Interview: Sophia Bush and Austin Nichols on Going Green at Home, at Work, and In Between (Interview, Part 2)

Sophia Bush and Austin Nichols, stars of the CW's One Tree Hill, are a busy couple. They recently returned from a visit to Louisiana to have a closer look at the impact of the Gulf oil spill -- read all about it in Part 1 of our two-part interview -- but when they aren't working to help uncover the real impacts of the worst environmental disaster in our history, they're working hard to green their lives, both at home and at work. Follow both on Twitter -- Sophia is @sophiabush and Austin is @AUS10NICHOLS -- to keep up with their latest work; read on to learn how their lives are different now that they're back, how they work to turn small steps into big actions, and even where they come up a bit short when it comes to going green.

Planet Green: How did people respond when you returned from your trip?

Sophia Bush: We came back and so many people said, "It's great what you're doing, but oil really helps people down there." I'm well aware of that, but we were talking to people who work in oil, who are begging for a different way to make a living. I can guarantee you that if we had netted turbines in the Mississippi River and in the Gulf, and we had as many jobs available for people down there using green energy companies as we do from BP, Shell, Exxon, Chevron, these people would not work for oil. They don't want to pollute their environment, they don't want to pollute their ocean, because even the guy who works on an oil rig fishes with his family, spends time in that coast. That's where they're from and that's what they're passionate about, and if they could make a living a different way, they'd be doing it. So it's really up to us to present new options, and then people walk away from the dirty option.

Austin Nichols: Jimmy Buffet is so awesome for what he said on Anderson Cooper--he said, when the automobile came in, a lot of people lost their job shoveling horse manure, but then they figured out they could fix a flat. And it's so true, if we find ways to produce jobs, then that's when change is really going to happen. I am not anti-oi; I want to wean us off of oil. I'm pro jobs, but oil is a finite resource. I'm not trying to stop drilling, we're not trying to take anyone's jobs away--we want to find new solutions, and wean us off oil slowly.

SB: We are putting the earth through more changes in our lifetime than in its own evolution it would have gone through in tens of thousands of years. Oil took millions of years to build up in these reserves but we're taking them away at such a rapid, excelled rate, we already know that they're going to be gone.

The sun is not going away. Plants have grown on the planet for millions of years because of sunshine. We could so easily change the way we harness energy--if there was a way to put a solar panel on every house in this country, we wouldn't need to be drilling for oil the way that we do. We could power our homes and our cars and our lives on the energy of the sun and we wouldn't be dealing with an ecological crisis that's causing massive amounts of death in the ocean.

It's really just about realizing that it's possible, and also people realizing that it can be as beneficial as life the way they know it now. People don't want to change because they think it's hard, but it won't be if we all commit to do it and if we start small.

AN: This oil spill was really a big catalyst for us to really jump on the issue and start to motivate people.

SB: And to make the issue public and to really let people know how passionate we are about it. We're both pretty private, we're not the kind of people that are always running around trying to get our names and faces out there. We avoid that sort of thing and with being public about things you're passionate about does come an infringement on your privacy.

But that's what happens, now we have to acknowledge publicly things about our private life, like our relationship. There comes a point when you realize being quiet for your own convenience is no longer acceptable. and for us it was worth it to say look, we've got to put ourselves out there a little bit but this is so important, that it matters.

PG: How do you respond to people who think going green is too expensive?

SB: I saw firsthand down in Grand Isle people who have no wealth whatsoever, people who work with their hands all day every day, who bring home food on their table because they caught it in the sea--these are not people who drive Bentleys or fly on private planes. They are not wealthy people who are clamoring for a green future for their Gulf coast.

There's no part of environmentalism that is elitist, it's not that only people in a certain pay grade recycle--that's not true, and anybody who thinks environmentalists trying to change the way we power our cars is trying to take away their four-wheel drive truck has been misled by somebody who comes from some sort of line that makes all of its money in oil.

People who I know who compost are farmers and ranchers, and anybody who wants to say that it's only rich people who want to green--it's rich people who make their money from dirty energy that are trying to convince people who don't have extra money that it's going to cost them more money to be green.

PG: Did you grow up in green families?

AN: My dad is a very outdoorsy guy and I've always been, too; we always wanted to go on vacations and be outside, to exercise outside, go hiking and camping. We were raised to pick up trash wherever we saw it and we left the place nicer than the way we found it, that sort of philosophy. But I've taken it to a new level and my parents are still trying to catch up, and I imagine most people our age are the same way. Our generation is definitely surpassing our parents. Like anything else, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, and we've found that the most static coming from our parents and their parents, and people that age that are skeptical about the whole thing. It's like, hey guys, what's the downside? Throw it in a different bin, is your life really impacted that much?

SB: I spent a lot of time in the wilderness as a child and I spent every summer up in the mountains at camp, and when I was past the age range of a camper I became a counselor. I always pick up garbage wherever I may be, and my family has always done that as well: We've gone on camping trips and road trips where we pull over and pick up after other people if they're not willing to pick up after themselves. I've never understood why someone would finish drinking a soda and throw the bottle out of their car--it's ridiculous, why not keep it in the car until you get to a place where you can dispose of it properly?

Austin and i were just at Bonnaroo with a lot of our friends, and one of the things I love so much is that Bonnaroo really promotes itself as a green festival, and at every single location where there's a garbage can there's a landfill, a compost and a recycle can. We noticed this year that people were just leaving garbage wherever they were, and we were so grossed out at the main stage in this huge field waiting after one concert to see another that we went over to the food vendors, got giant plastic bags, and started picking up recycling and garbage to take over to the stations. As we were these crazy people walking around picking up other people's trash, we had fans of our show going, "Oh my gosh, this is so exciting, can we take pictures of you?" And we looked at each other and said, "If you bring us ten pieces of recycling, we will take a picture." So then all these groups of young people started running around this huge field, and then they'd count off ten pieces of recycling and then we'd take a photo with them and someone else would come up--for an hour we cleaned up!

AN: The great thing there is they list trash as landfill, and I think we should do that everywhere--because trash is something that goes out of sight, out of mind, but if we label trash "landfill" then you're immediately reminding yourself in your brain that you're putting that into the ground. I don't know why we haven't done that for years.

SB: It doesn't just magically go away. It goes somewhere, it stays on the planet, we don't have space stations we shoot trash out to.

PG: So that's a case where being a celebrity actually helps, but are there other times where being part of Hollywood means it's harder to make green choices?

SB: I think making the choice to live a "green" life is your choice no matter what you do, whether you're famous or whether you work at the bank. I know we're talking about the environment, but it sort of irks me when people say "Oh, you make green choices"--no, I make the right choice. I make a choice for my future, the future of my family, the future of the children I will have someday. It's not acceptable to look at the planet as something that's here at your disposal, because it's been here for millions of years, before us, and if we don't totally screw it up it will hopefully be here for millions of years after our generation has passed on, so i think people should realize that it just needs to be the way they live.

AN: Also, I think it's really fun. I think composting is the coolest thing I've ever done. I have this little pail that spins, I feel like a gerbil, I go out there with all my vegetable leftovers and stuff--it's super fun, it's like a game to see how much I can recycle. I bought a scooter two years ago and it gets 110 miles to the gallon. I want to get an electric scooter--I want everyone to ride scooters so our country can look like Italy. Scooters are great. I think trying to reduce my carbon footprint is pretty fun and entertaining and if people looked at it that way instead of as an infringement on their time, things would change quick.

PG: Is any part of your life that's not as green as you'd like it to be?

AN: No, not really. I don't have any data but I think my life is pretty clean. I don't think i have a really big footprint. I may fly more than most people, but the other day on Delta they had this statistic on their screen that said, once we reach cruising altitude we fly you 55 miles to the gallon. So I know that planes waste a lot of fuel taking off, but 55 mpg at cruising altitude is pretty great when you have a plane full of 200 people, when cars carry 1 to 4 people and they only get 20-30 and hybrids 40-50. If a plane can do that well, cars I think are where we really need to focus.

SB: For me, it's really been about evaluating. I'm constantly reevaluating my footprint. I bought a house last year and the first thing that I did was have the water heaters replaced with tankless water heaters. I rarely run the AC at the house, I open all the windows in the middle of the day--and it was a hot summer in LA, but i don't think we turned on the air conditioning more than 4 or 5 times in three months. It comes down to little things too: when it's time to get a new refrigerator, get an Energy Star appliance. When you start being aware and you try to green your home by using less air, taking shorter showers, getting a tankless hot water heater, using better filters for your air conditioner, you start saving money.

PG: What about on-set--are you trying to make One Tree Hill more eco-friendly?

AN: We've been trying to do this for a long time, and I imagine that people everywhere are facing the same static. If you're not the boss it's really hard to get change like this made because basically, they have to look at their bottom line. For years of working I'd go into my trailer every morning and every single light was on--finally I told the teamsters to leave my lights off, don't touch the thermostat, I'll deal with it when I get there. So just little things like that that people can be conscious of.

SB: I had a little bit of a freakout about a year and a half ago at work. I walked by a garbage can and there were so many recyclables in the garbage can that, in full hair and makeup and wardrobe, I stuck myself in the garbage can up to my shoulders and dug out every piece of recyclable material in it. I made everyone come off the set, everyone on our crew, and I said "Look at this! There are 150 of us that work together every day and this is what we're doing, it's not acceptable!" So now we have recycling bins at work, and I still sometimes fish recyclables out of the garbage and people joke around, uh-oh, Sophia's here, make sure you throw your plastic in the recycling bin! It's funny but it's not that hard, and it should just be something that we do.

They no longer turn on the AC on the soundstages the night before, someone comes in in the morning and turns it on. You might be a little hot for an hour in the morning, but you don't need it on all night in a building that's not in hundred-degree weather. And I used to get really weird dry skin patches--certain times I'd go to work and put on wardrobe and by the end of the day I'd have a rash all over my arm, under my sleeves of my clothes, and it was because of the chemicals in the detergent they were using. So now everybody at work uses Seventh Generation and I have not had a problem since.

Read Part 1 of the interview with Sophia and Austin for more from the couple.