Sustainability Summit Brings Six D.C. Schools to Catholic University
Patrick D. Lewis/The Tower
By Patrick D. Lewis
Catholic University hosted the Spring 2026 Student Sustainability Summit sponsored by the D.C. College and University Sustainability Pledge, a program of the city Department of Energy and the Environment, last Saturday.
The program, organized by sustainability officials from various city universities, was hosted on campus by the CUA Environmental Club. The event was the fourth edition of the twice-yearly summit that is meant to bring together student sustainability leaders and university sustainability staff members from around Washington. This year, six of the eight colleges and universities in D.C. were represented at the event.
The program began with several presentations by students from Catholic University, American, and U.D.C. The presentations were based on student research projects that included data center development, sustainable fashion production, and how to utilize local traditional knowledge to improve environmental preservation efforts.
The data center presentation was given by Catholic University students: Helen Hrazanek, Estella Elkis, and Christina Gutierrez. The team discussed the rapid data center development that Northern Virginia has developed in recent years and the many negative impacts the development has had on quality of life and the environment in the areas where the facilities are located. The presentation also covered several bills aimed at reigning in data center development and their negative environmental impacts that were considered at the recently-concluded 2026 session of the Virginia General Assembly.
The second presentation was given by University of the District of Columbia student Cassandra Lemus-Reyes and discussed the impact of fashion production on the environment. Lemus-Reyes said that fast-moving trends and the desire for low-priced clothing means that large clothing corporations design, produce, and sell items in a matter of weeks, which means they are of low quality, produced in an environmentally unconscious way, and made of cheap materials that are not biodegradable, like polyester Those clothes are often used just a few times before being thrown out. Lemus-Reyes provided information on companies that are making an effort to be more environmentally responsible as well as explaining how to reuse clothes so that they don’t end up in landfills.
The third presentation was given by Amelia Nelson from American University. The presentation discussed the wealth of knowledge of the environment and how to positively interact with it that is passed down through generations of native Hawai’i residents Research at farms and other small companies on the islands shows that the environment is suffering, but the local knowledge base is often underutilized and could contribute to the restoration of the ecosystems.
After the presentations, the around forty attendees participated in breakout sessions to discuss a variety of topics, including postgraduate options for students interested in a career related to sustainability, campus sustainability programs, and other topics. The attendees also participated in a sustainability tour of Catholic University’s campus provided by the Environmental Club and CUA Campus Sustainability Office director Gabrielle Choat.
You can learn more about CUA’s sustainability office here.
