Similar to No Impact Week held in my school, Asian Development Bank also initiated a No Impact Week, in which some of its staffs and faculties were invited to participate. It held its second No Impact Week from March 1^st to March 7^th, 2015. According to Asian Development Bank's No Impact Project website, No Impact Week is a "one-week carbon cleanse" and aims to make a "difference" by witnessing how "no-impact living can" influence the "quality of your life." Each day was given its own challenge and five daily instructions for the participants. In fact this year's No Impact Week participants have increased 1,506 participants, exemplifying that the number of participants has increased by 318.

 

Below are some of the notes that I took while researching about No Impact Week. It includes some of the daily steps that you can take while participating in the No Impact Week.

 

<Food day>

Sustainable food choices

Everybody eats and enjoys eating foods. However, food production is slowly taking its toll on the environment. Every day, individual's food produces approximately 64,000 kg of CO2 emissions. This means that about all the people around the world would produce 84 billion kg of Co2 emissions, which is very unsustainable. 

3 Quick and Easy Steps to address this issue

1. Buy locally, especially perishable good. This is because fruits and vegetables produced far away have to be transported by plane and this produces the biggest carbon footprint. So think before you buy something!

2. Eat less red meat. Cows produce methane (by farting) which is detrimental to the environment and aggravates global warming. However, the main reason to not eat meat is because meat production is not energy efficient. To produce 3 calories of red meat, it takes 100 calories worth of grains. 

3. Eat food with less packaging. Food and drink packaging fills up about 20% of all landfills. So, look out for food packaging made out of recycled materials. Reuse what you can and recycle the west. 

 

My tip: If you're curious how much distance your food has travelled, use this link to calculate your food miles. I learned this in my biology class during the Nutrition unit! :)  http://www.foodmiles.com/

 

 

<Energy Day>

A computer left on consumes about 90% more energy than a computer left on sleep mode. a Turn your computer off when you leave the office and put in on sleep when not in use during the day.

Hibernate to save energy

A deep sleep that reduces the use of resources. Hibernate and Sleep/Stand by are all settings to help your computer automatically save energy.

The power savings of "hibernate," "sleep/standby," "hybrid or safe sleep" vary. In fact, power savings for "hibernate" is high. while power saving for "sleep/standby" is medium and power savings of "hybrid or safe sleep" is medium/high.

 

<Trash Day>

ADB community's challenge was to create 0 trash by emphasizing on 3R's, which are to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle trash! 

Trash fair: ADB staffs donated junk for recycling and ensured that all proceeds go to Staff Community Fund. 

 

<Transportation Day>

Race to the top- ADB staffs were encourages to walk up the stairs instead of riding elevators. ADB staffs were also encouraged to ride bicycles, which could in turn burn calories, a healthy habit for many people!

Below are the two pictures- first image is from Asian Development Bank No Impact Project's website and second image is one that I took by myself. :)