iShared, have you? Meet people in your area to trade free goods and services!
Consumers are becoming more conscious than ever of their environmental impact. Most people try to do their part by doing things like recycling, conserving water, using reusable bags when shopping, or even skipping the harsh cleaning chemicals and swapping them out for organic solutions. These are all important tasks to protecting the planet, but are you ready to step it up a notch?
Dr. Julia Harrison, a recent USC grad who is a social instigator and social work professional has set out to change the way that we consume. She founded a tech company called Heart-Centered Strategies Corp. that aims to build new and innovative products that use technology to solve social issues that plague communities. Unlike most companies, they seek to promote social impact over gaining profit. One of their recent projects is an app called iShared.
iShared
iShared is an app that allows you to offer or receive free goods and services to people within your local community. If you feel like you could be doing more to help your community and reduce your carbon footprint, this app is the perfect place to start.
If you’re someone who needs help, this app serves as a destination to find what you need. Clothes, food, someone to fix your leaky pipe. The hope is that someone’s generosity will set you in the right direction and in turn, you will eventually be able to return the favor to someone else.
By promoting the sharing of goods and services, iShared can disrupt global warming, save people money, and strengthen community-neighbor relationships.
Environmental Impact
iShared reduces environmental impact. Donating your old clothes or household items to thrift stores is good in theory, but sometimes those donations don’t always make it into the hands of those who need it the most. If thrift stores can’t sell your clothes, they sometimes ship them to third world countries to sell- a practice that is widely documented as a harming industry in developing nations. Either that, or they’ll end up in landfills.
60% of Co2 emissions happen at the household level, and trillions of pounds of goods are planted into the earth/end up in landfills annually. Carbon dioxide and methane, both very potent greenhouse gasses that add to the global warming crisis, are released when decomposing textiles in the landfills.
Passing on used items gives them a second life with a new owner who needs it, keeps them out of the landfill, and curbs unnecessary waste that comes along with the production of new goods.
Benefits of Sharing
Sharing helps people interact in a meaningful and pleasant way that builds community. It can create a sense of belonging, teamwork, and trust when you assist one another.
It also helps to reduce overconsumption. Most Americans are excessive and have things they don’t use often. This can sometimes be overwhelming as you may run out of space for everything, or don’t have time to maintain it all. When you can rely on sharing, some of the burden lifts off you as you don’t have to feel the need to buy everything you only use once.
Social Impact Over Profit
Too many companies are out for profit and have no mind for the toll that takes on the environment or their communities. Heart-Centered Strategies Corp. is dedicated to solving social issues and world problems with technology. The way technology is evolving, it’s about time it’s put to use to build up thriving communities around the world.
To directly help further Dr. Harrison and her company’s efforts in saving the planet, you can visit their fundraising page on ifundwomen. IFundWomen is an amazing platform for women who have big ideas but need a little help securing money so they have all the tools to properly execute their plans.
This application is free for all users because our mission is to plant the seeds of abundance for everyone on the planet. We don’t need to suffer as a humanity, we just need to share what we have! It’s simple – sharing is caring, people love you, and life is what you make of it. So let’s make it great together !
More information can be found on http://www.ishared.org and http://www.heartcenterdstrategies.org.
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