Sustainability Spotlight is a collaboration between the Nugget and NAITSA’s Sustainability Committee. Each month, the committee interviews a sustainability expert to learn more about their journey. This month features Meghann Law, co-owner of the zero waste refillery Re:Plenish. Answers have been edited for clarity.

NAITSA Sustainability Committee: Was there a moment or experience that sparked your interest in sustainability?

Meghann Law: I don’t think that there was an individual moment in time that caused an interest in sustainability for me. I grew up in the 90s, which was a time certainly of mass consumption. It was kind of a lifestyle to aspire to. My parents maybe didn’t agree with that, so I think that the idea of sustainability and consuming less was something that I was always aware of. 

And over time, as I got older, I just became a lot more aware of the amount of stuff that I consumed, or my friends consumed, or kind of the culture that drove that. And as I became more aware of it, I kind of wanted to do something about it. So, in my late 20s is when I started Re:Plenish.

NSC: What is your process when choosing your suppliers?

ML: So all of our suppliers have to check a lot of boxes, and that’s a little bit tough. The first thing we do is identify a need. We wait until enough people have asked for something, like toilet bowl cleaner has been asked for enough, and now we have to source it. 

Then we look within Canada, because we always source Canadian. After that, we need to make sure that those Canadian suppliers are willing to supply in bulk.

Then we need to make sure that they are ethical companies, that things are biodegradable, that we’re using ingredients that are as safe as they can be for us and the earth, and that depends on what the product is and what kind of availability there is. For some things like laundry soap, there’s lots of choices out there. For other things those choices are a little bit more limited.

We start with this wide net and then we funnel it down and down and down and down, until we end up with a few things that we think might work. And then we look at pricing. Are we going to be able to ship it here? And then we make our final pick.

NSC: What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a sustainability-based business? 

ML: The biggest challenge that I think that we’ve faced has honestly been running a business. The sustainability piece of it comes pretty naturally. Once you’ve drawn your lines in the sand and said, ‘Everything needs to be Canadian,’ that actually simplifies it. We just work within those bounds, and that is the part of the business that we are passionate about that we really enjoy that drives us forward. 

What’s hard is that myself and the co-owner do not come from a business background. We started the store with zero business acumen, so when it comes to our bookkeeping,  accounting, cash flow, and hiring and all of that, that takes up a lot of our time and a lot of our effort and a lot of our brains.

NSC: Have you faced any skepticism or pushback from customers or suppliers? 

ML: I think a lot of the pushback comes more in a form of apathy or even helplessness from people where they feel like individual choices don’t make a difference. But I think there’s always a reason to be optimistic, and I think regardless of how you feel about the climate crisis, the worst thing that can happen if you shop here is you create a little less garbage and there’s nothing wrong with that.

NSC: Have you seen a shift in customer awareness or behaviour? 

ML: Since we’ve been open, the zero-waste lifestyle has changed. In 2020, I remember all the viral videos about, ‘I only make a jar’s worth of waste in a year,’ or ‘I’m living this extreme low zero-waste lifestyle.’ 

I think that we’ve moved away from that kind of sensationalism and we’re now just fitting ourselves into people’s lives in whatever way works for them. This is for everyone, and this is apolitical. This is if you want to create a little less waste, if you want to use products that are safe for our watershed, if you’re concerned about your own health and the products that you use, it’s a place to be. So, I think the biggest shift in the perception of zero waste and the awareness of zero waste is just that it’s not an extreme. It’s an ideal.

NSC: What small change would you encourage individuals or businesses to make? 

ML: The change I would encourage people to make, on one hand is a very small change, but on the other hand is a very big one.

“This is for everyone, and this is apolitical.”

But it’s just kind of being critical of your consumption in every way that you consume. So anytime that you are consuming something just stop and think am I taking more than I need? When you’re buying skincare products, are you buying a whole bunch of them because you’ve been influenced to try everything? Are you taking more than you need? Are you creating more waste than you need to?

And then your life will kind of change around that. And it’ll change in terms of the physical things that you consume, in terms of the media you consume, and I think it kind of changes your outlook on the world too.

Visit Re:Plenish at their storefront at 9912 77 Ave NW, or shop online at replenishzerowaste.ca. For more sustainability spotlights, check out the NAITSA Sustainability Committee’s organization page on Ooks Life.

Feature image via Renata S. Medeiros / NAITSA