LIVE LIFE IN
Sustainable Style ISSUE 5: MAY 2021
SIMPLIFYING
Sustainability sustainability in style
A NOTE FROM
Katie
Dear Sustainably Stylish Friends, I have to confess something.
I’m terrible at opening up and talking about myself in any medium other than writing. Anyone who’s met me will know that active listening is my modus operandi in all social situations. As an active listener and infrequent sharer, I learn a lot from those around me. When this (somewhat sneaky) introvert coping active-listening-and-learning technique is combined with a life-long passion for learning, I find new ways of putting together ideas to help solve the problems that people have expressed to me. This equation of listening + learning = innovation evolved Sustainability in Style from a personal blog to a resource hub to support changemakers. The hard part of my secret skillset of listening wholeheartedly and learning for soul growth all while conducting oneself like a social ninja with content-creation superpowers is that I find it hard to share the tools I have created. It’s counterintuitive to my personality to be spending large portions of my day telling people all about myself and my mission. This is why I’ve been shifting the language here at Sustainability in Style away from ‘I’ to encompass a ‘we’. The core team is still Sebastian (our OH&S supervisory pooch), Ged (my emotional and spiritual support husband/logistics team/sometimes photographer) and myself. By creating a ‘We’ instead of an 'I' it is easier to talk about tools and ideas. It also opens the space up for growth and change. Since 2020 I’ve been working to embrace change. From opening and closing our Mindful Living HQ space due to COVID, losing my hearing overnight, and going through the forever tumultuous cycle of employment/unemployment that is part of being a project-based science researcher and sessional academic teacher, change is an exciting but exhausting part of my daily life! Come to the end of May I face unemployment yet again. With science projects and sessional teach-
ing ending it's time to re-evaluate the next step. The fight between body, mind, emotions, and spirit always challenges my values navigational system when musing over the ‘where to from here' that accompanies the end of every science project. This time around I’m going to be brave. I’m planning to take the year off from work that has high mental and emotional tax (i.e. science research) choosing to embrace a day job that’s less exhausting. In choosing this path, I can put full focus on airing and sharing Sustainability in Style tools loudly and proudly (well as loudly and proudly as an introvert can bear). With a hope that they can reach a wide audience that can find value in our free support systems, while actively embracing some of our paid content. Opening up opportunities to add paid members to our delivery team that thrive on being loud online. A process of purposeful simplification to make life and business more sustainable. This brings me to this month’s theme of Simplifying Sustainability. Let’s face it. Sustainable living can be pretty hard to accomplish. The literature around it is confusing, the options available for taking action are many but our ability to make the switch can be limited, and there is an abundance of problems we can tackle and only so many hours in a given day. All the tools on our website and how we promote them (like this magazine) are designed to help you work out what you value, and use this as a navigational tool to shape your path forward. In this issue, we break down the process of Simplifying Sustainability so that you can move forward with clarity. While we all face those times where we fight between heart, head, body and spirit when making decisions. This process can help you navigate what really matters most. Let’s be brave and simplify together this May. Sustainably Yours, Katie
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Contents
A note from Katie...................................................................................... 1 Catch Up on Last Month's Content....................................................... 3 What Does Sustainable Style Mean to You?...................................... 5 Self-Coaching Planner Update.............................................................. 9 Rainforest Rescue..................................................................................... 11 Our May Theme......................................................................................... 13 Simplifying Sustainability....................................................................... 14 Sustainability Complexity........................................................................ 15 Sustainability and You............................................................................. 17 Values Based Motivators......................................................................... 17 The 4 G's...................................................................................................... 21 Symbols for Sustainability...................................................................... 23 Content from Our Toolkit ...................................................................... 25 Dates for Your Planner..... ...................................................................... 30
INTERVIEWS IN SUSTAINABLE STYLE We loved your love for our Sustainably Stylish leaders who demonstrate how life can be lived in Sustainable Style when you follow your heart. Emily’s Tiny Home lifestyle had you all curious and inspired, Daniella’s resident penguins were aww-worthy, and Ali showed us the vulnerability, bravery and resilience that’s needed when educating generations of future leaders. If you missed it you can read more here.
FASHION
REVOLUTION
The narrative around the word ‘Style’ usually results in its marriage with fashion. During Fashion Revolution week we explored this link between fashion and style and how we can take action to fight for a more transparent and safe fashion supply chain.
CATCH UP
What You Loved Last Month
Last month we spent some time exploring life in Sustainable Style from two perspectives, fashion and lifestyle. Here’s some of the content that you enjoyed in April.
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A to Z Of Fashion
This fun and informative download was part of our Sustainable Style fashion focus during April.
Download Your Copy Here
Come join us at the yoga & Lifestyle Festival 4
What Does
SUSTAINABLE STYLE
Mean to You ?
FROM OUR
Community For our Issue 4 theme we asked you ‘What does life in Sustainable Style mean to you?” Here are your (anonymous) responses as provided through our Instagram channel.
Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. Lao Tzu
SELF-COACHING
PLANNER
PROGRESS UPDATE The Time is a Nonrenewable Resource self-coaching planner is getting closer to launch date! It’s been a slow and mindful journey, where we’ve learned just how challenging it can be to find all the right elements for minimal-waste sustainable shipping. This month we are celebrating having (finally) sourced perfect recycled newspaper padded mailing bags that are made right here in Australia! The challenge was finding the exact right fit to avoid having to stuff the bags with additional padding to keep the planner from moving around.
At the moment we are waiting on our eco-stickers to affix the access code for online self-coaching course content to the planner. Once these arrive we will be ready to launch online!
FOR EVERY SECOND PLANNER
SOLD, WE WILL BE HELPING
RAINFOREST RESCUE PROTECT
AND ONWARD MAINTAIN, A SQUARE
METRE OF ENDANGERED
Daintree Rainforest
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Recycled Compostable Considered
UPDATE FROM OUR
Partners
Our partners at Rainforest Rescue are always up to something wonderful. Here is an update on their recent triumph at Lot 46, Cape Tribulation Rd in the Daintree lowland forests. As of May 2nd, this incredibly precious piece of land, which back in 2010 – was pulled off the market and rescued by Rainforest Rescue - was granted Nature Refuge status.
Below: Allen Sheather & Barbara Maslen – Rainforest Rescue’s Ecological Advisors - with the newly unveiled Kurranji Bubu sign
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This 28 hectare property was deeply neglected, devastated by exotic oil palm production and impenetrable with weeds. From a sad, overgrown junkyard to now a thriving, healthy rainforest – the forever protection and regeneration of Lot 46 is simply mind blowing. It was imperative that Rainforest Rescue bring this rainforest land back to Country, and on approaching the local Yalanji Language Committee, they were able to grant Lot 46 with the traditional name of Kurranji Bubu (Cassowary Land). In warmest acknowledge to the Traditional Owner and elder, Andrew John Solomon and the Solomon Family,’ Kurranji Bubu’ represents a ‘coming home’ of this piece of rainforest, bringing it back into the heart of the Daintree and returning it to its rightful owners.
Below: Traditional owner Andrew John Solomon conducting a Smoking Ceremony at Kurranji Bubu
Click to Read More about this
Our May Theme SIMPLIFYING
Sustainability
This month we’re all about simplifying. Taking the great big wicked complex idea that is sustainability (real sustainability not the green-washed version you see in marketing) and working it from its abstract wicked-complex context, to simple values based actionable plans for your Sustainable Self to successfully enact. The content we cover this month ties together the approach we take to guide your year of sustainable action in our Self-Coaching planner, with some of the free resources that exist on our website.
Join us now as we start with an exploration of what sustainability REALLY means (in its wicked complex glory), understand how your Sustainable Self fits into the picture, identify what your values are and how they can be used as a navigational system, and scale the wicked complexity back to simple, easy to implement actionable steps for sustainable living success. The outcome? Your Sustainable action plan simplified! 13
If you read regularly you will notice that this month’s magazine content is presented a little differently from previous months as we take a deep dive into these four stops on the path of simplifying sustainability. The reason for this is that it offers you a look at the content we are covering in our Simplifying Sustainability workshop at the Yoga and Lifestyle festival, along with giving you a taste of how we approach self-coaching for sustainability in our Time is a Nonrenewable Resource planner and online coaching system. Our path towards Sustainability Simplified is outlined below. Each of our stops along the way offers an opportunity to learn, explore, and grow. The content for each of our stops along the path is shared in a single page overview where you can get a feel for the topic and click to our website for the full story.
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SUSTAINABILITY
COMPLEXITY
Stop one on our path to Simplifying Sustainability counterintuitively makes things more complex! Don’t worry, we aren’t creating complexity to cause overwhelm, we share the complexity of sustainability to highlight why a targeted approach is essential to avoid overwhelm and take sustainable action. The following is an excerpt from this first part of our simplification journey, you can start reading here then head to the website for the rest. We hear the term ‘Sustainability’ used often in news and media. In some instances, it’s been overused to the point that people baulk at it choosing to use alternatives like ‘mindful’ or ‘conscious’. Sustainability is an umbrella term that, despite its rather specific origins in forestry management, has been used to cover many approaches to living a more people and planet-friendly life. Its broad application has made for easy adoption (especially by marketing folks) but this has been somewhat detrimental to those wishing to navigate the media and marketing hype to take action for a better future. Sustainable living products, news, and marketing can be confusing at best, rife with greenwash at its sneakiest, and – at worstcompletely overwhelming. To illustrate this, we reviewed just FOUR online documents on ‘How to do Sustainable Marketing’ posts and recorded the key terms used. In the review of just four short pages, we populated a word cloud of more than forty different terms that are covered by the umbrella of sustainability. It’s hard to quantify how this translates for the individual as each of us have different news, media and advertising consumption patterns, but recent (non-scientific as science moves slower due to peer review processes so it’s hard to find journals that have up-to-theminute stats) surveys have found the average Australian has around 5.5 hours of phone screen time each day*.
KEEP READING
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SUSTAINABILITY [noun]
• the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level. • avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance. Oxford Languages
You
SUSTAINABILITY &
When we look at sustainability in its wickedly complex nature, we can become lost in the scale of the issues we collectively face. Many of these issues are presented to us from a global perspective and we wonder how we can do anything to assist. Stop two on our path to sustainability simplified reviews what we covered in Issue 2 of our magazine, Sustainable Self understanding how scale and scope interact in our ability to take action in Sustainable Style.
When we actively choose to live life in sustainable style we are often left wondering where to start. With an abundance of wicked environmental, social, and economic problems at the forefront of our global and local news it can be difficult to select what resonates and where we can make the most impact. We might start to address a global issue like oceanic plastic pollution from the top down. Attempting to find ways to save our seas. Innovating, researching, and exploring. Pouring our all and resources into making this our personal mission to rid the globe of plastic waste. While a noble and totally valid cause. Scale and holism can cause us (and sometimes those around us) to suffer. Sustainability is the balance of three pillars; environment, society, and economics. The place where three key parts of our lives and livelihoods as humans are in harmony. This, used from the larger (macro) scale has been a driving force for finding ways to solve hu-
manities wicked (complex) problems. Many of us start our sustainability journey with this focus on the large scale, a scale where problems are so complex that world leaders or billionaires can’t uncover solutions. We fight hard, learn, live, fail and get frustrated. We may dust ourselves off and keep trying but there is a constant battle to maintain momentum in the face of problems that won’t quit! To simplify sustainability we’ve adopted a fresh view of these pillars of sustainability opting for a micro (smaller) focus on sustainable self.
Keep Reading 17
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Simplicity and Streamlined Lifestyle
Environmental Sustainability
Animal Welfare and
Compassion
Social Equality
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Everyone cares about different things… and that is totally ok! The reason why we haven’t seen a one-size-fits-all approach from global governance to the macro scale global issues is that we are all different (and approaches like the Sustainable Development Goals encompass this consideration). In this step of our path to sustainability simplified we uncover the trick to personal success at life in Sustainable Style, knowing what you value and using this as your navigational tool for action. Translating your personal values into a sustainable action category isn’t always an intuitive process. This is why we (after many years of writing, researching, and watching) developed four Values Motivators categories. These categories are based on sustainability education literature, cultural and consumer trends, and qualitative learnings from communications for sustainability. You will fit into one or more of the following categories for sustainable action.
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
SOCIAL EQUALITY
Based on the assumption that you have a passion for nature, natural flows, and an interest in conservation, repair, and preservation of the planet (and beyond).
Based on the assumption that you love friends, family, art, culture, and the advancement of humanity equitably and fairly.
It is assumed that you want to live a life with minimal (or no) negative environmental impact.
This conclusion has been drawn from your love and passion for people around you and the assumption that you would like others to have the same quality of living that you do.
ANIMAL WELFARE AND COMPASSION
SIMPLICITY & STREAMLINED LIFESTYLE
Based on the assumption that your lifestyle is all-encompassing of animal welfare and compassionate living.
Based on the assumption that your focus is on getting the most out of your time to reach goals.
You will not budge on your no-animal-products-or-cruelty stance, and therefore your lifestyle choices will be guided first and foremost by this ethos.
You are interested in reducing the fuss in your life and want a lifestyle that works well for you with minimum time and energy (and possibly monetary) inputs.
VALUES
BASEDMotivators CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND TAKE THE QUIZ
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THE FOUR G'S
The final stop in this month’s path of simplifying sustainability is our 4 G’s approach to dealing with scale and Sustainable Self scope. Nope, it’s got nothing to do with cellular communications, but the prevalence of the term 4G is a handy tool for anchoring this process to memory. Instead, it’s a super simple guide to scaling grandiose ideas down to go-for-it actionable daily steps. Be sure to read the rest of this at the website to find out why we have graphics of truckloads of bananas. We promise we haven’t ‘gone-bananas’ (however, we stand with Alice of Wonderland in her statement that all the best people are ‘bonkers’) this is a graphical tool to aid the visual learners in understanding the 4 G’s concept. The 4 G’s (to help avoid biting off more than you can chew) is a simple tool for scaling your sustainable action. These 4 G's are:
Grandiose Great Good Go for it You can learn how to use these and see some examples based on Values Motivators at the website.
Learn How
to use the four Gs
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My Values Motivator/s is .............................................................................. If there were no barriers, I would change the world for the better in the following ways ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ...............................................................................
NEW YEAR NEW
CONSYou MER
Mindful Planning
Moving back to reality, what barriers exist to achieving these outcomes. Think social, environmental, and economic from both the personal (micro) and larger (macro) scale. .............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. Consider one way you CAN change the world for the better .............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. ..............................................................................................
Simplify Sustainability
Download your copy now
Take your idea from above and break it down from 'grandiose' to 'go-for-it' scale. Grandiose Great Good Go-for-it
..................................................................... ..................................................................... ..................................................................... .....................................................................
An example of a ‘grandiose’ scale goal would be to get rid of all plastic worldwide, scaling down to ‘great’ might be removing all plastic from your house (accomplishable but still a big challenge for a year), ‘good’ might be to eliminate all plastic from your kitchen (which may be accomplishable within a year), scaling down to the action level of ‘go-for-it’ you might choose to replace one item from your pantry with a plastic free alternative each time you shop for groceries. The scale will change depending on your personal social, economic, and environmental considerations.
SCAN WITH YOUR PHONES CAMERA FOR THE VALUES MOTIVATORS QUIZ
sustainability in style
DID YOU SEE THE FOUR G'S
IN OUR FREE
JANUARY WORKSHEET?
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Coral
Each of our Take Action themes has its own natural symbol. Using symbology and storytelling has been harnessed by Indigenous groups for generations and has since been researched as an effective tool for committing knowledge to long term memory. We’ve selected coral as our symbol for simplifying sustainability. Many of us will have seen (either in real life or media) the beautiful, complex, unique and vast deposits of coral that make up our worlds reef habitats. Coral offer so many ecosystem services to the world, offering a biodiverse habitat for oceanic life, protecting our coastlines from erosion, cycling nutrients such as carbon and nitrogen, and offering human amenity in the form of food, medicine and tourism. While of great importance and with direct links to the pillars of sustainability, these aren’t the main reason why we selected coral. Coral has been chosen as a symbol of sustainability for its lifecycle. If you’re not aware of how coral thrives (or need a refresher) let’s recap.... Click here to keep reading.
SYMBOLS FOR SUSTAINABILITY
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CONTENT FROM THE
Toolkit
Regular readers of our magazine, website users, and our long-term friends on socials will be well aware of our eight-part toolkit for combatting eco-overwhelm. For those who are new (or might need a reminder), these tools are harnessed throughout our website and form a key part of our sustainable self-coaching strategy. You will notice coloured stars throughout our magazine issues. These colours correlate back with each of our eight tools and are provided to help you identify which of these tools support your sustainable living journey. In our self-coaching planner system, we provide a direct link between daily and weekly use of the tools, using them to identify ways that you can support your physical, emotional, and mental self to keep spirits high and anxiety low. This issue we are using the magazine to share how we are approaching the toolkit this month and share and remind you of our ‘Kiss Eco-Overwhelm Goodbye’ worksheet with readers who are new or haven’t reviewed their copy in a while. Next month we will return to sharing more specific links to toolkit content as we have done in previous issues. We’ve structured this issue a little differently to give you an overview of the approach we take in the Time is a Nonrenewable Resource Self-Coaching Sustainability Planner and online course content. If you are loving what you are learning and actioning here we highly recommend investing in this system for real-world sustainable living outcomes.
BREATHE
Meditate to increase your mental and emotional resilience. Stop and take a breath when overwhelm sets in.
GROW
Lifelong learning increases your critical thinking prowess. When information gets too much critical thought processes can reduce overwhelm.
MAKE
Make and mend things with your own hands and reduce your consumer impact. Use craft to get into ‘flow’ when feeling stressed.
PLAY
Einstein famously stated that “Play is the highest form of research” Through play we find new solutions to wicked problems and reduce stress.
READ
Reading allows us to gain a deeper understanding, increase empathy, and expand/challenge norms. Read to relax when stressed or gain clarity.
SHARE
Sharing your Sustainably Stylish journey in a kind and empathetic way can inspire others. Having a support network when stressed is essential!
STRETCH
Sedentary lifestyles and overconsumption put strain on our planet and our mental and physical health. Stretch your body and mind to reduce stress.
STYLE
Material culture and personal identity construct are part of how we go through daily life. Craft a sustainably stylish path that suits who you are.
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May Offerings This month keep an eye on our social media and website for updates on the following offerings.
A New Yoga and Meditation Release Online
Workshop Event
WE ARE LISTENING TO
Start your
Day Right
With Our Morning Meditation
NEXT MONTH'S THEME
Let Valu es Be Your Guide
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Dates of note for the month of June
JUNE 5TH
JUNE 8TH
World Environment Day
Mindful In May
JUNE 12TH World Day Against Child Labour
JUNE 17TH World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought
JUNE 20TH
JUNE 21ST
World Refugee Day
International Day of Yoga
Dates for Your Planner