World Environment Day

A few days ago, I found out that June 5th (yesterday) was World Environment Day. I was shocked by how under-marketed this celebration of sorts is. Earth Day (April 22) gets much more attention across civic, academic, and media circuits, but all World Environment Day got was a few blog postings. And a tree planting activity as noted on its website. What a shame that such a well-meaning holiday has not received some warranted attention! Has anyone ever heard of celebrations for this day in the past?

Photo courtesy of www.unep.org.

New Year's Resolutions

Maybe you've made promises to yourself... to go to Yates everyday, to stay away from the Diner at Leo's, to start studying more and partying less, to actually go to your Intro to Philosophy lectures...

But how about some resolutions that will help not only you, but the environment as well? EcoAction presents some green New Year's resolutions that you can keep even on campus.


Promise to:

1. Turn off your water when brushing your teeth.
2. Take shorter showers. Every minute the shower is turned off can save 7 gallons of water.
3. Blow dry your hair every other day - or better yet, air dry your hair. Hair dryers, on average, use 1875 watts, more than a television, a clock, your radio, and your laptop.
4. Turn off the thermostat when your windows are open.
5. Turn off your laptop's screensaver.
6. Turn off your laptop at night. Using standby or hibernation mode every night can put 115 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year - not to mention drain your laptop's battery.
7. Use a powerstrip and unplug unused electronics.
8. Turn off your light when you're not in your room.
9. Buy organic or local products, whether it's going to the farmer's market at DuPont Circle (every Sunday), Whole Foods on Wisconsin, or buying an organic cotton t-shirt instead of a conventional one.
10. Use a reusable bag when you go shopping or at Grab-and-Go. The Corp and EcoAction both sell reusable bags for/from Corp stores and Leo's respectively.
11. Use a reusable cup when you go to Mug - and get a discount.
12. Recycle. Georgetown recycles paper, glass, plastic, aluminum, batteries, and cell phones.
13. Invest in a reusable water bottle and a Brita filter.
14. Buy used text books.
15. Get educated. Stay tuned for a post about EcoAction's favorite environmental movies and books!

Have a safe and happy new year!