And yet, these days, when we’re faced with huge threats—from growing wealth inequality to disruption of the global climate—we seem to get stuck in small-bore solutions that fail to get to the root of these problems: an economy that puts short-term corporate profits ahead of everything else.

The fact is that many of us already share a Big Idea for a better world. Instead of a wasteful, growth-at-all-costs economy that fails both people and the planet, hundreds of millions of us want a new economy that puts safe products, a healthy environment, and happy people first.

Today, three-quarters of my fellow Americans support tougher laws on toxic chemicals and more than 80% want clean energy laws. 85% think corporations should have less influence in government and more than six in 10 Americans say the government should attempt to reduce the gap between the wealthy and less-well-off. Maybe that’s why a 2011 Pew Research Center poll found ‘progressive’ to be the most positively viewed political label in America.

Now sure, we may not know exactly what a better future will look like – in many ways, we haven’t invented it yet. But every day we’re making remarkable advances in renewable energy and safer chemicals; more and more businesses are figuring out how to do well for themselves and their workers; and more and more citizens are standing up for themselves, and their neighbors, in their local communities and at the state and national level.

So, where are we headed? What’s our destination?

• Safe products. “Safe” goes beyond seatbelts and airbags (although they save thousands of lives a year). I mean products that don’t trash the planet, the people who make them or the people who use them – products made without toxic chemicals, manufactured under safe and fair conditions, powered by clean energy, and that can be reused, repaired or recycled.This may seem like a no brainer, but our economy has been headed in the opposite direction for decades now. And while there are great examples of companies both making products responsibly and making responsible products, the trend is still toward cheap products manufactured in ways that harm the people who make them and the planet. We can do better.

• A healthy planet. Currently we’re living as if we have more than one Earth – each year we use 1.5 times the resources our planet can produce and generate 1.5 times as much waste as the planet can assimilate. In How Much Is Enough? The Consumer Society and the Future of the Eart, Alan Durning says that in the last 75 years, Americans alone have used up more of the Earth’s resources as all previous generations combined.To prevent further damage, we have to start living within our means.
• Happier people. Stuff and happiness have an odd relationship. Up to a point, more Stuff does add to happiness. If you don’t have a roof over your head and food on the table and some other basic necessities, more stuff can make you happier. But after a point, after our basic needs are met, it gets more complicated. At some point, the value added by more stuff is outweighed by the added costs – the sales price, maintenance, storing, upgrading, insuring – of all that Stuff.We have more and cooler Stuff than our grandparents, but less of what really makes us happy: leisure time with friends and family, meaning and purpose in our lives, a sense of community and connection to society. More than 70 percent of Americans earning a median income or above say they would give up income in exchange for more time with family and friends. Imagine that!

Setting our GPS correctly – toward an economy that supports safe products, a healthy planet and happy people – is important because there are going to be lots of bends in the road to that future, and sometimes, the road itself may not be entirely clear.

But as Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”  We’ve got a pretty good idea where we’re headed. For those of us committed to that more sustainable and just world, the trick is turning that sentiment into action – even before we know all the details of the journey ahead.

That’s the manifesto of the growing movement to make our Stuff repairable rather than disposable. And some people are going beyond repairing their Stuff to making their own. In this episode, Annie talks to a couple of high-tech entrepreneurs about the importance of the fourth R: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – and Repair.

_ Guest_
Kyle Weins
Eric Wilhelm

_Learn More_
www.iFixit.org
www.instructables.com

_Suggest a Story!_
Click here and fill out our form to suggest a story for The Good Stuff

_Download_
Episode 4: Fix it, don’t nix it!

Check out this awesome article from the New York Times about repair cafes  in Amsterdam.  Hup Holland hup!

Photo by: Ilvy Njiokiktjien for The New York Times

From the moment of birth, we’re bombarded with messages that elevate the consumer part of our identity relative to all others, including our citizen-selves. While two year olds can articulate brand preferences and teenagers spend more time in malls than reading or exercising, about half of American adults don’t bother to vote regularly in public elections and fewer than 15 percent have ever been to a public meeting.

Over the past several decades, many environmental and social change efforts have come to reflect this centrality of shopping in our culture, suggesting change can be made—or is even best made—through alterations in our individual consumption patterns. These efforts—buy Fair Trade or organic, use a reusable bag, screw in a CFL lightbulb—are a great place to start, but they are a terrible place to stop, ignoring the real source of our power: coming together as engaged citizens.

In The Story of Change, I argue that it’s not bad shoppers who are putting our future at risk; it’s bad policies and business practices. If we really want to change the world, we have to move beyond voting with our dollars and come together to demand rules that work.

In the movie, I take viewers through an inspiring exploration of what effective changemaking has looked like through history—from Gandhi in India and the anti-apartheid movement to the US Civil Rights movement and the environmental victories of the 1970s—and share the things you’ll find whenever people get together and change the world:  a big idea, a commitment to working together, and the ability to turn that shared goal and commitment into action.

I continue by arguing that these movements, like all successful change efforts, needed many different kinds of changemakers—investigators, communicators, builders, resisters, nurturers and networkers—each of whom plays a different but very important role in building and sustaining the movement. The movie ends with a question for the viewer: which are you?

As the movie closes, viewers will be prompted to take a quiz that helps them explore these changemaker identities, choose the one that fits them best and share the illustrated graphic and description via social media. Viewers will also be able to create and share their own action plan on a new sharing platform we’re developing for the over 350,000 members of the Story of Stuff Project Community.

We’ll be releasing The Story of Change in July 2012 and our goal is to reach at least 500,000 viewers over the year after its launch.

You can help us produce and distribute the movie by making a secure, online contribution today. Or you can visit storyofchange.org to sign-up for alerts about the release and share the movie with your network.

In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for The Story of Change!

From werenotbrokemovie.com

As Rebecca Hains, a childrens media expert and Christian Science Monitor blogger, pointed out, it’s also a chance to reset often deeply engrained media habits.

As the father of a five-year-old Caillou and Berenstain Bears fan, I know just how engrained those habits can be. Daddy has to shower? How about a video?! Got to run Mom to the airport? Grab the iPad! Need a little more sleep? Let’s turn on a cartoon!

The harmful affects of too much screen time—childhood obesity, poor school performance and attention problems—are not a mystery to me. And I know the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for children under the age of two, and a maximum of two hours daily for preschool children.

That said, while we’ve largely observed those rules in our house, its easy to slip into bad habits.

Enter Screen Free Week, which my daughter’s elementary school is observing this week. Last weekend we broached the subject of our participation with her and she responded, with a bit of a scowl, “I don’t want to participate.”

But we persevered, she agreed, and it has been a revelation. The last several mornings she’s used her free time to draw cards (it turns out Teacher Appreciation Day was also this week) and work on her Lego creations. And in the evenings, we’ve spent more time outside hitting balls and inside building forts with blankets and cushions from the couch. Sure, these activities took more planning or time on our part, but they’ve been a lot of fun and really fulfilling, for her and us.

I won’t say that we’ll never turn the television on again. We will. But just a week without screen time has helped me understand how reflexively I acquiesce to my daughter’s requests for a quick Caillou fix. I feel better prepared now to guide her in a more creative direction, thanks in no small part to the resources offered on CCFC’s site, including this downloadable list of things to do instead of turning on the TV, from another blog. You can even print it and post it on the fridge!

How about you? Did your family observe Screen Free Week? Either way, we’d love to hear any additional ideas for screen free activities in the comments below!

I’m more excited to share this movie with you than any of the six we’ve made since releasing the original Story of Stuff because it explains how we can make big change together by exercising our citizen muscles.

You see, I’m convinced that there’s one main thing keeping us from making big change.

We’ve got the ideas — solutions to many vexing environmental and social problems exist right now

We’ve got the commitment — the vast majority of people want a healthy environment, good jobs and vibrant communities.

We just need some serious action!

Here at the Story of Stuff Project, we’re going to do our best to inspire millions to action with The Story of Change. Like every movie we’ve made, we’ll offer it for free to anyone in the world who wants to view or share it.

But to do that, we need the help of folks like you.

Will you contribute $25, $50 or $100 right now to help us finish The Story of Change for release this June?

With your contribution, you’ll receive a co-producer credit on the movie website and a first peek at The Story of Change before we release it.

But more importantly, you’ll be helping us take a giant stride toward what has always been our goal with The Story of Stuff Project: turning a movie into a movement.

As I’ve traveled around the world these last several years, the number one question I’m asked is “what can I do?”

There’s so much big change to be made, yet when I ask people what they think they can do, I’m almost always met with the same response: I can buy fair trade or I can stop buying bottled water or I can ride my bike to work.

Those are all good things to do — they’re things I do in my own life and I hope you do too — but we’ll get on a real roll when more of us start saying ‘we can’ instead of ‘I can,’ and when we step out of our consumer-selves and step together into our power as citizens to make big, bold change.

That’s the basic message of The Story of Change, a message that I believe needs to be heard far and wide.

So please, make a contribution to The Story of Stuff Project today. And keep your eyes open for The Story of Change — we’ll be counting on you to share it with your friends and family.

Thanks for your generous support and for everything you do to make the world a better place.

Earlier this year, Annie spent a day with Karla Trotman in her home near Philadelphia for a taping of ABC’s The Revolution. Like many busy women, Karla has her hands full with kids, work and managing her home. In 0ur third installment of The Good Stuff you’ll hear about what steps Karla took to reduce her family’s waste and increase their savings! Our favorite part, though? Hearing about the big changes Karla’s made after taking the initial, smaller steps.

_ Guest_
Karla Trotman
Monica Wilson

_Learn More_
Karla’s email to Annie
Why Care About Waste?
Annie’s Tips & Trick on Reducing Waste
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)

_Suggest a Story!_
Click here and fill out our form to suggest a story for The Good Stuff

_Download_
Episode 3 — Getting Started

I’m a total sucker for videos of people using their bodies to make shapes and words for aerial photography. Never gets old.

Check it out:

If you’re feeling particularly inspired, check out Resolutions Week and get involved with people all across the country who are getting together this summer to take a stand against the disastrous Citizens United decision.

Hat tip to Good Magazine for the post.

Despite a number of technological hurdles, I left feeling inspired. I came away bolstered by the great efforts being made across the country to ensure that how we invest our money works for us and not against us.

If you missed us online or are looking for ways to plug into bank accountability efforts and want to move your money, there are tons of great resources available online.

To get started:

Take a look at The New Bottom Line and their fabulous Move Our Money USA site.

Also, Green America has a great site that’s filled with resourced dedicated to breaking up with your mega bank which you can find here.

For those of you looking to change the way your place of worship invests their money, take a look at PICO’s “Our Money, Our Values” campaign.

And for the college campus folks, check out the Responsible Endowments Coalition.

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