We Conserve: Be the We

This column features the We Conserve program and its work on campus.

To make a plastic cup, oil is extracted from the ground, fuel is used to deliver it to a refinery and processing plant and land is disturbed in mining coal to generate the electricity and heat needed for the manufacturing and packaging of the product. On top of that, more fuel is used to distribute the product and after a few minutes of use, it is deposited in a landfill—forever.

All this so we have a drink in a convenient way or to avoid washing dishes to save a few minutes of time after a party.

So what is the big deal? How much harm will using one small disposable plastic cup can do? Well, every hour, 24 million plastic beverage bottles, 13 million aluminum cans, 1.6 million disposable hot-beverage paper cups, 1.2 million brown grocery bags, and 43 million plastic bags are used in the United States.

More than 60 million sheets of office paper are used every hour and more than 100 million trees are cut down in the U.S. to make paper for junk mail each year. And think about the number of newspapers printed in this age of electronic communications.

The way products are packaged is also an environmental issue. Let’s say you buy an office chair. Clearly, it’s an essential tool in our workplace and there is no question that we need it and must have it. But have you purchased one recently? Have you noticed how much cardboard, metal, and plastic is used in its packaging for delivery?

If our policies and decisions reflect our values, and if protecting the planet and our environment is truly one of those values, some drastic changes will have to be made in the ways we do things; and this is an area where our universities can play a major and direct role.

Higher education employs close to 3 million faculty and staff members and spends more than $200 billion on goods and services—more than gross domestic product of all nations except 20 countries.

This purchasing power gives the U.S. colleges and universities a huge economic clout at home and abroad. Promoting and demanding energy efficiency, environmental accountability, and waste prevention by these schools will result in huge changes in the way the world’s natural resources are extracted and used to manufacture, distribute, utilize, and recycle the goods we need.

We truly have the power to demand lower prices for green cleaning products, for delivery of office chairs and other products wrapped in reusable blankets, and to establish internal guidelines and policies to minimize mindless use of paper in our offices and classrooms.

As educational institutions we have the responsibility to be good role models for the millions of students we educate. This is a central mission for the We Conserve initiative at UW–Madison.