Sustainability LibGuide  

This guide will list resources to support EMU's Peace With Creation inititative.

Peace with Creation: Sustainability from an Anabaptist Perspective draws together EMU students, faculty and staff around the theme of environmental sustainability and how it relates to Anabaptist beliefs concerning creation care, peace and social justice.   The initiative is a five year Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) that focuses on undergraduate student learning. It builds on an interdisciplinary framework of principles for sustainability:

•  The health of all current and future humans and other species

•  The fairness, equity, stability and security of human cultures and social systems

• Economic opportunity for all current and future humans

• Ecological diversity and integrity*                                              *Cortese 2005

Goals

To strengthen our care for God’s creation by enhancing our knowledge, values, and actions.

 To increase sustainable practices at EMU. 

 Desired Student Learning Outcomes:

The QEP will provide EMU students the opportunity to engage in learning experiences throughout the curriculum as well as to experience a campus environment with a heightened commitment to environmental sustainability. As a result, the EMU graduate will be able to: 

1. Define and justify environmental sustainability from a theological perspective.

Environmental sustainability is commonly defined as meeting the “needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). Sustainability education, then, commonly emphasizes learning and working to secure a future that is economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable. Grounding the QEP in Anabaptist theology will shape our definition of and educational approach to sustainability to include the concepts of creation care, peace, and social justice.  

2. Explain how individual, institutional, and community actions impact the environment.

Through curricular and extracurricular activities, students will be encouraged to consider the environmental impact of actions at all levels of society – the individual, the institution, and the larger community. 

3. Name and defend actions that promote environmental sustainability at the individual, institutional, and community levels.

Similarly, students will be encouraged to identify or develop actions to promote environmental sustainability. In addition, students will be expected to make arguments that support and explain the need for and viability of such actions.  

4. Integrate the principles of environmental sustainability within the student’s discipline.

The sustainability principles articulated under learning outcome 1 (health of all current and future humans and other species; the fairness, equity, stability and security of human cultures and social systems; economic opportunity for all current and future humans; and ecological diversity and integrity) are broad and interdisciplinary in nature. Thus, each major program offers exciting opportunities to explore how these principles may be applied in the field. As a result of the QEP, students will be able to identify and explain how sustainability principles can be integrated into the practice of their chosen discipline. 

5. Incorporate environmental sustainability into one’s values system.

This outcome is essentially a restatement of a central part of the University’s mission – to produce graduates who embody “the enduring values of the Anabaptist tradition,” which include creation care.

As EMU works at integrating sustainability into its curriculum and university life this guide will provide a clearinghouse of resources for students, faculty and staff.