Julie Kearns

Founder, Junket: Tossed & Found - Minneapolis, USA
Minneapolis, USA
Julie Kearns

I run a business focused on facilitating widespread reuse of existing goods & materials as a socially-scalable climate mitigation strategy.

In my efforts to apply data to this work (contrasting manufacturing emissions w/ shipping emissions) I learned that, in most cases, existing items could literally be shipped across the US (often multiple times) before approaching the emissions created when manufacturing these items using the most sustainable manufacturing methods possible (100% recycled materials) *as long as* those used items aren’t put on airplanes.

While this research and discovery heartily affirmed my research (a market opportunity to build out the most circular economy possible), it also forced me to face an uncomfortable truth: I shouldn’t be flying, either.

And so, I stopped.

In the last 18 months, I’ve taken my daughter to NYC, attended a Climate Reality conference, and encouraged other family members to join us for a weekend away, all via Amtrak.

In 2019, I’ll ratchet down even my Amtrak travel in favor of lower carbon alternatives (staying put, digital travel, slow transit) as I continue to lead by example.

In 2010, I launched a business with a specifically environmental premise (and my daughter’s future for motivation): use radical transparency to build a regenerative company culture around community, creativity, & reuse.

For nearly six years, @shopjunket showed up as a vintage/creative reuse supply shop, where we puzzled over problems like ‘how do we commoditize the itty bitty things that no one else even thinks about…and how might we do this profitably, with CO2 labeling, so that big companies can’t insist that carbon labeling is impossible?’ and ‘why are some people/companies so resistant to reuse?’

We devoted our efforts to measuring, documenting, and systematizing strategies for carbon-informed commerce. We cheered at the incremental increases in awareness: where our premise had been radical as we began, climate change was a regular point of conversation with our clients as we wound down earlier this year.

Today, our work is focused on educating, advocating, and supporting low-impact living as a socially and environmentally regenerative climate strategy.

We are building an ethical platform for the online sale of 100% reuse/re-manufactured offerings with carbon education, ground shipping (only), and a ‘here when you need it,’ #SecondhandOnDemand approach to supporting artists and others who make and create.