about us

Low Impact Living™ is a way of life.

We believe you want to lessen the load you put on the earth. You want to reduce global warming. You want to recycle. You want to do what's best for the environment, but often you don't know where to start. And you don't know what impact your efforts will have, or how much they will cost.

At Low Impact Living, we want to help you lower the environmental impact of your home and your daily life. To do that, we help you find the best green products, practices and service providers to help you achieve your environmental goals. And we will also help you understand the environmental benefits and economic trade-offs of your choices. Our primary goal is to make the path from inspiration to implementation as short and as smooth as possible. Only by taking action will we collectively reduce the damage to our planet and ecosystems.

Low Impact Living's Founders

Low Impact Living was founded by the husband and wife team of Jason Pelletier and Jessica Jensen. Low Impact Living grew out of their growing concern for what is happening on our planet, and the difficult process they went through when they tried to make their own home more sustainable. They hope that their personal experiences, along with those of LIL's dedicated staff and customers, will help make a green home more attainable for everyone.

Jessica Jensen

Prior to launching LIL, Jessica was the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Investor's Business Daily, a national stock market media company. Before that, she worked as a Project Leader for the Boston Consulting Group where she led strategy projects for Fortune 500 companies in the media, entertainment, satellite, office products, financial services and other industries. Jessica has also lived and worked in Japan, where she studied Japanese foreign aid policies in Africa for the Japanese government. She has her MBA from INSEAD (France), a Masters of International Relations from U.C. San Diego, and a B.A. in Political Science and Asian Studies from Amherst College.

Jason Pelletier

Jason has spent much of his career working to protect and restore the environment. He began his career as an environmental engineer cleaning up some of the country's largest hazardous waste sites. Over the past five years he has provided management advice to environmental organizations such as the USDA Forest Service and the National Audubon Society, and has managed water quality and habitat restoration projects for North East Trees, a nonprofit in Los Angeles. In between he worked at the Boston Consulting Group, where he led project teams in the health care and high tech sectors. He holds a B.S.E. from Princeton University and an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA. He is also a LEED Accredited Professional by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Low Impact Living Services

Calculate your environmental impact This isn’t just another carbon footprint calculator. We’ll help you assess your full environmental impact and identify ways you can lower it.

Learn what projects you should undertake to reduce your impact We recommend projects and products that will help you reduce your impact, and we show you the costs and returns on your investment.

Find the best green products and service providers Looking for a good solar provider in your area? Want to find a low-flow shower head? We’ve got all of your green needs covered.

Learn more about environmental damage and our green alternatives Maybe you just want to learn more about environmental topics. We’ll help you understand the damage we’re currently doing to our planet, and give you useful information on environmental impact-reducing practices and technologies.

Sustainability and LEED Consulting Services Low Impact Living also provides sustainability consulting services to corporations, nonprofit organizations and homeowners. Our projects range from calculating carbon footprints to LEED certification support and green materials selection.

Our methodology for selecting products and service providers

Low Impact Living is constantly looking for great green products and service providers to bring to you, our customers. On the product front we look for manufacturers and products that use natural and/or organic inputs; do not emit toxins or other unhealthy byproducts; practice sustainability in the sourcing of their inputs (e.g., use Forest Stewardship Council guidelines for procuring wood); are conscious about the environmental impacts of their packaging and distribution; and help you reduce your overall environmental impacts. Typically we will note the source and practices of products we promote when we list them on our site.

On the provider front, we have started to build the first comprehensive source for U.S. environmental service providers available on the internet. We have tried to evaluate these service providers as best we can. Where ratings from other services have been available, we have reviewed them. We have called service providers directly to discuss their services. Unfortunately many of the service providers we have listed do not yet have third party ratings. We are listing them here because it is very difficult to find many of these providers through other means.