Sustainability is rooted in community, and, at Calvin, campus life is full of opportunities to learn about God’s creation, to rest and delight in the natural world, and to contribute to a flourishing community.

Exploring the quarter of Calvin’s campus that is set aside to preserve and restore natural communities—this includes the Calvin Ecosystem Preserve and Native Gardens as well as restored green spaces across campus.

Joining the Sustainability Fellows and having an instant social group focused on sustainability; you will take classes together, travel to a common spring break destination, and plan FAST—a campus-wide festival of learning.

Living in the Creation Care/Outdoor Recreation Living-Learning community lets you practice sustainably with a vibrant community and try new adventures like kayaking, skiing, backpacking, and rock climbing. You can even rent outdoor gear from Calvin!

Serving as a Sustainability Coordinator with other residence hall leaders allows you to learn about creation care and plan an epic campus-wide energy contest called Kill-a-Watt.

Joining a student organization and getting to know other students, helping prevent food waste, and advocating for sustainability initiatives on campus and in the world!

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• Ecosystem Preserve & Native Garden
• Bunker Interpretive Center
• Outdoor Recreation & Creation Care Floor
• FAST Conference
• Gear Rental and Bike Shop
• Kill-a-watt

Calvin makes it easy to get involved in sustainability efforts on campus.

• Being a part of a campus community that tracks its sustainability work and has earned a STARS Silver rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). Each year, Calvin hires students to help with sustainability tracking, assessment, and rating for the STARS program.
• Helping to build an increasingly sustainable infrastructure that has new energy-saving every year by becoming a Calvin Energy Recovery Fund (CERF) intern. CERF interns select projects that will reduce energy consumption, monitor financial savings, and then reinvest the savings into another project for continual growth and sustainable improvement.
• Getting involved in a wide range of student organizations focused on sustainability issues such as preventing food waste and working to protect clean water.
• Living in the Creation Care/Outdoor Recreation Living-Learning community lets you practice sustainably with a vibrant community and try new adventures like kayaking, skiing, backpacking, and rock climbing. You can even rent outdoor gear from Calvin!
• Volunteering with Plaster Creek Stewards, a campus initiative working to restore the health and beauty of the Plaster Creek Watershed.
• Eating at the dining hall where food waste is reduced, green containers are available and staff are making continual improvements to increase sustainability.
• Making sustainable choices every day with recycling, composting, community gardens, transportation options, and energy challenges.
• Harvesting sap and making maple syrup in the spring from campus trees.

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• STARS
• CERF
• Plaster Creek Stewards
• Transportation Options
• Dining Services
• Knollcrest East Community Garden
• Hampshire Street Community Garden
• Outdoor Recreation & Creation Care Floor
• Gear Rental and Bike Shop
• Kill-a-watt

In Matthew 22, Jesus sums up our mission on earth in two commands: love God; love others. We do that by pursuing sustainability. We seek to steward and regenerate the natural resources God has placed in our care. We seek social and economic systems that are just and equitable. We seek a future where all our neighbors can flourish. We practice sustainability as kingdom building.

• Loving our Creator: attend campus chapel—held each weekday throughout the school year. We regularly include themes of stewardship, justice, and community—pillars of sustainability.
• Loving our Neighbors: you can start off your Calvin career with Streetfest—a day of community service that is part of new student orientation.
• Furthering a history of Christ-centered sustainability:
  • In 1977, the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship was formed, which studied the topic of "Christian Stewardship and Natural Resources”.
  • Their work led to the publishing of Earth Keeping: Christian Stewardship of Natural Resources, one of the earliest Christian books on sustainability.
  • That tradition has continued and expanded at Calvin, leading to the 2019 publication of Beyond Stewardship: New Approaches to Creation Care.

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• Streetfest
• Beyond Stewardship
• FAST Conference

Both in and out of the classroom, there are so many opportunities to learn about sustainability as we care for the creation and pursue carbon neutrality.

• Learning from the best: many Calvin professors are authors of highly regarded books and papers on sustainability-related topics, some of which will be used as textbooks in your courses.
• Showcasing your work: many classes include student sustainability projects, and the sustainability showcase is the place to share them. The Sustainability Showcase is held at the end of each semester and includes an engaging speaker and poster session to learn about other student work, too.
• Earning a sustainability designation: Earn the interdisciplinary Sustainability Designation to show prospective employers you are interested in sustainability issues. This designation is open to students pursuing any of Calvin’s programs.
• Researching with faculty: Students can hone their research skills and discover ways to clean water working on summer projects through on-campus groups such as Clean Water Institute or Plaster Creek Stewards.
• Taking Introduction to Sustainability Challenges (IDIS184): This exciting course is the gateway for sustainability studies at Calvin.
• Pursuing any of the sustainability-related majors and minors at Calvin. Explore the Sustainability Designation; Environmental Studies; Environmental Science; the Energy, Environment, and Sustainability concentration in engineering; and core classes to earn the Environmental Sustainability tag.
• Learning science by doing science in the First Year Research in Earth Science (FYRES) course: This innovative course invites students to develop their own scientific questions and take data on the shore of Lake Michigan.

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• Sustainability Showcase (CEAP) History
• Plaster Creek Stewards
• Plaster Creek Stewards Research
• Clean Water Institute
• Summer STEM Research

When you study at Calvin, the greater Grand Rapids community becomes your classroom. Building on Calvin’s partnerships with local businesses, organizations and nonprofits, there are plenty of opportunities to apply sustainability analysis and work towards real-life solutions.

• Being a green infrastructure leader with Plaster Creek Stewards means you can help restore the health of the watershed—one plant at a time. Plaster Creek Stewards is an initiative of �ƴ��ɸ�����̳ that combines research, education, and on-the-ground projects to restore relationships with the creek and neighbors.
• Volunteering with Clean Water Institute of �ƴ��ɸ�����̳ allows you to improve access to clean drinking water locally and abroad. Students can research clean water challenges and solutions through coursework, volunteering, or by joining research projects.
• Connecting with a local business in a Sustainability Action Workshop which allows groups to consider and address real-life sustainability challenges related to local businesses and concerns.
• Helping cultivate Calvin’s two community gardens; the produce is sometimes used at the dining hall!
• Attending FAST—an annual gathering for high school and college students to learn about sustainability, share ideas, network, and leave with renewed commitment to living sustainably.

Explore

• Plaster Creek Stewards
• Clean Water Institute
• Knollcrest East Community Garden
• Hampshire Street Community Garden
• FAST Conference

At Calvin you will not only learn about sustainability, but you will also live it! In 2017, Calvin signed the President’s Climate Commitment, and we are aggressively pursuing carbon neutrality.

• Experiencing an integrated solar PV system that covers the roof of the Bunker Interpretive Center, Calvin’s first LEED certified building in the Calvin Ecosystem Preserve.
• Seeing the demonstration wind turbine at the Gainey athletic fields.
• Earning a Silver rating from the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS) from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE); our strategic plan calls us to pursue a Gold rating!
• Installing rain gardens and extending native plantings throughout campus helps Calvin minimize runoff into local rivers, lakes, and ultimately to Lake Michigan with Plaster Creek Stewards.
• Plugging in your electric vehicle at the charging stations on campus.

Explore

• Plaster Creek Stewards
• President’s Climate Commitment Initial Signing
• President’s Climate Commitment
• Environmental Sustainability: A Roadmap for �ƴ��ɸ�����̳
• Statement on Sustainability
• STARS
• Bunker Interpretive Center
• Wind Turbine Demonstration
• Solar Plans
• Calvin Strategic Plan 2025

You don’t have to go far to experience the beauty of God’s creation at Calvin. Expect to find it right here on campus! West Michigan promises unique beauty and diverse outdoor experiences in all four seasons.

• Exploring Calvin Ecosystem Preserve and Native Gardens: 104 acres of campus are set aside to provide habitat for native plants and animals, education and recreation for our community, and a setting of peace and reflection for Calvin students.
• Seeing all the trees: Our campus includes thousands of trees, and has been certified as an official “Tree Campus” by the US Arbor Day Foundation for several years. Building on that success, Calvin cartography students mapped all of our campus trees, which allowed us to create the Speelman Arboretum in 2022.
• Experiencing wellness in nature: In 2021, Calvin joined the Campus Nature Rx Network. We are committed to helping you access the wellness benefits of time in nature: lower stress, better focus, lower blood pressure, stronger immune system, and more. The Preserve hosts a weekly Wellness in the Woods program exclusively for Calvin students.
• Discovering local parks: Calvin is fortunate to be close to many beautiful city, county, state, and national parks. Whether you’re drawn to the 5-mile paved trail around Reed’s Lake, the long vistas of Crahen Valley Park, or the quiet wilderness of Manistee National Forest, you're sure to find an outdoor experience to enjoy. Calvin even has recreational equipment for rent and an outdoor recreation club for company!
• Exploring the Fresh Coast: Michigan is undoubtedly the Great Lakes State, and Calvin is close to the sugar-sand beaches and soaring dunes of Lake Michigan. An easy day trip with your friends, the closest beaches are less than an hour away.

Explore

• Ecosystem Preserve & Native Gardens
• Arboretum
• Mapping Calvin’s Trees
• Nature Rx

Study, learn, grow, and contribute to a city with a long history of embracing sustainability. Work with local partners in corporations, non-profits, and governments to advance sustainability initiatives.

• Both Grand Rapids and �ƴ��ɸ�����̳ have aggressive goals for carbon neutrality. Calvin is committed to carbon neutrality no later than 2057 while the City of Grand Rapids has an ambitious goal of 100% carbon neutrality by 2025.
• Joining Grand Rapids' Mayor for the Grand River Cleanup, a weeklong campaign to remove trash from local rivers.
• Participating in the Spring Forum with Lower Grand River Organization of Watersheds (LGROW)
• Living Building Challenge at Zoo: The John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids is a regional benchmark for sustainable design. The Zoo has won awards for sustainable landscape planning, design, construction and maintenance.
• Millennium Park: Grand Rapids and surrounding communities boast Millennium Park, one of the largest urban parks in the United States. The park contains six miles of frontage and nearly 20 miles of trails.
• Lake Michigan beaches: Located less than an hour from Lake Michigan, the beaches of the Lake are a tremendous natural resource. People of all ages enjoy the beach for its recreation and beauty with strong efforts both within �ƴ��ɸ�����̳ and regionally to preserve, protect and enhance the natural resource.
• Students can volunteer, seek internships, or partner with many sustainably minded non-profit organizations throughout the area working to improve the health and well-being of area residents.

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