All You Need is Some PB and Love for the Community!
Margaret Taylor founder and CEO of nudemarket is taking environmental matters into her own hands by making a zero-waste lifestyle easy and accessible to her consumers. By investing in products that are long-lasting and reusable, it is part of nudemarket's mission to ensure that they don’t contribute to problems for future generations. Read Margaret's blog to learn more and seriously, order some of her peanut butter. It will change your life! *DROOL*
How did we get so much pressure on us as consumers? Of course, we want to support sustainable choices, but even today most businesses do not make this option easy! I find that I am either paying with my health or my wallet and as a mom of three kids, I prioritize my family's health every time.
As Calgarians, we are a strong community, but we can only do so much. Growing food in our backyards is not an option most months of the year, and often other responsibilities leave little time for us to plan out a zero-waste shopping trip. The stores in our neighbourhoods are filled with plastic, and convenience and monetary gains tend to take precedence over health.
I felt inspired to impact this state of the Calgary economy and the lifestyle that we are accustomed to. I realized as a consumer and a local voice in the community, I had the power to influence the lifecycle of products.
I started with the food that fuels me for the day: peanut butter. I bought a nut grinder and started making it by hand. But this alone was not enough to start a business. I had a dream, but what helped the most to make it flourish was the support from the community that was given so generously by those within it.
With help and inspiration from locals, I realized I could source delicious nuts from ethical suppliers and jar it in a sustainable way which I could share with Calgarians, and later, Albertans.
Jar by jar I started to build a conscious group of dedicated PB lovers who would bring back their empty containers so I could fill them with another batch of buttery goodness. I saw how a circular economy promotes sustainability in every way and experienced how rewarding it is to be waste-free when we are given the opportunity.
Photo by Lionel Migrino
As nudemarket grows as a local company, the opportunities to work with other Calgary-born businesses keep flowing in. My heart grows full as I meet so many passionate people that support our local economy and create great products for the people in our community. Local Laundry is one of these outstanding leaders who I am so honoured to have built a friendship with, where we can work together to enrich the lives of Calgarians, whether that be through clothing or PB.
So it is my goal by working with these partners to change the lives of Calgarians and make a zero waste life more convenient because a healthier and more sustainable journey should not sacrifice consumer's convenience.
Currently, I am the founder of nudemarket, and I am also the one who makes my peanut butter and sells it to the community. It is a dream of mine to expand my company and to spread my peanut butter so I can help expand this sustainable dream. To follow this goal, I have been introduced to an amazing opportunity through ATB financial, which is their Build Her Business campaign. This crowdfunding campaign supports female entrepreneurs (like me) in building their local businesses!
If you are a local startup, I would definitely recommend this opportunity, and I am always willing to work together with you in the goal of bettering our community, just like Local Laundry and ATB have done for me. To learn more and support local, click this link now.
It is safe to say that supporting local is at the core of what I do, and I definitely would not have made it without the support from the other amazing Calgary businesses and supportive locals. I’ll never give up on the dream of living locally... for the love of the planet, peanut butter, and people like you.
