Hallie McClure

ENST 246 - Spring 2025

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
525 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

23

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

131

pounds of CO2

have been saved
UP TO

615

minutes

not spent in front of a screen
UP TO

7.0

pounds of paper

have been saved
UP TO

50

plastic bottles

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

400

gallons of water

have been saved
UP TO

540

minutes

spent exercising
UP TO

3.0

conversations

with people
UP TO

11

people

helped
UP TO

540

minutes

spent outdoors

Hallie's actions

Simplicity

Core Values

We may find more meaning and joy in life when our actions are aligned with our personal values. I will determine what my top 3-5 core values are so that I can better align my actions with them.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Nature

Go for a Daily Walk

I will take a 10-minute walk outside each day.

COMPLETED 26
DAILY ACTIONS

Simplicity

Less Screen Time

I will replace 15 minute(s) of screen time each day with other activities.

COMPLETED 25
DAILY ACTIONS

Waste

Find Local Recycling Depots

I will find out where to recycle the recyclable items that I can't put in recycling dumpsters or my curbside bin.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Waste

Use a Reusable Water Bottle

I will keep 2 disposable plastic bottle(s) from entering the waste stream by using a reusable water bottle.

COMPLETED 19
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 20
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Reduce Animal Products

I will enjoy 1 meatless meal(s) and/or 1 vegan meal(s) each day this week.

COMPLETED 11
DAILY ACTIONS

Health

Happiness

I will write down three things every day that I am grateful for, or send one email every day thanking or praising someone.

COMPLETED 12
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Try a New Way to Prep

I will try a new method of food preparation, such as canning, pickling, or baking bread.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Health

Learn About Local Environmental Justice Concerns

I will spend 30 minutes researching environmental justice and environmental racism concerns in my region, who is affected by them, and local initiatives to address these concerns.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Help Others

I will offer to help 2 person(s) who are in need each day.

COMPLETED 5
DAILY ACTIONS

Community

Engage In Active Listening

I will practice actively listening to a friend, family member, co-worker, acquaintance, or someone who I may disagree with in at least 3 conversations.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Waste

Choose Two-Sided Printing

I will save up to .21 lbs (.09 kg) of paper per day by switching from one-sided printing to two-sided when I have to print documents.

COMPLETED 7
DAILY ACTIONS

Energy

Turn it off

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

COMPLETED 6
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

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?

Hallie McClure 2/19/2025 8:32 PM
1. The waste and community challenges have reaffirmed some of my core values that I wrote down for one of the other challenges; honesty, compassion, and adaptability. The waste challenge allowed me to realize how much paper I print each day for my homework. When I do readings I tend to print them out, to reduce the amount of paper waste I started printing two pages per side as well as double sided. Since coming to college I began to start using my laptop a lot more than I had when I was in high school. As much as I try to limit my printing, it is the way that I learn best. The blue light on the laptop is uncomfortable for me to look at after awhile and I drift off and then end up needing to reread. Within Susan Strasser’s article, “Never Gonna Give You Up”, she highlights how the convenience of dispoabiity is a luxury for more Americans. I realized that I’ve never acknowledged the privilege I have to dispose of most of my papers as soon as the semester ends and then never really think about where they will end up. For the community challenge I choose the challenge related to helping people each day. Bucknell has been such a great community that has pushed me out of my comfort zone and has challenged me to grow as an individual. This challenge would help me give back to the people and the campus that has done so much for me over the past two and a hald years. I learned that I often help people without thinking about it because of the way I was brought up. My parents raised me to be a servant to others because what you give to others is given back to you in some way, shape or form. I’m glad to learn that even as a college student a little further removed from my family I still hold this as one of my core values; compassion and kindness goes a long way.
2. My childhood laid that foundation of my relationship with the environment and it’s continued to grow since then. The Ecochallege has caused me to think about my relationship with the environment through the ways that my daily actions have an impact. Across all of the categories I learned that when I spend more time outside I tend to be happier. Starting my morning with a short cold walk helps me feel more enginergized in the day, even though the cold is not my favorite. Additionally, writing down things each day that made me happy or emailing someone to let them know how much I appreciate them has allowed me to be more intentional with the time I am spending with people. During these hangouts I am more conscious of how my choices are affecting the environment – I feel that overall my relationship has strengthened in a motivated and intentional way to change parts of my lifestyle in order to make a difference. The food and waste challenges overall made me think about what I am putting into my body and if I am actually aware of the products that I am buying with each visit to the grocery store. The introduction of “Gathering Storm” states that, “Food was the problem, and food was the answer” (McGrath, pg 2). By simply choosing what products to buy and consume people are making political choices on which corporations they are going to support. I need to change the way I have structured my relationship with food in order to be more sustainable. Now I eat one meatless/vegan meal a day and I feel like even though it’s a small choice to get something without a protein, that the decision matters when it is at the smallest scale. Then finally, after reading the Leiserowitz article I realized that maybe my individual involvement “public will” was never spoken, instead it was an idea or thought. Public will is structured through “social systems that shared recognition of a particular problem and resole to address the situation in a particular way” (Leiserowitz). In a sense our classroom could be seen as a social system that is shaping my perception of the way I can alter my relationships with the environment and get involved as an environmental activist at any level.
3. The historical and cultural origins of food and disploability are what set up our mentality on the ways in which we interact with the challenges. The counterculture movement mentioned in the “Gathering Storm” Introduction shows a gorup of people, or as we learned in Leiserowitz’s reading an issue public, that is passionate about a specific issue and will change their lifestyle to reflect that. The countercilture movement was population within the 1960-70s and focused on breaking the cultural norm of highly processed foods to organic foods that were more sustainable and similar to original agriculture. My one time challenge of active listening for the community section to talk with people who share differing opinions from mine – the reason our opinions can vary is because of individual awareness of disposiblity and organic foods. Another one of my challenges is to find local recycling facilities – there are a decent amount of local facilities within a 15 mile radius, but as we mentioned in class there is also a landfill relatively close to campus where most things end up. The “History of New York: Told Through it’s Trash” provided a timeline or disposability and the different methods that were used to eliminate waste, specifically incineration but within the challenge it was more on finding sustainable alternatives. Therefore, understanding the origins of organic food and the waste system will help us better understand how to go back to being sustainable and minimizng our impact.
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- Andrew Stuhl 2/20/2025 10:28 AM
  - TEAM CAPTAIN
  - 28-DAY STREAK
  This is great Hallie! How remarkable to hear you reflect on your core values, see your daily actions as living those values out, and find comfort and resonance in how your upbringing has shaped you into the person you are today. I'm sure your parents/family would love to read this Journal! I appreciate that you couple your personal experiences with the Eco Challenge with our readings; obviously, this was an expectation of the assignment, but it is wonderful to see the connections you make here. There is a deep, powerful form of fulfillment that comes from knowing who you are and why you live the way you do. I personally think that kind of fulfillment is a greater goal than "happiness," or, to put it another way, that kind of fulfillment is what I mean when I say "happiness." It isn't easy, and takes work -- daily work - but it is very worth it. Knowing you are an Environmental Studies major and that you will be continuing your journey with environmental action well after this class gives me lots of hope and excitement for the future. What kind of changes will you make - on campus, in our world? What kind of legacy will you leave? I can't wait to see what you think about the next unit in class.
  
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Hallie McClure 2/05/2025 6:50 PM
Experimenting with the daily and one-time challenges over the past week has caused me to be more intentional about my actions each day and the environmental impact that these actions have. After a week they are now more embedded into my routine and most of them I don’t necessarily have to think about doing anymore. I do need to change it up slightly each day so things don’t feel repetitive; I enjoy a good routine but also love variety. For my daily walk I challenged myself to go for a short walk when the sun was rising for two days of the week. My classes this semester start at 8:30am so I was already up and a quick fifteen minute walk was pretty plausible. The main surprise is how I remember to do the tasks everyday, but I do not remember to check in everyday and need to backlog my hours. At my on-campus jobs I have a similar problem of forgetting to log my hours and need to backlog them at the end of the week. I found it more difficult to remind myself that I needed to do the one-time challenges since they weren’t ingrained into my daily routine. As most college students do, I feel like there are minimal parts of the day where I get to slow down and take time each day to reflect. The Eco-Challenge has allowed me to intentionally take time each day to slow down, reflect, and appreciate life a little more, even amidst the chaos.
Implementing the Eco-Challenge into my everyday life in some ways is feasible, but at the same time there are barriers to this lifestyle that come with living on campus. In such a rural area it is hard to access groceries without some form of transportation and sometimes a bike isn’t the best option for a good restock. Additionally, limited budgets based on financial struggles with tuition and being mostly self sufficient makes it hard to want to spend the extra money on making sure everything is organic and of the best quality. One of the barriers that I face with making these lifestyle changes permanent so far is probably the 5 minute showers. They’re not too bad in the mornings when I am rushing to get ready for class, but after camping or working out I like to take longer showers. Although I think being environmentally friendly can be a challenge, if someone really wants to make a difference they can do the smaller challenges each day that will add up over time.

After the first few weeks of participating in the Eco-Challenge I am more willing to implement some of these lifestyle changes into my daily life permanently. Taking time out of each day to go on a walk outside is relatively easy to incorporate into my daily routine. Since I walk around so much to classes and to see friends, it hasn’t been bad adding an extra walk in each day. Also, avoiding plastic bottles has been doable especially because I carry around my own reusable water bottle everyday and continuously fill it up. The documentary on minimalism was really interesting and made me realize that I don’t need as many clothes as I have. This made me go through my closet – I found that I don’t wear a majority of the clothes hanging up and in my drawers so I am making a bag that my mom can take to her students who need them more and will use them more than I do. Therefore, after continuing the eco-challenge for the next few works, I feel that I will be able to implement the majority of the tasks into my daily life.

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- Andrew Stuhl 2/06/2025 10:40 AM
  - TEAM CAPTAIN
  - 28-DAY STREAK
  Awesome Hallie! You make great points about both the benefits and challenges of the actions you selected. A lot of the barriers we face with challenges do extend from the infrastructure or setting we are in -- like a dorm room shared with others, a living space where we don't directly pay for water or energy utilities, or a rural area where automobiles are almost necessary to shop for fresh food. Those are all great points and remind us of the importance of enacting change on a broader scale beyond the individual. All that said, I'm glad you are pushing on and finding ways to make a difference thru the daily actions. Your initiative to donate unused clothes is very generous and a great reflection of the minimalist mindset.
  
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Hallie McClure 1/27/2025 9:37 PM
a) I’m excited for the EcoChallenge overall because I feel that watching our classes progress overall will keep increasing motivation. The daily challenge so far that I am the most excited about is a daily outside walk for at least 15 minutes. Over the weekend I invited my friend to walk to downtown Lewisburg with me and we ended up walking for over an hour and got to catch up and get coffee. Last semester I was really trying to walk outside more instead of inside on the treadmill and I can’t wait until it is warm enough to start walking on the rail trail again! The daily challenge that I am more nervous about would have to be under the transportation category. When I am on campus I find it relatively easy to walk to my classes, to get food, to see friends, but when I need to go to the grocery store or want to go get coffee with my friends we end up driving. I definitely will be able to reduce my car use to when only necessary, yet it is something I feel that I frequently use as I dog sit for families in Lewisburg and drive to and from their houses to classes. There is definitely more of a dependency on my car than I sometimes like to admit. This will help hold me accountable and actually change my actions. The one-time challenge that I am most excited for is to write down three things everyday that I am grateful for. This will act as a good centering activity for me to end the day in a positive way. The one-time activities that I am nervous about are some of the ones that fall under the water category because I’m not sure how well or if I could even insulate, install, or fix anything plumbing wise at all.

b) The daily challenges that I think will impact my ecological footprint are adjusting the heat, driving less, and removing plastic straws/cups. Within my dorm room I am constantly adjusting the temperature, especially during this weather, to points where it probably does not need to be at. Additionally, as mentioned before I drive pretty regularly to do errands which does not help my footprint at all. Then also I love a good iced coffee in the morning but on campus most of them come in plastic cups with plastic straws so I will limit the amount of coffees I will buy to reduce this. The one time action of finding a recycling depot will also reduce my ecological footprint. On campus I’ve heard different opinions and ideas on Bucknell’s recycling and oftentimes I don’t know what to believe. I would like to save my recyclable items and put them in a proper facility.

c)Most of the challenges under the community category will address social drivers of the crisis we face because of the divided communities that do not come together to create change. Through showing my support and getting involved in local organizations I will be contributing to raising awareness of these social environmental issues along with volunteering at the organizations that are working to combat these issues. Going off of this, I also think these could address political drivers as well. By practicing active listening and signing up to vote, restorative justice, these are ways individuals can show their support of change. A lot of times people think that their individual actions don’t make a difference, yet if everyone changed one thing and can just be 1% different then more can be achieved on a global scale.

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- Andrew Stuhl 1/29/2025 7:13 AM
  - TEAM CAPTAIN
  - 28-DAY STREAK
  Great Hallie! I'm glad you are excited about this Eco Challenge and anticipate finding our class' cumulative impact a source of motivation to keep going. We will definitely all face adversity in creating new habits, including but beyond the domains you mentioned - like not knowing how to fix plumbing (!) or not being in control of whether or not there are public transit options available in Central PA so you can drive less. In the domains where we do have control, like the thermostat, or bringing a reusable mug for coffee, or making your own coffee, there are wonderful opportunities for reflection on how you are living your life and the various impacts it has. I'm really glad to see that you combined your outdoor time with social time with friends, I think that is a sure-fire way to make a new habit stick and also to grow your impact by involving others. Nicely done!
  
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