Stella V
Hi, my name is Stella and I am behind this blog as well as youtube channel that is called "Is it sustainable".
Everyday I try to be more conscious about what I consume. Being more aware of the choices I make and the impact it has to the environment. I continually learn something new as I develop new habits in my day to day life. Hoping that my effort not only helps to change the current health of our planet, but to educate and influence others to make better decisions and reduce your carbon footprint. After I moved to California, I realized that the problem is similar no matter where you live. So I started this channel hoping I can share my eco-conscious principles with other people.
Watch the video to learn about my story and why I decided to start this project.
My story to eco-concious lifestyle
Like many of you, I never really thought about how my life impacts the planet. I was too busy climbing the corporate ladder trying to achieve wealth. Constantly buying things that provided short, temporary satisfaction. Only to find myself wanting more trying to fill a void that will never be filled. It all changed when I went on a last-minute vacation decision to Bali, Indonesia. That trip made me realize that I needed to reevaluate what I want out of life. What I wanted was a simpler, slower and more meaningful life. I needed and wanted to change my life. I decided to quit my corporate job and go back into the basics of life.
I moved to Indonesia 10 years ago and spent 7 beautiful years truly appreciating the simple things in life. I created a travel blog about Indonesia sharing my experiences. I took advantage of every opportunity after escaping the rat race, to spend my time entrenched in the culture, cuisine, and nature. I learned that I felt more gratification with less stuff and helped me to redefine what it truly means to have wealth. All those years thinking that having material goods and living a lavish lifestyle is the greatest symbol of wealth. Realizing that wealth to me amongst other things is spending the countless times watching a beautiful sunset on the beach. Swimming and observing the abundance of living organisms in the ocean. Understanding how important we as people and the role we play in such a fragile ecosystem.
In my last couple of years I lived in Bali I began to observe not just the rapid growth in tourism, but the amount of garbage that came with it. I was seeing more and more litter throughout the beaches which only seemed to increase yearly. Unfortunately, being a third world country, it has limited resources and lack infrastructure which makes it difficult to do anything.
Instead of complaining about the issues, I decided to do something that only I can control. That is me. Again I find myself having to change my lifestyle, not anything drastic, but be more aware of what I am doing in my day to day living that impacts the planet. Whether in a good way or bad. I started doing little things. My goal was not to completely stop everything I was doing but to be more educated about what decisions I make. For example, I began composting my organic waste. Refusing plastic bags and plastic bottles. Avoiding plastic packaging where it’s possible. Paying extra for my garbage to be recycled. Doing beach clean-ups with friends.
Bali, Indonesia is just one of the thousands of islands in the country. Tourism is its main source of income. Its rapid growth in tourism in the last couple of years, along with lack of infrastructure The Ocean was polluted with plastic. Tourism grew more and more and the island of Bali where I was staying was more and more flooded with western products. Years before people would just go to the farmer’s markets with a basket, but not anymore. Now you could go to the supermarket where every single thing is wrapped in plastic. When you buy takeaway food you get it in a plastic container and disposable cutlery – instead of being wrapped in traditional banana leaf – and not cutlery needed Indonesians used to eat with their hands. All that disposable plastic would just end up on the beach, on rice fields or in the rain forests. You couldn’t go anywhere and not see piles of garbage everywhere.
When I moved back to Calfornia in 2018 I felt like omg the nationals parks and beaches are so clean here – compared to California. But then I realized it’s a big illusion to think there is no garbage when you don’t see it. If streets are clean and parks have no plastic litter that means this garbage is just piled away somewhere else. I also learned that all the plastic I saw in the Indian ocean is also partially our American plastic. Because we export out plastic waste to Asia because we don’t want to deal with it here in America.
I realized that when you live in a big city it’s hard to understand how our actions affect the environment. Somebody collect our garbage every week. We pay to someone to deal with it. The problem is gone. While it isn’t.
So I felt I am not only want to do better myself but I want to share my knowledge and my motivation with others. So I decided to start this channel where we together can figure out how to live a more sustainable lifestyle. While still enjoying our life. No radical changes, no crazy decisions like deciding to wear one pair of paint for the rest of life. Reasonable changes but towards a more sustainable life.
