A Green Room of Her Own

Eco-friendly dorm room is part of a greening trend at Berkeley

Eco-conscious college living: not just for off-campus hippies living 12 to a house anymore! At the University of California-Berkeley, sophomore Rachael Robertson lives in what's being billed as America's first green dorm room, replete with energy-saving devices and a free supply of natural toiletries. It's part of a larger movement to bring sustainability to daily campus life, which at Berkeley includes solar panels on the student union, waterless urinals, and cafeteria takeout containers made from biodegradable sugarcane. "A lot of people come to the room thinking ... it's going to have to be something revolutionary -- for me to live sustainably, I'm going to have to change my entire life," says green-room committee member and sophomore Desirae Early. She counters that all it takes are a few small changes -- like the right aluminum-free underarm deodorant, natch -- to make a difference. Have these people not seen the latest issue of Nature?