EcoChallenge - October 15th - 29th, 2014
ECOCHALLANGE A SUCCESS!
Lane's EcoChallenge Team placed 4th out of the 207 EcoChallenge Teams scoring 3340 points and beating our challenger, Portland Community College. Eighty-two Lane employees and students participated on the team and enacted lasting changes such as eating organic food with every meal, eating two meatless meals per day, switching to a reusable drink container, taking shorter showers, turning down the thermostat at home, and walking and biking more.
Stories of Change
"I took the water challenge and found that I don't need to leave the water running when I brush my teeth, and that a 5 minute shower can be plenty of time to cleanup and even warm up in the morning." Jim Lindly
"I'm more inclined to ride my bike over the hill to the college in the morning after the challenge. Take aways from the challenge reporting - I am going to find out how I can integrate bike travel into my weekend errands." Anna Scott
"I finally bought a reusable drink container from Sequential. I've been making excuses not to for over a year now. This helped me to finally just do it." Lena Demosthenes
"2 meatless meals per day and I got my sister (Louisville KY) to join the LCC team. We both met our challenges every day - I made a healthy change for myself, made a positive eco-impact, and had the chance to be on a team with a sister who lives too far away for our dual participation in most events. I love her and it was fun for us! Yay!" Jayne Culberson
"My goal was to eat every meal including some, if not all, organic foods. I achieved this goal every day except the two days I was at a conference. This is going to remain a goal for the rest of my life. It's achievable, it's good for my health and sustainable for our earth." Wendy Simmons
"I succeeded in reducing my thermostat temperature by 2 degrees, reducing the number of showers I take and limiting them to 4 minutes. I was not so successful in closing my curtains every night, but did do it many nights. I plan to continue all of these habits." Claudia Owen
"My name is Ellen, and I am a "returning" student at LCC. I participated in the Sustainability Challenge because I truly believe that, while the major changes have to come from governments and corporations, as they are the major contributors to human-induced climate change, each of us, as individuals, can also do our parts to conserve our precious and dwindling resources. I chose to commit to having 2 of my meals per day consist primarily of organic ingredients, and two of my meals per day be vegetarian, for multiple reasons. These include that I am trying to learn how to grow my own organic vegetables, fruits, and herbs, inspired, in part, by the Learning Gardens at LCC; because I am aware that pesticides are harmful to bees and humans and ground water; because I am aware that cultivating grain and bean proteins is vastly less land- and water-draining than raising feed animals; to raise awareness to encourage folks to vote for labeling of GMO's; and because it is really not easy to eat well when eating from food boxes....I'd like to encourage the Rainy Day Pantry to seek additional vegetarian and organic items, and the Learning Garden to contribute more to the Rainy Day Pantry. Thank you." Ellen
"I blogged about what I found out from the Waste Management recycler for our apartment complex. They indeed come to the complex 6 times per week to pick up all sorts of stuff to keep it out of the landfill. The person I talked with said that only hard plastics are sent to China, not all of what goes into the bins as I was previously told by a person in recycling business. He also said clean food boxes are recycable. This helped me to know where the curbside recycling actually goes and affirmed that there is good attention on it." Darlene Colborn
EcoChallenge News
10/3/14: PCC has jumped ahead again with 21 participants and 465 points vs. Lane's 13 participants and 230 points.
10/2/14: Team Member, Wendy Simmons, pledges to enjoy 3 meals per day with organic ingredients.
10/1/14: Lane is now ahead with 12 registrants and 210 points vs. PCC's 4 registrants and 85 points!
9/30/14: Lane Community College is competing with Portland Community College. PCC is current winning with 4 team members and 85 points. Lane has 2 team members and 45 points. Help Lane win this challenge and join today!
9/29/14: Team Member, Jennifer Hayward, pledges to commute by bus to work.
Questions? Fee free to contact Lane's team captain, Jennifer Hayward, at (541) 463-5594 or haywardj@lanecc.edu