ISU Office of Sustainability Graduate Assistant talks about April being Environmental Awareness Month

Image Courtesy of Illinois State University

NORMAL, Ill. – April is environmental awareness month. Graduate Assistant for the Office of Sustainability, Ryleigh Hickman talked about sustainability efforts and why climate management matters.

“We do a lot of composting around campus and try to make switches for more environmentally friendly items,” Hickman said.

Hickman goes into how ISU students and the Bloomington-Normal community can continue to make small changes to help reduce their carbon footprint. She mentioned that this is done by supplies that are reusable rather than single use. These include simple switches like plastic to aluminum water bottles and plastic to composable cutlery. Share Shop at ISU is another way for students to help better the environment by repurposing slightly used items. 

“Instead of buying new products, using stuff that is already created in perfectly good condition, that just was used,” Hickman said.

Not only does throwing away single use items hurt the environment, but it also costs the community a lot of money. 

“…our landfill here in McLean County is actually closed because it was full. And we spend as a county over a million dollars sending our trash to local communities around us. A lot of people don’t realize the cost of these things because you throw it out and you don’t see it again,” Hickman said.

Hickman also noted that climate management has a lot to do with the current and future state of the environment through managing the kinds of sustainability efforts a community utilizes.

“Climate management means choosing, you know, energy sources that are better for the environment…. choosing items that will have a better impact on the climate…” Hickman said.

Hickman also noted that there are multiple detrimental effects of being careless with climate management including natural disasters occurring due to global warming. She said that a good way to enforce climate management is to be conscious about the companies you support, as it’s common for many of them to heavily pollute the environment.

“…we’ve seen like the disastrous hurricanes and wildfires that are exacerbated by our choices…the industries that we support have an effect on the climate…taking note of who you’re supporting and what effect your money has in the grand scheme of things both on an individual level and on a community-wide level,” Hickman said.