In celebration of International Women's Day, we caught up with a local bad-ass who is following her dreams, saving the planet, and inspiring others to do the same— You. Go. Girl.
Kate Pepler is an up and coming entrepreneur, hailing from Toronto Island, she moved to Halifax in 2011 where she studied at Dalhousie University. 7 years later, she's still here and she's educating the masses on environmental sustainability. Through leading a low-waste life & using her online platform, OurPositivePlanet, to share other environmental success stories, she encourages others to live a more sustainable lifestyle.
Her next project in the works will be one of the first of it's kind for the city of Halifax: The Tare Shop, a zero waste bulk store, coffee shop, and community hub set to open in the Fall of 2018. She has a passion for the ocean and sailing. It's no wonder she hasn't left, and by the looks of it, she's just getting started.
1. How did you get started in your business?
Opening up The Tare Shop has been something I’ve been dreaming about and working towards for about 2 years now. It combines all my passions: environmental education, community, and living a sustainable healthy lifestyle.
2. What is your morning routine?
I wake up, feed the dog and let her out. Make myself a cup of coffee with my Aeropress and stainless steel filter, and homemade nut milk. Make a smoothie (usually banana, spinach, pineapple, flax meal, coconut Kiefer, orange and water), and sit down and plan out my day in my journal.
3. What is your favourite quote?
I read a really great quote the other day that really resonated with me: “there is absolutely no logic in wrapping something so fleeting as food in something as indestructible as plastic” -Sian Sutherland
4. What's a goal you're working towards right now?
The biggest thing I am working towards right now is opening up the store. That is pretty much my full time job right now, and it’s a very exciting and daunting process!
5. Who inspires you and why?
I would have to say my parents. They are both such hard workers, and never waiver from their beliefs and values. They work together and have created a business that allows them to travel around the world. They have always been so supportive of me and my sister (and each other), and have pushed me to follow my dreams.
6. When was the last time you failed spectacularly at something?
This is a small thing - but I was rushing to get out the door a while ago and had a full mason jar of coffee that I dropped on my tile floors. The jar exploded, and there was coffee everywhere. A great start to the day – I ended up being very late to wherever I was going, and had no coffee in the morning.
7. What's the best advice you've ever received?
The best advice I’ve ever received was from my mom “it will all workout in the end”. I heard this a lot as I was growing up (usually during a fight with my younger sister) but it applies to everything. From breakups, to struggles with friends, to opening a new business - it will all work out in the end. That’s not to say that life, relationships, and jobs don’t take a lot of work though.
