While Ball State University salutes its colors - cardinal and white - each time the fight song plays, we might as well throw green in the lyrics, too. No, this has nothing to do with offending the color-blind males wandering campus ("No, dude - I said the one in the purple shirt!"), but rather the institution's heavy interest in environmental sustainability.
The campus community is not perfectly green, we're more like lime green - perhaps a harlequin. Ball State did not make the cut for the Sustainable Endowment Institute's Environmental Report Card.
Yes, you should care. No, I'm not ignorant enough to think you do care.
You should know, however, that Ball State's efforts are setting a standard. The university is trying, and that's more than a lot of us can say when it comes to environmental efforts.
As an example, most of the flooring in the Letterman Communication and Media Building is at least partially made from recycled content. And that's terrific, except post-consumer products (a.k.a, recycled material napkins) require recycled content. Recycled content requires consumers who recycle.
Yeah, that's you.
Only 26 percent of students and staff on campus are recycling, said Michael Planton, associate director for landscape and environmental management, in an Oct. 17 article in the Daily News.
While we, as students, don't have direct control over the sustainability report card, that doesn't give us an excuse to sit on our collective asses.
You likely know someone who drinks beer - perhaps you do. Consider the cans and bottles carelessly tossed away after weekend excursions nationwide, and you've likely got enough material to build a small city.
If you ever grab beverages from the Atrium (no, not beer), save your cash and some paper by purchasing a green, plastic bottle. They're cheaper to refill and spare the waste of those paper cups.
Print readers: put this in a recycle bin, not a trash bin. If you're reading this online you're already helping, so long as you're in power save mode.
While I'm not the first in line to hug the proverbial tree, my checking account has no argument with my stance on energy conservation.
The stance is simple, really: Turn things off.
Flipping a switch is not difficult. It's training yourself to do it that's the pain.
Turn off your desktop if you leave town. Kill your computer monitors; don't just leave them on standby. More than five percent of residential power use comes from entertainment electronics and 75 percent of the electricity powering home electronics is used while products are turned off, according to the United States Department of Energy.
You wouldn't pay an employee to sit and stare at the wall without purpose. Why pay for your electronics to do so?
Critics might argue this green movement as a stretch of Al Gore's imagination and belief in global warming. I'm not debating global warming, I'm arguing for recycling materials and conserving energy if nothing else but for the sake of cost.
Change or start a daily habit for the better. You don't need to throw on a green cape and face paint - just care a little more.
Minor things. Baby steps. The world won't change overnight, and retail costs won't hit an all-time low. Our culture is so intent on receiving instant gratification issues such as long-term sustainability mean little to us on a day-to-day basis. The difference here is that you are trying.
As a famous environmentalist once said, "It's not easy being green."
Write to Dave at a href="mailto:heydave@bewilderedsociety.com">heydave@bewilderedsociety.com
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