Ecochallenge.org

Campus Ecochallenge

paige Herkemij

capstone

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
268 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

1.0

meatless or vegan meal

consumed
UP TO

0.3

pounds

food waste prevented
UP TO

0.7

pounds of CO2

have been saved
UP TO

2.0

disposable cups

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

8.0

plastic straws

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

8.0

plastic bottles

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

17

gallons of water

have been saved

paige's actions

Waste

Use a Reusable Water Bottle

I will keep 5 disposable plastic bottle(s) from entering the waste stream by using a reusable water bottle.

COMPLETED 3
DAILY ACTIONS

Waste

Use a Reusable Mug

I will avoid sending 2 disposable cup(s) to the landfill each day by using a reusable mug.

COMPLETED 3
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 3
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

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.

UNCOMPLETED
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 1
DAILY 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 1
DAILY ACTION

Water

Fix Leaky Faucets

I will fix faucets or report leaky faucets to facilities that have been wasting up to 9 gallons (34 L) of water a day or 270 (1,020 L) gallons of water a month per faucet.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Volunteer in my Community

I will volunteer 1 hour(s) in my community during the challenge.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Host A Watch Party

I will host a watch party to screen a documentary about an issue that matters to me.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Nature

Tend a Garden

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

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Nature

Go for a Daily Walk

I will take a 30-minute walk outside each day.

COMPLETED 0
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 0
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?

paige Herkemij 3/09/2025 7:52 PM
This week I focused on something from the simplicities actions, I chose to declutter. I am moving in the next few months and it is too expensive to bring everything with me, so I thought this is the perfect excuse to really go through all of my things. I found that I keep way to many things because they are "sentimental" to me, when they really should just be donated or thrown away. A lot of the things I tend to keep are silly like receipts from trips or tickets for movies, actual trash that I should just let go of lol. I have decided to sell a ton of stuff on Facebook marketplace. Although some of the stuff is maybe only worth a few dollars, I can still put the money I make to moving costs. Maybe I can post a few of the things to the class as I have to get rid of everything I own aside from my clothes and shoes. This will be a great test to see if I can let go of my materialistic ways :)

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- Amy Minato 3/11/2025 12:50 PM
  - TEAM CAPTAIN
  Paige
  You are welcome to use this site to post stuff until it ends next week.
  Amy
  
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paige Herkemij 3/01/2025 12:58 PM
This week I focused on being out in nature more. Since the weather was so beautiful this week, it was not super hard. I decided that this week would be the perfect time to really get my garden ready. I pulled all the dead plants and weeds out of my garden beds, and started planning out which herbs and veggies I want to grow. I also helped my friend get her backyard ready for gardening season. I have been sending my best friend some of the videos and articles that we see in class to encourage her to also take a more sustainable approach in the world. She started a compost in her backyard and we are growing all of the things I cant grow on my back deck, in her backyard. I also wanted t o see the sunflower gardens to see what I missed, and it was so fun. I am very excited to see the sun stay out in the next couple months!

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- Pierre Kaptanian 3/09/2025 10:17 AM
  so much respect for gardening, and sharing link with friends, way to go!
  
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- Amy Minato 3/08/2025 12:25 PM
  - TEAM CAPTAIN
  Paige
  I love that you are sharing our class material with your friend. Maybe you could take her over to sunflower farm to visit and volunteer.
  
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- Lex Lazo 3/02/2025 7:13 PM
  Hey Paige,
  
  I think it's cool you've been sending some of the stuff we watch/read in class to your friend. More people need to know about sustainability and how they can make changes in their own lives. Also it's exciting that you're starting a garden!
  
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- Kit Stauf 3/02/2025 6:04 PM
  It's great that you're encouraging your friend to adopt sustainable practices with you! What kinds of things are you growing on your deck vs in her backyard?
  
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paige Herkemij 2/24/2025 9:25 PM
This week I did not accomplish the challenge at all. I looked back at some of the challenges for this week, and I did the opposite of all of them. I had to take a flight to visit a college I am looking to attend, and I had to rent a car to get to the actual city its located in. Since being in this class, I have been a lot more aware of the waste I create, and this trip came with a lot. I forgot my reusable water bottle, so I used quite a few plastic water bottles, as well as ate lots of things in plastic wrapping.
Its interesting to me how much I am aware now of my carbon footprint because of this class. It is quite funny that the transportation week came on the week I had to fly which causes lots of emissions. While checking out the new campus I will be moving to, it seems like I will not need a car very often as everything is walkable or public transportation can be accessed. I am excited to drive less in the coming years and walk more to create more connections with others. To make up for this, this week I will try to work from home as much as I can, and take the max into campus when I do need to come.

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- Amy Minato 2/25/2025 6:39 PM
  - TEAM CAPTAIN
  Paige sometimes it works out that way, awareness is important and self acceptance too. We do what we can, when we can
  
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paige Herkemij 2/17/2025 9:18 PM
This week was community building week. My next door neighbor is an older man who has been pretty lonely. We have a pretty good relationship but I like to do nice things for him every once in a while so I decided to shovel his driveway and sidewalk when it snowed. He actually walks my dog sometimes when he is feeling extra lonely so I asked if he wanted to walk with me as well. We have some new people moving in so I also brought them some banana bread to introduce myself. Next week I have Wednesday off so I think I will attend the tutoring session in Multnomah village to help some highschooler which I am actually excited about.
I really enjoyed this weeks challenge as it gave me more perspective of all the nice people around me and how easy it is to make people a little happier.

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- Lex Lazo 2/21/2025 2:42 PM
  How sweet! It's nice that you take time to spend with your neighbor and that he walks your dog sometimes. It's cool you can find community with the people around you!
  
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- Amy Minato 2/21/2025 1:22 PM
  - TEAM CAPTAIN
  Paige this sounds wonderful. We hope to see you at Learning Cafe!
  
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paige Herkemij 2/10/2025 1:39 PM
Fixing leaky faucets is one of the tasks that we can easily put off until later. Good job on completing this action! How will you use the momentum from completing this action to increase your water efficiency in other ways?

This week I went around the house to find leaky faucets and things I could do to mitigate my water waste. One thing is that my shower head always drips after my showers for hours and hours. I tightened it up slightly and it no longer leaks. It funny how such little things can make a difference. Another thing that we haven been talking about was rainwater collection and why it could be banned in places. I did some more research and it seems that in dry areas they need the water to run to other counties and areas that rely on rainfall, so if everyone collected it there might be a problem. I decided to try and collect rain water/ water I might just dump down the drains. I kept some pasta water and collect some rain water this week and used it to water all of my house plants. Although the things I did this week will not make a big difference to anything, I think its keeping sustainability in my forefront and its helping me making different choices in my daily life.

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- Amy Minato 2/11/2025 9:20 AM
  - TEAM CAPTAIN
  its interesting that just being aware can lead to changes that add up.. I agree creating a sustainability mindset is a big part of the goal
  
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paige Herkemij 2/02/2025 8:34 PM
I really looked into the meals that I commonly eat throughout the week, and they all consist of some sort of meat product. I wanted to try and move away from that this week, which was actually very easy since I had my wisdom teeth out and could not eat hard/chewy things. I instead made various bean, potatoes, and soft vegetables. I want to continue to eat less red meat and reach for fish and chicken to not only be more sustainable but also more healthy. I also researched growing beans in my garden this year (I didnt think I could on my deck garden) but it seems like I may be able to do not only green beans but also possibly black beans? This would be super cool as we eat tons of black beans and would be very cheap if we could grow them ourselves.

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- Amy Minato 2/03/2025 7:13 PM
  - TEAM CAPTAIN
  hummus is a good soft food meat substitute, cheap and easy to make. I dont think black beans are easy to grow but i do think you can local beans at farmer's markets.
  
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- Melissa Cruz 2/03/2025 3:06 AM
  I also want to move away from red meat. I didn't realize that cattle were a big contributor in producing methane gas! Also growing beans in your garden sounds like a great idea as they have a smaller footprint and hold such a long shelf life!
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Energy

What do you plan to do with the money you save from making more energy efficient choices?
paige Herkemij 1/26/2025 9:08 PM
I chose to switch to cold water when washing clothes in the washing machine. I do this for colored loads but now I want to do this for all load because I did not even think about the energy its taking to heat up water for a load of clothes. Changing this one small thing is saving energy and my money. I want to look into doing an audit of all the things I could switch to that might save me money.

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- Pierre Kaptanian 1/28/2025 7:24 PM
  And no heat is good for your synthetic and delicate fibers! Spandex literally cannot.
  
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- Amy Minato 1/28/2025 9:37 AM
  
  TEAM CAPTAIN
  great plan! hang drying laundry is also good, or spinning it on high so it needs less heat to dry
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Waste

Maybe you've heard how good it is to switch from a single use coffee cup to a reusable one, but it's just hard to make the switch. What stands in your way of making this a habit? By identifying the challenges, you can begin to work through them to have better success in taking this action. Knowing the difference you are making, how does it make you feel?
paige Herkemij 1/19/2025 4:44 PM
For the last two weeks I was trying to use no plastic straws, cups, or bottles. I found it super hard while traveling, especially since California does not have clean tap water. I think the only way to actually go plastic free with to-go things is if your are around your home-base to access reusable cups and straws. While I have been back at home, its been much easier to ditch the plastic, leaving reusable mugs and straws in my car has been a quick access alternative so I don't end up needing to use the plastic. I have been much more mindful around single use plastics this week, thinking about how I might reuse the plastic or all together skip a coffee if I left my mug, which has ended up saving me money.

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- Amy Minato 1/29/2025 5:58 PM
  
  TEAM CAPTAIN
  california does not have clean tap water? REI sells a water bottle that has a filter in it. super convenient
  
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- Kit Stauf 1/19/2025 5:01 PM
  I don't travel out of state frequently, so I hadn't thought about how it may be more difficult in certain areas to use a reusable water bottle!
  
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