Hey Eco Heros,
Wow! We’ve come to the end of another year!!
Which means if you’re like most of the population, you’ll be setting some new year’s resolutions.
One of the things I like to do at this time of year is to reflect on where I’m at, where I’ve come from, and where I want to go….. in life and business in general of course, but I also like to hone in on where I’m at eco-wise.
That’s right, I set green goals.
And in this episode I’m going to share with you an easy little ritual I do that helps me clear the decks so I can start the New Year with a bang.
To work with me as you listen to this episode, download the one-page New Year’s Green Goals worksheet here and fill it out as you go along.
Let’s dive in!
Given we’re smack bang in the middle of party season I wanted to check in with you and raise the topic of ecotaining.
When I talk about ecotaining I’m referring to the process of keeping the environment in mind when you entertain your friends and family. In a nutshell it’s entertaining with real foods and being super mindful of the waste generated… be it food waste or waste from packaging, decorations and even items like plates, cutlery and cups.
It’s a topic I’m super passionate about….. that’s why I gave it a name (ecotaining!!)….. and in this episode, I want to give you a couple of super simple ideas how you can use fruits and vegetables to cut down on your party waste, including your washing up!!
Sound good?
Let’s dive in!
Well Christmas is just a couple of weeks away and I don’t know about you, but I’ve left it down to the wire and still have some gifts to organise.
If you’re in the same boat, rest assured you don’t have to drop your green values and buy the first thing you see when completing your last-minute shopping on Christmas Eve.
In this episode, I’ll discuss seven green gift ideas that are not only kinder to the planet, but will make your gift the favourite one this Christmas!
If you’re keen to perhaps even gift a membership to Self Sufficiency in the Suburbs, just a reminder that the foundation membership price ends this Friday 16th December. To join a warm and inspiring community of like-minded eco folks, be challenged to live more sustainably and be in the running for awesome eco prizes, not to mention exclusive member discounts, join me in Self Sufficiency in the Suburbs.
I’ve also put together a free ‘Seasons Greenings’ eguide that’s jam-packed with practical and simple ideas for you to enjoy a sustainable Christmas.
Just click here to get your copy!
With less than a month until Christmas, many of us are now starting to plan for a Christmas feast of sorts!
If you’re like most of us, you’ll probably over cater.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
In this episode I’m chatting about Christmas leftovers and how we can give them a new lease of life to keep them out of the bin!
I’ve put together a free ‘Seasons Greenings’ eguide that’s jam-packed with practical and simple ideas for you to enjoy a sustainable Christmas.
Just click here to get your copy!
If you celebrate Christmas, I’m sure that with less than a month to go until the big day, you’re no doubt knee-deep in present planning or purchasing mode.
Gift giving is one aspect of Christmas that can get out of hand quickly….. from a cost and a sheer volume point of view alone (let’s not even go there on waste!).
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
In this episode I’ll discuss four easy, sustainable, homemade Christmas gift ideas that won’t break the bank or send you into a spin.
I’ve put together a free ‘Seasons Greenings’ eguide that’s jam-packed with practical and simple ideas for you to enjoy a sustainable Christmas.
Just click here http://seasons-greenings.lauratrotta.com/ to get your copy!
For images of homemade gifts discussed in this episode click here.
Have you ever come face to face with a techno-tantrum when you’ve wrangled the tablet, smartphone, computer or TV away from your child?
Are you worried your child is becoming addicted to technology and you feel helpless about the situation?
Are you trying your best to get your children outdoors and playing in nature, only to have to drag them away from their screens in order to do so?
If that sounds familiar (and I’ll raise my hand as we battle this in our household too), you’ll love today’s episode.
I’m joined by Dr Kristy Goodwin, one of Australia’s leading digital parenting experts (and mum who also has to wrestle devices from her children’s clutches!)
Kristy translates the latest research into practical and digestible information for parents trying to navigate the digital terrain with their kids (without telling you to ban the iPad, or unplug the TV).
Kristy takes the guesswork and guilt out of raising kids in a digital world and I love it how she arms parents with facts, not fears about what young kids really need to thrive online and offline.
Our kids will inherit a digital world…. it’s here to stay…. so we know digital abstinence is not the solution. Kristy’s here to help us find the solution that’s right for our families.
If you love this episode, check out our recent chat with Sarah Sutter of Nature Play SA (episode number 53) here.
How would three days without electricity, internet and mobile phone coverage impact your household?
Would it throw everything into turmoil? Stress you out? Or would it be an opportunity to come up for air and reflect on your lifestyle?
A few weeks ago, on Wednesday 28th September, the State of South Australia, where I live, was smashed by a massive 1 in 50 year storm that destroyed three elements of critical infrastructure and plunged the state, and its 1.7 million residents into darkness….some for a few hours, others (like my household) a few days.
Due to the scale of this event there’s not surprisingly been much finger-pointing and questions asked by the power-players (ooh love the pun!), and many, many lessons learned for the State and the main power providers.
But I also learned some lessons too.
Three days without electricity, internet and mobile phone coverage is enough to rattle any household or business in our modern fast-paced society…and my household and business were no exception.
However, I very quickly discovered that in my case, the inconvenience of the prolonged power outage was far outshined by the learnings and opportunities that came out of it……
In this episode I’ll share these learnings with you and in doing so, they might help you reflect a little on your current lifestyle.
Throughout October on Eco Chat we chatted about sustainability and our kids…. How to foster eco-conscious children, how and why we need to get our kids playing outside more, how to nurture a love of science in our children…. And even how to be a happier mama.
Today I’m joined by Belinda Smith of The Root Cause to hear how we all can instil healthy eating habits in our children. Bel Smith is a health and wellness coach and a mum on a mission to transform children’s health, one lunchbox at a time.
The long-term health prospects of Australian children are a real concern. 27.4% of our children in Australian between 5 & 17 are now overweight or obese. Of these children, 80% will go onto become overweight or obese adults.
This stat alone is not the only concern. Chronic illness is now on the increase. Diabetes type 2, once an adult onset illness, is now occurring in our children, and Australia has one of the highest allergy rates in the world.
Together with her husband and 2 children, Bel travels Australia in their big green bus Kaley, running fun and interactive workshops for children and parents about making better food choices.
My aims when launching this Eco Chat podcast 12 months ago (yes…we’ve just turned one!!!) were not just to share my thoughts, tips and tricks with you on how you could live more sustainably, but to bring in some guests to inspire you to go out there and create real change in the world.
My guest today is a perfect example of how one man with a strong vision, big heart and a good dose of get up and go, can make a difference.
At 19 years old Daniel co-founded Thankyou with a couple of friends. What began as an idea to tap into the millions and billions of dollars that consumers spend on bottled water to help tackle the World Water Crisis, has grown into 45 products that are stocked in over 4000 outlets, with 100% of the profit going to Impact. To date, Thankyou have given over $4.69million dollars to Impact, helping hundreds of thousands of people across 17 countries.
If this is the first time you’ve heard of Daniel Flynn or the Thankyou story, please pay them a visit and do your best to support their work as they expand into New Zealand, and then take on the world.
Sustainable living can require a bit more effort than conventional living, especially when learning the ropes, as instead of grabbing the items of convenience we may instead choose to make our own household products and foods from scratch.
If we’re not careful this can lead to overwhelm, burnout, resentment and chucking it all in or giving up entirely on creating a sustainable home.
But it doesn’t need to be that way at all!
It is possible to live sustainably, have time for work, friends, family, and yourself, and today I have a very special guest who’s going to explain why we need to put ourselves first in order to be able to create a sustainable home, and indeed a happy family.
Amy Taylor-Kabbaz is the Happy Mama.
She’s on a mission to help every new Mama she can feel connected to that strong, powerful, intuitive woman she glimpsed when she first became a Mama, but is now too tired and run off her feet to remember. She’s here to give you permission to put yourself first, to demand a happier life, to feel good about yourself, and to be a better Mama. The next round of her Reconnect program begins on 30th October 2016. Sign up here.
This episode is especially for the mums listening today, but if you’re a stay-at-home dad or even just a father who would love to support the mother of your children a bit better, then there’s plenty of gold here for you too.
Amy is coming into the Self Sufficiency in the Suburbs community as a guest expert next month to help our members re-shift their priorities, reclaim their time, and put themselves first. If you’re not yet a member, you have until 31st October to take advantage of the launch special and test out the first 3 modules for just $1!! Go to selfsufficiencyinthesuburbs.com today to join this new, amazing online club that provides you with the tools, and the support, to create your own self-sufficient home in the suburbs!!!
Throughout October on Eco Chat we’ve been talking about how we can foster a love, respect, and curiosity of the natural world in our children, and today we’re going to take it one step further.
I’m joined by Sarah Rouche of Red Cat Science to hear how we, as parents and educators, can best ignite a love of science in children.
In this episode we’ll cover:
What has this got to do with sustainability you ask?
Well as environmental issues of the world become more and more complex, we’ll need more smart and savvy scientists to solve them and to come up with the solutions. Our kids might be within this next generation of scientists and engineers!!!
But it’s not just in sustainability, current studies have shown that at least 75% of future jobs will require science, technology, engineering, and maths skills, yet only 17% of university students are studying these subjects.
It’s time to close the gap and Sarah has some great tips to help us get started in this area so we can best nurture the budding scientist within our kids….
Let’s dive in!
When our children grow up and look back on their most treasured childhood memories, what will they remember?
Will they have memories of climbing a tree as high as they’ve ever been before, or riding a bike down a hill so fast they thought they would never be able to stop? Will they remember having tea parties in a secret hiding spot in the garden, or carting all your kitchen pots and pans outside so they could make mud pies?
These are our childhood memories. We grew up playing outside. Adventures were limitless. We weren’t constrained by time or other activities, homework, or our parents. It was free play outdoors. It was spontaneous, exhilarating, fun, and exactly how we wanted to play. This was nature play and for most of us, the best time we ever had.
Two decades on, this type of play is no longer the norm. Sadly, our children spend less than two hours a day outside, one in four have never climbed a tree, one in three have never planted a garden, and the area in which they can explore, has shrunk by 90%.
Nature play is vital for children’s development, and for their health, happiness, and well-being.
This week I’m joined by Sarah Sutter from Nature Play SA. Sarah is on a mission to make unstructured outdoor play in nature an everyday part of childhood, and in this episode she shares how and why we need to get our kids back outside.
Last week I opened the doors to Self Sufficiency In The Suburbs...a new online club that provides the support and the info you need to create a sustainable home without turning your back on the modern world!
Join for just $1 in October!!
Before I jump into today’s topic I have some super, duper amazing news that I can’t wait to share with you.
Self Sufficiency in the Suburbs is OPEN and I couldn’t be more excited.
Self Sufficiency in the Suburbs is a members’ only club that will show you how to move towards a simpler, more sustainable way of living, one tiny step at a time, and for a limited time you can test it out now for just $1!
Over the next few weeks on the podcast I’m going to take a look at how we can best nurture our kids to develop a love and respect for our environment.
Regardless of whether or not you have young children yourself, no doubt there are kids in your life – perhaps nieces or nephews, grandchildren, students if you’re a teacher or carer of any sort, patients if you’re in the health profession, or maybe you just see your friend’s children from time to time.
Regardless of your relationship to the children in your life, I’d love you to keep these points in mind as you interact with them. In most cases, what I’m recommending to help nurture an eco-consciousness in children has many other benefits as well.
In this episode I’ll share four ways you can nurture eco conscious kids, and I’ll cover why it’s important that we foster sustainability values in the children in our lives.
There’s no denying that meat has been an important component of the human diet since the beginning of our existence, but modern meat production methods are having a significant impact on our environment.
In episode 49 and 50 we heard from Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm on how regenerative farming techniques can restore the land and feed a growing population. However the fact is that the strong market for cheap, factory-farmed meat doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, and the environmental impact of this industry is alarming.
In my experience as a sustainability educator, I’ve found that most people want to eat meat in some form or other and that giving it up in entirety is just too big a step for the average person to take, at least when starting out. Which means the first challenge is in changing HOW we eat meat.
It’s time to seriously smarten up the way we buy and eat meat and in this episode I’ll cover seven tips to get you started.
If you’re after further tips on how you can make more sustainable food choices, reserve your seat on my FREE LIVE online event on Tuesday 4th October. I’ll be sharing my best tips on eco-eating for busy parents (including recipes!). Secure your seat here.
Last episode I introduced you to Joel Salatin from Polyface Farm.
Joel has been dubbed the “world's most innovative farmer” by TIME Magazine and is known around the world for challenging the conventional farming model and farming in a way that heals the land, heals the food, heals the economy, and heals the culture.
In Part 1 of the two-part feature we chatted about what regenerative farming is, how animals have a vital role to play in healing marginal land, and why we should care about where our food comes from.
This week we continue the conversation and dive deep into the big question… is there a place for meat on the table when the world’s population reaches the predicted 10 billion people around the year 2050.
I was inundated with heaps of positive feedback from Part 1 and I have no doubt that you'll find Part 2 just as entertaining and informative.
We've appreciated for a long time that we are what we eat.
Slowly and surely, we're starting to appreciate that our landscape reflects what we eat too.
Today I’m chatting with THE Joel Salatin from Polyface Farm.
Polyface Farm’s mission is to develop emotionally, economically, environmentally enhancing agricultural enterprises and facilitate their duplication throughout the world.
Joel has been dubbed the “world’s most innovative farmer” by TIME Magazine. For almost six decades his farm in the Shenandoah Valley in Northern Virginia USA has used no chemicals and feeds over 6,000 families and many restaurants and food outlets within a 3 hour ‘foodshed’ of his farm.
His farm is in the redemption business: healing the land, healing the food, healing the economy, and healing the culture and I can’t tell you how excited I am to be chatting with Joel today.
In this Part 1 of 2 episodes you’ll gain an understanding of:
Have you ever looked around your kitchen and wondered if all the containers, pots and pans are impacting your health?
Maybe you’ve eaten Teflon in your stir-fry that was cooked in a wok that once upon a time was non-stick, or you’ve eaten a mouthful of melted plastic with your reheated food.
If that’s you then listen up because in this post I take a look at some of the common questions I receive about toxins in kitchen equipment and recommend some safer alternatives, including:
and more!!
I cover topics like this in my Home Detox Boot Camp so if you’re keen to learn more on how to create a cleaner, safer home to improve your family’s health and well-being, register your interest here.
Not many of us are born with the intention to lead as green and healthy a life as possible.
Most of us have an awakening at some point along the way.
A wake up call that tells us that we need to dramatically change our lifestyle for our own health and that of the planet.
Today I’m joined by a lady who experienced such a wake-up call and who has dramatically changed her lifestyle over the past year…. So much so that she’s started a new business venture that’s in complete alignment with her new way of living.
In this Eco Chat Jo kindly shares:
Jo’s transformation led her to create Dare To Be Healthy, an online store dedicated to helping people make better choices for themselves and our environment. She stocks a wide range of products that are natural, toxin-free, organic and eco-friendly with many vegan-friendly options.
Jo has also kindly offered a 10% discount off your first order for Eco Chat listeners. Simply enter voucher code HOMEDETOX10 in your shopping cart to apply the discount.
Have you ever had a week where life threw you a curve-ball, everything was turned upside down and you had to put your eco principles on hold while you dealt with the situation at hand?
We experienced one of these weeks recently when my father-in-law passed away and I dubbed it “The Week of YES”, because that seemed to be my default answer to all the incoming requests from my sons.
In this episode I’ll share a little bit about our Week of YES and explain why I believe it’s more than okay to have a week like this every now and again.
Given that newborn babies can typically sleep around 16-17 hours a day, it’s worth putting some thought into creating a natural baby nursery to ensure your baby’s sleep environment is as safe and toxin-free as possible.
In this episode I’ll share five things you need to consider when creating a safe, toxin-free space for your baby.
Whether your baby sleeps in your bedroom or their own nursery, following these five steps will help you create a safe and natural sleeping environment free of toxins for your baby. Of course your baby will venture into many other rooms in your home (especially after they become more mobile!!), so once you have your nursery nailed you may wish to shift your focus to the remainder of your home.
Rather than go through the process of creating a toxin-free home alone, join my Home Detox Boot Camp for expert advice and support from the hundreds of women in our active community.
Doors close on the final round for 2016 on Thursday 18 August 2016 and you can join here.
Dust… it’s not a sexy topic but it is an important topic when it comes to maintaining a clean and healthy home.
With dust being a leading cause of environmental allergies in both children and adults, it pays to understand what dust is, how it accumulates in your home and how to get rid of it, for good!
In this episode I’ll share:
My favourite dusting cloths are the Norwex Dusting Mitt and Enviro Cloths (available here), however the ENJO Dust Glove and Indoor Miracle also perform well (available here).
When it comes to toxin-free living there’s many sources in our homes that fly “under the radar”.
If you’re keen to discover the 5 Main Sources of Toxins In Your Home, reserve your seat on my free LIVE Online Event here.
For guidance and support to help you create a cleaner, greener and healthier home, check out my Home Detox Boot Camp. Doors will be closing soon on the final round of 2016!
When we think of air pollution we typically think of smog-filled cities, factories belching out toxic plumes or even just people in heavily populated cities wearing face masks to filter the air. But what if I told you that the air inside some of our homes is right up there with some of the more polluted cities.
Indoor air pollution has been ranked by the US EPA in the top five risks to public health, but what does this mean exactly and what can we do to improve the quality of air inside our homes and offices?
In this episode I’ll share why we should be concerned about indoor air quality and what you can do to improve the quality of the air you breathe inside your home or workspace.
You’ll learn:
Improving your indoor air quality is just one of the many areas to tackle when creating a safe, healthy home that’s free of nasty toxins.
For guidance and advice to help you create a cleaner, greener and healthier home, check out my Home Detox Boot Camp.
Doors are now open for the final round of 2016!
For many of us, splashing or squirting perfume or cologne on ourselves is part of our daily grooming regime. But is our obsession with scent and smelling nice causing harm to ourselves and our planet?
In this episode I discuss the health and environmental impacts of fragrance and why I choose not to wear perfume.
I chat about:
To enjoy optimum health we really need to smarten up on not just what we put IN our bodies, but what we put ON them.
That’s one of the main reasons why I created the Home Detox Boot Camp 2.5 years ago. In the course I delve into cleaning and pest control products as well as personal care and beauty. All in a supportive community and with access to me for questions and insights from guest experts who are leaders in their fields.
I’ll be opening doors again this coming week and you can join here.
Are you keen on removing toxins from your living environment and currently live in a small space like a boat or caravan and aren’t sure which products to whittle it down to? Maybe you’re just heading away on holidays and want to know which natural products to pack that can stretch over a multitude of cleaning and personal care tasks. If that’s you, you’re in luck!
In this post I’ll share my top 5 product recommendations for toxin-free living in a small living space.
If you’re after plenty of other tips for how to use these products effectively in your caravan or your home, check out my FREE Home Detox Cheat Sheet or sign up for my FREE 3-part Home Detox Video Training Series.
If you’re interested in learning how to detox and simplify your cleaning with essential oils, be sure to reserve your seat for my FREE upcoming webinar here.
There are many ways you can reduce your exposure to toxins in plastics and reduce the volume of plastic waste your household produces. From avoiding plastics altogether, to getting smarter with how you use them, here’s 19 ways to break up with plastics in your home.
For details of all the products I recommend instead of conventional plastic varieties, follow links to purchase in the blog post for this episode.
If you’re keen to reduce your family’s exposure to toxins including those found in plastics, you might be excited to know I’ve just reopened my FREE Home Detox Video Series. It’s available for a limited time here. You can also download your FREE Home Detox Cheat Sheet or pop your name on the waiting list for my popular Home Detox Boot Camp here.