More life quality through less
Earthovershootday this year already on August 2, 2017, a progressive scarcity of resources, growing world population, climate change, melting “eternal” ice, weather extremes, the littering of the oceans – the list of the negative characteristics of our time could be continued even further.
In the face of these horrific developments one can quickly fall into a depression or resign. What can I do as an individual against all this? Admittedly, alone you are quite powerless if you want to save the world.
Fortunately, a sustainable lifestyle helps to contribute with joy and fun to an improvement, while at the same time enriching your own life.
As so-called consumers, we have a power that can not be underestimated, which we can make much better use of. Private consumption and the resulting production of goods play a large part in the above-mentioned developments.
A first step is certainly to move to sustainable products when it comes to consumption. For example, you can buy long-lasting or harmless items, or replace conventional products over the long term with sustainable ones.
Sustainable consumption as an entry into a life as a strategic, conscious consumer. The more people change their purchasing behavior in this direction, the greater the pressure on manufacturers and their motivation to produce products that are ecological, durable, recyclable, harmless and resource-efficient.
The mere shift to sustainable consumption in the sense of “the same in green” will, however, not be enough to effectively reduce the mad goods flows and mountains of items and thus, the absolute global environmental impacts.
What can be the solution? In addition to a focus on technological advances and resource efficiency, which has been stepped up in the sustainability debate, it is the approach of so-called “sufficiency”.
With sufficiency to a higher quality of life
Suffi-what? The concept of sufficiency is derived from Latin; The verb “sufficere” means “suffice”. In sufficiency it is the question of the right measure and the need to have as much as one’s own needs require. In the ecological context, sufficiency is the consideration of natural borders and resources and is accompanied by the lowest possible raw material consumption.
And what does this mean for me as an individual? I really do not want to do without anything. How can you, on an individual level, change your own consumption habits or your own lifestyle in such a way that fewer resources are consumed? And how can the quality of life of the individual be improved without consuming more, but on the contrary rather less?
In the course of recent years, various possibilities and approaches have crystallized out and at least established in the niche how one can live better without consuming more. It is about time instead of commodity, alternatives to a lifestyle of the other, better and more beautiful.
Instead of buying and consuming more and more, for which you need more and more money and because of the rising working hours and at the same time sinking leisure time you have less and less opportunity to use the bought things, there is also a different way. Fun and joy are then found much more beyond the shopping center – in nature, in sport, in the joint cooking with friends.
Many people find their happiness in doing-it-yourself (cooking, preserving, handicrafts, etc.) and in the experience that they can repair something (which we unfortunately unlearn more and more in our throwaway society). Longevity of products and upcycling also play an important role. Self-catering by gardening or urban gardening are further approaches. And a very important starting point is the prevention of garbage, which can be operated through the use of reusable containers in a wide range of fields (ZeroWaste / LowWaste, plastic-free living).
We at Greenpicks have the vision to put these approaches more firmly in the foreground and to inspire more and more people. We dream of a movement that connects more and more people. Together for a better world.
Author: Annette Husmann
