Eastern Mennonite Seminary
2007 Green Seminary Report
1200 Park Road
Harrisonburg, VA    22802-2462
Dr. Dorothy Jean Weaver, Contact Person
September 21, 2007  

Eastern Mennonite Seminary is one of the graduate programs of Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA.   Accordingly, the information collected below includes material gathered from campus-wide initiatives as well as information focused strictly on the seminary building and the seminary community.

University Wide Initiatives

1.   Eastern Mennonite University has a long institutional history of working at energy conservation on the level of the EMU physical plant as a whole.   These efforts were recently recognized in a nationwide study by the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers, which ranks EMU as 3rd in a list of 90 schools in the area of energy conservation.   The following article noting this ranking has just appeared in the Fall 2007 issue of the EMU publication “Crossroads”: http://www.emu.edu/crossroads/90years/leading_way.

2.   Eastern Mennonite University has just created a “Creation Care Council” to “develop concrete steps and long-term plans for creation care on EMU’s campus” (document entitled “Creation Care Council Structure”).   The CCC includes five working groups with the following mission statements:

a.   Procurement: “to increase sustainable food choices, gardening on campus, and sustainable consumption and contracts”
b.   Education, Curriculum, Theology: “to articulate our faith-based approach to sustainability and incorporate sustainability themes ‘across’ the curriculum”
c.   Community and Recruitment: “to explore ways to build EMU’s community around sustainability themes and to make/strengthen ties to our local community”
d.   Recycling & Reducing & Transportation: “to address usage of resources, to promote composting, bicycling, bus and other options and discuss parking”
e.   Energy, Infrastructure, Grounds, Buildings: “to address usage of energy, promote sustainability with respect to buildings”

Green Initiatives Affecting the Seminary Building and the Seminary Community

1.   The most prominent seminary involvement in the university-wide “green” initiatives (other than the regulation of heating and cooling in the seminary building) is reflected in the recycling effort in the seminary building.   Paper recycling bins are located in proximity to copiers and next to the seminary mailboxes.   An aluminum and plastic recycling bin is located in the seminary canteen.   And local word around campus suggests that the seminary is one of the most productive recycling locations on campus.

2.   A second initiative undertaken within the seminary community has to do with reduction of   paper and/or Styrofoam usage in eating and drinking utensils.   The seminary community has purchased a large set of (washable and reusable) plastic plates and bowls for use at seminary potlucks.   In addition the seminary (in imitation of a model seen at Union/PSCE in Richmond, VA) has installed a mug rack in the canteen, where seminary students hang their coffee mugs, thus obviating the need for paper or Styrofoam cups.   There is likewise a cupboard shelf filled with coffee mugs for use by visitors to the seminary.

3.   A third initiative in the seminary community is a plastic “composting” bucket in the seminary kitchen for used coffee grounds from the hundreds and hundreds of pots of coffee brewed in the seminary.

4.   A “green friendly” initiative related to the seminary building itself has to do with outdoor geraniums plants which are potted each fall and brought into the seminary building for the duration of the winter.   There are also numerous other green plants that reside within the seminary building.

5.   EMS does not currently have any dedicated “green” courses in its curriculum.   Several courses (Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics) identify essays on the environment as one of the course requirements.   And students frequently choose environmental topics to work with in the Christian Ethics class.   NOTE: EMS is presently at the beginning stages of a curriculum revision.   And the question of environmental concerns may potentially rise to the level of curricular changes or additions.