Students Footprints larger than Expected

Towson University Students realize their impacts on the environment

By Amber L. Gillette | Towson University journalism student
December 1, 2008

     A student sits with their car in idle in a garage on Towson University’s campus for twenty minutes.

     Meanwhile, in a classroom across campus, a professor arrives and makes sure the room is ready for students. Finding it dark and cold, he turns on the lights and requests custodians warm the room.

     Later, after both student and professor leave the classroom the lights are still on and the heat maintaining at 75 degrees.

     Incidents like the one described, happen at Towson University nearly everyday leaving a carbon footprint as big as Bigfoot himself. A part of the school’s initiatives to “go-green” to help save Earth’s necessary resources, students are now becoming more aware of their own carbon footprint and the effect they have on the world.   

     Pamela Gorsuch, Communications Specialist for the Division of Administration and Finance, said, “managing our carbon footprint will not only help today but in the future.” Gorsuch also says, “every student has an impact” and should take the steps necessary to reduce their impact on the world.  

     Powered by Redefining Progress, an ecological and economical think tank, members strive to produce “unbiased research,” “innovative tools” and design and implement “smart solutions” to sustain and re-new Earth’s natural resources. The organization’s website features a quick survey to determine “how much nature” is needed to power individual human lives by taking the “Ecological Footprint Quiz”. The results of the quiz measure how many Earths if would take “if everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle.” After the quiz, Redefining Progress offers suggestions on how to reduce carbon footprints.

     "I feel like I am destroying the world," said guilty Sandra Clausen, a senior Social Science and Secondary Education major at Towson after her quiz. Clausen’s results indicated she would need 4.77 Earths to sustain her lifestyle.

     “I had no idea my impact on the world would be this high, but I guess driving a truck does not help the environment” said Towson junior and Marketing major, Timothy Dadourian after he viewed his ecological footprint. “If everyone on the planet lived [his] lifestyle, we would need 6.59 Earths,” reported his quiz results.

     A graduate student at Towson studying Musical Therapy, Molly Griest, would need an estimated 2.22 Earths to sustain her own life and the lives of every human.

     Clausen readily admits she previously did not take steps to have a “green” lifestyle but would now think twice before sh e puts things that could be recycled into the trash.

     Working to reduce Towson’s carbon footprint, the university is working to build “green” on campus. This means using high efficiency windows, using planted materials for roof construction and when remodeling existing structures to recycle the shell of the buildings and update the exterior features.

     Making these changes “incorporates sustainability” to the campus, said Gorsuch.

     You can find Redefining Progress online at www.myfootprint.org. 

Sitting on a kitchen counter is the waste of one college apartment. A carbon footprint is the measure of how much of Earth's natural resources are consumed on an individual or institutional basis.  
(Photo by Amber L. Gillette/ December 1, 2008)


Listen to Communications Specialist for the Division of Administration and Finance, Pamela Gorsuch discuss why she believes Towson students should go "green" and how Towson is lowering its carbon footprint.