The 68 water bottle refill stations at the Loop and Lincoln Park campuses have been used collectively more than 1.5 million times since Jan. 1: a milestone in DePaul’s sustainable mission and testament to the growing participation in energy conservation.
According to National Geographic, Americans purchase 29 billion water bottles every year; 2 million tons of which end up in landfills.
In 2009, the College Sustainability Report Card, sponsored by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, gave DePaul an overall sustainability rating of a D+. In 2010, DePaul President Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., assembled the Sustainability Initiative Task Force (SITF) as a team to combat DePaul’s low sustainability rating as a university. The SITF refined the Vincentian mission as one with “a heightened moral sensitivity to the global impact of resource consumption and environmental better.” Eiseman said Loyola University and others have gone so far as to forbid selling plastic water bottles on campus.
To Eiseman, Loyola’s strategy is an effective means to force students into using reusable water bottles; however, the complete elimination of water bottles at DePaul could cause problems to community members in need who frequently receive water bottles from the community kitchen.
Though DePaul has taken a successful step towards sustainability, improvements are constant, particularly in achieving universal support from students in reusing water bottles. Eiseman coined his own phrase for students to remember and follow: “Drink local, Act