The Story of Stuff
Posted on August 28th, 2008 by inspiredpractice
Have you heard about The Story of Stuff? In this short 20-minute video, Annie Leonard takes you on an audio-visual exploration of consumer goods from extraction to disposal with all of the limits and challenges - that are often overlooked by conventional wisdom – fully exposed in broad daylight. It is EDUTAINMENT at it’s best. Everyone can relate to having stuff. What we don’t often see is the chain of materials, events and people at play. We don’t often see the reality. There are few important caveats that I will share before encouraging you to review the video online.
- The Story of Stuff along with Leonard’s commentary represents a very American (arguably North American) perspective. Consumption, culture and necessity vary within even the Western world. Closed loop production has been the norm in Germany, as an example, for decades.
- It presents the worst case as the average in which most companies, factories, and retailers operate within a business-as-usual framework. That is to say, The Story of Stuff does not speak (in any great degree) to incremental changes that have occurred within different sectors or by industry leaders. However, there is a short 60-second blurb at the end that references environmental and social innovation in the production of goods.
- Some of the commentary is pointed. Most of the jabs are humorous and harmless. Roll your eyes or heckle at the screen, if you like but at least give it a full listen before passing judgement.
- As with everything, take it with a grain of salt. It’s neither gospel nor garbage.
Filed under: Changemakers
