I will save up to 20 gallons (75 L) of water each day by taking 5-minute showers.
COMPLETED 2
DAILY ACTIONS
Water
Understand My Water Footprint
Each of us has a water footprint, directly linked to our daily activities as well as the water required in the production of things we use each day. Understanding our water use is important for a healthy planet. I will calculate my water footprint and look for a few ways I can reduce consumption or waste, then share what I learned on the feed.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Transportation
Use Public Transit Instead of Driving
I will use public transit 2 miles each day and avoid sending CO2 into Earth's atmosphere.
COMPLETED 10
DAILY ACTIONS
Community
Explore the Community Feed and Connect with Others
I will spend 10 minutes reading the Ecochallenge feed each day and giving high fives or commenting on posts by people who I don't know, but whose content inspires or interests me.
COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS
Community
Engage In Active Listening
I will practice actively listening to a friend, family member, classmate, acquaintance, or someone who I may disagree with in at least 1 conversations.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Transportation
Share Rides with Others
I will sign up for a car-sharing service or coordinate ride shares with roommates, classmates, or campus peers to reduce the number of vehicles on the road.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Energy
Turn Off Lights and Electronics
I will keep lights, electronics, and appliances turned off when not using them.
COMPLETED 35
DAILY ACTIONS
Energy
Adjust the Thermostat
I will adjust my thermostat down 2 degrees from usual when I use the heat, and up 2 degrees when I use air conditioning.
COMPLETED 32
DAILY ACTIONS
Waste
Use a Reusable Water Bottle
I will keep 1 disposable plastic bottles from entering the waste stream by using a reusable water bottle.
COMPLETED 21
DAILY ACTIONS
Waste
Repair a Broken Item
I will repair at least one item that is broken, but is repairable. This might be items like garden tools, sewing machine, small appliances, electronics, clothing, and more.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Food
Practice Zero-Waste Cooking
Food waste hurts our planet and our communities. I will cook 1 meals with zero waste each day.
COMPLETED 14
DAILY ACTIONS
Energy
Complete an 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
Food
Buy From a Farmers Market
I will try to shop at a farmers market or food co-op, if one is accessible, to support local farmers and businesses. By doing so, I may be able to learn more about who produces the food I eat and goods I buy.
This week, for nature, I visited Marquam Nature Park and took a hilke - not the full five miles because it got pretty rainy and I didn't bring a jacket, but I did enjoy a good hour in nature with my phone away. I also looked our for native plants I recognized from growing up in the Pacific Northwest, which was really nice.
For consumerism, my goal was not to buy anything I didn't need that wasn't secondhand, and to do another week of responsibly sourcing my groceries. I got what I could (produce, cheese, bread) from the PSU farmers market over the weekend, and visited a few used physical media stores to grow my CD/DVD collection without ordering anything new. My girlfriend was actually able to score the entire Twilight series and all but 2 spider-man movies via secondhand DVD across four locations for like $12 total, and I got all but one of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies for under $20, also secondhand DVD. I did also make some solid progress on my textile upcycling for my eco-change, although I did not plan out the time and elements of my projects very neatly and missed a deadline haha
Your eco-change project sounds awesome, I can't wait to hopefully see the final product, or at least some progress pictures! I love finding awesome deals, that's basically the only time I'll buy things. Otherwise, I get all self-conscious about the fact that I probably could have paid less for it... I've got to check out the farmer's market!
I really didn't have to change much this week, as I live downtown and do not have a car so I tak public transit or walk everywhere anyway. That being said, and this is somewhat embarassing, I did make a point not to skip paying my fare for the TriMet, which is a bad habit I have developed since moving to Portland. Portland's public transit is amazing, especially compared to the area I'm from, and I know it has lost a lot of funding lately. It can be kind of expensive but I have room in my budget to pay for the service that makes it possible for me to live here without a car. Also, while not my transportation directly I did also take some long awkward walks at night to pick up food instead of doordashing it when I didn't have groceries for dinner.
hi arin! i never think about paying trimet fair as being directly correlative with funding— thats a really good point! also good on you for not using doordash :-)
Honestly this was a complete rush job, not my best work, but I was able to save my girlfriend's ancient secondhand copy of Gray's Anatomy when pages started falling out. Because I didn't have any bookbinding specific tools with me, I used a really tough fabric clue and a brush to adhere the loose section to itself, let it dry, and then used the same process to glue it back onto the spine. Then I left it under two 10lb dumbbells for 24 hours, added a little more glue around the corners, gave it another day and now it seems to be holding up pretty well.
For water week, I honestly wasn't able to do much except for change my dishwashing habits; I live in an apartment building and already try to be concious of my water usage in areas that I can control. I did calculate my water footpring which was about 1,340 gallons per day according to this [https://watercalculator.org/wfc2/complete/] calculator. While that is sligltly below the site's reported national average, that's still a really high number and it's difficult to conceptualize how much water I use without even noticing it (mostly through indirect "virtual" water usage and food). For my dishes, I tried not to hand was anything if I could avoid it, but my apartment's dishwasher is less than stellar and I ended up having to hand wash a decent amount of my dishes. That being said I did try to reduce my water waste when cooking, and soaked the dishes I could instead of just scrubbing them under running water.
This week for food was also pretty rough as I am pretty low on money. That being said, I was able to cook almost all of my meals made at home, and visited the PSU farmers' market on Saturday to see what groceries I could get there. While many things were out of my price range (end of the month haha) I did get some smoked salmon that was preserved locally and sourced from "sustaibale" farms in Vancouver. I asked the vendor about the farm and they said their Vancouver supplier uses 12 large net pens in the ocean, with only 6 being actively farmed at a time, and zero antibiotics for the fish. They also had local wild-caught fish available, which I did not buy. This https://www.thesmokery.com/about-us is a link to the website of the salmon vendor, and attached is an unrelated picture of a zero-waste breakfast I made earlier this week for me, my roomate, and girlfriend. Does a meal count as "zero waste" if I have to discard eggshells? What about cooking with milk, when the carton will eventually be recycled?
Arin do you know about the food pantry on campus? also you can get veggies from helping at Learning Gardens. thanks for the link and pic! if waste is composted or recycled its zero waste.
really good question about the definition of "zero waste" meals... i think the same thing whenever i cook something where i don't have to throw anything out right away, but i'm still using packaged foods. i think no matter what, it's still better than nothing that you're even conscious of your waste. also eggshells are compostable!
also i realllly get the end of the month struggle, groceries are expensive (my staple meal this week was beans and rice from the psu food pantry and very little else). if you're able to, i would suggest doing a grocery shop at winco. there's one on powell and 90th and also one in beaverton if you're on the west side. they're community owned, they have a huge bulk section where you can bring your own bags if you want, AND they're incredibly cheap, more so than safeway or qfc, even. highly recommend.
This week was pretty rough for me in terms of my ecochallenge behaviors. I've continued to habitually turn off my electronics, thermostat, and lights. Unfortunately I was also pretty sick on and off most of this week and ended up having to order fast food several times, and buy bottled electrolyte drinks to rehydrated myself. No pictures this unfortunately, as I spent most of the week sick and shuffling around my cold dark apartment haha I think of all things, my energy usage habits are fairly responsible already, so I was able to manage the main challenges for the week.
I am slightly addicted to electrolyte drinks, especially in the summer, so I buy the large, bulk, canisters of powdered gatorade in the 4 flavors available so I can change it up, but this way I am relying on my own water bottles to reuse instead of just purchasing on the go - which is not to say that that does not happen, when I'm on long hauls sometimes it's the only convenient way to find what I'm looking for - however, truck stops have started adding gatorade or the other similar brands at their soda fountains so you can refill you cup when you stop for fuel, restrooms, food, etc. I'm appreciative of their consideration.
This week was pretty rough for me in terms of my ecochallenge behaviors. I've continued to habitually turn off my electronics, thermostat, and lights. Unfortunately I was also pretty sick on and off most of this week and ended up having to order fast food several times, and buy bottled electrolyte drinks to rehydrated myself. No pictures this unfortunately, as I spent most of the week sick and shuffling around my cold dark apartment haha I think of all things, my energy usage habits are fairly responsible already, so I was able to manage the main challenges for the week.
This week, for waste, I focused mostly on my waste in terms of single-use food packaging. I only used two plastic bottles this week (which is way down for me as someone who generally drinks one to two bottled sodas a day), and cooked 8/12 of my meals this week without the use of single-use plastic packaging. I challenged myself to avoid single-use plastic at all costs. While this seems at first like a week spent eating responsibly, I will admit I let the challenge of not using disposable containers get in the way of my best interest. There were several times where I felt sick and unable to cook, but was also unwilling to go to the store and buy a snack in a disposable container, so I just ate whatever food items (leftovers, non-nutritious snacks) I could find already in my apartment. I also needed to get groceries, but didn't have time to go to the co-op and didn't have the money for most "responsibly packaged" goods so my fridge was a little bare. The nights where I had time and energy to cook myself a whole meal without ready-made components or single-use plastic felt great, but there were fewer of those than ones where I felt I should have planned this better.
As a side note, I did also reduce paper waste by using the backsides of single-sided printed essays I had laying around to make maps for my weekly tabletop game night.
While water bottles are needed for health and safety in certain places, we can do more to reduce the unnecessary use of them. What are the barriers to you using reusable bottles and tap water instead of bottled water? How could you make this a permanent habit?
The main barriers between me and reducing plastic bottle use are my caffine intake, and my own forgetfulness. I usually use 2 plastic bottles a day drinking Coke, and drink water at home. By changing from soda to coffee, I'm able to get my caffine at home without the plastic bottle. For the forgetfulness, I often forget to bring a water bottle with me when I go out, which leaves me thirsty with few options in the middle of the day. When this happens, I try to opt for a higher-quality plastic bottle that I will be abe to reuse, or use a drinking fountain.
Amy Minato 2/12/2026 3:50 PM
