Ed Begley, Jr.

Does she eat the toast?

No, she won't eat the toast! She thinks it's different somehow. It toasts like any toaster in America, but she, of course, thinks it's diminished in some manner because I rode a bicycle to make the wattage.

What about your daughter, Hayden?

My daughter Haden is very much into the environment. She, from the earliest age, was driven around in an electric car. We've always grown food in the backyard. From the earliest age, I wanted her to know that food does not come from the Safeway tree. She recycles everything, turns out the lights. She knows a lot about environmental matters, as do my grown kids, and she's only seven.

There are never any complaints?

No, quite the opposite. My daughter's opinion is, 'Why do other people drive cars that burn gasoline? That makes smog, right?' She doesn’t understand why the other cars are out there.

What's your theory as to the secret of Living With Ed's success?

I once did a pilot with Shelly Duval, a green show that never got picked up. I did another show for 13 episodes, but it was on at four in the morning because it wasn't very exciting. It was called Today's Environment on The Discovery Channel. It was very nice, how-to stuff, informational, but it didn't have a lot of zip or edge to it. So, we decided to try and do this show that was a reality show about Rachelle and I that was more about she and me and our differences of opinion on many matters. That people responded to. You know, The Osbournes was quite a success. We're hopefully not quite as dysfunctional as that.

Can you divulge what eco-conflicts are in store this coming season?

Oh, yeah. There are lots of battles coming up, let me phrase it that way. Now we have this outsider, if you will, down the block, and that's put another element into the mix: Bill Nye, the science guy. Because he's a single man, he can do a lot of things I cannot do. He can keep his thermostat at whatever he wants and he's got a rain barrel. He's now got tankless on-demand water heaters, situated in optimum places, one near the kitchen, one near the bathroom. The gauntlet has been thrown down. He has a solar array that has no shading issues like mine does; he's spinning his meter backwards. When I put my system it, it did not have metering, it was not available in the 1990s. So, he's got a very nice system without any batteries. There's going to be some keeping up with the neighbors in Studio City.

How does it feel to be known as the greenest man in Hollywood?

That's very nice, I don't know if I deserve it. I'm sure there are greener people in Hollywood. I know there are greener people in Topanga. You know, my friend Billy lives in a yurt in Topanga and his energy bill is less than mine. But I accept the title of being a green person, certainly I do the best I can. And by Hollywood standards, my home is very, very modest. People come by and go, 'Oh, Ed, I didn't know things were so tough. You need a couple of bucks? I'll give you five hundred dollars.' But by world standards, my house is a palace: 1,700 square feet, comfortable in the summer, in the winter, food growing out back, twenty fruit trees, a vegetable garden, a garage with an electric car that I can drive around L.A, for twenty miles, all powered by the sun. My wife's hybrid car I drove here in speed and comfort for 150 dollars from L.A. to Florida. So, it's a good deal.

You recycle the crew's cans and bottles—does it take a large bag to do that?

No, we have a very fortunate program in L.A., a blue-bin program. It all goes to a MRF, a Materials Recovery Facility. You can put all your high-density polyethylene aluminum cans, glass, bottles, your #1 plastic, your #2 plastic, cardboard, office paper, junk mail in one bin. It's very easy. I then separate out things that are not allowed in the blue bin, like #6 Styrofoam. I save that till once or twice a year I take it to a Styrofoam recycling center, but now, I don't even think I go that often because I use it to package my products. I have a line of nontoxic cleaning products called Begley's Best. So if I get something packed in a big piece of Styrofoam, I just break it into pieces and I use it to package something when I ship it. And I put a little note in, 'All these materials are recycled. Please do as I've done and recycle them again and make sure they have another use.' And people love it. I thought people might protest, 'I ordered some products from you, how could you send them in junk scrap like that?' Quite the opposite. Now, dry-cleaning bags and plastic bags, #4 plastic, you wind up with those without wanting them, and I recycle those at a recycling center. Other stuff, like my white office paper, color paper and junk mail, I keep out of the blue bin for extra credit, if you will. The stuff that goes in the blue bin, they're really just going to use that for backing, roofing material, low-grade paper. I take them to a paper recycling center near me where they get the highest use, like new facial tissue or office paper.

Like any good show, there's confict; in this case, eco-conflict....

Sometimes I wonder, but it turns out, my wife does care about the environment. She just wants things to look a certain way. Like most people, most right-minded people, she doesn't want to sacrifice a lot. You know, I'm willing to ride my bike over the Sepulveda Pass in the middle of the night, and to live 68 degrees in the winter and 78 in the summer. That is not the way she wants to live. Since we chose to live together and get married and have a child, we're always trying to find common ground. I can still give her a cold beverage and a warm shower, I'm just going to do it more efficiently. And she's on board with saving rain water, as long as it can look good, and isn't in a big ugly rain barrel. If I'm willing to get on my bicycle for exercise, while generating enough electricity to toast bread, she thinks it's ridiculous, but at the end of the day, she doesn't mind it.

Your wife's name is almost the same as a very important environmental author….

Yes. Her name is Rachelle Carson, similar to Rachel Carson, isn't it? So I thought when I met her that this is clearly an environmental person. No. It's like naming an overweight child 'Tiny' or something. I don't know what kind of irony was involved in naming her Rachelle Carson. She's into pedicures, manicures and shopping. It was bait and switch to be honest. When we were dating, and she'll tell you this, it'd be like, 'Oh, thank you, honey, the tofu's almost done, now we'll catch the bus to go to the environmental conference.' The minute the ring went on the finger, it was 'I want a steak and a limo ride, don't bother waiting up. We're going out!'

Is it true that at one time, your weekly trash could fit into your glove compartment?

That was true. It was true through 1999 (and then what happened? Oh, yeah, Rachelle). I was at a L.A. county hearing about a landfill. They were going to expand it, and I said, 'Why are we expanding this landfill at great cost to these people here in Grenada Hills, with the diesel fuels and everything? My amount of trash is, oh, about a glove compartment's worth a week.' Later that day, a Los Angeles Times reporter called about the statement and wanted to see if that was in fact the case. My glove compartment is in a VW Rabbit electric, which has the smallest glove box. It's like a Kleenex box. We went from room to room collecting garbage in my house; she went to every room in case I had some hidden stash of trash. We got all of it and I put it in the glove box. I used my bike-riding legs, and crammed the door in and it clicked shut.

What's next on your green-home wish list?

I have a few things I want to do. I want to put a cistern underground to collect rainwater in the back yard. I also want to have a grey-water system and collect that water. Other than that, I can't think of much more I can do around my house. It's a 1936 house that was very energy inefficient and now is quite energy efficient and short of knocking it down and building a new structure, which I do not want to do at all, I don't think there’s much more I can do there.

How did Begley's Best start?

Quite by accident. I was in a restaurant in L.A., Real Food Daily, and I was about to have a vegetarian meal and this guy taps me on the shoulder. 'Hi, my name's John Watts and I've been looking for you for years. I can't believe you're at this restaurant. Now that you're here, I've got something in the car for you. I'll be right back.' I figured he's got a DVD or a picture from a show he wants me to sign. He comes back with a bottle. 'It's this cleaning product. It's totally nontoxic but cleans great.' And I went, 'You’re looking for me? This is funny, I think I'm looking for you!' I was trying to start a line of products to do what Paul Newman did—have good products and give a lot of money to charity. And so I tried it, it worked very well, I put labels on it, found a bottler to bottle it, put it in boxes and started selling it, driving it all around in my electric car to save money on shipping. It grew and grew and now I have a distributor that's handling it on the West Coast. It's selling very well. I've taken no salary myself, or income from it, so I can give it away as quick as it comes in. We've given thousands of dollars away to charity.

You've been involved in so many environmental causes and groups. Can you talk about one of your favorites?

Restore America, the national trust for historic preservation, is why I'm in D.C. right now. It's a great thing to restore and preserve our historic legacy in these buildings, and do it with architectural and historical integrity—and make them energy efficient. It's possible. You can go to manufacturers like T.M. Cobb, who make the identical windows made in 1936, but double-pane. You can put insulation in walls and you'll never see it; it will not ruin anything in the interior or exterior of that building. You can put lighting that is more energy-efficient and put shades on and it will not look like modern lighting. There's much we can do with heating and cooling of these buildings and that's why I’m proud to be part of it. In California, much of the architecture is quite lacking. People's idea of great architecture was literally a big donut. You know, they have places called The Big Donut or the Brown Derby and some of it's very campy and being preserved now. I understand that. But I think the higher notion is to preserve buildings that are very, very old and very important and to do it in a way that's green.

What can you recommend for people who are becoming green?

There's so much people can do that's very, very inexpensive and easy to implement. An energy-efficient thermostat is something people who own homes can do, with a wake and sleep and leave and return mode. You can save a lot of energy there. Public transportation if it's available near you: There's nothing where you get more bang for your buck cutting down on traffic pollution, and improving your time. I find I get a lot of reading and preparation for different meetings done. If weather and fitness permit, you can take a bicycle. Gardening, if you have a little piece of dirt in your backyard or your front yard, plant some food there that you can eat. If you live in an apartment, become part of or start a community garden. All those things are dirt cheap, and they do wonderful things for the environment, right now, today. Then, when you save money from those things, maybe you can move up the ladder and do some of the medium-ticket items. Maybe you can put a rain barrel in to collect rainwater for watering. Maybe then you can save enough to put in solar hot water. You save enough from that, maybe you can one day buy a few solar electric panels, or buy yourself a hybrid vehicle or an electric car. So that's what you do, you start small and build. You don't run up Mt. Everest. You get to base camp, you get acclimated and you climb as high as you can. Not everybody can make the summit, but you can go to different heights and do what you're capable of.

Is there something green that you won't do?

I don’t have a composting toilet. If I was single and I had a cabin somewhere, I would try one, but my wife draws the line with some things. I also wanted to get one of those waterless urinals, but we only have one bathroom and a half. There'd be no place and it would, you know, not fly in my house at all.

Would you say that going green is addictive?

I don’t know if it's addictive, but it's something I certainly want to do more and more of. And I've been doing it a long time. I started in 1970, that's when I bought my first electric car, started recycling and composting, buying all biodegradable soaps and detergents. I changed my diet then for the better, more plant-based stuff and started eating really well. All those things turned out to make me feel good right away, feel good in body and in spirit, so I continued to do them. I also discovered something very quickly that I really didn't count on: I started saving a lot of money. All of them were also good for my pocketbook. When I started using solar panels to run my house, I discovered there was another level of financial savings that was incredible. It's not like I have a lot of money. I do not. I'm not a millionaire, but I don't need a lot of money. That's as good as having a lot of money. If your monthly bills are all so low, you have the luxury of going, 'Do I want to do that job? Out of town? Away from my daughter and the script isn't very good? You know what, no thank you.' You can't do that if you've got big bills to pay. If you've got to stoke so much coal in the furnace every month to keep the ship going, well, my furnace doesn't run on coal. It runs on wind, quite literally. I own a wind turbine in the California desert that pays me money every quarter. I get income from that and save a lot of money on other things. I suppose it is addictive. I'm addicted to saving money. I'm addicted to feeling good in mind and body. It's one habit I do not want to break.

What is your eco-sin?

The temperature in my house. When I was single, I used to keep it 68°F in the winter and 78°F in the summer. Now my wife wants it 74° in the winter and 76° in the summer. I'd be a liar if I said I didn't enjoy it. I fought her and made a big stink about it, but now that it is what it is, it's pretty comfortable.

You drove from L.A. to Florida and then to D.C., and are going to drive back again….

I kind of need to go all the places I do and use the amount of fuel I use in a hybrid car to get here, because there was a greater good in being part of Restore America, and doing multiple purposes for the trip. You know, I feel good about it. I drive the greenest form of transportation, which is a Prius, and also get the carbon offsets, the TerraPass. Because otherwise, if you're going to drive a Hummer and buy carbon offsets, that's like getting drunk every night and getting into an AA meeting, throwing money in the basket, and leaving.