Influencer and educator Ethically Kate on sustainable living: ‘I don’t want to guilt-trip anyone’

Kate Hall, aka Ethically Kate, has built a successful sustainability brand. Photo / Dean Purcell

Kate Hall is one of Aotearoa’s most outspoken and engaging influencers in the ethical and sustainability space. Her Ethically Kate brand spans social media, a book, speaking engagements and consulting. Here she tells Penny Lewis about the light-bulb moment that led to her sustainability journey, her views on fast fashion and why people get awkward around her.

Kate Hall is proud to be a “weirdo”. When she was 16, she didn’t mind going to concerts on her own if she wanted to see the band. She travelled in Europe solo at 17.

A decade on, the Reset columnist, author and digital creator known as Ethically Kate is happy to swim against the tide to lead a “sustainable and joy-filled” life. Sustainability is a serious issue, but Hall’s Instagram content is irreverent and filled with goofy fun. As her @ethicallykate bio says, followers can “expect lots of dancing and zero judgment”.

Hall’s husband Tim Hall appears frequently in his wife’s content. Late last month her post about the couple’s “period parties”, showing them dancing and laughing, went viral. “Every month on the first day of my period we have a mini party. Lots of snacks, often wine, movies, dancing, whatever we wish,” Hall says. “My husband started this tradition. When I asked him to remind me why, he said, ‘it’s to acknowledge your body cycles and the significance of that. Let’s celebrate!’”

Hall has also recently shared her experience of miscarriage and processing the loss, but not allowing it to steal her joy. “One in four pregnancies end in miscarriage, yet most people I’ve spoken to who’ve experienced this type of loss have also felt deep loneliness. So here I am. ‘Normalising’ miscarriages sounds weird, but I hope you know what I mean.”

Hall always wanted to find the good in something, even if the journey is sometimes uncomfortable.

Back in 2015, there wasn’t much cause for celebration when Hall and her friends watched a documentary called The True Cost. Its footage revealed the environmental and social impacts of fast fashion mass-produced by workers in developing countries. Seeing the documentary changed her life.

“We watched that documentary and I remember we were all pretty shocked by it. It explained the impact the fashion industry has on people and the planet. We are all engaged in clothes, even if we don’t like fashion. We all wear clothes,” she says.

“It was a proper light-bulb moment because I’d always loved fashion and clothes. I loved second-hand clothes, and I was very deep in that world, but I still loved a bargain, a $7 tank top,” Hall remembers.

“I grew up with hand-me-downs. Mum hates malls so going to the mall was never a pastime when we were growing up,” she explains. “But still, I was a participant in fast fashion. It was really condemning watching that documentary. I thought if I am going to continue to love wearing clothes, I want to know who made them. I want to know the people who made them were respected and paid fairly. I want to know what fabrics the clothes were made from – all those types of questions.

“I knew from the documentary, and from my knowledge of what the true cost of a garment is, I couldn’t hand on heart buy a $5 T-shirt. It doesn’t economically add up to the fair cost of something being made. There wasn’t much info around at all. Rather than looking into brands and asking them questions, I found amazing brands which were being the forward-runners [in sustainability] and I started championing them.”

Hall has authored a book on sustainable living. Photo / Dean Purcell

Sharing on social media was a way to hold herself accountable – and help others. “I was sharing my journey, which is such a cliche, but I was sharing my inquisitiveness and what I was going through, and people who were in a similar kind of headspace were saying, ‘Oh, I’ve heard that question, too. Tell me what you find out about that.’ That’s when I decided to double down on this and I started to ask questions on more than just clothes. I was thinking about my food and my transport and all that type of stuff.

“That’s why I call myself Ethically Kate because it started with that social side – how are we respecting people in our supply chains? There are shirts that say ‘Feminism’, or shirts where when you buy them, $1 goes to support some charity looking after families. It’s like, actually, the process of making that shirt destroyed several families. It’s so ironic.”

Hall is close to her family, the Gumbrells. She grew up in Tindalls Bay on the Whangaparāoa Peninsula, the middle child between her older brother, Isaac, and younger sister, Georgia. Her dad, Matt, is a vet in Orewa, and her mum, Nicky, is a speech and language therapist and personality-type consultant.

It was her dad’s work as a volunteer vet that took the family to Mongolia for 18 months when Hall was 9. “My dad visited [Mongolia] and then came back and said, ‘Come on family, let’s go on an adventure.’ Looking back as an adult, you don’t realise how big things are when you’re a child. My mum hates flying with a passion yet she took three kids, aged 6, 9 and 11, over.”

Living in Mongolia made an impact on Hall and shaped the person she is today. “It’s a very special place. From that early age, I was exposed to the fact that our world is so interconnected. And there are so many different ways of living. There are huge privileges, safety, and things we have in New Zealand that we don’t even think about.

Kate Hall and husband Tim. Photo / @ethicallykate

Hall says that she doesn’t want to guilt-trip people into anything, but sometimes she feels others’ uneasiness around her.

“I’m not new to being the oddball and being different. I’m very comfortable in that space. But when you’re asking these questions [about sustainability], they can potentially be quite alienating to the people in the room. Even if you’re not saying anything, just your presence can feel really hard for them when they feel conflicted by what they’re doing or not doing.”

Finding the balance can be difficult. “I really want people to know I’m not judging them or how they live their lives. It’s sometimes a barrier or elephant in the room, where I don’t gel with the social situation because everyone’s gone to the mall to shop. Often, there are these situations of weird talk. Where should I be quiet? How do I do this? I’ve not always made the right decision and sometimes it’s ended in tears and not great moments.”

Eight years after her light-bulb moment, and six years after marrying her husband, Hall says she thinks she’s much better at navigating compromise. “I’m married to another person who makes his own decisions and has his own set of values. Tim’s amazing at what he does and how he lives his life, but we’re not always on the same wavelength. Nor should everyone be, especially when they’re married. Our biggest, heated discussions around sustainable living have been around what types of food we’re going to consume and transport methods if we’re both going somewhere. But for the most part, I’m so lucky to have a partner who is on board and shares a lot of my views.”

Hall calls herself a “climatarian”. Diagnosed as coeliac at age 3, she mainly eats plant-based food. When she does eat meat, she tries to make it as sustainable as possible, consuming animals sourced from friends’ farms.

Cost can be a huge hindrance to our ability to shop ethically. “It needs to be sustainable financially, too. As an example, I looked at waste-free wine [to avoid] a big, glass wine bottle that’s transported around to glass recycling systems. I went to refill but it was five times the cost I’d usually pay for wine,” Hall says. “For me, economically that wasn’t going to work.”

“We do need to respect that everyone has a different life and culture. I use a menstrual cup and I love using that, but in other cultures, that wouldn’t be a norm. We have to think about our own situations and stick to that lane and do our best. Everybody, no matter who they are, or how much money they have or don’t have, can all do something to live a bit more sustainably. And trying to do it all in one day is not going to work.

“We’re not going to get anywhere if we’re all shouting at each other, saying, ‘I think you should live your life this way.’ Habits stick when they are done out of a sense of positivity and joy.

“I still have plastic in my pantry. I still take an Uber when the bus takes five times as long. My main slogan for Ethically Kate the business is, ‘We’re here to be alive, so let’s live it fully.’ When you’re not an extremist, but you’re trying your best, that’s the perfect place to be.”

Ethically Kate’s tips for sustainable living

Start composting. There are composting solutions available even if you live in a city apartment. About 50 per cent of household waste is compostable matter, so by composting you’re eradicating half your rubbish.

Work to the mantra [buy] less, [buy] quality, [buy] consciously – especially when you’re buying clothes. Is there something else in your house you could wear or use instead of buying more?

Have conversations and learn sustainable ways from other people, particularly older generations.

To help with costs, start small with ethical clothing purchases – literally, your smalls. Hall recommends hand-sewn ethical underwear brand Nisa, which faced closure but is fortunately still trading, as well as Thunderpants, and The Very Good Bra. Don’t bin your existing fast-fashion clothing items. Wear them, look after them and mend them when necessary.

If you have a baby or toddler, invest in clothing bundles bought on TradeMe or swap items with friends. There are also brands out there that use innovative, pleated fabrics to stretch and grow with your young ones, such as Petit Pli.

Studio photography / Dean Purcell. Hair and makeup / Claudia Rodrigues. Clothing / Kowtow.