Kim Tran

Sustainable Bruins

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
232 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

30

minutes

being mindful
UP TO

3.0

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

90

minutes

spent outdoors

Kim'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 1
DAILY ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Smaller Portions

Reduced Food Waste

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

COMPLETED 2
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Reduce Animal Products

Plant-Rich Diets

I will enjoy 1 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.

COMPLETED 2
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

Go for a Daily Walk

Walkable Cities

I will take a walk for 30 minutes each day and take note of the infrastructure that makes walking more or less enjoyable, accessible, and possible.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Building Resilience

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 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Transportation

Try Carpooling

Carpooling

I will commute by carpool 36 mile(s) per day and avoid sending up to (___) lbs of CO2 into Earth's atmosphere.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Tend A Garden

I will tend to a garden, or prepare for one, each day using sustainable gardening practices.

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?

Kim Tran 3/02/2022 11:44 AM

Carpooling
I am a commuter student whose primary transportation is driving; my daily commute to UCLA and back home is about 70 miles total and it can vary between 50 minutes to 2 hours. I only began commuting for this school year due to personal circumstances as before this the pandemic had us online and prior to that I lived on campus. While the circumstances of this quarter were messy regarding the online vs return to in person instruction, fortunately for me all of my classes remained online so I did not have to sit in traffic on the 10 and 405 freeways. However, since we’re supposed to return in person for spring quarter and most of my classes will be in person, I will have to resume commuting to UCLA, but I managed to find a friend who is willing to carpool with me on certain days of the week to reduce our gas consumption, as well as save time and money. I also tried to squeeze in most of my classes on the same days to reduce the number of days I would have to commute. Also with the current state of the world, gas prices are really high right now; last I saw, gas was about $5.12 per gallon in my city. I choose not to take the bus because there is not a direct line from my city to UCLA and it will always take at a minimum 2 hours to reach UCLA; with driving, I at least have more flexibility in terms of arriving and leaving sooner. In terms of climate change, the EPA states that transportation makes up 29% of greenhouse gas emissions and more than 90$ of the fuel used for transportation is petroleum-based, but carpooling with even just one other person can reduce your greenhouse gas footprint by 4-5%, while carpooling to and from your work/school can decrease your Co2 emissions by 22-28%. During fall quarter, I unfortunately couldn’t find someone whose schedule overlapped with mine to carpool with, but being able to make this change for spring quarter will hopefully make commuting a bit easier, while also reducing my carbon footprint.

References
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data#:~:text=Global%20carbon%20emissions%20from%20fossil,increase%20from%201970%20to%202011.
https://accept.aseanenergy.org/carpooling-for-the-climate/#:~:text=A%20number%20of%20studies%20have,et%20al.%2C%202018).

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- Kyleigh Follis 3/08/2022 6:12 PM
  
  I have also struggled with reducing the amount that I use my car. For my job, I have to drive to downtown LA a few times each week. It would not be very feasible to use public transportation, especially since I often get off work at about 1 or 2 am. I work with a few other UCLA students so we try to schedule as many shifts together as possible so that we can carpool together. I prefer to carpool because it makes the long drive stuck in traffic go by faster, we split the cost of gas, and we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions because fewer cars are on the road. For my work, some people are randomly chosen to stay late for the shift. By carpooling we do increase our chances of having to stay later than others but honestly who cares. Some of our coworkers nag us for carpooling because it does mean that we stay late more often, but I would much rather carpool than get to leave work an hour earlier. I would prefer if there were a public transportation option, but at this time carpooling is the second best solution.
  
  I would like to have an electric car or hybrid car in the near future but for now I try to minimize my carbon footprint with my current car. My car has the option to drive in “Green Mode.” This feature saves on fuel consumption. The engine control and comfort features are modified to support a more clean driving style. By using this mode it helps me conserve fuel and extend the range of the vehicle. This also activates the auto start/stop function of the vehicle that automatically switches off the engine during the stop. With my drive to work I am often sitting on the 10 in bumper to bumper stop and go traffic. Green mode is useful for this traffic jam driving because it keeps the turbo from kicking in and prevents you from over accelerating.
  
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Kim Tran 2/19/2022 5:50 PM

I try to eat a vegetarian meal at least once a week, and sometimes for a whole day. This is mainly because I have poor eating habits and a small appetite so some days I find eating meat to not be appetizing or agreeable with my body, Instead I’ll have meatless meals, which makes me feel better about my food and still has the nutrients I need, while also being easier to cook. I used to think cutting out meat from my diet would be very difficult, but I do so quite often already and it’s never been a big deal now that I reflect on it. Last quarter, I took a class on metabolism and we had a nutritionist as a guest lecturer who shared that studies have shown plant-based diets can help extend lifespans and can reverse chronic heart diseases, while animal products are inflammatory and are linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases.

My family is also Buddhist and there is a belief that eating vegetarian on the 1st and 15th day of each month of the lunar calendar will bring you good health and fortune (source: my mom). Going vegetarian a few times a month is also a common practice among Vietnamese people, whether they practice Buddhism or not, since it’s considered to bring you good karma. So, there’s a lot of Vietnamese cuisine that is vegetarian or can be altered to be meatless. This past Tuesday (February 15) was the 15th day of the first lunar month, so I ate a bunch of Vietnamese vegetarian food, most of which my mom had bought from a Buddhist temple in Rosemead. What I ate that day included a vegetarian shredded pork sandwich, garlic fried rice with mushroom floss (pictured below), and rice with stir-fried vegetables and tofu.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Electricity Calculate the carbon footprint of my household

After you determined your carbon footprint, did you see what different choices you can make in order to reduce it?

Kim Tran 2/14/2022 1:32 PM

I used tradewater.us to calculate my household carbon footprint and found that I have a carbon footprint of 3.79 tons of CO2 emission every month. The average American household reportedly has a monthly carbon footprint of 4.00 tons, so my emissions are a little bit less but not significantly so. According to the website, my household carbon emission is equivalent to charging 5,530,974 smartphones and consuming 5,116 gallons of gasoline over the course of a year; both of these statistics are huge numbers and when I also consider how many other households have just as high CO2 emissions, then the numbers become even more inconceivable.

My house has solar panels, so having a renewable energy source reduced my household CO2 emission by 0.4 tons. If possible, I would definitely recommend looking into installing solar panels for your home or talking to your landlord about it because having solar panels significantly reduced my electricity bills, especially during the summers where the bill can range from $100 to $200, but since we got solar panels, the bill typically does not over $80.

The largest contribution to my household carbon emission is the use of cars as our primary form of transportation. My household has two cars, since my mom drives to work and I commute to school. I noticed that when I added my brother who takes a bus to school, his CO2 contribution was only 0.03 tons, whereas when I added in one standard engine car user, the CO2 emission was 0.58 tons. So taking public transportation, walking or biking, for destinations that are nearby would significantly reduce my carbon footprint. A future investment to consider would be to buy an electric vehicle, as that will also reduce my carbon footprint as opposed to using a gas car.

An easier change to my lifestyle that would reduce my carbon footprint is to alter my diet to be to eat less meat and incorporate more of a vegetarian diet. While these changes do not immediately have a large reduction in my carbon emissions as not driving a gas car, it will still be a significant CO2 emission reduction in the long-term and will also be healthier so there’s a lot of benefits to changing my diet and encouraging my family members to do the same.

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Kim Tran 2/02/2022 5:00 PM

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in common household and personal care products
Fossil fuel and industrial emissions maintain the largest roles in causing air pollution, but there are also less suspecting contributors, like cleaning detergents and cosmetic products. For my research paper, I looked into the effects of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in household and beauty products on air pollution. These products contain many VOCs, which are chemicals that are readily emitted as a gas, and are used as an ingredient to create fragrant scents and act as a preservative; examples of VOCs include formaldehyde, toluene, mercury, and benzene. On their own, VOCs in our everyday products are often not enough to cause immediate harm, but they can be a long-term health determinant. When VOCs escape from our households into the air outside, they react with other pollutants in the atmosphere, like carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, to form smog. Prolonged and higher exposure to smog increases the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

A good way to reduce VOC emissions from our daily activities is to swap our scented shampoos and detergents for fragrance-free versions. Shopping fragrance-free will help you avoid a lot of the synthetic VOCs, reducing your exposure and emission of VOCs. This will also be better for your hair and skin since you’ll be using less harsh chemicals on your body, especially for people with allergies or skin sensitivities. Manufacturers are not required by the FDA to tell you what is exactly in their fragrance products since the formulas are considered trade secrets. So the ingredients list will simply state “fragrance” or “parfum,” even though they contain dozens of chemicals. I use Cetaphil for a lot of my skin care, and most of their products are fragrance-free. Dove, Tide, and Aveeno are also popular brands that have fragrance-free options, so next time you shop, consider switching to fragrance-free.

Another method to avoid VOCs is to use natural alternatives instead of buying name-brand products. Not only will this reduce emissions of chemicals in your home, this will also save you money since these are already available in your home, like baking soda and vinegar. Both of these are really convenient ways to remove stains and odors in your house without the need to buy Windex or Pine-Sol. I’ve used just baking soda and water to scrub down my entire bathroom and it is very effective for removing water stains in bathtubs and cleaning sinks. Hydrogen peroxide is a better and safer alternative than bleach for disinfecting surfaces and getting rid of mold; hydrogen peroxide breaks down into oxygen and water so it is less toxic.

So there are a lot of simple changes we can make in our routines to lessen our VOC emissions, which will help lessen smog in our atmosphere, while also benefiting our personal health.

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Kim Tran 1/31/2022 12:51 PM

Over the course of the pandemic, I have come to understand the appeal of gardening. My mom is passionate about our garden; she gets really excited when our plants finally bear fruit. Since my parents started our garden in 2016, my family has not had to buy green onions or lemons anymore, neither of which are expensive but are ingredients we use a lot of so having them readily available in our backyard is much more convenient. While I do reap the benefits of my mom’s garden, I personally am not good at plant maintenance and I also do not enjoy the outdoors. However during the months of the stay-at-home orders, I became responsible for watering the plants since I can’t really mess that up and I have actually found it enjoyable. It probably stemmed from spending so much time indoors, that just going out to water plants became a nice moment in my day to get some fresh air and spend time away from my laptop and phone. So while I still do not enjoy the outdoors, I now will at least voluntarily water the plants in our family’s garden.

Also, I’ve noticed that my family does have some sustainable garden practices, most of which are due to my dad being concerned about the electricity and water bills. My dad had installed solar powered lights around our house that are motion-sensor, so they’ll only turn on when necessary which helps reduce some light pollution. Our roof water drainage system also leads into the backyard, where it deposits into an area of the garden that has a passionfruit plant and aloe vera, so that helps to cut back on some watering, though California doesn’t rain much. I have attached a photo of a part of our garden; the photo shows mostly the fruit trees, but we do have other plants and herbs too.

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- Kyleigh Follis 3/09/2022 5:10 PM
  
  I also have a garden at home. A few years ago my family converted our backyard sports court into a fruit and vegetable garden. It has since expanded over the years and produces abundant fresh produce to eat and cook. It has been a great hobby tending to the plants and watching them grow and thrive. But they also are much tastier than what I would buy at the store. There is something about homegrown vegetables which taste better than mass produced ones, and they are much more fresh. The fruits and vegetables you get from the grocery store are usually shipped across the country or planet and sit in boxes and on the shelves for quite a while. The food I get from my garden is eaten right after being picked so it is truly fresh. Another benefit of this garden is that the convenience with which I have access to all of these fruits and vegetables encourages me to eat more plant-based meals. I already have abundant access to these healthy foods so I might as well eat them. While there is a large initial investment to start growing these plants, overtime you can grow them pretty inexpensively. One of the best reasons for growing your own produce is that it isn’t as wasteful as the produce you buy from the store. The packaging for supermarkets generates a large amount of waste. All of the berries you buy from the store are in single use plastic containers as opposed to picking a strawberry right off the plant and into your mouth. Shipping the food all around the globe emits large amounts of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels. Homegrown gardens use way less pesticides and other chemicals as opposed to farms. Nearly half of all produce is thrown out because of its appearance. More gets thrown away because it goes expired or isn’t eaten. Homegrown fruits and vegetables don’t generate all that waste. Unused produce can be composted and used to grow the next season’s garden to even increase its productivity.
  We also just started backyard beekeeping a few weeks ago. The bees will be good for homegrown honey, but they are also nature's best pollinators. I expect that our garden will produce better flowers and plants after the bees pollinate them. Honeybees also play a critical role in ecosystems and our food systems, but they are facing many threats to survival. I hope that by beekeeping at our house our local ecosystem will benefit from the increased pollination and biodiversity.
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Action Track: Healing & Renewal Eat Mindfully

Mindful eating is healthier for us than eating with distractions. How does your eating experience differ when practicing mindfulness?

Kim Tran 1/29/2022 1:12 PM

Prior to this EcoChallenge, I never much thought to how I go about eating a meal. I would describe myself as a slow and lazy eater. I often struggle with getting through a whole meal because the portion is too large and I would eat too slow so the food gets cold and is no longer appetizing. The most obvious solution to this would be to get rid of distractions while eating so I can focus on my food and finish eating sooner, but turning on the TV or has been a part of my routine while eating since childhood, especially when eating alone. I am also tend to multi-task while eating since I perpetually feel like I don't have enough time in the day, so sometimes I will be trying to finish homework or check emails while eating. From reading my classmates' posts, watching a show while eating appears to be a common habit among many of us. So sitting down for lunch and deliberately not using any of my devices, felt a little awkward a first since there was no sound to fill the silence. However, since I had nothing else to direct my attention to, I was able to focus on my food and finish eating while the food was still warm. The meal overall just felt nicer because by taking away any distractions, I was able to use my lunch as a break to slow down; I was able to focus on just getting through my food and I put pause on all of my other concerns for the day. My next goal for mindful eating would be to try this while eating with friends or family, and see how that experience differs from eating alone.

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- Jazzmhine Oconer 3/06/2022 10:58 PM
  
  Hey Kim! I can totally resonate with what you said about eating as I also struggle with finishing my meals because of external distractions. Specifically, I tend to ask other people to eat with me or I end up listening to music or watching videos on my phone to fill in the time. However, given this EcoChallenge, I attempted to eat mindfully today. I put my phone on silent and I made tofu with a side of quinoa and veggies. Then, I just sat at the kitchen counter and concentrated on my lunch. Initially, I felt a little bit of resistance and I wanted to return to what I normally do and watch some sort of cooking vlog on Youtube, but I tried to focus. I concentrated on the flavors that I was tasting while also paying careful attention to my hunger cues. I think oftentimes I can fall into the trap of either overeating or grabbing more food than I actually need which ends up resulting in food waste because I’m distracted by other things. But today, I was able to use this time to actually listen to what my body needs while also taking a second to appreciate the food that I have. In the future, I will definitely take more time to practice this as it definitely made me feel a lot more mentally present and relaxed.
  
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- JIMMY ZHOU 2/01/2022 12:19 AM
  
  Being raised in an immigrant household, I was never told to practice "mindful eating", but in fact, it changes the experience entirely. I practiced mindful eating while eating candy, specifically chocolate, and it tasted like a real experience as opposed to simply snacking on candy because it was sweet. I paid attention to the texture, taste, and quality of the chocolate. Beyond the experience, I think mindful eating allows people to appreciate food much more than simply an activity that one must do to survive. It helps me to just relax and appreciate the small moments in my day where I can sit back and focus on enjoying a meal that I prepared.
  
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