SARAH GRAUP

Sustainable Bruins

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
146 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

6.0

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

2.0

more servings

of fruits and vegetables

SARAH's actions

Action Track: Healing & Renewal

Eat Mindfully

I will eat all of my meals without distractions, e.g., phone, computer, TV, or newspaper.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Healing & Renewal

Go for a Daily Walk

Walkable Cities

I will take a walk for 10 minutes each day and take note of the infrastructure that makes walking more or less enjoyable, accessible, and possible.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Keep Track of Wasted Food

Reduced Food Waste

I will keep a daily log of food I throw away during Drawdown Ecochallenge, either because it went bad before I ate it, I put too much on my plate, or it was scraps from food preparation.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Electricity

Calculate the carbon footprint of my household

I will calculate the carbon emissions associated with my household and consider how different lifestyle choices could reduce our carbon footprint and our impact on the environment.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Research and Consider Switching to a Hybrid or Electric Vehicle

Electric Cars, Hybrid Cars

I will spend at least 20 minutes researching and weighing my options to see if a hybrid or electric vehicle makes sense for my lifestyle.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Action Track: Healing & Renewal

More Fruits And Veggies

I will eat a heart healthy diet by adding 2 cups of fruits and vegetables each day to achieve at least 4 cups per day.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Industry

Practice the 5 R's

Recycling

I will Practice the "5 Rs" — refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle — to reduce my waste more than I can with just recycling alone.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Industry

Learn About & Practice Sustainable Fashion

Multiple Industry Solutions

I will learn about sustainable fashion and begin trying to practice it in my own life.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Reduce Animal Products

Plant-Rich Diets

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

COMPLETED 2
DAILY ACTIONS

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
Transportation Research and Consider Switching to a Hybrid or Electric Vehicle

Reducing (or eliminating) exhaust emissions and improving public health are two benefits of green vehicles. What other motivators inspire you to consider switching to a more fuel-efficient vehicle?

SARAH GRAUP 3/10/2022 5:40 PM

I haven’t realized until now how often I use my car. Although it is a hybrid, I still end up using a lot of gas emitting lots of fuel emissions. Other motivations that inspire me to switch to a fuel efficient vehicle is the fact that cutting back on oil will help to find other alternatives that have better efficiency and less risks. Also, at this point, gas is incredibly expensive due to the limited amount of gas. So not only will reducing oil consumption help the environment, but it will also help improve cost and efficiency of maintains cars.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use Keep Track of Wasted Food

An average American throws out about 240 lbs of food per year. The average family of four spends $1,500 a year on food that they throw out. Where would you rather use this money?

SARAH GRAUP 1/25/2022 1:07 PM

I realized how much food can be wasted while I was monitoring my food waste. I would rather use the $1,500 to go towards my rent or any other important payments. I realize I need to limit my food waste as much as possible by either not cooking as much or making sure to eat leftovers.

Read More
- Elisa Bass 1/26/2022 3:58 PM
  
  I was really excited to come across your post discussing food waste, Sarah. I wrote my environmental concern essay on the issue of food waste and in doing so, learned a lot about some of the things we can do to reduce food waste. Your plans to eat leftovers rather than throw them out will be a huge contributor to reducing your personal food waste and hopefully saving you money to spend on other things. If you have space, freezing leftovers for later is also a great option; I typically cook in bulk and used to get tired of eating leftovers for the rest of the week, but freezing meals allowed me to introduce more variety into what I eat.
  
  Organizations focused on reducing waste, like the National Resources Defense Council, have other suggestions too (https://www.nrdc.org/stories/reducing-food-waste-eight-tips-home-cooks). Personally, I do my best to plan my meals before I go shopping so that I can ensure I’m only buying what I need and will use, something that makes my shopping trips faster as well. I know I could become better at understanding best-by and sell-by labels, making sure not to throw out food that’s still okay to consume and being mindful of when a food’s expiration date is approaching so that I can use it up before then.
  
  In addition to being more financially feasible, reducing food waste will have a huge positive impact on the environment. Uneaten food, especially that wasted at the consumer stage, wastes many resources like land, water, and gases that could have been used towards more productive means. Decomposing food in landfills releases methane, a greenhouse gas estimated to have 28 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide. Therefore, anything we can do to reduce this waste is definitely a step in the right direction.
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Action Track: Healing & Renewal More Fruits And Veggies

How does eating more fruits and vegetables and less meat positively affect yourself, other people, and our planet?

SARAH GRAUP 1/20/2022 9:17 AM

I have been a vegetarian my whole life, so not eating meat is very easy for me. However, I realize that I honestly don't eat that many fresh fruits and vegetables-especially while I'm at college. Eating less meat is beneficial to the planet and other people because it helps contribute to fewer carbon emissions brought by the meat industry.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use Reduce Animal Products

Why do people in richer countries eat more meat than people in other places? How does eating more meat affect our bodies, our planet, and other people?

SARAH GRAUP 1/20/2022 9:14 AM

Meat is much more accessible to richer countries: not only are there fast food restaurants with very cheap meat but there are also delicacy meats. Meat is very bad for the environment. It leads to higher carbon emissions, land degradation, less biodiversity, and deforestation.

Read More