Shannon KeoughAs the financial world continues to cost us substantial amounts of green, it seems only right to find out how we can save some during this crisis, which can be good for our wallets and the planet.
Most Cabrini students unknowingly contribute to the environment by keeping it local and avoiding long travel from home. The majority of students are from the tri-state area, with some exceptions, so they are not required to journey across the U.S. and ship stuff to and from school. It doesn’t help, however, when the local kids travel home every weekend.
While focusing on travel and carbon emissions, another great way to reduce your carbon footprint is by using public transportation.
Want to spend the day in the city? Taking a trip to the mall?
Ride the Cabrini shuttle. It runs several times throughout the day and stops at the R5 Paoli/Downingtown train that stops in Radnor, the 100 Rapid Transit Line, the King of Prussia Mall and Wayne, Pa.
Another great way to make your dorm room green is to use microwaves and toaster ovens instead of that George Foreman.
Electric grills, conventional ovens and frying pans are heavy-duty energy users because they operate at such high temperatures, which also makes them fire hazards and banned by many dorms. Microwave ovens, toaster ovens, crock-pots and rice cookers concentrate the heat in the food, instead of heating so much extra air or metal like conventional ovens and frying pans do, according to TreeHugger.com.
Turning the page, an additional way us college kids can help the planet is to start buying rechargeable batteries. According to TreeHugger.com, of the 15 billion batteries produced and sold each year, most of them are disposable alkaline batteries and only a fraction of those are recycled.
For removable batteries, lithium-ion and nickel metal hydride are cost-effective, green alternatives.
The fastest battery chargers can charge AAs in as little as 15 minutes. We all know how annoying it us to bust out your camera for a photo shoot with your friends and have the batteries die halfway through the night. But it shouldn’t stop with batteries, look for anything rechargeable. It saves a lot of energy and will pay for itself in the long run.
There are plenty of resources to learn more about how we can help save our planet. It is incredibly important we educate ourselves now and inspire everyone to make the small changes in our lives that will add up to big changes for the planet.
