Planet Green
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This season Wa$ted! did an episode at the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority and last season we spent some great time with a group of young engineers at a fraternity and I was struck by how simply the concept of social lives and social consciousness can be blended together to improve our existence and the life of the planet.
Historically fraternities and sororities were clubs that created a social environment for people experiencing independent life for the first time away from home to come together and have a support network of friends and peers to help them transition into adulthood.
And that is still true, but in the modern world these social groups have opportunities to do even more; they help change the world for the better.
Peer groups are often made up of like-minded people, and this is often the case with college frats and sororities. And as more and more future leaders of the world see the value and importance of sustainable living and cleaning up the environmental and free market sins of their parents, these social networks are becoming real platforms for change.
There are two sides to the environmental good done by sororities and fraternities: the economy-of-scale side, and the national-consciousness side:
Economy of scale refers to the concept that items become more economical when you are creating or consuming more of them: a can of soda is $1 per unit when sold singly and $.50 per unit when sold in a six-pack, for example. Well, sororities and fraternities take single-soda young men and women and create six packs, twelve packs, and cases out of them by bringing them together into group living arrangements. Therefore any green changes made to a fraternity or sorority house—CFLs, low-flow faucets, and not using those horrible red cups for beer—can have a greater overall effect on the environment because they are being enacted by a larger group than just a single family. You can think of it like carpooling for your life: more people in one space creates less waste and a smaller carbon footprint.
“There are two sides to the environmental good done by sororities and fraternities: the economy-of-scale side, and the national-consciousness side.
On Wa$ted! we found that greening a sorority or fraternity is more like greening a business than a single-family home. So simply by living in a group, often in higher density even than dorms in terms of people per square foot, sororities and fraternities are lowering the environmental impact of most of the young people who become members.
And on a larger scale, most sororities and fraternities are part of national organizations, and so a green initiative that starts in New Jersey with Alpha Chi Omega can be instituted nationally, and the intelligent and thoughtful earth-friendliness that our group started can spread to hundreds and thousands of participants across the country, exponentially increasing the good done by the young women we were lucky enough to work with at the sorority.
And we can all learn from these students that effecting change in our communities—be they the two people you walk your dog with, the ten people you work with, or the thousand people you fanatically follow a Formula One team with—can be a great way to use the power of group-thinking to create a better environment for ourselves and our planet. So if you have an idea, tell a friend: maybe it'll catch on. And if you have a really stupid idea...well, best just keep it to yourself.
Don't Miss the Sisterhood of Wa$te Episode Holter writes about.
Read more about going green at college:
How to Go Green: Dorm Rooms
Top 5 Green Colleges
Students Taking the Sweatshop out of their College Sweats
Rent College Texts, Save Money, Resources
How to Go Green: Spring Break
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