Maureen OLeary

WSP USA Ecochallengers

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
963 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

47

miles

traveled by foot
UP TO

375

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

60

pounds of CO2

have been saved
UP TO

47

miles

not traveled by car
UP TO

60

minutes

spent outdoors
UP TO

12

pounds

food waste prevented
UP TO

890

gallons of water

have been saved

Maureen's actions

Wildlife

Leave No Trace

I will respect and protect biotic communities by practicing the seven principles of Leave No Trace when doing nature activities alone or with family and friends.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Learn the Truth About Expiration Dates

I will spend at least 60 minutes learning how to differentiate between sell by, use by, and best by dates.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Climate

Use Muscle Power

I will cut my car trip mileage by only taking necessary trips, and I will only use muscle-powered transportation for all other trips.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Fresh Water

Conserve Toilet Water

I will save up to 12 gallons (45 L) of water a day by flushing only when necessary.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Weekly Meal Planning

I will reduce food waste and save money by prepping for 2 meal(s) each day, only buying the ingredients I need.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Building Resilience

Support A Sharing Economy

To reduce my consumption and waste and support my community, I will create or support a sharing economy with family, friends, and neighbors.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Wildlife

Research Benefits of Biodiversity

I will spend at least 80 minutes researching how biodiversity positively impacts our world and how the loss of biodiversity harms it.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Wildlife

Research a Wild Animal

I will spend at least 120 minutes learning about a wild animal I find interesting, including their life cycle, habitat, ecosystem functions, and interactions with humans (if any!).

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Forests

Explore My Area

I will explore at least one new hiking trail or nature walk in my area while following CDC guidelines for social distancing.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Climate

Calculate Personal Carbon Footprint

Complete your personal carbon footprint calculator. Go to www.wsppact.com and answer the questions for each section. The process takes about 10 minutes. Details about your utility bills and travel will be required. Please be as accurate as you can, but it’s not required to search for receipts.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Vedge Pledge and Webinar

I challenge you to go veg for a week. Sign up and I will provide you with daily updates during the week of the challenge (April 20th to 25th - send me an email that you want to join at [email protected]) We will have a webinar on Wednesday, April 22nd (Earth Day) at 9am Pacific/noon Eastern about the environmental impacts of food. Join the webinar and/or take the pledge :)

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Participant Feed

Maureen OLeary 5/01/2020 8:12 AM
I have more questions about carbon footprint calculations, and how they will impact changes to my lifestyle. How will I need to change to lower my impact, and how can I encourage others to do so too? I have more research to do (this is a good thing).

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food

How does food impact your carbon footprint?
Maureen OLeary 5/01/2020 8:10 AM
Food represent about one third of my largest impacts to our carbon footprint, as do most things with multi-layer processes. Where was it grown and how was it grown, processed, and manufactured? How is it packaged, and earth friendly are the materials used in that packaging (for instance can the cardboard be recycled) depending on how the box was labeled - with toner or water-based inks? How much shipping, storage is necessary for the item to reach my grocery outlet? What % of the product results in food waste that cannot be composted?

Food represents so many questions that largely become overwhelming to think about, and so far not as much data is published about the environmental aspects of food packaging on the carbon calculation, that my estimate of 1/3 could be, in actuality a low number.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Wildlife

How can you encourage biodiversity by your own actions?
Maureen OLeary 4/27/2020 8:45 AM
I can encourage an array of pollinating insects, and seed carriers by maintaining my back deck garden which often draws small birds (including the occasional hummingbird), dragonflies, an assortment of bees, and we have seen fruit bats in our neighborhood.

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Maureen OLeary 4/21/2020 9:17 AM
Attempted my normal morning walk today (2.63 miles to my local post office box) and the Ash and Mulberry pollen was so high that my traditional anti-histamine was not enough. 1 mile will have to be enough until it rains tomorrow, because I feel like a living waterfall my eyes are so irritated.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food

How does knowing the difference between use by, sell by, and best by dates empower you to make better decisions?
Maureen OLeary 4/17/2020 9:06 AM
Understanding the differences and limitations of each type of classification helps me make more informed decisions when product shopping - leading to less food waste

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Wildlife

What interesting facts did you learn about the animal you researched? What are some of your favorite things about this animal?
Maureen OLeary 4/16/2020 1:28 PM
I chose the Tiger Shark, not just because they are beautiful creatures, but also because they are too often overlooked as a critical element in healthy ecosystems. Sharks will most often feed on the sickest and weakest of the ocean population, improving the health of fish populations and preventing the spread of diseases. Tiger sharks specifically also contribute to the maintenance of healthy seagrass beds by controlling certain grazing animals, such as dugongs (similar to a sea cow) whose entire diet relies on seagrass.

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- Meghan Jones 4/16/2020 1:29 PM
  Wow, I had no idea about the role of the tiger shark in healthy ecosystems. Very cool. Thank you for sharing!
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Forests

How can spending more time outdoors enhance your sense of place?
Maureen OLeary 4/14/2020 9:35 AM
Well, recently it has become really challenging to find new walking paths or nature trails. My local COVID-19 restrictions have closed our city and state parks which encompass 80% of my access to nature. I often drive by a foot-traffic path that hooks around the back side of one of my local elementary schools. It's not developed enough to be an official service road, and there are no gates or barriers, so I assumed it was there as a road-less access to the nearby homes that abut the district property.

I discovered that the path actually cuts along the soccer field, and then through 30 yards of undeveloped forest, and lands on a sidewalk along Kent-Des Moines Rd, near to a county bus stop. Following the city road would equal an additional 20 minutes of walking. It was pleasant, and not a jaunt I would have otherwise been interested in if other walking trails had been available to me.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Wildlife

Educator Stephanie Kaza advises her students to focus on what they care about most when addressing the enormity of ecological problems. Is there a specific area you feel particularly called to work on?
Maureen OLeary 4/14/2020 9:23 AM
Biodiversity, hands down. I was formally introduced to biodiversity concepts in junior college, but I then realized that my mother has always practiced biodiversity in her gardening practices. She chooses each plant individually to grow harmoniously with the other varieties of her garden. She has a small orchard of varieties we had to order from Seed-Savers Exchange, and Trees of Antiquity, LLC., (Apples - brown sweet, black twig, crimson gold; Pear - Comice, Ornamental (beneficial for honey bees); Black Walnut (15 years old); Italian Prune Tree (50 years old); and a Rainier Cherry). We also cultivated 7 varieties of rhodedendron, 12 varieties of roses, sword fern, northwest blackberry, 4 camilias, two rows each of raspberry, loganberry, salal berry and tundra blueberry plants, maintain nine old-growth trees on our family property including douglas fir, red ceder, mountain ash/rowan, madrone, and one 100+ year old Rhododendron. In terms of the wildlife we support, we have 4 hives of local honey bees, as well as regular attendance by mason bees, wild honey bees (the ginger colored ones), bumble bees, dragonflies, 24 varieties of small birds annually, and a small community of ducks, one blue heron, 3 band-tail pigeons, a recorded dove in 2019, and two sets of medium size raccoons.

To me the lessons of biodiversity come down to this "it's important to be different, because we all provide something new to the world around us" or by being different we effect our ecosystem in unique ways that other species cannot always imitate. If we can accept that everything has a valuable contribution to the health of our planet, and also understand the amount of change and harm our own species has inflicted, how could biodiversity not be a huge priority?

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food

An average American throws out about 240 lbs of food per year. The average family of four spends $1,500 a year on food that they throw out. Does this surprise you? Where would you rather use this money?
Maureen OLeary 4/14/2020 8:42 AM
This is not a surprise, living in the US as a white person of a well-off upbringing, I have watched so many things go to waste as a condition of a certain lifestyle ideation. I was raised to live consciously, and that minimizing waste helps everybody - especially those who have less. In my family if we get restaurant take away it doesn't come home with us, it goes to the first person who is asking for help on the street. In the age of coronovirus, I'm not sure how we will amend the practice, but we also volunteer with some church groups (even though we are not religious) who provide ready-made food like cut vegetable bags, and sandwiches through organizations like Fishline, and First Avenue Service Center Inc. We cannot be considered a stable community until gross poverty ends, the final chapter of the haves and have not's relies on investing in youth programs designed to give the poor a leg up in life.

If I had my way I would want money saved from food waste to go into programs that work to end poverty, especially those aimed at supporting disadvantaged youth with their education by providing the tools and resources they need to succeed (stable food plans, housing, healthcare, reliable internet, and laptop programs - and job readiness programs in local public schools to help older kids learn valuable job skills they can use to get income-steady jobs out of high school).

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Fresh Water

What would a sustainable water future in your region look like? What needs to change?
Maureen OLeary 4/10/2020 5:06 PM
When we talk about water as a climate issue it's so multifaceted, it can be hard to narrow the field into next steps. In my opinion, for Washington State, more research is needed to devise more efficient uses of agricultural irrigation methods that include providing the means to monitoring on-farm water efficiency levels, and provide a better system of incentives and knowledge-exchange with larger entities including stakeholders and shareholders to share responsibility in making the efforts necessary to change to more efficient practices.

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