I will take a walk for 25 minutes each day and take note of the infrastructure that makes walking more or less enjoyable, accessible, and possible.
COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION
Land Sinks
Forest-Friendly Foods 2
Tropical Forest Restoration
I will replace or remove the palm oil, coffee, and cocoa products in my current diet that are known to contribute to deforestation.
COMPLETED 3
DAILY ACTIONS
Buildings
Upgrade My Windows
Insulation
I will upgrade the windows or weatherstripping in my home or office to reduce air leaks and save on energy costs.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Transportation
Use Public Transit
Public Transit
I will use public transit 10 mile(s) per day and avoid sending up to (___) lbs of CO2 into Earth's atmosphere.
COMPLETED 3
DAILY ACTIONS
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use
Reduce Animal Products
Plant-Rich Diets
I will enjoy 2 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.
COMPLETED 5
DAILY ACTIONS
Action Track: Justice for the Whole Community
Start a Social Media Campaign
Health and Education
Through social media, I will raise awareness about gender inequity in education by sharing the information found in the links below.
COMPLETED 6
DAILY ACTIONS
Industry
Advocate For More Packaging Options
Multiple Industry Solutions
I will advocate for alternatives to single-use packaging at local grocery stores, markets, at work, or on campus.
UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Industry
Go Paperless
Recycled Paper
I will reduce the amount of paper mail that I receive by 0.11lbs (0.05kg) a day or 3.3lbs (1.6kg) a month by opting into paperless billing, ending unwanted subscriptions and opting out of junk mail.
UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Electricity
Choose LED Bulbs
LED Lighting
I will replace 6 incandescent lightbulb(s) with Energy Star-certified LED bulbs, saving up to $14 per fixture per year.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use
Composting
Composting, Reduced Food Waste
I will start a compost bin where I live.
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
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?
The last challenge that I will try to do is to convince my job to use biodegradable bottles and paper bags. Where I work, we still use in big quantities plastic bags and sell products in a packaging that is not good for the environment since it is not reusable or biodegradable. Because of that, I will try to contact ,via my manager, someone that will give my ideas to the people with high positions in the company. Because I hope to have an impact on them, I will ask my coworkers to contact them as well.
The last challenge that I will complete will be to go paperless with my family as much as possible. To do so, I will start by contacting my phone company called Fido and bank in order to stop receiving paper bills via mail. I will also do the same thing with my parent's bill. Since they receive all their information via mail by paper, doing that will significantly reduce their negative footprint on the environment. Lastly I will contact companies such as Yves rocher and Gold gym to unsubscribe from their promotion mail.
I completed my challenge by viewing a 3 minute video on methane digesters and by reading about their benefits. It was really interesting since I did not know anything about methane digesters before the documentary. I learned that they are a form of biogas energy which restrains the negative effects on the environment.
This week's challenge is to acquire knowledge on methane digesters by watching a video. The 2 minutes and 30 seconds video suggested by drawdown echo challenge focuses mainly on how to meet the university of Michigan's need of energy while reducing negative impacts of power generation on the environment. I have never heard about methane digesters so, I am looking forward to looking into that solution that can control decomposition of organic waste.
With the winter coming, electricity bills tend to be more expensive. To lower its cost I will replace 6 or more regular light bulbs in my house. In that same thought, since I need a new desk lamp, I will purchase an LED lamp instead of a regular one. LEDs (light emitting diodes) are the most energy-efficient bulbs available because they transfer their energy use into light, rather than waste heat which is why that challenge will save up to 14 % per fixture per year and will limit the long-term waste of heat energy.
I have taken 2 to 3 walks per week since the beginning of the challenge. I noticed that large pavements make social distancing a lot easier to maintain. Also, street lights made me feel safer when I took the walks alone at nights. Erased or non-existing pedestrian paths made the walks less enjoyable and safe. Finally, what made the walks in my neighborhood unpleasant were the lack of benches available to take breaks or to enjoy the environment and weather.
Montreal is now a red zone area which means that all the restaurants , activities or gym are close. Because of that, this challenge is perfect since walks are the only types of entertainment. To complete that challenge, I will take 3 walks per week. I will write on my phone what in my neighborhood makes those walks more enjoyable or unpleasant. Since emissions decrease as pedestrians take the place of cars, this challenge will help me find solutions to encourage walkable cities where driving is not necessary.
The hardest challenge that I have had to do was the one where I had to replace all the palm oil , cocoa and coffee in my diet. Palm oil is an ingredient that is in a lot more products then I thought. For example, it is in pizza dough, chocolate and ice cream. Although I sometimes was not capable of not eating food with palm oil, especially when I was with my friends , I stopped consuming completely anything with cocoa or coffee. Even though I am a big coffee drinker, thinking about the impact that it has on deforestation was a big motivation.
Because I have been able to encourage my mom and grandmother to start composting, I want to have to same impact on other people in my entourage. To do so, I started posting tips and information about composting on my Facebook account( where I interact mostly with adults in my family and neighborhood). Here is an example of a post that I did today !
Here is an example of an interesting statistic that I posted on my snapchat social media platform to raise awareness about gender inequality. This is part of the challenge that I started a couple weeks ago to start conversations and educate my entourage on gender inequality.
