Greenglasses is a platform and movement for sustainable living in Prague. Our goal is to connect like-minded individuals, initiatives, businesses & communities.*
*(please note: this website has not been updated since 2018, when the founders moved on to new projects, therefore the information contained therein may be out of date.)
Who are we?
Greenglasses was founded by Aneta Hebrová and Jennifer Dózsa-Day. We care about the wellbeing of people, animals, nature and society and this project is our effort to help empower people like ourselves to make a change.
Why are we doing this?
It only takes one look at a newspaper to see that our world is facing crises on multiple fronts: environmentally, socially and economically. While modernity has brought great progress to human society, this progress balances dangerously against ever more apparent costs, including pollution, lifestyle disease, rising inequality and declining biodiversity.
We believe over-consumption is a major root cause behind many of the world’s problems. Whether we like it or not, our lives are defined on a daily basis by the products and services we consume, yet we often are completely unaware of how, where or under which circumstances they were made.
In fact, many things we buy were made under poor labor conditions in polluting factories before being packaged in plastic or sprayed with toxic chemicals, transported thousands of kilometers around the world and then, once we no longer need or want them, discarded in a landfill or burned. Without even realizing it, the pretty things we are buying here at home are having some very ugly impacts, not only on the planet, but on our own health.
And why are we doing this? So that corporations can profit and the economy can grow, which are not bad aims in themselves, but become harmful and nonsensical, we think, when they come at the cost of clean air and water, well-being, human rights and social equity.
Shouldn’t it be possible to live in a world in which the needs of people can be met without causing unnecessary waste and harm to life on the planet? And aren’t there ways to live that don’t violate our values, poison our surroundings and make us sick and unhappy?
While there may someday be technology to solve some of our pressing problems, many of the costs of our consumerist society, such as the extinction of species, are irreversible. And we think that’s tragic, because it makes the planet less beautiful and habitable for all life, including humans.
The good news is that many people around the world are starting to want to live more consciously, whether it be for personal, environmental or ethical reasons. Globally, communities are springing up to show a more sustainable and equitable way of life. Yet many people aren’t even aware that these other options are available to them, particularly if they are just trying to get by in their already busy lives.
Greenglasses is about showing people that greener alternatives do exist, even in a city like Prague, which is not traditionally seen as being on the cutting edge of sustainability. Greener alternatives don’t have to involve fancy or high-tech solutions, but can be about communities of ordinary people finding innovative ways to live comfortably with less waste and more humanity.
At the end of the day, we think a solution to the world’s problems needs to be a collaborative effort between governments, non-profits, corporations, entrepreneurs and individuals. Greenglasses is about empowering individuals to make changes to their own lives because our daily decisions are something we are all able to control.
We can sometimes feel helpless or powerless in waiting for political or technological solutions, but we actually have great power to have an impact by “voting with our money” every day, consuming less and choosing better.