So many of our environmental problems are purely due to waste, inefficient design and use. Innovator Graham Hill, founder of TreeHugger, is trying to help our society reduce our waste with a new design competition, LifeEdited. Here’s an intro from the website:
TreeHugger founder Graham Hill is trying to radically reduce his footprint and live happily with less space, less stuff and less waste on less money, but with more design. He calls it “LifeEdited.” You can help: Enter the design competition and win up to $70,000 in prizes and possibly design the apartment!
Of course, so many people think living with less means living a less satisfying life, but I think this is a complete myth. Simpler lives can at least as, or even more fulfilling than, more complicated, crammed lives.
PSFK writes, “the average home size in the United States doubling in the past century and happiness levels remaining flat.”
Graham says:
We really have a culture of excess. We have excess, we’re not any happier and what you’ll see again and again are people who really cut back and really edit their lives will find themselves much happier. They have more mental clarity. They end up having more time and it’s often better financially.
Of course, these observations are nothing new — the benefits of living a simpler life have been discussed for who knows how long, perhaps since the beginning of humanity. But bringing this message to the mainstream more is a challenge and a goal we should all be striving for at this point in time. LifeEdited looks like a good effort that may help popularize simple living and less wasteful design and will hopefully have significant results.
Here’s more on LifeEdited from Graham Hill in video format:
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Photo Credit: kk+ via flickr (CC license)