Top 5 Environmental Issues at Colby

[Emma Gildesgame]

What are the top 5 most important Environmental issues or problems you
see on campus?

[Emma Gildesgame]

From Rachel:

1. Paper towels. don't need 'em in dorms- hand towel it up.
2. Bottled water. See TTBT with EnviroCo for this one, it's dumb tho.
Just get a nalgene, sigg, klean kanteen, camelbak, etc....
3. Flushing toilets- if it's yellow, let it mellow!
4. Recycling- why can't each dorm room be issued a recycling bin, like
in goho. i think the sorting aspect may be what deters ppl from doing
it in dorms.
5. Composting. it just should be available.

[Emma Gildesgame]

Yes, it looks like I'm talking to myself, but here are Adrienne's 5
environmental issues on campus:

1. Paper Towels
2. Flushing Toilets
3. Temperature of Heater in Dorms & Academic Buildings
4. Making drying racks available in all dorms
5. Excessive napkin use in dining halls

(I'm posting them all up here so everyone can see what we've got so
far. Feel free to repeat ones that other people have already said!)

[Sarah Flanagan]

1. Recycling. Why don't we recycle more plastics?
2. Paper towels.
3. Napkins in the dining halls--can we have some other way of
disposing them than just tossing them in the trash?
4. Heating is excessive in some buildings--you don't need to start
sweating as soon as you walk in!
5. washing machines--make sure all students know how much detergent
you really need and that it's ok to wash things that aren't actually
brightly colored on "Bright Colors" in order to wash on cold.

[Jill]

1. Paper towels
2. Printer Paper
3. Bottled Water
4. Heating (both in dorms and classrooms)
5. Turning lights off/ unplugging cords (computers, dryers, chargers
etc)

[lmcc...@colby.edu]

-drying racks (I have a few that my fellow dorm mates can borrow, but
they should be available everywhere)
-using white boards instead of dry erase boards instead of bulletin
boards --> decreasing the paper use.
-Bring canvas bags when going shopping, to the bookstore, etc
-washclothes instead of paper towels and REUSABLE waterbottles (you
can even bring reusable mugs to the spa and save $$)
-PRINT DOUBLE SIDED!!

[Gordon.padelford]

1) Faucet heads --> low flow
2) Recycling (the situation in the street in particular is shameful)
3) Natural habitat on campus: native critter friendly landscaping and
habitat restoration where appropriate, fewer pesticides and less
fertilizer use (we are near a stream after all)
4) Metering of dorms/energy use awareness
5) Compost in the dorms (no one is going to carry an apple core to a
dining hall)

Bonus!!!: Making used clothing cooler and supporting a culture where
durable goods are valued (less cheap plastic crap from China)

On Oct 1, 5:26 pm, Emma Gildesgame <ergil...@colby.edu> wrote:

[Ally]

So, some of these are repeats but that must meant they are extra
important.

1. Paper recycling - printing double sided should be the default on
all campus computers, you shouldn't have to select it. also, offices
on campus use too much paper - it is a waist. There should be towel
racks in all the bathrooms - no paper towels
2. Other recycling issues: dorm recycling - people don't sort (a
recycling bin in every dorm room?), the street needs more recycling
bins - there is one trash can in particular that always has plastic
bottles, etc in it.
3. Saving energy in dorms and buildings - turn off the lights signs
and in the case of diamond...lights that actually turn off. I believe
Middlebury has a campus policy that all light bulbs in dorm rooms must
be energy efficient, we could try to do something like that here...
4. COMPOSTING!!!
5. encouraging drying racks over the dryer campus wide, not just in
goho

On Oct 1, 5:26 pm, Emma Gildesgame <ergil...@colby.edu> wrote:

[Emma Gildesgame]

Here are some more:

The repeats definitely point to things that we value most and will
look to change as EcoReps! I'll bring a full list to the meetings
tomorrow.

From Lizzy:

1. papertowel use in bathrooms--entirely unnecessary
2. wasting food in the dining halls
3. non-reusable paper cups in faculty lounges
4. lights that are on all the time in hallways
5. plastic water bottles

From Katie:
1. Recycling-- do people know what can and can't be recycled,
recycling outside and recycling for more things than paper and cans.
2. Compost-- have at least one place (that people know about) for
compost.
3. Excessive heat in dorms and buildings-- some buildings and dorms
are already too hot- there should be an easy way to turn down the heat
or manage it better in general.
4. Lights-- lights in lots of academic buildings are left on all night
(partly for security?)
5. Computers-- Do the libraries turn off computers over night? What
about the computer labs? And students in general should turn them off
at night too.

Also, plastic water bottles, paper towel use and dryer use in dorms.

[Sarah Flanagan]

I had another idea: shower timers

I read an article a few years ago about Oberlin, and how their green
dorm has timers in their showers so that they can try to limit their
water use. What if we got shower timers in every shower in every dorm,
and created an optional dorm competition--the dorm with the shortest
showers (on average) will win (hopefully some sort of prize for
them?). Anyway, my Crusade is pretty large already, so if anyone wants
to take this idea, feel free!!!

[Sarah Flanagan]

This is the article I was talking about (from 2008):
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/education/26green.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Oberlin%20shower%20timers&st=cse

Maybe there can be an article about Colby in the NYTimes in the near
(ish) future...