E-force focusing on small environmental changes

E-force is the environmental club in Collins LLC. and a part of the Collins student government.

The co-chairs, sophomore Elizabeth Danielson and freshman Will McHenry, agree that E-force is more of an educational group than an activist group. They said environmentalism doesn’t have to be a life-changing moral code. 

“It’s more of a lifestyle, a principle that you apply to your life in the way that you go about doing the small things that add up,” Danielson said. “You don’t have to move mountains.”

The E-force meets twice weekly and has chairs who are in charge of specific events. Danielson and McHenry are co-directors of the group. Some students lead the Lake Griffy Trail Stewardship Program, and a human environment chair focuses on how humans interact with the environment and within their own environment.

E-force has stewardship of Griffy Lake, north of campus. In past years they had to take care of recycling for Collins, but now it is handled by maintenance.

The group also puts on films and works with other Collins LLC groups to present joint programs.

E-force takes a very practical approach to environmentalism education. Both Danielson and McHenry showed a disdain for the way environmentalism is portrayed by the media and politicians.

Danielson said the news media likes to show environmentalism as a trend outside of normal behavior, separating it from people’s lives.

“I think the environmentalists that most people see are most prominent,” said McHenry. “These are the people who take it way too seriously and sometimes can’t see reason.”

E-force’s approach is different, but the message is the same.

“We only have one planet, unless we’re trucking to Mars anytime soon,” Danielson said.

E-force is all about doing the small things that everyone can do to save just a little.

“Recycling isn’t that hard,” McHenry said. “It’s really easy. I get really angry when people won’t walk down two flights of stairs to recycle a bottle. Actually I’ve seen people deliberately not recycle something next to a trash can just because it’s their political agenda.”

“The main reason environmentalism is important is because it is sustainable, so efficient and so cheap. It prevents a lot of unnecessary actions,” Danielson said.

E-force reaches out to the Collins community through the Collins Columns, the dorm’s newspaper.

Morgan Eldridge, educational chair, writes a column in the Collins Column every week that shares an environmental tip or story, as well as opportunities in Bloomington.

“Each person in E-force has a different passion that involves the environment,” Eldridge said. “We each take our own facet and run with it.”

The newspaper and the tips are all important ways E-force furthers its main goal: not to move mountains but to teach.

“I think it’s more about individual education,” McHenry said. “Focus on more what individuals can do in their own lives.”