How I Started My Eco Journey

My journey to living a more sustainable life didn’t happen overnight and is still far from perfect. We all start somewhere, and I wanted to take this opportunity to share my story with you.

It all started when I discovered the ugly truth behind our unsustainable agriculture…

I studied Graphic Design in college and it’s a bit of a miracle that I’m actually still working in my field of study today after taking some serious detours outside of the creative realm. Minoring in business, most of my class schedule was fulled with the usual Accounting, Business Ethics, etc. However, I had always been interested in environmental science, so when the opportunity arose, I was excited that I could fit it in my schedule that semester. For our final paper, we drew a topic out of a jar and had to write a paper based on that subject.

I drew the “Sustainable Agriculture” topic. That very next week I vowed to become a vegetarian once I started digging into the jaw-dropping research, of course. I also vividly remember the statistic that if we didn’t take action, all of our fish would be gone by the year 2048. That obviously hit home 1) because it’s certainly in my lifetime and 2) because I used to love a good tuna melt. Fast forward to recently watching Seaspiracy, which drove that point home once again.

I’ll be completely honest, becoming a vegetarian in my college years was short-lived, but proud to say I’m back to a plant-based diet these days. The last animal product I am working to cut out is cheese. I don’t eat a whole lot of dairy, but cheese has definitely been the hardest to replace. If you have any favorite brands or nut-based recipes, please link me to them below!

Integrating Sustainable Practices into Daily Life

Even though I found myself unable to fully commit to going plant-based during college, I began to find ways to do my part. I would buy most of my produce at farmer’s markets, my roommate and I made the switch from dairy to nut-based milk and I carried my reusable water bottle and coffee cup when I was out and about at class and studying at the library. For my final project in my Public Speaking 101, we had to go out in public and advocate for something we felt passionate about. I literally dressed up as an ear of corn, dragged my friend to the farmer’s market with me and stood there with a big sign with a red line through GMOs and engaged with random people passing by to advocate on behalf of purchasing non-GMO produce (read more about GMOs here). To say the least, I was doing something, but the thought of becoming more of a steward to the earth over the years grew on me even more as time went on (pun totally intended 😁)

Choosing to Serve Sustainable Businesses Who are Making an Impact

When I started up Minty Made in 2019, I worked with all types of businesses from real estate to an Indian restaurant to designing logos for construction companies.

About 6 months ago when I took my business full time, I recognized my desire to serve businesses that are making a positive impact with their mission and more importantly, through their actions and operations. In several of my corporate marketing roles, I was responsible for planning trade shows and outreach events. The amount of paper waste that I encountered in an office environment coupled with all of the pointless plastic swag with company branding that might as well have gone straight to a landfill, it quickly became clear that waste was barely an afterthought for most businesses. One of my favorite parts of owning my business is that I was able to make the decision of not only who I choose to take on as clients, but also share in the joy of meeting others who share the same passion to protect our planet’s precious resources. I am honored that over the next few months I have the opportunity to create the branding and web design for an ecopreneur business course, a vegan skincare line and possibly a zero waste store.

I would love to hear where you are in your eco journey and the reason why you started making changes to your lifestyle — feel free to comment below.

Thanks for joining me for the latest scoop!

❤️ Michelle