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October 1 - October 31, 2024
mike Long's avatar

mike Long

NW Natural Gas

POINTS TOTAL

  • 0 TODAY
  • 0 THIS WEEK
  • 951 TOTAL

participant impact

  • UP TO
    460
    minutes
    spent exercising
  • UP TO
    15
    minutes
    spent learning

mike's actions

Health

Support Pollution Reduction

I will spend at least 15 minutes learning about water and air quality issues in my area, how they are impacting human and environmental health, and how I can help.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Energy

NW Natural Energy Use Suggestions

What suggestions do you have for NW Natural to save energy in the way we operate our facilities and our vehicles? Have you observed any energy wasting equipment or behaviors at work?

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Tribal Lands of your Home

NW Natural DEI Council Action: Click on the link under "Learn More" to find out which tribal lands your homes resided on and share in the reflection question section the names of those tribal lands

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Health

Exercise Daily

Exercise is a great stress blaster! I will exercise for 20 minutes each day.

COMPLETED 23
DAILY ACTIONS

Energy

Turn It Off

I will keep lights, electronics, and appliances turned off when not using them.

COMPLETED 23
DAILY ACTIONS

Health

Eliminate Toxic Plastics

I will avoid buying toxic plastics - including polycarbonate, polystyrene and polyvinyl - and instead replace them with durable non-plastic options.

COMPLETED 23
DAILY ACTIONS

Energy

Adjust the Thermostat

I will adjust my thermostat down 2 degrees from usual when I use the heat, and up 2 degrees when I use air conditioning.

COMPLETED 23
DAILY ACTIONS

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?


  • mike Long's avatar
    mike Long 10/31/2024 7:54 PM
    This has been interesting. Hope keep doing the daily activities post challenge.

  • mike Long's avatar
    mike Long 10/30/2024 7:57 PM
    Doesn't really have anything to do with the ecochallenge but there was one spectacular sunrise this morning. Sometimes I'm glad I work in east county.

    • Jeanne Poirier's avatar
      Jeanne Poirier 10/31/2024 8:06 PM
      Give my regards to PDX and thanks for your posts and participation Mike!!

    • Angel Graham's avatar
      Angel Graham 10/31/2024 6:45 AM
      I love the sunrise; it helps start the day in a beautiful way

  • mike Long's avatar
    mike Long 10/29/2024 7:05 PM
    Driving along SE 28th near Reed College and Eastmoreland golf noticed that the bike lanes along SE Woodstock and SE 28th are in places almost completely covered in cedar tree debris. The City needs to do a better job in keeping those bike lanes clear as this happens every year.

  • mike Long's avatar
    mike Long 10/28/2024 6:42 PM
    Several popular Starbucks locations closed in the Portland area because they had no drive-thru window. ( SE 37th and and SE Hawthorne and 101st and SE Sunnyside.) How much fuel is wasted and how much CO2 is produced from idling cars in drive thru lines? Too bad there isn't a drive-thru added tax to discourage this behavior.


    • Mary Hanks's avatar
      Mary Hanks 10/28/2024 9:32 PM
      I've also wondered why people can't just get out of their cars; in my area, I usually see available parking spaces at drive-through locations. As for myself, I much prefer to make my own coffee and haul it around with me! And yes, I unplug the coffeemaker when I'm not actually brewing coffee.

    • Jeanne Poirier's avatar
      Jeanne Poirier 10/28/2024 7:46 PM
      Agreed! Drive through's are an era from my generation which probably never should have happened! Everything drive through - food, coffee, movies at the drive-in. What an era of decadence! I see this same thing in little Cashmere and certainly in Wenatchee. Where would we put the tax money??

  • mike Long's avatar
    mike Long 10/26/2024 9:26 AM
    Was driving by a grade school Tuesday while training a new employee. It was very chaotic because school was letting out all of the parents were trying to get close to the school to pick their kids up. When I attended grade school and middle school not one parent drove their child to school. I walked or took a school bus. What caused this huge shift in behavior. Was it a fear of stranger danger or what? Can that behavior be reversed? I've seen a private company running a sort of school to teach kids how to ride bikes safely at Oaks Park. Not sure what caused the shift or how to reverse it.

  • mike Long's avatar
    mike Long 10/26/2024 9:16 AM
    I'll be glad when the election is over. I'm tired of all of the election mailers. Of course they go into the recycling bin but still producing all of those mailers seems wasteful.

    • Kerry Keck's avatar
      Kerry Keck 10/26/2024 3:02 PM
      I think many people share your “election fatigue”, Mike. (I certainly do!) But I do feel it is my obligation to actually vote, expressing my opinion about local as well as national candidates. We also had some local bond issues here - local issues are more personal.

  • mike Long's avatar
    mike Long 10/23/2024 4:45 PM
    Was in a virtual meeting today while in my work truck and realized after about 10 minutes that I had the truck running. It wasn't that cold just blanked on not turning off the truck. Have to be more careful about that.

  • mike Long's avatar
    mike Long 10/21/2024 6:32 PM
    Was in the Sunnyside neighborhood a few days ago where a fairly major sewer construction is project going on. As part of that project 25 green street planters are being built. This will reduce the amount of storm water going into the combined sewers. All of that water flows into the east side big pipe and then out to Swan Island where huge pumps pump that that water up Wauds bluff and then it flows to the Columbia Blvd Waste treatment plant. The plant uses a large amount of electricity to pump that combined sewage up the hill. You wouldn't think that green street planters refuse electricity usage but they do.

    • Jeanne Poirier's avatar
      Jeanne Poirier 10/21/2024 7:09 PM
      Portland area does get phenomenal rain at times. Street planters seem a really good idea, and also help with small green spaces. Sunnyside in Clackamas? to Swan Island?!? Huge area and yes as I recall Columbia Blvd. could connect once you go up 1-205 to airport . . . Amazing infrastructure you are talking Mr. Long! Thank you for sharing and being involved.

  • mike Long's avatar
    mike Long 10/20/2024 12:27 PM
    I often look at the large metal roof above the fueling station at the Mt. Scott facility and think " That roof with its massive steel girders looks like a great place for solar panels" I'm fairly sure there are state tax credits for corporations who purchase solar panels. Also all of the 6 power poles on SE Knapp have been marked by PGE for replacement. That process means its likely the center will lose power for short times during that work. We will see how how well the back-up generator works during that process.

    • Jeanne Poirier's avatar
      Jeanne Poirier 10/20/2024 7:51 PM
      In Wenatchee area it's the flat fruit warehouses, malls not to mention the new PUD headquarters with flat roofing over big areas etc. which drive me a bit crazy - solar panels please!!

  • mike Long's avatar
    mike Long 10/13/2024 5:36 PM
    After reading the article in today's Oregonian about how much power data centers in Oregon are using and the projected increase in the number of data centers coming to Oregon I think I'll write a letter to my state senator to ask him to introduce a bill to exclude data centers from Oregon's Enterprise zones.

    • Jeanne Poirier's avatar
      Jeanne Poirier 10/13/2024 8:13 PM
      Good luck on this - it's the age old fight of profit vs. planet/people. I will do the same in Washington Mike. This being said - AI and the kind of AI we will demand as society . . . . Don't want nuclear to power this so how to counteract this. Data center in Wenatchee also, using the same Columbia River. Please keep posting!