This spring, approximately 4 million college students across the United States will gather in gyms, auditoriums, and campus quads for commencement ceremonies, celebrating their academic achievements. With these celebrations come 4 million caps, gowns, and a significant amount of waste. The GW Alliance for a Sustainable Future (ASF) is committed to reducing graduation waste and offering a unique gift to students in the Sustainability Minor program: custom-made graduation cords. Since its inception in 2012, the Sustainability Minor program has expanded to include over 70 courses across four of GW’s schools. ASF Program Manager for Academic Sustainability Programs, Erin Carlin, recalls the numerous efforts since 2022 to find a sustainable way to honor graduating seniors.
“The students in our Sustainability Minor are extremely dedicated and we want them to be proud of what they have built here at GW,” said Carlin. “We wanted to find something special for the graduates to wear with their GW graduation regalia, and when we finally decided on graduation cords we knew we had to find a way to incorporate the mission of our sustainability work.”
Carlin and her team worked on finding the right supplier of graduation cords that were both locally made and sustainable. Working with staff from the GW Museum and Textile Museum, Erin says ASF was connected with the Chesapeake Fibershed, and through their outreach quickly found the perfect fit for collaboration in the heart of DC with the Black Squirrel Company.
Working with the ASF team, Renata Philippe, owner of the Black Squirrel Company, set out to acquire re-used textiles to design and mock-up one-of-a-kind graduation cords. The GW Office of Sustainability’s The Loop program—a free clothing and accessories exchange sourced from donations by the GW community— along with ASF staff and local community members, collected 40 pounds of textiles that could not be resold and were headed for landfills to produce the graduation cord material. From her design and fabrication studio in the Anacostia Historic District of Washington, D.C., Philippe cleaned, cut and dyed the textiles to incorporate four distinct colors representing the pillars of the Sustainability Minor. To make the cords stand out in a sea of Buff & Blue during the graduation commencement ceremony, Philippe designed the fabrics to be woven in greens and blues with a highlight of beige.
Philippe incorporated the Black Squirrel Company in Washington, D.C. in 2018, and saw their popularity grow in 2020 in the wake of the pandemic by producing sustainable facemasks. She highlighted that the process of providing facemasks for hospitals and people in the area opened her eyes to new ideas that require sustainable solutions. “This generation, as they’re graduating they want something different, they want to do things differently and make a change,” Philippe said. “What I really appreciate and take away from that is to always be open to new ideas that come to you.”
This year, 40 students graduating with a Sustainability Minor will have their dark blue graduation gowns adorned with the colorful cords as they join their classmates on the National Mall during the George Washington University graduation commencement ceremony. “We’re thrilled to present these cords to our students, and not only celebrate their graduation, but all they will accomplish in the world,” said Frank Sesno, executive director of the GW Alliance for a Sustainable Future.
As a distinctive element of the project, each cord is part of a set, but no two cords are exactly alike. Carlin emphasized how this connection represents the unique course selections each student in the Sustainability Minor can choose to complete their program requirements. “The more students see how their individual paths can contribute to solving a bigger problem, the closer we can get to creating a more sustainable future,” Carlin said.