Meet Patricia Hernandez, she hails from the Canary Islands in Spain and is a true eco warrior. She is a teacher turned activist and her path to her current role as founder of Zero Quest Solutions in inspiring.
In her owns words she shares that by “adopting what I hope are little glints of wisdom from my years of teaching, together with my own tried and tested Zero Waste hacks and tips, my mission is to share with whoever wants to listen”.
She has a loyal following not only locally, but worldwide as well.
How and when was Zero Quest Sustainable Solutions created?
This project came about after I led my school community into becoming the first Eco School in the Canary Islands. The process of learning and transformation was not only hugely enriching for the school itself but seemed enticing and attractive to other schools and businesses in my local community who approached me for guidance in creating personal and realistic sustainability plans for their organisations. I became more and more aware of the need to involve communities as a whole rather than isolating common responsibilities to small pockets of society.
Was it hard to leave your career of teaching to start this new endeavor, what steps did you take during the transition?
I saw it as a natural progression to what I was doing before, just reaching a wider audience and connecting the dots even further. Having said that, all changes hold challenges and as any entrepreneur will tell you, my learning curve shot up in a matter of weeks after making the change. I made sure I started slowly while I explored how to proceed. I didn’t have a map, just trusted my intuition and instinct. The hard part was having to do little jobs here and there to pay the bills so that I could keep the creative juices flowing. I made sure I kept healthy and ate particularly well during all this process.
What inspires you the most in your work?
Being able to connect with others who hold the same vision and the creative process involved in sharing this vision. Equally inspiring is observing how communities such as schools begin to adopt transformational measures that have an excruciatingly important impact on their students’ understanding of the world and the power that they have to influence it.
How do you personally define success for yourself and your cause?
My personal criteria for success is to be able to wake up every day feeling inspiration and to be able go to sleep at night feeling satisfaction and gratitude. Success for my cause would be defined as being able to move to action a large number of people including political figures, powerful companies and brands.
Tell us about Oceans4Life and how can our readers help?
The Ocean Conscious Project came about from this vision of involving entire communities in a common goal. I began collaborating with Oceans4life Gran Canaria, a charity whose mission is to raise awareness of plastic pollution, through beach cleans and talks in local schools. I started working with local seamstresses making reusable, bulk shopping bags from repurposed fabric and shared 10% of profits with Oceans4life in order to help to promote them. Readers who wish to support or collaborate with Ocean’s4life can do so by contacting them through their Facebook page and following them on instagram @oceans4lifegc. Just to show you how far this charity has come since starting off a year ago, Oceans4life already holds a Guinness World Record title for the most international beach clean event ever hosted.
Your skin is so clear and beautiful, what is your skincare routine and how has it evolved?
I used to work for a big luxury makeup and cosmetics brand in the UK and so have always been careful with what I put on my skin. To be honest, my skincare routine hasn’t changed much since then, in that I cleanse and moisturise twice a day, morning and night. What has changed are the products I use which are natural, cruelty free, and do not contain harsh chemicals. I try not to touch my face if my hands are not clean. I swim in the sea, eat a plant based diet and I use a bentonite clay mask once a week.
Here are a few images from her Instagram account to inspire your path to sustainable solutions:
