No Impact Man? Hardly

Colin Beavan took a challenge –– the biggest one possible for the average American. In 2006, the history writer was alarmed about global warming but like most of us, he felt helpless in his ability to do anything about it. Seeing himself as just another finger-pointing liberal as guilty as the next, Beavan did what most people are afraid to do, taking responsibility for his personal contributions to ecological destruction and turning his life upside-down in what he called an "environmental lifestyle redesign."

In the middle of New York City, Beavan, his wife Michelle, their infant and dog committed themselves to a one-year experiment: to live a sustainable lifestyle, cutting out the excesses and luxuries that the majority take for granted in this manic spending spree better known as the "American consumer culture." They examined each aspect of their environmental impact, reducing consumption in myriad ways –– from killing their TV and switching to cloth diapers, to buying everything second-hand, using baking soda for toothpaste and deodorant, even sharing bath water in an all-out effort to reduce their environmental footprint. All the while, a film crew documented each advance of the family's ecological transformation as Beavan weighed out the pros and cons, offering progress reports on his blog.

The experiment culminated in the newly released book, No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in Process. Chock full of humor and sobering evidence of the urgent need to take action, Beavan's book is an inspiring testament that we are not hapless bystanders in the battle against environmental degradation. How we behave as individuals does matter, and taking responsibility is a fulfilling means toward self-empowerment.

As Beavan summarizes after the yearlong project, "We need to go way beyond recycling, hybrid cars, compact fluorescent bulbs, and using 'green' products ... We cannot wait for leaders. We are the leaders."

With a new motion picture in pre-production for a 2012 Columbia release, No Impact Man the documentary is currently opening in cities around the country. Now on the road for his current book-signing tour, Beavan took some time to speak with Tonic about the genesis of "No Impact Man," and the enriching rewards of living environmentally.

Tonic: Life must be crazy for you right now

Beavan: Life is a little bit crazy. It's true.

Tonic: When you launched into "No Impact Man," what was your motivation?

Beavan: As you know, I was a history writer before. In 2006, I was traveling around promoting my previous book and having a lot of anxiety about global warming, and I asked myself, "Why am I talking about 60 years of yesterdays when I'm so worried about what's happening today?" I didn't feel like writing history anymore. I felt like writing a polemic, but they don't really change minds because the liberals read the liberal ones and the conservatives read the conservative ones. So while I was thinking through all of that, I came home one day and I'd left both of my air conditioners on in the house. I realized that I was contributing to the problem as much as anybody and had no moral authority to be wagging my finger. It occurred to me that maybe I could start making my own side of the street clean and then write about it. That maybe the story itself would attract a wider audience than just polemicizing. So that's how the whole idea of No-Impact Man was born.

Tonic: Did you realize what you were getting yourself into and how drastic it was going to be?  I mean, to stop consuming? Some of the changes you made seem really extreme.

Beavan: I deliberately didn't research the issues before I started because I wanted it to be just like anybody else trying to figure out what to do. So I had no idea about what I'd be getting myself into. I imagined ahead of time that I could probably just buy green energy and organic food. At that stage, I was naive enough to think that it was about consuming differently rather than consuming less. Of course it's better to buy the green power from the electric company, but that doesn't mean that there are no carbon emissions. Of course it's better to buy organic than it is to buy conventional, but even organic doesn't have the highest standards, whereas local food does. So I learned these things as I went along.

Tonic: Did your wife go along with the "No Impact" idea easily? Was she resistant at first?

Beavan: My wife cares about the state of things as well, and she's very supportive. So I was like, "Let's do this," and she said, "Okay." But she understood even less about what we were getting ourselves into than I did. She used to be a true retail therapy sort of person and a reality TV junkie. So when I explained that we were going to have to become even more extreme, it was more her fingernail marks on the floor than mine.

Tonic: Did you have any background in sustainable living before you started? Did you recycle and things like that?

Beavan: Well, sure. But I can't say I was thorough about it. In all, I would say that my environmental responsibility was pretty low. For example, I knew that SUVs consumed a lot of gas and caused more carbon emissions, but when I would go to rent a car (I don't own a car), I would think "What's the point? Everybody else is driving them. I can't make a difference, so I might as well get an SUV." The big turning point for me was in learning that it does make a difference. Every time one of us makes a decision to do what we believe is right, it encourages so many more people to do the same thing.

Tonic: Did you lose friends? How did your social life change?

Beavan: No, we didn't lose friends at all. Our friends totally supported us. Last night I was having dinner with Michelle's sister and brother-in-law, and they're sort of turning their lives around, and not just because they're convinced that we need to take care of the environment, but because they've found that it's actually so much more pleasant to live environmentally. It's so much more pleasant to ride your bike than to be stuck in a traffic jam - to be able to see what's happening around you rather than to be stuck inside of a metal box. It's more pleasant to eat good local food than it is to eat crappy processed food. Thousands of people came to my blog. It was kind of a meeting point for a community of people, which I would say is almost a movement now - people who were willing to change their own lives for both the sake of the environment, but also because they've found that living more environmentally could offer a higher quality of life.

Tonic: But this involves making sacrifices. When you stumble across people like this, do they realize what they're going to have to give up?

Beavan: Let me see if I can find the right way to put this ... When you let go of certain things in your life, it creates room. And then that space that's left can be filled by other things. We gave up our TV. We gave up our take-out food every night. And the result was we were eating home-cooked meals and sitting around the kitchen table actually talking to each other and having friends come over for dinner. It changed the whole quality of our life. So while we were giving up this go-fast consumer culture, we were gaining something at the same time. It's like the difference between the rhythm of a techno song and the rhythm of a classical song. There's music either way, but it's a slightly different kind of music.

Tonic: Was the transition difficult?

Beavan: That's the hard part. As a matter of fact, when you read the book you'll see that it kind of concentrates on the first six or seven months, because that's the period during which everything was changing. When month seven came along and all the adaptations were made, we were like, "Well, this is the way we live now." The drama disappeared because the habit-changing had happened. I would argue that there's potentially a richer, better life to be had if we as a culture learned to live sustainably. That isn't to say there won't be growing pains. That isn't to say the transition won't be difficult, but that there's a worthy goal on the other side. Once you get to the other side, you'll find that the way you're living has all its own joys.

Tonic: And it doesn't have to be primitive. I mean, you're living in New York City in the 21st century with technology all around you.

Beavan: That's right. We've been talking about individual action, but the more that we act collectively, the less primitive it has to be. If we get our systems to be sustainable, the we don't have to withdraw from our systems in order to live sustainable lifestyles as individuals.

Tonic: What's life like now, Colin?

Beavan: We do the things that make so much sense for us. For example, it makes sense for us to save $1,200 a year in electricity, so we've given away our air conditioners. When it's hot, we just go hang out at the fountain. It makes sense for us to get our exercise as part of our daily routine, so we continue to ride our bikes. It makes sense for us to eat good, healthy foods, so we continue to eat local. You know, I still only buy second-hand. The difference is there's no rule. So if it's raining, I can allow myself the subway now.

Tonic: So when the end date happened, you didn't just run out and buy TVs and go back to the old way of life?

Beavan: No, it was almost the opposite. When the end date happened, it felt so weird for it to be over that I almost had to re-teach myself to allow myself to do some things. One of the things that I should also mention is that, coming out of this, we started a nonprofit project. It's called the No-Impact Project, and it's all about helping people to choose lifestyle adaptations that are both better for the environment and that will potentially make them happier at the same time. It's at NoImpactProject.org.

Tonic: What kind of response have you been getting from people?

Beavan: I should say first of all that my whole approach to this has been to talk about myself. "These are the choices I am making. I'm letting you see them. Please feel free to join in the conversation with me." You know, I've been trying really hard not to make it a finger-wagging conversation. And so I get a very positive response from a lot of people who either want to join in, or at least appreciate that I'm not lecturing them. But then there are some people who feel kind of defensive, because they recognize that we're going to have to change as a culture, and it frightens them. And I can totally understand that because we're in an emergency, and I feel a little bit frightened, too.

Tonic: You're getting tons of media attention. Did you expect that?

Beavan: When I first came up with the idea for this book, my agent took it out to the publishers and we sold the book for four times less – literally a quarter – than what I got for my previous book. And because the publisher had paid so much less, I imagined that it was just going to be a little book and at the end of the day I could content myself with having tried to make a difference. And then all of a sudden halfway through, the New York Times got a hold of it and there was all of this attention.

I really had no idea that it would happen. But I think one of the reasons that it gets so much attention is because people don't want to talk about issues if they think they can't do anything about them. So this idea that there actually might be something we can do about it, that we can all participate in the solution, kind of takes the lid off. Then people think, "Oh, well if there's something we can do about the problem, let's talk about it."

Tonic: If No Impact Man has one lasting message, what would it be?

Beavan: Wake up and make sure we're actually living the life as a culture that we want to live, because if we're not, let's change the way we live and save the planet at the same time. Or in short, let's live happier, more sustainable lives.

Tonic: Through the whole experience, what was the biggest lesson you learned?

Beavan: That living environmentally is not about deprivation. There are real benefits to living environmentally. We can change as individuals and as a culture, and becoming more sustainable actually gives us a better life. Another lesson is that we all make a difference by taking action and engaging ourselves. Living out our values in our personal lives and civic engagement actually makes you feel better. It feels like a responsibility, and taking that responsibility actually makes you feel better.

Tonic: For those people who may want to change, can you describe yourself before and after? Is there anyway to say, "I was that, and now I'm this?"

Beavan: I was this person who kind of believed that he was a node at the end of the matrix. I believed that I didn't have much control over my life or my community, and I couldn't do anything to help. I thought that none of us really make a difference. And the big difference for me is that I really feel that if we are willing to live according to our values, and actually make a stand and do what we believe, that we really do make a difference. I have confidence now in my ability to make a difference. But it's not because I'm me. It's because I've been through a process in which I've learned that each of us matters. And so by extension, I believe that you and everybody else can make a difference. People say, "What difference does it make if one person lives differently?" But if we live differently en masse we can make a big difference.

Top photo of Colin Beavan courtesy of CyberStern.com.

All other photos, including Beavan with wife Michelle and daughter Isabella, courtesy of Justin Schein.