Welcome to Pulp Nonfiction: The Paper and Packaging Podcast!

December’s podcast guest is Melissa Sevy, founder and CEO of Ethik Collective. Her mission is to help women throughout the world gain economic empowerment by offering them consistent work and fair pay for their artisan crafts.

Melissa is the Founder and CEO of Ethik Collective, a first-of-its-kind social venture that connects global artisan groups with conscious companies. She has spent much of the last decade living and working in communities across Africa and Asia with the driving philosophy that when people have access to fair pay and consistent work, they thrive. Melissa is a founding member and former president of the Social Enterprise Alliance of Utah. She teaches International Development at Brigham Young University, is an avid fruit dehydrator, and an Ironman.

After graduating from BYU with her master’s degree in public health, Melissa traveled to Uganda through a non-profit organization to help individuals fight global poverty through sustainable programs. What she discovered was bright, capable women who carried the full economic burden for the home, yet there were very few jobs for these women.

Ethik Collective was created to connect these talented artisans and their handmade products with conscious companies. These artisan groups provide high quality items for your home such as pottery, serving trays and woven bowls, to beautiful jewelry and accessories such as bags, wallets, and scarves. Materials are sustainably acquired and harvested locally, and green packaging options are offered sourced from the country of origin.

This podcast is brought to you by Sustana Fiber, a leading producer of FSC®-certified sustainable recycled fibers. At our facilities in De Pere, Wisconsin in the United States and Lévis, Quebec in Canada, we use automated proprietary processes to transform recovered paper into high-quality recycled fiber for use in printing papers, tissue grades and formed molded fiber packaging.

We also produce EnviroLife®, a sustainable recycled fiber compliant with FDA standards for food service packaging. Learn more about how our products and manufacturing practices support the circular economy at www.sustanafiber.com

Interested in learning more about sustainability from a variety of professionals committed to helping develop the circular economy to improve our environment? Then be sure to tune in to Sustana Fiber’s latest episode of Pulp Nonfiction: The Paper and Packaging Podcast available beginning Thursday, October 28, at 9:00 a.m. ET at on YouTube.

Hosted by Sustana Fiber’s Greg Johnson, Director of New Business Development, and Dr. Marta Pazos, a leading sustainable packaging materials scientist, the monthly video podcast series features fascinating discussions on a number of trending topics involving sustainability.