Ecochallenge.org

Campus Ecochallenge

Joelle Kim

ENST 246: Spring 2022

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
1,193 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

2.0

advocacy actions

completed
UP TO

58

conversations

with people
UP TO

824

gallons of water

have been saved
UP TO

1,155

minutes

spent exercising
UP TO

120

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

730

minutes

spent outdoors
UP TO

10

people

helped
UP TO

41

plastic containers

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

5.3

pounds

food waste prevented
UP TO

142

pounds of CO2

have been saved
UP TO

3.3

pounds of paper

have been saved
UP TO

2.0

public officials or leaders

contacted

Joelle's actions

Community

LEARN ABOUT TRANS, FEMME, AND NONBINARY EXPERIENCES

I will spend 45 minutes learning about the experiences of trans, femme, and/or nonbinary people.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Weekly Meal Planning

I will reduce food waste and save money by planning a weekly menu, only buying the ingredients I need.

COMPLETED 14
DAILY ACTIONS

Energy

Turn it off

I will keep lights, electronics, and appliances turned off when not using them.

COMPLETED 28
DAILY ACTIONS

Community

Engage In Active Listening

I will practice actively listening to a friend, family member, co-worker, acquaintance, or someone who I may disagree with in at least 3 conversations.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Nature

Go for a Daily Walk

I will take a 15-minute walk outside each day.

COMPLETED 35
DAILY ACTIONS

Water

5-Minute Showers

I will save up to 20 gallons (75 L) of water each day by taking 5-minute showers.

COMPLETED 28
DAILY ACTIONS

Community

Talk To My Friends and Classmates

I will decide which social or environmental issue in my community is most important to me and tell 2 friends and/or classmates each day about the issue.

COMPLETED 7
DAILY ACTIONS

Health

Exercise Daily

Exercise is a great stress blaster! I will exercise for 45 minute(s) each day.

COMPLETED 14
DAILY ACTIONS

Community

Help Others

I will offer to help 2 person(s) who are in need each day.

COMPLETED 7
DAILY ACTIONS

Waste

Use Reusable Bags

If at all possible, I will not accept any disposable bags when making purchases.

COMPLETED 21
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Advocate for More Food Options

I will advocate for local and/or organic food options at work or on campus.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Health

Learn More about Food Apartheid

What can lack of access to nutritious food affect a community? How can having access to nutritious food help a community become more resilient?

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Waste

Go Paperless

I will reduce the amount of paper mail that I receive by 0.11lbs (0.05kg) a day or 3.3lbs (1.6kg) a month by opting into paperless billing, ending unwanted subscriptions and opting out of junk mail.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Conduct Virtual Meetings

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

COMPLETED 21
DAILY ACTIONS

Transportation

Car Share

I will sign up for a car-sharing service or organize car sharing with my neighbors or classmates to cut down on the number of vehicles on the road.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Energy

Learn About Renewable Energy

I will spend 30 minutes learning more about renewable energy alternatives (i.e. solar, wind, biomass) in my region.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Energy

Switch to Cold Water

I will switch to washing my clothes in cold water, saving up to 133 lbs of CO2 a month and 1,600 lbs of CO2 over the course of the next year.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Nature

Explore My Area

I will explore at least one new hiking trail or nature walk in my area.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Simplicity

Needs Vs. Wants

I will adopt a "Needs Vs. Wants" approach and only buy things I need.

COMPLETED 35
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?

Joelle Kim 2/19/2022 1:37 PM

Journal 6
Joelle Kim

I thought this EcoChallenge is going to be easier than it actually is. To continue the challenge on top of my academic responsibilities was difficult this week, especially as these challenges started to pile up, I had to put more attention and be intentional much more than I expected to be. Finding a time to walk was still a little challenging as I wanted to lay on my bed during free time instead of walking in cold weather. Or running around my room before leaving for classes to check if I had turned off electronics and appliances in the room was difficult as I was mostly running to classes in the morning.

I got plastic bags from the bison whenever I got to-go as I used plastic bags as my trash bin in my room. I thought since the plastic bags at Bucknell are environmentally friendly, it would be better for me to take them and reuse them as trash bins rather than buying a new one. However, I read the “The World Counts” article and learned shocking facts. 5 trillion plastic bags are used annually, which is 160,000 bags per second. Only less than 1 percent are recycled while the rest of them are being used for an average of 12 minutes. 10 percent of plastic bags end up in the oceans while 300 million plastic bags end up in the Atlantic Ocean every year (I wanted to share all these because I found it very shocking; Here’s mockumentary of plastic bags if you are interested: https://youtu.be/GLgh9h2ePYw). There are some worldwide efforts being made to mitigate the use of plastic. Waste 360.com reported that in America, only Hawaii and Califormina banned the use of single-use plastic bags. It made me think that if California can ban the use of single-use plastic bags and still functions great, I think the plastic ban can be applied nationally. Additionally, plastic bags are banned in 32 countries, while 18 of them are in Africa. It is disturbing for me to see that some countries in need of more development of resources and technology are paying closer attention and putting more effort into environmentalism. I am not sure if that was implemented by developed countries or other corporations but it was a disturbing statistic to see.

Car sharing was pretty easy for me as I do not have a car on campus. However, when me and my friends were going out for dinner, I suggested that my friends meet up altogether at one place so that we can move with one car. We went to the giants all together afterwards which saved us time to go grocery store as well as some carbon emission. It has been a while since we all met up in a large group, so it was definitely a more enjoyable experience. The article on Christian Science Monitor suggested utilizing Car2go as it promotes car-sharing by connecting local neighborhoods. Yet, when I googled it, I learned that they went out of business in 2019 which is unfortunate because the amount of carbons saved by car-sharing seemed tremendous. An article from The Energy Mix even suggested that carsharing could save 320 megatons of carbon by 2050. After Car2go, other platforms like Uber share have been developed and promoted, but they are not readily used among people as it takes more time and raises privacy issues.

Conducting meetings virtually was also not as hard as we are now all used to zoomworld. I held my meetings with my classmates to prepare for the presentation over zoom so that they did not have to drive from the mods or the apartments. Due to the cold weather, they appreciated that I suggested we hold the meeting over the zoom.

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- Genyss Duncan 3/05/2022 9:14 AM
  
  Hi Joelle! Thank you for sharing how your challenges have started to become difficult as they pile up. I found your reaction to the plastic bag challenge interesting, as you called the plastic bags at Bucknell “environmentally friendly.” I am curious about what exactly makes the bags “environmentally friendly” in terms of how they are produced and what happens to them once they are thrown away. I agree with you that reusing plastic bags for a trash bag is better than buying a new one, but I wonder if there are any alternatives for trash bags that are not made of plastic at all. Additionally, I found the statistic that less than 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled interesting, yet not shocking, as I know that many recycling centers do not accept plastic bags. I also thought it was interesting that you brought up the plastic bag bans in developing countries, as that is not something that I had ever thought about. For your car sharing challenge, I liked how you took the opportunity to turn car sharing into a social activity. In relation to the Car2go business, I like the idea that car sharing can be used to promote connecting to other people within your community, which I think you achieved with your independent car sharing activities. I also found it interesting that you brought up Uber as a ride sharing app, as I often forget that Uber has a ride share option. I also agree with you that virtual meetings are much easier to conduct these days since everybody has had experience with them.
  
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- Andrew Stuhl 2/22/2022 7:32 AM
  
  Great journal Joelle! I enjoyed hearing about the car-sharing you facilitated -- definitely nice to have some safe socializing while reducing car emissions in our COVID times. The numbers on plastic bags are so unbelievable -- can you imagine the resources needed to make an item that is used for only 12 minutes on average? That's mind boggling. It occurs to me that we have to regard our planet and natural resources and human labor required to make plastic bags as exceedingly 'cheap' in order to make and treat products this way. Fortunately, using reusable bags is quite easy. I have a ton that I keep in my car and at home - if you need/want some, I have extra!
  
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Joelle Kim 2/12/2022 8:34 PM

Joelle Kim

This week’s challenge was a little harder than I expected. I worked on 5 minute showers and turning off appliances on top of the two challenges I’ve been doing since last week. Taking a shorter shower was not as bad as I had a very busy week that I did not have as much time to relax in the shower. However, I was surprised at the things I used to leave plugged-in. As I always remember to turn the lights off, I thought “turn it off” daily action cards would not require much attention. After I selected my actions during Monday class and came back to my room in the afternoon, I started to see electronics and appliances that are left plugged in: electric kettle, phone charger, microwave, stand, and even a laptop charger. It became a great reminder for me to check outlets before I leave for a class each day.

I accidentally added two one-time actions as I thought switching to cold-water for the laundry is the daily action. Since I chose two actions, when I did the laundry on Thursday, I tried using cold water. It was not difficult at all and I am willing to continue doing so. For my second one-time action, I looked up alternative renewable energy using the resources that were available on the website. It was really interesting when I found out that most of the energy provided in Kenya is from renewable energy (geothermal and hydropower). I have not even heard of geothermal energy before (geothermal energy is generated by pumping up hot water from deep underground with high pressure that when the hot water reaches to the surface, it turns into a steam and spins a turbine of a generator to produce electricity - https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/geothermal/#:~:text=Geothermal%20energy%20is%20heat%20within,buildings%2C%20and%20to%20generate%20electricity). Please correct me if I am wrong, but it was interesting for me that generally developed countries are still using fossil fuels while developing countries are more likely to utilize renewable resources. It was also a great reminder that while electric power is wasted in some places like my room, there are 840 million people who still lack access to electricity (https://www.drawdown.org/sectors/electricity). This article really forced me to be more aware and intentional in decisions that I am and will be making.

Similarly to last week, I think if I become physically exhausted and rush to go to classes, it probably will be easy for me to forget to check the outlets. Even I was not able to go out for a walk for two days this week because I was overwhelmed with other stuff. The more I continue this eco-challenge, the more I realize I have to be very intentional about every choice that I make. (I do not think that taking shower will be a permanent problem as I noticed that I usually take pretty short showers).

When I read the short article from https://www.duke-energy.com/energy-education/energy-savings-and-efficiency/energy-vampires, I really liked how they phrased energy wasted due to unplugged cords as “energy vampires”. Definitely having a chance to run a calculator and seeing an impact made me more conscious. I think the fact that I am not actively paying monthly bills loosen me a bit.
The other website (https://smarterhouse.org/resources/shrink-your-dorm-print) shared some ways in which we could save electricity in dormitories. I realized I am not very aware of how Bucknell is pulling electricity and how much students are using on average. I think it will be really interesting if we will be able to explore it as a whole in class!

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Joelle Kim 2/06/2022 11:17 AM

Journal 4
Joelle Kim

This week challenging for me has brought me some quality time that I never thought I could have while I am on campus. Before this week’s challenge, whenever I have time, I was busy rushing back to my room and turning on netflix to finish whichever series that I was on. I thought that is the way I recharge and relax. Even though it still is a time for me to take a mental break, I always saw myself spending way more time than I wanted to and blaming myself for lacking self-control. It also no longer felt like I took a really good break because deep-inside I was keep thinking about the assignments or upcoming exam.

Taking a walk was a really good experience for me. It was still a difficult, as the person who does not have a car on campus, furthest I could go was still Lewisburg where I already a lot of time. So even though it was refreshing, my mind were still caught up in the work I had to do. I am also a type of person who does not like going outdoors if I don't have any destination to go (if that makes sense). I usually like to take extra walk if I went out to pick up my books from bookstore, but barely took time to take a walk outside. So it was definitely a very new, a bit uncomfortable, but also destress-time for me.
When I read the article by Kristophe Green and Dacher Keltner, I realized that even though I walked around the area, this walk was truly valuable for me. I remembered that when I was walking through the Grove and University Avenue, I felt more optimistic. Even though I was thinking about the assignments, it definitely felt less significant task than the time I was stressing about it on my desk watching netflix.

I was hoping to go skiing and walk hiking trail over the weekend with my friend, but due to icy situation, we decided to explore downtown instead. Visiting shops that I have never been to, including the thrift bookstore, was definitely fun and made me to appreciate what I have been given around me.

This week was eye-opening week for mer as I realized how I do not immerse myself into nature, while I am living in central PA, even though I WAS aware of so many benefits that nature could give us. I basically ignored benefits by complaining "stuff" that I have to do. Reading the articles definitely challenged my idea of taking a good break and encouraged me to join more activities organized by OEL. I am also planning to watch more documentaries with nature as a way to bring comfort. I have been so caught up by the fact that I need to chill and have fun after rough day with classes. Yet, reading the article convinced me to try watching Planet Earth as I remember I used to love watching documentaries on wild animals when I was younger. So I will add Planet Earth to my watch-later list and start watching the show as another way to surround myself with nature:)

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