The new installation, expected to be in operation by the summer of 2015, will be able to generate 511 kilowatts of electricity (as measured in “direct-current” or DC power). The panels will be mounted on canopies above the University Commons parking lot and on that building’s roof. Along with the original library array, the new installation should allow EMU to produce up to 14 percent of its annual electric demand from solar energy.

“That’s a huge percentage,” said Drew Gallagher, Virginia campus organizer with the who attended a public meeting in early October announcing the new solar initiative. Afterwards, in an email to , Gallagher wrote of his plans to begin “showcasing EMU’s efforts as your campus is on the cutting edge among Virginia colleges.”

As was the case with the installation on the library roof, EMU has entered an agreement with , a solar energy development company based in Staunton, Virginia, to install, operate and maintain the new array. Secure Futures president and CEO is also a professor at EMU’s .

The new solar project will proceed under a unique “customer self-generation agreement” between EMU and Secure Futures. The arrangement, devised by Secure Futures to overcome various regulatory hurdles that have made Virginia a relatively difficult state for solar energy development, requires no capital investment from EMU and will reduce the university’s electric bill from the very start.

EMU will achieve additional across-the-board operational savings with the help of a natural gas generator that will be installed at the same time as the solar panels. The generator will help the university lower its peak electric demand, a measurement of consumption used to set electric rates throughout the year. With the additional solar capacity and occasional help from the generator – primarily during the winter, when the solar panels produce less electricity – that lower peak demand will put EMU on a cheaper rate scale with the , Smith said.

The solar panels and generator will also serve as a “nano-grid,” improving EMU’s emergency preparedness with the capacity to meet electricity demands in Northlawn’s dorm rooms and dining hall during a wider power outage, Smith added.

“It’s another step in a long history of EMU paying attention to energy use,” said Swartzendruber. “EMU’s been leading efforts in going back to the ’70s.”

Swartzendruber, who serves on the board of the , has been an outspoken proponent for sustainability. He said the conviction is rooted in a moral obligation created by the disproportionate negative impact climate change will have on the needy.

At the public event announcing the new solar project, Swartzendruber was asked if he would encourage state leaders to enact regulations that would make it easier for more solar and other renewable energy development in Virginia.

“I’m certainly willing to lend my voice where that seems appropriate,” he said later, while adding he has no specific plans to do so at this point (he does, however, regularly interact with leaders in Richmond when he goes to lobby on behalf of state tuition assistance grants).

Gallagher, from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said he was “really excited how strong of a stance [Swartzendruber] appeared to be willing to make on the issue of climate change.”

“You could tell that it was more than just an issue that they were working on just because it’s hot right now, or something that people would want to see [a university] doing,” Gallagher continued. “I work with campuses all over the state… Now when I go to new schools and help them install solar panels, I’m going to point to EMU and say, ‘Look at all the success they’ve had.’ … I think it’s great what they’re doing, and it’s really exciting to see them pushing the boundaries and setting the bar high.”

EMU was among 173 schools nationwide named , based on commitments to greening every level of their operations – from energy usage to recycling to food sourcing to curriculum.

“One of the things that makes EMU different is that sustainability at EMU is not just a grassroots effort,” said professor in a recent interview with EMU news services. While there are certainly such efforts on campus, the commitment to sustainability has developed as a result of official EMU support.

Key step was staffing

The creation of a recycling coordinator position in 2005 was a big step along the way. , who held that position for five years until becoming EMU’s coordinator, worked to increase campus community awareness of recycling.

He started by tracking what EMU was already doing. He found the campus recycled about 20% of its waste. He and his work-study students introduced better signage about recycling, as well as new color-coded bins into residence halls, academic buildings and faculty offices to make proper waste disposal easy and convenient. Lantz-Trissel also included recycling education in the first-year orientation program. Now, nine years later, the percentage of waste that EMU recycles is closer to 50%.

As far as Lantz-Trissel knows, EMU is the only university that picks up recyclables entirely by bicycle. This came about through a cost-saving decision, he said, when the pickup truck used for recycling rounds needed a new clutch: “To replace the clutch was going to be $650. I said that for $550 I’ll get a bike and trailer and you can sell the truck.”

Recycling by bicycle

EMU agreed to give recycling by bicycle a try, although his supervisor was skeptical that it would last more than six months.

“EMU is the perfect size for using bikes and trailers,” said current recycling crew leader . “The geography of the campus also helps considerably.”

Freed collects the majority of EMU’s recyclables from uphill sites, enabling him to coast down to where these need to be deposited for trucking away. “We actually don’t carry any heavy loads uphill…it’s mainly just good brakes to keep the loads from running away from us,” said Lantz-Trissel with a laugh.

The recycling crew consists of at least one work-study student who is always “passionate about what they are doing,” said Lantz-Trissel. “They like getting on a bike and peddling around recycling.”

Earthkeepers club

Besides the recycling work-study position, the heaviest student involvement with campus sustainability efforts comes from the environmental club .

“We get volunteers to collect compost from the cafeteria Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays,” explained co-president and senior Melinda Norris.

“You have to have people who are reliable,” in order for collecting compost via volunteers to work, said Lantz-Trissel. “I have never talked to another university who has students that have been that committed to composting…usually it ends up failing and people in the facilities end up handling it.”

Other Earthkeepers projects include providing clotheslines in residence hall laundry rooms, sponsoring Food and Farming Week (a week of cafeteria meals in the fall based around local, in-season foods), and installing timers on the campus tennis courts that turn the lights on for a designated time-frame.

In the spring semester, Earthkeepers helps the recycling crew in “,” an annual intercollegiate recycling competition. EMU has placed in the top 25% each year.

Presidential support

sits on the board of the and has signed the statement.

Recently, EMU became one of the first 25 institutions of higher education in 10 states to commit to “,” aimed at reducing or eliminating the use or generation of hazardous substances.

Perhaps the greatest testament to the EMU community’s commitment to increased sustainability, though, is the .

“Each institution seeking reaffirmation of Accreditation is required to develop a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP),” states the website for the. “The QEP describes a carefully designed and focused course of action that addresses a well-defined topic or issue(s) related to enhancing student learning.”

For EMU, that topic has been strengthening “care for God’s creation by enhancing our knowledge, values, and actions” and increasing “sustainable practices at the university.”

Campus-wide through QEP

The QEP “helps spread sustainability to students who would not necessarily be drawn to that,” said Yoder, a member of the Peace With Creation committee.

The plan moves sustainability beyond the committed students who are already on the bike collecting recyclables and in the cafeteria helping with composting. The plan invites the community as a whole to participate, with the faculty encouraged to weave sustainability lessons and themes through their curricula as much as possible.

Students are urged to bicycle or walk instead of driving locally. In recent years, they’ve help tend the university’s five beehives, four produce gardens, and dozens of fruit trees, with the results sometimes ending up in .

For information on the full range of EMU’s sustainability efforts – including solar energy panels and LEED-certified residence halls – visit EMU’s .

But EMU has tilled its soil for a flourishing “edible campus” in the spring.

Springtime visitors can expect to stroll by asparagus hedges on their way to the tennis courts. They’ll circumvent the compost pile and chicken house-on-wheels by the soccer field. And they’ll need to avoid disturbing the four beehives near a popular hilltop meeting room.

Situated on the western edge of the small city of Harrisonburg, Va. – often overshadowed by nearby James Madison University with 10 times the student population – EMU is gradually gaining a small measure of fame for its devotion to what it calls “creation care.”

“Caring for God’s creation” started in 1976-77 at EMU when a science professor opted to spend his sabbatical year studying the ways the college could cut fuel consumption. He succeeded. Among other steps, EMU launched into energy-efficient construction, with new buildings heated and cooled by a unique closed-loop system in the 1980s. In the fall of 2010 EMU became the host of what was then the .

1,000 Edible Plants on 100 Acres

In 2011, by sprinkling 1,000 food-producing plants around the 100-acre campus.

“This started because students saw ‘Food Inc.’ [a 2008 documentary, critiquing agribusiness] and began knocking on my door saying, ‘Hey, we want to grow food on campus,’” said , grounds supervisor at EMU.

The students found receptive ears – Hairston has a degree in horticulture from Virginia Tech. Yet, in his 20 years at EMU, Hairston had mainly focused on planting ornamentals, believing their beauty to be “food for the soul.”

Suddenly Hairston found himself running to keep “just a half step ahead of the students,” who were pointing out the beauty of lettuce and acorn squash and persimmon trees.

Students, joined by a handful of faculty members, began raising vegetables in three large garden areas on campus. They now sell their produce, when in season, on Saturday mornings near the University Commons. They also give the campus community the option of harvesting their own produce, asking only that harvesters contribute back by weeding or otherwise helping out.

Apple and pear saplings now dot the western hill that backs EMU. “Pruning the trees has been my baby,” said senior Alyshia Zimmerman.

Seminary professor donated four bee hives and is mentoring  Tessa Gerberich, an undergraduate student, in bee care.

Zimmerman, who is plotting EMU’s edible plants on a master map, pointed to other locations of fruit-bearing trees on campus ­– fig, plum, persimmon, paw paw, and hazelnut trees can be found near sports fields. Alert campus strollers will spot grape vines and bushes bearing cornelian cherries and raspberries. “We want to raise awareness to the availability and health benefits that these plants can provide,” she said.

Resurrecting Farm Skills

Students walking to the quad of , with dual-flush, low-flow toilets, recycled bricks, solar panels that preheat water, and so forth  – pass asparagus plants that look yummy but shouldn’t be harvested until year two or later.

In June 2012, began collecting the runoff from the buildings, roads and parking lots covering 15 acres at EMU. It is now used for watering the grass on four sports fields and other vegetation, including the edible landscaping.

Chickens lay eggs in enclosures behind the science building, not far from a compost heap where the leftovers from the main dining hall eventually turn into soil to nourish the campus vegetable and herb gardens. Much of the produce in these gardens returns to the serving lines of the dining room. The campus chef steps outside her industrial kitchen to pluck basil, cilantro, dill, oregano, parsley, rosemary, thyme and sage.

“Actually being ‘green’ and living in environmentally sustainable ways feels to many of us like returning to the frugality and healthy farming practices of our forebears,” says , who was raised in the Mennonite-thick farm community of Kalona, Iowa.

Long-Term Benefits

In September 2012, Swartzendruber began a three-year term on the board of directors of the , whose mission is “to equip, inspire, disciple and mobilize God’s people in their effort to care for God’s creation.”

This is a group that does not question the view of the majority of the world’s scientists that climate change is occurring and that, left unchecked, will have serious consequences for all forms of life as we know it.

“By tradition and current practice, EMU aims to make decisions that are right in the long term,” says Swartzendruber. “We can’t always see the immediate pay-offs, but we feel we are stewards of the environment in which we all live. The benefits of making the right decisions may accrue to others, or to our descendants, but they are benefits nonetheless.”

“The cistern at EMU, for instance, may reduce the amount EMU pays for using city water by up to $4,000 annually. But considering that the cost of the project is nearly $100,000 (with about half the cost covered by a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Federation’s Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund), EMU didn’t build the cistern to save money in the short term.”

It was built it in part to enhance the health of the trees and stream in a small park owned by the university. The stream connects with waterways that flow into the Chesapeake Bay. So protecting the feeder stream ultimately contributes to the health of the Bay.

So If You Visit . . .

Back to being a campus visitor. . . Here’s a hint at the subtle differences you might notice. Let’s just say a rickshaw driver from India would look at home on this campus – not too different from the EMU employee with muscular calves pedaling a bike hitched to a long cart bearing storage containers. This is the way the recycling bins around campus are serviced. No fossil fuels.

No, no, these Mennonites do not drive horse-drawn buggies. They are modern Mennonites. In fact, half of the campus community isn’t Mennonite at all. But everyone here tends to walk a lot and ride bikes – not because they don’t have drivers’ licenses, but because they believe it is good for the environment and their personal health. ­_­­

As an example, the undergraduate academic dean ­­– who has close-cropped hair and often wears slacks – hasn’t driven the one-and-a-half miles from her home to campus in four years. She walks, bikes, or takes public transportation.

Sure, if you look closely, you can find a woman who sticks to below-the-knee skirts and who wears a prayer cover on her hair. But look more closely, and you’ll see that this woman is the 76-year-old historical librarian who logged nearly 400 miles on her recreational bike between May and September. And who loves to backpack in .

This campus community doesn’t lend itself to stereotypes. But it does lend itself to great eating.