When actor-turned-activist Bonnie Wright moved beyond “Harry Potter” movie stardom, she cast her energy into environmental activism. She champions a message that’s as nourishing as it is urgent: Sustainability starts at home.

Wright exudes down-to-earth charm as we talk about how a growing awareness of the climate crisis led her to explore activism. On her first mission with Greenpeace, the organization dedicated to preserving endangered species and preventing environmental abuses, she found herself aboard a ship trolling for plastic in the ocean. “At times, we weren’t seeing another ship in sight, but we were seeing plastic,” she says.

It had an impact.

Wright enrolled in a sustainability course at UCLA, became a Greenpeace ambassador and began publicly speaking about the climate crisis. Seeing people’s fatigue with all-or-nothing climate messaging, she was inspired to write a book with easily digestible steps. In Go Gently: Actionable Steps to Nurture Yourself and the Planet (Harvest, 2022), Wright informs readers that sustainability isn’t about doing everything—it’s about doing something, consistently.

When writing about composting in your backyard, buying imperfect produce or making oat milk, Wright makes it all feel doable. The book is about our immediate environment and the aspects of daily life that seem most within our control. Yet home is as manageable as our personal surroundings and as vast as the entire planet.

Wright turned the ideas from her book into a documentary TV series, also titled “Go Gently,” in which she pushes the conversation toward broader, systemic change.

For the show, Wright and her co-host, drag queen and environmentalist Pattie Gonia, traverse the West Coast, from LA to Portland.

They explore sustainable practices in various communities, engaging people and organizations dedicated to eco-friendly living. Each episode highlights “incredible humans doing powerful work to protect our planet,” says Wright.

“My dream for the show is that people can be inspired and be part of the change they wish to see. Facing the global [environmental] crisis is overwhelming. When people are educated on what their local community is facing, the steps become clearer and easier to take,” she says.

These days, Wright leads by example. She is a regular at neighborhood farmers’ markets, where she stocks up on organic, seasonal produce. She promotes eating in season, not just for taste and nutrition but for its environmental benefits.

In her kitchen, you’ll find glass jars of bulk grains, cloth produce bags and well-loved wooden cutting boards. She also actively supports local composting initiatives and advocates for policy change around food waste and emissions.

The takeaway is clear: Sustainability isn’t just about reducing waste—it’s about rebuilding our relationships with the land, food and each other.

In an era of performative eco-branding, Wright offers something refreshingly real.

A Santa Monica Mountains resident, she supports Follow Your Heart Café & Market in Canoga Park, where you can buy reusable produce bags as well as locally grown fruits and vegetables. She encourages shopping for secondhand goods at the many thrift stores nearby, suggesting we all might benefit from living more like the Weasleys, the fictional family in the Harry Potter books and movies.

The character Ginny Weasley, brought to life by Wright, lives in a home where the bread is baked from scratch, holiday gifts are handknit sweaters and hand-me-down robes are de rigueur.

If you don’t know where to begin, Wright suggests heading outdoors: hiking, gardening or just observing. It is an amazing way to ground yourself in the ecosystem you live in, she says, and be reminded of why you love it and want to protect it. Appreciation goes a long way toward informing your choices, including those made at the market. Wright researches brands’ transparency and tries to keep her spending local.

“The economy of my community is really important to me, and many things don’t need to be outsourced,” she says. “This is true of food and goods and experiences; if we’re constantly needing to import them from far away, that just means more miles they have to travel, and more miles we have to drive our car to get them.”

As our chat wraps up, Wright shares a powerful moment from filming “Go Gently” that took place in Northern California. The Yurok Tribe, indigenous people deeply connected to the Klamath River, secured long-awaited approval to remove four dams impacting the river’s ecosystem. It was a landmark environmental victory, and a moving affirmation for Wright and her crew. Change, it turns out, is possible.

Back in Los Angeles, where the climate crisis is increasingly at our front door, Wright’s message feels hopeful: Making a difference doesn’t take magic—just intention and the courage to go gently.

FOLLOW THE WRIGHT PATH TO SUSTAINABILITY

Bonnie Wright shares actionable tips for treading lightly and being a good steward of the land in the San Fernando Valley.

SHOP at our local farmers’ markets.

DROP your compost at an LA Compost hub in Valley Village.

VISIT Follow Your Heart Café & Market in Canoga Park for vegan eats.

BUY in bulk at re_ grocery in Studio City, Mar Vista and Highland Park.

STOCK UP at Topanga’s The Well Refill for clean refills for your home and body.

SUPPORT regenerative growers like Apricot Lane Farms.

GIVE your unwanted items new life at Composed Giving in the Valley Country Market in Woodland Hills.

WATCH the documentary TV series “Go Gently,” streaming on Prime Video and Apple TV+ this summer.