NH No Impact Week is underway, and participants around the Seacoast are attempting to minimize their impact on the environment. The experiment, inspired by the book and film “No Impact Man,” runs through May 8. 

Each day of the week-long program offers a different challenge, with themes including consumption, trash, transportation, food, energy, water, giving back and eco-Sabbath. The goal is to test whether modern conveniences that harm the environment actually make us happier, or just eat up time and money.

 Part of the No Impact Project, the idea was conceived by Colin Beavan, who wrote a book about his family’s attempt to eliminate their negative impact on the environment for an entire year. Beavan and his wife and young daughter shut off their electricity, threw nothing away, traveled only by foot or bicycle, and consumed only locally-grown food, among other things, from 2006 to 2007.

Global Awareness Local Action, a non-profit organization based in Wolfeboro, initiated the state-wide event in New Hampshire. For more information on the program, visit www.galacommunity.org or www.noimpactproject.org.