“Collaborative Consumption describes the rapid explosion in traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping redefined through technology and peer communities”.
Hopefully you are already aware of a few examples that are active in New Zealand like Freecycle - which has been an amazing source of preserving jars and free fruit for me, as well as being an efficient way to flog off my unwanted stuff without having to drag it - laden with guilt - to the dump. Then there is Freeconomy - currently I am sharing my washing machine with a chef who is teaching me to bake bread. Have you discovered Work Now? I am currently trading Strategic Business Advice for Branding Development. And then of course, Hirethings. What you have in your cupboard gathering dust could be earning you income and paying itself off.
Essentially, the premise is that you can loan, lend or offer services to others and generate direct income for it. Just what we need in a pressured economic environment.
Get your head around this people - these offerings represent a great source of income for many of us, and one of the most environmentally sensitive progressive business models yet to emerge. I’d love to hear of other local examples - let me know what I am missing out on!
This is a submission that I made to the Wellington City Council supporting lowering the vehicle speeds in the Inner city.
You can make a submission too. The deadline for feedback is 5pm on Friday 16 July. Go to http://wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/publicinput/2010-06lowerspeed.html and fill out the online submission form. State that you support the proposed changes. And at the end you can have a little rant about why you think it is important. Here’s my rant:
I love cycling. I am not a ‘cyclist’, I am just an everyday New Zealander who recognizes that it is cheaper, healthier and better for the environment. Not to mention thrilling in a Wellington gale!
A few years ago, I had an idea to create a website which would enable consumers to critique and question companies about their products. Consumers could rate and comment and celebrate brands who were making an effort to become more sustainable.
I’d like to announce that website has been created. It is still in hyper-beta (its got a long way to go from the whinge-fest that it currently is) but it is live. Better still - I didn’t have to make it! Some other guys did.
“By helping each other we can make more informed buying decisions, influence business behavior and, with enough of us involved, make the world a better place - one brand at a time…Brandkarma represents our collective wisdom on brands - we believe that none of us is as smart as all of us.”
What’s in a name? I’ve been banging on about sustainability for about 5 years now. Even so, I’ve always been allergic to the word. It never felt quite right.
And by that, I literally mean that it had an uncomfortable feeling associated with it. My perspective on this is that words carry intention, and each intention has a specific energy attached to it. This energy is either an energy that makes us open up to it or contract.
Say to yourself the word “hate”. And now, say “love”. Contemplate them, and notice whether you can feel anything different in your body. Is there any sense of opening or contraction?
In the Page Blackie Gallery last night, Intersect - a national network of young leaders in sustainability - awarded 22 year old Amelia Hitchcock for her artwork “New Zealand Pure”. The artwork is a ‘dunger’ of a fridge - stacked with old fashioned baby bottles filled with water collected from lowland rivers around the artist’s home town , Wanganui.
“..In a nation that proclaims to the world to be ‘clean and green,’ 90% of our lowland rivers are so polluted, you cannot gather food or swim in them” says Amelia.
I’m writing this on the bus from Wellington to Auckland. Its 5pm, and I’ve been on the road since 8am. This is the Naked Bus service, and the ticket cost me $38, even though I booked it late in the piece. I’m traveling up to Auckland to do a TV appearance with my band - the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra. We will be on air for maybe 20 minutes, and then we are going to take the opportunity to do an in-store appearance at Real Groovy before coming home. Sure, love the fame and opportunities for exposure - but the carbon cost is killing me.
A few years ago, I had an idea to create a website which would enable consumers to critique and question companies about their products. Consumers could rate and comment and celebrate brands who were making an effort to become more sustainable.