Across Washington’s eight wards, businesses, organizations and individuals are making strides toward a cleaner and more sustainable city, prioritizing their commitment to safeguarding an already vulnerable Earth.
Just ahead of Earth Month, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser presented the 2026 District Sustainability Awards, celebrating the dedicated work of seven local organizations and institutions, while urging community members and leaders to remain resilient in the fight toward a greener, healthier city.
The honorees— Embassy Suites by Hilton Washington DC Convention Center, To Go Green, VMDO DC, DC Greens, Washington Area Community Investment Fund, Erin Palmer and American University (AU)— are taking innovation to the next level, broadening the scope of sustainable practices and promoting the collective power of environmental conservation.
“No matter who you are, we all benefit from the many resources that our planet has,” Megan Litke, AU director of sustainability, told The Informer. “We can all enjoy time outdoors and community with the people around us… so I think the more we can do to recognize those places of community and the ways that we all benefit from the natural environment, the more we can make collective and shared decisions.”
With the 2026 Earth Day theme, “Our Power, Our Planet,” reflecting a need for collective efforts and shared commitments to safeguard the climate, the awards came as globally, environmental advocates encourage all people to work toward a cleaner world.
As environmental initiatives and organizations have been enduring major setbacks since early 2025, being federally defunded, dissolved and struck down, raising awareness is crucial to keeping the work alive and instilling a sense of worldwide environmental consciousness.
“It’s about the people,” Charles Rominiyi, manager at the DC Greens’ The Well at Oxon Run, told The Informer. “If you identify a problem in your community, you can’t wait. You have to partner with your community… [and] with your businesses, and you have to call it out.”
Building a Durable Food System
For Rominiyi and the team at DC Greens, the identified problems were the food access and health equity gaps for vulnerable communities throughout the city.
The Well at Oxon Run provides communities east of the Anacostia River, which only have four full-service grocery stores in total, with 20,000 square feet of farming space that encourages visitors to connect with the Earth.
“The food system can be fragile, and the work that DC Greens is doing really helps create that continuity, and we help highlight where the gaps are in our food system, where we need more support and where we need more advocacy,” Rominiyi explained.
According to the Capital Area Food Bank’s 2025 Hunger Report, 40% of households in the District experienced food insecurity. Actively tackling that disparity, The Well distributed 7,261 pounds of fresh produce that same year.
Produce Rx, a program by DC Greens, also makes strides toward narrowing that gap by providing health care professionals with fresh fruits and vegetables they can prescribe to DC Medicaid-enrolled patients facing diet-related chronic illnesses. In 2025, 1,017 households across the city enrolled in this program.
While the non-profit tirelessly works to strengthen the District’s food system, it also empowers community members and their ability to acquire and maintain food independence.
“Things are going to happen, but organizations like DC Greens help ensure that we can weather these storms and be resilient in our efforts to make sure that no one goes hungry [and] that everybody in the city has access to nutritious meals and nutritious food,” Rominiyi told The Informer.
Reuse Takeout Containers and Reduce Waste
While DC Greens and its programs are expanding food access and security, To Go Green is combating single-use packaging waste in the restaurant industry through its reusable takeout service– the first to launch in the District.
Brothers and co-founders Harrison and Kevin Kay describe themselves as “eco-conscious vegans,” and admit to frequently ordering takeout, but began feeling guilty about the amounts of waste single-use takeout containers produce. Their desire to make an environmentally friendly change, not only within themselves but also in ways that could have a positive impact on the rest of the city, pushed the brothers to launch To Go Green in August 2024.
“We hope that not only our service inspires people to use fewer disposable carryout containers, but also to really critically think about the small daily choices in their lives that can really add up over time,” Kevin told The Informer.
According to packaging plastic distributor Divan Packaging, carryout containers account for approximately 50 billion pieces of garbage in the United States annually and are not always recycled. Even if they were, some aren’t recycled properly, causing extra waste in landfills that may take hundreds of years to decompose. Other takeout ware that is compostable does not always decompose quickly and can require vast amounts of energy to break down.
For the company to truly be considered sustainable, the brothers deduced that reusable containers were the best route to take. Customers can order through To Go Green’s platform, which includes its various restaurant partners, then either pick up their order or get delivery via Uber, the company’s courier partner. Once finished, customers have three weeks to return the takeout ware by requesting that they be picked up or dropping them off at a partner restaurant.
The brothers are working toward evolving To Go Green to be integrated into one of the major food delivery platforms in order to increase the restaurant adoption and consumer accessibility of their services.
“To get the masses to do the right and sustainable thing means making that option extremely convenient,” Harrison told The Informer. “That’s where our views… have maybe evolved over the course of this company into making returning… [and] accessing packaging extremely accessible and frictionless to the customer, but also to the restaurant.”
While enforcing the use of reusable packaging may sometimes feel like a punishment or burden to some, the Kay brothers hope their company, its increasing convenience, and the containers’ benefit to the environment can encourage decision-makers to push for legislation prioritizing reuse systems.
“Waste is something that impacts everybody’s lives, and reducing the amount… we generate can only enhance our lives,” Harrison told The Informer. “We hope policymakers take a look at what we’re doing and realize that adding policy just backs up our cause.”
A Sustainable Leader Hoping to Inspire
As To Go Green is reimagining what ordering carryout can look like, and DC Greens is showing the District that fresh food is medicine, AU is a leading example for what extensive sustainability looks like through championing green buildings powered by renewable energy sources. The university is the first in the U.S. to achieve carbon neutrality.
In January, AU opened the Alan and Amy Meltzer Center for Athletic Performance and the attached Sports Center Annex (SCAN) — the first net-zero building on campus. Through its array of solar panels, geothermal heating and cooling systems and its water-use reduction practices, the facility attained Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) v4 Platinum status, the highest possible sustainability rating.
Litke told The Informer that planning and design teams weren’t necessarily banking on accomplishing such a feat.
“I want to make sure that’s part of what we share out about this project– that other places can probably get farther than they think they can by just expanding the way they’re having these conversations,” Litke said, “and integrating technologies and features into their spaces that make sense for them beyond just sustainability.”
She believes that achieving clean energy and zero waste goals across the District and beyond is a team effort– a commitment that is reflected across AU’s campus. Apart from green buildings, the university also prioritizes rain gardens, green roofs, composting, green transportation and more.
The director of sustainability hopes that AU continues to pave the way for others to integrate environmentally conscious practices into their daily lives and operations, excited to see how students and faculty apply this dedication to a greener Earth, nurtured by the university, into all fields of work. She looks forward to seeing how such a commitment can be extended across campus, its neighbors and community partners.
“I think it’s important… that we’re having conversations that are open to exploring new possibilities and give everyone at the table a chance to integrate sustainable thinking into whatever project we might be working on,” Litke told The Informer, “because I think that’s where you can find progress, even in places where you weren’t anticipating it.”
