To begin with, about 3 days ago I was scrolling down my newsfeed on VK (extremely popular social network among Russian-speaking users) for no special reason and suddenly, the post "How to live without producing garbage?" grabbed my attention. It's about Lauren Singer, a 23 year-old blogger from NYC who hasn't produced any garbage in 3 years (How?!). Though, I'd prefer to save it for last. So, now let's move on to a brief introduction.
ENVIRONMENTALISM
Do we really care about the environment? And what is Environmental Awareness? Where does it come from? Is it a big responsibility or just a good business idea? How to choose a right green-marketing strategy then? Furthermore, if you go deeper and deeper into this topic, it raises more questions than answers.
Looking through comments on social media, we can define different groups of people and their attitude to the environmental issues. Do you remember the expression "Is the glass half full or half empty?" Right! The following typology is about the same old story.
Firstly, the most active "green" people are young people (more often than not) who do care about the environment, read many articles on this topic and buy eco-friendly products. Realists tend to believe that there is an inevitable conflict between the environmental issues and a company's profit. What is more, they are skeptical about its solvability. Wishful thinkers have a positive and optimistic attitude towards everything what's going on this planet, but the prefer to leave the problem solving process to somebody else. And finally, the indifferent group of people believe that environmental awareness is just "a new buzzword" and don't pay attention to it.
So, let's go back to the beginning and turn our attention to Lauren Singer who lives "a Zero Waste life in NYC" and keeps a blog "Trash Is For Tossers". Lauren is "an eco-friendly entrepreneur and former NYU student has gone three years without producing any trash after making 'a conscious decision to live sustainably' during her final year of college. She makes her own toothpaste, deodorant and laundry detergent an attempt to avoid creating any unnecessary waste". Currently, she owns a zero-waste company The Simply Co where she sells her handmade products.
"How do I define ZERO WASTE? To me, Zero Waste means that I do not produce any garbage. No sending anything to landfill, no throwing anything in a trash can, nothing. However, I do recycle and do compost"
Lauren Singer
By means of social media, she's being supported by people from around the world. Who knows, maybe it's a right time to consider the matter. And it's a very good example how one person can encourage others.
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| Zero Waste Alternatives: The Ultimate List |
Let's check her success on social media:
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| "Trash Is For Tossers" on Facebook |
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| "Trash Is For Tossers" on Twitter |
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| "Trash Is For Tossers" on Instagram |
As we can see, she has 22,400 followers on Instagram, 5,624 followers on Twitter and 40,826 "likes" on Facebook. I'd like to mention that the content of her posts is always eye-catching, and this girl knows "how to talk so your target audience will listen". For instance, here is a very detailed feedback:
IF YOU ARE STILL IN DOUBT
Lauren's inspiring speech (Attention: it's not so easy to stop watching! It's very, very entertaining)
Respect, Lauren! What a wonderful lady:D More than 40 000 people become involved in her idea..unbelievable ecouragement. Thank you, Svetlana, for amazing example of some sort of "startup groundswell".
ReplyDeleteThree years ago, Lauren Singer decided to completely stop making trash. Only three year. And thanks to her mission and social networks she became so well-known. Yes, Sveta, you are right, she surely knows how to talk with her target audience and how to listen . Not bad result : she has inspired so many people. And that's great!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post. I always read your posts with great interest