Colin Beavan writes and administers the provocative environmental blog NoImpactMan.Com, a meeting point for discussion of environmental issues, lifestyle redesign and political engagement from a "deep green" perspective.

The blog began, as the news stories go, when "Colin Beavan, a liberal schlub, got tired of listening to himself complain about the world without ever actually doing anything about it…" Thus, in November, 2006, Beavan launched a year-long project in which he, his wife, his two-year-old daughter and his four-year-old dog went off the grid and attempted to live in the middle of New York City with as little environmental impact as possible.

The point of the project was to experiment with ways of living that might both improve quality of life and be less harmful to the planet. It also provided a narrative vehicle by which to attract broad public attention to the range of pressing environmental crises including: food system sustainability, climate change, water scarcity, and materials and energy resource depletion.

Beavan's experiment in lifestyle redesign is the subject of his book (scheduled for publication in Spring 2008 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux) and a documentary by independent filmmakers Laura Gabbert (Sunset Story, Getting to Know You) and Eden Wurmfeld (The Hammer, Puccini for Beginners, Kissing Jessica Stein).

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