Presidents Climate Commitment:
Why EMU Hasn’t Signed On
Matt Frei, chief Washington, D.C., correspondent for the BBC, interviewed President Loren Swartzendruber in April on creation care from an Anabaptist perspective for a BBC production, aired internationally, about Christian response to global warming. Read more...
More than 300 college and university presidents have signed on to the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment.
The document is a college-level pledge to show leadership in eliminating emissions that contribute to global warming and in educating students to work toward “climate neutrality.” Read more at www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org
EMU’s President Loren Swartzendruber carefully considered signing on to the letter in August 2007. After significant processing with Physical Plant staff and others on campus, however, he declined to sign the document.
The decision was made primarily because Swartzendruber and campus staff were concerned that EMU may not be able to fully complete the very ambitious climate control standards outlined in the document.
“Signing on to this kind of letter is not something I take lightly,” said President Swartzendruber. “I fully support the intent of the letter.”
However, he noted, “we could not see our way clear to promise that we would be able to meet all of the very strict standards established in the presidents' letter. We will continue to review our systems and I will sign the document when I have the information to support doing so.”
EMU has a long history of commitment to energy efficiency. In fact, the campus has been called a “pioneer” in efficient energy use, and was noted as third in the nation among similar institutions for energy efficiency in 2006.
