In college? Go green before you graduate

Even if your home is a dorm room, your lifestyle can be eco-friendly. Follow these tips for food, transportation and more ways to live green as you earn your degree.

By:

Eileen Campbell

Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - 16:21

GREEN EXPANSE: UIUC's quad is a quintessential university scene. (Photo: yuan2003/Flickr)

Even if you've lived a relatively green lifestyle at home, when you move into college, it's a different setting. In a dormitory, it's hard to change how the building runs, or what policies are implemented, and each college varies in regard to how green they are. However, you can still do little things to make your lifestyle as green as you can, even with those constraints.

Electronics

When you are using your computer, use the lowest screen brightness possible. A brighter screen saps a whole lot more of the battery, and you will have to recharge sooner.
When you aren't using the internet, make sure to have your computer disconnect rather than keep searching for wireless internet (which wastes battery life).
Most laptops also have power settings, and you can adjust them to use less power when you are unplugged, saving battery life.
Charge your electronics only when the battery is very low, and make sure not to leave them plugged in after they've been fully charged.
Try to use natural light as much as possible, if you have a window. This usually works for me until after dinner. And if you can, use a lamp at night. It usually uses less energy than the giant lights they install in the ceiling, depending on what your dorm room is like. Compact fluorescent light bulbs are a good choice for lamps.

Food

Find out what food is in season, and if the dining hall offers it, eat that rather than foods that are out of season. If you happen to be in an apartment, you can buy those things.
If there is a farmers market nearby and you need to purchase food, go there, at least for fresh produce. It makes less of a carbon footprint (the food does not have to travel as far to get to you), and it's good for the local economy.
Eat less meat. It's better for you and for the planet. The meat production industry is very energy intensive. You get more nutrition from eating the same amount of grain a cow would eat, rather than the cow itself. This has to do with trophic levels and food chains; the higher you go up the food chain, the less energy can be gained from eating something at that level.

Transportation

Walking or biking is always the best option for transportation, especially on a college campus. A lot of campuses are very bike-friendly (providing bike lanes, or at least big sidewalks). Even on a large campus like University of Illinois, it's still possible to get places on time.
Use public transportation if you don't want to walk (obviously it's not pleasant to walk in a blizzard). If your campus has a good bus or train system, definitely take advantage of it. You can get places fast, and you won't have to park a vehicle.
Grocery shop using your bike. You can attach a relatively large basket to put the groceries in, and you can bike home carrying all of it in that instead of using a car.

Dorm life

Take shorter showers. A shower shouldn't take more than ten or 15 minutes, at the most.
Let your hair air dry instead of using a dryer. This is also good for your hair, and you can retain more moisture that way. This is easiest when you take a shower at night, and you don't have to go anywhere.
Find eco-friendly soap with no dye. You can do this for shampoo, conditioner, body wash, detergent and fabric softener. It's not only better for the environment, it's better for you, because you'll absorb less chemicals when using them.
If you have the space, hang your laundry instead of using a dryer. (This is easier in an apartment.) Dryers use quite a bit of energy, and if you don't have a deadline, it's greener to let the laundry hang somewhere and dry.
Wash full loads when you wash your clothes. It takes more energy to do multiple small loads than one large one. For those of you in a dorm, it also costs you less money in the machines.

Even if you live in a dormitory or building where you can't change much within the existing system, you can still take many of these small steps that will make your lifestyle quite a bit greener.

Photo: FHKE/Flickr

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