The Daily Green's Heart of Green Awards 2008

In honor of Earth Day and the first anniversary of the launch of this Website, TheDailyGreen.com announces The Heart of Green Awards, a special editorial opinion feature honoring people and organizations who have helped take the 'green is good' message to the mainstream -- to the 'heart' of the American people.

The Heart of Green Awards are meant to highlight accomplishments that touch an emotional chord with Americans, in the belief that rekindling our lost love affair with Planet Earth, its creatures and the environment is a fundamental step in making going green a mainstream pursuit. Therefore, people whose achievements tug at the heart as well as the head...even ones that tickle the funny bone...make them candidates for having what TheDailyGreen.com calls 'A Heart of Green.'

This award also seeks to honor those who have enabled people in the 'heart' of the American public, especially those who do not self-identify as 'treehuggers,' to gain greater access to information about the threats to the planet as well as to the health of its inhabitants.

Readers of The Daily Green and readers of our 'Heart of Green' partner, green.msn.com can vote for their favorite Hollywood environmental star by going to our joint eco-poll and clicking on their favorites.

As part of this feature, TheDailyGreen.com is also announcing two related awards:

And finally, we are presenting the Heartless "Award" for a few who seem to make it hard for today's important messages about climate change, the environment and greener purchasing choices easily heard by the heart or the head of the mainstream of America.

The Daily Green HEART OF GREEN Award

Winner: Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is used to ruffling feathers; within one month of starting his first term he forced the nation to seriously examine the issue of gay marriage when he legalized the practice in his city.

How does one follow up a controversial move like that? By butting heads with a ubiquitous, environmentally irresponsible material: plastic.

In 2006, San Francisco banned plastic bags in large grocery stores and pharmacy chains (they can still offer biodegradable plastic bags). Newsom also signed an executive order banning the use of city funds to purchase single-serving plastic water bottles. You won't find those water bottles for sale on city-owned property either.

The environmental initiatives continue under Newsom's watch as his heart of green grows. Most recently, Newsom urged restaurateurs -- he was once one himself -- to serve only tap water at their establishments.

What's up next for Mayor McDreamy, as the gossip pages call him? We'd think an eco-friendly vacation.

The Daily Green HEART OF GREEN Award

It seems simple enough: Mad cow disease has been linked with downer cattle, which is the industry term for cattle that are too weak or sick to stand. Downer cattle are thus not allowed into the food supply.

But there are ways around this rule: With enough abuse, workers can force animals to stand up and walk into the slaughterhouse.

The Humane Society of the United States put a shockingly bright light on these issues with its undercover video taken at the Hallmark Meat Packing and Westland Meat Co., based in Chino, California. The footage illuminated the abuse that some animals endure on their way to the slaughterhouse: Workers prodded cows, put high-pressure water hoses up their nostrils, and used forklifts to force their bodies into an upright position.

The response was the country's biggest beef recall in history. The recall showed Americans just how far and wide the (tainted) products of one meat-packing plant can reach (the school lunch program, Philly Steak & Cheese Hot Pockets).

Now the issue became the safety of our food supply and the questionable practices of big suppliers. Attention turned to the benefits of sourcing food locally and the compassionate raising of farm animals.

The Humane Society's video is hard to watch, but its heart of green prompted important questions: What are we eating, and where did it come from?

Planet in Peril was a rare four hours of prime-time television. Big themes, in-depth reporting, a worldwide scope -- and it was all about the environment.

Better yet, CNN's splashy return to environmental coverage wasn't a one-off. Green news now gets a regular focus on Anderson Cooper 360, the anchor's eponymous news program.

Cooper 'keeps 'em honest,' as he likes to say -- whether he's questioning the Bush Administration's conflicted relationships with oil mavens and polar bears in the Arctic or the toxic levels of formaldehyde that FEMA let linger in Hurricane Katrina emergency housing.

360 has, of late, been winning the heart of the cable news audience. That gives the environment a starring role on the most recognizable news brands on cable TV.

With luck, we'll soon be hearing ad nauseam about 'the best environmental news team on television.'

First of all, how many major news organizations even have an environmental correspondent anymore? Not many, according to the findings of the Project for Excellence in Journalism: The average nightly news broadcast spends just 3% of its time on the environment (that's about one-third as much time as on sports).

But NBC, with its Nightly News Environmental Correspondent, Anne Thompson, made a commitment in 2007 to amp up its attention to green themes, both inside corporate headquarters and on its various news and entertainment platforms.

In a single week, when it kicked off its 'Green Is Universal' effort, NBC Universal boasted 150 hours of environmentally themed content -- aimed straight at the Heart of Green. And Thompson's five-part green series on the Nightly News put environmental coverage in front of millions of Americans during the most-watched evening news broadcast in the U.S.

What are the Top 5 Ways to Spread the Green Word? No. 1 would be: digg it.

Digg.com, founded by Kevin Rose and led by CEO Jay Adelson, has led the social media revolution by letting the audience decide what news matters most. A reported 26 million unique visitors stop by every month to see what their peers are reading.

By giving the audience editorial control over the front page, rather than newsroom editors, Digg showed how hungry Americans are for news about the environment -- from the political to the quirky, from hard science to conspiracy theory. At its heart, the crowd cares about these issue; Rose and Adelson let that show.

Environmental news is on the front page of Digg nearly every day.

About how many so-called major media outlets can you say that?

The Daily Green HEART OF GREEN Award

Winner: Michael Pollan

In his most recent book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, writer Michael Pollan offers a simple enough mantra: 'Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.'

But his rather basic message came at a desperately needed time. As he detailed in his 2006 book, Omnivore's Dilemma, America is a nation harboring an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. While we preoccupy ourselves with the latest way to get thin quick, and consume any chemical-laden concoction labeled 'fat-free,' obesity has become an epidemic and our blood pressure and diabetes rates are soaring.

Americans stopped knowing or caring where their food came from or who grew it, while Big Ag started supplying everything on our supermarket shelves.

Pollan's heart of green led him to offer sage advice to those asking what should be on our plates. Food is the sum of its parts (not just its individual vitamins and fat grams); consume proper portions; be wary of foods promoted as 'healthy' (fat-free devil's food cake being a great example of what not to eat).

Perhaps the easiest lesson he offers is to avoid eating what your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. That doesn't mean quit the kiwi if Granny never tasted it, but that cheese in a tube is gonna have to go.

With reports like How Can We Make the War in Iraq More Eco-Friendly?, The Onion proves it isn't afraid to ask the tough fake questions...

...and simultaneously skewer environmentalists, war mongers and news outlets all at once.

For making environmental journalism hip, hilarious and refreshingly nonsanctimonious, The Onion deserves a Heart of Green.

On November 3, 2007, celebrated environmentalist Bill McKibben led the massive Step It Up 2 campaign, which saw coordinated local efforts across the country bring awareness to the critical issue of global warming. There were marches, creative protests and more.

The first Step It Up campaign, on April 14, 2007, was called the largest demonstration on global warming in history. McKibben had begun the movement with a small band of young people and a five-day march across Vermont.

What is Step It Up about? It is calling for Congress to mandate an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants and a Green Jobs Corps to help get the job done.

McKibben has been a pioneer in raising awareness of climate change since his groundbreaking 1989 book, The End of Nature, and his leadership of Step It Up shows that he is truly taking the issue to the nation's heart of green.

The name Brad Pitt has become synonymous with the environmentally sensitive rebuilding of Katrina-torn New Orleans. From teaming up with Global Green for a groundbreaking eco-architecture competition aimed at generating sustainable rebuilding ideas to his current Make It Right NOLA campaign that gives everyone a chance to participate in New Orleans' recovery by helping sponsor 150 new homes (contributors have funded home number 81 as of today!) to moving to New Orleans with his partner, Angelina Jolie, and family, Pitt embodies a new, we-can-do-it spirit for the Crescent City.

For helping taking a green rebuilding message to one of America's most beloved cities, Brad Pitt has a heart of green.

First it was solar panels on his Brooklyn brownstone. Then insulation for the place made out of recycled jeans. And then joining up with the Do Not Mail environmental campaign.

Now, eco-star and activist Adrian Grenier is deep into production on a new television show called The Green Life, which he will star in and produce. The show, which debuts in June, will be on Discovery Network's new Planet Green.

From a eco-friendly Brooklyn brownstone to living rooms across the country, Adrian Grenier is taking the green message to the heart of the market.

In the 2007 summer blockbuster The Simpsons Movie, eight-year-old Lisa (with help from her hunky activist crush) warns Springfield about the dangers of toxic pollution. The local lake gets cleaned up...until Homer recontaminates it, setting off a disastrous chain of events.

Serving as the fictional Simpson family's moral conscience through the show's 19 seasons, young Lisa Simpson has inspired a generation to wear their hearts on their sleeves and get educated, and involved, about global issues, from justice to feminism and the environment.

Paul McCartney famously insisted that the precocious Lisa remain an ethical vegetarian throughout the show's run (on condition that the ex-Beatle would lend his voice), and Lisa has kept her end of the bargain. The pint-sized pixie fights for right and serves up facts and commentary with a heart of green.

One of the great lions of rock, Neil Young has inspired generations of musicians -- and he has done the same for the environment.

To spread the good word about clean transportation, Young is set to tour the country in a 1959 Lincoln Continental Mark IV (dubbed Linc-Volt) -- however, this ain't no ordinary Lincoln. The car is being converted into a bio-fuel burner and plug-in electric vehicle.

The rocker already fills his tour buses with clean-burning biodiesel, made from recycled cooking oil and domestic soy. Young is no green whippersnapper. His much-praised 2003 album, Greendale, is steeped in environmental themes. With friends Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp, Young founded the pioneering Farm Aid effort in 1985 to lend much-needed support to independent family farmers.

We can't wait for Neil Young's ride to roll into town!

Hayden Panettiere proved last year that she is far more than a cheerleader on the environmental sidelines when she literally jumped into the water to protest the brutal slaughter of dolphins.

In November, risking her own safety, Hayden took to the waves off Tiji, Japan, to bring attention to the annual local custom of open-water killing of thousands of dolphins. With surfboards in hand, Panettiere, along with a group of surfing eco-activists, swam into the sea to try to interfere with the kill. The incident turned violent and dangerous when angry fishermen began to use their boats and equipment to separate the protesters from the animals.

Hayden's emotional and personal response to this ritualized animal cruelty makes her heart of green one she wears right on her sleeve.

Just in time for Earth Day, Leonardo DiCaprio's important, groundbreaking feature film documentary, The 11th Hour, is being released on DVD.

Narrated and produced by the star himself, the film's genius lies in the pairing of breathtaking visuals from all corners of the globe with the very latest lowdown on climate change from dozens of eco-experts from all over the world. Not content to just present the problems, the film is also riveting for its exploration of the solutions.

DiCaprio's stand in making this film and now the Warner Home Video release of the DVD: two important ways Leonardo is taking the green message to the heart of the market.

The Daily Green HEART OF GREEN Award

Before locavore became the 2007 Oxford English Dictionary word of the year, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon set out on a local eating experiment. Dismayed by the not-very-green statistic that in North America the average ingredient has traveled at least 1500 miles to reach our plates, for one year, they ate only food that could be found within a 100-mile radius of their Vancouver apartment.

Not only did they survive to tell the tale, they've become huge advocates of locally sourcing food. They discovered the pleasures of making meals from scratch and getting to know the people who grew the ingredients. They shared their passionate hearts of green with those of us interested in eating closer to home with their book, 100 Mile Diet, and continue to do so on their blog.

With the experiment over, they admit to letting some faraway favorites back into their diet (beer, chocolate). But with a newfound pleasure for eating locally, they pose this question to readers of their blog: What if we spent more time on self-sufficiency and less time at the office?

Full disclosure: Alisa and James's 100 Mile Diet blog is also featured on TheDailyGreen.

Unlike every other TV weatherperson, Heidi Cullen is a Ph.D. climate scientist.

She's a big reason the Weather Channel has come so far from its founding (by a climate science skeptic). Today, it airs Forecast Earth several times a week, emphasizing the larger trends in the environment, not just the severe weather alerts in Topeka.

Moreover, her program bridges the gap between isolated weather phenomena and cutting-edge climate research. Tune in for the Local on the 8s, come away with an understanding of how global warming comes home to your backyard -- delivering the green message to the American heartland.

The more people see how climate matters to them, the more likely they are to deal with what Cullen once called 'the ultimate procrastination problem.' As Cullen expresses so clearly, global warming is a problem we can't afford to avoid.

What's more mainstream American than a hardware store or home center? Dad's Saturday morning run for his weekend project...Mom's trip down the paint aisle for the right color...contractors piling materials into their pickups...

What a brilliant venue for a big-time eco-play that combines smart business with helping millions become comfortable with earth-friendly products for that most important place in their life: home.

Ron Jarvis, VP of Environmental Innovation at The Home Depot, has done this very thing with the Eco-Options Brand program. The goal: Make The Home Depot the world leader for offering green building products. And make it easy for everyone to distinguish the green choice from the rest.

Every product in the program -- 3,000-plus, and growing by the day -- has less of an impact on the environment than competing products. Each fits into at least one of five categories: sustainable forestry, energy efficiency, healthy home, clean air or water conservation.

3,000 green products. An Energy Star Partner of the Year Award. Ron Jarvis. You can go green. He can help.

Can you be a billionaire playboy and an eco-evangelist?

Blond and unfailingly ballsy (after all, he did sign the Sex Pistols to a record contract before he started breaking world records for globetrotting by niche transit), Branson plays hard, is massively successful and seems to actually care about the state of the Earth.

So much so that one of his Virgin Atlantic airplanes made the first commercial flight burning a biofuel blend just this past February. So much so that he's using GM hydrogen fuel vehicles to ferry first-class customers at LAX. So much so that he's convened talks with high-powered business and political figures on his Caribbean island (yes, he owns one) to discuss how to solve the climate crisis.

Branson has said he wants to be as well known around the world as Coca-Cola. We can't help but think that could be a very good thing for spreading the green message to the heart of the market.