Camp Friedenswald

the peaceful woods

Resilience and Sustainability at Camp

Climate Action Plan (CAP) 2024-2030

CAP Summary
Full Camp Friedenswald CAP

2018-2022 By the Numbers

2024 Strategic Plan Progress
2023 Strategic Plan Progress
2018-22 By the Numbers
2021 By the Numbers
2020 By the Numbers
2019 By the Numbers
2018 By the Numbers

Camp Friedenswald is committed to working towards resilience and sustainability. From 2017-2022 our strategic plan was framed by the triple-bottom line of environmental, social, and financial sustainability. Our current plan ties in these same committments. 

In 2024, the Camp staff and board approved the Camp Friedenswald Climate Action Plan (CAP) 2024-2030. Camp’s goal is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity, propane, gasoline, and diesel burned at Camp 75% by 2030. As of 2024, our GHG emissions are 66% below our 2015 baseline year.

Stay posted for news about Camp’s journey in this area.  Let us know if you have ideas or thoughts about steps forward!  Email amy@friedenswald.org for more information or to give your feedback.

 1. Environmental Resilience and Sustainability

Produce and Lease Solar Energy

Camp installed 180 solar panels on the Dining Hall roof in September of 2019. Also in 2019, Camp began leasing 80 community solar panels from our local utility, Midwest Energy, which provide clean energy to our staff housing. And in 2025 Camp installed 46 solar panels at Lakeview Lodge. On average, on-site and community solar provide around 70,000 clean kWh for Camp’s electricity needs – plus we send roughly 30,000 kWh of solar energy back to the grid for others to use.

View our real-time solar production for the Dining Hall installation.

Solar panels at Camp Friedenswald.
As of October 2019, 180 solar panels sit atop the roof of the Dining Hall, producing clean energy for Camp.
These solar panels began producing clean energy in April of 2025 for Lakeview Lodge.

 

Compost Food Waste and Napkins

Our compost container – raccoon proof!
A view of the inside of the composting container. All you see is wood chips!
Here you can see the layers of the compost lasagna after weeks of sitting in the compost cube. This is then dumped into an open air pile to finish the composting process!
We added compost buckets to all our lodges in 2018.
Jonathan Fiedley putting compost in the staff-made compost box at Camp Friedenswald
Facilities Director, Jonathan Fridley, putting compost in one of our staff-made compost cubes.

 

Enhance Biodiversity

Work to enhance biodiversity, increase habitat, control invasive plant species, and help protect specific endangered species like the Mitchell’s satyr butterfly and the eastern massasauga rattlesnake through ecological restoration projects

Read blog posts about our 16 acre tree planting, prairie fen, and our habitat restoration efforts.

We planted a native oak savanna seed mix in April 2019. Here is the state of our oak savanna in the summer of 2022.
In the spring of 2023, we planted 9000 trees over 16 acres of what had been conventional soybean fields.
A photo of the endangered Mitchell’s satyr butterfly in the prairie fen taken at Camp in 2017.
This prairie was restored at Camp in 2013.

 

Use 100% LED Lighting

Changing light bulbs in the Dining Hall was an adventure!
Light bulbs, light bulbs, everywhere! Thanks for amazing volunteers for making this happen!

 

Recycle

The following materials are now being recycled at camp: plastic, cardboard, paper, glass, metal, e-waste, batteries, Styrofoam, plastic films, and toothbrushes/toothpaste tubes/floss containers.

Waste from meals is divided into compost (ALL food waste and napkins), trash, and recyclables.
Himco provides single stream and cardboard recycling dumpsters for our use. These recyclables are taken to Recycling Works, the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Elkhart.
Thanks to Terracycle, we can even recycle all waste related to brushing our teeth! This box is in the office – feel free to bring your old toothbrushes, empty toothpaste tubes, and even empty floss containers to Camp to recycle! 🙂
We collect styrofoam and plastic films and take them to Tri-Power Recycling in Elkhart.

 

Support Electric Vehicles

Guests can charge their EVs for free at any of our eight level 2 electric vehicle plugs around Camp. Donations are appreciated but not required for the use of the chargers.  

There are two chargers behind Hickory cabin. 
Two EV plugs beside Lakeview Lodge.
Two EV plugs beside Sycamore Lodge.
Two EV plugs beside Tamarack Lodge (under the solar panels for Lakeview Lodge).

More Actions

  • Partner with Corey Lake Orchards and others to serve local produce.
  • Reduce trash and unhealthy food consumption by NOT selling candy or drinks at Camp Store during summer camps
    Camp purchased this electric gator in honor of former employee, Pam Anglemeyer.
  • Installed occupancy sensors for lighting in many areas
  • Set thermostats to have maximum and minimum temperature settings in all buildings
  • Reduce use of motorized transportation on Camp property by using bicycles.
  • Installed dark sky lighting for outdoor lighting, which avoids light pollution at night.
  • Purchased metal roofs, energy efficient appliances, 100% recycled content indoor and outdoor floor mats, replaceable carpet squares (instead of rolled carpet), and Indiana-made durable furniture for new and newly renovated buildings.
  • Purchase 100% recycled napkins, paper towels, toilet paper, and tissues and office paper.
  • Added insulation to seven buildings
  • Replaced many gas powered tools with electric – i.e. leaf blower and string trimmer 
  • Purchased electric Gator to replace gas powered Gator
  • See this blog post about energy changes at Lakeview Lodge and ways our new staff home was built with planet and people in mind. 

 2. Social Resilience and Sustainability

A major component of our social goals at Camp is to increase education to both guests and staff on the topic of environmental sustainability.  We get really excited about education here, as it can create a ripple effect for positive change in the homes and communities of all our guests.

Sustainability Education

  • We weigh food waste with our youth campers and outdoor education schools to help promote “take what you can eat and eat what you take”.
  • We have developed additional programming with the theme of sustainability, including sustainability tours of camp, a class on making cricket cookies, a sustainability camp experience, restoration retreat, and sustainability retreats for congregations.
  • In the fall of 2021, the Program Team made an intentional decision to attempt to strengthen campers’ relationship with God by deepening their understanding of the natural world at Camp.  It is widely documented that being in nature can provoke deeply spiritual moments of connection to God, to each other, and the larger world.  It’s innate.  Humans were made this way on purpose and we too, are part of God’s Creation.  Mary Oliver says it nicely when she writes “For me, the door to the woods is the door to the temple.”  We’re trying to intentionally live into this reality at Camp in careful ways that foster a love of God and a love of God’s Creation recognizing that it’s inseparable.  If we love the Creator, we also need to love, steward, and advocate for Creation.”

 

Summer staff work with clay from camp as part of the summer 2022 theme – “Shaped like earth”.

 

Restoration Retreat participants help with land stewardship by removing sassafras saplings in the restored oak savanna.

















Social Justice

Read about our social justice efforts in this blog post from January 2025. Here are highlights of our efforts to work towards social justice in the last few years (2020-2025):

 3. Financial Resilience and Sustainability

Every Camper Comes

We are committed to ensuring that every summer camper who wants to come to Camp Friedenswald can do so, regardless of financial ability.  We offer camperships (scholarships) to anyone who has the need for it.  If you feel you would benefit from this program, please call us at 269-476-9744 for more details.

Living Wages

Camp Friedenswald strives to provide a comprehensive and competitive benefit package, including financial compensation (wages), for its year-round staff. We are committed to ensuring that wages and benefits combine to provide a fair and livable compensation package for year-round staff.  

Financial Growth

In order to provide camperships, living wages, and excellent experiences for all our guests, financial stability and even growth are necessary for Camp to be resilient and sustainable.  See our “By the numbers” publications for more on the financial outlook at Camp.