Sustainable Baddie Feature: Sussy “Sexy Sustainability”
Here at Sustainable Baddie we stan those who love the Earth and their community, especially when they do it creatively and with a lot of colors! This week, we had the honor of speaking with Sussy of Sexy Sustainability about what the trees might be feeling, reconnecting with nature, and good ol’ fashioned community organizing.
Even the tallest and widest trees started off as smol little seeds. Sussy’s sustainability seed was planted early on. Their parents instilled the values of caring for the Earth and taking advantage of your resources,
“I've always had a compost bin, I’ve always had a garden, I’ve been very privileged to have those amazing things offered to me,” they said. “I had said back in high school, you know when you first start learning about climate change it doesn’t hit you, but in my google docs from years ago I have an article that’s titled “I’m so hot I caused climate change”
Then came the switch to veganism to manage a lifelong dairy allergy during their sophomore year of college, but it wasn’t until two years later that Sussy can really pinpoint the beginning of their personal sustainability journey. They recalled one of their theater classes in which their professor mentioned the IPCC report from 2018.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a panel created by the United Nations that assesses the science of climate change. Like many of us, when Sussy heard about the state of climate change and climate activism they thought to themselves “sh!t’s super f*cked!”
From then on they switched their entire focus to be eco-oriented. As a Women and Gender Studies and Theater Arts major, Sussy blended ecoactivism with their knowledge of performing arts and culminated their senior project in a performance art piece where they tied themselves to a tree. Post graduation, they’ve made a commitment to educating their community about climate change.
Sussy is an active organizer in the Hudson County, New Jersey area. Specifically, Union City, West New York, and North Bergen. These three towns, located across the river from Manhattan, are amongst the most densely populated cities in the country and have a more than 50% Latine population.
Sussy has been working to catch the attention of mah hart n sol, Bad Bunny, to win funds for the community from the Deja Tu Huella fund. Cheetos, in collaboration with Bad Bunny’s Good Bunny Foundation (ugh he’s so cute), are giving back to Hispanic communities by granting twenty people the chance to win $25,000 to continue giving back to their community.
“We’re applying so that we can get more community gardens, more trees, more compost programs, more educational programs in general to our community,” says Sussy.“I want to use the money to actually get started on these projects. A lot of the time we are waiting for the township to approve funding. It would be really great to have the opportunity to do that.”
Sussy is not only garnering the attention of international superstars, but they are working even harder to get local officials to listen to the trees. Recently, Sussy has been advocating for the preservation of old growth trees at the 46th Street Park on Kennedy Blvd in North Bergen. Sussy believes that trees, although nonverbal, are beings capable of great energetic understanding.
“Because trees exist with underground network systems, they are all connected and give each other nutrients,” they say, “I think the trees that are going to stay there are gonna feel a lot of hurt from losing their family.”
The trees can’t scream for help, though they might want to, and sometimes human voices are also drowned out by those who refuse to listen. This is where the sex appeal of Sexy Sustainability comes in.
“The reason why I made sexy sustainability was to help people pay attention, more so than sustainability being sexy itself. Sex sells, if we want people to do something if we want people to care about the environment, we gotta get them to pay attention through some means. Whether that be through engaging content, whether that be my t!ts being out, whatever that may be, we're gonna get people to pay attention and do something about it.”
All in favor of freeing the t!t and saving the trees say I! Just kiddiiiiing. (Not really though.)
Stripping down for and within nature isn’t only about getting the attention of others. It’s also about doing the inner work that is necessary to reconnect with the planet and understand its needs.
This summer Sussy took a trip to Minnesota to reconnect with their motivating force, the Earth.
“I went up to the Boundary Waters, which is basically the darkest part of America and you can actually see the stars super bright,” they shared, “A lot of what I do is focusing on protecting nature and I don’t get a lot of time to actually reintegrate myself into what I’m working towards. Sometimes it does create a very big disconnect between what I’m trying to do and what it actually is.”
When there is so much work to be done to save our planet, it can be hard to remember to stop and reflect on the small accomplishments. Sussy reflects on the first community project they ever completed, the Braddock Park Community Garden.
“Having that ceremony and physically having people there come and drop off their compost and involve themselves in the system that we’re in and be able to create a change… I was proud to be part of it overall.”
Si Dios quiere, the next Community Garden established in Hudson County will be located in Union City at the Betancourt Lewis Senior Center across City Hall. “We’re going to hold an open garden/public hearing at the Union City Community Garden space that we’re proposing… The seniors seem really interested, but we want to make sure we're getting their input and that they feel comfortable and welcome in this Community Garden,” says Sussy.
Sussy has helped to empower the community of Hudson County to decide how they would like to see their environment flourish. With each year that passes, Hudson County becomes more and more community oriented, visibly greener, and more sustainable.