Going Green: Millionaire who turned into an environmental activist

He’s looking for the edible dandelion he had spotted earlier but is side-tracked by some nettle, which you can eat raw without stinging your mouth if you fold it correctly. It’s good for you, he explains.

Can a minimalist mindset help save the planet? Greenfield should know. He recently spent a year growing and foraging his own food, while living in a 100 square foot “tiny house” built from reclaimed materials in a backyard in Orlando, one of the fastest growing cities in the US.

“The idea was that people would walk past these gardens and see you can grow an abundant garden full of food rather than a lawn of grass,” says Greenfield. He also wanted to see whether it was possible to live outside the “global industrial food system and live in a way that didn’tconsume the planet.” It was joyful but hard, the Wisconsin native says.

Greenfield happily acknowledges he likes to take things to the extreme. Over the last 10 years, in an effort to be greener and encourage others to do the same, he’s lived off-the-grid in a solar-powered tiny home and toured penniless across America on a bamboo bicycle. Today he has minimal possessions and rarely uses money. He donates any earnings, which largely come from speaking engagements, to environmental causes.

The change in his life from a decade ago couldn’t be more radical. As a young entrepreneur, he was focused on money, impressing others with his possessions and “living the American dream,” Greenfield explains. But after finding out about the environmental issues affecting the planet, he came to believe that his “American dream was the world’s nightmare.”

Greenfield switched from aspiring millionaire to green minimalist gradually, implementing one positive change per week, small ones at first, to make it “manageable.” He started by carrying reusable shopping bags and water bottles, biking more, and supporting local farmers’ markets before moving to bigger things like avoiding “big box” stores such as Walmart and getting rid of his car.

But the most difficult thing, he says, was not worrying what other people think. “I travelled to a lot of parts of the world where the most basic thing (like using reusable bags) will make you look like an absolute weirdo,” says Greenfield.

Living sustainably and inspiring others to do the same is what motivates him now. For Greenfield, doing so doesn’t involve electric vehicles or huge solar panels on the roof of your house. That’s something few can afford. Instead, he wants people to live sustainably by living simply. As he sees it those who consume fewer resources also waste less. He’s often failed in living up to his ideals. “We exist in a fossil fuel-powered, consumer society that we can push against but one that’s not easily circumvented,” he says.