Green Conscience activist sows seeds of sustainability

She renovated her home, sold her SUV, fought city hall, planted grass where her driveway used to be and wrote a book.

Franke James – artist, writer and environmental activist – had to fight Toronto City Hall to remove her interlock driveway so she could green up her property. Upon inquiry of the driveway’s removal, the city sent out an official to say, not only could she not remove her driveway, but she could only have one tree in her front yard.

“That’s when I had an eye-opening moment,” James said. “I thought, ‘How can that be? That doesn’t make any sense at all. [The city of Toronto] is saying they’re green, that they want people to plant trees, but I can only plant one?’ It really bothered my green conscience.”

James will present “Paradise Unpaved: How Nurturing your Inner Alice-in-Wonderland Can Win Over City Hall,” Monday, May 18, to the University of Cincinnati community as the last installment of the Climate 101 Lecture Series for the current academic year.

Her lecture is partly based on one of her essays in her book, "Bothered by my Green Conscience." In a related post on her Web site, No One Will Ever Know, Except You, James interviews people via Twitter about what bother's their Green Conscience.


“I feel bad when I use paper towels to dry my hands at work,” said ‘Mgonyeo’ via Twitter.
For some people, it’s changing the type of light bulb that’s the first step in being more sustainable. For James and her husband, it was doing the hardest thing first that made the most sense: They sold their SUV.

“Selling the car was about doing something good for the environment,” James said. “It was doing the hardest thing first … Instead of asking people to change light bulbs, which is fine, or recycle, which is fine, let’s ask them to raise the bar and be more ambitious about climate change. We need to ask them what they’re willing to do in order to make a big environmental contribution and would they do it?”

What allowed James to give up the luxury of personal transportation was her urban lifestyle.

“We designed our lives in the right way so we didn’t need the luxury of having a car,” James said. “We live 20 minutes from the subway, close to a bus stop, near a grocery store and pharmacy. We’re within walking distance of everything we need, which makes going without a car relatively easy.”

Once they sold the car, positives followed: they reduced carbon emissions and cutback on consumption.

Next they’ll plant a vegetable garden in the front yard.

“One little decision created a lot of change,” James said.

James will also present one of her essays, “Paradise Unpaved,” which further details the struggle to create a green driveway in North York, Ontario, Canada.

For students, living sustainably might seem more difficult with limited financial resources, but James said there are things they can do to help.

“Educating yourself about the problem and kind of doing an audit of your lifestyle, of your [carbon] footprint and trying to figure out what kinds of things can you change,” she said. “It may come down to consumption of goods, trying to eat more local, trying to make a stand on packaging issues.”

James will be on campus, noon to 1 p.m., Monday, May 18, presenting and signing “Bothered by my Green Conscience,” in MainStreet Cinema. She will also be hosting a hands-on workshop and discussion, “Six Tools for Climate Change Art,” Monday afternoon, at the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, Room 5430.