Just took this photo of a quote in Adbusters magazine. Can we start getting all hands on deck in dealing with the elephant in the room?

unstash made it as a top finalist in the six-month long ClimateSpark social venture competition, however we came up short of winning the coveted prize money.

It was a phenomenal experience with many insights and connections made along the way.

One interesting point brought up to me at the awards gala by a potential investor was that unstash tackles ‘the elephant in the room’.

It’s not hard to talk about increasing the efficiency of our products, transportation, and energy use – because it doesn’t necessarily threaten our way of life.

Encouraging people to purchasing more green, more local, and more ethical products is also great, but when we start suggesting purchasing less altogether, things get a bit more touchy.

To advocate sharing what we have can seem even more outlandish in some circles.

The problem is – we can’t buy our way towards a more sustainable future.

We need to address the elephant in the room at some point. Are we willing to allow our current lifestyles to be altered for the greater good? Can we give up on certain conveniences? Can we risk some of the messiness that comes with collaborating and making human contact? Can we invest in solutions that may defy the way things currently are for a better world that could be emerging?

The truth is, it may not even be about relinquishing anything ultimately – one could argue that we could have far more (access, wealth, well-being, & community) in a sharing economy than an ownership economy.

Let’s not forget to keep our own consumption habits at the forefront when we’re discussing a sustainable future together.

Photo Credit: David Blackwell

We’ve written in the past Great Pacific Garbage Patch (also known as the 8th continent or the plastic vortex), the above image courtesy of awbnetwork brilliantly illustrates the unseen damage we’re doing to our planet by our rampant consumption.

It’s easy to dismiss how our tiny conveniences impact the planet, but it’s adding up like never before, and at an ever-increasing rate.

We need solutions today – not only in regulations and inefficiencies, but solutions that can help redirect our very culture of consumption to one that values providing a sustainable legacy for future generations.

Last week I had the opportunity to pitch our venture to about twenty-five investors. It was a great group who were all interested in impact investing for social good. What was fascinating was how the idea of the sharing economy polarized the room (This happened the last time I pitched in a group context as well).

I’ve heard everything from “who really wants the risks involved with sharing?” and “sharing seems against human nature” to “this makes a lot of sense” and “this could be where the future is heading”.

And this is the very nature of disruptive ideas.

It’s not for everybody. It can split people into ‘camps’. It can fascinate some, while frightening others. But this is when you know you’re onto something (at least that’s what I tell myself)

I believe we’re at an inflection point, creating an opportunity unlike ever before.

With the current economic conditions, the environmental issues at hand, the resurgence in local communities, and the advances in technology and connectivity today – the sharing economy offers real solutions that ordinary citizens can begin engaging in.

There are probably more reliable and tested businesses that people can be investing in today – but we’ve been down that road already haven’t we?

We believe the sharing economy is inevitable – at least as a key component of what a sustainable future looks like together.

Join unstash in helping make sharing awesome again.

Brian Chesky CEO of airbnb.com speaks at DLD 2012 on the Sharing Economy. My favorite bit – “Can nations actually war if their residents lived together?“

What’s the next big thing in business? Answer: it’s no longer social networks, it’s Collaborative Consumption. Video via Bloomberg.

Image above & research via good.is magazine.

While we tend to focus on solutions like transportation and energy use when dealing with climate change, the reality is that our everyday material consumption contributes just as much to greenhouse gasses.

It would be preposterous to think we could counteract climate change without considering the massive ecological implications of the things you and I consume.

Through unstash we’re tackling the problem of unnecessary purchasing of consumer goods – particularly the many items that are infrequently used and easily shareable.

For example the average drill is used between 12-13 minutes over the course of it’s entire life time, and yet there is a multitude of them in every single neighborhood. The operation costs and and it’s related efficiencies are often negligable compared to the embodied carbon footprint of most consumer goods.

Every time an item is shared rather than newly purchased, we can reduce green house gas emissions from every stage of the materials lifecycle – from extraction, to production and manufacturing, to distribution.

It’s important to explore more efficient means of transportation and renewable energy usage and policies to revert climate change – but let’s not forget to provide simple tools for ordinary citizens  to live more sustainable lifestyles as well.

Tell Congress not to censor the internet NOW! – fightforthefuture.org/pipa

PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting “creativity”. The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites– they just have to convince a judge that the site is “dedicated to copyright infringement.”

The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that’s for a fix that won’t work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights.

* cool carton via Hugh MacLeod

The act of creating is never easy. There’s always pain before the child is born.

It’s easy to ignore, run away, and never attempt, but humanity deserves better from each of us.

We believe a better world is possible.

unstash is our contribution to the future we seek.

It’s a brand new year and a time for clean slates. I’m guessing unless you were very explicit about Christmas gifts, you’ve recently added to the pile of stuff within your home. Is your home still yours, or is it your stuff’s?

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits just posted about the new Clutter Free challenge he’s starting.

It’s just you, and the life you love. Without clutter getting in the way.

You live experiences, you do things you’re passionate about, you spend time with people you love.

You don’t live through objects, you’re not passionate about things, you don’t spend time with possessions.

You live, and the clutter that has built up over the years has been stripped away to the bare essentials.

This is my life, so much better now that I’m clutter-free. I’d love to help you get there if you need that help.

Might we suggest that using ‘unstash‘ would be an awesome way to adopt a clutter-free lifestyle?

See also their clutter-free course and ebook.