It’s amazing to see, and be a part of, the huge advances individuals and companies are making when it comes to sustainability.
Such as most people, sustainability was never on my radar growing up. Like so many things that seem too big for any one person to tackle, it was definitely put on the backburner for a while.
When I became a mother in 2006, something inevitably shifted in me. I felt much more conscious of the future of our planet and the impact we have on it. With the new addition to our family, my husband and I looked for a bigger space to live in and bought a new apartment in New York. Our new home was in a LEED certified building – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, one of the most popular green building certification programs in the world. So popular I’d say that coincidentally, the famous American actor, passionate environmentalist and humanitarian, Leonardo DiCaprio became one of our neighbours! His public praise of our building’s green features and constant advocation for environmental awareness and protection definitely had a huge impact on people’s perception of green living, including mine. For the first time in my life, I became consciously aware of our energy system, water management and recycling process.
14 years later, and now living in Miami, we made a conscious effort to implement green building ideas into our new home. All of our lighting is low consumption LED and all of our appliances are high efficiency. Our newest green project has been installing a solar energy system that will cover nearly 100% of our energy consumption. In just three months we have produced enough electricity to the equivalent of 260 trees saved! Thanks to the Miami sunshine, it will also be a very good return on investment. Along with that, we’ve added a water filtration system and water carbonator in a bid to completely eliminate single use plastics from our lives. Little incremental steps can make a big difference.
Throughout my career, I’ve become increasingly concerned about the fashion industry’s impact on our planet, especially now in the era of fast fashion. With my background and passion for textiles and design, I follow trends very closely, and I definitely have also
indulged in some serious shopping over the years. But now, I’ve become very conscious about what I buy, and what I wear, and always consider the textile industry’s impact.
I would love to only buy and use products made with sustainably made textiles which are also biodegradable. But, I’m a realist. If this is really the way forward, these sustainable products have to be as beautiful, as functional and as impactful as traditionally made ones in order to be competitive. And with rubber and plastics as widely used as they are, there’s no one easy way out there either.
Sustainability is a journey, and so I continue to learn and improve my, and my family’s impact on our planet every day.
Lots of love,
Nilufer x