About Me

Hi, welcome to A Life with Less, I’m Stephanie. 

In 2016 my husband spotted an advert by the Marine Conservation Society inviting people to challenge themselves to a ‘Plastic Free July’. At the time we considered ourselves to be living in an environmentally conscious way. We had a wormery for food composting, we ordered an organic veg box, we were good recyclers and refilled our laundry and washing liquids from the health food shop.  The challenge appealed to us but we thought we would be pretty good at it. We also thought as it was only for one month, it would be a good challenge and we would possibly come away with a few more tips for living a green lifestyle. Things wouldn’t change that much…would they?

So we started and I quickly learnt the truth of that clichéd saying, “Ignorance is bliss”. Once we started we quickly began discovering all of the things we didn’t know about plastic pollution and realised that going back to living the way we had before had suddenly become much more difficult. We now had the knowledge of what our actions were doing to the planet. And so two years later I am sat here at my computer working out what I want to say to all of you who I hope will visit my website and join the ground swell of voices demanding justice for our planet. 

As time moved on from that first foray into plastic free living I found myself wanting to make a bigger contribution. To play a part in promoting, not just living, a sustainable lifestyle. More importantly I wanted to share the reasons why this is so important. As I continued on my journey towards less waste and greater activism I found myself wanting to know more about what I am striving to save. Sure, I love nature. Yes, I have seen awful pictures of animals stomachs filed with plastics but what actually is plastic and why did I care so much? I began researching ways to make changes and found lots of people doing an incredible job of promoting this lifestyle. What I found harder to find was the facts behind the headlines. What are microplastics? Why does it take so much water to produce…? I know that for me the key to long term change is knowledge. If I understand, I mean really understand the nitty gritty of the problem and I can see how my contribution can lessen that impact then I am much more likely to stick with these changes. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely fall off the wagon sometimes, who doesn’t love a packet of crisps and I make mistakes but I keep trying. 

I kept mentioning to my husband that I wanted to find a way to have a bigger impact. To take the changes we were making at home and inspire others, whether that be individuals, business or the government (you’ve got to dream big!) to think about the impact of our actions on the planet. He asked me why I didn’t share my research with others. If I wanted to know, surely there were others who would too? So here I am, apprehensively seeing if, perhaps, there are others who have unanswered questions, for whom the simplest answer is not enough. Who may want to join me on my voyage of discovery as I attempt to track down answers to some of the biggest environmental challenges our dear old planet has ever faced. 

As well as talking to you here online I’m keen to be a force for good in my own small community. So I am dedicating a portion of this website to local actions. To share the fantastic local businesses and groups that are also striving for change and to hopefully meet some of you offline line and face to face for some in person environmental action!

I hope you enjoy my small contribution to this ginormous issue.

Steph