World Changing: A User’s Guide For The 21st Century

World Changing: A User’s Guide For The 21^st Century

-Questioning Consumption: As we use more of the planets resources, it has less to offer and by limiting the amount we consume we can enjoy life more by doing without the extra that just clutters our life.

-Ecological Footprints: A type of calculation has been created to see how much land would be needed of the earth to sustain our current lifestyle, which is called “the economical footprint”.  World average is 5.4 acres, but an average American is 24 acres and the Chinese average is 4 acres.  The quiz is meant to give use a better sense of the impact we have on the earth.

-Choice Fatigue: The more choices we have the more stress we have and the more dissatisfied with the outcome we are.  To overcome this we often over consume in order to insure we like our choice, which leads to extra clutter.

-Brands in a Choice-fatigued Market: Companies are pressured by competition with other companies to create more choices for buyers when in actuality the buyer will be less pleased by the product.  The buyers send mix messages by saying they want a simpler product but still buy the complicated products.

Consuming Responsibly: Buying less is a green decision, but even if we continue buying more we still need to buy smart.  In whatever we buy, we research and gain the ability to find what goods are actually good.

How to Buy Better Clothes: Look for sweat shop- free labor tags, such as American Apparel, and look for organic or renewable fibers without pesticides, such as organic cotton, modal, lyocell, bamboo fibers, merino wool, and hemp.  There are also recyclable end-of-life options, such as Patagonia, which you can return your clothes to be shipped to Japan (ECO CIRCLE) which disassembles the weave and reprocess it.  The energy for transportation is the only concern.

Green washing: Is a technique of companies to appear GREEN when in reality they are not.  Be wary of statements like: “natural”, “environmentally friendly”, “good for planet”, “no environmental impact”, “save the earth”, all statements without a creditable third party source.

Green Remodeling: We focus on recycling our waste which does not cause as much problems as the waste from remodeling a home which we overlook when dreaming big for the new change.  As renewable products become more available, sustainable solutions are becoming cheaper and more preferable.

Wood Flooring: Over half our rain forests have been used up and a solution to stop this it to use reclaimed wood from sites that would otherwise be sent to the land fill.  Reclaimed wood is just as beautiful as new wood.

Non-Wood Flooring:  Linoleum can be made with natural and recyclable ingredients, and carpet can be recycled to make new carpet, which is the GREEN option provided no extra chemicals are added.  Glass is infinitely recyclable without compromising its integrity and can be used in many ways.

Reuse Centers:  These centers except building demolition and sort through it to find treasures to be used again as opposed to going in to a landfill.

A Zero-Energy Home:  There are many ways to heat and cool a house with design as opposed to producing extra energy.

Smart Home Technology: Technology can be used to monitor energy in a home and shut it off when not needed or used.

A Prefab Home: Prefabricating homes has become more popular and shows people are more conscious about the amount of space they need to live.  Prefab can aid people in immediate need, like after a disaster, or it can allow people with ease of personal customization.

A Bright Green Home: Time is a missing aspect in the construction of a home, because no matter how high the expectations for a long lasting structure…one day it will be absolute and need to grow or change in some way.  A house by Andrew Maynard called the Holl House was made to combat this by providing a shifting and grow home with the ability to unfold and change shape.  This lasting ability will help against unneeded building demolishing waste in landfills.