A good portion of my job as Sustainability Coordinator is educating the campus community. The delicate situation of making others aware and empowered instead of guilty anddisengaged is not an easy task. F rom my perspective, a fabulous article was written recently about the over-use of the buttons to open doors. I am very sensitive to this issue as my dad is a paraplegic.
A response to the letter made a good point of noting that not all disabilities are visible. However, the point of the article was not to make those that use the button feel guilty. The point of the article was to raise awarenessthat there are options and make people think twice before using the button to open the doors.
In my classes we have discussed this topic, and most students never thought about the environmental consequences associated with the automatic doors. The electrical component is miniscule, but quickly adds up with unnecessary use. The largest impact, which is very difficult to quantify, is the lost heat in the winter when both doors in the entryways stay open for a few seconds. In most large buildings, two doors are used to attempt to control for this temperature differential. The outer door would close by the time the inner door opens, concentrating the colder air in a small space to be warmed.
In short, I encourage everyone to consider options and their environmental, social and economic consequences before determining a course of action.
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