Final Evaluation

Get ready, blog readers, this post is going to be a long one. Because it's time for....drumroll please...the final evaluation!

1. Explain how the trayless dining campaign followed or deviated from the steps in a social marketing plan as outlined below.
a. campaign purpose
b. campaign focus
c. target audience
d. competition
e. objectives
f. marketing mix
g. implementation plan
h. evaluation plan

I think we mostly stuck to the steps of a social marketing campaign, or as least as well as we could given the constraints of being in a class, dealing with barriers in communication, etc. We began with our campaign purpose (increase campus sustainability) and voted on our focus (trayless) and then brainstormed our target audience, competition, and specific objectives. Although we have an implementation plan (part of our proposal to dining services!) the specifics of the marketing mix to the students haven't really moved out of the ideas stage yet, probably because we haven't gotten permission from dining services yet. And we have to try going trayless before we can have an evaluation plan, although we could have evaluated how well what we've done so far has worked (which is sort of what I'm doing right now!) From a very informal survey of my friends (and by that I mean comments that they have made to me) there has definitely been an increase in the number of people voluntarily going trayless in the dining halls, which to me means all this hulabaloo is at least going somewhere! And the reception of our proposal by dining was also very encouraging to me, although it remains to be seen what they will actually do.

2. Create an evaluation plan to evaluate the success of the trayless dining campaign. How will you determine during and after the campaign that it is going according to plan and has succeeded or met with limited or no success?
First off, we need to get dining services to accept our proposal to have a trial period of trayless dining. Then, I think it's going to come down to two factors: how much of an environmental/financial benefit this project actually has, and what effect it has on customer and worker satisfaction. For the former, we need figure out a way to actually collect data--how much food waste declines, if students are actually taking less food, if the dishwashers can be used less as a result of trayless. For the latter, I know that Tufts prides itself as having high customer satisfaction in the dining halls. I'm not sure exactly how they measure that (is it based purely on the surveys they send out?) but they obviously already have a metric for measuring this, so it shouldn't be that hard. Similarly, we will need some way to measure what new stresses this switch creates for dining workers, as dining services can't run an effective business if it only has disgruntled workers.

3. How has learning about your own behavior choices enabled you to better understand creating change? How has learning about behavior and psychology affected your conversations about environmental issues with others (friends, family, peers, etc)? Consider the effect of cognitive dissonance, the behavioral challenges, group discussions, and learning of why behavior happens.

The psychology aspect of this class was very important to me, and what I think really set it apart. It is one thing to just spout out what people "should" and "shouldn't" do, which I feel like is what environmental literature/groups do most of the time. I think that it's only by treating people's behaviors as rational and legitimate that you can go about changing them. This class certainly changed how I approach environmental discussions with others--instead of treating people like I'm bestowing upon them some great wisdom by telling them to turn off the lights, I actually stop to consider why they might be acting the way that they are and what the most effective strategies might be to get them to change. But perhaps more importantly than just changing my interactions with others, this class allowed me to take a look at my own behaviors and see if I was really practicing what I preached. Especially in the case of the behavior challenges, these activities forced me to really feel the cognitive dissonance instead of just pushing it away like I had done in the past. And outside of just environmental decisions, I think this knowledge has helped me to become more self-aware.

4. Has your knowledge of environmental issues increased? How? What are you more aware of now than you were at the beginning of the class?

I think that this class has increased my general knowledge of environmental issues, and made me more comfortable with my ability to have an intelligent and informed discussion about environmental issues. But more important than any specific knowledge is my ability to seek out and evaluate environmental literature. There is always going to be a new or revised statistic for exactly how much carbon we're putting out into the atmosphere, so memorizing that won't do you any good. But through this class I've learned how easy it is to research issues that I am interested in, but to not trust the first source I find. Which is something I've always known, but somehow seems to go out the window when I see some scathing statistic. So as much as we complained about those critical thinking worksheets, it seems like they really did help.

5. What do you think are the most reliable sources of information? In what ways do you assess the accuracy and bias of information sources?
I didn't even realize that was the next question! Just made that great segue all on my own...Anyway, my scientist parents and several professors have taught me that the most reliable sources of information are peer-reviewed scientific studies. However, as I don't have the time or level of concentration to read a 50-page study every time I want to learn something, published commentaries about said studies are usually okay too. To assess the accuracy and bias of information sources, I usually ask myself two questions: Who wrote this, and why did they write it? If there is some agenda behind the piece, it is usually biased.

6. Do you feel that having a community of like-minded people to talk to motivates you to work towards creating a change? Where do you seek out these communities? How useful was the class in creating a community for you?
Yes, having a community of like-minded individuals definitely inspires me to work towards creating a change. It amazes me the difference in the reactions toward my "environmental" actions between my different friend groups. For instance, the people who I lived with last year, aka just a random sampling of the Tufts population, tend to think of me as a slightly crazy vegetarian hippie and so they write off some of my ideas/requests to make environmental changes as "oh, she's just being Rachael again..." which tends to be really off-putting and sometimes hurtful, even when they don't mean to be. But when I bring these same ideas to my friends that did wilderness support staff with me, they are more prone to agreeing with me, or at least starting a discourse about why I think X, Y, Z. So I think it helps to find a community of people who might not be specifically interested in environmental issues, but are at least more likely to be receptive to them. While I don't see myself as immersed in the "community" of this class, it did help me in a couple of ways. First, it helped me to see people that I already know in a different light. These relationships ranged from a close friend to a friend of a friend, a teammate to a first-semester freshman year classmate, but in each relationship my view was changed in a positive light because I now know I can count on those people in a new way, for support in making a change. And I also know those people will be there to keep me in line if I ever start slipping in my behaviors. Moreover, I was inspired by the range of people that took this class. All years, all with different interests and backgrounds. It inspires me to believe that there are more envrionmentally-minded people out there, maybe not taking action yet, but with the right prodding they will come out of the woodwork.

7. Do you think you will continue to shift from saying to doing? If yes, explain how you think you will maintain your enthusiasm.
Yes! I'm excited to continue shifting from saying to doing. I recently was elected the environmental officer for TMC, the tufts mountain club which is one of the largest clubs on campus. So I'm hoping if I can think of some really great environmental projects and execute them well, I will have a lot of manpower behind me. That role is also meant to be sort of a liason to ECO, so I went to the last two ECO meetings of the semester. In the past, ECO frustrated me--it was a club that I wanted to be a part of, but it kind of seemed all over the place, not run very well, and a little too extremist for me. So my solution last year was to just stop going to the meetings, as I thought they were a waste of my time. But re-infused with a sense of idealism and my own ability to get things done, I went back, and provided some ideas for projects for next semester--and volunteered to lead those projects. I suggested that we have a "Tufts Green Dorm Room" program like the one they have at Brandeis (that I learned about at the Eco-Reps symposium!) and ECO was really excited about it. So over winter break I'm going to contact the Brandeis girls that came to the symposium and see if I can get some more information about how to do that at Tufts. I'd also like to have some more official role, through an environmental job or internship, possibly this summer or (although it might be too late for this) next semester. Regardless of what happens with that, it looks like I have good potential for maintaining my enthusiasm!

Well that was a marathon of blogging! Lastly, I'd like to thank Dallase and Tina for creating and teaching this wonderful class. I really can't thank you enough; I truly believe that this experience has shifted the path that I'm on for the better.

Clothing Conciousness

This week, for our final eco-challenge, we calculated the (rough) average of the miles our clothes had traveled, and what percentage was made in sweatshops. Then we put that information, along with what percentage of our clothing was bought second-hand on a pin that we wore all week. This was a lot easier than remembering my bag of trash everywhere--I just stuck it on a jacket that I wear all the time. I also got a lot more comments than on the zero-waste challenge--maybe because it was less weird, so people were less afraid to comment? However, as we didn't really do a lesson that accompanied this challenge, I felt less prepared to answer people's questions. "Wow, 70% of your clothes were made in sweatshops, that's a lot," someone commented. "It was relatively small compared to my classmates," I responded, "and most clothing from major American brands are made in sweatshops." "So where are we supposed to get our clothes from?" they responded. The fact is, I still don't know. There are some websites that "rate" brands, but when we were searching for whether or not brands used sweatshops, we couldn't find a comprehensive source that had information for all major brands. And so my clothes were made in a sweatshop--what do I do about that? It makes me feel guilty, but it's not as if I'm going to throw out all my underwear because they were made by Victoria's Secret.

What I did like about this challenge is that it made me think about my purchasing habits, especially about what I get from second-hand stores. I estimated that about 15% of my wardrobe comes from second-hand sources, mostly because I went through a phase in high school in which it was "cool" to buy from second-hand stores, and I also trade clothes with friends and my sister. But I mostly think of second-hand for silly pieces, not "real" clothes. And my mother, in particular, treats any second-hand shopping as a phase that I will grow out of.

I can't believe that this is the last blog of the semester! It's gone by so fast. My new task? To keep challenging myself to think about how my habits affect the environment, without the "kick" of a class to keep me in line.

Introducing My Eco-Self, Again

I was lucky enough to be able to go home for thanksgiving this week, which apart from the 5 hour flights to and from SFO, was wonderful. I introduced my "eco-self" to my family by telling them that I was trying to be more environmentally minded in light of what I had learned in this class. When I introduced this "eco-self"' to my friends, it was framed with "well, this is for class, I'm just trying it out..." But now it was more like "I have a more educated perspective now, and I've decided to make these changes in my life," which I think was a profound (and good!) shift.

It was interesting to be at home, as my parents are very funny when it comes to environmentalism. They remind me of the French ideal of environmentalism that I saw when I was in Talloires this summer, that is, that one should be very practical about resource use, and that nothing should be wasted. They are motivated by monetary savings and convenience, and not as much by any altruistic love for the environment. For example, in high school, I called them the "energy nazis" as they wouldn't let me turn the heat up above 67 and threatened that if I didn't turn off my lights when they weren't in use, I would be the one paying the energy bill. We have photovoltaic solar panels on our house, but probably as much for my father's love of technology and the long term energy cost savings than for any "green" credentials. In short, my family participates in a lot of "environmental" practices, but not always for the reasons one might assume.

Introducing my eco-self also gave me some insight into how to convince my parents (and others as well) into greening their everyday practices. My mother, especially, doesn't respond well to ideas that I suggest just because they save energy or are somehow vaguely "better for the environment." She especially values convenience. For example, this summer, I suggested getting an outdoor clothesline to use instead of the dryer. "I didn't have a drying for all of grad school," she responded. "You can use a clothesline, but my experience with that ended when I got my PhD!" This reminded me of the trayless debate--people feel a sense of entitlement because they go to the most expensive university in the northeast. So what inspires her to change? Monetary savings, definitely. She also likes environmental changes that have some status or "coolness" associated with them, such as our solar panels. Our job, then, to reach students that think like my mother, is to change trayless from the hippie clothesline realm in which I think it currently inhabits to that of the sleek, sexy solar panel.

One more thing about this trip--I was plagued by a sense of cognitive dissonance for much of it. From the fact that I was even flying, to the plastic cup that was forced on me on the airplane, to the driving I did and the food wastes that all went down the garbage disposal--every little thing reminded me of how I could do it better. I changed my routines as best as I could to quell this feeling--I made the Thanksgiving fruit salad with local and seasonal fruits, carpooled when I could, educated my family about the items they throw away that could be recycled--but it never seemed like enough. The feeling seemed to go beyond cognitive dissonance and sometimes manifested itself into just feeling guilty about nearly every action. Driving around my town makes me happy, and since I don't drive at school, I used to feel justified about my uninhibited car use during breaks. But now, the joy of driving is bogged down by thoughts about my environmental impact. I didn't mind changing little things that I didn't even think about, or that are only a bit of an inconvenience. But how far am I willing to go in order to practice what I preach? Will I be able to give up something that provides me with both convenience and happiness, like driving? Is the negation of my guilt enough of a reward in return? Things to think about, definitely, as the semester draws to a close.

Zero Waste Challenge

It's almost Thanksgiving and the whole campus has gone into overdrive, pushing themselves to finish that last paper so they can finally relax. But while the majority of Tufts' student body is bragging about how many hours they logged in Tisch Library the past weekend, I'm busy bragging about...my trash?

Yes, it was zero waste week this week, and as a result, I carried all the non-recycleable, non-compostable waste I produced (that wasn't a biohazard...I did throw away a few used tissues) in a ziploc bag that I kept on the outside of my purse. I was amazed at the power of this simple exercise to shift my actions. In the campus center, I scoured the commons for a snack that wouldn't lead to any trash. Settling on yogurt (both the top and container can be recycled!) I went to go make granola bars (for our class sustainable potluck!) with Alex, thinking he would have a spoon. I forgot to ask for one...so I ended up eating the yogurt with my finger. Certainly not a particularly civilized or sustainable (as I wouldn't do this every time I eat yogurt) solution, but it worked in the context of the challenge.

One issue that this challenge made me think about is the issue of the necessary infastructure in order to make less wasteful choices. For example, at one point this week I wanted to get tea from the tower cafe in the library while I was studying. But I don't have a thermos here at school with me, mostly because I rarely drink hot drinks so I justify the monthly paper cup. But it made me think: sometimes just shifting our behavior isn't enough. Sometimes there are actual infastructure changes that need to be put into place, and before they happen, they can act as barriers to change. For instance, a classmate pointed out that it is more difficult for people who live in places where they don't have city recyling pickup to be motivated to recycle. And the move to single-stream recycling in select cities has shown to increase recycling even more. But on the other hand, when I was in France, the town I was in didn't have recycling or garbage pickup, at least on a house by house basis...they had a recycling/trash collection center for each block or so. So how do you balance personal changes and infastructure changes in order to reduce waste?

All in all, I think this was a great idea for a challenge and it has definitely shaped the way that I think about how much I waste. And it provided an interesting social commentary too: why are we so ashamed of how much we waste when everyone is able to see it, but it's perfectly fine when we package it away, out of sight? Things to think about over Thanksgiving!

Eco-Rep Symposium Reflection

Yesterday was the Eco-Rep Symposium, and I'm thrilled with how it went. I was a little weary about just being thrust into the day--yes, we had prepared, but nothing like this ever really feels "finished" but all of our individual and team efforts seemed to just come together to make it work. I was a moderator for the discussions, which felt a little formal seeing as the talks were pretty informal. But I think it was a good experience, as even though I typically enjoy public speaking I don't always think I'm the best at it, so it's always good to practice. But it was great to be in a role in which I could listen to the talks--I especially liked the presentations that my peers from Environmental Action gave. I think they did an excellent job of verbalizing all of the mixed emotions and thoughts that being in this class has made me ponder.

For my round table disscusion, I joined the "financing an eco-reps group" discussion, as I thought it would be particularly pertinent as tufts doesn't have eco-reps in earnest at present, and (I think) one of the main problems with ECO, the main environmental group on campus, is that lack of faculty/monetary support leaves them with a lot of great ideas that don't always get completed. It went really well and I think I got a good idea of what is working at other schools and what some are struggling with. For example, UMass Amherst students get the budget for their Eco-Reps through a variety of different departments (Facilities, Reslife, Waste Management) which I think might be a good idea at Tufts as I get the idea the Office of Sustainability doesn't have a lot of extra money to throw around.

The icing on top of the cake was definitely the awesome band that Ale booked for dinner...I'm not going to lie, we were all a little skeptical of "Tumbleweed Anonymous" but they turned out to be great! And watching Dallase and Alex show off their swing dancing skills was definitely another highlight. I'm not sure how well I really "networked" (I talked with some people during dinner, but people started to leave before I could get up and talk to people) but it was still a lot of fun. I think even if I didn't make that many specific connections, it wouldn't be weird now to email someone I met and ask for more information about programs at their school or help collaborating on an event. And an added bonus--some of my friends came to help eat the leftover food (so delicious) and listen to the bluegrass and they were really interested to hear about the symposium. They seemed to be really excited about the prospect of an Eco-Reps program being restarted at Tufts, and were amazed at how we worked together to put on the symposium. That was a great little ego-boost to end my day with!

One more thing: the last lingering question that I was left with after a day of so much excitement was, "Where do I fit in?" By that, I mean that a lot of the symposium focused on different Eco-Rep programs, and I spent a lot of my day wishing that Tufts had a program like one school or another. Since this is "shifting from saying to doing" I know that wishing there was a program won't get me anywhere, I have to start doing something about it. But I don't really know what the first step towards that is. It's Ale's Tisch Scholar project to restart the Eco-Reps, and so I don't know where I fit into that equation. For now, I have this class as a resource...but how can I make sure my commitment doesn't stop once this class ends?

taking action!

finally, we are taking some action! updates on how the various projects are going:

trayless campaign:

Honestly, I'm not really sure if this is going to ever come to fruition (there are a lot of barriers), but it's exciting to try. I volunteered to organize the facebook group (our generation's version of a petition) along with Jess, and after a few technical difficulties, it is really getting rolling! As of right now (12:50 am, aka so past my bedtime!) there are 558 Tufts students who have clicked "attending", signifying (in theory) that they will try going trayless and support the effort to get trays removed from the dining halls. I'm pleasantly surprised with how many people have shown some measure of support and how quickly the event has spread. However, facebook support rarely translates into real action. I spotted a friend who told me how much she loved my group in the dining hall using a tray not two hours after she had talked to me. I asked her about it, though, maybe provoking some cognitive dissonance...

eco-symposium:

I'm part of the moderators group, which doesn't have too much prep, but will hopefully have a lot of stuff to do on the day of the symposium. We met with Ale, the tisch scholar who is helping us with this project, and it got me really excited for the symposium! Perhaps the other groups can share what they have been working on in class tomorrow?

and now it really is my bedtime. I have to be well rested for an "action" packed monday!

Class Evaluation

How did it get to be halfway through the semester already? And why is it snowing...in October? Time flies when you are a college student. I guess that should make me fired up to start influencing change on campus today...because time is fleeting. Anyway, the fact that it's halfway through the semester also means that it's time for the course evaluation. I feel like it's always easier to point out the things that you don't like about a course, and harder to identify the elements that make it special. So I'll try to do both, as on the whole, I really like the Environmental Action course!

Things That I Like
-There is a lot of time for discussion, but we also always have a factual lecture every class. This way I feel like we are both learning new things and debating the things that we already know.

-Dallase and Tina make a great teaching team--Dallase is so passionate about changing the world, and Tina has the knowledge and experience to back her up.

-More about Dallase: (and no I'm not just writing this because I know she is reading it) I love that she can be so passionate about the environment and so...inoffensive. I mean to say that most people perceive environmentalists as people who say "don't do that!" "now you can't use this!" and with an attitude like that, why would anyone want to be an environmentalist? I realize that I do this sometimes, too, or sometimes I don't say something because I don't want it to be percieved as rude. So both Dallase's and my classmates' anecdotes about how they have gotten people to shift their behaviors are very helpful in thinking about my own strategies.

-My fellow students: I love hearing about what everyone is up to, everyone has had so many different cool experiences and I think it's really inspiring. Maybe I will take some of them out for coffee, as Dallase suggested :)

Room For Improvement
-I like the learning that comes from researching the "critical thinking" sheets, but when we don't talk about them in class, they can feel like busywork. Also, I think it would be more beneficial to just research the issue and then analyze where the sources come from rather than do "pro" and "con" (as most articles that I have found for the critical thinking worksheets aren't so one sided)

Social Marketing Project: I feel that we are never going to find one project that everyone is 100% behind, and I think it's important to believe in the what you are trying to achieve. Perhaps we could split up into groups based on interest and work on several (2 or 3) social marketing projects? Group work would also help us get to know each other better, which I really would like to do!

-also, we've done a lot of talking for this, but we haven't actually done anything! I know that large scale projects require planning, but I think if we could actually start getting some concrete responsibilities in terms of planning, it would really help.

I'll add more as I think of it!

Blog Action Day 2009

A couple weeks ago, in my environmental biology class, we were asked to split into groups and write about an important environmental issue. "Well, we could write about the one that's obviously most pressing at the moment, climate change," I suggested. "I think that's a little too controversial," said a fellow group member, "and besides, we're at the end of a global cooling cycle, starting a global warming cycle. It's natural. I don't really believe in this whole 'climate change' thing."

WHAT? Since I spent my summer learning about this subject, I immediately went on the offensive, which in retrospect, probably wasn't the most effective thing to do.

So what can you do to educate people about climate change and influence politicians to make the right decisions in Copenhagen this December? October 24 is 350 day (named for the amount of carbon in the atmosphere scientists think can exist without serious consequences) and there are events worldwide. Check it out!

connections

they say there are, at most, 6 degrees of seperation between any two people on the earth. at tufts, that number seems to dwindle to at most, 2 degrees of seperation. so my classmates and I, through all of our various connections, should be able to reach and influence every person at tufts multiple times over.

so now, without further ado, my connections:

TWO support staff/leaders
this is probably my best connection for gaining support any sort of environmental cause. for those not in the know, TWO is tufts wilderness orientation, and even though the program officially ended when school started, we get together to dinner every week and have an overly active e-list which can be used to effectively mobilize 40 support staffers and with a little more effort 50 leaders who already are receptive to environmental causes. plus we're a high spirited bunch, which could be great help to publicize an issue.

tmc (tufts mountain club)
one of the largest clubs on campus, tmc has enough manpower to make any environmental effort at least more sucessful, and has supported some of tufts' previous environmental efforts

frisbee
frisbee and the environmental clubs on campus have always had an overlap, but not everyone that plays frisbee is that way. so I think this is a good connection in that I know there will be some initial support for whatever project we choose, and that will help sway the opinion of the rest of the team. plus i'm good friends with the majority of these girls, so I know they would listen to what I had to say.

gospel choir
a bit of a stretch (as the choir is so large, I certainly don't know everyone), but we always have weekly announcements as a part of this 250 person choir, and so I could at least use this connection to educate people about an issue or upcoming event (but I have no idea how many would actually listen or come)

stomp
this is where I work, we teach engineering concepts to grade school kids. not only could I influence my coworkers, but we also teach environmental engineering as part of our cirriculum, so I could influence the kids in that way as well.

hallmates
it's hard to ignore someone when they live right next door to you. I could use this connection to educate my floor about any project that we are working on, although I have no idea if they would actually follow or care about it. but I hope so!

so it's pretty clear to me that we could influence most everyone to at least know about and probably support any project we pick. now for the hard part...picking what we want to do.

the power of social marketing

After reading the articles on social marketing and completing my critical thinking worksheet on the same subject, I think I have a much better handle on what factors groups need to consider when trying to alter a habit or behavior. Why is it so hard for people to change their behaviors? Because there are often tangible or intangible barriers to behavior change, and people need to feel like they are "getting something" in response to changing said behavior. And as we mentioned before in our personal behavior changes, behavior change is a process, and effective social marketing has to reflect that process.

On a related note, I'm almost done with the article connecting social marketing and environmental policy (or rather, why environmental policy in the US has failed due to its focus on the environment as an entity rather than its effect on everyday life) and I'm already generating a list of people in my head that I need to send the article to or that I want to discuss the ideas that the article brings up with. Now I'm overwhelmed with the feeling that I need to (as Dallase says) "seize control of my education"--this is the kind of thing I want to study as an Environmental Studies major, not Geology.

I was a little lost when it came to what I wanted my own social marketing campaign to be, as I haven't found that one thing that seems perfect in terms of something that is actually practical and could be done, and also needs to be done and that I would support. Here's what I have so far:

brainstorm list
frats, recycle red cups and beer cans
tufts alcohol policy
no more trays in the dining hall
composting on campus
plastic bags in hodgdon
reuseable mugs/cups-->rez could offer not-to-go cups (ceramic)
no more plastic water bottles at tufts events/in the campus center
get more people to go to oxfam cafe
get students to stop stealing food from the dining halls (this would result in a very hungry me!)
[to give credit where credit's due: Alex helped me with this brainstorm, while in the quiet section of the library too! What a feat.]

to expand on a few of these ideas that I feel strongly about:

tufts alcohol policy
after spring fling last year (which was declared a mass casualty incident due to the fact that over 30 ambulances were needed that day--mostly for alcohol related incidents) president bacow (rightfully so, in response to what happened) decided that we needed to do something to curb student drinking on campus. unfortunately, this decision has materialized into the new rule that there is no "warning" for an alcohol violation, and instead you are put on pro 1. also, there now could be consequences if you call TEMS (Tufts EMS) on a friend who is sick from alcohol. I think this doesn't get to the heart of the matter, that is, Tufts seems to breed a culture of work hard, play hard, and so when people do have the chance to get away from work for a bit, they do it in an extreme way. From personal experience, I'm training for the marathon this year, and we have runs early sunday morning, meaning I can't stay out very late and certainly can't drink. While there are alternatives on campus (last night I saw Coraline, courtesy of Tufts Film Series) they can be few and far between, and as a whole, it's not very "cool" to go to these alternatives. How could social marketing be used, I wonder, to shift social norms on campus instead of applying excessive punishments?

reuseable cups/mugs in the rez
I rarely get coffee or tea, because even the littlest bit of caffine will have me awake for HOURS. but I do need it occasionally, but because it is so infrequent I usually don't carry a mug with me, so I just use one of the paper ones at the rez, even though I don't need my coffee to go. So the rez could cut down on paper waste by having ceramic mugs (although this would increase water usage to wash them.) I think they already have the capacity to wash them as the commons is downstairs...and they do this at european (and some american?) starbucks where they ask you if you want a "for here" or "to go" cup. This could be paired with an effort to get frequent users to use their own mugs, maybe 10c off coffee or a punch card towards a free coffee could be an incentive. For the social marketing aspect, maybe there could be an education campaign (posters, etc) about how much paper you save by not using a disposeable cup.

I'm all idea'd out! Till next time...

Trayless, One Week Later

It's been a week since I've used a tray, and honestly, shifting my behavior hasn't been that difficult. It requires a little more conscious thought when going into the dining halls, as the trays are in the front and if I just went on autopilot I would probably pick one up. And just being vigilant about this behavior has led me to re-examine all the other little things I do. I'm working on 5 minute showers now, and instead of throwing away my yogurt cup, I did a little research and found out that Tufts recycles the kind of plastic that it was made out of, so I recycled it! I guess this could be classified as positive reinforcement--as when I don't use a tray, I feel good about helping the environment and achieving my goal, and that happy feeling is definitely an incentive.

I've also been trying to convince my friends to join me in this behavior, and even that hasn't been as hard as I thought. If I'm eating with a group, I usually suggest that we put our stuff down first (thus making it easier to have a place to bring multiple trips of food to, if needed) and announce that I'm not using trays anymore and why and that I would really appriciate it if they did too. The hard thing, though, will be getting them to stick with it, as I think most people just do it once to humor me. Even though some friends aren't so into it, i've still been telling everyone about my habit modification. This way, if I slip up and forget, my friends will be there to remind me/heckle me about it. I did this to Alex the other day when he didn't finish all the food on his plate (as that's the behavior he's trying to modify) and convinced the other people we were eating with to heckle him as well, and it got him to at least attempt at finishing his peas...

One of the things that I have noticed is a big factor in determining this (and a lot of other) behaviors is convenience. Most of my friends recognized that they don't particularly need trays, they just do it out of habit and the fact that it saves them an extra trip. So maybe it wouldn't be so hard to phase out trays at Tufts. Another thing that MB pointed out is that Tufts has rediculously small cups, so everyone always takes 2 or 3 cups, making it difficult to carry that and a plate without a tray. So if they took away the trays and gave us larger cups, this might just work for everyone...but perhaps that is a project for another day.

Changing Habits

I like to think of myself as a person with pretty good habits. I rarely drink caffeine or soda, don't eat meat, exercise daily, and have gotten into the habit of sleeping at least 8 hours a night (a rare feat for a college student!) I'm not deluding myself into thinking there aren't things that I shouldn't change, though, especially when it comes to my environmentally-conscious habits. But in thinking of a habit I wanted to change, I struggled to find something that I actually thought would be worthwhile to change, and that I actually wanted to do. Go vegan? No, I would probably starve without cheese. Take shorter showers? My showers are already 10 minutes maximum, and I cherish those 5-10 minutes every morning. Stop using the dryer? I already hang up half my clothing, and there's no room in my dorm for a drying rack.

So I finally settled on something that I thought was both worthwhile and doable: going trayless when I eat in the dining halls. Many colleges and universities have already gone trayless; my friends at Pomona and Wellesley have no trays in their dining halls. According to USAToday,

"Some campuses that already have tested the concept report food waste declines of up to 50%. Then, there's the thousands of dollars in energy savings when trays don't need washing. An astonishing 79% of the 92,000 students surveyed this spring by Aramark said they support trayless dining to reduce campus waste." (USATODAY.com)

I tried it this morning at brunch, and I actually liked it! I took less food, wasted less, and felt good at the thought that a little less water would be used to wash my things. It's going to be an inconvenience at times, but I think that it's something that I can keep up throughout the semester and beyond.

My Eco-Self

So the first project for Environmental Action was to "re-introduce" ourselves to people as our new and improved eco-self. This way, it will supposedly ease us into being "that person" who makes people turn off their lights, recycle, turn down their heat, etc. I got really excited about this and walked back into Miller (where I live) and ran into LL studying in the common room, and decided to make her my first victim. I told her about the class and shook her hand, introducing myself as "Eco-Rachael". She got really excited for my project, and told me that I should go by that and fashion myself a new superhero, righting environmental wrongs and wearing a green cape. She also has already picked out music for my theme song. Whatever works...

I then visited HB, MD, JM, AR, and NS in Wren (another dorm) and decided to try it out on them. "Do we have to do anything? Can't you just lie and say we did it?" protested HB and MD, even though I explained that all they had to do was listen to me introduce myself. Once they realized that I was finished, they concluded that eco-Rachael seemed not very different from regular Rachael.

Lastly I went to go tell MB, to which he responded, a little put off, "You don't need to tell me to turn off my lights or recycle. I already do that."

So, on the whole, people don't seem to be too surprised at the "new" Eco-Rachael. While I'm not a stickler on everything, I already try to remind people to turn off their lights and recycle their paper and glass. But I'm excited to try to do more--and who knows, maybe I'll even become one of those people who brings her own Tupperware to a barbecue :).

P.S. In case you were wondering, this is what LL suggested be my "Eco-theme song": Down To Earth

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