Author: wdripps

How many pages do you print each day? While just spending a few moments in the library I see several printers each being used one person who looks like a senior is printing an entire text book he borrowed by a friend. An RA prints hall activities and posters for their hall and the rest of the printers are being used by students print their papers that are most likely due in a few hours or minutes. Although I know that everyone likes that warm feeling of freshly printed paper in their hands but just how detrimental is that to the environment and how much does a Furman student print in a semester? And how is paper recycled? These statistics took a long time of planning and a study that lasted four years.

In the year 2000 26,935 tons of paper were sold in the United States alone (2000, U.S. Statistics Bureau), for reference a ton of paper has about 200,000 sheets of computer paper which is comprised of 400 reams of paper, one tree is 16.7 reams While the process for recycling paper is better than throwing out your paper you received an F on, it’s still a process and does use harmful chemicals and ink to repaint paper into its final form. Also, another issue with recycling paper is that paper can only be recycled a number of times. The strongest paper is that which books are drafted from since a book will be read multiple times while a newspaper may only be read once. As with all recycled materials they can only be recycled down the strength scale. A recycled book will never be a book again and may turn into a newspaper eventually that paper will reach the end of its life and will be unrecyclable.

The study conducted by Shannon Bartholomew and Weston Dripps looked at paper consumption before and after a paper limit was set on Furman students. The study recorded the total printed pages of an average student by class year over an expanse of four years. The program also recorded major, sex and type of document that was printed. Princeton University conducted a similar study and concluded that their students printed a total of 11,040,362 sheets of paper over the course of two semesters. Shown below is the breakdown of how much that actually is.

University	Princeton	Furman
Total	11,040362	4,400,000
Total per semester	11,040,362/2 = 55,20,181 sheets	4,400,000 /2 = 2,200,000
Total Graduate	2,845
Total Under Graduate	5,260	2,800

Keeping these numbers in mind we have to account for the fact that Princeton is an R1 University, meaning there are quite a few graduate students and that the undergrad population is twice the size of Furman. Before reviewing this study, I had no idea how much paper was actually being printed on campus. I wanted to research this based off of the amount of paper left in the printers and I wanted to see undergraduates printing habits.

• Spencer Jones

Last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in the DH, a few students showed the estimated statistics of how much food waste Furman University produces during lunch. I originally showed up to support my roommate, Celia, who was one of the students involved; however, after looking at the numbers, I really began thinking about how much waste I personally produce. I do not go out and buy food only to let it rot in the refrigerator, but I know that I probably do take too many plates of food in the DH. Of course my intention is not bad, usually I just cannot decide or think I am really hungry, but that does not justify the amount of food that I do waste. It is time to be more conscientious. Here are some solutions that I plan to use in order to fix the problem. Take less food. There is no point in taking three plates of food when I probably will not eat it all.  More food is available, if the first plate was not enough. With that being said, take time eating. As I learned from the presentation, it takes twenty minutes for a person’s stomach to realize that it is full. Therefore, it is best to eat slowly so that I do not grab more food that I will not eat. I know that changing my habits alone will probably not have that much of an impact, but I am hoping that his blog post will inspire someone as Celia’s presentation inspired me.

– Felicity Williams

My greenbelt experience would not have been complete without the Furman farm, which happened to be right in my backyard (while I was living in the Greenbelt). The Furman farm grows produce for the dining hall on campus and has student employees who work on the farm. My experience with the Furman farm involved a volunteering opportunity that was provides to me because I was a resident of the greenbelt. When I volunteered I picked vegetables such as okra and tomatoes, both of which are grown organically. The harvesting process was enlightening, I was able to learn which plants were ready for harvest and which weren’t depending on the size, shape, and color of the vegetable. Overall, this experience gave me an appreciation for where my food comes from and the hard work that goes into preparing it. 

-Miles Hauser

The world is dirty. Living in the cabins, and being exposed to the importance of sustainable living has made me change my perspective. My recent trip to Nepal, while inspiring, was also frustrating. The intense exposure to the trash on the streets, the face masks used to avoid inhaling pollution, and the stark smell that spreads through each village, each street, each home made me tilt my head to the side and question how Nepali people could treat the environment so poorly? Having taken many trips to India, I was surprised that I barely noticed the serious implications of living in such poor environments. Moreover, I realized that many other factors are involved in said environments. The problem is not as simple as it seems—I mean, if you see trash on the streets why don’t you just pick it up? Why don’t you have a trashcan? These questions lingered in my mind long after the trip ended. After digging a little deeper, I found the spider-web like complexities of poverty and pollution. Lacking government support, and having few NGO’s focused on sustainable living are just a part of the problem. Moreover, Nepal’s high poverty rates feeds back into the system/mindset “Why would I worry about potential lung cancer, when I probably won’t have dinner on the table tonight?” The major contradictions rose especially when I considered that two of the most prominent religions in Nepal are Hinduism and Buddhism; two religions that have deep roots in respecting nature. So then, how did living conditions drop drastically? What is the driving force that pulls people to respect certain aspects of religion, but neglect others? Do people even care about these issues? And if they don’t…then how do we get them to care? These thoughts and ideas while complex root from open conversations we have had as a Greenbelt Community. The drive to want to make impact in an underdeveloped country is an extension of the change agent I see in Dr. Dripps. The movement began long ago, but it stays ignited by weekly classes and constant motivation and empathy for the environment. 

-Juhee Bhatt

Last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in the DH, a few students showed the estimated statistics of how much food waste Furman University produces during lunch. I originally showed up to support my roommate, Celia, who was one of the students involved; however, after looking at the numbers, I really began thinking about how much waste I personally produce. I do not go out and buy food only to let it rot in the refrigerator, but I know that I probably do take too many plates of food in the DH. Of course my intention is not bad, usually I just cannot decide or think I am really hungry, but that does not justify the amount of food that I do waste. It is time to be more conscientious. Here are some solutions that I plan to use in order to fix the problem. Take less food. There is no point in taking three plates of food when I probably will not eat it all.  More food is available, if the first plate was not enough. With that being said, take time eating. As I learned from the presentation, it takes twenty minutes for a person’s stomach to realize that it is full. Therefore, it is best to eat slowly so that I do not grab more food that I will not eat. I know that changing my habits alone will probably not have that much of an impact, but I am hoping that his blog post will inspire someone as Celia’s presentation inspired me.

Sustainability in a nutshell means confronting my overconsumption; at 7 AM when I’m taking a shower and realize that I have far exceeded the 5-minute hourglass timer, at noon when instead of filling up my water bottle I latch onto my fourth Aquafina, before bed when I charge my phone knowing that it does not need to be charged all night. As I work on continuously growing and continuously developing, I’m learning that some of my most ingrained and reflexive habits are unsustainable—this creates an obvious cognitive dissonance (my actions are inconsistent with my beliefs). To my distaste, I am embarrassingly materialistic, I love easy solutions, and I want things as long as they are immediate—and this is a part of my core identity. My habits are a contradiction to who I want to be, and living in an Eco Friendly Cottage has made it all the more apparent.

But more importantly, it makes me want to change into a person I know I can be. This does not mean I have dematerialized, it simply means that I am thinking more so in terms of everything around me rather than what’s best for me.

My want to change has further played an effect on my overall thinking process. As someone who has been studying human-centered design, I have become much more aware of how often my intentions to make the world a better place are contradicted with my own behavior. Human-centered design runs parallel with environment-centered design. Human centered design and creation now, to me, means not only building products that are shaped around the behavior of humans but it also means to making sure these products also affect the environment in a positive way. It means creating and designing products that don’t compromise the future, our future.

My want to change has made me confront and critically analyze the things I don’t like about myself. We are a generation that has the power to put an end to poverty; we are also a generation that’s taking the wrong steps that will negatively impact the climate.

So my overconsumption has been acknowledged; to change the future, we must first change ourselves. Sustainability begins from within, and then expands outwards. If this means quicker showers, and refilling my water bottles—then, I think we can all take a step towards a more sustainable lifestyle.

-Juhee Bhatt

09/29/2016

This week many people have noticed that the Furman Lake is not looking too great. The water level has been lowered by two feet, which has exposed the muddy, somewhat smelly lake bed in many areas. Dr. Dripps addressed this and has said that due to the flooding last year in Charleston and Columbia, the DHEC has updated their dam safety regulations. In order to comply with the new regulations, Furman needs to remove the trees that line the earthen dam along the road to the maintenance buildings. While this is going on though, a new wooden boardwalk is being built to replace the temporary gravel walkway on the other side of the lake. This new area will be converted into a natural marshland, adding some new visual appeal to the area along with the new ecosystem services that natural wetlands provide. I believe that the improvements being made to the lake will make walking and/or running around the lake, a much more desirable option. With regard to the lake, fishing is still outlawed, much to everyone’s dismay. Hopefully in the future this ban will be lifted and fishing can resume, for now though, the swans are taking precedent.

As for life in the cabins, I’m enjoying it immensely and hope to continue to learn about the sustainable practices that Furman is currently doing and be able to pass that knowledge on to my fellow classmates. This past class we learned about all of the sustainable practices that Furman is currently implementing. These include the use of a Solar Aquatic Waste Water Treatment System that uses plants to treat the wastewater from multiple buildings around campus including the Plyler Science Building, and a new $1.7 million solar farm across from the main entrance on Poinsett Highway. The solar farm’s completion date is set for early 2017. These are just a few of the many sustainable practices that Furman is using in their plan to be completely carbon neutral by 2026.

– Miles Hauser