You are invited to participate in this year’s EcoChallenge! For two weeks, 15-29 October 2015, EcoChallenge leads you and your team to change one habit to benefit both you and the planet. The EcoChallenge is a free annual event that encourages individuals and teams to pick a category—water, trash, energy, food, transportation, civic engagement, connect with the earth, or your own category —and set a goal that stretches your comfort zone and makes a difference for you, your community, and the planet. EcoChallengers accrue points for engagement, can compete between teams, and are eligible to win fun prizes! More than 8,000 people have used the EcoChallenge to kick start change. In fact, many find that once they get started, they don’t want to stop. Last year, 98% of participants told us that they planned to continue their EcoChallenge activities.

This year, there will be a team for RCE members so that RCEs can join this event online and easily interact with other participants working on sustainable development issues within their regions and around the world. This is a great example of community engagement, as it successfully fills the “say-do gap”, making connections between “saying” what we believe and “doing” what we believe. Plus, it is a free, easy, and fun way to promote participation in your RCE! Participants are eligible to win fun prizes depending on the points they get through their challenges.

Prizes for RCE members are:

250 or more points

• Certificate of participation from NWEI
• Five e-version copies of an NWEI discussion course
• $50 dollar Visa gift cards (Will be on a raffle)

100-249 Points

• Certificate of participation from NWEI
• One e-version of an NWEI discussion course.

You might also be selected as one of the featured participants on the EcoChallenge website

This event, which began in 2009, is run by one of the stakeholders of RCE Greater Portland, the Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI). NWEI has helped community centers, colleges, book clubs, neighborhood associations, non-profit organizations, libraries, city governments, nature and science centers, private companies and groups of friends move their communities from “I should” to “I do,” inspiring more than 140,000 people to change for good.

For those who are interested in the being part of the RCE team or engaging your stakeholders for the EcoChallenge, or if you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with Ms. Kyoko Shiota (Shiota@unu.edu) for more information. We look forward to your active participation!

The categories can be found here.