Max Your Inspiration, Not Your Impact: Meg Carney, The Outdoor Minimalist

Today I am fan-girling hard on an emerging rock star of the outdoor industry sustainability movement, Meg Carney, the author of Outdoor Minimalist (the book), and the host of The Outdoor Minimalist Podcast.

You’ve probably heard of Leave No Trace, and the words Reduce-Reuse-Recycle have probably crossed your lips more than once, but how often do you stop to really consider the meaning of those phrases, how they might apply to the situation you find yourself in in the moment, or how they might not be the full picture of what it would mean to live in a sustainable partnership with the environment?

Meg’s been thinking like this since she was a kid playing outside on her family’s farm in Minnesota. While she’s the first to admit her minimalism might have grown roots because money was a little tight, she also observed her family’s commitment to living off the land and getting the most use out of anything they bought or owned.

Meg eventually went off to college with kids who were more accustomed to buying new than reusing or repurposing, but all the consumption never quite made sense to her, and staying the minimalist course served her well when she later spent some time living a nomadic life out of her car.

Today we’re talking about creativity, supply chain, pets, vanlife, perfection - or lack thereof…. I know it sounds like we’re all over the place, but stay with us - there’s a framework for thinking about all of this stuff, and spoiler alert, there are a lot of Rs involved.

Get your hands on a copy of the Outdoor Minimalist book, it's such a great primer and process manual for anyone striving to lessen their detrimental impact on the outdoors and their environment.

And even if you get the book, I strongly encourage you to check out The Outdoor Minimalist Podcast - Meg definitely expands on her content through some interesting interviews with thought leaders and people doing very cool things in the sustainability space.

Finally, I’d also recommend you follow Meg on Instagram for all the useful snippets of inspiration and information she shares to enhance our knowledge and provoke our thinking about the impact we are having on the spaces we move through.

Fun and useful links from our chat:

• Meg’s not kidding, there are a ton of fun things to do in Duluth!
• What is bushcraft?
• Field & Stream (Commerce Team posts)
• Falcon Guides
• Greenwashing
• Icebreaker (you can check out their Sustainability Transparency Report here)
• DIY Waste Audit worksheet
• Lava Linens Mini Towel