SMU community attempts sustainable living

By Katie Krull
Feature Editor 

Saint Mary’s University students and faculty are attempting to live more sustainably.

Individuals live sustainable lifestyles by taking shorter showers, turning off the lights, and saving paper in general.

Senior education major Sarah Jansen reuses her lunch bag when she brings her lunch to her student teaching classrooms. “I figure the less I throw away, the more money I save, and I like that I’m not adding as much to a garbage dump somewhere,” she said.

As a whole, there is a “Sustainability Forum” that meets four times a year consisting of a panel of students and faculty working together to discuss more sustainable lifestyles at SMU. 

Along with the individual efforts to live sustainably, there are many courses where professors have decided to “go paperless” to save on energy and paper.

Professor Dean Beckman utilizes Blackboard’s assignment submission feature to keep assignments organized, save paper and stay healthy. He said, “It’s nice during the cold and flu season to have papers electronically submitted, so I’m not catching and spreading germs and viruses through grading.”

Chartwells has also made the effort to be sustainable by eliminating the use of trays, buying local products, and utilizing reusable to-go containers.

Environmental biology professor Josh Lallaman believes that “education is the big opportunity, just to educate our students in our classes just to be aware of simple things they do.”