Do you respect your friends? Unless you have very strange relationships, I’m guessing you can say that your friends’ ideals and opinions are meaningful to you. If you know that a buddy doesn’t enjoy country music, you’re probably not going to blast Keith Urban when he’s around. If your best friend can’t stand whistling, maybe you’ll refrain from providing your most rousing rendition of the Star Wars theme song. If she’s not so into politics, perhaps that’s not the person you’ll run to and inform of Glenn Beck’s latest revelation.

The point is, what matters to your friends usually matters to you, and vice versa. If you’re mindful of this, you can often use your influence to help change others for the better and spread good habits! You’ll be surprised how much your friends pay attention to the things you care about. Show that it’s “your thing” to turn the lights off when you leave the room with friends. Make a point of gathering the recyclable bottles after a lunch with buddies. Go the extra step and turn off the sink when your roommate steps out of the room to brush her teeth.

While it’s hard to believe that doing these little things can have any significant effect, people will notice. Your friends probably don’t leave the water running out of spite, or neglect to turn off the lights just to burn coal: most of the time, they’re not even thinking about the environmental effects of what they do. I know this was certainly true for me.

At home, I wouldn’t even think about turning off the water while I brushed my teeth. It just didn’t occur to me that I was wasting water, since I was so used to my old habits. At school, I would often throw out my water bottle in the trash rather than in the recycling bin right next to it. I wasn’t intentionally snubbing environmentalists, but I was just absent-mindedly carrying out my routine.

When one of my best friends reached out and picked the bottle up off the top of the trash and moved it to the recycling, however, it really hit me. Later that week when he was at my house, he did it again by turning off the running water when I was distractedly trying to dry a dish on the other side of the kitchen. These simple little things weren’t condescending or insulting; he was just doing what he felt was important to him.

By doing these small acts, he called attention to the ways I could make minor changes to have a big effect. Since I valued his opinions and ideas, I started being mindful of turning off the lights or water when he was around. Pretty soon, it began to carry over to times even when he wasn’t even there. Next thing I knew, I was the one setting the examples for others. Even though I wasn’t perfect, every time I went the extra mile to show I cared about being green, my friends noticed. I guess what I’m trying to say is this: next time your friend finishes that OJ, remember to grab the carton and toss it into the recycling bin (after rinsing it of course!). He just might return the favor to someone else tomorrow.

If you enjoyed the post, please check out the blog for Second Nature, a student organization at Emory that promotes a holistic, healthy lifestyle. Find us here.