Earth Month Ecochallenge: Drawdown

April 1 - April 30, 2021

Nikki Vandivort

SWCA Pasadena

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
397 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

1.0

documentary

watched
UP TO

1.0

donation

made
UP TO

4.0

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

25

minutes

spent exercising
UP TO

115

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

3.3

pounds of paper

have been saved

Nikki's actions

Coastal, Ocean, and Engineered Sinks

Smart Seafood Choices

Ocean Farming

I will visit seafoodwatch.org or download the app and commit to making better seafood choices for a healthier ocean.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Buildings

Learn about 'Green Gentrification'

Multiple Solutions

I will spend at least 15 minutes learning about green gentrification and how it relates to city planning for climate action.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Industry

Choose Recycled Paper

Recycled Paper

I will plan ahead to only use paper products made from post-consumer recycled paper for my home or office.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Industry

Go Paperless

Recycled Paper

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

Industry

Recycle Everything I Can

Recycling

Contamination prevents what is recyclable from being recycled. I will research and recycle all materials that are accepted by local haulers or drop stations in my community, making sure to not contaminate recyclables with non-recyclables.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Industry

Find a Local Climate-Friendly Supermarket

Refrigerant Management

I will explore the interactive map in the links below to find a supermarket that does not use HFC refrigerants near my home.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Go for a Daily Walk

Walkable Cities

I will take a walk for 5 minutes each day and take note of the infrastructure that makes walking more or less enjoyable, accessible, and possible.

COMPLETED 2
DAILY ACTIONS

Transportation

Improve a Bus Stop

Public Transit

I will improve a bus stop in my neighborhood by posting the stop schedule, adding seating or shelter, adding art or flowers, picking up litter, or implementing some other small improvement.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Reduce Animal Products

Plant-Rich Diets

I will enjoy 1 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.

COMPLETED 4
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Support Indigenous Peoples' Land Management

Indigenous Peoples' Forest Tenure

I will donate to Native American Rights Fund, which protects tribal natural resources and environmental rights and promotes Native American Human Rights.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Composting

Composting, Reduced Food Waste

I will start a compost bin where I live.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Learn More about Regenerative Agriculture

Conservation Agriculture, Regenerative Annual Cropping

I will spend at least 15 minutes learning about the need for more regenerative agriculture.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Learn the Truth About Expiration Dates

Reduced Food Waste

I will spend at least 15 minutes learning how to differentiate between sell by, use by, and best by dates.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity

Watch a Video about Methane Digesters

Methane Digesters

I will watch a video about methane digesters (also commonly known as anaerobic digesters).

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity

Learn More about Biomass

Biomass Power

I will spend at least 10 minutes learning more about the energy generation potential of biomass.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity

Choose LED Bulbs

LED Lighting

I will replace 2 incandescent lightbulb(s) with Energy Star-certified LED bulbs, saving up to $14 per fixture per year.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity

Calculate My Carbon Footprint

All Drawdown Solutions

I will calculate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with my household and consider how different lifestyle choices could reduce my negative impact on the environment.

UNCOMPLETED
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
Industry Find a Local Climate-Friendly Supermarket

How close is the nearest climate-friendly supermarket to your home? How could you encourage local supermarket to reduce or phase out their use of HFC refrigerants?

Nikki Vandivort 4/29/2021 9:42 PM

There are no climate-friendly grocery stores recorded in the map here in or near Cincinnati. This is actually an AWESOME, SUPER USEFUL link, because in my Finance class my group is working with a nonprofit that is trying to propose a grant program for CARB to implement that would help grocery stores in California convert their HFC refrigerant systems to CO2 systems. The need is huge. The average leak rate for an HFC system is 25% annually, and the refrigerants they use have up to 4,000x higher Global Warming Potential (GWP) than CO2 (which is the baseline for GWP at a value of "1"). Project Drawdown's book in 2017 identified refrigerants as the #1 solution to fighting global warming. Unfortunately, in order to replace an entire refrigerant system (the HFC and CO2 systems do not have overlapping components), you'd have to shut much of the store down for about 2 months. The loss in revenue would put a lot of smaller grocery stores out of business. These systems cost between $1-2 million dollars each for an average-sized grocery store. The pressure is on in California, where there are now laws on the books committing the state to reduce their HFCs by 40% by 2030. We are looking at promoting energy efficiency improvements that could help the grocery store save on energy, thereby helping pay for the refrigeration replacement.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Buildings Learn about 'Green Gentrification'

Cities and towns need to plan for climate change. How can your city or town make its climate action plans equitable and socially just?

Nikki Vandivort 4/16/2021 8:51 PM

In my grad program, I am focusing on the implementation (or lack thereof) of local Climate Action Plans. While my local CAP (the Green Cincinnati Plan) discusses each of is 80 recommendations through an equity lens, this is surprisingly the first time I've heard the term "green gentrification". Although now that it has been explained to me, it absolutely makes sense. Everything is part of the system, and the system produces exactly the outcome it is designed to produce. So it makes sense that solving climate adaptation problems would lead to displacement and gentrification if the solutions did not also integrate housing policy, as well.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use Composting

Producing food that goes uneaten squanders many resources—seeds, water, energy, land, fertilizer, hours of labor, financial capital. Which of these kinds of waste most motivates you to change your behavior regarding food waste? Why?

Nikki Vandivort 4/02/2021 5:31 PM

Two things bother me about food waste: knowing that food waste going to a landfill will result in methane (a potent greenhouse gas) and knowing that so much energy went into creating and transporting that food, only to be wasted. I started a vermicomposting bin today - something I've been meaning to do for a while. I hope to create a 3-bin composting yard waste system this summer!

Read More
- Katie Dumm 4/05/2021 2:32 PM
  
  In Boulder we have city composting that gets picked up with the recycling so it's super easy to compost. They even take pizza boxes and dog poo!
  
  Read More
Nikki Vandivort 4/01/2021 1:24 PM

For lunch, I ate one of my favorite vegan chicken nugget brands, plus vegan ranch, and an apple. I love these brands: Quorn (made from mycoprotein) and Morningstar (their buffalo "wings" are sooo yummy).

Read More
Nikki Vandivort 3/09/2021 2:25 PM

Hey SWCA Pasadena! So glad you joined the team. This is going to be fun!

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