Growing up in Colorado, Inga Pettner’s father taught her the importance of being a good steward of the environment by using cloth instead of paper napkins, bringing one’s own containers to restaurants for leftovers to avoid using Styrofoam boxes and not using disposable plastic bottles when possible.
Pettner’s family moved to Colorado Springs when she was 9. She’s always had an interest in culinary nutrition and medicinal properties of herbs and has taken courses in nutrition and natural healing at Bauman College in Boulder.
She started working at Conscious Living a few years ago, a job that allowed her to work while raising her then-newborn son, Cedar. Her husband, an Oregon native, does finish carpentry.
In December 2023, she took over running Conscious Living from founder Lilla McPherson, continuing the Old Colorado City store which strives to minimize plastic waste by specializing in selling bulk, refillable self-care products.
Pettner makes every effort to minimize waste in operating her business.
“I try to buy local as much as possible,” she explained.
This includes companies such as Aspire Colorado and Spinster Sisters, which make a variety of home and personal care biodegradable products in Golden. She sells dryer balls a woman in Salida makes.
Many of these companies provide bulk refillable plastic containers and glass jars that dispense her products while others, like the Canadian-based Oneka Elements, provide packaging that can returned.
“They send their stuff in a big bag and I’ll recycle that and set it back to them and they can reuse it,” she said.
Pettner finds other ways to reuse the packaging she can’t send back. She points to a stack of five-gallon buckets underneath a table.
“Those buckets I take to Food to Power (a local food nonprofit) right now and they reuse those for their composting.”
Her products include wet and dry shampoos, soaps, lotions, detergents, general-purpose cleaning products and dental-care products. Customers are encouraged to bring their own containers or use one of the many in the store that other customers donated.
Liquid and dry products such as lotions, soaps, and shampoos can be purchased by the ounce, particularly useful for sampling different skin care products to test for sensitivities.
“I tell people, just get a little bit and try it … you can always get the smallest amount,” Pettner said.
Conscious Living also continues to offer recycling services through Terracycle, which includes products such as toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, crayons, spray bottle triggers and bottle caps. The company specializes in creating products out of recyclable materials.
Rounding out its offerings, Conscious Living also sells locally brewed Kombucha as well as dog treats.
Pettner’s favorite part of the business?
“Working with people. I like to talk to people and see how their day is going. We have a lot of return customers and so it’s nice to check in on them and chat with them.”
Appreciating the world around us requires learning how to care for it intentionally and consciously. For Inga Pettner and her business, this starts with one container and one customer at a time.