Last night, I attended The Imagen Foundation Awards with Chill Out producer Melinda Esquibel of Mundo Maravilla, director Melissa Balin of the Brookturn Company, and NWF board member Lyvier Conss. (That's them with me and Jose Yenque in the photo at right.) The evening was filled with awards for amazing and talented actors, writers, agents, and a legendary civil rights and social justice leader.
Chill Out was nominated for “Best National Informational Programming” for the positive portrayal of Latinos and Latino culture in the entertainment industry. It's the first webcast to be nominated for this prestigious award, and we were up against four other incredible programs about varying topics. We didn't win, but we were so thrilled to be nominated and attending the ceremony.
A few highlights of the night included meeting Jose Yenque, one of the talented actors featured in the Chill Out webcast. Jose has been a great supporter and was so excited to be a part of our program, as it is such an important issue. We met the beautiful and young actress Caitlin Sanchez, the voice of Dora the Explorer. Tom Cruise surprised everyone by showing up to give one of the awards. Benjamin Bratt, Robert Orci, Jimmy Smits, Judy Reyes, Silvio Horta, Wilmer Valderrama, Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and so many more incredible actors, writers, producers and executives were there.
Of all the amazing women attending the awards, one stood out among the rest—national civil rights leader and humanitarian Dolores Huerta. She was being honored with the 2009 President’s Award for her work in social justice. Dolores has been a leader in the community for 50 years, co-founding the United Farm Workers of America and advocating that people transform their lives by becoming leaders in their own communities. The Dolores Huerta Foundation’s mission is to inspire and organize sustainable communities.
The Imagen Foundation Awards was a great time to celebrate the amazing and creative Latinos in entertainment and in the community, and we were honored to be recognized by an organization that supports the same goals as we do: a fair, diverse society that takes care of its people and environment.
Our Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming program has been nominated for an award from The Imagen Foundation for its positive portrayals of Latinos and Latino culture in entertainment. NWF is thrilled to be nominated for this prestigious award!The Chill Out webcast was shown on over 400 college campuses this year and showcased the winning campuses of the Chill Out competition.
The winning campuses have amazing projects and initiatives on campus to reduce global warming emissions. The initiatives range from a strong transportation plan to a fuel cell power plant that powers part of the campus.
The broadcast is narrated by an all-star cast of students, faculty and staff and a broad range of advocates and activists in today’s environmental movement, including: Academy Award-Winning producer Lawrence Bender; actor Courtney Gains ("Sibling Rivalry"); musician and composer Ethan Gold; comedian and host of Planet Green’s "Wa$ted" Annabelle Gurwitch; musician Nick Jago, Actor Efren Ramirez ("Napoleon Dynamite"); actor Alisa Reyes (Nick’s “All That”); Founder and CEO of Karmaloop.com Greg Selkoe; director, screenwriter and actress Angela Shelton; actor and stuntman Isaac Singleton Jr.; producer, first president of eBay and founder of Participant Media Jeff Skoll; Tony-Award-winning poet "Poetri" Smith; actor Douglas Spain (HBO’s "Walkabout"); actor Michael Welch ("Twilight"); actor Jose Yenque ("Traffic"); and actor Shawn-Caulin Young ("Dreams and Shadows"), and music by Austin band The Steps.
Chill Out is a low carbon footprint production, going well beyond the industry’s sustainable filmmaking guidelines, and has been recognized by the Environmental Media Association’s Green Seal Program for using the film industry’s best environmental practices.
The awards will be presented at a black-tie dinner gala on Friday, August 21st at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. Check back Friday night to see if we won!
On April 15, National Wildlife Federation will unveil the winners of the 2009 campus Chill Out competition! These campuses are incredible examples of how the students, faculty and staff at colleges and universities are leading the way towards a sustainable and clean energy future.
We’re announcing the results in a free webcast - Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming that you can screen on your campus or on your laptop. Tune in to hear from colleges that are leading the clean energy movement and lowering their carbon footprints.
Speaking of footprints, we made sure to keep this a low carbon production, going well beyond the industry’s sustainable filmmaking guidelines. In fact, we were recognized by the Environmental Media Association’s Green Seal Program for using the film industry’s best environmental practices.
This year’s webcast features an all-star cast of students, faculty and staff from all over the country, along with some Hollywood faces—Comedian and host of Planet Green’s Wa$ted Annabelle Gurwitch, Academy Award Winner Producer Lawrence Bender, Actor Efren Ramirez (Napoleon Dynamite), Actor Michael Welch (Twilight), Actor Jose Yenque (Traffic) and many more!
Register to see how we greened our production, who were this year's competition winners, and what real ingenuity and leadership on campus looks like. We recommend you use Chill Out as a mobilizing tool, on its own or as part of your other Earth Day activities. We’ll even send you an organizing kit via email to help you plan. The webcast will be available at 9am on April 15, so you can download and view at your own convenience. The program lasts 30 minutes and is designed for students, faculty, staff and administrators.
(Oh, and there are prizes for a lucky few, like a Kaplan Test Prep course or an Mp3 download from The Steps. Just thought you’d want to know.)
Moving Past the Low-hanging Fruit at University of Missouri
One of our Chill Out! competition winners, the University of Missouri, has accomplished the admiral task of reducing their energy use by 19% per square foot since 1990, while still expanding the campus space by 60%. While this means that energy usage has still risen in the past 18 years (from 2.04 million MMBTUs to 2.66 million MMBTUs), the university estimates that its $14 million investments have returned about $28 million, providing more funds that can be funneled towards further improvements.
A recent article in the Columbia Tribune details many of the strategies they used to save energy, including high-efficiency building standards, adding biomass (corn cobs and waste wood chips) to the campus coal-fired power plant, installing motion sensors to control heating and lighting, and replacing windows.
Although the article simply skimmed over this quote from Jay Hasheider, energy management specialist at Columbia Water and Light, I want to emphasize it: "It’s very hard to achieve those reductions. It’s not just one thing; you have to work on several different fronts
to get the overall building consumption down, and it gets harder and
harder." Hasheider goes on to explain that as time passes, the investment needed tends to rise, because you've already taken advantage of low-hanging fruit.
Plus, as many universities are finding, once you've achieved the "quick wins" from efficiency upgrades, you run into a whole new set of problems, like the fact that your college might take the money you've saved in energy costs and give it to other departments, rather than keeping it in a revolving fund for further improvements or renewable energy purchases. Campus expansion is also a factor, as at MU. The university's total energy consumption has risen with its population, even as it becomes more efficient.
I've heard a number of different solutions to this problem, ranging from capping enrollment to purchasing carbon offsets, none of which is any kind of perfect or long-term solution. What is your college doing? Are you still on the easy and (relatively) inexpensive improvements? Or are you, like Mizzou, reaching the point where your carbon footprint is getting harder to downsize?
Hundreds of colleges and universities, schools and businesses all across the world are hosting the National Wildlife Federation’s second annual broadcast, Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming as part of their series of activities leading up to Earth Day on April 22. The Chill Out competition and awards program continues the National Wildlife Federation’s tradition of recognizing and celebrating innovative solutions to global warming on our nation’s campuses. The inspirational examples illustrate how it is possible to dramatically reduce our use of fossil fuels and human impact on the climate to achieve what the science is necessary: a minimum 2% annual reduction in CO2 emissions.
For example, Butte College in Oroville, California expects to be carbon neutral by 2015 without relying on carbon credits by employing solar panels and fuel cells for energy storage; the University of Missouri has grown by 60% but has reduced energy consumption by 19%; students at the University of Montana have taken 1,000 cars off the road every day through green transportation policies; Cascadia Community College and the University of Washington-Bothel are sequestering carbon dioxide and protecting wildlife through extensive habitat restoration; and students at the Berkshire School in Massachusetts capped carbon emissions and trade allowances among the residences.
As noted by moderator, Andrew Lee, a member of the National Wildlife Federation’s Youth Advisory Council and former Campus Ecology Fellow, “we have a moral responsibility to lead, especially in the US, where we have only about 5% of the world’s population, but use almost 25% of the world’s energy resources. Our colleges and universities are among the wealthiest in the world and are recognizing more and more that our higher education institutions bear a profound responsibility to lead.”
Host sites include colleges and universities, high schools, schools and businesses in the US, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Canada, China, India, Iran and Syria. An additional 150 sites or more are anticipated to host the program in the month of April 2008 and beyond. To date, Chill-Out is the only nationwide program with a global reach that specifically showcases solutions to global warming on US campuses.
We're less than a week away from the second annual Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warmingwebcast! This FREE webcast will feature colleges from around the country that are leading the fight against global warming. Ask our panelists questions, learn more about what youcan do to confront global warming on your campus, and watch student videos.
Chill Out is next Wednesday, April 16 at 7pm Eastern. Sign up today to host this free webcast on your campus!
The National Wildlife Federation is hosting our second annual national competition called Chill Out! Campus Solutions to Global Warming. The purpose of the contest is to spotlight solutions to global warming on your campus and to share these with a national audience.
Chill Out is looking for the best, most innovative campus-based projects in clean energy, energy efficiency, transportation, habitat restoration, waste reduction and more.
Enter Chill Out by November 30 and you’ll have a chance to win grant money, prizes and national publicity. All you need to do is send your 500-word essay or three-minute video describing your campus’ efforts to Chill Out by November 30. Winning campuses will also be featured in a national broadcast viewed by thousands of students, faculty, and staff on April 16, 2008.
Colleges and universities are leading the fight against global warming. Are you? Let the world know what you’re doing to reduce carbon emissions and protect the future by entering Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming.
Are you tackling global warming on campus? Then you need to Chill Out!
National Wildlife Federation's Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming competition is back and its bigger than ever! Win prizes and get noticed with the nation's only annual global warming solutions contest.
Global warming is a solvable problem. How do we know? Because we've seen what colleges and universities are doing to solve it. Get recognized for your work by entering Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming. We're looking for the best, most innovative campus-based projects aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Send us your 500-word essay or three-minute video describing your campus' effort and you'll hve a chance to win grant money, prizes and national publicity (not to metion a lot of good karma from sharing your ideas with other).
We have a huge searchable case study database that can help you get ideas on how to get your program off the ground! We have podcasts to listen to on sustainability topics! You can enter Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming, NWF's second annual national competition! Not to mention much much more!
Get yourself and your campus involved with Campus Ecology today!
