Universities, while benefiting
thousands of students in many ways, have a large impact on the environment and
sometimes a bad one.
Universities have a wide range of needs
required to sustain the campus. They
need large supplies of energy, water and paper—these are the most prevalent
environmentally impacting resources.
Students, teachers and faculty use about
900,000 tons of paper per year. Though
this is decreasing with the rise of technology, paper is still a staple on the
college campus. This aspect of
universities’ effect on the environment is often overlooked because of what is
thought to be a necessity for hard copies of any sort of writing or
assignment. To combat this use of paper,
recycling is the main tool. By recycling
one ton of paper, seventeen trees can be saved and sixty pounds of air
pollution can be avoided.
A UW-L sophomore sees these environmental
effects and argues, “there are some necessary things we do that aren’t the best
for the environment, but paper use can be greatly reduced. Teachers and students just have to be willing
to trust in technology and go beyond the hard copy.”
Energy is also a large part of campuses’
environmental footprint. Universities
need energy to provide a number of services to students: food services,
maintenance services, good lighting in classrooms and so on. With the advancement of technology and its
prevalence, an increasing amount of power is needed by universities, especially
considering many students have their own technological devices.
Lastly, just as energy, water is widely
used. Water is not only needed for
cleaning, personal use, drinking and other student related things, but campuses
must also irrigate water to care for on campus green areas and sports fields
that require water to preserve aesthetically pleasing looks.
