Kivirist and Ivanko tell us what it takes to transition to a lifestyle dedicated to sustainability
We’re is always looking to tap the minds of new design and sustainability experts. This week we’re sharing our interview with Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko, authors of one of our favorite books, “ECOPreneuring: Putting Purpose and the Planet before Profits.” The pair talk about what inspired them to make the sustainable lifestyle changes they made and the philosophies of a true ecopreneur.
GreenIntel: In the introduction of your book, “ECOPreneuring,” you call yourselves CEOs, or Chief Environmental Officers, and as you talk about letting go of the corporate world and taking a leap into your dream job, it seems that you’re preaching to do what makes you happy. How do you approach sustainability from a business perspective on a daily basis, and at the same time maintain it as a passion of yours? Or how do you approach the job so that your view of sustainability doesn’t loose its luster?
Kivirist & Ivanko: Our approach to business, as detailed in “ECOpreneuring,” roots in a blending between the traditional divisions of “work” and “leisure.” In our corporate cubicle days, we worked the “business” side during work hours and then escaped back to our “personal” lives once we exited the office. Today we engineer things so both work and leisure blend on a daily basis 24/7. Importantly, this blending enables our passion for sustainability to be a key variable in all our decisions, from our morning java (Fair Trade, Organic, shade grown) to the paper we use in our printer (100% post consumer waste) to how we power the B&B (wind and sun). Sustainability doesn’t loose its luster for us because it pulses through our everyday life.
GI: How did you first become invested in the sustainability movement? Or what was the first change you made to take the steps towards greener living? Before you adopted your current lifestyle, what measures were you taking in your city life to be eco-minded?
K&I: The decision to become ecopreneurs propelled us toward sustainability and a greener lifestyle. First, we embraced a leaner lifestyle: the less we needed to live on, the less we needed to earn and we could break out of that “earn to spend” consumptive lifestyle runaway train we were on in our corporate days. This introduced us to everything from cooking at home to operating from a home office and avoiding commuting costs. After a few transition years in the city we moved to our Wisconsin farm and launched Inn Serendipity B&B. Our farm gifted us with the right setting, a broader creative palette, to take more steps toward sustainability, including learning to raise over 70% of our food needs and now powering the farm completely on wind and solar energy.
GI: When looking at the mainstream green-scene, it seems the trends have come in waves, with recycling, energy efficiency (and its many facets), indoor air quality, integration of sustainable resources and materials into design. What do you think is the focus of the next big wave in home sustainability?
K&I: Hopefully the next “big” thing in sustainability will be the realization that this is not a series of trends but rather a personal, evolving journey for each of us individually. We don’t ever see our sustainability efforts at Inn Serendipity as “done,” nor are we detouring with each new thing on the green scene. We remain very mindful of waste: there is no “away” from our perspective and every new effort, no matter how “green” it may be, must be done with this in mind. After we put up a wind turbine on the farm, generating more kilowatts than we needed, Lisa’s mom’s first question to us was, “So now you will use your dryer, right? ” But that’s not how we see our journey as ecopreneurs. We still live by the same conservation principles, we still hang our laundry out on the line because it reflects our value to tread as lightly as we can on this planet we share, no matter where or how we garner our energy inputs.
GI: Adopting a fully sustainable lifestyle can be a challenge and sometimes seem overwhelming. For our Home Intel readers who are looking to make the commitment to being eco-conscious around the home, what do you suggest for first steps?
K&I: On a simple practical note, changing to compact fluorescent light bulbs still remains a simple change with high energy and cost saving impact. That was our first step when we moved to the farm nearly 15 years ago and these bulbs are still working for us.
But remember each of these green changes you make at home needs to be evaluated in the context of your overall life, how you spend your day. If you’re commuting to a job that just pays the bills and doesn’t reflect your passions and get you jazzed about making this world a better place, don’t focus on compact fluorescent bulb count. Our Ecopreneuring book delves into these bigger issues of how to create a livelihood that reflects your passion for the planet. Look at bigger life changes such as launching your own green business and becoming an ecopreneur, that will bring together and reflect your sustainability values 24/7, including but not just limited to the green steps you take at home.
GI: As you transformed Inn Serendipity into a sustainable space, what was your overall plan of attack? Did you prioritize certain projects or work bottom up or outside in?
K&I: Remember how we left those corporate jobs – and paychecks – behind? Our sustainability journey at Inn Serendipity roots in a mantra of frugality and creativity. We didn’t have a big master plan with a corresponding budget ending in lots of zero. We prioritized purchasing a farm property that, while over a century old, had been well cared for and structurally sound that did not need a major, immediate overhaul. We then prioritized projects that gave us the biggest green bang for the buck, such as immediately starting the garden and learning how to raise our own food.
Before we even considered installing renewable energy systems like the solar thermal or wind turbine, we focused on reducing our energy needs with energy saving projects like replacing old windows with energy efficient ones and updating appliances as needed with Energy Star versions. Our first book, Rural Renaissance: Renewing the Quest for the Good Life, narrates our story of moving from Chicago to the farm and the adventure of transforming the property into sustainable space, including resources to get started.
GI: What’s your next project to make the Inn, your property or lifestyle more sustainable?
K&I: We’re always looking for ways to improve and green our food choices, from experimenting with new varietals and increasing yield in the garden to finding local, ideally organic, sources for the things we don’t raise ourselves. This upcoming summer season we’ll be taking the kitchen outside and cooking more with a solar oven; fresh baked-pie, compliments of the sun!
GI: At Home Intel we are always looking for new industry leaders, influencers and resources. Who would you identify as influencers in the sustainability movement? What is on your sustainability reading list? Both books and/or blogs.
K&I: Our friend and colleague, Anna Lappe, just came out with a new book that provocatively links climate change to what’s on our plate: Diary for a Hot Planet.
The growth of new farmers, particularly influenced by the 30% increase in new women farmers, will deeply affect our food system, providing more options to eat local, seasonal and sustainable. Organizations such as the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) and the Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN) provide great training, support and collaboration to help support these growers.
