TUCSON, Ariz. — Living green has become the new fad in America.

Green-eating restaurants, reused clothing stores and compact fluorescent light bulbs have sprouted up across the nation as Americans look to help conserve the Earth.

“I think certainly the consciousness level has been raised,” said Dr. Glenn Schrader, chair of the UA Campus Sustainability Committee. “I think this is one of the driving issues on campuses and in the surrounding communities.”

The Cat Scan set out on an experiment to have two reporters try two different responses to this green culture: one would live as green as possible for three days and the other would live as un-green as possible for three days.

Meyer goes green

My green experience may have been short lived, but there were many challenges. Turning off lights when they aren't in use can be a nasty habit to break, but many people fail to realize just how often they are lighting a room they aren't even in. And it only took me a day to become fully aware of what I was leaving on and what I could easily turn off.

One other thing I became very aware of was how many things I have plugged in all day. Many appliances and electronic devices now come with on lights that are lit even when they aren't in use, with digital time displays and standby modes that slowly drain electricity.

How often do people need to know their DVD player is ready to be used at a moment's notice? So unplugging things when I don't use them can save a bundle in the long run, as long as you don't mind the two seconds to plug it back in when you want to use it.

Conserving water can be a battle as well, since water is so readily available. But doing things like not rinsing your dishes before they get in the dishwasher actually saves you time, as well as water.

I also learned that taking a two- to five-minute shower is physically possible as long as you're awake enough to stay on task in the shower.

Another uncommon thing I saved water with was by using less water while shaving. Instead of filling up the sink with water and rinsing all the clippings down the sink, filling a cup with water does the same job with far less water use.

Transportation is the most difficult thing to make changes with, because so much of the parts of our day that we can't control require us to be prompt, and people can't take their time getting anywhere when they have a job or a class to get to.

Trading in your car for the bus every day is unreasonable in this day and age, but I found that just taking the bus for short trips is rather easy if you live on a bus route like I do, and taking a 15-minute walk is healthy for you and the environment.

In the end my brief stint being green showed me that compromise is the key word. You don't have to do everything green, but making small changes to your everyday routine can add up, with little effort required.

Schwartz doesn’t

The sad part about my three days is I didn’t do things that differently from what I normally do.

More often than not I would like to admit I keep the TV on low volume as background noise to my homework and drive across campus when I could easily walk. Sure I exaggerated these effects during my three days and made sure to walk as little as possible, but it wasn’t that much of a change.

I also often throw plastic forks out after one use and leave lights on throughout the apartment, although during the experiment I exaggerated by making sure every single one of my apartment’s lights were on regardless of if I was home.

At least keeping the TV on blaring loud in an apartment full of light likely kept the robbers out, even if it didn’t do much for Mother Earth.

I also kept the lights on throughout the day when day light would have sufficed and kept the air conditioning on even when I wasn’t home.

My apartment makes it difficult enough to recycle, as I have to bring my recyclables to campus, so for this three-day stretch I merely threw the recyclables in the trash. I felt bad doing this, but a wasteful person’s got to do what a wasteful person’s got to do.


I also made sure to double flush the toilet, take extra long showers and keep the water flowing while I brushed my teeth.

Expert opinion

Living green is something that this site suggests quite often, and there are numerous articles that tell you how to live green and how others are living green while outlining the numerous benefits of this lifestyle.

One of the major topics of concern for environmental advocates is carbon emissions and each person’s individual carbon footprint.

“If people rode the bus one day a week, that would make a significant difference,” said Bob Cook, a member of Sustainable Tucson’s CORE Team.

Sustainable Tucson works with environmental groups throughout Tucson and the Southwest on all conservation and sustainable issues.

“What’s unique about Tucson is that more than half of (carbon emissions) is in transportation, compared to 35 percent nationally,” Cook said.

10 tips to live green Liz Zavodsky, the UA Residence Life coordinator of sustainability education, provided The Cat Scan with 10 tips on how to live green, some of them well known and others more unconventional. 1. Buy local foods that don’t have a lot of packaging. 2. Keep your freezer at cold temperatures if it’s empty and fill your freezer with water bottles or something like that to make it denser so the appliance doesn’t have to work so hard to stay cold. 3. Wash clothes in cold water. 4. Do quick cycles. 5. Shop at places like Buffalo Exchange or Twice as Nice to buy things already used. 6. Ask for fair-trade products at places like Starbucks. If they get enough demand Starbucks will brew it on a daily basis. 7. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. 8. Don’t have your window open when you have your AC on. 9. Turn off your computer at night. Shut it down and unplug it from the wall. 10. Ride your bike, take the bus or carpool. — Michael Schwartz

By doing things like taking the bus or walking when it’s convenient, lowering carbon emission on the individual level can be easy.

For Earth Day on April 22, Schrader said he hopes everybody did something to conserve energy or water or address an issue concerning climate change.

Liz Zavodsky, the UA Residence Life coordinator of sustainability education, said individuals can make “a huge difference.”

She added people don’t realize that simple things like changing to more energy-efficient light bulbs or unplugging a cell phone charger when the phone is not charging makes a difference, too.

“We’re challenging students who don’t necessarily understand even if they don’t get a monthly bill to pay for utilities they are being wasteful,” Zavodsky said. “I truly believe that one person can make a huge difference and not only by conserving energy but … if they start using these habits and doing them daily other people will see that and might (have) conversations, so that alone can make a huge impact.”

The future

Our experiment lasted three days, but the point of it was to show every person makes a difference.

Although it would probably be unreasonable to expect anybody to shave by candlelight or sit in the dark at night, simple things like unplugging cords when they’re not being used, making a habit of recycling and walking instead of driving can make a difference one person at a time.

“I definitely believe each individual has the responsibility to make a difference,” Schrader said.

Click here for more on sustainability on the UA campus.

Click here to try out a carbon footprint calculator to see how much carbon you emit.