The recession forces us all to re-evaluate. Re-evaluate who we are and what is important to us. Many are spending more time at home with family either by desire or by necessity. Many are trying to develop creative ways to generate income to replace income lost or to supplement reduced income . Families are organizing garage sales as well as selling items on sites such as Craig’s List or eBay. Swap websites have become very popular. Groups like Freecycle enable people to swap goods with each other close to home.

All of this activity enables people to purge and cleanse. Someone who might otherwise have put something in the garbage is now finding more responsible ways to rid themselves of excess and perhaps profit by doing so.

An inadvertent result of this “re-purposing” of possessions is that consumers begin to think differently about how they are spending money and what they are spending it on. Spontaneous and frivolous purchases fall by the wayside. What we are willing to spend on or invest in takes on new meaning. Longevity and security become more desirable. Responsibility to ourselves and to others becomes tantamount.

Wrapped into all of this is sustainability. If I am going to invest my hard earned cash, I want it to be spent on something that is well made, is going to last and is sensitive to the environment as well as to the people who made it. The recession thus has a way of helping the cause of sustainability.

Tags: sustainable design

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 by Zairo and is filed under Sustainability. Both comments and pings are currently closed.