Earth Day 2022
Happy Earth Day from Liv (and all of us at Pergamena,)
On my first day of a "Crunchy Granola" college in Vermont -I, an 80's Brooklyn-born kid- was introduced to Aldo Leopold's Thinking Like a Mountain.
"I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view."
I remember thinking, "I am young now; what confident decisions of mine does the mountain not agree with? What will I regret that I thought would lead to paradise?" Normally, as the Director of Sustainability, every day feels like Earth day as I explore the tannery's positions between agriculture and design. I talk about how we take a biowaste hazard to a Madison Ave product. We reduce landfills by sourcing hides considered "waste byproducts" from the food industry. Our product's journey starts by avoiding a landfill; we literally turn "trash" into treasured belongings.
I was confident on my first day of college that "Meat is Murder," but after years of listening to the mountains around me, I have learned a lot about the complex work it takes to keep a mountain in balance; and I now work at a tannery.
In honor of balance and since today you're celebrating the Earth too, I thought I would take time to showcase things we are doing behind the scenes and around the tannery that don't usually make it into our newsletter. Not everyone can keep 1000s of hides from landfills, but everyone can do something to Reduce-Reuse and Recycle. Here are some of the small things we do.
Gardening around Tannery. Both indoor and outdoor plants make us happy at the tannery. Outside, due to continued erosion and an accidental salt spill during deliveries, the little incline leading to our tannery dock bay is bare. But after cleaning up the area and using compost/soil mix to get the Ph back in balance, I planted Clover naive ground cover in NY. It will help with erosion and produce beautiful flowers for our state's pollinators. Besides planting, I also cut things down, taking out the invasive vine and letting in sunlight. Just like we keep hides out of a landfill, we also keep out these plastic bins. These bins that we ordered arrived damaged and unusable. So instead of throwing the bins away, they have become a mini Tannery Greenhouse.
We have a dirty job (You may have even seen us on "Dirty Jobs.”) we inevitably get messy. Last year we switched to cloth hand towels in the office and bathroom. It was simple to switch. I took a towel -one that had seen better days and I cut it up into four smaller towels; once every three days, I switch out the dirty hand towel for a freshly washed one.
Fostering partnerships with people and organizations who can help teach us how to move through the Earth with intention and information is important. I'm passionate about Tan and Return services for small farmers so they can grow their bottom line with leather goods. I'm excited about partnering with more farms and artists to educate people on why they should ditch the fast mindset for a meaningful one. I adore all of the big picture jobs I have at the tannery. And while I enjoy showing off some of my side projects on Earth Day, I am honored that at my job, every day is earth day, and my job description is to listen to mountains and try to think like them.
Liv