La Sierra University Going Green
La Sierra University hopes to bring a new look to its Riverside, California campus: Green. Vice President for Student Life Yamileth Bazan, with the help of both students and faculty, hopes to make environmental responsibility a mainstay of Adventist higher education at LSU.
The plan to green La Sierra encompasses changes from the macro, institutional level to lifestyle changes on the personal level.
Dr. Lee Greer, a recent addition to the college’s biology department, has undertaken projects with LSU honors students to install solar panels on campus that would one day offset the school’s electricity consumption and to convert the cafeteria’s used cooking oil into biodiesel.
Incoming freshman will have the opportunity to take part in an environmental workshop with tips for greening their dorm rooms, reducing energy consumption and opportunities to get involved in projects around campus to create an ethos of ecological stewardship. As an incentive to students, prizes and scholarships will be awarded to students who demonstrate outstanding care for the environment.
Vegetarian foods in the school’s dining facilities add to La Sierra’s emphasis on environmental advocacy. A vegetarian diet is widely known to be most beneficial to the environment (See the United Nations FAO report on the impact of livestock here.)
With its campus-wide emphasis on environmental responsibility, La Sierra University hopes to stay on the leading edge of eco-stewardship in Adventism.
[Full disclosure – Jared Wright is a La Sierra student, and has been invited to lead an advisory group for La Sierra environmental initiatives]
