The pursuit of sustainability as an MC student 

Are you a Maryville College student, faculty, or staff interested in living more simply with the intention of helping the environment? For some, pursuing a “sustainable lifestyle” sounds like an overwhelming task that involves restructuring the entire way you approach daily tasks, but it doesn’t have to look like a complete overhaul. The Maryville College community provides resources and opportunities that make integrating regenerative living practices into existing routines seamless.

It may be helpful to first assess your current ecological footprint using a calculator. Not only will this tell you how many earths it would take to sustain humanity if everyone had the same consumption and produced the same amount of pollution as you, but it helps visualize which aspects of your life may have potential for environmental improvement. 

A key aspect of most people’s carbon footprint is where they live. If you are a residential student at MC, the good news is that dormitory living tends to be eco-friendly thanks to shared utilities. However, if you are one of the lucky few that have full control of the thermostat in each individual suite, ensuring that it is set to “auto” or even shutting it off during our mild, pleasant fall days is a way to decrease your energy usage without impacting your daily habits. This also goes for turning off unnecessary lights (or better yet, replacing your bulbs with energy efficient LEDs) and water.

For students who commute, there is a nearly unavoidable problem posed by the lack of public transportation in our area. However, if you live near enough to walk, bike, or even carpool with someone else and utilize that convenience even 50% of the time, you are not only making a positive ecological change in your life, but a mentally and economically beneficial one, too.

One appeal of cafeterias for many students is their illusion of endlessness; the knowledge that you can just swap your plate for something different if the sauce-to-cheese ratio happens to be off on the pizza in Pearsons. While this can lead to excess food waste and overconsumption, the dining hall provides opportunities to offset this. Starting with small portions and visiting one station at a time can help minimize the amount of meals that end up discarded on the conveyor belt. 

The GreenBox system is another initiative, started by the Environmental Action Team, that makes taking food to go from the cafeteria not only possible, but regenerative as well. The reusable to-go containers can be purchased at Pearson’s and used indefinitely, an alternative to typical styrofoam products that is convenient and cost effective. 

While recycling bins are also located all over campus and are typically just as convenient as a garbage can, and while recycling is a step in the right direction, it is notoriously difficult to confirm how much waste that is diverted to be recycled actually ends up being reused. 

Additionally, the University of Leeds ranked recycling low on their list of effective ways to combat climate change. One way to deal with this dilemma is by limiting the amount of recyclable materials we discard in the first place; focus on reusing and reducing or, in Mountain Challenge terms, “doing less but better.” 

All of these actions have minimal impacts on day-to-day life but collectively benefit our environment and our quality of life by helping us to take intentional actions that simplify, rather than complicate, our lives and our approach as a society to the climate crisis.