EMILY SCHMITT KNIGHTLIFE EDITOR
Wartburg College has gone trayless, funded a wind turbine, appointed a sustainability officer and competed in an energy challenge against Luther College in efforts to go green.
In addition to large-scale, campus-wide efforts, students can help reduce the college’s carbon footprint by adopting sustainable habits in residence halls, Jen Wendland, assistant sustainability coordinator and VISTA, said.
She said students often talk about things the college should be doing to be sustainable but they should remember to be sustainable themselves. She said a logical place to begin those habits is in their dorms.
“People want the campus to be more environmentally friendly, but there’s not a whole lot of action individually,” Wendland said.
She said students should remember to turn the lights off in their rooms as well as bathrooms, lounges and kitchens.
Energy-efficient light bulbs will also reduce electricity consumption. According to the International Energy Agency, a global switch to efficient lighting would eliminate one-tenth of the world’s electricity bill.
Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) use 66-75 percent less electricity to produce the same amount of light as an incandescent bulb, according to Treehugger.com.
Students can reduce water usage in the residence halls by taking shorter and fewer showers.
“A five minute shower is what you want to shoot for,” Wendland said. “Shut the water off when you’re shaving, especially if you have shaving cream. The water doesn’t need to be running and you’ll use less cream.”
Wendland said students need to encourage their peers to conserve water.
“It’s kind of one of those barriers you have to get across, to be one of those people that reminds others to shut the water off,” she said.
Students can drink tap water instead of buying bottled water. The oil used to make a year’s supply of plastic water bottles for Americans is enough to fuel more than 1 million U.S. cars for a year, according to the Earth Policy Institute.
Wendland said it is important to unplug electrical items when they are not in use.
Power strips are more efficient and are convenient to turn off when items don’t need power.
“While we aren’t seeing the energy bill right now, it is a good habit to get into because in a few years everyone’s going to be looking at their own energy bill,” she said.
Another option is to use a “smart” power strip. According to Treehugger.com, they sense when items plugged into it are using power.
The strips stop the idle current being drawn from outlets when electronics are not in use.
As the holiday season nears, Wendland said students can focus on being sustainable at home.
Christmas light exchange programs allow anyone to exchange old strands of lights for coupons toward the purchase of LED lights.
Wendland said students can encourage their families to look for an exchange program in their area.
She said the LED lights are more expensive, but will pay for themselves after two months of use and they last up to nine years.
Gift-giving is another opportunity to reduce waste. Looking for products with less packaging and using less wrapping paper are two ways to reduce waste.
“If companies start to notice that people are buying products with less packaging, they’ll start to put less packaging on it,” Wendland said.
In the U.S., an additional 5 million tons of waste is generated during the holidays. Four million tons of this is wrapping paper and shopping bags, according to the Clean Air Council.
Support local businesses that often use less packaging and volunteer at a charity in the name of someone instead of giving them a physical object, she said.
“That not only reduces the amount of stuff you are buying, but you’re giving back to your community,” she said.
Recycling will make a difference, but people should also focus on consuming less things.
“A lot of what it comes down to in being environmental or being sustainable is reducing the amount you consume in the first place,” Wendland said.
Graphic by Spencer Albers