Ocean Wins: Small Biz Love, Art-ivism, and More
Hi there, readers, and welcome to another edition of Wednesday Wins!
This week’s wins are all are ocean wins (to me)! We’ve got some small businesses tackling waste through their products, stories of art-meets-activism, and projects combatting marine pollution.
Why the Focus on Ocean Wins?
Well, if it hasn’t become abundantly clear, I have two passions: connecting dots between plastic pollution and practically everything; and our shared ocean waters. Many of the issues plaguing our oceans are actually the result of something going haywire upstream: on land. This means that many of the localized solutions to something like plastic pollution can start right in our own backyards. In some cases, “wins” don’t seem like they relate to the ocean at all (for example, eating salad for lunch instead of a cheeseburger) but if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that actually, they do.
(Let’s go on a tangent following that example: less meat consumption leads to less methane emissions which leads to less impact to our climate. Less impact on our climate means the planet stops heating up so much, which means icebergs can stay frozen and corals can stay un-bleached. With the climate stabilized from less GHG emissions, the global conveyor belt running through the world’s oceans can continue trucking along and regulate our global temperatures better, which means less extreme weather events. This all happens when we eat more salad and less meat (and do other things, but do you see what I mean?) Phew!
Focus On the Good
Plus, I think it’s important to highlight the people, businesses, and groups making an effort to do things different and better for people and planet. They’re working really hard and they deserve to know that they are having an impact.
We get inundated with so much bad news these days, it’s hard to keep track of what went right, but focusing on the good, positive success stories (no matter how small!) keeps the demons at bay.
So without further ado, let’s get to those ocean wins.
1. Small Businesses Taking On Packaging Waste
I’ll start by saying that there are so, so, so many businesses now tackling packaging waste and it – is – amazing! It really, truly is. It’s why I continuously highlight them in these posts. I’m not being paid by these businesses, I’m not receiving free products, nor am I trying to garner anything from them. I just really, really love the things they do and as mentioned previously, these businesses deserve to know that they are making an impact. In this post, I’ll be talking about two that came across my radar recently (for different reasons).
Okanagan Lavender & Herb Farm
Okanagan Lavender & Herb Farm is a little slice of heaven tucked in between vineyards and fields in South Kelowna. On a clear, summer day, the Farm is awash in endless colour and fragrance. For, it is actually a lavender and herb farm and lavender and herbs are their specialities. If you can believe it, they actually cultivate over 20 varieties of herbs! These herbs go into a number of products, including personal care items, for aromatherapy, and culinary.
Jan and I had the very good fortune to meet Andrea and her family a few years ago, while we were shooting a short video for the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards. We fell in love with the farm (and the family!) from the minute we walked through the door. It is clear that here, each person who works here – whether it be growing, harvesting, distilling, packaging, or selling – truly cares about what they do, and the impact what they do has on the planet. They all see the bigger picture, the “why this is important.”
Recently, I was in the market for a new lip balm and somehow, landed on the Okanagan Lavender & Herb website, where I was gleefully surprised to discover that not only did they craft their own lip balm, but that this lip balm was composed of several farm-grown ingredients and came packaged in a compostable tube. And look at the very, very sweet package it came in! ☺️
Can you say…ocean win? How about ocean wins*?
Lip Balm As a Healing Salve Beyond Just Lips!
Let’s review why this is a win (x3):
- Local product from a small business (keeping money in my community, supporting a business I believe in, and people I value)
- Product made of high-quality, almost-entirely-home-grown ingredients – doesn’t get much better than that…
- …Oh wait, it does: plastic-free packaging that can be placed in my compost pile when finished.
“We are committed to eliminating plastics, and using packaging that is recyclable, reusable, compostable, and biodegradable.”
Okanagan Lavender & Herb Farm
I love, more than anything, when a business goes out of its way to promote its commitment to protecting and preserving the environment, as a core business value. This is real authenticity. These businesses do not have to opt for compostable packaging, or fresh ingredients but they do it anyway because for them, these values are intrinsic. It makes supporting them easy as pie (or, plastic-free lip balm). ☺️
Nour-ish: Body, Soul, Pet
I love Instagram – most of the time. Sometimes I don’t, when I get sucked in and hours go by before I realize I’ve been spiraling down random rabbit holes looking at endless food photos. We’ve all been there.
But recently, I’ve found it really useful to crowd-source local companies selling local goods I’m seeking. A few weeks ago, I had put out a call out to my Okanagan pals, asking if anyone knew of a local company making lotion bars. Most of the time, I use coconut oil as a moisterizer but sometimes (like during the day) I like something for my hands that’s a little less greasy. As I mentioned in last week’s “Everyday Life” post, I had recently stumbled upon a shop (in the mall!) selling a brand of lotion bar that I was quite excited to try. Update: they are awesome. But they’re a bit of a bigger brand, and so I wondered: is there anyone around my area making something similar? Turns out, yes!! Nour-ish: Body, Soul, Pet. (Thank you, Boone & Cricket Farm for the hot tip!)
Nour-ish is a women-owned small business creating products geared toward pet and human wellness. What a fun and awesome combination! Together, owners Andrea and Tammy create small-batch, handmade products using locally- and Canadian-sourced ingredients. Products which include, among other things…lotion bars!
I haven’t invested in Nourish: Body, Soul, Pet’s lotion bars yet, but I am already drooling. Or, my skin is drooling. Or wait, that sounds gross…whatever, you get the picture. Clearly I am excited about lotion bars.
What is a lotion bar?
Similar to shampoo bars, conditioner bars, or body wash bars, a lotion bar is a “concentrated” product. There is significantly less water used in the creation of a lotion bar, resulting in a solid product. And, they’re plastic-free (hooray! less plastic! ocean wins!).
From scanning their products, to reading up on their “why” it is clear that Andrea and Tammy are also committed to delivering wholesome products to their customers (furred or non) that nourish body and soul, plus leave a lighter footprint. Here is what they have to say about that, from their website:
“Our focus is on creating handmade, small batch, nature-inspired recipes that create the items in our line. Using ethical ingredients sourced locally & from Canadian suppliers makes us feel good about what we do. We carry that focus through every detail of the process, including our packaging – we use eco-friendly packaging for our bath bars & re-useable cotton bags & tins for our soaps & tea facials. Every little detail matters and can create a ripple effect.”
Nour-ish: Body, Soul, Pet
“Every little detail matters and can create a ripple effect.” Who else got goosebumps and all the feels reading that?! It is so very true. Reason #8,263,874 to support small businesses: they really, really do care about people (and planet).
2. “Art-ivism”: Where Art Meets Activism
As someone who is not artistically inclined (at least where visual arts are concerned), I have really come to appreciate the work of so many countless women (and men, but I’ll be focusing on women here) who are taking their art and shaping it into quiet – and loud – forms of activism. There is lots out there, but for the purposes of this post, I’ll focus on plastic pollution warriors.
These women are fighting plastic pollution with beauty: indeed, they take something ugly (pollution) and turn it into something that you actually want to stare at, or care about. These artists make us think, make us feel something, and compel us to action.
- Carmen Danae Azor – recently came across my radar through an Only One feature story by Lora Shinn. She organizes beach cleanups, mangrove restoration initiatives, and derelict fishing gear removal from reefs in her home places of Mallorca and the Dominican Republic and advocates for clean waters through photography and video work (if you ever saw this clip, you have seen Carmen’s work).
- Mariah Reading – I mentioned Mariah in a Wednesday Wins post over a year ago (!!) but she is still rocking her “recycled landscapes” paintings (taking a piece of discovered trash and painting a landscape on it) with a recent show at a gallery in Davis, California. Her art is incredible.
- Optic Junk – Emma transforms humble litter-picking finds into lovely, delicate mosaics. She typically accompanies her art with a story: either of the experience finding the items, or something bigger-picture. But she does it in a way that isn’t aggressive, not in-your-face. She simply presents what is. In her words, composing these pieces brings a sense of joy and “It flips the script.”
3. Marine Pollution Meets Ocean Wins (x9)
Let’s face it: there are a lot of issues facing our oceans right now: climate change, ocean acidification, every type of pollution ever, over-fishing, and on…and on.
But! We’re not here to wallow in the misery (because certainly there is already enough of that going on). Did you know that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently selected nine (count ’em!) projects aimed at combatting marine pollution?
Sounds like some ocean wins to me!
These projects were all part of the 2020 Ocean Innovation Challenge (OIC). The OIC is a program set up by the UNDP in partnership with countries like Sweden and Norway (swoon). The goal of the Challenge is to advance progress on solutions targeting the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) that are specific to oceans: Life Below Water.
The intent behind SDG #14 is to “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.” Over 600 proposals were received for the OIC and of those, 9 finalists were chosen.
Want to know the winning projects? Here they are:
- Coolers made out of coconut to replace expanded polystyrene foam as an insulator for food transport (Fortuna Cools, Inc)
- Algae-based fertilizer as a replacement for industrial fertilizer in Mexico, Morocco, and Spain agriculture (Ficosterra)
- Nutrient recycling to combat coastal eutrophication in Cape Verde, Portugal (AqualnSilico Lda)
- Reducing microfibre pollution from the fashion industry in Southeast Asia (Forum for the Future, APAC)
- An inventory of global plastics policies by Duke University’s Nicholas Institute
- Promoting laws to protect our oceans by Fundación OneSea
- Shaping local regulations on single-use plastics and establishing EPR laws in the Philippine province of Palawan.
- PET-recovery and buy-back center in Comoros
- An EPR scheme for plastic and packaging wastes in the Maldives
And there you have it, friends! Another week, more ocean wins. Do you have a story to share? Please reach out! I’d love to hear from you. In the meantime, have a great week and see you next time. 👋🏼
One Comment