Last month, Huffington Post and the No Impact Project hosted a No Impact Week to encourage readers to live better by living lighter. Colin Beavan's No Impact Project has now teamed up with NRDC's Simple Steps to host a second No Impact Week starting on Sunday, November 15. Described as a "carbon cleanse," the week is an invitation to reduce your impact on the environment one day at a time, building on what you learn as the week progresses. To get an idea of what was behind No Impact Week, I spoke with Colin Beavan.
Q: What is No Impact Week about?
CB: The No Impact Week is a guided experiment with your own life, where you get to experiment with using fewer resources. So it's a program where people make a number of lifestyle adaptations that may improve their lives. It's also an opportunity for people to come head-to-head with a lot of the barriers, such as eating locally or getting out of the car, which can be difficult to do in some communities. So it helps people to see that we need to come together collectively to ask for larger systemic change.
Q: Why do it?
CB: There's a possibility for discovering ways of living that are both happier and more fun and for making us feel that we're doing right by our habitat at the same time. You start with the first day and plan how to reduce your consumption, then you keep what you've learned the first day and you add on to that for the second, in which you find ways to eliminate waste. This goes on through the week and by the final the day you should be at no impact. [To see the schedule for the week, check out the How-To Manual]
But plan ahead and think about it so when it comes to the day, you know where to car pool and when it comes to the local food day you know where your local food sources are. [Also, check out responses and suggestions from those who joined in the recent Huffington Post-hosted No Impact Week.]
Q: In your experiment, what changed in your relations with your neighbors and others you interact with daily?
CB: First of all, the relationships within our family changed. We were your typical harried New Yorkers and it was normal for us to come home, plop ourselves in front of the TV and order takeout. When we started the experiment, we would come home and prepare food together and then eat together. So our relationship with each other changed. Since we often had food on hand, maybe a pot of soup, we would invite people over for soup. Because there was no TV, we would play games and invite people over to play charades.
In America, we have replaced social connectedness with consumption. In the No Impact Week, we turn that around and replace consumption with social connectedness.
Q: Which of the changes you have made has made you happiest?
CB: Definitely not having a TV and we still don't have a TV. Michelle felt she was addicted to television and Isabella at age two was heard to say "Mommy, I want to watch Bridezilla." Our babysitter says that of all the children she babysits, Isabella is the most able to entertain herself.
Because we gave up our air conditioner, we rode out on our bikes to the Hudson River and Washington Square Park at night. We lived on the 9th floor and had to use the stairs. The NYC Department of Health is now advertising using the stairs to fight obesity and sure enough that worked for us.
Q: It's interesting that an essential element of your experiment was to avoid removing yourself from work-a-day life.
CB: There's a whole bunch of reasons for that--if all of us New Yorkers went back to the land the land would be pretty screwed. And over half the world's population lives in cities so we have to find a solution for those who live in cities. Michelle and I are pretty mainstream people and so staying in the city helps show others that they can do so.
My grandparents used to tell me not to waste and to make me sit quietly and watch the sunset. At the time I thought it was old fashioned and a Depression [era] set mentality. Now I know that not wasting is a way of savoring what we have and being grateful. So in a very real way, my grandparents taught me that not wasting is a pathway to human happiness.
I hope people will approach No Impact Week in the spirit of fun and investigation. It's not about doing anything right, it's about what we can find out by doing it. That's the most important thing.
No Impact Week starts November 15. You can sign up here.