Welcome to the Collective!

Hello!

Welcome to The Eco Green Collective, co-founded by Rachel Irwing and Natalie De La Torre Salas.

We created TEGC because we wanted to make learning about sustainability and veganism more accessible and engaging, whether you are just starting your journey or you have been on it for some time.

The Founders

Between the two co-founders, Rachel has been vegetarian (and now) vegan for about 4 1/2 years and has been eco-conscious for the last 5 years, as this was what she studied for her Bachelor's degree, now she's working towards her Master's degree in Marine Biology. She is a yoga lover, fur-baby mama, and owner/artist of RLI Fluid Art. Her goal is to help you incorporate sustainable practices into your lifestyle, she is a firm believer that making small lifestyle swaps can domino effect into a larger change, globally.

Our other co-founder Natalie, is a Puerto Rican archaeologist. She has her Master's degree in Public Archaeology and she is also one of the hosts of the Ecos Patrimoniales Podcast - a collaborative effort between friends that focus their efforts on cultural heritage and disaster relief from a Latin American & Caribbean perspective. She had never really been introduced to a vegan or sustainable lifestyle. When she met Rachel and began to see her lifestyle choices, she became intrigued and wanted to incorporate some of them! She has started by learning how to cook vegetarian meals and buying plant-based ingredients. Her goal is to show others that small changes can have big resuls and there is no shame in that!

About the Collective

This is what The Eco Green Co. stands for, you do not have to be completely zero-waste or a die-hard vegan to identify with our co-founders/writers, you just have to be open-minded and willing to learn something new, and together, these small changes will add up.

Goals

Now, let us get off our soapbox and tell you more about our goals for the Collective! We are starting small as both of our co-founder's have full-time jobs. Therefore, we will be posting weekly (on Tuesdays). Our posts will cover a variety of topics from eco-friendly products reviews (is it really sustainable? does it work? is it cost-effective?) to vegan recipes and local vegan restaurant reviews (Fort Myers, FL area).

As we grow we hope to bring you multiple posts weekly and expand our restaurant reviews and recommendations to outside of our local area (we would LOVE to someday go national). Further, we would also love to make sustainable products more accessible by offering them in an online storefront, something that we can strive towards.

• Start reviewing local businesses to bring awareness to the diversity of vegan cuisine and sustainable products, but eventually expand our efforts nationally, even globally!

• Connect and collaborate with creators, that focus on eco-friendly and sustainable products, whether you are inside the U.S. or not.

• Our space is your space! We want to create a non-judgmental community, where we can all share our experiences - so whether you are just starting out or an expert, we want to hear from you. We are building a collective!

This blog will be personable, relaxed and non-judgmental - remember a lot of our material will be focused towards beginners! Therefore, we ask of you to be mindful of this, (the vegan police are not welcome here). Prepare to laugh and learn, whether that’s because we are making Natalie eat spicy foods or try a new vegetable (sometimes this is tough LOL) or because we are explaining the importance of sustainability.

We hope you stick around and watch The Eco Green Co. grow!

Connect with Us!

Please feel free to contact us at contact@theecogreenco.com if you would like to share information on your products, sustainable practices, restaurants, recipes, classes/events or if you would like to just connect with us!

Find us on:

Instagram: @theecogreenco

Pinterest: @theecogreencollective