by Cassie Lawson ’12
Gamma Phi Beta is very excited and enthusiastic about continuing our efforts to go green! Currently, our house has recycling bins upstairs and downstairs and each week a different sister is in charge of emptying the recycling bins. Additionally, within the last few weeks the women living in our house have begun to compost! The twelve women who live in the house were very responsive to and supportive of the idea of composting. We are currently investigating other ways in which our house can become more sustainable.
Along with the appointment of a Green Chair, a Green Committee has been formed within the sorority. The ten girls, who form this committee, have expressed interest in becoming directly involved in helping our sorority with its sustainability endeavors. Because only twelve women live in our house, one of the primary goals of the committee is to educate girls who do not live in the house about how they can personally change their lives to be more sustainable. One way we have begun to do this is to include a “Green Tip of the Week” at our bimonthly sorority meeting.
Some ideas the Green Committee would like to pursue by the end of this semester and into the fall include, changing all light bulbs in the house to Compact Fluorescent Bulbs, purchasing a bike for the sorority for girls to share, replace the cleaning solutions in the house with environmentally friendly cleaning solutions, and collecting reusable shopping bags for girls living in the house to use grocery shopping.