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Flush twice. It's required at Calvin College's Vincent and Helen Bunker Interpretive Center's restrooms; once before, once after. The flushed water, which is the consistency of a bubble bath, washes waste to an underground room. There, preserve manager Cheryl Hoogewind and I climb up on a metal receptacle and look into a huge bin of waste that smells pleasantly of wood chips. This compost will eventually be spread as fertilizer on the college grounds.

Above us in the 5,000-square-foot building, a student-designed solar photovoltaic system generates electricity from sunlight; meanwhile, gray water from drinking fountains and sinks nourishes plants lining the classroom windowsills. It's all part of the Bunker Center's environmental sustainability.

Integrating creation care with academics is a growing emphasis on Christian campuses around the country. According to Paul Corts, president of the interdenominational Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), about 40 of 105 North American member schools have adopted significant green initiatives. These vary considerably, from multimillion-dollar sustainable "villages" and student volunteer educational programs to majors in environmental studies and recycling pop cans in school cafeterias. There is also national action.

Last November, 30 Christian college students met in Washington, D.C., to present elected officials with the Evangelical Youth Climate Initiative (EYCI), signed by 1,500 Christian students. EYCI is an independent effort of young evangelicals to follow up on last February's Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI), signed by 86 Christian leaders (including 39 Christian college presidents).

Amanda Benavides, a sophomore at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, says, "Going to Washington was just another step toward discovering new aspects of my faith in God and ways to serve him."

Network building is gaining momentum. In January, an environmental summit on the Wheaton College campus brought together Christian college students from all over the United States. "We need to cultivate younger leadership," says Wheaton College senior and environmental studies major Ben Lowe. "Rather than reinventing the wheel, we can share ideas, offer feedback, and cooperate with each other."

Many students come to college believing that environmentalism has little to do with their faith. College is often the first time they are challenged to think differently.

"Christian campuses … are considered theologically safe places where new ideas can be examined and tested," says Peter Illyn, founder of Restoring Eden, a parachurch ministry based in La Center, Washington, that helped recruit key student leaders for the Washington, D.C., event.

"I grew up thinking: 'environment, liberal, bad,' " says Benavides. Her freshman year was a turning point. "When I read the Evangelical Youth Climate Initiative, I was encouraged by its message and challenged to act as a Christian for environmental justice issues."

For Yuri Semenyuk, a 2005 graduate of Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington, it was a study-abroad program in Costa Rica and Nicaragua that prompted him to major in environmental engineering.

"When I was exposed firsthand to the impact that poor environmental care can cause, I was shocked," Semenyuk says, recalling a protest he witnessed in Nicaragua. "The people were field workers on banana plantations where extremely powerful chemicals are used to make a 'perfect banana' for consumers in the U.S. The chemicals are outlawed in the U.S. and in other developed countries." The people protesting had permanent chemical burns, Semenyuk says, and their children suffered birth defects. Semenyuk realized that his own consumption patterns—even ones as simple as buying a banana—had a significant impact on people living elsewhere.

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May 2007, Vol. 51, No. 5