Seattle artist and former corporate lawyer Chris Jordan has taken it upon himself to create art in images that make it easy to visualize and understand the aftermath of our consumer culture. Chris recently spoke here in San Francisco.
I wish I had the chance to thank him personally for taking this photograph at a dump in Atlanta. To me, it is the most powerful way to convey the wastefulness of the current method of powering consumer electronics. You can read more about his recent exhibit in San Francisco and see more of Chris' work, here.
The numbers are staggering: according to Gartner, this year 3.2 billion external power supplies will be manufactured worldwide. Meanwhile, approximately two billion of them will go into landfill. As our CEO Frank Paniagua pointed out, 379 million external power supplies will go in landfills in 2008 in the U.S. alone. As the number of cell phones, iPods, laptops and other consumer electronic products that are manufactured each year continues to grow, older models (and their external power supplies) will become obsolete, be discarded, and continue to threaten the future of our planet.
Imagine a world where you upgrade your cell phone or laptop, and don’t need to replace its power supply, because the one you own is compatible with current and future models. Imagine being able to plug your friend's or family member’s laptop into your charger and give them power, regardless of brand or model number.
All of this is possible, but we need your help to make it a reality. Stay tuned for ways you can help us fix the broken model for powering consumer electronics.
Seth Socolow is Vice President of Corporate Marketing for Green Plug. His will be the main voice for this blog. His bio may be found here.
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