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The Story of Solutions (Why making real
change starts with changing the game)

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with Annie Leonard

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Do you have one of these, of course
not this thing is five years old

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now everyone's got on of these.

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Can you imagine how much genius and focus
it took to turn a music player into

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a hand-held computer, phone, GPS, remote control
for everything in life in just five years.

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Seriously

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The thousands of people who made this
thing had to solve thousands of problems

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that literally could not have
been solved five years ago.

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That's what people can do when they are
motivated to find solutions to problems.

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But the problems we've been busy solving are
not the problems that most need solving.

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So much focus has gone into
faster, cheaper, newer.

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That we've actually lost ground on things
like safer, healthier and more fair.

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It is as if we are getting better and
better at playing the wrong game.

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And, in many ways this system is a lot
like a game, but with very high stakes.

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Just like a game

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our economy was designed by people to
get everyone to play by certain rules

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and, like a game, it comes with
instructions telling us what the goal is.

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Think about the last time
you played a new game

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Remember ?

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The first thing you did was
find out what it means to win

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and that guides every decision
you make along the way.

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So naturally the solutions most people are
working on pursue this games simple goal

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and that goal is more.

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More money being spent, more roads being
built, more malls being opened, more stuff.

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That's what economists
call growth.

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So we take all the money spent
on stuff that makes life better

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and all the money spent on
stuff that makes life worse

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and we add it together
into one big number

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called GDP.

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Were told that a bigger
GDP means we're winning

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So it's the number that thousands of the
rules and laws are designed to increase.

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But there's a big difference between more
kids in school or more kids in jail.

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More windmills or
more coal-fired power plants.

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More super-efficient public trains
or more gas wasted in traffic jams.

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'duh!!'

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But in this game of more
they are counted same.

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Now we can't change a game this dumb
one rule or one player at time.

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The problem is the goal itself. 
We need solutions that change that.

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What if we built this game
around goal of better.

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Better education, better health, 
better stuff.

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A better chance to
survive on this planet.

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That's what we all want. right?

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So shouldn't that be
what winning means?

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Changing the goal of the
entire economy is a huge task.

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Of course we can't
do it all at once.

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But when we focus on
game-changing solutions

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we gradually make it possible
for a new game to be played.

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To do that we have to be able to tell the
difference between a game-changing solution

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or just a new way to play
that old game of more.

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For example,

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let's look at two solutions to one
of the many problems we face today.

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The scourge of plastic packaging that
everyone knows is a disaster for the planet.

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Especially the oceans.

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And, here are two groups of people

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with very different ideas of
solutions to the plastics' problem.

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These guys decide
that enough is enough

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and they start by launching a citizen campaign
to ban the plastic bag in their community.

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these guys have a
different solution.

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They start a business

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that gives people's gift cards to buy
stuff if they recycle their plastic waste.

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Both of these are
happening right now,

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but only one if them
changes the game.

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The gift card solution does keep some
plastic out of landfills and incinerators.

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But it creates more plastic by
encouraging people to buy more stuff.

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Even worse,

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it teaches that more consumption is the
right reward for being a good citizen.

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Making it even harder to think
outside that old game box.

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The 'ban the bag' solution
is harder to achieve,

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but it's a game-changer.

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Why?

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Well, by volunteering their time,
these citizens are declaring that

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there's something more important to them
than just earning and spending more.

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To win this campaign, these citizens
are gonna have to team up with

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forward-thinking businesses offering
alternatives to throw away plastic packaging.

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They're gonna have to build power to fight
back against the American Chemistry Council.

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Which is lobbies for the company’s
that make all that plastic junk.

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And they're gonna have to get out and
talk to their neighbors and friends

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inspiring yet more people to
begin to question the old game.

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This is exactly what's happening in
towns and cities all across the world

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and they're winning.

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But can banning a few million plastic
bags transform the goal of the game.

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By itself no,

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but in combination with
millions of others working on

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game-changing solutions
that they care about,

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YES.

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Together these solutions are
beginning to turn the tide.

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As people build power
to change the game

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their citizen muscles grow.

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They work to ensure the local solutions
they create get copied and scaled up.

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And when they see the solutions getting blocked
by corporations with way too much influence

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they team up with other solutionaries
to fight for a real democracy

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by the people, for the people.

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Gift cards will never do that

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but thousands off citizen
campaigns can.

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Whenever I'm asked to join in a solution
I want to know if it's transformational

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will it change the goal?

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To figure it out I
use the word GOAL

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I want to know that it G-
gives people more power

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taking power back from
corporations to build democracy.

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O - opens people's eyes to the truth
that once basic needs are met

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happiness and well-being don't
come from buying more stuff

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but from our communities, our
health and a sense of purpose.

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A - accounts for all
the cost it creates

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including the toll it takes
on people and the planet

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In other words it internalizes
costs instead of externalizing them

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as most businesses do today.

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L - lessens the enormous wealth gap between
those who can't even meet the basic needs

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and those who consume way
more than their fair share.

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When I see solution that does all
that or can be redesigned to

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I'm in.

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And they're popping
up everywhere.

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Like the Evergreen
cooperatives in Cleveland.

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Where worker owners are
running green businesses.

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A laundry, a solar company and
a super productive urban farm

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that are healthy and safe.

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They provide secure jobs to people
that the old game has left behind.

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We all know we need to get
businesses out of our democracy.

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But cooperatives go even further and bring
democracy into the businesses.

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Sustainable,
democratic, equitable.

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That's a game-changer.

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Or in Capennori, a town in Italy where local
citizens working with businesses and governments

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are not just seeking
to manage waste better

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but they're questioning the
very inevitability of waste.

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They're promoting solutions to waste
not with expensive techno fixes

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but by working together as a community
to reclaim compost for the soil,

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to find reusable substitutes
for disposable products

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and then to put discarded
material to good use.

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They've already reduce some
waste streams by 82 percent

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while creating jobs and
building social fabric.

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And how about the new trend
of collaborative consumption

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formerly known as 'sharing'.

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Sharing may sound like
the theme of Barney song

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but think about it, it's a
huge challenge to the old game.

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It gets as off the treadmill
of 'More-More-More',

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conserves resources, gives people access
to stuff they otherwise couldn't afford

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and builds communities.

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what does it look like?

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Bike share programs
in major cities,

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online platforms that let us share everything
from our cars to our homes to camping gear.

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In my town the public library
system lends out tools.

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There's just no reason that every
house needs its own power drill,

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crème brûlée torch, scanner, wheelbarrow,
a bike pump, when we can share.

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As transformational solutions
like these gain traction

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we will reach a tipping point. If we
keep focused on the new goal of better.

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Without a new goal all the work we're
doing to build a better future will be

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A) not enough and B) really hard.

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Too much genius and focus will continue to go
to solving problems like iPhone battery life

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while the problems that threaten
human life spin out of control.

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Five years ago when we
made the story of stuff

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we started building a community of people who sensed
that something was really wrong with this old game.

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We agreed there was a problem.

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Now it's time to
build the solutions.

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Solutions that won't just change a few of
the rules but will change the entire game.

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Wanna help?

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Come on let's do it.

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Subtitle by - Palash