Story of Solutions Launch Press Release
Story of Stuff Creator Annie Leonard: It’s time to replace more with better
Story of Stuff Project to release ninth and final web film in the series that began with The Story of Stuff
Berkeley, CA (October 1, 2013) – Story of Stuff Project founder Annie Leonard will release the ninth web film in her groundbreaking series on Tuesday, October 1st. The eight-minute Story of Solutions is an innovative look at the paradigmatic and practical shifts needed to move our economy toward greater sustainability and equity.
Employing the Project’s trademark animated style, Annie likens the economy to a board game: “In what I call the ‘Game of More’, politicians cheer a steadily growing economy at the same time as our health indicators are worsening, income inequality is growing and polar icecaps are melting. But what if we changed the point of the game? What if the goal of our economy wasn’t More, but Better—better health, better jobs and a better chance to survive on the planet? Shouldn’t that be what winning means?”
Yes, changing the goal of the entire economy—from more to better—is a huge task. We can’t do it all at once. But by focusing on game-changing solutions—rather than new ways to play the old game—we can steadily build an economy that values things like safer, healthier and more fair as much as we currently value faster, cheaper, and newer.”
Annie also addresses what a game-changing solution looks like: “It’s a solution that gives people more power by taking power back from corporations. It accounts for all the costs it creates, including the toll it takes on people and the planet. It lessens the enormous wealth gap between those who can’t even meet their basic needs and those who consume way more than their fair share. And it values the truth that happiness and well-being don’t come from buying more Stuff, but from our communities, our health and sense of purpose.”
In the movie, Annie outlines several Solutions happening right now that meet those criteria: Cleveland’s incredible Evergreen Cooperatives, a trailblazing Zero Waste town in Italy, and the rapid growth of collaborative consumption, formerly known as sharing.
As with each of her eight previous movies, Leonard created The Story of Solutions with her friends at Free Range Studios. Together, their teams have sparked an international conversation about the way we make, use and throw away Stuff, reaching more than 40 million viewers worldwide.
Now, the Project and its 450,000-strong online Community are pivoting toward a focus on Solutions, including Community-generated campaigns to reduce plastic pollution, grow the sharing economy and reduce political corruption, as well as a six-week Citizen Muscle Boot Camp to help everyday changemakers gain the skills needed for effective civic action. .
ABOUT STORY OF STUFF PROJECT
The Story of Stuff Project was founded in 2008 to leverage one of the earliest and most successful cause-related viral movies, Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff. We create short, easily shareable online movies that explore some of the key features of our relationship with Stuff—including how we can make things better; we provide high quality educational resources and programs to everyone from teachers and people of faith to business and community leaders; and we support the learning and action of the over 450,000 members of the Story of Stuff community.
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