April 4 - April 25, 2018

Heidi Edmonds

"As you would know if you read my blog (www.climatekiss.com), I am very inspired by the work that Project Drawdown has done in presenting the 100 best solutions to reverse global warming. So I've made a team for the EcoChallenge! Our goal is simple: to encourage others to join in and make a difference while learning more about the exciting ways we can help care for our climate (many of which also help our communities and economies now). Tasks can be as simple as serving smaller portions of food to reduce food waste, or could involve making a small donation to help educate girls around the world. Personally I hope to undertake at least one task from each of the seven key groups of solutions (electricity generation, food, women and girls, buildings and cities, land use, transport and materials),, and I hope to inspire friends and family to do so too. "

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
1,010 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

28

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

60

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

1.0

public official or leader

contacted

Heidi's actions

Transport

Conduct Virtual Meetings

#63 Telepresence

I will not travel for meetings and will instead conduct them virtually.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY 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.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Materials

Eliminate Toxic Plastics

#47 Bioplastic

I will avoid buying toxic plastics, including polycarbonate, polystyrene and polyvinyl and instead replace them with bioplastic or durable options.

COMPLETED 18
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Reduce Animal Products

#4 Plant-Rich Diet

I will enjoy 2 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.

COMPLETED 14
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Learn More about Regenerative Agriculture

#11 Regenerative Agriculture

I will spend at least 10 minutes learning about the need for more regenerative agriculture.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Use

Forest-Friendly Foods 1

#5 Tropical Forests

I will spend at least 5 minutes researching the impact of my diet to see how it contributes to deforestation.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity Generation

Learn More about Biomass

#34 Biomass

I will spend at least 5 minutes learning more about the energy generation potential of biomass.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Buildings and Cities

Express My Support

#54 Walkable Cities

I will find out who in my city makes decisions that impact neighborhood walkability and express my support for better walking infrastructure.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Learn More about Silvopasture

#9 Silvopasture

I will spend at least 10 minutes watching videos and/or reading about the environmental benefits of silvopasture.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Buildings and Cities

Explore Other Buildings and Cities Solutions

All Buildings and Cities Solutions

I will spend at least 5 minutes researching other Drawdown Buildings and Cities Solutions.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Learn the Truth About Expiration Dates

#3 Reduced Food Waste

I will spend at least 10 minutes learning how to differentiate between sell by, use by, and best by dates.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Smaller Portions

#3 Reduced Food Waste

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

COMPLETED 20
DAILY ACTIONS

Women and Girls

Research Barriers to Participation and Representation

#6 Educating Girls, #7 Family Planning, #62 Women Smallholders

I will spend at least 5 minutes learning more about the barriers to women's equal participation and representation around the world.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity Generation

Learn More about Micro Wind

#76 Micro Wind

I will spend at least 5 minutes learning more about the energy generation potential of Micro Wind.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Materials

Properly Dispose of Refrigerants

#1 Refrigerant Management

I will spend at least 5 minutes learning how to properly dispose of my refrigerator, freezer, and other refrigerants at the end of their useful lives.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Explore Other Food Solutions

All Food Solutions

I will spend at least 10 minutes researching other Drawdown Food Solutions.

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 and Cities Express My Support

How could better walking infrastructure make your city both more enjoyable and more equitable?

Heidi Edmonds 4/25/2018 6:19 AM

Walkable cities scores #54 on the Drawdown 100 Best Solutions ranking. Part of my last challenge for the Eco Challenge is to send my support in regards to walkability of our city. I live in Sandgate to the north of the city and I actually think its one of the most walkable parts of Brisbane. Although it doesn't rank in the top 10 (https://about.homely.com.au/blog/2016/4/21/brisbanes-10-most-walkable-suburbs), it gets a pretty high score for Walk Score of 84/100. (https://www.walkscore.com/apartments/search/AU-QLD/Brisbane). Its good to know that the City Centre and the Valley are ranked 1 and 2 out of the Brisbane locations. Given this great outcome for walkability where I live, I think if I do need to contact someone to show support I would probably go through our local councillor. But for now I am happy with walkability (especially as its easy to get to our local train station too for public transport to the city).

Read More
- Heidi Edmonds 4/25/2018 6:23 AM
  
  And with that I have finished all of my Eco Challenge challenges!! Go me! And go team!!
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Explore Other Food Solutions

What did you find out? What is the most interesting fact you learned?

Heidi Edmonds 4/25/2018 6:07 AM

There's a bunch of Drawdown solutions related to food and its interesting perusing them. One that stood our for me is composting. A compost is of the things I have been able to set up in our house since we moved here last year. Great to know this ranks #60 among the Drawdown solutions. Also, its great to read the information about composting that Drawdown presents as I think it helps explain what you need to do with your compost to ensure it is benefiting the climate - through reducing methane that food waste generates in landfill. The main things that you need to do are to provide air, moisture, and a little heat. I think aeration is especially important as its the breakdown in the absence of oxygen in landfill that leads to the methane generation:

I will let Drawdown explain it as it does it well:

"Much of it ends up in landfills; there, it decomposes in the absence of oxygen and produces the greenhouse gas methane, which is up to 34 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a century. While many landfills have some form of methane management, it is far more effective to divert organic waste to composting.

Composting ranges in scale from backyard bins to industrial operations. The basic process is the same: ensuring sufficient moisture, air, and heat for soil microbes (bacteria, protozoa, and fungi) to feast on organic material. Rather than generating methane, the composting process converts organic material into stable soil carbon, while retaining water and nutrients of the original waste matter. The result is carbon sequestration as well as production of a valuable fertilizer.

Human beings have long used compost to feed gardens and fields. Today, it is especially useful for managing growing urban waste streams. In 2009, San Francisco passed an ordinance that makes composting the city’s food waste mandatory. Copenhagen, Denmark, has not sent organic waste to landfill in more than twenty-five years, reaping compost’s win-win-win of cost savings, fertilizer production, and reduced emissions.
"

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- Heidi Edmonds 4/25/2018 6:45 AM
  
  Note: I aerate my compost by turning it over with a shovel once a week when I can (or less often when I am slack.... really should do it weekly).
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Buildings and Cities Explore Other Buildings and Cities Solutions

What did you find out? What is the most interesting fact you learned?

Heidi Edmonds 4/25/2018 5:56 AM

I like how Drawdown groups and presents in solutions in different ways. In investigating building and cities solutions presented together, I happened upon Water Distribution ,ranked #71. By reducing leaks in our water pipes we can reduce emissions especially due to all the energy used to pump water along the pipes (from source to treatment plant to storage and distribution). . http://www.drawdown.org/solutions/buildings-and-cities/water-distribution

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- Heidi Edmonds 4/25/2018 6:00 AM
  
  My husband James is also keen to one day set our house up with sensors for lights etc. Seems this isn't a bad idea as building automation is ranked # 45 http://www.drawdown.org/solutions/buildings-and-cities/building-automation
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Learn the Truth About Expiration Dates

Now that you know the difference between use by, sell by, and best by dates, how will you view expiration dates differently?
Heidi Edmonds 4/25/2018 5:48 AM
According to Drawdown "A third of the food raised or prepared does not make it from farm or factory to fork."... (http://www.drawdown.org/solutions/food/reduced-food-waste)

In the USA, these are the commonly used phrases:

A "Best if Used By/Before" indicates when a product will be of best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.

A "Sell-By" date tells the store how long to display the product for sale for inventory management. It is not a safety date.

A "Use-By" date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. It is not a safety date except for when used on infant formula as described below.

However in Australia, there are only two dates to worry about, and their names differ in definition slightly to the USA versions. (http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/labelling/dates/Pages/default.aspx):

In Australia: the two types of date marking are use by dates and best before dates. The food supplier is responsible for placing a use by or best before date on food.
Foods that must be eaten before a certain time for health or safety reasons should be marked with a use by date. Foods should not be eaten after the use by date and can’t legally be sold after this date because they may pose a health or safety risk.
Most foods have a best before date. You can still eat foods for a while after the best before date as they should be safe but they may have lost some quality. Foods that have a best before date can legally be sold after that date provided the food is fit for human consumption.

So I will now know that whereas I do need to try to eat food by its use by date I don't need to eat it before its best by date unless it shows food deterioration.
Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Electricity Generation Learn More about Micro Wind

Micro turbines can be placed on large structures to take advantage of stronger, steadier breezes. The Eiffel Tower now sports vertical axis turbines that produce electricity for use on site. Where could micro turbines potentially be installed in your city?

Heidi Edmonds 4/25/2018 5:41 AM

Small and quiet micro wind power generators are particularly suited for rural and remote locations that don't have access to electricity otherwise. As they operate they do not generate emissions. (http://www.drawdown.org/solutions/electricity-generation/micro-wind).

Micro wind is a relatively expensive option for renewables, especially compared with larger scale wind turbines. But for structures with a long expected life time they could be useful as well as raising awareness of renewable energy technology. The use of micro wind on the Eiffel Tower (https://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/24/eiffel-towers-custom-painted-micro-wind-turbines-will-wow-millions/) could be mirrored in my home of Brisbane... but where? Possibly on the roof of our Gallery of Modern Art or Queensland Museum? It doesn't really count as micro wind I'd say but I just read that there is event a camping wind power generator in the works (http://www.thegreynomads.com.au/accessories/leisure-recreation/wind-powered-generator/)

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Learn More about Silvopasture

Had you heard of the term silvopasture" before now? After learning more about it, what do you think is the biggest advantage of silvopasture?

Heidi Edmonds 4/24/2018 7:13 AM

I had never heard about silvopasture until I had a look at the Drawdown solutions to reverse global warming. This ancient farming practice integrates trees and pasture into the landscape for raising livestock. (http://www.drawdown.org/solutions/food/silvopasture) Trees strewn across the landscapes result in landscapes that can sequester "five to ten times as much carbon as those of the same size that are treeless, storing it in both biomass and soil." This seems like the biggest advantage of this kind of farming, which can be costly to implement at first. Livestock benefit with shade from trees for shelter and coolness. There are other benefits too such as the potential to diversify products and include forestry, nuts fruits, mushrooms etc, in the mix for diversity and resilience.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Learn More about Regenerative Agriculture

Clean air, clean water and healthy food are three reasons to care about regenerative agriculture. In what ways can you support your closest regenerative agriculture farm?
Heidi Edmonds 4/24/2018 6:58 AM
According to Drawdown, regenerative agriculture (the 11th best solution to reverse global warming) involves the following :

no tillage,

diverse cover crops,

in-farm fertility (no external nutrients),

no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, and

multiple crop rotations.

Sounds a bit complicated but it helps return carbon to the soils and case studies show that it helps farmers with better yields.

Here in Queensland, Australia where I live, there are case studies such as an organic beef farm on Dukes Plain that uses regenerative agriculture, (. http://www.soilsforlife.org.au/cs-dukes-plain) (30 km south of Theodore, Southern QLD Brigalow Belt)

"moving from continuous grazing in seven paddocks to a cell grazing system across almost 100 paddocks. Focus moved from the production bottom line to a measure of kilograms of beef produced per hectare of available pasture. Production increases were experienced within two years of adopting planned grazing management.

In addition to cell grazing, outcomes were further enhanced by the later application of organic and biodynamic methods.

By persisting through obstacles and impediments to change, the Joyce’s have experienced improvement in the natural resource with healthier soils, more diverse pastures, more trees, fewer weeds, improved water quality and water use efficiency, as well as increased carrying capacity, easier animal management and reduced labour requirements."

In addition to Soils for Life (http://www.soilsforlife.org.au/index.html), other Australian initiatives include: https://regenfarmers.com.au

It's hard to see from a quick internet search how I can support local regenerative agriculture farms. If/when choosing meat I will look out for the Dukes Plain brand organic beef and I will keep my eye out for food companies that apply regenerative agriculture.
Read More
- Heidi Edmonds 4/24/2018 7:14 AM
  
  http://www.drawdown.org/solutions/food/regenerative-agriculture
  
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Heidi Edmonds 4/21/2018 4:28 PM

The eco challenge deliberately runs over 3 weeks as this is about how long it takes to develop a habit. So choosing mostly plant based meals and products with less plastic packaging (fruit! Vegies!) is getting easier for me now in this short time...it’s also been great to share learnings with friends as it makes the discoveries fun and somehow more powerful through sharing.

I think also there are some articles that downplay the roll of personal action because government and industry action is so important. But we need both. And normalising key personal actions can help them spread.

We do all need to be doing our bit. Happy to say that while this article below points out the need for more people to be composting, eating more plant based diets, using public transport more and having smaller families (and walking the walk as well as talking the talk so to speak), I feel like I can better tick off the plant based diet component now, as well as reducing resources. https://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/americans-on-climate-change-all-talk-little-action/86170 (thanks to my pals at Citizens Climate Lobby Australia for the link to the article based on an online conversation)

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- Heidi Edmonds 4/21/2018 4:29 PM
  
  Three days of EcoChallenge to go so I better get cracking on a few more of my one off challenges too!! But this post was an ode to the daily challenges. :)
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Electricity Generation Learn More about Biomass

Had you ever heard of biomass techonology before this? What did you learn that surprised you? Share this with your friends!

Heidi Edmonds 4/20/2018 5:05 AM

I knew about biomass from when I signed up for Green Power with AGL here in QLD and it was the green power option available for QLD. I had a vague idea at the time that it must involved gases from plants somehow.. It's informative to now know that this technology is effectively the growing of plants and then burning them to make heat, electricity (via steam), oil or gas. It's important to note that this potential carbon neutral technology is just considered a "bridging" technology or interum solution and not an end goal for energy supply systems, for which the cleaner tech of wind and solar are preferable.
(http://www.drawdown.org/solutions/electricity-generation/biomass)

It's also worth remembering that the feedstock used for burning needs to be appropriate - preferably the waste from mills and food crops that would be generated anyway, and definitely not native forests, which I assume is due to the loss of habitat when trees are cut down. Grain crops like corn and sorghum specifically used for biomass energy production are problematic due to the high water and energy inputs needed to make them.

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- Heidi Edmonds 4/20/2018 5:07 AM
  
  So while I approve AGL's provision of biomass I hope I can find out the feedstock sources of their biomass to check they are acceptably sustainable. I also encourage the Australian (and other international) power companies to invest in the cleaner technology of wind and solar as soon and as much as they can.
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Women and Girls Research Barriers to Participation and Representation

What are some of the barriers that exist to women's equal participation and/or representation in your community?

Heidi Edmonds 4/15/2018 8:42 PM

Promoting women's equal participation in economies and political areas requires "ending violence against women, to recognizing unpaid care and domestic work, to promoting equal participation in leadership and decision-making" (https://www.cfr.org/blog/tackling-barriers-womens-economic-participation)

Researching barriers to women's equal participation and representation in the world, including my community, I can relate to several issues including the effort of unpaid care and domestic work (and the impact this has on political representation and the ability to run for politics e.g. https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/women-rule-politics/). I am not entirely sure what the solution is but cheaper or free access to child care would probably help!

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- Heidi Edmonds 4/15/2018 8:54 PM
  
  Another way to make childcare "cheaper" might be reducing house prices so that cost of living wasn't so high. Then more people might be able to cover their child care fees more easily too :) http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-15/report-shows-one-in-five-children-suffer-from-food-insecurity/9653532
  
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