Ecology
An eco-friendly lifestyle is a way of life when a person tries to decrease the planet's natural resources consumption by reducing carbon emissions. Environmental awareness and healthy lifestyle are essential competencies for every single person, because love for nature and active measures to protect it, is a significant indicator of human culture. It involves differentiating environmental and life problems, keeping a healthy lifestyle, using natural resources rationally, and preventing environmental disasters. Moreover, an eco-friendly lifestyle reflects the level of patriotism, because love for nature and the desire to protect it means the same attitude towards Motherland. Building a society aware of sustainable development and the importance of a healthy lifestyle is the key to Ukraine's future prosperity.
An eco-friendly lifestyle includes the following areas:
- healthy and rational nutrition;
- waste sorting;
- energy consumption;
- Reducing carbon emissions.
The Student Council of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University promotes a healthy lifestyle to be the main condition for raising environmental awareness and keeping the environment clean. We promote the principles of a healthy way of living at both university and organizational levels.
Waste reduction is one of the key stages of an eco-friendly lifestyle. At the organizational level, we annually sort paper and garbage and purchase only recyclable goods. At the university level, the Student Council promotes waste sorting.
In particular, in 2021, the University held an eco-action: we placed the boxes for sorting paper, batteries, and plastic in the hall of the main building. As part of this campaign, the council also released an Eco-leaflet that contains interesting information about the environment and useful tips about rational natural resources consumption, the addresses of glass, paper, metal, and plastic collection points. The leaflet also contains a monthly tracker of eco-friendly habits.
An eco-friendly lifestyle involves electricity consumption reduction as well. Our organization tries to use the available energy resources rationally, e.g. to turn off electrical appliances when they are not in use, to use natural light when possible, and to turn off the lights when no one is in the classroom.
Decreasing carbon emission is an important indicator of a sustainable lifestyle. Our organization reduces the use of plastic bags by using reusable bags (shopping bags or eco-bags). We also distribute eco-bags among students during educational and cultural events. In addition, the Student Council does not use disposable cookware, but prefers to use the reusable one.