Friday, October 14, marks the beginning of the 2016 EcoChallenge. Powered by NorthWest Earth Institute and other sponsors, the EcoChallenge invites you to pick at least one environmentally-friendly pledge to keep for two weeks.

Categories to choose from include food, water, transportation, energy, nature, health, simplicity, and waste - -or you can even come up with your own. Challenges are lifestyle changes that range from taking five-minute showers to turning off your computer if you’re not using it for more than two hours. For the daring, more drastic challenges require giving up all refined sugars or only eating food produced within a hundred-mile radius. The idea behind EcoChallenge is that by sticking with a lifestyle adjustment for just two weeks, it’s easier to make that adjustment a lifelong habit.

Last year, more than 10,000 people participated in this competition. You can enter as an individual or as part of a team, and you can even go head-to-head with other teams. This program is ideal for businesses, college campuses, and communities alike.

One incentive for participating is successfully completing challenges earns points. On October 28, points will be exchanged for giveaway prizes: a Top Participant Grand Prize and a Team Grand Prize. The Grand Prize (for the individual with the most points) is a $500 value and the Team Grand Prize (for the team with the most points) is a $1500 value.

For those goal-minded people in need of an incentive to start going green, the EcoChallenge may just offer enough motivation. You can sign up by going to https://ecochallenge.org/.