I was at the Stand Festival (celebrating sustainable living) yesterday when this guy came up to me and said he had overheard me talking to someone about Green Streets and wanted to know more about it. As he started to tell me a little about himself and his work, I knew I wanted to interview him. Here’s how it went:

PPnG: Hi. What’s your name and how old are you?

JM: My name is James Mills and I’m 42.

PPnG: Where do you live and what do you do for a living?

JM: I’m a Freelance Journalist and Online Media Producer and I live in Madison, Wisconsin.

PPnG: What do you think about living green and how do you practice it?

JM: The first thing I did was a make a significant career change. I was a traveling salesman for fifteen years and I quit that profession that required me to drive 35,000 miles a year and decided instead to find work in the field of journalism which requires me to drive little, if at all. When I do travel, it’s usually in my bio-diesel Jetta and I live in a town that’s small and environmentally friendly, easy to get around on bike or public transportation.

PPnG: Do you see Madison as a green city?

JM: Yes. Madison is a college town. It’s also the state capitol. It has a community based in the farming belt of America. Technically, it’s always been green however there’s definitely been a shifts towards increased consciousness in sustainable living practices. For example, we now use renewable energy here in the form of wind power.

PPnG: What is your favorite green thing to do?

JM: My wife and I have an organic garden that we rent from the University for $25 bucks a year. We can grow anything we want to and right now we are growing basil, tomatoes, five different types of lettuce and other vegetables. The University rents 1,300 plots on a 25 acre piece of land right on campus. It’s two miles from the capital and a mile and a half from our house. So we can walk there or take our bikes and bring our dog with us if we want to. It’s a really great way to get exercise, fresh food and commune with our neighbors who have adjacent plots and teach us about sustainability by their own example.

What a great idea. Thank-you for your contribution to Green Streets.