Earth Month Ecochallenge 2022: Sustainable Development Goals

April 1 - April 30, 2022

Fred Desai

Always Discreet Family

Points Total

0 Today
0 This Week
570 Total

Participant Impact

up to

155

minutes

spent learning

Fred's Actions

Health & Equity

Practice Mindfulness

SDG #3 Health & Well-Being

I will spend 10 minutes each day practicing mindfulness.

COMPLETED 9
DAILY ACTIONS

Climate & Ecosystems

Start plastic bag, which includes Ziploc bags, recycling in my office building.

Even though we have Rumpke recycling bins, we do not have plastic g rocery bags recycling in our building.

Uncompleted
One-Time Action

Climate & Ecosystems

Turn off lights in the huddle rooms when I leave work in the evening.

Since I work late hours, I usually am one of the last people leaving the office. On my way out, I want to turn off lights in about 8 huddle rooms near me.

COMPLETED 6
DAILY ACTIONS

Climate & Ecosystems

Calculate Your Carbon Impact

SDG #13 Climate

I will calculate the carbon emissions associated with my household and consider how lifestyle changes could reduce the carbon footprint and impacts on the environment.

Uncompleted
One-Time Action

Economy & Communities

Choose Clean/Renewable Energy

SDG #7 Energy

I will sign up for my utility company's clean/renewable energy option.

Uncompleted
One-Time Action

Economy & Communities

Online Energy Audit

SDG #7 Energy

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

Economy & Communities

Induction Cooking

SDG #7 Energy

I will spend 15 minutes learning about induction cooking and consider if I could add this to my food prep methods.

Completed
One-Time Action

Health & Equity

Learn About Gender Diversity

SDG #5 Gender

I will spend 30 minutes learning about gender diversity.

Uncompleted
One-Time Action

Health & Equity

Safe Disposal of Medications and Household Chemicals

SDG #3 Health & Well-Being

I will spend 30 minutes learning about how and where to dispose of medications and chemicals properly.

Completed
One-Time Action

Basic Needs & Security

Learn About the Basic Needs & Security SDGs

SDG #1, 2 & 6

I will spend 60 minutes learning about these SDGs.

Uncompleted
One-Time Action

Basic Needs & Security

Practice A Sharing Economy

SDG #1 No Poverty

Each day, I will engage in a sharing economy among my family, friends, and neighbors.

COMPLETED 5
DAILY ACTIONS

Basic Needs & Security

Calculate Your Water Footprint

SDG #6 Water & Sanitation

I will calculate my water footprint and look for a few ways I can reduce consumption or waste.

Completed
One-Time Action

Feed

Reflection Question
Basic Needs & Security Practice A Sharing Economy

What benefits does the sharing economy offer to you and others? If you are a little shy to try, what could be a first step for you?

Fred Desai 4/26/2022 9:37 PM

Now that we do composting in our backyard, my sister-in-law, who lives in an apartment, brings her compostable waste to our house. In addition, she brings her recycling items as well since her apartment complex does not have a recycling bin.

Since the Cincinnati Recycle sand Reuse Hub accepts almost all plastics, I have been wanting to set up a day when our neighbors can drop off their plastics. We would then take it all at once yo the Hub. Some churches do that already.

Recently we bought a shredder. We have been thinking of letting people on our street know that they can borrow our shredder anytime they need it. That way they can shred their yard waste and not send it to the landfill. This would be our little contribution to taking care of our earth. We have been talking about it. We just need to do it now.

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Reflection Question
Economy & Communities Induction Cooking

Would you consider using an induction cooking surface? If you have used one before, what do you like about induction cooking?

Fred Desai 4/09/2022 11:32 PM

I had never heard of induction cooking, so this was quite informative. We would definitely consider it when we renovate our kitchen in the next few years.

I learned that you save energy in two ways using induction cooking compared to gas.

First is that induction cooking is more efficient, almost twice as much as gas.

Second, we have to leave the exhaust on with gas stoves, which wastes a lot of energy as we are blowing out heated/cooled air from the house. I had read that an exhaust fan can blow out the volume of a houseful of air in a couple of hours!

Today, our kitchen exhaust stays on for quite a while, so we would especially benefit from induction cooking.

I will pass this information to my newly married daughter and to my newly married niece as well since induction cooking would make sense as they r setting up and investing in their new homes.

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Reflection Question
Basic Needs & Security Calculate Your Water Footprint

What is one way you will reduce your water use? What is a practice you already have that helps you reduce your water use?

Fred Desai 4/08/2022 10:51 PM

We plan to finally use a water barrel that a friend gave us a few years ago to water our flowers and vegetables.

Ever since we did the Drawdown Ecochallenge last year, we improved our dishwashing habits substantially, and cut down our water and energy consumption by about half.

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Fred Desai 3/31/2022 9:08 PM

Last year, my wife and I took part in and led our local faith communities in Cincinnati in 4 Ecochallenges. These experiences benefited us and some in our communities so much that we wanted to spread the word around and hopefully help folks change behavior towards a greener lifestyle.

Becca is leading our local Cincinnati team called “Cincinnati Area Faith Communiyies Go Green” in this Ecochallenge.

Look forward to a fun month.

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Fred Desai 3/30/2022 4:20 PM

Hi everyone,

Thanks to all for participating in our Always Discreet team. We have a total of 9 team members.

If you have not done so yet, you can go on the Ecochallenge website and choose your activities. When you complete an activity, you can mark it done. For daily activities, you have about 3 days grace period to mark it done.

After many activities, they ask you to write your thoughts on it. If you do so, others in your team can see it. I would encourage you to consider doing that. Also, if you have any insights or learnings, please do share them at least with your teammates.

Hope you all enjoy this experience, and in the process we also make a concrete contribution for mother earth.

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Fred Desai 3/17/2022 6:53 PM

Hi Sonam, Rebecca, Tara, Gerd and Steve,

Thanks for joining our ecochallenge team. Before April 1, u can sign up for one or more activities. Ideally look for activities that will help u change behavior for the better.

Some one time actions r also quite informative.

Let me know if I can help in anything way.

Also if u have some ideas u want to share with the team u can use the feed.

Take carr

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