My newest Facebook Friend: Colin Beavan

Colin Beavan is No Impact Man and the newest addition to my list of Facebook friends. He is a self-professed “guilty liberal” who finally snapped and in February of 2007 made a giant decision – one that includes his wife, 2-year-old daughter and 4-year-old dog – to conduct a year-long experiment to make no net impact on the world. “In other words, no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets…” Did I mention they did this while living in New York City. “Saving the world can’t be left to the country bumpkins.” He says. “It’s an urban problem.”

No Impact Man“>Check out all the details of No Impact Man’s experiment, book and movie.

As an urbanite, I’ve chosen Take-out Tubs as my first No Impact effort. There’s an indian restaurant near my house called Amaya Express. I order take-out from this place on a near weekly basis. It will be my challenge, in the new year, to have them put my order in a container I provide. I don’t think this will be very easy since I’ve already tried to have them keep my address, buzzer code and phone number on file for easier ordering of delivery – a feat they have rejected several times. But I will continue to request the take-out tubs and spread the trend until every fashionable couple in the Yonge & Lawrence area of Toronto is carting their Reusable Bags Go Ware all over the city!

As Seth Godin wrote, “Zero is the new black.” What can you do to be zero?