“You can’t set goals for reducing your carbon footprint unless you know what your footprint is… Are we making improvements? Are we not making improvements? Because we do have a Climate Action Plan, although it’s not well known among students or administration,” responded Jim Yoder, Professor of Biology and Chair of the Natural Science Department, when asked about sustainability at Eastern Mennonite University. EMU’s annual theme for the 2025-2026 academic year is sustainability, and looking back, there are a number of ways the university embodied this theme during the fall semester.

At opening convocation a few weeks ago, students heard from various administrators and other community members about how EMU has worked to include sustainability as a part of the curriculum and campus philosophy. Many of the ways that it can be seen at EMU are through projects and efforts that have been in progress for multiple years, and there are still new initiatives which have been put into place this past semester or are in the works for the rest of the year. The Weather Vane also reached out to the administration for comment on what EMU has been doing so far this year, but they did not respond before the production deadline. 

Yoder has been involved in sustainability for as long as he’s worked at EMU, and is one of the co-chairs of the new Pathways General Education Program. Yoder says one thing he is excited for is that “there’s going to be a pathways foundational course on environmental sustainability.” He went on to say that the new course will hopefully “expose a lot more students to what EMU’s ideas are about sustainability, as well as the science of sustainability.” 

Yoder also mentioned that part of the environmental science capstone project this year is calculating EMU’s yearly emissions since 2022. This will help to demonstrate where EMU is with regard to emissions. Another event scheduled for April is the environmental sustainability summit EMU will be hosting, with 100-120 students attending from other universities in the area. These summits happen yearly, and Yoder says that “we hosted one of those [environmental sustainability summits] 3 years ago, and I kind of jumped at the chance for EMU to host it again.” One of the other ways that sustainability can be seen at EMU is through the efforts of students and clubs that work towards a more sustainable campus. Joshua Stucky, a senior and part of leadership for the Students Engaging in Environmental Development and Stewardship (SEEDS) club says their goal is to “foster sustainability on campus and create student-led initiatives to push EMU towards sustainability.” SEEDS started a clothing swap initiative this past semester, which allows unwanted clothes to be donated and find new life amongst the campus community. They are also involved in maintaining the campus garden, the Free-Food Room, composting, as well as many other activities to spread sustainability on campus. 

However, there are still discussions over the concrete ways that EMU could work to create a more sustainable campus. Stucky raises some concerns, saying, “It would be nice to see EMU commit to taking care of its grounds sustainably, or recycling, or especially hiring a sustainability coordinator.” The sustainability coordinator position has been unfilled since Andrea Troyer left the position in September 2024. Stucky also says “campus up until now has been relatively unresponsive [to SEEDS] … they gave us the go ahead to set up the bins, and that’s good, but on things like compost it’s been difficult.” 

Yoder mentioned, “I think there’s some frustration that a lot of the big initiatives that happen on campus… a lot of those are really student driven.” He also says, “there’s real challenges on the operation side, and some of the other aspects of sustainability… I think a lot of people wish we could do more, and I do too.” There are many obstacles when trying to become sustainable, especially related to cost and what level of sustainability is possible in smaller institutions. However, having good communication and student-faculty cooperation can foster greater possibilities that pave the way to a better and more sustainable future. Although there are real struggles to create sustainability initiatives, Yoder also says “I always encourage students to make their voices heard, even though it’s frustrating sometimes.”