I joined this challenge and chose the actions that I did because I really wanted to figure out a way to break my bad habits. For example, I have always taken long showers but I now know how much water is wasted taking a 20 minute shower, no matter how relaxing it can be. I will be taking shorter showers going forward and wash my hair every other day instead of daily to help conserve water!

As it is coming up on the end of the month, I really enjoyed this EcoChallenge. It helped me realize the impact my actions were making on the environment and help teach me ways to improve my habits to have less of a negative impact. Even a small change is helpful when thinking about saving our Earth!

Fast fashion is a growing industry that takes a large impact on the environment. A lot of these companies provide cheap clothing that is up with the trends but not necessarily source, produced, or sold in eco friendly way. I have tried to make an impact with this by shopping for clothes at companies that have the environment in mind. I have compiled a list below of my favorite brands to shop at! Some of these are B Corps and some have programs to reuse or resell unwanted clothing. All of these brands have sustainability or eco impact sections of their website that provide more details!

Online Consignment:
Thredup - includes stats on materials saved buying used
The Real Real - includes stats on materials saved buying used

Online Retail (underlying goal is to create clothing that is built to last and end up in landfills):
Outdoor Voices - use of recycled materials and sustainable ecommerce packaging
Girlfriend Collective - use of recycled/retrieved plastics and SA8000 certified factories
Patagonia - climate activism; program to mend/repair damaged clothing or turn in unwanted used items
Topo Design - recycled or organic materials; sustainability built into creation of the company
Rei - Co-op that focuses on outdoor brands and is selective in the brands that they support based on sustainability
Madewell - uses recycled materials; Recycled denim program
Teva - uses recycled materials; Recycled shoe program

I was recently listening to a podcast this week and it dove into the use of reusable water bottles. Usually these are in a positive light when it comes to sustainability, but there can be a negative side too. Having a couple reusable water bottles on hand is great to fight the impacts plastic water bottles have on the environment. I think we also have to keep in mind the impact of producing reusable water bottles has on the environment as well. A lot of resource go into producing a single reusable water bottle and you have to use a water bottle a certain amount of times to overcome the impacts of a single use water bottle. I am always an advocate for avoiding single use water bottles and will always look to using those instead of plastic water bottles that may end up in the landfill. But, I think we should also keep in mind the impact of purchasing multiple water bottles and how many uses are actually required to see clean results.