Customer Spotlight: Meet Susan!
We are excited to introduce Susan Foley as September’s featured customer! Susan has been a loyal customer of ours from the start and we’d like to share her sustainability journey with you.
About Susan
Susan was born in Albuquerque and has lived in the Downtown/Old Town districts her whole life. She is a retired APS teacher who specialized in teaching elementary students with neurodifferences. Now she enjoys walking around Tingley Beach, attending neighborhood book club, and helping out with grandchildren.
Breaking the Chain
When I asked about her biggest motivator for adopting a zero-waste lifestyle, Susan cites “my concern for future generations of humans; doing my small part. In the past few years, I've moved away from buying new plastic containers and am now refilling ones I already have at The Village Refillery. I also now buy products that are less toxic to us and to the Earth”.
Susan’s efforts are impactful, especially since she’s enlisted her neighborhood book club (pictured above) to hop on the refill train! Thanks to her spreading the word, a group of women living downtown, some in their 90s, place refill orders with us online and then Susan delivers them throughout the neighborhood. “These community drops aren’t just about reducing waste, they have also become a time when we connect with each other, check in on one another”, she notes.
Susan’s Sustainable Practices
Since becoming a customer, Susan has switched to many zero-waste Village Refillery products including our handmade bar soaps, hand cream, and room sprays. She adds “I’ve also made the switch to refillable deodorant, laundry detergent, sunscreen, and bug spray. Really, there's nothing I've tried and not loved”.
But we can’t take all the credit for her low waste lifestyle. Susan has been devoted to leaving a minimal footprint her whole life. As an avid backpacker in her 20s, she always made sure to ‘leave no trace’. In her 30s, she chose cloth diapers when she had her daughters despite disposables being available, purchased back-to-school clothes secondhand as her daughters grew, and always donated items she no longer needed to local women’s’ shelters. More recently, after trying a variety of ways to compost, she’s joined The Little Green Bucket program in Albuquerque.
Susan in the 70s backpacking in Northern New Mexico.
Holding on to Hope
Susan makes a point of going for a walk outdoors every day. It’s a time to reflect, cherish nature, and stay active and strong as she ages. “I love walking almost anywhere in NM....downtown neighborhoods, ditch banks, mountain trails, river/bosque trails”. This year, she’s even gotten her steps in at public rallies protesting the assault on women’s reproductive rights and the attempts to defund Planned Parenthood. Susan remembers the passing of Roe v. Wade in 1973 and is still in disbelief that her daughters and granddaughters are living through the reversal of this landmark advancement for women’s health and bodily autonomy. Though she’s never considered herself a political activist, that’s exactly how we see her.
“Although there’s a lot to be disheartened by right now, I still have hope. I'm extremely proud of Lauren for taking the chance to open The Village Refillery and make a difference in the world for all of us, especially her daughters!”
It just so happens that Susan is my mother, and I couldn’t be more proud to be her daughter!
Susan hiking the Dipsea Trail in California with her two daughters.
Join Us in the Refill Revolution
Thank you, Susan, for being part of The Village Refillery community and for sharing your low waste journey with us. Together, we can break the chain of disposable consumption and create a greener future for ourselves and for the generations who will inherit what we leave behind.
Want us to feature you in our next customer spotlight? Send us an email at Lauren@thevillagerefillery.com and we’ll send you brief a questionnaire.