Welcome! What Does Living Sustainably Really Mean?

Hi! Welcome. I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that if you clicked on this show, you’re probably interested in taking care of the earth to some extent. While most of us can agree on wanting to take better care of our earth, we may often feel overwhelmed by how to do so in ways that actually matter. And on that note, when you hear phrases like “zero waste” or “living sustainably”, you might wonder what does that really even mean? 
What does “sustainable” really mean and look like for the new mom, the working citizen, the burnt-out teacher, the high school student wanting to make a difference…
That’s the goal of this show, the “All Things Sustainable” podcast. Here we talk about anything related to sustainable living (a lifestyle focused on caring for the planet in realistic, tangible ways), and we break down these topics into specific, actionable steps that you can apply to your own life – no matter where you’re coming from.  Check out this episode to understand where this podcast is headed and how it can support your own journey. 

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This show is brought to you by listener support, and I'm sending a huge shout-out to these patrons for making it happen: Elizabeth R, Nancy K, Sarah W, Jodi S, Julia B, Liliana S, Karyn W, Linda M, Detlef K, and Kelly K!
To become a patron and receive all the perks of this community, visit www.patreon.com/allthingssustainable and join for as low as $3/month!
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To learn more with your host and Eco-Living Coach, Katie Kurpanek, visit www.thatminimallife.com for blog posts and personalized coaching info!
Instagram: @that.minimal.life
Email: katie.thatminimallife@gmail.com
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TRANSCRIPTS FOR EACH EPISODE can be found here: https://allthingssustainable.buzzsprout.com
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Transcript

Katie Kurpanek: 0:06

You're listening to all things sustainable, where we unpack topics related to sustainable living, as well as how to apply specific actions to your own life. I'm your eco living coach and podcast host, Katie Kurpanek. Let's jump in. Hi, I'm so glad you found this podcast Welcome. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that if you clicked on this show, you're probably interested in taking care of the earth to some extent. While most of us can agree on wanting to take better care of our Earth, we may often feel overwhelmed by how to do so in ways that actually mattered. And on that note, when you hear phrases like zero waste, or living sustainably, you might wonder what does that really even mean? What does sustainable really mean? And what does that look like for the new mom or the working citizen, the burnt out teacher, the high school student wanting to make a difference. That's the goal of this show, the All Things sustainable podcast. Here we talk about anything related to sustainable living, which is a lifestyle focused on caring for the planet, in realistic, tangible ways. And we break down these topics into specific actionable steps that you can apply to your own life, no matter where you're coming from. living sustainably looks different for each person. Depending on your budget, your level of accessibility to resources, your family's needs, your health, and so on, you might be able to champion the art of composting your food scraps, and swapping out disposable plastics for Reusables. While your neighbor might feel overwhelmed by this, but they're committed to biking to work a few times a week to reduce their carbon emissions, or save money on gas or exercise. Or maybe your friend is transitioning away from eating as much meat because of the agricultural impact on the climate. But you're really interested in learning more about buying more produce from your local farmers. The point is, we can't possibly fit sustainability into a box, or a one size fits all kind of model for all societies. This approach often ignores entire people groups, cultural traditions, various levels of privilege and accessibility. So Hi, I'm Katie, and my passion within the realm of sustainable living is to provide a safe space for empathetic and kind conversations where we can engage each other, learn from each other and come away feeling motivated and inspired to simply do our best. Knowing that doing something at our best is better than doing nothing at all. This passion of mine stems from my love for education. In addition to being your podcast host here, I'm also an eco living coach. And before that I was a teacher. In my professional and personal life, I have witnessed the incredible empowerment of education. And like the amazing Maya Angelou said, Do the best you can until you know better than when you know better do better. Life is an ever evolving journey of learning and transforming. And the best that you had to offer in one season of your life usually grows into a different version of your best later. An example of this in my own life would be single use plastics, I never used to think twice about my overflowing collection of plastic grocery bags in the cabinet underneath the sink, or buying bottled water or throwing away my empty coffee cup from A to go order. All of these habits in life just seemed normal. And I really had no reason to question any of it. But once I learned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and other littoral islands of floating plastic debris in our oceans, and once I learned about the major flaws within our recycling systems, both national and global, so recycling cannot be the solution. And once I started thinking more in depth about how every single piece of plastic ever created still exists. And I was learning about what microplastics are, and how we throw away about 25 billion coffee cups every single year in the USA alone. And I started learning about how a Styrofoam cup would still be found in a landfill 500 years from now. Oh, I just I couldn't go back to the way I was before. I couldn't be ignorant any longer. At that point. I knew better and so I had to do better. Now I'm not saying that today I'm entirely plastic free. Nope. Our society and infrastructure is not set up unfortunately, to support that kind of lifestyle, at least not for me. And I'm also a working mom with a toddler. And sometimes I like to eat takeout for the sake of convenience and life is busy. So I don't have time to make every single thing from scratch. But I have made major adjustments within my life and our little family's life and I'm constantly learning more and doing the best that I can which changes as I learn even more. Now we have reusable water bottles, coffee cups and grocery bags that we bring with us probably 95% of the time. We have switched almost all of our paper products to cloth or at least recycled paper or bamboo. We refill our soaps, detergents, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, teas, spices and more from our local Zero Waste Market, which we have the privilege of accessing, there's so much more that we've changed up within our personal lives. And we'll dive deeper into that within future podcast episodes. And interestingly, this has sparked some amazing conversations and changes within our community of family, friends, neighbors, co workers, it's been such a joy to witness the power of education and influence and change within our little pocket of the world. Here's the thing though, all of these steps took time, and in many cases, using up what we already had. And all of these steps were connected to something that we had learned about, which often led us to a whole other topic like composting or fast fashion or minimalism. And we could take what we had just learned then and apply it. However, it made sense at that time of our lives. But what I was able to do to live sustainably five years ago is so different from what I'm able to do now. And that's the thing about living sustainably, if the goals that you're trying to reach are not actually realistic or doable for you, then you will struggle to sustain this lifestyle, and you will end up more frustrated than motivated. That's also why I became an eco living coach. This basically means that I'm a life coach, but I specialize only in sustainability. I founded that minimal life as a small business on January 1 2020. So at the time of this recording, and with the launch of this podcast, we have officially just reached our two year anniversary, so exciting, but I started it so that I could coach individuals in minimizing their carbon footprint while maximizing their positive impact on this planet. Over the past two years, I've been able to write and publish blog posts on my website, Coach individuals through personalized sessions and group workshops. And this has provided me the wonderful opportunity of collaborating with many, many lovely people doing so much good in the world. And now that's brought us here, you will get to hear from several of these people on this podcast. As I interview experts from all over the spectrum of sustainability. I look forward to later covering anything from simple swaps, helping you decrease your single use plastic consumption to bigger topics like the true cost of fast fashion and why it matters to shop small and local as much as possible, and so on. In this pilot series, however, we're really setting the foundation here. There are listeners tuning in from all over the world with different stories and experiences. And with various levels of accessibility and privilege. Yes, we're going to keep coming back to those words, this key component. Again, living sustainably just can't look the same for every person. And your motivation for making these changes is going to be different from somebody else's. So in this mini pilot series, the next five episodes, we're going to zoom way out. And look at this big picture of sustainability from a bird's eye view, we're going to cover five benefits or five points of motivation connected to what it means to live sustainably, and chances are you're going to find some common ground with at least one of them. The next five episodes will cover caring for the earth, financial stability, positive impacts on your mental health, and again with your physical health. And then finally the intersectionality with social justice. living sustainably is connected to all five of these topics. And more often than not starting your own journey with one of these topics in mind usually leads you to another one. I have had an incredible time so far interviewing the experts you'll be hearing from they are each a wealth of knowledge and experience and they each have such unique stories to share. I cannot wait to share all of this with you. And then once this foundation has been laid, we will take a deeper dive into more of the specific components of what it looks like to live sustainably in the rest of the podcast. This is lifelong work and ever evolving journey. My hope is that you will join me and come away from each conversation feeling inspired feeling motivated, finding a deeper sense of connection or understanding with the perspectives shared here. And finally feeling a sense of hope. The world may be full of messes and anxieties and problems to solve. But we're not in this alone. We as humanity are innovative and adaptable. And most importantly, when we come together, we are strong. We are already making an impact on this planet. So now is the time to reflect and decide what kind of impact we're wanting to make. Stick with me. We'll be right back to wrap up right after this break. Hey, just wanted to jump in real quick to talk about Patreon. Patreon is an online platform that allows you to become a patron of the arts, so to speak, a financial supporter of the creators who enrich your life with their content. Thanks to the generous support of my patrons starting as low as just$3 a month, I'm able to continue empowering individuals like yourself through these educational chats with various experts across the spectrum of sustainable living. As a patron of this podcast, you will have the privilege of joining the discussions with guest speakers via zoom and taking part in the exclusive q&a As with them too. If you can't make the actual interview live, that's okay. You'll have access To the full recorded episode early before anybody else gets a chance to hear it, you also receive the added bonus of personal shout outs in podcast episodes, and other behind the scenes content sent your way. Plus, you'll receive unique discounts to more than a dozen sustainable businesses that have partnered with me so that you can save money and the earth while you shop. If any of the content that I create adds value to your life, or the perks alone have piqued your interest, check out patreon.com/all Things sustainable to join our community and become a patron today. Thank you so much for your support of this journey to minimize our carbon footprint while maximizing our positive impact on this planet we call home. Okay, let's get back to our show. So here we are a new year, at the time of this recording, a new podcast a new business venture. I'm thoroughly in this with you, constantly learning and adapting. So here's to exciting conversations and opportunities for growth ahead. If you're interested in joining, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a new episode. I've launched this with a few episodes already for you to listen to. And then more will be released every two weeks or so. And hopefully eventually, every week. Remember, I am a working mom with a toddler. And so a lot of this gets done during nap time or whatever pocket of time I can steal from my own day. So thanks for bearing with me. If you're ready to dive right in and need more resources, check out my business's website, which is also linked in the episode description that minimal life.com. There you will find a bunch of blog posts that can help you get started or continue your journey. You'll also find more information about my coaching services available to individuals and groups. As you heard just a few moments ago, I've got a Patreon platform available for those of you looking for even more awesome perks. And if you would like to support the work that I do. Finally, I've got my contact information also linked in the episode description. And I'm most active on Instagram so you can follow me over there at that dot minimal dot life. To say that I'm excited about this podcast adventure is the understatement of the new year. I have been dreaming of launching this podcast for well, almost two years now. I cannot wait to share even more with you. And if you have any suggestions for topics that you would like to learn more about or people you would like to hear from as guest speakers, please feel free to send them my way. Thank you for being here. Thank you for every single sustainable choice you make. And thank you for simply showing up as yourself every day. We need you. We need each other. I'm in this with you and I'll catch you on the next episode.