Muhlenberg College
Muhlenberg College, located in Allentown, is an independent, undergraduate, coeducation institution related to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. One unique aspect of Muhlenberg's College is its arboretum. Located 45 minutes away in Bushkill Township, the Lee and Virginia Graver Arboretum of Muhlenberg College is used as an outdoor classroom by the biology and other science departments. While some students take part in field research, others enjoy hiking through the trails or taking a break to survey the beautiful scenery.
The Environmental Science program at Muhlenberg provides students with a well-rounded and diverse curriculum. Additionally, the department provides the students with the necessary background for those who wish to pursue graduate school or a career in the environmental fields. Undergraduates are encourged to participate in an internship or an environmentally oriented study abroad program. Some exciting study abroad programs are located in Australia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Canada, and many other countries.
Muhlenberg's Environmental program also offers a Teacher Certification program for students who wish to pursue a career as an environmental teacher. Those interested in attending graduate school can take part in the Muhlenberg/Duke University Cooperative Program with the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Duke. The graduate programs at Duke University include environmental science, ecology, oceanography, forestry, law, medicine, and toxicology.
Environmental Science Program at Muhlenberg College
Muhlenberg's student environmental group is the Environmental Action Team (EnAcT). EnAcT was started in 1993 and in that same year successfully started a recycling program on campus. EnAcT is very active on campus and meetings currently draw around thirty regular members. EnAcT works together with the President's Greening Committee, which is made up of students, faculty, and staff, including representatives from the Office of Residential Services, Plant Operations, and Dining Services. The Greening Committee is responsible for formulating recommendations for the college, and is currently researching the President's Climate Commitment at the request of President Randy Helm. The Greening Committee's most recent success was the approval of half the funding requested to be used for an energy audit of the campus as well as installing metering on one-third of the buildings on campus. The Committee also received full funding to hire a part-time Campus Sustainability Coordinator, and since August of 2007, Cara Owens has been serving in this position. In addition, the Greening Committee assisted with the LEED Silver Certification of the most recent academic building on campus, the New Science Building.
One of the major goals of the interns at Muhlenberg is to persuade President Helm to sign the Presidents Climate Commitment. President Helm has declared that he is a supporter of the commitment, but he does not believe that Muhlenberg is equipped to meet all the requirements of the commitment yet. The Greening Committee is working on trying to meet some intermediate goals before signing the commitment to determine the feasibility of signing. President Helm's hesitation lies in his lack of knowledge of where Muhlenberg currently stands and what it would take to meet the goals of the commitment, especially offsetting air travel. President Helm is also concerned about blindly signing the commitment without any real plans or intentions to fulfill the requirements, as he believes many other colleges and universities have done.
The interns at Muhlenberg are currently working on producing a film project documenting environmental transgressions which occur on campus. The movie will include clips of food waste, contaminated recycling, unnecessary energy usage, and unnecessary road trips to the student union from other spots on campus.
http://www.muhlenberg.edu/committees/greening/
Meeting with Plant Operations-
After meeting with Dick Begbie and Mike Brewer of Plant Ops to discuss the Campus Sustainability worksheet, we have a better idea of where Muhlenberg stands in terms of faciilities and opeations. We were pleasantly surprised how much of a conscious effort Plant Ops makes in many of their everyday choices. For example, when Muhlenberg is replacing appliances, only Energy Star appliances are purchased, even though we do not have an official policy. In addition, Muhlenberg purchases from companies offering green choices and often from local companies. Also, while Muhlenberg does not have an official policy to build only LEED certified buildings, Plant Ops considers the LEED Standards when building. Finally, in 2006, Muhlenberg produced 2500 tons of solid waste, recycled 106 tons of paper, and recycled 331 tons of comingled recyclables.
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