Students adapt daily routines toward sustainability

When it comes to reducing individual carbon footprints, it’s the little things that count. And sometimes, those things can be so little, so integrated into daily life, that they go nearly unnoticed. 

U-High students, whether they recognize it or not, are already incorporating environmentally-friendly behaviors into their daily lives.

While secondhand shopping is a sustainable and affordable alternative to fast fashion, students like sophomore Marlena Leuz are drawn to it mainly because of low prices and unique finds.

“Secondhand shopping has, like, a excitement to it that firsthand shopping doesn’t because you don’t know what to expect,” Marlena said. “You don’t know what you’re going to buy, but usually end up finding some really cool, like, unique things.”

For her English project on environmentalism last year, senior Ashley Hannah gave up eating meat for a month. She abstained for ethical reasons, not wanting to support the meat industry’s sizable contributions to global carbon emissions. Her project stuck with her, and a year later Ashley is still vegan.

“I was kind of just thinking about the biggest factors of what impacts the environment and what I can personally change right then to make enough of an impact,” Ashley said. “Continuing it has made an impact.”

 Ashley originally allowed herself a day per week for any slip-ups but found that dropping meat from her diet was easier than she had expected. Now, veganism has become a part of Ashley’s life and the lives of those around her. 

“If you change your diet, and you impact other people, like you talk to other people about that, and they change their diet, that’s what’s making an impact,” Ashley said.

Like Ashley, sophomore Amy Ji described her practice of reducing waste using reusable food containers as a natural part of her daily routine. 

“I just know, we have like, a whole cabinet full of these containers,” Amy said. “It’s just like an automatic thing for us. Like we just grab and go and put our food in it.”

Day by day, students do their part to reduce their environmental footprints. Whether a vegan diet, thrifting or reusable containers: though these aren’t on the scale of countries and corporations, these little things do still count.