Bettina Campolucci Bordi, founder of Bettina's Kitchen discusses the importance of sustainability and whether a sustainable life is easy to achieve.
Sustainability has to become more than just a buzzword. It has to become part of your everyday life, and it’s easier than you think.
Trying to live a sustainable life can sometimes be overwhelming. There’s a lot of false knowledge, scare-mongering articles and a lot of complexities surrounding the issue; they can be just as scary as the main issue at hand. But it shouldn’t have to be that way. I’ve been pro-sustainable for a large portion of my adult life, and it’s something I try to impart onto others – at my retreats, events or just over a well-needed coffee with a friend.
Living sustainably shouldn’t just be sustainable for the planet; it should be sustainable for you too. It’s about finding a balance between practices that work in line with your values and daily schedule. If we encouraged more people that it’s okay just to do what they can, rather than make them feel guilt or anxiety for not doing it all, at once – we would see a more positive, accepting reaction and overall impacting change on the environment.
We are all able to contribute to the movement in some way, and that’s what I want to inspire. Finding your passion for the purpose is key. Why are you doing what you’re doing? For me, my love for sustainability comes from eating seasonally and locally grown produce as a child. Growing up in various small towns across the world, my family would always ensure we were celebrating the local small businesses as much as possible. These historically untold stories that were so full of passion and culture taught me more about life and food than I could ever imagine. But more ironically – they taught me about the future. And how we need to go back to our roots and honour those traditions to move forward.
We should eat seasonally, locally and from farm to table as much as we can; we should support small businesses within our communities and those around us; we should use roots, shoots and all. Cooking waste-free is particularly important to me, and we must let our vegetables do the talking – the best plant food is fuss-free, simple, easy, inexpensive and speaks for itself. It’s telling us that we can do this -together!
There’s this preconceived notion that being sustainable is difficult and expensive. But guess what? It’s not. Through simple daily tasks such as simply reducing your meat and dairy intake or taking public transport, riding your bike or walking where possible we can reduce a large industrial scale of transportation, congestion and carbon emissions. Buying local, seasonal products provides your body with more nutrients and less pollution for the environment – and bringing your own containers, jars and bottles to stores helps to cut out unnecessary single-use plastic.
Cooking meals from scratch helps to reduce food waste, as you can control the portion sizes; make sure to utilise your freezer to help even further. Each little step you take is one step closer to us reaching a greener existence.
Chatting Food Contributor: Bettina Campolucci Bordi
Bettina Campolucci Bordi is the founder of Bettina's Kitchen.
Bettina’s Kitchen today encompasses culinary, yoga and mindfulness retreats, plant-based cooking workshops, recipe development, food writing, and first cookbook, Happy Food.
For more inspiration on how to live a more food-focused sustainable life check Bettina's book, The 7 Day Vegan Challenge launching on the 26th December [Hardie Grant, £15].