News

Actions

Environmentalist is going way off the grid

Posted at 4:37 PM, Dec 24, 2015
and last updated 2015-12-24 19:37:32-05

He calls himself a "Dude Making a Difference."

The San Diego environmentalist will do his best in 2016 when he donates all of his money to nonprofit organizations.

Rob Greenfield said he leads by example. Over the years, 10News has profiled the environmentalist as he rode his bike across the country using very little electricity and generating very little trash; he started dumpster diving for food to show how American stores throw away too much food; and he bought and lived in a tiny house for a year to show how people can conserve energy, food, and water.

RELATED: Ocean Beach man lives off the grid and reduces his water use by 95 percent

Greenfield got his water consumption down to two gallons a day. The average San Diegan uses roughly 100 gallons a day.

“I am testing the boundaries of the human experience,” he said after moving into his tiny home earlier in 2015.

“I just try to find crazy, interesting ways to bring that to people’s attention,” he told 10News Christmas Eve.

Greenfield’s first book, “Dude Making a Difference”, will be released December 29. He said he will donate all the profits from the book about his first bike ride across the country to nonprofit organizations. The Discovery International cable network also made Greenfield the centerpiece for a new six-part television series.

“I was dropped off in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil without a penny in my pocket,” he said. He made it to Panama in 72 days with very little resources, no money, and no electronics.

Greenfield already donated the money he received for the show to nonprofits as well.

For his latest stunt, Greenfield said he will go even further off the grid by auctioning his tiny home and donating that money to a nonprofit organization that builds tiny homes for the homeless.

“I have no desire to get rich off of trying to make the earth a better place,” he said.

He plans to auction the home at the end of January. Information about the book and the auction can be found at www.RobGreenfield.tv/dude.