It's All My Fault: How I Messed Up the World, and Why I Need Your Help to Fix It

by Jordan Phoenix

  Speaking of pop-up shops, an organization called miLES (Made in the Lower East Side) facilitates the process of bringing new ones to life. This innovative idea came about as a way to utilize some of New York City’s empty storefronts, while also providing opportunities for entrepreneurs to test out ideas for market feasibility in a low-risk way. For existing businesses, especially ones that operate primarily through the internet -- it can also help them gain more exposure through a new type of sales channel. In Toronto, another trend has emerged that lowers the barriers of entry for pop-up shops even further. The Scadding Court Community Centre teamed up with ThinkFresh Group to launch a series of pop-up shops out of repurposed shipping containers, which has transformed and revitalized the entire intersection. The shipping containers are often only 60 to 80 square feet in total size, and so their monthly rental fees have become low enough for entrepreneurs in underprivileged communities to be able to access opportunities that were previously unavailable to them.

  For ideas related to retail and small manufacturing initiatives, 3D printing has emerged as a legitimate way for ordinary individuals to produce a practically infinite number of household products at low cost. These products can be for personal use, gifts, donations, or marketed and sold for profit. Furthermore, the ease with which people can share and remix designs online is only improving the levels of quality and efficiency. Even more interesting is the emergence of RepRap, which is an open source 3D printer that is capable of self-replicating. Essentially, what this means is that through owning one RepRap, a person can download the blueprints to print out most of the pieces necessary to create additional replicas; potentially giving others the opportunity to generate their own products as well. A relatively recent development in 3D printing involves projects geared towards creating the 3D printing filament -- a raw material that can be used to make products -- out of recycled plastic products. A massively disruptive idea just waiting to be hatched involves mining the Great Pacific garbage patch for plastic debris, and converting it into new products to sell. One initiative called Recycled Island has created a proposal to convert plastic ocean waste into inhabitable floating islands; which would clean up the environment and generate new revenue streams as well.

  As the 3D printing industry continues to evolve, future developments on the horizon that could transform our modern ways of living include the development of low-cost, industrial 3D printers that are capable of self-replicating. Currently priced in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, industrial 3D printers can be utilized to create the parts for a very wide variety of machines necessary to comprise a modern standard of living. There are numerous organizations making headway in the open source hardware movement that aim to create all of the basic tools necessary to start a civilization from scratch, at low cost, with modern comforts. At the University of Southern California, professor Behrokh Khoshnevis is building contour crafting machines -- in essence, machines that look like giant 3D printers -- that aim to automate the construction of a 2,500 square foot home within 24 hours. In China, the WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Company has assembled ten partially 3D printed houses in less than one day for only $4,800 each; made out of concrete, glass fibers, and recycled construction waste. As technologies like these become more widely known and available, the impact they can have upon issues such as poverty alleviation and homelessness are going to be extraordinary.

  There are other social good business models that run similar to traditional businesses, except they allocate a large percentage of their profits towards a social issue. A great example of this is KNO Clothing, which donates a whopping 50% of their profits towards initiatives to end homelessness. Yet another creative idea involves utilizing a popular, high traffic website to promote the work of other socially conscious brands. TOMS, the popular one-for-one shoe brand, has actually created an online marketplace on their website that is designed to enable up and coming social entrepreneurs to promote and sell their own products. In an overly-competitive, everyone-for-themselves, win-at-all-costs world, creating and managing an online platform to promote similar types of companies who could eventually become competition would likely have been considered insane by economists and business leaders. But more and more of us are beginning to wake up to the reality that while financial sustainability is important, maximizing profit at all costs without regard to the social aspects of our actions is destroying our planet.

  When it comes to making social progress, one of the hardest psychological aspects to overcome involves the belief that if we stand up for something alone, we will be rejected by those around us who want to preserve the status quo. Most of us do not want to be seen as weird -- or as potential outcasts -- for going against the grain, even in instances where we know it’s the right thing to do. To combat this, it can be beneficial to create an inclusive idea that clearly demonstrates the power a small group has to make a big change. For a great example of this concept, an organization called Change Heroes allows individuals to start a campaign to bring together a group of 33 of their friends, who each donate $3.33 a day for 3 months -- which results in the creation of a new school. This is a brilliant strategy that gets people excited to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

  Going further with this theme of community building, another great initiative that is being implemented is the Beacon Food Forest in Seattle. It’s being developed across seven acres on public land, and has been designed to include both family and community managed plots. The tangible and intangible benefits of a project like this can be numerous: higher levels of food security, healthier diets, less air pollution (as the food doesn’t need to be transported thousands of miles), visual aesthetics, and a more physically active, socially conscious, and interconnected community. Last summer, when I was working on the development of an urban garden in Kansas City, I had at least a dozen random conversations with people from the neighborhood who became interested in getting involved just from walking by. I would give them a brief tour, show them the open plots that they could choose from, and offer them a sample of the fresh produce such as strawberries, corn, or tomatoes. One Saturday morning, a homeless man walking by asked me if he could help out, and joined in the process of clearing out weeds and debris from the area. He asked if he could have a role in tending to the garden, and so I told him that he could take over watering my little plot if he wanted to -- and all of the veggies that grew would be his! When we were finished working that day, he told me that he was actually on the way to the liquor store to go get hammered when he first passed by, but he changed his mind when he got a chance to be a part of the group. He felt overwhelmed with gratefulness for the opportunity to contribute. These are the types of intangible benefits that can’t really be summed up by statistics on a chart.

  Another great benefit to building urban gardens and food forests is that projects like these inspire copycats. In London, groups have been rallying to turn Mabley Green -- an area near the Olympic Park -- into an urban food forest that is even bigger than the one in Seattle. If it’s within our nature to want to compete over something, these are the types of friendly competitions that lead to us all winning. Similar initiatives have popped up from Philadelphia to Melbourne, and continue to gain support in other cities as well. With the amount of people living in poverty worldwide, combined with the amount of unhealthy food choices in modern society, it would be of great benefit for us all to begin maximizing the square mileage of edible landscapes we can feasibly create on both private and public land. Even in urban environments, vegetables can be grown in hanging vertical alignments in windowsills, on the sides of buildings, and on rooftops. Brooklyn Grange is a profitable urban farm that produces over 50,000 pounds of organic produce per year on rooftops in Brooklyn and Queens. Urban rooftops are an extremely underutilized resource that we could be using for much more productive purposes.

  All across the world, innovators continue to discover new and creative ways to turn trash into treasure, in order to create value a
nd help others meet their basic needs in the uncharted territory of this new era. In Ghana, groups have begun experimenting with creating energy out of human waste; which happens to be a valuable source of methane. In Sweden, the nation has become so efficient at recycling and incinerating garbage to produce heat and electricity that they actually have run out of trash, and have begun importing it from other countries in order to have enough to meet their energy needs. In the United States, a pair of college friends started an organization called Back to the Roots, which began when they realized that they were capable of growing gourmet mushrooms out of recycled coffee grounds. In Italy, designer Arturo Vittori has created a concept that seems to literally create opportunity out of thin air. He has unveiled the design for his WarkaWater Tower; a 30--foot-tall structure which can be made out of bamboo, nylon, and other materials to generate 25 gallons of potable drinking water a day in desert regions through harvesting atmospheric water vapor.

  In Hawaii, the Cinderland Eco-Village takes concepts of sustainable living to the next level. The community contains three acres of land, and practically everything planted on the site produces food. There are plants that produce everything from avocados, to bananas, coconuts, macadamia nuts, pineapples, and more; capable of providing for nearly all of the dietary needs for the fifty local residents. They utilize rainwater catchments, dry food storage, composting toilets, and solar energy, though they strive to keep their overall energy usage to a minimum. On Mondays and Tuesdays, the entire crew spends five hours doing all of the necessary work around the site related to harvesting, composting, cleaning, and so on; but other than that, the residents are all free to spend their time in any manner they wish. A guest who had lived there for several months informed me that the experience allowed her to decompress from the pressures of modern society, and gave her the clarity to rediscover her joy for filmmaking. Though this type of experience is likely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and moving seven billion people to Hawaii is surely not the standalone answer to all of the world’s problems -- it’s definitely good to become aware that a tropical paradise ten hour workweek not only is possible, but already exists right now. It shows us that there are many different ways of living on this flying space rock, and by observing and pulling some of the best elements of each, we can create something even better that gives us the best of all worlds.

  12

  How Helping Others Helps Ourselves

  It was a freezing, windy winter night in New York City. I had just gotten out of a late meeting, and was walking to catch a train home and go to sleep. Thinking about the next day’s to do list, I was practically in my own world, and not really paying attention to my surroundings. “Hey man, I love your kicks!” said a voice to me from the sidewalk. When I looked back to see where it came from, I saw a man wearing tattered clothes, carrying a garbage bag, standing outside of a restaurant -- with a warm smile on his face. As I was about to say thank you, a woman walked by. “Hey lady, you have the most beautiful eyes. Can you spare some change?”

  A revelation washed over me. This homeless man had a magnetic charisma about him. He had no fear of talking to anyone; and he was excellent at lighting people up. He had this amazing gift, and I felt compelled to help him harness that potential. I introduced myself, and told him dinner was on me. He was absolutely ecstatic; it was like music to his ears.

  As we sat down and ate, I told him that I felt he has an amazing talent for connecting with people. Hesitant at first, he eventually began to open up. He spoke much about how he used to love to fish. The man really knew his stuff; he was like a fisherman’s encyclopedia. I asked him what he could see himself doing, and he said that he thought he could be a good salesman. Suddenly, something in my mind just clicked, and I was able to put two and two together. There was a sporting goods store right down the street. I asked him if he ever considered going there and telling them that he would help them sell their fishing equipment.

  There was a pause.

  A moment later, he put his hands over his face, and began to speak through tears. I’ll never forget what he said next.

  “For 11 years, I’ve been walking around these same few blocks just trying to get a bite, get some cigs. I ran away from my problems, man. I had my woman and two kids, and I left them. I didn’t know how to deal with it. This morning, I was praying for something good to happen. I’ve been so caught up in the struggle that I couldn’t see clearly. In 11 years, no one has ever done anything like this for me. It’s time to make things right again. Tomorrow, I’m going to that store, and I’m going to find my girl. My prayers have been answered. You are an angel. I will never forget what you’ve done for me.”

  By the end, I was in tears as well. He thanked me for my help, and we went our separate ways. But to be honest, he was the one who deserved all the thanks. The chance to be a part of something bigger than myself brought me unbelievable amounts of joy; much more than I could ever get from buying something for myself. The money I spent on that meal was one of the greatest purchases I’ve ever made.

  Just knowing that it is possible to have such a profound impact on someone’s life in such a short period of time is incredible. It changes the way I look at luxury purchases. For example, would I rather buy a $70,000 Lexus, or -- a $20,000 Toyota (both of which are equally capable of getting me from point A to point B, and are actually not so different) -- which would enable me to free up $50,000 worth of my money, time and energy to help people? Though it certainly can be nice to have nice things, I’ve found that I gain something much more valuable from investing the bulk of my resources into uplifting others. A metal box that has a few extra features may give me some initial excitement for a week or so before it no longer makes any difference, but transforming someone’s life for the better only continues to become more and more fulfilling as time goes on. It’s amazing to watch someone not only turn their own life around, but then go on to positively impact others in their community as well, and know that you were able to play a role in making it possible. Witnessing the birth and outward positive ripple effect of something you’ve created in the world is indescribable. In the words of John Bunyan: “You have never really lived until you’ve done something for someone who can never repay you.”

  The concept of paying it forward takes some of the darkest stereotypes we have about human nature, and turns them upside down. In Vancouver, stories have emerged of an anonymous man who goes undercover pretending to be homeless, and instead rewards the people who offer to help him. Yogi Omar told the Vancouver Sun that he offered to buy the man dinner; but instead, the guy ended up giving Omar a counteroffer to pay for a month of his rent. When the guy pulled out a wad of cash, and handed it over, Omar was completely stunned. Could you imagine if even just one out of every 1,000 people alive tried something like this just once? That would put over seven million acts of kindness into motion. Though not everyone can afford to go big enough to dish out a month’s rent for someone, more than anything, it’s the act that counts.

  In Winnipeg, a friendly group of strangers at a Tim Hortons coffee shop made headlines when they serendipitously spent over three full hours paying it forward. It began when one customer at the drive-through paid for the next customer in line, and the next person continued the trend. As the chain kept going, the staff began calling out the numbers, and the customers in the store began to take notice and participate as well. Manager Troy Thompson told the CBC that the enthusiasm kept the streak going; and amazingly, it reached all the way up to 228 orders in a row before the chain was broken. The great thing about a heartwarming story about generosity, though, is that it never dies. I posted an article about this story on Twitter nearly a year after it had occurred, and I received a reply from Peter Milicevic of Calgary; who responded that he was one of the people who was given a free coffee and bagel that day. Minutes later, Katrina Murphy of Brisbane saw our conversation, and replied that she was going to start a new pay it forward chain at a coffee shop in her local area the
next day. It’s amazing to think about how connected we’ve become through technology, and how a story like this could never have occurred in any other time period in all of human history. A person in the United States reads an article about people doing random acts of kindness up in Canada, and shares it. A person from Canada finds the tweet, and mentions that he was involved in the story. Another person from Australia gets inspired by this, and restarts the chain of kindness again in a new location. Through this chain of events involving complete strangers from three different countries, somehow, another random stranger living 9,500 miles away from me, on a different continent, in a different hemisphere, whose name I do not know, and who I will likely never meet -- received a free cup of coffee to brighten their day. For some strange reason that I cannot explain, actions like these create a bond that elevates us from mere strangers who don’t care about one another into something greater. As we continue to share stories like these, and bring them into the public consciousness, it will only inspire more and more people to join in continuing this chain, and becoming part of the story.