Top 10 Tips for Students on Reducing Their Ecological Footprints

There are many creative ways to be eco-friendly.  If acted upon, the following suggestions may do more than just reduce your ecological footprint - they could improve your health, or add simplicity to your daily life! 

1.  Eat locally grown produce...even better: eat it raw!  For every apple you buy from Fiji, there’s an apple from Goshen that would’ve taken significantly fewer fossil fuels to ship to you.  What’s more, by eating foods uncooked, you avoid fats (from sautéing) and acquire more nutrients – which would be cooked out of the food, otherwise. Start by shopping at the Farmers Market (on Washington Street).

2.  Quit recycling so much!  Recycling is not so clean a process as many would like to think: recycling plants actually pollute quite a bit, and often end with harsh chemical byproducts as leftovers.  While recycling is still better than trashing everything, students should concentrate on reducing and reusing, first.  Also note that the act of recycling is only half of the process: you need to buy recycled products in order to truly make a difference!

3.  Walk, run, bike - heck: swim!  Let’s face it, if there is anything worth doing in Goshen , it is probably within walking distance.  The public library is a 15 minute walk.  The Electric Brew is 20, tops!  The movie theater or Hacienda or El Camino Real #4?  Only 15 minutes by bike if you take the millrace.  Fresh air can’t hurt!

4.  Renounce tiny snacks!  Soft drinks, candy bars, and anything “bite-sized” probably come in a small package, usually made of plastic or aluminum.  These small cans, wrappers, bags and boxes add up, and what’s packed inside them usually isn’t that good for you anyway!  Consider a natural snack (see #1) or something you make on your own.  Try reusing (see #2) a durable water bottle and drinking water instead of being slowed down by cola or the like.

5.  Study with a friend: the sun!  You know you need the vitamin D, anyway!  Why not use sunlight instead of lamp light for reading? A study by Carnegie Mellon University shows that natural lighting results in an average increase of 7.1% in productivity!  If the weather’s nice, you could get some fresh air, too.

6.  Get some sleep!  According to Glenn Gilbert, if GC students shift their sleep schedule to be two hours earlier (we’re talking 12:00 as opposed to 2:00), the school would cut energy costs by a significant amount.  And, waking early would provide you with more chances to act on the previous entry (#5).  Would more sleep really be all that bad? 

7.  Reduce meat use.  Some say that in less than 30 years, everyone will be a vegetarian out of necessity!  This is because it takes so many resources (grain, water, etc.) to raise an animal that we just won’t be able to support it in the future (due to population growth and land usage).  A good alternative to meat is nuts – particularly cashews, which contain a wealth of minerals and a good amount of monounsaturated fats (for heart-health). 

8.  Shower less… well, not too much less!  Some people claim that bathing less is actually cleaner and healthier.  We won’t go there… But we will recommend that you turn off the water when shampooing or soaping.  Taking shorter showers in general is also good, and it may give you more time in the day to do other things – like relax!

9.  Grab less - but eat more!  Nutritionists say that eating “until you are 80% full” is a healthy thing to do.  But this doesn’t mean you have to leave 20% of your food on your plate.  If you’re at the cafeteria, take multiple trips for food, and finish your plate.  We’re not your mother, but you should know better by now!  (It’s worth noting that the Rot trashes about 55 pounds of food-waste daily!)

10.  Cut paper use.   Printing on both sides of a sheet isn’t that difficult, and most teachers are fine with it!  To do it, first print and collect the odd pages.  Then, place the odd pages text-side up inside the printing tray, go back to your computer, and print the evens.  If other people are trying to print at the same time, then click the “Properties” button in the top right-hand corner of the printing options box (it will pop up when you press “print”) and select a specific tray to print from, like Tray 1 (manual feed), and put the paper in Tray 1.