A couple of years ago I started to notice my own consumer behaviour; following the latest fashion trends because “the cool kids wear them”, impulsively buying lifestyle gadgets with the intention to create a life I could show off. The only thing I actually created was the Pinterest board embodying all I thought I wanted to be.

I’m still learning to recognise conditioned patterns, but taking a step back from social expectations I thought were normal, opened up alternative ways of being to me. Sustainability became an option, and eventually a conscious choice, for myself and my environment. My relationship to it (awareness, mother earth, existentialism) is personal and so is my way of activism. The following piece is my attempt to visualize my own approach to sustainability.

Ellen S. M. N., An approach to sustainability