The Story of Stuff Project is a left-of-center environmentalist organization located in Berkeley, California, that produced films and documentaries against garbage and waste. ¹ The organization was founded to build upon a 2007 short film, The Story of Stuff, that criticized the foundations of modern consumerism as being wasteful and predatory against developing nations. ²

The Story of Stuff Project now produces a variety of left-leaning animated films and documentaries on issues such as reducing the use of plastics and bottled water or fighting the power of private businesses. ³

Founding

The Story of Stuff Project was founded in 2007 by Annie Leonard who released a short documentary entitled The Story of Stuff criticizing consumerism and waste. ⁴ The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute animated film that has reportedly been shown in thousands of classrooms and viewed more than 10 million times. ⁵ The documentary was sponsored by the Tides Foundation, a major left-of-center grantmaking organization and pass-through funder of numerous left-leaning nonprofits, and the Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption. ⁶

In the documentary, Leonard speaks in front of a series of animations depicting what she calls “the materials economy.” Within this economy, Leonard claimed that resource extraction that fuels modern society was “trashing the planet,” because human beings chop down forests, blow up mountains, “use up all the water,” and “wipe out the animals.” Leonard also argues that the United States exploits developing countries’ resources, which she said America views as “our stuff that somehow got on someone else’s land.” ⁷

Films, Documentaries, and other Media

The majority of The Story of Stuff Project’s budget ($1,199,059 of $1,464,114 in 2021) is spent on its community engagement program sharing environmentalist-themed stories through social media, movies, animated movies, and documentaries. ⁸ After its founding 2007 documentary, The Story of Stuff claims more than 50 million viewings of its films. ⁹

Story of Stuff Project films include Solving Plastics, a movie that claims corporations distract the public from the crisis of plastic waste by promising recycling and ocean cleanups; The Story of Plastics, a feature-length documentary that details plastic pollution and its costs; and The World We Need, a short video on perceived environmental degradation and racism in America. ¹⁰ The Story of Stuff Project has also conducted a series of 30-minute streaming conversations reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic, including discussions entitled “Environmental Racism” and “Black Liberation Economies.” ¹¹

Additionally, The Story of Stuff Project has produced a series of The Story of-style movies that use the same animated to advance a variety of other left-of-center environmental messages. These include The Story of Cap and Trade, which explains the cap-and-trade scheme to combat climate change; The Story of Electronics, which argues that the production of electronics poisons workers while creating tons of trash; and The Story of Microbeads, which argues against microbead plastic pollution. ¹²

The Story of Stuff Project has also produced other The Story of­-style documentaries on nonenvironmental left-of-center issues, including The Story of Citizens United v. FEC, about the perceived inordinate power of corporations in the American political system, and The Story of Broke, arguing that despite being the richest nation in the planet, America is broken because it produces more garbage, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions than any other country. ¹³

Beyond its short films and documentaries, The Story of Stuff Project hosts a podcast entitled The Good Stuff focused on interviews with activists, scientists, and others on reducing waste. ¹⁴ Additionally, the organization publishes a blog online that provides updates on its activism efforts and details on successes in pushing private and public entities to adopt green initiatives. ¹⁵ The organization also promotes a book entitled The Story of Stuff written by Annie Leonard based upon the documentary of the same name. ¹⁶

Other Activities

Besides film production, The Story of Stuff Project engages in a variety of other activities to support environmentalist goals. This includes Catalogue Choice, a free online service that promises to prevent junk mail and reduce paper waste. Through Catalogue Choice, The Story of Stuff Project claims to have saved a half a million trees from logging and prevented hundreds of tons of paper from being thrown away or recycled. ¹⁷

The Story of Stuff Project also conducts environmental activist campaigns. This includes Unbottle Water, a series of campaigns against what the organization calls the privatization of public water by businesses by combatting the demand for bottled water, ¹⁸ as well as Fight Plastics Pollution, a series of campaigns to forge a global movement against manufacturing and use of plastics. ¹⁹

Additionally, the Story of Stuff Project launched a Grassroot Grants Program in 2017 that supports small groups organizing against plastic pollution and the bottled-water industry. Through the Grassroots Grants Program, The Story of Stuff Project claims to have supported nearly 100 groups with $300,000 in grants. In 2023, the organization had a goal of distributing another $100,000 in grants. These grants of no more than $5,000 are awarded in part according to a system of racial preferences—under which groups receiving the grants must be led by Blacks, Native Americans, or other minorities. ²⁰

The Story of Stuff Project also reportedly has an online community of over 1 million activists that the group calls “Changemaker,” including scientists, students, community leaders, and more devoted to the same environmentalist mission. ²¹

To support environmental activists, The Story of Stuff Project provides learning tools. These include a sample high school curriculum based on the original The Story of Stuff documentary that prompts students to analyze sustainability efforts. ²² The organization also has a list of “faith-based lessons” attempting to teach teenagers and youth the relationship between their Christian, Kewish, or Baha’i faith on the one hand and consumption on the other. ²³

Beyond its youth-centered curricula, The Story of Stuff Project also offers a 4-week online “Citizen Muscle Bootcamp” designed to train environmentalist activists over one-to-two-hour videos each week; ²⁴ a “Changemaker Personality Quiz” to help classify potential a potential activists as a “resister,” “networker,” “nurturer,” “investigator,” “communicator,” or “builder”; ²⁵ and the “Rise St. James Coloring Book” produced in honor of Black History Month to promote racial activism. ²⁶

Additionally, the Story of Stuff is a fiscal sponsor of Story of Stuff Productions, LLC, an organization that produces environmentalist films. ²⁷

People

Annie Leonard is the founder of The Story of Stuff Project and a longtime environmental and climate change activist. From August 2014 to April 2023, Leonard was the co-executive director of Greenpeace USA, the American branch of an environmentalist organization well-known for its attention-seeking stunts and radical views. Beginning in 2011, Leonard was also a board member of Public Citizen, a lobbying and advocacy organization opposed to free-market interests and American business owners. ²⁸

Beginning in 2016, Leonard became a board member of Inequality Media, a media company founded by Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich to promote public opposition to wealth inequality in America. ²⁹ In 2022, Leonard became a co-founder and board member of the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, a political activist organization devoted to electing opponents of the energy industry who promote a left-leaning climate change agenda. ³⁰

Michael O’Heaney is the executive director of the Story of Stuff Project. O’Heaney is the former development director of Global Exchange, a nonprofit advocacy group that promotes human rights and environmentalism. O’Heaney also previously worked as the director of development and communications for Pacific Environment, a left-of-center environmentalist nonprofit. Before joining the staff of The Story of Stuff Project, O’Heaney was a consultant with Channing Way Consulting where he advised left-wing non-profit organizations. ³¹

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19. “Fight Plastic Pollution.” The Story of Stuff Project. Accessed September 28, 2023. https://www.storyofstuff.org/plastic/.
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