The Wise Consumer

Meet Dr. Vanessa Pirotta, a marine biologist and science communicator, from Sydney Australia, whose most recent research focuses on whale snot -- more specifically, collecting and analyzing the bacteria in whale snot!

In this episode we chat about:

• Her passion for whales and how it inspired the direction of her career (the movie Free Willy may have played a role in all of this)
• Why she decided to research whale snot using drones + the technological challenges she and her team had to overcome to capture whale snot.
• What scientists can learn about a whale's overall health from whale snot (note: whale snot contains biological information such as bacteria, hormones, and DNA).
• The challenges humans pose to marine wildlife (ex: fishing entanglement, ship strikes, acoustic and chemical pollution) and what we are doing to help mitigate some of these issues. 
• Her love of educating and inspiring the next generation
• The importance of following your passion
• And so much more!

This was such a great conversation and I think you’ll really enjoy it! Happy listening!

Meet Diane van Zwanenberg, the founder of Coconut Matter, an ethically made, all-natural, socially driven skincare brand based out of Hong Kong on a mission to reduce plastic waste from the global cosmetics industry, simply put, to reduce plastic waste from our bathrooms.  

“My business is about enabling sustainable living. And, I can’t enable sustainable living if a product doesn’t work or if I am asking people to be inconvenienced by the product -- inconvenienced as in, you have to put your arms up for ten seconds while your deodorant dries, or accept that it drags on your skin and it hurts, or that it causes rashes, etc. That’s not enabling sustainable living. So you have to produce a product that really works and that’s a pleasure to use and then sustainable living just becomes the icing on top. It’s a no brainer.” -- Diane van Zwanenberg

In this episode we chat about:

• The journey that led Diane to founding Coconut Matter (even though as a kid she swore she would never run her own business)
• Why creating a business that made both a social and environmental impact was so important to her
• The challenges she's had to overcome to formulate, package, and market her plastic-free plant-based products (it’s not been an easy journey)
• Why creating a zero-waste cosmetic product was so important to her + the importance of using plant-based and non-toxic ingredients
• How she developed a relationship with Kokonut Pacific, an organization that works with rural populations in tropical countries to help better their lives by improving their utilization of coconuts
• And so much more!

Happy listening!

Connect with Coconut Matter: @instagram @facebook @pinteret

"The work that we do is about giving back. The more we feed our soils, and care for the land the more abundant the trees. When we can work in unison with the land we form a harmony that extends to the food and products we share. One of the goals of Pure Mana Hawaii is to give back to the farmers that produce our food and botanicals and help them to succeed.  Pure Mana Hawaii makes eco-conscious decisions every step of the way. From the ingredients we use to the packaging, all is done as a gift “from our soil to your soul”. One world, one mission. We should all do our part to preserve the pure natural resources that are still available.”  — Kollette Stith

Meet Sue Mandini & Kollette Stith, the co-founders of Pure Mana Hawaii, an organic and eco-luxe skincare line of oils and botanical blends made entirely from locally sourced, farm-grown, or wild-crafted ingredients. Pure Mana is literally food for your skin. They grow, harvest, process, and hand-press the purest, organic Macadamia Nuts, Kona Green Coffee and Vanilla oils on their farm on the Big Island of Hawaii. 

In this episode we chat about:

- How Sue and Kollette met + the journey that led them to launch Pure Mana. - The skin benefits of using macadamia nut oils and green coffee oil.- The ingredients they use in their products + where they're sourced - The two-year-long process they underwent to fine-tune their formulas.  - The pros and cons of living as a modern-day homesteader (this is truly a way of life I admire). - The importance of sustainable farming, the symbiotic relationship between plants, and the challenges of organic farming. - The ups and downs of their entrepreneurial journey. - Pure Mana’s sustainable packaging program (customers can return their used glass bottles and in return receive a$25 gift code for online purchases #zerowaste). - And so much more! 

This was such a great conversation! Happy listening!

Connect with Pure Mana: - Instagram @puremanahawaii  - Facebook @puremanahawaii

"Our skin is the first thing to show us if there’s something going on inside. It shows us if we’re happy, blushing, if we’re in love, if we’re sick, pregnant, sad…our skin shows it all.” -- Lisa Brill, Founder of Qēt Botanicals

Meet Lisa Brill, the founder of Qēt Botanicals, an EWG verified, plant-based, wild-harvested, and hand-crafted skincare brand committed to using nothing but the cleanest and safest ingredients.

In this episode we cover:

• How Lisa’s deteriorating health was drastically improved once she started changing her diet and skincare routine.
• Why it matters to our overall wellbeing that we use nontoxic and all-natural skincare products.
• What it means to be EWG verified + why it matters
• How to research ingredients on EWG's Skin Deep Cosmetic Database
• Greenwashing in the beauty industry + the challenges it poses to us as consumers.
• Lisa’s top three skincare tips.
• The importance of using eco-friendly and low-waste packaging alternatives.
• Carrie Hammer’s TedTalk on redefining beauty: “Role Models Not Runway Models” @carriehammer
• And so much more!

This was truly such a fun and insightful conversation. I know you’re going to love it. Happy listening!

Connect with Qēt Botanicals; Instagram 

Meet Jennifer Johnson and Carl Hickerson, the co-founders of Trestle, a Portland-based technology company aiming to make conscious consumerism convenient!

“It’s worth taking into consideration the historical perspective of the movement of business into this [sustainable and ethical] space. And for us, we like to celebrate the ones that are doing incredible work to reduce their waste or their energy consumption or clean up their supply chains. Those who are starting to ask the questions themselves: “Oh, what is our impact? Where are we actually causing more harm than good?” The ones that are  asking those questions and starting to address them are the ones we like to celebrate.” — Jennifer Johnson

In this episode we cover:

• The challenges consumers face (especially when it comes to trying to support ethical and sustainable brands).
• What it means to be a conscious consumer, i.e. can we actually define ethics seeing that personal values are likely to differ from one person to the next?
• How Trestle analyzes and aggregates brands + how the "myTrestle" button works.
• Why Trestle is being coined the "Match.com" of e-commerce.
• The challenges around "greenwashing" and why it matters that brands be transparent with their customers.
• Why Jennifer and Carl decided to create a company to help consumers discover the values of their favorite brands.
• How Jennifer and Carl met, the challenges of their entrepreneurial journey, and so much more!

This was such a fun and insightful conversation. I know you're going to love it! Happy listening!

PS: myTrestle Button is a free Chrome extension/add-on that shows you instantly the ethical practices of a company when you land on their website (or a product they sell on Amazon). Not sure if a brand is cruelty-free, fair-trade, sustainable, etc.? Just #trestleit 

Here's how it works: 1. Download the myTrestle Button Chrome extension (Go to www.mytrestle.com and click on the “Add myTrestle Button” must be done on a desktop!).⁣

⁣⁣2. Make a Trestle profile and update your most important values.⁣⁣

⁣⁣3. Shop as you normally would! As you land on the websites of companies we’ve analyzed, you’ll be notified of their ethical practices.⁣⁣

Meet Mike and Martha Robinson, the co-founders and husband and wife team behind Cleaning Essentials, a zero-waste cleaning company dedicated to helping families replace store-bought household chemicals with safe, non-toxic homemade cleaning solutions in beautiful glass bottles.

“For us, it all started when we started having kids. I just became very aware of all the chemicals and the products that we were keeping under the kitchen sink -- products we were trying to keep away from our children. We just kind of started thinking, why do we even need to have these in the house if they’re that dangerous and toxic? It was during that time that we started making our own cleaning products and getting rid of the more toxic ones. We wanted to minimize the exposure that we (primarily our kids) were having to these chemicals.”  -- Martha Robinson (quote slightly edited for clarity)

In this episode we cover:

• How Mike and Martha met (they were 13 when they met, btw! )
• The journey that led Mike and Martha down the road to creating their own cleaning company.
• Their goal to help make non-toxic and plastic-free cleaning products accessible to all.
• The trial and error process they first underwent to develop the most effective non-toxic cleaning formula. 
• Why it was important to them to support and partner with 1% for the Planet and the Plastic Pollution Coalition
• The harmful impact of toxic chemicals on our health.
• The challenges of the startup life while raising a family.
• And so much more.

This was such a great conversation! Happy listening.  

“If we are serious about development what we should fundamentally do is strategic...for the government for the institutions to take over because they are responsible for their people. And the locals to also roll up their sleeves and not just treat them like subjects of aid but treat them like an active participants in the development imminent in their landscape. That’s  the way we need to think if we’re really serious about development. And you know, it’s all about investing in the people not investing in ourselves and doing projects that just make us feel good. There are a lot of tough decisions involved in making this happen it’s the road less traveled but that’s what we need to explore.” -- Abbey Wemimo 

Meet Abbey Wemimo, the founder of Clean Water for Everyone, a social venture that aims to provide access to clean and affordable water supply in underdeveloped nations by working with locals to achieve positive social, economic and environmental impacts.

In this episode we cover: - Abbey's experiences as a child growing up in the slums of Lagos Nigeria. - Why he launched Clean Water for Everyone (he almost died of Typhoid fever as a kid due to a lack of access to clean water). - His early start to entrepreneurship (he used to sell snickers bars to his classmates during school breaks). - The importance of empowering local communities to run their businesses, institutions, organizations, etc. themselves rather than creating a system of dependency, or as Abbey puts it, “treating local individuals like subjects of aid” (something I’ve personally been thinking about a lot and which Abbey and I talk about at great length during this episode). - The importance of collaboration and working together to solve some of the world's most complex issues. - Africa's economic boom (this is an exciting time for Africa!) - What inspires him to persevere through the entrepreneurial challenges he faces. - And so much more!

This was truly such an amazing conversation. Happy listening! 

"We have trained bee's to do a lot of crazy things. They've been trained to do addition and subtraction and to recognize different artists. For example, they trained bee's to identify Aboriginal art from Picasso! They've also trained them to smell bombs and...to smell cancer. There's just so many different crazy experiments that have been done where they've taught bee's all these different things! And, not only are the bee's able to learn but they're able to communicate to us that they learned. To me, that's nuts!" - Hilary Kearney

Meet Hilary Kearney, the founder of Girl Next Door Honey, a beekeeping business that focuses on bee-centric programs such as natural beekeeping classes, apiary management (which is basically backyard beekpeeing), classroom presentations, beehive tours, live bee removal and more! 

In this episode we cover:

- The entrepreneurial journey that led Hilary to founding a beekeeping business (let's just say beekeeping was never on the agenda) - The intelligence of bee's & how they communicate with each other  - The difference between honeybee's and bumblebee's - How climate change and pesticides are killing bee's - What we, as individuals, can do to help protect bee's and what to do in case we come across a swarm of bee's - Her struggle to find a manageable work/life balance - Her love/hate relationship to technology - And so much more!

This was such a great conversation! Happy listening.

Connect with Girl Next Door Honey: Instagram Facebook

I am thrilled to finally be able to share this episode with you all! This is the first episode in a series of 4 where Ill be chatting with women from different walks of life, cultures, and countries about their personal experiences, struggles, thoughts, lessons learned, tips, etc. when it comes to living sustainably while raising children. Because y’all I realize it’s not always easy to be eco-friendly, shop ethically/sustainably, reduce our waste, etc., let alone for one person, but then when you add a tiny human to the mix it seems as though things seem to get a bit more complicated. So my question is: Does living sustainably get more complicated once you have children? Well, in a way it does. Does that mean it's impossible? Absolutely not. Will you do it perfectly, probably not and is that OK! Which is why we are having this conversation.  

To help me explore this question, I invited Natalie Kay, founder of Sustainably Chic, Olivia Gossett Cooper, founder of Today We Will, Verena Erin founder of My Green Closet, and Ashley Ayala from Sisterhouse Collective, and guys, this was such a  great conversation! We chatted about the pros and cons of reusable vs disposable diapers, toys (plastic vs eco-friendly….this is an issue a lot of women approach me with), secondhand shopping, breastfeeding, the challenges of time management, mom guilt, social media and so much more.

This was a super fun and insightful conversation and I think you’ll get a lot out of it! Happy listening!

“My wish is that people would buy less but buy better, as is heard more and more often, but also, have a moment every time you decide to purchase something. Every time you pick a product up and think “I am going to buy this!” hold it in your hand and ask yourself: "Where did its come from? Who made this? How did this turn into yarn and into clothes?" It touched so many hands...you’re responsible for the entire timeline of that piece of clothing, as with any product.” — Janeane Marie

Meet Janeane Marie, founder of Manta, a minimalist USA made swimwear line made from sustainably sourced materials. 

In this episode we cover: - Her journey from being an "anti-fashionista" to becoming one of Kat Von D's head fashion designers. - How and why she developed a sustainable/ethical swimwear line (her experience in the fast fashion industry & traveling to Asia greatly impacted her). - The inspiration and creative process behind Manta. - Why she selected ECONYL®, a regenerated nylon made from plastic waste and abandoned fishing nets, as her fabric of choice.  - The complex relationship women have with their bodies. - The importance of being more mindful & conscious consumers and why it matters. - And so much more!

This was such a great conversation! Happy listening.