‘Walker’ Star Genevieve Padalecki Explains How She’s Making Sustainability Easier (VIDEO)
Genevieve Padalecki wants the world to be a better place. And she’s making it easier than ever for us to help that cause with Take Only What We Need, the sustainability site she helped launched back in 2021.
“It came initially from when we started having kids,” explains the actress-turned-advocate, referring to the three children she has with husband Jared Padalecki. A self-described “mountain girl” who costars with the hubby on Walker as Cordi’s late wife Emily and now calls their animal-filled ranch in Austin home, Padalecki has had a life-long concerns about protecting nature and other ecological issues. They became more profound with parenthood. “I think especially when you have kids, you want to raise them in the best possible environment and give them everything that you possibly can and leave the world in a better place.”
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Of course, even she knows that the whole idea of sustainability and conscious consumerism can strike some as intimidating — which is why TOWWN takes a softer, easier approach to offering alternative options. “We wanted to find a space that was providing resources and uplifting people in the sustainability space as opposed to shaming or making people afraid.” You don’t even need to be that crunchy, either. As the site’s homepage states, “no patchouli, granola or Birkenstocks required.”
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“I started talking with a couple of friends and my co-founders, Kelly Mickle and Charlie Capen, and we decided we really needed to find a platform that was sort of this intersection of people and planet that provided resources for burnout — because it’s such a doom and gloom environment.” Noting how so many people think reducing their carbon footprint is “all or nothing or what’s the point?,” Padalecki and her partners have focused on platforming easy-to-digest tips for making an impact at your own pace through both the site and its social feeds on Instagram and TikTok.
TOWWN’s helpful content is also cross-platformed on Padalecki’s personal site, Now & Gen. This is where you’ll find everything from her family photos and gift guides to wellness hacks and cocktail recipes. She states in the “Cliff’s Notes version” of her About page that “I try to live curiously and love to share cool things I discover and the inspiring people I meet along the way…[those] unexpected things that make life a little bit sweeter.”
And like JoAnna Swisher Garcia‘s Happy Place, which we showcased here last week, Now & Gen features a beloved book club. As you can see in the video above, Padalecki is a voracious reader — “I love BookTok!” she exclaims — and has been able to turn that love into a series of monthly picks and chats with authors from across the category list. “I am getting hit with publishers and I absolutely love it,” she admits of the attention her segments are gaining. “I love [finding] new writers and new books and stuff like that because I feel like it’s so important to read.”
