Take Action for the Environment!

With 11 easy steps...

Whether you are a student, staff, faculty, alumni or none of these it is important, fun and simple to take steps to reduce your impact upon the environment.  From rethinking a commute, to growing a garden, you can make significant steps toward a more positive environmental stewardship and sustainable future!

1. Re-Think Your Commute: Combine errands, carpool, take the train to work, ride your bike, walk.

2. Eat less meat -- especially red meat: Behind automobiles, the meat industry is one of the biggest greenhouse gas producers because of the amount of methane that cows produce. Meats are a highly carbon-intensive food source!

3. Buy locally produced goods: Reduce pollution caused by trucking and shipping and support your local economy at the same time. 

4. Conserve Energy: Unplug lights, computers and other electronic devices when not in use- it can make significant savings and minimize heating and cooling at night when you are not home.

5. Reduce trash: Pack lunches, snacks, and drinks in reusable containers. Break the bottled water habit. Eat foods that have less packaging. Use green bags when you shop. Use fewer paper plates, plastic cups, and plastic silverware. Plastic silverware does not melt in the dishwasher -- reuse it!

6. Use less water: Take shorter showers, turn faucets off while you are washing your hands, brushing your teeth, or scrubbing dishes by hand. Hot water heating typically accounts for 20-30% of a monthly electric bill. In addition, all of the water which runs down drains at Southern ends up at a treatment plant which consumes electricity.  

7. Use non-toxic cleaners and phosphate-free soaps: If it goes down the drain, it will eventially head for lakes, rivers, groundwater, and the ocean!  Dr. Bronner's Soaps are some of the most popular and beloved of non-toxic soaps and sold across the country in health food stores and even at American Apparel!

8. Print on both sides, and only print what you need. Southern already does this in its computer labs across campus.

9. Plant a Vegetable Garden - Be part of Southern's community garden, work on a plot or help out and harvest delicious, heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, radishes, peppers, kale, broccoli and pumpkins.

10. Recycle - Learn from Southern's Recycling initiative, or learn more on your own!  Reuse containers and donate old clothes and items so someone else can reuse them.

11. Get Involved! - Please look through our list of on-campus and local community environmental organizations.