ABOUT THE FOUNDER
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” ― Mother Teresa
Hello friend, my name is Lana. I am so grateful that you’ve found your way here because it shows that, like me, you’re also looking for ways to live a little cleaner and greener.
As important as eco-friendly living is to me right now, I sure took a few curvy roads to get here and to fully understand my purpose. At 20, I dropped out of college in my lovely homeland of Belarus and found myself in the hustle and bustle of New York City with only 50 bucks to my name. Those early days weren’t easy and I spent the following decade working in restaurants and the healthcare industry, dreaming of someday starting a business of my own. But I didn’t want to open just ANY business—I wanted it to help make the world a better place.
At 30, I adopted a formal meditation practice to deal with grief and stress, which changed my life. I started to wake up to a whole new reality of myself and the world around me (they don’t call it a spiritual awakening for nothing!). I became more aware of how my actions impact everything and everyone. Mindfulness began to spread to all areas of my life. I stopped eating meat, because I did not want to contribute to animal suffering. And I also became more aware of the stuff that I used on a daily basis and discovered so much unnecessary packaging, plastic—just pure clutter! I wondered where it all went after I was done with it.
And I’m just one person in the ocean of billions! How does our planet even hold so much of this manufactured waste? (I later found the answer in this video.)
After this newfound awareness, I started reducing my general consumption of things and limiting my plastic waste as much as I could. I became that girl who shows up to a Midtown Manhattan cafe with her own cup and bamboo utensils. I’ve also amassed quite an impressive collection of cute reusable canvas bags to replace all those plastic ones people tried to shove into my hand at every store. Slowly replacing item after item, I started to fill my home and my life with good-quality, sustainable and toxin-free products that actually last. And people around me started to notice! After hearing “That’s so cute! Where did you get that?” dozens of times, it clicked: THIS is what I can do to make a difference. And so I created EarthAhead.com, a place where I curate all of my favorite eco-friendly products to share with the world.
Earth Ahead is an expression of my values and passions combined—my love for nature, for animals, for humanity, for health, for beauty, for artisanal goods, for small businesses, for the creative process and for mindful way of living.
I truly believe that, when looking at the bigger picture, there’s really nothing more important than our health, the health of our loved ones and the health of our environment. I hope you will join me in my quest to reduce plastic pollution and hopefully, together, we can make a bigger difference for our planet.