We recently connected with Fredrika Syren and have shared our conversation below.

Fredrika , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I have worked on is my book: A Practical Guide to Zero Waste For Families. My family has been on a journey to reduce our waste to become a zero waste family who produce no waste and live as sustainable as possible since 2015. It Took us 10 years to get there and we learned a lot of important skills but there also lots of challenges and errors along to the way. In the end we reached zero waste and as an extra bonus we save about $18,000 a year just by living more mindfully.

I firmly believe that many families wants to reduce their waste also but are discourage because they don’t know where to begin and how reduce waste with kids. This is why I wanted to write this book to be as a guide to help other start their own journey with the help of our families experience, encouragement, recipes and tips. I truly believe in individual action and the importance it plays in fighting climate change and help people turn their fear over climate change and our future into action. The more people work on reducing their carbon footprint the better it will be for the planet so if my knowledge can help people taking steps towards a sustainable life that the reason I wrote the book.

Fredrika , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been an environmental write for over 20 years and wrote mostly about howling companies, the government and leaders responsible for protecting the planet. Once I became a mom in 2006 I began looking at climate change in a different way and how this will be the most challenging treat to my children’s future and how this will impact them. I also began looking at my own carbon footprint and how much more waste I was producing because I had children. This was my first step towards focusing more on individual action and I began to do more research into how we can’t go a single day without some negative effect on the planet. This is when my family started looking at our lives and the impact we had and started to look for ways to reduce our waste.

This journey has been documented in the documentary Zero Time To Waste that was featured in San Diego International Film Festival in 2020. Today I speak and give lectures in how to live sustainable and how to start reducing waste. I give lecture and teach about urban garden and growing food in the city. I also do individual home visits to help looking at your home and give suggestions to reduce waste.

I post articles about gardening, food preservation, sustainability, climate change, cooking and zero waste on my web site https://zerowastefamily.com and share tips and ideas on social media @ zero.waste.family and post videos weekly on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/ZeroWasteFamily

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to help educate as many individual, leaders and businesses as possible about how easy sustainability really is once you learn how start and how financially beneficial it can be and how it will take all of us: businesses, government and individual to save the planet.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to learn that people are scared off the uncertain future due to climate change and people feel helpless so they will stick their head in the sand and tune out this treat. I therefore can’t just talk about the treat and give them lots of scary facts. I have to give them hope and and a sense of purpose help turn their fear into action and cheer them on and teach them that one step of the time is how they will make a difference.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://zerowastefamily.com
• Instagram: @zero.waste.family
• Facebook: @thezerowastefamily
• Linkedin: Fredrika Syren
• Twitter: @fredricasyren
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/zerowastefamily
• Other: My book A Practical Guide to Zero Waste For Families can be found on Amazon, walmart and Barnes and Nobel Our documentary Zero Time To Waste can be viewed for free https://youtu.be/n_fcaQvAofI