As the season changes and the natural beauty of Houghton’s campus is transformed by autumn, one group on campus is working to ensure that the Houghton community cares for this vibrant area. The Eco Reps, the college’s student organization for sustainability and creation care, are now preparing for a full year of encouraging students to engage with the environment surrounding them.
The group, created by Sustainability Coordinator Brian Webb, started in the fall of 2013 as a way to engage students in environmental issues. There was previously a Creation Care Club at the college, but it never drew in large groups of students. Its lack of popularity motivated Webb to approach the concept of a student organization in a different way. Unlike a regular campus club, Eco Reps is a function of the Office of Sustainability. This allows for continuity year-to-year through Webb’s direct involvement in facilitating the organization, as well as for the use of the sustainability budget to aid in financing Eco Reps programming.
“This way there’s a synergy between students’ ideas and the sustainability goals that the college has put together,” said Webb.
Last year, members of the Eco Reps planned a coffeehouse campfire event in the woods, organized a Faith and Sustainability panel, and started the process for two long-term projects. One of these projects seeks to reform the college’s lack of institutional policy to use sustainably sourced paper, which Eco Rep Coordinator, senior Lauren Bechtel, is continuing to discuss with the administration. Another project will attempt to raise funds to install an apple orchard in the green space between Steese Cottage and the tennis courts. While both Bechtel and her co-leader, Eco Rep Coordinator and junior Daniel Bellerose, look forward to pursuing these initiatives, their main goal for the year can be summed up in one word: awareness.
“Overall, the purpose is awareness,” said Bechtel. “Awareness of how you can make more sustainable decisions on an individual level, but also how we can work together as a community to be wise with what we’ve been given.”
In order to accomplish this objective, as well as to ensure that Eco Reps become a recognizable name on campus, the organization has put more emphasis on planning events to engage the Houghton community. As part of the Young Evangelicals for Climate Action fellowship program, Bechtel and Bellerose participated in a weeklong training program last August that readied them to take leadership positions this year.
“We were able to write down goals and build a solid concrete foundation to move into the school year with,” said Bellerose. “Our big goal for this year is to reach out to every discipline.”
To connect with every department, major, and campus group may seem like an intimidating task, but the Eco Reps are prepared for the challenge. Bechtel and Bellerose have set up monthly themes that will culminate in one event per month. For example, September’s theme “Get Outside” will end with a Trail Mixer this coming Saturday, September 26 in which the Eco Reps will provide free trail mix and guided walks through Houghton’s trails. Other events will include a panel on Faith and Sustainability to offer some philosophical and theological motivations for caring about the environment, and an Arts and Environment Expo next semester.
“Studies have shown that when it comes to environmental issues, people don’t respond to facts,” said Bechtel. “People respond to personal experiences or their previous background, whether that’s religious or political or geographical locations. We’re hoping to communicate the need for action on environmental issues in a way that’s not necessarily based on fact and reason, but on experience and how we perceive reality.”
Now in its third year, the Eco Reps program has grown to fifty-two official members. Thirty students attended this year’s first meeting, and all of them signed up to help plan this year’s activities and events. Webb is thrilled with the enthusiasm.
“It’s an answer to many years of prayer, for me,” said Webb. “Now, finally, large numbers of students are engaging with this and understanding how creation care interacts with our faith.”
Thanks to the undertaking of Webb and this group of conscientious students, the Eco Reps are primed for another year of engaging in their own understanding of creation care. The Houghton community at large is set to benefit from their continuing efforts.