"Not really sure what to put here... so these are just some words..."
POINTS TOTAL
0
TODAY
0
THIS WEEK
1,019
TOTAL
participant impact
UP TO
1.0
community event
hosted or attended
UP TO
0.0
hours
volunteered
UP TO
1.0
waste audit
conducted
UP TO
420
minutes
spent learning
UP TO
63
zero-waste meals
consumed
UP TO
20
pounds
waste composted
Dain's actions
Energy
Use an Energy Meter
I will use an energy meter to monitor my energy use and identify opportunities to save power.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Food
Weekly Meal Planning
I will reduce food waste and save money by planning a weekly menu, only buying the ingredients I need.
COMPLETED 21
DAILY ACTIONS
Food
Zero-Waste Cooking
I will cook 3 meal(s) with zero-waste each day
COMPLETED 21
DAILY ACTIONS
Community
Support Native Communities
I will use the resource links provided and spend 60 minutes learning about the native populations that lived in my area prior to colonization, and what I can do to support those that still exist.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Waste
Compost Food Waste
I will avoid sending up to .69 lbs (.31 kg) of food waste to the landfill each day by composting my food or learning how to.
COMPLETED 20
DAILY ACTIONS
Nature
Forage for My Food
I will use the 'Learn More' resources below to find where I can forage for my own food locally.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Health
Learn About Local Environmental Justice Concerns
I will spend 60 minutes researching environmental justice concerns in my region, their causes, and local initiatives to address these concerns.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Nature
Join An Outdoor Project
I will join an outdoor restoration project in my community.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Water
Install a Toilet Tank Bank
I will reduce the amount of water flushed and save up to 11 gallons (41 L) of water each day by installing a toilet tank bank.
UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Health
Learn More about Food Deserts
I will spend 60 minutes learning about food deserts and find out how I can advocate for healthy and fresh food in my region.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Health
Audit Toxic Cleaning Products in my Home
I will spend 60 minutes researching toxic chemicals found in cleaning supplies and personal care products and remove them from my home.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Waste
Personal Waste Audit
I will collect all of my unrecyclable, non-compostable trash to raise my awareness of how much I send to the landfill.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Health
Support Pollution Reduction
I will spend at least 60 minutes learning about water and air quality issues in my area, how they are impacting human and environmental health, and how I can help.
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?
Never give up trying to make a difference - and yes, we need the system to change, which is difficult to do without political will. I second your sentiment: take your vote seriously!
Being from Idaho, I spend a fair amount of time on backroads and see a lot of the impact unregulated agriculture has on the environment. From runoff to erosion, to leaking / polluted machinery. The people who are profiting the most from the land, seem to care the least about protecting the land. Probably because protecting it costs money and/or time. It's sad, but unless a lot changes in our social fabric, there's just nothing that can be done.
One of the biggest negatives nutritious food has for us, is the cost - it's available, but it's just unreasonably expensive for a family on a budget. We cut these corners with the farmer's market in the summer, but I think a paradigm shift has to change for nutritious food to become the easier option.
My wife and I started a non-profit org for backcountry restoration, citizen science, and community outreach - we're not quite ready to go live with it yet as I'm still working on the website - but this is a very important subject for me, one that I am deeply invested in.
This has been a great project to be a part of - I don't know if I'm going to live my life any differently than I had before, as I was already pretty ecologically minded, but it's definitely given me some additional ideas for ways I can reduce my impact on the world.
Why is it so difficult to understand the impacts our purchases and waste have on other people, animals, and places? How might your experience with this challenge impact your future consumption and choices?
Last weekend our family went through the garbage we generated and identified a number of products with excessive packaging that we're going to avoid in the future.
We audited the cleaning products in our house, most of which we inherited from the previous owner, and disposed of as much of the worst of it as we could.
New to composting? Be sure to check out the action resource links to learn tips and more about it. As you transition from throwing food away to composting, what do you notice about how much you are tossing? Do you know how your compost will be used and the benefits it has on the environment?
For now, our compost will be tilled into the garden area in late fall and hopefully will help our yield next season. We aren't really planning on using it any more than that at this point in the year. I wish we had a greenhouse, but they're not really viable in Idaho - when it's -20 outside, a greenhouse without another source of heat becomes an icehouse.
