Words to Live By, Local Business Love, Products Changing the Packaging Game, and…Phytoplankton?
Hello dear readers! This week’s “wins” are a bit of a compendium of the last couple of weeks. I er…fell off the publishing wagon, it seems! >.< But here we are, back again.
This month has felt like a whirlwind of information and updates. I’m not sure if you heard but the US just got a new president? 😉
As a reminder, the underlying theme with these stories always is that they are somehow a sustainability “win.” A win for the planet, and particularly, for our oceans.
I’ve been grabbing stories from all the random pockets of life and the Internet. We’ve got some products I’m stoked on, local (to me) business love, a motto to live by (and general life reminder), and newfound connections forged from old friends and shared interest in podcasts and phytoplankton.
With that, let’s get to it!
1. Sock It To Me
If you know me, you know I love a good packaging win. Particularly if it’s sustainable and plastic-free! 🙂 I’m all about supporting businesses and brands who are going the extra mile or who are reshaping the way we produce things. I’m not part of any ambassador programs, and I don’t get paid to say the things I say on this blog. I just really, really dig the things these companies are doing.
So, socks. There’s an article of clothing I never thought I’d be talking about here. What do socks have to do with anything? Well, it turns out: a fair bit. You know how we all wear socks and we all wash socks but…we all lose socks. All those lost socks end up being a bit of a total waste – because when we lose one sock, we invariably toss the other one. Or, it ends up relegated to the “sock box” where all the other singles go to mingle.
Anyway, this ends up being a lot of textile waste, plus if the socks were made with conventionally produced cotton, there’s myriad problems attached to the materials. Agh, what a calamity!
A Complete Package
Oh and speaking of packaging, have you looked lately at what socks are packaged in? It’s not wasteful but it’s…not useful either. Plastic bits and bobs, flimsy paper that’s useful for lighting fires and that’s…about it.
Point being: What Solo Socks is up to is freaking amazing. They’re a Danish company producing high-quality socks…as singles. Yep, that’s right. Never shall you ever go without a mis-matched pair again. Oh, and they make the socks with high-quality cotton. Aaaaand for the pièce de résistance: the packaging the socks comes in can be re-used as a sock-box.
Are you freaking kidding me? What’s not to love?!
Jan was recently gifted a set of Solo Socks by my parents and we got so excited making the box, that we forgot to take pics before dismantling the packaging. But honestly, the entire thing turned in on itself for a handy-dandy sock-holder. It really is as cool as it sounds. Plus, if you get more socks, you can link all the boxes together, which makes my sock-drawer-must-be-organized brain happy.
This is the kind of thing I want more businesses to be doing. To me, this is creative, innovative, forward-thinking. I’m still reading that Cradle to Cradle book I talked about a few posts ago and the relevance of circularity in this day and age can not be understated. We need to be shifting in that direction. Solo Socks are just one more example of a company who is diving into that concept – with both feet!
2. Personal Motto
This story is sweet and simple. A friend recently told me that he has a new personal motto for his year:
“Go around doing good things.”
George
You might wonder what the heck this has to do with sustainability wins? Well – I mean, if you go around picking up trash or using less plastic or supporting a local business making handmade, plastic-free products…I’d say that’s “Going around doing good things” It’s been a hell of a start to this new decade and we’re all fried. But, when we go around doing good things, we receive good things, and more good things happen. Sound good? Good.
3. Heads Up! Local Biz Love
Why do I love supporting small, local businesses? Let me count the ways…
- Going straight to the top with Qs – in many cases, small businesses are managed by the owners themselves, so the chances of being able to communicate directly with the head honcho is pretty high!
- The money stays local. When I click “purchase” on an item, I know that the money (aside from fees) is going straight to the person making the product I’m purchasing. She’ll use it to buy materials, pay herself, or any number of things.
- The packaging is so much better – typically! Not always the case, but I’m noticing a lot more small businesses opting for more sustainable packaging: things like recycled cardboard, brown paper, metal, glass. Nary a shred of plastic to be found.
- Sustainability – easy: the fewer steps in between the product and the consumer, the better for everyone (and the planet). Fewer emissions, less waste.
Natural Glow Essentials
This list could also summarize my most recent experience with local, Kelowna-based business Natural Glow Essentials. Shawna makes lovely personal care items for hair, body, and face. I’ve been seeking a good hair product for my sometimes-dry winter locks and on the recommendation from a friend, decided to give her “Healthy Happy Hair” product a shot.
The product itself is amazing – and she bottles it up in a wicked metal spray bottle, with a refill option!! My hair is happy. But, so is my heart, and here’s why: the experience leading up to me receiving the product was incredible. Shawna walked me through how to pick up my product (contactless pickup at her front door), how to use it (on wet or dry hair, your choice), and she even threw in a little extra bottle of homemade mask-freshener spray (it smells amazing). From start to finish, her thoughtfulness was apparent and I freaking love that.
The service. The attention to detail. The personal touch. These are all things that can never be found in a big-box store or from a faceless corporation. I am here for all the local goodness – it’s good for our planet, and our people. 🙂 (Thank you, Shawna!)
4. Actually…It’s Phytoplankton!
Just when you think the world is soooo big and you’re just one puny human in a vast sea of humans, the world steps in with a reminder that actually…that’s not the case.
Recently, I took to Twitter to hunt down some good ole ocean success stories. A friend and former colleague from my UMaine days, linked me up with a couple who she was working on a podcast project with. Jamie and Lachlan are based in Australia and Ivona (the UMaine friend) is based just outside of Washington, DC in the states. Their podcast is all about – you guessed it – phytoplankton! Specifically, the podcast is a series geared toward a middle-school audience, focusing on the science and oceanography behind NASA’s upcoming PACE mission (measuring, among other things, phytoplankton abundance in the ocean!). After finding a time that worked across crazy time zones, I ended up chatting with Jamie and Lachlan for over an hour about podcasting, science, and all our crazy life paths that led us to that moment.
It. Was. SO COOL! And I am so excited to talk more about them and their initiative in a future, feature blog post. Here’s the gist (and what gets me excited about this):
Jamie is not a scientist. Lachlan is. Her (Jamie’s) background is in business management, teaching, and performance studies. His (Lachlan’s) is science, specifically math and physics. It turns out, Lachlan and Ivona shared an office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (where the PACE mission is based) and that’s how they met. (FYI, PACE stands for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean ecosystem). Jamie and Lachlan’s differences in career paths is what makes them – and this podcast – and their Go2Qurious program – so engaging and awesome – it’s the best of both worlds!
Science + communication.
The podcast engages scientists and engineers involved in the PACE mission, allowing them (the scientists, etc) the space to explain their roles in relation to the larger mission. It also allows Jamie and Lachlan to chat directly with the scientists and to bring that discussion straight to listeners. And because of their diverse backgrounds, they can actually communicate the science in a real, understandable way. It’s great and (I believe) it’s what all research science should be doing. That is: pairing up with people in the arts, communications, humanities (etc) fields to get the sound-science messages out there.
Chatting with Jamie and Lachlan reminded me of why I fell in love with ocean science in the first place, and reaffirmed that what I really love is hearing other people’s stories about how they got to where they are now. Plus, they were the nicest humans: genuine and curious. And, their intentions with their podcast are grounded in the simple desire to not only bring people together from disparate groups (scientists, students, educators) but also to communicate the importance of phytoplankton*.
*Lest you forget, they are really – freaking – important! It’s estimated that something like 80% of the oxygen you and I breathe was produced by those little microscopic marine algae of the sea. But, we’ll save that for a future post when we dig into Jamie and Lachlan’s full story. For now, go check out their podcast and learn something new about our oceans!
What’s Next?
So many things. You’ll just have to come back and check this space out! For now though, if you’ve seen a sweet story of sustainability success come across your radar, or you’re doing something awesome, let me know! I would love to yammer on about it in next week’s Wake-Up Wins. 🙂
