The brainchild of Annie Leonard, an “activist who has spent the past 10 years traveling the globe fighting environmental threats,” the story tackles “all our stuff—where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.”

Listen closely, because Annie barely catches her breath as she reviews the life cycle costs of the products we use. From the extraction of natural resources to their production into iPods, shoes, dishwashers and cars, to their distribution, consumption and disposal, Annie examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of “planned obsolescence” and “perceived obsolescence” —and how these notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today.

Her three-fold message resonates completely with what you find time after time on Big Green Purse: you don’t need as much stuff as you may think you do; don’t buy stuff you don’t need; and make the stuff you buy matter.

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