While many people are interested in following today's national sentiment of becoming more environmentally friendly, several do not know what steps they can take to "green up" their lives.
Students, especially, may find it difficult to help the environment while living at school. They can take their first steps toward becoming "green" while at Boston College by following these five simple suggestions.
(1) Turn off electronics. While you may be accustomed to turning off the lights when you leave a room, you should be sure to turn off anything that will not require power while you are out. If you are habitually running out of your room at the last minute and can never remember to turn everything off, try plugging all the devices that do not need power while you are gone into a single power strip. This way, you can turn off just one single power strip along with your light switches, saving both time and energy.
(2) Use compact fluorescent light bulbs. It is hard to justify buying energy-efficient light bulbs while living on campus, because, as a student, you are not responsible for paying for the electricity, but you should buy a few of these bulbs freshman year for lamps and other personal use. Then, you can keep them throughout college, especially if you move off campus, where you will have to pay your own electricity bills.
3) Stop drinking bottled water. Bottled water at BC is both overpriced and a waste of plastic. Eighty percent of the used bottles end up in landfills and are not recycled. On a per-ounce basis, bottled water costs about twice as much as gasoline and 1,000 times more than tap water. Rather than buying bottled water, invest in a $20 Brita pitcher and a Nalgene water bottle. Just refill your water bottle with your filtered water every time you return to your room. Not only will you be helping the environment, you will be saving over a dollar for every bottle of water that you do not buy.
4) Buy locally, buy used, or get it for free. If you live far away from school, don't buy a bed and ship it to BC. Buy it once you are here and store it locally over the summer. A local storage company advertises heavily on campus toward the end of the school year and will even pick up and drop off your stuff on campus.
Rather than buying all new stuff for college, check out e-Bay, Craigslist, and Freecycle. There are tons of listings for used items like beds, desks, couches, lamps, refrigerators, and TVs on these sites for very low prices and occasionally even for free. Buying used will help reduce the amount of trash in landfills, and buying locally can save fuel and cut down on emissions since your belongings will not have to be shipped across the country.
5) Stop using air conditioning. Air conditioners are one of the biggest energy consumers most people use. If you live in a residence hall that has air conditioning, try not to use it or use it as infrequently as possible. Try to open windows, turn on fans, or maybe even take a cold shower before bed instead of switching on your air conditioner.
If you live off campus and choose to buy your own air conditioner, make sure it is an energy-efficient model. This will lower your energy bills and help reduce your ecological footprint.
These five steps are by no means an exhaustive list of how to live a greener life, but they are some simple steps college students can take that will not dramatically change their lives, but will make a big difference in the effect they have on the environment.
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