Conservation: You Can't Buy It. You Have to Do It.

A friend is a development officer for an East Coast college. "I find myself immersed in green issues here on campus," he says. "Surprisingly, there's minimal appetite among the student body for sustainability issues, and apparently even less among the administration. I aim to rectify that, but I'm definitely cutting against the grain in my efforts."

It's a bit surprising that an academic institution is yawning about sustainability issues these days, but it does seem to reflect the general population. There's a lot of talk and froth and bloviation on green topics; there are people starting companies left and right to capitalize on the froth; and there are myriad non-profit groups sustaining themselves nicely on earnest donations -- but when you get right down to it, there's little more than a thin fringe of people who are actively doing things to reduce their own energy use and impact. Only when the economics become absolutely obvious and compelling will people budge. Few budge because it's the right thing to do.

Also, there's a tendency to think it's enough to buy one's way to green-ness, for instance by getting a hybrid car. That's a wonderful thing, and it does help, but it doesn't help nearly as much as not driving it. Conservation trumps technology every time, but it's not sexy and it smacks of self-sacrifice. Sure, conservation can involve some minor privations and discomfort, but really -- why not turn the lights off in an uninhabited room? Why not adjust the temperature in the house to save energy when you're not home? Why let tons of water flow down the drain without using it? This kind of laziness and waste is really baffling and disappointing. How can we have gotten so oblivious so fast?

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch

Comments

[Dan Dickison]

I'm actually a marketing director who would love to "paint" this campus and its denizens as green, and promote that, but doing so would be a pretension. Our institution has a long way to go before we can make that claim.

The good news is that there are numerous businesses and universities out there that we can learn from, and whose sustainable practices we can easily emulate. Patagonia, for instance, recycles the paper towels its employees use in the washrooms to dry their hands. Our campus, on the other hand (no pun intended), has installed motion-sensitive towel dispensers in every restroom. While no doubt convenient, these devices devour energy and spit out a prescribed amount of paper towel that may or may not be the desired length.

But the comment you make regarding economics as a motivator is spot on. I read online recently that certain east coast campuses (Connecticut College, Buffalo University, I believe) are offering cash bonuses to their resident advisors if they can achieve a measured reduction in waste via recycling in their dorms. That's reasonable motivation, I would think.

My feeling is that these initiatives aren't born on their own but come about in part because many of these more progressive campuses have put in place a culture of sustainability, and that allows them to make important change like committing to the purchase of a certain percentage of green power. According to the same online report (which I found via http://www.easternct.edu/depts/sustainenergy/colleges_n_uni/home_colleges_n_uni.html), Conn. College held a referendum with its students and almost unanimously they voted to accept a $25 annual fee that the college would put toward purchasing green power. That's a simple but very progressive move, from where I stand.

If my institution can move in similar directions, we'll likely be one of the first in the southeast to do so. And then, perhaps, others will emulate us.