The future of sustainability at Oxy

In thinking about the future of Occidental's campus greening movement, I find myself focusing on the "little things" that the college could do to achieve sustainability. While I am happy that our administration has proven to take some initiative to make our school more eco-friendly, namely by supporting the solar array proposal and agreeing to have all new buildings and renovations meet the silver standard of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green rating system, I wonder if we, as an educational institution, shouldn't be spending more time trying to instill a greater sense of responsibility among the members of our student body--aka the future leaders of this country. After all, how does Occidental plan on becoming a leader among other green campuses, if the very members of its student body are unwilling to shut off their lights?

I think one of the roots of our environmental crisis is our general unwillingness to change our ways. It's easiest to jump onboard in support of large projects like the installation of solar panels or green building designs, especially since showing your support these days is just a click away by accepting a group invitation on Facebook. But would we go so far as to give up parts of our comfortable and somewhat selfish lifestyles just for the sake of the planet? Some may say Yes, but the answer of many is unfortunately probably not.

We live in a world where incentives govern our actions. If the benefits of our actions aren’t tangible-if we can’t reap them immediately—then it’s unlikely that the majority of people will be willing to incur the costs of changing our ways. When people, who live less than a block from campus, drive to school they are not thinking about their carbon footprint, but something more along the lines of “I’m so late for class.” When we fail to turn our lights off before leaving the house, we comfort ourselves by thinking “at least someone will think I’m home so no one will break in.” How many people do you know actually unplug their appliances when not in use? Something as simple as that could curtail 5% of America’s energy use.

I looked at these sites to learn more easy and low cost ways on how to reduce our footprint:

http://ase.org/section/program/greencampus

http://energy.gov/energysavingtips.htm

Some of these “little things” are way too easy to accomplish, but what sort of incentives is the college willing to give us to do them? Will our efforts to conserve energy reflect themselves in lower tuition? Probably not…so the question remains, how do we change the attitude of not just Oxy students but of the world at large?