Vivian Leung is the founder + designer behind one of the greener stationery lines, 9SpotMonk. So I assumed (wrong) that she'd been a super greeny all along. I found Vivian's story behind why she became more eco-conscious in her life — and her business — to be so real and inspiring. Here's Vivian's story:
When we started 9SpotMonk, I didn’t care about being green. It wasn’t something I grew up with or thought out. It wasn’t an issue. We always recycled, and that was the extent of it. When we really turned green was after my daughter was born. Both of my kids have severe food allergies. We had to stop what we were eating and change everything to organic and take all of the chemicals out of our house. We weren’t sure what she was allergic to and we ended up literally cleaning house and finding things that were more kind to be in the house. I started shopping at places like Whole Foods, and got a feel for what being green is. I thought if it’s so easy to do at home, we should extend it to the business.
And here's more on how Vivian's gone greener in her everyday:
1. three simple ways you've gone greener in your life
+ first thing we did was purchase wind power
+ second thing was change all our bulbs
+ third thing was recycling our children's toys. We have lots of friends
who have kids our age so we swap toys when the kids get bored. It saves
money and it saves toys from being in a land fill... at least for a
while
an eco-friendly kitchen set made from rubberwood over the holidays for our daughter
3. one green initiative you'd like to see enacted in your community
4. best green gift you've given, received, or coveted
5. hardest habit to break to be more eco-friendly
6. three ways you want to be greener this year
+ letting people know how easy it is to start being greener
[thanks to Vivian for sharing her green story!]
{green swap photograph by charlotte jenks lewis}
yesterday's q+a: marisa of plover organic
tomorrow's q+a: elizabeth mayhew of flip! for decorating
what's green swap? find out more here
