Smith College Becomes Environmentally Proactive

Anyone out there still drinking bottled municipal city tap water? Not Smith College who, through their own research and a little environmental soul searching, decided to stop handing out bottled water with its "Grab-N-Go" box lunch program. Instead, Smith College gave out reusable 16 oz plastic water bottles to the students at fall registration in an effort to reduce the school's output of those pesky disposable plastic water bottles. Smith researchers discovered that the school was going through 2500 bottles of water every week - not even counting other soft drink and beverage bottles! (Smith is fairly small school too! Imagine how many bottles a larger school might go through in a week's time.) Way to go Smith College for taking a moment to look inward and ask "What can we do differently?"


Naysayers might argue that what Smith has done is a money saving measure - and not an environment saving one - and that organizations tout these types of changes as "green" when in fact it just saves them money, period. Hotels have been doing this with sheets and towels for years. I would argue "So what??" So often, that which is green just also happens to be cost-efficient. Which is why reduced consumption can play such a big role these days in shaming, I mean CONVINCING, companies and organizations into taking a cold hard look at their practices and streamlining their processes. Businesses and organizations that might not otherwise be incentivized to look into "green" measures are certainly interested in anything that will increase profits or decrease overhead costs. Thus, call it what you will - I'm calling it progress.