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A Tucson sustainability advocate is using Instagram to share her eco-conscious lifestyle journey, along with tips, insights and guidance to help people stay hopeful amidst the ongoing climate crisis.

Adriana Bachmann is vice chair of the City of Tucson’s Commission on Climate, Energy and Sustainability. In 2017, she started a blog and Instagram account named "Earth Momma Trainee," but her journey toward sustainability began well before she launched the blog.

“I always had an interest in sustainability and environmentalism,” Bachmann told Tucson Spotlight. “I remember in high school, I was in Earth club and I would do the recycling for my classes, collecting bottles and things.”

Bachmann grew up surrounded by cotton fields in the “old” Town of Marana until 2011, when she moved to Tucson. While her interest in the environment started when she was young, it wasn’t always easy to keep that passion alive amid the demands of life and education. 

She dreamed of studying environmental science at Oregon State University, but her journey didn’t go as planned and the Marana native ended up staying much closer to home.

“I ended up going to the University of Arizona and majoring in English,” she said. “And then I kind of lost touch with (the environmental advocate) side of myself, because, you know, college, it kind of takes over your life.”

She started college on a full scholarship, but still faced financial struggles and had to take on multiple jobs to support her family.

She ended up losing her scholarship and transferring to Pima Community College, where she earned her associate’s degree in journalism. She began pursuing her bachelor’s degree at Arizona State University and by 2018, had completed most of her course work.

But financial constraints forced her to push pause once again, this time taking a four-year break. In 2022, thanks to her employer’s tuition assistance program, she was able to re-enroll at ASU, taking two classes per year.

Now, after 16 years of balancing the demands of life while pursuing an education, Bachmann is in her final semester at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.

During that time, her academic focus shifted from environmental science to media, but Bachmann’s passion for the environment held firm.

In 2016, when the Trump administration placed a de facto gag order on the Environmental Protection Agency, Bachmann became deeply frustrated.

“That really upset me,” she said. “These agencies are so important, especially with regulating policy or regulating companies and organizations and how they affect the environment.”

Her frustration pushed her into action, prompting her to launch "Earth Momma Trainee" as a way to share what she was learning about the environment.

She used the blog as a space to explore sustainability and share her journey towards eco-conscious living.

“It was a way for me to help educate others, people who followed me in the community and learn alongside them,” Bachmann said.

But as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, she began to realize that a lot of the sustainability information online was misleading.

Initially, she relied on authors and influencers who claimed to promote eco-friendly products and lifestyles.

“I started out reading articles, blogs, and textbooks, but I was also learning from sustainability influencers and companies that were environmentally friendly,” Bachmann explained.

Over time, she realized much of the information wasn’t accurate. She discovered that many companies were engaging in greenwashing, or manipulating information to make their products appear more eco-friendly than they actually were.

“I fell for the greenwashing,” she admitted. “Some of the sustainability content creators can be extreme, and the community can shun you if you’re not doing things perfectly.”

Bachmann shifted towards a concept called “imperfect sustainability,” which encourages doing what you can, when you can.

“Not all of us can do everything all the time, especially in the consumerist society that we live in,” she said.

Her understanding of sustainability continued to grow, leading to new opportunities. She was invited to join the founding board of the Arizona Sustainable Apparel Association after someone discovered her “Earth Momma Trainee” blog, accepting the role of Vice President of Marketing.

“A lot of the content we created was about sustainable fashion, how to avoid greenwashing and educate the community on what sustainable fashion looks like,” Bachmann explained.

In 2021, she took a big step forward in her journey by joining Sustainable Tucson’s first sustainability ambassador training program. She said the program, conducted virtually due to the pandemic, gave her a deeper, evidence-based understanding of environmentalism, particularly as it related to Southern Arizona.

“I was able to take advantage of that training that was offered locally at a discounted price,” she said.

Each week, the group heard from a different expert about topics related to sustainability and how it connects to the local environment. Bachmann took what she learned and was able to share more accurate, evidence-based information with her followers.

In 2023, Bachmann joined the city’s Commission on Climate, Energy and Sustainability, where she currently serves as vice chair. She’s also chair of the commission’s Community Engagement and Communications Subcommittee, which was created last year.

As her journey has progressed, Bachmann realized her understanding of sustainability was evolving. She recently rebranded her account to My Climate Clarity, reflecting her growing focus on the intersection of climate change and media literacy.

Bachmann said that she’s come to realize that meaningful climate action starts with clarity and grounding one’s choices in evidence while also questioning oversimplified narratives.

Her new page provides evidence-based sustainability and climate action tips with an explanation of how she incorporates them into her life, lessons from her advocacy and community care work, science insights informed by media literacy and guidance on how to stay grounded and hopeful.

“This is our society that needs to change,” she said. “The only way we can get that change is through advocating for a new system or new policies that prioritize the environment and sustainability and our health, as opposed to consumerism.”

Isabela Gamez is a University of Arizona alum and Tucson Spotlight reporter. Contact her at gamezi@arizona.edu.

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