Sophia Serrano

Hey guys! This week I am going to make an effort to talk to people outside my circle about the environment. I already made progress by talking to two of my customers about waste and how to reduce it, but I want to keep the conversation going, especially with my coworkers and customers. I deleted my social media, so I feel like this is the best way to do it and still have an impact. I talk to my family often now about the environment thanks to the knowledge I've acquired in this class, but I feel like its time to have more conversations with others. 

Hey everyone! This week, I am making more of an effort to not purchase things I do not need. I really hate the feeling of being stuck with extra packaging or trash after ordering food or items off the internet. I also want to be better about not spending money on things I do not need. I'm going to make a huge effort to avoid anything huge for black friday or cyber monday this year, just because I find myself buying things I do not necessarily need and just overall waste money. Consumerism is like a plague during this type of year, and I want to focus only on buying smaller more meaningful gifts for just my closest friends and family. For coworkers, I might try to focus on making baked goods as gifts as they will be eaten and produce much less waste. 

Hey everyone! With this week being focused on transportation, I want to share the efforts I have been making to reduce the amount I personally drive. With COVID, I have not had to drive around nearly as often as I used to, which is honestly really nice and so much more cost-effective. When I do need to go somewhere, I usually make it a priority to carpool with someone so that we do not both have to drive. For example, my boyfriend drives a hybrid car, but mine is not hybrid, so we usually try to take his car so that it is emitting less into the air. I also usually only take my car out about 3-4 days a week to drive to work that is ten minutes away from my house. I'd encourage everyone to carpool as much as possible and limit car rides that are not super necessary, especially if a place is in walking distance!

This week, I have been having conversations with more of my customers at work about the world and the way things have been/will be in the upcoming weeks. Although this is a scary time for all of us, and it has been a troubling year, I try to share as much positivity with them as possible, ask them how their weekend/week is going, and try to crack jokes to make them laugh. My work is close to my house, so these people are truly in my community and I feel like I'm fostering genuine connections. I also have been memorizing more people's orders and learning their names. It feels good to work in an environment where I can make connections with people daily, especially since this year has been pretty isolating with COVID. I encourage everyone in the class to try to have conversations out in their communities, whether its to your drive through workers, your neighbors, customers, or employees at stores. It is important that we all stick together right now in these divided times.

This week, with the focus of water, I have done and plan to do a few things. First, after today's class session, I am going to try to encourage my family and boyfriend to drink more water. My mom will usually only drink La Croix (which is a lot of cans), and my dad likes diet soda's but rarely drinks water. They are both in their mid 50's and I feel like they would be greatly benefitted to drink more water everyday. For lunch today, I filled my mom's hydroflask for her and encouraged her to drink it throughout the day and try to finish it. I also challenged my boyfriend today to start avoiding sugary drinks, which I will be attempting with him

I lastly want to post on my NextDoor app this week a small reminder for my neighbors to try and conserve water in any way they can. Maybe someone younger than them urging for this, especially in this time, would be helpful to remind them that they too can take shorter showers, water their lawns less, etc. 

I have been talking to more and more people in my life lately about sustainable living and eating. I live with my parents  and have been speaking to them more about better choices we can make around the house when it comes to sustainability. I have also been speaking about a lot of food related things with them, and with my boyfriend as well. I am going to try and convince my boyfriend to use more dairy-free products (like oat milk products) so that he can see that they function just as well as regular dairy products while also being healthier and better for the environment. I have also been telling others about what I plan on doing for my EcoChange and I have been getting a lot of encouragement. I'm hoping that I can help others make more sustainable dietary choices if I show them that I am doing it myself. 

Today I ordered a new Hydroflask tumblr that I plan on using for coffee and other drinks in order to decrease my plastic coffee cup use. I plan on bringing it with me to my job at the coffee shop I work at, and using it to take my drinks home from now on. I really dislike using plastic cups, and I have one other hydroflask tumblr that I love using for water and tea. I also plan on using it much more often once coffee shops begin to accept reusable mugs again! I highly recommend these Hydroflasks for anyone who needs a new tumblr, they insulate iced and hot drinks really well and come in three different sizes. I have had my other one for two years now with no problems. 

This weekend, my mom and I visited some local farms and bought pumpkins, apples, squash and even a pie in order to support local farmers and get produce that isn't from a grocery store. I really enjoyed myself!