Michael Alexander of Conscious Planet Media and Nick Rosen

Michael Alexander has a long history in the holistic and green health fields, and is co-founder of Conscious Planet Media.

“The idea for Conscious Planet Media was conceived on my honeymoon,” Alexander reveals. “On a napkin, [my wife and I] came up with a new media company — a company that would address issues of sustainability, being green, consciousness and social justice.”

Alexander, who co-founded the company with his wife, Bianca, brings his green consciousness to the fold while Bianca, whose background is in the media industry, provides her expertise.

The idea of the “sacred storyteller” — a community member who passes on wisdom and shapes the future — is the gist of Conscious Planet Media’s message. By educating their audience about various green cultural niches via video, print and the Web, Conscious Planet Media is ingraining these important ideals and spreading green knowledge.

Nick Rosen, joining the show from London, is one of the world’s premier experts on off-the-grid living. Rosen, a documentary filmmaker, was shooting in New York City in 2003 during the infamous East Coast power outage, and it really opened his eyes to society’s reliance on a constant energy stream.

“I’m not sure if [electrical grid power] didn’t exist these days that we’d need to invent it, because technology has moved on,” Rosen says. “It’s quite possible to generate energy locally now. We don’t even need the grid the way we did 100 years ago… I’m not sure we even needed it then.”

Rosen experimented with wood-burning stoves, rainwater capturing and solar panel electricity and found it a transition of ease. He even felt a sense of green pride, and felt some economic relief as well. Rosen cautions that living off the grid certainly isn’t for everyone, but it is important to know that it is available, even if you choose to work your way up to it.

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