The Green Changemakers: Consumption

Showing posts with label Consumption. Show all posts

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Rise Up - Climate Change Education Initiative

Rise Up is an IDB climate change education initiative that seeks to encourage children and youth to use their creativity and energy to come up with feasible, sustainable, long-term strategies to mitigate climate change.

Explore Rise Up themes

We present instruction videos, a Green School Tool Kit and Videogames. These are all materials that teachers and students will be able to use in schools to turn children into brave superheroes with the mission of saving the planet!

Friday, May 16, 2014

Mindful consumption

by Nick Thorpe

The problem with our society is not that it values material things too much but that it doesn’t value them enough.

In recent years, a range of voices from science, philosophy, political activism and the arts have begun to suggest exactly that, coalescing into a movement that can ground us ever more mindfully in the material world. The ‘new materialism’, as it was dubbed in a report by the New Economics Foundation in 2012, challenges us to love our possessions not less but more – to cherish them enough to care about where they came from, who made them, what will happen to them in the future.

Environmental campaigners are, in a similar spirit, slowly redefining themselves less by what they’re against (global warming, fossil-fuel extraction, runaway consumerism) than what they’re for: a healthy and balanced relationship with the material world that sustains us in all its delicate, interconnected beauty. But it’s a philosophical, even spiritual position, too. If we could truly cherish the things in our lives, ‘retain the pulse of their making’, as the British ceramicist Edmund de Waal puts it, wouldn’t we be the opposite of consumers?

In its clear-eyed manifesto The New Materialism (2012), the New Economics Foundation explains that creating a society in which things last longer and are endlessly re-used will necessarily entail a major shift to the services that keep things going, thereby creating employment to replace lost manufacturing/retail output. Here, Herman Daly, editor of the journal Ecological Economics, calls for the ‘subtle and complex economics of maintenance, qualitative improvements, sharing, frugality, and adaptation to natural limits. It is an economics of better, not bigger.’

The New Economics Foundation predicts that the new materialism will lead to more emphasis in spending on ‘experiences rather than disposable goods’, which means less shopping and more music, film, live performance, sport and socialising: more lasting satisfaction and less of the transitory hit of ownership. This in turn might lead to a proliferation of festivals, sporting competitions and cultural events celebrating the talents we share and occluding the endless proliferation of retail stuff.

Be the change: Think twice before you buy something this week, and if you do, put it to good use. Give something you already have away to someone who needs it.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Tiny House Living, Off the Grid

Having a life with less stuff and more experiences is a big driver of the tiny house movement.

by Cat Johnson

This piece originally appeared at Shareable.

: Photo by Tammy Strobel / Flickr.

LaMar Alexander grew up in a homesteading family. For him, self-sufficiency, including gardening, raising animals and “doing for ourselves” was normal and necessary. He tried city life after college, but says he felt like a slave to a house, bills and employers. At 35, he made a change.

“I had a wake up call,” he explains, “that made me realize that what I really wanted was a simple homestead cabin and to eliminate my dependence on the system, so I could live sustainably while I pursued my dreams.”

Tiny house living is a good way to reduce your ecological footprint, save money, and simplify life down to the things that truly matter.

So Alexander built a house. A very small, 14 ft. x 14 ft. house. A solar and wind powered off-the-grid cabin with a kitchen, bathroom and living room downstairs and a bedroom and office upstairs. It cost him $2,000 to build not including the recycled doors and windows, the front porch, and the solar system.

Being an avid outdoorsman, Alexander didn’t need a lot of indoor space, but as an author, videographer, and off-the-grid builder, he did need modern amenities including a cell phone, Internet access, electric lights, indoor toilet, and shower etc., and he has them. Alexander says his tiny house is easy to clean, cheap to heat and cool, and he has no house payments or monthly utility bills.
“I now have the freedom to pursue my dreams,” he says, “and the money I make stays in my pocket and can be used for vacations or to help my family and for a secure retirement. That is the freedom that an off-grid lifestyle makes possible.”

Alexander is part of a growing movement of tiny housers. The options for going tiny are growing. In fact, tiny house villages are even being tested as solutions to homelessness. Within the tiny house movement, there's a contingent who are taking the simplicity, sustainability and freedom of tiny houses to the next level by building their tiny homes off the power grid.

Shareable connected with four experienced, off-the-grid tiny housers to find out how they made the move to living off-the-grid in a tiny house; what challenges they face; how they handle practical matters like electrical, sewage and water; what someone considering off-the-grid living should know; and the benefits of living tiny and off-the-grid.

Contributing to the conversation are Laura LaVoie, who, along with her partner Matt, built an off-the-grid tiny house in the mountains of North Carolina. She also authored the book 120 Ideas for Tiny Living and blogs about tiny house living at Life in 120 Square Feet; Merete Mueller who, along with her partner Christopher, built a 130 square foot, off-the-grid tiny house and documented the experience in the film Tiny: a Story About Living Small; and Alexander, who has produced several books and videos about going off-the-grid, and writes about off-the-grid living at Simple Solar Homesteading.

Benefits, challenges, and legalities

Tiny house, off-the-grid living is a good way to reduce your ecological footprint, save money—"Our bills for energy and water are zero dollars,” explains LaVoie—and simplify life down to the things that truly matter.

"People survived and thrived just fine before electricity came along and still can if you are willing to do things by hand."

“One benefit to tiny house living,” says Mueller, “is that it frees up the money, time and energy that would otherwise be spent on maintaining a house and rent or a mortgage, to be used on other things, like working on creative projects, starting a business, spending time with friends and family, or on other hobbies that bring a lot of satisfaction to one's life.”

She points out that with tiny house, off-the-grid living, the drawbacks can be the same as the benefits.
“One obvious challenge is a minimal amount of space inside,” she says, “But one benefit related to that is being forced to spend more time outside, and being forced to simplify possessions and think about which things matter most.”

Emptying the composting toilet, hauling water and the other “challenges” that come with tiny, off-the-grid living were, for Mueller, part of the allure. “We wanted to know and understand,” she says, “exactly how much water we were consuming.”

Alexander says that the biggest challenges involve government regulations and “burdensome codes.” He also mentions outside interference from neighbors and businesses in the area, securing an adequate water supply, and, if you live in a rural area, isolation and making money in a rural economy.

Regarding zoning issues, all three recommend talking with local authorities as regulations are different in different counties, towns, and even neighborhoods. Mueller suggests calling your local town office to ask questions before making any long-term plans. She also advises getting to know your neighbors.

“In many places with restrictions, those rules will only apply if the neighbors choose to report you or are somehow offended by your situation,” she explains. “So getting to know your neighbors early on, explaining to them your motivations for choosing this lifestyle, and how all of your utilities work, can help to avoid that from happening.” She adds, “It's good to develop allies early on.”

Generally, the closer you are to a city the more rules there are to follow. Because of this, off-the-gridders often choose to live in rural areas in counties that want to increase their tax base and may be more open to alternative structures. Alexander lists Colorado, Oklahoma, Alaska, Wyoming, Arkansas, and Missouri as some of the states that promote off-the-grid living.

Taking a tiny house off-the-grid

There’s a direct relationship between tiny houses and off-the-grid living. Having a life with less stuff and more experiences is a big driver of the tiny house movement. Going off-the-grid allows tiny house dwellers to take that simplicity even further.

For LaVoie, the connection between tiny houses and off-the-grid living is one of personal preference.
“The beauty of the tiny house movement is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone who wants to go tiny,” she says. “With the right resources someone can be connected to the grid if they want to. Otherwise, the smaller the house the less energy it needs to run efficiently, so off-grid systems are an easy match.”

Mueller points out that there’s a DIY element that connects the tiny house and off-the-grid movements.

“Not everyone builds their own tiny house, but certainly a very high percentage of people do,” she says. “This means that people living in tiny houses have a greater understanding of how their homes and their utilities work, which is conducive to off-grid living. Tiny housers often like the idea of being self-sufficient and environmentally sustainable, and it's certainly much easier to heat and power a tiny house through off-grid methods than a larger, more traditional house.”

She adds that because many tiny houses are built on wheels—a necessity to bypass building codes—they can't use traditional utilities (a septic system for example), so off-grid methods are often used even if the house is parked in a location with access to the grid.

How much does it cost?

The consensus on how much a tiny, off-the-grid house costs is: it depends. Variables include whether you build the house yourself; how you choose to heat it; how much you spend on off-the-grid energy sources; whether you want to go super-simple or have a luxurious, off-the-grid tiny house. Here’s what LaVoie, Mueller and Alexander had to say about building their tiny houses:

"I think it is especially important for everyone to recognize that there isn't one right way to live simply or off-grid."

LaVoie: We worked with an online company called the Alt-E store and put together a solar power package that was exactly what we wanted. It included two 245 watt panels, a 45 amp charge controller, and three 110 amp hour AGM batteries. We also use an 1800 watt inverter that we already owned. We were able to purchase all of this for around $2,000. The only other investment we made for our off-the-grid lifestyle was our Berkey water filter which cost around $300.

It costs us $0 a month for electricity, heat, and water in our tiny house. There are, of course some other minor costs but paying nothing for energy helps to offset those. For instance, since I work for myself I pay for my own health insurance. We, of course, have phone and internet bills. There is some small cost for fuel like propane and butane but it is really less than about $20 a month.

Mueller: [The cost] completely depends, but in our case when our tiny house was parked in an off-grid location, we only had to purchase a small propane tank once every few months for heating and we purchased water, which we hauled up in large jugs. Our solar system is a pre-made unit called a Sol Man (manufactured by a company called Sol-Solutions) and cost about $5,000. It cost us about $26,000 to build our tiny house, but people have built similar tiny houses for much more and much less, depending on how they were sourcing their materials and the amount of building experience they have.

Alexander: That all depends on what lifestyle the person wants. You can be a minimalist and go without any electricity using wood stoves or propane for heat and candles and lanterns for light, and a basic yurt, cabin or other house style. Or, you can build a very high-tech green home with the latest Leed's sustainability guidelines, which can be very expensive.

Older homes can be remodeled for off-the-grid efficiency or there are many small off-grid cabin designs like mine that people can use and modify to fit their needs. The style of the house may be modest or expensive depending on what you want.

My cabin cost under $2,000 to build and about $5,000 for the off-grid system and I believe a smaller off-grid home under 400 square feet that is very efficient and also nice and comfortable to live in can be built for under $20,000, and much less if people are using recycled materials and doing the work themselves. Land, water and a power system are not included in that figure because they vary greatly depending on your needs, the area, and where you want to live.

Options for generating electricity

One option for electricity is to go without. Alexander explains that one quarter of the world’s homes do not have a grid electricity connection.

“People survived and thrived just fine before electricity came along,” he says, “and still can if you are willing to do things by hand and go without much of the entertainment that people think they need to survive.”

If going without is not an option, there are several options for generating electricity for an off-the-grid house, but solar is the most affordable. At approximately $1 per watt you can have an inexpensive system for basic power needs for under $5,000. Solar also works in cloudy conditions and snowy areas.

Wind is another option, but wind turbines are expensive and only work when the wind blows. If you have access to a river or stream, you could look into hydro power for generating some of your electricity.

Both Alexander and LaVoie advise doing a lot of research before you invest in anything. LaVoie recommends getting an energy meter before making any decisions to figure out what your electrical needs are. Alexander says the best tip he can give is to first study how you can greatly reduce your power consumption using more efficient appliances and non-power using appliances.

“Heat, cooling and refrigeration are the main power consumers in any house,” he explains, “so off-grid houses use wood stoves, propane heat, fans, passive cooling and alternative power fridges to take those appliances out of the system. Once you eliminate those appliances from your power needs,” he continues, “you can use a very small solar system for everything else.”

Alexander’s current system is 580 watts solar, a 400 watt wind turbine, and propane for heating and cooking with a wood stove back-up. He does passive cooling with fans, porches, overhangs and trees, and refrigeration is done using a converted freezer run off solar.

How to get water

Finding a water source is one of those things that you’re going to want to research before you buy land. Most counties require an approved source such as a city water connection, a professionally drilled well, or a cistern tank with a delivery system. Drilling a well can be expensive, so find out what your options are. Hand-drilled, shallow wells and rainwater catchment can be used for agricultural purposes, but these generally don’t meet county codes.

Alexander, who has a hand-drilled well and a 300 foot deep Artesian well, warns that if you’re using rainwater to supplement household usage, it must be filtered and treated to make it safe for consumption. He explains that giardia is a “real problem” with rain water but it is safe for washing clothes and flushing toilets.

LaVoie counts herself lucky that the land they bought has a running spring. She adds that you can also purchase water, but cautions that the costs begins to add up. She says that the thing that she is the most proud of is their conservation of water.

“The average American household can use over 200 gallons of water a day depending on the number of people in the home,” she says. “In our tiny house, Matt and I use a total of five gallons a day, not including drinking water. We have an air pressurized shower sprayer that holds two gallons of hot water and is plenty to ensure that we are clean.” She adds that one of the biggest culprits for water use in a traditional household is flushing the toilet.

The lowdown on the toilet

Outhouses are a proven solution for dealing with human excrement, but composting toilets offer a solution that can be brought indoors, have all the comforts of the modern toilet, and are allowed in many rural areas. Another solution is a conventional septic tank or, where allowed, a leach pond.
Alexander and LaVoie both recommend the book The Humanure Handbook: a Guide to Composting Human Manure by Joseph C. Jenkins for getting the facts about all things poop. LaVoie uses a dry composting, sawdust toilet that she describes as “easy to manage.” She adds that there are commercially available composting systems, but they can get pricey. Alexander designed and built a solar enhanced composting toilet that keeps the microbes at a higher temperature so they work faster to compost the waste.

“If you eliminate gray water from your tank,” he says, “you do not need a leach field and there is nothing left over but some dry composted material when the process is complete.” The plans for his toilet are in his book Off the Grid.

How to handle garbage, recycling, mail, internet

Another question that arises is, if you’re off-the-grid, how do you deal with details such as garbage, recycling, mail and internet. The consensus here is to use the local dump for garbage and recycling and set up a P.O. box or a mailbox at a UPS store if there’s one nearby, or just use a mailbox on the road.

Having a life with less stuff and more experiences is a big driver of the tiny house movement.

There are other options as well. Most household waste can be composted or incinerated in rural areas. Alexander explains that most rural people have an incinerator barrel and what is left over is hauled off occasionally. He adds that the key is reusing or repurposing everything possible.

“Everything gets recycled at my place,” he says, “and all wood and metal is held on to for other projects or sent to the scrap yard for someone else to use.”

Internet access is available through a cell phone hotspot or a satellite system. If T.V. is a must-have, satellite T.V. works everywhere and with Internet access, you can get Netflix, Hulu etc.

The big picture on tiny, off-the-grid living

The big picture takeaway on becoming an off-the-grid tiny houser is that there are countless possibilities when it comes to building a home that's right for you. Making the move requires a big, hands-on commitment, but it’s a lifestyle change that, according to LaVoie, can be personally fulfilling.

“I think it is especially important for everyone to recognize that there isn't one right way to live simply or off-grid,” she says. “Tiny house living shouldn't be viewed as a competition or that someone is doing it better than anyone else. The most important thing is to live in a way that is comfortable for you.” She adds, “Always make sure you enjoy the adventure.”

Cat Johnson wrote this article for Shareable, where it originally appeared. Cat is a freelance writer focused on community, the commons, sharing, collaboration and music. Publications include Utne Reader, GOOD, Shareable, Triple Pundit, and Lifehacker.
Read more:

Tiny Houses for the Homeless: An Affordable Solution Catches On

Tiny House Village to Shelter the Homeless in Texas

Resilient Ideas: Get Off The Grid

Source: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/how-to-live-off-the-grid-in-a-tiny-house

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

10 Trends in Mindful Consumption

by Marian Salzman, President, Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, North America, and Ann O'Reilly, Content Director, Euro RSCG Worldwide Knowledge Exchange
The era of mindless consumption is over. Consumers now want a simple, sustainable, and self-sufficient life.

Conspicuous consumption. Shop till you drop. All-you-can-eat buffets and supersized meals. The post–World War II era has been marked by a voracious hunger for more. In affluent countries, people bought too much, ate too much, used up too much, and owed too much. Yet, for many, it still wasn’t enough. There was something missing—lots of things, really. Among them, a sense of control and self-sufficiency, personal responsibility, and feelings of community and authenticity. Replacing the constant accumulation of “stuff” with these more substantive intangibles lies at the heart of the current shift toward mindfulness—a movement in which heedless excess is exchanged for a more conscious and considered approach to living.

Getting Serious About Rightsizing

1. The Great Recession has brought with it lots of emotions—and not all bad. It has been fascinating to see how much satisfaction people are deriving from cutting back. After years of wasteful excess—oversized homes and cars, over-the-top weddings, disposable everything—consumers have had enough. They want to feel good about themselves and their consumption choices, so they are making do with “just enough.” Rightsizing encompasses simplifying and decluttering, and recycling and rejecting. It is a mindset that offers deeper satisfactions than most of us experienced through years of hyperaccumulation. Outrage over the BP oil disaster will push even more people to take steps to rightsize their energy consumption.

Purposeful Pleasure Usurps Instant Gratification

2. In the waning era of hyperconsumerism, one of our most constant sources of pleasure was the instant gratification that accompanied most of our purchases. We were caught up in a dizzying cycle of See-Buy-Discard-Repeat. Now, people are taking the time to reassess what really makes them happy, taking more care in deciding what—and whether—to buy, and thinking harder about the value they’re getting for their money. Impulse shopping is giving way to a form of consumption that emphasizes relationships with producers and longer-lasting satisfactions, such as supporting local artisans or protecting the planet. For creative marketers who understand this trend, the quest for purposeful pleasure opens up myriad opportunities to engage consumers in the brand experience. For every “no” (sacrifice, compromise), it is important to give consumers an equally strong “yes” (such as pride in doing good and a sense of belonging).

A Return to Substance

3. Our old ways of consuming have failed to satisfy, leaving people unhappy and alienated. They hunger for community. They want to get involved with causes larger than themselves. They want to engage in more meaningful conversations and relationships. And they want to feel the way they live is not only purposeful but deeply “real.” Categories reflecting a move away from the superficial include food (as seen in the evolution of “conscious nourishment,” such as organics, artisanry, buying local, and “slow food”) and travel (a category marked by increases in eco-consciousness, cultural immersion and voluntourism).

Growing Up and Accepting Personal Responsibility

4. Recent decades saw adolescence prolonged and adulthood delayed—around half of the adult global respondents to the Euro RSCG New Consumer global study said they don’t always feel like real grown-ups. Now, many people are seeking to reverse the trend, opting to accept responsibility and build individual competencies. We see this shift not just in more mindful spending, but also in increased interest in such subjects as financial literacy, automotive maintenance, and home repair.

Rewarding Goodness at Retail

5. Our studies have shown that consumers believe they have a responsibility to censure unethical companies by avoiding their products. The flip side of this attitude is an eagerness to reward ethical companies by deliberately choosing them as product and/or retail partners. One of the pioneers of positive consumer collaboration is Carrotmob. Since 2008, this California-based activist group has rewarded small businesses that pledge to take steps toward improved sustainability (such as installing energy-efficient lighting or stocking reusable cups) by organizing shopping events at their stores. Carrotmob illustrates the mainstreaming of eco-consciousness as boycotts give way to community-based “buycotts.”

Brand Partners Offering a Helping Hand

6. Mindful consumers are keen to reduce the negative impact of their purchases, but too often their best intentions are stymied by confusion over which products and brands are the most responsible choices. Retailers are stepping in with creative solutions, including Home Depot’s Eco Options labels, which identify winners in the areas of energy efficiency, water conservation, healthy home, clean air, and sustainable forestry, and Walmart’s highly anticipated sustainability index. ActBolder.com is another example of how companies are helping consumers to meet their mindfulness goals. It teams up with businesses that ask consumers to complete simple challenges (such as “re-use something you normally throw away” or “make a car trip a bike trip”) to receive a product discount or freebie.

The Home Depot launched Eco Options in response to consumer demand for more sustainable products

Reconnecting with Nature

7. In a world that is increasingly artificial, people crave things and experiences that are deeply “real.” We live surrounded by faux everything (from synthetic home furnishings to Botoxed brows) and largely communicate through bits and bytes—which helps explain why six in 10 respondents to the New Consumer study worry that we have become too disconnected from the natural world. For years, we watched as more and more shoppers flocked to farmers’ markets in search of the real deal—a trend that has exploded into the “buy local” movement and rise of “celebrity farmers.” Now people are getting their own hands dirty, creating “sustainable backyards” in which they grow heirloom tomatoes, berries for canning, and all kinds of vegetables for eating, freezing, and pickling. Some seed companies reported sales up as much as 80 percent in 2009. Next up: combining the trends of back-to-nature, self-sufficiency, and communalism, we will see more neighborhood food gardens, linking backyards for maximum production and sociability.

Taking Charge

8. Living in a time of rapid change and rampant uncertainty has made consumers worldwide anxious and afraid. It isn’t possible for individuals or families to control the world economy, but most can at least feel some measure of personal control by making smarter financial choices—70 percent of our survey respondents believe they are smarter shoppers than they were a few years ago, which makes sense, given all the new tools and communication channels now available online. Having cut back during the downturn, around half are determined not to go back to their old, wasteful shopping patterns when the economy rebounds, and four in ten (six in ten Americans) are committed to reducing their use of credit cards over the long term. With 70 percent of the global sample (and 87 percent of Americans) saying saving money makes them feel good about themselves, there is plenty of motivation to continue to make negative savings rates a thing of the past. Websites such as Mint.com and MoneyStrands are helping by making it easier to track where the money is going.

Keeping It Simple

9. Despite the superabundance of consumer goods in recent decades, or perhaps because of it, stress has grown inexorably. In the U.S., a quarter of adults experience high levels of stress and half complain of moderate stress, according to the APA. Hyperconsumption is considered by many a contributing factor. It comes as little surprise, then, that two-thirds of our global survey sample think most people would be better off if they lived more simply. This “less is more” mindset is even trickling down to product choices. When we asked respondents to indicate which of 25 product descriptors most appealed to them, their top choices were durable, useful, practical, trustworthy, and simple. Least appealing? Elite, prestigious, sophisticated, and luxurious. A heads-up to manufacturers: 68 percent said they were tired of lots of “bells and whistles,” preferring to have just the functions they really need. Simple is best.

Paying Closer Attention to Provenance

10. Mindful consumers don’t just give more consideration to what they are buying; they also care about the people and practices behind each product. Half say it is more important to them these days to feel good about the companies with which they do business, and 57 percent prefer to buy from companies that share their personal values. Communicate what you are doing and why. Own up to mistakes and shortcomings. And give people a way to join in your good works. These more mindful consumers have the capacity to be your loudest, most persuasive brand evangelists. Treat them right.

Remember, today’s recipe for success features equal parts value and values.

Source: http://www.thenewconsumer.com/2010/10/29/10-trends-in-mindful-consumption/

Inspiration for Mindful Consumption

By Bill Gerlach

“Mindful consumption is the way to heal ourselves and to heal the world.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

For some time now, I’ve been talking about mindful consumption as a pathway for living deeply and restoring our balance with the natural world. But practically speaking, where do you start? What do you do? How do practice something that sounds great in concept but challenging in execution.

In retrospect, while I didn’t have the words ‘mindful consumption’ to point to, I’ve been spending the better part of the last few years practicing this kind of day-to-day living. My reasons have always been about sustaining our environment and leaving it a better place for my kids. But after discovering the concepts of mindfulness, the dots of living deeply were connected for me. All of this has become a kind of backbone for how I approach each day.

Orient Your Consumption Compass

There are really two ways to approach being mindful of what we consume day in and day out. On one level, there are steps we can take to orient ourselves better; to help change our perspective; to give our hearts and minds a solid foundation.

Experience Life Through Your Heart. See with your heart. Hear it. Feel it. Smell it. When you let your heart of hearts lead you in this, you are tuned in to the world in a different way. You won’t immediately default to what is the most convenient or easiest. You’ll see the interbeing — the interconnectedness — of all things. For inspiration, reflect on the Fifth Mindfulness Training of Thich Nhat Hanh.
Learn. About how the stuff we consume each day is made; how it makes its way from a field or factory to your hands. Understand what goes into it. Often, we just see the end product (a TV, a car, a pair of jeans, a bottle of water) with little sense of HOW it is put together: the raw materials, the manufacturing, the distribution. All contribute in some way to either the degradation or sustaining of our planet. A good jumping off point is The Story of Stuff.
Slow Down and Single-Task. When you focus 100% on what you’re doing right at that moment, you eliminate distractions and their influence on you. You can pause to reflect on where this thing you’re consuming came from, what went into growing, manufacturing and/or putting it in front of you.

Simple Steps on the Path

On the other level, there are the practical things we can do each day to actually practice mindful consumption. And the great thing is: It’s not hard or complicated; nor does it require us to live like a hermit. These are a great way to get started (or continue your path):

Watch less TV (or ditch it altogether)
Spend less time online
Eat more vegetarian meals
Take shorter showers
Hang dry your clothes
Eat food produced locally (or grow some of your own)
Compost
Bike or walk to your next destination
Freecycle or donate what you don’t need
Buy used goods when you can
Purchase goods in glass or aluminum containers, not plastic (and recycle!)
Pause before you buy something; come back to it at a later time and see if you still need it
Get resourceful and learn how to fix or repair what you already have

Of course, this list isn’t exhaustive, but I hope it helps you with your practice.

Do you have other ways that you are practicing mindful consumption? Any other strategies for not getting caught up in our hyper-consumer culture? Maybe a different question altogether? Please feel free to leave a comment and share.

Be well,
Bill

Source:

http://www.thenewpursuit.com/2011/01/10/16-simple-ways-to-practice-mindful-consumption-in-a-hyper-consumer-world/

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Fifth Mindfulness Training: Nourishment and Healing

As taught by Thich Nhat Hanh

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society, by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming.

I am committed to ingest only items that preserve peace, well-being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society.

I am determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs, magazines, books, films, and conversations.

I am aware that to damage my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations.

I shall work to transform violence, fear, anger, and confusion in myself and in society by practicing a diet for myself and for society.

I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self-transformation and for the transformation of society.

3 Simple Ways to Inspire Mindful Consumption

By Kristin Glenn

Here in America, we shop for entertainment.

We shop on vacations, during holidays, and in our precious free time.

We’re are addicted to spending money on things we don’t need. Why?

Since founding my own sustainable clothing company, I’ve been curious about the addiction of shopping. I notice how I feel when I shop. I listen to my friends talk about it. I am border-line obsessed with understanding our psychological need for stuff.

For me, and probably you, too, it comes down to one thing: connection.

During a recent Walk the Talk episode with Waylon, I described how I feel when I shop. There’s an overwhelming sense of promise when I walk into a store and scan the racks, looking for something that will make me feel better, cooler, more interesting. I imagine where I’ll go, what I’ll do, who I’ll impress, and how confident I’ll be.

That’s why they call it retail therapy. For a brief moment, we get to feel the promise of connection in our otherwise stressed-out, busy, sometimes lonely lives.

But strangely, this connection we’re feeling isn’t about the actual clothes. We hardly even notice the fabric, the stitches, the origin, or the story of the things we’re buying.

Even our conversations around our clothes are story-less:

“I love that shirt!”

“OMG, thank you! It was only $4.50!”

(End of conversation.)

Since I’m knee-deep into sustainability and manufacturing, I think a lot about connection and stories and the shopping experience. I think it’s time to change the way we relate to, and talk about, our clothing.

Here are some things I’ve been trying out lately:

When someone says, “I love that shirt!” instead of reciting how much it cost, I tell a story about where it came from or where it’s been with me.

If I don’t have a good story, I’ll notice something on about the shirt—the stitching, the fabric—and talk about that instead. The goal is to connect over the garment, not the price (as I have been guilty of so many times).

Another common question is “Where did you get that?” I usually respond with the store it came from. But now I’m adding, “but it was made in Vietnam (or Pakistan, or the USA). It’s a pretty sure-fire way to change a conversation and just put the story out there, whatever it is.

Since testing out these approaches, I’ve made a few new friends and enjoyed some crazy conversations. But mostly, I feel like I’m re-connecting to the things I wear every day, and gently encouraging others to do the same.

I’d love to know how others are using language and stories to connect with their clothing. Let’s swap!

Leave your thoughts below, and share this post if you’d like to expand the conversation on mindfulness and consumption this holiday season.

Source: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/12/3-simple-ways-to-inspire-mindful-consumption/

Building a sharing economy and collaborative consumption

The People Who Share from The People Who Share on Vimeo.

The People Who Share is an exciting movement that is making sharing mainstream. We're on a mission to build a Sharing Economy and we love to help you discover that sharing is... fun, affordable, easy, accessible, mobile and of course social. We bring it all together on-line, on land and on-the-go.

We run big campaigns such as Global Sharing Day previously called National Sharing Day and reach over 60million in 192 countries.

We're building a Sharing Economy one click at a time, you can start sharing at compare and share.com the world’s first one-stop comparison marketplace of the Sharing Economy where at the moment you can find car and ride sharing all in one place.

We want to encourage conversations between people who share to find a way to enjoy more and live better. See something you like? Got something to share? Let us know, share with us!

Want to know more about the Sharing Economy? You can find it all here on our TV channel -- Sharing Economy TV. You can listen to our podcasts or read our blog

Our Purpose

We're committed to reshaping the world through sharing, harnessing the power of reciprocity to create happier, healthier and more sustainable lifestyles. We're here to enable sharing, to make it easy for people who need, to connect with people who have, and build a global community of sharers. Our passion is unlocking the sharing potential that exists in each of us. What will you share?

Our vision of the future is a thriving Sharing Economy where the need to own is transformed. Everyone is a supplier of goods, services and experiences. Where people share skills, time, resources, knowledge, responsibility, opportunities, ideas, goods, services and stuff.

It's a world in which our collective capability meets our collective needs and we collaborate to enhance each other's lives, protect our planet and create wealth from which everybody benefits.

Source: http://www.thepeoplewhoshare.com

By Benita Matofska

Benita Matofska, founder and chief sharer of The People Who Share, presents on Global Sharing Day.

It all started on a rainy day in Brighton, UK, back in May 2012. I heard that the social enterprise A Good Company was running an initiative called A Good Week, a seven day showcase of good people doing good things to make the world a better place. Inspired by their efforts, I decided it would be fun to run a day focusing on sharing—and National Sharing Day was born.

With just six weeks to go before the event, I spoke to a senior colleague in the civil society sector in the UK, and his response was clear: “Six weeks to plan a national campaign with no money and no support is bonkers, Benita, it’s impossible.”

I’ve never been one to take the word “no” for an answer and the word “impossible” just isn’t in my vocabulary. What’s the worst that could happen? That only a few people show up on National Sharing Day to share in their communities? That didn’t seem so bonkers to me.

Compton Ave Big lunch, Brighton UK. Photo from The People Who Share.

Within six week’s time, a small group of volunteers and I had engaged 45 partner organizations, and on June 20th, 2012 there were event across the country from clothing swaps in Newcastle to freecycling in Liverpool and a giant skillshare in London. More than a just a few people showed up—and they shared!

By noon the #nationalsharingday hashtag was trending globally on Twitter, and people from Ukraine to Korea were asking for a National Sharing Day in their countries.

By midnight, we’d decided to run the first Global Sharing Day (#globalsharingday), which happened on November 14, 2012. It helped kick start the world’s largest people-driven campaign raising awareness about the emerging sharing economy.

Using feedback we received from the 165 original Global Sharing Day partners, we decided to schedule all future Global Sharing Days on the first Sunday in June of each year, involve big partners such as the UK’s Big Lunch, and engage a network of over 70 million people in 192 countries.

But behind the big numbers and the success lies another story: The truth is that we haven’t had it easy as a volunteer-run organization with no funders. It requires a lot of hard work with little thanks. We don’t spend time filling in endless grant forms; instead we take action and find ways to get things done without cash. It means that a small group of dedicated volunteers spend countless days and nights working to make Global Sharing Day happen. I spent three years without a salary and my hunch is that people think we have a pot of cash supporting us because we’ve achieved so much in such a short period of time and we’re popular with the media. On one hand I wish that were true, but on the other I’m glad that through everything we’ve accomplished we’ve lived the values of the sharing economy we seek to make mainstream.

People have shared their time, talents, spaces, equipment, music, poetry, and food to make Global Sharing Day what it is.

Organizations like Konnektid.com and Peerby.com in the Netherlands, worked together to inspire 250 people to come together in Amsterdam on June 2nd 2013. They shared picnic blankets and food from Italian salads to lovely homemade carrot cakes and quiches.

“All the blankets were knitted together to make one big picnic blanket. People enjoyed yoga classes, storytelling workshops, and some even learned to play the guitar. The event demonstrated how sharing can make our lives more fun, social, and easy,” says organiser Michael Visser from Konnektid.

Global Sharing Day 2013, Amsterdam, Konnektid.
Skilio ran an online skills sharing event featuring members from seven different countries and reaching people in 15 different countries.

“Global Sharing Day also succeeded in being a focal point for sharing economy startups to rally together, get in touch with one another, and develop a group identity. Bravo! We really look forward the next opportunity to support the great work that The People Who Share are doing,” says Skilio.

Even though we received global media coverage from outlets such as BBC Worldwide TV News and CBC Radio, we weren’t content. So last year we launched Sharing TV, the world’s first crowdsourced TV channel to highlight the sharing economy—again with zero budget. Organizations from ten different countries streamed live from their events on the big day itself.

Global Sharing Day has been a huge success because people all around the world make it a success. What partners have said about the day makes all the sleepless and penniless days and nights worthwhile:

“Sharing enables us to experience and access much more. It can help save money, space and resources, but best of all, it's a great way to get to know your neighbours and help them out. Global Sharing Day was a fantastic opportunity to shine a spotlight on sharing and encourage more people to discover the benefits and get involved,” says Streetlife.com.

“Global Sharing Day is a great platform for showcasing the values and benefits of sharing. It provides an easier way to measure outcomes on a major scale. Strength in numbers always works, especially in our world, which is dominated by large numerical figures in forms of currency…lets equal the balance by human solidarity in the form of positive actions!” says Exploring Senses CIC.

Global Sharing Day picnic, Netherlands, Peerby.

My favorite Global Sharing Day story, however, comes from Liftshare. On Global Sharing Day 2012, a woman contacted Liftshare to thank them for really helping her disabled son. Their 19-year-old had to travel to an outreach college and a “lovely lady” shared an 80-mile round-trip ride with him. That’s what I call the power of sharing.

Global Sharing Day will take place on Sunday, June 1st this year as the grand finale to #SharingSpring. It’s an opportunity to celebrate this vibrant new economy and for you and your community to join a global movement that now reaches over 70 million in 192 countries!

Here’s how you can get involved in Global Sharing Day 2014:

We’re looking for Country Partners and Sharing Champions to spread the word and help make 2014 the biggest Global Sharing Day yet.

You can also:

Host a Sharing Cities Map Jam and join over 50 other cities that have mapped their shared resources.

Organize a ShareFest as part of the Sharing Cities Network.

Host a Really Really Free Market, swap, or skillshare.

For the sharing economy to go from niche to mainstream, it’ll take a shared effort (no surprise there). Global Sharing Day is a chance to come together to achieve something incredible.
Come, join the movement, and promote the sharing economy wherever you are in the world!

http://www.shareable.net/blog/the-truth-about-global-sharing-day

Friday, November 22, 2013

From The Story of Stuff To The Story of Solutions

--by Annie Leonard , syndicated from Yes Magazine, Nov 21, 2013

The final film in the “Story of Stuff” series asks, What if the goal of our economy wasn’t more, but better—better health, better jobs, and a better chance to survive on the planet?

In an ad for a major phone company blanketing TV this year, a circle of doe-eyed children is asked: "Who thinks more is better than less?" You know the one—an eager kindergartener answers, "We want more, we want more," before the commercial voice intones, "It's not complicated..."

To economists, there's no distinction between money spent on stuff that makes life better and money spent on stuff that makes life worse.

When it comes to our economy, most Americans also believe that more is always better. More, in this case, is what economists call growth, and we’re told that a bigger GDP—the way we measure economic activity—means we're winning. So it’s the number that thousands of rules and laws are designed to increase.

After all, what kind of loser wouldn't want more?

But unlike in the commercial, it's a little more complicated.

To economists, there's no distinction between money spent on stuff that makes life better and money spent on stuff that makes life worse. GDP treats both the same. If GDP goes up, we're told we’re golden—even though it doesn't actually tell us a thing about how we're really doing as a society.

In what I call the "Game of More," politicians cheer a steadily growing economy at the same time as our health indicators are worsening, income inequality is growing, and polar icecaps are melting.

But what if we changed the point of the game? What if the goal of our economy wasn't more, but better—better health, better jobs and a better chance to survive on the planet? Shouldn't that be what winning means?

That’s the question I ask in my new movie, "The Story of Solutions."

In it, I acknowledge that changing the goal of the entire economy—from more to better—is a huge task. We can't do it all at once. But I argue that by focusing on game-changing solutions, we can steadily build an economy that values things like safer, healthier, and more fair as much as we currently value faster, cheaper, and newer.

So what’s a game-changing solution look like?

It's a solution that gives people more power by taking power back from corporations. It values the truth that happiness and well-being don't come from buying more stuff, but from our communities, our health, and our sense of purpose. It accounts for all the costs it creates, including the toll it takes on people and the planet—in other words it internalizes costs instead of externalizing them as most businesses do today. And it lessens the enormous wealth gap between those who can't even meet their basic needs and those who consume way more than their fair share.

When I see a solution that does all that, I'm in. And they're popping up everywhere:

Like the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, where worker-owners are running green businesses—a laundry, a solar company, and a super productive urban farm—that are healthy, safe—and democratically run.

Or in Capannori, Italy, a so-called Zero Waste town where local citizens, businesses, and government aren't just aiming to manage waste better, they're questioning the very inevitability of waste by working together as a community to reclaim compost for the soil, to find reusable substitutes for disposable products, and put discarded material to good use.

And how about the new trend of "collaborative consumption"—formerly known as sharing? Sharing may sound like the theme of a Barney song, but it's a huge challenge to the old game. Things like bikeshare programs and online platforms that let us share everything from our cars to our homes get us off the treadmill of more, more, more, conserve resources, give people access to stuff they otherwise couldn’t afford, and build community. Nice!

Like I said, it’s hard to change the goal of the economy all at once. But as transformational solutions like these gain traction, I think we'll reach a tipping point—if we keep focused on the new goal of better. I believe that within a generation it’s possible we'll be hearing way less about the share price of the latest start-up or the battery life of the latest iPhone and way more about the health of our planet and neighbors.

So next time you hear someone preaching the virtues of more, tell them you choose better.

Annie Leonard: How to Be More Than a Mindful Consumer

YES! Magazinewhere this article orginally appeared, is a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. This article is shared here with permission. Annie Leonard is the author of The Story of Stuff and the director of the Story of Stuff Project. She is also the creator of The Story of Cap & Trade, The Story of Cosmetics, The Story of Bottled Water, and The Story of Electronics.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Sharing the Idea of Collaborative Consumption

by Eugene Tay

The idea of Collaborative Consumption is gaining traction throughout the world, and would be of great relevance to Asia as our consumption level rises.

Collaborative Consumption refers to sharing that is empowered by technology and social or peer-to-peer networks. It has the potential to change how we consume and the way businesses operate.

Sharing also covers renting, swapping, lending, trading, exchanging, bartering, and gifting. The advantages of sharing are that fewer resources are used to make and ship stuff, and less waste are generated and disposed.

The term Collaborative Consumption was first described in 2010 in the book What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers. Other resources with similar ideas on sharing include the book The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing by Lisa Gansky and the Shareable website.

At Asia is Green, we believe that Collaborative Consumption is an important and emerging idea because consumers are starting to realise that they can share rather than buy more stuff. This is motivated by greater environmental awareness and cost consciousness, the proliferation of mobile peer-to-peer technologies and social networks, and the need to be part of a community.

In the book What’s Mine Is Yours, the authors describe three systems of Collaborative Consumption – Product Service Systems, Redistribution Markets and Collaborative Lifestyles.

Product Service Systems

Product Service Systems is where you pay for and enjoy the benefit of using a product without having to own the product.

Local examples in Singapore include HollywoodClicks.com, which rents movie DVDs to customers who receive and return the DVDs via post; Maternity Exchange, which offers maternity and nursing wear rental for mums-to-be; and smove, which provides an electric vehicle sharing scheme.

Another example of Product Service Systems is MyRideBuddy, a dynamic and real time carpooling solution in Singapore, which matches users near common start and end points so that they can share a car ride together according to their convenience and preferences.

It allows individuals to benefit from the convenience of the car without owning one, while reducing costs and the problems of congestion and air pollution.

Redistribution Markets

The second system of Collaborative Consumption is Redistribution Markets, where you transfer used or unwanted stuff to somewhere or someone where they are wanted.

Local examples in Singapore include SG Freecycle, where anyone can post their unwanted items or request for stuff that they want; Offstock, where companies can buy or sell excess stocks of chemicals and raw materials; and Pass It On, which allows the public to donate used furniture and appliances, which are given to needy families and charities.

Another example of Redistribution Markets is BlockPooling.sg, an online platform for neighbours to lend, borrow or sell unused items within the community. This reduces waste and keeps valuable resources out of the incineration plants and landfills while helping residents save time, money and reduce their environmental impacts.

Collaborative Lifestyles

The third system of Collaborative Consumption is Collaborative Lifestyles, where you share and exchange less tangible assets such as time, space and money with people of similar interests.

Local examples in Singapore include Ecosystem, which provides a collaborative and coworking space for the green community to work and collaborate; Give.sg, which allows anyone to organize their own fundraising campaigns; and SG Cares, which matches volunteers with volunteer groups and opportunities.

Another example of Collaborative Lifestyles is Milaap, a social enterprise providing a microfinance platform that enables individuals to make microloans that help villagers in India gain access to basic services, such as education, healthcare, electricity, and clean water.

While Collaborative Consumption is still in its infancy in Singapore and Asia, we believe that this idea would gain more interest in the coming years and more companies would start to explore the business opportunities of sharing.

The above-mentioned business examples show elements of sharing, but they have not really made full use of technology and social or peer-to-peer networks to better enhance sharing. Companies have to work with the green and tech community, and maximise the use of technology to come up with better and more sustainable ways of sharing.

For consumers in Asia, it’s time to get ready for Collaborative Consumption.

Images: Hands by michelini; Collaborative Consumption Graphics – The Complete Picture by Rachel Botsman under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Beyond Consumerism: Replacing the Value of "More" with "Enough"

by Rob Dietz & Dan O'Neill, October 11, 2013 at 3:20pm

[The following essay is adapted from the book Enough Is Enough by Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill.]

Given how deeply consumerism has become embedded in everyday life (despite the way it coaxes people to chase fulfillment in ineffective ways), it's going to take a revolutionary change in values to overcome the prevailing orthodoxy.

The change is unlikely to happen quickly or easily because of the anxieties that will inevitably arise in response to such a transformation. In addition, plenty of powerful forces benefit from consumer spending, and they won't give up their positions of power without a fight. Advertisers, credit card companies, soft drink makers, banks, car companies, computer manufacturers, and government stimulus programs are but a few of the institutions aligned with consumerism.

Successfully fighting these forces will require a sustained and coordinated effort to curtail the power of large corporations and the media, both of which exercise substantial influence over people's lives. It is important not to underestimate these entities and the often subtle methods they use to influence consumers. But bankers, advertisers, and manufacturers are simply responding to consumer demand (although they're complicit in creating some of that demand). So perhaps the shift needs to originate from people's personal values, and a grassroots rejection of the "mass infantilization" program that promotes mindless consumption.

Here are some ideas for getting the transition under way:

Turn marketing on its ear. Markets have been honing their techniques for many years. These techniques could be used to "sell" sound cultural values instead of copious quantities of consumer goods. Imagine if Victor Lebow had said, "We need to make well-being our way of life." Now imagine if the full force of the Coca-Cola and McDonald's marketing teams went to work on this change instead of selling more fizzy drinks.

Harness the power of art. The arts, from music to dance to visual media, can feed the soul far more effectively than shopping trips and excessive consumption. Art inspires people and helps them imagine a better world than the one we live in today. By participating in the creative and often collaborative processes that produce art, people can play a direct role in bringing about that better world.

Be the change. Individuals who understand the downsides of consumerism can reject unnecessary consumer items and set a positive example by "living their values." They can participate in local initiatives and develop alternatives to mass consumption by buying less, producing locally, and boycotting mass consumer outlets. Much of the self-serving behavior inherent in consumerism derives from a trend away from community-based values and toward individualistic ones. People who set a nonmaterialistic example can help reverse this trend.

Recruit influential individuals. Influential individuals occupy pivotal positions in social networks and are key figures in the processes by which new social norms emerge. Such individuals, if they understood the downsides of consumerism and the upsides of less materialistic lifestyles, could be potent agents of change toward sustainability.

Juxtapose "zombie consumerism" with the nonmaterialistic good life. A materialistic lifestyle can be shallow, boring, and deadening. A nonmaterialistic, sustainable lifestyle, on the other hand, can be dynamic and refreshing, but people must be able to visualize it. The Transition Towns movement has captured many people's imaginations and begun the daunting process of demonstrating ways to live simpler and more purposeful lives. If politicians see Transition Towns and similar movements emerging on a sufficient scale, they will feel pressure to get on board.

Eliminate planned obsolescence. Planned obsolescence has become a widespread strategy in products ranging from sweaters to semiconductors, and some marketing practitioners (who probably haven't been keeping up with certain environmental and social trends) even praise it as a positive development. But in a world with 7 billion people, finite resources, and serious environmental problems, "durable" needs to become the watchword of consumers, not "disposable." Refusal to buy short-lived products is a sure way to influence companies to stop designing for the dump.

Limit advertising. Lawmakers have restricted advertising that promotes unhealthy behavior (e.g. tobacco and alcohol use), so there is a precedent for tempering the excesses of marketing departments. A ban on advertising aimed at children took effect in the Canadian province of Quebec in 1980, and it has helped children maintain healthier consumption habits. When it comes to stigma-based advertising, Dan and Chip Heath suggest that the marketing community has a responsibility to self-regulate. Whether through self-regulation or other means, it would be healthy to put a stop to stigma-based advertising and other toxic marketing practices.

Cultivate nonconsumerist institutions. Government and communities can play an important role by creating and empowering organizations that de-emphasize consumerism. Such organizations would focus on meeting needs rather than selling stuff. They would manage assets for the purpose of delivering long-term well-being to asset owners, rather than delivering short-term financial returns to managers. Example include cooperatives, land trusts, and even community workshops.

The ideas described above offer some intriguing ways to abate the flood of materialism, but a true turning of the cultural tide will require people to accept a basic truth: the spoils of shopping provide little support for a long life of fulfillment. Some people easily grasp this wisdom; they seem naturally immune to the onslaught of markets. Others take time to develop such immunity—they have to experience the emptiness of consumer culture, sometimes over the course of decades.

It has become a cliché, at least in American consumer society, for people to turn over a new leaf after suffering through a midlife crisis. Following a fruitless attempt to quell such a crisis through conspicuous consumption (think of a forty-five-year-old man buying a bright red Ferrari of some other gas-guzzling sports car), they end up finding peace by refocusing their lives on relationships, well-being, and the search for deeper meaning. It's inspiring that pockets of people, no matter at what stage of life, are acting on their nonconsumerist instincts. Transition Towns, voluntary simplicity, economic localiziation, and ecovillages are all positive signs that people are striving to live happy, but less materially intensive lives.

People from all walks of life are establishing creative models of living well, but for such models to diffuse more broadly throughout society, communities will have to oppose the corporate forces that promote the consumer culture. These forces, which exert an undue influence on politicians and the media, ignore the finite nature of resources, entice people into chasing fulfillment in ineffective ways, and drive inequality. Through concerted and persistent action, we can overcome them. Then we can replace the culture of consumerism and the value of more with the culture of sustainability and the value of enough.

This excerpt was adapted from Enough Is Enough: Building A Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill. In the book, Dietz and O'Neill lay out a visionary but realistic alternative to the perpetual pursuit of economic growth—an economy where the goal is enough, not more. Learn more here.

Source: http://www.newdream.org/blog/enough-is-enough

Source: http://www.newdream.org/blog/2011-05-plenitude

In True Wealth (titled Plenitude in hardcover), economist and New Dream board co-chair Juliet Schor offers a groundbreaking intellectual statement about the economics and sociology of ecological decline, suggesting a radical change in how we think about consumer goods, value, and ways to live: a plenitude economy.

Responding to our current moment, True Wealth puts sustainability at its core. But it is not a paradigm of sacrifice. Instead it’s an argument that through a major shift to new sources of wealth, green technologies, and different ways of living, individuals and the country as a whole can actually be better off and more economically secure.

As Schor observes, plenitude is already emerging. In pockets around the country and the world, people are busy creating lifestyles that offer a way out of the work-and-spend cycle. These pioneers’ lives are scarce in conventional consumer goods and rich in the newly abundant resources of time, information, creativity, and community. Urban farmers, D.I.Y renovators, Craigslist users, cob builders—all are spreading their risk and establishing novel sources of income and outlets for procuring consumer goods. Taken together, these trends represent a movement away from the conventional market and offer a way toward an efficient, rewarding life in an era of high prices and traditional resource scarcity.

Learn more

The Video: A New Dream Exclusive!

Visualizing a Plenitude Economy is a beautifully drawn 5-minute video based on Juliet Schor's book. Produced by New Dream in 2011 and narrated by Schor, it is the first installment of the New Dream Mini-Views series. This fun animation provides a vision of what a post-consumer society could look like, with people working fewer hours and pursuing re-skilling, homesteading, and small-scale enterprises that can help reduce the overall size and impact of the consumer economy.

Watch it, enjoy it, and share it!

Wednesday, October 9, 2013