Hello All!

My name is Vedrana, and I’m one of the new students working for this wonderful office on campus. My first week has come to a close, and I figured I should just pop in to share my impressions of both working here and the University’s sustainable initiatives. I came into this position with only a basic knowledge of what was being done on campus, and was massively surprised to find out how little I knew! Over the course of five (well, six) days, I began to develop a much deeper understanding of what sustainability is and how I can play a part. Naturally, I bring this understanding and awareness back home to my family, in hopes of making my household more sustainable.

My summer goal is to make a drastic change towards the better in my home; in addition to the initiatives I will be both spearheading and assisting with on campus itself. If all of us were to take the time to educate our families and introduce them to simple steps to reduce their carbon footprint, we’d all be better off. With that said, the first major change introduced into my household last week was the elimination of bottled water.

We used to consume massive amounts of it, and though we recycled all the bottles, it was still a tremendous amount of plastic being consumed. It was tough getting my parents and brother to agree to do this (there were grumblings, complaints and sighs aplenty), but I made them realize that we would be helping save both our Earth and our wallets (roughly $250-350 a year!). I don’t doubt there will be struggles along the sustainability path, but with enough information, and the aid of batting eyelashes, change will come.

With that said, there will be many more exciting blog updates about campus projects and “Household Reform 2010” to come.

-Vedrana