November 19, 2008 at 10:15 am (Food, LC, Sustainability Shift)
Growing up my best friend became a vegan in 4th grade. A vegan? What’s that? How could you have a lifestyle that doesn’t involve ice cream, cheesy pizza, or even baked cookies that contain eggs? When I was young me, along with many of my fellow classmates didn’t understand why someone would choose to not eat food that seemed to have absolutely nothing wrong with it, not to mention was deliciously scrumptious. My friend, as an animal lover, didn’t want to be a part of anything that hurt or imposed cruelty on any type or animal. Little did she know as a fourth grader that she was actually changing her lifestyle to act in one of the most effective ways to stop global warming and be environmentally friendly, which is to simply not eat meat.
Meat industries are one of the leading sources of the greenhouse gases that lead to global warming. In 2006 United Nations report found that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than all the SUVs, cars, trucks, planes, and ships in the world combined. Not to mention that raising animals for food is an incredible waste of resources. An area of rain forest the size of seven football fields is destroyed every minute to make room for grazing cattle, but each vegetarian saves 1 acre of trees every year. The raising of cattle for food leads to overgrazing of grasslands and deforestation is partially caused by the clearing of forest to grow feed for livestock. This land could be used to grow food for humans, an option that is better for the most people and much more sustainable. We waste food that we could feed to starving third world countries to feed livestock the livestock that sustains much smaller portion of people. About 20 percent of the world’s population, or 1.4 billion people, could be fed with the grain and soybeans fed to U.S. cattle alone.
If we could possibly solve world hunger through just a shift in eating habits, do you think people would go for the idea of giving up meat and fish, food that is part of every culture? Could America go for the idea of veggie burger barbeques? Would Japan be able to shift to no fish sushi? Maybe asking the world to become completely vegetarian is a bit of a stretch but I do think people being conscious of the amount of meat they eat or even just being conscious of the possible damage they are causing to the environment by supporting meat industries is a step in the right direction for creating a more sustainable, environmentally friendly world.
- Danielle
Editor’s Note: This post is one in a series published by students in the Sustainability Learning Community at KU. Additional posts from this series can be found under “LC” on the Categories list.
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November 19, 2008 at 10:06 am (LC, Sustainability Shift, Sustainable Solutions)
One misconception that I received from Debate in high school is that paper is cheap. I saw more paper wasted than I have seen trees. To prepare for speeches hundreds of articles were printed off from news sites by all teams from all schools. Most of these articles were never used because the process of obtaining them was random; we really did not pay attention to whether we truly needed them. However, I soon learned that this paper is not cheap; cutting down trees has many devastating impacts on the environment. By using recycling paper, we can cut down on deforestation; however, less than five percent of paper contains recycled fibers. Not to mention all of the paper industries emit the fourth-highest level of carbon dioxide among manufactures.
KU’s surveys have shown how much paper is used by staff and the amount of paper is required to be turned in by students. However, small steps can be made by not printing unnecessary items, such as syllabuses and research materials that can be saved and read on your computer, and to use double-sided printing when needed. Using a laptop is also an option for note taking. Always recycle any paper, and unlike the Debate teams, think before you print unnecessary items.
Super Shift: When paper is necessary, try purchasing recycled paper, it may actually work just fine, especially when the life of that paper will not be long. Try to decrease the amount of paper you use by fifty percent.
- Ashlee
Editor’s Note: This post is one in a series published by students in the Sustainability Learning Community at KU. Additional posts from this series can be found under “LC” on the Categories list.
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October 13, 2008 at 5:15 pm (Climate Change, Energy, Generally Green, Sustainability Shift, Sustainable Solutions)
On October 9, KU participated in “Lights Out Across Campus”, a campaign encouraging faculty, staff, and students to shut off overhead lights and rely on the natural light streaming through the windows. In buildings where electricity use dropped for the day (compared to a day in September with similar weather), we saved 4,900 kWh of electricity, the energy equivalent of 15,327 bulbs burning for 10 hours.
When looking at a $12 million utility budget, the $300 saved by those buildings doesn’t seem like much. But add that up over the course of a year and get more people to participate, and we start to add some zeros behind that figure. And every little bit counts – not only for the power bills but for the planet.
Don’t want to sit around in the dark? You might be surprised just how much light you can get without flipping the switch. With the exception of a few rainy days in October, I get by just fine all year without a single overhead light. I have a lamp on my desk (with a CFL installed, by the way) that provides any light I need for reading, and if I move my chair closer to the window, I don’t even need that.
Give it a try and see what happens. Who knows, that pest down the hall may even think you are gone and leave you alone for a change!
Super Shift: Really?! What’s bigger than keeping the lights off all the time?
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October 13, 2008 at 4:53 pm (Energy, Generally Green, Sustainability Shift, Sustainable Solutions)
This morning when I got to work, I did something not everyone does: turned on my computer. Seems like a basic step for all of us to get started with our work day, right? But it is only necessary if you turned the computer OFF the night before. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case with computers at work or in our homes. Whether for reasons of convenience (are you really going to get that much done with an extra 30 seconds?) or concerns that turning the computer off and on is hard on the hard drive, we seem to think the computer needs to be on 24 hours a day.
Here at KU, shutting down is recommended in the list of conservation measures sent out each year by the Office of the Provost. It was even enough of a concern that the Governor of Kansas included a statement in her Executive Directive on Energy Conservation and Management calling for computers to be turned off any time they won’t be used for a period of 4 hours or more.
So why are we still leaving them on at night? I recently plugged my computer into a device that measures how much electricity is flowing through the power cord. With my monitor on, it was running about about 100 watts. So walking away from the computer without turning it off is like leaving a 100 watt lightbulb burning all day in the closet. You wouldn’t do that would you?
So try saying “goodnight” to the gigabytes before you leave work or before you go to bed. You’ll be amazed at how saving a little extra energy at night won’t even slow you down the next day. And the planet will thank you for the good night’s sleep.
Super Shift: Already giving your CPU some Zs? Try shutting down anytime you are going to be out of the office for more than an hour and change your power settings to turn the monitor off after 5 minutes of inactivity and the system to go into standby (or better yet hibernate) after 30 minutes.
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May 19, 2008 at 3:07 pm (Sustainability Shift, Sustainable Solutions)
Tags: beverage containers, bottled water, BPA, Chris Jordan, KU, reusable bottle, Sustainable Solutions
Author’s Note: This is the first in a series of “Sustainability Shifts” , challenging members of the campus community to make small changes towards more sustainable living – and share their experiences online.
Summer is on its way which means sunshine, swimming pools, and spending time outside. It also means working up a sweat walking to the office or even strolling down an un-air-conditioned hallway. To cool off in your cubicle, nothing says refreshment like a icy drink of H2O. But before you reach for a bottle of water, think about the environmental impact of that plastic beverage container.
Bottled water is far from being sustainable. For starters, plastic is made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource. Currently we use about 1.5 million barrels a year to make disposable bottles, and that doesn’t include all the fossil fuels involved in shipping that water to local stores. Once the bottle is emptied, it is likely to end up in a landfill. Despite efforts to recycle at KU, less than 25% of plastic bottles are being recycled in the US. Even when they are recycled, they can’t be made into new plastic bottles but are “down-cycled” into other materials that may eventually end up in the garbage. To add insult to injury, the water in that eco-enemy probably isn’t much different than what comes out of the tap.
Image: “Plastic Bottles, 2007″ by Chris Jordan depicts the 2 million plastic bottles used in the US every 5 minutes.
A simple solution: bring your own bottle. For what you spend on water in less than a month’s time, you can buy a good reusable bottle or two and fill it up at the tap. (If you are not a fan of the flavor of the water at work, use a filtered pitcher or bring it from home.) The water from your faucet is much cheaper, it is produced locally here in Lawrence, and the process cuts down on the use of fossil fuels.
One note: With the recent hype about plastics that contain a chemical similar to the hormone estrogen, it may be best to opt for aluminum or stainless steel bottles. You can get these online and at sporting goods stores, and I’ve even seen them in the health food section of my local grocery store. You can also get plastic bottles made of HDPE plastic which doesn’t contain BPA – they are the ones that look more like the plastic used to make milk jugs.
So try to put a personal ban on bottled water. You may be surprised to see how much you save…beyond just the environment.
Super Shift: Already bringing your own bottle for water? Try not to buy ANY beverages in plastic bottles. Aluminum cans are easily recycled and can be back on the shelf as new cans in as little as 60 days. Do you really need 20 ounces of soda, anyway? You can even buy milk in returnable glass bottles at local grocery stores.
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