UUFR DD 2021 Ecochallenge Team

Protecting the environment and improving environmental quality require many hands. Individual actions alone are not enough; it requires collaboration and cooperation among many people and a desire to act not merely out of self-interest but also for the wellbeing of others. In a world in which our planet is in peril, I assume that when you find...

My neighborhood is fairly walkable, though it could use a few more sidewalks (some of the sidewalks end at random places, shunting pedestrians from the sidewalk into the street or into a yard), bike lanes so bikers can safely ride in the street and not endanger pedestrians, more street lights so it is safe to walk without a flashlight at night...

It is easy to think of food waste as not very expensive, since we so often throw out only a little at a time. But if the average U.S. citizen indeed throws out $1,500 worth of food waste a year, that is a lot of money. I could spend that on 150 sessions of ice skating or 60-160 books. And I'd much rather have those things than expired food or...

Today's journey to avoid palm oil at the grocery store was, as I suspected it would be, difficult. My shopping cart was mostly filled with fresh fruits and veggies and some more Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee, but other things I regularly purchase that I had planned to buy not only contain palm oil, but the grocery store didn't offer...

This has been my approach for a while. In addition to feeling good about the impact it has on our planet, I also enjoy the challenge of finding ways to do this, especially when it comes to reducing, repairing and repurposing. Ask me sometime about Frankenlaptop and Frankencellphone...

I often do this with the fruits and veggies that I eat, which tend to either be kinds that are typically eaten whole anyway or which look strange but taste fine when eaten whole (like carrots, potatoes and peppers). For things like onions, I may use a trick my father used when I was a child, which was to grill them with the skins on.