The city of Eugene has collectively reduced its carbon emissions by 83 tons thanks to the Eugene Carbon Free Challenge, which encourages people to reduce their carbon footprint.
The Carbon Free Challenge concept comes from Palo Alto, California; it was designed by a team working for Climate Solutions Net, a website devoted to empowering people on climate solutions. The goal is to reduce carbon emissions city-by-city by giving residents a customized tool to track their personal carbon reduction progress and compete in teams. The challenge is presented in a way that is educational, meaningful and fun — through an online portal. Eugene is one of 25 cities that has now adopted this pre-developed setup.
The goals of the challenge in Eugene are twofold: by December 2019, Climate Solutions Net wants to have 250 households participating to reduce local carbon emissions by 100 tons. It currently has 249 homes participating and has reduced 83 tons of carbon.
Linda Perrine, project manager of the Eugene Carbon Free Challenge, first heard about the concept while on a nationwide call with her employer 350Eugene, a nonprofit that works to fight climate change. “You can only beat your head into a brick wall for so long and watch Americans refuse to own this problem,” Perrine said. So, she and 350Eugene introduced Eugene to The Carbon Free Challenge.
They talked with the development team and decided to give $6,000 towards making the project happen in Eugene, which paid for Perrine and her two University of Oregon interns, who serve as liaisons between the university and the project, for a limited time to get the project going.
The next step was to approach the city and ask it to match the $6,000 that 350Eugene had given. After two meetings, the city agreed over the summer that it and EWEB would each give $5,000 towards the project. In the end, Perrine was given a $16,000 budget for a six month trial run of the site and outreach efforts.
The website tracks an individual’s personal carbon footprint and awards them points when they change their behaviors to lower their footprint. Certain actions within the site, such as transportation methods, food purchased and thermostat regulation, rack up points for the user.
“The idea is to get students involved in this along with me doing a lot of the presentations around Eugene through neighborhood associations and churches and various groups around town that have taken interest in this,” Perrine said.
Ashley Kim, an environmental science student, has helped customize the site for Eugene residents as an intern for the project by adding resources to the site about ways to maintain sustainability beyond the challenge. Kim said there are incentives to doing things like switching to ductless heating, and she’s compiled and inserted into the site resources to show that. It’s to “make it easier for people who are using it to figure out why they should be,” Kim said.
There was a town hall meeting on consumption that introduced the project to the city in July. There, many residents were able to create accounts and sign up on the spot.
Perrine said that she thinks people in Eugene are already living fairly green lives. “So it’s actually proving harder to get the same level of carbon reduction as say, Palo Alto CA,” she said.
Kim presented to different community organizations, neighborhood associations and religious groups in all parts of the city. “You go out there assuming most people understand the basics of climate change, and you find they don’t,” Perrine said.
Perrine said she’s finding that people living in South Eugene are more progressive and already active in participating in climate change concerns. But people in North Eugene are less active and less aware. She said she added extra slides for these presentations to cover the basics of climate change and encourage awareness.
Perrine added that not many people understand what the number 350 in 350Eugene stands for; it is a parts-per-million measurement of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. “That’s what the target is to get below if we want the earth to remain functional.” She added that in May this year, there were already 412 ppm of carbon in the atmosphere.
Perrine said that while small local-scale initiatives like these are important, she thinks the 2020 election will be “a major fork in the road for this country, and I think we all sense that.” She said she acknowledges that young people lead busy lives where voting is not always a priority, but she urges young people to at least vote in the primaries. She said, “Vote like your life depends on it.”
