Dave Sag
"To leave things better than I found them."
POINTS TOTAL
- 0 TODAY
- 0 THIS WEEK
- 515 TOTAL
participant impact
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UP TO15poundsfood waste prevented
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UP TO1.0Carbon FootprintCalculated
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UP TO31pounds of CO2have been saved
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UP TO740gallons of waterhave been saved
Dave's actions
Climate + Air
Work out how the charge my car purely off solar
There's an option in the Tesla app to only charge your car off the solar but I've never been able to get it to work. Time to figure that out.
Climate + Air
Choose Renewable Energy
Renewable energy options are becoming more widespread and accessible. Not only are they good for the planet, they can help save money as well. I will sign up for my utility company's clean/renewable energy option. If my utility does not offer one, I will contact them to advocate for this option in the future.
Climate + Air
Weekly Meal Planning
One third of all food produced worldwide is wasted, and so is the energy it takes to produce and transport that food. I will reduce food waste and save money by planning a weekly menu, only buying the ingredients I need and eating what I planned each day.
Climate + Air
Calculate My Carbon Impact
Carbon emissions can show up in many surprising ways in our life. 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.
Action Track: Community
Borrow Before I Buy
Why buy something I will only use once or a few times if someone nearby has it for me to borrow, and why not share something I have that someone may only need a few times a year? To reduce my consumption and waste, I will create or support the sharing economy with friends, family, colleagues or neighbors.
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?
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Dave Sag 4/30/2024 3:46 PMWhy can't I fill in yesterday's challenge? -
Dave Sag 4/22/2024 4:07 PMI had to fully log out of the Tesla app and log back in but now I can set my car to only charge of excess solar power. I reached out to some other Tesla owners I'm in a Signal group with, and they were able to help. Communities matter.
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Sarah Jane Reyes 4/22/2024 5:12 PMnice way to track your energy usage!
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Dave Sag 4/10/2024 11:07 PMI just fired off an enquiry about retiring 100 tonnes of CO2e offsets. I'll report back on costs etc.-
Dave Sag 4/15/2024 4:41 PMAnd here they are. https://registry.verra.org/myModule/rpt/myrpt.asp?r=206&h=236220
I retired 100 credits for myself and 100 for my wife for just over $1200 - that's offset 8 years worth of personal carbon footprint each, as calculated using the Eco Challenge calculator (which says I cause 12.5 tonnes CO2e every year), or 4 years if I just take the Australian national average emissions of 25 tonnes CO2e. Just to pay it forward I am going to call it 4 years worth.
I did this in 2019 as well, and in 2010 I paid to offset all of my wife's and my emissions for our entire lives to that point, so now I believe I'm completely carbon neutral. I'll do this again in another few years.
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Dave Sag 4/04/2024 4:09 PMCloudy day yesterday and rainy today means very limited solar power generation for me. Thankfully I have fully charged the car and the house batteries still managed to get up to 92% before the sun went down last night. I used the oven to cook dinner, and ran a heater in the TV room while watching TV last night for the first time this year, but went to bed around 10pm. The oven and heater use brought the battery level down to 59% and now it's at 55%. During the day my whole house only uses about 0.1 - 0.2kW of power so, even though with this rain I'm only generating 0/5kW right now that's enough to be charging up the battery some more. So far this month the house has pulled 0.2kWh from the grid (around AU$0.05 worth of power) and used 76.3 kWh, 40% which has come from the roof, and the rest has come from the batteries, which are charged off the solar panels exclusively.
Honestly it makes such a change from my last place where we spend around $6k per year on power. -
Dave Sag 4/01/2024 6:53 PMBorrowed a pick-axe, crow-bar and an electric strimmer and have been using them to remove some dense bamboo that's overgrown its bounds. No need to buy such things that I am only going to use occasionally, when almost everyone I know has one or more of them. I went to an open inspection on the weekend and in the basement of the apartment there were new fewer than four lawn mowers, for a flat with no garden at all, only astroturf in a small outdoor area. Insane. -
Dave Sag 4/01/2024 6:44 PMI used the linked calculator to calculate my personal carbon footprint and it comes to 12.2 tonnes of CO2e per year. This is about half the average Australian's footprint so I feel okay about that. I will purchase and retire carbon offsets to zero this all out. -
Dave Sag 4/01/2024 6:08 PMWe kicked off the weekend with a trip to the markets and local butcher to get food for the coming few days. We've planned out our meals now up until Wednesday and have generated almost zero food waste so far. What we do generate goes into compost and our worm farm. Post Wednesday meal plan will be done shortly.
