Ecochallenge.org and Project Drawdown

Drawdown EcoChallenge

April 4 - April 25, 2018

Lisa Pettitt

Drawdown CDC Colorado

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
816 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

1.0

documentary

watched
UP TO

51

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

65

minutes

spent learning

Lisa's actions

Transport

Explore Other Transport Solutions

All Transport Solutions

I will spend at least 30 minutes researching other Drawdown Transport Solutions.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transport

Purchase a Carbon Offset

#43 Airplanes

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

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Buildings and Cities

Research Heat Pumps

#42 Heat Pumps

I will spend at least 15 minutes researching heat pumps to see if installing one makes sense for my home/building.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Women and Girls

Make School More Affordable

#6 Educating Girls

I will raise funds to help make school affordable for girls around the world.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity Generation

Communicate With My Elected Officials

#2 Wind Turbines (Onshore)

I will write or call 3 elected official(s) telling them not to support fossil fuel subsidies and instead support wind energy generation.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Use

Learn about Temperate Forests

#12 Temperate Forests

I will spend at least 30 minutes learning more about the environmental services provided by and the environmental issues affecting temperate forests.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Use

Forest-Friendly Foods 2

#5 Tropical Forests

I will replace or remove products in my current diet that are known to contribute to deforestation.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Transport

Use Muscle Power

#49 Cars

I will cut my car trip mileage by only taking necessary trips, and I will only use muscle-powered transportation for all other trips.

COMPLETED 6
DAILY ACTIONS

Electricity Generation

Watch a Video about Methane Digesters

#30 Methane Digesters (large), #64 Methane Digesters (small)

I will watch a video about methane digesters (also commonly known as anaerobic digesters).

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Learn the Truth About Expiration Dates

#3 Reduced Food Waste

I will spend at least 15 minutes learning how to differentiate between sell by, use by, and best by dates.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Materials

Recycle Everything I Can

#55 Household Recycling

I will recycle all materials that are accepted by local haulers or drop stations in my community.

COMPLETED 22
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Reduce Animal Products

#4 Plant-Rich Diet

I will enjoy 3 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.

COMPLETED 17
DAILY ACTIONS

Women and Girls

Start a Social Media Campaign

#6 Educating Girls

I will share stats on gender inequity in education with my social media feed to raise awareness.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Food

Smaller Portions

#3 Reduced Food Waste

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

COMPLETED 22
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?

Lisa Pettitt 4/25/2018 4:34 PM

AND we are the top team in Colorado by over 1000 points! ;)

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Lisa Pettitt 4/25/2018 3:12 PM

One more thing! Again, in the waning hours of this challenge, our team is in the top 8% of the over 750 teams that participated! Woohoo! Don't stop now! There are a few hours left. :)

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Lisa Pettitt 4/25/2018 3:10 PM

Dear friends and family, Thank you so much for joining in this Drawdown EcoChallenge! We have been an impressive team! We are still leading both of our challenges as the last few hours are wrapping up. Way to go! I hope this inspires all of us to continue to live in a way that benefits the planet and brings our communities together! Hugs of gratitude to all of you!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Transport Purchase a Carbon Offset

A round-trip flight from New York City to Los Angeles emits just over 1 ton of CO2. Imagine a giant balloon with a diameter of 10 yards. If this balloon were filled with CO2, it would weigh about 1 ton. This flight would fill just about one of these balloons. What can you do to reduce the number of flights you take per year?

Lisa Pettitt 4/19/2018 1:42 PM

Hi CDC Teammates!

Found a cool way to calculate the carbon I will be generating with a trip to DC next month. The website is below. But what's even more fun is when you click "Offset Now" after you calculate the carbon, it gives you a range of different ways (and prices) for offsetting that flight--including things like reforestation in Kenya. Check it out!

https://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=3

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- Test Test 4/25/2018 10:22 AM
  
  Thank you for sharing this link...I will try it out today! Looks cool.
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Materials Recycle Everything I Can

How could you incorporate other "R's" -- reduce, reuse, refuse, repair, repurpose, etc. -- into your lifestyle?

Lisa Pettitt 4/19/2018 1:34 PM

We do pretty well at recycling--including picking up recyclable materials discarded on the road when we're walking the dogs. Reducing could involve buying fewer processed foods (and thus less packaging), growing some of our own food, and just consuming LESS! My husband, Dave, is great at repurposing; I have learned from him that anything can be used in multiple ways. Repairing could involve sewing holes in clothes and repairing appliances instead of getting new ones.

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- Test Test 4/25/2018 10:27 AM
  
  we pick up trash when walking our dogs, too. we are also buying less processed and prepackaged foods. participating in this ecochallenge helps me to understand how we impact the whole
  
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- Test Test 4/19/2018 2:36 PM
  
  This is great, Lisa. We do the same! Our new water filtration system has been wonderful to reduce buying bottled water! Yeah!
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Buildings and Cities Research Heat Pumps

Why do you care about taking action on climate change?

Lisa Pettitt 4/18/2018 5:36 PM

I researched heat pumps as a means to heat and cool buildings. The concept sounds great--moving heat rather than creating it. Because we live in the mountains of Colorado, however, where the air can get quite cold, it might not be as good as a solution here as it would be in more moderate climates where there's more heat in the air to be moved around. We are fortunate that we haven't needed an air conditioner (heat pumps serve to both heat and cool buildings) because of the altitude and dry air. Our house was also designed to make the most of passive solar heat in the winter--our main living spaces face the east and have abundant sunshine to warm them so we also don't need to use our gas hot water furnace as much. I care about taking action on climate change because I'm concerned about the suffering it can cause and because there are so many solutions that not only benefit the climate but also the economy and society.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Land Use Learn about Temperate Forests

As you learn more about the scope and seriousness of the environmental challenges we face, what impact does that have on your thinking and actions? What are the parts that feel overwhelming? What parts help you feel hopeful?

Lisa Pettitt 4/17/2018 9:55 AM

I spent about 45 minutes reading about temperate forests. As is often the case, things are not as simple as they may seem (at least to me). I do try to buy paper and wood products from sustainably harvested sources. Nonetheless, there is more we need to do to protect and provide for the regeneration of temperate deciduous forests. Seems like reducing consumption (not just of wood products but of things like livestock that graze in these forests) makes the most sense to me. The fragmentation and alteration of these forests and the continued pressures on them from human use and behavior are pretty astounding. Calling the current geological age the anthropocene because human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment seems quite appropriate and is a wake up call to our responsibility.

Here are a couple links if you're interested.
http://cedarcreek.umn.edu/biblio/fulltext/t1896.pdf
http://www.fao.org/docrep/w7714e/w7714e05.htm

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- Test Test 4/25/2018 10:29 AM
  
  Thank you for sharing these links!
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Reduce Animal Products

What do you think contributes to people in North America eating more meat than other countries, and what does this say about North American values and ways of living? How do we start shifting a meat-focused food culture?

Lisa Pettitt 4/16/2018 8:52 AM

Habit energies are such a big part of our eating behavior. And we are a wealthy country that has easy access to meat and other animal products. It seems we also subsidize the cost of meat so that we aren't really paying the full cost of what it takes to feed, raise, and process animals. Our distance from the food that we eat (e.g., buying processed meat at the grocery store or cooked meat at a restaurant) has made it easier for us to see animals as commodities rather than fellow species with value other than as food. I'm a vegetarian but will challenge myself further for the rest of the Eco Challenge to only click the 3 vegetarian meals challenge if I've gone the extra step and eaten 3 vegan meals that day.

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- Test Test 4/19/2018 2:37 PM
  
  Thank you for sharing! Love to learn via your posts in addition to researching online!
  
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Lisa Pettitt 4/16/2018 8:32 AM

Also, I've been spreading the word about food waste related to the "expiration" and "best by" dates on food packaging. It's great to be prepared with information when the topic comes up--for example, that there are no federally required dates (except for infant formula) and that the dates are not related to safety. Instead, we should use our senses--smell, taste, sight, and touch to determine if food is edible. We accidentally froze some eggs on vacation recently, but they still looked, smelled, and tasted fine after we cooked them up!

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- Test Test 4/19/2018 2:39 PM
  
  This research has saved so much food that normally we would have thrown out!
  
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Lisa Pettitt 4/16/2018 8:29 AM

Saw a great story about how the wind industry is bringing good paying jobs to rural areas. You can check it out here: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/workers-are-climbing-wind-turbines-middle-class-n865221

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- Test Test 4/25/2018 10:33 AM
  
  Thank you for sharing!
  
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