# EXCLUSIVE Interview with Meg O’Neill, Manager of PlanetGreen.com and Treehugger.com

- Link: https://greenlivingguy.com/2011/07/exclusive-interview-with-meg-oneill-manager-of-planetgreen-com-and-treehugger-com/
- Published: 2011-07-01T16:22:16-04:00
- Author: greenlivingguy

Formerly an architect writer, eco diva Meg O’Neill now manages the great websites
for Planet Green tv network (part of Discovery Network). Those websites are PlanetGreen.
com and the infamous Treehugger.com. Listen to Meg and the Green Living Guy talk
about how it all started, where the upcoming lineup is headed and how renewable 
energy is really the green energy of the future.

The interview took place in 2010 so you’ll understand when you read the interview
and hear shows that are already on Planet Green or have been on the network.  Here
is my exclusive interview.

_GLG: Green Living Guy here. Just hanging out, not freezing now. I was in my last
interview with some people but now, not freezing. I’m hanging out. I’m talking with
the great Meg O’Neill who, believe it or not, ladies and gentlemen, is the editor
of both planetgreen.com and treehugger.com. A superstar, rock star, you can’t even,
it’s so hard. I’m so impressed, I’m so happy to be just in the presence of such 
greatness. How you’re doing, Meg O’Neil!_

**Meg ONeill: I’m pretty great after an intro like that.
 

 _GLG: I try to do my
thing, what can I tell you. So what’s going on at, let’s see. Let’s pick which one.
Oh, you know what? Let’s start with, you start with TreeHugger, correct? So let’s
talk about your whole history with the whole Planet Green and TreeHugger family 
and how it all started for you. I think that’s a good way to start it off._

**Meg O’Neill: Sure. Well, I joined TreeHugger 5 years ago, a little over 5 years
ago right after launch and at that time I had been working as a journalist covering
primarily architecture and design stories. And there is a big movement already happening
culturally in architecture and design in green and I was just really fascinated 
by that. It was something that I was following and reporting on quite a bit. And
when we launched TreeHugger, it was very design focused and so it was a good, a 
good fit. I met Graham Hill who’s the founder of the site and we were often running.
I was writing the stories; he was running pretty much everything else. He’s a designer
and a media architect and off we went. We felt that pretty quickly that there was—
that our audience is hungry for more than just design information and news so we
quickly expanded into covering nature, politics, [fashion](https://greenlivingguy.com/2022/06/first-look-at-buicks-new-wildcat-ev-concept/),
food, health, and all the categories that we have today.**

_GLG: Right._

**Meg O’Neill:  Here we are.**

_GLG: Wow! That’s a story, man. Now, I’m going too…That’s awesome! That’s great!
I never realized that you had an architecture and design background that helps you
to make, well, originally TreeHugger to be so, you know, I guess hit and stylish
and conscious of not just going green but looking great at the same time. It was
really that connection that I think only increased your web traffic back then exponentially
as should say._

**Meg O’Neill:  Yeah. That was our — that was sort of our MO. You can go green and
look good doing it.**

_GLG: Yeah it was, definitely. Yeah, I mean tell me more about like how you each
story written had that the whole thing about feeling good and looking good and understanding
how to go green at the same time. What was that mission you are trying to get accomplished
with almost every story that you are getting out there? Like what was the mission
when you put a story out there that it contains not just the side of the story, 
if you know what I mean?_

**Meg O’Neill: Sure. Well, we, you know, our mission was that and remains now — 
sustainability into the mainstream. And I think we’ve come a long way but we’ve 
still got a long way to go. But you know, we still very much believe that design
in a large sense can be a solution to many of the problems that we face. So not 
just, I mean not just how we design our homes or our rags or our clothes but literally
how we design our cities. So it’s everything. I mean design is behind everything
from [toilet paper](https://greenlivingguy.com/2012/02/toilet-paper-use-and-environmental-impact-survey/)
to subway system.**

_GLG: (Laughs) I never look at it that way but it’s true, yeah._

**Meg O’Neill: And so, so we really look at things that way, systematically, and
designers are creative people and they’re problems solvers. And that’s how we see
the issues of sustainability. So many green designers will say what we have here
is a design problem. We have to think to use that sort of tight trace out of the
box but we do. We have to think about things in new ways. We have to think about
the embodied energy of products that we make and also what happens to them at the
end of their lifecycle as well as what happens to us while we use them. And so thinking
about things in that closed group system is really what design is all about and 
it’s also what sustainability is all about. So that’s where the real overlap is,
and there are a few things.**

_GLG: That’s cool, that’s cool. I like that. And then the Planet Green merger with
TreeHugger, how was that? How do you think it’s gone? Where is it going? What’s 
the future with the planetgreen.com or Planet Green in general? I mean it’s just
so exciting to have the channel out there. So where is it going? What’s cooking 
with that whole thing? _

**Meg O’Neill: Well, as we reported, this merger and acquisition, TreeHugger acquires
Discovery Communications.**

_GLG: Really now? Hey now!_

**Meg O’Neill: This of course, it’s a little bit of a joke.**

_GLG: Now that’s funny._

**Meg O’Neill: We were purchased by Discovery Communications which is of course 
parent company of Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC, Science Channel, all those
goods on air and online fusions in 2007 and it’s been really great for us. It’s 
been a way for us to expand our audience, expand our resources, start to infiltrate
TV, and that’s a whole new world of media for us which has been really fun. The 
reason why we were acquired by discovery was because they were launching a new channel
called Planet Green and the website planetgreen.com and what to say in the on-air
channel are really looking to deal or just look at sort of future forward, passionate
people doing forward thinking things and just sort of see what the good future is
going to look like. So online, TreeHugger’s are very news-oriented stuff, sort of
the bleeding edge concepts, ideas, and news of what’s happening in green. And Planet
Green is our service, how to section and it’s also you’ll see more and more. We’re
branching into a lot more storytelling about people and about people doing passionate
things, not just in the green things but in really all arenas of the humanity. It’s
everything from fashion and looking at things like fair trade to technologies in
medicine, to humanitarian design and just to show that the idea of green really 
goes beyond even just environmentalism. It’s really about sort of a world view of
how we look at doing things, the welfare of all people on earth.**

_GLG: Yeah. What’s really green is really life, it’s everything in life. I mean 
when you think about sustainability, it’s everything you do, everything you create,
everything you bring into this world has a beginning, a middle and an end. And with
that, you create something where it comes from.  You produce it somewhere else most
of the time and then you shift you back to where you are going to sell it and all
that has a net the fact. So it’s great to have a channel like this. How has the 
channel looking forward in its programming? Where is it headed? Is it looking also
to more video content on the internet so that people can like get old seasons or
something like that, or where is the future leading that which will also be for 
green, too? Because you guys are really leading the charge, no pun intended with
the electric car thing, but I don’t but it’s just, where is it going? It’s so exciting
so I am just so curious where green people are heading when they’re going forward._

**Meg O’Neill: Yeah. Well, there are some really cool programming coming up, some
new original contents coming up for Planet Green and some of these shows include
one that I am really excited about is called Future Food. It is the story of this
avant garde chef who is in Chicago and he is making food in the most wild of ways,
literally like printing food out on a computer. You go into his restaurant and you’re
served — the menu is edible, okay. He’s done everything. You’re served cotton candy
and it is like a picture of a piece of cotton candy on a piece of paper that you
eat and it tastes just like cotton candy.**

_GLG: Oh my goodness._

**Meg O’Neill: I mean really wild stuff and his kitchen is more like a science lab
than it is like a traditional restaurant kitchen. These guys are just doing wild
stuff in the kitchen. I mean they’re using lasers, they’re blowing stuff up, they
combining the wackiest stuff, but at the end of the day there are big, their big
thing is combating world hunger. So, we see on this show how they approach all of
these things and they are just fascinating people. Another one that has just launched
is called Operation Wild. It is sort of like animal cops if you will.**

_GLG: Alright then._

**Meg O’Neill: It’s environmental police.**

_GLG: Bad boys, bad boys. What you gonna do?_

**Meg O’Neill: In the Florida [Everglades](https://greenlivingguy.com/2011/05/everglades-fundraising-with-glade-iator-program/)
and it is just wild. They go through their stuff and poachers, they’re saving animals.
I mean this is a hard work.**

_GLG: Yeah, yeah._

**Meg O’Neill: These are just regular guys and this is what they do for their job.
I mean it is just fascinating. Another one that I am loving that you’re going to
see launching soon is called The Fabulous Beekman Boys and this is a sort of a docu
drama series if you will about these two man, they are couple and they live the 
city life in New York where one of them was a…one is a doctor and he was working
for Martha Stuart on the media company, the other one is an author and they moved
out into the country to run a farm.**

_GLG: Alright then._

**Meg O’Neill: It’s a story of city boys gone and it’s just that they have goats
and they grow food and they make soap and they’re quite successful at it through
of course many trials and tribulations but the real story is about how they connect
with their community in the small town in Upstate New York where they live and…**

_GLG: Where is that located?_

**Meg O’Neill: I can’t remember the name of the town, I can’t remember.**

_GLG: Okay._

**Meg O’Neill: Sorry.**

_GLG: No worries. Moving on…so._

**Meg O’Neill: Yeah. It’s a wonderful show.**

_GLG: Awesome._

**Meg O’Neill: And they’re great guys, and it is just — it’s really real. It’s cool.**

_GLG: Right. I dig it, yeah, because it’s, well, it’s definitely a shift for somebody
and going from the city to the country and then living that life but that sounds
like a definitely a huge line up coming up here. And going forward, I guess, I guess
some question that I’d have for you is where do you think were headed or where does
Planet Green and Discovery think were headed with energy? I guess is, how do I put
it, the way the future is, especially in this country is definitely toward renewable
and clean technologies. We just saw an executive water for that today, but we got
to be concerned about how we’re creating our energy, and what do you think the core
mission of Planet Green is when it talks about, I know what it does, I know you 
guys and we all love electric cars and all that stuff and it is great but energy
is the big thing of the day so what’s your thoughts on that?_

**Meg O’Neill: Sure, I mean energy is a huge, huge issue. We are consumers of energy
that’s pretty much what we do. Cars and transportation are vitally important to 
the equation of reducing our carbon as a nation to a sustainable level. We’ve got
a long way to go, but that’s only one part of the equation. For most individuals,
our homes are our biggest sources of carbon output which is a surprised for many
people. Many people think it is their car or their use of transportation. But how
we use energy and what kind of energy we use is of vital importance. We absolutely
need to shift to a clean energy economy as fast as possible. The politics of that
is extremely complex of course.**

_GLG: Yeah, it is._

**Meg O’Neill: Which is now they already exist. That’s that good news.**

_GLG: Yeah, I hear you. I feel the same way. I mean, we’re on the same page there,
you know what I mean, and it is funny because it is like, it’s always been. That’s
one thing I put in and build your own electric vehicle and it’s like electric cars
have always been here. Solar has been here. Wind has been here, I mean the Dutch,
hello. I mean we’ve had stuff around and wind has been around because I am talking.
Anyway, so, what do you think about? I mean what do you think about which is all
thought provoking lately, I hate to use it, but the state of the union and the where
we’re headed in energy policy in this country?_

**Meg O’Neill: Well, I mean Obama talked about, he did sort of a debate going out
in the green community that he say enough about renewable energy, did he not say
enough. He mentions nuclear. He has appeared to be, if not pro-nuclear, certainly
supportive of the idea of nuclear. I think it is a really important debate that 
we have to have. I don’t, TreeHugger and Planet Green I would say that the first
thing that we would want to see is no new coal and we have got to start using coal.
It is just old fashion and it is not relevant anymore. We don’t need it. The question
of nuclear is an extremely complex one. We haven’t built a new nuclear facility 
in this country for 30 years or more. It is clean energy in the sense of carbon.
There’s obviously some huge issues with waste storage that we haven’t solved.**

_GLG: Correct, yeah._

**Meg O’Neill: So I personally think we can do better than nuclear but from a political
standpoint, it might be something that we have to look at.**

_GLG: Yeah. It’s unfortunately a football._

**Meg O’Neill: I hope that we see a lot more decentralized energy. We are fighting
about whether wind is the right thing to do or solar is the right thing to do. Well,
the truth is it’s the right thing to do depending on where you are. I live in Rode
Island and my house is like about to blow down today.**

**It is so windy. But we have a few, we have two wind turbines on the small island
where I live and think that that’s, and they’ve been hugely successful and people
actually love them for the most part. People are in support of them. **

**So I think that that’s good news, though we definitely need much better several
policy to help us build these things, not only as energy producers in the country
but even just building the parts themselves. I mean we’re hearing it all over the
place now.  We’re where should shipping all of these, all of these technical jobs
overseas to build wind turbines in China. We’re going to be behind again pretty 
quickly.**

_GLG: That’s right. Science and education is the big thing and it’s just crazy that
we bring those jobs over their when we could be doing them here. We talk about an
economic revitalization of this country and the first thing I think of is building
more energy efficient opportunities here because it is the way of the future and
it is not even at this point I think even the way of the future is now and it is
the future, it’s today and it has been for awhile and it is going forward. If we
do not start creating the economy here, everybody else will start a following. China
is not, is going that way.  They will continue to dominate on that front if we don’t
step up and I think that messages that we’re bringing out into shows like Planet
Green and the other television that’s starting to do that I think only will help
people to see that we got to do this. I just would be curious just on the technological
standpoint, where is Planet Green on talking regularly about clean technology and
creating content so that people can have a venue for that? I know there is one show
that I can think of and I’m forgetting the name that I saw once where they talked
about clean energy but it there going to be more of a discussion about that going
forward on Planet Green?_

**Meg O’Neil’: Yeah. You’re definitely going to see more, some new technology shows
coming out. These have not been formalized or released yet but they will be soon.
Because actually, a couple exciting things in the works that are going to be very
tech oriented that I think will be really cool.  One of the mission that Discovery
at large is to certainly educate but also entertain. So the programming that you
see across the Discovery network really focuses on getting you excited about the
content and making you want to watch it and making it fun. I mean think about a 
show like the Myth Busters. You learn so much but it is so fun to watch.**

_GLG: Yes, it is. Yes._

**Meg O’Neill: So that’s our real goal, if not to be real policy oriented or wonky
or newsie on air.**

_GLG: Well, thank goodness, because I got out of politics a long time ago for that
reason. I am sorry. But go ahead._

**Meg O’Neill: But to really entertain the viewer and the audience could get them
excited about this stuff. So I think you’re going to see a lot of cool stuff coming
down the plate.**

_GLG: That’s great. I mean it only help a network like Planet Green the on the forefront
which it already is, don’t get me wrong, but I mean even that more forward thinking
than it already is and already leading the charge, no pun intended now for a larger
cause. Anyway, so. But I would, that’s my Mr Subliminal, remember that from Saturday
Night Live. So it is great that we are hearing more about that because the debate
still rages about nuclear or nuke or nuke-cular or coal or [clean coal](https://greenlivingguy.com/2019/12/clean-coal-energy-isnt-green-heres-why/),
or clean…that there is such a thing as clean coal or is it just me blowing smoke
somewhere, that’s not cool. Is it and then you have got all these other more natural
gas exploration yet. I remember, which is ironic, not ironic but that we just recently
had in my area, we defeated a natural gas pipeline. I mean I do not get why we are
still fighting that, I should not say fighting, not fight, but I’d say more like
[talking about that when really](https://greenlivingguy.com/2019/12/ice-permafrost-lets-really-talk-about-our-arctic/)
the economy is toward and it would be the smartest thing just for us to focus on
it a lot more on going green. I mean every…there are so many ways that we can be
going green that it’s like we can do it. It’s just the will. It’s the free will 
and it’s sometimes so funny in that irony because we could be doing so much more
if we just had the ability to just do it. Meaning, and I think that’s what’s great
about Planet Green because it didn’t just enables you, they just do it._

_You do not have to worry about the government waiting…you don’t have to worry about
a Copenhagen. You do not have to worry about somewhere else to do that. You just
turn on the TV and learn some stuff, go on the website planetgreen.com and read 
some stuff. By the way, check out me in planetgreen.com, add a request, and it is
just great how a show, there is a network like this. There is no other real network
like this. Yeah, there are other channels that have environmental or green content.
But you guys are doing why I went to Sundance which is like 100% green all the time.
And it’s just so wonder to have you guys around doing your thing and bringing further
content. So, if you unless you have got anything, well, you know what? I am going
to leave you with the parting words Bill O’Reilly once said. I’ll leave you with
the last word but I will do it in…but the only difference is I do it fuller than
him, sorry Bill. I am trying to just bring love, not anger, like that. That guy 
just needs to go to a doctor and talk to somebody. I love the guy._

_He’s fun to watch. He is entertaining but he needs to talk to somebody because 
he is just way too angry, have fun, enjoy yourself, enjoy life, because if you just
keep green, all great things happen from not just your energy but how you feel when
you eat to the water you drink. I mean it’s just great. So, any last words?_

**Meg O’Neil’: Well you know, you just reminded me when you are talking about the
political will to change everything. It reminded me of something that Al Gore, that
controversial character once said, and he said that we have everything we need to
go forward with the Green Movement except political will, but luckily, political
will is a renewable resource.**

_GLG: [laughing] I like that one._

**Meg O’Neill: In fact, we have everything, everything we need except to, except
to everybody
 listening, to move it forward.

_GLG: I agree with that one and thank you so much, Meg, for taking the time on a
Friday when you could be hanging with your lovely daughter and you’re hanging out
with me to talk about great green things but that’s what we do with people, that
lovely Green Movement. We can not stop talking about it. I just have to do one thing
if you don’t mind. If it was not for my sponsors or whatever, I wouldn’t be blessed
with the opportunity to, not just spring podcast but go the places like Sundance
or just do great things and I work with great green companies. I got a geothermal
company I’m working with called J Egg or Egg Geothermal and they’re like in the 
southeast so check them out on the web, Egg Geothermal, and also A Lot To Say which
is [http://www.alottosay.com](http://www.alottosay.com) and they have got 100% recycle
plastic bottles as their t-shirts. They feel like soap guys. The women love them
and the guys love them, too. I wear them, I wore it at Sundance, believe it or not
guys. I wore this thing. It felt great, big old change, blue change in the middle
of it. You can check me out on [greenlivingguy.com](https://greenlivingguy.com/green-living-resources/green-living-news/)
and check out my picture on there and you will see the shirt._

_It is awesome and it’s 60% less energy to make. No water and they’re all made in
the USA, and the people at A Lot To Say are the coolest and it just shows how which
is what great thing about people like Meg or anybody that I have noticed in the 
Green Movement is just everybody wants to do the right thing. Everybody is so cool.
Everybody is so fun. And it is just that the more good great things you do, the 
more positive things happen around you and that’s what people just want to exude
in green, it’s just positivity. So rock on, Meg, and just keep on doing what you’re
doing because it is so great. So thank you much again._

**Meg O’Neill: Thank you!**

_GLG: Alright. Thank you! Green Living Guy saying peace out, have a great weekend.
I’m definitely calling it quits for today and stay green 100% all the time. Signing
out!_

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 greenlivingguy

 The Green Living Guy, Seth Leitman is an independent power producer, a green living
expert, and Editor of the McGraw-Hill, TAB Green Guru Guides. Seth is also an Author,
Radio Host, Reporter, Writer and an Environmental Consultant on green living. The
Green Living Guy writes about green living, green lighting, the green guru guides
and more. Seth's books range from: # Build Your Own Electric Vehicle by Bob Brant
and Seth Leitman (2nd and 3rd editions) # Build Your Own Plug-in Hybrid Electric
Vehicle by Seth Leitman # Build Your Own Electric Motorcycle by Carl Vogel # Green
Lighting by Seth Leitman, Brian Clark Howard and Bill Brinsky # Solar Power For 
Your Home by David Findley # Renewable Energies For Your Home by Russel Gehrke #
Do-it-Yourself Home Energy Audits by David Findley # Build Your Own Small Wind Power
System by Brian Clark Howard and Kevin Shea # and more green living books to follow.

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