Tabor College

Creation Care Efforts Featured in ‘Green Awakenings Campus Report’

March 02, 2010

Categories: General News

The important first steps toward building a greener and more sustainable campus community at Tabor College have been recognized are featured in the recently-published Green Awakenings Campus Report.

Written by the student-led Christian environmental group Renewal: Students Caring for Creation, the report chronicles the environmental initiatives on 52 Christian colleges across the United States and Canada. The report is a project of Renewal, a growing movement of young Christians dedicated to caring for God’s creation through mobilizing and equipping their campuses to be better stewards of the environment.

“Tabor is honored to have our efforts featured in this exciting report,” said Eric Codding, Vice President of Student Life, Learning, and Formation, who leads the newly-formed Creation Care Task Force at the college. “We feel like we’ve just begun working on projects to advance the college in the area of sustainability, and we realize there is more work to be done in the future.”

Highlights of the report include over 50 diverse campus write-ups organized by geographical region and write-ups contributed by students, staff, and faculty on the respective campuses.

“This report is merely a sampling and is in no way exhaustive,” reads the introduction. “One of the early lessons we learned is that there is far too much going on to be able to cover every campus that is actively engaged in caring for creation. Even on the campuses that we have featured, we have had to focus on a small proportion of all the good work they are doing.

“In the end, our message in this report is simple: We care deeply about all of God’s creation; these are our stories. We hope that you will be inspired to join us in bringing renewal to our campuses, communities, and the world.”

Page 19 of the Green Awakenings Campus Report chronicles Tabor’s success in obtaining a Creation Care Grant from the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), and subsequent activities on campus:

_In 2009, Tabor College’s class in Principles of Public Relations was studying the greening of America and the emerging Creation Care movement. They decided to write a proposal to the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), requesting a $5,000 Creation Care Fund grant — a grant designed to help campuses that are in the beginning stages of their creation care journey._

As was hoped, the grant was awarded to Tabor. This prompted Tabor’s Student Senate to charter a Creation Care student organization and fund it with a portion of student fees. These fees, for the 2009-10 school year alone, will total about $4,000.

The Creation Care task force, working with the newly formed student organization, is pursuing several initiatives intended to raise environmental awareness and to promote better stewardship of natural resources. These efforts include a Creation Care week (jointly planned and promoted by the Creation Care group and campus ministries office), increased recycling efforts among students (with recycling bins strategically placed around campus), and the purchase of recycling equipment for their cafeteria (directed initially at cardboard and tin cans).

In addition, the physical plant has committed several thousand dollars of its budget toward upgrading light fixtures and other equipment intended to reduce the community’s utility consumption.

Collectively, these early steps will not only raise awareness of sustainability issues on campus, but will also help the community to reduce its impact on the environment. Furthermore, the Creation Care task force hopes to extend campus concern into the local community and explore possible improvements of the area recycling program.

Read the full “Green Awakenings Report” Visit “Renewal, the Creation Care Movement”:http://www.renewingcreation.org