Ann Owen (Photo by Robert Fogarty)
Dear Clinton is a collection of photographs and letters explaining what public service bridge our students are building. This special collection was produced in partnership with Dear World, an innovative photography venture for social good.
Dear President Clinton,
In the book What’s Mine is Yours, former William J. Clinton Foundation director Rachel Botsman writes about the rise of collaborative consumption. I’m thrilled that this is a growing trend, as I believe strongly that we are much happier when we live more harmoniously with one another and with the planet – when we consume less and share better. For many years, one of my personal and professional missions has been to promote recycling, but collaborative consumption takes waste reduction to a whole new level.
As consumers, we are easily bored – we crave newness, novelty and innovation, so our challenge is to find ways
to build sharing into our consuming culture. Online services, organizations and companies are now providing numerous opportunities to amass social capital and reallocate our goods and services: Zipcar and goget provide car sharing opportunities; Freecycle promotes the giving and receiving of items; Swaptree allows users to trade books, CDs and DvDs online; CouchSurfing connects travelers and hosts; and Zopa, Kickstarter and Kiva foster peer-to-peer lending and gifting.
Most of our possessions sit idle much of the time, so why not make them available to others? The bottom line is that we have the power to collectively create a new economy driven by sustainable consumerism. In the process we build community, conserve resources and cultivate happiness.
Thank you,
Ann