One Family Goes Green To Extreme

(CBS)  How far would you go to be friendly to the environment?

One family went for a year without using many items they considered wasteful -- including toilet paper -- to try and live their lives with as little environmental impact as possible.

In 2006, Colin Beavan, his wife, Michelle Conlin, and their daughter, Isabella, began the experiment, which is now the subject of a new book and documentary called "No Impact Man."

Read an excerpt of "No Impact Man"

Their experiment meant no carbon dioxides, no driving or flying. The family traveled by foot or by bicycle. They ate only unpackaged, locally grown food. They also stopped shopping for anything new.

"It's not about deprivation. It's not about not taking care of yourself. It's the opposite," Beavan said. "It's about seeing is it possible to have a good life without wasting so much."

And rather than ship waste to a landfill, Beavan had a compost bin in the living room, complete with worms.

But the year wasn't always easy. Some compromises were made along the way. But when the lights were switched back on, Beavan and Conlin cheerily saw a year that meant so much more than living without toilet paper.

Beavan said, "What if we called it, 'The year I lost 20 pounds without going to the gym once'? Or if we called it 'The year we ate locally and seasonally.' There are actual benefits to living environmentally."

Beavan said the inspiration for the project was concern for the planet.

He said, "We were reading so much about global warming happening, and we were just frustrated because what can any one person do? So we thought we'd try to do what we could."

Conlin said when her husband proposed the idea she said "yes."

"He was really excited about it," Conlin said, "and I had just seen the movie 'An Inconvenient Truth,' so that really -- it was kind of perfect timing. And he was very excited about it, and I thought this is for a great cause. So I'm game."

But how hard was the idea in practice?

Conlin said the hardest part was breaking the habits of waste.

She said, "By three months in, the (health) dividends were so enormous that it was really an incredible adventure."

Beavan added when the family learned to turn the television off, members spent more time together as a family.

"It was interesting that we let go of the so-called conveniences and efficiencies, and found other joys," Beavan said.

But what did the family eat?

For breakfast, the couple said they ate a lot of corn-meal porridge in the winter, but in the summertime, they ate berries and cantaloupes and other locally-grown, unpackaged foods.

"We lost weight because we were eating so much better," Beavan said.

In addition to eating better, the couple said they also stopped using the elevator, as well.

Conlin said, "We had automatic cardio built into our day. ... It was great. We didn't have to go to the gym."

The couple has since turned the lights back on in their home and is taking the elevator. However, they do not use air conditioning.

"It's really not hard not to waste," Conlin said. "It was a great joy and a pleasure that made me happier to feel like I was treating the planet with more respect, and it made our family more intimate and close to let go of the distractions."

Conlin added, "This was a great lifestyle redesign for us. We're not saying anyone else should do it, but we discovered enormous joys and benefits by redesigning our lifestyle in a way that just wasn't wasting and harmful to the planet."

---

For more information about the documentary, "No Impact Man," click here. "No Impact Man," directed by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein, and produced by Laura Gabbert and Eden Wurmfeld, will be released by Oscilloscope Pictures this fall.

[Bojax39]

Kudos to them for this experiment.

Now perhaps all the paper and other resources their book and documentary deplete from the earth along with all the other environmental impacts these projects incur won't completely undo whatever good the Beavans have done. :-/

[tngreen]

Before I even scrolled to the bottom half of the page, I already knew that the posts in response to this article would be full of venom, and I was correct. I don't understand why it is that when somebody makes a sacrifice to make the world a better place for others as well as for themselves, so many people take it as an insult. You people would REALLY have hated Ghandi and MLK, not to mention Jesus. You must DESPISE your own mothers. What is WRONG with you?!?

[Bojax39]

"I don't understand why it is that when somebody makes a sacrifice to make the world a better place for others as well as for themselves, so many people take it as an insult."

Hi there, tngreen.

Let me clue you... going without TP and TV for a year is NOT "a sacrifice to make the world a better place for others". And putting this couple's so-called "sacrifice" in the same class with others you mention is a tad outlandish.

Nor will all the pollution and wasted resources incurred by printing a book and making a documentary go to make the world better either.

By the way, lack of agreement is NOT venom. Though inferring something must be "wrong" with those who don't share your personal life view or implying others love the Lord, their mothers or their fellow man less than YOU do might be perceived as a little toxic.

Or at least a touch smug.....

[cidaia]

And btw I don't believe "living sustainably" is worth anything. "Sustainable living" doesn't even have the POTENTIAL for making a serious dent in the problem.

I think the real reason it is observed is because it's like the secular humanists' alternative to confession and Lent: to keep yourself comfortable and guilt free, you must atone and do penance once in awhile.

[cidaia]

You can't live sustainably on a vegetarian diet, Anjiepham. For one thing, you'd need to set aside 2/3 of your usable land to grow crops to use as a substitute for manure - and even then it's not as good as real manure. For another thing, livestock is usually grown on land that isn't good for agriculture (that is why places like Texas are famous for their beef).

Livestock is not the cause of pollution. Livestock mismanagement is. Unfortunately, we continue to have inhumane, unsanitary and high pollution "factory farming" because all the people who ought to be promoting clean and humane alternatives (like grass-fed beef) are being led by your emotions instead of your reason.

Yes, animals are cute, with those big eyes and all, but we need to eat them. We can't omit them from the system without causing a system collapse. So instead of preaching vegetarianism, support humane small-scale farmers.

[whofan39]

The link indicated from AnjiePham will not let you access any information unless you are a member. There is also no way to become a member. I guess they really aren't doing it for publicity (or for anyone else to know about it either)...

[greener333]

A compost bin in the living room. No toilet paper. No regard for sanitation, themselves (perfectly ok), or their neighbors. And people are all for it. Unbelievable. We ought to set aside reservations for those who want to live in the 12th century with lack of sanitation and low life expectancy. They could save the earth and let the rest of us go on living in the 21st century.

[AnjiePham]

Check out the Dervaes family of Pasadena: www.pathtofreedom.com
The Dervaeses are a far better example of green living and new urbanism than this "No Impact Man" couple is. Their sustainable living lifestyle is not just kind to the Earth and the wallet but also to the animals sharing our world. And they have been doing it far longer and not for publicity, experimentation, book writing or publishing.

[timmeh60]

Freaks! Can't imagine being in the same room as either one of them. The stench must be unbearable.

[AnjiePham]

I love the "less waste, green Earth" message here but I wish more people, including Al Gore with his "Inconvenient Truth", would realize that a non-vegetarian lifestyle adds more to environmental degradation than anything else in the world. Livestock production is the #1 culprit for global warming, deforestation, and misuse of natural resources not to mention it is insanely barbaric and cruel. A low emission lifestyle begins not just with the person in mirror but with what's on your plate.