Welcome to our post-Dean’s Date Good News Friday! If finals are making things seem a little bleak, here’s some positive news to get you through the week:
Image Credit: Princeton University Facilities Organization via sustain.princeton.edu
1. Princeton University Expands Solar Power: In April 2019, Princeton released a Sustainability Action Plan with the goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2046. This week, the university came one step closer to that goal by announcing it would install eight new solar array projects. These panels are in addition to the solar field near campus that has been in operation for nearly a decade. The new projects are expected to triple the generating capacity of Princeton University’s solar farms from 5.5% to 19% of campus electricity use.
2. Scientists Regrow Coral Reefs: Members of the organization Raising Coral Costa Rica are using coral samples to reconstruct damaged reefs. By breaking off coral samples, growing them in a nursery, and then reintroducing them into their natural environment, the scientists can study how corals can be more resistant to climate change while simultaneously reconstructing depleted reefs.
That’s all for this week! Join us next time for another roundup of good news. Until then, take a look at our previous Good News Friday editions and contact us if you have any good news you would like to share!
With the semester quickly coming to an end and the holidays nearly upon us, now is the perfect time to flex your cooking skills and try out some new recipes. If you were looking for culinary inspiration, search no further! The EcoReps have compiled some of their personal favorite sustainable recipes into a “book” below. Please give them a try, and don’t forget to check out our weekly Sustainable Meals for Busy Students posts with Greening Dining!
Breakfast
Cider Pumpkin Waffles: Sure, pumpkin spice might be a bit of an autumn cliché. (But note that it got that way because it is delicious). Spice up your breakfast and make the most of the end of the pumpkin season by making waffles! Find the recipe here.
Pumpkin Muffins:Continuing with the pumpkin spice theme, also try your hand at pumpkin muffins! Adam Wickham notes that this recipe can be adapted to a vegan version by substituting ¼ cup of applesauce for each egg and swapping regular milk with plant-based options. Find the recipe here.
Apple Butter: To make a quick, festive, and delicious seasonal condiment, try apple butter. This recipe is very customizable, so get creative with your spices and flavors! Find the recipe here.
Spiced Pumpkin Butter: Not a huge fan of apples, but still looking for something more interesting than peanut butter to put on toast? Try out pumpkin butter instead! Find the recipe here.
Vegan 3-Bean Chili: For a quick, easy, and one-pot recipe that makes for great leftovers, try one of our EcoReps’ own recipes for vegan chili! Here’s how to make it:
Ingredients
~2 cups (10 oz) of frozen or fresh chopped bell peppers and onions
4 cloves of garlic
2 15 oz cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 15 oz cans black beans (rinsed and drained)
1 15 oz can kidney beans (rinsed and drained)
1 15 oz can navy or great northern beans (rinsed and drained)
~2 cups (10 oz) frozen corn
2 8 oz cans tomato sauce
1 ⅓ Tbsp mild chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
Some salt and pepper
Optional:
24 oz can diced green chiles
Instructions
In a pot over medium heat, cook the veggies and garlic for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a tablespoon or so of water at a time as needed to keep the veggies from sticking.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot. Increase heat to high, cover, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until veggies are tender (about 10 minutes).
Ful Medames: Not in the mood for soup, but still looking for an easy one-pot recipe? Try ful medames, a Middle Eastern bean dip/porridge often served with pita bread. Beans are an excellent source of protein with a far smaller carbon footprint than meat. Find the recipe here.
Baked Tofu: Tofu can be eaten on its own or as part of a larger dish, and it makes for an excellent sustainable meat substitute due to its smaller carbon footprint. Whether you already frequently eat tofu or are just starting to try it, here is one of our EcoReps’ personal recipes to try out!:
Ingredients
1 lb. firm tofu
2 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp minced garlic (or to taste)
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
Black pepper
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Wrap tofu in a dish towel for 10-15 minutes to remove excess water, then slice the tofu into 6-8 pieces lengthwise.
Combine all other ingredients except sesame seeds in a square baking dish.
Tip: You can double the marinade if you want more sauce.
Add tofu to the marinade; turn to coat before sprinkling the top of tofu with sesame seeds.
Bake the tofu on the top shelf of the oven, uncovered, for 45 minutes.
Enjoy! Some serving suggestions include:
Serve the tofu over rice, quinoa, or noodles.
Serve the tofu on a sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and onion.
(Recipe contributed by: Naomi Frim-Abrams ‘23)
Tofu Stir Fry: Sticking with the tofu theme, try your hand at making some tofu stir fry! It’s easy to customize what vegetables you add in; to be environmentally conscious, tailor your recipe to the vegetables that are in season. Maddy Chong says: “I usually add shredded/chopped carrots, spinach, egg, and edamame, but this would be really good with most veggies.” Find the recipe here.
Sweet Potato, Kale, and Quinoa Bowl: Grain bowls have grown in popularity in recent years as they have gained recognition for being healthy, customizable, and easy to take on-the-go. To make your own healthy and sustainable grain bowl, try Julia Harisay’s recipe:
Ingredients
For the sweet potatoes:
1-2 sweet potatoes
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Several cracks of pepper
Rest of bowl:
1 small bunch curly kale
Cooking spray
¼ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp garlic powder
Juice of ¼ wedge of lemon
Cooked rice or quinoa, to taste
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450° F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Scrub sweet potatoes and slice them in half lengthwise, then slice each potato widthwise into ½ in pieces.
Put the potatoes in an even layer on the lined baking sheet. Drizzle them with oil, syrup, salt, cayenne, and a few cracks of pepper. Rub potatoes well to coat.
Bake the potatoes for 15 minutes, flipping halfway through.
Tear the kale into bite-sized pieces and discard stems. Rinse the kale (do not dry it).
Spray a pan with cooking spray and put it on the stove on medium heat.
Put wet kale in the pan and sprinkle it with sea salt and garlic powder. Stir the kale and cover the pan.
Cook the kale for 3 minutes or until bright green and tender. Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice.
Combine sweet potatoes, kale, and quinoa or rice in a bowl and enjoy!
Peanut Noodles: For a filling and easy meal that takes under 15 minutes, try peanut noodles! Combine with the tofu stir fry recipe above for a particularly delicious dish. Find the recipe here.
One way to use less paper is to use more of it, or rather use it more efficiently! We know that sometimes you just have to print something out, so check your settings before you hit “Print.”
Be sure you’re printing double-sided
Make your margins as small as possible to minimize white space on a page
Use PDF editors, like printfriendly.com, to cut out junk from your printouts
Consider printing 2 or more pages per piece of paper
Be selective and print only the pages you need
Use misprinted paper for scratch work
Make Paper Crafts
If you have a misprint or used paper from past semesters you don’t know what to do with, give yourself a fun study break and make paper crafts using these materials.
Here are some ideas of cool creations you can make! For one, you can practice your origami skills, or you can create paper snowflakes to decorate your window if winter is approaching. Color the paper or use it as is, there are so many possibilities – get creative!
Recycle and Compost
You know about the importance of recycling your paper by having proper recycling bins and following your recycler’s guidelines, but that’s not the only way you can give your paper a second life. If you have access to a composting system, or can start up a compost bin for yourself, you can compost your paper as well!
Some compost systems can only handle shredded paper, so check what yours can work with and cut up the paper with a shredder or using a pair of scissors. Likewise, not all paper can be composted, like colored and glossy paper, which might contain some toxic heavy metals, but newsprint and other paper is safe to use as mulch or in compost. In fact, one study revealed that paper had less toxic material than straw or grass!
Pay it Forward
In the U.S., an estimated 640,000 tons of books are sent to the landfill annually. At an assumed average weight of 4 pounds each, that’s approximately 320 million books discarded each year!
If guidelines allow it, donate your books to libraries, resell them online, pass them on to students planning on taking the same class, or organize socially-distanced book swaps with your friends! Conversely, see if you can buy your textbooks second-hand, rent them, or get digital versions!
On average, a college student is assigned about 400 pages of reading per week. In place of printing out those papers, consider using digital tools to read, annotate, and organize them instead! At the simplest level, you can highlight and comment on PDF files with programs such as Mac’s Pages, Google Docs, and Adobe Acrobat. You can also use digital platforms, like Quizlet or Brainscape, to make personalized online flashcards!
Reusable Scratch Paper
How often do you grab a fresh sheet of paper to use for scratch work only to toss it later that day? To cut down on your paper waste, swap scratch paper for a whiteboard instead! You can use a spare whiteboard lying around your house, a notebook with whiteboard-surface pages, a peel-and-stick sheet of whiteboard surface you can place on a wall or on your desk, or even a laminated white sheet!
Use What You Already Have!
The best way to be sustainable is to make use of what you already have! If you prefer working on paper, be sure to fill up pages as much as possible before getting a clean sheet. Reduce the size of your handwriting, use the backside of a one-sided print out for quick notes, and write with a pencil or an erasable pen to get more than one use of a piece of paper.
Replace Parts, Not the Whole
Not only can you use what you have, but sometimes you can reuse it too! With some objects, you can often replace only the parts you need! For example, if your favorite pen runs out of ink, see if you can replace only its ink cartridge instead of the entire pen unit itself. Not only is this more sustainable, but it can also be less expensive too.
Limit Your E-Waste
Electronic waste (e-waste) describes discarded electrical or electronic devices – smartphones, fridges, you name it – and as of 2019, is one of the fastest growing waste streams on Earth. Not only does e-waste contain harmful chemicals that can end up in our soil, water, and air when improperly disposed, but it can also be illegally exported to countries that don’t have laws on handling/disposing of it. Since remote studying relies heavily on technology, be mindful of your e-waste: consider if you really need to get the most recent laptop or phone model if yours already functions well, or see if you can repair parts of your device instead of purchasing a brand new one. If you do decide to discard a device, look into legitimate channels to go through – for example, big manufacturers like Apple and Best Buy accept e-waste!
Take advantage of the daylight – study near a window instead of under a lamp at night!
Not only are you getting in some vitamin D, but you are also reducing your energy use.
Use LED Bulbs
LED lights are up to 80% more efficient than traditional lighting – not only do they reduce the amount of energy lost as heat, but they also draw much less power than traditional lighting!
If compatible, change your bulbs to LEDs. By using less energy, you can help decrease greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the demand from the grid.
Layer Up
A Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) in 2011 revealed that heating and cooling accounts for about 50% of the energy use in a building.
Instead of turning on the heat in your house, try bundling up with a sweater, grabbing a blanket, drinking something hot, or taking small active breaks!
Unplug your electronics
The vampire effect refers not to spooky vampires with fangs but the even scarier reality of electricity consumption by electronics that aren’t in use but are plugged into outlets, consuming unnecessary energy, like the power that maintains your TV settings or the charger plugged into your wall but not your phone.
Try to unplug your appliances from the outlet when not in use!
Welcome to our first Good News Friday of December! As we head into reading period and finals, let’s take some time to appreciate all the positive environmental developments that have been happening recently. Here are three hopeful bits of good news to kick off the holiday (and exam) season:
Environmental Activists Recognized: The Goldman Environmental Prize (aka the “Green Nobel Prize”) honors six grassroots environmental activists, one from each (populated) continental region of the world. This year’s winners include: an Indigenous Karen activist from Myanmar who worked to establish the world’s first peace park in an active conflict zone, an Indigenous Mayan beekeeper who spearheaded a coalition to ban Monsanto soy beans in seven Mexican states, a French climate activist who pressured France’s three largest banks to stop supporting coal development, a youth activism leader who brought about a ban on single-use plastics in the Bahamas, an Indigenous Waorani woman who enacted legal action to stop oil extraction in a huge plot of the Amazon rainforest, and an activist who changed the trajectory of Ghana’s energy future. Read more about their inspiring stories here.
Unlimited Geothermal Energy Startup: Eavor, a promising geothermal energy startup, has developed an innovative yet simple system, dubbed the Eavor-Loop, which harvests heat from deep in the earth to be used for commercial heating applications or to generate electricity. While conventional geothermal plants drill straight down into the earth, the Eavor-Loop consists of a pressurised self-contained loop where cold water is constantly heated underground and the heat is extracted at the surface. The system is essentially self-powereddue to convection, and Eavor predicts it will be able to provide gigawatts of dispatchable energy anywhere in the world for less than $50/MWh by the end of the decade, making its technology cost-competitive with natural gas and coal.
Lab-Grown Chicken Nuggets for Sale: For the first time ever, cultured meat grown in a bioreactor has been approved for sale. The “chicken bites,” produced by the U.S. company Eat Just, recently passed the safety review of the Singapore Food Agency. As of now, the lab-grown alternative is much more expensive than conventional meat, but Eat Just predicts that it will eventually be cheaper when production is scaled up. According to some scientists, cutting meat and dairy consumption is the single biggest action a person can take to reduce their impact on the environment, so this new development is a huge win for sustainable food production.
That’s it for this week! Tune in next time for more encouraging environmental news. If you’d like to share some Good News with us, please feel free to get in touch!
This recipe is a quick and easy way to repurpose Thanksgiving leftovers and reduce food waste. Food waste can be a big problem, especially during the holiday season, with over 450 million pounds of Thanksgiving food being wasted each year.
For this homemade version of Wawa’s Gobbler hoagie, my leftovers happened to be plant-based, but since this recipe is super customizable, you can always experiment with whatever Thanksgiving dishes you have in the fridge!
Ingredients:
Bread (i.e. hoagie roll, sourdough, etc.)
Thanksgiving leftovers, such as:
½ cup of stuffing or mashed potatoes
3-4 slices of vegan turkey or chicken
¼ cup of roasted vegetables
Gravy or cranberry sauce
Instructions:
Step 1: Cut and toast the bread.
Step 2: Layer on the ingredients. I usually put stuffing or mashed potatoes on the bottom, then vegan turkey/chicken or roasted vegetables on top. If you don’t have your own leftovers or if you want to experiment with some plant-based foods, here are some ideas for sandwich fillings:
Stuffing: I replaced the butter with Earth Balance and the eggs with 2 tbsp of ground flaxseed mixed with 5 tbsp of water.
Image Credit: Annika Hsi ‘23
Roasted Vegetables: I coated Brussels sprouts with olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme. Then I baked them at 415°F for 30-45 min.
Image Credit: Annika Hsi ‘23
Plant-Based Chicken: For meat, I used Lightlife Smart Tenders. Lightlife is a carbon-neutral company that produces a variety of different soy-based meat replacements.
Image Credit: Annika Hsi ‘23
Step 3: Enjoy!
Image Credit: Annika Hsi ‘23
Recipe inspired by Wawa
This series is brought to you by student group, Greening Dining
Stuck at home and tired of your garbage can getting stinky? A full 22% of your trash (or more) is likely food, and food waste doesn’t smell too great after a couple of days. There’s an easy and environmentally friendly solution to the odor – start composting!
By breaking down the food in combination with leaves and water, the process yields a rich, nutrient-filled soil additive called compost that can be used in your home garden beds or gifted to your neighbors (here is an article on the benefits of compost for your garden). Composting at home is really easy to start up and doesn’t require a ton of resources. My family has been composting since I was in middle school, and since then, we’ve learned a lot of helpful tips which I’ll share with you below.
During the day, we collect our food scraps indoors in an old yogurt container in the fridge to prevent it from smelling up our kitchen counter. We then empty the scraps into our outdoor composter whenever the indoor container is full. Our outdoor composter is a tumbling, elevated version which we keep in our backyard. It’s definitely worth the investment to buy a model like the one we have because it keeps food scraps contained and elevated (to prevent us from attracting unwanted pests like rats, as we live in a city) and also makes it easier to regularly turn the compost (moving the scraps around is important to promote breakdown and aeration). You don’t need a shiny new container to start composting, however. In a pinch, you can build your own out of anything from milk crates to recycled lumber.
Home compost collected in an old yogurt cup Photo Credits: Claire Wayner
Keep in mind that you can’t compost all of your food scraps at home – things like dairy, meat, prepared foods/dishes, and disposables marked as “compostable” should stay out of your home compost, as they won’t break down unless put in a more industrialized composting environment like Princeton’s S.C.R.A.P. Lab. Stick to things like fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds, or clippings from your yard (raked leaves in the fall are great!). Try to get your ratio of “greens” (e.g., grass clippings, fruit and vegetable scraps) to “browns” (e.g., leaves, eggshells) right.
There are plenty of tutorials online on how to get started (check out this one from NPR). If you live in a dense city and can’t easily set up a compost bin, there are always countertop composters for apartments, or you could check to see if your municipality offers curbside composting pickup (ShareWaste has a great directory of where to drop off your compost if you can’t use it in your home).
By starting to compost, you can make a big difference. Most greenhouse gas emissions from landfills come from the breakdown of food. Composting can reduce these greenhouse gas emissions and give us a usable product at the end of it.
Welcome again to our Good News Friday series! I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving (maybe even including some of our Sustainable Meals for Busy Students recipes!). In the same positive holiday spirit, here are our top three uplifting pieces of environmental news for this week:
Global growth in renewable energy: A recent report published by the International Energy Agency predicts a 4% increase in installed renewable energy capacity this year, with renewables accounting for approximately 90% of 2020’s total power capacity growth. This comes at the same time that many investors have started redirecting funds into sustainable energy and away from fossil fuels, which could spur further growth in the renewable energy sector.
2. Germany supports electric vehicles: Earlier this month, Germany’s Economy Ministry agreed to provide €2 billion ($2.33 billion) in aid funds to its auto industry to support “a switch to greener engines and automated driving.” This is especially important in light of the country’s hopes to cut emissions by approximately 50% compared to 1990 levels by 2030.
3. Legal win for the Alaskan tundra: The debate over a controversial, proposed copper and gold mine in Alaska, which would have been one of the world’s largest mines for such materials, appears to have finally been settled after the Army Corps of Engineers denied the project a critical permit. Declared “contrary to the public interest,” the Pebble Mine would have threatened salmon breeding grounds. It has long been opposed by Alaskan Native Americans, environmentalists, and the fishing industry. The NRDC, for example, praised the decision, with its senior attorney Joel Reynolds stating, “Amen to certainty for this cherished area, the tribes and community of Bristol Bay, and its wildlife and waters… this move recognizes there was never any way to mitigate the harm Pebble Mine would do.”
There’s always positive environmental news somewhere if you dig a little. Join us next week for another Good News Friday, and until then, check out our past editions and contact us if you have any good news you would like to share!
Sometimes we want to eat something warm, sweet, and comforting––something that feels close to home. At the same time, we want to indulge guilt-free, in terms of both our health and the carbon footprint of our food. To appease these cravings, look no further than this apple crisp recipe and look fast because most apples are almost out of season! This recipe is not only delicious, fairly easy to make, and highly nutritious but also a great way to practice sustainable dining.
A final note before the recipe: cooking apple crisp offers an excellent opportunity to test out new kinds of apples. While most apples are not as sweet as our beloved Honeycrisps, Fujis, and Galas, tarter apples shine when it comes to baking. I prepared this apple crisp using Stayman, Jonagold, Rome, Nittany, and Goldrush apples that I purchased at my local farmer’s market. If you are able to visit a farmer’s market, I would highly recommend asking vendors for their opinion on the best baking apples.
Ingredients:
Image Credit: Joe Himmelfarb ‘24
Apple Mixture:
5-6 apples, roughly chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp cinnamon
1-2 tbsp maple syrup
Salt (optional)
Crumble:
1 ½ cups of rolled oats
(Roughly) ½ cup walnuts
2-3 tsp cinnamon
2-3 tbsp maple syrup
Salt (optional)
Instructions:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350°F.
Step 2: Blend oats or mash manually until coarsely ground.
Step 3: Blend or mix in the remaining crumble ingredients, adding more or less cinnamon, maple syrup, and salt as desired.
Image Credit: Joe Himmelfarb ‘24
Step 4: Roughly chop apples. Optional Step: For softer apples, microwave chopped apples for 5 minutes.
Image Credit: Joe Himmelfarb ‘24
Step 5: Mix apples with the rest of the mixture ingredients in a baking dish.
Image Credit: Joe Himmelfarb ‘24
Step 6: Cover apple mixture with crumble.
Image Credit: Joe Himmelfarb ‘24
Step 7: Bake for 35-40 minutes.
Image Credit: Joe Himmelfarb ‘24
Step 8: Enjoy!
Optional Step: For a light, delicious plant-based pairing, try nice cream. To prepare: freeze a few ripe bananas, and then blend them while adding small amounts of water or plant-based milk until a creamy consistency is reached. You can also try blending in other flavors like vanilla, cocoa, or fruit like mango and strawberry.
