Healthy & Green Campus

Dr. Atul Pratap Singh*

India needs solutions to several challenges that have damaged overall health and wellbeing of the people. These challenges are related to health, harmful effects of unhealthy food advertisements and eating habits, impurity of air, water and soil and vulnerability of regions to climate change. Human health and climate change should be an integral part of sustainability practices in the universities and college campuses as the youth may become the ambassador of change and development. Hence, we need to focus towards incorporating health, specifically health related to eating habits and eco-friendly environment into the sustainability movement taking place in higher educational institutions. It is expected that universities and college will take initiatives, become front liners and set the goals for environmental sustainability to launch the healthy and green campus initiatives and share information related to their experiments to help to create a strong cross learning opportunity.

Harmful Effects of Unhealthy Food Advertisements

The childhood obesity epidemic is a serious public health problem that increases morbidity, mortality. Hence, health advocates have focused on the prevalence of advertising for calorie-dense & low-nutrient foods as a significant contributor to the obesity epidemic. The hypothesis is that exposure to food advertising during television viewing may also contribute to obesity by triggering automatic snacking of available food. In reality, most of the children consume more when they exposed to food advertising. Various experiments demonstrate the power of food advertising to prime automatic eating behaviours. Besides, studies found that teenagers who were exposed to more junk food advertising consumed more unhealthy foods every week. Additionally, junk food marketing is associated with obesity in young people of all ages and we know that obesity is linked to at least thirteen types of cancer. In the United States, almost 38 percent of adults are obese and about 18.5 percent of kids less than 19 years old are obese. Obesity leads to heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, bone and joint problems and asthma. One need to understand that obesity has many complex causes, but previous research has shown links between junk and fast food advertising and rates of childhood obesity. Consuming high-calorie drinks and foods, which are usually high in fats as well as salt and sugars, greatly increases a child’s chances of becoming overweight or obese.

Some Key Observations Related to Eating Habits among the College Students

On the basis of day-to-day observation of students’ eating habits, the following points may be taken in to consideration:

Approximately 22% college students skip their breakfast and 80% habitually take snacks at least once a day. 

The most frequent snacks are carbonated beverages and least frequent are fruits and vegetables. 

Students who don’t live with their parents have lower intake of fruits, vegetables, and other nutritious food. 

These students prepare home meals less frequently and they have higher intake of sugar, alcoholic beverages and fast foods than students who live with their parents.

Generally male students consume more carbonated beverages and energy drinks and skip breakfast more frequently than females.

Ways through Which Students Can Build a Green Campus

We all know that youths are the future of a nation, the builders of a nation. Youth is the revolutionary age, possessing a great level of potential and motivation. As per the University Grants Commission official record, there are total 958 universities  in the country, out of which 416 State universities, 124 Deemed to be universities, 54 Central universities and 364 private universities. The students studying in these universities may be engaged as change agents in order to build a green campus. The following are some of the important ways through which students can build a green campus in their own Universities and Colleges: 

1.     Use Electronics Instead of Paper

2.     Adopt Reusable Bag in Practice

3.     Use Reusable Bottles for Drinking Water

4.     Buy Less Whenever Absolutely Necessary

5.     Walk or Use Cycle More

6.     Use Energy Efficient Light Bulbs

7.     Save Energy

8.     Decrease Meat Consumption

9.     Don’t Purchase Aerosol Sprays

10.  Consume/Use Water Smartly

11.  Special Campaigns for Students

12. Promote Smart Campus Initiative through Strengthening Rain Water Harvesting, Vermi Composting, Solar Lights, Green Energy Initiatives etc.

 Imposing Eco-Friendly Rules in a Campus

The students along with their Union and the Administration can make and impose the rules to ensure an eco-friendly environment in their campuses:   

1.     Turn off every electronic appliance 

2.     Use LED light bulbs

3.     Reduce, reuse and recycle

4.     Water-usage control 

5.     Buy recyclable and eco products

6.     Wash cups and plates and don’t use disposable paper or plastic 

7.     Walk and use e-transport or public transport instead of fuel vehicle.  

 In order maintain overall health, wellbeing of the people and the resources for the use of future generation, the students of various universities and colleges may be engaged as change agents in order to build a healthy and green campus under which a number of activities can be organized. 

*Professor (Senior Scale), Department of Social Work & Coordinator, IQAC; Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar College (University of Delhi), Delhi