种植芦笋

杰西·约翰斯顿04年有一个杂志的想法，她不能停止思考. It percolated in her head for years until she decided that she would rather fail than never try to publish it.

这个想法的萌芽现在是获奖的 芦笋该出版物致力于讲述可持续性的大大小小的故事. 约翰斯顿于2018年2月在网上推出了这本杂志, 这是一个关于温哥华零废物杂货店的故事, 英属哥伦比亚. 从那时起，它已经发展成为八期印刷版和数百篇数字故事.

她说:“创办这本杂志，只做一期对我来说真的很重要。. “如果我能继续下去，那就太好了. 如果我没有，我至少会尝试去做我需要做的事.”

“现在，我们做的每一期新产品都像是一份礼物.”

根

的 芦笋 种子是几十年前种下的. 约翰斯顿比大多数孩子更早接触杂志. Her father “accidentally” launched a publication about AutoCAD after he circulated one newsletter. 他认为这将是一次性交易, until he was bombarded with calls from advertisers who saw an opportunity to publish more material on the fast-growing software application. She grew up surrounded by that homegrown magazine operation and piles of magazines in her home as both of her parents were voracious readers.

她一直喜欢用杂志的方式讲故事, 长期以来，她一直梦想成为印刷出版物的编辑掌舵人. 即使在布林莫尔的日子里，当她在 大学新闻 学的是语言学，她知道编辑工作是她的职业道路.

同样，她对环境和可持续发展的兴趣在她年轻时就扎根了. Johnston grew up in Vancouver, where the urban center is surrounded by mountains, forests, and sea. 当她还是个孩子的时候，她就开始远足、露营和在户外玩耍.

“在童年时期，我感觉自己与自然世界紧密相连. 和, 作为一个成年人, 我发现越来越多的东西与土著文化的概念有关, that there’s no separation between humans and nature; we’re all united.”

孩子们明白这一点, 但我们培养他们是为了让他们脱离自然, 然后我们就不再那么尊重它了.”

她是一个小环保主义者，即使这个词还没有出现在她的词汇表中.

经历了她教育和事业的每一个阶段, 约翰斯顿对杂志的抱负从未动摇过. 她找到了一份实习工作，然后又找到了一份工作 《推荐全球十大博彩公司排行榜》这给了她宝贵的行业经验. But as a Canadian citizen, she confronted hurdles with landing any other job in American print media. 向上流动的机会有限 《推荐全球十大博彩公司排行榜》之后，她决定回到温哥华的家，重新开始工作.   

回到温哥华, she enrolled in a master’s of publishing program at Simon Fraser University so she could build additional skills in publishing beyond her writing and editorial experience. 一旦有, 她在朋友的网络开发公司找到了一份项目经理的工作, 这让她迅速而深入地融入到管理一家企业的日常运营中.

几年后她被那个职位解雇了, 这促使她去追求自己的激情项目. She suddenly had a surplus of time and the experience she needed to finally launch the magazine she couldn’t stop thinking about.

讲故事的生态系统

约翰斯顿创办了一本她想读的杂志——一本充满智慧的杂志, 可持续性故事的折衷方法.

芦笋 covers both the day-to-day aspects of sustainability—like what toilet paper or laundry detergent is best for the environment—and the bigger, 系统性问题

推动气候变化和环境不公正.

这就是我们现在的生活方式, 她说, 每天的小决定都发生在更复杂的问题上. 她想创造一个反映现实的讲故事生态系统.

“We want to meet people where they’re at and support them in the day-to-day decisions about how to live more sustainably,约翰斯顿说。. “和 we hope that taking away some of the weight of those daily choices will give people space to engage more with the more complex issues.”

如果你翻阅最新一期的 芦笋, 你会找到关于环保床上用品的建议, 这是一本以第一人称讲述在气候灾难中生存的故事的汇编, 以及一篇关于法国改善家庭能源方法的文章.

约翰斯顿可以指出很多方面 芦笋 has influenced her own relationship with sustainability—from the daily decisions to the bigger environmental issues.

“我真的、真的不想再把塑料带进我的生活了，”她说. This means she often shops at the same zero-waste grocery store from that first article in 2018, 寿司饭的选择是纸包装的, 从她已有的塑料中榨出最后一盎司生命.

当涉及到系统性问题时，她觉得 芦笋 强调了环境问题的复杂性.

“I keep learning more about how everything is connected; it’s never just an isolated question,她说。, 他提到了巴西大火的多方面问题, 这是由一堆问题推动的吗, 包括殖民主义, 资本主义, 对廉价肉类的需求也存在问题. “的 magazine feeds the 布林莫尔 part of me that loves knowing and understanding things,她说。. 而一些气候问题可能会让人感觉像是无休止的厄运, 她说 climate storytelling is about sharing both the honest reality of challenging issues and the possible solutions.

“We want to tell the stories that give the information we need to understand the world we’re in, 其中一些故事令人沮丧, 我们想讲一些有帮助的故事

我们知道我们可以采取什么行动。. “人类有能力对气候变化做些什么.”

“这是一个非常重要的平衡，”杂志副主编阿利亚•达尔西(Alia Dharssi)表示 芦笋. “It can be challenging to talk about climate change because too much negativity can fuel a sense of apathy. 杰西对 芦笋 has always been to do things a little bit differently and publish a magazine that takes the problem of climate change seriously but can also share engaging, 有趣的, 以及以更有效的方式吸引人们的充满希望的故事.”

相互依赖与联系

也许是她工作中最具影响力的方面 芦笋 一直在向土著贡献者学习——他们分享了他们的观点和价值观, 千百年来与自然世界和自然亲属共存, 比如植物, 动物, 和水.

“的 idea of interdependence and connection with the natural world is so powerful,” Johnston says. “我就越能把这些想法融入我的生活，让别人接触到这些思维方式, 我们都会因此变得更好.”

贡献者名单 芦笋 和每期的内容一样丰富吗. Johnston believes it’s critically important to create space for marginalized writers to tell both the stories from their communities and to tell stories, 期.

“We need diversity in the industry—not just in telling stories from marginalized communities but in telling all of the stories,她说。. “我们希望为每一种故事带来不同的视角.”

从贡献者到内容，很容易看到的价值 芦笋 在杂志的每一页上. t的值很容易看出来 芦笋 在页面上. 每一期 芦笋 是否采用100%消费后再循环纸张印刷, 而不是你在大多数杂志封面之间找到的原始纤维.

约翰斯顿说，这是一个需要付出高昂财务成本的决定，但“没有商量的余地”. 她解释说，再生纸在各方面都更具可持续性. You don’t need to cut down more trees to produce recycled paper or put a greater dent in the carbon sink created by forests. 和 you save lots of energy by using recycled paper as you eliminate everything from cutting down trees, 运输原木, 然后把它们变成地膜和纸.

芦笋的未来

像许多其他企业一样， 芦笋 受到COVID-19大流行的打击. 它的读者群停滞不前，虽然最近几个月又开始增长，但约翰斯顿说

担心这太少，太迟了.

我们正处在一个许多印刷杂志都在折叠的时代, 而且很难在社交媒体上突破噪音，与读者建立联系. 虽然挑战是真实存在的，但约翰斯顿可以很容易地指出她看到的许多方面 芦笋 作为一个成功者，尤其是考虑到芦笋 还没上幼儿园呢.”

该杂志赢得了三个奖项，并获得了许多其他奖项的提名. 它通过八期来教育和激励读者. 它日益增长的. 也许最重要的是，它从未动摇过自己的使命.

“We created a magazine that’s welcoming to people of all kinds of backgrounds that care about the fate of the natural world and the fate of fellow human beings. We’ve connected our readers with a community that will change them for the better—and empowered them with ideas and knowledge to make the world a better place.”

当她想到不确定的命运 芦笋, she remembers starting the publication nearly five years ago and just wanting to publish one issue of this magazine that she couldn’t stop thinking about.

现在她的问题已经过去了, 约翰斯顿对发生的一切都泰然处之, 但她当然希望 芦笋 不断.

“我知道我们可以继续做重要的事情，为世界带来有价值的故事,她说。.