Voting is now open for the INTERNATIONAL GREEN AWARDS™ Most Responsible Celebrity Award. Nominees include the global eco-glitterati such as George Clooney, Penelope Cruz, Ian Somerhalder, Sachin Tendulkar and fashion visionary Vivienne Westwood, among others.
This award seeks to recognise an international media figure who has consistently promoted the sustainability agenda globally and as a result, influenced mass audiences as a celebrity. The competition is now open to a public vote at www.greenawards.com. This year’s nominees are comprised of 10 well respected celebrities who are deemed to have used their prominence to promote environmental and sustainable development issues and thus have become ‘responsible celebrities’. The candidate with the most votes will be announced as the winner at a showcase sustainable gala dinner on Tuesday 20th November at the Battersea Power Station, London. The winner will then be heralded as the ‘greenest’ media exemplar internationally.
Last year’s winner international supermodel Gisele Bündchen said in her acceptance speech “I have been blessed with the opportunity to bring attention to environmental causes, they are dear to my heart.” She also thanked her fans for voting and said of the award “Thank you for this special honour, I am filled with gratitude.”
In these troubled times for the environment, with climate-related disasters never far from the front page, it’s often news which features celebrities which attracts the most green media interest. The International Green Awards™ aims to raise the bar around the ‘cult of celebrity’. This award puts the spotlight on those progressive individuals who are keen to harness the power of the media, challenge conventional thinking on the climate agenda and who are really ahead of the game by ‘doing their bit’ for the future of us all.
Celebrities are undoubtedly some of the most powerful influencers in the world – they set trends for others to follow and thus are opinion leaders in their own right. In recent times as we adjust to the age of business transparency, an increasing number of celebrities have jumped onto the environmental bandwagon, while still others have truly embraced issues from animal rights through to deforestation and famine. Aside from their affluence, celebrities can set a very clear example for others as role models by endorsing sustainable lifestyles from recycling and purchasing low carbon vehicles through to switching to renewable energy.
All of the media figures selected have already used their media prominence in some way in the past few years to engage with mass audiences on environmental, CSR or sustainable development issues. In fact, many of the nominated celebrities are already recognised as ambassadors for organisations such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Tony Juniper, Writer, Campaigner, Independent Sustainability Advisor and 2012 International Green Awards™ Ambassador commented “This is why I am proud to support the International Green Awards™, so that more people can see what is already happening, the leaders of positive initiatives be recognised and the rest of us to be encouraged by what they are doing.”
Don’t forget to make your vote count vote for the celebrity you respect the most by visiting www.greenawards.com before 6th August.
