 If you want to see the companies you love the most utilize fully recyclable or compostable packaging for their products - I created a group where we can tackle the problem together. After listening to your feedback on the #PackagingForThePlanet movement, I decided to put together a central community where we can problem solve openly together. We now have a Packaging For The Planet Facebook Group for us to call home! This way we can have more of a conversation together, rather than replying via email on an individual basis.
Having a group is also an opportunity to share the good with the bad. If you find a company that's utilizing fully recyclable or compostable packaging - share it with us! We have to celebrate the small wins in order to get through this mounting waste problem with our earth-loving hearts intact. While you'd hope that the companies we love would take it upon themselves to make these earth-friendly changes, the reality is without us as the consumers putting pressure on them, things won't change. Join the movement and let's make our voices heard by giving the companies we adore a gentle nudge to starting looking for and investing in innovative eco-friendly solutions for packaging. So head on over and join our new community of eco-warriors, tag some more companies you'd like us to contact, and jump into the conversation. I can't wait to see all the amazing things we are going to accomplish!
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In this episode of The Positively Green Podcast, Becca and I share how we deal with dysmenorrhea, aka periods from the seventh circle of hell. We’ve got a good line up of zero-waste and holistic period pain management options for you. When PMS rears its ugly head for many of us ladies, the conventional options are all we feel we have at our disposal to help manage the pain. Tune in to find out how we deal with the red wave holistically.
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Also, exciting news, please welcome our first official podcast sponsor, Osea Malibu, the original plant-based, results-driven skincare line. They are generously sponsoring this week’s episode. You can enter the code POSITIVELYGREEN at checkout on their site and get a free travel-size of your choice ($18 value) with the purchase of $40 or more. Just be sure to add the travel-size to your cart first. Check them out!
In this episode, Kelsey and Becca talk all about why you should work towards a zero-waste and toxin-free menstrual cycle. They also share their favorite zero-waste options for feminine items, like absorbable undies and the menstrual cup, and how to use them.
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If you have been thinking this is the year to get your first organic vegetable garden started, then we have the perfect episode to give you the final push. Discover the five surprising reasons to get your first vegetable garden going and how gardening can have a positive impact on your health, community, and the environment.
Show Notes:
Blogs and Books:
Kelsey’s Five-Part Blog Series on Organic Gardening
The All New Square Foot Garden The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible 
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Katelyn Duban of Wild Rose Farmer on The Rural Woman Podcast. This podcast is a collection of stories from women in farming, ranching, homesteading, agriculture and more. Each of these women are doing life in their own unique way and sharing their stories. Tune in each episode to be inspired by these amazing Rural Women.
In this episode:
Sustainability In The Press
Ford has partnered with electric vehicle startup Rivian to develop an electric pickup truck and SUV. These partnerships are becoming more and more commonplace because it allows major automobile companies to share the innovation load with tech startups and work towards a cleaner transportation future.
You may not realize, but the bulk of the US’ plastics, paper, and glass actually is repurposed overseas. One of the biggest countries, China, has decided to restrict imports of certain recyclables and it’s causing a terrible ripple effect. This decision has forced US waste management centers to either pay a much higher rate to repurpose the plastics somewhere else - or just dump it in a landfill. Unfortunately, many have chosen the landfill. This is the perfect example of how recycling isn’t technically the answer when it comes to our waste problems, it has actually propped up the throw-away culture we as Americans have gotten used to. It’s time to think more deeply about how much we consume and the cost it has on our world. I highly recommend learning about closed-loop cycles to get started. As the viability of recycling comes under scrutiny, a better option exists (and has been here since the dawn of time) - composting. I love seeing major companies step up to replace disposables with compostables, like Igloo and their new compostable cooler. As deforestation exacerbates climate change, a study has shown that when women are involved with the decision making process, less forests are razed. Many countries in South America and Asia are facing accelerated deforestation, but governments are trying to slow the process down by offering Payment for Ecosystem Services incentives. The study showed that when women make up at least 50% of the leaders within the local village, those groups harvested 51% less trees. Sustainability Podcasts
The Green Dreamer Podcast Episode 134: Empowering farmers of color and dismantling racism in the food system.
The Sustainable Dish Podcast Episode 85: Ideological anti-meat agendas in dietary guidelines with Gary and Belinda Fettke 
Sign up below to be sent "This Week in Sustainability." Staying informed and being a part of the conversation are integral in the fight to curb climate change. Thank you for being a force for good!
Spring is finally here! And in today’s episode of the Positively Green Podcast, we’re talking all about sunscreen. Believe it or not, we need some sun exposure without any sunscreen to help our bodies get Vitamin D. We’re also talking about the ingredients in conventional sunscreens and their health effects, as well as how they are negatively impacting the environment. Then we also leave you with safe, non-toxic, mineral sunscreen options. We’re all about practicing safe sun exposure over here!
In this episode we discuss:
Show Notes:
Studies:
Environmental Working Group’s Sunscreen Guide Becca’s SPF Recommendations: Kelsey’s DIY Recipe:
Download the free dminder app! 
Sustainability In The Press
A small family business is turning green waste into greener fields in Arizona. Green Waste Recycling collects clippings and trimmings from local landscaping businesses, chips them, composts them, and then spreads it over farmers’ fields to increase the biodiversity of their soils, skyrocket water retention, and boost yields. Some of these fields include alfalfa, which is then fed to local cattle. As the reporter puts it, “turning sticks into steaks.” This is such a fantastic example of using closed loop cycles!
In an effort to cut down on their carbon footprint, Amazon is launching a program called Amazon Day. The program organizes all your orders into one single delivery day for the week, cutting down on transportation for all the must-haves you order. My podcast host, Becca, and I chatted about this on one of our earlier Positively Green Podcast episodes. Paul and I have been trying to do this mindfully, keeping things in our cart until we hit about 5-7 items then we would order and get them to come on the same day, but it’s awesome that Amazon will do it for you now! The milkman method has been making a comeback, where the packaging for the items you purchase is reused over and over again (like old milk bottles). Major companies are opting in to package their goods in reusable, durable, and attractive containers that are then sent back to the manufacturer for continued use (instead of winding up in a landfill). When Greenpeace released their top ten worst companies for plastic pollution in the ocean, those companies realized they had a mounting PR crisis on their hands. Now, eight of those ten companies are a part of the Loop program. The methodology is definitely not without its faults, as the program requires a huge amount of transportation to make it possible, but I still think that it’s a step in the right direction. Extreme weather events are not only affecting American farmers, but farmers across the globe. Coffee farms in Honduras have suffered increasing droughts, disruptive rain events, and unpredictable winds that have decimated their crops. Families are beginning to flee to seek a more stable life in the United States, crossing the border illegally. This is the perfect example of major issues converging, until our government gets on board with the rest of the world for curbing climate change then our illegal immigrant situation is only going to get worse. Sustainability Podcasts
Food Heroes Podcast Episode 29: How a purple berry is saving the Brazilian Amazon with Ryan Black Sambazon
Green Dreamer Podcast Episode 132: Greening transportation with vehicles powered by Hydrogen fuel cells with Brian Goldstein Parting Thoughts:
In light ofEdition 6 of This Week In Sustainability, I have to share an experience I had at Ikea over the weekend. I ended up purchasing the wrong item (you know how the pick bins can be a bit confusing) and wound up with a mattress for a futon when what I wanted was the cover. It came shrink wrapped in unidentifiable plastic, so when I opened it up and realized it was a mattress, it had expanded and would not fit back in the original plastic bag.
I carefully wrapped it up best I could and brought it back to Ikea return it. At customer service, the Ikea employee told me I had to put it in another plastic bag to make the return. She handed me a flimsy plastic bag and I stared at her blankly and asked, "Could I get some help?" The futon mattress was huge and cumbersome to move, I mean, Paul had to help me get it into the van! She replied, "We're not supposed to help customers with this." Then she sat there and watched me struggle to shove the mattress covered in the first plastic bag, into another plastic bag that also wasn't big enough to fit it. After a few minutes of struggling, the people behind me in line graciously offered to help. We all proceeded to shove half of the mattress into another plastic bag. So much for customer service and care for the environment Ikea. How strange right?! Last 24 Hours Of The Earth Day Sale!
These are the final 24 hours on my Earth Day Sale. So if you have been eyeing my awesome sustainable holistic living ebook, The Holistic Home, now's the time to grab your copy at 20% off (no offer code needed). Cut through the overwhelm that trying to live more sustainably brings, and learn from my decade's worth of experience, eco-friendly product testing, and research.
Sign up below to be sent "This Week in Sustainability." Staying informed and being a part of the conversation are integral in the fight to curb climate change. Thank you for being a force for good!
Sustainability In The Press
In 2017 after a sick whale washed up on Norway’s shore, its stomach filled with plastic, the country decided it was time to put an end to its contribution to plastic in the ocean. The recycling company, Infinitium, was born and now it recycles a staggering 97% of Norway’s plastic bottles. Let’s compare that number to the UK, who recycles 43%, and then the US, who recycles a measly 28% of its plastic bottles. Norway has taken on an industry-inclusive method that makes companies just as responsible as the consumers. Do you think the rest of us could follow suit?
From a fellow regenerative pastured chicken farmer, this in-depth article on the state of our food system is not to be missed. Well researched, well-written, and deeply thoughtful, commit some time to reading this instead of watching Netflix’s docuseries Rotten (which missed the point on a number of key issues). Speaking of farmers, the USDA just released its census data for 2017, the last being released in 2012. As a farmer, there’s so much enticing information in here that I could spend a week reading the whole thing. One of the highlights is that they started tracking organic farms by gender, so now we have a better picture of how many women are getting into farming, and staying in. Organic farming aside, in 2012, there were 288,000 female farmers listed as the principal operator, and in 2017 that number rose to almost 800,000. The future is female farmers! On a more somber note, the average farm size shows that rural real estate cannibalism is still at an all-time high, hitting an average of 441 acres per farm in 2017, up from 434 acres in 2012. We are on a farming kick for this edition! In a CNN Perspectives piece, Patagonia and Dr. Bronner’s CEOs have joined forces to bring to light the consequences of reckless farming. Along with a handful of famous farmers, they have formed the Regenerative Organic Alliance and are beginning a pilot program for a new type of climate friendly certification to encourage growers to be kinder to the earth. Sustainability Podcasts
The Positively Green Podcast Episode 13: The truth behind sustainable food packaging with Dan Kurzrock
Food Heroes Podcast Episode 28: Farming, feminism, and the fight to feed the world with Trina Moyles Parting Thoughts
In our effort to nix single-use plastic this year, I will be the first to say how impossible it feels. Every time we try to find a solution, we end up back at square one (throwing something in the garbage). I'm continuing to have grace with myself and be patient with the process, so let my struggle be comforting to you if you are just starting out. Here I am with a whole blog dedicated to sustainable living and I still haven't got it 100% figured out. It's okay that you aren't doing things perfectly. There is no such thing as a perfect sustainable life, just the constant state of discovery and self evaluation. Make the process exploratory and trust that we are all in this together!
Sign up below to be sent "This Week in Sustainability." Staying informed and being a part of the conversation are integral in the fight to curb climate change. Thank you for being a force for good!
In this episode, we chat with Dan Kurzrock, the CEO of Regrained, a company that is working hard to find sustainable solutions for food waste and packaging waste. If you’ve been frustrated with the non-recyclable and non-compostable food packaging winding up in your garbage, this is the episode for you.
Dan Kurzrock is the co-founder and Chief Grain Officer of ReGrained. Dan founded ReGrained out of his hobby for homebrewing beer, where he first discovered that “spent” grain could be given a delicious second life. He is now obsessed with the impact edible upcycling and closing nutrient loops can have on our food system. As Chief Grain Officer, Dan is “Mr. Outside” for ReGrained, handling all elements of growing the business. Dan holds an Economics degree from UCLA and an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School.
In this episode we discuss:
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Meet Kelsey,Thanks for stopping by Green Willow Homestead! From chicken rearing to composting, we've got our hands full and we love sharing what we've learned along the way. Follow along as we strive to live sustainably and turn these five acres from just property to a fully functioning small-scale homestead. 
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Favorite Books of 20191. Restoration Agriculture
2. Nourishment 3. A Sand County Almanac 4. The Small Scale Poultry Flock 5. Deep Work Archives
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