Kate McGrath casually strolls down the brick sidewalk blaring Janis Joplin through her earphones. As she walks, her eyes gaze upward, admiring the forest canopy shading her from the sun.

A stray soda can striking her flip-flop interrupts her gaze. She reaches down and sighs as she walks out of her way to the nearest recycling bin.

“I care about the environment,” McGrath, a sophomore in biological sciences, said.

The term “tree hugger” can be appropriate, but has negative connotations such as “dirty hippie,” according to James McCann, a freshman in environmental engineering.

McGrath said she takes the name “tree hugger” quite literally. She said once, as a joke, she hugged a tree in front of her friends to prove her dedication to the environment.

Most of her friends aren’t as environmentally conscious as she is, McGrath said, so she does get teased about her habits from time to time.

Heidi Bunn, a senior in biological engineering, said she tries to keep a wide array of friends, not just environmentalists like herself.

“Everyone can learn from one another,” Bunn said.

The best way to stop people from littering is to raise awareness, not judgment, according to McGrath. She said she is “not afraid to express opinion, but won’t force it.”

The University is doing a “fairly good” job at staying environmentally aware, according to McGrath. She said many colleges don’t have recycling programs like the bins in the residence hall rooms and at football games.

WebAssign and other online homework programs have had a huge impact on cutting down on paper usage on campus, according to McCann.

Bunn said while the programs at N.C. State are adequate, she still wants to see more improvements, such as recycling bins at the Atrium.

“This isn’t a liberal problem. It’s everyone’s problem,” Bunn said.

Informing students about the environment can be difficult, but important, according to Bunn, who works for Generating Residential Environmental Education Now — GREEN. She said most people don’t want to hear about ways to help the environment, so finding ways to make it interesting is imperative.

Recycling day was one of the events Bunn said could raise awareness throughout the rest of the year.

One of the organizations McGrath said she was involved in was Habitat for Humanity. She said building houses from wood might seem to go against environmental ethics, but the people getting the houses are not being wasteful and exuberant in destroying the environment.

“I am building a house, but someone is getting a home,” McGrath said.

She said she is also interested in global environmental issues, such as delicate coral reefs and rain forests. According to her, the true concerns in the world today are with deforestation, dredging, conserving energy and discovering alternate fuel sources.

“Global issues have an effect on local issues,” McGrath said.

Being an environmentalist started early, Bunn said. She said she was adopting streams when she was in fifth grade and growing organic gardens after that.

“The people I surrounded myself with were environmentally courteous, and that rubbed off on me,” Bunn said.

McCann said his parents always raised him to recycle, reduce and reuse. He said they also taught him to think about how the environment around him affects the entire world.

McGrath said growing up in Mississippi made her stand out as an environmentalist. Because she was one of the only Democrats growing up, she said she was officially branded a tree hugger.

McCann said he wishes students would take more of an interest in the environment. He said it isn’t difficult to do little things that will make a difference. According to McCann, awareness starts with education.

“If people were asked more often, they would do it,” McCann said about things such as turning off the lights in the residence hall bathrooms.

According to Bunn, the biggest problem in the residence halls is computers being left on all night. She said she sees that as the most unnecessary waste of electricity.

“How many people are going to IM you at 2:00 in the morning, unless they are drunk?” Bunn asked.

Other simple things could also be done, such as walking, biking or carpooling, according to McGrath. She said America also puts a large emphasis on material wealth, especially with people having multiple homes.

“I don’t see the problem with living a simple life,” McGrath said.

McCann said the fact that most students were comfortable with their lifestyles wasn’t going to get him discouraged.

“People aren’t going to change that much, but I try my best,” McCann said.