No Impact Week

Day 1- Consumption
I started off my No Impact Week pretty good. I slept for most of the day therefore i did not have to consume much. Instead of drinking my normal 3 bottles of water everyday I filled up my plastic cup with water from the faucet. My roommate and I went grocery shopping and bought things in bulk rather than individually wrapped.

Day 2- Trash
I failed this task in the morning whenever i grabbed my individually wrapped breakfast bar for a quick on the go breakfast. But i did fill up my reusable water bottle instead of grabbing one and then having trash. I did go to Jones dining hall and get my food in a to-go box, so that made trash :(

Day 3- Transportation
Day 3 was actually an easy successful day for me. I rarely drive my car here as it is but i made sure i didn't drive anywhere and walked all around campus. I did not need to go anywhere in town this day but if I did I would have just taken my bike.

Day 4- Food
I did not do much on Wednesday for food. I did not have time to go to the farmers market but I'm defiantly going to try to go to the one in town sometime soon instead of going to Walmart everyday for food.

Day 5- Energy
All week i have made sure i unplug my phone and computer charger, my straightner and my fan which I normally always keep plugged in. My roommate and I keep the lights off as much as we could and opened our blinds or opened the window. We can not control our own A/C in the dorms but if we could we would have made sure to turn it off whenever we were gone.

Day 6- Water
To be honest i did not accomplish anything today. My showers are always way too long and it takes alot of water to wash all my dishes and clothes. I could definatly try harder on this concept.

Day 7- Give Back
Saturday I made sure i held the door open for others and the elvator whenever I saw people down the hall. I also went through my closet and found alot of clothes that i never wear, there is a store called Platos Closet that Im going to take them to, to donate them.

Day 8- Eco- Sabbath
I slept for most of the day so I did'nt have to do much. My roommate and I kept our lights off all day and night and just kept our window open, it actually made our room feel really good from the air outside but we had to shut it whenever we started to realized bugs were flying in out room.

- Sarah Hyde

No Impact Week

All week I conversed the electricity I use in my dorm. I unplugged my laptop charger and turned it off when I would leave for class. I unplugged my mini fridge when I didn't have any food in it. I unplugged my other chargers when I wasn't using them. And I used the natural lightening from my window instead of using the light in my room. I only turned it on at night. The only electric device that was always on in my room was my alarm clock.

NO IMPACT SEMANA AYYYYY

Alrighty.
SUNDAY! (Consumption)
I bought two gallons of water. I did not use water bottles. I changed the world.

MONDAY! (Trash)
I drank out my reusable Texas State Camelback water bottle :) I love it so, and I feel like I'm being more environmentally friendly every time I drink out of it. However, I love granola bars and they are individually packaged. Hmph.

TUESDAY! (Transportation)
We go to Texas State University, is there any other option other than to walk absolutely everywhere? And next year I plan on taking the bus or carpooling so as to help reduce those pollutions.

WEDNESDAY! (Food)
On Wednesday I went to the Farmers Market in the quad, and bought a large glass jar of peach halves as well as some pecans, which made me happy because I love those foods and I was supporting our community! Wee!

THURSDAY! (Energy)
Okay. Here we go. I love light. I love everywhere I am being bright. So I turned on all the lights in my room and took the elevator. Sorry Fox :(

FRIDAY! (Water)
I took a shorter shower.

SATURDAY! (Give Back)
I smiled at random people and a boy held the door open for me. YAAAAAYYYY I love doing that.

SUNDAY! (Eco-Sabbath)
I only used my laptop for probably like three hours, haha, that's good for me. Such a sabbath! Haha, and I walked around St. Edwards campus. It was pretty and the weather was beautiful. I love the world.

October 4th

The no impact experience was beneficial. There were some obstacles I had to overcome when the no impact week started. The first obstacle was transportation. I live all the way on the west side of campus, by KA, so traveling to a class that is the furthest building on the opposite side of campus wasn't very fun. The second obstacle was food. The farmers market was very interesting but honestly when am I going to have the time to make my own food. I barley have enough time for all my classes. And the last obstacle I had to overcome was electricity. I live in one of the darkest, smallest rooms in my building. It is literally pitch black in the middle of the day. Theres a huge tree blocking my window so even with it open, not much light gets through. Even with all those obstacles, I at least tried to successfully live a no impact week. To wrap up my blog I'll end with my favorite thing from no impact week. Even though it was one of the obstacles I had to overcome, food was still my favorite day. I love food and it was interesting to learn about all the different foods out there that are local and healthy for you.

no impact week

Ehh, I didn't change my day to day habits at all. I figured that since everyone else is going green and whatnot that I really wouldn't have an impact on the earth. So everyday I threw my trash in the trashcan or if a recycling bin was closer thats where my cans would go. I didn't really drive anywhere except to go to the outlet mall to buy some new shoes. Thats all I have to say about that.

Post No-Impact

So I've come to the conclusion that causing no impact is hard and as dedicated as I am, I will always contribute in one way or another to the world's decay.

Luckily, on Sunday I was able to do absolutely nothing, which in doing so led to a bigger impact.

I created no trash, ate only apples, and used no electricity or motorized transportation.

I gave No Impact Week my all, but fell sort.

(Sorry Planet Earth!)

-- Lauren Piller

No Impact, Weak Experiences

Day 1 - Consumption
I had a really good start to my No Impact week due to the fact that I slept for most of the day, making it difficult to consume.  However, whenever I tried to drink water from my dorm room sink instead of opening up a bottle of water I discovered that the water quality is beyond horrible here and went about my normal bottled water drinking habits for the remainder of the week, but at least I tried, right?  I also went to Jones dining hall to get some dinner and got my food on a paper plate instead of the little styrofoam to-go containers because I figured that way I'm not consuming as much... which was the my personal goal for the day.

Day 2 - Trash
So I figured the trash day would be pretty difficult, which it was.  The overall goal would be to create less trash than I would in an average day.  Before class i had to print out 24 pages of notes; not a very good start to the day.  I ate a Lunchable for lunch, which is in a little plastic container.  I'm not really sure if that's better or worse than eating food from a dining hall in a styrofoam container, but for dinner I had Ramen which I ate from dish ware, however it is individually wrapped.  I also drank two bottles of water today so the goal for the day wasn't really reached, however I feel that realizing the excess amount of trash created in a typical day will help me to be more careful in the future.

Day 3 - Transportation
Okay so transportation was the day I was least worried about, seeing as how I mostly walk everywhere on campus.  The goal was to not have to cause not to use gas/diesel powered transportation at all today, but I realized that wouldn't be possible when I had to attend a meeting for my sorority in the evening.  On the bright side, I did car-pool with two other girls.

Day 4 - FOOD!
I was looking forward to food day, mostly because I love food and having a day dedicated to it really excites me.  Unfortunately, I didn't have time to visit the farmer's market today, which I was actually looking forward to.  As far as knowing what's in my food and where it comes from I pretty much failed because I eat at the dining halls for the most part.  But for day 4, I think I was more successful that unsuccessful because I don't eat red meat in the first place and also most of the snack food I keep in my dorm is organic, or certified organic anyways...

Day 5 - Energy
So the goal for today was to not use the elevator once, and avoid any other unnecessary energy use.  I did pretty good, I didn't take the elevator at all.  As far as the rest of my energy use, honestly I didn't put much effort into saving, I took about a 30 minute long, warm shower to start off the my day and kind of forgot about saving energy for the remainder of the day, but looking back on it now this day would definitely prove to be the hardest for me.

Day 6 - Water
Let me just start off by saying that I'm a little sore today from taking the stairs to my fourth floor dorm all day yesterday, which is completely pathetic, motivating me to do away with elevator use all together.  But anyways the goal for today was to use less water that I would in a typical day.  I definitely didn't abide by the "If it's yellow let it mellow" rule, however I did put a sticky note on my bathroom mirror reminding me to turn the faucet off it didn't absolutely have to be on which helped.  I also took a pretty quick shower today.

Day 7 - Give Back
The goal today was simply just to give back in some way.  When I sat down to start blogging tonight I was under the impression that I somehow managed to not be successful on the seemingly easiest of the days, but when I thought about it a little harder I realized that I held the door multiple times for one of my good friends who's in a wheelchair.  I also held the elevator for a group of people that wouldn't have made it on if it wasn't for me putting my arm into potential danger.  I know that I could do a lot more to give back if I actually made a conscious effort, but that just didn't happen today.

My Attempt at No Impact Week

Day 1 - Consumption
On the first day of No Impact Week, I realized how much a truely do consume. Before, I never really noticed it but when it is the center of my attention for a whole day - or week for that matter - the truth comes out. On this day, my main focus was on how I could go about doing the rest of the week. I did, however, wash my plastic silverware for reuse rather than simply throwing it away, as I usually do. Also, instead of going through multiple bottles of water and juice this day, I drank a bottle of grape juice in the morning and when I finished it, I filled it up with water from a water fountain.

Day 2 - Trash
I'm sorry to say that this was my least successful day of the entire week. It really put things into perspective for me. Though I continued using the same plastic bottle all day, refilling it at the water fountains on campus, I also bought a smoothie in a plastic cup and several individually packaged foods at the grocery store.

Day 3 - Transportation
I'm am embarrassed to admit how much I rely on my car. I live all the way in Blanco and my laziness levels are increasing daily, so usually I drive to a parking garage in the middle of campus and walk to my classes from there every day. But on this day, in order to decrease my impact on the environment, I walked everywhere. I am sad to admit that after this day, I went back to my old ways of automobile reliance.

Day 4 - Food
As a student, I have limited food options. I tend to stick to the food that the dining halls provide me and the limited supply of snacks that I have stocked in my room. On this day, the only thing I really did differently was the farmer's market. I am hoping that this farmer's market will not be a one-time-thing because I know that if it is not right on campus, I will not be going out of my way to go to a farmer's market any time soon.

Day 5 - Energy
On this day, I researched all the things that use up energy and a lot of them surprised me. I was not aware that by leaving my electronics plugged in while I'm not using them was using up energy. After I became aware of this, I unplugged everything when I left the room. I'm going to try to make this a habit from now on. So far it's going pretty well.

Day 6 - Water
On this day, I found out that it is pretty much impossible for me to go an entire day without using water from faucets. But I did try to take a much shorter shower and didn't let the water run longer than absolutely necessary while washing my face, brushing my teeth, and washing dishes.

Day 7 - Give Back
I'll be completely honest: on this day I focused more on myself than others. I went to the State Fair where I'm sure I made a terrible impact on the environment. After all my steps forward from earlier in the week, I took a giant leap backwards.

Day 8 - Eco-Sabbath
On this day, I didn't consume much but it was kind of unintentional: I was in Dallas so I spent half the day exploring the aquarium and the other half in a car. Both my cell phone and camera were out of batteries so I wasn't using electronics for most of the day, which was a nice change. This was simply a nice, relaxing day for me. I enjoyed myself and the beautiful weather.

-Shelbi Macfarlane

A Week of ALMOST No Impact

Sunday - Consumption

Alright, it's true, I'm a consumer. I love to consume. Me and consuming are great friends. So this was going to be a difficult start for me. In all honestly, there wasn't much involvement from me on this day, but if it's any consolation I did think about how I could be cutting back as I consumed. And that made everything alright, for me anyway.

Monday - Trash

Before this whole project started, or I had even heard of no impact, I was already regularly recycling products, making sure I didn't litter, and other such things. So this was a pretty simple task for me. Other than Starbucks. My Starbucks cups are my downfall, and I don't care if it's only skipping one day, I'm having my daily coffee. Although I do recycle them, if that helps.

Tuesday - Transportation

Living on campus is a great way to have a pretty easy start to this aspect of the project. Most students already walk everywhere. Class. You walk. Food. You walk. Meeting friends. You walk. I already had this one down. Walking to class saves trees everyone, feel good.

Wednesday - Food

As most students primarily live off of what food the school provides for us having other options is somewhat difficult. I didn't really do anything differently this day, since I didn't have much of a choice. You can only pretend that the food is all locally grown and suddenly everything becomes easier. But I did attend the farmer's market, which I actually think should come to campus and sell their products regularly. There were a lot of great foods and snacks to choose from, and most of them were actually good for you. Imagine that.

Thursday - Energy

I leave my windows open most of the time already, especially lately with this great weather, and I prefer natural light. I also unplug any charger or anything electronic when I'm not using it anyway, so I really didn't have to change much.

Friday - Water

Not only was I sure to take a shorter shower, but I also remembered to turn off the faucets when I didn't need them on, and actually tried to avoid using them all together.

Saturday - Give Back

I didn't really do much for this day, since I mean, come on, it's the weekend and I wanted to focus on me. I'll admit it. But I'm usually pretty nice to people and do small favors whenever I can. Usually.

Sunday - Eco Sabbath

Honestly I just relaxed and enjoyed myself today. Drank a cup of coffee while loving the weather. Went shopping. I didn't really go out of my way to contribute, I was feeling too lazy. But overall I'd say it was a successful week.

My No Impact Week Experience

For No Impact Week I decided to try to adopt at least one new habit from each of the eight categories and to continue them throughout the week and challenge myself to make them a lifelong habit.

Day 1— Consumption:

Well, I have to admit, I did not start my No Impact Week on Sunday because I was in my home town of San Antonio and was not particularly thinking of green ideas. Although I did not do anything Sunday, I am going to challenge myself in the future to buy in bulk when possible to reduce excess packaging. I do suppose I used this concept on Tuesday when I participated in an activity my dorm had to turn an old t-shirt into a bag to use for groceries.

Day 2 – Trash:

I failed in the morning in that I grabbed the usual individually packaged granola bar for a quick breakfast, but I did manage to change this habit on Wednesday and keep it throughout the week by eating a piece of fruit first thing in the morning instead. It was just as fast and more eco-friendly. I do use the reusable container for water that the university provided the freshman class with this year and I was very happy with myself for using it when I went to Fiesta Texas on Saturday.

Day 3—Transportation:

It was very easy to take a green mode of transportation here on campus because I live in the dorms on campus and do not have a car. Therefore, I normally walk around campus and use my bike if I need to go somewhere in town.

Day 4—Food:

I did not do much on Wednesday for food, but on Tuesday I went with my dorm to the actual farmer’s market in town and I plan to do this regularly instead of going to H-E-B for everything.

Day 5—Energy:

I actually started this concept’s habit around Tuesday by unplugging my charger for my phone and computer unless I’m using them and being sure to take technology off the charger when it has significant power. I also try to, if not turn off the air conditioning, at least minimize its use when I do need it or am out of the room and turning it off more often, opening a window to let in the wonderfully cool air come in during the morning and later in the day. I also enjoy letting the sunlight in through the shades instead of the light fixture for most of the day.

Day 6—Water:

For this concept I did not do much. I served myself less water in the cafeteria to reduce the chance of me not finishing it and I used less water when I washed dishes this weekend than I normally use. A challenge I believe I need to take is to limit my time in the shower. This will not only save water, but also provide me with some extra time to study or relax.

Day 7— Give Back

To be honest, I did not feel like I did anything out of the ordinary on Saturday towards giving back. I may have held the door for someone, but that was more a habit already and not something I was exactly thinking about. I challenge myself in the future to donate items I do not need or use to others.

Day 8 Eco-Sabbath:

Sunday I was not thinking about what concept I should be using because it was actually my 18^th birthday. Because I had a party back home, with people calling for directions, cooking, baking, and music playing while people were over, I did not practice the afternoon of using absolutely no resources. I do want to challenge myself to make a habit of taking an hour each day out of the week to practice this concept though.

This has been my No Impact Week experience and some of my challenges to live a greener life.

-Desiree

My No Impact Experience

On Monday the goal was to not make trash and the way I did that was to use a reusable container. This was difficult to do in Jones dining hall since students can't get free refills, however in commons since the food there is served buffet style and you can get free refills it was easier to use my reusable drink container.

Tuesday was transportation day so I walked to school like I usually do,but I took my walking another level when I walked to and from the tennis courts to practice with the team. This was tough since after practice I was tired and had to walk all the way back to my dorm!

On Wednesday my roommates and I visited the farmer's market and bought us some hunny and homemade taquitos. After going to the market I realized how hard it would be to find fresh food like Beaven did in NYC.

Thursday I unplugged my electronics before I left for class and then I walked down five flights of stairs to get out of my dorm. This was a pain since I had to keep plugging and unplugging my electronics to get any sufficient charge. The stairs part of Thursday was easier to do since I did a lot of walking on Tuesday from practice.

Friday after brushing my teeth I saved water by turning it off and we also let the “yellow mellow” in the toilet. This was beneficial because it saved water and has allowed us to sleep longer. Which kept me in good terms with my roommates.

Saturday I held the door open for random people no matter if it was the elevator or the dorm entrance so they could carry their heavy packages. I know how difficult it is to carry your packages, pick your right floor, and insert the key without everything falling out so I helped others avoid that on Saturday.

Finally Sunday I relaxed by playing dominoes and cards. By doing this it saved electricity that we would have used on the computer or on the TV. This day was the easiest but was also the hardest since i am use to use electronic on the weekend all the time.

No Impact week

Sunday(consumption): Consumption day was really bad for me because I wasted a lot of things and also bought a lot of things. I consumed more than 8 bottles of water that day which i went to buy at our local H-E-B. I just could have filled bottles of water that I had hanging out in my dorm but no i had to go and buy new ones instead of using what I had.

Monday(trash): Trying to limit myself to reduce trash is a challenge to me because I alone create to much trash in my dorm. This challenge was a fail for me :/. I couldn't do anything about reducing my habits of creating trash. Maybe just maybe I think I created less trash this day.

Tuesday(transportation): You all should be happy because this day i did not use any method of transportation that were not my two human legs. This day I walked to all my classes without using a car, bus, or anything that may harm our precious environment. I felt so proud of myself this day because it felt good being able to help out.

Wednesday(food): This day I can admit i ate like a pig. One thing is because me and my roommate ate a lot of junk food all day and we obviously did not do nothing productive this day. We just hanged out and watch T.V. while eating fatty foods. I can admit eating like this is fun but it comes at a price.

Thursday(Energy): Energy was a hard challenge for me because i use energy to do everything. I just can not live without energy. I fail again this day because I watched t.v., played video game, used the computer, and well washed my clothes which obviously wasted a bunch of electricity.

Friday(water): Water is what i always drink in my dorm nothing else so I kinda cheated like the past no impact days and well drank water that day. I also took a long relaxing shower because I needed one of those after a long stressing week from homework. Sorry but this day was pretty bad for me.

Saturday(giving back): The day of giving back i spent my whole day sleeping so I did not give up to no one. Maybe I gave back to the environment because i woke up at 7 P.M. and did not create trash. Almost the end of no impact week and i felt really useless because i was not able to do almost any good for our environment.

Sunday(eco-sabbath): I felt so proud of my self because this day for twelve hours I did not turn on the light at ALL. The reason for this is that me and my roommate slept for 12 hours straight and did not wake up after those twelve hours. I felt so proud of myself! Man twelve hours without turning the lights thats a new record. Thing is we went to sleep at 5 A.M. in the morining that day.

No Impact Week!

Sunday- Consumption

I'm not gonna lie, I'm extremely wasteful. Consumption is my weakness! I just love buying stuff because having something new is always fun. I don't go out and buy useless stuff though, I'm more of a clothes/shoes/accessories-crazy kind of girl. Of course I bought snacks today to get me through the week. It wasn't even in bulk either because my mom was waiting until next week to renew her Costco card. Random information that nobody really needs to know, but it helps add on to my story.

Monday- Trash

I did an uh-oh because right when I got into University Seminar I opened up my granola bar. Oops! I was just so hungry and finding something that didn't use trash was way too much work at the time. It's not like I just so happened to have some fresh fruit stuffed in my bag either. I'm definitely going shopping for fruits this weekend though

Tuesday- Transportation

Because I live on campus it just seems like walking is the only way of getting anywhere. I hardly drive my car anyway because at the College Inn dorms it's almost impossible getting a parking spot, and luckily I had one. Actually I don't even think I drove this whole week because I had a parking spot.

Wednesday- Food

I love food with a burning passion, so this one I wasn't too thrilled about. I pretty much did everything normal except I drank more water and less sugar filled drinks.

Thursday- Energy

Now I'm more aware of when I leave things plugged in after I'm done using them, so I did good for that. Also my roommate and I usually rely on the sun for light until about 6 or so, and today we stayed true to that habit.

Friday- Water

We bought a water filter!!!! And luckily my sister came into town to visit me (..okay and go clubbing) and she brought me my reusable water bottle. Of course it's this cute blue one with a big pink peace sign on it. Nothing but the best :)

Saturday- Give Back

I usually try and be as nice to people as I can so today felt like every other day. Except we did drive down to the Square, even though it would have been a nice little walk.

Sunday- Eco-Sabbath

Eco Sabbath was sort of non existent for me. It was difficult to just...sit there. Probably because of this fast paced world we live in, I always want to go out and do stuff, or watch TV or check my Facebook, etc. I actually went shopping and drove to the outlet malls D: I know if my heart was really in it I could of been more aware of my actions

-Alex Castillo(:

No Impact Week

Monday (Trash): Since I arrived on campus, I haven't really been using the trash can too much. I have a very small trash can in my room which starts to get full by about after a week, but i manage to make it two weeks before I throw it in the dumpster because I'm to lazy. If I was serious I could have went through the trash and recycled some of the stuff, but I didn't.

Tuesday (Tansportation): I don't have a car up here so I never use one. When I want to go home I take the bus so I have been doing good on the transportation aspect since I've been going here.

Wednesday (Food): I love food so 99% of the time I eat all the food on my plate. I don't like leaving food on the plate, and I didn't do it this day.

Thursday (Energy): I don't remember which day it was, but I did open the windows in my room and tried using the sunshine as a source of light, but that did not last very long. I also probably left my computer charging all day so that wasn't good. But when i leave the room i always turn off the light. I could have done better.

Friday (Water): I stayed at my friends apartment and they have a bunch of water bottles so i drank a lot of them. I didn't really think about using tap water. And they don't have a recycle bin at their apartment so I just threw them in the trash... Not a good day. My bad.

Grant Fisher

No Impact Week

NO TRASH MONDAY:

I must say that the first thing I did this morning was buy a non-recyclable Starbucks cup of coffee. I didn't realize my mistake until I went to my US1100 class this afternoon. However, to make up for lapse in judgement I recycled my sprite can in the proper container. I also went to lunch at Lair and they have these bins separated into organic material, paper and plastic. And once I was done with my lunch I separated my trash into the specific containers. I then went back to my dorm and correctly separated my recyclables from what could not be recyclable. If it wasn't for today I wouldn't have realized how much trash one person can produce in one day.


TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY

I think today was the easiest day out of the week for me. I live on campus, have a bike at school, and I am car-less. Unfortunately, I don't use my bike as much as I would like, I think I walk more to make up for it. I even walked to HEB today to pick up some few groceries I needed. While others had to cut back on their gas intake or had to walk to class for the first time, I just had to do what I have been doing since I got here.


FOOD WEDNESDAY

Every morning I have an 8am class so getting breakfast is a challenge for me. After my class I usually go get coffee and biscotti or go to the dinning hall for a mid morning "snack", but today I went back to my dorm and ate a granola bar. I don't know if this helped or not because the granola bar was individually packaged. This will probably be my hardest day. Living on campus has its perks and its disadvantages. Trying to be food savy is definitely a disadvantage. Our dining halls only provide their food on styrofoam plates or containers and when it comes to snacks everything is usually individually packaged. I did the best I could with the limitations I had.



SAVE ENERGY THURSDAY

This will probably be my favorite day. I am a big fan of sunlight coming in through my windows for light, so today I really made an effort not to turn on the lights.I usually leave my chargers plugged in, but today the only plug that was connected was the refrigerator and the extension cords. My roommates however had a hard time. I was the last one out today and I had to go around and turn off everyone's lights, straighteners, TV, and the coffee pot that was still on. But by the end of the night everything was trying their best to conserve energy.


SAVE WATER FRIDAY

When I was about eight I went to Girl Scout camp. It was by far the worst camping experience I ever had. For an 8 year old I was not looking forward to making my own food, pitching my own tent, and taking a two minute shower. Around that time I had long hair that fell to the bottom of my back. It would usually take about 30 minutes if I was lucky to take a shower. So before I went to camp my mother and I timed my showers and I was able to wash my long thick hair, lather up, and rinse in 5 minutes. So when Friday came around I figured it would be nice to relive my Girl Scout days. I was able to take a 5:30 minute shower and the water was on for a total of 2:00 minutes. As far as drinking water, I used my reusable containers and grab tapped water every time I was empty.

No Impact Week made me aware of everything we COULD be doing to help our planet but we don't. This week has opened my eyes to all the little things we should be doing. I think from now on I will try to continue to take shorter showers and use less energy as possible. I do need to work on the food portion of the week. But overall it was a quite a learning experience.

-Karen Zamora

Anti-No Impact Man

9/27 Consumption:

I woke up on Sunday morning back in my hometown lying in my comfortable memory foam Serta bed. Knowing this was the start of "No Impact Week", I thought, "Hey, wouldn't this day be perfect for shopping?" My mom needed groceries anyways so I tagged along. She thought I had left my mind back at San Marcos when we needed a half a dozen apples and I bagged each one individually--twice. The cashier's expression was puzzled to say the least. Throughout the day, I consumed $785 dollars consisting of two pairs of prescription glasses, a Miles Austin jersey (go Cowboys!), a flashy cross to wear around my neck, a pair of comfortable asics shoes, and three pairs of Jordan shorts. I suppose I did help the economy out.

9/27 Trash:

I live at Blanco residence hall which has recycle bins on the 3rd and 1st floor. The third floor is pitiful with plastic bottles overflowing into the walkway. What if I did not use the recycle bin? There's a perfectly good empty dumpster outside to throw away plastic. Sounds good to me.

9/28 Transportation

It is Tuesday morning around 7:30. There is a nice breeze outside to make anyone consider a jacket. This weather is perfect for walking to class. However, my knee is a slight bit tender. I do not want to risk further injury so I decided to drive everywhere. So what if Harris is right outside Blanco? Just kidding. I would not try that hard to be that impactful.....or would I?

9/29 Food:

I do my normal routine of eating whatever I want.

9/30 Energy:

They do not allow microwaves at Blanco Hall due to the fire hazard. I wonder if this applies to all other electronics? With everything plugged in already I just hit the switch on everything and BOOM! Nothing happened. Big disappointment. Do not worry I am not crazy. I used surge protectors. At least I not have to foot the electricity bill yet. Later in the day I see my laundry basket with a couple of workout shirts and shorts in it. I do not want to procrastinate doing laundry! Those 4 shirts and 3 shorts received a good washing and drying. Especially the lonely white shirt and shorts.

10/1 Water:

I do not know your personal lifestyle, but if I do anything containing a toilet--I flush. This helped me out tremendously for my wasteful water ways. I did not realize that when I shaved that I leave the water on the whole time. It takes me about 10 minutes each time to shave. I could be using a Dixie cup to wash off my razor. Maybe I will change this routine, but not today.

10/2 Give Back:

I just feel like studying today and watching college football. Texas is losing 21-7 to Oklahoma. This depresses me to the point I do not even want to even hold doors open for people. I tried to help Tamara but I feel inferior to her intelligence. She keeps giving me put-downs that I am "slow".

10/3 Eco-Sabbath:

Doing the opposite of what No Impact Week was about opened my eyes to what I could actually be doing to help the environment. I will officially be walking everywhere and try not to be wasteful with water as I shave and shower. Why would I have to stay in the shower 30 minutes to get clean? Just soap up, rinse off , and get out. Most of the environmental problems are just laziness. Come on people quit being lazy and when you miss the trash can trying to be Kobe Bryant, make sure you pick it back up.

No Impact Man Blog

After reading "No Impact Man", I thought there was no way I could go to the same extremes as Colin Beavan did. He sacraficed so much just for the environment. Although I know I cannot do as much as Colin accomplished, I have started to do little things to reduce my "carbon footprint". I was not able to bring my car with me to college so I do walk mostly everywhere. I try to use recyclable products as much as possible and I hold on to my trash (which sounds gross) until I am able to find a recycle bin to put it in. I am also trying to get my roommate to start recycling now that the dorm has provided us with recylcing bins. I also turn off all lights and electronics when they are not needed and we do not use the air conditioning system unless we are sleeping, and the setting is normally on low.

Bright Start for Going Green

Well, since the beginning of the week to, I've been hearing everyone talk about going green. Students to administrators, the school blog to groups on campus, and local news articles to national news and advertisements are all buzzing about the brand new fad "you just gotta be apart of", and the reception is quite impressive. You can't walk into a Target or Walgreens with out seeing refillable bottles and t-shirts fashionably displaying the recycle symbol, and the best part about all the paraphernalia is the pricing in the long run. I bought a water purifier today because I figured it would be stupid not to. I spend a good $25 on a pack of water bottles that'll last me at most a month, and then I have to go back to the super store to perpetuate the cycle, and standing back to look at this ritual makes me feel stupid (Oh, and I hate tap water. Personal preference). It makes more sense to buy one 40 ounce water purifier in order to save every cent I waste on plastic wrapping for a free resource.

I really enjoyed going green this week, even though the steps I took seemed a bit small. I unplugged my appliances when not in use, I didn't use a single water bottle (which meant I didn't drink any water this week, sadly), and I definitely and gaspingly trekked up each flight of stairs in Alkek Library. This may not be as noteworthy as Mr. Beaven's attempts, but these were my choices, my sacrifices, my gains, and the ability to reduce the impact our community has on our campus and this one earth we take for granted leaves me in a jovial mood.

The Going Green Movement is rising, and we get the benefit of seeing its influence on Texas State (hence the picture).

No Impact Week

Like most other students, I've been able to cut back on simple task:

-I hand-washed my laundry instead of using the washers/dryers offered in my dorm

-I rode my bike/walked around campus rather than cruising along in my gas-gussller of a car (yes, even to places off campus)

-I unplugged my TV and chargers when they weren't in use

-I cut back on shower time (from 20 mins to only 5)

But of course, creating no impact is a difficult task for people in this technologically-advanced society that we live in. I'm only human, so backtracking was almost inevitable.

-I threw away plastic wrappers from food almost everyday (trying to recycle what I could first)

-I left the lights on (accidentally) a few times when I left my dorm

I still have a few days left to get my "green" act together, but from what I've accomplished (and failed to accomplish) I have a better understanding of how we're the reason for the earth's slow decomposition and only we have the power, maybe not necessarily to reverse the damage, but to slowly cleanse the world of our "impact" and get things back on track.

-- Lauren Piller

NO TRASH MONDAY- I have to admit the first "No Impact Week" day did not go well. I probably produced more trash this Monday than I have any other day. I did try to not produce as much trash but being somewhat sick made it hard. I will say while I was drinking my Chai tea from Starbucks and throwing a huge cardboard box full of trash away (by the end of the day you wouldn't believe how much trash we had) I was aware that I should be trying to conserve more. When my roommate and I filled up our "box-o-trash" (that's what we called it) and brought it to the dumpster I felt a little bit uneasy about how much plastic we were throwing away so we took out the bottles. We took out a total of 13 water bottles and two plastic bottles of Sprite. That was between the two of us and over the course of two days. We recycled our bottles and are considering recycling more.
It's going to be one very long week.


TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY- Living on campus and not having a car really stinks (but for this little project it worked out for the good). My sister and I would share a car when I lived at home. She is still in high school so it makes more sense to let her have it while she has to drive places and run errands for my mom.With that said I walk everywhere! Since my dorm is center of campus I don't have to take the bus. Overall I did really well today!


FOOD WEDNESDAY- I normally don't eat breakfast and grab something quick to eat from the liar and go back to my room for lunch. Then for dinner my roommate and I go to a dining hall and get something to go again. Today, still being sick, I didn't feel like going out (so i guess it kind of helped me to not have an impact). So for lunch I had PB&J and for dinner, instead of my "to-go" box, I had a microwaveable dinner tray. I'm not sure if that has any help on the environment but I didn't use any Styrofoam to-go boxes today.



SAVE ENERGY THURSDAY- I really made an effort today to make sure when I left my dorm for class I turned off the lights. I normally just leave my straightener plugged in as well as my phone charger and coffee machine. Today as I left for the day I unplugged the power strip from underneath my desk. I must say though I forgot to turn the TV off this morning when I left but I made sure I turned it off along with the lights when I left for the day for New Braunfels.



SAVE WATER FRIDAY- Found out yesterday I have strep throat. So I have to say today being completely sick was the worst day to have to try and save water. I was so not in the mood to take a short shower. I did try and did cut it down by 4minutes. Instead of my typical 17 minute shower it was more like 13 minutes. Had I not been so sick I probably could have cut it down to 5 minutes.



Bridget Dooley