(What You Can Do!)
Get Involved.
This will increase your environmental awareness, gently and naturally. From beach cleanups to education and outreach to local recycling (where you can turn empty water bottles into a full wallet), active participation is the most direct contribution. In addition, you will find yourself surrounded by awesome people. What’s not to love?
Check out the many green goings-on around campus, as UCSD happens to be a leader in sustainable development among universities.
Going Green at UCSD
Sustainability Solutions Institute
Sustainability 2.0
Admit the impact of your actions.
The greatest threat to our environment is human behavior: Do you know what you are doing? As with anything else, “what you get out” and “what you put in” are directly related and proportionate. Consume with care. There is a history to any given object or product that goes far beyond the time it spends in your hands. Consider where it comes from, and where it goes when you have finished with it.
Think in terms of re-usability.
We are so loaded down with stuff we take it for granted. For example, most of us don’t think twice about grabbing a plastic fork, or a straw. But all these bits o’ plastic add up. Plastic grocery bags, paper towels, one-time use cleaning products, and excessive packaging are all completely unnecessary additions to an already enormous garbage problem. Don’t buy anything that becomes trash after one use, if you can help it! If it must become trash, make sure it is of the recycled variety.
• Carry a re-usable, stainless steel or BPA-free plastic water bottle and fill it up during the day
• Bring re-usable bags to the grocery store
Show and Tell.
Nothing says, “I am a good person who cares about the earth and life in general” like a little environmentally-friendly role modeling. Sustainability is very attractive and good-looking!
Walk it out.
Leave your global-warming, gas-guzzling car where it is. When you walk or ride your bike, you get the benefits of physical activity and fresh air. If you take the bus, you get the benefits of random, spontaneous human interaction. One bus driver I ride with is continually cracking jokes and bursting into song, and I arrive at school much more amused than if I had spent the morning sitting in my car.
Explore commuting alternatives here.
Conserve energy (and money!) at home.
Daily habits make the difference.
Reduce electricity usage: Turn off lights and other gadgetry you aren’t using (buy those twisty lightbulbs--CFL’s--that last forever and use less power). Make sure your appliances having the Energy Star rating for efficiency.
Save water: Don’t flush your pee (unless it’s that extra-potent morning batch). Wash your laundry in cold water, but not until clothes are actually dirty (the sniff test never fails). Shorten your showers.
Compliments of Environmental Working Group, Here is a Healthy Home Checklist to help you identify environmental to-do’s. It’s an easy way to make establish a nice, green house where you can do some serious thriving. From cleaning products to food containers to the chair you are sitting on, it’s good to know what’s what!
A few examples:
• Do you cook with non-stick cookware? Replace with cast-iron, stainless steel, or glass when possible. Stuck with it? Take care not to overheat it, which releases toxic fumes. Learn more.
• Do you use plastic food containers? We recommend glass over plastic. Never microwave food in plastic containers. For baby, use glass or BPA-free plastic bottles. Learn more.
• Do your product labels list all ingredients? Most don't, but they should. Support companies that disclose all ingredients by buying their products -- you have a right to know. Learn more about labeling.
• Do you filter your tap water? Check EWG's online tap water quality database for local contaminants and a filter that removes them, if needed. Look up your water.
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