Rochelle Mallabo

Millions of tons of plastic is produced each year worldwide. Each day, I will conduct a plastics audit of what I buy and use throughout the challenge (kitchen, bathroom, personal care products, etc.), to see how single-use plastic shows up in my life. I will find plastic-free alternatives to these products and advocate for alternatives to single-use packaging at local grocery stores, product manufacturers, at work, or on campus.

I will carry all of my unrecyclable, non-compostable trash with me this month, to raise my awareness of how much I send to the landfill. I will post on the feed my reflections, conversations, and actions I will take moving forward.

Beauty and personal products can create a lot of waste. I will spend 20 minutes learning about the beauty and body products I use to see if they are refillable or recyclable. If not, I will reach out to the manufacturer to advocate for those options.

A healthy world needs both our daily actions and support from larger systems. I will spend 10 minutes learning about how I can use my investments and savings to advance environmental sustainability.

Pouring cooking oil down the drain can cause damage to waterways and ecosystems. I will learn how to properly dispose of cooking oil to help support healthy ecosystems.

Carbon is emitted into the atmosphere in a variety of ways, including through the foods we eat and food we waste. I will learn about low carbon foods and replace higher carbon foods with them in my diet.

Itr's estimated over a billion water bottles are thrown away each year. Even if they were recycled, that still uses energy and resources from the earth. I will use a reusable bottle and stop purchasing bottled water, saving 1 disposable plastic bottle(s) a day.

I will continue to contribute to Emerson's environmental sustainability goals beyond April by learning more about the Global Green Teams Network, joining a team near me, or maybe even creating a new team.

I will sign up to the Sustainability Aficionados distribution list to receive global news on sustainability at Emerson, including world news and Greening OF, BY, and WITH news.

I will take at least one photograph that is connected with this year's theme of Nature Conservation & Biodiversity (for example an urban park, bee hives, birds and other animals...) and I will post it on LinkedIn with the hashtags #EarthMonthEcochallenge #EarthMonthAtEmerson.