Welcome to SUSTAIN INITIATIVE
Hi, friend.
I’m Jennifer, a long-time minimalist, historian, and mama to two little ones. And I have a simple mission:
I’m here to help you take small + intentional steps towards a more sustainable life.
When given the choice, most of us want to make decisions that are safer for our families and kinder to the planet. We want to give up single-use plastic, ditch the toxic phthalates in children’s toys, and reduce our role in the consumerist cycle that contributes to the destruction of our planet. But sometimes, it’s hard to see past the clutter on our kitchen tables and the commitments in our calendar to imagine a life that’s in alignment with these values. I’m here to make this change easy.
Let’s work through our climate anxiety, together.
I get it. The Earth is on fire, but we’re still buying $2 t-shirts and plastic crap destined for landfill.
It’s easy to feel anxious or even hopeless when faced with a historic number of extreme climate events, an expanding plastic industry, and a growing awareness of everything from forever chemicals in our cookware to nano-plastics in our waterways.
Climate problems seem big because they are. Big problems do, on some level, require big solutions. We need governments and every organization from multi-national corporations to local school systems on board, and I’m not going to pretend like it’s easy. But I’m tired of being told that the only meaningful thing we can do as an individual to literally save the planet is to vote.
The average American generates 4.5 pounds of waste per day (amounting to over 1,600 pounds— the equivalent of a literal bison or manatee or polar bear or pick your other favorite gigantic animal). We waste up to 40% of the food we buy (polluting as much as putting 37 million cars on the road). We throw away, on average, more than 80 pounds of clothing per person per year. These individual actions matter.
This world doesn’t need just a handful of people living zero-waste, vegan, never-gonna-fly-again lifestyles— we need millions of people taking intentional baby steps towards a more sustainable life.
Stopping the fast fashion cycle, eating less meat, deciding to shop just a little more sustainably. Every dollar you spend— or don’t spend— is a vote for the kind of world you want to live in. Let’s make it count.
Here’s What You Can Expect
As a subscriber, here’s what you can expect:
✓ Weekly posts that tap into consumer culture, climate/ environmental issues, living a low-waste lifestyle, and intentional living
✓ Audio voiceovers, anytime I can get my toddlers to stop shrieking in the background (it’s like a podcast! If a podcast just involves me reading my posts out loud and cringing because who let me use these super long sentences and where am I even supposed to stop to breathe anyway?)
Paid subscribers get all of the above, plus:
✓ My full archive
✓ Bonus resources like journal prompts and super practical resource round-ups.
I’m committed to keeping as many articles as possible open to everyone— for the simple reason that I don’t want my best suggestions for saving the planet to live behind a paywall.
But if Sustain Initiative provides value to your life and you have the wiggle room in your budget, please consider a paid subscription to keep my figurative (and literal) lights on. If you want to access my content but can’t afford a paid subscription right now— just e-mail me and I will comp you a subscription, no questions asked.
About Me
I’m a historian who has examined everything from gender and consumption in revolutionary port cities (yes, like the American Revolution) to advertisers’ messaging about masculinity in the 1950s. But here on Substack, I’m getting a little (okay, a lot) more personal as we chat about everything from shopping small and ditching the toxic crap in our stuff to why social media makes you feel sucky. At the core of everything you’ll find here is this question: How do we align our life with our values + make space for what matters most?
I know deep in my bones that every child deserves adults who will do the hard work of climate advocacy so they don’t have to.
My biggest motivators call me mommy— and I need them to know, one day, that we did not stay silent in the face of crisis.
I’d love to hear from you— feel free to reach out and chat anytime. Let’s get to know each other!
P.S. I know writers have a bit of a reputation for liking solitude and whatever, but I would, in fact, love to hear from you. You might even be one of the only non-toddlers I talk to all day! So definitely say hi.
A few of my favorite posts to get you started:
Some of my writing lives elsewhere on the Internet:
The Privilege of Parenting (and Re-Parenting) on Mindful Consumer (formerly Explore Within)
Want to Be a Force For Good in the World? Choose Minimalism. on Becoming Minimalist
Letting Go As An Act of Love on No Sidebar
A Season to Reckon: Owning my Environmental Impact on No Sidebar
