By Bernardo Flores Heymann
Valeria Horton finished college in May 2020, two months after the COVID-19 lockdown had stopped everything in Mexico. With a stagnant economy and few job offers for recent graduates, Valeria decided to take advantage of the crisis to start a business. This is their story and with the sole objective of promoting their entrepreneurship, I pitch the idea to them.
Like many other graduates, Valeria started looking for work after finishing her Communication studies, but the process was very complicated.
“There was the pandemic and there was, well, there is a crisis, so I decided to start a project. I did not want to wait and I wanted to start this so that there are no more pandemics in the future, ” she says.
After a report that she did, in which she interviewed several people and took a survey at the university, she discovered that there are many people who want to make a change in their life to be more sustainable, but do not know how to start. Valeria assures that “it is not that people are not interested, but there is no guide to do it.”
So the confinement and the pandemic gave her the motivation she needed to start her project.
“I had thought before that I wanted to make a change in the world through my work,” she says.
Change the world from home
Valeria opened a website called Green Reconnection in which she gives tips to live in a sustainable way, focused on providing positive content. Be careful, the content is in English despite the fact that in the future it will be released in Spanish because “the way we communicate with the world is mainly English” and its scope wants to be global.
And she has been successful because she has already been interviewed in the US media.
For her, being sustainable is not a lifestyle change and putting aside the things we like. Rather, it is unlearning how we live and appreciating the things we have.
“Climate change is approached from a somewhat negative perspective, because it is. It is a difficult subject with negative data. With Green Reconnection I turn the data around and we can avoid many things tomorrow if we act now, “he explains.
To turn the negative of the subject for something positive, he has experimented with formats and platforms, such as TikTok, in which a song makes the subject more friendly and therefore digestible for the audience.
The concept of the site is not only designed to give advice to be greener and more sustainable, it is also about reconnecting with the place where we live. Part of the content is focused on talking and making nature known and the relationship we can have with it because “you can’t care about something you don’t know.”
Collaborate to drive change
Today Green Reconnection works with the collaboration of different people and the daily work is done by volunteers who believe in the project. Valeria is always looking for someone to support with ideas, resources and creativity.
The messages are various. A section is designed for people around the world to collaborate with some writing and tell their experience to live in a sustainable way.
“There is no global solution to sustainability issues, but knowing what they do in other parts of the world can inspire you to act locally,” says Valeria.
In addition to the site, the young entrepreneur is diversifying her content, she was among the first to have access to Pinterest stories and it has been positive. It already explores other formats such as Podcasts and YouTube.
Green Reconnection is thinking of promoting green and sustainable products avoiding greenwashing, in addition to giving a voice to social enterprises that still do not have enough diffusion.
“Clearly collaboration with brands would be ideal because many people are looking for sustainable alternatives,” he says.
The courage of the young
What makes this project different? Young people, their ideas and vision.
“Part of the value offer is that we are young people who work on this project. We are clearer about how urgent it is to act on climate change. There is a natural concern and this project, made by young people and for young people, helps to erase the barriers that exist between other media that have not been able to reach these audiences, ”says Horton.
Valeria is curious and likes to learn. It has strength, drive and success.
He closed our talk with these words: “crises are a good opportunity to create, if you are curious to do something, try it and more if with that you are going to improve the world.”
Follow this project closely, it will surprise you.
