Interviews
Cut the Lazy Environmentalist Some Slack: Josh Dorfman on Going Green
      by Starshine Roshell

Josh Dorfman, AKA The Lazy Environmentalist, has a secret: he's really not much of a slacker.  In his 30s, the guy has already built an eco-empire teaching Americans how to go green without sacrificing style or convenience. He runs Vivavi, an eco-friendly furniture and home design center with a Brooklyn showroom powered by wind energy. He created ModernGreenLiving.com, an online database for building or buying a green home. In his spare time, he's developing a wind energy company in Mongolia to help reduce China's dependence on coal-fired power.

This is all, of course, between appearances on "The Martha Stewart Show."

But Dorfman's superstardom on the sustainability scene actually grew out of his desire to ... well, to do nothing. His satellite radio show "The Lazy Environmentalist," and popular book "The Lazy Environmentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish, Green Living" — both dedicated to stylish and innovative green trends, products and technologies — were designed to appeal to eco-slackers.

Like him. "It's absolutely based on me," he says. "Like many millions of Americans, I’m accustomed to convenience. As much as I care about the planet, doing something about (the environmental crisis) is not always my top priority. So I look for green solutions that are so clearly in my enlightened self-interest that they make going green a no-brainer."

His latest find? A new solar power system from SolarCity that's available to homeowners with no upfront costs and a low monthly lease. "Even if I didn't care one iota about the planet, I'd still sign up for SolarLease because now going green is not only better for the planet, it's also better for my wallet."

If cost and convenience weren't enough of a draw, Dorman's approach to mindful living promises no guilt, no fear and no blame.
"Making 'going green' attractive and guilt-free is about understanding the difference between being effective and being righteous," he says. "I decided about five years ago to trade my own pain, anger and self-righteousness about the state of the environment for an approach that would actually entice people to participate in change."

Dorfman wasn't an eco-conscious kid ("more like New York Yankees-conscious," he says). His environmental epiphany came while living in China in the 1990s. He was working for Kryptonite Bicycle Locks and marveling daily at the number of roads and highways being built.

"It occurred to me that while I was excited about selling bike locks to a nation with a billion bicyclists, it was a short-lived opportunity. I realized that at some point, probably in my lifetime, China will become a nation of a billion car drivers." He realized China had to change. And so did the rest of the "lazy" world.

"My approach gets people who otherwise wouldn't care at all to get interested and excited about the topic," says Dorfman, who is collaborating with The Sundance Channel to develop a "Lazy Environmentalist" TV show, and plans to publish "The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget" next year. "They start to associate going green with cutting-edge innovation, saving money, high design, fashion and being 'cool.' That's a great start."

But the single greatest deterrent in making environmentally responsible choices isn't time, money or even ignorance, he says. It's the emotional disconnect that grows out of the modern consumer lifestyle.

"I feel emotionally connected to my new pair of jeans that make my butt look good," he explains. "I don’t feel emotionally connected to the factory workers who made them while laboring under atrocious conditions, or the poisoned farm hands in the field who picked the insecticide-riddled cotton, or the contaminated soil and groundwater.

"The way to get around that is to make jeans that make my butt look good using materials like insecticide-free organic cotton in a factory where workers receive a fair wage for their labor. A good example is Good Society."

Turns out conscious consumption doesn't crimp Dorfman's, um, lazy lifestyle. "I love green guyhood," he says. "The only time it sucked was when one of my friends was having a bachelor party and I couldn’t bring myself to travel around Manhattan in a stretch Hummer. Sometimes taking the subway is a serious buzz kill."

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