ecorazzi.com :: the latest in green gossip

April 22nd 2008

Bette Midler Joins Bloomberg For One Million Trees Initiative

Filed under: campaigns — michael @ 9:01 pm

Bette Midler was in New York City this Earth Day and — as she supposedly does every time this year — she planted a tree. She wasn’t alone, however, as hundreds of volunteers participating in NBC’s “Green Is Universal” initiative joined her in East Harlem. Midler is the founder of the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) and joined forces with Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “MillionTreesNYC” initiative — which seeks to plant and care for one million trees throughout New York City’s five boroughs by 2017.

Earlier this month Tyra Banks also joined Mayor Bloomberg in planting a tree on Ninth Avenue. Back on April 12th, over 20,000 trees were planted throughout New York City — the largest ever planting accomplishment in one day. Click here to learn how you can either help out — or get a few trees in your neighborhood!

Photo credit: Sheknows

April 10th 2008

Tyra Banks and Bloomberg Plant A Tree On Ninth Avenue

Filed under: events, events: nyc, green and famous, thegreenpicture — parrish @ 1:46 pm

Tyra Banks is crazy ya’ll. But not like crazy in a bad way, just like…you know…crazy in a Tyra Banks kind of way. Like stripping off all her clothes on national television or dressing up like a homeless person and living on the street for a night. You can kind of always expect Tyra to be just a little out there.

Well yesterday Tyra got serious as she and previous America’s Next Top Model contestants Claire Unabia, Saliesha Cooper and Jaslene Gonzalez joined New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to plant an Oak tree on Ninth Avenue as part of the Million Tree Month and as a commemoration of the 600th episode of the The Tyra Banks Show.

And a tree wasn’t the only thing Tyra planted. Before the day was over she had planted a nice wet kiss right on cheek of Michael Bloomberg. Oh Tyra!

The event will air on an episode of The Tyra Banks Show sometime after Earth Day.

thanks: justjared.com

April 3rd 2008

Michael Blooomberg Honored For Environmental Leadership

Filed under: business, events, events: nyc, green and famous, honors, politics, thegreenpicture — parrish @ 11:08 am

Tuesday night New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was honored alongside Bank Of America CEO Kenneth D. Lewis by the Natural Resources Defense Council for their outstanding environmental leadership. The event took place in New York City and had a swanky guest list with names like: Ralph Lauren, Candice Bergen, Lauren Bush, Chevy Chase and Sam Champion.

The NRDC recognized PlanNYC, a project Bloomberg put into place to enhance New York’s urban environment and develop a model for efficiency and sustainable. It’s estimated that PlanNYC will contribute a 30% reduction in the city’s global warming emissions.

Kenneth D. Lewis from Bank Of America was honored for leading the bank on a $20 billion, ten-year initiative that encourages development of environmentally sustainable business practices through lending, investing, philanthropy and the creation of new products and services.

What do you think Ecorazzi readers? Are you happy with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s pick for environmental leaders? Chime in and tell us what you think.

December 4th 2007

Global Green USA Lights Up NYC With Sustainability Awards

Filed under: events: nyc, green and famous — melissa @ 12:36 pm

Anchorwoman Katie Couric arrived fashionably late for the red carpet entrance but the host of the Global Green USA’s Designing a Sustainable and Secure World Awards had to first deliver the CBS Evening News to the American public.

The awards event was held at the Ritz Carlton Battery Park City and was packed with eco-friendly celebs, active environmentalists and green innovators. Speakers included actors Josh Lucas, Josie Maran, playwright Eve Ensler, and the beautiful and talented Glenn Close. Other notable celebs in attendance were comedian Chevy Chase, actress Kyra Sedgewick, CNN contributor Jeff Greenfield, and Matt Peterson, President & CEO, Global Green. Josie Maran, who recently launched a green beauty product line, proudly also announced that her baby wears G Diapers. She shared and interesting green fact that I was unaware of: flying on a red eye gives off more carbon gas than other flights so she tries to avoid doing so.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg excitedly shared the details and video of plans for the city’s first Green School in the Lower Manhattan. Sloan & Roger Barnett, owners or Shaklee Corp. and winners of the Organizational Design Award, explained how they got started. Their son was diagnosed with severe asthma. After extensive digging they discovered no family history of asthma and realized their son must have gotten asthma from the environment. They urged for every school to use natural cleaning products.

Pratt Industries earned the Industrial Design Award and was accepted by Anthony Pratt, CEO & Chairman. This year’s winner for the Green Building Design Award Media and Entertainment Design Award given to Discovery and accepted by David Zaslav, President & CEO. The Founder Award was given to Scott Seydel, President, EVCO.

The night included a silent Eco-Auction and contributors included BOSCH, Citizen Watch, Farm 2 Market, EDUN. My personal favorite was the ME & Ro bracelet. During the delicious, organic dinner I had a chance to talk to some attendees and a heard repeated sentiment about the great Brad Pitt. Most agreed he has been doing a stellar job getting people aware, but several people expressed mild disappointment that he did not even mention the name Global Green on the Today show interview yesterday in New Orleans.

November 26th 2007

A Mouthful Of Greens

Filed under: events: nyc — michael @ 4:22 pm

Global Green USA, the domestic affiliate for The Green Cross International, is having their 8th Annual “Designing A Sustainable and Secure World Awards”, on December 3rd, 2007 here in lusty, dusty NYC! Bring your appetite and checkbook because this hoedown will feature not only buckets full of classy nosh, but also an eco-auction bound to satisfy the inner Angelina Jolie in all of us. Special guests are rumored to include Kyra Sedgwick, Josh Lucas, Parker Posey and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Big ups to the Global Green USA on their special day for rocking el verde all across the continent, but guys honestly…The Designing A Sustainable And Secure World Awards? Are we serious here? This title doesn’t even leave room for a clever acronym. My advice: ditch the tongue twister and come up with something a little shorter and a lot sweeter. I mean just think of all the ink you’ll save on invitations alone.

This post was submitted by our new contributor, the excellent Michael DuDell of New York City. If you’re interested in writing for the only site that encourages you to dig through gossip for the greater good, let us know!

November 21st 2007

Rockefeller Tree to Shine Green

Filed under: events: nyc, green and famous, music — kelli @ 1:29 am

Mega-stars are beginning to show their holiday spirit: Celine Dion, Josh Groban, country-girl and World’s Sexiest Vegetarian Carrie Underwood, and High School Musical’s Ashley Tisdale are revving up their performances for the Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting Ceremony, which will make it’s ‘green’ debut next week.

Called the “first ever ‘green’ Christmas tree”, this year’s tree at Rockefeller Center will be draped with 30,000 light-emitting diodes- a five-mile strand of starry lights that will not only illuminate New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg believes will “inspire private-sector creativity” and allow the tree’s 500,000 daily visitors to “dream of a ‘green’ Christmas”.

While the 2007 Rockefeller Tree Lighting Ceremony isn’t until Wednesday, November 28th at 7 p.m., some lucky passersby have already spotted Carrie Underwood and her backup (ice) dancers practicing (or pre-taping?) her holiday performance.

Kelli Shields is a community outreach organizer with the Center for Biological Diversity.