This past September, news of the economic crisis dominated the headlines. At the exact same time another debt crisis was intensifying, yet was barely noticed.

Earth Overshoot Day, also known as Ecological Debt Day, was September 23.This is the day in 2008 by which humanity had used all the resources that the planet will generate this year. As viewers of The Story of Stuff already know, we currently consume 1.4 planets’ worth of global resources each year. From September 23rd on, we’re eating into the natural capital, undermining its ability to produce for the future. We’re consuming on credit and accumulating ecological debt that we have no way to repay.

Ecology and economics share a common root: the Greek word oikos, meaning “home.” Economics and ecology both are about managing our home. In our current situation, we have messed up both.  Continue reading here.

We’re obsessive over economic indicators. We track indicators hourly, panic at the slightest decline, invest billions when it is shaky. Yet, we have a  huge collective blind spot to the other ecological management, even though it’s a bigger problem, both in terms of survival and even in terms of finances. There is a growing call coming from all over the world, to integrate our understanding of the economic and ecological crises and to ensure that a solution to one is a solution to both.

Crisis and opportunity are often referred to as two sides of the same coin. That is definitely true here. The current economic crisis provides us a much needed opportunity to re-evaluate the priorities of our economy, to develop new metrics for measuring real progress, for reducing superfluous consumption while increasing economic equity and ensuring the integrity of the ecological systems on which life depends.

My friend Rita always says “If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.” Clearly, what we’re doing isn’t working. As David Korten, author of The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth, suggests, it’s time to try something new.

Dear Story of Stuff Community,Remember at the end of the Story of Stuff film, when I said there is a new school of thought on how to organize the material economy and it is based on sustainability and equity? While there are many people doing critical work promoting this new school all over the world, I was especially thinking about my friend Van Jones when I wrote that. Van is the director of Green for All (www.greenforall.org),  a U.S.-based organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.Over the years, I’ve learned a ton from Van about strategies to promote ecological sustainability AND economic justice. Van’s message is really important because too often environmental protection and economic development are presented as at odds with each other. Just this past weekend, a member of the Berkeley City Council came knocking on my door, as they do annually, just before the election. I told him I was concerned about the Pacific Steel plant down the street which is belching out tons of neurotoxins into my neighborhood, where kids still play outside. (For more information on Berkeley’s big local polluter, see: www.shellfacts.com/article.php?list=type&type=37).

The City Council member nodded empathetically but patronizingly explained to me that he needed to balance environmental concerns with jobs. I told him that dichotomy is so 1980s. There’s a new school of thinking on this! We can – indeed we must –invest in economic development that cares for both the environment and workers. There are loads of good, clean, safe jobs to be had in a transition to a green, sustainable economy.

This week, Van released a new book which explains strategies to advance the green job agenda.

The book is called: “The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems” by Van Jones. It is a really important book that needs to be read by city planners, mayors, presidential candidates and all of us concerned with the future of our communities and the planet.Now, I don’t usually advocate buying anything, but I want to ask any of you who are interested in buying this book to do so now. You see, when a new book is published, the first week of sales makes a big difference in how much visibility the book gets. If over 5,000 books are sold this week, it can make the New York Times Best Sellers List which could raise the visibility of these crucial issues at a time when we most need it. This is the exact moment when our political leaders should be looking for innovative approaches to address the combination of environmental deterioration, the need for clean safe energy and the growing economic divide in this country. Van has provided a road map that we can help get in front of local and national leaders.I bought one copy for me and one for that City Council Member.Here’s some information below from Van about the book and how to get a copy. If you want to know more about Van’s work, check out www.greenforall.org. And if you do get the book, please post some comments. I’d love to hear how Van’s ideas resonate with you and your community.Read on!Annie

Remember that battery-powered, light up shaving gel product, called NXT, that got me all riled up last month? Well, to be honest, it wasn’t just the sheer selfishness and cluelessness of putting an LED light and AAA batteries in a shave gel bottle that got me so freaked out. I mean, really, the stores are full of selfish, clueless products.

The thing that got me about this bottle was that none of the articles I originally read about this packaging even hinted at any concern about the impact of the package once it entered the waste stream. The articles just gushed on about how “innovative” it was. I checked the product’s website and saw that all the comments on the blog were either about how cool it is to have light up bottles in the bathroom or tips on where to buy it for the lowest cost. (Walmart).

I actually had a nightmare about it. I dreamt I was in a huge auditorium and some guy who invented the bottle was giving a speech and the audience was all politely clapping. In my dream, I stood up and objected that a shave gel bottle with an LED light and a pair of AAA batteries isn’t moving us in the right direction. In my dream, no one heard me although I began yelling louder and louder. I felt invisible.

I woke up feeling totally depressed. Then I checked my emails and had dozens of emails from people all over the world for whom Story of Stuff resonnates and inspires. I had this overwhelming sense of not being alone. So I decided to blog about it. And in my blog, I shared the URL of the NXT shave gel blog.

I checked the NXT blog the next day and there were a number of posts raising concerns about the wastefulness of the product’s packaging. (thanks everyone!)

Then three more things happened that made me smile.

One, the What’s NXT blog got taken down. Hmmmm, interesting coincidence, eh?

Two, Cheryl Jones from the company that makes NXT emailed me directly and explained that the “The bottom cap is intended to be ‘reusable’ as a toy or other lighting device as the batteries are replaceable.” OH, I see…it’s not actually excessive shave gel packaging; it is a toy or flashlight that comes with some free shaving gel. I wonder why none of the PR material or articles I read explained these plans for future uses of the bottle.

Three, some of you emailed me and took my critique even further, raising concerns about why we need to purchase mass produced shaving gel in the first place.

Excellent point folks. The more I learn about personal care products, the emptier my bathroom shelves become.

I’ve learned a lot about personal care products lately, thanks to my friend and office-mate Stacy Malkan, who you all know as the person in the Story of Stuff with the flat screen computer monitor. Among other things, Stacy works with the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and she just wrote a book called: “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry.”  (www.notjustaprettyface.org)

I’ve learned that personal care products – including cosmetics, shampoo, shave gel, lotion and more — are not regulated by the FDA.  It is perfectly legal and common for companies to use ingredients that are known or suspected to be carcinogens, mutagens or reproductive toxins in the their products that we then put on our bodies!

If you want to know how your favorite personal care products rate on toxicity scales, check out Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database at: cosmeticsdatabase.org. This database pairs ingredients in over 25,000 products against 50 toxics and regulatory databases, making it the largest publicly available database of its kind.

My friend Stacy is about to go on a book tour to share information about toxics in personal care products and to enlist people to join the campaign to force these companies to phase out the use of chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and other health problems, and replace them with safer alternatives. Duh. We’re putting this stuff on our bodies!

Here’s Stacy’s tour schedule. If you want to learn more, join one of Stacy’s events or contact the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics at safecosmetics.org. And pass it on to friends in any of these town.

************************************
BEAUTY NEWS WE CAN ALL USE: Lead in lipstick? 1,4 dioxane in baby shampoo? What’s going on? Simple. The $50 billion beauty industry is so powerful they’ve kept themselves unregulated for decades. Learn the latest news about toxic chemicals in personal care products, discover the secret to choosing safer alternatives, and join the effort to give the beauty industry a makeover, as Stacy Malkan reads from her new book, “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry.” www.NotJustaPrettyFace.org
LOS ALTOS, CA – Elephant Pharmacy
Saturday April 5; 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
4470 El Camino Real, Los Altos, CA 94022

WALNUT CREEK, CA – Elephant Pharmacy
Tuesday, April 8; 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm 
1388 S. California Blvd., Walnut Creek, CA 94596

BERKELEY, CA – Elephant Pharmacy
Wednesday, April 9; 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
1607 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709

SEATTLE, WA Green Festival
Saturday, April 12; 3:00 – 4:00 pm

OAKLAND, CA – Peralta Colleges’ Annual Conference on Urban Sustainability 
Friday, April 18; 11-12:30 a.m.
Merritt College, 12500 Campus Drive, Oakland CA 94619

SAN RAFAEL, CA – Elephant Pharmacy
Saturday, April 19; 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm 
909 Grand Avenue San Rafael, CA 94901

BOSTON, MA – Border’s Books at Downtown Crossing
Tuesday May 6; 6:30-8 pm
Borders at State St T stop, corner of Washington and School

CHICAGO, IL -  Green Festival
Saturday, MAY 18; 12 - 1:00 pm

Buy the book at www.SafeCosmetics.org and a portion of proceeds benefit the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics!

In January, I shared a link to a video clip made by some high school students in Global Issues class at a Woodside Priory School.  Here it is: http://youtube.com/watch?v=JYsXbpY4vBM

In the film, the students ask for more specific guidance on how to get involved. Soon after I saw the film, I met the kids in person and we spent a Sunday afternoon discussing both my hesitation to list off some simple recipe for change and also lots of action ideas and strategies for real solutions.

So, check this out: another high school group – from the School of Natural Resources at Mendocino High - made their own video response to Woodside Priory Students:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pqbCHuqLCs&watch_response

In this fabulous short film, these students show a range of actions that they took from the individual to school to community level to promote sustainability and put the question right back to the Woodside kids to figure out what they are going to do to help turn things around.
 
And while you’re at, here’s one more link to a Story of Stuff-inspired film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdAuSNYV-tM

Jonathan Yasuda emailed me the link. He told me he watched The Story of Stuff, turned off his computer and went right to work composing this song on STUFF. Clarence volunteered to produce and direct the music video and we now have the first Story of Stuff music video. Thanks Jonathan and Clarence!!

I only learned of each of these clips above because someone sent me the link, so if you know of any other Story of Stuff responses or inspired projects, please let me know.

Thanks,
Annie

Those of you who have seen the Story of Stuff, or who know me, know that I spend a lot of time thinking about stuff: where it comes from, where it goes, why it is designed the way it is and stuff like that.

Occasionally, I see some product that just freaks me out. That happened last week. I can’t stop thinking about this thing.

It is a new men’s shave gel, which I read about in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/business/media/04adco.html).  The product is called NXT, which is pronounced “next” and is made by Clio Designs. The shower gel itself is comprised of clear gel balls in a plastic bottle. But the gel is irrelevant. The whole article was about the bottle. NXT is packaged in a triangular shaped bottle with a light blue hue. The thing that freaked me out about this is that every single bottle has an LED light and 2 to 3 triple AAA batteries in it.

Two or three batteries in the PACKAGE, not even for the product ???? Batteries have such toxic components that many cities ban their disposal in the regular garbage and require them to be dropped at a household hazardous waste facility. We’re supposed to be designing toxics out of our production systems!

The product designer’s idea is that the bottle will let off a light blue light which will draw us to the shelves to buy it. News articles about the bottles say they “will glow on the shelves, inviting customers to pick them up. Every 15 seconds, a light-emitting diode in the bottom of the container flares on, stays lighted for a few seconds, then fades out.” What are we, moths?

I found pictures and more details on the product’s website, (whatsnxt.net) which explains that “…our products contain a mini-computer with LED lighting in the base. One bottle alone is cool but the whole line together is an experience.” An experience?? No it’s not. It is a bunch of bottles, and stupidly designed ones at that.

I called the company’s customer service line to ask them about the bottle. The woman I spoke to, who had to keep putting me on hold after every question, explained that the batteries will be handled safely because each bottle comes with a note requesting consumers to dispose of the batteries according to local laws. She didn’t know the specific plastic resin which each parts of the bottle was made from, but she did know that the top and base are different plastics so the customers will have to cut them apart in order to recycle the tube part, which she thought was recyclable.

So I called Californians Against Waste (http://www.cawrecycles.org/) to ask them. They couldn’t confirm how recyclable it is, since the NXT rep couldn’t tell me what plastic resin each piece was. But Brian Early at CAW did explain that “anytime you have an unusual shaped bottle, you decrease the chance it will be recycled.” You see, there are humans working the recycling lines and it is their job to pull out contaminants that get mixed it with the specific plastic type they are recovering. If something looks different, its chances of being diverted to the dump are higher.

One of the keys to mainstreaming environmental sustainability is by making it easy for people to do the right thing, rather than requiring an extra effort to chose the environmentally preferable option. If we create products and systems and infrastructure to favor the environmentally preferable choice, we don’t have to urge each person, one by one, to make the right choice. A package that has toxic-containing batteries which need to be taken to a household hazardous waste disposal site and which has to be sawed apart before maybe recycling part of it is not an example of making it easier for people to do the ecologically preferable option. In this case, I’d say the ecologically responsible option is to refuse to buy it – both the hype and the product.

Dear Story of Stuff friends,

I apologize for my absence from my blog. To be totally frank, while I have been delighted and inspired by the response to the Story of Stuff, I wasn’t expecting quite this level of enthusiasm, so I’ve also been a bit floored figuring out how to manage it all. I’ve now secured a friend, Allison Cook, to work with me on managing all the emails, requests for translations and more so I am coming up for air. You can email Allison and me at storyofstuff@gmail.com.

I’ll start my re-entrance into blogging with two pieces of great news about Story of Stuff.

First, this past Sunday, the Story of Stuff won the SXSW Interactive Award as an educational resource. This is a huge honor for the Story of Stuff.

The list of all the SXSW award winners is available at:   http://2008.sxsw.com/interactive/web_awards/winners/.  

Second, Story of Stuff has topped 2 million on line views! We are currently averaging about 15,000 new views a day from literally all over the world.

Thanks to everyone who has forwarded the link to friends, showed it in classes and at events and generally helped spread the word.

And you? I know many of you have been doing your own work to disseminate Story of Stuff and, more importantly, to take action on the issues discussed in the film. What’s your news of the last 2 months?

Good to be back.
Annie

I just saw this wonderful short video that some high school kids at Woodside Priory School’s Global Issues Class made about Story of Stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYsXbpY4vBM.

In this great little film, the students asked specific questions about extraction and toxics and waste. I wrote them answers, which I can post here if anyone wants to see them.

More importantly though, the students asked what they can do to help address the concerns described in The Story of Stuff. They wanted to know what to do.

I explained to them why I didn’t and won’t provide a list of simple steps for people to get involved.

I’ve received a number of emails asking the same thing, so I want to share my answer to the WPS students.

I intentionally didn’t include specific recommendations for action for a couple reasons:
1) the solutions don’t lend themselves to sound bites and
2) I don’t want to prescribe and limit the actions each viewer may choose to do.

“It’s complicated.”

In their film, the students parody me saying “it’s complicated.” Well, that’s the truth. Neither the problems nor the solutions are simple or easy. If we want to change the situation we’re in, we’ve got to be willing to spend time figuring all this out.

I didn’t want to lay out this massive critique of the interconnected environmental and social problems of our current global materials economy and then belittle both viewers and the diversity and breadth of the solutions by providing a pre-determined concise list of simple action steps. I did capitulate to those asking for lists of recommended actions by providing some suggestions (http://www.storyofstuff.com/anotherway.html) but even this list includes just a sampling of the many ways to make a difference.

I don’t like simple lists of recommended actions because I believe what is needed can’t be captured in that format. As Michael Maniates, a professor at Allegheny College said in a recent Washington Post op-ed: “We need to be looking at fundamental change in our energy, transportation and agricultural systems rather than technological tweaking on the margins, and this means changes and costs that our current and would-be leaders seem afraid to discuss. Which is a pity, since Americans are at their best when they’re struggling together, and sometimes with one another, toward difficult goals.”

(See the full op-ed at WashingtonPost.com)

My goal in making The Story of Stuff was to encourage people to have this difficult conversation, to begin thinking and talking about these complicated issues. Our current ways of making, using and throwing away stuff is largely based on unsustainable and unjust systems yet, as a society,we’ve got this big collective blind spot about talking about this. Let’s raise the issues, let’s ask the hard questions, let’s get it on the table and examine it and debate it and figure out together how to move forward towards solutions.

As I said in the film, one of the good things about such an all pervasive problem is that there are so many points of intervention. We each need to find that intervention that matches our skill set and our passions. The passion piece is key, because it is going to be a long haul and we need to rely on our passions, the fire in our bellies for change, to see us through. So, I advised the students to find something that they feel passionate about and dive in.

There are as many ways to get involved as there are people who care. Are you outraged that your cosmetics and body care products have toxics that aren’t even labeled? Get a bunch of friends together and call the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics to find out what can be done (www.safecosmetics.org). Are you concerned about what happens to your MP3 Player or computer when it dies? Call Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (www.svtc.org) and Basel Action Network (www.ban.org). Do you want to make local, organic food accessible and affordable? Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program or set up a farmers market in your town.Work for Health Care Reform. Adopt a green procurement policy at your company or school to mandate that purchases prioritize local and sustainable products. Look into the Renewable Fuels Portfolio is in your State and join with those working to increase it. Start a used book, tooland clothing swap program on your campus or community. Pressure local businesses to stop selling super toxic PVC plastic (http://www.besafenet.com/pvc/). Track your ecological footprint (http://www.footprintnetwork.org/). Work for mining reform (www.earthworksaction.org). Green your hospital (www.noharm.org). Register people to vote. Run for local office yourself. Have a monthly screening and discussion with films on these issues at your church or school. Make your campus Zero Waste. Work for Campaign Finance Reform.Talk to your neighbors about these issues. Fill your free time with friends rather than stuff. The list goes on and on…

You get the point. Everyone needs to find their own path; find the projects that we each can each do well and which excites us. There are so many options that we don’t even have to do something boring! And there are loads of organizations that can help provide direction on specific issues once we get started. See the list of organizations on the Story of Stuff website to start and check out www.wiserearth.org for even more.

It is less important what we chose to do than how we do it. To make all these activities add up to more than a list of “teachnological tweakings at the margins,”as Maniates describes it, whatever we eachdo must be part of a larger effort. We’ve got to get toxics out of cosmetics and reform the health care system and build local community and stop incinerators not as ends in themselves but as part of strengthening an active democracy, as part of transforming the current system to be in the service of community health, ecological stability and social justice.

I’d love to hear from you about the strategies or entry points you’ve found to address the specific and the systemic issues described in The Story of Stuff. What has worked for you? What is needed to make positive change? What projects or campaigns are you involved in that give you hope?

Thanks,

Annie

I hope you all had a restful holiday week.

I spent my free time last week reading a fascinating new book by the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Mark Schapiro. The book is “Exposed - The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products: Who’s At Risk and What’s At Stake for American Power.” In this book, Schapiro compares approaches to environmental and health regulations regarding electronics, chemicals, food and more in the U.S. and the European Union. He documents the differences in the regulations as well as some of the factors leading to these differences.

The overall finding of the book is that the E.U. is adopting a series of new regulations which aresignificantly more protective of health and the environment than the regulations in the U.S. The U.S., in turn, is increasingly becoming the market of last resort for those products too toxic to be accepted in the E.U. or a number of other countries which are following the E.U.’s regulatory lead. For example, theRemoval of Hazardous Substances directive, known as the RoHS directive, requires that six toxic substances — mercury, cadmium, lead, chromium and two chemical flame retardants - be removed from all electronically powered devices made or sold in EU countries. Schapiro explains that “The RoHS directive became law after hundreds of studies suggested the ingredients could have potent carcinogenic and endocrine-disrupting effects. The EU also wanted to see its electronics recycled - and none of those six substances are recyclable. They are too toxic.”

As “”Exposed” explains, prior to the RoHS directive, many European electronic manufacturers and retailers warned of economic catastrophe if forced to redesign their products without these toxic chemicals. But that didn’t happen. Business is humming along fine and European consumers of electronic gadgets are free from a number of known toxics to which we, in the U.S., continue to be exposed.

Mid-way through reading this book came Christmas. My 15 year old nephew got an ipod touch. My daughter and her 12 year old cousin sang and danced to music on her ipod. I went jogging with a Zen portable music player. On the flight home from my family gathering, I noticed that about a third of the passengers had some shiny new electronic gadget to play music or otherwise keep them busy. My guess was that few of these people know that their portable music players contain known toxic chemicals. And fewer still probably know that these same chemicals are outlawed in Europe.

Here’s the deal: I am not against music. In fact, I love music. I am grateful to be able to have music in our lives. However, I don’t think we should have to risk exposureto toxic chemicals in order to crank the tunes. Likewise, the workers who manufacture these devices and who recycle them at the end of their life shouldn’t be exposed to toxic chemicals either.

If it is possible to make electronics in Europe without these toxic chemicals, then it is possible here. We need to demand this.

Schapiro writes “Americans are being exposed to hazards from which their European peers are being protected. In one industry after another, a new double standard is emerging: that between the protection offered Europe’s citizens, and those afforded to Americans. Repeatedly, American companies that have been forced to meet higher standards in Europe, claim to Americans that they cannot do the same thing back in the United States. Why can’t companies do in America what they’re already doing in Europe?”

Schapiro also explains: “The EU has been demanding that its industry take responsibility for the collateral health damages caused by its products, and it has done so with innovations that are leading the world.”

I’d like to suggest some actions for all of us in the New Year.
1. Check out Mark Schapiro’s book Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007) Tell your friends, tell your neighbors.

2. Photocopy sections of the book and send them to elected officials and electronics producers asking “Why Not Here?” Why has the U.S. gone from being a leader to a laggard in regulating for environmental and health protection? If companies can make electronics without super toxics in Europe, why not here? Our children, our communities deserve the strongest possible environmental and health protection too!

3. Contact one of the many excellent groups working on environmental health issues in the electronics industry to get more involved. Here are some suggestions; please post other recommendations or ideas also.

Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
www.svtc.org
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition is a diverse organization engaged in research, advocacy and grassroots organizing to promote human health and environmental justice in response to the rapid growth of the high-tech industry

Basel Action Network
www.ban.org
BAN works to ensure that exports of hazardous electronic waste (Particularly from the USA) to developing countries, exposed by BAN, are eliminated and replaced with producer responsibility and green design programs/legislation.

Electronics Take Back Coalition
www.computertakeback.com
ETBC works to protect the health and well being of electronics users, workers, and the communities where electronics are produced and discarded by requiring consumer electronics manufacturers and brand owners to take full responsibility for the life cycle of their products, through effective public policy requirements or enforceable agreements.

Let’s crank the tunes this New Year’s Eve and into the future while we work together for toxic-free tunes in the U.S. and globally. There is simply no need to have all these toxic chemicals in our music players and other electronics. And if we make our voices heard, we can change this. Europe has already shown that it is possible.

Cheers,
Annie

As this year draws to a close and I review the highlights of 2007, hearing from so many of you is at the top of my list. In releasing the film, The Story of Stuff, I feel like we took the temperature of the world and found that there are in fact many thousands of us who share the same dis-ease at the current consumer-crazed, throw away, unsustainable and unjust society. I am entering the New Year full of hope that there are so many of us, enough to chart a different path.

I have received over a thousand emails from people all over the world sharing their responses and own stories about Stuff. I love reading the stories from all of you, some of which cracked me up. One viewer asked me for the demographics of the DVD requests so she could move to the town with the most requests in order to have a stronger allied community. (The most requests have come from Oregon, I think.) I also enjoy reading the critical emails, as they help me understand the thinking of those whose analysis is far different than mine. So thanks for all those emails.

And who spray painted “storyofstuff.com” on that big piece of plywood propped up on the Van Ness exit off the highway in San Francisco? That was hilarious!

Thanks for helping to get the word out about the film, and more so for using it to start discussions about strategies for change. As of last week, the Story of Stuff website had been visited over 520,000 times in countries all over the world. The 99 countries with the highest viewership in order of number of viewers is: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Bulgaria, India, Netherlands, France, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Singapore, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Ireland, Hong Kong, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Argentina, Greece, Denmark, China, Romania, Austria, South Africa, Slovenia, Puerto Rico, Russia, Malaysia, Philippines, Estonia, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Columbia, Croatia, South Korea, Hungary, Luxembourg, Egypt, Taiwan, Chile, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Vietnam, Peru, Iceland, Venezuela, Iran, Serbia and Montenegro, Latvia, Qatar, Ecuador, Bahamas, Uruguay, Panama, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Jordan, U.S. Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Pakistan, Guatemala, Cayman Islands, Slovakia, Morocco, Jamaica, El Salvador, Lebanon, Dominican Republic, Kuwait, Kenya, Lithuania, Netherlands Antilles, Malta, Cyprus, Nepal, Bahrain, Barbados, Bolivia, Honduras, Belarus, Cambodia, Macedonia, Myanmar, Bermuda, Mongolia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Nicaragua.

Many people have asked for or offered to help with translations of the film. Soon in the new year we will start working on those, as well as closed captioning, so we’ll be in touch with everyone who asked about either soon.

In the meantime, I wish you all a very happy new year, a new year which brings us closer to peace, sustainability and equity.

All the best,
Annie

I’ve spent the last two weeks sorting through about a thousand emails from people around the world who have contacted us to share ideas about the issues in The Story of Stuff.

A significant chunk of the emails and DVD requests has come from teachers all the way from elementary through college level. I have heard from teachers all over the U.S. as well as many other countries who wanted to share ideas or experiences on using The Story of Stuff in a classroom or other educational setting.

These teachers’ comments and ideas have been so inspiring and useful that I thought it would be good for educators to share ideas with each other via this blog so other teachers can also read them.

So, teachers, if you have used Story of Stuff, or if you are thinking about how to use it, please respond to this posting so we can have a broader conversation about creative and effective ways to use the film.

I spoke to one middle school teacher in California who showed the film to his students, then asked each to research and present to the class ideas about solutions for some aspect of the problem. Many of the students researched the terms that are presented in the green arrow at the end of the film, and explained how each is a part of a solution.

I’ve also heard from organizations that have resources available for educators on sustainability and related issues. Three of these groups are listed below. Please share URLs and leads for other good resources for teachers too so we can keep learning from each other.

Thanks teachers!
Have a peaceful, restful winter break and let’s keep talking in the New Year.

Cheers,
Annie

Center for Ecoliteracy (ecoliteracy.org)

The Center for Ecoliteracy is dedicated to education for sustainable living. The Center is a pioneer in providing tools, ideas, and support for combining hands-on experience in the natural world with curricular innovation in K-12 education. It administers a grant program and donor-advised funds, publishes extensively online and in print, and offers resources, seminars, and technical assistance in support of systemic change.

Rethinking Schools (rethinkingschools.org)

Rethinking Schools began as a local effort to address problems such as basal readers, standardized testing, and textbook-dominated curriculum. Since its founding in 1986, it has grown into a nationally prominent publisher of educational materials, with subscribers in all 50 states, all 10 Canadian provinces, and many other countries.

Green Schools Network (greenschools.net)

The Green Schools Initiative was founded in 2004 by parent-environmentalists who were shocked by how un-environmental their kids’ schools were and mobilized to improve the environmental health and ecological sustainability of schools in the U.S. We believe it is essential to protect children’s health - at school and in the world beyond school - and we work to catalyze and support “green” actions by kids, teachers, parents, and policymakers to eliminate toxics, use resources sustainably, create green spaces and buildings, serve healthy food, and teach stewardship. We are working to leverage the schools sector to transform the school environment - and the markets that supply schools - to improve health and sustainability. We are starting our efforts with schools throughout California; in the longer-term, we plan to use our success in California to mobilize efforts to green schools nationally.