Cedarwood residence hall, Eastern Mennonite University’s first LEED building, is nearing completion. EMU is working with Troyer Group, Mishawaka, IN, and Harman Construction, Inc., Harrisonburg, VA, to create natural lighting, recycled flooring, a bike shed with a “green” roof and native landscaping among other things. Cedarwood residence hall will house 120 students, replacing Oakwood residence, a 40-year-old structure. read more

by Jim Bishop

HARRISONBURG, Va. – Not often do graduate students develop business strategies by observing first-hand patterns of meadow regeneration and interdependence at the Shenandoah National Park or by engaging social entrepreneurs at the local Farmers Market and at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton in conversations about achieving sustainability advantage.

Few business programs encourage students to use Facebook and Wikispaces to develop collaborative team strategies outside the classroom.  But then, the Steward-Leadership Masters in Business Administration at Eastern Mennonite University is no ordinary MBA program.

“Given its history of increasing leadership strengths, building management skills, and developing stewardship strategies, EMU’s MBA program is uniquely positioned to serve the needs of today’s demanding work-place and regional employers, as greater emphasis is now placed on ethics, stewardship of natural and human resources and effective collaborative strategies for a fast-changing global marketplace,” said Anthony E. (Tony) Smith, MBA co-director. “These very qualities lie at the heart of EMU’s institutional core values.”

Dr. Smith has been teaching a summer course in the MBA program “Stewardship, Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship,” that engaged students in systems approaches to stewardship and innovation and involved them in live projects with local corporations and non-profit organizations.  The clients included Shenandoah National Park, Rosetta Stone, American Shakespeare Center and the Staunton Creative Community Fund (SCCF).

“I’m very impressed by the amount of research on a complicated topic, in a short period of time that the MBA students have achieved.” said Tim Taglauer, assistant chief of interpretation and education for Shenandoah National Park, after MBA students gave a presentation on business strategies for increasing the “sustainable advantage” for the park.

Their recommendations included repositioning the park as a center for increasing eco-literacy and for the park to develop and strengthen strategic partnerships with local communities and schools.

Meghan Williamson, executive director of SCCF, found that the MBA students had developed an innovative “business to environment” model that could strengthen the success of their small business clients and outlined innovative financing methods to support SCCF’s programs.  The course ended Aug. 4 with MBA business strategy presentations to Rosetta Stone and to the American Shakespeare Center.

“This course is but one example of how the EMU’s Steward-Leadership MBA program offers a distinctive approach to preparing business leaders for the challenges of an increasingly uncertain business environment,” Smith stated. “The program works with the busy schedules of full-time working professionals who are seeking to strengthen their careers.”

For more information about the Steward-Leadership MBA program, contact Smith at anthony.smith@emu.edu or visit the website at www.emu.edu/mba or the MBA Facebook page at http://tinyurl.com/kuez2h.

Opportunities for learning do not end in May for students at Eastern Mennonite University. This summer, eight students and three professors conducted research in Harrisonburg, VA, Cambodia and Hawaii with grants from the National Science Foundation and the Hawaii Invasive Species Council. Professors and students joined together to conduct research on antioxidants in tomatoes, drinking water sanitation and the control of fire ants. read more

Cedarwood under construction.

HARRISONBURG, Va. – Eastern Mennonite University and Altadena Energy &
Solar are cooperating on a solar hot water system for EMU’s new Cedarwood
residence hall, which is scheduled to open in August, 2009.  The solar hot
water system will preheat the domestic hot water for the new facility,
saving over 50% of the natural gas consumption associated with hot water
preparation for the 120-student dormitory.

Cedarwood, which is replacing EMU’s 39-year-old Oakwood residence, is both
a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and US
Energystar-rated building.

“Energy savings from the solar hot water system is estimated to be 2900
therms per year, which is over 2600 gallons of gasoline equivalent (GGE)
per year, or 528 tons of CO2 over its 30-year lifetime,” said Hans W.
Rosenberger, president of Altadena Energy and Solar based in
Altadena, Calif.

“The hot water system will dramatically reduce natural gas consumption,
which will also decrease the energy costs and price volatility for the
university,” Rosenberger said. “Solar system performance will be displayed
for the students in the building lobby and simultaneously recorded by the
building management system for further validation and analysis.”

The solar hot water service will be provided to Eastern Mennonite
University under a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) from Altadena
Energy & Solar. The system will be built and commissioned in late summer
2009.

Harrisonburg, Virginia (USA) – Nancy R. Heisey is being taken for a ride, but she’s not objecting. Heisey, chair of the Bible and religion department at Eastern Mennonite University, is “trying to do my responsible part” in caring for the environment by leaving her car at home and getting to campus by other means.

For two years now, she has committed herself to walking, biking or taking public transportation for the 1.5 mile commute to work. (more…)

While many professors hope their courses will transform their students, Doug Graber Neufeld and Jim Yoder, both associate professors of biology at Eastern Mennonite University, have even higher goals. They hope their students can transform their campus.
(more…)