Climate action begins at the kitchen table — and a more sustainable kitchen starts with knowing where to focus.

In this episode of Sustainable in the Suburbs, Sarah talks with Naomi Hansen, author of Building a Sustainable Kitchen: A Practical Guide to Prioritizing the Planet from the Heart of Your Home, about what actually matters when it comes to food, waste, and climate action at home.

Together, they explore why the kitchen is such a powerful place to begin, how food waste connects to bigger climate solutions, and why the most sustainable choice is not always the one that looks the most sustainable from the outside.

Takeaways

• Why the kitchen is a meaningful place to start with climate action
• How food waste connects to sustainability and climate impact
• Why some popular sustainable swaps only scratch the surface
• How to think about trade-offs, like packaging versus wasted food
• Why individual action still matters, especially when it spreads through families, friends, and communities

Connect with Naomi

Website

Instagram

Building a Sustainable Kitchen (book)

Resources

Drawdown:The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming - Paul Hawken (book)

How to Prevent Food Waste With Kids (blog post)

11 Ways to Reuse Food Scraps (blog post)

10 Zero Waste Kitchen Swaps That Save You Money (blog post)

Related Episodes

Ep. 4 - How to Conduct a Household Waste Audit

Ep. 13 - Beeswax Wraps 101

Ep. 45 - How to Spend Less on Groceries by Reducing Food Waste

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Connect With Me

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Sustainable in the Suburbs is mixed and edited by Cardinal Studio

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d love it if you followed the show, shared it with a friend, or left a rating and review. Every little bit helps more people find Sustainable in the Suburbs — and live a little greener.

Can you be sustainable in the suburbs? Well, yes and no.

Suburban life can make sustainable living complicated — especially when communities are built around cars, convenience, private space, and consumption. But the suburbs are also where so many of us live, raise families, volunteer, vote, garden, organize, and build community.

So what does climate action actually look like here?

This episode looks at sustainable living in the suburbs beyond eco swaps and bigger purchases, and asks what becomes possible when we start thinking about our neighbourhoods, local politics, shared resources, and community resilience.

Takeaways

• Why suburban sustainability is complicated, but very doable
• How car dependency shapes the landscape and our daily choices
• Why the suburbs should not be written off in climate conversations
• How sustainable living goes beyond buying greener products
• Why free, inexpensive, and investment-level actions all matter
• How community resilience and local politics shape what comes next

One Small Shift

Choose one free action that connects your household to your community.

Sustainability is something we practise, share, and build where we live — and sometimes that starts with one small step outside our own front door.

Related Episodes

Ep. 7 - Rethinking Zero Waste and Building Community Care

Ep. 12 - How to Quit Using Amazon (and Why You Should)

Ep. 24: 5 Sustainable Living Mistakes to Avoid (and What to Do Instead)

Ep. 36: How to Host a Clothing Swap

Ep. 42: Overwhelmed by Climate Change? Start Here.

Ep. 45: How To Spend Less on Groceries by Reducing Food Waste

Blog Posts

50 Ways to Be More Sustainable

How to Drive Less in the Suburbs

How to Start Living Sustainably

Support the show

Connect With Me

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Support the Show

Sustainable in the Suburbs is mixed and edited by Cardinal Studio

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d love it if you followed the show, shared it with a friend, or left a rating and review. Every little bit helps more people find Sustainable in the Suburbs — and live a little greener.

Back in 2020, I was a guest on the now inactive podcast Practical(ly) Zero Waste, hosted by Elsbeth Callaghan. At the time, my kids were little, the zero waste movement online was deep in its “trash jar” era, and many of us were trying to figure out what sustainable living looked like outside of perfectly curated Instagram squares.

Six years later, a lot has changed.

Kids are older, life looks different, and both of us have let go of a lot of the pressure and aesthetics that surrounded zero waste in those early online days. But underneath all of that, the values are still very much the same.

In this full-circle conversation for Episode 50 of Sustainable in the Suburbs, Elsbeth and I talk about what sustainable living looks like now: parenting teenagers and young kids, balancing low waste goals with real life, navigating burnout and social media, building community, and why consistency matters a whole lot more than perfection.

We also talk about what we’ve kept, what we’ve let go of, and how many of the “small shifts” we started years ago have quietly become lifelong habits.

Takeaways

• Why sustainable living looks very different after years of actually living it
• The shift from perfection and aesthetics toward values and consistency
• Raising eco-conscious kids through everyday habits rather than pressure
• How composting, secondhand shopping, and reusables became family routines
• The connection between sustainability, community, and raising responsible citizens
• Why slowing down is often the most sustainable choice
• How “eco-frugal” living can save money while reducing waste
• Navigating low waste living with celiac disease and accessibility needs

One Small Shift

You can always start again.

Even if you’ve fallen out of old habits, even if life looks completely different now, small intentional changes still matter. Start with one thing that feels manageable and build from there.

Resources

Practical(ly) Zero Waste

PZW - Ep. 69: Raising Eco Kids

Inkwood Print Shop

Related Episodes

4: How to Conduct a Household Waste Audit

11: Money, Enoughness, and Community Care with Women’s Personal Finance

12: How to Quit Using Amazon (and Why You Should)

Support the show

Connect With Me

Website

Newsletter

Shop

Instagram

Support the Show

Sustainable in the Suburbs is mixed and edited by Cardinal Studio

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d love it if you followed the show, shared it with a friend, or left a rating and review. Every little bit helps more people find Sustainable in the Suburbs — and live a little greener.