Sustainability blogpost 6

During this quarter long sustainability project my family and I have gained a lot from it. We have become more sustainable and healthier than we have ever been. We have met most of my goals like not using paper plates which he have not used and also not washing half loads. Also our family has been more productive in carpooling, now every Tuesday and Thursday we have been carpooling to practice and home. This saves gas for both of the families involved since gas is about 4 dollars a gallon. My dad and I have been taking shorter showers now since I told him how much water we save. I think that our family is really trying to fit into the sustainability mold because when my mom is out grocery shopping she is buying organic foods and making healthier selections on the foods we eat for dinner. Also we are making strides towards solar water heating in our house and also thinking about electric cars, another thing is when I am out clothes shopping I try to buy organic clothes but It can be expensive. The hardest thing about this project had to be shortening our showers to 3 minutes, it was hard because we are used to long hot showers. After a while your body gets used to it and it is not that hard to do. This project was great for our family because we are eating a lot healthier and organic fruits and drinks just taste that much fresher and better. I like drinking organic fruit smoothies in the morning because they wake me up and taste great. Some disadvantages to this project are that organic and local foods cost more but my family is willing to pay extra to have fresh and fruit with no pesticides. Whenever my mom cooked dinner we ate with ceramic plates not paper this way we are not killing trees and saving money on not buying paper plates. A disadvantage to this is that we have to wash them more often and that our dishwasher uses up a lot of water. I hope my family continues our journey to becoming sustainable because we are becoming healthier and saving money in the long run. If just everyone started to become a little more sustainable our earth could be that much cleaner and be saving that many trees and that much water. I wish that Punahou School would take sustainability more serious in the snack bar. Even though they launched the pilot they still are serving hot pocket's on a regular basis now. I hope they take a step into having healthier foods especially in the lunch lines where you purchase hot foods. So far this quarter long project has been a real plus for my family and I and I really hope that we can keep it up.

Sustainability blogpost 5

This week I have not done really anything new to be more sustainable. I have just been doing the usual stuff that I have been doing over the last 5 cycles. There is one thing that I did was I recycled my cans down at the recycle place. We did not get very much money but we did contribute to the cause. Even though I did not do anything new this cycle I have changed a lot of my habits. For example eating salad almost everyday, Drinking Water, juice, and milk instead of soda, and not eating as much ice cream and junk food at the cafeteria. Another thing I changed about my diet was that at lunch this past week I have been eating the turkey sandwich on cibatta bread. This sandwich is surprisingly good and is new because the cafeteria launched the new pilot lunch menu.

Sustainability blogpost 4

This past week I really have not done anything new to be more sustainable. I have pretty much just done the same things I have been doing. There is one thing that I did well, I have not drank anything but water, orange juice, fruit smoothie, or milk in this past week that means no soda. This past week had to have been the healthiest foods I ate. I had salad 4 days of the week and fruits and vegetables everyday this week. Also to go along with not eating any ice cream at the snack bar or at home. For dinner I had BBQ chicken and AHI two nights. On Friday my friends and I caught the bus all over the place to save gas and also because there was no one to drive us. Also on Saturday we carpooled from Punahou to my friends house and back. These two days we saved a lot of gas and I will try to catch the bus more to save gas and to not be an inconvenience to my parents. My showers this week were good because all of my showers were under 3 minutes. I calculated my shower and for every minute in the shower I am using up right around 6 liters, so my normal 8-minute shower uses up 48 liters and my new shower uses up 18 liters. If you do the math then I am saving 30 liters for every shower. The average person uses about 466 liters per day so if I showered for 3 minutes 12 times I would save enough water for an average person to use, an just imagine if everyone did this we would save an incredible amount of water.

Here is the link to the water usage page.
http://www.enotes.com/science-fact-finder/energy/how-much-water-does-an-average-person-use-each-day