Collectively, small lifestyle changes can make a huge impact on the environment-and your life. Looking for happiness and health? What’s good for the environment is also, it turns out, great for you. Here’s a collection of tips from the No Impact community.
Do you have a video story from your No Impact Experiment? Share your story below:
I just watched your movie and it really was encouraging to see. I believe we are a no impact family as well, so it was nice to see all the stuff we went through. It all started when we got pregnant for my daughter and realized we wanted to eat healthier. After 7 years I am now finishing an associates in Alternative Energy Engineering, Shane my husband is finishing certificates in Organic farming, watershed, and horse management. With this and lifestyle we have the ever changing goal in our life that we want to live self sustainable. I do notice that after looking at all the problems and solutions, not only in our life in a micro level, but from what we learned in our education on a macro level, the most impact is: the change within us and rejoining ourselves in community. The beautiful thing about human survival is that our bodies down to our souls know what’s best for us, basically we are our own best healers, and once the awareness seed is planted it just keeps on blooming. I think what your doing is great because the impact that you are making is planting those seeds. For some it may not grow now, but will, they may just find a different way to nurture it. But the ones that are ready, the work is done, now they will feed that need inside of them, because it is so rewarding. Keep up the great work, and just to let you know you are not alone, we and many others are doing our part to be as informative as possible, that a no impact life style can work. We cant fix an energy problem without changing our energy. In sequence these are some of the things we did.
Did wilderness survival classes
Started to eat Organic and local food and stopped eating out
Had a home birth
Only shopped at thrift stores
Stopped going to the doctor and only used herbal remedies, this has been our biggest change and most work because it made diet changes
We did a short lived news paper on networking organic and CSA farmers, midwives, co-ops, and heath based businesses.
Took up blacksmithing
composting
Joined co-ops
Drove a grease car
Went without deodorant (many complained)
Sewed our own clothes
Made our own shoes out of recycled tires
Did our own laundry, now we have resorted to just the drying part
Doing homeschooling
Got rid of our TV
We Lived off the grid for a few months on just a wind turbine, and solar panel on a CSA farm.
Bathed out of buckets, and took solar showers
Walked
Make our own soap
refused gifts
where natural fibers
cloth diapers
Do limited water dishes
recycle everything
bartered
Got involved with local government
Traveling working on farms for food and life style, at that time we moved alot
Took up playing instruments
Grey water system with our toilet
Made a composting toilet
Took up gardening, and raising livestock
Immersed ourselves in community
Got involved with education that involves sustainability
Do research on corporate buy outs of products
Surrounded ourselves with support
We haven’t gotten to the place where we want to be yet and sustainability and no impact has fluctuated to work with our life changes, But our goal is to have a low net energy community farm. We love this lifestyle and want to see how far we can take ourselves while still being a part of society. We are now just starting business called “Potential Energy” where we do a life cycle analysis on peoples lifestyles and give them resources, ideas, to improve change with their lifestyle, themselves and with their community, as much as they can and our willing to do.
We just really want to see the change in people, with out them feeling uncomfortable, and representing that in what we do.
Lots of love, Beth, Shane and Leda Celeste
This post was submitted by Beth Celeste.
For quite sometime now everytime me and my boyfriend would hang out and usually just lay in bed or on the couch watching the television. After reading the book no impact man it inspired me and reminded me that there was so much more we could be doing. So I asked him to join me in challenge. For one week we would watch no T.V. He agreed, and we did it. It was only hard the first day but after that we found so much more to do, and most of them were highly enjoyable! Not only did we save some electricity but it also brought us closer than we’ve ever been! So thank you Colin Beavan! You’ve opened up my perspective and have helped me improve my lifestyle while helping the environment!
This post was submitted by Rachel.
Expecting our first child, my husband and I are purchasing 24 reusable BumGenius diapers. These diapers are one size fits all so, 24 of them will be used until our son is using the “potty.” We are not only saving thousands of dollars, but are also saving the landfills of thousands of disposable diapers. We are using plain washcloths rather than baby wipes. I am also planning on using no formula, but only breastfeeding for at least the first year. We have also purchased a share of a local farm which will drop off our prodcue at a local school weekly. We do not have cable or any television (though we do need and enjoy the internet for work). We have no decided to begin using my husband’s old T-Shirts cut up rather than paper towels, and will be using only vinegar and baking soda as cleaners. We are doing our best to make a little bit of a difference and we love our lifestyle and don’t feel deprived or inconvenienced in any way!
This post was submitted by Robin Jauch.
Have you taken a look in kids lunches lately? Individual servings, wrapped in plastic, in portions too large for most kids, and filled with too much sugar. I have taken back the brown paper sack lunch and replaced it with a basket (from the thrift store). Inside I pack sandwiches filled with home made almond butter and apple cider jelly (from apples gleaned by my daughter), homemade granola and yogurt, mason jars filled with milk or juice, and none of it wrapped in anything. All of this is topped with a handmade napkin and reuse-able water bottle to keep it all in. Everyday she comes home with her basket ready to fill the next day rather than full of garbage.
This post was submitted by Rhiannon Fisher.
Jim & I learned to live small while sailing our boat to the Bahamas from Lake Ontario. We found that the most expensive and high energy using thing on board was our fridge. So over the side it went! (Actually, we just never installed it, some-one gave us a few bucks for it, poor slobs!) We found that my chef-type skills were up to the challenge, although you’re only as good as your food source, (read: US small towns don’t really have a great fruit & veg department).
We now live in a 500 sq. foot house quite similar to our boat: no fridge. No running water. PV electric panels work great especially when you just plain old don’t NEED.
This post was submitted by Michelle.