Math professor Sarah Mason teaches sustainability by the numbers. In her first-year seminar — “Counting on Sustainable Energy: Does it Add Up?” — students gain a greater understanding of alternative energy and learn how to critically evaluate claims about the environmental impact of fuel sources. Read more about Mason and how she combines her love of math with her passion for sustainability.

Nearly a billion people on the planet don’t have enough to eat and more than half a billion are obese. In response to growing food-related challenges, the Wake Forest University School of Divinity has established the Food, Faith and Religious Leadership Initiative.

With a focus on providing current and future religious leaders with the knowledge and skills to lead their congregations and religious communities around food issues, it is the first of its kind in the country.

“Food – food access, food quality, food production – is one of the defining issues of this generation,” says Gail O’Day, dean of the School of Divinity.  “The rapid growth of local food and farm-to-table movements has sparked a creative and essential conversation that links the revitalization of rural economies, food access for urban neighborhoods and the health and well-being of all our communities.”

O’Day says the initiative, launched this fall, has the potential to redefine theological education, reenergize the church and transform how we understand service.

Fred Bahnson, director of Food, Faith and Religious Leadership

“Food is an important frame for faith issues,” says Fred Bahnson, who was appointed director of the program. “Over the past seven years, I’ve witnessed the rise of a new faith-based movement, and I believe this renewed interest in food, justice and sustainability is driven by an even deeper hunger to see embodied what the biblical writers call Shalom, that graced state of being that results from the right relationships between God, people and the land.” Bahnson co-founded Anathoth Community Garden in Cedar Grove, N.C., and is the co-author of “Making Peace with the Land: God’s Call to Reconcile with Creation.” He has been invited to present a TED X talk in Manhattan Feb. 16 on “Changing the Way We Eat.”

While churches have often focused on food in terms of food aid, many are now thinking outside the food pantry/soup kitchen model to recreate local food economies and address food issues beyond “filling bellies,” Bahnson says.

The Initiative will train religious leaders to look beyond emergency-based responses and begin to address the root causes of hunger, obesity, food injustice and damaged ecosystems.

Third-year divinity student Nathan Peifer has a strong interest in environmental and faith issues. But, he has a particular passion for gardening and is excited about the food and faith initiative. “I think faith communities have the right combination of social capital and financial capital to manage healthy and productive community gardens,” says Peifer, who plans to be a Presbyterian minister. “I will certainly be involved in the local community garden movement and in equipping congregations to produce food for those who experience food insecurity as a daily reality.” He is looking forward to taking Bahnson’s course, “Food, Table, Communion” in the spring and has already taken “Faith, Food Justice and Local Communities,” a course taught this fall by Mark Jensen, associate professor of pastoral care and pastoral theology, and Sara Quandt, professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

“Food is the way we celebrate, the way we connect, the way we care for one another,” Jensen says. “It is at the spiritual and ethical core of faith communities to help hungry people.”

Caleb Pusey, a third-year divinity student who is also earning a joint degree in counseling, sees the value of making food and faith issues an important part of theological education. “The food most of us eat creates distance from our tables, distance from our farmers and distance from our fields. This is as much a crisis of the spirit as it is a crisis of practical insight and public resolve. This is why future faith leaders have a vital role to play.” Pusey co-founded the student group, Eco-Theo, three years ago.

Wake Forest School of Divinity Dean Gail O'Day

The Food, Faith, and Religious Leadership Initiative works with current students at the School of Divinity, but has also created a continuing education program for religious leaders and congregations. The program will focus on two geographic areas: Winston-Salem and Asheville. “The geographic, agricultural and religious richness of central/western North Carolina creates a living laboratory for engaging the crucial issues of food insecurity, food deserts and the attendant health disparities that confront the region,” O’Day says.

The initiative’s first event, a seminar and lecture on “The Spirituality of Eating” in Asheville this month, drew more than 130 people aged 19 to 82. “Its success pointed to the urgency of the topic and the incredible all-generational appeal of these issues,” she says.

Amanda Chou’s decision to start living healthier and an interest in Pinterest helped her win hundreds of dollars worth of gift certificates and eco-friendly merchandise.

Chou, a sophomore, won the national Teens Turning Green Project Green Dorm Makeover Contest. The contest asked students 18 and older to create a Pinterest board containing between 25 and 50 items that were useful for college students while being eco-friendly, and to then add a description about what makes each item green.

Her elaborate and well-researched Pinterest board ended up winning the grand prize, with a unanimous vote from the judges. The board itself contained items such as a digital alarm clock made out of bamboo and eco-friendly storage cubes made completely from recycled materials.

As a first-year student, Chou’s efforts to live healthier started with paying more attention to ingredient labels, but quickly expanded to a broader focus on sustainability. She has taken steps to live in a more environmentally-friendly way.

“I realized that there are a lot of green companies out there that are trying to make it as convenient as possible for us to really get into this,” Chou said.

Ashley Jones, coordinator of education in the Office of Residence Life & Housing, sent the contest information to the 105 campus Resident Advisors, with the hope that the RAs would forward the details to their residents.

Chou saw the message and decided to enter.

“Amanda won a lot of really neat and eco-friendly products for her residence hall room, which I hope sparks some engaging dialogue with her friends about how awareness of conservation efforts can have a positive impact on the overall campus community,” Jones said.

The idea behind the Project Green Dorm Makeover Contest is to help spread awareness and knowledge about how to maintain an eco-friendly lifestyle to the younger generations. Judi Shils, founder and director of Teens Turning Green, has been working to increase environmental awareness among youth since 2002.

“We work to mobilize youth around issues, knowing that if they were informed they could make a difference” said Shils, “if we touch one kid, then they touch others, and that’s how things change.”

Shils and Teens Turning Green, work to encourage young people to understand what they are bringing into their lives every day, and then consider what small changes they can make to live greener.

According to Chou, these small changes are not as difficult as many people might think. Many department stores have eco-friendly, everyday products, such as laundry detergent or shampoo.

“A lot of people have this misconception that living greener means using a lot of leftovers, overspending on pricey organics, or having fewer options, but the reality is there are actually a lot of companies that are learning to make green products that appeal to modern day design, and there are a lot more options out there than people are aware of,” Chou said.

As a result of her winnings, Chou’s Taylor Residence Hall room is now stocked with organic bedding, 100% recycled notebooks, healthy, natural snacks, and book bags made out of recycled plastic bottles.

Chou recently joined a new group on campus called EcoReps, a peer-to-peer education network for students who are passionate about sustainability and would like to share their expertise with other students.

For more information about Wake Forest’s sustainability initiatives:
http://sustainability.wfu.edu/

For more information about Teens Turning Green and upcoming initiatives:
http://www.teensturninggreen.org/

Rainforest conservation, biodiversity, ecosystems — these are often thought of as falling under the domain of science. But biology professor Miles Silman, director of Wake Forest’s Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (CEES) knows that real change means engaging non-scientists too.

“Many people think of Amazonian conservation as just science driven,” said Silman. “But we all have a stake in it, and there are many ways of understanding nature beyond quantifying it scientifically. Data are great, but the arts and humanities make the Amazon understandable in ways that a thousand scientists couldn’t.”

This desire to connect arts with the Amazon led to the creation of JAMAZON.

Did you know?

• The quest for valuable consumer goods and exploitation of natural resources is the leading cause of environmental degradation in the Amazon.
• 98% of Peru’s Amazonian gold comes from illegal mining in Earth’s highest biodiversity areas.

JAMAZON, billed as a “jazz event of Amazon proportions,” was a germ of an idea when Silman approached Lillian Shelton, director of the Secrest Artists Series to talk about putting together a jazz concert to raise awareness for Amazon conservation. Jazz plus Amazon turned into JAMAZON and for the featured event, Shelton was able to secure the Wayne Shorter Jazz Quartet. Shorter is listed with the Amazon Aid Foundation as an “artist for the Amazon.”

“Secrest has long pursued connections with academics,” said Shelton, “but biology was a first.” Since the Secrest Artist Series was endowed in 1987 by Marion Secrest, a local performing arts patron, Shelton has been bringing world-class musicians to campus. The performances are free for Wake Forest students, faculty and staff.

In addition to the featured concert, three students will play on stage with Brian Blade, John Patricucci and Danilo Perez, members of the Quartet, as part of a workshop hosted by the music department. A Q&A will follow.

Other events include a slideshow and lecture by National Geographic photographer Sam Abell, a talk by Karen Pinkus, entitled  “No Return: The Humanities Confront Climate Change” and screenings of the award-winning documentary film, “Amazon Gold.” A complete schedule is available on the JAMAZON website.

While on campus, Pinkus will meet with an interdisciplinary faculty seminar sponsored by Wake Forest University’s Humanities Institute. Faculty from religion, environmental studies, history, English, interdisciplinary humanities, and biology are working together this year to examine the human dimensions of sustainability and lay the groundwork for a new project that will address the relationships between space, place and community identity, as well as environmental awareness in the region.

“Multi-disciplinary work is critical if we are to progress in our efforts towards sustainability,” said religion professor Mary Foskett, who directs the Humanities Institute. “Research at the intersection of the humanities and environmental studies is helping us take a fresh look at the knowledge bases that dictate and shape our interaction with the environment, as well as those that may be key in identifying new strategies and avenues for response.”

JAMAZON is a Secrest Artists Series event in collaboration with the Center for Environment, Energy and Sustainability, the Office of Sustainability, the Department of Music, the Humanities Institute and Interdisciplinary PLACe. The opportunity to contribute to the Amazon Aid Foundation will be available at all JAMAZON events.

Students returning to campus may be surprised to see how tall the concrete towers rising between Wait Chapel and Polo Residence Hall have become. These towers are the most visible footprint of two new residence halls that will open August 2013.

“I’ve been on many other campuses, and I believe Wake Forest has the best-designed and intentional residential experience for students,” said Donna McGalliard, Dean of Residence Life and Housing. “Our housing options, south to north, mirror their emotional and social development. Our first-year students live on South Campus, with buildings designed around a double-loaded corridor model. The rooms open onto the hallway and feature common bathrooms – perfect for meeting others and building a community.

“As sophomores, they move to The Quad with more private bathrooms and assignments typically based on friendship groups they’ve formed. As upperclassman, they move north to apartment-style housing that prepares them to live on their own.”

The two new north campus residence halls will offer a mix of suites with double and single rooms for about 480 upper class undergraduate students, just time for the new three-year residency requirement. They were designed with the input of student focus groups and an administrative and student committee, which also planned the living experience of South Hall, which opened in fall 2010. The new residence halls will offer block housing, allowing students to choose three to eight students they want to live with in a very close space.

“It will be like walking into an efficiency apartment,” McGalliard said. “Students will be able to do limited cooking in their rooms with microwaves, but there will also be large kitchens on each floor.”

Other amenities include study spaces, both private and public, large recreation lounges where students can play games like foosball or ping pong, and media rooms, perfect for gaming tournaments or movie nights.

“The look of the new residence halls will be very reminiscent of the residence halls across campus with the brick arches, patio spaces and that southern front-porch feel our students love,” she said. “We want to honor the architecture on our campus, but also provide different and more modern spaces with lots of light, openness and opportunities for gathering.”

A new dining facility will also offer a variety of service options, from sit-down meals to short order menus and a convenience store.

The two residence halls will be energy efficient, designed to meet silver-level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.

“The students have been great advisors for us as we made plans for these new residence halls,” McGalliard said. “They know what they want and are genuinely interested in helping us design these new spaces. We are excited about the opening of these facilities and look forward to the future of residential life on campus

Imagine the opportunity to experience some of the most meaningful facets of college – such as intellectual curiosity, community living, and lasting friendships – in a trial run before your junior or senior year of high school.

Participants in LENS @ Wake Forest, a residential summer program that equips high school students with the academic foundation necessary to become global citizens, spent the last three weeks doing just that.

LENS stands for Learn. Experience. Navigate. Solve. This year, 32 high school students from Calif. to Conn. came to Wake Forest to focus on one theme: Confronting the Challenges of Global Sustainability. While here, they attended classes, developed community action plans and experienced living in a dorm.

“It’s been a great window into college life,” said Michael Forlenza of Weston, Fla. “Together we’ve learned a lot about sustainability and community life.”

Welcome to college … almost

More information

Program director Leigh Stanfield (center, black dress) with LENS participants.

This was the third year for LENS @ Wake Forest. This year’s program would not be possible without the dedication of faculty and staff:

• Program Director: Leigh Stanfield, director of LENS and Global Auxiliary Programs in the Provost’s Office for Global Affairs
• Faculty Director: Michelle Klosterman, assistant professor of education
• Writing Director: Ryan Shirey, interim director of the Writing Center
• Instructional Librarians: Hu Womack and Bobbie Collins, Z. Smith Reynolds Library
• Guest speakers: Shelley Graves Sizemore, assistant director of Campus Life; Lucas Johnston, assistant professor of religion and environmental studies; Dedee Johnston, director of the Office of Sustainability; Phoebe Zerwick, lecturer, English

To confront the issues associated with global sustainability, students learned from Wake Forest professors and experts in the biological, ecological, political, economic, and social aspects of sustainability.

Experiential classrooms offered participants hands-on opportunities to explore scientific concepts underlying current issues of sustainability, while living labs allowed participants to explore local businesses and organizations incorporating principles of sustainability.

In addition to the interactive service learning, LENS offers students a variety of social events and activities to represent the fun side of college.

“LENS is special because students learn in an environment that has less pressure than college since no credit or grades are given,” said Leigh Stanfield, Director of LENS and Global Auxiliary Programs in the Provost’s Office for Global Affairs. “We like to keep the group to about 30 students so they get the true Wake Forest experience, which includes small classes, a close-knit environment, and personal attention.”

Preview to Pro Humanitate

The LENS participants also made a significant impact on the Winston-Salem community, having logged a total of 745 community service hours during their short stay.

Many of these hours were dedicated to addressing six specific sustainability needs for three community partners:

• Campus Kitchen – a food recycling program that uses cooked but never served food from the campus dining hall to make healthy and nutritious meals for those in need.
• Campus Garden – a productive research habitat for USDA funded crop research performed by university professors and graduate students and a living lab for biology classes.
• The Shalom Project – a community non-profit organization that feeds the hungry, offers clothing to those in need, tutors at risk children and cares for the sick.

Andrés González’s group assembled a raised bed to make the campus garden more accessible to persons with limited mobility. González, whose father Luis is an Associate Professor of Romance Languages, plans to return to the garden to volunteer for his local high school’s service club.

Meanwhile, Graham Shue’s group presented a business proposal and new marketing collateral to help The Shalom Project develop a new concept for its weekly community dinner.

Graham Shue with his mother, Mary (P '13). Graham's older brother, Blake, will be a senior at Wake Forest this year.

Shue, a Chevy Chase, Md. native whose brother Blake (’13) is a Wake Forest senior, says he also might return to help assist with The Shalom Project … as a Demon Deacon himself.

“My brother wants me to create my own experience, but my family was thrilled when I decided to come to LENS because they know he has had such a great time at Wake Forest,” he said. “It’s been a great experience and working so closely with the faculty has allowed me to have a few extra resources so that if I decide to attend Wake, I feel like I’ll have connections on my own.”

But for now, he’s proud of the work he and his peers accomplished through LENS @ Wake Forest.

“Hopefully we can all put our efforts into action and they won’t stop after three weeks,” said Shue.

Campus sustainability means a lot more than recycling paper and planting trees.

According to Wake Forest’s Director of Sustainability Dedee DeLongpré Johnston, sustainability is about maintaining the long-term well-being of a community.

“The Office of Sustainability is like the hub of a bicycle wheel. The people on and off-campus working to create a sustainable environment are the spokes, and we’re here to empower them to lead the change,” said DeLongpré Johnston.

In recognition of Wake Forest’s sustainability efforts, ranging from sponsoring activities for 10 Days of Celebrating the Earth to reducing campus waste, the University has received a Silver rating from the Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS).

Like the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED system for buildings, STARS is an assessment program developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) that gives ratings of Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

On this year’s scorecard, Wake Forest excelled in administrative coordination and collaboration between students, faculty and the greater Winston-Salem community.

Incoming first-years work in the community garden on campus as they participate in the Sustainability in Action pre-orientation program.

Wake Forest was among the first universities in the country to join STARS in 2010. Today, nearly 230 institutions throughout the U.S. and Canada use the assessment system to report achievements and receive points in three main categories: education and research, operations, and planning, administration and engagement.

“AASHE engaged colleges and universities across the country and Canada in developing sustainability indicators that were specific to higher education and completely transparent,” DeLongpré Johnston said.

The Office of Sustainability facilitated efforts and gathered data from multiple departments on campus, from the Institute for Public Engagement to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. They also worked to expand the boundary of the STARS assessment to include university-owned properties beyond campus borders such as Graylyn International Conference Center, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, the University Corporate Center, the Reynolda Business Center, and the athletic facilities on Deacon Boulevard.

Wake Forest’s Building Dashboard helps campus monitor energy use and see the impact of energy reduction efforts.

“We feel it is important to be broadly inclusive of all areas touched by the university, with the hopes that we can lead change within these broader circles of influence,” said President Nathan Hatch. “We look forward to the continuous improvement that this assessment system promotes across the broad range of entities and activities that are touched by the mission of Wake Forest University.”

STARS helps universities measure improvement in sustainability efforts and learn from similar institutions. In the upcoming year, Wake Forest will build on this year’s success by investing more time in education and research, with a new curriculum workshop for faculty, and upcoming projects related to energy and climate change.

“STARS allows the campus to clearly identify ‘strong and weak’ program areas in terms of the rating scores,” said Vice President of Facilities and Campus Services James Alty. “There are major opportunities to engage campus in energy and water conservation. Our new energy manager, Ravish Paul, is leading that effort and we have several new tools to help educate the campus community about these areas.”

On April 20, the Arbor Day Foundation honored Wake Forest’s commitment to the care and preservation of its trees with a Tree Campus USA designation. To earn the honor, WFU achieved five core standards for sustainable campus forestry. Read more from Wake Forest Magazine.

From a cardboard boat race to a panel discussion on fracking to a food activism workshop, Wake Forest’s 10 days of celebrating the earth will engage the campus in thinking about sustainability issues April 19 through April 28. Read more from the Office of Sustainability.

Counting kilowatt-hours and gallons of water used on campus has just gotten easier with Wake Forest’s adoption of the new Building Dashboard.  Now, everyone on campus can help monitor energy use and see the impact of energy reduction efforts.

The dashboard tracks real-time energy use in 39 buildings across campus and is designed to engage the campus community in conserving energy.  Created by Lucid Design group, the tool gives users the ability to monitor water usage, kilowatt usage and carbon dioxide emissions, as well as energy costs.

“Using their laptops, viewers can see how much energy is used at any time in buildings on campus,” said Ravish Paul, the energy manager in the university’s Energy Management Office who has worked to implement the dashboard at Wake Forest.   “This tool is part of our commitment to sustainability and will help the campus community reduce consumption and our carbon footprint. Our goal is to encourage students, staff and professors to look at the dashboard, understand and compare their building’s energy consumption and make a commitment to conserving.”

Colorful interactive graphs bring energy usage statistics to life.  Data is fed into the system every minute, so members of the campus community can check the energy usage at any time of day and compare hour-by-hour statistics for Wake Forest and for other colleges and universities participating in the competition who use the dashboard.  The system also reveals how much energy is being used for heating and cooling and how much solar energy is being captured by South Residence Hall and The Barn, the two campus buildings with solar equipment.

Paul encourages people to click on the “commit to conserve” widget available on the dashboard home page that asks users to make specific changes, like using a desktop lamp instead of an overhead light or using a power strip to completely shut off power to unused computers.  The app can be linked to a Facebook account, allowing users to challenge their friends or encourage them to join the effort.

Energy conservation is not a one-time action, Paul says. “It is a consistent behavioral change.  As people become more aware, their voices will be heard wherever they go. When students get jobs, they will convince their companies to reduce energy.  This needs collective understanding and collective effort.”

The dashboard is not only a tool for saving energy, but is also a tool for learning.  Paul is encouraging professors to incorporate the dashboard in their classes.

“We want members of the campus community to spend a few minutes using the dashboard and then share this information with others.   Give us ideas to improve it as we look forward to positively affecting our environment,” he says.