in the Georgetown neighborhood. Each shop gets a score of up to five “coffee beans” in two categories: in-store practices and coffee bean sourcing. The data was verified through a review of public materials, in-person visits, and interviews with café staff. Users can sort shops by price or sustainability and read how each score was built, which encourages more sustainable everyday coffee choices.

Emily Javedan (MS-ESM’25) · 2024 · $550

This student art exhibition is in Lauinger Library’s Fourth Floor Community Gallery and runs from April 16, 2025, through November 1, 2026. It is part of the national Dear Body of Water initiative, which invites people to write postcard-sized love letters to rivers, oceans, creeks, aquifers, and other waters. The Library partnered with GREEN on the Georgetown version, which shows students’ photographs, paintings, poems, graphic design, stained glass, and more. The works treat bodies of water as fellow beings and explore care for watersheds. One highlight is a hand-made quilt and a carved wooden map that trace Washington, D.C.’s buried “hidden rivers.” Rather than focusing on floods and droughts, the exhibition asks visitors to reframe water in the climate crisis through love and respect.

Beth Marhanka, Lauinger Library · 2025 · $3,720