As I was putting the Beauty Heroes Living Lighter collection together for Earth Month, I kept thinking about Ashlee Piper’s book, Give A Sh*t, and what an amazing resource it has been for me. I’ve given it as a gift to several friends since I met Ashlee last year at W.E.L.L. Summit.
While I only met her briefly, I liked her instantly. I have been wanting to collaborate with her and had a last-minute idea to add her book to our discovery. In terms of giving us the tools to take steps to live lighter, Give A Sh*t has been the best, most relevant and relatable resource I have found. It ties everything together and explains why each step we take matters, a lot. I also had a few questions for Ashlee of my own, which I wanted to share with you.
How long did it take you to write Give A Sh*t? How did you compile ALL of the information in the book? It is packed full of facts, techniques and ideas.
Putting the book together actually only took a few months. When you create a book proposal and shop it around, it’s a pretty robust thing and I’d been doing TV segments and writing about sustainability for major publications for a while, so I already had an idea of flow and the kind of content people may be interested in and were asking for. With that said, I and my publisher (as well as the army of people who helped bring this book to market) definitely hustled at a rapid-fire pace to bring the book into the world as soon as possible. Timeliness was key and from the second the book deal was inked to the moment it was in the first book store was less than a year, which is pretty unheard of.
What’s the #1 thing you tell people to do to make a positive impact on the environment?
Enjoy a meatless meal (or many!) Traditional animal agriculture accounts for up to 51% of harmful global emissions. Meat and other animal products are also extremely labor intensive. We’ve likely all heard the “2,000 gallons of water are required to create one pound of beef” statistic. For myriad other health, karmic, and environmental reasons, embracing a more plant-based diet, in whatever measure you’re able to and comfortable with, is the single most potent thing you can do to help the planet and its inhabitants. Not to mention, it’s animal and human — there’s a huge human toll to meatpacking, as well, that I dive deeper into in the book.
What helps you feel hopeful that we will all get on board and Give a Sh*t?
The response to the book has been overwhelmingly positive and exciting to see. Folks from unexpected places and walks of life have tagged the book and that alone makes me feel incredibly hopeful. It’s becoming cool to care about the planet and that’s what’s going to make this lifestyle stick.
How do you make caring about the environment a fun, daily practice?
I focus on making it about discovery and curiosity, instead of an all-or-nothing pursuit of perfection. We get too hung up on sustainability being a zero-sum game, like ‘I can’t fit all my trash from the last year in a jar like so-and-so, so I’ve failed.’ And it’s like, nah. That’s not how this should work. You do your best in the situation with whatever you have to work with. I mess up constantly because I’m human. I forget I have moods, I’m frazzled and tired, whatever. So, I like to gamify sustainability for myself a bit and focus on how I can simply make the best choices in any given situation. It’s lower pressure that way and you’d be surprised just how pleasant it is and before you know it, those small shifts easily become your lifestyle.
Are you working on another book, and if so, what’s it about?
I’m currently soaking up all the good stuff from Give a Sh*t, but a future book isn’t off the table. Right now, I’m focusing on speaking, writing for mainstream publications about sustainability, doing more TV segments, and eventually working toward having my own segment on a major TV show that just focuses on sustainability made fun and approachable. Putting that last one out into the Universe…Ellen, give me a holler!
