In 1987, the United Nations released the Bruntland Report,
which defines sustainability as “development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs.”
Although Indiana Wesleyan University has employed sound
sustainability practices in recent years, an organization was established two
years ago to ensure that commitment not only would continue but also would grow
IWU’s Creation
Stewardship Initiative consists of faculty, staff and administrators. There
also is a partner student-run organization called Creation Care Alliance.
The issue of sustainability does not focus solely on
environmental issues. It also includes economic and social development. IWU’s
mission as world changers lends itself to the social aspect of sustainability.
The goal of the Creation Stewardship Initiative is to engage
and educate the IWU campus on sustainability and stewardship issues, to ask
what our role is as Christians when it comes to caring for our environment and
what we can really do to be good stewards of what we have.
Megan Stephens, Project Manager in the Office of Operations
and Facilities Planning, said she hopes the lessons that students learn on
campus will last them for a lifetime. “We want students to have an
understanding of the bigger picture,” Stephens said. “Sustainability is not
just about what happens at IWU. It affects our entire planet.”
Stephens has a degree in environmental design from the Ball
State University School of Architecture. Part of her work revolves around
sustainability issues related to IWU buildings, but she also has been involved
in various student projects.
Here are some of the sustainability projects and practices
that IWU has undertaken:
- IWU purchased small recycling bins for every
residence hall room and changed the name of residence hall trash rooms to
recycling rooms. “Facilities Services said there already has been an increase
in recycling,” Stephens said. “I think students really want to do the right
thing.”
- In 2010, a student group sponsored a project
called Rootout to capture large items — lamps clothing, and furniture — that
students normally throw away at the end of a school year. The items were
donated to local charities. “We hope to make that project even bigger this
year,” Stephens said.
- IWU is participating in the 2011 Recyclemania
Tournament, an eight-week national project where universities compete against
each other to promote recycling. The competing universities weigh their waste
each week and report the materials in different categories. IWU is competing
against six Indiana state universities in the contest sponsored by the College
and University Recycling Council.
- Dr. Grace Miller, an IWU biology professor,
sponsored a garbology event as part of her Environment in Society class. Her
students took a day’s trash from three IWU academic buildings, dumped the trash
on a tarp and sorted it all to determine what percentage of the trash could —
and should — have been recycled.
- IWU applied for, and received, an $87,500
federal grant to update heating and cooling systems in two buildings and to
replace older and less efficient lighting in other buildings. The university
had already identified work that needed to be done, so the grant offset half of
the total cost of $170,000.
- IWU works with the City of Marion to regulate
storm water and to educate the campus community about not putting toxic
liquids, such as oil, down drains. IWU has added several acres of impermeable
surfaces, mostly parking lots, without any net gain in storm water.
- And, finally, IWU is preparing to conduct an
energy audit of the entire campus.
“We still have a menu of projects we would like to do,”
Stephens said. “When we invest, we get a return through energy savings, but it
still takes money upfront to do the projects.”
While there is much left to do, there also is progress to
celebrate on matters related to sustainability.
IWU has reduced solid waste landfill costs by about 50
percent in the last year and has a solid waste budget today that of about half
the amount that it was 10 years ago. Even with three times as much waste today
as 10 years ago, the total cost of waste removal continues to go down — even as
enrollment goes up.
The long-term goal is for IWU to become a national leader
among Christian campuses in stewardship and sustainability.