Sustainable in the Suburbs

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 bigg...

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 w...

Sustainability advice is everywhere — and even when you care, even when you’re trying to pay attention, it can be hard to know what actually matters. In this episode, I’m joined by Alexa Pavan of Go Green With Alexa, a climate communicator and copywriter who’s focused on making sustainability more understandable, more approachable, and a lot more connected to real life. We talk about what it looks like to move through all of that information — how to figure out what’s credible, what’s actuall...

We spend a lot of time talking about climate change — but not nearly enough time understanding it. Most of us were never really taught how to understand it, especially in a way that connects it to history, systems, power, and the everyday decisions we’re making. This week, I’m joined by Brittany Jefferson, an educator and founder of EJ EDU, to talk about climate literacy — what it means, why it matters, and how it shapes the way we think about everything from education to environmental justic...

Spring is when the birds get loud again. You hear them before you see them — in the morning, in the trees, and in the background of your day. If you’ve ever thought about getting into birding, this is a really natural place to start — right outside your door. In this episode, we’re talking about how to start birding in your own backyard, how to identify common birds by sight and sound, what’s happening during nesting season, and how to support birds in ways that genuinely help. There’s a lot ...

This episode originally aired in the very first month of Sustainable in the Suburbs. I’m revisiting it now because this idea remains one of the clearest ways to find your place in climate action — and sometimes returning to the foundation is exactly what helps us feel re-energized. Climate change feels HUGE — and it is. The problem is urgent and complex. And when you start looking for solutions, it can seem like there’s an endless list of things you should be doing. All of them are important,...

I can’t be the only one who has complicated feelings about goody bags… right? Kids' birthday parties have quietly escalated. The venues. The décor. The goody bags. The expectation that every year has to be a little bigger than the last. But most kids don’t actually need all of that. In this episode, I’m sharing how we’ve kept birthday parties simple, low waste, and still genuinely fun — from smaller guest lists to reusable decorations, bulk food, experience gifts, and activities that don’t en...

Buying less is one of the most powerful forms of climate action we have. In this episode, I’m sharing some of the things I’ve stopped buying over the last ten years of sustainable living. This shift into eco-frugal living happened gradually, beginning with using up what I already had, doing periodic waste audits to see what we were consistently throwing way, and getting very clear on how and where to spend our money. Because truly, the most sustainable thing you can buy is nothing. Takeaways ...

We all have clothes we don’t wear. Pieces that might fit again someday, that were expensive, or that feel too nice to just drop into a donation bin. When those clothes start piling up, donation often becomes the default solution. And once those bags are gone from the trunk, the buying cycle begins again. In this episode, I’m taking a closer look at that pattern, and at what it might look like to slow down not just how we buy clothes, but how we let them go. We’re talking about clothing swaps ...

Paper towels are one of those everyday items most of us don’t think twice about — until we do. They’re convenient, familiar, and deeply embedded in our kitchen routines. But when you slow down and look at what goes into making something designed to be used once and thrown away, it becomes worth questioning. In this solo episode of Sustainable in the Suburbs, I’m talking about how to quit (or significantly reduce) paper towel use in a way that’s practical, flexible, and rooted in real life. I ...

If the week between Christmas and New Year’s leaves you feeling overstimulated, scattered, or unsure how to move forward without just adding more pressure, you’re not alone. After a season filled with noise, expectations, and stuff, it can be hard to find your footing — especially when the cultural message is already shifting toward doing more, fixing more, and buying more in January. This week, I’m joined by Gillian Gabryluk, founder of Sileo Health & Wellness and host of the Be Still an...

Every holiday season, those beautifully wrapped gifts under the tree inevitably results in a giant pile of very fancy garbage in five minutes flat. In this week’s episode of Sustainable in the Suburbs, Sarah Robertson-Barnes looks at something most of us keep meaning to do better with next year… gift wrapping. From the confusing rules around what’s actually recyclable to the Pinterest pressure of “perfect” presentation, this episode explores why wrapping creates so much waste — and what we ca...

Some of the most meaningful gifts we give (and receive) aren’t new. They’re secondhand. And yet… so many of us still hesitate. In this week’s episode of Sustainable in the Suburbs, Sarah Robertson-Barnes digs into the cultural stigma around secondhand gifts, why it lingers, and why it’s slowly shifting. This episode explores what makes a gift meaningful in the first place — and why secondhand gifts, whether thrifted, vintage, or passed down, often hold the most heart. Sarah shares listener st...