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How to Earn Points with One-Time Actions Towards Sustainability

2-8 pointes: Reducing Waste

Earn 2 points for each action completed:

1. Reduce junk mail by going to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse website and have your address removed from mailing lists.
2. Read the Waste Reduction page from Whitworth's "Be the Change" web page.
3. Send a friend, family member or coworker an electronic greeting card instead of a paper card. For example, thinking of you, thank you, birthday, hi, miss you, silly card or for Earth Day (Sun. April 22), Secretary's Day (Wed. April 25), Arbor Day (Fri. April 27)   Some of the most popular free electronic card web sites are 123Greetings, Hallmark and Regards.
4. Use the coffee waste calculator to learn how many pounds of cups you send to the landfill annually.
   • If you don't drink coffee or always use a reusable mug, then complete the calculation for someone you know.
   • If you purchase 1 coffee in a disposable cup per week, then enter .25 in the Purchased Cups of Coffee Per Day field. Similarly if you purchase 2 cups per week, enter .50 in the Purchased Cups of Coffee Per Day field.
   • After you enter in the number of coffee cups in the Per Day field, click anywhere on the web page and the rest of the fields will automatically generate the data. If you were to hit the Enter key on your keyboard instead, you will be taken to another web page. Just click the back button on your web browser to go back to the previous page and you will see the data is in all the fields.

    

Why: The quantity of resources required to produce the garbage we generate each day is not sustainable.

Facts:

• Individually, an average of 41 pounds of junk mail are sent to every adult each year, 44% of which goes to a landfill unopened.
• The average American puts about 4 pounds daily of unwanted items in the garbage; much of it could have been reused, recycled, composted or prevented by making a better choice.
• Each ton of paper recycled saves 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, and 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kWh of electricity, and 7,000 gallons of water.

2 points: Leaning about Reducing Water Usage

Earn 2 points for reading the other water reduction actions you can take. Pretty easy two points, huh? Why: The water we use has an impact on fish and other wildlife that count on clean water to survive.

Facts:

• Our continued water conservation will help our region avoid the need to develop a new source of water supply (i.e. dam a new river) for decades.
• A front-loading washing machine uses as little as 15 gallons per load.  A standard top loader uses about 40 gallons. 
• Newer high performance toilets use 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf).  Older toilets use up to 5 gallons per flush.

2-4 points: Learning about Commute Alternatives

Earn 2 points for each action you complete below.

1. Use the Commute Cost Calculator to compare the actual cost of driving alone to the cost of alternatives such as: carpooling, vanpooling, riding the bus, working a compressed workweek and telecommuting.
2. Read the other transportation actions you can take on Whitworth's "Be the Change" web page.

Why: Our transportation choices have a huge impact on our pocket-book, health, and planet.

Facts:

• It costs as much as 20 times more to support a passenger mile of auto traffic than one of bike traffic.
• For every dollar an American taxpayer spends in support of public transportation, the economic return is at least 4 to 1 - creating jobs, congestion relief, business sales, and health/safety cost savings.
• Vehicles account for 25 to 50% of the air pollution for much of the country.

2-6 points: Learn about Power

Earn 2 points for each action you complete below.

1. Spend at least 5 minutes at the Energy Star web site learning about clothes washers, fridges, dishwashers and computers.
2. Read the other energy actions you can take on Whitworth's "Be the Change" web page.
3. Enable the power management settings on your computer and monitor.

Why: Generating energy has a significant impact on the environment.  These impacts include air pollution, the impacts of extracting coal, oil and natural gas; dammed rivers, and the health and safety risks associated with transporting oil and natural gas.

Facts:

• About 50% of the nation's electricity is generated with polluting coal (locally we rely much more on hydropower and natural gas).
• Even cleaner "alternative" energy such as wind and solar have impacts on the environment, such as land used, resources used to make wind turbines and solar panels, and the blight of wind farms on the landscape.
• Efficient choices, such as buyin and using appliances and lights that use less energy, are typically the best investment.  The reduced energy-use will typically pay for any increased cost of purchasing an energy-efficient appliance in a short period of time.

2-8 points: Learning About Your Consumption

Earn 2 points for each action you complete below.

1. Choose three products that interest you to learn about from The Stuff list on "Good Stuff? - A Behind-the-Scenes Guide to the Things We Buy". The guide contains information on 30 common products so you can make informed purchases that benefit your health and the environment.
2. Read about other consumption actions you can take from Whitworth's "Be the Change" web page.
3. Read about other food actions you can take from Whitworth's "Be the Change" web page.
4. Eat at least one meal per week that is completely made of whole foods or minimally processed food.

• Examples of whole foods: fresh fruit and vegetables, mushrooms, beans, nuts, seeds, eggs, chicken breast
• Examples of minimally processed food: fruits and vegetables you or a restaurant have cooked, whole grain bread, brown rice, oatmeal, cheese, milk, water filtered at the tap
• Examples of processed food: canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, white bread, white rice, cold cereal, chips, crackers, pastries, pasta (except whole grain varieties); pre-made refrigerated, frozen, packaged and canned meals; bottled drinks, luncheon meat

Why: The average pre-made meal includes ingredients from at least five different countries. Additionally, every ingredient travels on average 1,400 miles. That's further than the distance traveled than the average family vacation. For an excellent read on your food and one family's attempt to eat "closer to home" check out Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: a Year of Food Life".

Facts:

• Processed foods use up more energy in production than fresh foods and meals you prepare yourself.
• Food that comes with minimal packaging requires less energy to produce. Side benefit: less trash.

2 points: Reduce Your Ecological Footprint

Earn 2 points for taking the Ecological Footprint Quiz to calculate your ecological footprint. When asked "How big is the city where you live" select "100,001 to 1,000,000". If you live in a residence hall, select "7 or more people" for the number of people in your household, "2500 square feet or larger" for the size of your home and select "multi-story apartment building" for housing type.

Why: Ecological footprint is a term used to represent how much land and water area someone would hypothetically need to provide all the resources to support their lifestyle.  Understanding ecological footprint can help people visualize that our everyday actions have an impact on the planet's limited resources.  More importantly, it is important to understand that taking positive actions can reduce your impact, preserving resources for other people, animals, and plants.

Facts:

• The purpose of taking the ecological footprint quiz is to educate you about your resource use and, hopefully, trigger you to alter your consumption.
• Worldwide, there exist 4.5 biologically productive acres per person. The average American lives a lifestyle that requires 24 acres per person. At the end of the quiz you will be shown an estimate of the number of acres required to support your lifestyle. For most people who take the quiz, their number is rather shocking.