Kim Smith

I have installed a pedometer app on my phone which is really helping me keep track of the volume of muscle power that I have been using.  Yesterday, with a series of walks, I definitely exceeded my goal  - 13,125 steps, 540.7 calories, 2 hours, 7 mins, 5.59 miles.

Whoo hoo!  So grateful to have received the information needed to reach out to community leaders and advocates to expand bike share facilities in Honolulu.  Coming from Portland, it has been surprising to see so few bikes.  However, the Biki Bike program, just installed this year, has really taken off.  We do not have any at our end of town though, so I just completed a letter of support to add more bike share stations along Kapiolani Park.  Check out the great designs and community outreach at the Biki Bike website: gobiki.org.

I actually started this action yesterday, but didn't get it logged in as a "check in".  I wish that we could check in even though we have "one-time challenges" that require several days of work to achieve them.  This has been a question for a number of my students on our course team too.

Anyway, I wrote to the manager of our apartment complex, in addition to a resident who specializes in solar energy, to see if they will consider installing solar panels on our building.  I learned that a recent  report named the City & County of Honolulu first overall for megawatts of solar energy installed per capita in 2017, and noted that the City surged to #3 in the nation in total capacity.  I hope that our building might join in the installation efforts that are being coordinated in our neighborhood.

I have started conversations with some bike and solar advocates in the region.  Happy to learn that my own solar system continues to generate more energy this spring.

Hi, all.  I love NWEI's EcoChallenge model and have participated for years.  I am so impressed that they are working with Drawdown and Paul Hawkens this spring.  There are so many actions that we can take to make a difference.

Today, I took a big step and learned how to calculate my carbon footprint, with Terrapass: https://www.terrapass.com/ and purchased carbon offsets for a recent trip to Korea.  The prices were quite reasonable and helped me think about how we can offset travel.

One of the biggest conundrums of my life is being a sustainability educator, with frequent international trips.  It makes me feel horrible to have a large footprint, but I am also trying to balance this with the size of my handprint.  How much of a difference can I make when I meet with people face-to-face or offer presentations that can shift policies and practices?  I pray that my handprint is bigger than my footprint and that my efforts make a difference.  For the rest, is it OK to resolve my cognitive dissonance with purchasing offsets?  As charged as this sounds, it rather smacks of the Catholic Church selling indulgences.  Goodness, the effort to balance our values with our actions can be complicated.