The Real vs. Green Economy and Craig's List (and reading material)

Lately I've been spending a lot of time on Craig's List for various reasons. On Saturday, I bought a road bike from another guy in Somerville after a couple of weeks scouring for a good deal. I gave away an old video camera that had been gathering dust in my parents' basement to an art student who was excited to get it. I'm in the process of selling a couch from our apartment and am attempting to sell some Canon Mt passes as well as an extra mirror I have for a Civic Coupe.

What does this have to do with progressBoston you ask? A site like Craig's List is a key tool in living a sustainable lifestyle. The internet makes getting rid of your old junk much easier as there are now thousands of pairs of eyes to check it out instead of the dozens that would stop by a yard sale. As with yard sales though, one person's junk is another person's treasure and by re-selling it, you have extended the usable life of the object. This is great because it keeps it out of landfills and prevents the energy intensive process of making a new object. I feel that it also encourages a sense of community and allows people to help each other out in a way that can be lost in a modern, urban environment.

I recently joined a Sustainable Systems at Work discussion group. The first session outlined the need for corporations to take responsibility for their environmental impacts and Interface Global CEO Ray Anderson described himself as a "plunderer of the natural world." Most corporations take raw material from the Earth to create a product that will never return to the Earth in its original form. This is true of the company I work for and there must be a better way.

In many ways, our current economy has been built on this unsustainable practice. Our GDP grows and we feel 'richer' when we spend money on cheap items that will only be thrown away in a year or two. A site like Craig's List allows these items to extend their useful life (Obviously, this only works for a short period of time and products should be designed to return to their natural state which is why Cradle to Cradle is on my reading list). One of the benefits of the Great Recession is that it has placed more of a focus on person to person relationships and making due with what one has instead of a blatant consumerism. If this feeling can be extended to change our purchasing habits when we are making money then maybe there is hope for us to truly find a sustainable life model and protect our planet's resources. Capitalism and environmentalism are not naturally at odds (read: Natural Capitalism); we merely have to place a price on protecting the environment to make capitalism sustainable. Therefore, when someone says they are supporting the economy by purchasing something, it's important ask if it is a sustainable economy that they are supporting.