Green Giant Ed Begley, Jr. Talks About Envrionment

TAMPA, Fla. (WTSP) -- Actor and environmental icon Ed Begley, Jr. headlined a weekend green conference at USF and talked with 10 Connects about when the green bug first bit him.

Friday at the University of South Florida's Marshall Center, a class from Learning Gate Community School in Lutz presented Begley with a handmade book.

A smile of genuine appreciation stretched across the towering actor's face as he read from the pages of "Earth, Earth, What Do I See?" to a group of first-graders sitting on the floor in front of him.

Each kid-created page showed off a different way to go green. Austin Lawrence's page was about sinks that only run water when your hands are under the faucet.

Begley said the youth of the class reminded him of when he decided he was going green, back in his early 20's. When the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, Begley got involved. He said the experience left him wanting to do more to counteract our negative impacts on the earth.

As he took small steps toward what we now call "going green", Begley realized he was saving buckets of money -- a big deal for a self-described "broke and struggling actor."

Begley came to Tampa to promote GreenSwitch, a product that turns off all of your energy-wasting gadgets with a single switch when you leave the house. It was one of dozens of money-saving green technologies on display at this past weekend's Campus & Community Sustainability Conference and the Going Green Tampa Bay Expo at USF.

At home in Hollywood, Begley's modest house is rigged with solar panels, a "gray water" recycling system, a solar oven, and more. But he's quick to say it doesn't take any of his high-tech gizmos, or even a groundbreaking conference like this one, for regular folks to start saving the planet and saving some cash.

Adding weather stripping around doors and windows, getting an energy-saving thermostat, and riding a bike "if weather and fitness permit," are all suggestions Begley put forward. Take those steps, and "I guarantee you'll save money," and be ready to take bigger steps to go green, Begley said.