Greta Matos

"How do we find our way back to a world interrelated and interconnected, whose priority is to thrive and evolve?

What kind of belief systems are emerging now that reinforce and contribute to a world increasingly disconnected from nature?
And what about the belief -my belief- in all that is wild?

I return to the wilderness to remember what I have forgotten, that the world can be wholesome and beautiful, that the harmony and integrity of ecosystems at peace is a mirror to what we have lost."
-Terry Tempest Williams

I adore the invitations of Ms. Williams words, for us to seek the kinds of belief systems that are emerging that reinforce our awareness of how interconnected we all are, and that it is our interconnectedness and relationship with nature that is key to our collective thriving and evolution.

I truly believe the work of Project Drawdown and NWEI are examples of one of these belief system shifts, and I can see and feel the power of an ever-deepening commitment to the relationship between humans and nature. 
What an astonishing thing is is to pause and acknowledge the "harmony and integrity of ecosystems at peace," and to hold their example as a horizon for humanity to strive toward.

These past two weeks have been a bit of a blur as redeye travel schedules mixed with long days of work that continues to stretch me inwardly and outwardly.
Along the way I've kept my commitments to my drawdown ecochallenge and with those commitments I feel my roots drawn deeper still in this belief that humans have a wild capacity for creativity and evolutionary development.
There is so much we must do. And there is so much we can do. Every single day, every single decision, it all is supporting the forward momentum of our species as we move toward the beckoning horizon.
And I don't know about you, but the horizon I'm walking toward is laced with the silhouettes of old growth forests that have been silently supporting us all along our journey, for centuries. 
These, among so many others in our natural world, are wise companions I wish to continue learning from, for centuries to come.

I enjoyed learning more about silvopasture and the huge impact this one solution can have. It made me realize what a massive opportunity we have here in Chile to support more progressive land management practices and try to stop the parceling and selling off of pasturelands that currently have a wide diversity of native trees growing in them. I've recently been asked to act as a director on the board of a land preservation project here, and I'm really excited because the land is an ideal silvopasture project. Looking forward to continuing to support this important solution!!

This post is related to my commitment to cut more food out of my diet that is contributing to the destruction of tropical forests.

I'm traveling between countries today and as I was cruising through the airport I thought I'd check on some of the snacks to see if anything surprised me related to packaged food and palm oil. One big surprise was to discover ginger throat drops that were using palm oil

I also checked out a few Justin's products because I remember hearing a little bit about this brand and noticed the peanut butter cups were organic. Upon closer review, I found that they were using palm oil, but for the peanut butter cups say "sustainably sourced palm oil"

Whereas in their other product that was sold next to it- organic banana chips and peanut butter, the peanut butter has regular palm oil.

I work in the world of global supply chains, so I know how long it can take to phase out an ingredient that is coming from an unsustainable place or has critical issues- it takes time and commitment and companies need to be encouraged in their journey.  However, I think this is a great example of why we have to look at every ingredient label- even if it is a product of a brand that sells some things without palm oil or from "sustainably sourced palm oil". Don't take for granted that a brand has their entire supply chain following the same strategy or protocol for every product, and when you notice variance write them and ask for more transparency about their journey and their dedication to ethical and sustainable sourcing strategy. 

As I was spending time learning about our need to phase out HFC refrigerants and responsibly dispose of our air conditioners and refrigerators, I had two big things come up: 
1. I'm so happy that I don't own an air conditioner and I intend to never buy one/install one in my house (fan-power and natural home building techniques all the way!)
2. I have no idea how to responsibly dispose of my refrigerator here in Chile! And I don't even know where to look. My first go to was Google, but there weren't really many helpful options there. So I'll be having to do a lot more local research here to see how the system works. In my research I was also surprised to see how inconvenient it seemed to be to responsibly dispose of refrigerators and air conditioners- you really have to dig to find who will handle it locally and responsibly, even if you live in the USA.

Has anyone found a good resource or perhaps an App that's been developed to make this process easier? It would be awesome if this process was super easy and streamlined, then I could see a lot of people taking individual action and owning up to their responsibility for proper disposal. If it's not simple and straightforward, I feel like people are more likely to just send them off to the dump...

Would love to hear if anyone else has come across solutions for making responsible disposal more available and widespread! 

Hurray the EcoChallenge is here! I'm pretty excited to dig into learning more about all of the ways I'm able to draw carbon out of the atmosphere as a result of purposeful choices. I'll be traveling tomorrow and Friday, and will be mindful of the food choices I have to make "on the road"- I'm curious to see what I should avoid as I learn more about products that are contributing to deforestation.

I'll be posting on my Instagram @wanderwithgreta daily as well as on Facebook, to engage others in conversation about the topics and experience. Here's my first post:

"'There is a human right which is infrequently mentioned but which seems to be destined to become very important: this is the right, or the duty, of the individual to abstain from cooperating in activities which he considers wrong or pernicious.'
✨Albert Einstein✨

April has arrived and in full flow fashion it's brought with it a beautiful opportunity for engagement in purposeful action and conversation. This month I'm participating in the #drawdownecochallenge - for 22 days I'll be sharing my efforts to draw carbon down from our atmosphere and contribute to the resilience of the planet by making individual choices that are conscious of #globalimpact.

Over the years, thanks to my work in #supplychains all across the world, I've seen firsthand the degradation of our environments and societies because of our #unconsciousconsumption.
Every single thing we purchase and consume comes from somewhere, and the human race has an incredible opportunity to create things with #purpose and awareness of the impact of this creation.

For those of us on the buying side, we have to put a little effort into understanding what actually goes into the things we buy- and what it takes to get those materials. With that knowledge, we can make far more #consciouschoices in what we buy, and as our dear Albert Einstein reminds us, we can flex our human right to abstain from cooperating with extractive-based economies that focus solely on the profit of today or the next quarter, with no consciousness or care for impact on tomorrow or the next century.
One of my commitments (I've made 3 core ones to proactively engage) is to replace and remove products in my current diet that are known to contribute to #deforestation.

There are a lot of of surprising foods and consumer products that contribute to deforestation that you would never suspect.
One you may have heard of is #palmoil -which is the most widely consumed vegetable oil on the planet and is likely a key ingredient in nearly half of all packaged products sold in your supermarkets-including laundry detergent!

Time to take a look in the cabinets and see what surprising products contain palm oil that I may never have suspected..."

I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing how the challenges go for everyone, please feel free to post updates as you take action and learn and share!