Kate Harris is CEO of GECA - Good Environmental Choice Australia. GECA is an organisation we should all become more familiar with, it is Australia's only independent, not for profit, multi-sector, sustainability and environmental certification program. In today's episode, we discuss consumer consciousness and why it is something we should all be striving for. We discuss the life cycle of a product, circular or collaborative economy, supply chain issues, modern slavery, sustainable development goals.

Selected Links from the Episode

GECA website

One Million Women website

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Unstress episode with Alexx Stuart on low tox living

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Dr. Ron Ehrlich: Hello and welcome to “Unstress” My name is Dr. Ron Ehrlich. I don't know whether you think about this much if you listen to this podcast you probably do, but have you noticed how we are consistently encouraged to be good consumers, not just by advertising but by governments and banks. If consumer confidence is high, then apparently that's an indicator of a healthy economy.

Well, what about being a good citizen? And rather than celebrating consumer confidence we actually celebrate consumer consciousness. There are so many things to consider. The lifecycle of a product, a circular or collaborative economy, supply chain issues, modern slavery, sustainable development goals and much more.

Well, my guest today is Kate Harris who is CEO of an organisation that we should all become a lot more familiar with GECA - G E C A which stands for Good Environmental Choices Australia. Now importantly GECA is an organisation and an eco-label which is Australia's only and this is really important independent not-for-profit multisector sustainability and environmental certification program. Independent not-for-profit really important. I hope you enjoy this conversation I had with Kate Harris.

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Welcome to the show, Kate.

Kate Harris: Thanks Ron. Thanks for having me.

Dr. Ron Ehrlich: Now Kate you're CEO of GECA, can you share with our listener… I know you were a few other different hats there; can you share with our listener a bit about your journey and how you got to this point?

Kate Harris: Yes, my journey is not a linear one so it's always an interesting story, I guess. I started off singing and nursing and then selling off the not-for-profit sector by combining those things like a clown doctor. So, I'm definitely not a linear trajectory to a CEO but all of the things I have done along the way are things that I'm really passionate about and it's always been about making a difference in being a service.

And now through that journey whilst I was managing the clown doctor program, I had a son who was quite sick with and affected by things in the environment and that really took me on a new professional journey and a personal one in looking at environmental sustainability, social change and how all of those things are interconnected. So, I did a Master of Social Ecology and really fell in love with no supporting leadership and systems change for making the world a better place for humanity and all actually.

Dr. Ron Ehrlich: Just tell us a little bit about GECA. It's an acronym for…

Kate Harris: It is a Good Environmental Choices Australia and so that’s the acronym. I mean although we're going to start dropping the E and just make it about food choices because we also do social components as well as environment and health and some people don't see beyond when we're talking about GECA. Essentially, GECA is a not-for-profit organisation, is eighteen years old this year and we're an eco-label independent not-for-profit eco-label and as well as that we look at good choices and best practice for products and services so that consumers or procurers can actually choose things that are yeah good for people on the planet.

So,