The visual trends driving sustainability conversation - in pictures

Me: Our modern digital lives make many feel disconnected and stressed, but as we are getting used to spending much of our lives plugged in we are also becoming more conscious about balancing a new on-off lifestyle. Making the conscious decision to unplug, gives people the chance to recharge and find balance. This trend is not about leaving modern technology behind; it’s about finding balance and redefining success beyond money and power. Photograph: Jordan Siemens/Getty Images

Me: People are increasingly looking for physical and mental space to contemplate and daydream in solitude. Spending an hour, a day, a week in the mountains or at the sea reconnects us to nature and leaves us feeling alive, inspired and creative. It is important in today’s hectic world that people take the time out to reflect on their thoughts and have a bit of ‘me’ time. Photograph: Cavan Images/Getty Images

Make: Over the past decade, the revival of the craft movement has gained momentum, both online on platforms like Etsy and offline in neighbourhoods from Brooklyn to London to Berlin. Photograph: Nicola Tree/Getty Images

Make: The idea that buying something handmade is better for people and the planet is combining nostalgia and a new appreciation for traditional skills with the profit motives of a digital-age economy. Photograph: Nicola Tree/Getty Images

Make: A new aspiration for many is to make a living with a small business based on the rewarding, meaningful, honest use of a personal skill. Buying handmade products re-establishes the connection between maker and consumer, which has been lost through global mass-production in consumer culture. Photograph: Cavan Images/Getty Images

Share: Unused spaces in private homes, unwanted or re-loved goods and personal skills are now shared through peer-to-peer networks both on and offline. This image shows a woman selling personal items from a car trunk. Photograph: Cultura/Frank and Helena/Getty Images

Share: From marketplaces like eBay, to peer-to-peer travel platforms like Airbnb and car sharing services like Zipcar, collaborative consumption is reinventing the way we do business and consume. Here, a couple get their Citi Bike bicycles from a station near Union Square in New York. Photograph: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images

Spirit: This is the view of the Earth that greeted the Apollo 8 astronauts as they came from behind the moon after the lunar orbit insertion burn back in 1968. In an online video of astronauts talking about The Overview Effect, each interviewee describes the feelings of transcendence they experienced, and about how they became overwhelmed with compassion and care when seeing our collective home from that distant vantage point. Photograph: Science & Society Picture Librar/SSPL via Getty Images

Spirit: The phrase 'new age' is often maligned, but today’s talk about higher consciousness, mindfulness, and interconnectedness have roots in mystical movements that gained popularity in the hippy-era of the 1960s. We’re currently seeing a rise in celestial imagery and predict that we are only going to see more this year and beyond. Shots of starry skies feel scientific and spiritual all at once, and images of glowing orbs and third eyes imply evolution and awakening. Photograph: Arctic-Images/Getty Images

Next: The Iroquois believe that one must think about how their decisions in the present day will affect the next seven generations. Now that high-profile politicians such as Barack Obama are finally talking about climate change publically, there is a slow but sure growing global awareness around environmentalism. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images