Whom would you like to interview and what would you ask?

Hill: Well he’s dead, but I’d wanna . . . I’d certainly wanna interview Gandhi.  And I . . .  I’m really interested about growth, so I might ask him about growth.  I . . . It sort of seems like our entire society is built on growth.  And yet the globe is a finite thing with finite . . . there’s only so many people we can put on it.  There’s only so many resources.  There are only . . .  And so it’s like there’s this . . .  Our whole society is built on this trajectory that is infinite, but it’s not infinite.  So I’m not sure if Gandhi would be able to answer that question, but . . .

Hill:        Well I think people talk about on your deathbed, you never say, “I wish I spent more time at work,” or it would be so . . .  Like I think it’s a . . .  I’d apply a similar concept.  I think . . . I think that people . . .  For the people that are watching this show, they have very little at risk.  So I think a lot of people like leave . . . don’t do that . . . don’t align their work with their values because they’re worried about finances, or their worried about this sort of stuff.  And it’s just like the reality for the people that are . . . that can watch a television, for the vast majority of the them there is a network – whether it’s friends, or family, or government – around them that they’re just not gonna end up on the street.  So I would counsel people to really make that jump.  Don’t worry.  You’re gonna be fine.  And align your work with your values.  You spend a lot of time working, and you might as well do a good thing because that’s . . . that’s what you’ll be thinking about later on on your deathbed, you know?  Did you . . .  Were you good with your family and good with your friends?  And did you do something that had some meaning?  And I think there’s little . . . there’s really little risk.  So I just would encourage people to jump into it.

Recorded on: Oct 16 2007 

 How can we be green every day?

Hill:  It really depends who you are and what you’ve done.  I think a lot of people . . .  What do they say, “Perfection is the enemy of the good” or something like that?  I think a lot of people will put the stuff off because they wanna do the right thing.  And I think logically, the way to approach your own personal situation in terms of the environment is to take some time; do a carbon calculator; figure out where you have the most impact; focus on those things first, etc.  I think the challenge with that is that people may put that off and put that off because it’s a big thing, and they just wanna do it right, and they just wanna make sure.  So I just try to counsel people just get started.  Pick something.  It doesn’t really matter what.  Pick something that matters to you and that just feels right and just start.  And I think that gets you on the path.  And then, you know, if you wanna be more strategic, great.  By all means.  Get one of those carbon calculators, figure out where you can have your impact and just do that.  So I think that’s . . . that’s a big one.  I think in terms of general concepts, there’s a very, very simple one.  Just small is sexy.  And it just applies . . . it applies to everything.  Like we have this perception that we need a lot of things or . . . or volume or what have you in order to be happy.  And we just don’t.  So whether it’s architecture . . .  You know the houses have gone from close to 1,000 square feet like 50 years ago to close to 2½.  So literally 2½ times as big while the average family size has shrunk.  So we were . . .  It’s not like we’re a lot happier now than we were in the ‘50s.  So you can live a great life and . . . in a much smaller home.  And by doing that, because the space is much smaller, you save on heating.  You save on cooling.  You save on lighting.  You save on furnishing.  And it just makes for an overall simpler life.  So I think focus on small.  Small is great.  And that can be cars.  That can be architecture.  That can be the size of your wardrobe.  That can be your number of weekend jaunts via plane.  I think just focus on that.  That would be what I’d say.

What is one thing we can do to have a disproportionately large impact?

Hill:        I think if we were . . . if we were very vocal with both our dollars in terms of what . . . what products and services we’re willing to support and what not; and in terms of the political process, I think that that in itself can have a tremendous impact because it also impacts the people around you.  So it sort of covers the consumer and the personal aspect.  It sends a message to business, and sends a message to . . . to governments.  So I think if we’re a lot more vocal and a lot less concerned about what other people thought, I think . . . I think we’d be well on our way.

Recorded on: Oct 16 2007 

How will this age be remembered?

Hill: Well hopefully it’ll be remembered as . . . as when we woke up; and when we really started turning on the jets and . . . and making the changes; and how we avoided what could have been a terrible situation.

Hill: Well I mean I think as humans, we’re pretty good at . . . we’re pretty good at talking about stuff which is great. But I’d like to see more personal action, and really I’m talking to myself here. I mean I’ve created this great site and built this fantastic team around it. And you know but I think that people should focus on themselves. If people can do the right things personally, that can have a tremendous impact. And so we often look to government, or business, or other people to do these things. But I think if we all spent more time looking to ourselves, it’s really that simple.

Recorded on: Oct 16 2007

Is it fair to ask developing countries to go green?

Hill:        Well it’s a very difficult . . . it’s a very difficult question.  I mean it certainly . . . It’s very understandable that they could say like, “What are you doing telling us what to do?  Look what you’ve done.”  And you know, “We want our . . .  You’ve had your time in the sun.  We want ours.”  It’s very . . . it’s understandable, but it’s also very important.  So I don’t know.  I think that the . . . whether it’s Gandhi or Michael Jackson saying, you know, “Start with the man in the mirror,” I think . . . I think it’s really important that we do our thing and lead by example.  And I think that the U.S. should be . . .  The U.S. is a very powerful country, and one that can . . . can change, and one that can lead.  And I’d really like to see us lead.  And I think we’re . . . we’re starting.  And hopefully that will help developing countries see there’s another way of doing things.  And hopefully that can leapfrog and not sort of go through all that.  It’s a very challenging thing.  It’s a very understandable thing that these other countries wanna achieve a lifestyle that we’ve been living.  And so who are we to really say?  So I think we have to influence as much . . . much as we can and also lead by example.  We have to practice what we preach.

Hill:        Well I don’t think it’s very fun to be pessimistic, even if that might be the reality.  So I prefer to be an optimist.  And we just get . . . it’s there.  We just gotta have the will to do it.  And I think we just, like . . .  There are more and more leaders that are turning up, and we just have to do it.  And I think it’s . . . you know that’s fun!  Like we haven’t had our Apollo Project or Manhattan Project.  And that was like really a negative one, and people got . . . really got behind it.  So you know I’d really like to see us have this positive Manhattan Project, you know?  Let’s show the rest of the world that we can reinvent the way that we do things.  And in so doing create a great economy and really help our health overall, and you know build a better society.

Recorded on: Oct 16 2007 

Whose responsibility is the environment?

Hill: Well I think all three of those legs of the stool – business, consumer and government – are lagging.  I mean there’s no question.  This is the issue of our times.  Thousands of scientists are saying we have 10 years to make major, major advances in this.  And so all of us  . . . all of those three groups need to push really hard forward, and I think the government’s one.  And it’s . . . Consumers and businesses probably move quicker than government in general.  It’s a long process, and part of that’s a good thing because there is a process and we try to get to a right solution.  Sure, I mean all of us need to do more, and the government can absolutely do more. And they have a . . .  They can absolutely have a big impact.  And I think it’s . . . on a simple level, I’m not . . .  I don’t spend a lot of time focusing on policy, but basically ___________ the good and __________ the bad.  It’s that simple.  We need to . . .  I don’t believe . . .  I believe in market economics, but I don’t believe that the market just figures it out all by itself.  I think that you need to set some . . . some base rules.  And I think that’s . . . that’s the government’s job.  And so hopefully they can move quicker and quicker and just __________ the good and _________ the bad.  And that should help, and business can just follow along.  And they’ll serve . . . they work within the rules, and consumers will do their part.

Recorded on: Oct 16 2007 

Is American culture inherently wasteful?

Hill:        Well I’d like to sort of turn that around because I really . . .  I don’t . . .  I don’t think that we are a bad people, and I don’t think we’re different . . .  Americans, Canadians, Europeans, like I don’t think we’re sort of that much different.  I think the way that we’ve gotten here is really . . . is absolutely understandable.  And there was a time when natural resources went on and on.  Like they just . . . there was an incredible amount.  And we really didn’t have to think that much about being wasteful.  And that’s . . . that’s sort of where we’ve come from in this last century.  And so we sort of . . .  I think we’ve in a way conceptually have sort of worked our way around the globe, you know?  We set out one way, and there’s like lots and lots of forests.  And there’s sort of . . . well we’re just sort of realizing we’re about to hit our . . . come to the end, and we have to re-look at how we do things.  So I don’t think we’re bad people.  We’re just sort of . . .  We didn’t look . . .  It was hard to see that far in advance.  It was hard to think that we would actually go through those resources.  And so now we just . . . we’re learning quickly that we have to have a different approach.

Hill: Well I think with . . . as with most things, like the answers are there.  Like there’s not . . .  The technologies, the solutions, a way to live a better, balanced life and get along on a global basis – I think it’s all there.  It just takes sort of the personal and the political will to make it happen.  So you know specifically green, it’s there.  Like there are amazing technologies and approaches that we can . . . that are here now.  And we just have to . . . we can really pull ourselves out of this rather quickly if we just get the personal and political will to focus on them.

Recroded on: Oct 16 2007 

What is the measure of a good life?

Hill: Well I think I’d like to have given much more than I took away.  I think . . . I think it’s really that   . . . it’s really that simple.

Hill: I tend to look at things from an evolutionary perspective.  And so I think that . . . I mean I think a lot of . . . a lot of the focus for probably the answers to that question are largely focused on stuff that’s happened in the last 1,000 years or these sorts of things.  I tend to think . . . I look at things from an evolutionary perspective.  So I think that we’re . . . we are . . . our brains were really . . . have spent most of their time evolving on the African Savannah and very little time evolving in what we think as sort of our present day . . . sort of how we do things.  So I think we’re a lot more base than . . . than we think we are.  Like the world has evolved much more quickly than our . . . our brains have.  And so . . . I think we don’t acknowledge that enough, so I think we should.

Recorded on: Oct 16 2007 

What do you hope to achieve with TreeHugger and Planet Green?

Hill: Well there’s a lot to achieve, and I think this is a really important thing. Although the media . . . Because this is all over the media these days, it can feel like it’s here. It’s not. We’re still . . . it’s very fringed. It’s not fringed in the media, but the reality of the actions is very fringed. So you know the mean is much larger than the reality. And so if you look at just cars for example, hybrids are a few percent – like three, four percent, something like that – just really, really low.

Hill: So I think that being that the mean is larger than the reality, there’s a very long way to go. And we’re really . . . most of the way we do things is roughly similar to the beginning of the industrial revolution. Like we’re . . . we’re very inefficient about how we do things. And so it’s a big process of us learning to look at the world in a different way and do things in a very different way. So we have a long way to go. So I think Planet Green will . . . being Planet Green and TreeHugger will, TreeHugger will serve to inspire, and educate, and allow people to see the great stuff that’s happening on a global basis regularly. And Planet Green will help to . . . people to take action; to actually get down and do stuff. So whether it’s cheap or expensive, easy or difficult, or quick or time-intensive, we’re gonna help people take action. We’re gonna break down for people so they can take that next step and move from knowing to doing.

How has public perception changed?

Back to sort of how we can . . . how TreeHugger and Planet Green can help and sort of what’s left to do, I think one of the big pieces is just that . . . that of social currency. And let me explain. I think we’re very social beings. We really care much more than we acknowledge and much more than we often think. We really care about what other people think. And I think you can get . . . you can sort of get a glimmer of this when . . . like there are stats on people being asked about public speaking versus death. And you know a lot of people are like more . . . they’re sort of more nervous about public speaking than death. So it just . . . I think it sort of illustrates . . . Like it’s people are really concerned. So this social currency is very important. So what other people think is appropriate and what other people think is not. And so I hope that through Planet Green – both (33:11) the channel and the web sites – we can help develop that. Because I think it’s a very powerful thing and we really need it to happen. So literally getting down to it, you know, having a private jet was cool in the ‘80s. It’s just not that cool anymore. And same for sort of big houses and big cars. And on the other side, there is a respect for people who are actually working and/or taking moves in their personal or working lives to align their lives with their values. And so I think that’s really important, and I think we can . . . A great example is from the . . . is the littering from the ‘70s. Like in the early ‘70s it was common to be driving down the road and you’d see someone open the window and throw a bag of garbage out. And through a whole bunch of different approaches like fines for littering; like the PSAs – “Give a hoot. Don’t pollute”; and a Native American chief with the tear and the . . . that’s really changed. So now it’s like unthinkable that you’d be driving behind someone and they would do that. And I think that really illustrates how much stuff can change, and how important it is what people think. And so I think that Planet Green can serve a big purpose in sort of helping . . . helping salute the heroes and also point out the, you know, the . . . the . . . what’s appropriate and what’s not.

Recorded on: Oct 16 2007

What defines good design?

Hill: Well design I think you have to look at from a whole bunch of different fronts. But I think ultimately design is something that is looked at in a holistic manner, and that solves a problem, and ideally does it in a very efficient manner with the resources used. So it’s something that people enjoy using, and that’s really functional, and does a good job, and lasts a long time. Maybe it’s easily repaired, or certainly at the end of its life can be reused, or recycled, or . . . So I think design is holistic. And a lot of people think of design as aesthetics. And I do think that’s an important part of things, and it shows sort of care and the craft of something. But I think it’s overall, it’s sort of what problem is this solving and how does it solve it in a really smart and efficient way?

Hill: Well my recent work, I mean I think I would focus on TreeHugger. I think I’ve taken a bit of a turn. And so now I’m really focused on “do gooder” projects. I think that my contribution with TreeHugger specifically was popularizing and de-stigmatizing a movement, or sort of helping that . . . helping that process. And so I think that we’ve . . . we’ve helped . . . We’ve helped people think differently about environmentalism. And we’ve helped people take action. And we’ve also helped introduce a ton of readers to a ton of companies doing great stuff. So we’ve really helped . . . Particularly with small companies, there’s a ton of stories of us having sort of helped them launch. Like we just ended up making great connections, and getting great orders or what have you. So it’s really setting people on the way. So yeah, I think we’ve helped sort of . . . we’ve helped people look at this in a new way. And I think that’s . . . I think that’s been really positive. We’ve educated, and I think we’ve inspired. And soon with Planet Green, we’re gonna help even more people take action; sort of get focused on that last mile of actually moving from knowing to doing and really doing something.

Can environmentalism be more integrated into our system?

Hill: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I think it’s not recognized. We haven’t valued it on a . . . monetarily or otherwise frankly. So I think it absolutely can be . . . can be better integrated. We just didn’t know that it mattered. Like that’s the thing. We just didn’t know that it mattered. And so we . . . For the last 30 or 40 years, we figured out that it does matter. And so now we’re . . . now we’re readjusting, and we just need to push hard to adjust quickly.

Recorded on: Oct 16 2007

Are bloggers journalists?

Hill: (Laughter) Yeah.  I mean I guess it’s just a broader concept of what “journalist” is.  I think traditional journalists that are well paid and have the . . . have the time to really fact-check, and spend a lot of time looking into a story and . . .  I think they’re still very, very important, and hopefully more and more bloggers can do that.  So I don’t know.  It’s just different . . .  it’s just different types of writing.

 Recorded on: Oct 16 2007

How is technology changing the environmental movement?

 
Hill: Well I think it’s changing it in major, major ways – particularly recently with the advent of commenting and the fact that people can really contribute.  It’s become much more of the interactivity that everyone talked about so much in sort of the mid . . . the mid to late ‘90s is actually really happening.  People really can voice themselves on . . . via comments or their own blogs, etc.  So I think that’s setting a . . . creating a scenario where . . . where the good guys win.  And what I mean by that is that it used to be that there really was . . . corporations can have sort of a command and control.  They could really spin things.  They could really control the message that got out there.  And really it’s different now.  If you’re telling things that aren’t truthful, that is gonna be picked up.  There are just too many people.  The Internet, self-healing . . . and it will really help surface that sort of stuff.   So the beauty of this is people are really . . . they’re . . .  It’s forced transparency in a way.  And so the companies that are doing the right thing are . . . will end up doing better.  And those that don’t will get found out by a lot of pressure we put on them.  So I really think that the Internet is helping the good guys win by forcing this . . . forcing this transparency.  I think in terms of ___________ changes that Internet’s brought, I think that the . . . it’s . . . there’s a democratization of technology that’s happening, and that has a lot of effects.  So whether it’s the fact that you can set up a blog and say your piece very inexpensively as long as you can get access.  Or that the . . . the editing software, cameras, voice recording, like all media is . . . is becoming cheaper and cheaper and easier and easier for people to use.  So I think this also really helps get a lot more voices added to the conversation.  And it kind of makes it much more difficult for corporations to control it.  And so I think that’s also very positive.  And also just people can help people.  Like there’s . . .  A lot of that will probably seem . . .  It used to be it was only media that could really invest in this stuff.  But now people, whether it’s on message boards, or via comments . . . like people can actually help people in a very efficient manner.  Like you can . . . you can share something.  People do share their experiences.  So in terms of going green as an example, just they can share sort of what they’ve learned and their sort of own tips and tricks.  And that particular piece of information can get out to lots of people.  So it’s very, very effective.  So I think if you look at the big picture, we’re evolving.  The good news is we’re evolving.  So everything is sort of headed in a better and better direction, whether it’s civil rights, or women’s rights, or the environmental movement, or just violence being reduced in general.  Things are moving in the right direction.

Recorded on: Oct 16 2007 

What is the biggest misconception of environmentalism?

Hill: I think the biggest misconception is probably that the movement is anti-capitalistic or anti-business.  I think really most of the people don’t view it that way and understand that business is not gonna go in . . . away anytime soon, and we really need to work with it.  And business can be a great thing.  We just have to have incentives in the right place.  I’d say one of the biggest misconceptions is probably that – that the environment . . . environmental movement is anti-business.

Recorded on: Oct 16 2007 

What makes a product eco-friendly?

Hill: Well it probably really depends on which one. And the challenging part of this area is that there; a lot of gray. So it’s hard to determine sort of what’s what because different things enter into the picture. So is it better to get organic strawberries from California or non-organic local strawberries, right? So it becomes sort of a complicated issue. So a lot of it’s about doing a full like cycle analysis, which really looks at all the components that go into the manufacture, and the distribution, and the . . . the cycle. How is it cycled? Does it end up in a landfill? Or is it recycled back as a technical nutrient, or does it not biodegrade? So really it’s like looking at the life cycle and understanding sort of the full impact of it in the first place. And then probably more importantly do you need this thing in the first place? Is there any way you can . . . The best product is the one that you can avoid.

Recorded on: Oct 16 2008

Does a re-branded environmentalism have staying power?

Hill: I think this is the issue of our times whether we like it or not.  Like this . . . it’s . . . Unfortunately we’ve made, mostly unknowingly, a lot of bad decisions over the past 100 years and it’s affecting things.  So this will be the issue of our times.  My hope is that it’s not a . . . it becomes part of everything.  So it’s not a separate thing.  So like civil rights or the women’s movement, you know it really . . . it has to become a part of everything; not that either of those is . . . is fixed at this point in time.  But really it needs to stop from being a separate thing and be part of everything.  So I think it will absolutely continue in the media because it has to.  And  . . . but my hope is it just becomes part of everything so it’s less a separate thing.  It’s just, yeah, a part of the way we look at the world.

 What needs to change in American business?

Hill: Well certainly from an environmental level, I mean the thing that we’ve been ignoring is we haven’t made the true costs of things part of their price.  So externalities are sort of left . . . left out.  And I think that’s a really, really important one.  We’ve expanded to the point where we’ve   . . . we’ve reached . . . we understand the limits of the resources that we have.  And you know 100 years ago this was different.  It just sort of went on and on.  But really we understand those, and now we realize we actually have to be careful.  And we realize what an incredible impact we can have in a positive or negative manner on the earth that we live in and the species that we share it with.  So I think that’s a big one. 

In the world of business, I think that business should have . . . be able to have less of an effect on government.  So I . . . I’d like to see . . .  I’d like to see campaign finance reform and less impact in that . . . in that respect.  I think transparency is really important.  And so I think the Internet has been very helpful, and I’d like to see more and more of that.  I think transparency is a great thing and . . . so yeah.  We’ve got some ways to go with business for sure.

How can established companies go green?

Hill: Well there’s tons.  I mean the beauty . . . the beauty of this stuff is that there are thousands and thousands of solutions.  So it’s really about companies getting . . . getting . . . educating themselves and just approaching it understanding that from a moral perspective we have to do it, but also from a business perspective.  This is what people are gonna demand more and more, and we have to look at things in a different way.  So really it would depend on the company.  But whichever business you’re in, there are more and more opportunities in terms of greening your own operations and your own products.

Hill: Let me give you a little context or sort of . . . I grew up as basically a hippie.  I had a very hippie, hippie childhood.  So I’m very much from this background of sort of conservation and nature, and that was sort of part of me.  Then I went on to study design both architecture and then product design.  And then I ended up doing a bunch of entrepreneurial things.  I did a fashion company.  I did a . . .  I built a Web development firm.  And then I did a product firm in the past three . . . three of four years.  So I’ve done a bunch of things that sort of at the end of the day end up . . .  I’m a design focused entrepreneur with leanings toward the environment.  So a few years ago – I guess four or so now – I just sort of . . .  I was looking for my next project.  I knew I wanted to do something in the “do gooder” realm.  And I just was passionate about green, and so it all sort of coalesced. 

When did you become a social entrepreneur?

Hill: Well I think I made a transition in the last five years or so. Before I would have just called myself a serial entrepreneur. Now I think I’m a serial entrepreneur that’s gonna forever do “do gooder” things. So you know I’m . . . That’s what gets . . . I’m very excited by change and by building something from nothing. And at this point on top of that, I’m really . . . I wanna do good. I think there’s a lot of suffering in the world, and I’d like to see what I can do to reduce it.

Why did you make the change?

Hill: The transition? Okay. Well so I . . . My cousin and I built this great company of around 60 people. We started in ’95 – pre-Netscape – so very early on. And we just did great work programming; project management sort of stuff. And it was . . . There were a lot of acquisitions going on at that point and we got a lot of interest. And so we were . . . We ended up selling to a New York company. And I sort of finagled my way here via running an office for them for a little bit in Boston, and with the promise I’d be able to come out of the New York office – because I was very attracted to New York. So that’s sort of how I got here. And after a while I just . . . it wasn’t the right fit for me with the company. And I think I was really ready for something new. And so I tried a couple of things and really got my first _________. It just didn’t go so well. And . . . which I think was really great because I finally . . . it sort of let off a lot of pressure. And I think it also focused me because that first thing wasn’t particularly positive. It was more of a benign project – an Internet based thing. So the . . . it actually got me focused on, you know, I really wanted to do something that matters to me and was in sync with my values. And I think I was really affected by reading. And I think . . . I think books are really under . . . their power is (8:06) underestimated. I think something about you pick it up, you get . . . you have to remember where you’re at, what the whole overall concept is, you get into it. You provide energy to it. It’s not just sort of fed to you. And so you really . . . And then you put it down, and you pick it up, and you put it down. It’s hundreds of pages often, and it goes over the same stuff in various ways. And so it syncs in in a way that I think a lot of things don’t. So books are really powerful. I think that really helps. A lot of my reading on evolution and on green just got me really . . . and just on sort of social entrepreneurship. This sort of stuff just got me very turned on. I was just very excited about the whole prospect.

 What inspired you to start an environmentally sound business?

Really the way it started was I just sort of said like, “Why . . . what’s happening here?  Like why isn’t green mainstream?”  Like it seemed to me that a lot of people really cared about it, but it just hadn’t . . . hadn’t made that move.  So why was that?  And so I just started looking at myself and trying . . . trying to just answer that question.  And so the . . . what I thought was well first of all to me, aesthetics matter.  I’m a shallow person, and so I care about . . . not that you can tell . . . I care about how I get my hair cut, and  I care about the clothes that I wear, and I care about what my apartment’s like.  And if I drove a car I would care about that.  And so all these things, like, I wish they didn’t matter to me.  I wish I didn’t care, but they do.  And so one of the . . . one of the issues . . . the first one I sort of highlighted was just that the hippies had . . . had really owned this area for 30, 40 years.  They were the real backbone.  And I had clearly come from there, and so I love the hippies.  But I really felt like for the . . . for the . . . they were really a very small segment of the market.  And the rest of the market – 25 percent plus of the people – it just wasn’t so appealing to them.  So the hippies have done a great job of selling, marketing to that sub segment and are very green.  And there’s sort of that ___________ market __________ to.  And so I figured if it was gonna go larger, then it really needed to become more modern, and contemporary, and have an aesthetic that would appeal to much more of the population.  So that was sort of the first one.

 A busy guy. 

                The second problem I saw was that I’m a busy guy.  And you know I live in New York and I work very hard.  And so I’m running from thing to thing, and on the weekends that I . . . if I’m able to get any time off, I wanna relax, and see my friends, and do this sort of stuff.  So the real challenge at that point was that it really wasn’t convenient.  So convenience is the real killer, and I think you really need to make it easy.  So if I needed to find that pair of organic pants, or ___________, or figure out . . .  If I was to buy a hybrid car or something, these are activities that would take hours and hours.  And so ultimately they just wouldn’t end up happening, or wouldn’t end up happening enough.  So the second problem that I saw was just one of convenience.  We really needed to make it convenient.

 The importance of yes.

The third was a lot of environmentalism to that point had been about “no”; had been about “the sky is falling”; had been about inspire by fear.  And I actually think that’s a . . .  We need a whole bunch of approaches to this problem and that approach was actually really important.  It’s important for people to understand the gravity of the situation, and that there are major issues.  And all that’s very important.  But I think there are also people who are looking for, “Great.  So what’s next?  How do we move . . . how do we move forward?”  And they’re looking for “yes”.  They’re looking for inspire by hope.  And I think I’m one of those people.  And so what I figured was if . . . if one could create a site that would aggregate all this modern green – the sort of different aesthetic that was starting to appear on a global basis – in one place; make it convenient for people such that they could not spend a ton of time and still move their life in a green direction; and just make it really positive and solutions oriented; that it would appeal to a market and it would really help green go mainstream.  So that was sort of the basic thinking.  And so I . . .  In ’94 . . . not in ’94.  In 2004, we really got together and launched TreeHugger.

Recorded on: Oct 16 2007