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The green glitterati gathered on the evening of September 10th for the ForestEthics 100 Million Trees Party at W San Francisco. More than five hundred guests attended the glamorous green event to support ForestEthics’ Do Not Mail campaign to stop unwanted junk mail from reaching American mailboxes and save 100 million trees per year.
Celebrity hosts in attendance included actress Annabelle Gurwitch (Planet Green’s Wa$ted, Dinner and a Movie), Founder of the Plastiki Expedition David de Rothschild, Producer Peter Glatzer from Reconcile Productions (Alter Eco with Adrian Grenier), and Hollywood’s resident Eco-Macgyver and Planet Green star Darren Moore. ForestEthics Board members Nadine Weil and Marika Holmgren co-chaired the event. Other notable guests on the green carpet included Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, Architecture for Humanity founder Cameron Sinclair, ecofabulous founder Zem Joaquin, Adam Boucher, ForestEthics Executive Director Todd Paglia, Urban Revision founder Stacey Frost, Organic Architect Eric Corey Freed, and numerous Bay Area social change and environmental leaders.
San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi won the inaugural ForestEthics In the Company of Giants Award for standing tall against endangered forest destruction and leading the passage of a historic Do Not Mail resolution in San Francisco in March 2009, the first in the country. Guests enjoyed Treetini eco-friendly cocktails by VeeV, top biodynamic wines by Quivira Vineyards, an Eco-Beauty Station by Jane Iredale mineral cosmetics, and gourmet tastings by TCHO chocolate while raising over $150,000 for ForestEthics’ programs to protect forests in North America. VIP guests were treated to their first pair of PACT eco-underwear, the new line by designer Yves Behar that benefits ForestEthics, Oceana and 826 National. The 100 Million Trees party was sponsored by HP Eco Solutions, Heart of Green, Greenhouse Capital Partners, Urban Revision, Chef Jeffrey Lawton, ecovations, Ethos Green Energy Asset Finance, OCSC Sailing, and Organic Events.
Based in San Francisco, ForestEthics is a nonprofit environmental organization that recognizes that individual people can be mobilized to create positive environmental change—and so can corporations. Corporate mobilization is a tool that is changing the entire paradigm of environmental protection, and ForestEthics is leading that movement. ForestEthics views corporations not as obstacles but as opportunities and future advocates of positive planetary change. To date, ForestEthics has protected more than 67 million acres of endangered forests (45 billion trees) and transformed the environmental practices of some of the largest companies including Victoria’s Secret, Staples, Office Depot, William-Sonoma, Home Depot, and Dell.
The production of the 100 billion pieces of junk mail that Americans receive annually requires more than 100 million trees, while producing as much global warming emissions as 3.7 million cars. Moreover, this is occurring in forests that play a vital role in the fight against climate change: the Canadian Boreal Forest and Indonesian Tropical Forest. The greater Boreal Forest alone stores more carbon than any other terrestrial ecosystem on earth. Yet, it is logged at a rate of 2 acres a minute, 24 hours a day, to produce junk mail and other paper products. U.S. junk mail accounts for 30% of all the mail delivered in the world, though 44% of it goes to landfills unopened. Deforestation causes 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. The 100 Million Trees Party benefits ForestEthics’ campaign for a national Do Not Mail registry that would be similar to the successful Do Not Call list and give citizens control over their mailboxes. Over 100,000 signatures have been collected to date at www.donotmail.org. More information on ForestEthics is available at www.forestethics.org.