My Attempt at No Impact Week

Day 1 - Consumption
On the first day of No Impact Week, I realized how much a truely do consume. Before, I never really noticed it but when it is the center of my attention for a whole day - or week for that matter - the truth comes out. On this day, my main focus was on how I could go about doing the rest of the week. I did, however, wash my plastic silverware for reuse rather than simply throwing it away, as I usually do. Also, instead of going through multiple bottles of water and juice this day, I drank a bottle of grape juice in the morning and when I finished it, I filled it up with water from a water fountain.

Day 2 - Trash
I'm sorry to say that this was my least successful day of the entire week. It really put things into perspective for me. Though I continued using the same plastic bottle all day, refilling it at the water fountains on campus, I also bought a smoothie in a plastic cup and several individually packaged foods at the grocery store.

Day 3 - Transportation
I'm am embarrassed to admit how much I rely on my car. I live all the way in Blanco and my laziness levels are increasing daily, so usually I drive to a parking garage in the middle of campus and walk to my classes from there every day. But on this day, in order to decrease my impact on the environment, I walked everywhere. I am sad to admit that after this day, I went back to my old ways of automobile reliance.

Day 4 - Food
As a student, I have limited food options. I tend to stick to the food that the dining halls provide me and the limited supply of snacks that I have stocked in my room. On this day, the only thing I really did differently was the farmer's market. I am hoping that this farmer's market will not be a one-time-thing because I know that if it is not right on campus, I will not be going out of my way to go to a farmer's market any time soon.

Day 5 - Energy
On this day, I researched all the things that use up energy and a lot of them surprised me. I was not aware that by leaving my electronics plugged in while I'm not using them was using up energy. After I became aware of this, I unplugged everything when I left the room. I'm going to try to make this a habit from now on. So far it's going pretty well.

Day 6 - Water
On this day, I found out that it is pretty much impossible for me to go an entire day without using water from faucets. But I did try to take a much shorter shower and didn't let the water run longer than absolutely necessary while washing my face, brushing my teeth, and washing dishes.

Day 7 - Give Back
I'll be completely honest: on this day I focused more on myself than others. I went to the State Fair where I'm sure I made a terrible impact on the environment. After all my steps forward from earlier in the week, I took a giant leap backwards.

Day 8 - Eco-Sabbath
On this day, I didn't consume much but it was kind of unintentional: I was in Dallas so I spent half the day exploring the aquarium and the other half in a car. Both my cell phone and camera were out of batteries so I wasn't using electronics for most of the day, which was a nice change. This was simply a nice, relaxing day for me. I enjoyed myself and the beautiful weather.

-Shelbi Macfarlane

A Week of ALMOST No Impact

Sunday - Consumption

Alright, it's true, I'm a consumer. I love to consume. Me and consuming are great friends. So this was going to be a difficult start for me. In all honestly, there wasn't much involvement from me on this day, but if it's any consolation I did think about how I could be cutting back as I consumed. And that made everything alright, for me anyway.

Monday - Trash

Before this whole project started, or I had even heard of no impact, I was already regularly recycling products, making sure I didn't litter, and other such things. So this was a pretty simple task for me. Other than Starbucks. My Starbucks cups are my downfall, and I don't care if it's only skipping one day, I'm having my daily coffee. Although I do recycle them, if that helps.

Tuesday - Transportation

Living on campus is a great way to have a pretty easy start to this aspect of the project. Most students already walk everywhere. Class. You walk. Food. You walk. Meeting friends. You walk. I already had this one down. Walking to class saves trees everyone, feel good.

Wednesday - Food

As most students primarily live off of what food the school provides for us having other options is somewhat difficult. I didn't really do anything differently this day, since I didn't have much of a choice. You can only pretend that the food is all locally grown and suddenly everything becomes easier. But I did attend the farmer's market, which I actually think should come to campus and sell their products regularly. There were a lot of great foods and snacks to choose from, and most of them were actually good for you. Imagine that.

Thursday - Energy

I leave my windows open most of the time already, especially lately with this great weather, and I prefer natural light. I also unplug any charger or anything electronic when I'm not using it anyway, so I really didn't have to change much.

Friday - Water

Not only was I sure to take a shorter shower, but I also remembered to turn off the faucets when I didn't need them on, and actually tried to avoid using them all together.

Saturday - Give Back

I didn't really do much for this day, since I mean, come on, it's the weekend and I wanted to focus on me. I'll admit it. But I'm usually pretty nice to people and do small favors whenever I can. Usually.

Sunday - Eco Sabbath

Honestly I just relaxed and enjoyed myself today. Drank a cup of coffee while loving the weather. Went shopping. I didn't really go out of my way to contribute, I was feeling too lazy. But overall I'd say it was a successful week.

My No Impact Week Experience

For No Impact Week I decided to try to adopt at least one new habit from each of the eight categories and to continue them throughout the week and challenge myself to make them a lifelong habit.

Day 1— Consumption:

Well, I have to admit, I did not start my No Impact Week on Sunday because I was in my home town of San Antonio and was not particularly thinking of green ideas. Although I did not do anything Sunday, I am going to challenge myself in the future to buy in bulk when possible to reduce excess packaging. I do suppose I used this concept on Tuesday when I participated in an activity my dorm had to turn an old t-shirt into a bag to use for groceries.

Day 2 – Trash:

I failed in the morning in that I grabbed the usual individually packaged granola bar for a quick breakfast, but I did manage to change this habit on Wednesday and keep it throughout the week by eating a piece of fruit first thing in the morning instead. It was just as fast and more eco-friendly. I do use the reusable container for water that the university provided the freshman class with this year and I was very happy with myself for using it when I went to Fiesta Texas on Saturday.

Day 3—Transportation:

It was very easy to take a green mode of transportation here on campus because I live in the dorms on campus and do not have a car. Therefore, I normally walk around campus and use my bike if I need to go somewhere in town.

Day 4—Food:

I did not do much on Wednesday for food, but on Tuesday I went with my dorm to the actual farmer’s market in town and I plan to do this regularly instead of going to H-E-B for everything.

Day 5—Energy:

I actually started this concept’s habit around Tuesday by unplugging my charger for my phone and computer unless I’m using them and being sure to take technology off the charger when it has significant power. I also try to, if not turn off the air conditioning, at least minimize its use when I do need it or am out of the room and turning it off more often, opening a window to let in the wonderfully cool air come in during the morning and later in the day. I also enjoy letting the sunlight in through the shades instead of the light fixture for most of the day.

Day 6—Water:

For this concept I did not do much. I served myself less water in the cafeteria to reduce the chance of me not finishing it and I used less water when I washed dishes this weekend than I normally use. A challenge I believe I need to take is to limit my time in the shower. This will not only save water, but also provide me with some extra time to study or relax.

Day 7— Give Back

To be honest, I did not feel like I did anything out of the ordinary on Saturday towards giving back. I may have held the door for someone, but that was more a habit already and not something I was exactly thinking about. I challenge myself in the future to donate items I do not need or use to others.

Day 8 Eco-Sabbath:

Sunday I was not thinking about what concept I should be using because it was actually my 18^th birthday. Because I had a party back home, with people calling for directions, cooking, baking, and music playing while people were over, I did not practice the afternoon of using absolutely no resources. I do want to challenge myself to make a habit of taking an hour each day out of the week to practice this concept though.

This has been my No Impact Week experience and some of my challenges to live a greener life.

-Desiree

My No Impact Experience

On Monday the goal was to not make trash and the way I did that was to use a reusable container. This was difficult to do in Jones dining hall since students can't get free refills, however in commons since the food there is served buffet style and you can get free refills it was easier to use my reusable drink container.

Tuesday was transportation day so I walked to school like I usually do,but I took my walking another level when I walked to and from the tennis courts to practice with the team. This was tough since after practice I was tired and had to walk all the way back to my dorm!

On Wednesday my roommates and I visited the farmer's market and bought us some hunny and homemade taquitos. After going to the market I realized how hard it would be to find fresh food like Beaven did in NYC.

Thursday I unplugged my electronics before I left for class and then I walked down five flights of stairs to get out of my dorm. This was a pain since I had to keep plugging and unplugging my electronics to get any sufficient charge. The stairs part of Thursday was easier to do since I did a lot of walking on Tuesday from practice.

Friday after brushing my teeth I saved water by turning it off and we also let the “yellow mellow” in the toilet. This was beneficial because it saved water and has allowed us to sleep longer. Which kept me in good terms with my roommates.

Saturday I held the door open for random people no matter if it was the elevator or the dorm entrance so they could carry their heavy packages. I know how difficult it is to carry your packages, pick your right floor, and insert the key without everything falling out so I helped others avoid that on Saturday.

Finally Sunday I relaxed by playing dominoes and cards. By doing this it saved electricity that we would have used on the computer or on the TV. This day was the easiest but was also the hardest since i am use to use electronic on the weekend all the time.

No Impact week

Sunday(consumption): Consumption day was really bad for me because I wasted a lot of things and also bought a lot of things. I consumed more than 8 bottles of water that day which i went to buy at our local H-E-B. I just could have filled bottles of water that I had hanging out in my dorm but no i had to go and buy new ones instead of using what I had.

Monday(trash): Trying to limit myself to reduce trash is a challenge to me because I alone create to much trash in my dorm. This challenge was a fail for me :/. I couldn't do anything about reducing my habits of creating trash. Maybe just maybe I think I created less trash this day.

Tuesday(transportation): You all should be happy because this day i did not use any method of transportation that were not my two human legs. This day I walked to all my classes without using a car, bus, or anything that may harm our precious environment. I felt so proud of myself this day because it felt good being able to help out.

Wednesday(food): This day I can admit i ate like a pig. One thing is because me and my roommate ate a lot of junk food all day and we obviously did not do nothing productive this day. We just hanged out and watch T.V. while eating fatty foods. I can admit eating like this is fun but it comes at a price.

Thursday(Energy): Energy was a hard challenge for me because i use energy to do everything. I just can not live without energy. I fail again this day because I watched t.v., played video game, used the computer, and well washed my clothes which obviously wasted a bunch of electricity.

Friday(water): Water is what i always drink in my dorm nothing else so I kinda cheated like the past no impact days and well drank water that day. I also took a long relaxing shower because I needed one of those after a long stressing week from homework. Sorry but this day was pretty bad for me.

Saturday(giving back): The day of giving back i spent my whole day sleeping so I did not give up to no one. Maybe I gave back to the environment because i woke up at 7 P.M. and did not create trash. Almost the end of no impact week and i felt really useless because i was not able to do almost any good for our environment.

Sunday(eco-sabbath): I felt so proud of my self because this day for twelve hours I did not turn on the light at ALL. The reason for this is that me and my roommate slept for 12 hours straight and did not wake up after those twelve hours. I felt so proud of myself! Man twelve hours without turning the lights thats a new record. Thing is we went to sleep at 5 A.M. in the morining that day.

No Impact Week!

Sunday- Consumption

I'm not gonna lie, I'm extremely wasteful. Consumption is my weakness! I just love buying stuff because having something new is always fun. I don't go out and buy useless stuff though, I'm more of a clothes/shoes/accessories-crazy kind of girl. Of course I bought snacks today to get me through the week. It wasn't even in bulk either because my mom was waiting until next week to renew her Costco card. Random information that nobody really needs to know, but it helps add on to my story.

Monday- Trash

I did an uh-oh because right when I got into University Seminar I opened up my granola bar. Oops! I was just so hungry and finding something that didn't use trash was way too much work at the time. It's not like I just so happened to have some fresh fruit stuffed in my bag either. I'm definitely going shopping for fruits this weekend though

Tuesday- Transportation

Because I live on campus it just seems like walking is the only way of getting anywhere. I hardly drive my car anyway because at the College Inn dorms it's almost impossible getting a parking spot, and luckily I had one. Actually I don't even think I drove this whole week because I had a parking spot.

Wednesday- Food

I love food with a burning passion, so this one I wasn't too thrilled about. I pretty much did everything normal except I drank more water and less sugar filled drinks.

Thursday- Energy

Now I'm more aware of when I leave things plugged in after I'm done using them, so I did good for that. Also my roommate and I usually rely on the sun for light until about 6 or so, and today we stayed true to that habit.

Friday- Water

We bought a water filter!!!! And luckily my sister came into town to visit me (..okay and go clubbing) and she brought me my reusable water bottle. Of course it's this cute blue one with a big pink peace sign on it. Nothing but the best :)

Saturday- Give Back

I usually try and be as nice to people as I can so today felt like every other day. Except we did drive down to the Square, even though it would have been a nice little walk.

Sunday- Eco-Sabbath

Eco Sabbath was sort of non existent for me. It was difficult to just...sit there. Probably because of this fast paced world we live in, I always want to go out and do stuff, or watch TV or check my Facebook, etc. I actually went shopping and drove to the outlet malls D: I know if my heart was really in it I could of been more aware of my actions

-Alex Castillo(:

No Impact Week

Monday (Trash): Since I arrived on campus, I haven't really been using the trash can too much. I have a very small trash can in my room which starts to get full by about after a week, but i manage to make it two weeks before I throw it in the dumpster because I'm to lazy. If I was serious I could have went through the trash and recycled some of the stuff, but I didn't.

Tuesday (Tansportation): I don't have a car up here so I never use one. When I want to go home I take the bus so I have been doing good on the transportation aspect since I've been going here.

Wednesday (Food): I love food so 99% of the time I eat all the food on my plate. I don't like leaving food on the plate, and I didn't do it this day.

Thursday (Energy): I don't remember which day it was, but I did open the windows in my room and tried using the sunshine as a source of light, but that did not last very long. I also probably left my computer charging all day so that wasn't good. But when i leave the room i always turn off the light. I could have done better.

Friday (Water): I stayed at my friends apartment and they have a bunch of water bottles so i drank a lot of them. I didn't really think about using tap water. And they don't have a recycle bin at their apartment so I just threw them in the trash... Not a good day. My bad.

Grant Fisher