Episode 12: Waste Knot Weddings - How to Easily Plan Environmentally Conscious Weddings

Hello listeners and welcome to the Eco-ish Podcast. I'm Tracy Lydiatt, founder of Sustainable Living School, and I'm your host today. The purpose of the Eco-ish Podcast is to illuminate the good work towards sustainability that companies are doing, honestly discuss trade-offs that they might wrestle with, wrestle with, and to share their interesting stories to help listeners like you make informed choices. Eco-ish Podcast honors the imperfect journey towards creating an eco-friendly brand in an unsustainable society. On today's episode of Eco-ish Podcast, I'm super pleased to introduce you to the creative work of Mallory Gladman of Waste Not Weddings. Waste Not provides unique earth-conscious wedding and event planning in the Greater Vancouver area. Mallory is a certified wedding planner and a proud female eco solo-preneur. She has a background in entertainment and event catering and then took the opportunity to create more earth-friendly weddings and events with her planning company Waste Not. Relatively new to the Vancouver area, she's enjoyed getting to know those in the event industry and researching companies who implement more sustainable practices in their businesses. She's a founding member of MUSE, which stands for Members United for Sustainable Events, and an ambassador for Circular Unity, which is a tool for calculating emissions at events. And she enjoys playing with her cat Lily, hiking, baking, and practicing yoga. Hi, Mallory. It's so great to have you with us today. Once I learned about your, uh, your business, I was really excited to have you on as a guest and to learn a lot more about what you're up to. And so could we start off by sharing, or I'd like to ask you, where are you calling in from today?

Yes, hi Tracy, it's so nice to be here. I am on the unceded and unsurrendered land of the Halkomelem-speaking peoples in New Westminster, British Columbia, where my home office is located.

Wonderful, thank you for sharing that. I'm calling in today from the traditional lands of the Tsleil-Waututh people in the Okanagan Nation. And it's great to have you here. I think that I'm just super excited to talk to you about your company, Waste Not Weddings. And of course we've done a little intro, but it's always much more interesting to hear what your business is about in your own words. Could you share a little bit about what you're up to?

Absolutely. So Waste Not Weddings and Events, and that's Waste Not with a K. For the pun, provides unique and earth-conscious wedding and event planning by the hour in the Vancouver area and beyond. I aim to reduce overall waste production as much as possible for each event in the planning process and then bring the event's vision to life on the day. For weddings, each event is different and every person has a different idea and vision and budget. So that makes my job super fun and ever-changing. I always start by asking clients what eco-values are the most important to them and then start looking for ways to incorporate that into the wedding, especially starting with the venue itself. Location is everything. So if they have already booked a venue, I look into that venue's infrastructure, see what the venue might already provide on site. Including rentals or catering. And if they haven't booked a venue yet, then there's still time to kind of shop around and play and find a really good fit, which is exciting for me. I actually wrote a blog about why you should hire a planner before booking your venue. So if you feel like checking that out, it is on my website, wastenot.ca/blog. And it just gives a little insight into all of the things that go into looking for a venue, which can be a bit overwhelming for newly engaged couples. So, it might be a good idea to just kind of head there first, um, before doing research yourself. Um, because that's what we're here to do. So a wedding planner should, um, be researching all of that and answering some of those questions for you.

Excellent. That— thank you. I, I feel like you probably rightly also earned the chief cat herder, uh, title as well. I think maybe many listeners have seen the movie The Wedding Planner. I think it had, uh, Jennifer Lopez in it.

Yes.

Yeah. I feel like you're also probably part therapist and so many other things that go along with the wonderful work that you do. So speaking of which, what was— why did you decide to get into this work and what inspired you to start working on waste-not weddings and making them more eco-friendly?

Well, I have quite the different background and journey to getting to this point. Place. Um, but basically, even though some people might call me crazy, I, I love weddings. I'm just that person that, that enjoys the celebration of love. Um, and I have a background in entertainment, so it does kind of suit my personality. Um, so I, I grew up actually in the States. I'm from the Orlando, Florida area. Oh wow. And when I was performing and pursuing performing musical theater in New York City I was also working for special events catering, which a lot of actors and performers do. Um, so while I was doing the other side jobs in the catering industry, I love food and it broke my heart seeing a lot of food waste dumped at the end of the night. Um, that's something that everyone in the events industry has kind of seen. Um, and just material waste as well. There, there's so much room for improvement and some people are doing their part to improve that already, but especially in New York City, I said, wow, there has to be a different way to do these things, especially with weddings and large corporate events. It's just so much waste. So that kind of got the things ticking in my head of something for the future. And then after I stopped performing, I moved to Canada where my husband lives, and we moved to Vancouver during the pandemic. Of course, when I was trying to transition into a new career around the event industry. But I did see that there was an opportunity to bring my love for weddings and sustainability into a new business. So I had done planning for friends and family's weddings. I had done my own wedding back in 2019, all with eco swaps and eco-friendly solutions just to keep the waste down. Some things work better than others. Some things are unavoidable. Of course, I'm not here to do zero waste weddings by any means. I don't actually believe in that word. There's no such thing as a zero waste wedding. Um, but there's— yeah, but there's a lot of room obviously for improvement. So, um, just kind of with playing with my friends and family's weddings and my own weddings, I found things that do work and actually kind of save money as well, which is just another plus side of the more minimalistic and sustainable events. Area. So that's kind of how I got here. I noticed that Vancouver was a little bit more eco-friendly minded as a city in general, and there are some really lovely vendors I've gotten to know and people in the events industry here, so it seemed like a good fit.

Nice, and congratulations for persevering through what nobody in, uh, could ever have anticipated being like probably one of the most disruptive events to, well, globally. I could, I think that's probably fair to say, uh, with the pandemic. And so it's exciting to me that I think that's where passion comes into when you truly know that you want to do something that you're willing to persevere through, um, unforeseen circumstances that put a lot of pressure on you and potentially bump you out of the path that you were intending to be on. And, uh, when you were talking about eco-friendly swaps, um, I started feeling stressed and I'm not even like engaged. I can't even imagine. I cannot even imagine what it would feel like to plan a big event. Um, well, an event period with family, like that's just one layer and then find a location and have all these conversations with your partner and try not to really get mad at each other when like conflict comes up, that's another layer. And then, um, yeah, also adding in the layer of thinking through what kinds of waste products that are generated. You and I were just chatting before we hit the record button, and I was saying that I feel like weddings are, you know, like the fuzzy, warm kind of feeling tone where you're— you are going to celebrate these people's love for each other, and nobody probably really thinks about the waste at the end of the day, or, uh, you know, the, the legacy of impact that that event might have. And so I would love to talk to you a little bit about what you see, like trends that you've seen, or things I think listeners, um, even just to start out this conversation, might be interesting just to hear your thoughts on what are common swaps and what things are really easy to do? Um, if for example, maybe they're not going to hire someone like yourself, uh, you know, do you have some tips that you could share a little bit to kick off this eco-friendly wedding conversation?

Yes. Well, obviously inflation is real, right? So not everyone can afford a wedding planner, even though I am quite affordable. At the moment. But, you know, I understand that everyone's different, and some people do have a bit more time on their hands based on their work schedule and life schedule. So maybe they do want to take it on themselves, and that's great. I did it myself. It is possible. It's, it's not always recommended for stress level-wise, but it is possible to plan your own wedding, and I'm all for that. Honestly, it can work, but it does take a little bit of time and compromise and all of that. So knowing that, I think that, yeah, obviously when you get engaged, you think of those warm fuzzy feelings and you're just happy and you don't think of waste, which is not the sexiest word in the book. But I'm here to try and just kind of nudge, nudge that way and say, well, there is thing— there are some things to think about when it comes to weddings and making them less, uh, lower impact, you know, for the planet. And I think there are more people than I thought out in the world, just based on response of what I'm here doing, that are actually, they do care about the planet, which is great. Um, just good to know that other people are like me and actually do care. So yeah, when it comes to starting that planning process, a lot of people hop straight onto Pinterest. And I'm here to tell you it's okay. You don't— like, a lot of people have different views on Pinterest. I love Pinterest. It's great for ideas. However, it's not always realistic, so just keep that in the back of your head. But there are some really wonderful eco swaps on there. Um, obviously a lot of them are DIY, do it yourself, which is not always what I recommend because it can be a lot of work for your day of coordinator or planner to come in swoop in on the day and try to assemble all of these things from a box that you just put there on your wedding day. Um, so yeah, just for those DIYers out there, it can be a little stressful. Um, but there are tons of eco swaps, uh, that are very simple that do make a slight impact, um, maybe even bigger than you thought and do actually save money, which is great as well. So, um, when I started Waste Not last year in early 2022, I wanted to focus on eco education. For my social media, not just inspiration and pretty pictures. There are some on there, but I definitely wanted to focus on the education side. So I started these Waste Reduction Wednesday posts on my Instagram. So on wastenot_weddings_events, it's a very long tag, sorry. You can find all of those posts that I posted on Wednesdays throughout the year last year. Um, and those are not only for weddings, but there are a lot that are for weddings on there. Um, some of my favorites are choosing caterers that are affiliated with Ocean Wise sustainable seafood programs or the Green Table Network. That's really easy to find on those websites when you're looking at caterers. Um, also some that work with food rescue programs like Vancouver Food Runners. For the end of the event if you have a lot of food left over that can be rescued and they can send it out to people who need it. Uh, supporting small and local businesses for any kind of wedding gifts, maybe for your maid of honor or your best man. That's a great swap to do. Even wedding favors. Donating to your favorite charity or nonprofit instead of swag bags or wedding favors or even registries if you're a couple that already live together and already have everything you basically need. And maybe are postponing your honeymoon or something like that, think about just donations to your favorite charity or nonprofit organization. Encouraging secondhand or rented formal wear, that's huge. I know everyone dreams of the perfect wedding dress and I'm not here to be like, no, you can't buy a brand new dress. But there are a lot of different ways to just kind of save on material waste on that side. The clothing industry is a bit crazy when it comes to that. So I'm always up for, you know, the second-handed, um, you know, the— there's a couple great Facebook groups out there actually that just kind of swap dresses, which I think is wonderful.

So I didn't know that.

Get on those Facebook groups. Facebook groups are awesome for, for weddings, I have found here in Vancouver especially. So that's really fun. And that's not just for materials, that's, that's for everything when it comes to weddings, decor and rentals, all of that kind of stuff you can find as well on Facebook groups. Um, also opting for succulents or fruits or gourds on the table instead of just fresh flowers and candles. I'm all for switching it up. Um, I am somewhat anti-floral as a wedding planner, especially fresh flowers. I think it just can be such a waste sometimes, even though they're beautiful and they're pretty. I'm not saying you can't have flowers at your wedding, but there are so many other options out there that sometimes people just don't even think about. Just plants in general are beautiful and will live longer, right, if you replant them or pot them. So, and it can also be a gift to give home at the end. Be like, take a succulent from the table and there you go. You know, try to keep it alive.

It's kind of like cutting down a Christmas tree or having a tree in a pot that you can, you know, like, well, for a while, bring in and out of your house. So that's a great idea.

Yeah, the last one I like is the shuttle transportation for guests to and from a wedding. Not everywhere that's possible, but if it is possible from maybe a hotel or resort or Airbnb, maybe they have some sort of shuttle transportation, or you can get one through your planner, like a bus or a rented van, and that can help. And also just so that the guests don't have to worry about it, right? They're not trying to search for cabs and carpool and have a lot of designated drivers around. Everyone should be able to enjoy the wedding and get a little crazy if they want to without worrying about how they're going to get home.

Yeah, those are all amazing points. And I feel like you've touched on, I think about, well, you've touched on 4 major areas that, uh, that I view the world through from the sustainability lens, which is, uh, you know, emissions, for example. Um, energy is sort of one category. The next one would be chemicals, and instantly when you started talking about candles, I thought about that. And the third one is ecosystem services. So we could absolutely spend the entire podcast talking about food waste.

I could, yes. Yeah, it is.

It's so, so prevalent. I'll just say that briefly. And then the fourth one is around social sustainability and that I truly believe that is the hub in the center of this sustainability wheel, because if we don't like and trust each other, we don't have a hope, um, in creating change, widespread change. And I loved your suggestion about shopping locally as much as possible. And I feel like no matter where you're listening from today, that probably would apply to you in any community. You've got artisans, you've got people that make things, you've got folks that will rent things. So I'm imagining that there's probably lots of options that way. So if you even just tick off one of those things in each one of those categories, you're, you're doing a really great first step forward. And, um, I like— let's talk a little bit about the wedding dress because how many of us, uh, have grown up with, you know, Disney stories or, you know, family stories where— I think my mom still has her wedding dress that her and her mom made, um, And you see, you know, I guess in some movies where they're like, I want you to wear my wedding dress. And, you know, it gets passed down through generations, which is actually, I think, kind of cool. It's a really nice way of reusing material and fabric and having this family energy and heirloom. It's not, I don't think, the thing for everyone. So yeah, I love those Facebook group ideas. And do you have, do you have many folks that do go say thrifting their, uh, for their formal wear? Or, uh, do they have a fun rental that they always like to do? I'd love to hear from some stories about that.

Oh gosh, I just keep going back to a wedding last year where the bride bought her dress that was vintage from a thrift store. However, the zipper broke. So I'm here to say that I'm, I'm super supportive of vintage shopping and thrift shopping, but please try it on. And replace the zipper before your wedding day and make sure that everything is ready to go because this poor girl definitely had a bad luck issue with that. Thankfully I had my sewing kit on hand and I'm pretty handy so I just sewed her up into the dress but it was not obviously ideal. So if I can get a word of wisdom out please check the zippers and the materials because though I love repurposing older materials older chiffon breaks so easily and rips away and tears away. So please have a seamstress check it out before your wedding day. That being said, yes, thrifting can be awesome. Even taking a different dress and incorporate it onto a new dress. There's some really wonderful materials out in the world that are being repurposed for weddings that other wedding companies, wedding dress companies, are making into custom wedding dresses. Those come on a little bit a pricier side. Like, um, I think it's Pure Magnolia— Pure Magnolia— Magnolia. Wow, can't talk. Magnolia is one of them. Um, they create custom wedding dresses, uh, out of sustainable materials. But if that's not in your price range, by all means rent the runway, you know, rent a dress from somewhere, ask around, ask your mom if she still has her wedding dress, if it can be salvaged. With my mother's wedding dress, my sister and I both used part of the lace that was still preserved well enough on our bouquets. We wrapped it around our bouquets, and that kind of felt like a nice little way to bring the dress in and the family in. To my wedding day without actually wearing her dress. Because it was from the '80s, was not quite the most stylish for the time, and just didn't fit me. So there was no way that we were going to wear her wedding dress, even though it was preserved pretty well. But we were able to incorporate it. So there's other ways you can do that. Salvaging materials in so many clever ways, making clutch purses and wrapping it around your flowers, putting it as part of the decor, putting it on the table, somewhere is another way to bring that kind of family specialness into your, into your wedding day without actually using the dress. And then for guys, I feel like it's so much easier. They can just rent a lovely suit or tux if they want to and jazz it up with a nice shirt or tie, something of that nature without spending a ton of money. Yeah. Yeah. Having it sit in the closet for so long. So I am, I'm a fan of that.

Yeah, that's really cool. Great points about how to reuse, uh, fabric, especially from large gowns. Most wedding dresses, I think, are quite voluminous unless you opt for, you know, a, a fun beach wedding. Um, and I actually work in textiles right now, and so textile waste is a massive issue. And, um, most of it, if it can't be reused, and it's a very small portion that gets gets recycled out of the donations that we send to different charities. Um, 95% of it can be reused and repurposed, which is one statistic. The other scary statistic is that about only 1% of it actually will get recycled into something new, and it ends up in, um, markets, uh, secondary and tertiary markets around the world, which, you know, have their own systems of sorting and selling through. But you can imagine clothing sitting in a container on a ship enduring heat and weather, and lots of times things are spoiled by the time they get there. They're unsaleable and they end up being burnt in open landfills. Um, so I'm a huge advocate of reuse of any types of fabric or materials, um, that you can, which I think is really common for rentals like tablecloths and napkins and Yes, and things like that, which is a wonderful option. And I loved your creativity suggestions about clutch purses and, you know, just wedding favors and things that you might keep and enjoy and find a good use of that material of your 1980s dress.

Yeah.

And yeah, I'm actually quite familiar with Pure Magnolia and, um, really love that she selects eco-friendly, um, fabrics. So there's so many ways. If any of the listeners are super into waste, there is something called the waste prevention hierarchy, and that can guide you through different strategies that you might think through as well with someone like you. And I think the fact that you sewed the bride into her dress and they even had a sewing kit on hand does make you the kind of wedding planner that I would like to employ.

Yeah, exactly.

I feel like you walk around maybe with this like a vest on with all these little pockets in it of emergency supplies.

Yes, it's our emergency kit. Every single wedding planner has one on hand, as well as the assistants. Um, and I've now upgraded to a small backpack just to save my, my shoulder, because I was wearing a shoulder bag last year and thought, okay, I think maybe I should go for a backpack this year. Um, but it's so just— it needs to have everything in the tiny, very hands-on approach to fixing any kind of solution. Band-Aids, there's a whole thing about emergency kits on one of the Waste Reduction Wednesday posts actually about what we have on hand and how you can have one at your wedding as well as a bride or maid of honor, pass it along to a family member, someone close to you, best friend, and then they can have their own little emergency kit like maybe a makeup, you know, touch-up and tissues, always tissues. I'm always the planner that has the tissues right there for the speeches for when those tears start to shed. Or if it's on a hot day and they need a quick little pat pat before they walk down the aisle, right? So I love being that emergency kit person, that wedding planner that has everything on them. And the fact that I do have, you know, some sewing skills, that comes in handy on those days. So yeah, there's always something to think about and things that you haven't thought of before that always come up, like that dress situation. So I was happy that I could salvage the dress a bit and make it just possible for her to walk down the aisle without wearing the dress she came in, which was red and a summer dress. So I mean, that was plan B, but I was thankful that I could kind of get her down the aisle in the dress that she wanted.

Oh, I'm sure she was super grateful for you. I think it's just a great example of all of the places of intersection that you can have in a wedding to make different choices, and thrifting a dress or buying a vintage dress is a fantastic one of them. I would love to chat a little bit about food because I, I believe— maybe I'm not a stats person with weddings, but could you confirm that food is one of the most expensive pieces of hosting a wedding?

I can confirm, yes. And I'm a foodie, so that usually is the first thing I talk about with, with the couple after the venue has been selected or during that process. Yeah.

Okay.

Well, good guess on my part. And, um, so I— it breaks my heart too when you think about food waste and how much food is wasted. And I've done research into this and there's more than enough food in the world to feed everybody. And one of the biggest issues is, um, how we move food from one place to another. And you brought forward the example, I think you said food runners. And so maybe there's some folks listening that have never heard of this concept before, so could we talk a little bit about that, about different options to manage your food waste and thinking through potentially— I'd love to hear like different geographies. I know you're in Vancouver, which is urban. Maybe we don't even need to talk about the country because most people might have compost, but can you tell us a little bit about that?

Uh, it's, it's great to talk about this. Um, compost is different in every single facility I've been to. Of course, at least it exists here. It doesn't exist everywhere. Back in Florida where my parents live, there, there is no compost unless they have it in their backyard. Um, so it's great that it exists, but you do have to find it and know how it works and if it's actually working in real which can be something that I do for you, obviously. But, uh, it's, it's fun for me to think of that. Um, obviously the first thing you think of is no food waste at all. That would be ideal. However, usually there is a bit leftover, and if it can't just be brought into leftovers to the family and friends, then that's where that comes into, is working with the caterers, um, and seeing if they already work with some sort of food rescue program. If it is out, you know, in the sticks, in the country, on the island somewhere remote, it's a little bit more difficult, obviously. So that is something that comes with those venues. You know, you might think like, oh, an Airbnb out in the middle of nowhere, how beautiful. But some people don't realize the logistics that go into that. So that is one thing So that is something to think about when it comes to food and just kind of getting numbers down as soon as possible. I'm all about getting those RSVPs in as soon as we can to make sure that we have a good count of how many people need to be fed that day, including the vendors and the staff. And then, yeah, just making choices and the selection of foods to make sure that there's a good amount that could have a second life if there's leftover. Salads wilt, you know, fresh fruits and vegetables don't last forever unless there's some sort of way to preserve them. So having more kind of snacky foods sometimes with crackers and bread and that kind of thing can actually be salvaged for much longer. So that, that is something to think about sometimes when, when choosing the actual food for the wedding. It can't always be done, of course, but if, if it's possible, I've seen some kind of vegan weddings or vegan-friendly weddings where they have more Mediterranean-style foods, and those just tend to last a bit longer in the nature of the kind of food. So that can be a fun way to kind of reduce the waste overall and not have so many leftovers, and if there are, they can be salvaged.

Great points. Uh, thank you. And if food, it's, it's kind of got two different layers as well. What I heard you say is that you have thoughts about where you're sourcing your food from. So this potentially, I think, could, um, lead into questions that listeners might want to ask venues. For example, like if it's a large hotel or a big event center, um, maybe they don't have as much control of where they're sourcing their food from. And that might be a deciding factor. I know that that would probably be a huge deciding factor for me if I was planning a wedding, that I would want to make sure that the caterers had access to the kind of food that I wanted, which would be from, ideally, from a regenerative farm that doesn't use pesticides and, you know, is focused on whole food, ethical food. Um, And then there's the end result when everybody's done enjoying the food. Great points about different types and styles of dishes that would last longer than not. And yeah, I love thinking through that part too, because a lot of people talk about climate change right now. It's on everybody's mind. I know that if you are at least even listening to this podcast, you're someone that's interested in doing better for the planet. And I was fascinated to read in Paul Hocken and his research group's book Project Drawdown. They analyzed the top 100 solutions to climate change that exist right now. And the number one— the number 3 most accessible and impactful is food waste. And so a lot of people, if you don't know, listeners, when you send food waste to your landfill and you don't separate it out and put it in compost, or have it in a backyard compost bin or bokashi bucket or a worm farm or anything that will turn it back into earth. When it gets buried in the landfill, it creates methane, which is, I think, about 28 times more powerful to create the greenhouse effect than one molecule of carbon dioxide. So it is so achievable, it's so impactful, and I feel like both you and I are saying nicely, uh, it's one of the places that should be highly elevated on your, on your list of— if you can't choose, if you could choose to do anything and nothing else, figure out your food waste and figure out maybe where it's coming from.

Absolutely. Yes. Uh, I love to start there for that reason because it is so impactful. Um, I know the BBC Earth, I think, did a whole series on food waste last year, and they had some really great articles on, on what they're doing over in the UK and beyond. So super cool. And I love when you hear those stories of people taking food scraps and using it for something else. That's becoming more and more of a thing, just like in the materials and textile industry. So I, I just love that. I'm a huge supporter of all of those inventive ideas and I think, yeah, starting with food selection, obviously that's what brings people together most of the time, and a lot of cultures are dependent on the food at the weddings. And obviously some cultures like to present just a ton of food just to show that we're here to eat, please, please eat our food kind of thing, celebrate our love by eating. I get it. I'm a huge lover of Italian food, and I know the Italians love their food, right? And, and they actually care about their food. So I, I am not here to say that you need to put out little scraps of food for people at weddings. I think the worst thing to do is to not have enough food actually for your guests. That's not fun. We don't want a bunch of crabby guests that are all hangry. So definitely have food, but just, yeah, I think some thought needs to go into the process of selecting where that food is coming from and, um, if there's going to be leftovers, what to do with it.

So yeah, we have a big Indo-Canadian, uh, community where I live as well. And I know food is such like, their weddings are enormous and they're so much fun and they have so much food, which is so absolutely incredible, mind-boggling. It's always delicious. And yeah, food is a massive part of culture, no matter what culture you're from. I just wanted to share a fun little story that my sister-in-law lives on Pender Island, which is a small island that sits between Vancouver, the mainland, and Vancouver Island. And we were driving around the island one day and all these people were stopped on the side of the road and they had buckets and they were like chucking buckets over this fence just like super randomly. And I was like, what the heck's going on? And she's like, oh, that's the island compost. And there's like I think like 5 or 6 gigantic pigs that are in this pen and like everybody on the island just knows to go throw their compost and edible like food waste in this pen. And I thought, wow, those pigs are living their best life ever. That's cool. Unfortunately, you probably can't do that in the city, but, um, I don't think so. Yeah, it was, it was a unique way of, uh, getting rid of food waste. At least it's the circle of life, back to nature. Yeah. So I'd love to talk about any big wins. I'd love to hear about, you know, from a business perspective, what are some things that you're really proud of or that you're excited about?

So Waste Not is young, but I'm, I'm super honored that I have clients this year and next year that are trusting me to with their wedding. It's such a personal and special choice. And I'm happy to say that I've seen just a lot of great support from local vendors like Savory City Catering and Alicia's Florals here in Vancouver. They're just so wonderful and they care about the environment just as much as me and maybe even more. I belong to a lot of eco communities in the virtual world from all over the world and one that I really love is being a founding member of MUSE, which is Members United for Sustainable Events. MUSE has given me a special network of people that I continue to learn from month after month, and they work all over the event industry. It's not always easy to be an advocate for the planet, as I'm sure you know, especially in the events industry, and it's just really great that we have this kind of family. Now. And everyone's still suffering and recovering from the pandemic, and now there's inflation. There's all sorts of boundaries that happen with that, but I'm happy to say that people are respecting and bouncing back as much as they can, doing the work that's super important, and just finding the right people to do that with you and to feel supported by my local community here in New Westminster. The city is awesome. To Greater Vancouver area. Everyone has just been super supportive, even government officials. Our locally elected mayor in New Westminster is really wonderful and tries to get around to everyone and ask the right questions. He was at a DEI initiative kind of seminar that we had, one of the first back in-persons with the Chamber of Commerce in New Westminster. And it was great to see him there. He showed his face, and that, that just means something when, when people show their face for something so important like a social or environmental webinar or seminar or something. So it is important to have support, and I love that people are supporting me and are telling me, "Just keep going, just keep doing it." It's awesome. Yeah, I'm proud.

And I feel like that is so well earned. Thank you for sharing. And I, I feel like you bring forward an amazing point that so many of us have pandemic fatigue, Zoom fatigue. Um, you know, we all did our part during the pandemic, and what I see now is people are just so hungry for connection. And one of the things that it showed me personally was just I'm nothing without the people around me. And it's— socializing is, I think, a really key point of having a healthy mental state. And so what I'm hearing you say is that even though maybe there's pressures like inflation and expenses, that sounds like folks are still really prioritizing that social part of their lives and looking for ways to still, to still gather and and celebrate love, which is so beautiful. And where the fuzzies come in.

Yeah.

Um, I should ask this other question first, I think. I don't wanna dampen the mood, but I'm always curious too about, um, what kinds of hurdles or trade-offs that you might encounter within your business. And the context for this, for the listeners, is that that's why I named this podcast Eco-ish, because we don't have a state of sustainability within our society right now. We are working our way towards that. And sometimes it's nice, sometimes it's ugly and crunchy and bumpy. And we have to make decisions sometimes that, um, are called trade-offs where you have to select something cuz maybe your ideal situation doesn't exist yet. And I'm just curious from the wedding industry perspective, have you bumped into these things and have to, um, make these kinds of compromises and decisions?

That word compromise is what marriage is.

Yes.

Um, so I just think, yeah, it's just so on point right now. Um, there's always some sort of compromise between people, relationships, between businesses and companies. There's always going to be ups and downs and compromises. So it's important to talk about, I think, too. So I'm glad that you brought it up. Um, obviously as a solopreneur, I do not have an endless supply of financial means and support. Um, I, I'm grateful that I have the support that I do have. However, the government and, um, just grants that are available, I have realized, um, there are some hurdles when it comes to being a solopreneur, um, an entrepreneur doing that. So I would love to hire more employees and pay them a fair wage, but I don't always have those means. And so that's obviously a future thing that I would like to do, but until then I can't really apply for certain grants. And I think that is kind of inhibiting to what I want to do, you know, like those grants would help me get more employees, but to get more employees I need money. So there's a bit of a roundabout when it comes to some of those financial, yeah, hurdles. Um, there's also not a ton of data support when it comes to weddings. There's virtually nothing when it comes to counting carbon and all of that. So I have been just reaching out to so many people about this just because I am not a scientist. My sister is, she works in this field, but She's like, "Wow, you're biting off a bit more than you can chew, I think." And I said, "Well, someone has to, right? Someone has to try." So I'm actually very excited because I have found a startup that is doing international data collecting for emissions in the events and entertainment industries, which is so awesome. It's complicated, a bit messy, a bit ugly, but I think it's it's on its way to becoming something great, and I am the guinea pig for weddings. So I'm just really excited to see how that goes this year. And the more that we do it, the more accurate those numbers come in. So I am trying— of course, it's just little me here right now doing everything, so I think it's going to take a bit more person power to do that, but I am here to learn And obviously for researching and collecting data, a lot of people use third-party event auditors and stuff like that. So that money generally is coming from stockholders and corporate budgets and those kinds of things. So I think that is another kind of financial hurdle when it comes to those numbers that are so important for people. I think I hope that weddings will get there eventually and that we can have a better idea of kind of the international standards of operations around weddings specifically. Um, that's, that is my goal, um, to get that a bit more accurate and accessible to people. It's just something that, again, like waste, people don't always think about when it comes to weddings. You think of the warm and fuzzy, um, but there's a lot of other sides to that, and it's a huge industry. There are so many wedding planners and vendors and all of that, and companies that, you know, really depend on that income and revenue from weddings. So it's definitely something that needs to be talked about.

Wow, that's such a great point and, um, so worthwhile expanding on a little bit, I think, in our few last minutes before I have my few final last questions for you. Those folks that are listening, this is really common in business, so lots of folks that listen, that are listening, might not know about the different scopes. It's, you have Scope 1, 2, and 3 of greenhouse gas emissions that as a company, say you are making stretchy yoga pants, for example, Or what's a wedding example? You are making— well, let's use wedding dresses. Maybe you're making formal attire, you're a business, and depending on how large you are, there's certain reporting standards that are required, and they're actually becoming more and more mandated and part of your regulatory operations. So say you were a really large corporation and you were traded publicly on a stock exchange, for example, in the very near future, part of your accountability for trading as a public company will be reporting on your greenhouse gas emissions. And so as a company, you have to start tracking that. And that's what you're alluding to with the data, I believe. And for listeners, Scope 1 is a direct emission. So potentially it's like driving a dress from a truck, from the warehouse in a truck to the store. Scope 2 is more indirect, which usually covers electricity and other sort of offsite manufacturing facilities. And then Scope 3, if you choose to travel up the supply chain, would be for a wedding dress example, would be where your company is buying that material from, how is it manufactured, what types of emissions are involved in that. So I fully get the— I just wanted to tease that out a little bit so that listeners understand how complicated this is. And how impactful your statement is in both directions, that if you don't have data, you can't assess your choices as a business or as somebody that cares about this. Say you wanted to have a carbon neutral wedding or a greenhouse gas emissions offset for your event, which is actually very common. If you don't have that data, you don't know how much to offset. So it's a really great point, and congratulations for, uh, biting off more than you can chew.

Thank you.

Tentatively. Um, hey, and you're right, if you're not doing it, then who— you know, you're a great person to kick that off. And I do hope that your community is supporting you with that. And I know I was just on an event this week in textiles, and the textile industry has the same, the same challenge is collecting that data so that we can make better choices and we can find solutions. And it's, um, it's a very worthy place to put your energy. So thank you for the work that you're doing.

Don't thank me yet, I haven't done it quite yet. But, um, yeah, I'm trying, I'm trying.

So yeah, well, you've got to start somewhere. So yeah, um, I think it's really exciting, and maybe we could have an update at some point in time about how that's going.

I would love that.

Love to hear more about that.

So I'll tell you about the program real quick. It's called Impact All by Circular Unity. It's an international online platform that collects data and counts emissions for each event. I'm a new ambassador of the program, so I'll be the first one to try it on my weddings. And the goal is just to help the event industry become closer to that carbon neutral goal. They use like intuitive and automated technology, which if you're reading the news, don't be too concerned about the AI portion. Hopefully it'll be fine. But yeah, the robots can help as well. But yeah, I think just developing this kind of technology is such an important tool for people all around the world, especially in those remote locations. So I'm glad that that someone out there is trying to do that. Obviously, it is complicated and there's a lot that goes into it and those scopes that you talked about, thank you for defining those scope 1 and 2 and 3. Imagine doing that for a wedding, right? Like every single component to the wedding. So, it really kind of falls on the venues and the vendors at this point to help me out with some of that. If they're not transparent, How can I be transparent about my numbers? So the more transparent, the more people have on their website their sustainable goals and what they do, the better it helps me in my kind of research. So I would just say to all wedding vendors out there, regardless of what they do, to just try to start having those transparent numbers on their their websites. It just helps so much people like me that are actually trying to get that information without having to dive too deep into a conversation. Some people don't even have staff that they've hired for, for something like that. So it would be definitely something to look into if you're trying to get incentives from the government and get those mandates that are starting to happen. Why not start now. It's gonna come.

Yeah, certainly. Well, thank you so much for sharing that resource and sharing that you're an ambassador. And if any— if there's any listeners that are interested in contacting you, are you available to have conversations about that? I'm guessing as an ambassador, that's a yes.

Absolutely. Yeah, if you're like, what is that? I want to learn more, please. If you're in the entertainment industry or event industry, I would be happy to to talk more about Circular Unity's mission.

Great.

Well, I'll put your contact information in the show notes. So anyone listening, just save the episode and then you can, you know, if you're driving, don't look now. But yeah, you can come back and have a look. And I have a good friend who always says measure what matters. And so for the companies out there listening, I love your your suggestion and nudge and that reporting takes a long time to set up systems and now is the time.

Yes.

It's always my answer.

Yesterday. Yesterday.

Just get started. Yeah. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to get going. So one of my final questions is what are you excited about right now? And if you could sort of paint an ideal picture, pick up a paintbrush and paint this ideal picture for your company and or the industry, what would that look like?

For you? Wow, um, I think I'm most excited about changing the narrative of what a wedding looks like. I think people are starting, especially the clients I'm working with, are starting to do their own thing, go off of, create new traditions and kind of go off from the normal. So that's really exciting that people are, first of all, even thinking about sustainability and eco-friendly swaps to make in their wedding. But in addition to that, just doing smaller weddings and doing weddings their way and not having the pressure of competition and social media and all of, all of those things to compare weddings to. Obviously there's always going to be those trends out there, and some are good and some are terrible. But I think that it's exciting to see what the future of weddings will look like based on what's happening right now. And just vendors in general starting to, yeah, dive into this kind of sustainable approach as well. More people reaching out to local businesses and supporting local farms and different farming practices that are better for the planet. So yeah, I'm excited. Although we are in a climate crisis, that comes with opportunities, not just depressing days of wondering what's going to happen. So while there's a lot of worry, there's also a lot of opportunity, and I'm hoping that people really take advantage of those as well.

Amazing. That's a great future vision. I got chills when you were talking. In, in the form of crisis, there's always opportunity. So yeah, I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that. And so as we wrap up, for listeners, if they do want to hire you, can you please share us how— share with us how they can get in touch with you?

Absolutely. My website is probably the easiest because it's easy to remember, wasteknot.ca. So W-A-S-T-E-K-N-O-T.ca. There's a contact form on the get to know me, contact me section. So you can just send a message that way and I'll get it through my email. Email is kind of what I do all day long. So I'm always on my email. Email is, is a great thing. And also on my Instagram, I am not a huge social media poster, but I do have those little Waste Reduction Wednesday posts on there, and I'm always trying to tap into that social media platform. So I think Instagram, Instagram is one of the main venues for that, as well as LinkedIn. My personal LinkedIn is on there. That's kind of part of my business as well. So My name, Mallory Gladman, G-L-A-D-M-A-N. That's my LinkedIn. I'm the only one there with that name for now, so pretty easy to find. Yeah, that, that's about it.

Great. Well, I'm really looking forward to eventually having the need to hire you, and until then, I'm just so grateful that you took the time to meet me and to come on the podcast, and it's been really illuminating and I've learned a lot and there's— you've shared so much great value. I think it's been really, really helpful. So thank you.

And thank you, Tracy, for having me. It's been wonderful to share my little insight of my niche wedding planning company. So I hope that it sparked not only your interest but other— others that are listening to think a little bit more about the waste production for weddings.

So great. Well, have a great day and I look forward to catching up again soon.

You too. Thanks. Okay.

Bye.

Bye.

Hey listener, thank you for tuning into this episode of Eco-ish Podcast. We bring you new content every other Wednesday throughout the year. If you're a regular listener of the podcast, there's a really easy way to show your support and help us grow. Download the Fountain app on iOS or Android, follow Ecoish Podcast, and start listening. You can share your thoughts on this episode by sending a boost, like a payment with a message, and see what other listeners have to say, or create clips of the best moments. Getting started is easy, and you can top up your Fountain wallet with a bank card. Oh, and you can earn money just by listening on Fountain too.

They have a lot of different different podcasts.

It's a no-brainer. Visit fountain.fm to learn more. If you'd like to learn more about Sustainable Living School and our courses or download our free 12-page Decoding Sustainability Guide, hop on over to www.sustainableliving.school. This is all designed to help you get started with sustainable living in a way that works just for you. We have free resources and paid courses.