The Story of Stuff

If you've ever given some thought to how every single material object in our lives ultimately comes from the earth, you'll likely appreciate the following 20-minute video, entitled "The Story of Stuff."

The Story of Stuff does a brilliant job of explaining the true costs of each of our purchases.

Though I suspect that the majority of our readers are aware of most of the issues brought up in this video, I think it's worthwhile to view and perhaps share with family and friends who haven't given much thought to the finiteness of our natural resources.

In keeping with our theme of trying to provide practical tips, here's a list of some things that all of us can do to promote a healthier planet via sustainable living:

1. The next time you have an opportunity to choose where you live and work, do your best to keep the two locations as close as possible to minimize driving time. Use mass transit if possible. If you can walk or cycle to work, all the better.

2. If you own a car, use it as long as you possibly can. It takes a ton of natural resources to churn out a new car, so we best drive them until they're truly done and ready to be disassembled for scrap metal.

3. The next time you have to move, choose a home that doesn't have any more living space than you need. Unused space leads to irreversible waste through excess use of heat, air conditioning, electricity, and raw materials. And of course, unneeded space leads to waste via higher property taxes.

   The general rule of thumb is that if you don't use a room more than five or six times a year, you don't truly need it. Just a guideline to keep in mind the next time you're hunting for a home.

4. Your computer monitor uses approximately 60 percent of the total energy used by your entire computer. When you are not working on your computer but don't want to turn it off, at least turn off your monitor. Doing so will save you more energy than simply putting your computer on standby.

5. If you have to buy an appliance, even a room air conditioner, buy an energy star qualified product. It will cost you more in the short term, but will save you dollars and will help preserve the environment over its lifetime.

6. In hot weather, use window blinds and shades to block out the heat. In cold weather, wear more clothes, including warm socks or slippers.

7. Choose toaster ovens over regular ovens whenever possible.

8. Use ceiling and/or floor fans in place of or as supplements to an air conditioner. Fans use very little electricity compared to air conditioners. If you use a ceiling fan, be sure that it blows air downward in hot weather.

9. Hang your laundry to dry outdoors instead of using a dryer. All it takes is about a hundred feet of rope that you can pick up for a few dollars at any hardware or discount store and a little creativity in finding a place to hang the rope.

10. If your local climate requires constant use of an air conditioner, put a bucket under your air conditioner drain and use this water for watering outside plants. One reader reported gathering about ten gallons of water per day using this method.

11. Turn your hot water heater down to the medium setting or even the low setting.

12. Use only cold water to wash clothes - modern washers don't need hot water to effectively clean clothes.

If you have any other simple tips to promote sustainable living, preservation of our natural resources, and more personal savings, please consider sharing via the "add new comment" section below.

For more information on The Story of Stuff and resources for sustainable living, please visit their official website here:

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

Many thanks to Dr. Tarik Farooq for sending this video our way.