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About Lisa Bronner

Lisa Bronner smiling, holding a coffee up in front of a house.

I’m so glad you’re here! Things look a little different than they did that long ago day when my brother asked me to write a blog, and I said, “What’s a blog?”

Since it’s founding in 2010, I am adding fresh content to it all the time.

I started “Going Green” as a way to answer lots of questions all at once. I used to answer all the questions folks emailed to Dr. Bronner’s. And after a couple years of individually answering, “Can I use the Castile soap to wash my face/hair/baby/dog/cat/llama/chicken/car/carpet/wood floors/tent/boat/super grubby wool socks?”* and numerous rounds of “Do you have a recipe for laundry soap/dish soap/mopping/diapers/shampoo/longevity?” I decided that posting answers somewhere public would be a whole lot more efficient.

So I started writing about the many, many uses for Dr. Bronner’s products. Along the way, I began learning even more about this thing we call “green.” I found there’s a lot of junky info out there that needs to be debunked, but there’s also a lot of really important info. I try to cut through all that here, to make good info easy to find.

I’ve continued posting general tips for simpler and healthier living, tips for home care & personal care, science behind the suggestions, deep dives into current issues, savvy shopping tips, and just for fun, anecdotes about the Bronner family and behind the scenes at Dr. Bronner’s.

My goal is for bright spring green beginners to find a place to start and for those steeped in a deep lush forest green to find ways to dive deeper.

Ten Things to know about me:

  1. Emanuel Bronner, founder of Dr. Bronner’s, was my grandfather. My family is now in its 5th generation of soapmaking.
  2. I am deeply motivated in my life and in my writing by the idea of stewardship: taking care of what has been entrusted to me and leaving things better than I found them.
  3. Having been an avid lifelong reader, I wrote my first book in 2023, Soap & Soul: A Practical Guide to Minding Your Home, Your Body, and Your Spirit with Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps. Part companion guide to using my family’s soaps and part green living how-to with a good dose of stories from my own green journey and memories of my grandfather and my whole Bronner family.
  4. I taught high school English and journalism. I still see myself functionally as a teacher.
  5. I’m a married mom of three almost grown kids, of whom I, at 5’8”, am the second shortest. For now.
  6. Though raised a city girl in Los Angeles, I embrace my current country life with many good things growing, evening serenades of distant livestock, and gloriously big horizons.
  7. I find working with my hands to be intensely therapeutic and often untangle the world’s problems in my head while cooking or gardening or crocheting.
  8. I get excited about nerdy things like pH and the chemistry of water and grammar, and I love to read the peer-reviewed research behind it all.
  9. I began college majoring in Civil Engineering but ended with a degree in English. I still weave between numbers and words.
  10. Regularly gathering with my family around the dinner table is the single most important parenting act in my day.

I still answer lots of consumer questions. Just put them in the comment sections at the end of a blog post! I can’t wait to hear from you!

*“yes/yes/yes/yes/yes/yes/yes/use Sal Suds/yes/yes/yes/yes/yes”