Can you give us an introduction to yourself and your work?
Hello! I’m Julie, a yoga teacher, sustainability consultant, and writer (@thesustainablemag, @dinnerconfidential and I just completed my first book). With French-American origins, I was raised in Italy, but after spending several years working abroad and volunteering around the world on different projects tied to sustainability, I moved back to Rome in 2020, right before the pandemic hit.
Craving deeper talks, I became an active member of Dinner Confidential, where I facilitate monthly conversations around taboo topics through vulnerability and active listening. This feeds my passion for human relations, which also led me to get trained in the 7 steps and enroll in Gabor Maté’s Compassionate Inquiry approach. Using these tools, I help people uncover the unconscious dynamics that run their lives and prepare them for difficult conversations with themselves and others.
All of the pieces of my work come together for me in my personal project, We Bloom (I plan to launch my website at the beginning of November). With this, my purpose is to create spaces for us to reconnect to our essence, communities and environment.
What words, sensations and feelings arise when you think of sustainability? We started our introspective journey with a breathing exercise and then each shared our answers in this space free of judgement. The COVID restrictions only allowed for 6 people to take part and that actually made this moment intimate and memorable - photo taken in October 2020 In Sabina, Italy.
What motivates you to do the work that you do?
From a technological standpoint, we’ve never been as wired as we are now. Yet I often have the feeling that we are more disconnected than ever before; from our true selves, from our bodies, from others, from nature, etc. We got so deeply trapped into dynamics of separation, but everything is interconnected. What got us to forget that?
The work that I do results from a personal necessity I had to reconnect. I have the need to be in touch with my feelings, to move my body, to slow down, spend time in nature, share deep talks — and I know I’m not the only one.
So, opening a space for people to talk about how they relate to certain topics, like the one of sustainability, and getting them to share how they really feel about it, was an important first step for me. What motivates me now (and what I wish to do with We Bloom) is to create a bridge between people who are passionate about this topic and others who are less naturally drawn to it.
How are products made? I assigned a product to two teams of two. Each team went through the 5 key stages (extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, packaging and distribution, use, end of life). Isabel and Flavio analyzed the life story of jeans - photo taken in October 2020 In Sabina, Italy.
How did you find out about the UnSchool, and what motivated you to come?
I found out about the UnSchool through a friend of a friend. I was looking for simple tools to add to my experience, so that I could demystify sustainability for those who manifested an interest in it yet didn’t know where to get started. After I heard Leyla’s TED talk, I checked out the UnSchool webpage: finally I’d found somebody who made sustainability look cool and exciting!
What was your experience at the UnSchool like?
I did a one month Masterclass in Circular Systems Design at the UnSchool. My experience was rather short but intense. I acquired a lot of knowledge (keeping up with the amount of content was in fact quite a challenge!) and many practical tools and activities (i.e. life cycle thinking, systems mapping, theory of change etc.) to gain clarity and come up with realistic solutions to integrate sustainability into our lives.
What was the main take away you had from coming to the UnSchool?
I knew that everything was interconnected, but I didn’t realize how interconnected everything actually was. That was my main takeaway from coming to the UnSchool.
Tell us more about your initiative(s), and how is it all going?
Thanks to the Unschool Masterclass, I spent a month getting curious about the following questions:
How do people relate to sustainability?
Why do those who’d like to take action don’t do so?
What stops them?
What I found out was that many of us wish to make changes in our lives. Yet often, the sensations, words and emotions associated with sustainability are so uncomfortable that they make us want to look away instead of digging deeper.
So I came up with a simple idea to respond to that problem, and opened non-judgemental spaces - both physical and virtual - for people to share their feelings, sensations and beliefs about sustainability. I used elements of my yoga practice, my facilitation skills, and some of Leyla’s tools to give people an opportunity to explore new ways of relating to this topic.
I ran this workshop - The Sustainable Practice - in the fall of 2020 and plan to have it again very soon, both in person and online. Stay tuned!
We ended this beautiful day with a round of "Take Home Message". Each participant shared what they got from The Sustainable Practice and how they intend to relate to it from now on. - photo taken in October 2020 In Sabina, Italy.
How did the UnSchool help you start/evolve it?
The UnSchool helped me mine the problem and gave me the tools I needed to offer easy and practical activities for people to understand sustainability differently.
How have you amplified this change you do in the world?
No matter what I do, I try to remind myself and others that WE ARE thanks to nature.
I also try to spread what I’m learning in the various languages I speak (English, Italian, French and Spanish) to assist as many people as I can on their journey to sustainability.
How can people engage with, support, or follow your work?
I’m launching my website at the end of the month, for now you can follow me on:
Linkedin → Julie Beretta
Any other thoughts you want to share?
My interest in human behavior is what inspires me to expand our collective knowledge of our interconnectedness with the Earth. Sustainability isn’t a passion for me, it’s a duty. And even if what I’m putting forward is rather simple, I believe it’s an important first step all of us can take to start living with more intention and respect for our environment.
