Pastors and rabbis hoping to make the world greener learned a lesson about sustainable building design on Thursday at a university sponsored by nuns.
Leaders of a state interfaith and environmental organization viewed the green features of Marywood University's School of Architecture during a tour led by founding Dean Gregory K. Hunt.
Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light considers global climate change a moral issue and marshals congregations, faith-based groups and individuals to address it through advocacy, energy efficiency, conservation and renewable resources.
After a meeting at Temple Hesed, board members and staff representing Presbyterian, Lutheran, Unitarian, Baha'i, Jewish and other faiths learned about Marywood's transformation of a former pool and gym complex into a model of sustainable design and a living learning space for future architects.
"We believe we are educating the stewards of tomorrow's environment, and that's a huge responsibility," Mr. Hunt said.
The faith group members nodded appreciatively as he pointed out the building's green credentials: a geothermal cooling system that harnesses water from flooded mines below the campus, windows that maximize natural light, a vegetated roof whose plants reduce stormwater runoff, the dramatic reuse of the former building's materials.
The school recycled more than 80 percent of the debris from the former athletic building during renovations, he said - everything from blackboards to basketball hoops.
The organization's executive director, Cricket Eccleston Hunter, said the school's ability to adopt green features while reusing a building would be an encouraging message for clergy and laity hoping to make their congregations' existing spaces more sustainable.
Rabbi Daniel Swartz, the spiritual leader of Temple Hesed, said he hoped to foster connections with the students, other local clergy and Marywood as a faith-based institution committed to environmental sustainability.
The daunting challenge of curbing human-influenced climate change can make it "depressing work," Rabbi Swartz said. But people of faith are particularly capable of trying.
"The tradition of faith groups is of joy," he said, "of celebrating even when you're not all the way there."
Contact the writer: llegere@timesshamrock.com