I mainly engage with sustainability creatively through Art- reusing and repurposing clothes and different items I own, maintaining a caring and co-dependent relationship with nature helps me understand why it is important to be sustainable, and being a smart and wary consumer is not only economical- it makes sure we do not leave more of a footprint on the planet than we need to.
What do you study and why?
I am planning on majoring in Neuroscience because the brain is such a complex and powerful organ and so many hidden treasures within it that we still do not fully comprehend. I want to be a part of these discoveries, furthering human knowledge of the world around us and the one within ourselves.
What other campus groups are you involved with?
ReMatch partnering/ research mentoring programme
What do you like to do in your free time?
Yoga, mindfulness, ink and charcoal art, walks and mini-hikes in nature
Share a fun fact about yourself!
I love flowers and plants. if anyone knows of any homeless plants on campus let me know!
I am super excited to work with such an incredible team towards a more sustainable and eco-conscious Princeton 🙂
I believe daily sustainability emerges through acts of care. Think, caring about where your waste ends up (hopefully the ScrapLab), caring for your clothes by mending them, or caring enough to pick reusable options over disposable counterparts. A sustainable mindset can look different for each of us but if you’re taking the time to care about your impact, you can’t be far off.
What do you study and why?
I’m an English major with certificates in Urban Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies because I really enjoy interdisciplinary learning.
What other campus groups are you involved with?
When I’m not in the EcoLounge, you can find me giving tours of art on campus or stationed at Terrace.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I love unwinding through reading, collaging, and scouring Facebook Marketplace for second hand home goods.
Encouraging the people around me to take small steps towards living a more sustainable life, such as cutting out red meat and buying second hand, but also taking action to overcome the climate crisis on a larger scale.
What do you study and why?
I plan on majoring in chemical and biological engineering to have a better understanding of the energy sector and how we can best move forward to achieve energy equity.
What other campus groups are you involved with?
E-Club (IgniteSTEM), Princeton University Energy Association, Divest Princeton
What do you like to do in your free time?
Hike and play board games (I get very competitive)
What comes to mind when you hear Environmental Justice (EJ)? Do you picture images of clean water and green forests? Or do you imagine thriving communities with healthy residents? For me, the notion of EJ was always kind of fuzzy, but I was interested in learning more, so I helped facilitate a week-long wintersession workshop on the topic. Every day we met for a few hours to listen to presentations, discuss in small groups, or work on a group project.
By the end of the workshop, I was able to better grasp the complexity of environmental justice issues, and I wanted to share a few takeaways that I got from the experience.
Environmental justice is a collective issue, which affects all people on a personal level, both directly and indirectly.
While environmental organizations prioritize the natural environment, environmental justice organizations prioritize communities and intersect heavily with social justice movements. As a result, the two can sometimes be in conflict (e.g. carbon offset purchases displacing indigenous populations).
For anyone who wants to get involved, it’s important not to impose solutions since EJ communities have historically been sidelined by “outside help”. The community’s voice must be heard and supported with external resources.
Since most environmental issues are related to environmental justice, it is beneficial to view these issues through an EJ lens. Only in this way can we can consider the complexity of the systems we’ve built and how they affect communities.
For our project, my amazing small group (Jackie Lydon ‘24, Ayame Whitfield ‘21) and I made a tree that symbolized the EJ movement. The roots represent attitudes and motivations, the trunk represents methods and actions, and the leaves represent desired outcomes.
While I’ve barely scratched the surface of these important issues, I think I’ve gained a better understanding of the complexity that goes into environmental decision-making. If you would like to learn more about environmental justice, please check out the Princeton Indigenous Advocacy Coalition (non-indigenous students welcome) or New Jersey Student Climate Advocates (NJSCA).
What is your favorite EcoRep project that you’ve done?
I really loved collaborating with PSCI to develop a carbon emissions calculator! It was such a great experience working with another sustainability group on campus, and the final product was very worthwhile!
How do you engage with sustainability?
I try to be really conscious of my consumer habits and work to make my own lifestyle as sustainable as possible, such as by using reusables and being conscious of the waste I produce. I also try to advocate for larger-scale action whenever possible.
What do you study and why?
Currently, I’m in the chemical and biological engineering department. I really love how it allows me to pursue my interests in materials science and sustainable energy, and gives me the flexibility to go into research or many other exciting fields! I also really love chemistry and am fascinated by understanding how things work when scaled up, and I hope to play a role in reducing emissions from chemical processes.
What other campus groups are you involved with?
I’m on the Kenya team in Engineers Without Borders, I tutor for McGraw, and I’m the events coordinator for the Princeton Chemical Society.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I love ice skating, going on adventures (especially outdoors!), and watching too much Netflix for my own good.
I’m most passionate about the idea of sustainability as a means of reflection and community building. For context, I came into environmental work as a poet. I learned the world through poetry. Although poetry is first and foremost regarded as a creative process, I also believe it’s a way of thinking. To identify and explore through poetry is to learn and yearn for stories. There are so many people I think of as poets, regardless of if they write poetry, because of how carefully they consider the world around them and the people in it. In the environmental movement, I think the consideration poetry demands is important. Although other writing styles involve reflection, poetry requires it. Without internal reflection of why we continue to fight for a crisis that a lot of the time feels incredibly overwhelming, we cannot sustain both ourselves and each other..
What do you study and why?
Right now, I’m considering Ecology, Anthropology, or Religion, but I’m still pretty undecided!
What other campus groups are you involved with?
I’m involved with Songline Slam, PUMP, and the Figure Skating Club! This semester, I’m excited to join the Princeton Gardening Club.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I love journaling, walking, reading, writing poetry, and gardening.
Today we’re wrapping up another week of positive environmental news. As you get adjusted to your new semester schedules, we hope that you can take a moment to appreciate all the good things happening in the sustainability sphere.
Biden’s Oil-lease moratorium helps create jobs: On January 27th, President Biden issued an executive order prohibiting new oil or gas leases on public lands. Despite conservative concern that Biden’s energy policies will hurt the economy, the President claims the clean energy sector could provide ten million new jobs—the same as the number of employees in the oil and gas industry. This development may also be a win for environmental justice. While most of the profits of the fossil fuel industry go to executives, Biden plans to distribute 40% of the government’s investment in clean energy to disadvantaged communities.
Indian farmers overcome water scarcity: In India, the water-climate crisis threatens economic development, agricultural production, and the livelihoods of citizens, with numerous cities facing the devastating possibility of “Day Zero.” The water shortage has been especially devastating to Indian farmers, as 90% of the country’s freshwater is used for agriculture. As with most environmental disasters, low-income populations are disproportionately affected. However, in Latur, one of the larger districts in the Marathawada, farmers have been able to recover from the water crisis using an innovative strategy. A group of villagers removed over 900,000 cubic meters of silt from the river, helping increase the rate of groundwater recharge. The silt was then used in the fields in combination with sharecropping to increase yields.
Scientists discover new population of blue whales: Blue whales are the largest mammal on Earth, but also in danger of extinction. Scientists were therefore surprised and excited to discover a new population of whales by overhearing a unique mating song. The song is one of only a dozen or so other blue whale songs ever recorded and brings hope for the continued recovery of the species.
Thank you for reading! We hope that these updates made your day a little better and that you have a wonderful start to the semester. Please feel free to get in touch if you want to share some Good News with us!
I enjoy educating myself more about environmental justice issues and finding ways to reduce waste on campus such as litter cleanups.
What do you study and why?
I study Civil and Environmental Engineering on campus because I love combining math and science with how we can better take care of our environment. A lot of construction projects intersect with environmental issues which is why I want the focus of my career to be helping mitigate the displacement of people in urban spaces.
What other campus groups are you involved with?
I study Civil and Environmental Engineering on campus because I love combining math and science with how we can better take care of our environment. A lot of construction projects intersect with environmental issues which is why I want the focus of my career to be helping mitigate the displacement of people in urban spaces.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I love to read James Baldwin and go on nature walks!
For everyone on campus, we’re all so excited that the dining halls have opened back up, allowing us to eat hot food and spend time together with friends. Of course, they don’t look the same as they did last year. We’re still living during a pandemic, and as a result, we’re not able to implement many of our former sustainable dining practices. Nevertheless, there are still so many small ways you can practice sustainability while eating. I hope this post gives you some practical and simple ideas for protecting the environment–while you protect yourself!
Choose to Reuse
Bring reusable utensils and say no to plastic silverware. Plastic silverware isn’t recyclable, is deadly to sea creatures, and takes centuries to decompose1. While the dining halls can’t offer everyone reusable silverware, bringing your own utensils is perfectly safe, better for the environment, and easy to clean: simply wash in hot water with soap! It’s also cheap; the U-store sells metal cutlery for just a few dollars.
Along this vein, try drinking from a reusable water bottle. Just remember to fill it up at your closest filtered water station beforehand, because they can’t be filled in the dining hall. In addition, make sure to avoid other unnecessary single-use plastics, such as packaged foods and drink lids, and since student composting isn’t active, prevent food waste by only taking what you can eat.
Drink Local
While drinking water from a recyclable can is better than using plastic, it’s still not as sustainable as a reusable bottle. The water in these cans is often shipped across the country consuming fossil fuels, and there’s no guarantee that the cans end up recycled anyway. Instead, try one of the hundreds of filtered bottle-filling stations across campus, which supply water from the local watershed2. If you don’t have a filling station in your dorm, do not fear! You can request one to be installed here; however, tap water from the sinks on campus is perfectly safe and comes from the same place as the filling stations. I drink it every day myself!
Recycling
Recycle! …just be smart about it. Recycling guidelines are different everywhere, and just because you could recycle something in your hometown doesn’t mean it can be recycled on campus. On the flip side, you might be able to recycle materials that went to the landfill at home! Download the Recycling on Campus app for more information on what can and can’t be recycled. If too many non-recyclable materials, like the dining hall meal cartons, are put in the recycling, they can contaminate the whole batch. In that case, materials that would have been recycled are instead sent to the landfill. So remember: When in doubt, throw it out! Also, there aren’t recycling bins in the dining halls yet, but there are typically some just outside. We’re working with dining staff to change this, so for now, just make sure to hold onto your cans until you see a bin.
So there you have it! Just remember that the changes in our dining halls are happening for an important reason. While it’s a shame to have to pause some of Princeton’s most sustainable practices, there are still valuable steps that you can take to make a very real difference. Feel free to share with us how you practice sustainability in the dining halls!
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Good News Friday! This week’s post is a little longer than usual to cover some of the environmental headlines coming out of the Biden administration that you might not have heard about yet.
Increasing Fuel Efficiency Standards: One of President Biden’s first executive orders last week includes a clause directing U.S. agencies to review Trump-era fuel efficiency standards. The order comes as Mr. Biden has also pledged to replace the federal government’s entire fleet of vehicles (some 650,000 machines) with fully electric models. This pledge also supports the President’s proposal to add 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations around the nation.
Changing Regulatory Review: The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), a relatively unknown agency under the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has a reputation for being a last resort for conservatives to shoot down progressive bills. This is because it is charged with reviewing draft regulations and has historically nixed or weakened any that do not pass its cost-benefit analysis—usually bills more related to social benefit than economic growth. This frequently includes environmental proposals. However, a memo from President Biden on January 20 could change this pattern by directing the OMB Director to modernize regulatory review. The goal is to provide suggestions on how “the regulatory review process can promote public health and safety, economic growth, social welfare, racial justice, environmental stewardship, human dignity, equity, and the interests of future generations.” This could change the bills the OIRA approves for years to come.
Connecting Climate Change and National Security: Mr. Biden is widely expected to bring back and strengthen former President Obama’s 2016 memorandum on climate change and national security. The directive makes climate change a matter of national security and instructs “Federal departments and agencies to perform certain functions to ensure that climate change-related impacts are fully considered in the development of national security doctrine, policies, and plans.”
2. Investors Acknowledge Climate Change: Laurence Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, Inc.—the largest asset manager in the world—is calling on companies and business leaders around the world to disclose their plans for a net-zero carbon economy. As a figurehead in an industry known for supporting fossil fuels, Mr. Fink’s message breaks from investment precedent. However, his status also gives him enormous power to block investment in companies that contradict his priorities. Only BlackRock’s investment decisions going forward will tell how deep Mr. Fink’s commitment to carbon neutrality goes.
3. Advances in Battery Storage: Australian energy company Lavo recently announced its Green Energy Storage System, the world’s first residential hydrogen battery backup system intended to store excess energy generated from residential solar panels. With nearly three times the capacity of Tesla’s Powerwall 2—but admittedly a much larger price tag—Lavo’s product represents a breakthrough in battery storage, which some see as a key technology in climate change mitigation.
That’s everything for this week! Come back next time for more good news. Until then, look at our previous Good News Friday editions and contact us if you have any good news you would like to share!
