The Story of Solutions (Why making real change starts with changing the game)
with Annie Leonard
Do you have one of these, of course not this thing is five years old
now everyone's got on of these.
Can you imagine how much genius and focus it took to turn a music player into
a hand-held computer, phone, GPS, remote control for everything in life in just five years.
Seriously
The thousands of people who made this thing had to solve thousands of problems
that literally could not have been solved five years ago.
That's what people can do when they are motivated to find solutions to problems.
But the problems we've been busy solving are not the problems that most need solving.
So much focus has gone into faster, cheaper, newer.
That we've actually lost ground on things like safer, healthier and more fair.
It is as if we are getting better and better at playing the wrong game.
And, in many ways this system is a lot like a game, but with very high stakes.
Just like a game
our economy was designed by people to get everyone to play by certain rules
and, like a game, it comes with instructions telling us what the goal is.
Think about the last time you played a new game
Remember ?
The first thing you did was find out what it means to win
and that guides every decision you make along the way.
So naturally the solutions most people are working on pursue this games simple goal
and that goal is more.
More money being spent, more roads being built, more malls being opened, more stuff.
That's what economists call growth.
So we take all the money spent on stuff that makes life better
and all the money spent on stuff that makes life worse
and we add it together into one big number
called GDP.
Were told that a bigger GDP means we're winning
So it's the number that thousands of the rules and laws are designed to increase.
But there's a big difference between more kids in school or more kids in jail.
More windmills or more coal-fired power plants.
More super-efficient public trains or more gas wasted in traffic jams.
'duh!!'
But in this game of more they are counted same.
Now we can't change a game this dumb one rule or one player at time.
The problem is the goal itself. We need solutions that change that.
What if we built this game around goal of better.
Better education, better health, better stuff.
A better chance to survive on this planet.
That's what we all want. right?
So shouldn't that be what winning means?
Changing the goal of the entire economy is a huge task.
Of course we can't do it all at once.
But when we focus on game-changing solutions
we gradually make it possible for a new game to be played.
To do that we have to be able to tell the difference between a game-changing solution
or just a new way to play that old game of more.
For example,
let's look at two solutions to one of the many problems we face today.
The scourge of plastic packaging that everyone knows is a disaster for the planet.
Especially the oceans.
And, here are two groups of people
with very different ideas of solutions to the plastics' problem.
These guys decide that enough is enough
and they start by launching a citizen campaign to ban the plastic bag in their community.
these guys have a different solution.
They start a business
that gives people's gift cards to buy stuff if they recycle their plastic waste.
Both of these are happening right now,
but only one if them changes the game.
The gift card solution does keep some plastic out of landfills and incinerators.
But it creates more plastic by encouraging people to buy more stuff.
Even worse,
it teaches that more consumption is the right reward for being a good citizen.
Making it even harder to think outside that old game box.
The 'ban the bag' solution is harder to achieve,
but it's a game-changer.
Why?
Well, by volunteering their time, these citizens are declaring that
there's something more important to them than just earning and spending more.
To win this campaign, these citizens are gonna have to team up with
forward-thinking businesses offering alternatives to throw away plastic packaging.
They're gonna have to build power to fight back against the American Chemistry Council.
Which is lobbies for the company’s that make all that plastic junk.
And they're gonna have to get out and talk to their neighbors and friends
inspiring yet more people to begin to question the old game.
This is exactly what's happening in towns and cities all across the world
and they're winning.
But can banning a few million plastic bags transform the goal of the game.
By itself no,
but in combination with millions of others working on
game-changing solutions that they care about,
YES.
Together these solutions are beginning to turn the tide.
As people build power to change the game
their citizen muscles grow.
They work to ensure the local solutions they create get copied and scaled up.
And when they see the solutions getting blocked by corporations with way too much influence
they team up with other solutionaries to fight for a real democracy
by the people, for the people.
Gift cards will never do that
but thousands off citizen campaigns can.
Whenever I'm asked to join in a solution I want to know if it's transformational
will it change the goal?
To figure it out I use the word GOAL
I want to know that it G- gives people more power
taking power back from corporations to build democracy.
O - opens people's eyes to the truth that once basic needs are met
happiness and well-being don't come from buying more stuff
but from our communities, our health and a sense of purpose.
A - accounts for all the cost it creates
including the toll it takes on people and the planet
In other words it internalizes costs instead of externalizing them
as most businesses do today.
L - lessens the enormous wealth gap between those who can't even meet the basic needs
and those who consume way more than their fair share.
When I see solution that does all that or can be redesigned to
I'm in.
And they're popping up everywhere.
Like the Evergreen cooperatives in Cleveland.
Where worker owners are running green businesses.
A laundry, a solar company and a super productive urban farm
that are healthy and safe.
They provide secure jobs to people that the old game has left behind.
We all know we need to get businesses out of our democracy.
But cooperatives go even further and bring democracy into the businesses.
Sustainable, democratic, equitable.
That's a game-changer.
Or in Capennori, a town in Italy where local citizens working with businesses and governments
are not just seeking to manage waste better
but they're questioning the very inevitability of waste.
They're promoting solutions to waste not with expensive techno fixes
but by working together as a community to reclaim compost for the soil,
to find reusable substitutes for disposable products
and then to put discarded material to good use.
They've already reduce some waste streams by 82 percent
while creating jobs and building social fabric.
And how about the new trend of collaborative consumption
formerly known as 'sharing'.
Sharing may sound like the theme of Barney song
but think about it, it's a huge challenge to the old game.
It gets as off the treadmill of 'More-More-More',
conserves resources, gives people access to stuff they otherwise couldn't afford
and builds communities.
what does it look like?
Bike share programs in major cities,
online platforms that let us share everything from our cars to our homes to camping gear.
In my town the public library system lends out tools.
There's just no reason that every house needs its own power drill,
crème brûlée torch, scanner, wheelbarrow, a bike pump, when we can share.
As transformational solutions like these gain traction
we will reach a tipping point. If we keep focused on the new goal of better.
Without a new goal all the work we're doing to build a better future will be
A) not enough and B) really hard.
Too much genius and focus will continue to go to solving problems like iPhone battery life
while the problems that threaten human life spin out of control.
Five years ago when we made the story of stuff
we started building a community of people who sensed that something was really wrong with this old game.
We agreed there was a problem.
Now it's time to build the solutions.
Solutions that won't just change a few of the rules but will change the entire game.
Wanna help?
Come on let's do it.
Subtitle by - Palash