How to be a Digitally Sustainable Student
Being a sustainable person is becoming increasingly important and popular in the modern world; but how often do people consider how to be sustainable digitally too? As our online presence becomes more and more significant, we have a greater responsibility to limit any environmental damage our online activity is causing. Here is our take on the five best ways to be sustainable online.
Use sustainable search engines
Everyday there are 5.6 billion searches on Google, it’s not hard to understand why it’s one of the most successful companies in the world. While the company pledges to be carbon neutral, there are more sustainable alternatives. Ecosia is a great option, they use the revenue generated from your searches to plant trees all around the world. To date they have planted 135 million trees and counting, so by using them you can be confident that you are helping the earth.
Reduce your technology use
Everyday a huge quantity of technology is wasted, so try not to contribute to the issue. Have a hard look at all your electronic devices and ask yourself if you really need them all. Remember this next time you are looking to get the latest phone or gadget. You can always look to get a second hand one too, ask around in your school or university —it’s also a fun way to meet new people!
Switch off your electronics
It might seem small, but make sure you switch off your devices when you aren’t using them rather than simply leaving them on standby. Not only can you waste electricity, but you might damage the battery on the device. You should also try to extend the lives of your electronics by keeping them clean and not overcharging the battery. Having to constantly replace broken products is simultaneously a drain on your financial resources, and contributes to the massive problem of over consumption and tech waste we have in the world.
Be selective with your printing
Whether it is for hand in, review, or simply pages to read and research; as a student, you will need to print off lots of your work. However, in order to avoid wasting paper you should remember a few tips. Firstly, only print when you really need to and double check you have the right number of copies — it’s almost too easy to accidentally add an extra zero! You may also only want to print a small section of the page you are looking at. To do this you can highlight the section you want and click ‘print section’. Finally, try to use double sided printing, then you can have two digital pages on one piece of paper, it makes it easier to keep track of your work too!
Online vs. the real world?
Despite having an environmental impact, online activity can be a fantastic way to reduce our carbon footprint in our daily life. When studying you might be tempted to buy a number of books to help you with your course, but remember you might be able to find a digital version of the same book. Of course, if you want to do really well as a student, you might be looking into tutoring. Tutor House offers fantastic online tuition so that you can learn from the comfort of your own home, reducing both yours and the tutor’s travel costs and impacts.
So, how digitally sustainable are you?
Do you think this is something for you? Are you up for being a digitally sustainable student? Or are there other reasons you may be holding back? Being digitally sustainable can be a hard task and easily forgotten about, but with it, even the small things can make a big impact – like using a different search engine – think about it and do what’s right for you and the planet!
