Interview with 'No Impact Man'

With all the dire news reports and increasingly pessimistic scholarship about our environmental future, the natural human inclination is to do everything possible to put a stop to the steady stream of destruction.

Yet the realities of everyday life in modern America, with its proliferation of disposable goods, multiple forms of electronics and other conveniences, make it hard to have much of an impact. Enter Colin Beaven, the self proclaimed “No Impact Man,” who along with his wife Michelle Conlin and daughter Isabella lived a year in which they collectively made zero environmental impact.

That means they used no disposable goods, made use of only self-propelled transportation and, eventually, foreswore electricity altogether. Now, the family’s year is the subject of Colin’s recently released book “No Impact Man” and a documentary film of the same name that’s currently in theaters.

amNewYork spoke to Colin and Michelle about both projects and the lessens they gleaned from their year off the grid.

When you look back at your “no impact” year, what are you most proud of?
Colin: The average American watches four-and-a-half hours of TV per day, so that’s nine hours between Michelle and I. So that was nine hours of extra parenting that Isabella got. And I think the No Impact year really set the tone for us as parents. And I’m so grateful that it came so early in Isabella’s life because it taught us what was important about our parenting.

Why is it essential that we change the way we’ve treated the environment?
Colin: The truth of the matter is the United States’ top climate scientist is telling us that if we don’t stop burning coal to produce electricity in the next 18 years we’ll have irreversibly altered the planet’s ability to support human life. … The fact of the matter is that we have to change.

What drew you to the idea of being filmed?
Colin: From my point of view, the whole reason why we did “No Impact Man” was to create a new vehicle to popularize what are really important issues. From my point of view I was doing that with the book, and the filmmakers came along. At first I was very resistant to the idea of doing the film, but they were like, "If you’re mission oriented this is an opportunity to convince more people.”

Did being so closely followed by cameras impact you over the course of the year? Did the fact that Michelle and co-director Laura Gabbert are friends make any difference?
Michelle: Honestly, did it have an impact were friends? I think it absolutely had an impact. You know what I want to do? I want to do “No Impact” again for a year where there’s just no cell phone, no phone, no camera. I’d love to compare the two years.

How can you convince people to sacrifice what they’d need to in order to make a difference, when Americans famously hate being told to want for anything?
Colin: We’re all doing without really having any leisure time to speak of. We’re doing without having healthy food to eat. So many of us are obese, so we’re doing without our health. And we’re doing without the ability to spend time with the people that we love. That was our life before “No Impact.” So when we talk about doing without, what we really mean is that we shouldn’t do without any of the things we want, but actually we sacrifice so much to have those things.

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