As an eco-idealist living in New York City, Colin Beavan made a media splash when he declared that he and his family would live 100 percent green for a year. No car, no electricity, eat locally grown, no disposable waste, and sheep-wool diapers for his young daughter.
Documentarians Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein examine this novel experiment and find that Beavan does cheat a bit: he uses electricity (to publish his blog), he and his family rely on candlelight for just six months a year, and they borrow ice from neighbors. The real heat comes from Beavan's reluctant wife, Michelle Conlin, a self-proclaimed shopaholic and Starbucks poster girl. She wants a second child, a conversation Beavan avoids coolly.
Beavan, who's something of a passive-aggressive control freak, also has something more in mind (like a book) than just "going green." But that hardly matters when it comes to his point about everyone doing his or her small bit to help conserve the planet.
