Why Start a Sustainability Blog? Celebrating 5 years of Blogging Together

Last month , Krista and I celebrated our five year anniversary of launching our blog. It’s hard to believe that five years have gone by already! Year 5 seems like a good one to stop and reflect on our journey so far and why we decided to start a sustainability blog.

But before all of that, we also want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who stops by and reads our blog. Every visit and view is a huge encouragement to us. It’s humbling to have visitors from all over the world sharing this sustainability journey with us.

The Roots

Krista and I have been friends for well over a decade now and I actually lived with her and her family for a while. During that time, Krista and I had a lot of fun trying out some entrepreneurial ventures. Nothing huge, mind you, but always rooted in sustainable ideas–like salvaging or upcycling items and reselling them. Exploring more ways to combine our passions and hobbies led to the idea of starting a blog. We started asking the question of ‘could we actually do it?’ and then decided there really was nothing to lose!

Before launching into writing blog posts and setting up a website, we started a big brainstorming session. We got out the felt markers and huge pieces of paper and began coming up with blog post ideas and questions we needed to answer. Krista’s little one even got in on the brainstorming as can be seen below!

Why start a sustainability blog?

Of all the projects we could have started together, why did we choose to start a sustainability blog?

Living sustainably is at the core of who we are. Taking care of the planet guides the choices we make in our lives. We don’t always do that perfectly and some seasons (like the one I’m in right now) mean living with more waste, but sustainability is always at the front of our minds.

With the overwhelming nature of the climate crisis, a sustainable lifestyle blog was a way for us to take action. Our blog gives us the chance to speak out about climate change and offer positive suggestions and hope. Climate anxiety is a very real thing and it helps us to be regularly taking action through our blog.

We were able to combine a number of passions into one thing. Writing a blog meant that we could explore other passions as well as simply writing–though writing is actually a huge passion of mine. We have been able to learn new things, refinish furniture, and share about fun projects and adventures. While our blog is about sustainable living, that is a broad enough topic that allows us to have a lot of fun with it.

It was a way to share a passion project with a good friend. Doing things together is always more fun! It has also been a great way to challenge each other while life is overwhelming and busy. And a way to get creative together during times of writer’s block or lack of inspiration.

Challenging Blogging Moments

Starting a blog involved far more than we imagined! It turns out a blog is more than just writing words and putting it out on the internet. There were an overwhelming number of choices to make right from the get go–from what our logo would look like to the type of font we wanted to use. Then there are the big challenges of what to write and how to get people to read that writing.

Some of the challenging things we had to learn:

1. What on earth SEO stand for and how to utilize it;
2. How to run our own giveaways;
3. How to stop thousands of spam bot replies in a day;
4. How to set up a self hosted website.

The learning curve was steep (and we’re still learning!), but it has been a huge blessing to be learning it all with a good friend. If you’re thinking of staring a blog–sustainable lifestyle or otherwise–it can be a lot of work but it’s certainly satisfying.

Favourite Blogging Moments

While there were a lot of things to learn, there have been some absolute joys along the way.

Some of my favourite things and moments have been:

1. Meeting other fantastic bloggers and creating projects with them, like the Climate Change Collective group from Canada, the USA, and the UK;

2. Being able to support small businesses and share about their products and projects, like the ones in our Sustainable Fashion Series;

3. The moment when Gail Vaz-Oxlade complimented my writing when I tweeted her about the Money Master Class Series;

And at the top of my list has to be doing this with Krista. If you haven’t had a chance to read our introductions yet, check them out here: Introducing Krista and Introducing Alison.

5 Ways to Support our Blog

Thank you for all your support with visiting our blog and reading our posts! If you’re wondering whether there are other ways to support us, here are a few things you can do.

1. Sign up for our email newsletter (it’s only once a month–no spam, we promise!)

We send out a monthly recap of all our posts and include some sustainable living tips and store discounts. Visit our landing page and fill out the form here: A Sustainably Simple Life

2. Follow us on our socials

Stay connected by following us on social media. We are on X, formerly Twitter, Blue Sky, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.

3. Share our posts

If you love what you’re reading, give our posts a share! Each post has a sharing button at the bottom to easily share to social media or email the posts to your friends.

4. Visit the businesses in our sponsored posts

We love supporting small businesses especially when they are on a sustainable mission like we are. When you visit the small businesses we are sharing about in our posts, it lets the businesses know that they are being seen by our readers and the traffic to their websites can also help increase their search standings.

5. Shop our affiliate links

When you shop via one of our affiliate links there is no cost to you, but we get a small commission from the sale. These funds go towards paying for things like our website hosting fees and our domain name. Some of our affiliate links can even save you money!

Here are some of our affiliate links for the places we are affiliates with:
(Note: coupon codes can expire at any time)

Scoria World – Sustainable yoga and meditation supplies
Shop here: Scoria World Website
Coupon Code: SIMPLELIFE10

Green Geeks – Sustainable website hosting services
Sign up here: Green Geeks Website

West Coast Seeds – Sustainable seeds and gardening supplies
Shop here: West Coast Seeds Website

Pixie Mood – Sustainable purses and accessories
Shop here: Pixie Mood Website

KOOSHOO – Sustainable hair accessories and scrunchies
Shop here: Kooshoo Website

Pela – Compostable phone cases
Shop here: Pela Website

SWOP, Shop Without Plastic – Sustainable products for your home and on the go
Shop here: SWOP Website
Coupon Code: SUSTAINABLYSIMPLE2023

Amazon – I know, I know. Not super sustainable, but a necessary evil sometimes.
Shop here: Amazon

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