To the denizens of Lebanon Valley College, Good day!
Green Man here, and today I’ve got some handpicked pieces of advice for you to live a “greener” life in college and beyond. These tips are designed to help you change certain behaviors in your daily routine that are causing you to have a larger carbon-footprint, or as I like to call it, “clog-print.” Get it? Because we’re Dutch? Oh I’m too good.
Anyway, without further delay, here are 10 tips to help you save some money and save the planet!
Water
Take shorter showers and turn off the water when you brush your teeth. A 5 minute shower uses 10-25 gallons of water and leaving the water running while you brush your teeth can waste 4 gallons of water! LVC has installed flow-efficient shower heads, sinks, and toilets that have saved over 2 million gallons of water in the past. However, the burden of responsibility is still on you!
Buy a reusable canteen or bottle from either the school store or another retailer. This one is a no brainer. It takes 3 times the amount of water to produce the bottle as it does to fill it. It costs about 10,000 more than tap water. The US uses 17 million barrels of oil to produce 1 years’ worth of bottles. Shall I go on?
Electricity
USE. LESS. Use desk lamps when needed as opposed to overheads, use energy optimizing battery settings for computers and devices, and ALWAYS turn the lights off when you leave a room. LVC saved $12,990 worth of electricity during the 2010 winter break (12/15 to 1/15) because there was nobody on campus. How much could we save with everyone on campus, but while using electricity conservatively? Call it a challenge, if you will. The following website is an awesome way to understand how your actions can benefit you and the environment as well. Give the wheel a whirl—Will You Join Us?
Buy smart! Start small with something like a CFL light bulb and then move your way up! The general strategy for reducing your electricity cost is actually the opposite, but most of you guys are broke college kids. You can find out just how much certain dorm appliances cost per hour here and maybe upgrade further down the road.
Recycling
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Recycling materials is not only beneficial to the environment, but to the consumer as well. An aluminum can is back on the shelf within 60 days after it’s recycled, whereas it takes the same amount of energy to make one new soda can as it does to make 20 cans out of recycled materials. It just makes sense.
Get Smart. Familiarize yourself with LVC’s recycling policy and make sure you aren’t doing more harm than good by recycling non-recyclable items. Check the policy here.
Diet
Yes, diet has an impact on the environment as well, and being a ruthless carnivore isn’t the best way to sustain our planet. The amount of methane produced by livestock is astronomically high and one of the best ways to bring the amount down is to simply eat less meat. Explore Mund’s vegetarian options and consider eating green once a week, every week for starters. Just give it a try!
Going veg is one thing, but buying local is another thing completely. This one is targeted towards you off-campus kids, so listen up. Buying local not only stimulates your local economy but is usually better for you as well. Fewer pesticides and less transportation costs make buying local the smart choice. Consider signing up for a farmshare program with local farms, such as Landisdale Farm.
Shopping
Take trips to stores with friends and try to carpool whenever going out for supplies of any kind. Many products now have different “green seals of approval” just like the 1-7 numbers for recyclable materials. There’s a post-consumer alternative to almost everything these days.
Check out the eco-products at the College Store and sign up for the Dutchmen Club for next semester! The College Store is really trying to go green along with Mund, which will hopefully be LEED certified in the coming months.
That’s all for now, citizens. I’ll be back with more tips and advice throughout the semester and will award prizes to students who go green in a big way! Like Green Man and Enviro Boy on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay in the loop and win big! Green Man, awaaaaaaay!