Last night, I did a sustainable living workshop for the University of Southern California’s Environment 1st student group. Despite its nickname as the University of Spoiled Children, not all ‘SC students are rich kids looking for the LOHAS lifestyle — at least not anymore, with the current state of the economy. Below’s the skinny from my workshop on the green frugal student life:
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One big motivator for going green = saving green. Tying the two together will encourage not just you to green your own life, but other, less eco-motivated Trojans to do the same. Four ideas to get this synergy going:

1. Bring Your Own. Reuse your own mug at Trojan Grounds and other coffee spots to get a few cents off your drink. Take your own bag to the Bookstore, Student Center, and other places where you might buy stuff. The more ambitious among you might consider taking your own fork, spoon, knife, and chopsticks to eateries where the only option’s disposable flatware.

Make it easy: Get a teensy fold-up or stuffable bag that you can carry in your backpack or purse. You can also get a flatware set in Swiss army knife form — or collapsible chopsticks.

Get active: (These will require group effort; each list goes from easy to hard)
* Publicize the money back for BYO-mugging deal to students. Few know about it.
* Participate in Day Without A Bag, coming up Dec. 18 — and work with Heal the Bay, the school or outside companies for free bag giveaways to students.
* Get bookstore and other places that give out disposable bags to offer a discount to students who bring their own.
* Better yet, tack on a fee for students who take a bag.
* Look into the feasibility of offering reusable silverware at all dining locations on campus.

2. De-package. Opt against overpackaged stuff — especially overpackaged food. For example, buy a whole apple, not pre-sliced apples sold in a plastic bag.

Make it easy: BYO mugging will let you avoid bottled water too. Also try to frequent campus dining facilities where the food doesn’t come prepackaged like it does at the Student Center or Trojan Grounds.

Get Active:
* Banish styrofoam. The first step is to at least get away from the worst of the disposable plastics to the less evil disposables.
* Start a Terracycle recyling program for some non-recyclable food packaging.
* Push dining services to make less packaged food an option for students.
* Institute a program to let people bring their own containers — and offer a discount for their doing so.
* Demand more organic, local, and fair trade foods options.
* Get a composting system in place.

3. Drive less. Most of you stay on campus the vast majority of the time, but try to use public transportation as much as possible when you do leave the ‘SC bubble.

Make it easy: Get to know the Dash F, which will give you access to all of downtown LA without the need to pick a designated driver. If you have a car on campus, leave it at home. The parking fees you’d save alone will probably be enough to rent a Zipcar whenever you need it.

Get Active:
* Create a transit-friendly map of L.A. Trojans can use, and make it widely available. The Bruins have one.
* Advocate for the Expo line. This line is languishing right now — and with it, your opportunity to hop on the train for a pleasant ride to the Santa Monica Beach. Find out what’s happening and let your voice be heard.
* Explore the possibility of getting bus deals for students. At Santa Monica College, for example, students can ride the Big Blue Bus for free.

4. Unplug. Start with the video game consoles, which consume more than $1 billion of electricity a year in the U.S. just when sitting idle, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. (via Technology) Then make sure you unplug everything that gets warm or has a light, like cell phone chargers, laptop cords, etc.

Make it easy: Plug everything into a power strip, then just turn off that one switch. Buying a smart strip that does the switching off for you is another option, but that’ll require you spending a lot of money up front.

Get active:
* Find out what the school’s policies are about turning off lights, computers, and other electronics at night. From there, develop a feasible energy-savings plan.
* Consider working with the USC Center for Sustainable — as well as other groups at USC — to see if there are bigger energy-related initatives you can work together on, whether that’s pushing for new LEED-certified buildings, solar panel installations, or other measures.
* Read the College Sustainability Report Card and consider shaping your environmental initiatives around that report’s findings.

Lastly, here are some ideas and notes about working with the administration, using the effort to switch the campus to 100% fair trade coffee as an example. In short, my advice is to try to channel Obama:

1. Start with diplomacy, not attack. You may be surprised to find unexpected allies in the university staff and administration. Go in to discussions with the mindset that everyone might have the same goals — instead of a confrontational attitude that assumes “they” are against you.

2. Know your subject. It’s all well and good to research what you think is the BEST fair trade coffee company — but USC won’t be able to use them if that company doesn’t have a system set up to deal with big university accounts. Try to consider your eco-idea from all angles before asking the school to implement it.

3. Engage in bilateral talks. Not all good eco-ideas are feasible, and some eco-ideas have unexpected negative consequences. Some enviros, for ex, advocate for a switch to bioplastic containers (for cups, etc.) — without considering the fact that the city of L.A. doesn’t even have a composting facility that can handle bioplastics. Sometimes, staff and administrators have very valid reasons why your particular idea can’t be implemented. When there’s disagreement, don’t automatically assume they’re “against” you or just finding excuses, but consider the other side’s arguments and see if you can work to accommodate them.

4. Make it easy. If you want the school to switch to all fair trade coffee, it’s easier to convince the decision-makers to make the switch if you go in with the names of fair trade coffee companies that have a proven record of doing the job well.

5. Think progress and process. Aim high, but do avoid the all or nothing mindset. For ex, I’m proud of having helped bring fair trade coffee to most locations in USC, even though the majority of the coffee on campus is still not fair trade. Be willing, for example, to let the administration test one location as a 100% fair trade coffee shop first, instead of threatening a boycott unless an immediate 100% campus conversion’s made.

6. Celebrate victories, big and small. Often, student groups / initiatives dissipate and sort of disappear after a victory. Don’t let that happen to Environment 1st! Throw a party — and use the time as a chance to regroup — and set new exciting goals.

Photos top to bottom: Envirowoman, Brett L., fredcamino, tim7423

Update, 12/7/08: A USC student asks how to live a greener life.

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