Ideal Bite

Do your best intentions of living green give way to trying just to make it through writing your next term paper?

02.17.2006

Submitted by idealbite on Fri, 02/17/2006 - 6:00pm.

The Bite:

Even if you are busy cramming for an exam amidst pizza boxes and emptied beer bottles, there are still plenty of ways to be green while living on campus on a shoestring budget.

The Benefits:

Get more done. A study by Carnegie Mellon University shows that natural lighting results in an average increase of 7.1% in productivity. So give up studying under artificial light.
Stay healthy by surrounding yourself with toxin-free furnishings. Students spend more than 90% of their time indoors. The EPA estimates indoor levels of pollutants, on average, are 2 to 5 times higher than outdoor.
Small, painless steps, like printing double-sided or ordering you next latte sans the paper cup, have an immediate enviro impact and save you cold hard cash (read: organic beer money).
Stay connected on the go. Solar backpacks charge your phone or iPod while you walk from class to class.

Personally Speaking:

At first, Heather thought the Natural Salt Lamp was a little silly, but now she’s hooked on its orange glow. And since her apartment is about the size of a college dorm (and since Jen used to have a lava lamp), we feel we can speak with authority.

Wanna Try:

Natural Salt Lamps - a more eco-friendly and potentially air-cleaning alternative to a lava lamp (from $39.95).
Green Bean Bag Chair - made from recycled, non-toxic, polystyrene beads and unbleached cotton ($159).
Reware Juice Bags - harness the sun to charge your electronic devices while on the go ($229).

Cocktail Fact

The average student spends 1.7 hrs in class, 1.6 hrs studying, 2.6 hrs working, and 6.8 hrs sleeping … leaving 11.3 hours for extra-curricular activities.

Bang For The Bite

If 1,000 co-ed Biters switched to the natural desk lamp for a year, the electricity saved would only be 225 kwh, or $18…but there are 17 million US students in college, just waiting to go green.

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