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Meg Doolittle's avatar

Meg Doolittle

WSP West

"My goal for April is to reduce my carbon footprint and learn more ways to help preserve the earth for the next generation. "

POINTS TOTAL

  • 0 TODAY
  • 0 THIS WEEK
  • 770 TOTAL

participant impact

  • UP TO
    30
    pounds
    waste composted
  • UP TO
    200
    plastic bottles
    not sent to the landfill
  • UP TO
    34
    pieces of litter
    picked up
  • UP TO
    160
    minutes
    spent learning

Meg's actions

Freshwater + Oceans

Dishwasher Efficiency

Hand washing dishes can use more energy and hot water than a dishwasher. To save water, I will use a dishwasher and scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading them into the dishwasher.

COMPLETED 30
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Community

WSP - JOIN OR START A GREEN TEAM IN YOUR OFFICE

WSP's Green Team volunteer program empowers employees passionate about sustainability to lead green initiatives for their local offices and communities. Follow the link below to learn more about WSP's Green Team program and sign-up to join or start one in your office today!

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Climate + Air

WSP - ELECTRIFY AND REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT

Whether your rent or own your home, signing up with YellowTin taking advantage of their 1:1 concierge service will help you understand the costs, savings, and incentives for everything needed to transition to an all-electric lifestyle! Use the link below to register and earn these one-time action points.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Climate + Air

Take the Veg Pledge!

Eating a plant-based diet is one of the most impactful (and delicious) ways to reduce your environmental footprint. Follow the link below to join WSP's week-long Veg Pledge and eat vegetarian or vegan from 22-28 April. Take it one step further and host a plant-based pot-luck in your office during April!

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Climate + Air

WSP - Read WSP's Latest ESG Report And Explore the ESG Canopy Page

Learn more about WSP's sustainability journey and what we are doing to reach our climate goals.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Action Track: Community

Keep My Community Clean

At times it may not feel like it's up to us to keep our community clean and healthy, but we all have a role to play. Each day I am outside, I will pick up any litter I see.

COMPLETED 5
DAILY ACTIONS

Land + Forests

Compost Food Waste

Food in the landfill is one of the main sources of greenhouse gasses. I will avoid sending up to .69 lbs (.31 kg) of food waste to the landfill per day by composting my food.

COMPLETED 30
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Community

Join a Cleanup Effort

I will organize or participate in a trash pickup at a local river, beach, or natural body of water.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Biodiversity + Wildlife

Grow Local

I will research and plant a garden filled with native fruits, vegetables, and flowers to nurture local wildlife and ecosystems. I will find nearby nurseries that offer plants native to my area.

COMPLETED 12
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Community

Share My "Why"

I will record a video to share why I am taking action this Earth Month, a sustainable swap I've made, and/or a local conservation effort in my area.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Freshwater + Oceans

Use a Reusable Water Bottle

It'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 6 disposable plastic bottle(s) a day.

COMPLETED 28
DAILY ACTIONS

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?


  • Meg Doolittle's avatar
    Meg Doolittle 4/30/2024 6:51 AM
    This was a great challenge, taking small steps, some of which I was already doing was easier than I thought! When I calculated how many earths I would use during Earth Day I was surprised, at 5 earths, but I do drive A LOT! Mostly because it takes too long to use public transportation. I do try to carpool when it is reasonable and my husband drives much less than I do. My favorite part was the Veg Pledge week with Julie Sinistore giving us all the great information and hot tips for eating vegetarian and vegan!


  • Meg Doolittle's avatar
    Meg Doolittle 4/18/2024 12:17 PM
    Our water heater, air heater, and stove are run by natural gas. It would be nice to switch over some of these items to electric to save on some money and it looks as if our local municipal utilities district can help offset some of the costs!

  • Meg Doolittle's avatar
    Meg Doolittle 4/09/2024 7:08 AM
    During this weekend I was less aware of this challenge, but I have gotten my family to agree to all vegetarian for Earth Week. There is a new museum here in Sacramento called the Museum of Science and Curiosity. The MOSAC has two sections that really speak to the items in this EcoChallenge. In one section they have an activity to reduce gas emissions. In another section they have how to conserve water and discuss the eating choices that are best for the earth, renewable plants which only take water - versus meat which takes double the water for drinking and eating the plants that need water, not to mention the processing that is done. It is aimed at kids, but was fun nontheless.

  • Meg Doolittle's avatar
    Meg Doolittle 4/05/2024 7:44 AM
    It's raining, so trash pick up is not going well, but I do "pack it in, pack it out" as they say and make sure I'm not adding to the issue. I have been trying to add more items to our recycle bin that I wouldn't have thought about before. California has lots of extra things when it comes to being more efficient: required food waste composting (special bins); forced recycling of beverage bottles (pay extra on the front end to get it back when recycled); higher cost energy from 5pm-8pm; and water use restrictions (only water your lawn 2x per week).

  • Meg Doolittle's avatar
    Meg Doolittle 4/04/2024 8:21 AM
    I had a long day at the office yesterday, but made choices to eat all vegetarian based food yesterday. I have been trying to reduce my laundry footprint because the washer and dryer at my house are old and less energy efficient than more modern models.

    • Meg Doolittle's avatar
      Meg Doolittle 4/09/2024 7:02 AM
      I just had fruit for breakfast, a salad for lunch and veggies for dinner. I didn't make anything special.

    • Pieter de Bod's avatar
      Pieter de Bod 4/08/2024 11:59 PM
      What type of vegeratian food did you make?
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Freshwater + Oceans Use a Reusable Water Bottle
    What did you learn about the amount of plastic we consume and what actions will you take to reduce your use of plastic?

    Meg Doolittle's avatar
    Meg Doolittle 4/02/2024 7:53 AM
    I used to get flats of water for working in the field because it was chargeable to projects. When I would put the 16 oz plastic bottles into a water bottle I found that I would use 5-7 per day. Then I switched to buying the large gallon jugs and refilling them. Now I just use multiple reusable water bottles or one large water bottle filled with filtered water.
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Freshwater + Oceans Dishwasher Efficiency
    How can your region/household prepare for changing water situations in order to become more resilient?

    Meg Doolittle's avatar
    Meg Doolittle 4/02/2024 7:48 AM
    When we first moved into the house, we would wash all the dishes by hand because the dishwasher did not work. Not only did we waste water, it took an immense amount of time out of our day. Now we only wash pots by hand and the rest in a new dishwasher.
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Land + Forests Compost Food Waste
    New to composting? Be sure to check out the action resource links to learn tips and more about it. As you transition from throwing food away to composting, what do you notice about how much you are tossing? How will you use your compost once it is ready?

    Meg Doolittle's avatar
    Meg Doolittle 4/02/2024 7:47 AM
    We are going to use it for gardening to grow more food! In California it has been mandated to compost food waste for about a year now. It is pretty smelly if you don't have the right container for in the house. We used to compost as kids too, for use in the garden. We had a very large garden growing up in Montana.

  • Meg Doolittle's avatar
    Meg Doolittle 4/02/2024 7:44 AM
    My husband and I have started a veggie garden and have been composting at home rather than putting our food scraps in the food waste bin provided by the city. We live in California and can only water 2 days a week and we do it at night when it is cooler to conserve water.

  • Meg Doolittle's avatar
    Meg Doolittle 4/01/2024 11:41 AM
    I have a new little one and I want to leave a legacy for her. So much has changed since I was a kid - technology especially. However, with that technology has come a bit more pollution and negligence on reusing or repurposing items.