Robert Redford -- Celebrity Green Report
Written By Katherine Sansom
May 14, 2007
Robert Redford is another A-lister who has rejected his sex-symbol label in favor of that of a serious environmentalist campaigner, but Redford has been heavily involved in the struggle to raise public awareness of environmental issues for more than five decades now – longer than he has been gracing our screens as an actor.
Amongst other awards, Redford has accepted the 1987 UN Global 500 Award, the 1993 Earth Day International Award and the 2004 NRDC Forces for Nature Lifetime Achievement Award. He has met with world leaders, organized international conferences and invested thousands of dollars of his own money into environmentalist and conservationist projects.
Redford campaigned for the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the Energy Conservation and Production Act in the mid-70s, and fought to raise awareness of global warming and the National Energy Policy Act in the 80s. He took up the position of Trustee on the board of the NRDC over thirty years ago and also founded the Institute for Resource Management.
At the age of only 24, Redford spent $500 purchasing his first two acres of land in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah and has since increased this conserved area to 5,000 acres. This land is now the site of the Sundance Institute, owned by him, and seat of the Sundance Film Festival and numerous environmentalist conferences.
And as well as working hard behind the scenes, Redford has also used his public position to share ideas and encourage action on environmental destruction.
Redford was interviewed in Vanity Fair’s Green Issue earlier this year, along with a number of other Hollywood stars, and has also been involved in the making of numerous documentaries and films that explore environmentalist issues. The best known of these films is perhaps ‘A River Runs Through It’, the profits of which were donated to charities working to save Montana rivers and marine life. He also produced ‘The Solar Film’ in 1979, which was later nominated for an Academy Award, and is now launching ‘The Green’, a weekly Sundance channel program that will present individual stories and creative solutions to environmental problems.
California is home to one of Redford’s greatest achievements: the office of the Natural Resources Defense Council, also known as The Redford Building. The three-story, 15,000 sq.ft structure is heated and lit entirely by sustainable means and uses 60% less water than most other buildings of its size because rainwater is caught on the roof and reused. Bamboo, hemp, and fiber have been used for the walls, carpets and structure, and much of the furniture has been donated. Redford cut the ribbon on the magnificent building when it opened in 2003, and declared it: "a model of our sustainable future".
Resources:
http://www.nrdc.org
http://www.sundance.org
