41: Behind the Scenes — Sustainability on Film Sets with Erin Karpluk

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 fashion, sustainable travel, and what waste and sustainability look like behind the scenes on film sets. This is a conversation about environmental awareness, resilience, and the small shifts that can influence culture at work.

Takeaways

• How growing up in Jasper shaped Erin’s connection to nature and community
• The impact of the 2024 Jasper wildfires on memory and resilience
• What sustainable living looks like in everyday routines
• How sustainability in film production is evolving — and where it still needs work
• Practical eco-friendly travel habits for people who live on the road
• How small workplace habits can shift culture over time
• Why connection to people and place fuels environmental awareness

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Transcript

Sarah (00:00.3)
We talk a lot about sustainable living at home, in our kitchens, our closets, our routines, but what about at work? What happens when your workplace is temporary? Your schedule is packed and you're sometimes living out of a suitcase. Today, we're talking about what sustainability looks like when you carry it with you. 

Welcome to Sustainable in the Suburbs, a podcast for the eco curious who want to live a greener life and are looking for a place to start. I'm your host, Sarah Robertson Barnes, a soccer mom with a station wagon and a passion for sustainable living. Each week I'll bring you practical tips and honest conversations to help you waste less, save money and make small doable shifts that actually fit your real life. Because sustainable living doesn't have to be perfect to matter and you don't have to do it all to make a difference. 

Hello and welcome back to Sustainable in the Suburbs, the podcast where we start where we are, use what we have and live a little greener, one small shift at a time.

My name is Sarah and I'm excited to share this episode with you today. Before we get into today's conversation, I want to say thank you. Support from listeners like you are what keeps the show going. And to keep it growing, please follow the show wherever you're listening today and be sure to leave a comment if you're listening on Spotify or a rating or a review wherever you're listening. And that gives us a little bump in the algorithm and helps new listeners find the show. And if you head over to sustainable in the suburbs.

You'll find the show notes for every episode and a place to suggest topics or guests you'd love to hear on future episodes. Today's episode is about what sustainability can look like at work, especially in spaces that move quickly, build fast and create a lot of waste behind the scenes. It's easy to think about what sustainability looks like in the context of our homes, but what happens when your workplace is temporary?

When sets are built and taken down in a matter of weeks, when travel is constant, schedules are tight and convenience often wins. And maybe more importantly, what does it look like to model small intentional choices in that kind of environment? Because for my guest today, sustainability isn't just a checklist of habits, it's rooted in place. Growing up in Jasper National Park meant growing up surrounded by the kind of landscape that shapes you.


And when the wildfires devastated parts of that community in July of 2024, it changed everything. It reframed what stuff means, what lasts, what doesn't, and what really matters. Erin Karpluk is an award-winning Canadian actress, best known as the lead of the beloved series, Being Erica. With over a hundred credits across a 30-year career, she has worked extensively in film and television across Canada and the U.S. recently appearing in Apple TV's Smoke and Netflix's My Life as the Walter Boys. She's also currently directing and producing her first documentary, Chronicling the Wildfire that Claimed 30 % of Her Hometown of Jasper, Alberta. Today we're talking about personal sustainability, normalizing reuse and repair, what it means to carry your values with you from life on set and sustainable travel to navigating single use culture. and leading quietly by example in a fast moving workplace. Here's my conversation with Erin.

Hello, Erin, welcome to the show. I'm so excited that we're finally setting down to have this conversation.

Erin (03:29.634)
Hello, me too! It's a long time coming.

Sarah (03:32.032)
Yeah. So before we talk about film sets and sustainability at work and all of that, I want to start with the landscape and community that raised you. So you grew up in Jasper and National Park. I've never been, it's on my list. But how did growing up surrounded by that kind of landscape shape your relationship with nature?

Erin (03:55.602)
you have to come in. When you do, we have a bed and breakfast that was spared in the fire. And I want to be there when you're there. Because it's, mean, I'm obviously biased, but I do think that it is just it's the most beautiful place in the world. And now that you know, I'm an adult and I live in Vancouver and Los Angeles and travel, I do get home, you know, at least five times a year. And I don't take it for granted. Now, it was, you know, growing up there and I have two nieces.

And my brother is raising there and I'm just so happy because, you know, growing up in Jasper, was like, and we also didn't have cell phones, but it's like, you know, five o'clock on Tuesdays, you know, you're meeting your friends, you're playing kick the can, you're building forts. We don't have, know, we're not, we're not calling each other. We're just meeting there and we're outside and we're riding our bikes and our field trips for like, you know, going to Athabasca.

pass and on rafts and horseback or Jonah's pass and hiking and learning how to be stewards of the land and how to respect nature and how to deal with bears and elk. you know, it was just playing like after school, we would just go into the woods and we would use our imaginations. I just, I just really, I loved that. I loved our tight knit community, the friends I grew up with. and for me, it's really important going

home because it just, get reconnected to the land and what's important and the simpler things. And, and also growing up, was, you know, during the eighties and nineties, there was a very cool class in two years in front of me. And there was like seven, our classes in Jasper, like maybe 30 people for the whole time graduating. But I just, two grades ahead of me, there was probably seven or eight.

girls and they were all so cool and they all started an environmental committee and we all wanted to be like them and so that's kind of my foray into and it's partly I think growing up in Jasper and we had an action committee I forget what it stands for now but you know these women and we had a really Mrs. Sandy Cox she was our advisor we put on environmental youth conferences and we you know fundraised to have David Suzuki come and speak and we were really

speaker-1 (06:20.75)
looking at the ozone layer and reduce, reuse, recycle, and enrolling people in on that. And it was a time where my parents are like, oh, you and your recycling and this, no offense, mom and dad. But at an early age, I remember being deeply impacted by what we were doing and I didn't understand. And here we are decades later and I still don't understand.

There's not a lot more accountability, but it was just back to Jasper. It just such a beautiful way to grow up. You're in nature all around.

speaker-0 (06:55.47)
The most magnificent landscapes your brain can possibly imagine.

speaker-1 (07:01.196)
the postcards of PANDA, like Banff and Jasper and the clumpy ice fields. Yeah, it's stunning and it's never lost on me. I was just shooting a show in Calgary and I did that trip a lot. It's the most beautiful drive in the world from Jasper to Calgary.

speaker-0 (07:15.084)
Yeah, yeah. Happy. Can't relate in southern Ontario, but.

speaker-1 (07:19.98)
Ontario has, they have the lakes.

speaker-0 (07:22.062)
Yeah, we've got some gems for sure, but not the gorgeous mountain lakes of my dreams. But when the wildfires hit in July of 2024, what was that like for you? What shifted for you in the weeks and months after?

speaker-1 (07:39.854)
It was, it's still a challenging time. are, I feel like we're 18, a year and a half out. First of all, going back home, was very shocking. I don't want to cry. But like I, my mom and I snuck to Lake Annette, which is like my safe haven. It's just this loop around Lake Annette that I love. And we went out, you weren't supposed to, but locals were. And I just remember seeing all these trees uprooted because

the, you know, the velocity of this virus, the fastest burning wildfire in Canadian history, uprooted trees and, you know, three quarters of the lake is completely burnt and you have these spikes sticking out. And it was like, you know, your environment, nature, nurture where you are, it just felt so violating at first. And I was looking at these sacred places that created us. was part of our DNA almost. And I was like, yes, I was so sad. My mom, you know, she's a

the generation where they're just, really overcome things. I've learned a lot from her generation in this. And she said, Erin, the lakes and the mountains are still there and the trees will grow back. And I've learned through the documentary too that, know, indigenous fire practices and speaking with the Asunowatchee Wind Walk people, fire is necessary on the landscape. you know, Parks Canada was really incredible. And the Smokey the Bear days, you know, lot of, you know, forests were mismanaged and that's changed now and fires actually.

beautiful gift and it allows the pine cones to release what they need to create new forests and stuff. So that's, you know, the landscape and I actually find being, once I got adjusted, I actually find going through those trails now very peaceful. There's something that the land, it's like, it's allowed to breathe and I actually find it quite, quite beautiful. That said, what happened in the town, I get really emotional when I talk about this.

30 % of the town was devastated by the fire. And I will caveat this by saying both my family home, my mom's bed and breakfast and my brother's homes were spared in the fire. So I can't begin to understand what it was like for those who lost everything. But you have a community of 5,000 people that's all grieving in different ways if you've lost your home or if you haven't. And we're going through it together. We said it's like you're in

speaker-1 (10:06.742)
different ships in the same storm trying to navigate this. And I was able through the documentary we're doing to speak to a lot of people that lost things. And at first people in the news were like, you know, well, these are a bunch of people with insurance and it's just stuff. And on the inside, it's like, it's not just stuff. Fire can be very violating and the stuff. It's not your cars and your expensive things. It's the memories associated to things that you have. It's your pictures. It's your kids.

paintings that you don't have. It's, you know, Rubicon, which is, it's war vets that fall into their time and they come in and has make your and the white has make your and they sift through the debris and they try to find things. And it was such an intense fire that some people were able to find like a family heirloom, like this was my mother's and if it was like burnt or scorched and that was an absolute gem or like, you know, pigeon dubs from someone's grandmother, they found a piece of it and it's

It's an interesting thing, not just stuff, right? And the structures themselves, like I'm not religious, but I did attend the United Church for Christmases for over 40 years and seeing that structure gone, it hits you in a really profound way. And we have to overcome these things. And a lot of people at the time had nothing.

Incident Command Team, the Unified Command Team that had to move to Hinton. They had people coming to them and a lot of them lost their homes. there's people coming around saying, do you need socks? Do you need underwear? People didn't have toothbrushes. Everyone left town. Some left their pets thinking they were coming home and the bylaw officers broke into doors and rescued the pets, worry. But people really thought that this town would not hit the town. so you have 358 structures gone, thousands people.

that don't have anything. So there was a real rallying of neighboring communities, Valemonde, Hinton, Edson, Edmonton, and Calgary, and Kamloops, bringing in things to all the evacuated people. And for me, all my friends in Vancouver, some of them are very affluent. They went through everything that they had, and I was taking treklitz and stuff back to a church. Actually, it was first to a auto dealership in Hinton.

speaker-1 (12:30.99)
because you couldn't get into Jasper right away. And Tammy Rickstrand had set up this space and people going to just get what they needed. And things that you wouldn't normally think of were just priceless to people. And it made me kind of realize, like, what do we need? What don't we need? How can we repurpose stuff? Something I no longer want might be a gem to someone else. And it was a really...

interesting time and even if you have insurance, know, one woman I interviewed and I don't think that she'd mind me sharing this. She said, you know, I'm in winners or home sense and I have to buy a melon baller and it's just an item. But for me, it's the memory associated. want my old melon baller. That's what I use with my grandson to like, you know, make desserts. And so you kind of it's the memories associated with thing and things and, you know, the last five years.

I've kind of gone through this journey where, you know, during the pandemic, I moved from all my stuff of 12 years from Los Angeles back to Canada. My best friend's mother passed away. We cleaned out her place during the pandemic. I cleaned out my brother's place. My father passed away last year cleaning out his spaces. And I just, I really am looking and I think you call it, you know, being eco-frugal. I'm like, all this stuff, all this stuff. Like, what do we like?

what do we need it for? And it's really made me mindful of, you know, paring down what can I repurpose first? And what do I need when it comes to consumerism? we might get more into that, but it was a real, it was an experience. And again, the town is just like, it's resilience is kind of an overused word, but I've just, I'm so in awe of our community and how they've come together because it is a

It is marathon and it's not like a town's rebuilt, you know, it's, it's a lot.

speaker-0 (14:32.064)
It's interesting how a community can come together like that and we see real wealth distribution. That we really can come together and share our resources and have that rising tide lift all boats. So you are now working on a documentary about the wildfire. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

speaker-1 (14:46.744)
That's a way putting it, yeah.

speaker-1 (14:54.232)
Well, it was interesting. I usually work in front of the camera. And then when the wildfire happened, there were some people in the community that said, well, you work in film and television. know, we should be documenting this for ourselves, an accurate representation of this very important chapter of our history. And so I started tentatively doing footage, trying to be sensitive to our community. When the town first reopened, it was only for Jasperites. And then it kind of

snowballed into this thing and I was really able to, because I'm from there and I babysat for a lot of these people, get the, you know, getting the inside true story from all departments in Jasper. So certainly Parks Canada, which is, you know, federal government, but these people, yes, they're the government, but they, a lot of them are born and raised in Jasper and they've raised their families there and they are in love with the land and they've dedicated their lives to stewardship.

and the RCMP and the municipality of Jasper, which includes obviously the fire department and the Jasper volunteer fire brigade, the JRCC, which is an extension of unified command. So really what we're trying to do is get an accurate telling of these events for the community for posterity. It's a forewarning for other vulnerable communities in the urban wildlife.

Urban interface has said it a million times. like neighboring communities, Banff, Grand Cache, where this could happen to you and also whatever your region is, know, coastal or prairies, are you prone to earthquakes, tsunamis, mudslides, hurricanes, wildfire? have you, Josper kind of wants to pay it forward as a love letter, much like Fort McMurray and Slave Lake did to us. Like, are you prepared? Have you sat down and called your insurance company, this is so boring but important, and said, hey,

total loss tomorrow, there's a tornado, there's, know, hurricane, whatever. What am I covered for? Those are really important things because the vast majority of people were not covered for insurance. So there's that element. And also just to promote Jasper and to bring people back because we're a very tourist-based town and it's such an incredible place to come with your family because the carbon footprint in a national park is so low.

speaker-1 (17:17.326)
you're rafting, you're hiking, you're walking around and you have these mountains and this tight-knit community where there's a lot of local artists. so it's just such a, we have people, millions of people, even after the fire, all over the world coming and Jasper, it's a little bit different from Banff. It's a different experience. It's a bit more remote.

It's not as commercial kind of whistler and no disrespect to that, but people, you don't have to be from Jasper to have heard about the fire, be devastated. You can spend a day there and just, it's a really profound place.

speaker-0 (17:58.502)
So like I said, it's on my list. I have not yet been to Alberta. So that is our next destination in Canada.

speaker-1 (18:07.414)
I'm trying not to.

speaker-0 (18:09.902)
Yeah, we're trying to make sure that we visit all 10 provinces and free territories with the kids. So we've checked off many of them, but we have yet to go out west. We've been to BC obviously, but we haven't been to Alberta yet. So I will be seeing you.

speaker-0 (18:32.334)
all your recommendations. because listening to you talk about the documentary and Jasper, it's clear it's not just a story you're telling. It's all very, it's central to your life. And when we chatted before recording, you mentioned just looking at what's in your own lane. We can't solve all the world problems, but what is right in front of you? So what does a regular day look for you as someone who cares about sustainability?

speaker-1 (19:00.446)
love that you in your podcast and I've been girl crushing on you listening to this and like you put words to things I'm like, yes, why didn't I, know, and also like being gentle with yourself, right? When I was on that environmental committee in grade eight, it's the first time I remember having anxiety because I was like, what are we doing? And I felt this great impact and you know, we need to solve everything and you can't so you do have to, you know, stay in your lane and do what?

you can. So for me, I mean, it's obviously recycling and these are just habits now that, you know, are inherent. Like I don't, I don't think about them. everything 80 % of what I wear and I work in film and television. So sometimes you have to go to these events and look jiggy. 80 % of what I wear is secondhand. First and foremost, it's way more fun shopping because it's like hunting and things are unique. I usually go, you know, there's in Vancouver, there's this great

speaker-0 (19:49.518)
Same.

speaker-1 (19:58.542)
place called Turnabout in Los Angeles. There's a great place called Crossroads. And honestly, you have, you know, women or men in affluent, you know, West Vancouver or Carersdale buying like Vince, you know, a $700 sweater and I get it gently used for 80 bucks. And if it's got a tiny little hole, I do that and I zhizh it up and, and it makes me feel good. It makes me, you know, it's that whole eco frugal thing. I sometimes have guilt when I'm buying, like I would never grow.

And no offense to people that do and buy like a $5,000 half pig. I just really, and it really, it stems from also how I grew up. My father, you know, during the depression era, my Baba, I'm Ukrainian, she had seven children. And during the depression era, like if they got bread with butter on it and sugar and cream, that was like a total treat. They grew up in a sectional like house.

in Saskatchewan in the middle of the field and they only had rainwater and a coal burning fireplace and a tiny little house of seven kids and they just reused everything. And so I was really brought up into that. know, my dad, he passed away last year and going through his stuff, he just reused everything. Like if there's grain elevator cats that would come, I love these effects.

He would, you he used old containers and he wasn't fancy and I would buy him all these Christmas gifts and while he was still alive, we went through some of his things and I'm like, dad, you have like 10 t-shirts with V-necks I got for you for Christmas over the years. And he's like, well, the other one, if it ain't broke, you know, don't fix it. and, just, you know, growing up in that and seeing how things are reused, I try to do that in my own life. So if there's a beautiful olive bottle, like this, there was some like olive oil bottle when I scrubbed it out and I now,

use it to put in my nebulizers and like scrubbing up things. There's I'm on the strategy council or HOA and we have a little suite and converted into a guest room. And it's been so fun to go through and like things I don't need in my home or that you can get from a thrift store and, you know, cheap and cheerful do stuff, reusing all that stuff instead of, you know, buy, buy, buy, buy. It just feels, it feels really rewarding. And at the same time, I drive a Range Rover.

speaker-1 (22:16.59)
I did not get an electric car because I had a terrible car accident. drive a Coca-Halo a lot and I just feel safe in it. And I'm like, okay. And am I a hypocrite? Sure. It's like, it's like, you know, just, just do what you can. And you'll never see me without this. Like I have not, like it's so battered, but I'm like on set all the time.

speaker-0 (22:38.478)
Looks like it's been run over by a school bus. We're talking about our water bottle, our emotional support water bottles here.

speaker-1 (22:44.174)
It's like, is of value to me. I just, going out, I'm like, do I need that? And small things like that, reusing things. With my nieces, certainly going home, they have reign, ignited in me, play an adventure and we'll take a cardboard box and we'll make a dollhouse out of it. And my girlfriends that have kids, they'll have these beautiful little boots or whatever, and I'll scrub them out and bring them home. And my nieces just,

you know, light up, we just use our imaginations and we use what we have instead of like, you know, Amazon plastic and it just feels better. And I like, I like that they're learning that too. So I'm a bit of a ramble, but the day to day stuff, it's, know, definitely, you know, recycling, composting. now have soft plastics. Thank goodness in.

speaker-0 (23:34.606)
That just came in here in Ontario as well. Yeah. I don't know what's actually happening to it, which is my next side quest, but it is now accepted in recycling bins. There's been like this whole big drama about recycling bins on our town Facebook page. but I'm like desperate to find out what's actually happening to these things because how are we suddenly able to recycle?

speaker-1 (23:52.109)
When you find

speaker-0 (24:00.418)
I'm going to air quote that all of these different things when the facilities haven't changed. So I'm just really interested in knowing like what's actually happening there while at the same time being glad that the rules are now uniform across Ontario, which is a huge thing because there were things that we could put in the recycling bin in Toronto that we couldn't put here. And I'm only 40 kilometers outside of Toronto and we have totally different rules as soon as you cross Steeles Avenue, like it doesn't make any sense. So I'm glad that they're

speaker-1 (24:14.862)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

speaker-0 (24:29.594)
Not for household organics yet, but baby stats. But I'm glad that it's starting to become more normalized. Yeah, which is something that we talked about before too. Like where have you noticed sustainability, these little habits that we're doing becoming more normalized in like normie life?

speaker-1 (24:53.26)
People that normally wouldn't care about it are looking at it because if it's right and it's also a lot of convenience, people don't want to go out of their way. So we've got this pink bin now outside. looks cute. It's all pink and you put your soft plastics. I used to gather mine up and I'd have to make a trek to London drugs. TerraCycle was really good for like any makeup products like that were hard and

speaker-0 (25:14.51)
mascara tubes and whatever you can drop at Sephora.

speaker-1 (25:17.806)
Yeah. And then now it's becoming more readily available. So I find that that convenience is good. do also, I'm like, where is this going? And honestly, when I was in Saskatchewan cleaning out dad's place, so much plastic and they don't have plastic recycling. So I was like keeping it and hauling it back to Alberta. But then my friend in Edmonton is like, Erin, they don't, it doesn't go anywhere. So it's like, my mom is like, Erin. And then so there goes to the landfill and it just like.

And it's devastating.

speaker-0 (25:50.318)
I have a little crisis standing over the trash bin on a daily basis. What do I do with this? And then I have to remember, I'm doing the best that I can to divert this properly. And it's a systems problem. And I have to look at it from that angle rather than, yes, as individuals we can do so much, but we're also not individually responsible. So it's sort of walking that line. And again, there's that.

there's that fine line between like reusing and hoarding. And this is about the jars I have all over my home. It's funny when you're mentioning the olive oil bottle, I thought about how I was cleaning out a bottle and I was like, was saying to my son, was like, I'm going to put a plant in this. And he was like, yeah, there's sort of like ambient plants and jars all over the house.

I'm called out by my team. But you know, it's just at some point I have to let this pickle jar go and that's okay too. And that's okay only do the best you can when you can.

speaker-1 (26:52.462)
And like, what's the effort like, like, like, if I get go gone, is go gone to take off the label works for the environment. And if I'm to put a half an hour into scrubbing this to do I'm like, my, you know,

speaker-0 (27:03.246)
Lemon oil, girl. Lemon oil is the solvent from heaven. Yeah. I just got a little bottle of lemon oil from Winners or whatever. I'm not doing anything with it other than cleaning. So two drops of lemon oil on a jar that has really sticky residue. Take that right off. It's a miracle.

speaker-1 (27:27.918)
You are changing my life. did not. That's the stuff, right?

speaker-0 (27:31.718)
I'm to the choir about taking labels off of jars. So I'm like, I need everyone to know about lemon oil and a little bit of baking soda. And you just scrub that right off. I'm going to enable you to keep your glass containers to the best of my ability.

speaker-1 (27:45.464)
Please do. like when I have like my friend got me some ESOP, which is like $50 hand lotion. When that's done, I just put like a different brand in it and make it look cute. All of my nice like spray bottles. Sage has a really nice glass bottle and you can, know, just, just reusing buying in bulk, making your own vinegar as a solvent for everything, you know? And then also if I do have to order from Evil Amazon, cause let's be honest, sometimes you're in a pinch.

If there's packing stuff in there that I know can't be recycled, I've been storing it in boxes and then going on to offer up and just saying, the packing supplies, it's like, boom, there you go. Or all those old pickle jars and stuff that could be a craft person's, you know, saying, Hey, I have this and just giving it out for free.

speaker-0 (28:31.238)
Your buy nothing group is... Yeah. I've never not had somebody pick something up. And I've also been able to find the most random thing. Like my son recently lost one of his AirPods. So whatever. It's fine. He's just been rocking the one AirPod for a while. And then I saw in my local buy nothing group, someone was like, I randomly have a left AirPod of whatever generation. And I was just like...

Literally like I'm running to the car. When can I come and pick this up? And it's just, it's so random and you do have to spend the time like, but that's the kind of scrolling I prefer to do.

speaker-1 (29:08.27)
That's my treat at the end of the day and doing the guest suite. have this weird nook and like this is and I like I do my important work first and then my treat is like if I go into Facebook marketplace and I was looking for like a hanging faux plant, I don't want to buy new faux plants because I think that their carbon footprint is not awesome, but people are like releasing them left, right and center. And two days ago, I in the neighborhood, I went and grabbed for $10 and I got this beautiful hanging thing.

feels in that spot so nicely, it gets a second life. It looks amazing. It was the most satisfying buy for $10 I've ever had. It's perfect. And I was just like, today's a good day.

speaker-0 (29:45.342)
Yep. We're keeping things in use and out of the landfill and in our community. So again, I don't think anyone listening is not in their by nothing group, but if you're not today is the day.

speaker-1 (29:55.694)
Also, are you shopping to? Because I am really trying to support as much as possible local instead of just buying local. then also with all of my, I'm not vegetarian, but I do get all of my poultry and salmon and stuff from this company called True Local. There's a farm, I believe they're in Langley and you can go into their website and they do bring you a box, but it's all sustainable, whatever you're eating.

beef, chicken, this, that. And it just, that's a small thing too. It's more expensive, but as I'm eating it, I also think it's really important energetically what you're putting into your body, where it's coming from. And you don't need all the fancy stuff to like clean your vegetables. You can, you know, I just use vinegar, but that makes me feel good too, what you're ingesting, you know, and, part of that.

speaker-0 (30:46.222)
local agriculture and yeah, community supported agriculture. You can also get like the big veggie boxes. We do that every year, every year. I've been doing that since my kids were we, like I could take them and they can like talk to the animals and all that kind of stuff at the farm that we would pick it up at, buy it and we garden and all of that. So they know that food doesn't come from the grocery store.

that it has to be stewarded and you have to keep the soil up and it's really difficult labor and people aren't paid fairly and it has to be picked and all these different things so that they get that connection to their food as well, which I think is really important for all of us.

speaker-1 (31:23.926)
And what a gift you're giving them because they're going to be enrolled with that. And it's also supplying demand, right? Like more of us were demanding that stuff. can not, and I try not to have judgments. I cannot go and buy toilet paper or paper towel that's just like fresh cut tree bleach, blue, blah, blah. Like I will not, and I've complained to, you know.

superstore and I've complained to different places. like, why don't you have an option? And Costco doesn't have any good options.

speaker-0 (31:53.838)
Costco doesn't, but I don't know if you have Farm Boy out there. It's under Sobeys, I believe. Love going to Canada has three giant grocery conglomerates. But they have an interesting product called Bontera, which is a Canadian brand. And they make everything from recycled paper. And that's a good one. And I have literally talked for 30 straight minutes on this podcast about not using paper towels before. So good.

speaker-1 (32:00.654)
No,

speaker-1 (32:21.888)
My dad had tons of towels and I just cut them up and I just used them and like wash them and then there's the water, but it's like, and then also looking for tricky because now that, you know, this is becoming a bit more cooler, whatever you kind of have to read the fine lines. A lot of like, they'll say environmentally friendly packaging, but the actual product itself is like we're killing forests. So it's like trying to really read between the lines of, of, of what that is.

speaker-0 (32:48.718)
Yeah. Greenwashing is a whole thing that I'm going to have to talk about on another episode because like you said, it's becoming an interest. It's more like a marketing thing. And then we have, and it's not regulated and you can just slap the Mobius loop, the little recycling symbol on anything. It doesn't mean anything. So we'll have to do a a separate episode on that. Cause that's another thing I could rant about for 30 seconds. So all of these.

all of our habits and our values, don't disappear when you step onto a set. And film and television production moves real quickly. And there's a lot happening behind the scenes that viewers never see. So what is a typical set like? And what kinds of convenience items are required to keep everything moving, everyone fed?

speaker-1 (33:36.118)
It's a big, mean, the film and television industry during the pandemic, was dating this guy and I think he works for Air Canada. He was like, you're not going to be going back to work if we're not at work. And I was like, film and television is going back. Like we were the first back, right? And it was, it was kind of a nightmare. I was actually shooting in Etobicoke in Toronto on this children's show called Holly Hobby and the PPE gear because we had, I think it was like lower insurance or whatever, but the camera operators in Toronto had to wear

two masks and a face shield. And it was so much waste. Like obviously the pandemic, was so much waste. And then I'll get to the story. I have a story about the water bottles on Holly Hobby, but just a typical day on film sets and every set is different, but you're working between anywhere like on the documentary, sometimes you have two of us, two larger, bigger scale productions where you're to have 150 people on set. And you're either working in house in a studio or you're

often on location. then there's the carbon footprint of the driving and there's, you know, catering. got to feed people. You got to keep people hydrated. You have to keep everything running, all the trailers running, the hair makeup running. You have to, you know, get the set going. If you're in studio and construction and buildings, there's a lot that can be considered there from an environmental perspective. And in my observation, and I truly, I try not to preach, but it does come down to money.

as does everything, right? So there's certain productions that I've found they'll be like, you know, when I start the show, they're like, bring your water bottle. And I'm like, awesome. This is like, reuse your water bottle. And then by day two, it's just plastic water bottles everywhere because it's very hard and actors like, I don't have my water bottle. Yeah, no offense to other actors. But it's like, you know, there's a lot of ways specifically you have to feed people in catering, you know, plastic.

forks knives and if the option for whatever production company is cheaper to get the plastics than the bamboo or what have you, I have observed that. And if I think that there's an environmental fee that producers can put onto things and if they don't and I don't judge it because there's budgets. So then I just look to my own lane, right within that. I will say I worked on an Apple show a year ago, it was right after the fire.

speaker-1 (35:55.438)
It was called Smoke with Karen Edge of Tim, which is about a fire, which is very strange to do. working on that Apple show, and obviously Apple has money, I was blown away. There was no garbage bins. It was all recycle or compost. And when you go to craft service, which is like the little snack place, everything you get, like if you get little nuts or little chia yogurt things, it comes in what looks like plastic, but it's actually that corn that can be compostable. was zero waste.

at least to the best of my knowledge, there was no, you couldn't throw things in garbage. had, for the actors in their trailers, had aluminum water bottles instead of plastic. Everyone, all of transport drove Teslas. I was really like, wow. And there is a financial input to be put into that. But then Apple, and this is again to the best of my knowledge, I mean, they have that notoriety. They have that standard and they're raising the bar for hopefully others.

to follow, right? then for myself personally, it's like, have never in the last 10 years, I've used two plastic water bottles. Once I was in Italy and dying and there was no water. So I bought the water bottle. I reused it so many times. I probably have BPA poisoning. And then one time on set, there's antifreeze in the units in our trailers and I had to brush my teeth and I did.

speaker-0 (36:54.304)
showing what's possible.

speaker-0 (37:09.932)
Tell me more.

speaker-1 (37:20.938)
have, didn't, my water bottles were up on set. So I did use that water bottle and I was like, rest in peace, water bottle, what have you. I don't use, this is a small thing, but like in our trailers, we have garbage cans. It's like a little hotel room. I've never used, I've never put garbage in my garbage can. You get breakfast in this little like container. It's not styrofoam. And throughout the day, if I have disposable stuff or recycles, I put it in my little weird egg thing. And yes, it stinks and it's weird. And I'm sure wardrobe judges me when they come in and, and,

transports probably like, why doesn't she ever use the garbage bin? It's my special. So that when I go out and I don't lug at home, but I just look because there's garbage bins usually like around, we call it base count. What do they call it here? Circus. Circus or base count, depending on what side of the country. And I look for a garbage bin that's being used, usually outside of hair and makeup people are. So I use that. So it's a small thing, but then that one plastic thing in my

speaker-0 (37:53.366)
Eat this. This is my special garbage.

speaker-1 (38:20.302)
And I do the same thing in the hotel rooms and I go to hotels. bring, I think we're going to get to a bit more traveling stuff later, but bringing my water bottle, I bring, have utensils, reusable utensils that I use often on set, the tads, the training ADs or on set ADs will be like water bottle, water bottle, water bottle. And I've always just said, no, thank you, no, thank you. And they keep doing it. I always just say, oh, you know, I don't do plastic. And they're like,

noted. She's one of those. then maybe you're within earshot of other actors and I never point them out, but maybe they're like,

Kurt or anything and I have some celebrities that are again the judgment piece is hard but that are really advocating for the environment like big massive movie stars and then I'll see them you know doing an interview and they've got a plastic water bottle and I'm like

speaker-0 (39:10.296)
We're leading by example here, guys. Come on.

speaker-1 (39:12.59)
Everyone on set is always like, it's almost like my little crutch on set. Everyone on Hollywood Hobbies, all the kids are like, you really don't let this, like it'll be right underneath the camera operator or something. But small, I mean small, small things you can do. Hair and makeup is great. They're really good at using TerraCycle or recycling their stuff when they're able to. And a lot of people, a lot of the camera operators bring their own water bottles and cause you see over time, just, you

the carbon footprint on these things. It's a challenging thing and it comes down to what the studio network producers are bringing to that.

speaker-0 (39:47.926)
Yeah, reusable are cheaper. So I'm hoping that that starts to bleed in. I know in Toronto, there's a couple of really great reusable companies as well doing like takeout containers and things like that, like Muse and... shoot, the other ones escaping me. I will put it in the show notes. I went to a sustainability conference. was for Fair Trade Canada, actually at York University. at York, they in their cafeterias, they have all reusable containers.

that your like pre-made thing comes in and then you drop it in the like an area after with the lid and everything and then they wash it and return it out for you. So it's a really cool way to do circularity across the campus that everyone is just doing because that's what you do. So when we normalize these things, it just becomes normal so quickly. It's really interesting. So have you, okay. So this is the other thing I wanted to ask you.

I want to know about the water bottle story on the hobby stack because we talked about this before. I think about it a lot.

speaker-1 (40:52.33)
Well, tried, you know, you tried to say this. saw Holly Hobby was like a doll during the 80s and I'm dating myself here, but it was like, anyways, we did wallpaper and bedding and stuff. so then Hulu got the rights for Holly Hobby. And I, everyone's like, my God, you're Holly Hobby. And I was like, I am Mrs. Hobby. Are you kidding me? So I was Mama Hobby and I've got my three beautiful children.

And on set, and this was the one during the pandemic where everyone was just like covered in plastic and sweating and stuff. And at the end of the night, I would go through base camp or circus and I collected all the plastic water bottles because I just couldn't do it. Like I was like, kakakakak

I would collect them and I had the same bag every day and I'd collect as many water bottles as I could. If it was covered in tomato sauce, I didn't, whatever. I would bring them back to my condo and I would release them into the recycle thinking I was doing a great job. And for five months I did this. So after I took off my wardrobe and a bit of makeup, I would quickly run around and transport would wait for me and sorry production. And I did this for five months. And then when I went to move out of the condo,

to come back to Vancouver. I had such a big load of stuff. went down to the basement to do a big haul. And when I looked up, was like, both shoots from the garbage and the recycle went to the exact same place. And I was like, what? And it just felt like five months of taking that extra 15 minutes when I got home and I was tired to do it. It it did nothing. It felt so...

disappointing. know, like I just felt, I felt like I felt stupid. I felt stupid that I did all that work and there wasn't that support on the other side to reward that kind of work or that, you know, habitualization of something. And so was, I was really frustrated. And now it's like you'd said, like trying to get through the root, if it feels good to like your recycling researching further, where does this actually go? What are they actually doing with it? Or is it just, you know, cause I have some friends that are like, I don't bother. doesn't go anymore. What's the point?

speaker-1 (43:11.074)
And they're not wrong in some way. don't know. don't, it's hard. It's hard to know. want it like one documentary at a time here, but I know that there has been some documentaries and it would be interesting now to do one to like weave through and see where is this actually going now that, you know, foreign internationally, they're not buying a lot of our refuse and reusing it. It's like, where is this going? What are we doing with it? You know.

speaker-0 (43:36.622)
which is recycling actually mean? cause I've seen it, it's like, well, it gets incinerated for energy. Like that's not, that's not what recycling means, but again, that's a rant for another day. That story is funny and it also just makes me want to lie down in the road. So I just wanted to share that.

speaker-0 (43:57.646)
But it's interesting because it highlights something that, so a lot of folks here in the GTA live in higher density housing. And so their waste collection is done privately. And that means that typically in a lot of cases, there's no green bin collection because that costs extra. And they may or may not have recycling as well, as in the story that you just told in a condo building in the city of Toronto.

it ends up just going to the same shoot, even though the management company might make it look like they're doing the recycling, even though that's not happening. So that's something that where you can get involved with your HOA or your condo board or whatever to start to advocate for those things. And in the same way that if you live in a single family dwelling, you can be doing that with your town council. There's lots of different ways. Don't just give up and be like, well, it's not happening, so I'm not going to do it. If you are the kind of person to say something,

then say something.

speaker-1 (44:53.87)
When I was in my condo, I still have my condo in Los Angeles and it's 190 units. It's over 300 residents. It's right in West Hollywood. So there's a lot of gay men there, which I love because they're always so meticulous and wonderful. And I was noticing that a lot of people there were just throwing their bottles, their tin cans, their bubbly waters, their booze bottles, whatever, into the garbage, knowing that when they brought that shootout, there was a lot of people that would come and sip through it and get it.

A lot would get missed. So then I had this idea and it was during the pandemic, I said, and it's a lot of front loading. said, you guys, if we have 190 units, if everyone uses five bottles a day, if we were to have a separate bin downstairs that we invest in, collect it and have a volunteer team go to the recycle thing and get, and I did the math on it and we would generate, I think it was like $20,000 a year or something that could then

go to recouping the cost of whatever bins, the gas money for people to get to the place, what have you. And then also go towards special projects like fixing the sauna. And so if you give people like a solution and then they get something from it, if you were to say to all the residents and owners there, like say, hey, if you don't mind just putting your bottles specifically in this, and if you can volunteer one hour a month, if you can get this going, we're gonna get a new.

Son, we're gonna get a shower.

speaker-0 (46:24.142)
You're going to get something. exactly. Whether it's just being like, well, it's best for the earth. find that messaging doesn't work. I've been doing this for 10 years, longer than that, back when I used to be a high school teacher. And that just doesn't work. There needs to, we're human beings, we need an incentive structure. Right? if it's like the, same way that bottle deposit works, people take their empties back to the beer store because you get money back. It just, it just, it just is what it is. Right? So.

Yes, I feel good when I save a jar, but I feel better because I'm saving money. And that's become one of the through lines of this show is that when you waste less, you save more money.

speaker-1 (47:05.486)
That's the big incentive is like, do you want to save money? Supply and demand too. Like if you want to save money, let's all demand Bonaterra. Go after that so that Costco is like, wow, we can make more money if we do this, then just whatever.

speaker-0 (47:11.054)
or just throwing money in the trash.

speaker-0 (47:19.022)
Isn't- isn't Bonterio-

speaker-0 (47:28.11)
Contact people like we're on our phones all day long. Make those calls. Make those emails. I call my MP every week. I'm sure he loves it. I have thoughts. yeah, I also, I mean, I live in Ontario, so I'm calling my MPP every week too. But again, that's a story for another time. So, okay. So we talked about living sort of...

speaker-1 (47:36.449)
for you.

speaker-0 (47:53.518)
not on set, in temporary housing, let's say, when you're on location. So traveling is a big part of your job. You're either in a city temporarily or you're working long hours or going here, you're going there, you're going to location. So how does sustainability fit into that rhythm when you're on location for the day? Just, you know, it's just the usual things I would imagine that you've talked about already, the normalization, bringing your own calorie, bringing your water bottle. How do you make that feel aligned with how you want to live?

speaker-1 (48:21.102)
I mean, I also grew up in a bed and breakfast, which there's some influence there. But when I stay in a hotel and put up in hotels a lot, I don't. And I went to Las Vegas once and I just, where is their water coming from? And all the hotels, people are just throwing towels, towels, washing detergent, laundry. When I go to a hotel, I usually use two towels because I have long hair, but I'll make those towels last.

I'm clean coming out of the shower. I don't like every time just because I can. I don't use the housekeeping service. I say, please do not disturb. Because I clean myself. And when they come in, it's replacing.

speaker-0 (49:01.814)
Yeah, I want it to look like I was never there.

speaker-1 (49:03.854)
All the little like plastic wrap soaps and shampoos and stuff. I have my little glass or reuse plastic ones that I bring. I bring a little eco-friendly lavender detergent and I like hand wash my stuff instead of all the plastic to go. And I actually really enjoy doing that stuff. I actually enjoy cleaning. I bring these green biodegradable bags and I use them instead of the plastic ones in the hotel. So it's the same as my trailers. Like when the housekeeping comes to like, wait a minute, we don't have to restock, replenish anything in her garbages.

speaker-0 (49:33.742)
always wonder if people notice that. Do people notice I don't put my garbage can out every week? I do. wonder.

speaker-1 (49:39.694)
I right? And then I also wonder if housekeeping is like, what is she doing in there? She doesn't, know, everything's, but it's small things like that. Also the coffee pods drive me bananas in hotels. It's just single use waste, single use waste. So I get this Ilya, I got it in Toronto. I loved it in this last show I did. And it's just like in little tin jars, really nice instant coffee. And then I just, and I always, when I go,

check in if they don't have a kettle or anything. say, hey, can I get a kettle in the little fridge? And I will buy in bulk nuts or steel from set, get my stuff. And I find that those coffee, those big plastic, what is that? Keurigs, maybe no offense to people that use them, but I'm like, where is this going? And you can't rip it out. I tried to recycle them and bring them and I was like, this is ridiculous. So just using instant coffee and turning down room service and bringing my running shoes.

When I go out, like when I go to a new city shooting, I bring my running shoes. It's the best way to like run your lines, to explore a new city, to like have a low carbon footprint. Just like walk around the city. just, it's my, I don't know, it's a small thing, but it's my favorite thing to do. It's the, it's the best and most economical way to get a dopamine hit and to chill your body out is just to go outside. Get a neutral. Just go outside.

speaker-0 (51:05.022)
It works every time. It's so annoying. In the winter, it's minus 20 here right now, but I can still hear the chickadees and I'm over it. I know it's February. I'm a cold plunger. All of it. I just can't take it anymore.

speaker-1 (51:19.16)
Fair enough. Fair enough. And there's never a moment in time where you're like, if I get too engrossed in my emails, which is every day, if I'm like, hey, stop, walk for 10 minutes outside and walk back, that's 20 minutes. I've never regretted it. Even if it's sideways raining in Vancouver or it's snowing in Jasper or whatever, go out, come back and something shifted. And I'll just look at a tree, I'll look at a bird, I'll look at the sky, I'll breathe in the air and you're kind of physiologically, you're shifted somehow.

speaker-0 (51:21.614)
like.

speaker-1 (51:48.716)
It's never, and it's free!

speaker-0 (51:52.564)
exactly where I wanted to go with this now is talking about when things are just too overwhelming, what brings you back to yourself.

speaker-1 (52:01.038)
It's always been nature. I love living in cities and I also love small town. I spent 18 months in Jasper after the virus. My dad was in his last chapter and filming the documentary and something happens when I go to Jasper and maybe it's because I'm born there, also just I still experience it wherever I go and whatever pocket. Toronto has a lot of green space I have found. My friend does the

My friend disagreed, she's from Toronto staying here and I was like, go down to Trillium Park and ooo it's on King

speaker-0 (52:34.712)
High Park is huge. The Rouge Valley National Park is right in the middle of Toronto. Toronto is a very green city, especially as soon as you get out of the core when you're in the neighborhoods, the tree cover in Toronto is really second to none.

speaker-1 (52:47.33)
Amazing. like, you know, going out. So for me going to Jasper and I actually, because I think you've talked about noise before on your podcast here and like I just find going and being in the Rocky Mountains, there's something very old and like sitting in that I literally feel like my teacup, my soul gets filled up. So nature and like I'm very lucky. I live in Vancouver right now and Kitsilano beaches right there, Spanish banks, Jericho.

the endowment lands, can go and have a forest bath in 10 minutes. So again, it's nature, nature, nature, deep breaths. what I, what I, I mean, it seems like a very obviously obvious thing, but it's connection to people. can isolate myself a lot in work and like hunker and, it's like having community, having people that you're aligned with. And it does not be many. I don't know about you, but as I get older, there's fewer people in my life. That just means so much.

because you get busy, connecting to my family, to my friends, to my community, to my peers, I find that that is a huge way to ground. Having solace in a friend that really understands you, I think that that's the most amazing thing. So nature and people.

speaker-0 (54:02.606)
And what's giving you hope right now?

speaker-1 (54:05.646)
People, honestly, people going through the wildfire. And grief is an interesting thing. And since dad's passed, it's my first big loss. it's made me realize you can't do it alone. And I'm very independent and I live alone. I've got two cats rolling around. Camerashay, she's right there. You can't do it alone. people inspire me and there's so much going on in the world right now.

speaker-0 (54:22.869)
summer.

speaker-1 (54:35.274)
above and beyond what we're talking about. You know, I'm Ukrainian and there's been war going on and everything on the Kansas trip and everything going on in the States. And I mean, Mexico, right? Like everywhere. Right. And someone had said to me, they said, you know, we as human beings, historically, we were never meant to know what was going on, even in like, I'm in Vancouver. I'm not supposed to know what's going on in Chilliwack or Jasper, but because we have such an accessibility to our phones. And that's another thing. Being really mindful of ingestion.

and consumption, both food, purchasing and consumerism and also social media. I've just really taken a step back after the Jasper fire. was like, what is this? Like, who am I? What is the content I'm putting out there? And also what is it that I'm ingesting? So I'm very careful about my usage of it. I'm very careful about what my algorithm is. I don't have a lot of political stuff on there. I'll get my tiny little update in the morning. But my algorithm, it's very.

It's light. It's like cat stuff and cooking and like, you know, spirituality things. and, you know, right now it's we've ventured from cats into like wild cats and like just funny, whatever. But what gives me hope right now is even in dark times and us as human beings, I'm going to totally steal this from Tony Robbins. But if you look back historically through time, everything's on a cycle, right? And

Hard times like the depression area creates strong people like my mom and dad's generation. Strong people create good times. Good times create, for lack of a better word, weak people. Is weak the right word? Or soft people? Soft or

speaker-0 (56:15.669)
Yeah, I I mean, yeah.

speaker-1 (56:17.08)
three hard times and there's this cyclical thing that happens and also with the environment with a lot of different things. And so when we're at a place right now where there is a lot of polarization and it started from the pandemic and you know, going into Black Lives Matter and politics and there's been these really big pendulum shifts to what I've found throughout it all is you can always find at the core of it, people that

live from, and this sounds so cheesy, but they live from love. They want to leave the earth and their friends better than how they found it. And surrounding yourself with like-minded people that, you you can't fall into victimhood or lack or all these things, but you know, you have to create your life for yourself. You have to, you know, you can't be a victim to it. You can't solve everything. So again, come down to like staying in your lane and what you can do. And when I'm feeling down and sometimes you can't pick yourself up.

And sometimes there's days, certainly within grief, you're just like leading it to people and asking for help and receiving and giving love. It's the most rewarding thing. And that comes with the land and that comes with your use of it. And that comes with your interactions with people and even, you know, someone at the gas station that you're talking to, that you're interacting with, like be mindful and, you know, give them a smile. You don't have to have a whole conversation, but we just are so on autopilot and everything is so.

I'm comfortable right now and I worry like with my nieces, like everything, you sit at home and you order in and every human beings want to feel comfortable, but a whole part of cold plunging is like, get out of the, get uncomfortable, challenge yourself. you know, I just, don't know, kind of maybe on a bit of a ramp right now, but people, looking into people and also be discerning about those people that you don't choose to share your energy with or you're not aligned with, not having judgment on them because everything is allowed, but like put your.

energy cloak on people say like.

speaker-0 (58:15.978)
Yeah, we build our communities and there will be overlap. So I ask this at the end of every interview, put you on the spot. You probably know this already though, but I'm going to ask you what's one small shift that someone could make this week, whether they're at work or they're traveling, that can influence that culture around them?

speaker-1 (58:39.682)
that can influence the culture around them as far as, I guess we're talking about sustainability. like, it's, I don't think it's cliche. It's just smart. Like I like simple things. Like my mom always says to me, she's like, Erin, when you say something, is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? And like the four agreements, don't make assumptions. Don't take things personally. Be impeccable with your word. Always do your best. So when it comes to sustainability, goes back to my days in grade eight on the environmental committee.

Truthfully reduce, reuse, recycle and everything you do when you're buying, do I need that? Can I reuse it? And when in doubt, can I repurpose that? Can I recycle it? Can I, you know, it's very simple, but it's, we all know it. So it's like in those things. And I think that as you get into the habit of doing it, it'll change. It'll like structurally kind of change things for you. And it feels really cool.

speaker-0 (59:36.99)
It does. Erin, thank you so much for sharing your perspectives today from Jasper to film sets, the circus, base camp, and everywhere in between. And I really appreciate the way that you are modeling these small shifts in spaces that move very quickly.

speaker-1 (59:55.278)
Thank you so much and thank you for everything you have learned so much. You have like the words for what I want. So thank you for all the time.

speaker-0 (01:00:02.402)
Thank you. I appreciate that so much. So where can folks find you?

speaker-1 (01:00:07.138)
Well, now that I've said I'm completely inactive on my socials, I'll get back into it. I'm on Instagram and I think I'm on Facebook, just as Aaron Carpluck and for my acting I'm on IMDB and have some really fun shows coming out too. I really enjoy storytelling. It's such a connected way. And I'm also very mindful as I get older about the content of the stories that I'm putting out there. Sometimes I have to the bills, but.

by and large if it doesn't hit with a core value, I'm like, no thank you. Like it's really important. And like for the kids out there, like Holly Hobby, did it because I was like, want my nieces to be ingesting good programming, you know?

speaker-0 (01:00:39.662)
like what if you

speaker-0 (01:00:50.03)
I can't wait to see it. Thank you so much, Okay. Thank you. Thanks again to Erin for joining me today and for sharing her story so openly. You can find links to everything we talked about today in the show notes or over at sustainable in the suburbs.com slash podcast. Until next time, start where you are, use what you have and live a little greener.

Thanks for tuning in to Sustainable in the Suburbs. Every small step adds up and I'm so glad we're doing this together. If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure to follow the show, share it with a friend and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. You can find me at sustainableinthesuburbs.com or at Sarah Robertson Barnes on all the things. Until next time, start where you are, use what you have and live a little greener. This podcast is produced, mixed and edited by Cardinal Studio.

For more information about how to start your own podcast, please visit www.cardinalsstudio.co or email Mike at mike at cardinalsstudio.co. You can also find the details in the show notes.