Courtney Adamo is a highly creative and multi-talented businesswoman who has built an impressive career spanning multiple domains. Her extensive experience as an entrepreneur, blogger, and author has earned her widespread recognition for her contributions in these fields.

Over the past 15 years, she has also established herself as a leading voice in the parenting lifestyle arena. Her experiences as a parent of 5 children has created a wealth of resources that have helped parents navigate the challenges of raising children.

In her latest venture, Renovation Ready, Courtney is leveraging her expertise to help people design, build, or renovate their homes. With her keen eye for detail and her passion for creating beautiful spaces, she is certain to become a trusted advisor for homeowners looking to upgrade their living spaces.

Throughout our conversation, Courtney gives us insights into ways she incorporates sustainability into her family life, talks about her fabulous new beach home and gives us a few tips on which eco-products she thinks are a great place to start for someone new to a low-impact Lifestyle.

At Madre Terra, we have been following Courtney's journey with admiration for many years and are thrilled and honoured to have her as the first guest on our blog.

We all want to do our part in preserving the planet for future generations, and we’ve found teaching our children about sustainable living is a great way to start. We’ve also found that it can be challenging to make these lessons fun and engaging for kids. What are some creative ways you have made sustainable living an enjoyable experience for your children?

I think so many lessons can be taught just by leading by example, making everyday habits simply feel normal — like always carrying drink bottles so you don’t buy plastic water bottles, or taking your tote bags to the grocery store, or eating a vegetarian diet, etc. 

We also love taking our kids with us to the farmers markets and getting them to help with the shopping, or encouraging the kids to get out in the veggie garden to help grow veggies, turn our compost into soil, and pick the fruit off our trees, etc. We have a worm farm in our garden for composting our food waste, and we also have a Flow bee hive. 

When we go to the beach, we encourage the kids to find at least five pieces of rubbish or plastic to take off the beach. Sometimes we even use the beach plastic for crafts, which the kids always love. 

Your brand new beach home's design is truly inspiring. It's great to see how you've integrated sustainability into the space so seamlessly. What inspired you to design your home with sustainability in mind? What is one specific feature or aspect of the design that you were particularly committed to keeping sustainable, no matter what?

We really wanted to create a home that felt both healthy to live in, as well as one that has a low environmental impact. It’s not an easy feat when building a home from scratch, as there is so much waste involved in the process, but we tried to choose sustainable materials wherever we could, and we used non-toxic finishes and sealers too. We included some hemp masonry walls, which is a unique building process that uses natural hemp to create solid walls. They’re breathable and naturally mould-resistant, which makes them an ideal feature in a home. We used sustainably sourced Australian timber too, which was an important decision for us. 

We also opted for an entirely gas-free home, so we installed an induction cooktop and electric appliances. We installed solar panels on our roof, which account for a large portion of our electricity and hot water, so that is helpful too. 

Again, it’s impossible to build a home, or even just to live in a home, without having an impact on the environment, but we try to be conscious of our decisions wherever possible. 

At Madre Terra, we are passionate about intentional and mindful living, and believe that our product choices play an important role in this lifestyle. However, we understand that transitioning to eco-friendly products can be overwhelming at times, so we're curious - what are some of your favourite products that you think are a great starting point for someone new to sustainable living?

I think everyone should keep a couple of large tote bags in their car, so they always have them on hand when they do their shopping. We also keep a collection of bags in our pantry for farmers market runs. I also think water bottles and food containers are a great way of reducing your need for plastic. 

I love your Swedish dish cloths for wiping kitchen surfaces and reducing the need for paper towels (they’re also washable and reusable and then compostable at the end of their life, which is so great!).