“Earth Day’s over. Earth Week’s over. April’s nearly over. Hooray!”
If you find yourself thinking thoughts similar to the above, and possibly feeling guilty about it simply because you were overwhelmed by the nonstop “go green” messaging that dominated nearly every media outlet — and shopping outlet — in America in celebration of Earth Day‘s 40th Anniversary last week, Tonic’s here to tell you, “It’s okay. You’re not alone!”
In fact, the whole concept of “going green” as some sort of checklist of priorities and must-do revisionist activities in our daily lives can feel pretty overwhelming. But one guy’s here to take the stress out of that whole guilt-filled, difficult-for-the-average-person-to-embrace interpretation of the green movement; a man who wears his title proudly, as he tries to share his easygoing philosophies with an ever widening audience each week: Josh Dorfman, the star of Sundance Channel’s The Lazy Environmentalist, which kicked off its second season just last week and continues tonight at 8 p.m.
On the show — which won the Environmental Media Association Award for “Best Reality Show” in 2009 — Dorfman jumps into the lives of real-life people who are resistant to going green, and shows them how to make changes that just happen to be green, while making their lives a little better. And he does so while exploring a variety of lifestyles and professions one might not necessarily associate with “green,” like pro surfing, funeral services, pest control and daycare.
The basic thought is that you shouldn’t be thinking this: “I turn off the tap water when I brush my teeth, and I carry a resuable water bottle with me to work — what else can I do to not feel guilty?”
“No, no, no,” Dorfman tells Tonic. “What I’m talking about isn’t one or two steps you can take. It’s about transforming your lifestyle. There are so many [green] things we can do that are going to improve our lives.”
Sure there are the obvious green-movement questions, like, “Next time you go to buy something, why not buy organic?” But Dorfman flips the equation. “What if you need some extra spending cash? You can go to Gazelle.com. Let’s say you have an old Palm Pre or a computer. You type in your model number and Gazelle will show you the residual value of that device.” Send it to them in a pre-paid shipping box, they’ll verify the condition of your item, and then pay you for it.
“So you keep your stuff out of landfills, earn some cash, and do some good for the planet,” Dorfman says. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
It’s what Dorfman has been talking about for the past few years — even though he never had any intention of winding up on a TV show. Dorfman was plenty busy running his green furniture company, Vivavi, when he heard the CEO of Patagonia speak at a conference. Despite heading up a company that essentially sets the bar for every other “green” company on Earth, the CEO told the crowd that Patagonia was “failing” because the amount of recycled material in their fleece had been declining.
The audience couldn’t believe their ears. “Failing” seemed like an awfully big word for such a fantastic company that was still leading the charge in the newly established triple-bottom-line world. But what Dorfman took away was the sense of responsibility and authenticity of the message: Patagonia was being as honest and open as possible.
Dorfman took that attitude of authenticity to his own little blog, with the simple aim of sharing his personal take on going green in the real world. ”I thought, ‘I’m just going to be as truthful as I can.’ I had no idea it would become a radio show, or a book, or TV show. None of that entered my mind as I was writing it.”
And yet, lo and behold, it did! In fact, Dorfman has produced two books, The Lazy Environmentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish, Green Living and The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget; and this is the second season of the TV show, where he’s finding that spreading the Lazy Environmentalist message isn’t always easy: “I’m still getting used to being in front of the camera!” he says. “I think the biggest thing is that it’s very gratifying to know, on one hand, you get to have a very intensive experience with a real person who’s very successful, and to go through that with them. And you know that lots and lots of people are going to see you do that. But it’s work.
“You call it a reality show, docu-reality, whatever — there’s no script. It’s, ‘Go meet this pro surfer,’ you’ve got to steer this conversations, figure out, ‘What’s her resistance to going green,’ and you’ve got to throw in these certain stats, and, oh, by the way, remember to be funny!”
“It’s more challenging than I would describe it as ‘fun,’” Dorfman says of anchoring his own show. “But at times, it’s really fun.”
He especially loves spreading the word on innovative new products and services. At the moment, he’s charged up by the idea of MyEmissionsExchange.com — a website that helps you measure the amount of energy you’re using in your home, and then goes one step further: When you commit to reducing energy usage (by setting your air conditioning at a higher temp, or switching to energy efficient lightbulbs, etc.), the website helps you measure the equivalent carbon emissions that you’re eliminating. “For every metric ton that you eliminate, they sell the exchange on the carbon market. It’s not like you’re going to earn a ton of money, but it’s trading at $10-$25 per credit … and that could go up over time. I love the model of it. I love the idea of it. If you do take these steps to reduce your carbon footprint, you’ll save money — but now there’s an opportunity to earn some money, too. That is new and cool.”
Dorfman offers plenty of sage advice that’s been around for years, even decades — but he always tries to give a spin that will appeal to the non-tree-hugging crowd. Take his suggestion to use a Brita water filter instead of buying bottled water. “One Brita pitcher filter can replace about 300 16.9-ounce water bottles. If you don’t buy all that disposable water, you’re not generateing all of that waste, but you’re also going to save a lot of money by making that choice. When you present the information to people in a way that’s good for your wallet, it’s another way to talk about it. The economic argument is so compelling that I just think it’s worth mentioning.”
When it comes to his personal life, Dorfman never gets down about not doing enough for the planet. In fact, that’s the opposite of where he’s coming from.
“Because I know that there’s so much green stuff out there, I don’t feel, ‘Have I done enough?’ I feel, ‘How can I do more?’ because I love what’s going on,” he says.
One way he stays green is super simple: “I just don’t buy a lot of stuff. I think that’s inherently kind of the key to ‘green.’” If he has a choice to buy organic cotton jeans instead of something else, and the price point isn’t insanely high, “I’ll make those choices,” he says.
“I’m in the market for a new car, and I love the Jetta Sportwagon TDI — it’s a car that doesn’t force me to compromise. I can put my baby and my dog in the car, and it’s pretty fast, and it gets really good gas mileage,” he says. Green. Good. A vehicle that can improve his life.
“I don’t look at it like, ‘Oh my god, I have to do more!’” Dorfman says. “I look at it like, ‘I love to eat organic food, and sometimes it’s too expensive for me.’ I’m not going to spend $8 per pound on organic dark chocolate chips for making cookies. This was a conversation with my girlfriend last week [after he bought some]. She was like, ‘You are insane!’ But I don’t beat myself up over it, because we as humans — the onus is on business and entrepreneurs to make green choices better for us. If the choices are better we will embrace them. If they’re too expensive or the quality isn’t good enough or they’re hard to find, it’s not realistic for most Americans.
“Terrible or not, we’ve got to figure out how to work within that reality to create change,” he says. “So I’m more inclined to celebrate the things that we’re able to do well, than to bemoan the choices that we’re not able to do so well.”
With all the doom and gloom associated with the green movement and the constant attention to the dire straits of our “planet in peril,” that definitely sounds like the kind of celebration we can get behind.
Photos courtesy of Sundance Channel.