EcoChallenge.org

Drawdown EcoChallenge

April 3 - April 24, 2019

Devina Horvath

WSP USA

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
451 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

75

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

15

plastic containers

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

3.0

meatless or vegan meals

consumed

Devina's actions

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.

COMPLETED 3
DAILY ACTIONS

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.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

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.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

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.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

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.

COMPLETED 3
DAILY ACTIONS

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.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

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.

COMPLETED 3
DAILY ACTIONS

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.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Reduce Animal Products

#4 Plant-Rich Diet

I will enjoy 3 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Food

Smaller Portions

#3 Reduced Food Waste

I will use smaller plates and/or serve smaller portions when dishing out food.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

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?

REFLECTION QUESTION
Food

In 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 PM
I 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.

Read More
- Meghan Jones 4/24/2019 3:57 PM
  Wow, I never thought about how each meat has a slogan. You are totally right. Thanks for an enlightening post!
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food

Had 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 PM
I 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.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food

Fun 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 PM
Serving 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.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Electricity Generation

Your 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 PM
Well 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).

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Action Track: Social Justice

How are people responding to the statistics you're sharing on social media?
Devina Horvath 4/03/2019 3:47 PM
Positively. I don't think anyone really correlated education of girls with reducing impacts that contribute to global warming.

Read More
Devina Horvath 4/03/2019 12:59 PM
Happy Beginning of Ecochallenge everyone!

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Materials

How do you address your own feelings of concern, fear or despair about climate change?
Devina Horvath 4/03/2019 12:55 PM
By 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.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Materials

How 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 PM
Steps 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.
Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Materials

What 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 PM
We 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!

Read More
- Devina Horvath 4/03/2019 3:50 PM
  I 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.
  
  Read More
- Siri Vikan 4/03/2019 3:42 PM
  Will you expand on the cloth sacks for veggies when shopping please?
  
  Read More
Devina Horvath 4/03/2019 12:46 PM
We've gone through and requested paperless billing for all of our expected bills. If new ones pop up, we'll fix those as well!

Read More