Meet Fredrika Syren | Book Author and environmental writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Fredrika Syren and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Fredrika, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
My family of five began a journey towards living more sustainable and with less waste over the past 16 years. When we started there were no zero waste movement and no guides or other influencers so we had to figure all on our own. Once we reached our goals and became a zero waste family who not only produce no waste but also saves $18,000 a year, we want to help others make a journey towards a life with less waste. We started our web site zero waste family, created a documentary called zero time to waste that was featured at the isan diego international film festival and sSan Diego environmental film festval. I also wrote the book a practical guide to zero waste for families which is a guide to help anyone to reduce waste, no matter how big or small. It’s a book that is suppose to make it easier to find ways to reduce ones waste stream and is basically the book that we wished we had when we started our journey 16 years ago.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I have been an environmental writer for over 20 years, writing about companies and governments and how we need to keep them accountable and to practice better environmentally. Once I become and mom and realizing that climate change is going to be a problem for my children in the future and realized that individual action is the missing piece to saving the planet and battling climate change. To fight climate change we need all three bodies to work hard making sustainable changes: individuals, the companies and the governments.

I realized that there were not too many people talking openly and publicly about how you can reduce waste with children. Kids comes with lots of waste and even more as they grow to to raise eco minded individual and reducing waste at the same time is tricky so I decided to start blogging about it under the name Green-mom.com. As my children grew, my whole family joined in a we eventually became a zero waste family. We want to inspire other families to also begin a journey towards a more sustainable and eco conscious life and give them lots of tips and ideas how to do some. We have been very conscious about not judging anyone for where they are at because we realized that people change based on our action not our opinion.

That has been the biggest lesson for us to be kind to people and never ever judge, even when we get judges. Also, we’re very open to feedback and to concerns people have.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If I had friend visiting I would for sure take them to Balboa park since it’s a full day of fun just walking around, going to all the amazing museums there. I especially like the Japanese friendship garden and the photography museum. we would of course stop to a lunch and drink at the Prado.

The next day we would start with a nice hike in mission trails and after that go for breakfast at Kensington Cafe, it’s has been my family’s favorite spot for breakfast for over 10 years. Of course we would make time for a day on the beach and my personal favorite is the beach at the Hotel Dell. The beach is so nice and clean and so often do we see dolphins there. We would end our day with dinner at Cafe Sevilla in the gaslamp district.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My story began once I became a mom and realized that climate change will be the biggest threat my children will face. For this reason my interest was peaked when I heard an interview on TV with a man names Colin Beaver. He is also known as no impact man and during this time his family: a wife and 2 year old daughter was middle of a no impact project. For one year they would live as sustainable and with as little impact on the planet as possible, middle of New York. This meant they turned off the electricity in their apartment, ate only from the local farmers market, composted and bike everywhere. It was such inspiration to me and I began to think about my families own carbon footprint and what we could do to lower it.

Website: zerowastefamily.com

Instagram: @zero.waste.family

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thezerowastefamily/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/zerowastefamily

Other: Our documentary: https://zerowastefamily.com/film My book: https://www.amazon.com/Zero-Waste-Families-Practical-Guide-dp-8985466003/dp/8985466003/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Image Credits
Julia Larsen Saperstein