Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada

Top 10 energy-smart behaviours

Everyone has a role to play in reducing our environmental footprint. The good news is that it’s not hard! These simple steps will go a long way in cutting our carbon emissions and boosting a strong, proud culture of sustainability.

A greener StFX – and planet is in our power!

1. Rock a Reusable Mug!

Each year, Canadians throw away approximately 1.5 billion disposable coffee cups. That’s equivalent to more than half a million trees. We can do better.

Did you know that Sodexo offers a 25 cent discount when you bring a travel mug? Until March 15th, Sodexo has increased their discount to 50 cents!

2. Hold the hand towels! One is enough.

The StFX community uses approximately 8,400 rolls of hand towels every year– equivalent to 120 km in length. That’s longer than the distance from Antigonish to Truro!

We can do better. When you reach for a hand towel, remember: Just one gets the job done.         

3. Leaving the room? Lights out!

Leaving lights on in empty rooms and meeting spaces wastes precious energy and creates greenhouse gas emissions.

We can do better: Cutting our carbon footprint is as simple as flicking the switch.                 

4. Beware Phantom Power!

Did you know? A microwave typically uses more energy in a year while on standby than it does for cooking. What a waste!

We can do better: Unplug stereos, fans, lights and other electronics in your office or dorm when they’re not being used.

5. Shift your screen settings.

If you adjusted every computer screen on campus to 50% brightness, StFX would achieve approximately $7,000 in energy savings every year. Yes, really.

We can do better. Decrease your screen brightness. Make your screensaver activate after two minutes. Set your computer to hibernate mode. It’s that simple.           

6. Be a Smart Sorter.

Proper waste sorting keeps recyclable and compostable materials out of the garbage, reducing the waste that StFX sends to the landfill.

We can do better. Pay attention to where you put that can, your piece of paper, or those food leftovers. Let’s keep our garbage pile from growing.        

7. Be a water warrior!

If each residence student reduced their shower time each day by just one minute, we’d save 3,230,000 litres of water and 21,426 litres of heating fuel a year.

That’s almost 1.5 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water!          

8. Think before you print.

According to Environment Canada, paper and paper products account for one third of all waste produced in our country.

We can do better. File your documents electronically instead.       

9. Alert FM about temperature issues.

If your office or dorm room consistently feels too hot or too cold, your temperature system could be broken. Temperature systems that overwork to produce warm or cool air are wasting precious energy.

Let Facilities Management know so they can investigate.

10. Quit idling!

According to Natural Resources Canada, if Canadian drivers idled for even three minutes less every day,CO2 emissions could be reduced by 1.4 million tonnes per year.

This would save 630 million litres of fuel and is equivalent to taking 320,000 cars off of the road for the entire year.             

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