Faith Trejo

ENST 246: Fall 2020

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
900 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

52

minutes

being mindful
UP TO

54

plastic straws

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

56

plastic bottles

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

1.0

documentary

watched
UP TO

60

minutes

spent outdoors
UP TO

131

pounds of CO2

have been saved
UP TO

143

minutes

not spent in front of a screen
UP TO

276

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

16

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

372

gallons of water

have been saved

Faith's actions

Simplicity

Track my Purchases

I will spend 10 minutes each day maintaining a record of all my purchases and learning about my spending habits.

COMPLETED 27
DAILY ACTIONS

Simplicity

De-Clutter My Home or Dorm Room

I will de-clutter, clean, and donate or recycle unneeded items in my home or dorm room.

COMPLETED 33
DAILY ACTIONS

Waste

Learn About & Practice Sustainable Fashion

I will learn about sustainable fashion and begin trying to practice it in my own life.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Watch a Documentary about Food Sovereignty

I will watch 1 documentary(ies) about food sovereignty: the right of local peoples to control their own food systems including markets, ecological resources, food cultures and production methods.

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 17
DAILY ACTIONS

Energy

Turn it off

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

COMPLETED 25
DAILY ACTIONS

Simplicity

Meditate

I will meditate or create a moment of silence for 2 minute(s) each day to reflect on things important to me.

COMPLETED 17
DAILY ACTIONS

Nature

Explore My Area

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

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Simplicity

Less Screen Time

I will replace 20 minute(s) of screen time each day with other activities.

COMPLETED 17
DAILY ACTIONS

Health

Support Pollution Reduction

I will spend at least 15 minutes learning about water and air quality issues in my area, how they are impacting human and environmental health, and how I can help.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Water

Say No to Plastic Straws

An estimated 71% of seabirds and 30% of turtles have been found with plastics in their stomachs. When they ingest plastic, marine life has a 50% mortality rate. By asking for no straw when placing a drink order, I will keep 3 plastic straw(s) of out of the ocean each day.

COMPLETED 14
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 12
DAILY ACTIONS

Water

Brush My Teeth Without Running Water

I will save up to 8 gallons (30 L) of water each day by turning it off while brushing my teeth.

COMPLETED 14
DAILY 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

Water

Use Reusable Bottles

I will use a reusable bottle and stop purchasing bottled water, saving 4 disposable plastic bottle(s) a day.

COMPLETED 14
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?

Faith Trejo 9/19/2020 9:38 AM

The challenges that I decided to do for the week was to reduce my screen time and replace it with some form of activity, find time throughout my day to meditate, and to spend one hour exploring the nature around me. I enjoyed these challenges this week because I have been having a stressful past two weeks and I needed to get back in touch with nature along with finding time to meditate and be with myself and thoughts. I also enjoyed that I had the constant reminder in the back of my head that I needed to reduce my screen time, which forced me to get started on some of my schoolwork which helped reduce my stress because I was getting ahead.

I think realistically that I would not have gone out in nature without that being a part of my job within the College of Management. I led a trip to the Susquehanna River where we walked over and played in the River, threw rocks, and simply enjoyed the atmosphere and the nature around us, even though our walk consisted of us being on a main road. But that trip alone helped remind me that I enjoy doing spontaneous things like that and enjoy just getting out and getting away from the “Bucknell Bubble”. Yesterday I was expressing how much fun I had with the students getting out to one of my close friends I was studying with and he suggested that we go to his favorite spot and just watch the sunset. I happily agreed to just get up and go with him and we went out to a field located behind the golf course and just sat and watched the sunset and played some Frisbee, but it was super wholesome and a great experience.

I would definitely consider making all three of these things incorporate into my everyday life because they are very calming and I'm someone who gets overworked and very anxious very easily, so this is a nice reminder that I need to take time for myself and be present with nature. Maybe some barriers that I face with making these permanent is I need someone to remind me that it's OK to take time for myself and just enjoy and not be overwhelmed with everything that's going on in the world and removing myself from being overanxious and overthinking everything that's happening in my world and in the world.

These challenges are kind of hard to relate to the material we studied this week but going forward with my new challenges I could definitely relate them to the material we have covered this past week. For example I've decided to take on the challenge of not using plastic straws and that relates to the Coca Cola video we watched where we see a mass accumulation of plastic in areas and not that much is being done by the corporations that are responsible for that much consumption and production of plastic.

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- Emily Spitz 9/28/2020 5:32 PM
  
  Hi Faith! Thank you for sharing your experience with your daily and one time challenges this week. I am sorry that you had a stressful two weeks but I am glad to hear that meditating, reducing screen time, and connecting with nature helped. I am impressed by your effort to cut back on screen time. I struggle with this too as I spend way too much time on my phone or computer which takes away from being productive and finishing my school work. I am happy to hear that reducing screen time helped you get a jump start on homework, which in turn, made you feel less overwhelmed and stressed since you were using that time to be productive. I will definitely try this and let you know how it goes during my day! In addition, I am very impressed and inspired by your trip through the College of Management to the Susquehanna River. It sounds like such a great experience and really was the highlight of your day. It is super important to get fresh air and explore different areas around campus. The "Bucknell Bubble" is definitely a real thing and great at times, but it is also important to break out and have a break once in awhile. Finally, I can relate to your great night watching the sunset and playing frisbee behind the golf course. Bucknell's sunsets are one of my favorite things about this school and they never get old no matter how many times I watch them. The sunsets here are truly magical and I am so happy you and a friend took the time to just sit outside and enjoy one.
  
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- Annie Maley 9/25/2020 12:26 PM
  
  Hey Faith! Great job on the challenge so far. That is so fun that you were able to go out on the river as a part of your job. A few weeks ago some friends and myself floated down the Susquehanna River, and it was such a nice way to get off campus and relax. I think that your challenge of doing an activity instead of screen time is such a good idea. Heading into the last week or two of this challenge, I think I may try and incorporate that action into my own challenge. I definitely think that we all spend way too much time on screens, and zoom classes only make that problem worse. I really appreciate how honest you are in this journal about being stressed about school, work, life etc and needing to remind yourself to take time for you! I think this is a very common feeling at Bucknell but one that is not shared enough, so thank you for your openness and honesty. One challenge that I have been doing that has been a really great way for me to take “me time” has been a daily 30 minute nature walk/run. Seeing the local community, seeing nature, and just having that short break everyday has really improved my mood and stress level. I really recommend adding it to your challenge if you haven't already! Keep up the amazing work, I’m really impressed by your actions. Good luck with the rest of the challenge!
  
  -Annie
  
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- Andrew Stuhl 9/21/2020 12:07 PM
  
  This is great to read, Faith! I'm glad you got out with friends to enjoy the river, a sunset, and some time away from screens.
  
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Faith Trejo 9/14/2020 2:22 PM

My new challenges this week was to turn off electronics that were not in use, reduce animal consumption through meals, and to watch a documentary about food sovereignty. These challenges didn’t seem to truly challenge me all too much this week comparatively to my challenges last week.

The challenge that included me turning off my electronics or stuff that wasn’t being used if something that I found myself doing naturally, so when I went to think about if I was doing it, I had realized that it was already second nature to me. I think that was partially because I was raised to always shut the house down back at home where we double checked to make sure all the lights were off, and the doors were locked. I did realize that my roommates that live with me in my apartment were not raised to be conservative of their energy consumption and just making sure everything was locked up before going to bed. We are pretty late owls in my apartment, but I always make sure everything is turned off when we are going to bed.

The challenge of reducing me animal products I found challenging but not really. Having to eat on the school’s meal plan, I found that it wasn’t difficult to not get a food product because of the slim picking. I typically would eat breakfast and lunch without meat and then enjoy meat for dinner. Being someone who was raised with always having meat in their meals, this did have me thinking about this class and the cause, but it wasn’t a difficult thing to do.

I happened to choose the challenge to watch a documentary about food sovereignty this week, when he had to watch one for class. The documentary for class that we had to watch was very eye opening and a little traumatizing even without the entire film having words. I did feel guilty when I ate a hotdog a few short hours after watching the film.

I could see myself making the forever switch to making sure my electronics are turned off when not in use and the reduction of consuming animal products. I think that it is important to be aware of what you are consuming, where it came from, and how it is produced. We need to be aware of the overall contribution to pollution the animal can have and how the animal was treated while growing up.

I thought it was interesting to see myself attempt to balance these three new challenges with the old three. I thought that it went pretty well, but we shall see how these additional three play into my daily life along with the old challenges. These challenges are allowing me to subconsciously think about my everyday actions and what I am doing that is already environmentally friendly and what is not.

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Faith Trejo 9/08/2020 7:31 PM

My two daily challenges included of me tracking my purchases and decluttering my room/apartment space and my one-time action was to learn about and practice sustainable fashion. I found for these challenges that they were right outside my comfortable zone, where it was something that I don't go out my way to do nor do I typically do. So, I thought there were reasonable challenges to start off with and have really allowed for me to recognize how much clutter is in my mental and physical space and how I want to continue with an organized lifestyle. I also found myself thinking about my purchases in a different way when I had to track them and recognize how much I could actually go without because I did not want to track them or did not want you recognize the environmental impact that I would have with the. I found that these two daily challenges allowed for me to really contribute to providing a greener environment by doing the smallest actions because they really got into my head about my environmental waste.

In my past I had learned about practicing sustainable fashion and I've watched multiple documentaries about the fashion and fast fashion industry. I am someone who's not ashamed to shop at a secondhand thrift store, but I also don't shop when I am at school for clothing, I leave that more for when I am at home and can do the shopping in person. But I was looking to purchase some more jeans and I am now considering going to a thrift store to find some jeans that I can possibly refurbish and make to my liking. My favorite pair of shorts is ones that I bought at goodwill and then cut and created myself and I wear them all the time.

Some of the barriers that I would face if I were to make these lifestyle changes permanently would not really pertain to my two daily challenges because those were things that I should be doing regardless, but it becomes more to conflict with the practicing sustainable fashion. We recognize that the fast fashion industry is really detrimental on the earth and mainly in other countries, but as someone who is in the College of Management I know I will need to go purchase business attire when I am a little bit older and even now there are events that I need different clothing for. Being a Managing for Sustainability major, I have learned a lot about Patagonja, which is one of the most Notoriously known for being sustainable brands, but they may not have the clothing options that I am looking for. It's also easier on my lifestyle to know that I can go down to the mall and go find myself the piece that I need and not double check where it came from or how it was created

I would not mind making my 2 daily actions permanent because they are something that I should be doing regardless and there's something that can definitely benefit me throughout my entire career and life. As I've expressed before, it is hard for me to completely get on board with practicing sustainable fashion because I know I will need certain pieces of clothing that may not be produced sustainably. I'm willing to consider my regular clothing options and be more mindful about how much I shop and how much of a fast fashion piece it may be, but as a woman in her 20s I also feel as though I need to stay on trend but still be authentic to myself.

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- Andrew Stuhl 9/16/2020 6:21 AM
  
  This is great Faith! I appreciate you reflecting honesty about some of the barriers here. I def hear you on the pressures you face as an aspiring business person (and business woman) in terms of professional attire. Have you heard of clothing swaps? Sometimes these are held, even here on campus over the summer, so folks can share gently used professional attire with folks who need it. It is a way to re-use without having to purchase new. Maybe this would be something to look into to meet your goals of being you, being kind to the communities around us / the planet, meeting your career goals, and more!
  
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