Tips for Greening your dorm
As Kermit the frog so eloquently puts it, “Its not easy being green”. This is true a lot of the time, but the dorm-dwelling college student can make it just that much easier by following these simple tips:
If it is your first year away from home, try to avoid the costly activity of purchasing new items for your dorm. Instead of buying new items, try checking out the free store on campus in the basement of Withey and thrift store in town near Shaws. This saves time, money, natural resources, and minimizes greenhouse gas emissions.*
If you choose to buy a new item, choose organic or natural fibers to minimize the chemical impact on your life and the planet.
If you have to purchase an appliance for your dorm like a refrigerator, make sure it is an Energy-Star certified model. Energy Star refrigerator models generally use about 20% less energy than their conventional counterparts. Multiply those savings by each dorm across campus and that adds up to significant savings in electricity consumption.
To save electricity, use power strips instead of extension cords and switch off the power strips when not in use. This cuts down on “phantom” power which is produced by the use of extension cords and leaving appliances plugged in when not in us. “Phantom” power accounts for 10% of household energy use!
Eating meals in Chartwell’s is more efficient than preparing your meals in the hub or in your dorm room, but if you must prepare your own meals, try using a microwave/toaster oven combo and a cheap rice cooker. This will make a good investment as these items make for an eco-friendly dorm cooking area.
When doing laundry, it may be a little quicker to throw your clothes in the dryer, but it consumes a lot of energy. Try hanging your clothes on a line or a clothes-drying rack to dry instead of using the drier.
Choose compact fluorescent light bulbs to light your room and turn them off when you leave your room! Also remember to turn off you other appliances when you leave your dorm room, it can save a lot of energy.
Next to energy, waste is probably the second biggest environmental concern on a college campus. The average student produces 640 pounds of solid waste every school year. Within that 640 pounds is 500 disposable cups and 320 pounds of paper, per student, per year on average. Students themselves can take initiative in these areas in order to reduce their personal waste. If each person on campus was to take steps to reduce their contribution of solid waste, overall campus waste would decrease, thus saving a substantial from entering landfills.
Instead of buying bottled water, use Nalgenes filled with purified water from a tabletop water filter or a refrigerator filtering system.
Short URL: http://www.themountaineer.org/?p=1026
Posted by editor_green
on Nov 21, 2009 Filed under Green @ Green.
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