Sustainability efforts deserve applause
The culture shift toward sustainability earned a few more victories at the University of Nevada, Reno this year.
There is Residential Life, Housing and Food Services’ nudge for students to tote away their Downunder Café purchases in reusable nylon bags. ResLife even provided them.
If students would rather use the paper bags, they face a small charge. Not enough to warrant any blasphemies but enough to guide the students in the right direction.
Really, the only shaming involved in this change is that more places, larger places, haven’t adopted similar policies.
There is some debate as to whether recycling is really better for the environment as compared to just trashing things. But ResLife’s shift circumvents that because there is no need to produce, trash or recycle items that aren’t used.
Meanwhile, a group of students started a local farm that is organic in all but name. They mostly grow carrots, beets, lettuce, tomatoes, corn, radishes and squash right now but hope to eventually produce enough to feed the entire the university.
It is still a fledgling effort but an admirable one. Their farm, which runs on donations right now, doesn’t use pesticides and consumes less gasoline in getting the food on our plates. It highlights some of the benefits of locally grown food and the students deserve applause for their efforts in starting the movement at UNR.
Locally grown food, while cutting down on gasoline consumption, is fresher because it travels less. Buying locally grown food also puts your money back into the local economy. Then there are the benefits to the land itself – the plants help keep nutrients in the soil and replenishes lost nutrients.
But these initiatives, while worthy of applause, do not signal a totally sustainable culture at UNR. They merely show the shift is happening.
Students who don’t want to use paper bags should extend that refusal to things like Styrofoam containers and cups. Businesses can help in this push. Kéva Juice, for example, gives a discount if students use their reusable plastic cups.
For energy, the group Students and Educators for Environmental Development and Sustainability has long been pushing for UNR to put solar panels up around campus.
One of the group’s current projects is getting these panels installed on top of the Joe Crowley Student Union.
All of these proposals and policies are steps in the right direction for UNR and the environment. It would be a shame for any of these initiatives to lose steam due to lack of support.
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