Eco-Life Challenge: Week 1
Celebrating Earth Month With The Eco-Life Challenge
By Karen Hartman
April 7th, 2021
In case you didn't notice, April is Earth Month and it's the time of year where you see a lot of campaigns about ways you can protect the earth and start living more sustainably. This year, I decided to get active with the Eco-Life Challenge because I love the idea of teaming up with my friends and customers to start taking direct action toward living more sustainably. In case you missed it, here's my post for Week #1's Challenge:
For my first Eco-Life Challenge, I chose the looking at the Earth Overshoot date for 2021 😱 Never heard of the Earth Overshoot date? Oooh. Do I have a story to tell you then.
.
In a nut shell, the Earth Overshoot date is what sustainability is all about. Our planet’s resources are not infinite. Right? If we chop down our trees faster than they can grow back, eventually we will have no trees. Ask the Lorax if that’s confusing. 😹🌱
.
Ok so Earth overshoot is a measurement of how much faster we are consuming versus what can be replenished. The US overshoot day is March 14th.
.
That means if everyone on the planet consumed at the rate of Americans, we would use up all the resources that can be replenished in the space of a year by March 14th!
.
That’s crazy. 😱😱😱😱😱
.
Now everyone lives differently and those choices create different impacts. And this is what I love so much about the second part of this challenge which was to play around with the Ecological Footprint Calculator. It asks you a bunch of questions and you can figure your personal ecological footprint.
.
Because I live in WA where we use mostly renewable electricity, my personal overshoot day is August 12th. 👏🛑Before you congratulate me, consider even with no flying in the last year and very little driving, it would take 1.6 earths worth of resources to give every person on the planet my lifestyle.
.
It’s shocking. But this is the truth. And this is why I love that everyone is learning about Circular Design in the @eco.lifechallenge We can’t individually act out way out of our overconsumption crisis.
.
Ok before you @ me, yes our individual choices are important which is why you should absolutely go play with this calculator and get some data. I especially love the Footprint calculator because you can see there’s no “one way” to reduce your footprint. And if something like plant based eating or driving less are not for you, there are many other ways you can still reduce your impact 💚🌎💚
.
But to actually solve the problem we need a system wide overhaul. We need to switch to a #circulareconomy
.
.
In a nut shell, the Earth Overshoot date is what sustainability is all about. Our planet’s resources are not infinite. Right? If we chop down our trees faster than they can grow back, eventually we will have no trees. Ask the Lorax if that’s confusing. 😹🌱
.
Ok so Earth overshoot is a measurement of how much faster we are consuming versus what can be replenished. The US overshoot day is March 14th.
.
That means if everyone on the planet consumed at the rate of Americans, we would use up all the resources that can be replenished in the space of a year by March 14th!
.
That’s crazy. 😱😱😱😱😱
.
Now everyone lives differently and those choices create different impacts. And this is what I love so much about the second part of this challenge which was to play around with the Ecological Footprint Calculator. It asks you a bunch of questions and you can figure your personal ecological footprint.
.
Because I live in WA where we use mostly renewable electricity, my personal overshoot day is August 12th. 👏🛑Before you congratulate me, consider even with no flying in the last year and very little driving, it would take 1.6 earths worth of resources to give every person on the planet my lifestyle.
.
It’s shocking. But this is the truth. And this is why I love that everyone is learning about Circular Design in the @eco.lifechallenge We can’t individually act out way out of our overconsumption crisis.
.
Ok before you @ me, yes our individual choices are important which is why you should absolutely go play with this calculator and get some data. I especially love the Footprint calculator because you can see there’s no “one way” to reduce your footprint. And if something like plant based eating or driving less are not for you, there are many other ways you can still reduce your impact 💚🌎💚
.
But to actually solve the problem we need a system wide overhaul. We need to switch to a #circulareconomy
.
If you are curious and want to know more, you can still sign up for the ELC @www.ecolifechallenge.com The link to this calculator will be emailed to you. If you do decide to do this challenge, tag me so I can see what you learned!
I have been blown away by the thoughtfulness of all the posts. You can scroll through and see all of the Eco-Life Challenge Posts on Instagram here. I find it extremely inspiring to see all the creative ways people are doing good for the earth and raising awareness on how we call all pitch in to live more sustainably.
If you want to join in, you can still sign up. The challenge goes through all of April.
