What Can One Person Do?

 

By Brian Yeoman

It seems as if there is more and more interest in doing something about the state of the environment. Frequently the question is asked of me, “What can I do? The problems are so big, so complex, that I feel helpless. Tell me, what can just one person do?” This question is always disturbing because it demonstrates the degree to which we all have become victims of something we do not understand and, thus, victims for many other events in our lives. In this instance, however, there is a great deal that just one person can do!

Everyone wants to care for the environment at some level. No matter where they live, how much money they make, how old they are, how much education they have, or where they were born, people want to leave a safe world for their children and grandchildren. They want those children and grandchildren to have a quality life experience.

The problem comes when they try to decide just what to do. There is so much information, so many choices, and it frequently may seem like it is not enough or that it is not worth it. But in each case, it is. Every little baby step we take with a little bit more care for the long-term health of our environment makes a difference.

How do we know this? Because we have a myriad of success stories where the aggregate actions of everyday people doing relatively simple things clean up streams and rivers, improve the functioning of a wetland, avoid the cutting down of thousands of trees, slow down the depletion of soil, reduce the number of miles driven in cars, and on and on. Consider this excellent statement by Sir Edmund Burke: “Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.”

If you do not know what to do or what else to do about your environment, you might want to sample some of the ideas from the list that follows:

Food Purchasing/General Shopping

  • Buy products grown locally.
  • Avoid highly packaged items.
  • Do not use shopping as a therapy.
  • Buy hormone-free milk and meat.
  • Buy fair-trade coffee.
  • If the grocer doesn’t have it, ask!
  • Don’t accept plastic bags. Ask for cardboard – you can recycle it!
  • Try eating one organic fruit or vegetable per week.
  • Compost all of your nonmeat and nondairy leftovers.

In the House

  • Don’t run the water while you brush your teeth.
  • Use cotton instead of paper napkins/towels.
  • Use ceramic or glass instead of plastic or Styrofoam.
  • Use nonfossil-fuel-based cleaning agents such as those based on citrus products

In Paper Products

  • Remember that (generally) recycled paper is just scrap paper from the mill and that post-consumer waste paper is the paper you likely recycled.
  • Buy chlorine-free, 100%-post-consumer recycled paper products (copier/fax and printer paper), and use both sides whenever possible.

(This is part of a longer article that appeared in the December 2005 issue of the Educational Procurement Journal. Brian K. Yeoman is director of Education and Development at NAEP, the National Association of Educational Procurement. He is also a retired associate vice president for Facilities Planning and Campus Development at the University Texas Health Science Center at Houston. In 2005, he received a CEC Synergy Award.)