Most of us are aware of the growing need for a more sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyle. We see changes being made all over campus, and messages encouraging us to make small changes: use our own water bottles instead of continuously buying plastic ones, walk or ride bikes to campus, recycle. We're being called to do things differently, and the university is changing with us.
For example, Auburn's campus is now housing two WeCars. These are cars that any student can rent for $8 an hour, fuel included. They can be found in The Village and The Quad parking lots.
Students can rent a WeCar for extended periods of time, and take them anywhere they choose. Depending on your car's gas mileage, using the WeCar could significantly cut down on costs for weekend road trips. All you have to do is go online and make reservations beforehand.
Another prototype project that the Facilities Department sponsored was the installment of solar panels on the roof of the stadium parking deck.
"The energy that's produced by those solar panels is enough energy to charge all the electric vehicles that are housed on the first floor [of the parking deck]. That energy goes into our energy grid, and it basically offsets all the energy that's needed to charge the cars. All those electric vehicles are being charged by the energy from the sun," said Mike Kensler, Director of the Office of Sustainability.
One more project that students may not know about is a cistern that is being installed around Dudley Hall. The cistern will catch water off the roof of Dudley Hall, send it to a holding tank, which will then be used to water a nearby garden.
"Using captured rainwater is a much better approach that buying expensive drinkable city water to water plants," Kensler said. "The Landscape Services Department of Facilities has plans to greatly expand the use of storm water, and water that condenses from AC units on campus."
The University is taking steps to move sustainability forward, what can we do to supplement that?
"You just have to be more mindful of what you're consuming," said Sara Geonczy, junior in environmental science.
To illustrate this point, Geonczy explained how Lee County, with 22 other counties, send their waste to a land fill in Salem. The landfill is open Monday through Saturday, and collects about 1500 tons of waste a day.
"During football season, they'll keep open an extra day on Sunday because there is that much extra waste generated by the games," said Geonczy
Sustainability, however, isn't just about reducing, reusing and recycling. It's a mind set.
"Sustainability reflects our core values, our own personal values," Kensler said. "It asks, 'Do I bring my best self to the world every day? How do I treat other people? How do I treat the world around me? Those are really the core questions that drives everything related to sustainability."
Outside of being mindful of our own waste, there is another thing students can do to drive sustainability.
"Make sure that the administration knows that this is something that students care about, and that the students want to encourage the university to do everything it can," said Kensler.
Many students and members of the faculty care about the environment on campus and around the world to some extent. There are recycling bins filled with aluminum cans all around campus, and many walk to class or ride a bike as an alternative to driving or taking the Tiger Transit.
Such small efforts like these, if done with consistency, can make a big difference and can help foster a more beautiful world for the future.
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