7 Individuals Taking Extraordinary Steps to Protect the Earth

Andrea Bakacs is harnessing the power of photography to deliver eco-messages. She is pointing her camera at amazing pockets of nature and a host of green projects sprouting from nooks and crannies across New York City. She’s snapped shots of Manhattan's eco-friendly composting nuns, a farm complete with goats and chickens and cherry trees on a rooftop in the East Village, and the green movement's equivalent of graffiti artists — guerilla gardeners. Andrea is taking the public along for a ride on her visual story of green NYC.

Mark Shearer and Nick Gardner (a.k.a. "Project Dirt") combined their green hearts and business smarts to develop a unique online community called Project Dirt. It connects eco-conscious individuals with down-and-dirty urban greening projects in London. With dozens of projects on the site and an estimated 2,000 greening community projects eager to get on Project Dirt, Mark and Nick are knee deep while sharing their urban greening adventures and asking the public for help along the way.

Cate Trotter (a.k.a. the "Green Insider") is a 27-year-old environmental sustainability trend-spotter and "greentrepreneur”—green business expert—with the inside track on who's leading the environmental revolution and how to join them. Cate not only inspires individuals, but also advises businesses going green. She is sharing stories about her journey through London while she discovers emerging trends from its green scene including environmentally sustainable break-throughs, eco-architectural feats, ethical fashion trends, green technology innovations, and Gen Y eco-conscious culture spanning from art to nightlife.

Sami Nerenberg and Nate Bastien (a.k.a. the "Impact Designers") are creating environmentally friendly design solutions for impoverished and low-income communities. Nate is constructing a "Street Pack" for the homeless made entirely of scrap material otherwise headed to the landfill. Sami, one of the youngest teachers at the Rhode Island School of Design, is designing high impact, green "makeovers" for environmentally challenged homes as part of a community project with inner city youth.