Earth Month Ecochallenge: Drawdown

April 1 - April 30, 2021

Christine Bergholm

Team Wyld

"Always learning and trying to be better."

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
861 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

2.0

advocacy actions

completed
UP TO

2.6

locally sourced meals

consumed
UP TO

15

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

90

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

750

minutes

spent outdoors
UP TO

42

plastic containers

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

3.3

pounds of paper

have been saved
UP TO

0.0

public officials or leaders

contacted

Christine's actions

Transportation

Use Public Transit

Public Transit

I will use public transit 1 mile(s) per day and avoid sending up to (___) lbs of CO2 into Earth's atmosphere.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Accelerating Solutions

Advocate for Forest Protection

Forest Protection

I will contact 1 congress people or representatives to advocate for public policy that protects forests and the enforcement of existing anti-logging laws, as well as the rights of local people to protect and restore the land in their communities.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Action Track: Accelerating Solutions

Support Local Food Systems

Plant-Rich Diets

I will source 10 percent of my food from local producers each day. This could include signing up for a local CSA, buying from a farmer's market, visiting a food co-op, foraging with a local group, or growing my own ingredients.

COMPLETED 2
DAILY ACTIONS

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.

COMPLETED
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 7
DAILY ACTIONS

Industry

Learn About & Practice Sustainable Fashion

Multiple Industry Solutions

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

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Industry

Reduce Single-Use Disposables

Bioplastics

Cheap, single-use items and disposable packaging end up blowing around as litter more often in poor and BIPOC-majority neighborhoods. I will avoid buying and using 6 single-use plastics and instead replace them with durable options.

COMPLETED 7
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

Industry

Practice the 5 R's

Recycling

I will Practice the "5 Rs" — refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle — to reduce my waste more than I can with just recycling alone.

COMPLETED 7
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Accelerating Solutions

Advocate For More Packaging Options

Multiple Industry Solutions

I will advocate for alternatives to single-use packaging at local grocery stores, markets, at work, or on campus.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Keep Track of Wasted Food

Reduced Food Waste

I will keep a daily log of food I throw away during Earth Month Ecochallenge, either because it went bad before I ate it, I put too much on my plate, or it was scraps from food preparation.

COMPLETED 13
DAILY ACTIONS

Health and Education

Connect With A Nonprofit

Health and Education

I will connect with a local nonprofit working on issues affecting women, girls, and/or trans and nonbinary people in my community, and find out how I can get involved or become a member.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Use Muscle Power

Multiple Transportation Solutions

I will cut my car trip mileage by only taking necessary trips, and I will only use muscle-powered transportation for all other trips.

COMPLETED 9
DAILY ACTIONS

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 13
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Smaller Portions

Reduced Food Waste

I will use smaller plates and/or serve smaller portions when dishing out food.

COMPLETED 14
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Climate Resilience

Tend A Garden

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

COMPLETED 23
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
Transportation Use Public Transit

How has your access to various kinds of transportation throughout your life influenced your current attitudes about transportation and your transportation behavior?

Christine Bergholm 4/25/2021 3:47 PM

I haven’t had the opportunity to live in many places with well-developed public transportation systems, which makes it much harder to get around this way. Sacramento had improved since I first moved here, but it’s still so much less developed than places like SF or NY.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Action Track: Accelerating Solutions Advocate for Forest Protection

Higher standards of living are very often dependent on moving our environmental costs elsewhere. What are some specific ways in which the environmental impacts of your own lifestyle might be shifted elsewhere?

Christine Bergholm 4/20/2021 12:16 PM

I recently watched Seaspiracy and my diet includes a fair amount of sea food. My consumption of these animals and the impact of the fishing industry are having detrimental effects on the ocean, but it’s so easy to have no idea as the effects aren’t seen in my day to day life.

Read More
- Chris LoConti 4/20/2021 1:50 PM
  
  Thanks for sharing Christine! since you mentioned Seaspiracy, here's a good followup article that dives into some of the topics they covered more thoroughly: https://www.vox.com/2021/4/13/22380637/seaspiracy-netflix-fact-check-fishing-ocean-plastic-veganism-vegetarianism
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Action Track: Accelerating Solutions Support Local Food Systems

Dependable fresh food, supporting local farmers and building resilient communities are just a few benefits of local food systems. Which of these (or other) advantages inspire you the most?

Christine Bergholm 4/20/2021 11:56 AM

Building resilient self sustaining communities is what really inspires me about supporting local food sources. I also have really enjoyed the control and independence of growing my own food.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Industry Learn About & Practice Sustainable Fashion

How can you express your personality, creativity, and values in ways that don't require fast fashion or buying more clothes and accessories?

Christine Bergholm 4/16/2021 2:49 PM

I am a part of a group on Facebook called “buy nothing” and it is a great tool to find used items of all kinds including clothing and accessories. It is an awesome way for people to find new homes for these items so they don’t end up in the landfill as well as to find things you need for free.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Industry Choose Recycled Paper

Good job on choosing recycled paper! How can you take your action a step further?

Christine Bergholm 4/16/2021 2:40 PM

Try to minimize my use of even these recycled paper products to make these resources last as long as possible.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use Reduce Animal Products

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

Christine Bergholm 4/16/2021 2:38 PM

I would imagine richer countries consume more meat because of how expensive it is to produce and store meat products. Meat products can negatively impact our health, especially when we over-indulge and the amount of pollution and resources used to produce meat products definitely has a negative impact on our planet.

Read More
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?

Christine Bergholm 4/16/2021 2:32 PM

There are none in the Sacramento area! I filled out the form on the climatefriendlysupermarkets.org page expressing my interest for a supermarket in my area that doesn’t use HFC refrigerants.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Industry Go Paperless

What do you want to prioritize over material 'stuff' in your own life?

Christine Bergholm 4/16/2021 2:24 PM

Experiences! My boyfriend and I have a rule that for anniversaries we don’t buy each other stuff, but instead put that money toward experiences and shared memories.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Industry Practice the 5 R's

What are some more "R's" you could add to your daily practice to reduce your waste?

Christine Bergholm 4/16/2021 2:21 PM

I could get better at repurposing and repairing things around my home. I also would love to start composting again which is “Rot” in the R’s, to continue to reduce my waste impacts.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Industry Recycle Everything I Can

How could you incorporate other "R's" -- reduce, reuse, refuse, repair, repurpose, etc. -- into your lifestyle? How does considering implementing these "R's" make you feel?

Christine Bergholm 4/16/2021 2:15 PM

I would like to start taking my containers to Refill Madness to reduce new plastics I use and to reuse the ones I already have. They have all sorts of things like plastic free dental floss, dish soap, and shampoo.
Incorporating these R’s is always a little overwhelming at the start but makes me feel so proud once I get used to the changes.

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