Individual Actions and Climate Change: Do You Make A Difference? (with Becky Migas)

Have you or someone you know ever wondered: do individual actions even matter when it comes to climate change? Isn't it all in the hands of big corporations and governments to make the changes needed?
Becky Migas, Founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit Women In Sustainability, joins Katie Kurpanek, Eco-Living Coach and Podcast Host, to discuss these questions and more in the first official episode of the All Things Sustainable podcast! 
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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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Follow Becky on Instagram @bgreeneveryday and @protrashtalker
Connect with Women In Sustainability here: www.womeninsustainability.org 
OR click on this link to find all their social platforms: https://linktr.ee/WomenInSustainabilityUS
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Shop with SimpleSwitch and find products that make a positive impact with every purchase using my affiliate link here: simpleswitch.org/?ref=thatminimallife

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. Hey, everyone. I'm Katie, your eco living coach, and I'm here to help you minimize your carbon footprint while maximizing your positive impact on our planet. Welcome to the very first official episode of the All Things sustainable podcast. I am so excited to get this off the ground. And I'm thrilled to introduce you to our very first guest speaker, Becky migas. I met Becky about two years ago, almost right when I had launched my business that minimal life, and right before COVID turned our entire world upside down. Since then, she has become a dear friend of mine. And she is just someone that I consider an expert in all things sustainability. She is the founder and executive director of women in sustainability, which is an inclusive and action oriented nonprofit for women and allies in the environmental movement that is working together to create a better future for everyone. Becky is also the owner of beegreen co a sustainable education and consulting agency. So needless to say, she basically knows everything about sustainability within Colorado, I'm exaggerating quite a bit, but she has been in this game for a long time. And she knows a ton of people within Colorado, especially, that are also involved in the sustainability world. And as you'll hear later, she likes to say that she surrounds herself with people who are much smarter than her much more involved in other realms of the sustainability world. But basically, if you have a question about sustainability, she's your go to person. In this conversation, Becky and I talked about whether or not we as individuals even matter when it comes to the big picture of climate change, we dive into the importance of our actions, why we should care and how to get involved. No matter where you are in life. I really hope that this conversation leaves you filled with hope, and a sense of motivation, and more importantly, connects you to a whole community out there of changemakers. Speaking of community, this show is brought to you by my wonderful patrons through Patreon. I'm going to talk more about that later. But I really wanted to send a giant thank you right up front to our listener supporters. They have made all this possible. And because of you, we're able to continue empowering others through educational conversations like this one. So without further ado, let's get started. Welcome, Becky to the All Things sustainable podcast, I am just grinning from ear to ear that you are the very first guest and that this podcast is actually getting off the ground. Thank you for being here.

Becky Migas: 2:53

Thank you, I am so excited. First of all, let's celebrate the first podcast. Congratulations,

Katie Kurpanek: 3:01

thank you, I can't believe it's actually happening. It's been like two years of dreaming about it in process. And so to finally be here, so exciting.

Becky Migas: 3:11

Yeah, well, you know, I adore you and all your work and your education around sustainable practices. And I'm just so honored and thrilled to be the first guest and excited to just have a conversation today.

Katie Kurpanek: 3:24

Thank you. Thank you so much. I have already filled in my listeners with a basic short bio of you. But I do want you to be able to just tell us about yourself from your own perspective. And yeah, absolutely having you as the first podcast guest just made so much sense in my mind when I wanted to start this because you have such a wide. I don't know if wide is the right word or diverse background in sustainability. I feel like you know everything about sustainability within Colorado, like you're just my go to person whenever I have a question for like a topic that I'm looking to get into, or a person that I need to speak to about something. So having you here just makes a lot of sense, I think. Go ahead and tell us about yourself how you got into this line of work, and just you know what you're passionate about? And we'll start there. Yeah, absolutely.

Becky Migas: 4:16

And thank you for that. And, and the fun part is, is I don't know, I know all about sustainability. But I surround myself with people who do and I think that's the really fortunate part. I know we'll talk a little bit about that later. But I'm just excited again to be here. And your my journey is really strange. I actually come from working in events. So I've been producing events for over 20 years now. And it was it was really this. This idea of working events that I saw how horrendous it was the environment I would you know, produce work, mainly concerts and I would find festivals and just see the amount of trash at the end of the festival or I would think about oh my god All the buses that are touring or what's happening with, you know, inside of them that you know, with waste or energy usage and all the lights and all of the production. And all that just started to add up in my head and I try myself to live, you know, personally a sustainable life. I'm passionate about it in my own life. I grew up in a family that was really about recycling, and my parents worked hard to be you suitable practices. 1950s, right, like, that's what they knew. So it was just something that was kind of part of who I was, and just started having this realization of, if this is happening in events, is it happening all over. And it was, you know, really fortunate for me in my path, I got into working green events. When I was working in a job in Des Moines, Iowa, I got to help the local festival, do some greening of their festival. In the venue that I was working on, it was a 400 seat theater, it was historic theater, and I really pushed to get recycling as part of the theaters programs. And we had to go through a grant process, we had to go to the Historical Society. And it was really exciting to be a part of that change in part of getting a community involved in recycling into this historic theater that had never thought about it before. And that was really where my passion started to grow. And I moved to Colorado in 20. Oh, what what year is it right now 2013. What is time, moved here and worked for a company where I didn't necessarily get to focus on unsustainability. And I realize that that was a big part of my life. And so in 2018, I left that job and started exploring who I am and what I wanted to be. And as I got to explore myself, I got to learn about a whole community that was out there, doing incredible work and sustainable practices. And this is where I said, it's really cool that I get to surround myself with people who know more than I do. But I get to really build up this community of people who were working in sustainability in all different aspects, just things that you've learned, I was I was thinking about. And it was a great opportunity to bring community together and really learn how, you know, these people, specifically women, because we learned learning that women are really doing the advocating the educating and the work to create sustainable practices, but they're not necessarily the voices and the leadership behind it. And so we looked at it and I say we I have a business partner that I hadn't met in 2019. And recognize how can we bring this community of people together to empower each other, support each other collaborate together, because collaboration is a huge piece of sustainable practices. So I created an organization in 2019, called women's sustainability. And we've been growing over the last couple years. COVID, actually, for most people was a setback for us, it was a time of growth and a time of community building. And it was just a really incredible time to really recognize that there is a need for a community of women coming together, who truly care about the planet, and how we can create systematic change, to create a better future for, you know, us and our kids and their kids and their kids and really thinking about future generations to come.

Katie Kurpanek: 8:30

That's amazing. And now women in sustainability is officially a nonprofit. Right? And so that's new, and that's exciting.

Becky Migas: 8:38

Yeah, it's new and exciting. Some days terrifying. But, yes. You know, as a business owner, you know, yourself. Like there's a lot of hats you learn to to wear and all the things you learned. But it is a really rewarding challenge. It's, you know, I tell a lot of people that I get to be around every day that the community inspires me the work that's happening and the passion and the drive that all the other members in the community have our small business owners, our, you know, CSR directors, anybody who's in the community that is working every day to create change. That's my inspiration. And that's my drive. Like, that's what creates me to get up out of bed every day to try to find a way that we can really support and care for those people. Because that's really important and valuable. How do we care at the end of the day for the people who are out there doing this work and working hard every day?

Katie Kurpanek: 9:39

Let's take a quick break to talk about one of my business community partners. Simple switch. Simple switch is an online shop that allows you to make a positive impact with every purchase. Think of it as kind of like Amazon, but with a heart. Rachael the founder talks about how she wanted to find ways for her everyday choices to empower those with less resources, but She also found it was not sustainable for her busy life to spend hours researching company ethics, labor laws, environmental impacts, and more for every product that she wanted to purchase. Sound familiar? I've totally been there. That's why I love simple switch so much. You can shop online and choose from tons of different products, knowing that every single one of them is making a positive impact in our world. You can choose to shop by product, or by specific social and environmental impacts, or by a particular brand or company that you want to support. For example, you could search for a necklace made by a woman owned company, or for skincare products that are cruelty free and plastic neutral. The options go on and on. And search filters on their website make it easy for you to do good while you shop. And if you use my affiliate link in the episode description, you can support all of these amazing causes as well as my small business because I will receive a small kickback from your purchase. So visit simple switch.org/question Mark, R E F equals that minimal life. I know that's a long link. So I will put the link in the episode description. That way, it's easy to find. Thank you so much for choosing to be a conscious consumer and for supporting small businesses. Okay, let's go back to our show. I think so much of what resonates with your story for me is that the events for you is what was so eye opening to how much waste was generated. And that this had to be going on in the rest of the world. And this had to be a much bigger problem than what we can always see on a surface level. And for myself, I know that. I mean, I was in college, when I first realized that all of this recycling that my classmates and I were being so careful to divvy up in the different bins. We had a passing conversation one time with a janitor, who was just talking about how Oh, yeah, this entire Bin is going into the trash, because so much of it was too contaminated. And they couldn't sort it out. And so it was just gonna end up in the trash anyway. And I remember hearing it and I was immediately in denial, like, no, that's not happening, you're wrong. Of course, this is their job. They're telling me, and I still could not believe it. At first, I didn't want to swallow it, then it sparks, you know, looking into that more and then realizing that that thread is connected to some other rabbit hole, you can go down the internet with about, you know, all of the islands in the ocean that are filling up with actual plastic debris, and they're literal islands. And so then one thing leads to the next and my mind was just completely blown, I could not believe this was happening and that I had never heard about it in my entire adult life. So anyway, you and I have been kind of in this world for a few years now are more than a few years. And I'm just the time a lot of time. And I think that we have become very familiar with certain terms now like zero waste, or the images that are associated with that, you know, a lot of us might be thinking about that little mason jar full of trash, as soon as you hear the phrase zero waste. And I think that you and I are probably pretty good about dismissing that now as not really attainable. It's also an unrealistic portrayal of what living sustainably actually means. And then also realizing that that is not the end goal because it doesn't actually accomplish much of anything. I mean, if all of us could manage to have a tiny mason jars worth of trash for five years. Cool. But yeah, we've heard the summaries and the opinions associated with recent climate change reports and data. And I'm sure that so many of our listeners joining have also heard that to some degree. But for a newcomer who's joining this conversation, who maybe just stumbled upon this podcast, and they're curious about what living sustainably might mean, or they're curious about where we're headed with climate change, and everything that they hear about doom and gloom. Could you speak to why change on a massive global scale is necessary? You know, recycling alone isn't enough. Having a tiny mason jar worth of trash isn't enough. Could you share a bit about what you know, considering the current state of our climate? And why a massive scale of change is so important.

Becky Migas: 14:46

Yeah, absolutely. And I think you know, we originally talked about this, this question, and that's, I think there could be days and days where the conversation around this. This is a big question. I'm just throwing it to you right away again, where can we go? right there. Um, so kind of going back to the old kind of just the Zero Waste first and I was kind of giggling at myself thinking, oh man, if your listeners could see my face right now, I would tell a little but, um, you know, little secret fun fact about me is trash is, is my favorite part of sustainability. I like to consider myself a professional trash talker. Yes, I actually note that as myself when I talked to I go and teach classes and teach, you know, do conversations around it. And I love to do professional trash. So if you're here caught me, Oscar the Grouch any day, I'll talk trash as much as you want to let me see if any of your listeners ever want to get into a long conversation about trash. Feel free to send them my way. I'm happy to try it. But I think it's so important. I think that's the tangible piece to it, right? Like, I think that's the thing that people can see. Which is why we see so much of the conversation around the turtle, the straw, the nose, and the guard, the great big garbage patch. And, you know, all the stories that we hear about single use plastic, I think that that's a tangible piece. People understand it. They see it. It's knowledgeable. I think that we live, as you said in a way that we say the word zero waste. And in you know what I've seen in people who are in my world who are not in sustainability, they check out of it, right? That's a word that people sustainability use. But people outside of that bubble are like, there's no way that I can do that mason jar. That's not possible. And I think we do ourselves a disservice when we start to say that waste doesn't exist. You know, I think right now, it's what refuse reduce recycle, rot and rot is considered to be compost, I actually put compost and recycling on the same line, and put rocks in as landfill. Because I think, again, we do or just service if we try to put everything into this, this perfect box. And you know, we say, oh, everything's recyclable, everybody has a place to go. And I'm like, that's not true. Like if we say, there are things that don't go into the landfill. And then we're seeing that we're forcing it to be recyclable or compostable. And so what we're finding out is this contamination, as you talked about, and what only 91, or I'm sorry, only 9%, of recycled goods in the United States are actually being recycled. A lot of that is because materials go to the recycling facility, they're contaminated. So they have to get them into the trash. A lot of it is that people just aren't recycling in general, because it is a complex world. And it's confusing, and they just don't want to take part in it. You know, and it's, it's devastating to see because as somebody who works in sustainability, we know, it doesn't have to be this way, right? Like, we can change that conversation. So I think waste is a really important place to start and teaching people about waste in that it has real value to it. Again, that tangibility of understanding what's happening, being able to connect all those dots of why it's important to think about what's happening with your waist, and a much larger glow, you know, larger scale than that, because that's just a just, it's just a small fraction of that conversation. And again, I will note that I surround myself with people so much smarter than me on these topics. You know, energy is a little complex for me, I I, I don't have a huge science brain. So there's a lot of things that you know, even I don't it's complex to me, and I try to understand it I, you know, follow the scientists understand that we're getting warmer, and we can see these things right, we're seeing the Hurricanes are more intense. We're seeing more intense tornadoes, we're seeing you flooding happening in interstates worse, we can see these things and we know that that's a correlation to the fact that climate is changing. And I really am happy that it's starting to be a bigger conversation. So here in Colorado, Nine News this entire month, has been doing conversations around climate Al Roker I will give him props because he almost every single day says the word climate change in his news reports. And so the conversation is starting to become more mainstream. Versus before people really try to hide that and I think that it's really valuable that people are getting a little more comfortable now are we talking about it correctly? That's a different story. But it least we're hearing those words every day. And I think we're starting to understand that this isn't a political issue. This is an issue of that's affecting everybody climate doesn't care what side of the spectrum you sit on, you're going to be affected by it. No matter where you are, you're not gonna be affected by it. No matter your socio economic impact. You're not You're no matter your gender, your race, you're everyone's gonna feel it now that the scale in which You feel it's going to be different based on those things. But everyone will somehow be affected by climate change. You know, and I think that just getting people to be a part of the conversation is the most important next step. Do we know all the fixes? I don't know if we do. But I think just getting to this conversation where we can all agree that it's happening, and that we need to look at the impact, not just at the United States, as you kind of mentioned in this global scale, what is happening globally, what's happening in Europe or Africa? or Asia? Like how and how can we all? Again, really look at interconnectedness? We are not individual, we are not separate from what's happening in other countries, we are all impacted by each other global economy is, is true and real. And you know that. And so how can we think about it in our in their individual lives? And I think that's where you start, right? You think about it, we, you know, we both mentioned, we started doing this because we saw the impacts in our individual lives. So looking at it as as an individual individual looking at it as a country, maybe you start with the state first, right? Maybe you start building your bubbles out, and how they sort of look at it. Because sometimes I think people look at it, and they're like, I'm so overwhelmed. I'm done, check out not doing it. Right. I mean, I think you and I have had that conversation where area, this is our passion in our life. And we're like, Yep, I can't even comprehend any of that right now. Yes. So I think that that's important just to take it in stride, and not to overwhelm yourself with everything happening in everything happening at the same time.

Katie Kurpanek: 21:58

Yes, that was such a great answer. I think that when you bring up the piece of interconnectedness, that is what sticks with me the most. And I think that's what has stuck with me throughout the years that I've gotten into this. Because no matter what, my places on the political spectrum, or no matter what my beliefs are, no matter what, you know, my family and friends believe or are experiencing. That interconnectedness piece is something you can't get around. And whether it's climate change, or, well, the effects of climate change, or the effects of living sustainably, it's either of those two things are going to impact all of us on the global level. And, you know, this podcast pilot series is going to get into all of that we're going to talk about, Well, right now, in this conversation, we're talking a lot on how this is impacting us as a planet. And we'll get more into that. But then we're also in future episodes going to talk about how does this impact our communities and on a social level, and social justice issues? And then we're going to talk about how does this get into our physical health and our mental health. And then there's the whole financial side of things. And it's like, within your own little world, all of this is connected. But then, in your own, like you said, state country, the world, like all of this is interconnected, and we're within the same system. So I think getting at the why of this change that's needed. You know, it's just that we're all connected. And we can't just live our own lives, only thinking about ourselves without it having a direct impact on others.

Becky Migas: 23:52

And I and I love that you're looking at as this community these two, because that's so important. And that's such a, you know, I think in COVID, we, we learned that it's really tough to be isolated people, we're not meant to be isolated people as humans. And so we like to be in community with each other. But now taking that piece and understanding how that impacts our planet, how it impacts our society. And I love that you're just taking these really deep dive into all these different areas that a lot of people don't necessarily discuss, and why is that important to talk about loron sustainable practices? You know, I think that potentially could speak for both of us on this is that as we explored our own sustainability and learns, ourselves, we you know, specifically me I learned how everything touches into sustainable practices and how that really, you know, everything you do, like, Oh, my money is going into a bank that's funding fossil fuel, fossil fuel that's, you know, climate change. I'm like, Okay, so now that I think about how much is it worth me spending my money, who my banking with things like that? And I think that once you start to recognize that interconnectedness, you start to realize, like why that community piece is so valuable and so important.

Katie Kurpanek: 25:07

Yeah. And then just the same as, like, we both had that aha moment with recycling or you know, all the waste that was being generated. It's just once you know, something like that, you can't think differently, you can't go back to the way that you were before, when you were completely oblivious, and just kind of blissfully ignorant. So I feel like all of this, the whole interconnected piece, it's just very eye opening, it impacts you on a deep level. And for each person, that might look different. It's not always going to be you know, recycling that really gets to somebody first, or, you know, maybe it's going to be a social justice issue that leads into an environmental connected piece. And it all just has like a domino chain effect from there. But yeah, let's, let's go to kind of back to the climate focus, because we're going to get into so much of these topics in the future episodes, and I cannot wait for all of it. But I feel like right now, the top questions that I often get when I'm talking to people about what I do for a living, or just why this is even important to me, the top questions are usually something like this. Do individual actions even matter when it comes to climate change? Or isn't all of this actually in the hands of the big corporations that are responsible for generating the most waste or pollution? Or whatever it is? You know, isn't that in their hands? Or in the government's hands? And what can I as an individual, really even do? Something along those lines is typically what I get. So I'm wondering if you could speak to that for a bit?

Becky Migas: 26:53

Yeah, absolutely. And, um, you know, I think, you know, the he had a good point over earlier, and I want to kind of circle back real fast, is that everybody has their own connection to why it becomes a part and everybody has to go on your own journey, right? Everybody has to find that piece that's important to them and take that journey in their own steps in ways nobody has the same journey no matter what. But I think another thing that we don't probably highlight enough is that some people, the word climate changes is overwhelming. And it's not a word that, again, it's a politicized word. So thinking about it sometimes in terms of your health, right, like, what is your health look like? In Colorado, we experience, fortunately, not this year. But last year, really bad fires, wildfires, and people couldn't even be outside for weeks on end because of the fires were so bad. And that was their safe haven during covert being outside. So I think sometimes it's just acknowledging how does it affect us personally, and then taking those baby steps to the bigger and I love this conversation around individual and versus, you know, companies, you versus policy, you know, ever, you know, there's lots of people who think, well, it's one or the other, or it should be this way, not this way. It all matters. I'll say that, again, it all matters, every single piece. We need everybody doing everything, but we don't need people doing it perfect. We just keep talking and doing and being a part of the conversation. So email, I think, I think it's hard because the going back to the recycling piece, I think this is an easy way to people to understand is that for the longest time recycling, has been companies created products, consumers consume that product, it's now there's your consumers responsibility, and how to properly dispose of that item. Right? So individuals that the message has always been how do individuals. They're the ones that are responsible, ultimately, at the end of the day, but that's not true. Right. So we're changing that conversation a little bit more, we're starting to say, you know, companies need to start taking responsibility for the items that they are manufacturing and how to properly dispose of them. And this the term that may not be familiar to some of your listeners is circular economy. extended producer responsibility is part of that, that we're starting to see in Colorado is something that I think we'll start to see policy across the board in the United States. I think we'll eventually start to see it in general, hopefully, someday go into our Federal House and Senate. But it is the idea that we can create a product that at the end of its life at the end of its use can go back to a place easily and can be accessible again. mean it right? Like, I think that's the key word here is that we make right now we're sailing so difficult for consumers. And so it's really hard for people to figure out how to properly dispose of their items. So accessibility is a huge piece of that, like, how do we make it easy, convenient, accessible for people to dispose of that item that then goes back to a manufacturer that can then degrade into new products, and it stays in the circular sphere. And then for the companies to recognize and realize that matters, it takes individual action for that to happen. And so individuals and you know, we've said it, so in times, it's because we found that when we started to care, we took that initiative and that passion to start creating change, but that conversation as part of it. So companies listened to individuals, because we are the consumers, and they are going to listen to us. So please start demanding, and start saying we want better products to be created and better ways to dispose of our items, manufacturers are going to start to listen. And in order for that to change policy has to come into place, because there's a lot of policy that has to change in order for us to be able to create the circular economy. So all of it, and we've said this word so many times, but the sustainability, all of it is interconnected. Everything matters, everything. No piece matters, all of it. So even though sometimes individuals, I think we get so frustrated, because we feel like all the responsibility is on us to create that change. And we're the ones that have to think about, you know, if we're going to get a clean planet, we have to do all the work. I don't think that's true, we just have to keep the conversation going. And we need to have the conversation with our the companies that we invest in our dollars matter where we spend our dollars, how we spend our dollars, we need to get involved in advocacy. I think this is a big piece people forget when we vote our legislators in they we voted them we are their constituents, they listen to us. And so you have a voice with your legislators get involved and get active with if there's something a piece of policy that you want to get active in if that's not someplace that's comfortable. You know, some people just aren't comfortable with that. That's okay. How can you at least stay in the conversation and to help create that change? So that's it, everything matters, all of that matters.

Katie Kurpanek: 32:20

Exactly. Yep. I totally agree. So then, the top questions that I get that I first presented to you are, you know, does this even matter? And then I think on the flip side of that, the other questions I often get are, well, it all matters. So drastically, we are in a critical time in our lives, the world is ending. So if it all matters so much, but I can't possibly do enough, quickly enough. Then what? And I know that that's a very big question that you know, gets posed to me. It's a big question that I'm sure it gets posed to you all the time. So there's not a perfect answer for this. But where is the hope in all of that?

Becky Migas: 33:06

Yeah, that's, you know, I, I actually had lunch with a state legislator not too long ago, and we are having a conversation and I point blank, she stopped and looked at me and said, Do you think we'll be able to create change in enough time? And I looked at her and said, I don't know, the truth, the truth? You know, the truth is, I don't know. I don't know the answer. But you have, we have to remain hopeful, we have to remain hopeful that that we can create the change, at least get people to be a part of that conversation. And I feel a shift coming. You know, and I think a lot of it is because I stay in this bubble, you know, and I see it every day. But conversations with my mom has changed. My parents are starting to try to get interested. Now the education they're getting from a different story, but but again, seeing, you know, hearing and seeing it on the news, more often seeing commercials seeing people who are outside of my conversation starting to get involved in the conversation. I had brunch with a couple girlfriends one day and she said I started using, I went and bought reusable produce bags because of you. And I was like, I didn't do anything. And she's like, but you do and he taught me like, I see that waste. Now I see that, you know. So I think there's a lot of eye opening happening right now. I think people are understanding we're starting to connect the dots, which is part of that important piece. Personally, are there days I get exhausted and I don't want to do this anymore. Absolutely. And that's really, really why women in sustainability got started. Because I was working in my office home alone and I would go down these deep dark rabbit holes of climate change and I would find myself I was getting super depressed, and having the supervision of anxiety. And I would quickly find somebody who was doing sustainable practices. And I set up a meeting with them, and I would go talk to them, and I'd find that open energy again. And I found that cycle happening in my life. And that was how I ended up building a community that I've built around me. You know, there are days that it's exhausting. And it's okay. Like, if you need to take a break from all of it, it's okay, if, you know, like, you know, we've talked about it multiple times in our friendship over the years of how just sometimes you just need to not think about it for it, I need to step away from the news, you could go outside and for me, that's my, that's, that's my reminder of my why I do my work, right. Like, I go out, we've living in Colorado, we have this gorgeous state. And these beautiful mountains, hiking, trails go work, and I get myself out on a trail. And I connect back with Mother Nature. And when I do that, I remind myself, this is why I do this work. This is why I continue to do the fight. But I allow myself to have those moments of being exhausted and tired and grief and anxiety and, and that's okay. And then the other piece of that is finding yourself a community. You know, I've been really just I just I can't even begin to tell you how fortunate I feel every day to be surrounded by the community that exists with women in sustainability. And it truly is the driver because while one day you may be exhausted, another person has the energy and to help carry us forward and having these conversations as a community and having a bigger support group is just really important. And so, you know, I'll always come back to that tie that community is what is going to create our change going forward.

Katie Kurpanek: 36:57

Yeah, that's so beautiful and so necessary. I'm really glad that you brought that up. 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 is 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 we have covered a lot of ground, a lot of a very vast topic that like you said before, could take days and days and days, years and years of years to really get into and honestly that is my goal with this podcast. Right? We will keep this conversation going. I have so many ideas for future episodes that I'm just blanking right now. And I'm excited to get into all of these topics, getting into all the nitty gritty details and tangible steps that we can be taking. But that's going to take some time. So for this first episode, I want to introduce a routine question that I am hoping to bring into every episode no matter who I'm talking to whatever the topic is, but it's just really the teacher in me that's coming out because you and I have talked about this a lot to education is empowering. So there are a million things that people can be doing to live sustainably and everybody is going to take different actions. We're not going to be doing exactly the same thing. And like you said, we don't need everyone to be doing this perfectly or following some like standard routine of sustainable living, but we just need everybody to do the best that they can and their starting point is also going to look different then somebody else's. And we're not all going to have access to the same resources, we don't all unfortunately have the same level of privilege granted to us. So considering all of those things, what would be the top 1-3 actionable steps that you would recommend our listeners can take related to living sustainably and related to climate change, or this whole interconnectedness piece that we've been talking about? If you could just pick one or two or three, that could at least give our listeners some kind of hope, and some kind of tangible action that they can hold on to after this episode? What would that be?

Becky Migas: 40:42

Yeah, this is such a great question. I love that it's going to be kind of a standard question that you plan to incorporate. I think really, it you know, the biggest advice I have her pupils, finding what is passionate for you, because if you're not passionate about it, then you're not going to want to get involved and want to keep driving that change. Because as we mentioned earlier, just a few minutes ago, it's exhausting. Some days and some days, it's really hard to just say, Okay, I'm done, I'm not going away. So find the things that matter to you start in your household, you know, for me, it was waste. You know, I started thinking about how what does my waste look like? How do I change that. And then I went into my kitchen, and I think about cooking. So we we meal plan, and we work really hard to eat our leftovers? And we think about you know, how does it look like when we order out? What restaurants are we supporting. So start small, start finding the things that you know that you can change, and that you can do and that you're passionate about, and then start to build up from there. And I think it's one of those things where it what 30 days creates a habit, what seems really challenging at the start to do all of a sudden, when you continue to do it, it becomes natural habit. You know, grocery bags, for example, when I started using my reusable grocery bags, I would get done with my shopping realized I forgot my my bags, and I would leave my cart, and I would walk out to my car, and I pick up my goods and then at the checkout, after two or three times I stopped doing that, because I didn't want to walk up to my car anymore. And I was always afraid. So most of my shopping cart looks like a good shopping cart, maybe they wanted it, I don't know. But create those habits, create those small habits and build up and remind you know, for your listeners, I think remember that it doesn't happen overnight and be that you're going to make mistakes, even for myself who has done a lot of these practices for years now, I still mess up to, um, you know, especially because we live in a society that doesn't make it super easy to get to meet, you know, lots of waste in our lives. And some days are really challenging at heart. I think that, you know, if there's a day where you're just like, I have to go get this takeout food, and it's gonna be all in styrofoam. So okay, so what if that's easier for your day, and that makes you happy. And that's you know, and you're supporting a local business, great, go for it, like, recognize that you don't have to live perfect, perfectly sustainable every day, you can do the best you can and recognize that someday they're going to be more challenging than others and do the best you can on that day too. And then maybe the next day, when things are better, do a little bit better, you know, there's that balance and, and not judging each other, I think that it's really important to understand everybody's on their journey. And when somebody is having a tough day or somebody in a different situation, you know, understanding that we're all just trying to do the best we can and we're all trying to live the best we can and you know, if somebody wants to be a part of the conversation, and once is at least trying to create change that in Great, let's, let's welcome everybody with open arms to be a part of it. And recognizing that, you know, tomorrow's a different day, and we can all do better tomorrow and and as we all grow and as the system around us grows, that's where that individual care impact comes is that as we start to create it and we're tired of having to do things ourselves, we push for that change on a more corporate and federal level with policy. So just do the best. Just do the best you can. You know, and then I'll just lastly say get involved with the community. Find a community that you feel passionate about that you can go and have these conversations with maybe it's one area of sustainable practices, maybe it is, you know, maybe it's just a, a community that meets up wants to Once over coffee and just talks about what's happening in the world, whatever you feel comfortable with, just get involved. You know, I'm a little bias. Women sustainability is the best buy, you know, it's not for everybody and I get that. So just find just be a part of the conversation and keep the conversation going and share that conversation with your community then and why that's important understanding, they're in a different place. When I talked with my mom, I understand she's not where I am with sustainability, but she's interested. And that's all I need is to have that interest so that we can have that conversation together. And we can communicate about it and recognizing that we all can really, truly get to, to a place that we can talk to each other, I think that that's gonna be really valuable for how, how our future looks.

Katie Kurpanek: 45:52

Yes, that is fantastic. I think that is the perfect place for anybody to start, anybody can start there. No matter where you're listening from, or what you have access to or not, you can start there, you can just figure out what part of this conversation you are passionate about. And then go from there, start exploring it, start learning more, plug yourself into a community, and start making those small adjustments into your life doing the best you can and being gracious to yourself when things don't go as well as you wanted them to, or you're not able to because of something that is out of your control. And then talking about it, I love all of those actions and those suggestions that you just named. And I think that it's the perfect segue into the rest of this podcast, because I named it all things sustainable, because I want to talk about everything related to sustainability. But it all needs to be sustainable for you. And for me, and for our listeners. Otherwise, it is not going to become a habit. Like you said, if it takes 30 days to stick with something and actually develop that habit. If you can't do it, if it's not sustainable within your own life and routines and your family's needs. That's just going to weigh you down and make you depressed and frustrated. And it's not going to be progress. So thank you for saying all of that. And throwing in one more plug for Women In Sustainability. It's been it has been a life saving community for me throughout COVID. Honestly, the past couple of years have been so hard and so isolating for all of us. And that community has been there in any capacity that I needed it to. It's definitely a great place that I recommend all the time and will do so on this podcast. But how can people follow up with you and with women in sustainability? I'll link all the different contact info in the description for this episode, but But yeah, what how could people follow up with you or with women in sustainability?

Becky Migas: 47:58

Yeah, thank you and yeah, so honored to have you a part of our community. The conversations you bring are so valuable important education you bring so valuable important. You know, I think your listeners are going to be in such a such a treat with this podcast. And I personally as a listener, and so excited to listen to the journey and go on this journey with you and your listeners as well. I think that you know, you have such an insight into so many of these topics and I'm so thrilled and excited to to take that dive with you as well. So thanks for bringing this to light. As for women sustainability, you can go to women in sustainability.org is our website. We have all of our events that will be listed there will be announcing our 2020 to 22 Wow 2022 who like to usually this is gonna be a tongue twister all year long. Yeah, yeah, I like cuz I still don't even think that it is like a holiday season. I mean, for your listeners. We're taping this currently the week of Thanksgiving and 2021 and this year flew by so I am it's hard to imagine and it's 70 degrees in Colorado in November which is really strange. So my brains just not here yet. Um, anyways 2022 events will be announced soon. We also have a Facebook group it is under women in sustainability Colorado. We are currently launching our first chapter in Colorado we hope to grow nationally you know in the next in the coming years. You can go you know got all the social medias, Instagram, women women.in . sustainability, LinkedIn and regular Facebook as well. So just you know my ask always is join the conversation. Just be a part of it. What's really cool about women in sustainability is that there's a different subjects that people are posting about and talking about every day. You And, you know, maybe you don't know where you fit into the sustainable world yet, but be a part of that conversation. And there might be something that just lights up, you know that, that in their energy is that you might learn about a little bit more, and they might. And you know, as your listeners, you know, find that excitement. So just be part of the conversation. That's, you know, I think that's the most important first step.

Katie Kurpanek: 50:27

Yeah, I love it. Thank you so much for creating a space where people can do that. And I'm so excited to continue recommending that to all of my clients. And now my listeners. And I'll have all that information linked in the episode description. But I think this conversation has been fantastic, and I can't wait to continue it with you and with so many other people. So thank you for joining me, Becky.

Becky Migas: 50:50

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I'm so thrilled and honored again and just it just can't wait to see how this podcast develops. So thank you. It's gonna be amazing.