Tell us about yourself
I am Beenish khan, wife to a trainer and mother of two little cubs. My 6 years old daughter Ayat is our followers’ favourite and a very passionate environmentalist. Arhaan, our 3 years old boy, has already won a couple of ‘Naughty Kid’ awards. Our family is a die hard Marvel fan and my kids are crazy for Spider-Man. We are a bunch of social animals and love to meet new people from different cultures and traditions.
Being born in a middle class brown family, a lot of sustainable practices were part of our lives such as water and electricity conservation,which were aimed more at saving cash than the environment. I have also passed through a phase where at grocery shopping, my mother would always ask the cashier to pack a bunch of extra plastic bags. Happy to have passed that stage and implement more environment-friendly choices for our family and planet.
What motivated you to shift to being eco-friendly?
Witnessing the Quality of our lives as well as our environment deteriorating due to the excessive intervention by plastic in every aspect of our lives made me step in and change things for the sake of a better and healthy future for our next generations. There are many other factors also which contribute to the environmental issues but Plastic is lethal, to humans, to marine life, to our animals, as it has toxins and unfortunately it is a very sloppiest one, no matter how much you stay alert, it tends to sneak in to your close contact in many forms, be it your glittery makeup, or micro beads in daily facial cleanser, sticky notes, fabric you wear (polyester, spandex) food containers, gift wrappers etc and I realised very few people had this knowledge So, I felt the need to raise some awareness on the topic so people could become conscious consumers.
The main things you do to be eco-friendly
I keep an eye on my Carbon footprint (amount of greenhouse gas emission due to your activity) I started by simply refusing the straw and then kept adding one shift every month. Shifting to reusable bottles was easiest and my favourite. Saved me a lot of bucks and health. I cannot imagine drinking from a plastic bottle anymore. I keep my skin care routine plastic free. Making my own face masks wasn’t tough either as I have learned a few recipes while growing up from family. Aloe vera plant is your best friend for skin care routines.
What makes it hard for you to be eco-friendly?
Even after mastering most of the tricks to stay plastic free it’s really not that easy in today’s plastic world. I have failed to find sunflower oil in an eco-friendly packaging. There is no option of reusable bottles for milk. Most products we buy are not produced in the UAE so Carbon footprint stays high anyways.
How do you plan on continuing your sustainability journey? What other aspects do you plan to change?
There is a lot in the pipeline; recently I have launched my own brand called Ecoholic where we intend to divert tons of precious fabric waste into fashion statements. I have and will always strive to spread strong messages and information on sustainable fashion and beauty through my social media handles. These are exciting times for Dubai with Expo 2020 around the corner and I am excited just like the rest of the sustainable community.The sustainability theme is going to play a major role in shifting the approach towards a clean and green future.