No Impact Man

Meet Colin Beavan. He is a 43 year-old writer who resides in Manhattan with his wife Michelle and daughter Isabella. Four months ago, he and his family embarked on a yearlong experiment they refer to as No Impact. Essentially, Mr. Beavan and his family have resolved to cause no "net environmental impact". They are heavily engaged in source reduction- simply put, not buying anything new except for socks and underwear (as well as a few other personal items), and making sure that any other purchases they make have either no or very little packaging. They have made to switch to eating only organic food, producing little to no trash, and using no paper (include the paper of the toilet variety).

Beavan is reminiscent of the San Francisco-based movement, The Compact, which we blogged on earlier this year. However, he takes his pledge to buy nothing new a step further than those in The Compact. If he were to buy, say, a used book, he must also donate or sell a book of his own to a bookstore or charity. In Beavan's world, everything must equal out to zero. As he says on his blog, "Negative Impact + Positive Impact = Zero". Thus, he intends to make no net impact on the environment.

To read more about Beavan's fascinating experiment, you can visit his blog, No Impact Man. There is also a fantastic New York Times article on Beavan and his family. Read on!

An Update

We have sold the 1991 Pontiac Grand Am that was listed on this blog and Craigslist! But fear not, as we've been getting many wonderful donations this week at all three of our locations due to spring cleaning activity! Thank you to everyone who has dropped of donations this week!