Enjoying the Walk – EVST 100: Intro to the Environment

Even the hardest things about not having a car on campus are minute compared to the benefits this entails. Being a small campus, walking from place to place is not a hassle at all, it is even enjoyable now that better weather has finally prevailed. It is difficult when trying to find a ride off campus, but this is not a problem nearly as often as I expected. It is easy to take advantage of having a car at all times, and not having it any longer makes me appreciate the ease of transportation we have today.

In not having a car to drive to a grocery store I noticed another major sustainable behavior change I was forced to make. I could no longer buy cases of water to keep in the room and had to turn to the Britta bottles and pitcher. While this was a real pain at first, I grew accustomed to it very quickly. After a week I noticed that my room is no longer cluttered with half drank water bottles or empty ones that get kicked around and added to the mess. Having a cleaner room, and recycling about 50 plastic bottles less a week, is a great thing.

At a little over 3 weeks of not having a car, the desire to drive places has completely subsided. This change has made me much happier all around. Searching for a website that could tell me the amount of greenhouse gasses I am saving from being emitted, I first stumbled upon the iCommute Calculator. I decided to check out the impact of my weekly driving and discovered that with how much I drove every week I would be spending over $2,000 a year! What a relief to my wallet this will be. On top of lessening the impact to my wallet, a greenhouse equivalencies calculator on the Clean Energy EPA website provided me with the enormous number of 62.2 metric tons in this time period! The ease of mind that comes with lowering this number dramatically is incredible and a great feeling to have in doing my part to help the environment.

“Commute Cost Calculator.” Calculator. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. <http://www.icommutesd.com/commuters/calculator.aspx>.

“Clean Energy.” EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2014. <http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/index.html>.

zweizigz says:

April 22, 2014 at 2:56 pm

I have the same behavior change as you and I feel your struggles. Even though I do have my car on campus, unlike you, I feel like it is much better traveling by foot than in a car. You are so right that with this nice weather now, it is much better walking than being in a hot car just to drive a quarter mile to class. I can already tell I saved a lot of money by not driving anywhere and not going to the grocery store every other week to get groceries. It is a big money saver not driving anywhere and saving gas along with reducing my CO2 emissions. I have the same experiences as you and I am happy it seems like it is a very easy behavior change for you. Having a car on campus makes it a little more difficult, but I have yet to drive anywhere on campus. I really should not even have my car here on campus. I think you are doing a great job with not driving and not buying a bunch of water bottles and I hope you continue having a successful behavior change! Keep it up and lets keep reducing the CO2 emissions. Small is the big picture but it is a start and lets keep trying to get people to not drive too. Good luck with continuing your successful behavior change! Keep up the great work!

Theodore Morgan says:

April 22, 2014 at 7:41 pm

It sounds like you are really benefitting from having no car, just like zweizigz. It seems as though it not only saves you money on gas and water, but keeps you more organized with not as much trash all around your room. My act is not quite the same as yours, because mine is more trash and recycling oriented. You also save money, by not having to pay for a parking pass, or excess tickets that officer 70 would have handed out anyway. It seems like everyone in our group is experiencing a good change in their life, one that is more beneficial then their past actions.

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