SJU GreenFund is an on-campus organization that aims to bring more sustainability to the St. Joe’s community, whether that be through their five-year plan to add water refilling stations throughout campus so there would be no need for plastic bottles, or hosting eco-friendly events such as “Plant a Tree.” GreenFund is having events throughout the month of April in honor of Earth month.
What advice do you have for students who want to live more sustainably on campus?
Honestly, just being mindful of what you’re putting into the world. A piece of advice or one thing that I do is use less disposable and more reusable items. I’m a huge proponent of using reusable bags. I think it’s so practical to use them, as well as reusable water bottles. Be mindful of if there is an option to get a reusable container or reusable bottle. And if you are using something that is disposable, to learn how to properly.
Lauren Bernic ’23, Marketing Chair
Keep up to date with things that are going on in the world or around your community. GreenFund is pretty helpful because we have various things going on that we’re trying to do to make the campus more sustainable and help ensure that St. Joe’s upholds wanting to be sustainable. Also, trying to talk to people that maybe have higher powers to make something [happen] on a bigger level.
Patrick Homa ’23, Finance Chair
The first step in being more sustainable [is] being more aware of what is going on. Joining clubs such as GreenFund and trying to be more involved with that is a great way, or you could do something as simple as taking advantage of the recycling that we have set up here. We have TerraCycle boxes, we’ve installed water bottle filling stations, and so there’s a lot that students can do whether they’re the small things or trying to be more involved for actual big changes.
Serena Chung ’22, Co-President
The first thing is [to] educate yourself. It’s the most important step of sustainability because there’s a lot of false information out there right now. So it’s just making sure you find good reliable sources that will help you start that journey. Then, once you figure that out, know what kind of steps you want to take because it’s hard to live sustainably, I’m not gonna deny
that. So pick a few points [of] sustainability that you want to do and want to focus on to try to make a little bit of an impact in the world.
Miranda Oseguera ’24, Secretary
