The Journey of the Man Who Lived Without Money

An inspiring podcast with Raphael Fellmer about the power of consumption and the urgent need for change.

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by Claudi Sult, November 22, 2018
surplus podcast

This article is presented by GreenMe Berlin and originally appeared here.

To many of you, especially those who are German-speaking, and those who are following the anti-food waste movement a bit, I probably don’t have to introduce him: He is one of Germany’s biggest food activists, he went on a money strike, he’s written a book called “Happy Without Money”, given tons of talks, co-founded the platform foodsharing.de - and now founded an amazing new startup, Germany’s first food outlet called SirPlus.

YES, you are right - I'm talking about Raphael Fellmer (@sirplus.de).

Listen to the full interview here:

Raphael and I met last November at the re:Blog conference "re:MIND", that brought together around 100 influencers who care about sustainability, to discuss what sustainability actually means and how it could possibly work in big multinational companies... 

Raphael gave this super inspiring talk, loaded with passion, emotion, gratitude and just so authentic and powerful… I think everyone was totally captured. He’s someone I truly admire for his values, his beliefs and his perseverance. If everyone would be a little bit more like him, we could solve a lot of our world’s problems in no time.

WHY WE NEED SIRPLUS?

Raphael and his team are putting heaps of passion into SirPlus - and that’s really really necessary when we look at the numbers: 50% of edible food is being wasted in Europe! 50% !! In Germany, that's about 1 truck per minute - and with the food that's thrown away, we could feed all hungry people 4 times !!

Sounds daunting, but Raphael Fellmer is the living proof that change is possible and everyone everywhere can do something. Want some positive numbers?

Within their first 7 months, SirPlus managed to save more than 400 tons of food from landing in the bin - that equals 1,000,000 meals! That’s huge! - Meanwhile, they already opened their 4th outpost and are surely about to save a lot more tons.

IN THIS PODCAST EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN ABOUT:

  • the story of Raphael’s 5-year moneystrike & a moneyless journey through Mexico
  • what happened that led him to such a radical experiment
  • the realization that there are two sides to money & other big learnings
  • why he believes so strongly in our generation
  • why overwriting what we learned can sometimes take a while
  • the what’s, how’s & why’s of SirPlus
  • empowering people to be the change they want to see in the world (like Ghandi said)
  • the darks side and bright side in every human being
  • the blessing of failure & how to grow from it
  • why dogma entitlement & need to be replaced with compassion and empathy
  • deep trust as a force for good

...and tons of more beautiful take aways. Promise, this episode will fire you up with energy & once you finished listening you gonna jump up and make change happen.

Get ready for Raphael Fellmer from SirPlus!

 

greenmeberlin

GreenMe Berlin is Berlin's ultimate green city guide! Connecting travellers & locals with the heroes of the urban eco scene through immersive guided tours, podcasts, maps, guides & more. Food, fashion, zero waste, bikes, urban gardens - they introduce you to the coolest sustainable projects in town. 

GreenMe Berlin is a social business - and proud member of SEND e.V. - reinvesting their profits into promoting the local eco scene, as well as donating parts of the proceeds to non-profits they love (e.g. Love for Life Project).