Leading a Sustainable Life
I find it very interesting and often times shocking when one really begins to evaluate how sustainable one's lifestyle is. In the course I am currently taking Design Ethos & Action with Professor Peter Scupelli we were tasked to explore and document an aspect of our life that could possibly be unsustainable.
I personally chose the amount of drinks I purchased on campus (which happens to be a great amount). Through this project I learned a lot about how people react to the information and environment around them. Throughout my schooling being "green" was always a hot topic, and the basic tasks that came along with being green became such common terminology that it didn't have as much of an effect anymore. By being able to do something as small as collect a weeks worth of information on only 1 type of waste it changed my habits and lifestyle for the weeks to come after the project.
It also made me interested in the relationship between people and the products they buy. In my case I found that last semester I was more likely to drink water and not buy drinks on campus because I had a personal investment in the water bottle I owned. It was a nice color, extremely functional, easy to use, and had a logo that identified with me. Because of that emotional investment I had the intention of keeping with one container and keeping with healthier/less wasteful habits (and was also devastated when I had it taken away at the airport). I find that the more personally invested people are with their products the longer the lifespan of those products extend, ultimately leading to a more sustainable lifestyle.
Below is a short video that displayed my findings. I am hoping to further develop this video in order to display a more in depth scope of my experience.