Going Green:: No Impact Man

Wow! So we may be a little slow on the uptake in that we just saw this amazing documentary, No Impact Man, but better a little late than never. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it. This one man (and his amazing wife and adorable daughter) take on the impossible task of transforming their consumptive Manhattan lives into a challenging no net impact alternate universe - something many of us can't even imagine - and he deeply inspired us that the "green" impacts we are currently making just aren't enough. Are yours?

Our small deeds...carrying our reusable bags, abandoning bottled water for reusable aluminum, recycling jars and other throw away packaging as useful household storage (toilet paper rolls make a rather crafty storage system - diy post coming soon!), getting on the no credit card mail list (mainly because they are just annoying and we live a credit card free, debt free life), reusing plastic bags for doggie cleanup, burning the paper grocery flyers in our backyard fire pit for kindling instead of throwing them away, shopping used at thrift stores, building some of our own furniture, barely ever eating fast food...etc. etc. Point is, we make an effort where we can but we are still learning. No Impact Man's experience taught us so much. And more importantly, he proves that if you just make the commitment to one thing at a time, you can make a vast difference.

While overall the changes No Impact Man makes are dramatic he does them in stages and not everyone will get to a zero net impact stage, but everyone can start at the beginning, one day at a time...I mean, who wouldn't want less junk mail? Who really needs to throw away all those Starbucks cups? (No one needs Starbucks at all...but that's just my crazy opinion because I don't like their coffee. Yeah, I said it!) Bottled water isn't even regulated by the FDA although somehow that doesn't bother any of you out there - you know who you are. Ok, enough controversy. If you like your Starbucks, I'm a coffee junkie so I still sympathize. The point of this post is to influence you to watch the documentary, do more than your doing to help our planet tomorrow than you are today, and to enlighten you to this wonderful source of inspiration sure to influence many more Going Green posts here at ahomebeautiful. So stay tuned and enjoy!

What are your unique ideas around the home for saving on waste? Share your repurposed and diy ideas (and blog links) in the comments for our readers. Thanks!