Jillian McDaniel

For my last eco-challenge, I decided to complete the online energy audit which was link with the challenge by energy star. The audit had you enter the zip code (address was optional), number of occupants, sq footage as well as the kWh usage for 12 months which I got and estimated from one of our PGE bills. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1o being the best, our house scored a 9.8. Although, we still used about 8275kWh which is equal to 9.1 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which doesn’t seem great. But our house is above average in using less energy, which makes me wonder how much energy is used to be at a 5 scoring, which is average for most households. 

It was interesting to see what some of things they mentioned you could do to improve the score, like use a power strip, cover your pots on the stove, or turn the lights off when not in use (which I always thought was common in every household, but I have met people where it’s not). I use a power strip for my desk area and turn it on only when I am using it, which is to mainly charge my laptop or iPad. But there were many other things I saw that I know we could start doing, like change all the light bulbs to energy efficient lightbulbs. We had done that years ago, but as time went on and bulbs burnt out, they were switch to the standard bulb. 

 

Unfortunately, I am not sure if our new kitchen appliances are energy saving. I didn’t see any marking on them like our washer has. You would think it has become the standard for new appliance to be energy saving. Kind of a bummer to think that barely any of the appliances we have are energy efficient since we will be using for years to come. At least we keep the fridge door closed, which was another one. With my mom finally upgrading her kitchen after 22 years of living in this house, the fridge now beeps if the door is left open, so we have that in the bag. But it was interesting to see how little some of the improvements could be. I am going to try to make as many improvements as possible so that I can to hopefully keep our score high in the long run. 

For the seventh eco-challenge, I choose to track my purchases for the week. I went from Monday the 4th to Monday the 11th. If I was still living on my own, like I was last year, instead of at home, I know my spending habits would look very different. Gas, grocery, and some food delivery. Instead, I only bought four things this week and ate food that we already had. Two of my purchases were clothing I got when I walked to Goodwill for my last echo challenge. Both pieces were made in China, which I know is one of the countries we should avoid buying from constantly. One piece is made out of 100% recycled materials, which before I would’ve thought was a good thing, but know I am not sure with the microplastics. I know with proper care, even though the qualities aren’t best, I can make them last. Always look at the care instructions, it can really help with the longevity of the clothes. Another thing I bought, which I know in terms of shipping isn’t very sustainable, is a piece of merchandise for a group that I like to listen to. It is made in and shipped from Korea, but overseas shipping doesn’t have a great carbon footprint. I know this is something I need to work on, but there really isn’t a way for me to buy any of those kinds of things local. Even if I buy from a US based store, the product was still originally shipped from Korea. The last thing I bought was a last-minute purchase. I bought a plastic cosmetic travel bag to use as a make-shift bag for a concert I am going to. I organically has plans to use small bags that I already owned, but the venue has a strict policy on what kind of bags are allowed, so I improvised. But I will still be able to get a lot of use out of the bag for traveling. Like I will be going camping next week and will definitely use it then. I think trying to track my purchases is great for me to understand how much I am actually spending and how much of the things I buy I actually needed. I will start to do this more in the future. 

For this eco-challenge I wanted to do one of the challenges of using a different method of transportation besides a car, but I didn’t actually leave my house. I only left once to pick up a radon monitor from a house we were testing. The property wasn’t far away, but public transit doesn’t really venture out that far. I don’t remember seeing any bus stops once I crossed the Carver bridge and headed into Redland. Anyway, I wasn’t really satisfied just doing research or watching a documentary, so I finally convinced myself to leave the house. I’ve had this one errand I’ve been meaning to run so I decided to try walking to do it instead. Normally it would’ve been a 5-minute drive. The store was only 2 miles away, but by walking it ended up being about a 40-minute walk. It actually wasn’t do bad of a walk. It didn’t seem like 40 minutes. I downloaded two episodes of a podcast and the walk went pretty quickly. Next time though, I would definitely need to take another allergy pill. But during this walk I realized how much of this area is designed around cars. There are a lot of shops nearby and within walking distance, theoretically speaking, but it really isn’t convenient to walk on a daily basis. Something that would normally only take a half an hour took me over 2 hours. Luckily there are a lot of sidewalks so walking is safe, but is wouldn’t be feasible if someone needed to do a main grocery run from where I lived. With the increase in development more apartments have been built surrounding the newer shopping centers, so for those residents walking will honestly be one of the best forms of transportation. But walking did make me think about what I was going to purchase since I would have to carry it all back. I don’t think I will be able to walk every time I need to run an errand in the area just because of how long it would take, but it is something I think I will try to do walk more when time and weather permits. It was nice to get outside and enjoy the fresh air. 

For the fifth eco-challenge I had a goal to sign 2 petitions. In the end I found 3 that I was interested in. I was having a difficult time trying to use the search bar on change.org to find local environmental petitions. I decided to search on google first to get an idea for keywords to find petitions to sign. I found an article about a group petitioning to clean up the Willamette River of trash which inspired me to look at petitions surrounding the Willamette River since it is such a huge part of Portland. I found one that wasn’t about the river but popped up because of the name Willamette. It was started by a student at Willamette University in Salem to get a bottle program started there. I signed it because recycling bottles can really help keep plastics out of landfills and it was sad to hear about a university throwing away almost all of their bottles. Another one I found was to protect the Willamette River from artificial waves. This would come from the disbandment of ‘no-wake’ areas and allowing unrestricted use of recreational vessels along the Willamette. This would also affect the natural wildlife that was living in the undisturbed areas of the river. It was a little older, from 2019, but I didn’t see any updates on the petition saying that the petition was no longer of use. A family member at dinner the other night also confirmed that the current law was still in place about having set recreational areas. The third one was much broader but still would affect Oregon. It was to protect the Pacific Ocean from offshore drilling. It’s pretty obvious the huge impacts it could have on our coasts. But from further research, I believe the petition is moot, unfortunately. But I believe not only should we help our smaller communities around where we live, but all of Oregon also. The state of Oregon is also our community, our home.

For this eco-challenge, I was looking at trying to switch my current shower head to a low flow shower head. But I knew I wanted to do more research on which ones would be best since there are so articles stating that some shower heads claim to be low flow but are not. Also, with the time constraint of these challenges I wouldn’t be able to really do a thorough job. Instead, I came up with my own eco-challenge relating to water. Both times when we had hosted exchange students from Japan, and even when I stayed with a host family in Japan, there was a certain way they showered. It’s not even that different of a way, it’s just merely turned the water off when not in use. I couldn’t exactly tell you how that originates, but it probably comes from the use of the public bath houses they have, or just their bath culture in general. You are supposed to clean up before a bath in order for the bath water to be used for the entire family. It interesting to think about, because in Japan the emphasis on relaxation is on the bath and with Western culture the emphasis for relaxation is with the shower, which is why it some people tend to take longer showers. To pamper themselves. 

 

Anyway, using this method I was able to cut the water I used in half or even more. Normally with a 20-minute shower, it would take about 40-50 gallons of water with a normal shower head. With this method I had the water running for less than 10 minutes, so 25 gallons or less of water used. It’s not a five-minute shower, but it’s still better. I know this method will be much easier to do in summer when the weather is all-around warmer. Winter is another story since everything is so cold. But, with the combination of this method as well as getting a low flow shower head, I will be able to reduce the amount of water I use. 

For the session 3 eco challenges, I accidentally switched two weeks and by the time I noticed I wasn’t able to any outing like I would have liked. Instead, spurred on by the reading, I wanted to take a look at some of the proper ways to store produce to keep it from going bad. I know my household doesn’t do much extra in the way of storage. We just put it the designated fridge bin in the plastic bag that it came in from the store. I was shocked to find out that there are certain fruits and vegetables that need to be kept away from each other. There are some fruits, like apples and bananas that release an ethylene gas and certain produces can be ethylene-sensitive like cabbage and other leavy greens. So basically, gas-emitting produces should be kept away from ethylene-sensitive ones. I didn’t even know that was a thing, could ‘ve just been me though. Through this research I have also learned that it’s best to not store produce in the plastic bags they come in, or better yet skip the plastic bag all together. Some produce like bananas, potatoes, or onions are best being left on the counter to breath. Most other produce will do better when sealed in some way, like zip-top bags, reusable silicone pouches, or containers with tight-fitting lids. My family has one of those containers with a vent at the top and it really helps keeps the lettuce fresh. I started out with this research hoping there would be quick and easy answer, but there isn’t. There are many sources out there that will guide you in the right direction. It will be a work in progress for our household. I will try to link a visual guide from one of the articles I looked at. 

 

Also, when I was talking with my mom about some things I learned from the reading, she mentioned wanting to know if there were any fruits grown locally in Oregon in the winter months. Ultimately, I found nothing, besides apples and that was only because you can put them in cold storage. So, I decided to expand to California and Washington. California had a few more like clementines, grapefruits, kiwi, mandarin and navel oranges, tangerines, and while not a fruit, sweet potatoes. I was shocked by that. And according to the webpage I looked at Washington seemed to have similar. If I want to eat fruits sustainable through the winter, I might need to change my preference, haha. It was actually very interesting to see what kinds of fruits and vegetables could be grown in surrounding states, and there are plenty more states to look at also. I think I will definitely think a little more about the produce I am buying in the off seasons.

Links:
Food Storage - https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/keep-your-produce-fresh/?ds_c=71700000087595749&gclid=CjwKCAjwquWVBhBrEiwAt1Kmwo4431FVrZx885RIjpdmSv5KVOl3oVwyTQKx1fMsbOgyGjcWT3LpBxoCQ60QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Growing Guide -
https://www.thespruceeats.com/oregon-fruits-and-vegetables-2217194
https://www.thespruceeats.com/california-seasonal-fruits-and-vegetables-2217159
https://www.thespruceeats.com/washington-seasonal-fruits-and-vegetables-2217197

For my second eco-challenge I decided to look at my household’s carbon footprint and see what we can do to reduce it. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be the best, but I was actually super shocked and a little disheartened by what the outcome was. 

 

In terms of looking within the categories, shelter and transportation were the worst, which I did expect. Our house is 20 years old, and we haven’t updated things much besides a newer appliance whenever the old ones would break. We are even looking into getting solar panels. We have always talked about it whenever we would go on walks around the neighborhood and see the new houses that have them. That will probably be a process and there is no guarantee we could even afford them at this time. But it’s important to check it out as an option. 

 

For transportation, both other members of my household drive a lot but at least they both have eco-friendly cars. I don’t nearly drive as much as I use to, especially since both of my previous jobs involved a lot of driving. And I use the MAX to get to and from PSU whenever I go even though driving would be quicker. I don’t think I will be able to get them to chance transportation habits anytime soon since all the driving comes from something work related. So instead, I want to try to reduce our negative impact in other ways to help balance out the impact from driving. 

 

I have started thinking about trying to reduce our single use plastic consumption after watching the videos in class on Tuesday and seeing how much plastic was lying around when we were making dinner. I have talked with other members of my household to find ways to reduce our plastic consumption. We have talked about switching to reusable sandwich bags instead of plastic Ziplock bags, and instead of using the plastic bags for fruits and vegetables in the store that we would look into ways to carry out the produce in reusable ones. I also want to look at trying to find a way to compost that would fit into our house. These are big changes, but it is still a manageable start.

The eco-challenge I wanted to do for session one was to explore a new hiking trail, but I didn't fully understand the timing for these responses, so instead I watched a documentary on Netflix called "A Life on Our Planet". The documentary mainly focused on how we as humans have destroyed the existing ecosystems. It was such a simple yet impactful documentary. It made me realize even more how we as humans, especially in Western culture, believe the planet is something we own instead of something we need to live alongside with. This also reiterates what was said in the opening of the session one reading; where western culture has relied on technological and economic fixes instead of the underlying causes. 

There was one quote from the documentary that really stuck out to me: "if you can't keep doing it forever, it is by definition unsustainable". It's really simple, but I think it will act as a good base to better understand sustainability. I mean, according to the documentary only 35% of wilderness is remaining in 2020. The human world has completely taken over the animal world. 

Towards the end, when the narrator was explaining about what the outcomes could be in the next 20 years, I really started to wonder if there is anything we can do to prevent this? Are we too late? But then, they discussed different solutions to help fix the problems that came from rising Co2 levels. They seem like such simple solutions to do, however that would involve getting everyone on board, and that is hard when we are so divided. Like stopping all future deforestation and farm on already deforested land or having no fishing zones to let the fish population thrive and spill over into the fishing zones. 

Watching this documentary really opened my eyes to how much blissful ignorance I could have for these issues. I have known that all of these problems has been happening like deforestation, the dying reefs, the warming ocean, climate change, etc. But it’s so easy to forget about it on a daily basis when the evidence isn't right in front of our eyes. I do what I can to be more sustainable, but I am sure there are plenty more things I could do. I will be very interested to learn what more things I can do.