Fast for Earth 40-Day Challenge

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This year’s challenge: Wed., Feb.18 – Thur., Apr. 2, 2026

The Fast for Earth Challenge is a growing tradition at UU Princeton that invites participants to choose one planet-friendly practice and commit to it for 40 days. Many environmental crises are fueled by everyday habits, and this challenge offers a simple but powerful way to interrupt them. 

Participants select a fast that fits their lives—such as reducing plastic, cutting back on meat, pausing online shopping, cooking more meals at home, setting mindful limits around technology, or creating a practice of their own. The goal isn’t perfection, but intention: noticing what we rely on, easing out of our comfort zones, and experimenting with healthier habits.

Fast for Earth is meant to be shared. Talk with others about your fast, learn from one another, and spread the word beyond our congregation by inviting friends or family to try their own eco-commitment. When small changes ripple outward, collective impact grows.

Stay tuned each year to announcements for challenge dates (always the 40 days of Lent) and how to participate. 

Suggested Fasting Challenges

  • Reduce plastic use: Say no to plastic packaging
    Cutting back on plastic helps reduce landfill waste, ocean pollution, and the spread of microplastics that harm ecosystems and human health.

  • Cut back on red meat or other animal products
    Eating fewer animal products lowers greenhouse gas emissions and reduces deforestation, water use, and biodiversity loss tied to industrial agriculture.

  • Pause online shopping
    Reducing online purchases cuts down on packaging waste, shipping emissions, and the environmental costs of overconsumption.

  • Cook more meals at home
     Cooking at home decreases single-use packaging and food waste while supporting healthier, more mindful eating.

  • Limit (or stop) your generative AI use
    Using digital tools more intentionally helps reduce the energy and water demands of data centers and lowers our hidden carbon footprint.

  • Create your own eco-focused practice
    Designing a personal challenge allows you to address the environmental impacts most relevant to your life and experiment with habits that can lead to lasting change.