Restore Tru Earth, One Load at a Time

This episode is a young change maker name McKenna Liski, who is a champion for the environment, in life and for life.

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Transcript

GLO 0:00
Okay, Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Glo Says, and today I get to speak with true Earth. Now what is true earth you asked me? Well, we're going to find out and today I get to speak with McKenna Liski. She's the environmental spokesperson, and the community manager at true Earth. So let's welcome her and let's hear about her story and how she's connected to this company. Welcome, McKenna. It's great to see you here today.

MCKENNA 0:30
Thank you so much, Gloria . I'm very, very excited to be here. I want to give a small land acknowledgement to the mosquito and saber tooth and Coast Salish peoples as I am currently speaking from the stolen lands of these people. Essentially, I am, as you said, the environmental spokesperson and the community manager among many, many hats that I wear at true earth. And as well as that I am a university student. I learned about environment and sustainability, geography. And this has really helped me with my job at yours.

GLO 1:11
It sounds like that your backgrounds relevant to what you guys are doing here.

MCKENNA 1:36
Essentially, I study about environmental science, but also how that impacts the social and political aspects of the world. With that, I have found a passion in intersectional environmentalism, which is basically protecting the planet and the people on it together. And so this is something that has been kind of missing environmental movements. And it is now growing a lot of a lot recently, especially in the past year. So I learned this through university, but I also spend a lot of my time outside of school, learning about it from non institutional educators, activists, and to different programs that I can get my hands on, essentially, because I like to soak up as much knowledge that I can put it to action, as I learned. Okay, that's interesting.

GLO 2:23
When did your passion for all this begin?

MCKENNA 2:25
Yeah, so honestly, quite early on. I co founded a web site with my brother and the help of my parents, of course, for a website about our four articles, different environmental issues. I did this when I was about nine years old. And from there throughout middle school and high school, I bounced around between caring and acting on environmental crises and social and justices. But it took me to university to understand how interconnected they are and how much we have to look at both of them at the same time in order to make big and true change.

GLO 3:08
How has this passion allowed you to be helpful in your role now at true Earth,

MCKENNA 3:13
I believe my passion comes through greatly in the different roles that I play at truth, I am able to utilize my privilege of currently getting a university degree in this field so that I can bring regular and updated information on the changing climate and the impacts that it has on society. This translates into like the content that is created for social media, and how we are training our team for

training. So diversity and inclusion programs, and our continuous efforts to be as gentle on the planet while making a big impact on the planet. So, for example, a colleague and myself right now are working with a organization called climate smart. And this is in order to create a carbon emissions reduction plan. And so our goal is to be carbon emission neutral and so that we can continue to make a better difference for the planet, and the people on it.

GLO 4:07
What's it like to be a college student and to be studying this kind of thing? I'm just curious.

MCKENNA 4:13
Yeah, no, it's really, really interesting. I, it's hard, because a lot of it is really scary what you learn and there is this thing of eco anxiety which I didn't really realize as well a lot of people in my degree feel but have learned a lot about it more recently. And so essentially, you learn so much and you get all this information about what's happening in the world, but it also doesn't not affect you as you're learning so you start to get a little bit scared about your future and the future of your family and, and other people who are maybe more affected currently. So it's it's hard but it is really rewarding also, because I feel like I can use this degree right away. Right now as I navigate different climate action and different justice forum i really do enjoy it and i like to basically use all my energy through glenn hughes environmental justice in my work school and my personal life

GLO 5:12
and in your personal life like i just want to dig into a little bit like with friends your age do they do you have to convince them that there's environmental problems or you know do they sort of walk the walk and talk the talk are they just like yeah yeah yeah like i'm just curious yeah

MCKENNA 5:27
yeah no
it's a good question because honestly i have some very very well aware conscious of the world friends so i think i have surrounded myself with people who are like minded but they are people that are still people that don't understand everything because if you're not taking a degree in it how will you know everything about this i don't know everything either but i know at least a bit more perhaps so it is it can be challenging when you witness a lot of people really not wanting to make an effort into changing our lifestyles or like making an impact but i do believe that people my age are more are very open to conversation so i've been having a lot of conversations over the past four years i'm a very big talker and so we have really deep conversations and i like hearing my friends that are in business school or my friends that are purely science students as i have a mixture of science and social studies so i like to have those deep conversations and i think that i've noticed that most people are receptive to at least listening they may not agree but at least we can have a dialogue that continues so i like that a lot

GLO 6:38
yeah no i agree with you having dialogue and conversations important even our conversation is telling the story right it's a bit about your company you know even your story within the company which let's get back on track probably where did you start when you started this company i mean because your position that sounds like a very good one you know very like high up did you start there but you did because of your degree or no did you start off doing something else


MCKENNA 7:07
i actually started as a social media person and i worked in just the instagram and i learned a lot from this role including that people can be a little bit rude on social media which is always fun but i learned that you can build a really positive community and i think that even though the job didn't feel like it was something that i was in my passion specifically i learned so much about communicating with people through social media which has become so important over the last year because we can't speak in close situations so i was able to build the social media basically with my help of the team from the ground up and we worked on trying to bring content that is both challenging but also not something that causes so much ego anxiety that people stop wanting to progress in their sustainability movements and change that they want to make in their lives and i personally believe that everyone comes to these conversations at very different levels and i never want anyone to come away from our page or our like our social media pages or our company or anything or even a conversation with me i would never want anyone to feel like they don't belong because everyone needs to be a part of these movements and making things too challenging or too scary can also turn some people away so i really enjoyed make sure there's a mixed mixture of very challenging or very real issues mixed in with smaller things that people can do and positive news because there is positive news there there it's not as prominent but it's nice to have a blend

GLO 8:47
 
it's interesting so again i'm going to ask you a question that's kind of around your age like how is it different running a social media platform for a company versus like your own page like you grew up with your own sites and page or blogs or you know whatever you decided to do right did you find it very different running it from a funnel standpoint

MCKENNA 9:08
yeah it was different because i i am a opinionated person and i also i yeah so sometimes you can't share all of your opinions and you have to make sure that it continues along with the truth mission which is very much in line with my values as well but the difference also is you're speaking for an entire team of people and you don't want to speak away from that you don't want to make sure you want to make sure that the voice is the whole team not just yourself and i think that was definitely a challenge but also a really good thing for me it was something that was a great opportunity to work as a team and make one voice

GLO 9:55
you nailed it on the head you are speaking on behalf of other people so And for the sake or the mission of the company. So that's great. So how did your role change or adapt? And like you started off in social media and being interested in the environment. So how did it change?

MCKENNA 10:16
turf has grown a ton of over the last almost two years. Everyone's very, very, very busy. There is somebody that needs to kind of pick up all the different little things. And I kind of did that. So I actually really enjoyed it. Because over the last year and a half, essentially, I started doing the donation program that we have. So it's an ongoing donation program, so that we have donated 4.2 million loads of laundry, and that's to shelters, transition houses, food banks, animal rescues, that has occurred since the beginning of the pandemic, because we were very lucky. And we were growing during the pandemic, well, a lot of companies and businesses were going down, unfortunately. So we were able to we really wanted to give back. And we believe we've done so in a big way. And we wanted to continue that forever, essentially. So I've really, really enjoyed being a part of the donation program. And then I also do ingredient research. So I researched different ingredients for new products, I do a bit of product curation. Enough, I help out with the product curation, different ideas. And then a big part of my role is essentially making sure that one of our core values, which is integrity is kept up in all sectors of the company, as people are very hard at work and doing great things, we just want to make sure that we are standing by our core values. So with integrity, that means that I'm helping ensure that the marketing team is also making sure that everyone is included, and all types, all people are a part of the marketing and catered to. And then that also includes the DDI, and training, which is the diversity inclusion training that our team is going through, and has continued to go through, which I think is a really important long term thing that we all need to be doing. And so essentially, I helped to ensure that we are as a team at true Earth, always striving to be a sustainable company. But that is both environmentally and socially. So I really enjoyed this part of my role that has adopted over the last year. So

GLO 12:24
right, I can see how you've gone from Social Media Manager, then to community manager and environmental spokesperson. That's perfect. Yeah, a bit about true Earth. What is it? What is the product that you make? What is the company?

MCKENNA 12:37
Absolutely. So our like main selling point of our company is this strict laundry detergent. So essentially, instead of having the heavy powder slash the heavy, large jugs of liquid detergent, you have these very small, thin and light strips. And so first of all, they're easy to store, they're easy to ship, they're easy to everything, they're very simple and practical, they are also really good for the environment in the sense that they are very, very light and compact. So the carbon emissions and shipping is reduced, but also the plastic. So we are able to pack everything into cardboard and paper and they're much smaller package sizing. So the main purpose of truth, at the core is plastic reduction, as well as everything else about sustainability. But with that said, true Earth was able to save 2.8 million plastic jugs going to the landfills or the natural environment, as recycling is not the solution that many people believe it is. So that is something that we have worked really hard at is making sure that everything about the main one of our main products is good for the planet. And we also carry other household goods. And essentially, truth is trying to change habits and break our consumption habits of constantly buying new things that are typically made out of plastic. So we have

GLO14:06
Yeah, yeah, no, no, that's amazing. Um, well, let's Okay, so for our listeners in case they you know, I want to make sure they caught that. So this is laundry detergent, no longer in big plastic jugs, but it can be used or re sort of packaged or recreated in basically like strips that fit into an envelope sized sort of cardboard packaging, right. So I'm in the store. I've tried them, they're fantastic. But in that envelope sized, sort of package, how many loads of laundry do you get from that?

MCKENNA 14:38
Yeah, so the envelope size there is 32 or 64, both in the same size package. It just depends on your needs. And there also is a 384 pack which comes in a very small cardboard box. Okay, so we do have the different sizes in the grocery store. I believe there's just the 32 and 64 at this point, but online, there is always So 384 step packages, but yeah, essentially it really cuts down on plastic use in the laundry room.

GLO 15:07
Yeah. No, it's great. I mean, it's no longer taking up space and kind of weighing down in the machine. You always wonder if those big jugs if it's good.

MCKENNA 15:17
Yeah, for sure.

GLO 15:18
Yeah. And you can get easily a whole year's worth actually. And just the small box.

MCKENNA 15:23
Yes, yeah,

GLO 15:24
you can gift it easily. You can send it easily. It's shelf stable. You don't have to worry about liquid or water. Yeah. And

MCKENNA 15:30
it lasts forever. It lasts for months, depending on your climate, three to five years on your shelf. So

GLO 15:36
I love it. I think it's a brilliant idea. Can you talk a little bit about how they came up with the idea or just touch on? I'm sure people can look at your website, you know, true. Do you want to talk a little bit ground or the story?

MCKENNA  15:47
Yeah, for sure. So there's three founders. And their names are Ryan, Kevin, and Brad. And they have known each other for a long time. But really like a few years ago, before, if true Earth began, Ryan was starting to get pretty upset about all the plastic that he was seeing advertised on TV and just in your daily life, it can be very frustrating. I know that feeling as well.

MCKENNA 16:12
When he decided to do something about it. So he reached out to Brad, who had grew up in an eco conscious household, so it was definitely interested in the idea. And then Brad had an extended family member with a patent on stripped laundry detergent. And so with some digging and testing, Ryan and Brad teamed up with Kevin to test this product on the market. So essentially, they decided if they had 150 customers in the first 30 days on the market, they would invest the resources and build yours. And what happened is they ended up having 1500 customers by the 30 day mark, it blew up much faster than they expected. And so they decided to go for it. And now at this point, true Earth has available in 55 different countries. And then again, they've we've saved 2.8 million plastic jugs through this company and through this product. Wow. That's amazing, like a science background or anything like that. So Ryan is in marketing, Kevin is a tech person.

MCKENNA 17:22
Then Brad has just been an entrepreneur his entire career. So together, they were able to use their talents and really make a difference to their talents, their skills, their heads, they put their heads together figured.

GLO 17:36
So is that what you're most proud of working at? TRU EARTH? Do you think the fact that saves so much plastic? Or is there something else? Yeah.

MCKENNA 17:45
So I think I think that is a huge thing. For me, I think it is very important. And I do understand a lot of people are getting very frustrated about not being able to reduce practice, because there's not, there's no other options on the market. So I understand that. And I also think that for me, I'm really proud of the truworths team, because everybody on this team that has grown so quickly, is really, really in their core wanting to make a difference. So I think that is why to Earth is going to have such an impact on the world as it continues to grow. And so I think with everyone so talented, that we as a team will be able to push this company into a really, really good place both environmentally and socially. And the fact that during the pandemic, immediately, the executive team was like donations, we got to give out donations. That was something I was really proud of Personally, I was like, this is something that I I haven't seen with all companies, obviously not during the pandemic as people are losing business and such but in just in general. So I was very, very proud to be a part of that and be able to facilitate that myself was very cool. And people were really impacted by the donations that we were able to provide. Yeah. And then donations go to your favorite charities kind of thing or people that you guys support anyway, at the beginning and myself and some of my colleagues reached out to a bunch of local Vancouver, BC and then just all of Canada, different organizations. We started with mainly food banks and shelters, and then the word kind of Otto and people were just emailing us and we just were like, yeah, like we would love to send you something. So essentially, for the last year, I've just been receiving emails on emails about people that want it and we are continuing to reach out as well. And then our marketing team also put out a few posts in such saying that we are looking for organizations and people responded really well and we got a lot of responses so great.

GLO 19:51
What do you find? I mean, it's an established company, it's grown. It's definitely got a big future a bright future ahead of it. what excites you the most about what it's doing or where it's going

MCKENNA 20:04
yeah so i think that truth as a whole is very open to adapting and changing as i have personally seen and i think everyone in the company felt throughout the last few years or the last year and a half the whole world changed and we were able to adopt really well so in general adoption is a big part of the company and i think that excites me as the world is changing and as i see it through my my circles there's just lots coming truth is going to be a part of this and as they're built on the foundation of wanting to make a difference i think that really excites me the plastic reduction while it is a massive thing for the world i also think that true earth as like as a whole company just has a lot of potential to make environmental and social change and help people create new habits of different lifestyle changes its habit building is difficult and i think that if we just even start with how we do our laundry and change it into a different way that is less harmful to the planet we will all be more open to the next step of change and continuing to move on until we can all feel like we are making impactful changes in our communities and also the world

GLO 21:17
yeah no i think that's great it's nice and it's not just a product and you know it's already made a big impact as a plastic list or without plastic free product it's great that it has a mission just driving it to to read and for people to reframe their thinking you know read to approach things differently even with something as ordinary as laundry elevated you know a whole different sort of level that's great that's really

MCKENNA 21:45
definitely yeah

GLO 21:46
hey how about a couple of fun things like what's what's some other way of using a laundry strip i mean a laundry strip you just throw it in the washer right and wash your clothes any fun things that we might not know about what you can use it for

MCKENNA 22:02
yeah fun i don't know if this is considered fun but a few essentially it's first of all really good for hand washing if you're in trailers or boats i found a lot of people really like a free when they're people who live in rvs or on the road and also we had a few sailors that have really liked it they live off their boat in on their boats and because you can just kind of melt it dissolve it in a glass of water and then you can use it in your sink yeah so that one's really nice and then all camping that's also a great way to do if you can't for a long time another one that i like to do is if i have a bad stain instead of getting a specific stain remover you can dissolve like less than a quarter of a strip into with a bare minimum amount of water and then just leave it on the stain and then use it as your spot cleaner and so then you don't have to buy any extra products and you can continue to keep your laundry room plastic free

GLO 22:55
i was thinking about that too i thought i could take a strip and stick it on a spot and kind of like rub it in you know

MCKENNA 23:01
i recommend a little bit of water it does help but yeah it works quite well one of our one of my colleagues she gets a lot of lipstick stains on her mask and so she was saying that it really gets it out even the like stale day lipsticks so she does the spot cleaning on it so okay that is a good review in my mind so

GLO 23:19
yeah i was also thinking like an odor remover for like i don't know like for your fragrance right non fragrance and fragrance but maybe the non fragrance would work too i don't know to absorb like odor and shoes or something yeah

MCKENNA 23:32
honestly i that's something i haven't tried but the freshmen incident would i think would definitely do that and i honestly should give that a try i think that would be a great thing to find out

GLO 24:26
you could just throw it in your backpack yeah yeah

MCKENNA 24:28
and oh that's another thing actually it's really good for anybody that uses laundry mats because you don't have to carry the big jugs to the laundromat or in apartments if you just have the laundry room it's really easy to carry it instead of a big job or something

GLO 24:43
yeah you know what it's a brilliant product i love using it myself and because as soon as i saw it i'm like oh i like this i'm definitely going to use that's awesome

MCKENNA 24:59
yeah i'm really happy Hear that!

GLO  25:04
are you guys thinking of adding like more fragrance lines or no, the whole idea is just to keep it kind of very minimal. 

MCKENNA  25:14
we have looked into different scents but we do a lot of rigorous testing to ensure that everything is as least harmful as possible. And that includes like down to where everything is met, like produced even just all the ingredients if they're produced locally and ethically and sustainably so

MCKENNA 25:37
that'll be hopefully something in the near future, but it does take time to create these products that are down to their roots sustainable.

GLO 25:47
And if you want to keep the integrity to right, yes, sir, research, so I get that. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Yeah. Well, you know what McKenna It was great to talk to you today. I really appreciate your time and you're sharing the story and telling us about what true Earth is about. So thank you so much.

MCKENNA 26:05
Thank you so much for having me. This was really fun and I really am happy to share the story.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai