My Green Pod started off as an ethical lifestyle publication circulated with National Geographic Green in 2009, and now it's distributed to over 77 million people with the Guardian. The journey of the founder, Jarvis Smith, is a fascinating one, and one that is inspiring to fellow environmentalists. We chat to Jarvis about his Shamanic training, his epiphany on the set of an observational documentary on a rubbish tip and how we can each make conscious decisions that will help this beautiful planet we are living on.
We also look at his office which was designed by Biophilic Design expert, Oliver Heath, and explore some of the features, from the living wall to the paint colours and materials used, and importantly what it feels like to work there.
Jarvis’ life journey is incredibly inspiring, after having a life changing experience which was caught on film, he has made it his life’s work to try and help make our planet a better place to live on.
“I committed that I would dedicate my life's work not only personally, but in business to educating, transforming, inspiring other human beings to live more consciously and become aware of what we now know is a climate crisis. In 2006, when this show happened, or when we won there, no one really even knew what sustainability meant, let alone climate crisis.”
So he put all his skills and experiences together, from publishing, brand relationships and advertising and now My Green Pod works with some of the biggest ethical, sustainable brands in the world, like Patagonia, Interface and others.
My Green Pod is like a home, where you can come back to, learn from the excellent blogs and content, and also benefit from the research they’ve done on the brands there. Jarvis, like us here at the Journal of Biophilic Design, advocates that if we all lived our purpose, if we committed that purpose to mitigating the climate crisis, and if we were totally willing to give that time to fix the problem the world would be a completely different place.
That's part of what my Green Pod is about, it is not only inspiring people to make life choices which are better for people and planet, but also to try and underwrite an opportunity for them to be able to connect with their purpose and then offer that skill set to mitigating the climate crisis.
We talk about switching out your normal cleaning products for eco-friendly ones. While each “product” you might be using has a small amount of toxins in it, it’s the amalgamation of a whole bunch of them which is harmful to your health, and especially to our planet.
Part of Biophilic Design, for me, is to bring in natural smells, materials on as many different levels as we can, to help us live better and healthier, not only for our own wellbeing but also for that of our planet.
Throughout the whole podcast, Jarvis gives a very impassioned and inspirational view of how we can live differently. It’s true change does start with us. We just need to know where to start.
To find out more visit My Green Pod www.mygreenpod.com and The Pea Awards: peaawards.com. For more about Jarvis and his Music visit: thephoenixrose.co.uk; jarvissmith.com
To scroll through our other podcasts, have a look here on our main podcast page.
Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts.
Did you know our podcast is also on Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher, vurbl, podbay, podtail, and most if not all the RSS feeds?
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