I started out in the Millenium Fellowship with a project called Core Pathways, for which I was a student researcher. However, at the beginning of the semester a friend and I discovered our mutual interest in learning to lead a zero waste lifestyle. I am passionate about Core Pathways, but it is not uniquely my project (it is a part of a large initiative at my school). I still work for it, but I felt that pursing and documenting our journey towards a zero waste lifestyle would be a better fit for the purposes of the Millenium Fellowship. Plus, it make me have accountability towards what will initially be a more inward-facing project.

We called our new project No Time To Waste, because in terms of changing how we as humans conduct our lifestyles, that statement is painfully true. We felt committed to decreasing our footprint through this massive reduction of our contributions to landfills, but wanted to catalogue our journey to hopefully provide a blueprint for others in similar situations looking to do the same thing.

This project is about being conscious of what we throw away, but it's perhaps even more so about being conscious of what we consume. Of who creates what we consume and how they do it. We realize that tangible change won't just come from being more conscious consumers - it will come from being less voracious consumers. At its heart, this project is about being more intentional and reflective about the way that we lead our lives. What do we really need? Why do we need it?

It also recognizes that the patterns of consumption in our society don't only contribute to environmental degradation. Environmental degradation often affects those who contribute to it least and who have some of the fewest resources to combat it. Additionally, the systems on which they are built are frequently fundamentally unjust to those that labor within them. The question of consumerism is therefore a question of human rights in an increasingly globalized world.