Sustainable in the Suburbs

If you are trying to reduce plastic waste at home, you might be wondering what to do with the plastic you already have. The answer is not to throw it all away and buy a new set of eco-friendly swaps. It is to use what you have, rethink the plastic that moves through your home, and start noticing where single-use plastic shows up in your daily routines. In this episode of Sustainable in the Suburbs...

Climate action begins at the kitchen table — and a more sustainable kitchen starts with knowing where to focus. In this episode of Sustainable in the Suburbs , Sarah talks with Naomi Hansen , author of Building a Sustainable Kitchen: A Practical Guide to Prioritizing the Planet from the Heart of Your Home , about what actually matters when it comes to food, waste, and climate action at home. Toget...

Can you be sustainable in the suburbs? Well, yes and no. Suburban life can make sustainable living complicated — especially when communities are built around cars, convenience, private space, and consumption. But the suburbs are also where so many of us live, raise families, volunteer, vote, garden, organize, and build community. So what does climate action actually look like here? This episode lo...

Back in 2020, I was a guest on the now inactive podcast Practical(ly) Zero Waste , hosted by Elsbeth Callaghan. At the time, my kids were little, the zero waste movement online was deep in its “trash jar” era, and many of us were trying to figure out what sustainable living looked like outside of perfectly curated Instagram squares. Six years later, a lot has changed. Kids are older, life looks di...

In this episode, I’m talking about what sustainable living with kids actually looks like in real life. Not the Instagram version — the real version. The conversations, the habits, the overwhelm, the convenience culture, and the small shifts that slowly become part of how your family moves through the world. Takeaways Kids learn consumption habits by watching us Sustainable living with kids is abou...

Sustainability advice is everywhere — and even when you care, even when you’re trying to pay attention, it can be hard to know what actually matters. In this episode, I’m joined by Alexa Pavan of Go Green With Alexa , a climate communicator and copywriter who’s focused on making sustainability more understandable, more approachable, and a lot more connected to real life. We talk about what it look...

Bathroom swaps are one of the most common entry points into sustainable living — but they can also be one of the most overwhelming. There are so many products, so many recommendations, and so much pressure to replace everything all at once. In this episode of Sustainable in the Suburbs , I’m talking about what it actually looks like to approach sustainable bathroom swaps in a way that’s doable, pr...

We spend a lot of time talking about climate change — but not nearly enough time understanding it. Most of us were never really taught how to understand it, especially in a way that connects it to history, systems, power, and the everyday decisions we’re making. This week, I’m joined by Brittany Jefferson , an educator and founder of EJ EDU, to talk about climate literacy — what it means, why it m...

You’re not just wasting food — you’re throwing money in the trash. This week I’m joined by returning guest Chelsey Schmuland, and we’re digging into one of the most overlooked ways to save money on groceries: reducing food waste. Chelsey is the maker behind Hive to Home , where she creates handmade beeswax wraps as a reusable alternative to plastic food storage. She’s also a grocery budgeting quee...

Spring is when the birds get loud again. You hear them before you see them — in the morning, in the trees, and in the background of your day. If you’ve ever thought about getting into birding, this is a really natural place to start — right outside your door. In this episode, we’re talking about how to start birding in your own backyard, how to identify common birds by sight and sound, what’s happ...

What does sustainable living actually look like in the suburbs — in places designed around cars, convenience, and big box shopping? Laura Newton is the founder of The Kind Matter Company , a Canadian eco-boutique and refill store focused on low waste living, eco friendly products, and non-toxic household essentials. What began as a personal search for safer products after her daughter developed se...

This episode originally aired in the very first month of Sustainable in the Suburbs. I’m revisiting it now because this idea remains one of the clearest ways to find your place in climate action — and sometimes returning to the foundation is exactly what helps us feel re-energized. Climate change feels HUGE — and it is. The problem is urgent and complex. And when you start looking for solutions, i...

What does sustainability look like in a fast-moving industry like film and television? In this episode, Canadian actress Erin Karpluk shares how growing up in Jasper shaped her connection to nature, how the 2024 wildfires impacted her community, and how those experiences inform the way she approaches sustainability — both personally and professionally. We talk about eco-friendly habits, secondhand...

I can’t be the only one who has complicated feelings about goody bags… right? Kids' birthday parties have quietly escalated. The venues. The décor. The goody bags. The expectation that every year has to be a little bigger than the last. But most kids don’t actually need all of that. In this episode, I’m sharing how we’ve kept birthday parties simple, low waste, and still genuinely fun — from...

We talk a lot on this show about the small daily habits inside our homes. But every so often, the choices get bigger. Renovations bring in materials, demolition, budgets, trades, and long-term decisions all at once. They shape how a home functions — and how it holds up — for years. In this episode, I’m joined by Brittany Steptoe Wright, Founder and Principal of BSW Design and COO of Steptoe Carpen...

Buying less is one of the most powerful forms of climate action we have. In this episode, I’m sharing some of the things I’ve stopped buying over the last ten years of sustainable living. This shift into eco-frugal living happened gradually, beginning with using up what I already had, doing periodic waste audits to see what we were consistently throwing way, and getting very clear on how and where...

Donation dumps are basically reverse shopping hauls. Decluttering is often framed as an end point — clear it out, drop it off, move on. But what if the way we let things go quietly trains how we bring new things in? In this episode of Sustainable in the Suburbs , I’m exploring the relationship between decluttering, donation, and sustainable living — and why donation isn’t bad, but also isn’t neutr...

We all have clothes we don’t wear. Pieces that might fit again someday, that were expensive, or that feel too nice to just drop into a donation bin. When those clothes start piling up, donation often becomes the default solution. And once those bags are gone from the trunk, the buying cycle begins again. In this episode, I’m taking a closer look at that pattern, and at what it might look like to s...

This episode touches on sustainable fashion — but it’s not only about fashion. It’s a conversation about how we think about clothes, how we relate to what we already own, and how everyday decisions around getting dressed connect to consumption, care, and creativity. I’m joined by Sabs Katz , the creator of Sustainable Sabs and a cofounder of Intersectional Environmentalist, for a thoughtful, wide-...

Paper towels are one of those everyday items most of us don’t think twice about — until we do. They’re convenient, familiar, and deeply embedded in our kitchen routines. But when you slow down and look at what goes into making something designed to be used once and thrown away, it becomes worth questioning. In this solo episode of Sustainable in the Suburbs , I’m talking about how to quit (or sign...

Our homes are full of things we barely notice until they start to feel heavy. Duplicate pantry items, forgotten gadgets, drawers that are full of junk... And suddenly, everyday life feels harder than it needs to be. In this episode, I’m joined by Sasha Mazzuca, founder of Disch and a professional organizer, for a thoughtful conversation about our relationship to stuff — and how choosing fewer, bet...

If the week between Christmas and New Year’s leaves you feeling overstimulated, scattered, or unsure how to move forward without just adding more pressure, you’re not alone. After a season filled with noise, expectations, and stuff , it can be hard to find your footing — especially when the cultural message is already shifting toward doing more, fixing more, and buying more in January. This week,...

After releasing 31 episodes — something I am frankly amazed at — I wanted to take a few minutes to look back on this first year of Sustainable in the Suburbs . What’s worked, what’s been harder than expected, and what I’ve learned along the way. In this short solo episode, I reflect on how the podcast has shaped my own thinking around sustainable living, why some conversations have resonated more...

Every holiday season, those beautifully wrapped gifts under the tree inevitably results in a giant pile of very fancy garbage in five minutes flat. In this week’s episode of Sustainable in the Suburbs , Sarah Robertson-Barnes looks at something most of us keep meaning to do better with next year… gift wrapping. From the confusing rules around what’s actually recyclable to the Pinterest pressure of...

If the holidays seem to get louder and more overwhelming every year, you’re not imagining it. From endless ads to the pressure to make everything “magical,” it’s easy to get swept into a season that feels more stressful than joyful. And for parents trying to have a more sustainable holiday with kids, the noise can make it hard to stay grounded in what really matters. This week, I’m joined by Steph...