Help No Impact Man raise $15,000

There is a growing movement of people, it turns out, who want to retool their lifestyles to live in ways that both make themselves and the planet happier. This was one of the big surprises to me of the No Impact year. People wanted to know what I was doing and they wanted to know what they could do too (you can support our attempt to help them by clicking here).

But how do you structure participation in a vast amorphous movement that is led by neither government nor corporations? How do you structure participation in something that is coming straight from people's hearts but which they are not quite sure how to pursue?

This is why I decided to start a non-profit project. It's mission is to engage citizens in choosing lives that they believe will both make themselves, their communities and the planet happier. The project will provide a focal point. A rallying place. Because what more and more of us are discovering is that, by choosing to emphasize the most fulfilling parts of our lives, we are automatically using fewer planetary resources.

So... The No Impact Project, which you can support by clicking here, will operate under the auspices and supervision of a wonderful and much larger environmental non-profit called the Open Space Institute. The No Impact Project will leverage the huge amount of publicity surrounding the book and film launches to help people choose the lives that they determine are better for themselves and for the planet.

There will be:

• A website designed by Free Range Studios (of Story of Stuff fame) to help people engage people in choosing the best that a harmonious life has to offer
• A curriculum for schools and college students
• A structured, truncated version of the No Impact Man experience available to religious communities, college students, business leaders and members of the community at large
• And the list goes on and on.

In short, while there are many, many environmental groups lobbying in Congress or pushing big business to change, there are very few that are promoting the benefits to people of a life lived in harmony with the habitat we depend upon for our health happiness and security. Our job is to help change our culture one person or family at a time.

And I thought so many of you might like to help. Some of you have been readers of the blog for a long time. Some have come recently. But most of us share the simple hope that Americans and citizens of the rest of the world will begin to choose ways of life that not only ensure the future our race, but that also may well make for a happier existence right now.

The No Impact Project needs a total of about $300,000 to fulfill all of its first year's goals. So far, we have raised just over a third of that. My objective, here on the blog, is to raise five percent of the No Impact Project's budget, or $15,000, in the next six weeks. It will be an ongoing campaign, and one I hope you can both contribute to (click here) and ask your friends and family to contribute to also.

All you have to do is click on the button above or below or click here.

I thank you with all my heart in advance.

With Love,

Colin Beavan
aka No Impact Man