Chapter 2. What Could Be More Inspiring Than a Crusade?

GARY HIRSHBERG WAS A GRASS-GREEN ECOLOGIST AND UNABASHED IDEALIST, SINGLE-MINDEDLY DEDICATED TO SAVING THE PLANET, WHEN HE HAD AN EPIPHANY. IT WOULD CHANGE HIS CAREER AND LAND HIM ON THE LEADING EDGE OF A NEW WAVE OF EARTH-FRIENDLY ENTERPRISES. AND WHEN HE LEARNED TO ENGAGE HIS CUSTOMERS BY ENLISTING THEM IN HIS CRUSADE, HE HAD AN UNBEATABLE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS.

Hirshberg found his calling long before his moment of illumination. As a boy in New Hampshire, he was entranced by the Technicolor wastewater that flashed from green to yellow to red as it gushed into the Suncook River from his family’s shoe factory. But then he learned that the mesmerizing hues were the product of pollution, and that pollution in all its forms was endangering the planet. Before long, Hirshberg was a fervent environmentalist who earned a degree in environmental science and began traveling the world to build windmills and teach others how to build them, too.