Good Together: Ethical, Eco-Friendly, Sustainable Living

With a little bit of curiosity and planning, you can have a successful and sustainable Thanksgiving. In this episode, Liza and Laura share tips from their own lives plus others sourced from the hundreds of pointers that our Brightly community has compiled at https://brightly.eco/holiday-tips. They chat about how to cut down on wasted food, ways to source ethically ingredients, our favorite eco-fri...

Before you buy a new pillow, you should know: in the textile + home decor manufacturing industry, child labor is shockingly common. Children in this industry make products such as rugs, carpets, bedding, towels, and clothing. GoodWeave International has been leading the charge against child labor for 25 years, with an on-the-ground approach to certifying textile supply chains. IN this episode, we...

What if we told you the scariest part of Halloween isn't the ghouls or frights – it's the amount of waste you can generate celebrating it. In this episode, we discuss how to creatively reuse your pumpkins after the holiday, low-budget and sustainable costume options, and more. For show notes, visit https://brightly.eco/10-ways-to-have-an-eco-friendly-sustainable-halloween/ Advertising Inqu...

Our everyday clothing is an exciting form of personal expression.  Both necessary and artistic, timeless and of the moment, the clothes we wear say so much about us. But the fashion industry has a dark side: it produces 10% of all global carbon emissions and consumes nearly 1.5 trillion liters of water each year. Elizabeth Cline, author of The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking G...

It's Fair Trade Month, giving us yet another reason to love the month of October. Buying fair trade is the perfect way to spend your dollars for good. Fair Trade labels can be confusing, though, so we’re sharing exactly what fair trade means and how it affects workers worldwide. We’re also breaking down the nine core principles of fair trade and three easy ways for you to get involved in the f...

Stephen Kuhl, co-founder of Burrow, joins us to chat about why it’s important to prioritize purchasing sustainable pieces from your home and why we should all “forget” fast furniture. Every year, over nine million tons of furniture end up in landfills, stemming from the sheer volume of low quality, low cost furniture sold by the likes of the big box stores. These cheap products serve a short term...

400 million cups of joe are poured every day in the United States. It’s obvious that we love coffee a latte! With International Coffee Day coming up on September 29th, now is the perfect time to think about how you can sip sustainably. We’re sharing how coffee is made, where it comes from, what certifications to look out for on your coffee bags, and easy ways to make sure that every sip is both et...

Stanford climate scientist and professor Noah Diffenbaugh joins us to discuss the link between wildfires and climate change. From Seattle to Portland to the Bay Area, it seems like the whole West Coast is covered in bright orange skies and billowing smoke. Wildfires aren’t a new phenomenon, but we are seeing more and more of them each year. In this episode, Noah shares how our actions contribute t...

When someone says “fast food,” “sustainability” might not be the word that comes to mind. Chipotle Mexican Grill, the fast-food restaurant best known for burrito bowls and #extra guac, is trying to change that. We chatted with Caitlin Leibert, Chipotle’s Head of Sustainability and Executive Director of the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, about what the fast-food chain is doing to change how the res...

The COVID-19 reality we're all faced with has caused everyone to make sacrifices, endure hardships, and change up our daily routines. There's a silver lining, though: it's easier than ever to make eco-friendly choices. Our lifestyles have changed drastically, and almost all of these changes have been for the better. Today we’re sharing our best tips for making the most of our new norma...

Not being able to travel because of COVID-19 makes it the perfect time to think about our future travel decisions and how your luggage can make a difference. Indré Rockefeller, the co-founder of sustainable travel goods company Paravel, chatted with us about sustainable travel. From her life-changing trip to Antarctica to how companies consider more ethical and sustainable materials, she gave us t...

About 10% of Americans move each year. But this year, 20% of Americans have moved or know someone who has. COVID-19 has led people to move back in with family, find a new place with more space, or look for cheaper housing. Some are even moving because staying in a major city isn’t quite as appealing when you’re confined to your apartment or home. Whether it’s the mountains of moving boxes, driving...

When a giant corporation like Apple, Driscoll’s, or L’Oreal truly commits to sustainable changes, it creates a massive positive impact. Trista Bridges, founder of Read the Air and co-author of Leading Sustainably, is an expert in corporate sustainability efforts. On this episode, we chat about the big companies that are truly working towards a more sustainable future, as well as what consumers can...

What is circular fashion? In today’s episode, we talked with Paul Dillinger from Levi’s about how jeans should be made with their end in mind, and how to give them new life as a new pair of denim. Paul told us all about Levi’s WellThread™ collection, which is the first example of circular fashion available to consumers, and shared why sustainable fashion needs to move beyond recycled plastic fabri...

Dreaming of a clean, sustainable, budget-friendly, and naturally organized home? Kait Schulhof, author of the sustainable cleaning blog A Clean Bee, shares her best cleaning and organizing tricks on this episode of Good Together. From how to make your own cleaning solutions to finding the best use for your old cleaning tools, Kait has loads of actionable tips for listeners. For show notes and more...

The Plastic-Free July challenge is meant to bring awareness to our daily plastic consumption and it can be staggering to see the amount of waste we generate constantly. We asked Brianne West, founder of Ethique, to help us spotlight the campaign and share tips on how we can all reduce our plastic waste from our personal care products. For show notes and more, visit https://brightly.eco/podcast Adv...

Everyone knows that carbon emissions play a massive role in climate change, but understanding exactly how they effect climate change and what individuals can do to help is a different story. In this episode of Good Together, Liza sits down with Laura Diez, a climate scientist and the host of the Eco Chic podcast, joins us to explain the ins and outs of carbon, how and why carbon is priced, how it...

We can't talk about eco-friendly and sustainable living without understanding how environmentalism as we know it has not been accessible to all in the past, and still isn't today. Intersectional environmentalism puts environmentalism and social justice squarely together, and in this episode, we spoke about all things sustainability and equality with Carolyn Finney, the author of Black Face...

Summer is officially upon us, and with it comes lots of fun activities. In this episode, Liza and Laura chat about how to responsibly swim and camp in the wild, they share favorite swimsuit brands and picnic-ready conscious eating recipes, and discuss the impact that your upcoming road trip might have on the planet. We show you ways to tweak your plans slightly in order to have a big, hot impact o...

The fabric that makes up things like bedding, towels, and clothing have a huge impact on the environment, the people that make them, and your health, too. In today’s episode of Good Together, Liza and Laura sit down with Kestrel Jenkins McGill, host of the Conscious Chatter podcast and founder of Left Edit, to discuss how our textile consumption habits can become more planet friendly. We chat abou...

You don’t need lots of money to live with the planet in mind, but it’s a myth that is constantly repeated. The good news is -- you can do good for the world on the cheap, and we’re here to share some tips on how you can put your values first while also saving money. While eco-friendly options sometimes do cost more, it’s not always the case. As a matter of fact, your thrifty grandmother is probabl...

Plastic is the packaging of choice for so much of what we eat. Bulk stores are an option, of course, but that requires bringing along your own jars, getting them labeled, and trekking back home with heavy bags. Zuleyka Strasner knew that there was a better way to eliminate plastic from our groceries. She’s the founder of Zero, the first single-use-plastic free grocery delivery company. In this epi...

At Good Together, and at Brightly, we condemn hate, violence, and racism. We seek to uplift and inspire everyone to create a better world. Current events are divisive and target those who have been oppressed. We believe that sustainability equals fairness for all. We will not be releasing a new episode this week in order to create space to amplify voices that need to be heard the most, right now,...

What does “clean beauty” actually mean, and why should care about the ingredients that we’re putting on our faces every day? In this episode of Good Together, Laura sits down with Tiila Abbitt, the founder of Aether Beauty, to discuss everything you need to know about the clean beauty industry. Tiila shares valuable tidbits about how the U.S. regulates cosmetics vs clean beauty. If you’re looking...

We all know that fast fashion is damaging to the people and the planet. What you probably haven’t heard is that the COVID-19 pandemic has created a crisis for garment factory employees. Jessica Andrews, Deputy Fashion Editor at Bustle discusses how Fair Trade USA is mobilizing to protect garment workers amid this unprecedented event. Jessica’s years of experience in the fashion journalism space an...