草榴社区

Environmental Leadership Learning Community

Freshman are given the option to live in the Environmental Leadership Learning Community, where students develop a sense of citizenship and personal responsibility with a focus on deeply understanding why and how we can be stewards of the world around us. For more information about the Learning Community check out their website.

Students have a big impact on making 草榴社区 a sustainable campus, starting with their dorm room. A decade ago, a student may have come with a personal computer, and potentially a cell phone. Now students come with a cell phone, tablet, laptop, television, video game console, and so on. To help manage the energy demand that comes from these devices, we ask that students turn off and disconnect power to these devices when not in use to reduce phantom energy consumption (energy devices use even when they are "turned off"). This is easily accomplished with a power strip that students can use to switch off power to devices not in use.

A common item left plugged in all day and night are chargers which uses energy even when they are not charging anything. It may seem like a small, meaningless amount of energy, but when the 4,400 students who live on campus leave one charger plugged in all day they use 252,032 kilowatts of electricity a school year. Video game consoles are even worse. Left on while not in use, one gaming console can use 54,416 watts a school year. If every student who lives on campus turned off their consoles when not in use we could prevent up to 103 tons of carbon emissions a year, the equivalent to taking 27 cars off the road.

Other ways you can impact campus sustainability through how you live include:

• Turning off the lights when leaving a room
  
• Printing double sided sheets
  
• Washing clothes in cold water and using high efficiency detergent
  
• Using a reusable water bottle
  
• RECYCLING!
  
• Using cleaning supplies that are biodegradable
  

As a student you may get the chance to live in one of our four LEED certified dormitories on campus. To learn how these dormitories are sustainable click on the buildings tab.

Click to see how changing your footprints makes a difference in your yearly carbon dioxide emissions.聽

To learn more about what you can do check out the get involved tab.