Mother Nature & us - Becca Samson

In this heartfelt conversation, Becca Samsson reflects on how her California upbringing shaped her lifelong connection to nature and her career in sustainability. Growing up in Southern California, she developed an intimate relationship with the Pacific Ocean and the natural landscape, and all her favorite childhood memories took place outdoors. As Becca shares, "All of my memories with my siblings and my family are in California nature," from making sand angels on Santa Barbara beaches to hiking in the foothills with her mother. This early connection was reinforced by her grandmother, who taught her to conserve water while shampooing her hair, and her twin sister, who pointed out exhaust residue on leaves when they were just ten years old. These formative experiences instilled in her a deep sense of gratitude and responsibility toward the natural world.

Now living in the Netherlands and raising her son, Roman, Becca has observed fascinating cultural differences in how people relate to nature and sustainability. While California's wild landscapes—from deserts to mountains to national parks—fostered her environmental awareness, the Netherlands presents a more controlled relationship with nature, shaped by centuries of water management and land reclamation. Becca intentionally creates opportunities for Roman to build his own intimate connection with nature, taking him to parks every Friday where he gently touches flowers and plays with rocks and dirt. She explains that "children that had more intimate memories with nature or more intimate experiences with nature as young children grew up with more sensitivity and environmental responsibility as they get older." The family's car-free lifestyle, relying entirely on bicycles even in the rain, ensures that Roman experiences the elements daily, which Becca believes builds character and maintains that essential connection to the natural world.

In her sustainability work, Becca has learned to bridge the gap between environmental values and business realities. While she wishes "saving the world was a good enough business case," she's found that positioning sustainability as a value proposition for companies is essential. Recently shifting her focus from carbon emissions to nature-based solutions, she's excited about this new direction because everyone has intimate memories of nature, unlike carbon, which remains abstract and inaccessible to most people. Drawing on her Jewish upbringing and the concept of Tikkun Olam—fixing the world—Becca believes that caring for the climate is fundamentally about recognizing that "this is our home and I want to take good care of it, not just for me, but also for everyone I know and also everyone that I don't know." Her advice is simple but profound: find small ways to connect with nature, whether that's stopping to observe a brilliant red autumn leaf for five seconds or walking in the rain without an umbrella, because "if we build a meaningful relationship with nature, we won't let it go to hell."

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Transcript

The Mountain in Us Podcast

Episode: Finding Home in Nature with Becca Samsson

Host: Taran Singh
Guest: Becca Samson - Sustainability Leader, Mother

Chapter 1: Introduction (0:00)

Taran: Welcome to The Mountain in Us, a podcast where the journey gets its voice. I am Taran Singh, your host. Here we greet the thrills, jolts, ascents, and descents of our uncharted adventures.

Hey, everybody. Today, my guest is Becca Samsson, a sustainability leader, mother, and someone with both vision and drive to make positive change. Welcome.

Becca: Thanks, Taran. I'm really glad to be here to talk about nature and us.

Chapter 2: Growing Up in California (2:15)

Taran: I know I positioned sustainability there, but I want to start with Southern California where you were born in the big lap of the Pacific Ocean. Take us there. How was California and what did the ocean bring to your life?

Becca: Yeah, ever since I was young, I always knew that California was a special place. It's something that was really instilled in me by my grandmother and my mother. All of my favorite childhood memories are outdoors.

I can think of putting my toes in the sand and making sand angels at the beach in Santa Barbara because we didn't have snow. So that was the closest thing that I had to recreating that experience. I remember swimming in the ocean with my sisters. It's funny how when you're young, you don't experience cold at all. I can't—it's a little bit harder for me to get in the ocean now. But I remember jumping in the waves with them.

And even as a seven year old, as a ten year old, I knew that I was lucky to be able to drive to the beach with my family. We lived so close by. I remember my mom would take us to the foothills by our house and we would go hiking together and just let my imagination run wild climbing rocks, which is something I still really like to do. Finding waterfalls... I can go on and on, but all of my memories with my siblings and my family are in California nature.

Taran: You have a twin sister, if I'm not wrong, right?

Becca: Yes.

Taran: And is there a favorite beach that you like on the coast? And for us who've never been to the Pacific Ocean, it is 50 degrees Fahrenheit, right? It is bitter chilly.

Becca: Yeah, yeah. I always see the young kids in there, no adults. My favorite beach really started when I was in high school, which is East Beach in Santa Barbara. My husband and I also had a party there to celebrate our relationship. But it's also where I remember going every day in summer in high school to hang out with my friends and go surfing and swim out to the buoys.

For me, going to the beach as a teenager, that was all I needed—me and my friends at the beach. I really didn't understand what anyone else in any other state did unless they had the beach. But like I said, I always knew that it was special. I always knew that we lived in a really special place.

Chapter 3: Early Environmental Awareness (8:30)

Becca: And I think that's really where caring for Mother Nature came from for me, because I was always really grateful. But also, even at a young age, I think my grandma really instilled that in me—to turn the water off in the shower while I was shampooing my hair to save water. And I think also growing up in California, I was always very aware that the resources were limited. California is prone to droughts, so I grew up always being really aware of water. And now I live in a country where there is too much water. So go figure. I live in the Netherlands.

I even remember my twin sister pointing out to me when we were maybe ten and walking by the beach that there was exhaust residue on the leaves by the road. And I remember her pointing it out to me and saying, "Isn't that sad?" And I was aware that the cars were emitting fumes that were making the leaves dirty. And I even realized at that moment that that was a really unique realization for me to have and that I already had a connection of caring about these plants that were by the side of the road.

So, you know, sometimes I think about it a little bit too much, but I think that for me, it's always been a big part of my life to see that connection with the natural world and really want to take care of it and really want to just enjoy it. I think it's where it really makes me happy.

Chapter 4: Life in the Netherlands (12:45)

Taran: Thank you for sharing those details. When you look at your life in the Netherlands now, what is the big difference that you've seen? How do people in the Netherlands think about Mother Nature versus how here in America we think about it? To me, at least in my head, that realization that nature is part of us comes later in life compared to people in other countries, especially in the Netherlands, where resource management is very top of mind.

Becca: Yeah, that's a great question. A quick thing about the ocean that came to mind—my sister and I were swimming in San Sebastian in Spain, and I remember we poked our heads out of the water at the same time, and she was like, "I really believe swimming in the ocean is good for your soul." And I feel that. And I just wanted to share that with you.

Taran: We're 70% water. I love to swim. It's very special.

Becca: What's interesting about the Netherlands is something that my husband pointed out to me when I first moved here. He said, "Well, we don't really have much nature here anymore because a lot of it has been made room for farmlands. But California, wow, that place is so wild." And he means that in the landscape sense. It's a really wild place. You have deserts and you have mountains and you have these ginormous former glaciers and you have national parks—you have everything. We don't have that much here.

And it's only after spending some time here in the Netherlands that I did see that really big juxtaposition in terms of the relationship with nature. California is also farmland—we've also used a lot of the land in the state for agriculture. But here, I think one of the biggest differences is that you probably know that the majority of the Netherlands was once underwater. Many, many years ago, they used Dutch ingenuity to pump the water out and create land that I'm probably sitting on today.

So I think the relationship with nature is a bit different here in that it's been more a sense of controlling and being very aware of it and water management. That's been interesting to observe. In the US or in California, I'm always very aware of how much water I'm using, where here it's less of a problem. It's starting to become more of a problem, but that's just something that's been ingrained in me.

Chapter 5: Becoming a Mother (18:20)

Taran: You recently became a mother a year and a half back, right? Has that changed how you see Mother Nature as a nurturer and you as a nurturer? How has that evolved your thinking around just being a nurturer? We think about Mother Nature as a nurturer, but it never comes to mind, especially as a man. I have to reinforce that in my head or in my heart by working through the experience. But I want to see how that evolved for Becca and how she thinks about herself now and also the mother nature within herself.

Becca: Yeah, that's beautiful. I talk, I've talked a lot to Roman ever since he was born. And so I'm always describing the weather to him. I'm always looking out at the weather outside and saying, "Do you see, it's raining. We can go outside. It's not going to hurt us." And I'm always describing it to him and explaining sometimes there's too much water, sometimes there's not enough.

And perhaps the way that I also do that with him is—sometimes I describe my emotions to him. He can't completely understand them yet, but I will say, "You know, I'm a little bit frustrated right now because you dropped your food on the floor and now I have to clean it up. And so that's why my face looks a little bit different." So perhaps I'm describing my moods to him like I'm describing the weather outside and that it's always changing.

And I'm always pointing out things to him. We have two trees that stand outside our house and he was born in the spring. So the leaves really started coming on the tree as soon as he was born and we were spending a lot of time at home. In that sense, I tell him how the seasons change, how the weather changes, and I'm also describing to him what I'm feeling that day and what I'm experiencing. And even if I'm frustrated, it's not forever, it's just a temporary feeling. So perhaps I think that's how I've made that connection.

Chapter 6: Roman and Nature (22:10)

Taran: Does Roman gravitate towards a certain thing in nature differently than what you would have imagined? Does he try to pluck the grass or turn the leaves around? How is he when he is in the lap of nature?

Becca: He's very gentle, which really warms my heart. If he wants to touch a flower, you would think maybe a one and a half year old boy would just grab the whole leaf and try to rip it off. And he just touches it very gently and then kind of pulls his hands backwards. And sometimes I'll shake some leaves on his head or identify a plant nearby and he'll just smile and kind of tuck his chin in a little bit. But he's really gentle and that's just really touched me ever since I first seen him interact with it.

Taran: Does he have a favorite color of plant or a favorite plant that he always goes to when you take him on your walks? Talk to us about those walks and the places that you take him.

Becca: We are very fortunate that we live by a lot of parks. That's also very important to me that we're able to just walk outside our door and go into greenery. So we go into a park and recently, now that he's getting a little bit older and can walk and explore a bit more, I've been trying to integrate nature into our days together. Every Friday we spend together. That's quite common in the Netherlands for parents to work four days a week. So I feel really grateful for that.

And I listened to a podcast recently that talked about how children that had more intimate memories with nature or more intimate experiences with nature as young children grew up with more sensitivity and environmental responsibility as they get older. So I pulled out my phone and made a quick list of, "Okay, what are some things that we can do this Friday to already start getting Roman in nature? He doesn't need to be too old to start doing this."

So I took him to a park by our house and we walked over there and I set him down. We were in a garden where they grow some food for a restaurant and anyone can walk in there and explore. And he just started picking up all the rocks. They're wet from the rain and there's dirt between his fingers and he's feeling all of them in his hand. And I just kind of take a step back and let him observe sometimes without me narrating everything he does, which I love to do. And I see him moving the rocks from one side of the garden to the other side of the garden. So I noticed he really likes to play with rocks. He also showed me that he really likes to play with dirt.

And as a mom, I like to control things, but this is something I'm trying not to control—that if he wants to get dirty, I want to show him that playing in the dirt isn't a bad thing. Maybe I don't want him to bring it into the house, but playing in the dirt isn't a bad thing.

Chapter 7: Living Car-Free in the Netherlands (27:30)

Taran: You touched on a really good thing—that control sometimes can take the joy away. But they need to know what the danger could be. But I do like what you said there, at their age, what we consider dirty for them is just getting to know things, right? They're getting used to the physical world that they are going to inhabit. And I think Native Americans are a prime example—they lived and stayed in that land and so their attachment and their role as guardians of the land, probably one of the many reasons is that when you build an early relation with something, it is way deeper and stays longer.

Becca: Yeah, according to the podcast. But also, you know, that's one of the reasons why I'm really grateful to live in the Netherlands and to raise him in the Netherlands. Because, for example, our main mode of transportation here is bicycles. I don't have a car. I don't have a car here, which I absolutely love. And a lot of people in California ask me, "Okay, so what do you do when it rains? Do you still ride your bike?" I'm like, "Yeah, we ride our bike." And we go to work and I'm wet, you're wet, everyone's wet. It doesn't matter if you're the VP of the company or you're the person that works at the front desk. We all rode to work on our bike. And I believe that that builds character. And you're riding against the wind as well, which can be really frustrating.

There's more rainy days than sunny days here. But for me, where I want to bring it back to Roman is I'm just really glad that there will be times that he experiences nature every single day because he'll ride to school every single day. We'll ride outside on our bike every single day. And I think that getting that exposure to the elements and being uncomfortable sometimes, I think it's really important for character.

Taran: Yeah, definitely. I used to walk three miles to my school with a backpack up in the mountains, rain or shine. And you got to do it, right? And the funny thing is you could reach faster there by walking than by car because it's a mountain. The car is going to take longer going around, right?

Becca: Oh, really? Yeah, that makes sense.

Chapter 8: Career Journey to Sustainability (31:15)

Taran: But talking about you a little bit—you worked in tech, but also you made a switch to sustainability. How did that come about? Was this something that you were always inclined to do? What were some of the inspirations that made you go from tech, especially Google, to now where we work together and then now in sustainability? Walk us through your journey in this space.

Becca: Yeah. Well, I always like to tell people I majored in hospitality management, so something completely different than environmental studies. I like to start with that because I just want to show my journey—that I don't have a background in environmental science. Everyone can bring something to the world of sustainability.

But when I was at Google, I knew that I wanted to start to move my career more towards climate, more towards the environment. And I was on a team called Google for Startups and we had a demo day for investors to come learn more about underrepresented founders and different types of businesses all across the world. And I told my team, "We should do a green demo day." This was in 2017. And they all laughed me out of the room because they're like, "Oh, Becca, you're the most Californian of us all. You're such a hippie."

I would like to note for the record that there is a climate demo day now. So I wasn't super off or not on to something. But I knew that I wanted to move to Amsterdam and the role that I got at Booking.com was focused on supporting startups to make the hospitality industry more sustainable. So that was kind of the perfect combination of using my background in hospitality management, using my tech and startup background from Google, and then translating it into really my first step in my career journey into sustainability.

Chapter 9: Challenges in Sustainability (35:40)

Taran: Cool. So when you made that switch, were there any inhibitions or were you like, "Would this work out?" Or you just took a dive in and from there on have clung to it? Because at least what I see from the outside, there's a lot of frustration in this space because we don't think about it as natural to our order of business, right? Sustainability is not the first thing that we think about when we set up business, at least in America. We don't think, for example, about packaging as being sustainable. We wrap it in as much plastic as we want and then buy the carbon footprint somewhere else.

So as you look at the business order in the world, especially in the developed world, do you think that we have the optics of sustainability in the business order in the perspective that we should have to care for Mother Nature? Are we way off in our guiding principles on sustainability as humans?

Becca: Yeah, I think we're way off. I think we're way off. I think what's been interesting in my career is that—okay, let me put it this way. I think we're way off, but we know all of the solutions and we have all of these solutions in order to go on the right path and the right track. So I don't think we're starting from zero. It's like learning a new language. It's like learning a new dance.

And I think over the past several years, deepening my career into sustainability, the sustainability function and department has evolved a lot to really align itself with the business, which I see as a good thing—positioning itself more as "this is the value that it can bring to the business" versus "it's just the right thing to do."

What I often say is I wish saving the world was a good enough business case, but at the moment, it's not. So I have to come with other ideas. And I like that challenge. My career has been focused on carbon emissions and developing environmental responsibility around carbon emissions as a value proposition for the company.

But most recently I've started to look into the value of nature for the business and the company. And I'm excited about that because in some sense, I think it will be easier because we all, as we mentioned at the beginning of this conversation, we all have intimate memories and experiences in nature. I think every single person on this planet can share one.

Where carbon, I can't touch it. I can't see it. You feel like you have to have a science degree in order to understand it. We've made it very inaccessible. So I am excited about that. But then on the other hand, we've gotten so far away from our relationship with nature and every single business's dependency on nature, it makes me a little bit sad sometimes—that road that we have to walk on to get back to realize our dependence on nature and how we treat it and how we respect it and how we rely on it.

But it has also been a really rewarding journey to have that be part of my career path. So it's been really fulfilling to start to look into a new topic. That's not new, but new to the business world.

Chapter 10: Daily Practices and Mindfulness (42:20)

Taran: And you know, especially once we put an economic value on something, human beings in general start thinking about it in their daily life, right? In your daily life, you're working with nature, but you also have to put time and effort and investment in yourself to be able to get to where you need to be in this journey—to sustain yourself and be motivated and disciplined. What are some things that Becca does on a regular basis to have the energy and the soulfulness or to have the ocean in you everywhere?

Becca: I love that. I love that question. I meditate every morning. When I get up, before I get Roman up, I take five to ten minutes to do a guided meditation that really helps ground me and set my intention for the day. I think starting my day that way really helps me orient myself on where I want to go, the intention that I want to have.

And what I've been recently doing is when I walk down the street, especially when it's starting to turn fall here, so the leaves are changing color—and if I walk down the street and I see a leaf that is the brightest shade of red that I've seen since this time last year, I really try to take the time to stop and just spend five seconds, even just five seconds, looking at that leaf and looking at the way that the leaf is shaped and the water that is drying on the leaf.

And instead of being like, "Oh, I should stop and look at that leaf, it's beautiful," I just try to take five seconds to take a stop and look at it or smell a flower or watch a bee crawl around the pollen. And I know that might sound really cheesy and people might think that I am some hippie la-la person, but I encourage you—it is all around us if you find it and look for it and just take the time for it.

Taran: Unless you can walk with your eyes closed, the world around us is full of nature, right? So you don't need to find special pathways sometimes. Leaves—I love leaves, so especially autumn is my favorite season too. And when I was in Michigan, sometimes I would just lie on the heap of leaves because that was the best thing to enjoy.

Becca: Yeah, exactly.

Taran: And yeah, probably Netherlands gets a good autumn because of just being so high in the northern hemisphere, right? So you probably get good colors.

Becca: Yeah, it's beautiful. And the sun comes up very late here because we're so far north. So that is also beautiful. And we do really experience seasons here compared to California. I'm sure you remember that from Michigan.

Taran: Yeah. California has only one season, right? Summer or hot summer, at least.

Becca: Yeah, exactly. There is no winter.

Taran: If you need to get to the winter, you have to take a dip in the ocean.

Chapter 11: Why Climate Matters (47:35)

Taran: This was fun. And one last question—I think you talked about climate a little bit and how your thinking has evolved. Talk to us, why does climate matter to you, especially now? And how do you think, as a stakeholder for nature, why is that important to you?

Becca: Yeah. It's important to me because—and again, I think sometimes people might think that this sounds cheesy, but this is really how I feel—this is our home. This is where we live.

Taran: Netherlands has the best dairy in the world, so you can be cheesy with us. That's nice and fresh milk.

Becca: Actually, I'm sitting in my kitchen and the wood in my kitchen is from an old cheese factory. So it's already built into my house.

Yeah, this is our home and I think that I've always been passionate about it. And I also think, to bring in a little bit more from my youth—I'm Jewish. I grew up going to temple with my family when I was young. And one of the things that we learn is Tikkun Olam, which means fixing the world. And I always took that as literally taking care of the planet. And that is a value that I was taught a lot growing up.

So that taking care of the climate, being respectful to nature, for me, it's just something that has been ingrained in how I would take care of my siblings or how I would take care of my friends or being unconditional in love and support. So I really think it boils down to that—this is our home and I want to take good care of it, not just for me, but also for everyone I know and also everyone that I don't know. We need to take good care of it.

Taran: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think what I heard is—this is our home. Cheesy is good.

Chapter 12: Advice and Closing Thoughts (51:20)

Taran: Thank you for making time for us. Before I let you go for the day or night there, is there anything that you want to share with our audience?

Becca: Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you for inviting me. I was really looking forward to this conversation. It's very inspiring to me to see someone else taking time out of their day to consider how they connect with nature and how other people connect with nature.

And what I would share with the audience and what I always say is—people ask me often, "How do I get into sustainability? How do I make my job a climate job? I didn't major in environmental sciences. I don't have a background in biology." And what I always say is we need everyone. We all share this home.

And if that looks like some of the examples I gave of taking your son to go play with rocks in the park to being nicer to the person on the street that's picking up your trash each day—what are the little things that you can do to make this a better home for everyone? And make sure that you go out and be uncomfortable in nature. I do highly recommend it from time to time, whether that's a cold splash in the ocean or taking a walk around the block without an umbrella when it's raining. Just take a little bit of time to be uncomfortable.

Taran: Yeah. Yeah, that's a good suggestion and I'm going to take it. Next time it rains, I'm just going to go out and enjoy the showers.

Becca: Yeah. I mean, you're in California, so I don't know when that will happen, but it's probably going to happen soon.

Taran: November, right? We get some rain.

So, Becca, as you were talking, part of me also thought about this—what you are doing with putting these smaller things into bigger perspectives and building these relationships—do you think if we build these relationships and we start caring about it, that the world is not going to go to hell, right? We would care about the world we live in and what we call home. What do you think?

Becca: Yeah. No, I absolutely agree with that. And the way that you put it is beautiful, so I'm going to take those words from you—that if we build a meaningful relationship with nature, we won't let it go to hell. We will take care of it. And if that means starting by going outside when it's raining and having that special experience or swimming in the ocean and that makes you care about it, just find your thing and go take care of it.

Taran: This is good. Thank you for making time and I wish you, your family, and Roman a happy autumn. And we'll have you back again and talk more about the Netherlands in deeper detail from a Californian lens.

Becca: Yeah, I would love that, Taran. Thanks so much for having me. I really enjoyed it.

Taran: Yeah, take care.

Outro

Thank you for joining us on the conversation trails of The Mountain in Us podcast. Each episode here is crafted with love, adventure, and reflection. We hope you have enjoyed this one and we welcome your thoughts on it. And if you want to be on the show, feel free to reach out.

Episode Notes:

• Guest: Becca Samsson - Sustainability leader living in the Netherlands
• Topics: California nature, ocean connection, motherhood, sustainability in business, Dutch lifestyle, environmental awareness
• Key concepts: Tikkun Olam (fixing the world), intimate experiences with nature, uncomfortable in nature, business value of sustainability