Commit to making a difference by signing the USU Sustainability pledge to reduce your impact and help USU become sustainable.

Click here to take the challenge TODAY!

Total number of USU students, staff, and faculty making a difference: 381

What you can do to make a difference:

Action: Walk, bike, carpool or take transit.
Action: Drive a fuel-efficient vehicle.
Action: Shrink the travel distances in your daily life – live near work or school.
Action: Teleconference instead of driving (or flying) to your meetings and conferences.
Action: Keep your tires inflated to save gas.
Action: Plant native trees and perennials.
Action: Recycle and used recycled products.
Action: Eat meat-free meals one day a week.
Action: Drink local water. It is fresh, pure, and delicious!
Action: Eat locally produced foods whenever possible.
Action: Replace chemical pesticides on your lawn, garden & houseplants with non-toxic alternatives.
Action: Use environmentaly friendly products or make your own cleaners.
Action: Buy less and use less STUFF!
Action: Purchase clothes and household items at second hand stores.
Action: Reduce home heating and electricity use by 10 percent, by committing to any of the following:

• Check walls, doors and windows for drafts and seal ‘em up – up to 40 per cent of heat loss is from these areas.
• Turn down the thermostat.
• Buy renewable energy.
• Insulate everywhere – the roof, floors, walls, basements. It’ll keep you cool in the summer and toastier in the cold seasons.
• Any electronic gizmo that has a clock, digital timer, remote control or standby mode is sucking energy when it’s not being used (it’s called ‘phantom electricity’ – and it’s scary how much of it there is!). If you’re not using ‘em, yank ‘em!
• Use sleep mode on your computer, or turn it off if you are not using it.
• Set up a ‘charging station’ for equipment that needs charging – plug everything into a power bar and turn that off until you actually need to charge something.
• Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). They’re 75 per cent more efficient than conventional bulbs.
• If you’re buying a home, be sure it meets R-2000 standards (which basically means it will use two-thirds of the energy of a conventional home). R2000 costs a little more up-front, but in the long run, the design saves money on utility bills AND boosts resale value (that’s a lot of energy saved and a wad of $$ for your wallet).
• Choose Energy Star appliances - they’re way more efficient than their ancestors. A new refrigerator, for example, uses 40 per cent less energy than a model produced before 1993 (AND saves you still more cash on utilities).
• Whenever you shop for electronics of any kind, tell sales staff you are looking for energy efficiency. The more people demand, the more pressure there is for companies to supply.
• Think twice before you buy any electronic toys and gadgets. Even though lots of us choose more efficient models, home energy use is actually increasing just because we keep loading up on more electrical devices!
• Go for a walk instead of watching TV or booting up your computer. It’ll do you and the whole planet a lot of good.

Action: Stay informed on the issues.
Action: Tell the local media that sustainable issues are important to you.
Action: Let political representatives know where you stand.
Action: Create change in your community. Start a movement. It’ll be good for you, your family, your neighbors and the whole planet.