While riding TriMet, number 44, home the other day, there was this girl who wouldn’t stop talking. Maybe I was annoyed because her voice paralleled that of an incessant 4th grader in desperate need of attention, but I learned to cope when she began talking about sustainability practices in interior design.
Now, interior design isn’t a subject in which I’m engaged, but the fact that this girl, a PSU student, new so much about substituting regular design practices with efficient sustainability measures made me think just how important conservation is to college students around the country. This notion was only solidified when some dude sitting across the aisle from me — diagonally from said girl — chimed in with his student expertise in sustainable architecture, the very subject he was on his way to take a final exam for at Portland Community College: Sylvania.
Being the social chameleon I am, I had to get involved in this discussion. I mentioned sustainability clients the ad/pr agency I work for represented and the use of sustainable materials that went into the construction of Cafe Yumm! franchise models (my former employer) in Eugene, Ore.
What really caught my eye was that we were three twentysomethings engaged in this political conversation while riding the bus, a green effort in itself, and that no one around us really took an interest. In fact, we probably pissed more people off with our discussion than inspired others to join in. I wonder though, did the fellow TriMet riders not care about sustainability enough to talk about it? Was it because they were tired from their work day or because most of the riders were older and perhaps weren’t paying as much attention to this subject, unlike young college-aged students who grew up in households where recycling was stressed and are now studying sustainability because it leads to both profitable and good-natured (pun intended) careers?
