The news this week should be a reality check for all of us. Climate change is here already and action is called for immediately. While some may find this overwhelming, I find incredible motivation in this stark statement by Patrick Vallance, the UK government Chief Scientific Adviser. Kitchen Garden Textiles is focused on transformation and this statement has inspired me to double down and carry on.

I founded this business to connect with and support urban farmers growing food in my neighborhood. My company’s commitment to the environment and promoting an honestly sustainable lifestyle has grown deeper over the years. Our products are now made with exclusively organic or reclaimed textiles and designed to replace single use and plastic disposables. Our hope is that because we make these items more accessible, customers will find it easy to say no to plastic products produced by big oil and will begin to experience how life is more beautiful when a home is full of things that come from regenerative systems.

A reusable linen produce bag may seem like a small thing in the face of extraordinary circumstances. And it is. But choosing an organic plant based textile to store your vegetables over a piece of plastic film represents a huge shift in thinking. And if we are to stop our addiction to fossil fuels from destroying our planet, we have to shift our thinking. Individual actions, like choosing linen over plastic in your kitchen, has an important place in the rush to limit global warming. When we make the changes at home, share the results with our friends, talk about the ideas that led us to make the changes then the movement is strengthened. Kitchen Garden Textiles, like other small businesses, are working to build a healthy vibrant future and helping others thrive by practicing small changes with big ripple effects. I continue to hope these shifts in thinking will lead to collective action, political action, policy change and ultimately, a better world.

In my case, those linen produce bags led me to work with farmers interested in re-establishing a U.S. based flax-into-linen supply chain. Re-establishing a U.S. based flax industry would mean we would be producing plant-based textiles on regenerative farms. Flax fits nicely into crop rotation on a diversified farm and requires few inputs and little to no irrigation.The plant can be processed from field to spinnable fiber without the use of chemicals, then spun and woven into cloth. A regional textile source like this would contribute to environmental restoration of working landscapes and provide my business and others with a textile supply close to home.

As the founder of this small textile business, it’s my dream that my efforts will become an ever growing part of the complex solution to the global climate catastrophe. The ideas I share and the products I offer will help all of us to live beautifully, put the fossil fuel industry out of business, transform our society, and live plastic free.