Shopaholism?!

Some claim that the more we buy presents, the more we feel guilty of the time unspent with the ones we care. This was suddenly true with Lucas. He felt that during the past year he had been selfish and focused on himself, rather then on his family and friends. And this was influencing his behavior in shop now. He was looking around and thought that one present was not enough for his daughter and son, his children deserve more. Therefore he returned back to get one more, as all the others were buying so many presents too.

Lucas returned back home with bags full of shiny presents and extra plastic bags from all the lovely shops. His wife commented his bags with saying - "I hope you left something for the others too". Lucas stopped and felt ashamed - he had been lured to buy things, shopaholism had attacked him. In the midst of changing his thinking and behavior, he faced a setback. Lucas thought that the sustainable thinking would have been rooted in himself already, but this was not true.

If we are not careful, anyone of us, can be lured to buying unnecessary gifts in unrecyclable packages. Being sustainable requires more thinking and listening to the real needs. It is easy to be lured. In the end, our sustainability is measured at the counter...

Turn damages into benefits

Lucas owns some hectares of forest. Lucas went to check if his forest had suffered any damages of a recent storm. It was obvious from the very first moment he reached his part of the forest, that this was the case. He was faced with hundreds of broken birch trees on the ground. After clarifying the situation, it was clear that the amount was too little to get anyone to buy it (app. 50 trees) or it would only be bought sometime next year. Lucas therefore considered what he could do with it. Surely he did not want it to rotten in the forest - it rather be used as soon as possible for something good.

He found out that several school yards looked very dull and needed some benches for kids. He contacted the rectors and made a deal with them, that they could get the junks for free from his forest, if only they would use it for the yards and some for handcrafting during the school year. This way 10 junks were used. He also offered the trees for nearby cottage owners, who willingly made some logs of it. It this was worth of 5 trees. 15 or so junks, went to the theater for decorations and benches and a good number of them were used by a cottage builder close to his forest. After all this effort, Lucas was left with 5 trees and with those he decided to do some wood crafting for his garden.

All the setbacks of the storm were turned into a goodwill after active offering of the junks. This resulted in nice thank you letters, great fun while cutting the junks and in a big smile every time he passed the school yard with great new wooden benches.