Ecochallenge.org

Drawdown Ecochallenge

October 1 - October 31, 2023

Tonia Wu

SAGE EcoLogicals

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
600 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

15

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

20

locally sourced meals

consumed
UP TO

4.0

plastic containers

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

380

minutes

spent exercising
UP TO

6.0

educational videos

watched
UP TO

120

minutes

spent outdoors
UP TO

210

minutes

spent learning

Tonia's actions

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Reduce Animal Products

Plant-Rich Diets

I will enjoy 1 meatless or vegan meals each day of the challenge.

COMPLETED 14
DAILY ACTIONS

Electricity

Rooftop Solar Consultation

Distributed Solar Photovoltaics

After researching the incentives at the federal, state, utility, and local levels, I will contact a local installer/distributor for a solar panel installation consultation on my house.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Coastal, Ocean, and Engineered Sinks

Cook With Seaweed

Seaweed Farming

I will use seaweed in a new recipe.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Support Local Food Systems

Plant-Rich Diets

I will source 50 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 8
DAILY ACTIONS

Industry

Practice the 5 Rs

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 7
DAILY ACTIONS

Health and Education

Watch Drawdown's Climate Solutions 101 Series

Family Planning and Education

I will watch Drawdown’s Climate Solutions 101 and share what I learned with others.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Industry

Reduce Single-Use Disposables

Bioplastics; Reduced Plastics

I will avoid buying and using 1 single-use plastics and instead replace them with durable options.

COMPLETED 4
DAILY ACTIONS

Industry

Learn About & Practice Sustainable Fashion

Multiple Industry Solutions

I will learn about sustainable fashion and begin practicing it in my own life.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Buildings

Replace Manual Thermostats

Smart Thermostats

I will replace manual thermostats with smart ones.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Sinks

Forest-Friendly Foods 1

Tropical Forest Restoration

I will spend at least 45 minutes researching the impact of my diet to see how it contributes to deforestation.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Sinks

Learn More about Silvopasture

Silvopasture

I will spend at least 30 minutes watching videos and/or reading about the environmental benefits of silvopasture.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Buildings

Learn about the Legacy of Redlining

Multiple Solutions

I will spend at least 45 minutes learning about the legacy of redlining and how city planning and environmental justice issues are interconnected.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Sinks

Explore My Area

Sometimes protecting nature requires feeling connected to nature. I will invest 60 minutes in exploring and appreciating a natural area in my region, whether a forest, wetland, coastal area, or somewhere else.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Go for a Daily Walk

Walkable Cities

I will take a walk for 15 minutes each day and take note of the infrastructure that makes walking more or less enjoyable, accessible, and possible.

COMPLETED 16
DAILY ACTIONS

Coastal, Ocean, and Engineered Sinks

Smart Seafood Choices

Ocean Farming

I will visit seafoodwatch.org and download the app to commit to making better seafood choices for a healthier ocean.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Research and Consider Switching to a Hybrid or Electric Vehicle

Electric Cars, Hybrid Cars

I will spend at least 45 minutes researching and weighing my options to see if a hybrid or electric vehicle makes sense for my lifestyle.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Industry

Find a Local Climate-Friendly Supermarket

Refrigerant Management

I will explore the interactive map in the links below to find a supermarket that does not use HFC refrigerants near my home.

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
Buildings

How does city planning and design relate to equity and climate change?
Tonia Wu 10/30/2023 6:58 AM
City design dramatically affects quality of life and both a city's resilience and contributions to climate change. For example, many cities and suburbs built in the last 70 years were designed for cars, not people. People in car-dependent areas suffer a range of ills - more tailpipe and noise pollution, disinvestment and abandonment of infrastructure for non-car transportation, loss of community cohesiveness due to pedestrians being driven off the street and highways that cut through neighborhoods and encouraged white flight.

Read More
- Lydia Roe 10/31/2023 8:04 AM
  You explained this concept so concisely and accurately! Great work as always, Tonia!
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Health and Education

What was an inspiring thing you learned in Drawdown's Climate Solutions 101 Series?
Tonia Wu 10/27/2023 11:16 AM
A very good series - I like that it didn't just list the sources of emissions and the various solutions, but quantified and broke down the relative contributions by sector, giving a much better idea of the relative importance of each activity.

The bottom line - there is no silver bullet. Almost every aspect of our material lives, from where we get our energy to the food we eat and how we build and move around our cities will need to change. And change needs to happen at every level, from the global and national level, to the household/community level. It's daunting, but on the flip side, there's a lot of good work to be done - lots of opportunities and entry points for people to get involved and find what they're passionate about.

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?
Tonia Wu 10/27/2023 6:09 AM
Meat is more expensive and more resource-intensive to produce, so people in richer countries are more able to afford it. While meat is a good source of protein and micronutrients, a meat-heavy diet especially of processed and red meats which is common in the U.S. can increase risk of heart disease, cancers, diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

Modern industrial meat production is wildly unsustainable, requiring vast quantities of land and fresh water and releasing huge amounts of GHGs. Beef is by far the worst, releasing 99.48 kg CO2-equivalents to produce 1 kg of beef, compared to other categories (lamb & mutton - 39.72 kg, pork - 12.31 kg, poultry - 9.87 kg, eggs - 4.67 kg) - (data from Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food) .

I was also surprised to learn that food miles and transport account for only 5% of GHG emissions from food - so in terms of emissions, eating local has very little impact. What you eat is much more important than where it comes from.

Read More
- Tonia Wu 10/31/2023 8:17 AM
  Me too! That came from an article from that same site: (https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local ).
  
  Though personally I think the "eating local doesn't matter" framing of that article is a bit overstated. Because when regular people think about "local" food they don't usually just mean food that is produced physically close to their home....There's usually also some implication in there (rightly or wrongly) that the food is produced differently - maybe by traditional smallholders, maybe using organic and soil regenerative practices, using human labor and fewer fossil-eating machines, no synthetic fertilizers, chemical-free, etc. I think those things do matter, maybe much more than the actual physical distance from farm to market.
  
  Read More
- Lydia Roe 10/31/2023 6:44 AM
  Wow, I would've thought transport would be much more emission-intensive. Good to know, thank you for sharing!
  
  Read More
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?
Tonia Wu 10/20/2023 8:22 AM
My weakness is takeout, which always generates a crapload of trash (even if I ask them not to give me any plastic utensils, which half the time is ignored). I have a habit of turning to grubhub when I have a stressful week. But "fast food" doesn't have to bad - think Japanese noodle stalls and vibrant street food cultures which have been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. Fast food doesn't have to be the plastic bomb that it is today.

Read More
- Gabryella Pulsinelli 10/21/2023 9:23 AM
  My takeout places still give me plastic too!
  
  Read More
- Anan Srivilai 10/20/2023 8:45 AM
  When I drink coffee, I always use my reusable cup in the office or when at home. And at some places, some companies will give you a discount if you bring your own reusable cup!
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Dependable fresh food, supporting local farmers and building resilient communities are just a few benefits of local food systems. Which of these (or other) advantages inspire you the most?
Tonia Wu 10/16/2023 12:00 PM
Dependable fresh food is not so much an advantage as very real and practical necessity. I think we take a lot of things for granted - and one of those things is the continuation of cheap and abundant energy that undergirds much of our modern industrial food system (long, complicated global input supply chains, strawberries in February, etc.). Our food and ag systems need to be much more resilient than they are now and a part of that is shortening the supply chains, re-localizing them to meet the basic needs of people.

Read More
- Gabryella Pulsinelli 10/16/2023 12:30 PM
  Totally agree Tonia! Our food system needs to be redesigned in some areas.
  
  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?
Tonia Wu 10/13/2023 9:56 AM
Some of the worst foods contributing to deforestation are meat, dairy and eggs (due to the amount of soy and grain feed needed to raise the livestock). I try to eat less of all of that, or get them from local farms near me which raise all of their livestock on grass or pasture. Unfortunately I also drink a lot of coffee - another big contributor to deforestation. Next time I buy coffee I'll try to look for brands that are certified by Rainforest Alliance.

Palm oil is among the worst contributors to deforestation. I was surprised at how many products contained palm oil, and also the fact that many products are not labeled as containing palm oil (such as "vegetable oil", various popular candies, many processed foods). And it's not just foodstuffs but shampoos and most cosmetics, lotions, etc...it seems impossible to avoid.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Transportation

What have you noticed on your daily walks? What have you enjoyed? What infrastructure changes could make your walks more enjoyable or possible?
Tonia Wu 10/13/2023 9:16 AM
Downtown Trenton is very walkable but the experience is a mixed bag. Around 75-80 degrees or so, shade becomes crucial and is the difference between being able to tolerate only a few minutes of walking outside to being able to comfortably walk for as long as I need to. There are areas that are well-shaded by buildings and trees, and areas that suffer the full force of the "urban heat island" effect. More tree cover and green infrastructure would alleviate heat, help with stormwater issues, and bring more beauty to the streets.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Land Sinks

How can spending more time outdoors enhance your sense of place -- your deep knowledge of and appreciation for your surroundings?
Tonia Wu 10/03/2023 11:20 AM
There are many fantastic nature documentaries and books, but there's no real substitute for experiencing the natural world first-hand with all of your senses - seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, tasting. It's one thing to see sad images of garbage-choked rivers on TV from the comfort of your living room - quite another to see (and smell) one up close.

Subsistence farmers and people who make a living off the land probably more than anyone have a deep understanding and appreciation of the natural world because their immediate survival depends on it; nature is not an abstraction for them.

Read More