I think it is important for North Americans to step back and realize how marketing agencies impact their decisions. We are overly impacted by advertisements, and aren't very smart about it.
Devina Horvath
POINTS TOTAL
- 0 TODAY
- 0 THIS WEEK
- 451 TOTAL
participant impact
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UP TO3.0meatless or vegan mealsconsumed
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UP TO75minutesspent learning
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UP TO15plastic containersnot sent to the landfill
Devina's actions
Food
Smaller Portions
#3 Reduced Food Waste
I will use smaller plates and/or serve smaller portions when dishing out food.
Food
Reduce Animal Products
#4 Plant-Rich Diet
I will enjoy 3 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.
Food
Learn More about Silvopasture
#9 Silvopasture
I will spend at least 15 minutes watching videos and/or reading about the environmental benefits of silvopasture.
Action Track: Social Justice
Start a Social Media Campaign
#6 Educating Girls
Through social media, I will raise awareness about gender inequity in education by sharing the information found in the links below.
Electricity Generation
Choose Renewable Energy or Purchase Renewable Energy Credits
#2 Wind Turbines (Onshore), #8 Solar Farms
I will sign up for my utility company's clean/renewable energy option. If my utility does not offer one, I will purchase Renewable Energy Credits to match my usage.
Materials
Eliminate Toxic Plastics
#47 Bioplastic
I will avoid buying toxic plastics, including polycarbonate, polystyrene and polyvinyl and instead replace them with bioplastic or durable options.
Materials
Properly Dispose of Refrigerants
#1 Refrigerant Management
I will spend at least 30 minutes learning how to properly dispose of my refrigerator, freezer, and other refrigerants at the end of their useful lives.
Transport
Research and Consider Switching to a Hybrid or Electric Vehicle
#26 Electric Vehicles
I will spend at least 30 minutes researching and weighing my options to see if a hybrid or electric vehicle makes sense for my lifestyle.
Materials
Go Paperless
#70 Recycled Paper
I will reduce the amount of paper mail that I receive by 0.11lbs (0.05kg) a day or 41lbs (18.6kg) a year by opting into paperless billing, ending unwanted subscriptions and opting out of junk mail.
Materials
Recycle Everything I Can
#55 Household Recycling
I will recycle all materials that are accepted by local haulers or drop stations in my community.
Participant Feed
Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.
To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?
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REFLECTION QUESTIONFood Reduce Animal ProductsIn your opinion, what contributes to people in North America eating more meat than any other countries? What does this say about North American values and ways of living?
Devina Horvath 4/24/2019 2:49 PMI sincerely think that the government programs to subsidize outdated methods of agriculture and the effect of capitalism on our food industry result in our eating more meat than other countries. Each industry for each type of meat has a marketing team. "Beef, it's what's for dinner" " I feel like chicken tonight" "Pork, the other white meat." These are all ad agency slogans aimed to stick in our head and remind us to eat meat. Our cultural traditions center around manufactured meat products. We grill hot dogs and burgers on holidays. Each major holiday we celebrate is "not the same" without an Easter ham or Thanksgiving turkey. In reality, these are manufactured traditions put in place by for-profit corporations. These holidays didn't exist or were centered around other food items prior to the early 1900s.
I think it is important for North Americans to step back and realize how marketing agencies impact their decisions. We are overly impacted by advertisements, and aren't very smart about it.-
Meghan Jones 4/24/2019 3:57 PMWow, I never thought about how each meat has a slogan. You are totally right. Thanks for an enlightening post!
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REFLECTION QUESTIONFood Learn More about SilvopastureHad you heard of the term "silvopasture" before now? After learning more about it, what do you think is the biggest advantage of silvopasture?
Devina Horvath 4/24/2019 2:45 PMI had not. The biggest advantage I think is that it prevents mass clearing of ecosystems (i.e., forests for big fields of grass for animals) and helps to prevent runoff, deforestation, and water table damage. -
REFLECTION QUESTIONFood Smaller PortionsFun fact: Your brain and stomach register feelings of fullness after about 20 minutes of eating. While dishing food out, we tend to load our plates with more than we need. Using smaller plates helps to mitigate this. Aside from the environmental benefits, what other benefits might come out of eating smaller portions?
Devina Horvath 4/24/2019 2:44 PMServing smaller portions on small plates and keeping the food dishes away from the dinner table prevents over-eating. Additionally, since we tend to linger for conversation during meals we allow that 20 minutes to lapse, making us feel full before getting up for seconds and helping to assist in healthy choices and weight loss. -
REFLECTION QUESTIONElectricity Generation Choose Renewable Energy or Purchase Renewable Energy CreditsYour utility company is able to tell you your average energy usage. Ask them how your energy usage compares to others in your zipcode, and in your state. What steps can you take each day to reduce your electricity usage?
Devina Horvath 4/03/2019 3:57 PMWell darn it I deleted my first response on accident, but to summarize our usage is pretty low. We unplug "vampire appliances" when we are done using them and focus on turning off our lights when out of use every day. We also adjust our thermostat for when we are out of the apartment and keep our doors closed when the HVAC is running. We open our windows at night to cool down the rooms and close them and shut the blinds during the day to keep the cool air in and sunlight out (we're in So Cal, the goal is to stay cool almost all year long). -
REFLECTION QUESTIONAction Track: Social Justice Start a Social Media CampaignHow are people responding to the statistics you're sharing on social media?
Devina Horvath 4/03/2019 3:47 PMPositively. I don't think anyone really correlated education of girls with reducing impacts that contribute to global warming. -
Devina Horvath 4/03/2019 12:59 PMHappy Beginning of Ecochallenge everyone! -
REFLECTION QUESTIONMaterials Properly Dispose of RefrigerantsHow do you address your own feelings of concern, fear or despair about climate change?
Devina Horvath 4/03/2019 12:55 PMBy taking tangible action and continuing to work in the environmental industry. One of the reasons I became an environmental scientist / geologist was to be able to address environmental impacts and climate change with a more hands-on approach. -
REFLECTION QUESTIONMaterials Recycle Everything I CanHow could you incorporate other "R's" -- reduce, reuse, refuse, repair, repurpose, etc. -- into your lifestyle? How does considering implementing these "R's" make you feel?
Devina Horvath 4/03/2019 12:53 PMSteps I am working on us taking in our family:- Repair clothing instead of buying new. Implementing the Japanese boro sashiko methods instead of just tossing clothes.
- Using old t-shirts to make rugs for our house on my weaving loom
- Using glass containers for reuse at home instead of plastic
- Upcycling! (like the t-shirts)
- I am losing weight, and instead of a new wardrobe I am learning how to tailor my perfectly fine clothes instead.
- We're going to start refusing the plastic kids cups at restaurants; they just go to waste and are usually single-use!
Working on implementing these steps makes me feel good knowing that those horrible piles of waste you see in photos of landfills or clothing donation centers are a little smaller because of me. -
REFLECTION QUESTIONMaterials Eliminate Toxic PlasticsWhat single-use items (e.g. straws, coffee cups, vegetable bags, plastic bags) do you regularly use? What could be substituted instead?
Devina Horvath 4/03/2019 12:50 PMWe typically use straws, coffee cups, vegetable bags, sandwich bags, plastic bags, plastic milk jugs, saran wrap, creamer containers. Instead, we are switching to paper straws (our son can't really use a cup yet, but we'll work on it so he can drink without a straw), I will use my travel mug instead of paper coffee cups, we can keep our veggies out in the cart or bring our own cloth sacks for them, use sewn sandwich bags (I am working on making these from beeswax cloth!), use reusable shopping bags (again, I am making some from yarn for lighter bags and sewing canvas bags to reuse), and I will work on using milk and cream that comes in glass jars or in paper containers rather than the disposable plastic jugs. I am making beeswax wrap to replace our saran wrap as well!-
Devina Horvath 4/03/2019 3:50 PMI don't like fragile things like lettuce or broccoli to bounce around the cart while I shop, so I have simple cloth bags I've made that I can place them in temporarily. The cashier then can pull them out to weigh/ring up, and they go right back in for taking home. You can even use a designated reusable grocery bag for this purpose. I like regular cotton because it can be washed, or waxed canvas that can be wiped down.
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Siri Vikan 4/03/2019 3:42 PMWill you expand on the cloth sacks for veggies when shopping please?
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Devina Horvath 4/03/2019 12:46 PMWe've gone through and requested paperless billing for all of our expected bills. If new ones pop up, we'll fix those as well!