Forward the revolution: My Green Pod
Jarvis Smith and Katie Hill run My Green Pod – a quarterly sustainable lifestyle magazine that is published with The Guardian, and their new ethical online store www.mygreenpod.com DOASSN got a few minutes with Jarvis, and got a glimpse behind the scenes of the company spearheading nothing short of a consumer revolution.
What’s new with My Green Pod?
We are in window of time that My Green Pod was created for, a time when everyone across the globe would see the impact we are having on the Earth and her ecosystems. The pandemic is a gift to our civilisation because for the first time in modern history we have been able to see across the globe cause and effect related to the climate crisis. We were forced to stop business as usual and look at the what we achieved so quickly. We’ve recently launched the Don’t Change campaign with the brilliant team at Gusto.film It’s a simple reminder to the changes we’ve already made and to try and stick to them. Check out www.mygreenpod.com/change Why should we become conscious consumers? I don’t like the term consumer, it’s a labelling theory that makes us think buying stuff is good for the economy, a man made law we have all bought into, literally. We need to become conscious citizens who shop and if we can buy stuff that’s better for people and the planet and gives back to Nature when we take, then we are – in our own little way – closing the loop.
At My Green Pod we plant a tree or mangrove in the tropics for every single transaction with our women empowered charity TreeSisters. If you shop with us you are ticking the highest level of sustainability box there is available in the World. Ideally you only buy essential items as of course reusing what’s already been made is way better. What’s in the next edition of your magazine and when is it out?
For the first time ever we are doing a Digital Information special edition to support the big IT companies in there move to becoming more sustainable. We have an amazing new client called Citrix who have a very clever working from home solution for seamless work that all the big companies can use and integrate into a new business model so employees can work from home and have exactly the same digital experience as being in the office. This is huge because we have seen how efficient we can be and bring down carbon emissions when we cut the daily commute. We also have a EV special edition going out in October along side our biggest issue of the year the inspiration for Christmas shopping. Anyone can sign up to our digital edition for free here www.mygreenpod.com/subscribe and get the next issue straight to their inbox. Your P.E.A. awards ,identifies and celebrates the green heroes who are taking matters into their own hands and providing inspiring alternatives to business as usual. Are the awards going ahead this autumn?
The P. E. A. awards are in there 10th year and we wanted to do a massive celebratory event. However with the pandemic uncertainty we have very nearly decided on a virtual event. Its has yet to be officially announced so you heard it here first. We all know green heroes, changing things in brilliant ways so please enter yourself or people and teams you know doing amazing things: www.peaawards.com Is there anything else you’d like to say to our readers? We’ve always run our business on intuition by listening to Nature and not simply market trends. Nature is telling us that if businesses are not going to operate in harmony with her they will be terminated. We forget Nature is way more intelligent than we are, yet we carry on taking and not giving back, that is a recipe for disaster on so many levels for every business. Over the last decade we have watched and worked with 1000’s of business in helping them to understand a more natural way to operate that puts people, planet and purpose before profit. I’m encouraging our brands to become focused on becoming Prophet’s before they think about Profit. This means you can vision and transform your business to become part of a global ecosystem that can sustain itself by being part of a solution for an age of restoration. If you want to know what that looks like for your business get in touch. Also, if you have ethical products and would like to get them onto our marketplace do get in touch, we would love to hear from you. Contact jarvis@mygreenpod.com