Meet “No Impact Man” (and woman)
Don’t let the title of the upcoming documentary fool you because credit is due to his wife, Michelle Conlin. 
Grist writes she “had no blog, book deal, or film project to send her on this journey of sacrifice and self-denial. What she had was a husband. By fortune or misfortune, Conlin is married to Colin Beavan, the self-described No Impact Man. He cooked up the No Impact Man stunt as fodder for a book of the same name, out Sept. 1. He keeps a No Impact Man blog. And a film crew recorded his year for No Impact Man the movie, also released next month.”
Their year-long experiment in intense sustainability also has 2-year-old daughter Isabella in tow. Together, they produce zero waste, burn no fossil fuels, and partake in their own locavore challenge albeit within 250 miles of Greenwich Village. Eventually he appeared on the Colbert Report and the family was profiled in the New York Times with the cute headline “The Year Without Toilet Paper.” (Yes, they discard because of deforestation.) Now, Sony/Columbia bought the rights to their story and Will Smith (!) could reportedly star.
“While No Impact Husband devotes much of his day to cooking, cleaning, and making the experiment work, she keeps her day job,“ Grist adds. If the trailer is any indication, Conlin’s drastic changes and what she has to give up are used to drive the film. And we already know Beavan comes to the realization at the end of the experiment that he’s not alone in working toward sustainability.
He could’ve just saved himself some mental anguish and visited DTE.
Living that disciplined is commendable though, and the dialogue around the project is already bringing attention to creative sustainability and our over-consumerist habits. No impact could end up having a cultural impact. Especially if played by The Fresh Prince.
Everybody loves a story about a family that goes a year without toilet paper.
UPDATE: “Wiping is not the issue”--- as an addendum, check out The New Yorker on what’s wrong with eco-stunts. Good timing. The 7 X 7 challenge awaits!
