Meet Taylor Dubose

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Taylor Dubose. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Taylor below.

Taylor , thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
My optimism comes from three parts of my life. They are athletics, culture, and family. As a business and SUStainable company, a lot of the time the challenges that come up sometimes seem steep or insurmountable so a healthy amount of optimism is almost a requirement. The same situation can happen in athletics, another team could be ranked higher than you or have “better” players but to win you have to stay positive and believe you can beat them. I’ve played sports since I could walk and became an All-American Athletic/Academic playing lacrosse. The number of times my teams and I had to deal with adversity couldn’t be counted but we didn’t give up. The amount of plastic in landfills, oceans, and waterways is a number that is hard to comprehend or even estimate but we know that doing nothing about it won’t improve the situation. Being of African American descent, many obstacles have presented themselves throughout my life. But I’ve never been the person to let that pull me into a more pessimistic mindset. Lastly, the support of family and friends has always been an invaluable asset to have. When people believe in you and are there to help you feel like anything is possible.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
The mission of SUS is to reduce the amount of waste in landfills throughout the world. We do this by reusing plastic bottles and other items from landfills, oceans, and waterways, to create our bags and backpacks. SUS was inspired by witnessing the environmental impact of overflowing junkyards and landfills when I was younger. Since I was a child, I wanted to help solve this problem. Driving the mission to reuse materials and tackle the plastic waste problem, SUS was established in 2020. We make certain all of our products are made sustainably with reusable, recycled, or biodegradable materials. We also want to make our products accessible to all. We recognize the price tag of sustainable items out there can put some of them out of reach, so we have made affordability one of our Core Values here at SUS to ensure all people have access to our products. I have been in product development for over 7 years and that experience has led me to pursue an initiative that positively impacts the world around me. I want to help reduce our environmental footprint on Earth while creating seriously fun products. We have two major announcements coming. One is our Reborn Initiative, where we collect, repair, and clean bags and backpacks that will be donated to those in need. This initiative is starting in the Greater Boston Area but we plan to grow the initiative as more opportunities arise. (Please let us know where you think would be a good area/place to put one of our bins!) For the time being, check out our website www.susmade.com in the Reborn Initiative section. Second, we are launching two new bags that will be made from recycled plastic bottles: a fanny pack and a crossbody bag. For all of our bags and backpacks, we tell you how many plastic bottles worth of plastic they take out of landfills, waterways, and oceans. Every bottle or picked-up piece of plastic counts!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
First off, I am still very much on my own journey and I am a work in progress. The three that come to mind are “know enough to be dangerous”, persistence, and the willingness to ask questions. There is so much information that we have access to every day, hour, and minute of our lives (Unfortunately/Fortunately) so based on your business, craft, or others make sure to be knowledgeable. You don’t need to know everything, just enough to hold your own or have a conversation with a subject matter expert in a field. Persistence is vital because you’re going to fail no matter what it is at the start but if you keep working at it or practice you will see positive progress. The willingness to ask questions is so important, especially in business. You will always get more people who will say no than yes but from a mentality standpoint it’s better to get a yes or no instead of leaving a question unasked.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?
We are always looking to partner and collaborate with other businesses or individuals! From small to large businesses, we want to work with people who are interested in making the world around them more sustainable and better for future generations. So that can mean the local bike shop or refill store to the companies in your nearest city downtown. The best way(s) to connect is through our website, social, or email.

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