I was thinking about what’s most important to me yesterday–what I’m most passionate about–”why do I spend so much time researching and writing about this stuff?” I thought to myself. I don’t get paid to write this blog. I’ve made about 54 cents, whereas it costs me about $90/year to keep ThrillingHeroics.com running.

Why do I do it, then? I spent my Earth Day describing to my dad how some of my generation feels like it’s inheriting this huge problem from those who came before us. Al Gore’s movie opened a lot of eyes to global warming this past year (including mine), and the damage it could potentially do to our world. And my personal life goal is to have a hand in changing the world for the better!

Now some people are still skeptical—my father for instance says that he has lived through far too many environmental panics that didn’t turn out the way scientists and environmentalists said they would. But I’m not interested in conjecturing or worrying about who’s to blame—that’s all a waste of time, and talk like that is designed to mislead you from the real challenges at hand. And yeah, we might avert the problem altogether…if we’re really lucky (in my opinion). My concerns don’t depend on the verity of global warming so much though—my issue is with the simple fact that our species is expanding very rapidly—exponentially—developing nations are fast becoming as industrialized and affluent as the United States, and we are burning through natural resources like there’s no tomorrow.

Well, there IS a tomorrow. At least, I want to ensure there is a tomorrow. These things only replenish so fast.

So my concern is more with the long-term sustainability of our society. I’m looking at consumption and growth trends. I want to have kids one day—but I don’t want them to be born into a post-apocalyptic industrial wasteland, and I don’t want them to starve because China takes all our resources, for instance. The problem is a simple problem of economics.

I’m an environmentalist at heart—because my dad used to take me camping and hiking and all that jazz every summer. I enjoy the “outdoors.” Now I approach my environmentalism from a business standpoint—because sustainability really poses a challenge to business and economic growth! Most companies look one year into the future to try to improve upon their past performance, but they need to look further into the future if they want to sustain over the long haul.

I’m not trying to scare you with doom and gloom. I’m trying to seek out individuals who are making a DIFFERENCE! Proactive people who are creating innovative solutions to these environmental and social problems—to hold them up as an example for future leaders…the best of my generation who will need to tackle things like poverty, hunger, the availability of clean water, natural resources, land to build our cities on, and so forth.

I think the best way to solve as many problems efficiently is to reduce the amount of work involved in the things we already know how to do well. That means using fewer resources and reusing what we can, increasing our energy efficiency, decreasing the distance we have to move food and raw materials, and so on.

There are a lot of people on this planet. And so far, it’s the only home we have. So I ask everybody to think critically about your use of energy and resources. Try to live more sustainably. Think about replenishable power sources. Buy local food, or grow your own. Do it for your kids, and your grandkids, and so on.

Also, if the blogosphere were coming to an end I’d have to ask you to look for me in print! Yup, that’s right–look for the THRILLING heroics book! One day…I’d like to publish the stories of dozens of cutting edge social entrepreneurs and “ecopreneurs” as I like to call them. People who are doing well for themselves AND doing good for the planet/for society at the same time. It’s not impossible…

Thanks to Nia for tagging me for this meme on her Leave America blog. Nia also has a neat blog where she looks at sustainable living in Portugal, among other things. If you want to participate in the Blog Apocalypse meme—Urban Monk will give $500 to charity!! Anyone who wants to participate is welcome—just link to my post here, and link to this page that tells you all about the Blog Apocalypse.

I’ll tag Adam, Ryan, James Van, James Britton, Steve, Patrick, Robyn, and Ron.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: The Last Thrill

Let the Seller Beware

Many of us in the Green Blogosphere took note of the New York Times’ coverage of Colin Beavan, aka No-Impact Man. Marketing guru Seth Godin also read the article and, as is par for the course, immediately grasped the big picture: “Zero is the new black.” In other words, simply “buying green” is no longer enough: consumers, particularly the “early adopter” crowd, have latched onto the concept that we must fully account for our environmental impact when making choices in the market. Beavan isn’t an oddity; rather, he’s the herald of a fundamental change in mindset.

If Godin’s right (and he’s remarkably prescient), then we’re seeing a cultural shift towards the question Bill McKibben asks in his new book Deep Economy: “is more better?” More and more, consumers may be answering the question in the negative, and that will likely prove perplexing to most business people. After all, how do you sell to consumers who’ve decided that simply buying things isn’t going to make them happy?

Certainly, consumers won’t stop purchasing goods and services, but smart business people will realize up front that those consumers are going to be asking a lot more questions, and that sellers better be prepared with substantive answers. Calling your product “natural” won’t get it anymore with buyers asking about local sourcing, carbon emissions, recyclability and life cycle impacts.

Let the seller beware: the marketplace of ideas influences the marketplace, and consumers have many more sources of information available to them than in the past. If zero is the new black, then businesses better be prepared to offer “zero”: zero emissions, zero wastes, zero persistent toxins. Anything less may result in zero profits.

You can read more content from Jeff McIntire-Strasburg on the Green Options blog. Jeff also writes regularly at sustainablog and TreeHugger.com.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Zero Is the New Black: Let the Seller Beware