Welcome! I’m Andrea, an Australian former travel blogger who is now based in Melbourne.
After living in Europe for 20 years, I decided to completely change direction by returning home, going back to university and starting a new career.
Sustainability Cubed
The mission of Sustainability Cubed is to help individuals transition towards a sustainable lifestyle and promote transformative climate change action.
Particular importance is placed on how we can eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels in the home, actions to support biodiversity and improve health and wellbeing in our cities.
I share the actions we can take on a local, regional and global scale to create positive change and a sustainable world for future generations.
My Qualifications
What are my credentials to enable me to write about these issues with authority? Good question!
In 2020, I completed a Graduate Certificate of Environment from Macquarie University in Sydney. I’m currently studying urban sustainability, climate change and the environment at the University of Melbourne.
You can see my qualifications here.
I believe in science-based actions and promote changes based on well-supported evidence.
My Story
It seems like a lifetime ago but back in 2005, I created my first website, buyorganic.com.au.
Granted, it wasn’t the most creative of names but it did the job at the time. Over the following five years it became the most visited website in the Australian green living niche, reaching its peak in 2010.
Unfortunately, interest in that kind of information was low at the time and my success was limited by a lack of demand. I found this frustrating and demotivating. Eventually, I moved on to travel writing with my blog, Rearview Mirror.
Even though I focused on slow travel by staying weeks at a time at one location, travelling mostly by car and train and supporting small businesses, I still felt like I was contributing to the negative impacts of over-tourism.
I didn’t feel entirely comfortable with what I was doing.
Then 2020 happened.
The pandemic put an end to my travel website and my desire to travel. Like many people, I was prompted to re-evaluate my current lifestyle and where I was headed in the future.
I went full circle, ending up right back where I started, in the green living niche.
This time I won’t focus on organic products but on sustainability and climate change.
This can mean many different things but for me, right now, it means making changes in the home to become energy efficient, electrify everything, switch to renewables, limit plastics, support biodiversity and advocate for change.
Activism
While the changes we make as individuals are important, without governments and businesses making significant changes, we’ll never reach climate change targets, reduce biodiversity loss and create a sustainable world for future generations.
This is why it’s vital to advocate for change, vote and demand action from all levels of government.
I encourage everyone to become an activist in some way. This might mean speaking to your friends and family about opportunities for change, being vocal on social media or joining a grassroots environmental organisation.
Every action helps, no matter how small.
Transparency in Business
We believe it’s important to be transparent in business as well as in the actions we take as individuals. We publish sustainability reports for Sustainability Cubed, openly sharing who we work with, disclosing our financial relationships, sharing our community initiatives and how we’re working to become a sustainable business.
Reviews and Recommendations
Sustainability Cubed includes reviews and recommendations for products and services. As much as I would like to use each item before giving a personalised review, I don’t believe this is sustainable. I do not want to have a constant stream of products delivered to my door, leaving me with unnecessary packaging and unwanted products at the end of the review. I’m only one person, I don’t need or want all these things. For these reasons, I generally base recommendations on extensive research along with personal experiences where appropriate.
Affiliate Relationships
I have an affiliate relationship with some (not all) of the companies and products I recommend. This means if you make a purchase via my affiliate links, I receive a small commission from the retailer at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Affiliate links are always marked with a * after the link.
Does this make me biased? I try my best to provide accurate information and suggest quality products but I do believe all reviews and recommendations are inherently biased to some degree. That being said, my relationship with my readers is more important than financial relationships. Breaking the trust we have by making poor recommendations is counterproductive. Any short term benefit would be to the detriment of the long term success of the site. I’m in this for the long term. If you believe you’re seeing unnecessary bias in a review, please contact me and I’ll address the issue.
Display Advertising and Paid Listings
I use a well respected, US-based small business to serve display advertising (banner ads) on this site. I actively block ads from unethical industries but if you see an ad you believe is inappropriate, please take a screenshot and forward it to me so I can revise my ad settings and block list.
Sustainability Cubed also provides a product directory (the Sustainability Hub). All listings are reviewed and must meet set community guidelines before going live. These listings often include affiliate links (marked with a *). However, some listings have no commercial basis but I list them simply because I like and personally use them. Just because I’m not being paid doesn’t mean I won’t recommend a product or event.
Community
One of the reasons for creating this blog is to use it as a means to build a like-minded community. There are several ways you can join the community and I welcome all feedback and comments, either directly on the blog, on social media or via my newsletter.