Tell us about yourself
My name is Rasha , a Palestinian refugee born and raised in the UAE. I am an environmentalist and experience creator and the founder of Enta Green. I love traveling, martial arts and animals. I have two crazy cats who i really love: Peanut and Butter.
What motivated you to shift to being eco-friendly?
While learning more about the environmental challenges, I also researched how I can contribute and do my part. I used to look for alternative products to support my behavior changes and lessens my impact on our planet. When I started, I remember it used to be difficult as the supply was limited or I had to pay very high shipping costs to get products from companies far away from this region.
Tell us more about your blog?
Enta green started as a social media presence and a blog to share my environmental journey with everyone. I shared volunteering opportunities in the UAE, environmental guides and recommendations to eco switches and my own reviews about them. Meanwhile, Enta Green has developed into a platform for sustainable travel and experiences. I wanted people to join me on my journey and get to see and learn more about our environment and how they can live better with it within everybody’s own journeys.
The main things you do to be eco-friendly?
Never give up. Even if I fall back through my journey, I always keep going to find alternatives or just use what I’ve got for the best of its life cycle. I also follow my guidelines of auditing my performance, googling things to learn more about environmental challenges and surrounding myself with like minded people by following eco content creators and suppliers.
Your easiest eco-friendly swaps?
The easiest are water bottles. It has become a habit for me now to carry my bottle like I’m carrying my keys on the way out. Other easy swaps were the shopping bags and produce bags (to buy veggies and fruits). I also switched a while ago to block shampoos and it was the best decision for my hair and the planet. Switches I wish I knew about earlier were period cups and reusable pads in addition to the shaving razors. Life changers!
What makes it hard for you to be eco-friendly?
To be honest, a big factor when I started was the pricing. If the items are super expensive, I would not be able to make this investment. However, I can see now prices falling in a good range and of course I actually save on the longer run. The other thing that makes it hard is unplanned stops or packaging I can’t control.
I have to order things online sometimes like many of us or make an unplanned stop for groceries or takeaway food and I feel that these things can get out of my control sometimes.
How do you plan on continuing your sustainability journey? What other aspects do you plan to change?
I’m trying to test and be happy with living with the minimum. I love items in my life that can be repurposed or used in different ways and I’m also working on decreasing my meat in dairy within my diet. Let’s see how it goes.