Staying Environmentally-Conscious on Campus

Green Checklist

With all the stress and challenges college life presents, it is easy to put one’s environmental concerns at the bottom of one’s priority list. However, you can treat it differently. College is a formative period of your life: you break up with the old lifestyle and acquire a new one. It is easier to learn new habits, and once you acquire them, they are likely to stay for you for a long time. So, why not take it as an excellent opportunity to build a lifestyle in agreement with your ideals? Here you will find a list of easily achievable things you can do to stay environmentally friendly even at the most stressful of times!

Get a Reusable Water Bottle

Buy a water bottle to lug around, fill it yourself, and stop buying a new one every time you need a drink. Not only you will stop contributing to an ever-growing pile of plastic refuse covering the globe, but it is also an excellent opportunity to stop drinking carbonated drinks and other nasty stuff that is bad for your health.

Establish a Meat-Free Day

The meat industry is responsible for about one-fifth of all greenhouse gases that, in turn, cause global warming. If you are not a vegetarian and have no intention of becoming one, you can still make a contribution to the cause without upsetting your lifestyle. Set aside a day or two a week to be meat-free – thus you will, in your own small way, decrease the demand for meat products and the associated methane emissions.

Unplug Your Appliances

All electric devices continue to consume energy even when you do not actively use them. Counter-intuitively, leaving things plugged in can be a greater energy waster than spending a night in front of a screen binge-watching Netflix. The reason is, they continue to consume energy all the time, and it adds up. The next time you get a paper from an essay writing service, turn your PC off afterward and unplug it. Get into a habit of doing it with all your devices when you stop using them and live with a pleasant feeling that thus you decrease your carbon footprint. Or just invest in a smart power strip and do the same without the associated hassle.

Do not Buy Devices You Do not Need

A huge portion of electronics and appliances you are likely to need in college (printers, scanners, mini-fridges, etc.) are either publicly available for all the students or can be rented from the college for the duration of your stay. Opting out of buying them for personal use not just saves you money – every device you do not buy is one less device sold and one less device produced in the future.

Use Both Sides of Every Paper Sheet

Although a lot of our writing immigrated to the digital world, people in general and college students in particular still use a lot of paper without giving it much thought. You can significantly decrease your paper use simply by following a few habits. Write and print on both sides of every sheet of paper. Use the backs of fliers and scraps of paper to take notes. Do not start a new page until you fully used the previous one.

Get Reusable Bags

Many cities and states have already implemented plastic bag ordinances that increase their price to motivate people to use fewer of them, and something along the same lines is likely to follow everywhere. Invest in a few reusable bags and get used to them – it will help you both save the environment and your wallet.

Check Your Fridge’s Settings

A fridge does not need to maintain a temperature lower than 35F (freezers should be kept at 0F). Check your fridge and change its settings if necessary. If possible, share a fridge with your roommate or use a common dorm fridge.

Check Your Cleaning Supplies

Before buying anything, check its contents. Look for compounds that do not contain phosphates that poison water sources or petrochemicals. By sticking to green cleaning supplies, you vote with your wallet and force manufacturers to change their practices.

Everything from this checklist may seem like small and insignificant efforts that cannot influence the grander scheme of things. However, the current state of pollution and environment degradation is a cause of exactly this approach – everybody thinks that their contribution does not matter. If a sufficient number of people adopt these habits, it can mean all the difference in the world.

Thanks to Adi