Ecochallenge.org

Campus Ecochallenge

Ian Miller

YCP Sustainability Fa2021

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
805 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

24

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

130

minutes

spent outdoors
UP TO

67

plastic bottles

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

19

plastic containers

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

9.0

plastic straws

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

6.0

pounds

waste composted
UP TO

131

pounds of CO2

have been saved
UP TO

9.0

pounds of paper

have been saved
UP TO

1.0

water collection system

installed

Ian's actions

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

Energy

Online Energy Audit

I will complete an online energy audit of my home, office, or dorm room and identify my next steps for saving energy.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Nature

Explore My Area

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

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Health

Reduce refined sugar

I will keep track and reduce my consumption of refined sugars, including sweetened beverages, candy, and processed foods.

COMPLETED 5
DAILY ACTIONS

Health

Happiness

I will write down three things every day that I am grateful for, or send one email every day thanking or praising someone.

COMPLETED 6
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Plant an Herb Garden

I will plant an herb garden in my home, workplace, or dorm room.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Reduce Animal Products

I will enjoy 1 meatless meal(s) and/or 1 vegan meal(s) each day this week.

COMPLETED 13
DAILY ACTIONS

Waste

Personal Waste Audit

I will collect all of my unrecyclable, non-compostable trash to raise my awareness of how much I send to the landfill.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Waste

Choose Two-Sided Printing

I will save up to .21 lbs (.09 kg) of paper per day by switching from one-sided printing to two-sided when I have to print documents.

COMPLETED 9
DAILY ACTIONS

Waste

Use Reusable Bags

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

COMPLETED 3
DAILY ACTIONS

Waste

Reduce Single-Use Disposables

Cheap, single-use items and disposable packaging end up blowing around as litter more often in poor and POC-majority neighborhoods. I will find out how I can limit single-use items and do my best to limit the waste I generate.

COMPLETED 5
DAILY ACTIONS

Waste

Compost Food Waste

I will avoid sending up to .69 lbs (.31 kg) of food waste to the landfill each day by composting my food or learning how to.

COMPLETED 6
DAILY ACTIONS

Waste

Skip the Straw

Plastic bags and small plastic pieces like straws are most likely to get swept into our waterways. I will keep 2 plastic straw(s) out of the landfill and ocean each day by refusing straws or using my own glass/metal straw.

COMPLETED 6
DAILY ACTIONS

Waste

Use a Reusable Water Bottle

I will keep 4 disposable plastic bottle(s) from entering the waste stream by using a reusable water bottle.

COMPLETED 16
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Building Resilience

Collect Rain Water

I will create a rain garden or bioswale or use rain barrels to collect water for outdoor watering needs.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Action Track: Building Resilience

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?

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Action Track: Building Resilience

Tend a Garden

I will tend to a garden, or prepare for one, each day using sustainable gardening practices.

COMPLETED 7
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?

REFLECTION QUESTION
Health Happiness

How does/can practicing gratitude keep you centered and motivated to work for a better world?

Ian Miller 9/20/2021 10:31 AM

Identifying what you have, who you have, and what you can do to keep yourself happy/afloat in relation to them is crucial to mental health. If you have a good understanding and appreciation for your life, you can keep yourself motivated by enjoying the little things you have identified while slogging through each day. If you start to appreciate the little things in the world through this, you will likely work innately to preserve them, whether it be a relaxing creek or quiet retreat.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Action Track: Building Resilience Collect Rain Water

Trace the water that flows down the drain from your house to the largest body of water nearby. What is the route it takes?

Ian Miller 9/16/2021 8:52 AM

The water runs from my gutters to storm drains along the main road of my town, where I believe it runs to a drainage pond on the outskirts of my town.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Energy Switch to Cold Water

What do you plan to do with the money you save from making more energy efficient choices?

Ian Miller 9/10/2021 7:26 PM

Only one thing to do with spare money nowadays... pay towards my student loan...

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Waste Compost Food Waste

New to composting? Be sure to check out the action resource links to learn tips and more about it. As you transition from throwing food away to composting, what do you notice about how much you are tossing? How will you use your compost once it is ready?

Ian Miller 9/09/2021 9:55 AM

My family and I have noticed that the products we buy in good faith often gets put somewhere in a refrigerator where it is forgotten and eventually wasted. The big trips across our back yard to the compost bin really show how much is wasted when you're carrying bowls full of the gross no-good produce.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Waste Use Reusable Bags

What do you do if you find yourself in the situation of needing a bag for items but don't have a reusable one with you or aren't allowed to use the one you brought? Carry things out in your hands? In a cart? Accept a disposable one? If you find yourself in this position often, what system could you put in place to try to create a successful habit of not using plastic bags?

Ian Miller 9/09/2021 9:50 AM

If we cannot use reusable bags, my family and I keep cardboard box lids/small boxes in our trunks. We will just get our groceries from a store as if it were Sam's Club, and take the individual items to our car and fill the spare boxes with them!

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Plant an Herb Garden

Consider the ways you can garden: a plot of land? a patio container? hanging basket? windowsill gardens? What would work best for your living situation and lifestyle?

Ian Miller 9/09/2021 9:48 AM

At our home, we plant in both our backyard and patio containers/baskets. We compost our excess produce for the gardens and use our grass clippings as natural mulch. Because of this, a little mix of every planting style allows for us to get the best use out of the nutrients in our soil, along with the food waste we produce.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Health Reduce refined sugar

Before you started this challenge, did you think you were 'addicted' to sugar? How do you feel now?

Ian Miller 9/09/2021 9:45 AM

I have not drank soda or other sweetened beverages for a couple of years, but I was definitely addicted to jelly beans as a snack while working on school work... I cut them out over the summer along with chocolate along with other sweets and have not looked back yet.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Waste Choose Two-Sided Printing

Choosing two-sided printing can be an easy adjustment on your computer settings. How can you help others make this same switch? Can it be encouraged company wide?

Ian Miller 9/07/2021 12:17 PM

At least in school, it is easy to charge for printing based off of the number of pages being printed, rather than just the total number of pages someone wants to put on paper. It is really easy and makes reading much easier...

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Waste Skip the Straw

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

Ian Miller 9/07/2021 12:15 PM

Reducing the amount of paper used daily, whether it be for school or to dry hands. Convert to taking notes online, and reading online where applicable.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Reduce Animal Products

Why do people in richer countries eat more meat than people in other places? How does eating more meat affect our planet and other people?

Ian Miller 9/07/2021 12:14 PM

You could even go back to more ancient understandings of food where oats were eaten by horses and animals, not humans. In society, higher quality meats not only taste good (subjective), but represent a higher social class in the ability to afford them. By eating meats an individual is setting themselves up above others who may not be able to afford the meats wealthier consumers can. By eating more meat though, you are contributing to the exhaustion of water and land resources required in the raising of these animals.

Read More