Going green needs student support

NYU’s official colors of violet and white have had a splash of green added to them lately as the university has been doing more and more to promote environmentally friendly policies such as recycling, energy saving and conservation. With the Sustainability Task Force keeping an eye on things, efforts have been steadily building to lay the foundations for an environmentally friendly university.

Though some of these efforts may seem modest, their implications are anything but. Having switched to biodegradable takeout containers last year, the dining halls at Third North and Hayden are now foregoing the use of trays, saving food and energy in the process. Last year NYU earned the Environmental Protection Agency’s annual Green Power Leadership Award, and now that a composting program has been implemented in all the dining hall, they can be a source of pride for more than just their many meal options. NYU saves money, and students — or so they tell themselves — save the world.

NYU obviously doesn’t scrimp on promoting environmental awareness, but this is only worthwhile if students translate it into personal responsibility. Sure, the composting program or energy-efficient lights are a nice factoid to mention to environmentally-minded friends at other colleges. But a massive change in our mindset can only come through student involvement, which means students choosing to implement greening methods themselves rather than relying on measures independently undertaken by the university. This is how the Sustainability Task Force, now run by an alumnus, came into being. After all, trayless dining halls are easily attainable. All that a student needs to do is not take a tray the next time he or she swipes for a meal.

Small changes like these need not only take place within the university itself. Organic foods can be, depending on how they are grown and distributed, vital components of greening initiatives. When a local store that accepts Campus Cash sells nonorganic products while claiming to do the opposite, customers are misled, and an opportunity is lost. Students should always be on guard for false advertising, while the university could encourage more sustainable practices among local businesses. Setting green guidelines for Campus Cash vendors by favoring those that demonstrate environmentally friendly practices, like buying from local producers (which we recognize is not synonymous with organic), could be one way of doing just that. This would follow the same principle that guided many of NYU’s green initiatives by committing to sustainability through both university policy and individual action.

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