No Impact Man

Sat, 05/28/2011 - 1:30pm by ballybeg

Can individual action and sacrifice make any difference to the immense environmental stresses we find in the world today? This is the very question No Impact Man - environmental super-hero Colin Beavan – along with his wife, baby daughter and dog, in their ninth-floor flat in Manhattan, proposed to explore for one long year of the No Impact Project.

During that year, while still going about their daily obligations, they committed to make no net impact on the environment – no garbage, no fossil fuel use, only local foods from within 100 miles and with zero packaging, no electricity, no new purchases and, the ultimate sacrifice, no elevator to the ninth-floor. What difference could any of that make? Quite a bit as it turns out. Read this hilarious book to discover how and why they did it and to get inspired how to reduce your own impact.

Word of the project got out, through Colin's blog and through word of mouth, and, before they knew it, a documentary film team was following them through the year recording the high and low moments of their adventure (and, believe me, there were lows). Find the No Impact Man movie here. The result is humorous and agonizing and entertaining and challenging and surprising.