2008 Woodie Awards
Learn to live green
Erika Prins, Staff Writer
Issue date: 11/14/06
Last Updated: 12/26/07
Few members of the Whitworth community are staunchly anti-environment. Some of us may have disdain for environmental activists or prefer to focus on other issues, but most of us will throw our soda can in a recycle bin if it's convenient.
I hoped to find a formula for "making Whitworth green" as I researched for this article. Instead, I found a complicated but hopeful mess of past efforts and future plans. A campus cannot "go green" in a day, or even in a year.
"You just do it one bite at a time, incrementally approaching and addressing the problem, and incrementally making improvements," said vice president of business affairs Tom Johnson.
Overwhelmed by the immensity of the challenge, I asked each of my interviewees what we, overloaded students, can do. Considering the complexity of the problem, students' role in the solution is fairly simple: Managing our waste better and supporting the efforts of students who organize more ambitious sustainability efforts.
The overall effect of each of our small conservation efforts is significant. To demonstrate this, I took an "Ecological Footprint" survey, which shows how many earths would be needed to sustain human life if everyone consumed as much as I do.
I took the survey twice, entering all the same data (my estimations for the average Whitworth student) except a few minor changes to see the effect of small efforts on ecological impact. The changes included generating less trash, living on campus or in apartments rather than in a house, driving less and carpooling. The first time I took the survey, my ecological footprint was 20 (4.4 planets). My footprint was 16 (3.5 planets) the second time, a 20 percent difference just by changing a few decisions.
Students taking steps toward living sustainably also show Whitworth's decision-makers that we mean business. As the "customers" of Whitworth's services, students' desires matter. Each of my interviewees for this article stressed that progress is more likely to be made if students take action.
I hoped to find a formula for "making Whitworth green" as I researched for this article. Instead, I found a complicated but hopeful mess of past efforts and future plans. A campus cannot "go green" in a day, or even in a year.
"You just do it one bite at a time, incrementally approaching and addressing the problem, and incrementally making improvements," said vice president of business affairs Tom Johnson.
Overwhelmed by the immensity of the challenge, I asked each of my interviewees what we, overloaded students, can do. Considering the complexity of the problem, students' role in the solution is fairly simple: Managing our waste better and supporting the efforts of students who organize more ambitious sustainability efforts.
The overall effect of each of our small conservation efforts is significant. To demonstrate this, I took an "Ecological Footprint" survey, which shows how many earths would be needed to sustain human life if everyone consumed as much as I do.
I took the survey twice, entering all the same data (my estimations for the average Whitworth student) except a few minor changes to see the effect of small efforts on ecological impact. The changes included generating less trash, living on campus or in apartments rather than in a house, driving less and carpooling. The first time I took the survey, my ecological footprint was 20 (4.4 planets). My footprint was 16 (3.5 planets) the second time, a 20 percent difference just by changing a few decisions.
Students taking steps toward living sustainably also show Whitworth's decision-makers that we mean business. As the "customers" of Whitworth's services, students' desires matter. Each of my interviewees for this article stressed that progress is more likely to be made if students take action.
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