Mary Hoeschen

I will volunteer 10 hour(s) in my community during the challenge.

I will take one action to support local wildlife, such as adding a food or water source, creating shelter/habitat, preventing light pollution, eliminating bird strikes, or another action.

I will switch to washing my clothes in cold water, saving up to 1,600 lbs of CO2 over the course of the next year.

I will avoid sending food waste to the landfill by composting my food scraps.

Hand washing dishes can use more energy and hot water than running a full dishwasher. To save water, I will scrape instead of rinsing dishes before loading them into the dishwasher, and only run it when it is full.

I will save up to 4 gallons (15 L) of water each day by turning it off while brushing my teeth.

I will sign up for my utility company's clean/renewable energy option.

I will save up to 20 gallons (75 L) of water each day by taking 5-minute showers.

I will adopt a "Needs Vs. Wants" approach and only buy things I need.

I will Practice the "5 Rs" — refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle — to reduce my waste more than I can with just recycling alone.