These Two Black Fathers Are Encouraging Sustainable Living Through Their New Food Storage Brand

Kelly and Daniel are two fathers that started a sustainability brand - Smart Lyfestyle Innovations - which has a food storage bundle featuring Reusable Beeswax Food Wraps and Silicone Food Storage Bags. As Black men, they are inspired to demystify who can be a sustainable entrepreneur and are excited to venture in the world of waste reduction through simple innovation.

Check out this interview:

When and why did you start a sustainable food storage business?

As an active duty service member, I regularly travel the oceans on ship while often observing interesting sites and tranquil sounds that come along with it. On one particular journey to South America we were navigating through the Caribbean Sea and there was what seemed like an endless wavy line of plastic trash floating collectively in the sea current. It was at that moment when I started to ask myself questions like “where does all this floating ocean plastic end its journey?”, “what is the ecological impact?” and “how much is my family contributing to this waste?”. After returning to the U.S. we decided to research answers to those questions and began to take action with solutions centered around what we could control. My family ditched single use grocery bags, opting for reusable sacks. Purchasing single use water bottles was next to get axed as we invested in a reverse osmosis system which filters water. Eventually, we searched for a solution to replace our single use plastic storage bags and cling wrap. This was the beginning of our “smarter lifestyle” and thus Smart Lyfestyle Innovations was born. These small changes had quickly become a passion and we were excited to spread this new found eco energy amongst friends, family, and folks in our community.

Image courtesy of Smart Lyfestyle Innovations

How do you define sustainability?

To us, sustainability is doing our best to improve the connection between people and the planet. Understanding, both are interrelated and continuously interacting so that any change in the environment has an impact on the living. Ultimately, we are working to increase ecological integrity and taking pride in reducing wastes that are harmful. This can be done by making small changes such as altering eating habits, growing our own food, and being more conscious of how much single-use plastic we discard daily. It’s a lifestyle of consciousness revolving around the decisions we make.

Does being Black (or does your cultural background) inspire your sustainable brand? If so, why/how?

Absolutely! We are both inspired and encouraged as black men to promote and cultivate a lifestyle that is beneficial to our culture. In the past, we traditionally dominate globally in sports, entertainment, and fashion. Now is the time to diversify and expand our interests so we can make strides to effectively save money by going green and promote a better lifestyle for future generations. We take pride in the health of our planet and enlightening others about our products in this space is a special opportunity.

What are some interesting statistics/facts in the food storage/ food waste space?

The average U.S. Household spends over $650 in single use plastic storage. Using Smart Lyfestyle Innovations reusable food storage bundle could decrease this cost by as much as 96%.

Discovered in the 1930’s, the chemical in plastic wrap “eonite” was originally used to protect military planes from salty sea spray. Contrarily, our natural beeswax food wraps preserve food longer than plastic because they are breathable and made of organic cotton, beeswax, tree resin, and plant oils.

Americans use approximately 100 billion plastic bags a year, which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture.

It takes 500 (or more) years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill. Unfortunately, bags don't break down completely but instead photo-degrade, becoming microplastics that absorb toxins and continue to pollute the environment. Reducing this waste creates cleaner air for us to breathe.

What has been your greatest challenge in starting a sustainable business?

One of the greatest challenges in starting a sustainable business is creating awareness about implementing eco-friendly behaviors in our community. Our biggest task is to decrease the stigma that including an “eco-friendly” lifestyle into your daily routine is complicated and inconvenient. Eco-friendly lifestyles are not about sacrifices, they are simply choices. Every decision we make has an impact! So we prefer to motivate others by inspiring simple thoughts of environmental impact versus the alternative - destroying natural habitats and running out of resources. For example, a phrase we use at home is "Reuse, Reduce, Recycle!". We get excited when explaining how reusable food storage products have much greater versatility and functionality than single use plastics. Once we grasp how our individual actions have global influence, we understand how small inconveniences create big sustainable change!

What are you most inspired by?

We are inspired by the challenge of solving food storage issues within the sustainable community. As proud fathers, we are most inspired by our kids who will ultimately benefit from a change in the traditional wasteful mentality. As adults in our 30’s, our journey towards a more environment friendly lifestyle was naturally more a conscious effort. Kids have a natural curiosity and an innate mindset to learn quickly, so they have seamlessly implemented our products into daily meal activities. We hope this will ultimately lead to a generation that sets the bar in reducing our human effect on this precious space we all live in.