The Community Environmental Council Announces 2011 Environmental Hero Award Recipient: Daryl Hannah

The Community Environmental Council (CEC) is pleased to announce the 2011 Environmental Hero Award recipient: Daryl Hannah. Hannah will accept the award in person at the CEC’s Earth Day Festival at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 17, at the Festival Main Stage. James Cameron, writer and director of Academy Award® winning film, Avatar, and recipient of the CEC’s 2010 Environmental Hero award, will also be at the Main Stage to present the award to Hannah.

“At this year’s Earth Day Festival, we want to show people the power they have in their daily choices to make Santa Barbara one of the first fossil-fuel-free communities in the nation,” said Sigrid Wright, Associate Director, CEC. “We think Daryl Hannah’s media presence, her renown within top international environmental groups, and the daily choices she makes in her own life all exemplify the values we would like to see put into action by our community; that is why we have chosen her as the recipient of our 2011 Environmental Hero award.”

“We are so pleased that both Daryl Hannah and James Cameron will be at our Festival this year, not only as Environmental Hero award recipients, but as individuals that are turning the spotlight on issues which affect the future of not just a few people – but all of us.”

Daryl Hannah has been passionate and committed to practicing a low impact lifestyle for over 20 years. From her small footprint, passive and active solar home complete with gray water systems and organic garden, to being an early adaptor of biofuels, Hannah has been actively spreading the good news of how well it all works and how good it all feels.

She has produced, hosted and shot numerous green TV appearances, including features for CNN International and Good Morning America. She relishes and has seized the opportunity on many occasions to speak to the unconvinced, such as Bill O’Reilly, host of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor and Sean Hannity, host of Fox News’ Hannity.

Hannah is also a greening consultant and has worked for a number of events, including the Virgin Music Festival, attended by over 150,000 people.

Her many international speaking engagements include keynote speeches on the environment at a United Nations Global Business conference, the National Biodiesel Board Conference, Natural and Organic Products Expo, LOHAS (Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability) 9 Conference and Film Festival and many others.

At the invitation of the President of the United Nations General Assembly President, Hannah addressed dignitaries from the United Nations member states, representatives of the media, the scientific community and the private sector at the Assembly’s thematic debate on “Addressing Climate Change: The United Nations and the World at Work” in 2008.

Hannah has written articles on sustainability for many magazines including Jane, Marie Claire, Metro International and Veg News.

She designed and films her website, www.dhlovelife.com, which is dedicated to sharing solutions on living more harmoniously with the planet and all other living things. The site features weekly five-minute inspirational video blogs, daily news updates, alerts access to goods and services and more.

Hannah is one of the founders of the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance, a certification program for sustainably produced, harvested and produced biofuels. She sits on the board of the Environmental Media Association, Eco America, the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance and the Action Sports Environmental Coalition.

Hannah is a documentary and narrative filmmaker, which she has both directed, written and produced. Her short, The Last Supper, won a prize at the Berlin Film Festival among others and she is editing a documentary at the moment.

Daryl Hannah has acted in over fifty feature films since the age of 11. She has invented board games and toys; she keeps bees, rescues stray animals, and loves music, hot springs, wild things and wilderness.

In 2010, the CEC honored Academy Award® winning director, James Cameron, at its Earth Day Festival, for his eco-inspired film, Avatar. The son of an engineer, Cameron majored in physics at California State University but, after graduating, drove a truck to support his screen-writing ambition. He landed his first professional film job as art director, miniature-set builder, and process-projection supervisor on Roger Corman’s Battle Beyond the Stars in 1980 and debuted as a director with Piranha Part Two: The Spawning the following year.

In 1984, he wrote and directed The Terminator, a futuristic action-thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. It was a huge success. After this came a string of successful science-fiction action films such as Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Cameron is writer and director of the two highest-grossing films of all time: Titanic in 1997 and Avatar in 2009. He is one of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood.

In the past, the CEC has honored such eco-pioneers as Hale Milgrim the former CEO of Capitol Records; Jim Dehlsen, the former CEO of Clipper Windpower; musician Kenny Loggins, and Elon Musk, founding CEO of Tesla Motors.

Earth Day 2011

The CEC presents the 2011 Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival at Alameda Park on Saturday, April 16, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday, April 17 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. This year’s theme is “Powered by the People,” and is in line with the CEC’s Fossil Free by ’33 campaign, which emphasizes the power of daily choices in making Santa Barbara one of the first fossil-fuel-free communities in the nation. The Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival is FREE to all those who wish to attend.

Santa Barbara Earth Day History: In the wake of the devastating 1969 oil spill off Santa Barbara’s shores, a group of local concerned citizens began talking about a different way of looking at environmental systems. Over the next few years, around the country the environmental movement was born – including the Community Environmental Council, which was incorporated in the spring of 1970. During that time, Senator Gaylord Nelson visited Santa Barbara to view the damage from the oil spill. When he returned to Washington, D.C., he introduced a bill designating April 22 as a national day to celebrate the earth. In CEC’s first act as a newly established non-profit, it hosted one of the first Earth Day celebrations in the country in 1970.

About the Community Environmental Council

Since 1970, the Community Environmental Council (CEC) has led the Santa Barbara region – and at times California and the nation – in creative solutions to some of the toughest environmental problems. Today CEC is focused on eliminating the use of fossil fuels in the Central Coast region in one generation – Fossil Free by ’33. Find the CEC on the web at www.cecsb.org on Twitter @CECSB and on Facebook, Community Environmental Council (CEC).

For more information on Earth Day: go to www.sbearthday.org follow the event on Twitter @SBEarthday, “Like” “Santa Barbara Earth Day” on Facebook or call 963-0583 ext. 100.