Today's world is rushing towards comfort, rapidity, ‘practicality’, ‘development’ and ‘success’. Most of us never ask ourselves how our actions affect the nature, the animals, the humanity and the entire planet. All the trash that we’ve produced is bursting at all seams, returning back to us. Companies, in their pursuit of profit, are providing us with growing amounts of products packed in plastic, seducing us into consumption. The humanity has lost touch with nature and forgotten that we are a part of it.

I wish the world could stop for a minute and people would look around and realise what we have done and where this all leads. I wish they could feel it! I was wondering how could I as one person help in all this and I have found many very simple and yet beautiful solutions. Instead of buying something, you can do it yourself, instead of throwing something away, you can give it forward or create something new and useful from it. There is so much joy in finding new opportunities, using creativity and imagination.

The project 'Lasting Harmony' promotes awareness about our current ‘nature‑alienated’ situation and presents alternative solutions and good practices. It encourages you to think twice and find new nature‑friendly behaviours, to reduce your consumption and establish local collaborations. During the activities of this project, we will teach you how to recycle discarded objects and waste materials and turn them into useful things. An old curtain can turn into a fruit‑and‑vegetable bag, waste wood can become a table, a frame or a board game, a plastic ice-cream cup is turned into a plant pot for your desk. Instead of things becoming waste, they can get a new life and brighten your day.

An ever-growing amount of people is becoming aware of how much we love this planet and we see the solution in sustainable action. Many wonderful and interesting solutions are being born all around the globe. Everyone can contribute to this change. Every person and every action counts. And in the end, all our actions sum up to create a better and healthier life for all of us, for our planet and our future.

Author of text and project leader: Pika Ciuha, designer