Meet the Matchable Team: Lauren talks Sustainability
This year’s Mother Earth Day on the 22nd April falls just weeks after the IPCC’s damning report on the climate emergency, warning that we must take action ‘now or never’ to prevent irreversible damage.
We caught up with our Impact Organisation Executive, Lauren, to chat about what she’s doing to try and live more sustainably.
Introduce yourself!
I’m Lauren, the Impact Organisation Executive at Matchable, and I’ve been at Matchable for nearly 6 months now.
What prompted you to start living more sustainably?
Hmm - I think what really started it was when I lived in Whistler, in Canada for a few years - over there people are much more aware of their impact on the natural environment.
The Climate is so much more extreme - you’d bounce from avalanches in the Winter to forest fires in the Summer; in the height of July you wouldn’t see a single person smoking because everyone was afraid that a little spark could start a fire - and I think that meant I developed a bit more respect for the sort of ‘might’ of nature. They also didn’t have council-operated waste-removal , so every week you’d have to go to the waste and recycling centre and see everyone’s rubbish and recycling piled up. That put it in perspective a bit more for me, I think.
“If you can do something, you should do it.”
What are the main things you do to try and live more sustainably?
I’ve been vegetarian for a few years now (well - flexitarian. I still have a bacon sandwich every year on my birthday - haha), but I think that makes a big difference. I really admire people who go full plant-based, I’m just not ready to give up cheese or butter yet!
I’ve also tried to make my new year’s resolutions more sustainability focussed this year. Instead of the usual “go to the gym 7 days a week” (unsurprisingly I’ve never stuck to that one), I’ve stopped getting takeaway coffee unless I have a reusable cup and try to only buy from charity shops - helpful for the bank balance as well as the environment!
What do you think sustainable living will look like for people in the future?
Hmm. I think it will look different for everyone, really. I think everyone has their own thing that they can do to make a difference - for some people it’s eating less meat, for some it’s only buying seasonal produce, for others it’s cutting out single-use plastics. The main thing is that if you can do something, you should do it.
Hopefully in the future, a lot of these decisions will be subconscious or made for us already. If the government partly subsidised products with no plastic packaging so that they were the cheaper option, for instance, people would make the more sustainable choice without even thinking about it. At the moment, it’s often a privilege to be able to make environmentally conscious choices, and it would be great if that changed so that ‘living sustainably’ was accessible to everyone.
Are there any sustainability initiatives that you particularly love?
Good question - probably anything to do with circular / slow fashion. I know that the fossil fuel industry is the most culpable for the climate crisis, but I absolutely hate fast fashion - companies selling clothing for less than £1? How is that even possible? It’s so blatant that the people making the clothes aren’t being treated ethically or being paid correctly either, and then these companies try to greenwash what they’re doing by releasing a ‘sustainability range’?! Ugh. It really frustrates me.
Matchable employee volunteering actually has so many great sustainable fashion organisations in its network - RubyMoon in particular are one of my favourites, they create activewear out of recycled plastic waste from the ocean!
Do you think sustainability should be a priority for businesses?
Yes! 100%. I actually think that businesses should be more accountable than individuals - just because their actions tend to have much bigger implications, and often they have more control over their sustainability practices and carbon footprint.
I guess that’s why things like the B-Corp accreditation carry so much weight now; employees and consumers want to know that businesses are invested in more than just profit. It’s definitely something that drew me to Matchable - it’s always nice to have your personal values align with those of your workplace!
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