How To Be A Sustainable College Student

5 Easy Tips For Reducing Your Environmental Impact 

By: Amber Viramontes

Image source: https://www.tpi.ie/the-pursuit-of-global-environmental-sustainability/ 

​Being a college student is already tough enough. Aside from juggling work, rent and school, we have the impending thought of our world dying and the “but there’s nothing I can do to help...” thought too. Well, you’re wrong. There is so much you can do! There are simple ways to be more sustainable in our everyday lifestyles. There is a widespread trend of “Going Green” across the world right now to address the climate change problem. CSULB takes pride in their sustainability efforts to help fight the climate crisis. Here are some tips on how to be a more sustainable college student. 
Who wouldn’t want to be more sustainable? 

1. If you haven’t already, hop on the reusable water bottle train 
Plastic pollution is a leading factor in the warming of the earth. Plastic pollution generates and emits greenhouse gases that cause the climate to heat up. All those 
one-time use plastic water bottles are never really disposed of. Plastic water bottles take up to 1,000 years to decompose. 

2. Borrow, rent, or share a bike or scooter 
If you live close enough to campus to ride a bike or scooter, then do it. Not only are you avoiding Long Beach State’s nightmare of parking, but you are also reducing your carbon footprint. Carbon emissions are another main cause of climate change. By not driving a car, you are reducing carbon emissions. 

3. Unplug 
Let’s save energy. As public relations students we utilize our electronic devices for almost everything. Powering down our devices when they are not in use helps reduce energy usage immensely. Unplugging our devices at home helps save energy too. 

4. Thrift what you need 
I think we can agree that money as a college student is a little tight. In that case, buying second hand items from a thrift store can help you save money and help our earth too. Over-consumerism depletes our natural resources and produces a lot of waste. Avoiding buying new things helps reduce the use of new resources and helps reduce waste too. 

5. Eat less meat 
Think about the cute cows and piglets. Just kidding. Not really though. The agricultural industry is one of the climate crisis’s biggest enemies. Raising and preparing meat produces a huge amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Almost twice more than growing and harvesting vegetables. On top of that, more than 2,000 gallons of water is used to produce just one pound of meat. Yep, just one pound. Cutting meat out of your diet just one or two times a week can help more than you think. 
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You see, there are many simple ways to be more sustainable. Try some of these tips some time and soon enough they’ll become healthy habits that help fight the climate crisis.

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