Ecochallenge.org

Drawdown Ecochallenge

October 1 - October 31, 2023

Shayne Magdoff

Team NCW

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
862 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

1.0

sustainable seafood meal

consumed
UP TO

22

locally sourced meals

consumed
UP TO

12

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

19

plastic containers

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

1.0

donation

made
UP TO

3.0

advocacy actions

completed
UP TO

2.0

hours

volunteered
UP TO

6.0

trees

planted
UP TO

280

minutes

spent learning

Shayne's actions

Electricity

Learn More about Biomass

Biomass Power

I will spend at least 60 minutes learning more about the energy generation potential of biomass.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity

Learn More about Wave and Tidal Energy

Ocean Power

I will spend at least 60 minutes learning more about the energy generation potential of wave and tidal energy.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Reduce Food Waste

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, and commit to reducing my food waste throughout the challenge.

COMPLETED 31
DAILY ACTIONS

Industry

Research Cement Alternatives

Alternative Cement

I will spend at least 60 minutes researching cement alternatives that reduce the carbon footprint of concrete.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Purchase a Carbon Offset

Efficient Aviation

If I buy a plane ticket, I will purchase a carbon offset.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Health and Education

Learn about the Need for Family Planning

Family Planning and Education

I will spend at least 60 minutes learning more about the need for family planning globally.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Sinks

Support a Community Garden

Multiple Solutions

I will support a community garden by volunteering, donating, or advocating for a new or existing one.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Sinks

Plant Trees

Temperate Forest Restoration

I will plant 4 trees in my community, public parks, or backyard.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Support Indigenous Peoples' Land Management

Indigenous Peoples' Forest Tenure

I will donate to Native American Rights Fund, which protects tribal natural resources and environmental rights and promotes Native American Human Rights.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Support Local Food Systems

Plant-Rich Diets

I will source 15 percent of my food from local producers each day. This could include signing up for a local CSA, buying from a farmer's market, visiting a food co-op, foraging with a local group, or growing my own ingredients.

COMPLETED 15
DAILY ACTIONS

Electricity

Education about Hydrogen Power and County Strategic Plan

Our Douglas County PUD has been working on building a Hydrogen Fuel Power Plant - Green Hydrogen. As a city official I will be attending their first meeting to discuss the progress and what is new going forward in order for them to meet the WA State criteria for generating and using only clean energy.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Industry

Join a Recycling Program

Recycling

I will set up or join a recycling program at my workplace or school.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Industry

Properly Dispose of Refrigerants

Refrigerant Management

I will spend at least 30 minutes learning how to properly dispose of my refrigerator, freezer, and other refrigerants at the end of their useful lives.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Industry

Reduce Single-Use Disposables

Bioplastics; Reduced Plastics

I will avoid buying and using 5 single-use plastics and instead replace them with durable options.

COMPLETED 6
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Reduce Animal Products

Plant-Rich Diets

I will enjoy 2 meatless or vegan meals each day of the challenge.

COMPLETED 6
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Cook With Sustainable Seafood

Improved Fisheries

Using the Seafood Watch guide, I will feature a sustainable seafood ingredient in a new recipe.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Mulch the Base of Trees and Plants

Farm Irrigation Efficiency

I will prevent water runoff and increase absorbency by mulching the base of trees and plants in my yard.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Buildings

Learn about Pervious Concrete

I believe using this substance helps with stormwater runoff, reducing ice buildup on sidewalks(safety issue) etc.

UNCOMPLETED
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?

Shayne Magdoff 10/31/2023 12:21 PM
Food waste is one of the largest contributors to climate change not only because of the methane but also because the energy and resources that went into its production and transport have been wasted, too.

The system in South Korea, as mentioned in an earlier post, keeps about 90 percent of discarded food out of landfills and incinerators and has been studied by governments around the world. Officials from China, Denmark and elsewhere have toured South Korea’s facilities. New York City, which will require residents to separate their food waste from other trash by next fall, has been observing the Korean system for years. Who knew?

Read More
Shayne Magdoff 10/31/2023 12:18 PM
One of the things we can do is build a public compost facility. There is one started up north of Leavenworth, Winton Mfg. It is striving to become a full blown facility to all - even working on weekly pickups possibly. They would love WM to accommodate street side pickup but that seems unlikely for the moment. Compost has many uses -not just gardens. Actually, in South Korea, food scraps were banned from its landfills almost 20 years ago. Here, the vast majority of it gets turned into animal feed, fertilizer and fuel for heating homes.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

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?
Shayne Magdoff 10/31/2023 12:12 PM
It's human nature, the richer you are the more you can afford expensive grocery items - meat is one of them.
Red meat is not good for your heart or overall health - actually a plant based diet would be best. It affects our planet in many ways - the animals give off methane gas - something worse than carbon - we need to plant more feed acres to feed the animals - takes out more green to do that. It becomes a vicious cycle.
On average, U.S. farmers plant about 90 million acres of corn each year and most of the crop is used domestically as the main energy ingredient in livestock feed 50% and for fuel ethanol production 45%.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Industry

Concrete is a good example of a material that most of us encounter every day, but its carbon footprint may not be obvious. What other everyday materials might have a large carbon footprint? How can you find out more?
Shayne Magdoff 10/31/2023 12:05 PM
I added this to my actions when I was researching types of concrete and found Pervious concrete - I had heard of it a while back but never looked into it.
It creates a pavement that allows infiltration of rainwater rather than creating runoff. Because of the infiltration, ground water supplies are recharged and pollutants are treated.

Pervious concrete pavement is a pavement type that allows rainwater and other sources of water to percolate into the base layer below the concrete. Thus allowing the base material to absorb and control the flow rate of the water as it moves off site.

Pervious concrete's mass consists of an interconnected void structure, which allows water to flow through at very high rates. Typically, when cast on a sandy subgrade soil, the pavement will infiltrate stormwater at a higher rate than that of the soil below.

Structurally, pervious concrete is weaker than plain concrete and because of this, the product is not acceptable for building things. It is acceptable for light duty applications such as car parking facilities, pedestrian areas, and low traffic pavements.

It can be produced with a variety of coarse aggregates that result in many variations of concrete density. The key elements to pervious concrete pavements are the percent voids, permeability and compressive strength.

Uses/Applications

Pervious pavements are most often used for sidewalks and parking lots around residential and commercial

buildings. They are most beneficial when they increase the usable space on a project site as normally required retention ponds can be minimized or eliminated.

Product Benefits

Because of its porous structure, pervious pavement allows stormwater to percolate into the underlying soil while filtering out harmful sediments. This results in better stormwater quality, complying with new EPA regulations.

Pervious concrete pavement is a "green" product which can be laid next to trees and foliage, protecting root systems that may be beneath the paved areas. This pavement does not create hazardous runoff, nor does it prevent water from reaching roots.

Pervious pavement can double as a parking lot and retention area, maximizing the land that can be developed and lowering construction costs.

Read More
- Jeanne Poirier 10/31/2023 6:29 PM
  Sounds like a great tool in future infrastructure. I'd love to see it used for lots more sidewalks!
  
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Shayne Magdoff 10/31/2023 11:44 AM
I thought this would be a good time to share other activities i support for the environment. I belong to GWADA - Greater Wenatchee Arbor Day Associaation. We have a tree sale - typically on Earth Day as celebrated at Pybus - and sell trees and shrubs to communities in Wenatchee, East Wenatchee, Entiat and Cashmere. It is always well recieved. Planting these items is great for building shade and carbon absorption but getting the younger set outside planting does much more - enhances how good one feels outdoors with nature.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Transportation

A round-trip flight from New York City to Los Angeles emits just over 1.5 tons of CO2—per person. That’s a lot of carbon! What can you do to reduce the number of flights you take per year?
Shayne Magdoff 10/30/2023 3:38 PM
We generally only take one flight per year - but then there were three years we took one.
But we don't travel as much as we used to.

Read More
- Sue Kane 10/30/2023 9:53 PM
  The train is the way to go!
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Name some of the human activities impacting the health of water systems, both locally (your watershed) and globally (freshwater and oceans). What can you do to improve the health of water systems?
Shayne Magdoff 10/30/2023 3:33 PM
Urban and industrial development - even in rural America - farming, mining, use of fossil fuels, animal-feeding operations, and other human activities can change the quality of natural waters. Consider nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers that are applied to crops and lawns. These plant nutrients can be dissolved easily in rainwater or snowmelt runoff. Excess nutrients carried to streams and lakes encourage abundant growth of algae, which leads to low oxygen in the water and the possibility of fish kills. We are seeing this now.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Industry

How can you take your commitment to sustainable living beyond yourself? How can you, personally, work toward broader change?
Shayne Magdoff 10/30/2023 3:29 PM
I work independently but I am constantly sharing information with those I meet. Amazingly, just dropping a hint - like using the Waste Wizard - takes hold but not in a pushy way. Sometimes people don't know things that they can do because they might think climate change is a hoax - BUT - in a non-threatening environment it seems to make sense to them. I also work with other organizations whose focus and purpose is to educated others to reach a broader audience. Getting young kids out in nature and the wonder of it also gets their brains working in sustainability too.

Read More
- Jeanne Poirier 10/30/2023 6:52 PM
  What an understatement for what ya'll do for our community and what you are involved in. I feel so grateful to know you and call you friend. Keep up the good work - and thanks so much for these posts in last days!!
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Electricity

What did you learn about wave and tidal energy? How do they compare to other energy sources?
Shayne Magdoff 10/30/2023 3:24 PM
I learned that it can be used in certain environments but it generally is not feasible or cost effective

Read More
- Jeanne Poirier 10/30/2023 6:56 PM
  California has committed to it - and oh the potential when you add other components (seaweed/micro algae, C02 removal, desalinization of water etc.). The cost of not doing things is also huge, right?
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Industry

What single-use items (e.g. straws, coffee cups, vegetable bags, plastic bags) do you regularly use? What could be substituted instead?
Shayne Magdoff 10/28/2023 5:00 PM
No longer use straws - or paper coffee cups - single use plastic. While we do buy ziploc bags to freeze, these generally get used multiple times - especially because what we freeze is not oily - bell peppers, nuts, okra, spinach, etc. But most of what we use to freeze is reusable - so we have plenty of things to use for storage and freezing that we don't buy plastic stuff.
Oh, and the reason that I stopped using straws long ago - it's just like smoking a cigarette that will age around you mouth.

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- Sue Kane 10/28/2023 9:18 PM
  Interesting!
  
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- Jeanne Poirier 10/28/2023 6:07 PM
  Oh! Love having your posts here my friend - what a good belly laugh about straws ;). Love the reuse and do the same. Good on you to check in and share your lovely learnings. Thank you!
  
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