In our busy and stressful lives, time is the greatest commodity, and entertainment our greatest release. Ecologically sustainable living is not always easy, nor is it always fun.

A documentary on the tragedy of polar bears on shrinking ice-caps, or an animated comedy about a bear who joins Greenpeace? Most people would choose the latter, not because they don’t care about real environmental issues, but because it’s either quicker, simpler, or more fun.

With the ice caps melting, natural resources being gobbled up and Mother Nature speeding her way toward humanity’s demise, it’s hard to keep your head up. For most people, ignorance is bliss. Yes, there is a dramatic shift going on, yes, it’s 35 degrees in mid-Autumn, but… The truth is it’s more convenient to ignore it and hop into our air-conditioned cars. And let’s face it, humans are lazy. We opt for the easy way out.

This is where the importance of irreverence comes in. One of the reasons that the human race is unwilling to face up to our ecological problems is because it’s terrifying. There are two ways in which we deal with this – a) we pretend it’s not happening and adopt a “just don’t care” attitude, or b) we lighten things up with a little humourous fun.

We need messages that amuse or inspire us, not messages that make us feel the world is about to end and it’s our fault if we don’t go out and buy that coarse, recycled toilet tissue right now.

So with a focus on fun solutions, with the help of unobtrusive, intelligent environment technologies and smarter product-service bundles, the desired ecological lifestyle can be achieved with less effort- without any need to practice renunciation. One example is the “Ever Sense” thermostat from Allure Energy that determines the heating intensity depending on the location of your smartphone. This is a true and trendy example of “sustainable living made easy”.