Introducing: Good News Matters

Hello ✋

You are receiving this email because you have been individually selected by the founders of Good Matter - Chris Hopper and Karen Kranz. As part of our curated “BETA” audience, your feedback and support will be critical in shaping the small (but important) impact we can have on the world, specifically when it comes to fostering a more conscious consumer. So please sit back and take a few minutes to read our first newsletter.

If you like what you read, and have a few more minutes, please fill out a quick survey at the end. You can also share with like-minded friends who you think may appreciate the content of this periodic newsletter.

Make Good Matter. It seems like a simple and perhaps pithy tagline, but it’s in its simplicity that we can find hope and calm in a seemingly chaotic world. Everywhere we look, we are surrounded by doom and gloom. Every hit movie and show seems to be some creative interpretation of a post-apocalyptic world. Warning signs that no longer feel like a warning, but more a preview of what’s to come.

Meanwhile, Climate change has brought us extreme weather swings - torrential rainfall, mixed in with a breakout of wildfires and resulting smoke pollution.

Across media channels, algorithms and AI are curating everything we see, touch and feel. Narrowing our perspectives, while fuelling more fear and anxiety 😡.

But, what if we told you that while your newsfeed pushes you into a river of negativity, there is so much good happening around you? Good people, products, and places are shaping an undercurrent of change that will allow us to do what societies have done throughout history - adapt, with resiliency.

The Good News Matters Newsletter (see what we did there 😉 ) is a periodic curation of three brief stories that showcase the people, products and places helping make our world a little bit better - more sustainable, more equitable, more inclusive, and more resilient. With respect for your time and your unique interests, these stories are intentionally written as top-line summaries that we feel deserves your attention. And if you’re hungry for more, we also provide lots of links and references - for a full immersion 📖 .

Our hope is that these curated stories will inspire you in some small way to become a beacon for good vibes and conscious consumption within your own community.

We grew up in the age of consumption, influenced by television and print ads, and later digital advertising. We went on to spend most of our professional lives helping large businesses and famous brands curate their story to sell more “stuff.” In short, we helped define consumerism.

Over the past few years, we began to question the role that “stuff” has played in our daily lives. Did more clutter, more debt, more vanity, more isolation all make us happier or more secure?

As seasoned consumer marketers, we wondered if consumerism could play a role in creating a better world? We decided to leverage our deep understanding of consumer behaviour, and our skill for succinct and salient storytelling - but for good.

After exploring this shared vision for a few years, we launched The Good Matter Company as a not-for-profit passion project - during a pandemic. At the time, we didn’t know exactly what it would become, but we knew it needed to exist. This periodic newsletter will be a place for us to share good news dispatches from the front line of conscious consumption. Because, when you can Make Good Matter, the resiliency and compassion of the human race proudly marches on.

But hey, we don’t want to sell you on powerful words that articulate a vision. Frankly, we have done enough of that in corporate boardrooms over our careers. So, let’s make this tangible for you…

Buenos Aires… steak, Malbec and the tango. They’re practically synonymous with this jewel of South America.

But, it turns out that Buenos Aires is more than just one of the most romantic cities in the world. For more than a decade, it’s been internationally recognized as one of the most progressively sustainable cities, known for its superior quality of life and sustainable public spaces.

Buenos Aires is a member of the prestigious C40 global network of 100 cities. Last year, the city’s mayor, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, pledged to drastically cut carbon emissions by 2030, making Buenos Aires one of the first of the C40 cities to declare its goal of total carbon neutral status by 2050.

While bicycles might be the top-of-mind mode of transportation in Copenhagen, Buenos Aires shares some of the same qualities that make biking around the city an enjoyable and efficient way to get around the city. The city is mostly flat land for easy, comfortable rides and boasts 130 km - (that’s 80 miles, Americans!) of bike lanes. Bicycling is an efficient, fun way to get around the city’s neighbourhoods like La Boca , Puerto Madero, or Palermo. And, it has a free bike sharing program called EcoBici.

An enlightened 35-year- old Dutchman is drawing on history to encourage us to think more hopefully about our future.

Rutger Bregman is simply listed as a "Dutch Historian" on his Wikipedia Page. But this young author leans into a much more inspiring and hopeful view of what many see as a pre-apocalyptic world.

Bregman is a generational thinker who has been described as the "Dutch Wunderkind of New Ideas" by the British daily, The Guardian. Bregman's first book Utopia for Realists outlined some key social structures that could help us achieve a better life for all humanity - including framework and case studies for Universal Basic Income, Open Borders, and a 15-Hour Workweek.

In pre-pandemic 2019, Bregman presciently wrote Humankind: A Hopeful History in his native Dutch. It was published in English two years later as the pandemic ravaged the world.

This is an inspiring book in which Bregman masterfully shares humanity's resiliency through captivating storytelling and hopeful history lessons that inspire and reassure us of our collective resolve in the face of darkness. Bregman tells tales of how Churchill galvanized the British psyche during the relentless Nazi Air Raids, a WW2 Christmas truce, what happened during a real Lord of the Flies story, and why human beings are the ONLY species who blush 😊.

A master storyteller, Bregman continues to share his hopeful ideas across platforms, including Ted Talks, Social Media and OpEds in The Guardian, Washington Post, and many more.

We think the world needs a few more Bregmans to help us ponder possibility - and to channel the power and resolve of humanity within our daily choices.

When it comes to good nutrition, and healthier food to serve our families, we often reach for organics. Well, it turns out there are even better options - and they’re already on the market.

Biodynamic farming levels up organic farming…and it’s gaining momentum.

Biodynamic? Sounds intense. Simply put, biodynamic products are more nutrient dense because biodynamic agricultural practices view the farm as a single living, holistic organism that relies on composts and manures for fertilizers.

The benefits: better tasting, more nutritious produce, safer farming practices, and more humane treatment of livestock.

Biodynamic foods are highly regulated by an international organization called the Demeter Biodynamic Federation, ensuring their high quality. The Demeter certification has rigorous requirements including biodiversity and ecosystem preservation, livestock integration and soil husbandry, and certification is required to be renewed annually. Look for this logo on packaging to ensure products are authentically biodynamic:

You might think these foods are rare or hard to find, but they’re “hidden in plain sight” at Target, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Whole Foods, Amazon in Canada and the US. Foods you already love - from pastas and cereals to olives and sugar - are available in biodynamic varieties. Just look for the Demeter Seal shown above.

A few brands include:

Holle cereals for babies 6+ months, toddler drinkers for babies 12+ months and organic veggie and fruit pouches for babies 6+ months. All are available at Whole Foods in the US and in Canada.

Yellow Barn Biodynamic Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce – available at Walmart, Instacart, Amazon, and Whole Foods.

Delallo Biodynamic Pasta Penne Rigate #36 – available online at www.delallo.com or online in Canada at Desertcart.com.

Wholesome! Biodynamic Cane Sugar – available at Whole Foods, Amazon, Instacart, Stop and Shop, Sam’s Club, H-E-B and Walmart.

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