Ellie and I met when we were film school freshmen living in the same dorm building at Chapman University! Throughout college, she was busy playing soccer, making moving documentaries, and going on trips to the nearby mountains and National Parks. When I saw that Ellie and her friends were developing sustainability-focused email courses, I knew they were going to be super helpful. Oursimpleco’s in our closet course just launched on this month, and it’s one of the very few emails I actually read every day! I’m so jazzed to feature Sydney, Ellie, ZZ, and Madison on the blog today and hope y’all enjoy reading their story!
Website: oursimpleco.com
Facebook Group: oursimpleco
Instagram: @oursimpleco
Patreon: patreon.com/oursimpleco
What is oursimpleco?
oursimpleco is a 30-day email newsletter with targeted resources and information in order to build simple, sustainable habits within different areas of our lives (in our home, food, closet, beauty, garden, community).
Who are the creators of oursimpleco? Please introduce yourselves!
Madison: Hello! I am Madison and I was born and raised in Washington State near the Cascade Mountains. Throughout my life, nature has always been a constant—a source of energy, inspiration, and peace. As I grew older, I began to experience firsthand the negative effects of the climate crisis, I learned about fast-fashion and environmental racism. I studied business and developed a fascination with the power of marketing in influencing behavior change, but also a concern for our planet and consumerist culture. And then oursimpleco was born! Our goal is to harness these same principles that drive behavior change and redirect them toward good. Oursimpleco hopes to inspire us to reconnect with ourselves and the natural world we must protect!
ZZ: Howdy! I’m ZZ! I grew up in Austin, Texas where I spent my childhood escaping the heat in creeks, springs and lakes. My family was a big hiking and biking family, which got me out into the outdoors a whole lot – and quickly made it my favorite place to be. At Chapman I studied Creative Non-Fiction writing and Environmental Science and Policy and was particularly interested in this disproportionate impact of environmental degradation on our frontline and vulnerable communities. Sustainability is more than just saving our planet. It’s about learning about and creating a planet that is interconnected and mutually beneficial for all. Sustainability can be broad, intersectional and economically beneficial, it can meet people wherever they’re at in their lives and be incorporated where it fits!
Sydney: Syd here 🙂 I grew up in good ol’ Wisconsin! I’ve always loved the outdoors—from skiing in the winters to spending my summers in Canada—it’s always been a part of my life! It wasn’t until I went to Chapman that I was more aware of how our actions affect our planet. Of course I knew the basics, but not to the extent that it is. I was positively influenced by those around me and haven’t looked back!
Ellie: I grew up on the countryside of Northern California with parents that took my siblings and I camping every chance they could. My brother and I would constantly be searching for critters in the fields around our house and playing in the dirt. When I started getting into documentary films, I became enthralled with the storytelling techniques and imagery of wildlife films. Inevitably, these films were always advocating for healthier environments as they magically captured animals in their natural habitats. I loved learning about our planet this way, and have since been inspired to share similar messages through film and oursimpleco’s digital content.
Have you always been interested in sustainability and the environment?
Madison: Oh yes! Growing up, I adopted some sustainable habits from my mom, but I never considered myself as someone passionate about sustainability. When I moved from Washington to California, I remember flying through what I thought was fog (oh a naive Washingtonian…). I remember missing the fresh air and water from home, and the act of filtering water seemed so strange. We woke up one morning to an ash snowfall welcoming the fire “season”. I came to understand the harsh realities of the climate crisis because they were right outside my door—the air and water pollution, its disproportionate effect on BIPOC communities in Santa Ana County. It’s hard to learn about these environmental issues and not feel motivated to act.
ZZ: I have always been interested in environmental issues, but I think my first Society and the Environment class really changed my view on my impact. My family was a big outdoorsy family and I always loved the Texas trees, critters, and rivers. In college, I began to study water management and environmental policy and the nature I’d grown up around became even more important to me once I realized I needed to protect it.
Sydney: Although I didn’t always recognize it, I had always grown up with it—this was just my mom’s way of living. Not until I got older did I realize that she didn’t just decide to live this way, she did it because she realized the impact she had on the planet.
Ellie: My love for animals and the outdoors stemmed from a very young age; however, it wasn’t until I was in high school that I realized how everything we do is connected back to the natural world in some form. Once I understood the unhealthy patterns, pollution, and destruction humans caused I tried my best to make decisions that would counter these practices.
What inspired y’all to make oursimpleco?
We’ve all been wanting to get involved in the sustainability space for awhile, but it was the pandemic that really pushed us to follow our passion. The past year we were fortunate enough to have time to reflect on our habits and goals. We realized how easy it was to neglect simple, sustainable habits (such as packing our reusable bags, eating seasonally, or turning off the lights and appliances when not in use, etc.). If adopted at large, these habits can restructure our societal norms and positively impact the planet.
We turned toward the internet for more information. Why is it so easy to neglect these simple habits? While there is so much environmental information available today, it is overcrowded by business attempts to capture the conscious consumer and false stereotypes about sustainability. Instead of finding clarity and confidence, we felt overwhelmed with no sense of direction. With hours of thorough research into individual behavior change and sustainability under our belt, we knew we had to share our valuable information and resources-but in a simple, digestible manner. And it just so happens that the most sustainable practices for the earth are rooted in simplicity! Born out of our desire for clarity, transparency, and inclusivity in sustainability, we created oursimpleco!
Why did you choose an email course format?
Email is something that has always been around, it’s always stuck. Social media apps come and go but email is a true-and-constant. We didn’t want all of our work to fade with a fad so we decided email was the way to go.
What will people find if they join your Facebook group?
Our Facebook group is a supportive community of those embarking on the beautiful journey that is sustainable living. Here we share our thoughts, questions, struggles, successes, and welcome any additional tips and tricks. Our community is a place with no judgment, where everyone is striving to do and be better. We’re here to cheer each other on throughout the process!
What’s been the hardest part of creating content for oursimpleco?
One of the most challenging parts of this endeavor is the time it takes to research, critically review, and reform all of the knowledge out there about habit cycles, brands, sustainability, and environmental sciences into bit size info that’s ethical, honest, and not too overwhelming. It’s also one of the most rewarding aspects of the job, but difficult to accomplish quickly with everyone’s hectic schedules! We are getting there!
How has it been working on this project remotely, while all of you live in different states/countries?
The different time zones have been a bit tricky but we’ve made it all work! It’s taken a lot of Zoom, Facetime and Google Docs, but we’ve (sort of) got a schedule down now! As long as we can find the time to line up our schedules and meet up, we all end up getting each other really excited about the next steps in whatever we are working on. We got to spend a lovely weekend together in Northern California to reconnect and sign our incorporation documents which was really incredible and so wonderful to spend time together. We are hoping that soon we will be able to all come together again, but until then, we’ve got plenty of tech to help us through.
Of the six sustainability topics that oursimpleco focuses on (in our home, food, beauty, closet, garden, community), which one do you feel is the easiest? Which one do you struggle the most with?
Madison: In our closet! Learning about the negative environmental effects of fast-fashion was a major ‘gateway’ to environmentalism for me. Clothing is personal, it’s an extension of the self. I want to wear clothing that honors, not exploits, both people and planet. I struggle the most with in our beauty and in our garden, as these are areas of my life I have yet to explore in-depth in general. It’s been great drawing on each other’s strengths and learning with our community!
ZZ: I think that the easiest things I have pulled from each category are the things I find the most fun. So with in our home it’s creating things like re-worked candles or wall hangings or up-cycled furniture. And while those things are wonderful, I still struggle remembering to reduce my water and paper towel use. Just gotta keep beta testing solutions! I started a garden, but it is being taken over with weeds, so I am slowly figuring out time-management etc. I really have loved in our closet because I think it’s given me an opportunity to be very aware of the clothes that make me feel like my best self. Investing in caring for the things that make me happy has been a rewarding but challenging process! The category I am most excited to grow in is in our community. Investing in our local communities is so so important and – from local politics to the neighbors all sharing a block, how we live makes the biggest impact on those closest to us, for better or for worse.
Sydney: I would say most difficult for me has been in our food, especially since moving to St. Thomas where basically everything has to be shipped in. There is a “local” section in some grocery stores that I peruse first before getting the rest of what I need. Easiest would probably be in our beauty for me since I don’t use many products to begin with and I’ve been able to make those little switches as my previous products run out. It’s tough though because you can have clean beauty products that still come in plastic. But! You can recycle them through ILIA and TerraCycle! Overall it’s been a lot of gradual swaps here and there, not predominantly one category. I do have to agree with ZZ that I’ve started with the most fun swaps! Or things I just wanted to do (DIYs) that happened to also be sustainable swaps—making cups out of old wine bottles has probably been my fav so far!
Ellie: It would be a tie for me – in our food or in our beauty. It has been difficult for me to avoid the plastics, derivatives of fossil fuel, and non-local products in both of these categories. I’m slowly improving!
What people, businesses, or social media accounts inspire you all?
@greengirlleah | @philthefixer | @intersectionalenvironmentalist | @re.laurenferree | @acteevism | @queerbrownvegan | @kateeskuri | @kameachayne
What are some books, films, documentaries that have changed or shaped the way you think about the environment?
Madison:
Books: Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard, Give A Sh*t by Ashlee Piper, The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace Wells
Podcasts: Green Dreamer, How to Save a Planet; Docs: The True Cost, Game Changers, Sea of Shadows
ZZ:
Documentaries: Sustainable, An Inconvenient Truth (this was the first eco-documentary that made me feel like I really needed to act)
Literature: Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmer, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, any research/literature on the Salton Sea
Podcasts: Overhead at National Geographic, RadioLab, National Parks with Park Rangers, Green Dreamer
Sydney:
Documentaries: The True Cost, The Game Changers
Books: Give a Sh*t by Ashlee Piper, The Year of Less by Cait Flanders, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Ellie: There are so many great ones out there! Here are a few of my favorites.
Documentaries: Chasing Coral, The Biggest Little Farm, Game Changers, Frozen Planet, Cowspiracy
Books: Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg, No One is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg
Podcast: Drilled Podcast
What advice would you give to other people who want to make a difference in the environment?
Just start! Don’t wait for that perfect time because it won’t come, just start and put in the effort. You’re not going to be perfect at it and that’s ok! No one is! It’s an imperfect art but it’s the attempt and the effort that sets you apart and allows you to help lead the way of a greener tomorrow.
What are you most proud of regarding oursimpleco?
Madison: oursimpleco strives to make sustainability and environmental education accessible, defy the stereotype that sustainable living is “elite”, and encourage decreased consumption. These are strong values that are hard to uphold as a digital content creator because of the pressure to monetize through heavy affiliate marketing of products, advertisements, etc. Instead, we have chosen to remain independent and fully funded by a donation-based, monthly subscription service. I am proud of our commitment to providing accessible environmental education to all! (join our Patreon here;))
ZZ: We’ve spent a lot of time focused on imperfection in sustainability. I think this is really important to realistically creating new habits in a variety of people’s lives. I am proud that oursimpleco is a space that is open and accepting of flaws, differences and blocks that are so individual to each person.
Sydney: Our inclusive approach. We acknowledge that not everything that’s viewed as “sustainable” is possible for everyone. Whether that’s location/financially/etc permitting, we aim for oursimpleco to be inclusive of everyone. We appreciate everyone’s input and feedback and are always looking for new ways we can be sustainable in our own lives. I feel like I’ve learned so much in these past few months myself and I’m excited we get to share it with everyone! Learning is fun!!! & knowledge can be so powerful (in a good way lol)
Ellie: What they said haha and also: I’m so thrilled about this community we are building. There are so many wonderful people out there that we have had the pleasure of connecting with. It truly gives me hope when I see my peers engaging with the material we are producing and are interested in learning about sustainability! 🙂
What are your hopes for oursimpleco in the next year?
To continue growing our community! Our goal for last year was to have all categories completed by end of 2021. Ideally, you’d head to our website, browse each category, and opt into the 30-day email newsletter of your choice. We’ve only just released our first category, in our closet, as of February 1st.
From designing our emails to become a habit in and of itself, to addressing our readers as a collective to promote inclusivity, to creating memorable titles and accurate recommendations, each choice is deliberate. Our ultimate goal is to increase impact, so everything has taken way longer than expected. But just like sustainability, it’s the process that is important. We have learned and grown so much, and the best part is we’re able to do it together!
Oscars Speech: Are there any people in particular you’d like to thank for helping you get this far?
1. Sam!
2. Our interns from Chapman! They were so great 🙂
3. Also our editors! Put in the time to really help us get a broader view and make each email that much better 🙂
4. Our Patreon subscribers
FUN STUFF
Dream Vacation:
Madison: SO HARD. It seems like everyone and their #van wants to go these days, but New Zealand is on the top of my list!
ZZ: Idyllic little cabin in the woods of Montana. Mountain lake would be a great bonus.
Sydney: In the US, a little cabin in Alaska 🙂 otherwise driving through the countrysides of Europe. I’ve seen quite a few of the major cities but I really just want to go to the little villages…. but also one day an African safari hahaha I just wanna see the world 🙂 AUS/NZ at the top of my list too lol help me I’m an indecisive human who just wants to see the world
Ellie: Banfffffff Canada! Hoping I can get there this year. Also Germany – they are one of the best countries in the world when it comes to recycled materials annually.
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor:
Madison: If you’re EVER in Portland, go to Fifty Licks. Coconut Lemon Saffron. So yum.
ZZ: Anything with caramel and chocolate chunks!
Sydney: Mint choco chip :,-) the it’s it in mint are unmatchable
Ellie: Phish Food, thank you Ben & Jerry
The Last TV Show You Binge-Watched:
Madison: Schitts Creek
ZZ: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Sydney: How to Get Away with Murder
Ellie: Ted Lasso – on round 2
Favorite Podcast:
Madison: How I Built This / How to Save a Planet
ZZ: Radiolab or Overheard At National Geographic
Sydney: MindBodyGreen, The Daily, How I Built This, madly mediocre by Kat 😉
Ellie: How to Save a Planet
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