My 2nd week back after 3 months off on DB were tougher than I expected.  Plus we’ve been so busy getting ready to adopt our dog today from a rescue & for our youngest son’s wedding next weekend I’ve missed a lot of days.  Will try to do better!

Here's the link to sign up for a tour of  the Cincinnati Recycling & Ruse Hub on Wed. Oct 26 at 3 pm.  We will be able to accommodate only 20 people.   

Please contact me if you have any questions:  desai.fn@pg.com or 513-560-0577.

thx,

fred

Over the last 2 years, my wife and I have participated in and led 3 teams—Cincinnati area Faith Communities Go Green, Zoroastrians Go Green, and Always Discreet Family team—in 7 Ecochallenges, which include the Earth month Ecochallenge in April, the Plastic Free Ecochallenge in July and the People’s Ecochallenge in October.   We have learned something new and formed new habits during this time.   Here are some examples. 

1) Built a compost in our backyard. 
2) Bought a tankless water heater
3) Significantly improved our dishwasher usage cutting our water and energy usage by half. 
4) Bought an electric trimmer. 
5) Found out about the Cincinnati Recycling and Reuse Hub, where we can recycle almost all the plastics.  This along with composting has cut down our trash drastically. 
6) Learned what expiry dates on food items mean. There is opportunity to not waste a lot of food items. 
7) Started taking shorter showers. 

This time, I would like to calculate my carbon footprint and also get in the habit of repairing things and see how we can bring a sharing economy to life in our community. 

Look forward to learning from you all. 

Thx

Fred

For today's Nature Podcast, I listened to an episode that talks about the footprints of large streaming services, the unlimited online time that all technologies have, and how it's not all just "invisible or virtual". Really neat to know that 1 hour of streaming Netflix is equivalent to 100g of CO2 (which is equivalent to about 1/4 mile driven by a gas powered vehicle). Small solutions to fix this could be just overall spending less screen time, being on our phones less, keeping our phones longer rather than "upgrading" to a new device every year, and opting to work with smaller file sizes or physical outputs of media (e.g. tapes, vinyls, etc.).

Food Podcast:

I checked out this episode from "Growing with Nature" and learned about the benefits of planting perennials. I definitely want to get into growing my own vegetables in my own backyard one day!

About me: I am outdoorsy and love all that nature has to offer. I want to raise my kids to respect and take care of their home that is the Earth, to be resilient, and to live more holistically.
Other challenges: 1000 Hours Outside (by Ginny Yurich)
Current Books: "Glow Kids" by Nicholas Kardaras & "No Such Thing as Bad Weather" by Linda Åkeson McGurk
All time Favorite Book: "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan (this helped me have a better understanding of the foods with eat, and the relationship we have with our food and the agricultural organizations that provide it). 

I joined to learn better ways to live a more sustainable life style.  we have our own raised garden beds & we freeze a lot of that produce for use during winter months.  If it can’t be frozen (i.e.:  lettuce, then we share with our neighbors so it doesn’t go to waste & they save money at the grocery).

Our community had a community garden for folks to grow & share produce if they didn’t have space in their own yards.  Sadly, if all fell apart during Covid & has not been built back up yet.  There is talk of bringing it back though!