Footprint Forward: Living Green in NYC

We are surrounded by excess. Nearly all of the day-to-day acts we take for granted – watching a movie, say, or buying lunch – are now a part of massive globalized processes, ones which more often than not are devastating our land, water and climate. Meanwhile, the lifestyles we follow are unhealthy for outselves, as well: every day, we breathe in polluted ari, eat overprocessed foods and distract ourselves with cheap thrills.

We seem to be drowning in stuff. And yet we’ve lost the connections that give our lives real meaning: connections with the people around us, with the seasons, with the other plants and animals that survive even in the concrete canyons of Manhattan.

This disconnection isn’t our fault – it was the world we were born into. But it doesn’t have to be the world we create. To quote green business leader John Abrams, “if we don’t insist on the future we want, and commit ourselves unquestionably to it, we’ll be  stuck with the future we get.”
Footprint Forward is about insisting on the future we want, and making it become a reality. It’s about a new way of relating to the world around us, and acting in accordance with what we believe. It’s about a million little choices that add up to enrich our bodies, our minds, and our shared home – the biosphere.

As Colin Beavan, the original “No Impact Man,” put it: “We have this feeling that we’re   gonna be deprived. Maybe we’re already deprived.”  A sustainable future awaits us. Join us in putting our collective footprints forward.

Sign up for Footprint Forward Week here.