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  • Community //

    Choose Family over Frenzy

    When I turned on my computer today, I had 8 emails from vendors announcing special low prices — Black Friday deals — available all week. I waded through the Black Friday junk mail, tapping away at my delete button, to find the one email I sought: the message from my neighbor with the menu, schedule and guest list for Thursday’s Thanksgiving gathering….

     
    posted by Annie Leonard
    November 19, 2012
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  • Materials Economy //

    What’s better than shopping?

    Leading up to the holiday season, it’s hard to remember that there are things better, or more important, than shopping. You want to make sure everyone gets the perfect gift, stores bombard you with sales, and everyone else seems to be shopping, right?

    Well, we want to show the world that there are better things to do than spend the day at the mall buying more stuff! Can you help us?

    Tell us what you think is better than shopping — it could be spending time with your family, going for a hike… anything! We’ll use your photos to tell the story of people who’ve committed to #buynothing this holiday season.

    Here’s what you do:

    1. Print out the #buynothing sign.
    2. Write your favorite activity in the blank. (example: “Sharing is better than shopping.”)
    3. Take a picture and email it to photos@storyofstuff.org.

     

     
    posted by nicole
    November 13, 2012
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  • Consumption //

    Walmart: No more divide and conquer

    Walmart: No more divide and conquer

    Over the past several years, Walmart — the largest retailer in the United States by a factor of, well, a lot — has paraded out a series of sustainability initiatives, from energy efficient lighting in its stores to, more recently, a much-touted effort to bring fresh food to urban areas….

     
    posted by Michael O'Heaney
    February 29, 2012
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  • Consumption //

    Don’t Be Stupid, Cupid — Show Your Love Responsibly

    Don’t Be Stupid, Cupid — Show Your Love Responsibly

    Also posted in the Huffington Post.

     

    For holidays tainted by commercialism, Valentine’s Day gives Christmas a run for the money – big money. …

     
    posted by Annie Leonard
    February 13, 2012
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  • Resources //

    Reclaiming the Holidays

    Originally Posted on PBS Parents

    by Allison Cook and Renée Shade

    At the end of November, I immediately–and frantically–started making to-do lists of presents to buy, searching blogs for holiday meal and craft ideas, looking for cheap flights, and trying to remember where I put my glue gun. The overwhelming feeling of holiday craziness began to wash over me, and I’m not the only one freaking out; eight out of ten Americans experience increased stress during the holiday season.

    …

     
    posted by Allison Cook
    December 1, 2011
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  • Consumption //

    Stuffing ourselves on Black Friday

    On the biggest shopping day of the year, think for a moment about the demands our consumption makes on the planet’s resources and ask yourself: Does our family need more stuff?…

     
    posted by Annie Leonard
    November 25, 2011
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  • Community //

    Stop Shopping, Start Living

    Dear friend,

    I’m back in California today preparing for Thanksgiving with family and friends after a week on the road. Revisionist history aside, Thanksgiving is a great holiday — an opportunity in the midst of our hectic year-end hustle and bustle to spend two days pausing, recharging, and looking into the faces of loved ones rather than our computer screens….

     
    posted by Annie Leonard
    November 21, 2011
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  • Community //

    Monica Wilson: More Jobs, Less Pollution

    Post written by Monica Wilson at GAIA, the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives. GAIA is a worldwide alliance of more than 650 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in over 90 countries whose ultimate vision is a just, toxic-free world without incineration.

    The U.S. could create 1.5 million jobs through recycling. Right now, public funds for expensive, dirty “waste-to-energy” incinerators hold back job growth – and Congress is about to make it worse.

    The U.S. could add nearly 1.5 million jobs if it adopted a 75% national recycling rate. Wow, that’s a lot of jobs! Instead of propping up the dinosaur economy highlighted in The Story of Broke, we can be investing in more jobs and a healthier future by keeping the stuff we use in our economy, instead of dumping or burning it….

     
    posted by Allison Cook
    November 17, 2011
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  • Consumption //

    Doug Koplow: Communicating Arcane Subsidies to a General Audience

    Originally Posted at EarthTrack, which works to make government subsidies that harm the environment easier to see, value, and eliminate.

    Like implant dentists or utility accountants, subsidy wonks go to trade meetings (yes, meetings on natural resource subsidies do exist) to find people who talk our language.  In that “safe” space, we can be met with a knowing nod as we wax poetic on the difference between revenue loss and outlay equivalents, or what is missing from a price gap estimate….

     
    posted by Michael O'Heaney
    November 8, 2011
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  • Consumption //

    Kevin Danaher: Follow the Capital

    Originally posted at Global Exchange, an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world.

    The Occupy demonstrations have raised a central issue that we must confront: how does capital get invested and who is controlling the process?…

     
    posted by Michael O'Heaney
    November 8, 2011
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