Episode 21: Contemplating the planet’s predicament during a pandemic with Amy Powell - Founder, Attainable

The Social Impact Startup

Amy Powell wants to empower individuals to make better choices today so that our planet can have a healthy tomorrow. Raised in Santa Cruz, CA and having grown up in a mindful household, the roots of sustainability were planted early but came to fruition later in her career. Working in the events world for over a decade, she was all too familiar with the cost efficiency of having “disposable events” and the waste they produced. Like the straw that broke the camel’s back, Amy’s inertia for the planet came unexpectedly one day when seeing a trash can that had been knocked over on a walk. Seeing trash everywhere, she vowed then and there to take action. Amy created Attainable in order to empower everyone to take action and recognize that we are all in this together. In order to understand how to move forward, she had to learn how we became a “disposable society” in the first place and how that has perpetuated a lack of value for the things that we have. We discuss sustainability as a three-tiered system, how we can create a new normal post COVID-19, and how we can reconnect with nature and our communities. We also discuss the logistics of being a founder, why taking space can be the most helpful thing when you’re building something bigger than yourself, and why we should approach the world, and ourselves, with more empathy.

If you are interested in learning more about sustainability, Attainable or Earth Day, Amy wrote a great article highlighting our current environmental predicament and how we can initiate change.

https://medium.com/the-quilt-thread/the-planets-sigh-unexpected-lessons-of-social-distancing-2ba78d910399

https://www.attainable-af.com/

https://www.instagram.com/attainable_af/

Earth Day Resources

https://www.earthday.org

https://www.wedonthavetime.org/event/

Our podcast theme song is "Pico & Westwood" by Esbie Fonte. For more info, visit https://www.esbiefonte.com/