Krupp Going Green?
This semester, there has been a sacrilege: A newly formed society on campus is demanding that Krupp goes green. And they're not stopping at Krupp: The happy yellow-purple Nordmetallers (a term that sounds like a labour union to German ears) and the proud blue Mercatorians have also been asked to switch to green.
Despite intuition suggesting that this conspiracy originated in College 3, who have been green from day one, it didn't - even College 3 has been asked to go green.
Despite my pathetic attempts to create tension you have probably figured out who I am talking about by now: The Environmental Club.
Week after week they greet us with environmental tips painted on the glass doors and communicated by spams. One of their leaders has even been seen climbing a tree to display a poster demanding action against climate change. They are impossible to evade, to the point where it becomes annoying, but: They do have a point.
As I was just taking a late night stroll through the building to do some print outs I noticed the windows of the common room were open. The servery was brightly lit, and so were other common areas.
At that point I remembered a student complaining to me that the heaters in the rooms automatically turn off late at night. I was surprised - in Germany it is common that the central heating turns off during the early morning hours - and asked why he would need heating at 3am. I was stunned to hear that this particular student liked to sleep with his window open to get fresh air and the heating on so it would stay nice and warm in the room.
I am not a big fan of asking people to take cold showers to save the planet, but there are a lot of little choices we make every day that can make a difference. I can choose to walk past that open window in the common room or I can close it. I can choose to turn of my light and heating when I leave the room. I can choose to shut down my laptop if I know I won't be using it for a day. I can choose to turn off my heater when I open my window (it won't keep your room warm at all if the window is open).
Keeping in mind that the average Jacobs student uses significantly more energy as the average German and that the energy we waste is reflected by our rent, it seems very reasonable to start taking responsibility for our energy consumption. Moreover, these little choices make a big difference, but do not affect our lifestyle and comfort at all. In other words: We can go green and still be red.
