Week 1 CTAs

For my individual/family action - I enrolled our home in PSE Flex.

While I was immediately excited and up for it, I had to convince my husband to shift his habits, but he supported me.

For essential actions like laundry and cooking, timing them outside the event window surely helps the grid, but in addition, I also see these event windows as an invitation to also just cut down my energy use. I get off screens and read a book or do some quiet reflection or garden or even fast some evenings or really just exist in a bit of twilight, we all live such simulated lives in bright lights and with screens. 5 events have happened since I enrolled and each of those has seen a successful savings in energy at our home.

For my systemic action - I started the journey to try to revive compost collection in my residential community.

Until a couple years ago, my residential community, with ~125 condo units, had compost bins, but sadly it was discontinued. I understand the huge impact of methane production from landfills and while feeling earnestly that we needed compost collection back, sadly I was not able to take any action with my HOA around this. But I did now. To begin with, I have started to talk to my neighbors, to understand what they feel around this climate action and if they would participate in the compost program. Eventually I will discuss this matter with our HOA.

As a renter, I am not a part of the community WhatsApp group or also don’t have much direct access to HOA. I have mostly relied on my “owner” neighbours to relay my messages to those channels if I have needed anything in the past. So that is a barrier I will have to overcome. Other than that, one of the reasons for discontinuation was residents didn’t sort the waste well. So I will have to approach that education delicately. While it may take me more than a few weeks, I will see this through. I would love to leverage any city resources around education for HOA or education on waste sorting for residents as well.