Josh Dorfman is an environmental entrepreneur, speaker, author, and radio personality with a book and nationally broadcast radio show on Lime Radio’s Sirius called The Lazy Environmentalist. He is also the CEO of Vivavi, an eco-friendly furniture provider, and in 2006 he launched ModernGreenLiving.com, pairing consumers with green home and building experts. He is a leader in the green revolution. Lazy?Hardly.
Why is the concept of ‘green’ suddenly grabbing so much attention?
The concept of green became something that people wanted to incorporate into their day-to-day lives when Al Gore received the Academy Award for An Inconvenient Truth. The Oscar gave green pop culture mainstream credibility. Even if you didn’t see the movie, you were still probably at a party or somewhere where it was being talked about. From the consumer perspective, the design, style, and quality of green choices are so much better than they used to be. They are actually something that you want to incorporate into your life. From the business perspective, companies began to recognize that green is good for their bottom line.
What made you perk up and listen to the needs of the environment?
As a kid and going through college I had very little interest in the environment. I was a ski bum in Vail and then I went to China. I got a part-time job working at a bike lock company called Kryptonite that was actually based in Boston but was manufacturing their locks in China. Since there were so many bikes in China, I opened a Kryptonite office there and spent time traveling around China selling bicycle locks. I was seeing that there were a lot of roads being built and I started realizing that they wanted the same things we did; they wanted cars. That was when I started thinking about the environment and global warming and wondering what the affect of all those added cars and pollution would be. How could the Chinese move forward while staying in balance with nature? When I returned to the U.S., I realized that I could most effectively influence people to make better choices by not asking them to change their behavior. Being green didn’t mean they had to sacrifice their lives.
What are a few easy, inexpensive ways that someone can make an impact today?
The whole paper vs. plastic debate – the choice is neither. It is a reusable bag. Check-out Envirosax and flipandtumble.com. Another issue is water and disposable water bottles. I am the spokesperson for FilterForGood.com. The idea is that people pledge to give up disposable water bottles for a week, month, or year and the website shows you how many plastic bottles ‘that would have ended up in landfills’ you will save. Eating locally is another thing you can start doing really easily with sustainabletable.org. You enter your zip code and the site directs you to local butchers, markets, and restaurants that sell local.
L.H.
Learn more about Josh Dorfman, and his sustainable and stylish furniture and home design company at www.vivavi.com
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