Ailish Lalor
Happy New Year! After a semester-long hiatus purely owing to my procrastination skills, the blog is back, and will hopefully continue to be back. Please shout at me if I fail.
Although the time for making New Year’s Resolutions has passed (by now you should be onto the disappointing-yourself-and-your-family-and-your-dog phase), I wanted to begin this comeback with a list (and description thereof) of some YouTubers, Netflix programmes and bloggers that support sustainability and have certainly helped me become less wasteful over the past year. So, even as you procrastinate achieving the goals you set yourself a week ago, you can be inspired to set some more for yourself. Joking aside, I do think that hearing other people talking about things you also want to do and showing you how to do them helps with following through. Since beginning to follow some of these people, I’ve been able to cut down a lot of plastic usage and new clothing. Hearing a message you know to be true repeated to you in an entertaining way is actually quite helpful, I find. Without further ado, here are five people/programmes that I have found helpful with sustainability.
- Sustainably Vegan
Sustainably Vegan is the channel that really altered how I think about sustainability. I’ve been watching Immy, the owner, for about six months now, and I’m constantly inspired by her ideas. She calls her movement ‘low impact living’, and it encompasses lowering your physical waste, but also your ‘invisible’ waste, so choosing to cycle over public transport or driving, sourcing locally grown food and locally made goods, and buying as much second hand as possible. She’s also unusually intersectional for the sustainability community (which I appreciate as an HD major), and does videos on being low waste in areas with limited options, doing no-spend months, and being self-employed. Also, her videos are always beautifully shot and edited. Find her here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkq2gEWE-i647M71bh7zDxA
- Shelbizleee
Shelby, who runs this channel, was my first introduction to the ‘zero waste’ movement. She does videos about cutting down your plastic use, eco-friendly alternatives to toiletries and make up, and some videos that are mostly about entertainment— for example, her anti-haul videos, where she lists wasteful trends that annoy her. She lives in the States, so not everything she mentions can be found here, but I find her simultaneously reassuring and inspirational. Find her here:https://www.youtube.com/user/Shelbizleee
- Lazy Cat Kitchen
Lazy Cat Kitchen is the blog I go to whenever I want to cook or bake something special. Her recipes are not the simplest, or the quickest, but they are universally delicious and decorative. All her recipes are vegan, and she will usually mention whether the vegetables she uses in a dish are in season or not. She also tends to use whole-foods more often than mock meats or cheeses, which help her environmental credentials. Find her here: https://www.lazycatkitchen.com
- Minimalist Baker
In contrast to Lazy Cat Kitchen, Minimalist Baker produces simple, delicious recipes made with as few ingredients as possible, and made in the shortest amount of time. Recipes with short ingredient lists are not only more inviting, but also tend to be better for food wastage. If you have to use small amounts of ten things for a recipe, you’ll probably let some of them go bad, especially if they’re ingredients you’re unfamiliar with. Also, short cooking times mean less electricity usage! Find her here: https://minimalistbaker.com
- Minimalism: A Documentary about the Important Things
While minimalism doesn’t equal sustainability, deciding to consume fewer things is better for the planet overall. This documentary, available on Netflix, explores the lives of two men who decided to give up their jobs and lives in search of simplicity, and became minimalists. I really liked this documentary because it portrayed a lifestyle you don’t see represented very often.
Thanks for reading! Drop your sustainable influencers in the comments below, and I’ll see you next week!
Act Aware 