The removal of hand towels in high-traffic bathrooms is just a small adjustment in Lake Forest College’s efforts to go green. However, many students are arguing that the College has a long way to go.
Green groups on campus, such as the League for Environmental Awareness and Protection (LEAP), the Campus Sustainability Committee (CSC), and The Nature Appreciation and Wilderness Survival Club (NAWS) are in the background on campus, and many students are actually unaware they exist.
Environmental studies major Samuel Froiland ’16 said Lake Forest has “a fantastic ES department” staffed by “wonderful, passionate, and knowledgeable faculty.” He believes a student’s Lake Forest College experience is not complete unless they take a class led by Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Glenn Adelson.
“Part of the problem on campus is that the green consciousness is a little isolated within the ES department,” Froiland said. “Also, we have what I would call a ‘culture of litterers’ on campus, and it is reflected in the garbage I see in the ravines, on the lawns, and laying around garbage disposal areas. Smokers especially are guilty of this, as I see most of them casually throw their cigarette butts on the ground, letting the pollutants run into the waterways, which poisons Lake Michigan and the ravines.”
Froiland echoes the complaints of many students on campus. “Our school needs to divest from oil companies and unsustainable/ unethical food companies, such as Monsanto,” Froiland said. “Our school is in a contract with Aramark, a large international corporation with a commitment to supporting non-sustainable agriculture, and also students readily support corporations at the Pod which have very poor environmental practices. All around, there is a lot of good coming out of the ES department and restoration initiatives (FacMan is involved with those, too), but, as a whole, our environmental consciousness and ‘greenness’ as a community is slightly weak.”
Few students recycle. There doesn’t seem to be nearly enough recycling receptacles around campus. There aren’t any recycling bins on any of the three quads, and many feel it is easier to throw away something that is recyclable out of convenience rather than carry the item to the nearest recycling bin.
“I recycle printed paper in those blue bins in the library when I print too much or have no use for them,” said Bryanna Tartt ’16. “I also try not to print a lot in the first place, but professors want hard copies.”
Froiland recommends a recycling seminar for first year students. “I don’t think many students know how to properly recycle because I see non-recyclable things in the recycling all of the time,” he said.
Built in the 2007 renovation project, Buchanan Hall is Lake Forest’s first green, LEED-certified building. According to the College website, Buchanan offers “eco-friendly aspects, including preferred parking for low-emissions and fuel-efficient vehicles, water-efficient landscaping, low-VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) paints and coatings, Green Label Plus™-Certified carpet, and ureaformaldehyde-free composite wood products” as well as “dual-flush toilets and doors made from sustainably harvested trees (certified by the Forest Stewardship Council), among other environmentally-friendly elements.”
Because we are so close to nature on campus, the student body needs to make more of an effort in keeping it clean. Not only is maintaining a higher standard of environmentalism better for the environment, it makes the campus look better and students happier.
