What’s the next big thing in business? Answer: it’s no longer social networks, it’s Collaborative Consumption. Video via Bloomberg.
Hi there! If you're new here, please sign up for our new sharing platform at 
Image above & research via good.is magazine.
While we tend to focus on solutions like transportation and energy use when dealing with climate change, the reality is that our everyday material consumption contributes just as much to greenhouse gasses.
It would be preposterous to think we could counteract climate change without considering the massive ecological implications of the things you and I consume.
Through unstash we’re tackling the problem of unnecessary purchasing of consumer goods – particularly the many items that are infrequently used and easily shareable.
For example the average drill is used between 12-13 minutes over the course of it’s entire life time, and yet there is a multitude of them in every single neighborhood. The operation costs and and it’s related efficiencies are often negligable compared to the embodied carbon footprint of most consumer goods.
Every time an item is shared rather than newly purchased, we can reduce green house gas emissions from every stage of the materials lifecycle – from extraction, to production and manufacturing, to distribution.
It’s important to explore more efficient means of transportation and renewable energy usage and policies to revert climate change – but let’s not forget to provide simple tools for ordinary citizens to live more sustainable lifestyles as well.
Tell Congress not to censor the internet NOW! – fightforthefuture.org/pipa
PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting “creativity”. The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites– they just have to convince a judge that the site is “dedicated to copyright infringement.”
The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that’s for a fix that won’t work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights.
* cool carton via Hugh MacLeod
The act of creating is never easy. There’s always pain before the child is born.
It’s easy to ignore, run away, and never attempt, but humanity deserves better from each of us.
We believe a better world is possible.
unstash is our contribution to the future we seek.
It’s a brand new year and a time for clean slates. I’m guessing unless you were very explicit about Christmas gifts, you’ve recently added to the pile of stuff within your home. Is your home still yours, or is it your stuff’s?
Leo Babauta of Zen Habits just posted about the new Clutter Free challenge he’s starting.
It’s just you, and the life you love. Without clutter getting in the way.
You live experiences, you do things you’re passionate about, you spend time with people you love.
You don’t live through objects, you’re not passionate about things, you don’t spend time with possessions.
You live, and the clutter that has built up over the years has been stripped away to the bare essentials.
This is my life, so much better now that I’m clutter-free. I’d love to help you get there if you need that help.
Might we suggest that using ‘unstash‘ would be an awesome way to adopt a clutter-free lifestyle?
See also their clutter-free course and ebook.
I love this image from Banksy. Regardless of what you believe, how did we ever take an icon of devotion, love, and sacrifice – and turn it into a season of mass consumption?
This Christmas we’ll spend a billion dollars on fake trees
We’ll spend an addition $756 to be like everyone else
31% will opt to go in to into debt to celebrate this festive period
Maybe there are more ways to give than just by shopping?
Brought to you by the Post Carbon Institution
unstash had the opportunity to participate in the Social Finance Forum earlier this week. It was a massive convergence of investors and social change agents who suspected the two could actually work together.
A number of awesome social enterprises were invited to participate in a pitch clinic where we presented our ventures and got grilled by experts in the field. A handful of us (including unstash!) were selected to share our dreams with the entire conference of 300 and receive instant feedback – either it was a ‘rocket ship‘ idea and plan or ‘nice try, but maybe when pigs fly‘ (modeled after Good Deals UK)
unstash received rocket ships’ across the room! Now no one cut us a cheque on the spot, but it was a thrilling experience and hopefully will open up some additional doors for us.
Here’s a snippet of unstash’s moment as curated by social finance storify feed:
Below is a short video with highlights from the entire conference
Some additional articles that came out of the event
Socialfinance.ca live event page
Axiom news on the social ventures pitched
The divide between business & non-profits
Matter&Co (Tim West’s organization) on good deals in Canada
What are your thoughts? Is there a future blossoming for both profitable investments and positive social impact working together?
