Brian Webb, sustainability coordinator at Houghton College, wants “to leave the world a better place.”
Webb’s responsibilities as sustainability coordinator include student engagement with events, meetings and seminars that focus on campus energy use and how to steward the Houghton environment well. His oversight also includes campus operations and policies related to environmental impact.
Webb loves to interact with students and foster awareness about the positive and negative impact they can have on the environment around them. Web said there are “epiphany moments when students are able to learn and connect the way they live out their faith and daily activities and how it impacts people from both an ecology but also a human welfare perspective.”
Throughout the school year, Webb and other faculty provide events for students that teach them how to live more sustainably. Some of his favorite events include applesauce-making, where students gather together to learn how to make and can fresh applesauce, and a farmers’ market, which brings local farmers from the area onto Houghton’s campus. Students are able to buy fresh local produce and get to know the community around them.
At their annual event, students and faculty come together and work on outdoor projects, such as planting trees or flowers, picking up trash or cleaning up the roads. “It’s a great time to see students and faculty come together to get their hands dirty,” Webb said.
One of the many “wins” Webb has seen during his time as sustainability coordinator is the installation of solar panels on campus. But the daily delight of the job for Webb is seeing students engage and connect with ways of stewarding the environment and ecosystem. Webb reflected that this resembles our growth in the life of faith, in the process of improving, learning and developing.
“Houghton is a fantastic community. There is such a close interaction between the students and faculty,” Webb said.
To learn more about Brian Webb, Houghton College and their sustainability efforts, visit https://www.houghton.edu.
