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Welcome to Drawdown Ecochallenge!

Watch the short video below to learn the basics.
You'll be an Drawdown Ecochallenge expert in no time!

Ecochallenge.org
Drawdown Ecochallenge
Shreya Karnam's avatar

Shreya Karnam

The Short Circuits

POINTS TOTAL

  • 0 TODAY
  • 0 THIS WEEK
  • 8,768 TOTAL

participant impact

  • UP TO
    3,779
    minutes
    spent exercising
  • UP TO
    694
    meatless or vegan meals
    consumed
  • UP TO
    1.0
    documentary
    watched
  • UP TO
    150
    minutes
    spent learning

Shreya's actions

Action Track: Justice for the Whole Community

Learn about Local Indigenous Practices

Indigenous Peoples' Forest Tenure

I will spend at least 15 minutes learning how local indigenous tribes are caring for the land by participating in a training, workshop, or presentation.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity Generation

Lights Off!

I will turn off all lights when not in use, and I will utilize sunlight to its maximum extent whenever possible.

COMPLETED 238
DAILY ACTIONS

Buildings and Cities

Go for a Daily Walk

Walkable Cities

I will take a walk for 20 minutes each day and take note of the infrastructure that makes walking more or less enjoyable, accessible, and possible.

COMPLETED 99
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

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 138
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Research Businesses Owned by Women, POC, or Immigrants

Sustainable Intensification for Smallholders

I will spend 10 minutes each day researching businesses owned by women, people of color, or immigrants that I can support when shopping.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Reduce Animal Products

Plant-Rich Diets

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

COMPLETED 232
DAILY ACTIONS

Health and Education

Research Barriers to Participation and Representation

Health and Education

I will spend at least 10 minutes learning more about the barriers to women's equal participation and representation around the world.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Learn the Truth About Expiration Dates

Reduced Food Waste

I will spend at least 15 minutes learning how to differentiate between sell by, use by, and best by dates.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity

Watch a Video about Methane Digesters

Methane Digesters

I will watch a video about methane digesters (also commonly known as anaerobic digesters).

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Coastal, Ocean, and Engineered Sinks

Learn about Biochar

Biochar Production

I will spend 15 minute(s) learning about biochar and how it can help sequester carbon.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Sinks

Forest-Friendly Foods 1

Tropical Forest Restoration

I will spend at least 15 minutes researching the impact of my diet to see how it contributes to deforestation.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

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

Health and Education

Connect With A Nonprofit

Health and Education

I will connect with a local nonprofit working on issues affecting women, girls, and/or trans/nonbinary people in my community, and find out how I can get involved or become a member.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Health and Education

Learn about the Need for Family Planning

Health and Education

I will spend at least 15 minutes learning more about the need for family planning globally.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME 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 33
DAILY ACTIONS

Electricity

Invite a friend to calculate the carbon footprint of their household

Individual actions are important, but people and organizations working together can make a real impact. I will share a carbon calculator with a friend and invite them to calculate the carbon footprint of their household.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME 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
    Industry
    What are some more "R's" you could add to your daily practice to reduce your waste?
    Shreya Karnam's avatar
    Shreya Karnam 1/31/2021 8:12 AM
    I could definitely add "Remember" to my daily practice routine, because I find myself sometimes forgetting to recycle plastic bottles, reusing plastic bags, etc.. Another great "R" could be "Reflect", which would help me reflect on what I did each day that could have helped lead us to a more sustainable planet, and this could motivate me to do more!
    Read More
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Electricity
    What kinds of discussions did you have, or are you hoping to have with friends about climate change?
    Shreya Karnam's avatar
    Shreya Karnam 1/29/2021 5:19 AM
    I sent a link to calculate the carbon footprint to some of my friends, and I hope to see most, if not all of them calculate it! My family's average carbon footprint is 6.69 tons of CO2 per month, which is 2.69 tons above the average per US household. I am hoping that by the end of this year, my family can reduce our carbon footprint by making more efforts to prevent pollution and encourage a healthier lifestyle. I am eager to see some of my friends' carbon footprints, so I can see how they compare to mine!
    Read More
    • Neli Brown's avatar
      Neli Brown 9/13/2022 4:49 AM
      I love to go on long walks, I love it when the weather is cloudy, and I love to listen to music. scribbleio
      Read More
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Health and Education
    What are the most pressing issues for women, girls, and trans/nonbinary people in your community?
    Shreya Karnam's avatar
    Shreya Karnam 1/03/2021 9:26 AM
    Currently, I would say that the most pressing issue for female and LGBTQ+ people in the community is getting the proper hygiene products they require. Especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people do not have access to and are therefore lacking basic resources such as toilet paper, menstrual products, etc.. I am involved in the soon-to-be nonprofit Project Full Stop, that aims to supply every individual in need of these products. I hope that I will be able to make a difference!
    Read More
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Food, Agriculture, and Land Use
    Globally, women typically invest a higher proportion of their earnings in their families and communities than men. What have you done in the past to support women-owned businesses? How can you better support communities by supporting women?
    Shreya Karnam's avatar
    Shreya Karnam 12/27/2020 5:28 AM
    I do not recall particularly supporting women-owned businesses in the past, however I aim to do so in the future. I was looking through a list of some women-owned businesses, and I found the food category especially interesting. A lot of women, it seems, own vegan food/bakery businesses, and since I am vegan, I would like to try food from some of these stores. If I order from these stores and spread the word about them, I can better support the women who own these businesses. If I support these women, I can also in turn better support communities by making them stronger.
    Read More
    • Zver Lev's avatar
      Zver Lev 9/16/2022 12:07 PM
      How to increase your revenue? Work more, really this is an only realistic solution, all other options are poor excuses for you to not work properly. https://cupcake2048.net
      Read More
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Electricity
    After you determined your carbon footprint, did you see what different choices you can make in order to reduce it?
    Shreya Karnam's avatar
    Shreya Karnam 12/27/2020 5:11 AM
    A carbon footprint calculator has calculated that the average footprint within my household is 6.69 tons of CO2e every year. The average U.S. household has an average of 4.00 tons of CO2e per year. I was surprised by this; I think I expected a higher average footprint within the U.S. households, and also a slightly lower average within my household. However, it is amazing the the average footprint in the U.S. household has become lower than previous years! In order to improve the footprint within my household, we can reduce the amount of food we throw out. We have a tendency to throw away everything as soon as the expiry-date passes, but if the food is not spoilt, then there is no need to throw it out. We can also all become vegan; 2 of the 5 members in my family are vegan and the rest are vegetarian. We could also use our car less often for shorter distances, and either walk or bike. If we perform all of these actions, I think our carbon footprint can be reduced!
    Read More
    • Neli Brown's avatar
      Neli Brown 10/22/2022 6:53 AM
      My interests are very different from the average person, no I’m not saying this because I want to get attention, it is just like this and it causes a lot of problems sometimes. fireboy and watergirl unblocked
      Read More
  • Shreya Karnam's avatar
    Shreya Karnam 12/14/2020 6:31 AM
    Especially during the pandemic, we must all become aware of all the actions we can perform to positively impact our environment. Drawdown Ecochallenge is a great platform to get started, and it really helped me personally by enforcing certain habits when it comes to reducing my carbon footprint. Although I might not check in on the website every day, I still perform the actions that contribute to helping the environment - such as reducing animal products and keeping track of wasted food (I must say, I have reduced wasting food by a lot!). It is really important to recognize that Drawdown Ecochallenge provides much more than an opportunity to get on top of the leaderboard - the more challenges one performs, the more good they are doing to save the planet! Every action counts! :)
    Read More
    • Neli Brown's avatar
      Neli Brown 10/30/2022 10:36 AM
      Not bad, usually I prefer to watch video when I try to learn something new, but your post was helpful as well. Fly or Die
      Read More
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Land Sinks
    How is your diet currently impacting deforestation? What can you do to decrease your negative impact and increase your positive impact?
    Shreya Karnam's avatar
    Shreya Karnam 9/25/2020 11:15 AM
    My family consumes a lot of palm oil, which actually contributes to deforestation. I never knew that purchasing an ingredient like that could fund the destruction of our planet! While it may be hard to stop buying products containing palm oil entirely, we could start finding alternatives one-by-one. For example, we could start by using a different cooking spray instead of SPAM, which contains palm oil. Repeated small actions will lead to big actions, which will ultimately make a difference in our world.
    Read More
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Coastal, Ocean, and Engineered Sinks
    Can biochar provide additional benefits besides sequestering carbon?
    Shreya Karnam's avatar
    Shreya Karnam 9/24/2020 6:34 AM
    Agrechar, or biochar, is very useful in not only sequestering carbon, but also helping plants grow more efficiently and potentially stopping global warming. In the video I watched and the article I read, they both mentioned how biochar is made to store the carbon inside of it for hundreds of thousands of years, so it won't release into the atmosphere and cause pollution. The video also mentioned that since the char is very porous, it creates a lot more surface area for the nutrients of the soil to hold on to, therefore making it more helpful for crops and plants. There was also another experiment conducted with two sets of corn crops; one with char in the soil and one without. In the same amount of time, the crops with the char grew a lot taller, healthier, and greener than the crops without char. Since char is only absorbed by the plants that absorb carbon, this char is actually carbon negative. This means that if made on an industrial scale, biochar could help change the world by potentially slowing the process of global warming.
    Read More
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Electricity
    What does your vision of a sustainable community look like? What would need to be changed in order for such vision to become reality?
    Shreya Karnam's avatar
    Shreya Karnam 9/12/2020 7:48 AM
    My vision of a sustainable community involves a lot of renewable energy. Renewable energy is the most efficient form of energy, as it creates lesser toxic waste while fulfilling the purpose of non-renewable energy. In order for this vision to become a reality, we humans need to start working harder. While renewable energy sources already exist, most of the population tends to use non-renewable sources, thus creating more waste upon our land. We need to start investing in and making use of more products such as the solar panel, windmill, and biomass power plants in order to make Earth more sustainable.
    Read More
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Health and Education
    What are some of the barriers that exist to women's equal participation and/or representation in your community?
    Shreya Karnam's avatar
    Shreya Karnam 8/20/2020 9:37 AM
    Gender inequality plays a major role in our world today. Being on a FIRST Tech Challenge robotics team, I know that there are some all-girls teams and even organizations that promote the education of females in the United States. However, our world is a much larger picture than just the US, and reading an article written by the UN has helped me understand that. I learned that especially during COVID-19 and the pandemic lockdown, many females are being deprived of their needs in everyday life. For example, in the case of domestic violence, the numbers have risen due to the fact that we are all shut in at home. Countless women across the globe are stuck at home with their abusers, and this number has risen by 30% since the start of quarantine. It is important, now more than ever, to educate everyone about the inequality against women, so we can all work together to stop it.
    Read More