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Be the Change
You may remember back in October we introduced you to Annie Leonard and her ‘Story of Stuff‘. An inspirational and busy woman, who has made it her business to raise awareness of what happens to all our ‘stuff’ when we’ve finished with it.
Have you ever wondered, for example, where your iPhone and laptop comes from? In fact, where everything comes from – and what about when we’re finished with it, where will they all end up?
Photo courtesy of storyofstuff.org
Her animated short films about the life-cycle of material goods have raised much awareness.Since ‘The Story of Stuff’, Annie has created ‘The Story of Cap and Trade’, ‘The Story of Bottled Water’, ‘The Story of Cosmetics’, ‘The Story of Electronics’ and ‘The Story of Broke’.
‘The Story of Stuff’ looks at a system that creates way too much stuff we don’t necessarily need or want and too little of what we do want.
Annie’s latest project named ‘The Story of Change‘ delves deeper into the consumption chain and looks at the systems behind ‘The Story of Stuff’.
As you would imagine Annie has done a lot of reading around the subject of ‘Going Green’. The theme running through much of the literature is as you would expect – buy better stuff and recycle it once you have finished. However, perhaps it’s not as straight forward as that and, let’s be honest, we would probably all like to be a little ‘greener’ than we are already!
Annie argues that organisations with a sole purpose to make as much profit as possible at all costs are, in her opinion, unethical and unsustainable. Arguing for an economy that focuses on safe products, happy people and a healthy planet, her short documentary explains how that this can be achieved.
Loads of creative ideas as well as committed people prepared to take action for change.
Looking at Annie’s work challenges us to ask questions of ourselves as people and as a company, which can only be a good thing.
We realise that Millican is minuscule in the grand scheme of things, but that hasn’t stopped us attempting to make the right choices where possible. We make our bags with 100% organic cotton canvas, 100% recycled polyester and local Herdwick wool. However, 100% sustainability doesn’t really exist in our world today, we’re well aware of that.
All our materials require natural resources to be produced, processed and shipped, as do everyone elses.
Matthew the Daypack – recycled polyester drawstring top and weatherproof organic cotton canvas
It’s therefore all about degrees of sustainability. We make informed choices in favour of sustainability wherever we can. The more we learn about the impact of our own choices, the more we realise we don’t know enough yet. So we’ll continue to research, learn and adapt and change.
By sharing this ongoing journey, we hope to inspire you to learn with us and join the growing ranks of consumers out there who simply want to know more about the choices they’re making.
Transparency and honesty are great foundations for any company and product.
The ‘Story of Change’ film was launched today. Annie describes six kinds of change-makers and encourages us to watch the film and find out more.
Have a look and see which type of change maker you think you are?
